SONAR Baby Steps

M

MikeA

New member
I am an old analog guy who is being drug kicking and screaming into this digital world. I'm starting to teach myself how to record/edit/mix audio in Sonar and I've got a few questions if somebody could spare some time.

1. I want to understand the relationship between the .wrk file and the actual audio .wav file. As I think I understand it, the .wrk file is just a file that contains the editing data that I have made to the .wav file. The .wav file isn't touched, it's always there complete and unaltered. Is this right?

2. I have audio at the beginning of one of my sessions that I want to cut off and make the beginning of the track the first downbeat of the music. I thought that doing this would be very easy and straightforward but so far it hasn't been. I deleted the audio that I want gone which was 1:20 worth. Nothing plays until the envelope control brings the volume up to where I want it but I still have to wait through 1:20 to get to that point. How can I make the point at which I want sound to start to be the starting point of the song (0:00) and not 1:21 into it?

3. I've set markers up to mark places I want to edit coughs, ticks, etc., out of my audio and when I go to the first one and press play it plays fine. If I advance to subsequent ones though, the cursor moves but audio doesn't come out of the speakers. I'm thinking this may be a RAM problem. I'm running 256 MB and I know I need to bump it up to at least 512 MB. Is this what could be causing the audio to mute when I move to different markers?

4. Any suggestions on a book for using SONAR? I've been going through the online help and it explains some things very well but others it almost ignores.

I know these are very simple questions but I hope you guys will help me out. Thanks!
 
MikeA said:
1. I want to understand the relationship between the .wrk file and the actual audio .wav file. As I think I understand it, the .wrk file is just a file that contains the editing data that I have made to the .wav file. The .wav file isn't touched, it's always there complete and unaltered. Is this right?
Click to expand...
Well... not entirely. The WRK file refers to the WAV files. But if you desctructively edit the WAV-file that will apply the ...errr... WAV-file. ;) If you on the other hand just slip-edits the clip, then no changes is done to the original WAV file.


2. I have audio at the beginning of one of my sessions that I want to cut off and make the beginning of the track the first downbeat of the music. I thought that doing this would be very easy and straightforward but so far it hasn't been. I deleted the audio that I want gone which was 1:20 worth. Nothing plays until the envelope control brings the volume up to where I want it but I still have to wait through 1:20 to get to that point. How can I make the point at which I want sound to start to be the starting point of the song (0:00) and not 1:21 into it?
Click to expand...
I'm not sure what you're asking but you can cut the data (select and go Edit -> Cut) starting at 1:20 and paste it at 0:00 (Edit -> Paste).


3. I've set markers up to mark places I want to edit coughs, ticks, etc., out of my audio and when I go to the first one and press play it plays fine. If I advance to subsequent ones though, the cursor moves but audio doesn't come out of the speakers. I'm thinking this may be a RAM problem. I'm running 256 MB and I know I need to bump it up to at least 512 MB. Is this what could be causing the audio to mute when I move to different markers?
Click to expand...
Moving between markers demand more CPU-power than just playing. So the dropout could be a combination of everything between low RAM, poor CPU, poor soundcard or poorly optimized computer. But more RAM is highly recommended.

3. I've set markers up to mark places I want to edit coughs, ticks, etc., out of my audio and when I go to the first one and press play it plays fine. If I advance to subsequent ones though, the cursor moves but audio doesn't come out of the speakers. I'm thinking this may be a RAM problem. I'm running 256 MB and I know I need to bump it up to at least 512 MB. Is this what could be causing the audio to mute when I move to different markers?
Click to expand...
IMHO the best book on Sonar around is Sonar Power -books by Scott Garrigus. :) (The manual is pretty good, too!)

Hope this was helpfull! :)
 
Re: Re: SONAR Baby Steps

moskus said:

quote:
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2. I have audio at the beginning of one of my sessions that I want to cut off and make the beginning of the track the first downbeat of the music. I thought that doing this would be very easy and straightforward but so far it hasn't been. I deleted the audio that I want gone which was 1:20 worth. Nothing plays until the envelope control brings the volume up to where I want it but I still have to wait through 1:20 to get to that point. How can I make the point at which I want sound to start to be the starting point of the song (0:00) and not 1:21 into it?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm not sure what you're asking but you can cut the data (select and go Edit -> Cut) starting at 1:20 and paste it at 0:00 (Edit -> Paste).
Click to expand...
Click and Drag your cursor on the Time Ruler for the length of the material you want to delete. When you let go of the mouse button, make sure ALL tracks are highlighted for the section you want to delete. If they are not go to Edit > Select > All and do it again.

Once it is highlighted properly, go to Edit > Delete. Make sure the Delete Hole option is checked and click OK.

That should do it for you.
 
Thanks guys, I'll try these.
As far as CPU, I'm running a 1.8 GHz Celeron. I've got the article about optimizing my windows PC for audio use but I've been a little exuberant in trying to get the Audiophile running in the first place. (OK, so I put the cart before the horse. The damn horse can push!) I've also got some time off at work coming up and I plan to spend some of it tweaking.
 
Re: Re: SONAR Baby Steps

moskus said:
IMHO the best book on Sonar around is Sonar Power -books by Scott Garrigus. :)
Click to expand...
Scott is also working on Sonar 3 video tutorials. He is planning to make them in CD-ROM formate....but there is no info yet on when they are finished....
 
MikeA said:
I'm running a 1.8 GHz Celeron.
Click to expand...

Hi Mike,

Regarding dropouts - you are using a Celeron processor which has severely limited maths processing capabilities compared to it's bigger brothers. As digital audio is all about counting up the ones and zeroes, you will get more improvement in your system upgrading your processor to a true P4 than with upgrading to 512Mb RAM.

Or try this-- Your Celeron is like a brain damaged child. You could teach it calculus and aid it's learning by all sorts of tutoring (RAM), but you would be better off with numerically gifted autistic sauvant (P4)........

;) Q.
 
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