Tips and Tricks

Here are some initial suggestions to help you along the way.

Spend some time on the JSonar's web site browsing through available documentation, FAQs and articles.
Press JAWSKey+H to read the JSonar hot key help! This lists all of the JSonar commands, along with their keyboard shortcuts, available in a given Sonar view.
Use JAWS Verbosity dialog (INSERT+V) to configure many of JSonar's verbosity settings.
Press INSERT+F1 twice to access this README file from within the Sonar application.
If you cannot resolve your problem and something doesn't work as described in this file, feel free to subscribe to the Jsonar discussion list through JSonar's web site and ask for help there.
If you never worked with JSonar or Sonar before, you may want to turn on “help mode” (through verbosity settings, INSERT+V) which will guide you with helpful hints during navigation. You can always turn “help mode” off later.
If Sonar seems a bit unstable or performs badly, try to disable displaying of continuous meters, use CTRL+F2 shortcut key to access meter tool menu.
If JSonar does not report things as you expect them to, try some of these troubleshooting techniques:
- Absolutely make sure that the X-Ray feature is disabled; look under Options->Global menu.
- Make sure that your toolbars under view->toolbars menu are set up according to instructions in the Readme file.
- hide the Bus pane by pressing Shift+B.
- When in the track view, remove the track inspector from your screen by pressing the letter, I. Jaws will say “track inspector off.”
- Temporarily close other windows, for example, plug-in windows (use Control+Tab to cycle between all open windows).
If JSonar appears to have lost current track or bus and you want to route the JAWS cursor to it, press" `" (grauv accent) to route JAWS cursor to the current strip. JAWS will say: “Routed to strip x”.
Press say current line (JAWSKey+UpArrow) to hear information about the current track or bus.
Use say current line (JAWSKey+UpArrow) twice to open the list of all the fields in the current track, bus or track inspector, pick the first letter of the field and press ENTER to jump to it.
To quickly select one of the available inputs or outputs for a given track or bus, press CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+I or CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+O respectively and pick the desired entry from the list.
Use JAWSKey+F8 to display a list of toolbars, pick the toolbar you want, then use left and right arrows to move through controls. Use space bar or enter to toggle the state of checkboxes or activate buttons and edit fields.
Use TAB and SHIFT+TAB keys while in the track view to switch between track pane and track inspector.
- To use track/bus inspector, make sure that it is turned on by pressing letter I. You can toggle this on and off at will.
- To switch between Track/bus Inspector (once it is turned on) and the Track View, use Tab and Shift+Tab.
- You can doublecheck whether you are in Track Inspector view by pressing JAWSKey+Tab, which will announce the current view.
Once you are in the Track Inspector, you can use the following commands to navigate or turn on/off different features of the Inspector:
- Pressing the enter key on the display options button allows you to choose the parameters that are displayed. For example, if items such as output, volume, pan, send and output are unchecked in the display menu, it is possible to show more parameters in the Inspector, such as the EQ and effects.
- Pressing the enter key on the module options button provides access to various menus to control the behavior of various parameters. For example, a user can press the enter key on the module options button, choose the effects menu and check the “show assignable controls” option, which will expose assignable controls of any effects patched into the FX bin.
- Up and Down arrows move between the fields of the Inspector.
- Left and right arrow keys move between multiple effects in the track inspector.
- Left/Right brackets will decrease/increase values of the field, like EQ, Volume or FX parameters.
- To switch to another strip within the Track Inspector, find a parameter with the name of the strip and press Enter to activate the list of all available tracks and buses.
- For more information about the Track Inspector, read Sonar's help.
While in the Synthrack View:
- navigate through the list of DXI or VST synths and their parameters with the arrow keys.
- Press say current line (JAWSKey+UpArrow) to read the preset, mute and solo information for the current synth.
- Press m or s to toggle mute or solo for the current synth, respectively.
- When over a softsynthe, press the applications key. This will present a list of automatable parameters, if any are available. Pressing the enter key whilst focused on one of these automatable parameters in the list will allow you to control that parameter from the synth rack. For example, if you load up DR008, access the list of automatable parameters and pres the enter key on the c3 volume, the volume control will be placed in the syntherack view. The user can then use the left and right arrow keys to locate the synthe control in question. If you wish to delete the control, simply locate it, press the applications key and choose delete from the menu.
- Note: due to a bug in Sonar, it is not possible to manipulate synth controls with the bracket keys. However, this can still be achieved by the plus and minus keys. For more information on automating synthes in the synth rack view, read Sonar's help system.