If I have a project that consists of several linear clips, is there any way to automate playback so that the clips are traversed in an order that is different from the order in which they occur?
 
I'm thinking about a "clip go to" or "clip call" construct, such as one might use in a procedural programming language, to "call" the clips in a random-access sequence, as if they were program subroutines.
 
I'm looking for a quick and easy way to do this that doesn't involve dragging the clips around, so that many different playback sequences could be easily explored.

Don't have it but matrix view is probably what you want. Look into matrix view. 

I've been exploring the Matrix View.  It looks like an interesting tool for experimenting with different arrangements and mixes, etc., but I have found no way to trigger the cells in a Matrix row to play sequentially.
 
To clarify, I have loaded several clips into consecutive cells on one Matrix row.  I want them to play serially at the push of a button.  It is easy to copy these cells to other rows, in different orders, to hear them play in different orders.  That is well supported.
 
However, it seems that the Matrix will only support a cell-based or column-based trigger.  I find no way to tell it to sequentially play all the populated cells in a row, i.e., from left to right.
 
I could rearrange the populated cells vertically in one column, but then they'll play simultaneously, not consecutively...
 
Any advise appreciated.
 

Do you have X1 or X2? They revamped the matrix view in X2. 

Calkwalker


I've been exploring the Matrix View.  It looks like an interesting tool for experimenting with different arrangements and mixes, etc., but I have found no way to trigger the cells in a Matrix row to play sequentially.
 
To clarify, I have loaded several clips into consecutive cells on one Matrix row.  I want them to play serially at the push of a button.  It is easy to copy these cells to other rows, in different orders, to hear them play in different orders.  That is well supported.
 
However, it seems that the Matrix will only support a cell-based or column-based trigger.  I find no way to tell it to sequentially play all the populated cells in a row, i.e., from left to right.
 
I could rearrange the populated cells vertically in one column, but then they'll play simultaneously, not consecutively...
 
Any advise appreciated.
 

AFAIK there is no way of triggering like that from within the matrix. You could of course put them in the track view and play them back (or record a performance of you triggering them) and then trigger other cells in the matrix but an automatic sequential playback from the matrix itself isn't possible.

FastBikerBoy

AFAIK there is no way of triggering like that from within the matrix. You could of course put them in the track view and play them back (or record a performance of you triggering them) and then trigger other cells in the matrix but an automatic sequential playback from the matrix itself isn't possible.

Thanks for the feedback.
 
FYI, each of these clips is the beginning and ending of a candidate tune (they're rather short clips) that I want to arrange into a program, which means listening to them in lots of different orders to decide on the best sequence.  As you may know, a program with 10 tunes has over 3.6 million (10 factoral) potential tune orders.
 
It's kind of funny, but I have an old minidisc deck that is great for this - it allows the user to input track numbers as a play list - it's quick and easy to program.  I thought that this task would be child's play on a DAW like SONAR.  That would have allowed me to sell my old deck on eBay (if there's still a market), but it looks like it may still be the easiest way to quickly audition a bunch of different tune orders.
 
p.s. I'm still on X1, so I'll take another look at Matrix View when I upgrade to X2.

 

Ableton would probably be better for this sort of thing?

You can trigger Matrix cells via MIDI.  You can use the MIDI Learn function to assign a MIDI note value to a cell, and then put together a MIDI track to play the cells in any order you want.  At least that's what it looks like to me - I haven't actually tested it out. 

Calkwalker

FastBikerBoy

AFAIK there is no way of triggering like that from within the matrix. You could of course put them in the track view and play them back (or record a performance of you triggering them) and then trigger other cells in the matrix but an automatic sequential playback from the matrix itself isn't possible.

Thanks for the feedback.
 
FYI, each of these clips is the beginning and ending of a candidate tune (they're rather short clips) that I want to arrange into a program, which means listening to them in lots of different orders to decide on the best sequence.  As you may know, a program with 10 tunes has over 3.6 million (10 factoral) potential tune orders.
 
It's kind of funny, but I have an old minidisc deck that is great for this - it allows the user to input track numbers as a play list - it's quick and easy to program.  I thought that this task would be child's play on a DAW like SONAR.  That would have allowed me to sell my old deck on eBay (if there's still a market), but it looks like it may still be the easiest way to quickly audition a bunch of different tune orders.
 
p.s. I'm still on X1, so I'll take another look at Matrix View when I upgrade to X2.

 

If it's easy triggering then wr's suggestion may be the way to go. If you want more info on the matrix there's the SWA Complete Sonar X2 promo video on my youtube page which is the Matrix chapter, that might be useful.

Although there has been some nice upgrade and bug fixes the basics are still very similar if not identical.

FastBikerBoy

If it's easy triggering then wr's suggestion may be the way to go. If you want more info on the matrix there's the SWA Complete Sonar X2 promo video on my youtube page which is the Matrix chapter, that might be useful.

Thanks for the Matrix video and suggestions.  Your video, the X1 Reference Guide, and other resources all suggest that only an external MIDI instrument/controller can be used to establish a MIDI trigger (which is why they call it "MIDI remote control" I suppose).  I tried creating a MIDI track and an associated instrument track, but when I turn on "MIDI Learn" in the Matrix View, it does not recognize an internally-generated MIDI note (output by the synth plugin to the Master Bus) as a triggering event.
 
My assumption at this point is that the triggering MIDI event must be present on SONAR's input bus in order to be recognized, which is disappointing, because I don't have an external controller.  I don't know if it's possible to route a MIDI instrument output to the input bus to make it look like an external device...