JSonar Tutorial

Copyright (©) JSonar Development Team
JSonar is subject to the terms and conditions of the GNU General Public License. The full text of the license can be found in the file license.txt distributed with the scripts.

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Welcome to the JSonar tutorial!

We hope that this short book will help you to get started with JSonar and Sonar. It will not answer all your questions, but in conjunction with JSonar FAQ, articles and Cakewalk Sonar's built-in help, it will get you well beyond the beginner level. Enjoy!

What Can you Do with JSonar?

JSonar allows any visually impaired musician, whether beginner or expert, record, edit, compose and engineer musical projects with the help of Cakewalk Sonar music recording software and the JAWS screen reader.

Credits

Throughout the existence of the JSonar project many people have helped us in various ways to keep the project going: by donating money, translating scripts and documentation into other languages, contributing code, finding bugs or encouraging the project in other ways. The following list is therefore not exhaustive by any means.

Gordon Kent – creator of he original JAWS scripts for Sonar.
Victor Tsaran – A primary developer in the JSonar team; previously (for much of the project's life), the sole maintainer and developer of the project (with contributions from others); sole developer of the installer; author of the control surface DLL that empowers much of JSonar starting from versions 4.2 and 5.2.
James Teh – another JSonar developer; provider and maintainer of the resources for the repository.
Michael Curran – provided large portions of the toolbar code, automatic window docking functionality, other miscellaneous code and valuable scripting ideas.
Phil Muir – creator of the Hot Spot Clicker sets for the entire suite of Sonitus plug-ins. For more information, please visit www.hotspotclicker.org.
Tim Burgess – provided code for monitoring control surface output.
Jim Bauer – provided initial idea for accessibility of loop construction view and code for step record dialog.
Victor Gorelov, Paul Erkens and Marco Zehe – helped to translate JSonar into Russian, Dutch and German languages respectively.
All the donors from around the world who fuel the project through their financial support.
Chris Bell, Geoff Chapman, Slava Hanov, Jason Dasent, Roy Shtupler, Rob Gallo and others.

Software and hardware Requirements

In order to use JSonar, you will need the following:

Cakewalk Sonar: in general, JSonar supports both the Producer and Studio editions of Cakewalk Sonar starting from latest versions of Sonar 5 and up. Note: we always recommend latest patches of the Cakewalk Sonar software. Check Cakewalk Support section for the latest updates.
JAWS screen reader, version 7.1 or above. This is due to the fact that any version of Jaws prior to 7.0 is unable to track the menu structure in Sonar. Be aware that the latest version is always recommended unless specifically discouraged by the JSonar development team.
Computer equipped with all of the necessary gadgets for audio production. Please note that NVidea graphic cards are recommended for best compatibility with JAWS.
The following display settings are recommended, though are generally not essential. They can be set on the Appearance and Settings tabs of the Display applet in Control Panel.
- Screen resolution: 1024 by 768 pixels
- Color quality: 32 bit
- Color scheme: Windows Standard
Not enough information?
See hardware recommendations from Cakewalk.

Installing JSonar

Installation Instructions

If you are installing JSonar from a zip archive, please follow the manual installation instructions and then return to these instructions. If you installed JSonar using the installer, these steps have been performed automatically and you should skip this step. Please be aware that the installer is the recommended way to install JSonar. The zip archive should only be used in special circumstances and by advanced users.

Manual Installation Instructions

If you installed JSonar using an installer, you can skip these instructions. If you decided not to use an installer but instead use a zip archive (not recommended), follow these steps after unzipping the scripts:

Switch to the folder where you unzipped the scripts.
Find and switch to the regkeys folder.
Look for files with an extension .reg and the name containing your particular version of Sonar, e.g. the file with registry entries for Sonar 6 Producer Edition would be called “Sonar Producer 6.0 Accessibility Mode.reg”.
Press ENTER key on that file and answer positively to the two dialog boxes that are presented.
Move back to the previous folder and switch to the surface folder.
Copy the file named jsonar.dll to a non-temporary location on your system drive; e.g. c:\Program Files\JSonar 6.
Register jsonar.dll in this new location with a command like the following from the Start menu->Run dialog:
regsvr32 “c:\Program Files\JSonar 6\jsonar.dll”
Now return to the normal installation instructions.

Configuring JSonar

Please follow these steps to configure JSonar for optimal performance and interoperability with the Sonar software.

Set up Wizard

*** This step is essential ***
Use Control+JAWSKey+R to start the “Setup Wizard”, which enables the Sonar JAWS control surface plugin. You need only do this once, unless JSonar complains that the surface is not installed.

Sonar Settings

In order to run JSonar optimally in Sonar 7, it is necessary to configure Sonar toolbars in the following way. In order for some information to be read or commands to function, certain toolbars must be enabled in Sonar while others have to be disabled. The visibility of toolbars can be toggled in the Toolbars dialog under the View menu. Some toolbar names are self explanatory, but notes have been included where this is not the case.
1. Standard (checked): “new”, “open”, “print” etc.
2. Loop/Auto Shuttle )checked): looping, punching, set loop to selection etc.
3. Markers (checked): insert, delete and move between markers.
4. Metronome (checked): , audio metronome, MIDI metronome, set metronome options etc.
5. Position (checked): Now time etc.
6. Record )checked): autopunch, recording options etc.
7. Playback State (checked): mute/solo/arm/input echo for all tracks etc.
8. Controllers/Surfaces (checked): control surface monitoring, ACT Learn mode etc.
9. Select (checked); From and Through times.
1. Sync (unchecked).
2. Tempo (checked).
3. Transport (checked).
4. Transport (Large) (unchecked).
5. View (unchecked).
6. Automation (checked): Envelope/Offset mode etc.
7. AudioSnap (Doesn't matter).
8. Event Inspector (unchecked).
9. User1 (unchecked): user configurable toolbar.
10. User2 (unchecked): user configurable toolbar.
11. User3 (unchecked): user-configurable toolbar.
- Allow Wrap (unchecked).
To improve Sonar's responsiveness with JSonar, it is absolutely necessary to turn off X-ray feature; go to Options->General and uncheck the checkbox that says"Enable X-Ray". Failure to do so can make many of your plug-ins work incorrectly.

Supported Features

Supported Sonar Features

JSonar supports the following features of Sonar:

Information about the active project:
- CPU load, hard disk space and other related information
Track View (track pane, bus pane and track inspector):
- The number of tracks and buses in a project.
- Numbers of muted, soloed, armed, archived, input echoed, empty or data tracks and/or buses.
- Navigation between tracks or buses by selecting from the list of names, typing in the strip number or searching through the list of tracks/buses with a keyword.
- All the standard actions such as soloing, arming, muting, archiving, selecting and toggling input echo of tracks in the track and bus panes.
- Operating and moving between volume, pan, sends, effects, interleave state and other parameters of a given track or bus.
- Connection of a current bus to other tracks and buses.
- Manipulation of track layers: muting, soloing and querying the number of available layers on a track.
- Configuration of the track/bus inspector display.
- …and more
Full support for multichannel (stereo and surround sound) VU meters.
Event View.
Loop Construction View.
Loop explorer view.
The SynthRack view (see usage notes in the “Tips and tricks” section.
Tempo View. The tempo list will be activated automatically, since the tempo graph is completely inaccessible.
Lyrics View.
Surround Panner (feels very similar to track inspector in terms of navigation).
Step Sequencer View.
All Sonar main toolbars (press JAWSKey+F8, select a toolbar and use left and right arrow keys to move between controls).
View-specific toolbars are also accessible where they exist (use JAWSKey+Shift+F8). Then press TAB, to move between view-specific toolbars, if there are more than one.
Toggling track view tools, such as Scrub Tool, Snap-To-Grid, Envelope Tool, Navigator, autocrossfades, selection tool, split tool etc.
Navigation through the project by measures or beats.
Scrubbing and jogging are fully supported.
The following plug-in suites are supported by JSonar:
- Cakewalk native effects (delay, chorus, dynamic processor etc).
- Sonitus effects (delay, wahwah, multiband compressor etc) through the use of Hot Spot Clicker (see below).
- SFZ sound font player (through Hot Spot Clicker).
- Session Drummer2 (through Hot Spot Clicker).
- Dimension Pro (through Hot Spot Clicker)
- And more.
Sonar online help (use F1 to start help).

See Tips and Tricks section to learn how to use some of these features

Plug-in Support

Plug-in support via Hot Spot Clicker

Starting from JSonar6 we are using Hot Spot Clicker software to provide support for many of the third-party plug-ins and software synthesizers. In fact, in order to use some of the built-in Sonar plug-ins, such as Session Drummer2 and sonitus suite of effects, you will have to install Hot Spot Clicker program. Otherwise, you will not be able to use those and other plug-ins because they are not natively accessible. To help you out, JSonar installer will copy for you all the hot spot sets that support Sonar's built-in plug-ins. Please note: if you installed JSonar scripts manually, you will have to copy all the necessary HSC sets on your own.

The following are the steps to get started with Hot Spot Clicker:

Visit Hot Spot Clicker web site to read about the program, to download the installer and Hot Spot Clicker settings for supported plug-ins. It is advised that you download the latest version of both the Hot Spot Clicker and the sets, unless specifically discouraged by JSonar developers.
Install Hot Spot Clicker application by using the provided installer.
After you have carried out all the necessary steps for installing Hot Spot Clicker (also known as HSC) and made sure that it is installed properly, run Sonar at least once in order to initialize support for HSC within JSonar.
press CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+F1 twice. If after pressing Control+Alt+Shift+F1 nothing happens, do the following:
- Press Control+Alt+Shift+F10 to open "Hot Spot Clicker Action Menu.
- Choose “Refresh Keymap” and wait until Hot Spot Clicker refreshes your keymap file.
- Now, try pressing Control+Alt+Shift+F1 twice again.
Scroll down to the list item that says “Import Hot Spot Preset” and choose OK.
Select “Import All” to import all presets or select a particular preset you want to import from the list and press OK.
Please read Hot Spot Clicker documentation for more information on the features and operation of this software.

Using JSonar with Braille

It is possible to operate certain features of JSonar using Braille display. The following operations are currently possible:

Navigate between tracks or buses.
Viewing the type of a current strip (bus, audio, MIDI etc).
Selecting/unselecting the current track.
Viewing the name of a current strip.
Viewing whether the track is empty or contains data.
Viewing and toggling the status of mute, solo, arm and input echo buttons for a current strip (where applicable).
Viewing the status of an audio engine, e.g. whether the project is playing or recording.
Playing, stopping and recording the project.
Jumping to the Start and End of the project.
Navigating the project by measures or markers.
Viewing the “now”, “from” and “through” time for the current project.
Moving to previous and next measure.

Braille display modes

There are two Braille display modes in JSonar: “Strip Display” and “Time Display”, denoted by letters “ST” and “TI” on the very left side of the Braille line.
The “Strip Display” mode displays parameters for the current strip, strip type/name, play/stop/record, start or end of the project, plus and minus for moving between either markers or bars,, and “now”/“from”/“through” times.
The “Time Display” mode displays the “now” time in both hour/minute/second and measure/beat/tick formats. The time values are updated in real time as the project plays. In this mode you can also move between measures (bars) using previous and next line commands on your Braille display.

To switch between two modes, either:

Press the routing button above the first cell on the display; or
use the ToggleBrailleMode keystroke on your Braille display, i.e. the same keystroke that changes between “structured mode”, “speech history” and “line mode” by default. Different Braille displays will have a different keystroke assigned for this JAWS function so check your manual for more details.

Explanation of the layout of the Braille strip

In order to efficiently use the space available on the Braille display, we decided to denote all supported parameters with a single letter, as follows:

“a” for audio, “m” for midi", b for “bus”.
Strip number.
– (hyphen sign) for “Track contains data”
[empty cell] for “track is empty”
“m” for Mute
“s” for Solo
“r” for Arm
“e” for Input Echo
“p” for play/pause/stop
“r” for record.
“s” for start" and “e” for end.
+ and – (plus and minus sign) for moving to previous and next units (see below).
“m” for markers, “b” for bars".
“n” for “now time”, “f” for “from time” and “t” for “through” time.

Please note: for controls such as mute, solo, arm etc, lower-case letters represent the “off” status, while upper-case letters, i.e. with dot 7, represent the “on” status.

Performing actions with Braille display

While in “Strip Display” mode: to move between strips (tracks or buses), use up and down keys of your particular Braille display. In the case of Freedom Scientific displays, use whiz wheels to move up or down. You can display the name of a current strip by pressing the routing button right above the strip number. You can also toggle any of the strip parameters above by pressing routing buttons on your Braille display that are located right above the parameter of interest. For example:

To select a track, press the routing button right above the track number. Dot 7 will indicate that the track is selected.
To toggle mute, solo, arm or input echo parameters for the current strip, press the routing button above letters “m”, “s”, “r” and “e” respectively. JSonar will reflect the change with either uppercase or lowercase letter.
To play/stop/record the project, press routing buttons above letters “p” or “r” respectively. As in the previous case, JSonar will reflect the change by switching to uppercase or lowercase letter.
To jump to start or end of the project, press routing buttons above letters “s” or “e”.
To move to the previous unit, press routing button above the minus sign; to move to the next unit, press routing button above the plus sign.
To change the unit of movement, press routing button above the next cell, “m” will indicate “markers” while “b” will indicate “bars”.
Similarly, press routing buttons above letters “n”, “f” or “t” to display “now”, “from” and “through” times respectively.

While in “Time Display” mode: to move to previous or next measure, use up and down arrows on your Braille display. The time display will show two time values–first, the Now time in hour/minute/second format and second, the Now time in measure/beat/tick format. The values will change as the project is playing.

Known Accessibility Issues

Sonar Issues

When you open the plug-in manager in the tools menu, you won't be focused in the plug-in manager. This is due to the fact that the Sonar application Window is obscuring the plug-in manager Window. You will need to use your Jaws cursor and single left click on an item in the plug-in manager in order to restore focus.
If you scan for VST's in any of the Windows in Sonar, such as the plug-in manager and on the VST tab in global options, focus is lost. You will need to press Alt+Tab in order to restore focus.
In the preset dialog box, pressing the enter key on the “give keystrokes to plug-in” button will enable the button but not disable it. Use the plus and minus keys instead to perform this action.
In a plugin window, It isn't possible to easily move between the new preset dialog box and the plugin's parameters however, we have provided a JSonar shortcut, function key F6, in order to work around this issue. This is due to the new preset management system that 12 Tone systems have implemented in Sonar 6 and above.
Due to a bug in Sonar, it isn't possible to move synthe controls with the bracket keys in the synth rack. Use the plus and minus keys instead.
Effect names will not read for midi tracks. This is due to the fact that this information is not available in the Sonar control surface SDK and therefore cannot be obtained via the JSonar control surface plugin.
We suggest that you all post emails to the Cakewalk forum highlighting the above-mentioned issues.

JSonar Issues

JSonar may occasionally fail to find tracks in large projects. This happens because of the highly-graphical nature of the most recent versions of Sonar interface. To help get around this problem, JSonar provides a window layout that helps to address this issue (courtesy of Phil Muir). Use Sonar's View->Layouts menu to load JSonar Cakewalk window layout.
Move strip down and move strip up (Backslash and Shift+Backslash, respectively) require that at least two tracks/buses be able to fit on the screen. JSonar attempts to alert the user of this, but this error checking does not appear to work in the bus pane. Also, this functionality is not 100% reliable. We hope to have a fix in a future release.
You may be repetitively told to run the JSonar setup wizard. If you do the following, this should stop occurring:
1. Go into global options by pressing Alt+O followed by G.
2. On the audio data tab, check the box labeled “load normal template at start-up”.
3. On the VST options tab, uncheck the checkbox labeled “Scan for VST's on start-up”.
FX/instrument plugin windows may either be floating, which means they are not tied to the main application window and can be moved wherever desired on the screen, or docked, meaning they are integrated into the main application window. In the majority of cases, docking these windows is more beneficial for screen reader users, as they can be accessed from Sonar's Window menu and do not cover the main window when they are not in focus. JSonar can automatically dock these windows. However, this can cause certain plugins to misbehave, and HotSpotClicker support to fail in any plugin that relies on HotSpotClicker support, such as Dimension Pro, and is thus disabled by default. This setting is called ‘Automatically dock plugin windows’ and can be toggled from the JAWS verbosity settings dialog (JAWSKey+V).
Occasionally, accessibility registry settings are not initialized properly after the installation of JSonar. You will know this if all you hear from JSonar is “_access” as you navigate in track view. To fix this:
- Make sure your Sonar application is completely shut down
- Go to Start Menu Programs->JSonar7->Reinstall Registry Settings option
- Pick the registry settings file (with extension of .reg) for your version of Sonar and press ENTER
- Accept all the prompts from Windows and let the system modify your registry accordingly.
  Please note: you need to know what version of Sonar you are using before importing registry settings, otherwise, accessibility features will not be activated properly. For example, if you are using Sonar 7.0 Producer Edition, the registry file you need to activate is called “Sonar Producer 7.0 accessibility mode.reg”.

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.

JSonar Revision History

Revision History

The following is a summary of the changes in each revision. Note that there are most certainly other minor, less noteworthy changes, fixes, etc. not included here for brevity.

Key: new = new feature, bug = bug fix or work around, change = change in functionality.

7.1

New: completely reworked JSonar Braille support. Please see “JSonar Braille Support” section in the JSonar tutorial or the Readme for more details.
New: added Dutch and German languages to JSonar (thanks to Paul Erkens and Marco Zehe respectively).
New: Added JSonar7 Keystroke Guide and Sonar Keystroke Guide files; also shortcuts to the JSonar start menu group.
New: modified KeyPressedEvent to call AnnounceMultipleStripStatus when the Slash key is pressed because we should really be announcing multiple strips in case if more than one are selected.
New: changed the initial value to TRUE for the following verbosity options:
- Automatically read markers.
- Announce descriptive times.
- Speak values while jogging.
- Speak single event while playing.
Also, changed defaults for the cursor movement units, as follows:
- Small increment/decrement: 10 ticks.
- Medium increment/decrement: 3 frames.
- Large increment/decrement: 1 second.
Bug: Fixed an outstanding bug where a virtual viewer window would continue hanging around after the “Send Summary” dialog was closed.
Bug: Fixed an outstanding bug where SayConnectedStrips (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+C) script would not speak any message if no connected tracks or buses were found.
New: – Implemented reading of toolbar controls that do not have accessible names. If JSonar encounters such a control, we will try to read the tooltip off Sonar's status bar.
New: Added a new feature whereby if the SayMarker shortcut key (Control+Shift+F11) is pressed twice, JSonar will place the user into the combo box that lists markers in a current project. The user can select the marker to go to and press ENTER to return focus to the project. (Thanks Victor Gorelove for the idea).
New: improvements to various help screens.
New: JSonar will now notify the user if the “accessibility mode” registry key is not enabled and/or the control surface is not installed.
New: JSonar will now check if HSC is installed and, if yes, will attempt to automatically import all default HSC presets.
But: Fixed a bug where HSC window title switching would not be enabled during the Runtime Setup Wizard.
Bug: fixed a bug where JSonar would sometimes incorrectly identify track pane as bus pane when opening a new project.

7.0

New: completely refactored JSonar installer to support multiple languages
New: introduced Russian language support for both the installer and JSonar scripts (thanks to Victor Gorelov).
Bug: Fixed a bug in Braille module where JSonar would ignore menus and continue showing track information on the Braille display; presently, when the menu is pulled down, JSonar will switch to menu mode and display menus correctly.
New: Introduced a new “Help mode” whereby the user will be given short help messages as they navigate strips in track or bus panes. Currently, this feature is turned on by default, use “Speak Help Messages” verbosity settings to turn it off.
New: introduced a new feature whereby bus pane and track inspector will be hidden automatically as soon as the user leaves them – improves accessibility and saves on a number of keystrokes the user has to perform to achieve the same effect. This behavior can be toggled from the Verbosity Settings dialog box; setting: Automatically hide bus pane and track inspector.
New: Added a feature to warn the user if Large Transport toolbar is enabled.
New: Introduced a new “JSonar Utilities” module which will provide access to Sonar functions that are not easily accessible via keyboard, i.e. widget tab manager, Metronome Options etc. In other words, this module is intended to enhance usability of JSonar. This module is attached to the CTRL+SHIFT+F12 keystroke.
Change: JSonar now speaks the status of transport in plug-in windows when pressing SPACE bar. Previously, “playing” and “stop” messages were spoken in track view only. Note: the “Announce Transport Messages” setting is still honored.
Bug: Fixed a long-standing bug of reporting the new bar whenever navigating by beat would cross measure boundaries. Previously, the feature would work correctly only if the meter was set to 4/4. this fix elliminates this restriction.
Change and New: Changed the behavior of the SpeakSendSummary script in the following way:
- Upon a single press of a Control+Shift+S, the send summary will be spoken as before.
- Upon a doublepress of a keystroke, send summary is displayed in the virtual buffer by default; every send becomes a link
- The user can now toggle the state of a send by pressing SPACE or ENTER key on a link associated with a particular send.
New: When the PAUSE key is pressed, Sonar 7 switches between CPU Conservation Mode and CPU Normal Mode; JSonar will now speak these changes. The current mode will also be reflected when reading status bar (INSERT+PAGEDOWN twice or thrice).
New: Updated Control Surface Monitoring mode (still experimental):
- When using Tranzport surface, JSonar will not speak control surface status field, but it will on all other surfaces.
- When navigating between tracks, JSonar will also speak, empty/Has data, mute, solo and arm status of the track; the values will be spoken only if they are on.
- JSonar will also speak track name when muting, soloing or arming from the surface.
New: Improved behavior of the SayConnectedStrips (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+C) which will now report whether the connected send is enabled or disabled.
New: – Modified scripts and functions such as SayMarker, NextMarker, PriorMarker, GetTime and isToolbarControlChecked to provide proper feedback when in plug-in windows. Previously, JSonar would only say "please enable xxx toolbar. While toolbar windows are obscured by other windows on the screen, some vital information such as selection times and time positions is still visible. Thanks to this change, all selection, position, marker and ACTLearn functions should speak in plug-in windows as well.
New: Made changes to FindStripWindow function so that it will now try to search for track folder windows as well. Once located, the user can perform CTRL+Numpad* to perform additional folder-related operations. The user can also select the folder by pressing CTRL+Comma. Please note: the old Sonar bug is still there, i.e. folders are reported only when arrowing up and not down.
New: Introduced a new script that allows toggling Dim Solo Mode; shortcut is ALT+SLASH.
New: Removed SayKeyBinding script since JSonar now announces these automatically as the user moves through the list of key bindings.
New: added support for Step Sequencer including speaking of field values, navigation between “notes” and “controller” panes as well as the Step Sequencer toolbar (use CTRL+arrow keys to navigate).
New: added support for JAWS 9.0 verbosity enhancements
Bug: fixed a bug where F6 would not switch from preset toolbar to the plug-in window in FX view
New: implemented a functionality whereby pressing CTRL+SHIFT+F6 (SayNow) twice will jump the user to the “now” time edit field for further entry, e.g. you can now enter the time in seconds, minutes and hours.
New: added CTRL+F2 keystroke to open meter display menu. This may be useful, for example, to disable displaying of continuous meters.
Change: changed behavior of ArmAllTracks, MuteAllTracks, SoloAllTracks, InputEchoAllTracks and ArchiveAllTracks scripts in the following way:
- if there are either muted, soloed or armed strips, respective scripts will work as they did before, i.e. the state of tracks will be toggled.
- if there are no muted, soloed or armed strips, respective scripts will inform the user about this fact; in order to force the toggle at this point, the user simply presses respective keystroke twice, e.g. alt+shift+/ to solo all tracks.
New: added improved Hot Spot Clicker sets for most Sonar's built-in plugins.
Bug: fixed installer to prevent copying of extraneous folders together with JSonar scripts
Bug: Fixed a bug where “Speak Event Cell When Playing Single Event” feature did not work as expected.
Change: Changed the way jog keystrokes speak. Instead of always speaking by measure/beat, they will now speak based on the unit of choice, e.g. if the keys move in seconds or frames, then the time will be announced in hours, minutes, seconds; otherwise, the time will be announced in measures/beats.
New: Updated RuntimeSetupWizard script to test whether this is the first time the user ran the wizard and, if yes, to perform the following:
- enable autoswitching of HSC presets based on the window name.
- import all presets that have not been previously imported.

6.0

New: much of the code was revised to support Sonar 6.2 since the interface of the application has changed.
New: introducing support for the entire suite of Sonitus effect plug-ins provided through Hot Spot Clicker application (written by Jim Snowbarger).
Thanks to Phil Muir for putting together these Hot Spot Clicker sets.
New: Added Cakewalk Layout for JSonar (thanks to Phil Muir); by default, it will be copied to the folder where all your Sonar layout files reside. You can use this layout if you find the navigation in Sonar's track view to be unreliable or flaky. To load this layout, simply open view->layouts menu in Sonar and choose “JSonar Window Layout”.
New: added a new feature that allows to monitor meter clipping by playing a sound in the respective channel.
Change: Updated SayConnectedStrips script (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+C) to respect SayStripInfo verbosity settings, i.e. if the user-defined setting is to announce strips by name only, then only names of connected strips will be announced.
New: the Meter Tool can now be accessed by pressing CTRL+F2 shortcut key; Meter Tool allows you to toggle display of various meters.
Bug: Don't try to speak strip fields or strip info when there are no strips. We have to check the strip count ourselves because Sonar doesn't blank the cwaccess window like it should.
FX bin improvements in the Track/bus Inspector:
- Bug: fixed bug whereby effect names would not read if you landed on the FX bin with the left arrow in track and bus panes.
- New: Added the ability to read effect names in the track inspector. Note that you will be placed on the left most effect whenever you arrow over the FX bin, as there is no other way of determining the currently focused effect. Also, switching to astrip of a different type using the strip selector context menu will cause the effect names to be reported incorrectly.
New: enabled speaking of Split and Select tools in the “track view” toolbar, activated by letters C and T respectively.
New: improved navigation and reading of various parameters in synthrack view:
- Fixed Synthrack view so that it now correctly speaks synth name, number and connection status as user navigates through the synths.
- Fixed SayLine in Synthrack view so that it now correctly announces synth name, number and mute/solo status.
- The M and S keys for muting/unmuting and soloing/unsoloing synths in synthrack view now work correctly as they used to in previous versions of JSonar.
New: added support for track layers as follows:
1. To find the number of layers on a given track, press alt+windows+l; be careful with this keystroke as windows+l logs you out of Windows.
2. To say the numbers of muted layers on a given track, press CTRL+WINDOWS+ALT+PERIOD.
3. To say the numbers of soloed layers on a given track, press CTRL+WINDOWS+ALT+SLASH.
4. To mute a layer or a range of layers for a given track, press WINDOWS+ALT+PERIOD, then type in the single number or a range. This function works in a similar fashion to muting strip ranges.
5. To solo a layer or a range of layers for a given track, press WINDOWS+ALT+SLASH, then type in the single number or a range. This function works in a similar fashion to soloing strip ranges.
6. To unmute a layer or a range of layers for a given track, press SHIFT+WINDOWS+ALT+PERIOD, then type in the single number or a range. This function works in a similar fashion to unmuting strip ranges.
7. To unsolo a layer or a range of layers for a given track, press SHIFT+WINDOWS+ALT+SLASH, then type in the single number or a range. This function works in a similar fashion to unsoloing strip ranges.
New: added a script to report whether bus pane is displayed or hidden (shortcut SHIFT+B). Hiding bus pane apparently helps to avoid many of the “strip not found” messages.
New: introduced verbosity option “Speak VU Meters by” with the following choices: “channel and value” and “value only”. For stereo meters JSonar will announce channels as “left” and “right” if SpeakVUMeters option is set to “channel and value”.
New: introduced support for Interpolate dialogs, also known as Event Filter Search and Replace feature of Sonar. Most of controls should make sense when navigating with a TAB or SHIFT+TAB keys.
New: Attached helpful hints to the “window not found” messages which are produced when certain toolbars are not enabled by the user. For example, if “select” toolbar is not enabled, the user will receive a message asking to enable “select” toolbar when they hit F9 or F10 keys.
New: Extended the functionality of the Synthrack view in that that it now works similarly to the track view, i.e.:
- Synth name and synth number (configurable from the verbosity menu) will be spoken when arrowing up and down.
- Current view, synth name and current field will be spoken when INSERT+TAB is pressed.
- Synth number and synth name will be spoken when SayLine (INSERT+UPArrow) is used.
New: Updated the surface DLL to allow JSonar4 and JSonar6 to happily coexist on the same system.
Bug: Fixed SayStripsInQuickGroup; previously, JSonar would miss the last strip number in quick group.
New: Implemented work-around to avoid speaking of graphics when navigating between markers with CTRL+SHIFT+PGUP and CTRL+SHIFT+PGDN.
Change: improved “control surface monitoring” mode. It is now possible to:
- hear marker names when navigating by markers through the surface.
- hear measure and beat when turning data wheel on the control surface.
- hear the name of the track as the arm, mute or solo buttons are pressed on the control surface.
New: introduced a feature that allows searching through strip names by typing partial or full keywords; to use the feature, press ALT+WINDOWS+G and type a search term.
New: Introduced the JAWSKey+Shift+A shortcut to toggle ACT Learn Mode.
New: introduced “clipping meter monitor” that allows to monitor a particular strip for clipping meter values.
- To set the strip for monitoring, press CTRL+WINDOWS+M twice, then continue working with the project. If meter starts clipping on the monitored strip, JSonar will announce that “strip x is clipping”.
- To turn off “meter clipping monitor”, move to the monitored strip and press CTRL+WINDOWS+M twice.
New: introduced a feature that allows monitoring of multi-channel VU meters for a given strip (track or bus); press CTRL+WINDOWS+M to read the meters.
New: introduced functionality that allows toggling ranges of strips (tracks or buses). To use the feature:
1. Press one of the shortcut keys below depending on what you want to do.
2. For single strips, type in the strip number and press ENTER; for contiguous ranges, i.e. 1 through 5, type 1–5; for noncontiguous ranges, i.e. 1, 3, 5, 19 type strip numbers separated by spaces.
Shortcut keys are as follows:
- To solo/unsolo – Windows+/ and Windows+Shift+/ respectively.
- To mute/unmute – Windows+. and Windows+Shift+. respectively.
- To arm/unarm – Windows+; and Windows+shift+; respectively.
- To archive/unarchive – Windows+` and Windows+Shift+` respectively.
New: introduced a feature to announce empty tracks as well as tracks with data; default keystroke is CTRL+Shift+D.
Change: Removed Track Inspector scripts that used to toggle inspector tabs in previous versions of Sonar as track inspector's interface for Sonar 6 has changed.
Change: Changed the behavior of an ALT+M, assigned to SayMeterPeak, to bypass the keystroke to an application if we are not in track or bus pane. This shortcut is sometimes used in Cakewalk FX plug-ins and perhaps in others as well.
New: due to the accessibility enhancements in Sonar 6, JSonar now provides better access to the synthrack view than ever before; spoken feedback will be provided as you move around synthrack window with arrow keys.
New: Introduced a quick work-around to speak whether a particular synth is connected/disconnected; this info will be spoken in a synthrack view when SayLine keystroke is pressed.
New: Introduced support for Sonar's Surround Panner; all the keystrokes and the feel are exactly like in the track/bus inspector; screen sensitive help is also provided, accessed through INSERT+F1.
New: Introduced a new function to toggle the state of the Interleave field; the keystroke is CTRL+SHIFT+L; when pressed twice, will toggle interleave from mono to stereo.
New: Introduced the following functions:
1. CTRL+. (Period) twice moves to the next strip and mutes/unmutes it.
2. CTRL+/ (Slash) twice moves to the next strip and soloes/unsoloes it.
3. CTRL+; (Semicolon) twice moves to the next strip and arms/unarms it.
4. CTRL+' (Apostrophe) twice moves to the next strip and toggles its Input Echo.
Change: Removed color recognition from the “runtime setup wizard” as we no longer use colors for track selection; updated related messages.
New: Inserted a help message about “runtime setup wizard” if the user presses CTRL+INSERT+R but no projects are opened.
New: Added scripts to support manipulation of archived tracks, as follows:
1. Archive/unarchive Current Track: control+graveaccent;
2. Archive/unarchive all tracks: alt+shift+graveaccent;
3. Speak which tracks are archived: control+shift+graveaccent.
Also, the status of archive field is announced during the SayLine (INSERT+UpArrow).
New: Added the message to speak the current tab when track pane or bus pane get the focus.
New: Introduced new functionality that lists tracks or buses connected to a bus under the cursor. Script SayConnectedStrip (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+C) will speak whether a track or a bus are connected through sends or through output. If this keystrokes is pressed twice, the information will be inserted into a virtual buffer.
New: Introduced a feature to speak time while jogging; also added verbosity to toggle announcement on and off.
New: Added Braille support for JSonar.
Braille display currently shows the following information:
1. track type (MIDI, audio, bus);
2. track number (press routing button above the number to display strip name);
3. whether track contains data or is an empty track (hyphen indicates that track has data, empty cell indicates that the track is empty);
4. mute/solo/arm/inputEcho. The status of any of these can be toggled by pressing routing button right above the letter that represents the field. The only exception is the track selection, i.e. to toggle track selection press routing button right above the track type letter.
b stands for bus, m for mute, s for solo, r for arm, e for input echo. If the field is on, i.e. muted or soloed, then dot 7 is added to the letter; otherwise, just the letter is displayed.
New: Introduced functionality to scroll through the tracks/buses with whiz wheels (only tested with Focus displays).
New: Added Control+Applications keystroke for the AccessContextMenus script in addition to Control+Numpad_Star.
New: Introduced new feature where if the user steps through the song beat-by-beat (Shift+PageUp or Shift+PageDown), the behavior will be as follows:
- if the user is on beat 4 and hits Shift+PageDown to go to the first beat of the next measure, the measure number and the beat will be announced;
- if the user is on beat 1 and hits Shift+PageUp to go to the last beat of the previous measure, the measure number and the beat will be announced.
New: Improved color search for the track tabs (thanks to Sean Farrow).
New: Added help message for the MoveToTrackInspector script to let users know that letter “i” toggles track inspector pane on and off.
Bug: Corrected the long-standing bug of JSonar not announcing certain controls, such as page tabs, when in a dialog box, when left and right arrow keys are used.
New: Introduced support for speaking accessibility-enabled fields in plug-in windows, such as “save preset”, “decrement preset”, “increment preset” etc. Note, this has been introduced in Sonar 6.2 and will not work with earlier Sonar 6 patches.
New: Added screen-sensitive help (INSERT+F1) for synthrack view.
Bug: Improved MoveStripDown and MoveStripUp scripts to work more reliably (thanks to Roy Shtupler).

5.2

bug: An issue that was causing some systems to crash intermittently when dialogs were displayed has been resolved.
change/bug: Say peak meter (Alt+M) has been reverted to the previous behavior; i.e. pressing once announces the meter peak and twice resets the meters. Control+Alt+M is now used to go to the time where the meter peak occurred. This allows the meters to be reset without moving the now time.
new: Implemented working support for Cakewalk FX effects: Reverb, Eq, Dynamics Processor, Chorus, Delay, Compressor, Limiter, Expander and Flanger.
new: Commands such as say selected tracks that report a list of strip numbers now combine contiguous ranges of numbers; e.g. 1 through 5.
new: The behavior of the command to select/unselect a track without affecting others (Control+Comma) has changed. If it is pressed once, it will select/unselect the current track as normal. However, on subsequent presses in quick succession, it moves to the next track before changing the selection. For example, if tracks 1 to 3 are unselected and you are positioned on track 1, pressing Control+Comma thrice quickly will select tracks 1 to 3.
new: Alt+Shift+Space now plays or stops audio. This is useful in effect/synth windows, where Space activates buttons rather than the normal Sonar behavior
bug: Space no longer says “Playing” or “Stopped” when pressed in edit fields in effect/synth windows.
new: Tracks and buses can now be moved down and up one position using Backslash and Shift+Backslash, respectively. Note that at least two tracks/buses must be able to fit on the screen in order for this to work. This functionality is currently not 100% reliable. We hope to have a fix in a future release. Also, one must press the Number key on a U.K. keyboard instead of the backslash key.
new: JSonar now automatically reports if view-specific toolbars exist for a view which is currently in focus.
new: Introduced support for Loop Explorer view.
change: Say word (JAWSKey+Numpad5) speaks the current field in track and event views. In event view, say character (Numpad5) only speaks the field value; i.e. it does not speak the header.
bug: JSonar no longer causes the “on stop, rewind to now marker” setting to be ignored in Event View when play/stop (Space) is pressed.
new: We have replaced the Sonar JAWS control surface plugin with our own control surface plugin. This allows us to implement new features that we could not implement with the previous plugin.
new: Added next and previous beat commands (Shift+PageDown and Shift+PageUp, respectively).
new: Added cursor movement commands; Control+J and Control+K move backward and forward by a small unit, Control+Shift+J and Control+Shift+K move backward and forward by a medium unit and Control+Windows+Shift+J and Control+Windows+Shift+K move backward and forward by a large unit, respectively. To configure these units, press Control+JAWSKey+M. To enable scrubbing, press Control+B, keep holding Control and use the cursor movement keys. When finished, release the Control key.

5.1

New: a lot of the code has been reworked to provide better stability in status announcements, thanks to the control surface plugin written by an author who decided to remain anonymous.
New: color recognition and control surface setup have merged into a single wizard, called “Setup Wizard”; use JAWSKey+CTRL+R to run it.
New: JSonar commands for manipulating and announcing parameters for tracks, as well as the previously named go to track command, now work for buses as well where appropriate.
New: The enter and escape keys now function appropriately for controls on the control surfaces toolbar.
New: A work around has been implemented for the bug whereby Sonar focuses on the track pane instead of the bus pane when closing a bus pane effect window. When this happened, a single press of shift+down would not return to the bus pane and the user had to press shift+down, shift+up, shift+down. JSonar will now set focus to the bus pane where appropriate.
New: Pressing Control+Alt+G allows the user to jump to a strip by selecting its name from a list.
New: When the control surface monitoring mode is enabled, track names, numbers and status, as well as markers, are spoken as the user navigates on a control surface. Note that using both the PC keyboard and control surface while this mode is enabled may be too verbose. There is no way for JSonar to work around this issue.
Change: Removed all settings not absolutely necessary for the operation of JSonar from the JAWS configuration file (jcf). This includes the graphics mode and verbosity settings. These will now be inherited from the default JAWS settings unless explicitly configured for JSonar using the configuration manager.
Change: Control+Shift+F5 now speaks the time in measure/beat/tick format and Control+Shift+F6 speaks the time in hours/minutes/seconds/frames format. These keys have been reversed from previous versions to be more intuitive; f5 allows the user to move to a given time in measure/beat/tick format.
Change: Set punch to selection and set loop to selection have been remapped to Alt+Shift+LeftBracket and Alt+Shift+RightBracket, respectively. This was done to maintain consistency for say input echoed tracks (below).
New: Control+Shift+Apostrophe now speaks tracks with input echo enabled, similar to say armed tracks, etc.
Bug: The status reporting for the sends button in track inspector has been corrected.
Change: The old “Announce Tracks By” verbosity setting has been renamed to “Announce Strips By” because it is relevant to both track and bus strips.
Bug: The strip name will no longer be spoken twice if the “Announce Strips By” setting includes strip names and the user is focused on the strip name field.
Bug: The project and effect/synth name will now be spoken correctly when entering FX windows!
New: Control+Shift+C now moves to the Channel field in track view.
New: JSonar can now announce the track kind (midi or audio) and data status (track contains data or is empty). This can be configured through the “Announce Track Info” setting in the JAWS verbosity dialog.
New: names of effects on audio tracks and buses are now reported when the user arrows through the FX Bin. This is not possible for midi tracks due to a limitation of Sonar.
New: Move to FX bin (Control+Shift+F) now functions reliably. Also, list strip fields (Control+Shift+L) now lists and moves to effect names correctly.
Bug: Move To Tempo Ratio 1, Move To Tempo Ratio 2 and Move To Tempo Ratio 3 functionality has been restored; it has been broken for ages.
Change: Move To Tempo Ratio functions are now mapped to Alt+Shift+1, Alt+Shift+2 and Alt+Shift+3 respectively; this was done to avoid key conflicts with keystrokes from the Step Record dialog.
Change: remapped Arm Current Track, Arm/unarm All Tracks, Say Armed Tracks and Choose Record Mode to use Control+;, Control+Shift+;, Alt+Shift+; and Alt+; respectively; this change puts all of the related controls on one side of the keyboard.
New: Say Current Line (JAWSKey+UpArrow), which is a default JAWS keystroke, will now speak relevant information about the current strip (muted, soloed, armed, has data etc).
Change: The keyboard command for list strip fields, previously ctrl+shift+l, has been changed to say current line twice; i.e. JAWSKey+UpArrow twice.
Change: Move to volume trim (Control+Shift+M) moves to the input gain field in the bus pane.
Change: Most of the move to strip field keystrokes (move to volume, move to input, etc.) now report the value of the field when pressed once and move to the field if pressed twice. The only exceptions are move to channel and move to bus input gain, for which the value cannot be reported without moving to the field, so these keystrokes move when pressed once.
Change: Speak Status Summary script is now mapped to JAWSKey+PageDown twice; if this key is pressed three times, the status summary will be displayed in a virtual viewer.
New: added support for Hot Spot Clicker. Please note: JSonar does not actually install Hot Spot Clicker, we only provide necessary hooks to support the application.
New: Metronome options can now be toggled without entering the Project Options Dialog. The Metronome toolbar must be enabled to facilitate this. All metronome options are preceded by the key Control+M, followed by: P to toggle metronome during playback, R to toggle metronome during recording, A to toggle audio metronome or M to toggle midi metronome.
Bug: JSonar now speaks the content of dialogs, not just the dialog name. This bug was noticeable, for example, in the Save Changes confirmation dialog.
Bug: reading of peak meters for the current strip now works as expected.
Change: The keystroke to speak the peak meter value has been changed to Alt+M for convenience.
Change: Read Peak Meter keystroke (ALT+M) will now:
- speak meter information upon first keypress;
- go to the place where the meter peak occured upon the second keypress;
- reset meters upon the third keypress.
Change: Auto docking of plugin windows is now disabled by default. This does not affect existing users.
New: implemented a hack around Sonar's bug were it loses the current track when either “play” or “stop” functions are performed.
Change: JSonar now stores settings in a file called sonarX.jsi, where X is the major version number; e.g. sonar5.jsi. Previously, settings were stored in sonarV.jsi, where V was the entire version number; e.g. sonar5.0.jsi. This means that your settings will be lost unless you rename your jsi file, which is stored in the JAWS settings directory under PersonalizedSettings.
Bug: JSonar should now function correctly in Sonar 5 Studio Edition.
Bug: List strip fields now handles blank fields correctly. Blank fields will be indicated by the text “(blank field)” in the list and moving to a field after a blank field will not cause the cursor to land on the incorrect field.
New: JSonar will now speak strip numbers in a quick group, similar to the SaySelectedTracks function; use Alt+Shift+Period to find out which strips are in a quick group. Please note: this feature will only work for tracks and not for buses, due to the limitation in Sonar.
Bug: Fixed the possible incorrect reporting of input echo all tracks (Alt+Shift+Apostrophe).

5.0

change: Graphics verbosity is set to all by default.
change: Control+Shift+M now moves to either the Volume Trim or Velocity Trim column, rather than only the Volume Trim column.
new: Introduced a feature where users can spell the value of a current field by pressing Numpad5 twice.
bug: Improved the reliability of the go to track (control+shift+g) command.
New: The RouteToTrack (Grave Accent key) will now announce other track parameters, e.g. whether the track is muted, soloed, armed and/or input echo is turned on.
New: introduced an ability to arm/unarm all tracks (alt+shift+graveaccent), solo/unsolo all tracks (alt+shift+/), mute/unmute all tracks (alt+shift+period) and toggle input echo for all tracks (alt+shift+apostrophe) regardless of the selection.
change: In order to be more intuitive, remapped the move to event hours:minutes:seconds:frames time column command to Alt+Shift+H, where H stands for hmsf. The old Alt+Shift+I binding still remains for the convenience of users who are familiar with the old keystroke.
change: Restructured JAWS hotkey and Sonar key help.
bug: Track navigation keystrokes (move to volume, move to pan, etc.) no longer select the current track.
bug: Move to output (Control+Shift+O) now works for midi tracks.
new: In the track pane, Control+Shift+H moves to the Patch field and Control+Shift+B moves to the bank field.
new: Control+R is now a shortcut for record automation.
new: Input echo for the current track can now be toggled with Control+Apostrophe.
bug: Time selection keys (set from to now, set through to now, etc.) will now speak in all views.
new: The edit field will automatically receive focus upon entering the lyrics view.
New: announcement of descriptive times can now be toggled from the “JAWS Verbosity” dialog.
New: introduced support for autopunch feature, CTRL+Shift+Semicolon toggles autopunch mode, press this key twice to set punch points to selection.
Change: loop mode toggle and set loop to selection work in the same way as the autopunch feature does, namely CTRL+Shift+Apostrophe to toggle loop mode and CTRL+Shift+Apostrophe twice sets loop to selection.
Bug: CTRL+TAB announces project names correctly when more than one project is opened on the screen.

5.0 beta 1

new: Support for Sonar 5. This version of JSonar no longer supports Sonar 3 and 4. Please use JSonar 4.x if you wish to use Sonar 3 and/or 4.
new: Support for announcing quick group selection status; i.e. the strip selector. See the topic on “quick groups” in the Sonar help file for more information. Press Period to select a strip for the quick group and Shift+Period when selecting multiple strips. (These are in-built shortcuts for Sonar, but are not documented in the help file.) JSonar also provides [todo: insert key here] to select or unselect strips for the quick group without affecting the status of other strips. As was the case with the Ctrl+Comma command, Sonar's Shift+Period command does not allow for deselection of strips.
new: JSonar 4 and 5 may now co-exist on the same system. You will need the latest releases of both JSonar 4 and 5, and JSonar 5 must be installed second. This applies even if installing a new version of JSonar 4; JSonar 5 must then be reinstalled. When installing these new releases for the first time, you must first uninstall your previous version of JSonar. Uninstalling is only necessary when upgrading from versions of JSonar that do not support this co-existence.