Creating arrangements

An arrangement describes the overall structure of the song.

Sections can be sequenced in any order to create arrangements, without affecting project data. The sections don’t have to live on the project timeline in any specific location or order, because the arrangement determines in which order they are played back.

The Arranger Inspector allows you to create unlimited different arrangements of the current project. Each arrangement can contain any combination of sections, in any order. All arrangements are saved within the project.

Arrangements are not tied to a specific Arranger track, and can contain sections from different Arranger tracks. In the Arranger Inspector, the tooltip indicates a section's parent Arranger track.

If the Arranger Inspector is not visible, click the Show/Hide Arranger button at the top of the Inspector pane.

To create a new arrangement

1.	Click the Arrangements menu and select New.

2.	Drag sections from the Sections list down to the Arrangements list. You can also drag sections directly from the Arranger track.

 

See also:

To create a new arrangement from an Arranger template

To create new arrangement based on an existing arrangement

You can quickly create a new arrangement by selecting sections in an existing arrangement. To do so, select the desired sections in the Arranger Inspector’s Arrangements pane, then right-click in the Arrangements pane and select New Arrangement From Selection.

To add a section to the current arrangement

Do one of the following:

Drag the section(s) from the Sections area or from the Arranger track timeline down to the Arrangements area.

In the Sections area, select the section(s) you want to add to the current arrangement, then click the Add Selected Sections to Arrangement button .

To move sections in the Arrangements list, drag them up or down.

To add all sections to the current arrangement

1.	Make sure either no sections are selected, or all sections are selected.

2.	Click the Add All Sections to Arrangement button .

If one or more sections are selected, only the selected sections will be copied.

To remove a section from the current arrangement

Select the section in the Arrangements list and press the DELETE key.

Right-click the section in the Arrangements list and select Remove.

The Remove command removes the section from the arrangement, but does not delete it from the Sections list or from the Arranger track timeline.

 

Tip: To remove all instances of a specific section from the current arrangement, click the section in the Arranger Inspector’s Sections list. This selects all the instances of the section in the current arrangement. Next, right-click any of the selected instances of the section in the Arrangements list and select Remove.

To remove all sections from the current arrangement

Right-click an empty area in the Arrangements list and select Remove All Arrangement Sections.

Only the sections themselves are removed. Track events associated with the sections are not affected.

To select all sections in the current arrangement

Right-click an empty area in the Arrangements list and select Select All Arrangement Sections.

Only the sections themselves are selected. Track events associated with the sections are not selected.

 

Note: Clicking a section in the Arrangements list only sets the Now Time. The sections is not selected in the Arranger track timeline, and no track events are selected.

To preview an arrangement

To preview the current arrangement, click the Preview button in the Arranger Inspector, or press ALT+SPACEBAR. Sonar plays back the Arrangements list instead of the project’s linear timeline.

During Arranger preview, the main transport Play button shows a small “A” icon .

To start preview from a specific section, click a section’s preview button in the Arranger Inspector. Sonar plays the current section to the end, then jumps to the next section until the end of the arrangement is reached.

To enable/disable preview looping, click the Loop Enable/Disable button .

Figure 137. Arranger Preview buttons.

A. Arrangement preview B. Section preview C. Loop arrangement preview 

To preview only a single section, click the section’s preview button in the Arranger Inspector Sections list.

To start preview from somewhere within a section, position the Now Time where you would like preview to start from, then hold down the CTRL key and click a preview button, or press ALT+SHIFT+SPACEBAR. If the Now Time is within the section, then preview will start from the Now time. If the Now Time lies outside the preview section time region, preview will start from the beginning of the section as normal.

To delete an arrangement

1.	Select the arrangement you want to delete.

2.	Click the Arrangements menu and select Delete.

The arrangement is removed from the menu and all sections in the Arrangements list are removed. No track events or Arranger track sections are affected.

To rename an arrangement

1.	Select the arrangement you want to rename.

2.	Click the Arrangements menu and select Rename.

or

Double-click on the name displayed in the closed Arrangements menu.

To duplicate an arrangement

1.	Select the arrangement you want to duplicate.

2.	Click the Arrangements menu and select Duplicate.

To commit an arrangement

When you have configured an arrangement the way you like, and you are certain that you do not want to edit it any further, you can convert it to a linear project.

To commit an arrangement to the project’s timeline, select the arrangement, then click the Commit Arrangement to Project button .

The selected arrangement is converted into a linear project, updating track content and section display in the timeline accordingly.

If you would like to create linked clips when committing an arrangement, hold down the SHIFT key, then click the Commit Arrangement to Project button .

 

Caution: Rendering an arrangement may potentially remove events from the project, so only use Commit Arrangement to Project when you no longer need to edit the arrangement. If in doubt, save a backup copy of the project before rendering the arrangement.

Note: Some generative VST instruments (EZkeys, EZdrummer, Jamstix, etc.) have their own internal timeline. If you sequence parts within the VSTi to play based on the original project timeline, the VSTi will play back using its internal timeline as a reference, and will not be aware of your new song structure after committing an arrangement. There are two ways to handle this: 4 Don't use the plug-in's internal timeline to sequence parts 4 Freeze the plug-in before rendering an arrangement

To insert an arrangement at the Now Time

You can insert a committed arrangement into the existing project at the Now Time. To do so, right-click the Commit Arrangement to Project button and select Insert Committed Arrangement.

Sections for the inserted arrangement are added to a new Arranger track. Any other existing Arranger tracks, sections and arrangements remain unaffected.

Any existing events after the Now Time will be shifted over to make room for the inserted arrangement.

As with the Commit Arrangement to Project command, holding down the SHIFT key while selecting the command will cause the events under the arrangement sections to be copied as linked clips.

 

See:

Arranger tracks

Arranger tracks

Arranger Inspector

Defining sections of your song

Editing sections

Navigating by Arranger sections

Exporting arrangements

Arranger templates