Customize Your Workflow & Workspace

If you’ve ever felt that using the mouse to access menus and perform functions isn’t the most efficient way to work, perhaps you should explore Key Bindings. Key Bindings are customizable shortcuts that let you use either your computer’s keyboard or your MIDI instrument to open the programs’ menus, enable functions, and control the transport (start, stop, record).

Key Bindings: For users of SONAR, Home Studio, Pro Audio, Professional, and Guitar Studio

Templates: For users of SONAR, Home Studio, Music Creator, Pro Audio, Professional, and Guitar Studio

To set up a Key Binding:

Choose Options | Key Bindings.

Select Computer or MIDI in the ‘Type of Keys’ area at the top. If you choose MIDI, you’ll need to choose a Shift option as well. We’ll touch on that in a moment.

Choose a computer key combination or a MIDI note from the list on the left.

Select the function you wish to control from the Function list on the right.

Click the Bind button to bind your key selection to your function selection.

If you’ve selected a MIDI note, you’ll also need to select a Shift option. This is a MIDI note or controller you must send in addition to the primary note in order to activate the Key Binding. The purpose of this is to prevent you from accidentally triggering a Key Binding when you’re playing your keyboard. Another common way to avoid this is to bind the lowest and/or highest notes on the keyboard, which are rarely used during a performance.

The bindings you set up are saved until you change or unbind them.

Templates

For users of SONAR, Home Studio, Music Creator, Pro Audio, Professional, and Guitar Studio

When you choose File | New, you see a list of Templates from which you can choose the one most appropriate to the project you’re going to be working on. In some cases, however, the available Templates don’t fit the bill, and you find yourself making changes to the default project settings over and over again. In such a circumstance, it’s a good idea to simply create your own Template. Here’s how:

In SONAR and Home Studio 2002, choose File | New and select the ‘Blank (No Tracks)’ Template. In other products, choose the ‘Normal’ Template.

Set up the project as you like, with the appropriate number of audio and/or MIDI tracks, settings, attached SoundFonts, effects, channels, and so on. You can do whatever you find appropriate for your particular needs.

Choose File | Save As, give the file a name, and save it as a Template (.TPL) file in the program folder.

Next time you choose File | New, you’ll see your custom Template available for selection. This will save you time and trouble in the long run.

More Tips