The Sandbox idea would be a little more in depth than that but the fact we cannot hide lanes (or group them or various other seemingly obvious functionality that got overlooked) is a major annoyance. When I'm doing solos I improvise or eventually "write" some licks I want to use. I load up the track with various takes of improvs or versions of the "written" licks. I may (and seem to usually do) end up with sections of a complete solo to comp together. I listen back and make notes on all of them (the notes feature is awesome) about their pros and cons then cobble together different variations to see what works well together. If I have gotten a solid sequence of licks going I'd like to hide all the other stuff but not delete it because perhaps I may want to revisit an idea. If I could hide the lanes as you said (and I mentioned multiple times shortly after X2 came out) it would create a lot more screenspace and reduce clutter. Just like the Track Manager but for takes. A Take Manager if you will.
 
;-)

Takes are OK for me, but I preferred the organization tools that you could use with Lanes.

For example, Organize lanes to clean up.

vanceen
Takes are OK for me, but I preferred the organization tools that you could use with Lanes.

For example, Organize lanes to clean up.

That just goes to show how many different ways there are of working. For me that "Rebuild layers" function was an absolute disaster and while lanes have some way to go yet I find them a big improvement because I can organise them easier. I can't work out how in the old layer set up anyone could possibly know what take was what especially if they were recorded over more than one session. I always used to end up with a whole load of  "Record 1", "Record 2", etc.
 
With lanes I can call them what I want easier and if I can't be bothered to rename them it keeps track of them for me. Love it as well as the notes feature. Other improvements are the mute/solo buttons that I can now see not to mention actually hit first click.
 
Improvements? - I'd like to see a resize function option where the track auto collapses when lanes are opened. Less/no restriction on resizing. A new lane created as clips are dragged in and a composite view in the track of any isolated clips. A rebuild function with control over the re-ordering criteria as well would be good as long as it's not the seemingly random "rebuild" function of the layers days. Does anybody actually know what criteria the reordering was based on?

Double post.

Inline with discussion about take lanes...
 
They work well enough for me for a couple of instruments or less.
 
Sometimes, you want to record an ensemble in multiple takes, and you want to be able to group those takes together. Or maybe multi-tracked drums...
 
You can use a track template for this... put all the tracks in a folder, create a track template, and then import the track template for each take. You can then mute and solo the different takes where all the related tracks get muted and solo'd together.
 
I think sometimes some folks try using lanes for this kind of thing, and that would be pretty frustrating for me. 

I think the new take lanes are way more powerful than the old layers.  I'm already working with them after my time away from SONAR.  I have to say that they can be improved.  One thing I find is that I seem to want a single lane taller than SONAR wants to allow me to do.  I like being able to delete the lane I want to delete and especially being able to record on a given lane. 

I haven't done any real comping as of yet.  In my sessions, I've been recording to individual tracks because I didn't have time to sit and learn the ins and outs of the lanes.  I needed to record tracks quickly.  Now that my clients have done their bits, I can work alone on my instrumental tracks and try out different things.

One thing I find is that I seem to want a single lane taller than SONAR wants to allow me to do.
This was one of my first complaints after starting to use Lanes. When I'm editing I like things nice and big. Why we are forced to have them all resize at once is another design issue I do not understand. Let us resize them independently if we want (as well as hide them individually).
 
I like being able to delete the lane I want to delete and especially being able to record on a given lane. 
I am not sure what you mean by the first part. Deleting a lane is pretty simple. Just click the little x button and it's gone. The recording directly to a specific lane thing... well in THEORY you should be able to (click the lane's Record button to arm it). However that feature is broken and unreliable... at least last time I tried it it did not work the way it should. Perhaps it has been fixed in the A patch.
 
Lanes are a great idea and I like them better than layers but they truly seem to be half baked. The only reason I can see for some of these seemingly obvious and glaring omissions is that the feature got rushed out the door. Kind of disappointing really because... well it's a great idea. They should have tried to implement (and fix) the rebuild feature as well. Seems a ton of people who do not like lanes mention that. I liked the idea of Rebuild Layers but it was too unpredictable for me to use.
 
 
 

Gah. Bad formatting. Sorry.
 

This thread has given me two other lane ideas, which may or may not have been brougt up before:
 
- A lock feature, so that a lane(s) cannot be accidentally deleted
- A hide feature, for the obvious reasons
 

I think if you lock the clips in a lane or even one clip that lane the lane cannot be deleted. Not 100% sure about that but it would make sense. In that scenario you would select the clips > right click > Lock Pos/Data.