Step pattern recording

The Pattern option lets you define a repeating rhythmic pattern of notes and rests so that you can use step recording more efficiently. For example, suppose your project is in 4/4 time, and one track has a pattern that is two measures long: quarter notes in the first measure and on the first two beats of the second measure, followed by a half-note rest on the last two beats. This pattern has six quarter notes followed by two quarter-note rests.

When you use step recording with Auto Advance, you can play the six quarter notes and SONAR will automatically advance to the next step. However, to skip over the rests, you need to click the Advance button two times.

With pattern recording, you define a pattern that indicates where the rests appear in the pattern. SONAR will then skip over the rests automatically, so you don’t need to click the Advance button at all.

SONAR displays patterns as a combination of digits (which represent beats that contain notes) and dots (which represent beats that contain rests). The pattern described previously looks like this:

1 2 3 4 5 6 . .

Here is another example:

1 2 . 4

This pattern automatically skips over every third beat; SONAR interprets this pattern as “one, two, rest, four.”

Here is one final example based on 4/4 time, with a step size of eighth-note triplets (twelve steps per measure):

1 2 3 4 . 6 7 . 9 0 . 2

No matter how you enter a pattern, SONAR displays the digits in sequence, with periods replacing digits at each step where a rest would occur. You can create patterns with up to 64 steps.

To use pattern-based step recording

1.	Click the Record button and keep the button pressed for a brief moment until the pop-up menu appears, then choose Step Record. The Record button changes to .

2.	Click the Step Record button to open the Step Record dialog box.

3.	Set the insertion point where you want to start recording.

4.	Click in the Pattern field.

5.	Press any number key to indicate a beat at which notes will be played.

6.	Press the SPACEBAR, period, or the letter R to indicate a beat on which there is a rest.

7.	When the pattern is complete, click elsewhere in the dialog box.

8.	Step record as before.

From now on, after you record each step, SONAR automatically advances past all rests to the next step on which notes will be played. If you change step sizes while recording, the size of each rest changes also. To stop pattern-based step recording, simply delete the pattern from the Pattern box. SONAR stores up to 10 patterns in the Pattern field.