{"id":9171,"date":"2012-08-21T13:44:08","date_gmt":"2012-08-21T17:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/?p=9171"},"modified":"2012-08-21T13:44:08","modified_gmt":"2012-08-21T17:44:08","slug":"sonar-x2-feature-peek-smart-grid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/2012\/08\/21\/sonar-x2-feature-peek-smart-grid\/","title":{"rendered":"SONAR X2 Feature Peek: Smart Grid"},"content":{"rendered":"

What’s a snap grid?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

One of the most useful features of a DAW is the snap grid. When enabled, a snap grid locks all movement to a defined value. The\u00a0value\u00a0can be absolute (e.g. seconds) or musical (e.g. quarter notes) and some\u00a0programs optionally show grid lines\u00a0that\u00a0reflect at least some portion of the grid.<\/p>\n

The whole thing makes moving a clip by a beat or a MIDI event by a 64th note much much easier than trying to “eyeball it”.\u00a0Snap grids are vitally important to almost every DAW user. In most cases, a user <\/span>relies on the snap grid\u00a0regularly\u00a0throughout every session.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But not all snap grids are created equal.\u00a0Some only offer the most basic snap options and functionality. Some don’t display their state or give the user easy access to the settings. And many are pretty dumb when it comes to anticipating what the user needs from moment to moment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Considering the importance and near constant use of a snap grid in music production, we thought this was an area where SONAR could increase its level of intelligence and truly shine. Let SONAR think about snap so you don’t have to.<\/p>\n

\n

Smart Grid<\/strong><\/p>\n

Changing snap settings is one of those\u00a0repetitive\u00a0tasks that, while necessary, suck some of the joy out of creating music. \u00a0It would be great if the software were smart enough to know what settings are best and could change settings all by itself.\u00a0<\/span>And that’s exactly what Smart Grid does.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

You can use SONAR for hours and not worry about changing snap settings. Smart Grid intelligently sets the snap\u00a0resolution dynamically, based on zoom level.\u00a0And it can do it independently\u00a0for the Track View and<\/em> the Piano Roll View.<\/p>\n

A 128th note grid is not all that helpful when zoomed out and trying to copy a guitar riff from one verse to another. And how many times have you tried to move a 32nd note in a Piano Roll View and realized it won’t move because the snap grid is set to “Measure”?<\/p>\n

The cumulative loss is\u00a0significant, both in time and creative energy.<\/p>\n

SONAR\u00a0X2 automatically sets your snap resolution to a useful setting for the task at hand, and it shows grid lines that dynamically adjust to the intelligent snap settings. You can always see\u00a0<\/em>and feel<\/em>\u00a0the next beat, the next measure, and so on.<\/p>\n

And speaking of feel<\/em>, SONAR X2 lets you customize just how strong the “Snap intensity” is. Think of it like gravity, or magnetism, or falling in a hole. You can even test how the setting feels before\u00a0committing\u00a0to it, saving a lot of trial and error and ensuring that it’s\u00a0dialed\u00a0in just right.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Set it and go. But keep your options open.<\/strong><\/p>\n

SONAR X2’s new Smart Grid lets you set your snap so it’s comfortable for you<\/em>. Then you can pretty\u00a0much\u00a0forget about snap resolution a lot of the time. Of course on those\u00a0occasions\u00a0where Smart Grid just doesn’t “get you”, you can quickly set the grid manually right from the Control Bar’s Snap Module. You can even set an alternative snap configuration with completely\u00a0different\u00a0settings, or override snap entirely, with a simple\u00a0keyboard shortcut. It’s clever\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>flexible.<\/p>\n

\"\"Visual feedback and\u00a0accessibility\u00a0of the Snap Module has also improved. Move To\/By is now a switch directly on the module so it’s quick to toggle and easy to see the current state. Snapping to landmarks is also directly accessible, as are options for\u00a0triplet\u00a0and dotted musical values.<\/p>\n

Smart Grid is just one of the ways in which SONAR\u00a0continues\u00a0to get smarter. See what else is new in SONAR X2<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Upgrades to SONAR X2<\/a> start at just $59.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What’s a snap grid? One of the most useful features of a DAW is the snap grid. When enabled, a snap grid locks all movement to a defined value. The\u00a0value\u00a0can be absolute (e.g. seconds) or musical (e.g. quarter notes) and some\u00a0programs optionally show grid lines\u00a0that\u00a0reflect at least some portion of the grid. The whole thing … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “SONAR X2 Feature Peek: Smart Grid”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1752],"tags":[12,1751,26,93,122,94,35,51,129],"class_list":["post-9171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sonar-x2-feature-peek-sonar-x2","tag-cakewalk","tag-digital-audio","tag-music","tag-music-production","tag-producer","tag-recording","tag-sonar","tag-sonar-x2-2","tag-studio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9171\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}