Some Sonar 4 issues I have ran into

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ardy77

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1) effects sound different (better) when applied directly to the track as opposed to using effects sends. (Forcing me to apply all my effects to each individual track, then freeze it to preserve CPU/RAM)

2) There is no easy way to record several audio clips into the same track and take only the best portion of each take....its very tedious to use gain envelopes on each and every clip just to fade into one clip and out of another

3) When using the method above and finally (after hours) getting a solid take on a single track off of the many clips...I freeze the track. When I later unfreeze to fix some mistakes...clips are out of order!!! the clip designated to start the song is now at a completely different measure!

*When trying to use the "crossfade" tool....it will not let me fade out and then back into a clip...also it only seems to work on adjacent clips.

Sad to say...Cool Edit Pro was so much easier to use...I could double click on a track and edit the wav data...then I could easily move sections of tracks to other areas...(i.e. - my mouse was not limited to pointing only to exact measures)...in Sonar I have to close down the entire application including any rewire apps just to edit a wav file!!!
 
There's a MUCH easier way to accomplish #2 on your list. There's a mute tool on ... um, not quite sure how to describe it ... the project toolbar? It's the "no" sign, as in "no smoking" sign without the cig. You can use it to mute portions of a track, and its granularity is adjustable in the same way you adjust the quantization of how far things move when you drag them.

Man, I'm bad with descriptions. But, its there (and I don't THINK its exclusive to the producer edition, but could be wrong).
 
1) It's quite possible that your effects sound different when applied to the track directly than when used through an effects send. This could be related to how you have the effects settings though. The common way for someone to use delay-based effects (delay of course but also reverb, chorus, flange) is to patch the effect into an effects bus at 100% wet and then to control how much of the signal you want sent to the effects bus from the track. This means you will have your track at its full dry level PLUS however much effect you choose to dial in through the effects send (assuming post send). Obviously, if you were to try to get the same sound by patching the effect directly into the track, you would have trouble doing so. If you patch the effect in at 100% wet, then you get all effect with no dry signal. If you patch the effect in at 0% wet, then you get no effect and all dry signal. If you patch the effect in at 50% wet, then you get half the dry signal and half the wet signal. As you can see, it's not apples to apples, and I would recommend using the bus as it gives separate control over the effect and the dry signal.

2) Not sure - you can set it up to loop record and put multiple takes on separate tracks. Then you could create one composite track by copy-pasting or use muting or envelopes like you mention. I don't think there's a really super easy way to quickly make comp tracks, but wouldn't think that this would really be application-dependent.

3) That seems really wacky! I would definitely give tech support a call to try to figure that out. Maybe try saving or copy-pasting the track to a different project in case your project is corrupted or something like that?

Regarding the mouse only going to full measures, that's a Snap to Grid setting. Turn Snap to Grid off completely or adjust it to more fine-grained resolution than full measures.

You'll find a lot of people on this forum strangely enough ;) find SONAR to be a great program, myself included. Too bad you aren't quite there yet, but you'll also find a lot of people here willing to help get you there! :D :D Seriously, if you're having problems working with it, between the Help files, the manual, and the resources here, you should be worry-free in no time at all.

HTH :)
-Jeff
 
Thanks for the pointers. Jeff, thanks also for your positive spin...I do need to dig around the manual a bit more...I am more hands on for sure....but this kind of a program might require some studying.

As for copying and pasting...I was wondering if there was an easy way to do this. I tried copying an pasting a portion of a clip to another location and a crossfade was applied automatically (but I didnt want it!). For example...I have a song I'm working with that's just plain to long...I wanted to cut some sections out and rearrange some parts....of course this requires some wav editing and/or copying-pasting within Sonar...I have a hard time dragging and highlighting only a portion of a clip...it always highlights all or nothing.

Another question - is there a way to have a third-party app (like soundforge) pop up when I want to edit a wav file? Otherwise I have to close everthing down since Sonar currently has the file "locked"?

Thanks again.
 
ardy77 said:
Another question - is there a way to have a third-party app (like soundforge) pop up when I want to edit a wav file? Otherwise I have to close everthing down since Sonar currently has the file "locked"?

Thanks again.
Click to expand...
First off, Sonar will not "lock" the file if you select "Share Drivers with Other Programs" from the Audio Options.

Secondly, are you sure that Sound Forge is not already available to you in Sonar. Normally it shows up on the Tools menu. If not, there is a way to get it to show there manually.
 
ardy77 said:
I tried copying an pasting a portion of a clip to another location and a crossfade was applied automatically (but I didnt want it!).
Click to expand...
Sheesh - that's funny. I can remember after first getting SONAR having a heck of a time trying to figure out how to get it to do a crossfade for me, and there you stumbled on it and are having a hard time figuring out how to get it NOT to do it. :D I think that, like "Snap to Grid", this is a setting that can be turned on or off. There should be a button you can toggle at the top of the track view IIRC (not at my DAW).
ardy77 said:
I have a hard time dragging and highlighting only a portion of a clip...it always highlights all or nothing.
Click to expand...
Make sure that "Snap to Grid" is off or not set at too high a granularity. You may find also that the Alt key helps when trying to select a portion of a clip - I forget exactly what it does (maybe indicates you will be selecting part of the clip instead of the whole thing), but I can see myself pressing it when I go to highlight some part of a clip. Another thing you can do is Split a clip to create smaller clips. Place the Now time at the point you want to Split and do Process -> Split (I think).

Not sure about the soundforge thing...

HTH :)
-Jeff
 
Thanks again for your answers. I think I will go home and take a bigger swing at Sonar...

like most flexible, professional products it probably just takes a while to learn all of the functionality, but will be worth the investment in the end. Impatience may have got the best of me.

:)
 
The biggest problem I`ve encounter thus far is the gross lack of program material. I turn it on, load some killer synths, get the greatest tone on my bass, get the drum kit in a hot, kickin Pacaro groove. Then just kinda sit there and then , I turn it off a few minutes later. :(
 
ardy77 said:
.....Another question - is there a way to have a third-party app (like soundforge) pop up when I want to edit a wav file? Otherwise I have to close everthing down since Sonar currently has the file "locked"?...
Click to expand...

Highlight the WAV. (in Sonar) that you would like to edit in Sounf Forge.

Goto TOOLS, select Sound Forge.

SF will open. Make your changes to the file in SF. CLose the file, hit "Yes" to save the file

Sonar will re-open, select "yes-to-all".

Voila, you are finished.
 
Thanks, dachay2tnr.

I wasn't in front of my music computer, therefore I could not describe how to force Cake to see SF.

:)
 
SPINSTERWUN said:
Thanks, dachay2tnr.

I wasn't in front of my music computer, therefore I could not describe how to force Cake to see SF.

:)
Click to expand...
You mean you don't memorize all the registry hacks? :eek:
 
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