Week 157: The Missing—and Non-Missing—Link Okay folks, this is an "eat your vegetables" kind of tip as opposed to some sexy, rocket science way to make the Sonitus Modulator plug-in hack into alien invasion transmissions. But SONAR's linking feature has been around for a while, so unless you’ve used it recently, it might be a good time for a refresher course—especially because the “rules” for MIDI and audio clips are somewhat different.
CREATING A LINKED COPY SONAR's clip-linking function lets you make an edit in one clip that affects all linked copies of that clip. When you copy a track and Paste Special, one of the Paste Special options will be “Link to Original Copy.” Check this prior to pasting, and the copy will link to the original.
Linked copies are easy to differentiate from other clips because they are surrounded by a dotted rather than a solid line; the original clip will also be surrounded by a dotted line.
You can also create linked clips when you copy clips via Ctrl-drag. Before copying, choose
Options > Drag and Drop Options, then check “Copy Entire Clips as Linked Clips.”
Note that this option persists—it remains until you uncheck the box.
AUDIO VS. MIDI LINKING Linking works differently with audio clips than with MIDI clips. With audio clips, links don't apply to audio processes that “point” to the clip, such as adding a fade, changing a clip envelope, or slip edting; linking is mostly about having Cakewalk's audio processes (Gain, Normalize, Reverse, etc.) affect all linked clips. Linking also applies if you change a clip's color.
However, applying audio effects from a plug-in to a clip will affect that clip, but not other linked clips. Furthermore, the processed clip will become unlinked because it’s no longer like the other clips. Similarly, turning a clip into a Groove Clip will also unlink it from other linked clips.
With MIDI, linked clips reflect any changes in notes and controllers. This is very useful when building a song, because you can lay down quick sequenced parts and copy them to save time. Then if you want to make any changes, no problem—edit one clip and the changes will occur automatically in the other clips.
UNLINKING But what if you want to edit a clip without affecting the linked clips? You can’t, which brings us to unlinking. To unlink a clip, right-click on it and select Unlink (to unlink multiple clips, select the clips you want to unlink, right-click on any one of them, then select Unlink). A menu now appears that provides two options: “New Linked Group” or “Independent, Not Linked at All.”
- If you selected a single clip for unlinking, it doesn't matter which option you choose; the clip you unlink will become independent of the other linked clips, which will continue to be linked.
- If you selected multiple clips, selecting “New Linked Group” will link the selected clips, while unlinking them from previous links.
For example, suppose there are four linked clips — 4A, 4B, 4C, and 4D. You decide to unlink 4C and 4D. With “New Linked Group” selected, clips 4A and 4B remain linked, and 4C and 4D become linked to each other but are independent of 4A and 4B. If you select “Independent, Not Linked at All,” then neither 4C nor 4D are linked to anything.
However, think twice before unlinking clips. Once you do, you can't re-link them except by using the
Edit > Undo function. Instead, you'll have to copy the original again and specify that you want to create a linked clip.
ONE MORE TRICK Here's one more link trick: you can select all linked clips automatically, which makes it easy to move, copy or delete the clips as a single unit—sort of a variation on what you can do with the Create Selection Group function. To do this, right-click on any of the linked clips and choose “Select All Siblings.” This is also handy if you've lost track of which clips are linked, and want to see a “family” of linked clips.