Thanks for all the help!
Sidroe - how do you find X2 better than Notion? I find the notation capabilities in X1 not very good - that is why I purchased Notion and find that is is much better than the built in notation capabilities in Sonar. Am I missing something in X2 compared to X1?

Brundlefly - seems like a lot of effort. I thought that this would be simple. As I mentioned, I'm a newbie. I think I will try the MIDI way. At least then I can use what instruments I like. If I have to change a part, I will just have to go back to Notion, change it and then import the MIDI again to Sonar.

For some reason I had the magical idea that you an use Notion straight in Sonar, edit the notes etc and apply different instruments and have it all syncing perfectly with all the other tracks and I couldn't figure out how to do this.  I guess I must have had a fantasy. :-)

For some reason I had the magical idea that you an use Notion straight in Sonar, edit the notes etc and apply different instruments and have it all syncing perfectly with all the other tracks and I couldn't figure out how to do this.  I guess I must have had a fantasy. :-)

Yes, I had expected the integration to be more seamless as well. I bought Notion3 when Cakewalk offered the Elite Pack deal, but hardly touched it once I found out Rewire was not supported for x64, and that there was no MIDI exchange. It also needed a higher ASIO buffer than SONAR to play back without crackles, which was kind of a pain.


Now that some of those issues are resolved, I'm having another go at it - mostly just to help improve my sight-reading ability (pretty non-existent at this point), and to be able to create pretty scores of my own work. But this latter goal has turned out to be an uphill battle because Notion doesn't convert CC64 sustain events to pedal marks, it doesn't handle overlapping ties and pedal marks correctly on playback, and it doesn't correctly convert triplets to notation, even when they're perfectly quantized. 


All in all, it seems computers have as much trouble interpreting notation as I do. 


BTW, I think Sidroe was just referring to the fact the SONAR has much more advanced recording, arranging, editing, routing, mixing and mastering capabilities than Notion. Really it's head and shoulders above Notion in every respect except the ability to render good-looking notation.


The two are definitely not the match made in heaven that one might hope for, but it's better than the proverbial poke in the eye with a sharp stick. 

Don't know nothing about Notion but loops can mean 2 things - one is a simple bit of music you'd like to make longer, while the other is what is commonly know as an acidized loop (groove clip in SONAR speak).

If you have 12 bars of blues you just copy and "paste special" as said above.

Or you can "groove clip" it and turn it into an acidized file so it matches the tempo and base note.  This clip or an acid file you find or buy (which has the same groove clip info imbedded in it) can simply be rolled out - as many copies as you need.  See above.  It should follow tempo/chord changes.  A groove clip will have blunted angles instead of sharp at the edges.

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