Recording - June 2011 - 58

One of the most touted new features of Cakewalk’s SONAR X1 upgrade is Smart Tools. Here’s an overview of what this powerful editing tool set gives you.

By Michael Nickolas

Sonar x1’S Smart toolS

Smart Tools is a new addition in SONAR X1, Cakewalk’s major update to its flagship DAW reviewed by Allen Goodman in our April 2011 issue. It may not be the most glamorous addition, but it is well worth exploring since it assists greatly during editing. Users of previous versions of SONAR had to constantly change tools, by typing keyboard shortcuts or by mousing up to the tool bars. Smart Tools alleviates a lot of that tedium. How Smart Tools works When Smart Tools is selected, the editing tool automatically changes based on where in the clip you are placing the mouse cursor. • Mousing over the middle of a clip brings up the Select tool, allowing you to highlight (select) a range of the clip contents. • Hold the mouse cursor at the bottom of the clip and you instantly get the Move tool. • Place the mouse cursor at the beginning or end of a clip and the Trim tool is now available to you for dragging the clip’s start or end time. • Position the mouse at the top left or top right to do a fade in or fade out. You can also lasso multiple clips and, when using the Smart Tool in conjunction with the keyboard, perform other edits. For example, to split clips when the Smart Tool is active, hold down ALT and click. Also, the Smart Tool works across the different editing views and performs equally as well on both MIDI and audio data. All in all, this should reduce the amount of switching between tools, and speed up your work. Accessing more tools Of course you will need other specific tools from time to time, so let’s dive into what these tools are and how to access them. A floating pop-up display has been introduced in SONAR X1. It is accessed by clicking the middle mouse button (which in most cases is the scroll wheel) and is shown here in Figure 1. It pops up directly under your mouse cursor, so no more moving to a whole different area of the screen to get a tool. In the figure you can see it floating above two audio tracks. The highlighted tool, first on the left with the star icon, is the Smart tool. Next to that is the Select tool, followed by the Move tool. Fourth from the left is the Edit tool. Right-click on it to choose from “Trim”, “Timing” and “Split”. Next to that is the Draw tool. Right-click on it to choose from seven variations of drawing such as “line” or freehand”. Certain Draw tools are used in conjunction with the box you see in the figure set to “1/4”. This is the Value control and is where you set the resolution of the new notes you are drawing. The last tool is “Erase”. Right click to access the choices of “Erase” and “Mute”. Edit Filter The final feature of the pop-up window is the “Edit Filter” located at the bottom left. Because the tools discussed above are global and work across the different views on a single type of data, you need to set what type of data it is you want to use them on. The Edit Filter has all the choices, see Figure 2. The main categories are “Clips”, “Audio Transients”, “Automation” and “Clip Automation”. The Automation and Clip Automation choices expand to offer
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Figure 1 (above): The floating pop-up display to access the editing tools, retrieved with the middle mouse button or scroll-wheel click. Figure 2 (left): The Edit Filter chooses data types to be affected by tools. many more data types. In Figure 2 the Automation category is shown expanded to display just a few of these. A nice touch with the Event Filter is that it is per-track, so that each track can be set to edit a different type of data. Keyboard shortcuts There are other ways to access SONAR tools including keyboard shortcuts. Keyboard keys F5–F10 are assigned to the various tools. Actually, all of SONAR’s keyboard shortcuts have been totally redone for X1. As a long-time user of SONAR I’m very used to pressing certain keys to get specific tools, so I’m putting the Key Binding feature to use. Using Key Bindings I can assign tools to use the keyboard shortcuts I’m used to from previous versions. I’m using Key Bindings across many aspects of X1 to make it respond more like I’m accustomed to. It’s a great way to keep the workflow I’ve honed over many years. As a final note about using the keyboard, it’s worth reading the Help files, as you can get different results from any given tool when used in conjunction with a keyboard modifier. For example, when using the Smart Tool to crop a clip, holding down CTRL will stretch the clip and holding ALT+SHIFT will crop and also move clip data. It may take some time to learn them all, but in the long run they will speed up your editing. So while you are having fun checking out SONAR X1’s new effects or the latest cool synths and sounds, take a moment to learn the less glamorous redesign of the editing tools—it’ll speed up your work for sure. Michael Nickolas (nickolas@recordingmag.com) continues his conquest of the airwaves with recent TV placements of his music in The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Biggest Loser. Go to www.studionineproductions.com for more.

http://www.studionineproductions.com

Recording - June 2011

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