For sure.. :)
..Now when Cakewalk gives us live seminars now and then, maybe Seth and Brandon could give us a lesson or two in different ways of using this neat little feature(?) =)

But again; it would be nice if it was more obvious (visually) when offset's active and when it's not.. :)

konradh

Loptec, You are right.  This is a great feature but scary and without visual feedback one could really create a monster.

I get around this problem by adding an asterisk (*) to the beginning of the name of any track that has offset applied to it. I know it's a workaround, but it does the trick for now.


Scott

--
Scott R. Garrigus - http://garrigus.com
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series: http://garrigus.com/?PowerBooks
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar ProAudioTutor video tutorial series: http://garrigus.com/?ProAudioTutor
* Publisher of the DigiFreq free music technology newsletter: http://digifreq.com/?DigiFreq
* Publisher of the NewTechReview free consumer technology newsletter: http://newtechreview.com/?NewTechReview

John

JClosed


Exactly! This is very handy. Now on a side note... it's a bit a shame there is no third mode, namely "overwrite". Sure - it is possible to force-overwrite nodes, but as soon if you let loose the fader knob it jumps to the original curve, making smooth partial corrections almost impossible.

You can overwrite. This is with a CS simply turn off read and have write on. Adjust the CS faders they will rewrite the automation. This can be applied to a section without redoing the entire thing. Though I have had cause to delete automation and start over. 

Indeed you can overwrite, but the moment you stop moving the fader the value jumps back to the value of the original curve.

An example:

I am using the BCF2000 for this...

Insert a soft synth and start playing (completley uninportant what, as long if you don't scare the others in the room ;-)).

Now apply a volume automation (Automation -> Volume) and slowly move the slider up and down (It is just an example).

Now assume you are not totally happy with this, and want to correct an part of the curve.

Start playback and try to move the slider at the correction point. There are two possibility's..

1. Automation read is on and the slider "fights" against your correction movement and the moment you let it go it jumps to the original curve.
2. Automation read is off and you can move the slider, but the moment you move it the curve "jumps" to the value the slider has, and the moment you stop moving the slider it "jumps" back to the original curve.

Needless to say smooth corrections are nearly impossible, so you HAVE to use the mouse to manually correct the curve.

Offset mode is not usable, because you correct the volume of the complete curve, and not only the part you want to correct.

Other Daw's have something that's called "take-over" mode. You switch off automation read (while doing playback) and start moving the slider. The slider "takes over" the moment you "hit" the curve. When you make the corrections and do not move the slider at some point the value stays unchanged (you get a flat line and it won't "jump" back to the original curve). In effect you can make smooth corrections. This is impossible in Sonar (or I might have missed something).

Sorry - my English is not perfect and I hope my explanation is clear enough..

JClosed, Your English is excellent.

I agree that this is frustrating.  For a bass track that does not change during the song, I have to hold the fader throughout the song if I make a change so it does not jump to the old value(s).

I tried to create a snapshot instead of track-long automation, but Sonar gave me a warning like "6,622 events will be created!  Are you sure?!"  I wasn't sure if that wasw a problem or not, so I cancelled.