Your Favorite Keyboard Bindings/Shortcuts

[veetek]

I hope you will find useful my keyboard shortcuts designed for fast workflow.
Some of them will overwrite the defaults but you can always revert it.

Global
A - Views - Inspector
I - Aim Assist
O - Virtual Controller
Q - Quantize
Y - Save
U - Select none
V - Show/hide Bus Pane
X - Set all selected tracks to muted status
Z - Solo all selected tracks
0 - Open a new piano view
1 - Undo last action
2 - Record
3 - Set all selected tracks to armed status
4 - Go to previous marker
5 - Go to start of this measure or start of prior measure
6 - Go to end of this measure or end of next measure
7 - Go to next marker
8 - Open the console view
9 - View the synth rack
` - Stop
Ctrl + Q - Groove Quantize
Ctrl + ` - Run/stop audio engine
Ctrl + Tab - Hide tracks not in selection
Ctrl + Shift + Tab - Unhide all tracks
Alt +  A - Show/hide arranger track
Alt + M - Open markers view
Alt + S - Slide events
Alt + W - Quit application
Ctr + Shift + S - Save the active document with a new name

Piano Roll View
Alt + F - Fit content
\ - Show/hide track pane
[ - Zoom out horizontal 
] - Zoom in horizontal 
: - Zoom in vertically
' - Zoom out verically
/ - Use controller pane

Track View
 - Zoom out horizontal
= Zoom in horizontal 
Alt + D - Delete Track(s)
 

For example sequence  `12 will stop, undo and start recording again for another take. I use StreamDeck for that under my foot but if I don't have it around it is a very quick solution without creating actions.

Quick saving project with Y will save your time from using modifiers.

V next to B to show bus pane or browser view next to each other, A for inspector since it is on the left and I don't use arranger track.

X and Z for for muting or soloing tracks

I always divide the project with markers so I can move very quickly using 4, 5, 6, 7 (top row) which makes sense if you move between measures or markers. Save a lot of time on your focus in another virtual instrument or simply move quickly between recording takes or sections of the song.

Attached to this post you will find keyboard shortcut file, I hope you will find it helpful and let me know if you have any questions or recommendations from your experience.

Sonar Keyboard Veetek-1.kbn

Edited June 8 by veetek
Correction

[Promidi]

Here are some of mine.  Of course there are any others, but these are my main speeder uppers.

X > Cut
C > copy
V > Paste
A > select all
Q > select none
B > bounce clips
S > Smart Tool
D > Draw
M > Move

I have also configured any workspaces NOT to load their respective keybindings.

[Xoo]

2 hours ago, veetek said:

For example sequence  `12 will stop, undo and start recording again for another take

That's a really clever and interesting idea - I'd never thought of something like this.  I'm not sure I'll change to it (muscle memory!), but it's really neat.

[A Tolerable Quietude]

These are clever suggestions!  I think I've tended to leave the defaults as they are and just learned them.  The one I remember doing was rebinding C to Console View, since I never want to hide the control bar which is the default. 

But your post has inspired me to *unbind* a bunch of defaults that just get in my way if I accidentally hit them, like all the number keys since I never use screen sets.

[John Vere]

I despise any short cuts that require 2 keys. So I changed a few important ones to use single keystrokes.
Some of these might have been defaults but this is the ones I’ve memorized. 
Q= Quantize 

T=Transpose 

G=Gain

Z=Open Melodyne regional effect

X= Render Melodyne 

V= Save 

N= Normalize 

 

[veetek]

3 hours ago, John Vere said:

I despise any short cuts that require 2 keys.

Definitely, I use so many single key shortcuts that almost ran out of keyboard. Still have few left though, I keep testing and improving, thank you for all the suggestions.

[veetek]

On 6/4/2024 at 6:21 PM, Xoo said:

That's a really clever and interesting idea - I'd never thought of something like this.

Thank you, it really helps if you don't use the actions. StreamDeck under my foot is my favorite and allows me to close my eyes and record 100 takes if needed. 😊

[veetek]

6 hours ago, A Tolerable Quietude said:

But your post has inspired me to *unbind* a bunch of defaults that just get in my way if I accidentally hit them, like all the number keys since I never use screen sets.

Great, I'm happy it inspired you. I really like Sonar for it's flexibility with shortcuts and the panels available with single keys.

[Starship Krupa]

`-Select None is my favorite, the one I use most often. Whatever its charms, I find that Cakewalk is the worst about creating unintended consequences due to not releasing selections in the way I expect. Solution: when in doubt, hit the tilde key and clear 'em all.

I also have the thumb buttons on my mouse set to Ctrl and Alt which is great for drag copying and splitting, respectively. Holding both down and wheeling gets me zoom, and that's a much-used thing for me.

[Starship Krupa]

1 hour ago, Starship Krupa said:

Whatever its charms, I find that Cakewalk is the worst about creating unintended consequences due to not releasing selections in the way I expect.

I really should analyze what's up with the unintended consequences thing, because it wasn't that way with Mixcraft. I didn't wear a shiny spot on my Control and Z keys as quickly. Also not that way with Vegas or Audacity or Paint.NET.

My first thought is that it's down to differences in how Cakewalk clears selections. Some convention in other Windows apps that I'm used to but is different in Cakewalk.

Maybe something to do with right clicking and context menus....what happens over and over is that I delete something and it takes something else with it that I didn't expect it to. Stuff often seems to be selected when I was not expecting it to be.

One of my earliest WTF's with CbB was right clicking on a track header, selecting Delete Track and then being asked if I wanted to delete multiple tracks. This happened over and over again. Hmm.

[A Tolerable Quietude]

13 minutes ago, Starship Krupa said:

differences in how Cakewalk clears selections

I think you're right!  Now that you've got me thinking of it, I realize that I just reflexively hit Ctl-Shift-A periodically as I work in Cakewalk, the same way I'd hit Ctl-S often and automatically when I'm working in software that's very prone to crashing.

Edited June 7 by A Tolerable Quietude

[veetek]

Thanks for excellent suggestions about deselecting. I just have assigned U to select none.
Another way I deal with that is to create a tiny selection with right click lasso in empty space.

Another good one in piano roll I use is Alt + F to Fit Content. Saves a lot of time when trying to see all the MIDI notes in particular place.