feature reguest Play loop once and stop

[dougalex]

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.

[David Baay]

I don't recall that feature, and maybe I'm missing something in the workflow, but... why enable looping at all if you only want a single pass? Just enable "On Stop Rewind to Now Marker" in Track View options, and start recording (and performing) as many bars before th punch point as needed to get in sync. When you hit Spacebar to stop, the transport will return to wherever it was started. If your really want to use a loop marker to define that start point, you can just put the end of it further out in the timeline to give yourself time to hit spacebar after the punch out before it loops back.

[dougalex]

7 hours ago, David Baay said:

Just enable "On Stop Rewind to Now Marker" in Track View options

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).

Edited Wednesday at 03:41 AM by dougalex

[David Baay]

15 hours ago, dougalex said:

My method (when it was an option) had the pleasant feeling like there is an engineer automatically stopping the playback for you

I think you are mis-remembering the existence of such a feature. I have pretty good recall for changes in Cakewalk/Sonar going back to v2.0 for DOS and didn't recall this, so I Googled "Loop once" against the old forum, and found only your own thread from 2015 (!):

http://forum.cakewalk.com/Play-loop-region-once-and-stop-m3272980.aspx

Anderton and others in that thread seemd to have much the same response as I do, not seeing the great benefit vs. just using punch by itself. The only thing a "Loop once" feature would save you is having to hit Stop (Spacebar) which does not require a great amount of effort and isn't time critical as the project is just playing back once it passes the punch region.

I would also agree with Anderton's conclusion that what you want isn't even really about "looping" it's more like "auto-stop-and rewind" from the punch out point. I wouldn't be opposed to having that feature added as Punch option.

To be thorough, I should mention that looping was implemented differently in very early DOS versions, letting you specify to loop a section some number of times before playback would continue, but that was the MIDI-only era and it was only a playback feature, not a recording option. Possibly that's what you're remembering...?

[dougalex]

1 hour ago, David Baay said:

I think you are mis-remembering the existence of such a feature.

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"

 

Edited Wednesday at 09:26 PM by dougalex

[dougalex]

3 hours ago, David Baay said:

The only thing a "Loop once" feature would save you is having to hit Stop (Spacebar)

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".

Edited Wednesday at 10:43 PM by dougalex

[dougalex]

5 hours ago, David Baay said:

"auto-stop-and rewind" from the punch out point

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

[David Baay]

20 hours ago, dougalex said:

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"

Okay, I stand corrected, and apologize for questioning your memory when mine was the faulty one. I should have searched more diligently (as I usually do) before posting that.

Looking through my collection of old Ref. Guides, I see that the "Stop at End" and "Loop Continuously" options actually persisted from at least Pro Audio 9 through Sonar 8.5 but were dropped with X1 - I presume deliberately, but maybe not...?  Loop Continuously was on by default, and I never had a reason to disable it so I didn't really register it. 

Unless there's some conflict with the current implementation of some related functionality, I guess it might make sense to just restore those options as they were originally implemented.

Edited 9 hours ago by David Baay

[Base 57]

I remember using the old module as you describe and would love to have it back. Note that the term used then was Auto-Shuttle.

A work around would be to move the end marker to your desired stop point and use "On stop rewind to now."

[sjoens]

Not sure why this was removed or if there's another way to do it but it can be done with Arranger tracks:

1. Create Arranger section
2. Check TV Options > On Stop, Rewind to Now Marker
3. Open Arranger Inspector
4. Click the section's play button:

A simpler method than this or menu check boxes might be a keyboard shortcut or add a Play once button to the Loop Module.

Edited 2 hours ago by sjoens

[dougalex]

3 hours ago, Base 57 said:

A work around would be to move the end marker to your desired stop point and use "On stop rewind to now."

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

[dougalex]

3 hours ago, sjoens said:

if there's another way to do it but it can be done with Arranger track

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