Chrisma


+1 Bitflipper! 

Keybindable markers would go a long way. Especially, if we have them mapped to a control-surface. That would give us a simple locator system. Just posted about this the other day.

In Sonar 8.5 there are 12 marker shortcuts right on the transport. For whatever reason this was removed in X1. Or maybe its just moved. I can't find it anywhere. Post up if you know where it is in X1.

Actually, the markers view works even better than transport. Never considered it till now. Now I can map use a couple of 3rd party scripts and map them to my control surface. 

Anderton


I've gotten lazy and pretty much do all my recording as loop recording these days...screw up a take, no problem...miss the intro, no problem...much of the time I don't even select different sections, I just choose the best take and delete everything else.

+1
 
Loop markers are my 'go to' (pun intended) locators.
 
Just hypnotise the guy in the booth with the same section until he gets it right then delete the dross after comping the highlights.
 
X2 has got this covered for sure with alternate 'auto lanes'.  There are precisely no mouse clicks required at all other than the one to get rolling.

Well if you don't care that there's several people waiting and waiting and waiting to do it right- loop recording is great for the lazy engineer!

But I'd sure like to have an option to be an expert and fast engineer, as well. That's how good recording studios are run by good engineers who save their client's time! 

The Sonar status quo can be worked-around, for sure. I'm just trying to suggest simple ways that Sonar could add quicker functionality in the studio environment for the on-top-of-his-game engineer in a real-world, for pay, recording session. I only earn my living by having a reputation for being excellent at that.

And Bit, much of what you say I agree with. But I still think there's room for improvement- it usually helps me be better and faster when I don't have to workaround more details. Hitting "5" when I want to go to Marker 5 would be just plain faster then scrolling through markers one at a time, I think- etc. When you do these keystrokes a hundred times a day you realize how many hundreds of times a day you'd be helped by better shortcuts! That's all I'm suggesting- less unnecessary work- so a better and faster app which is well-built for studio work can serve me and my clientele better.

It just seems to me that the Sonar upgrades I see are not oriented toward improving doing studio work with clients. And that's what I do, and I want Sonar upgrades to help me do that better.

"It just seems to me that the Sonar upgrades I see are not oriented toward improving doing studio work with clients. And that's what I do, and I want Sonar upgrades to help me do that better. "


Right you are Evan...


Sonar is not really designed from the primary metric of a full sail (sic) recording studio, though they try hard to not ignore them...the amount of midi syntax alone should tell that tale...


But remember the way you use it, it is a glorified digital tape machine, you've essentially bought a stretch Humvee to deliver custom sack lunches in...I don't think Sonar has EVER aspired to knock off Semi-"Pro_Tools" as the replacement for adat in the studio...although most of the fan base would suggest otherwise...


It probably does what you want, its just not as convenient as a "drop down menu and click you're done setting up the template"...


I wish you could "pre-label" markers and have them ready to go as you track...just drop them in with a click with a label of your own choosing on the fly...but unfortunately  no one has written a little C+ proggy to do that yet because the demand is so insufficient...


But we can dream...

bmdaustin


Have I missed something or does F5 no longer Go To whatever measure you tell it to? If there's a problematic section that's difficult for the performer, just set the cursor to return to the start point when you hit the space bar. You're always ready that way. Use a lot of markers and bounce back and forth between them. I've got Cntrl B (for Back) bound to Previous Marker and Cntrl N (for Next) bound to Next Marker. Easy navigation - at least for me.

G is the new F5.
Press G (Go to) and punch in the measure you want to go to

bitflipper


I've always gotten around the navigation issue by keeping the Marker View onscreen. Single-click on an entry to jump to that marker. Couldn't be quicker or easier, unless maybe you could assign keyboard shortcuts to each marker (like maybe the numeric keypad).

My biggest gripe is the arbitrary re-assignment of keyboard shortcuts in each new SONAR version. Sure, you can re-bind them but it's a pain. What's the first thing you do when you're organizing a project? Insert markers as it's playing by pressing F11 at critical points. In X2, F11 opens full-screen mode, whatever that means. If I put it back to Insert Marker, I then have to find a suitable replacement for the new function that doesn't conflict with some other existing or changed shortcut. 

I do try to keep it all in perspective, though. We no longer have to wait while the tape rewinds and then scrub to the punch-in point. We no longer have to take copious notes so the session can be set up again the next day. No patch bays to reconfigure, no dials to dial in. No razor-blades. No demagnetizers. Unlimited bounces, pristine signal-to-noise ratios. And the godsend that is Un-Do. All in all, I am very happy with the digital world.

M is the new F11 ( in X1 and X2)
Press M (Marker) to insert a marker as the project plays

Hello, 

There are several shortcuts that some others have pointed out that you may have not been aware of that can streamline the live recording process within a song. 

- Use MIDI key bindings. This is an often overlooked powerful feature in SONAR. You have only that many keyboard shortcuts that you can remember. Set up a MIDI shift key and you have the keys from your keyboard controller ready to keybind.

- If you have a control surface you can bind various commands via ACT or even do this with a keyboard via the generic act controller

- Use the classic Set From, Set Thru, go to from, go to thru commands. These can be assigned to keyboard shortcuts (or MIDI keys). This is very handy to set up 2 locate points that you can quickly toggle between. I have use those all the while while tracking for the last 15 years!

- Use markers. This is the easiest way to keep track of multiple locate points of interest in a song. Keybind the go to next/prev marker. Keep the markers view open in a tab in the multidock so you can easily get to it at any time. IIRC there is also a markers module on the control bar.

- Use quickgrouping. This is an incredibly powerful feature that can really speed up repetitive operations. Changing volumes, quick muting, soloing, arming, routing, all these operations can often be done with a couple of mouse/kbd gestures with this. X2 has made big improvements to quick grouping.

- Use screensets - this can greatly streamline getting to a screen configuration of interest when you want to quickly switch between a mix configuration to a tracking configuration.

- In X2 use track lanes - the workflow for recording is  greatly improved with these.

There is obviously room for improvement but I think if you spend some time and customize SONAR to your workflow you will find you can fly around in a tracking session. 

setting up a none roland / cakewalk keyboard ACT on a keyboard, has been is a nightmare to NOT mess it up for other progs I use... 
e.g. my novation sl mk2.. to use it I have to muck around with the mappings = throws cubase + reason out mapping / usability as a side effect.

not sure why, but ACT just remains a mystery to me.  i tried it about a month ago....so non intuitive compard to Studio One.

This adds up to a great big "you guys don't get it":

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk
]

Hello, 

There are several shortcuts that some others have pointed out that you may have not been aware of that can streamline the live recording process within a song. 

- Use MIDI key bindings. This is an often overlooked powerful feature in SONAR. You have only that many keyboard shortcuts that you can remember. Set up a MIDI shift key and you have the keys from your keyboard controller ready to keybind.

I'd have to walk over and ask the pianist to move off the bench to do that. That doesn't appeal to me, nor the pianist. That might work ok for a one-person-band operation but it looks a little silly elsewhere.

- If you have a control surface you can bind various commands via ACT or even do this with a keyboard via the generic act controller

- Use the classic Set From, Set Thru, go to from, go to thru commands. These can be assigned to keyboard shortcuts (or MIDI keys). This is very handy to set up 2 locate points that you can quickly toggle between. I have use those all the while while tracking for the last 15 years!

That's what we've all been using for 15 years... and we've been waiting for more functionality... like for example, why can't I "Go to" the end of a clip with a OEM keystroke?

Or perhaps, what's an easy way to one button click and move the "Now" to the end point of a loop?

- Use markers. This is the easiest way to keep track of multiple locate points of interest in a song. Keybind the go to next/prev marker. Keep the markers view open in a tab in the multidock so you can easily get to it at any time. IIRC there is also a markers module on the control bar.

Yes, a great idea, so why did the markers navigation get stolen from the main tool bar? I never had to keep a markers view open in a "multi dock" until "X" x'd the functionality of 8+. Bummer.

- Use quickgrouping. This is an incredibly powerful feature that can really speed up repetitive operations. Changing volumes, quick muting, soloing, arming, routing, all these operations can often be done with a couple of mouse/kbd gestures with this. X2 has made big improvements to quick grouping.

I rarely need to use quick groups, but I do when they save time... but they only save time in very specific circumstances. A bus can handle many of the functions suggested here and works real fast too.

- Use screensets - this can greatly streamline getting to a screen configuration of interest when you want to quickly switch between a mix configuration to a tracking configuration.

Hardly an antidote for bad GUI design... especially considering the circumstance where useful tools were removed from the main GUI just to be hidden elsewhere. There's also the annoying fact that the GUI was designed so that it to no longer fits on most lap top screens.

Every time I am offered "Screen Sets" as an antitdote for those glaring mistakes I feel a sense of frustration with Cakewalk and it's inability to "Blink".

But the real frustration is that opening a window was never any slower than opening a screen set... so the persistent recommendation to do so seems like some one is just trying to spit in the wound left over after the GUI was ruined.

- In X2 use track lanes - the workflow for recording is  greatly improved with these.

Does this mean the decade old "envelope disaster bug" in Layers will never be fixed?

There is obviously room for improvement but I think if you spend some time and customize SONAR to your workflow you will find you can fly around in a tracking session.

Cakewalk's competition is itself... It seems to perennially struggle with an inability to see the difference between a clear and concise work flow and kludgestions such as memorizing custom mapped functions for 88 hot keys on a music keyboard.

Cakewalk had the best DAW going. Then it got a bad face lift and became relegated to just another DAW. Indeed, we now see that professional music industry reviewers urge us to consider spreading budget amongst different DAWS because it has become too unpleasant to dwell on the hope that after 20 years of development SONAR ought to represent clear thinking and straight forward work flow.

Watching how the last two years were spent on the miracle of drag and drop, and just hit "I" to find the easy to find ProFX has made for some gut wrenching tragic comedy.



I'd love to pay for some improvements. When's X3 coming out?



best regards,
mike