dougalex

When there are no midi tracks, and the user tries to open Piano Roll View, Staff View, or Step Sequencer View, RATHER THAN DOING ABSOLUELY NOTHING (very confusing), the program should have a pop up that asks "Add midi track?" (and maybe give option for either Midi Track or Instrument Track). Notice that Cakewalk by BandLab had Piano Roll View, Staff View, and Step Sequencer View menu items "greyed out" when there were no midi tracks. But Sonar does NOT have those menu items "greyed out" when there are no midi tracks. (So the user is, in effect, invited to click on a menu that "does nothing" in that situation). The "nice" thing to do is: Rather than just be "greyed out" when there are no midi tracks, leave the menu active. And when user tries to open Piano Roll View, Staff View, or Step Sequencer View when there are no midi tracks... just have a pop up to give user option to either add a midi track or cancel. At the very least there should be a pop up that says "Add midi track before selecting Piano Roll View, Staff View, or Step Sequencer View" (as opposed to "doing nothing")

Thx for brainstorming! But alas, I tried it and can't punch-in record with that Arranger workaround.

I tried but does not stop at all when in punch-in record mode (which defeats my intended workflow) 😑

I see "very flat look" on the left and more of a "3D look" on the right (on both the knobs and the buttons)

@Noel Borthwick I am VERY happy with new Sonar including the graphics, but I was just curious to know more about this aspect: When I expand the QuadCurve Equalizer it seems to have some "3D look" (as opposed to a "flat look" used elsewhere in the GUI). Just wondered why that is?

I think that would be too abrupt - unless it add secondary option "Play x seconds/beats after punch out before auto-stop-and rewind"

I really found my preferred method to be noticeably better because it feels like an engineer is there stopping the transport for you, so you can focus on the current take, and prepare for the next take, without breaking your concentration to have to stop the transport. Since transport stops automatically, after each take, it is cued up for me to either hit spacebar "to listen to the take", or "r" to "record another take". i.e. its automatically always cued up and ready to either "listen again" or "do another take"... and never have to "manually stop the transport".

Below please see an image of the actual dialog box I am talking about, as shown in a old Sonar manual To get the workflow I wanted: Uncheck "Loop Continuously" So instead of "Loop once and stop", the option is actually called "Loop Continuously" option, which can be on or off. If it can be added back, I think it would be more straightforward if it was added back as a checkbox option called "Play once and stop"

My method (when it was an option) had the pleasant feeling like there is an engineer automatically stopping the playback for you (freeing you up be completely focused on what just happened in the current take, and think about the preparation for the next take) You get a nice automatic pause in silence, gather yourself, and when ready for next take, just one keypress ("r") to try again. And there is no alternating between "spacebar" (manual stop) and "r"... rather it is simplified to just pressing "r" when ready. In my method there is no need to think about "stopping the playback" rather you only decide "let me hear that" (press spacebar for play) or "just do another take" (press "r") No getting mixed up because in my workflow spacebar is only "listen to playback" (i.e. not also used for stop).

A loop feature that got removed (maybe around Sonar 7 or 8 ) was a checkbox option for "Loop once and stop" which was fantastic for doing a punch-in ALL BY YOURSELF (particularly a difficult riff that you need a moment to prepare yourself and/or practice between takes). I would set my punch-in range, then set my loop range (with proper cushion before and after punch-in range), then hit "r" when I was ready to try the take after the take, it would stop at end of loop AND the play head would position itself back at the beginning of the loop range So I take a moment to gather myself (or practice the riff) and when I am ready for the next attempt, I simply hit "r" Without "Loop once and stop" I would have to manually stop the transport if I needed more time (wait in silence) before I tried the next take I loved that workflow: Just hitting "r" when I was ready to try the next take, knowing it would stop automatically, and wait for me to hit "r" again when I was ready to try the next take.

This is my approach: I only use the video capability in Sonar to be able to conveniently check the video while I am mixing the audio. I might for example easily confirm if my overheads on drums are panned properly. Suffice to say there are many visual cues that can help you get the mix sounding better and not have to redo it later (like... oh look the singer picked up a tambourine and I cannot hear it at all because I had it got gated/muted) THEN after mix is done to my satisfaction, I render the audio, and import the audio into a video editor, where I sync the audio to the video, (and continue editing the video if desired). I use Vegas Pro but there are probably excellent free video editors.

Just curious, what is an example of what parts of the User Interface that you think needs to be be a special color?

I totally sympathize and understand those who have need for color tweaking... HOWEVER There are also many of us who have never once customized any colors. I have always just picked the canned theme I liked the best and got right to work. After all, someone on the programming team took some amount of time to find something that works well. I know I am not going to do any better, particularly when it already "works fine for me" and "I want to make music rather than tweak colors". So... I am glad they released new Sonar. I'm like, yeah! Let's GO-O-O-O-O-O!!!!!!😃

Not sure if related but I have noticed there can be undocked windows that are very hard to see/find because they are sized down to a tiny title bar (not Minimized, but rather "smallest size"). Once I do find the tiny title bar, I click/drag edges to properly size the window then that solves the problem.