[ddots-l] General Sonar feature requests.
- From: "Kevin Reeves" <lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2009 04:58:44 -0500
Hey folks. Due to the nature of Dancing Dots, I know that there are a few
folks on this list who work closely with Cakewalk developers. I have a
couple of general feature requests for Sonar itself that are apart from
accessibility needs. I want to throw this out there and start some dialog,
eventually hoping to get this into the hands of Cakewalk themselves.
1. Importing tracks from another project.
Pro tools has been able to do this forever. Essentially, you can select the
project you want to import from, select what tracks you want, and select
what attributes such as tempo map, plugins, audio, markers, etc. It really
blows having to reconstruct a project from the ground up if I'm needing to
change any work flows such as adding my new drum library. I've created a
sonar template with the library in the synth rack and all it's respective
tracks in place and named. I now have to go back and paste in piano and
vocal tracks from an old session so that I can lay the new drums. I
shouldn't have to do that. I should be able to just import them all in 1
fell swoop with all my tempos, plugins, etc ready to roll. I guess I could
export them all as a track template and then import that cwx file into the
new session, but again, that is a step I shouldn't have to do. I'm curious
as to why Cakewalk didn't include this. It's so basic.
2. Ability to select keys using the keyboard in the drum map manager.
Ok. this one is just plain ridiculous. I had an idea to do some major
remapping of a drum softsynth. However, I found that when in the drum map
manager, there is absolutely no way to tap keys on your keyboard and input
the notes into the in and out note boxes. Are you kidding me? So you're
saying that I have to actually know what the note numbers are? I don't have
that kind of time. They've made it wonderfully easy to choose notes with the
keyboard in so many other dialogues such as the metronome and event filter
select. Why not the drum map manager? It just makes it seem so archaic
putting in numbers instead of note names.
3. Can we please ditch SFZ as a sample format?
Pro Tools has Structure, logic has EXS 24. Can we please have a sample
format that is actually in the 21st century? There's no easy way to actually
construct instruments without either laying down tons of money for one of
these sample converters, or burning a ton of time up editing a text file
instead of being creative. Even if cakewalk went with one of Roland's
formats, I'd be satisfied. I don't know about you, but building an
instrument by writing or editing a text file sounds like work for Commander
Data rather than a creative artist.
I'm not trying to sound harsh with any of these feature requests, but I do
get extremely irritated when things that should be simple and not hinder the
creative process are complicated and end up doing so. Having messed with
several recording platforms, I am now convinced that because of the nature
of why we record and the motivation behind working with these tools, the
learning curve should be as low as possible. Not because anyone is dumb or
slow, but because we as musicians are pulled by the currents of creativity
and if we have to edit a text file, or look on line for a midi chart just to
change some notes around in a drumkit, the creative tide will soon go out
and so much for getting that idea down. One of the things that I have
appreciated about my switch to sonar was the fact that in some ways, there
is almost 0 learning curve. I literally bought Cake Talking, and was in a
session that next week putting together sequences for my casino duo. I
didn't have time to get nerdy. I needed to get busy. So my conquest as a
musician, consultant, teacher, artist, learner, etc, is to find ways to make
this stuff so easy that anything left brained is kept to a bare minimum.
Obviously, you have to have a somewhat strong knowledge of computers and how
the whole concept of digital recording works. I'm not expecting things to be
easy in a hand holding sort of way where people don't learn and grow.
However, I do expect developers of creative tools to take extra
consideration when implementing technology to aid in the creative process.
We should be creating, not geeking out. Simple as that. You're thoughts?
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