There definitely should be a rebuild/remove empty layers function (I don't understand why that was overlooked either)... however doing a Shift + Drag of the individual takes into lane 1 is what I would do with that there example then just delete the empty lanes. It would take a few seconds.

IDK... I kind of prefer to do some stuff like that manually anyway so I KNOW where things are landing... especially the way rebuild layers threw stuff all over the place. That drove me crazy.

Anyway, guys I am stepping back from this place for a while. I'll be reading and popping in to help new guys or my buddies but the vitriol as of late is really sickening me and I want no part of it. If someone wants specific help from me toss Beep in your headline or PM me. 

Peace.

'Been lurking here a bit (an X2a noob with plenty of problems).  'Appreciate Strummy's elaboration on his excellent workflow using 'rebuild' and hope to employ it in X2b.

Beepster


IDK... I kind of prefer to do some stuff like that manually anyway so I KNOW where things are landing... especially the way rebuild layers threw stuff all over the place. That drove me crazy.

 

Maybe you did something incorrectly either pre -post the function.
Removing & rebuilding empty layers does not randomly move clips around in the timeline. 

Rebuild does not move the clips in the timeline but if the clips overlap, perhaps several times, then clips from one take layer could end up on any layer as long as they fit and there and they could end up on any layer regardless of whether they were recorded earlier or later in the tracking phase.

So for instance some clips from layer 1 could in up in layers 2, 3, 4,... and takes recorded in layer 4 that end up overlapping clips that were originally in layer 1 could get moved to layer 1 and the clip in layer one would move to another layer.... ad infinitum.

That is the kind of caos that cause me to dread the rebuild function as it existed in x1.

I would completely welcome a more logical approach to the rebuild function but not as it existed in x1.

I've already explained why elsewhere but the "rebuild layers" function for my workflow was just a completely random "let's screw up hours of work" function.

Admittedly it hasn't bothered me in the last x versions of Sonar because after the second or third time I just learnt not to use it.

I'm all for a remove empty lanes function (which can currently be done by selecting them all hold ctrl and deleting one) and a "Rebuild layers" as long as it actually works with some kind of logic, or even better some kind of user control over the criteria with which layers are "Rebuilt".

I'd also like to see the height restrictions lifted but overall for me and the way I work lanes are a great improvement if only because I can now click on mute and solo first time at exactly the point I want to while I'm comping. Something that I had to use the Windows "click lock" for in previous versions as I found the mute/solo controls way too small to be of any practical use.

I'm sure lanes will evolve more.

I would imagine you want to multi-select some number of lanes, and either "merge up" or "merge down" -- the merge replaces the first(up)/last(down) lane in the multi-select, the merged lanes are removed. Now you simply have a merged lane with multiple clips, like any other track, and consolidated like the old layers. Also, the user has total control over up/down merging, unlike "rebuild layers", which could potentially just do whatever it felt like.

 
This is the same thing I had in mind for a lanes rebuild/consolidate function.  Let me choose which lanes are affected, and in which direction.  IOW, more logic.
 
 
 
PS... Oh, and a single Remove Empty Lanes command would be great.  
 

The worst I can say with Take Lanes is, they are absolutely AWFUL with Auto-Zoom, especially in the case like above. scrolling up and down through tracks will get you lost FAST! Take Lanes should have carried every feature over that Layers had, but one (if I only had JUST one) wish, is that (well, two things, actually), when I solo a Take Lane, THAT'S the waveform that shows up in the Track when it's collapsed, and two, give me the ability to alter the color of Take Lanes vs. Tracks. 

I get SO lost in my workspace these days. Layers were so much better in that regard. Take Lanes are, and I'm not being over-dramatic about this, AWFUL! Comparing Take Lanes to Layers isn't where I would stick. I would compare them to Take Lanes of other DAW's.

CakeAlexS


Nothing wrong with the take lines concept. It just doesn't work in X2A the way it should do. Hoping X2B will come up with enough enhancements to make it useful.

Agreed there's nothing wrong with the concept of Sonar's Take Lanes, but the implementation was poor, "slapped-on". This weekend, I opened an old session that had Layers in X1. I felt immediately refreshed that navigation was 10-times easier in X1 with Layers.