Amberwolf

FWIW, I sometimes see a similar type of patterned interference occasionally on my laptop. On mine it will be a single square of the pattern, somwehre random on the display area, or a set of such squares. Just enough "noise" to make that area unreadable/unviewable. Originally I thought it was the graphics card or driver; it happened both on the built in LCD and on an external monitor connected to either the VGA or HDMI ports...but when those connectors began to fail and to be able to see anything (why I have the external 32" / 42" monitors) I had to use an external USB video card (Targus Displaylink, and a different brand DL before it with different drivers). The problem persists with all of them, and even with differnet monitors. And it happens in almost software, but most commonly with things that display pages of text (book readers, notepad, browsers, etc). The only two things I don't think I've ever seen it in were SONAR and Notepad2. I've never found any replication recipe for it, no specific environmental condition, etc. No specific software; the only common hardware is the laptop mainboard, PSU, as even the ram has been changed out when I removed boht originals to max it out at some point. So....while I don't have a solution to the OP's issue, I will sympathize with them....it's pretty annoying when youc an't see / read things because of such a thing happening.

I'd prefer not to have to do it manually. While it's technically interesting to learn the process, it's tedious and wastes time I could be doing other things with. (I have six hundred bajillion ideas and hobbies and things I want and/or need to do, and time enough for *maybe* one half of one of them. So nothing I do is very good, as I don't really have enough time to spend on any one thing...I spend the most time on music because it's such an integral part of "me". ) I don't presently have anything that supports sidechaining (not sure if my ancient SONAR itself even does), at least not that works in that ancient SONAR. So antyhing I do dynamically has to be done with manually created automation. It certainly sounds like it would be ideal for what I want to do (if you've listened to any of my tracks I'm sure you can hear the problems I create for myself with overlapping bands of sound). The spectrum analyser itself would be very useful, because with my tinnitus and associated hearing problems, there are things I can't hear as well, and some I simply can't hear at all, that then cause me to mix and EQ wrong. I"m trying to learn how to compensate for it, but it's tough, since right now I have to depend on other people to tell me what is wrong with something, then try to see what they hear, and learn how that looks so I can then look for it to catch it on my own. Voxengo's SPAN has helped in a few cases to see things, but it does not seem to show an accurate spectrum; the bass end either shows way higher than it is, or way lower, based on feedback I get from the tracks I mix trying to use it to see what I'm doing. So.... I've been using Audacity's built in colored-spectrograph track view to look at exported tracks from SONAR, but it still doesnt' mean much to me, I'm still learning how to associate the visual of it with the sound I hear; it's very difficult because to me sound is sound and visual is visual and while I can make them synced or see them / hear them as synced I can't really "grok" them together as one thing. (probably the same problem that keeps me from being able to "read" musical notation--I can transcribe a piece of sheet music into a MIDI file within SONAR, more or less, but it doesn't mean anything to me, sound wise--the markings are not notes, not sound, not audible, even watching the staff view as the tracks play....). Since their FAQ isn't clear, I sent them a message asking how their plugin authorizes, whether it works on it's own on a completely offline system, has any form of manager or other non-plugin stuff that it needs, autoupdates itself, etc., because none of that is allowed on my system. If it is like any good well-behaved software should be, then I'll try their demo out and see if it does what I expect it to from this thread's info (and that it truly is well-behaved), before I spend some of my limited grocery money on it. The question sent to them will also test out their support system, as the way they answer (or if they do) will tell me about how much help they'll be if I have a problem, and whether I would want to deal with them or not. (they probably won't hold up to my ideal, as most don't; ATM Cakewalk's support holds the prize, with Grin Tech ebikes.ca second place).

I really appreciate the details on what it does and how it works for you--that function is almost certainly something I could use, as I'm still slowly learning how to make holes for things to interact without stomping all over each other with just a static EQ, and have barely begun the process of learning how to automate the EQs to do this throughout a "song" to make holes for whatever the prominent part is in the others that are backings for that section of the "song", as I switch around which thing is the "lead".

aaannnd...what is it that it does so well for you?

Do you happen to have experiences using any "noise removal" tools for essentially isolating out something like the tiny sounds a dog makes from all the environmental noise that will virtually always be included in such recordings***? I have an emotional-support-wolfy-robotics project that needs to use a huge variety of these sounds, with as many versions of each as possible for what amounts to "round robin" usage (though not that technology). Some of them I can record locally from my current St Bernard, but the rest have to come from existing recordings of other dogs I've had or recordings of real wolves I can get permission from others to use for this. ***because you can't really take them into a studio and expect them to interact and behave "normally" while you try to record them doing all the things dogs do, including all the little greeting noises, sleeping noises, etc etc.

While I don't know waht's causing it, I think there is an "undo view change" in one of the menus, and it should have a keybinding, too (but I don't recall what it is). That would at least put your view state back. (might take more than one operation of it). EDIT: What I suspect is causing it is accidentally starting your click -drag just outside the borders ofa clip, so you are somehow engagng a zoom mode instead.

Unless it's changed in the modern versions, it will have some output set. If you require a MIDI track with nothing on it to do this, you could install one of hte virtual midi cables out there, and point it to that. As long as you don't then use the other end of that cable anywhere, it's just a "blank port" capping off the track. If you don't want any of the track's controls or clips to affect anything, just using it to store things in or do edits in, you could archive it (which at least in old versions didn't lock the contents, just didn't process any of them for output to the rest of the program/etc).

What is "rte"?

I think it's THU rather than TH3, if that matters. There's at least one recent thread here somewhere detailing the stuff in each tier.

Forgot: "everybody" eventually needs to upgrade something in the computer--at minimum the harddisk or ram. Some of the minis I looked at a while back had no ram slots at all--what you bought was what you got. Many small FF machines have no space in them to add a drive (and the existing one is probably an NVME card these days), so you have to use an external, and most of the minis I looked at only have USB (no eSATA or external NVME slots) so as long as that fast enough for you, it'll work, but otherwise you're left with the sometimes complex and occasionally risky task of cloning your existing drive to a new one and entirely replacing the original...if it's actually removable. These are also true of most laptops. Many of the laptops I looked for a modern replacement for my ancient one dont' have ram slots, and some don't have a removable harddisk--the SSD was actually built into the mainboard (but most used an NVME card).

If you don't push the machine, and it claims to be more powerful than you will need, a mini might be ok. But as others noted, they're basically a laptop in a jewelry box, so they're even more heat-constrained than a laptop is. They dont' even have the surface area of the keybaord and palm rest to radiate heat from, and all the heat-producing parts that would be away from the CPU in a laptop, under the palm rest area, are now crammed in next to the CPU, video, etc. So...if you push them like you would a desktop/tower, they'll probably not last as long as they would otherwise, because of the heat buildup inside (hardly any computer maker really makes a good heat-exhaust system for laptops or minis; the few that are usually use tiny loud fans because there isn't space for a large quiet one (that spins at low RPMs to move the same air as the high RPM tiny ones). Another very few use metal cases that are directly thermally connected to the internal heatsinks, reducing the heatpath distance and fan requirements, but not all the parts that need heatsinking are usually thermally connected to the case.) That said, I use an ancient Lenovo ideapad laptop, and the spinny harddisk in it is louder than the single tiny fan, as long as I keep the vents clear of St Bernard fur 😊 , even when I am maxing out the CPU with so many synths / fx that I get dropouts in SONAR. If I leave the lid closed, it gets pretty warm doing this, but if I leave the lid open and the screen turned off (because I use an external 42" monitor so I can see what I am doing at 1920x1024) it doesn't really heat up. So, a small form factor *can* work. I also have been setting up an equally ancient but much faster rackmount HP server as a DAW, and am redesigning it's fan system and casing to use a couple large diameter slow fans instead of the buckets of tiny fans that together sound like concorde taking off even at their very lowest speeds. Without them being allowed to spin up to a fleet of airforce jets doing stunts, the system rapidly overheats. So, a big form factor isn't necessarily quiet, or cool.

Might've missed it but didn't see Metro anywhere in the thread. Their first Mac offering, though I guess it didn't last long. Only quick screenshot I could find in an image search, dunno what version it is:

I don't know how the modern versions do it, but it's not in AS in the old ones, it's in the clip properties dialog, by doubleclicking on the clip or right clicking it and selecting properties or using Alt-Enter while the clip is selected. It would certainly be handy if *all* clip properties could be accessed from a non-modal floating window like the AS bar; if they've finally done that it'd be great, but it doesn't sound like it has happened yet.

Unfortunately, unless you can edit the ADSR envelopes or the actual samples being played back to suit the style of playing, the only other ways are fairly complicated. The actual sound created by strings played one way is different than another way, so unless the sample is actually of that type of playing, it won't sound "right" to anyone that knows the difference. To the average ear it doesn't usually matter very much if it's "close". If you can recorded clips existing notes that sound the way you want, you can simply play those back at the appropriate times. If they aren't the right actual note / key, you can use the pitch up/down function within Sonar's clip properties to retune things at least a couple of semitones without undue artifacts in many cases. Another way: If you're stuck with the sounds you have, then if the synths are capable of MIDI CC control of volume, sustain, etc., you can use multiple channels of the synth to all play the same patch, and play just one note on each channel for however many overlapping or very close to overlapping notes there are. Start the playback of the notes before the part you want to hear, if the attacks are too slow, so that the part you want is at the time you want to hear it. Then use the CCs to turn the entire channel volume off until that part of the note comes in, and then turn it back off when you want it to stop. You're just using the volume control of the channel as an ADSR envelope. Some synths have other CCs they respond to for performance data, though each patch can vary in how or whether it does anything. You'd have to either experiment or check the MIDI implentation chart for that synth to find out. You can use the same method (or clip fades) to record audio samples of the sounds you want from your own synths. Or just edit the clip down to just the part you're after, with either clip gain envelopes or clip fades or both to be the ADSR envelope. If the computer is capable of it, you can get free soft synths (VST, etc) if you don't already have them that can playback samples. Then you can either find free samples that are of the type of note you want, or record some parts of the ones you already have and, instead of the in-track methods described above, you can put the samples into the player and play them with midi notes (after you've created the proper ADSR envelopes, velocity response, etc for them to sound as you wish). You can also check out the BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover synth page and contact them to see if you qualify for a free copy. It probably has the kind of sound you're after if your computer can run it in addition to Sonar.

At least in my ancient SONAR, if you have an audio clip set to "stretch to project tempo", it will do so. That's what I did for the wolf-sounds and other environmental sounds within my Wolf's Dream Of The Hunt track. however, if you have done any editing (slip editing, etc) to a clip *before* turning this on, at least in my version, it may do unexpected / undesirable things, so you should first bounce any edited clip and *then* enable that, if you experience issues just enabling it on an edited clip. (these isseus were probably fixed in modern versions, so you probably don't have to worry)