Controlling the transport

To control playback, you have your choice of tools, menu commands, and shortcut keys for most common operations.

When you start playback, the Now time updates continuously to show the current time. When you stop playback, the Now time rewinds to the Now Time Marker. When you start playback again, it continues from the same point.

If the Now time is advancing but you don’t hear any sound, see Frequently asked questions. If you are using MIDI sync or syncing to MIDI time code, Sonar waits to receive external timing data before it begins playing. If the various views are not updating during playback, make sure the SCROLL LOCK key on your computer keyboard is not enabled. For more information, see Synchronizing your gear.

Note: If your Windows setup uses any system sounds that are associated with any typical activity, such as minimizing a window, etc., you should disable these sounds. They can sound extremely loud through your monitors, and also interrupt playback and recording, if you open any dialog boxes or do anything that has a system sound attached to it while a project plays. The quickest way to disable all system sounds is to open the Control Panel (Start > Control Panel), double-click the Sound icon to open the Sound dialog box, click the Sounds tab, and in the Sound Scheme field select No Sounds. Click Apply, and then click OK.

To start and stop playback

 

To do this	Do this
Start playback	Press the SPACEBAR key, click in the Transport module, or double-click the bottom half of the Time Ruler
Stop playback	Press the SPACEBAR key or click in the Transport module
Rewind to the start of the project	Click in the Transport module, or press the W key
Skip to the end of the project	Click in the Transport module, or press SHIFT+G
Preview the current arrangement (see Arranger tracks)	Click in the Arranger Inspector, or press ALT+SPACEBAR

 

Note: The default behavior for the Now time when you click the Stop button is for it to return to the Now time marker where playback began. If you want the Now time to remain where it is when you stop playback, you can use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+SPACEBAR. If you want to change the default behavior, clear the On Stop, Rewind to Now Marker option on the Track view Options menu or press CTRL+W.

To pause playback

Click the Pause button .

Playback stops, but the Now Time cursor and the Now Time marker do not move.

To resume playback again

Do one of the following:

Click the Pause button .

Click the Play button .

Press SPACEBAR.

Playback resumes.

Rewinding and fast forwarding

The Transport module has dedicated Rewind and Fast Forward buttons, which allow you to rewind and fast forward smoothly during playback.

To rewind or fast forward, click the Rewind or Fast Forward button and keep the button pressed until you want to resume playback.

To audition a selection

1.	Select the clips that you want to audition.

2.	Press SHIFT+SPACEBAR.

Only the selected clips play back.

Allow playback with no data

Sonar is able to start playback even if there is no data in a project. This is useful in various cases, such as:

If you need to trigger playback of external devices.

If you need to continue playback beyond the end of the project, for example, to allow MIDI notes and sustains to decay naturally and not end abruptly.

To allow playback with no data:

On the Track view Options menu, make sure Stop at Project End is not selected.

Stop at Project End option

The Track view Options > Stop at Project End option determines whether or not playback is allowed beyond the last event in a project. This option is enabled by default.

When enabled (default setting):

Playback will not engage if there is no data present in the project at all.

Playback will stop when no more data is present going forward.

When disabled:

Playback will engage if there is no data present in the project at all.

Playback will continue past the end of a project until the user manually stops playback.

Auto fade when starting/stopping playback

Sonar makes it possible to render a smooth fade in/out whenever audio playback is interrupted. This can be useful to smooth out abrupt transitions while stopping and starting the transport rapidly and will reduce ear fatigue during long sessions.

The fade is only applied during playback and is ignored while recording or bouncing audio.

To configure the auto fade times

1.	Select Edit > Preferences to open the Preferences dialog box, then click Audio - Playback and Recording.

2.	Adjust the following options:

Fade On Start (milliseconds). When this option is set to a value greater than zero, starting playback will cause a gradual fade in of the audio for the specified duration. The valid range is 0–100000 and the default value is 0.

Fade On Stop (milliseconds). When this option is set to a value greater than zero, stopping playback will cause a gradual fade out of the audio for the specified duration. The valid range is 0–100000 and the default value is 0.

Automatically stop/pause playback with MCI MIDI events

You can instruct Sonar to stop or pause playback at a defined moment, so you can start playback again manually. This can be very useful in a live setting.

This is done by inserting an MCI Command event in a MIDI track’s Event List view (ALT+8), and assigning the MCI command’ s value to either stop or pause:

stop. Stops the transport and returns to zero

pause. Pauses the transport allowing you to manually continue playback from where you left off

Press Play (SPACEBAR) manually to resume playback.

 

See:

Event List view

To insert a new event