Minimized Aria Icon

[TinPanAlley]

This will probably be considered nit-picking but it is one thing that drives me crazy (it doesn't take much). When I'm momentarily through "programming" Aria and minimize it, it parks itself in a bad place for Sonar Home Studio 7. It drops down and obscures the left end of the left/right slew mechanism. I never use the loop business which occupies this space before I click it away (that's another peeve - I can't permanently get rid of the loop stuff but that is a Sonar problem). I can move the minimized Aria icon to a blank space in the upper right of the Sonar screen but if I switch to another project and return, the blasted thing goes back to it's bad position. Further aggravating is the bizarre fact that sometimes it takes as many as five tries to click and drag the thing. It acts like it is stuck to the spot! Other times it will move on the first try.

This is a long buildup to my questions. Is there any way to permanently choose where I wish the minimized Aria icon to stow itself? Does anyone else have the problem with intermittent click and drag of this icon or is it just my computer lashup? For what it's worth, the exact same situation occurs with Kontakt.

Thanks for any help to my mental well-being!

Tom

The English Horn is neither English nor is it a horn - not to be confused with the French Horn, which is, of course, German.

[reberclark]

Not familiar with the icon thing...BUT why not just enabled the player as a Tab? Right click the upper left corner of the Aria screen and click "enable tabbed" - it will then be available as a tab at the bottom of track view.

I did this for a long time (tabs) until I realized that the synths I loaded are all in Synth Rack view anyway - so I skip the tabbing now (actually saved me some other grief as well) and just use synth rack when I need to change something in my loaded Vst synths.

[TinPanAlley]

Thanks for the response. When I right click on the upper left corner of Aria, I get a menu that only includes the active choices: Move, Size, Minimize, Close, and Disable Floating. There is no mention of Tabs.

The icon I'm talking about is just a small box that says "Aria" and has the controls to maximize Aria or to close it. To me it's easier to just click once to make Aria appear in all it's glory rather than click to open the synth view and then double click the particular synth. When you have Aria "open" on the screen, just click on the minus sign in the upper right hand corner and it will dissolve into the icon I'm talking about. Maybe icon is not the proper word, but I don't know what it's called.

Thanks again for responding at this late hour - I'm off to bed.

Tom

[reberclark]

Hi Tom,

Hmmm. I'm probably misunderstanding something because I can't reproduce the Aria behavior you describe.

This sounds like a job for the go-to person on this board for Sonar issues Randy Bowser (rbowser). Randy are you out there?

[rbowser-]

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Chip "Reberclark"---I have some info for you, Tom.

First, this will sound like editorializing, but I am far being alone in my disappointment with Home Studio 7. That's not very helpful to you, but I'm mentioning this because Cakewalk made a decision when they developed HS7 which many of us feel like was a major Fail.

Home Studio 6 looks and behaves very much like Cakewalk's flagship program, Sonar. But instead of upgrading HS6, what they did was make the whole Home Studio concept over. Their goal was to make a simpler program, one theoretically more user friendly to Cakewalk neophytes. They took out many functions and tools that HS users had gotten used to.

Believe it or not, a major functionality they removed was tabbed views!--That's the main reason for Chip's confusion over what you're talking about.

Tabbed views is a handy way to have a lot of different screens instantly available, tucked away in the lower right quadrant of the screen until needed. They can be resized all throughout a project. For instance, I usually have part of my Track View visible in the upper part of the screen and the Piano Roll View visible in the lower part of the screen.

In HS7 you only have the option for "Floating Views." When you call up any of the separate editing views, PRV, Staff, Event List, they'll fill up the whole screen. But if you click the Maximize button in the middle of the Windows tabs in the upper right hand corner they become smaller windows which can be placed wherever you want on your screen. Of course the limit to how much you can see and work with at a time. It helps to have a second monitor where you can drag and place such floating views.

Aria will be in the Synth Rack View. Especially if you add more than one instance, or add other soft synths to your project, you'll want to open the Synth Rack to see all the synths you have inserted.

To your specific question - something else which would help you but which was taken out of HS7 is the Layout option. That's a way to save and call up various screen configurations.

BUT, you mentioned you don't have use for the Loop Explorer. When HS7 is first opened, the default is for that view to be taking up half of the screen. If you grab the top of that and push it down until it's off the bottom of your screen, that configuration for your HS7 layout in effect becomes default. In my experience, when I open a project, the Loop Explorer will never show up - I don't have use for it either and so I've minimized it and it's stayed minimized.

Aria - You're saying that when you minimize it, it's obscuring something you need to see in the bottom of your screen. First, remember as I said above, you should be using the Synth Rack view. But either way, that view indeed shrinks down to the lower left corner and that's where it wants to stay.

I've taken some screen shots to illustrate something. You said the minimized Aria is blocking something--but it isn't on my screen. All it's blocking is the bar which is blank other than the text "For Help, press F1." Maybe it's because of the way I've dragged the edges of the various boxes on the HS screen, but that's the way it's always been as far as I can remember.

In this first shot you'll see part of the HS screen. You'll see I have the Staff, Piano Roll and Synth Rack views all open. Clicking one will bring it to the front so I can work with it. Notice the "For Help" bar I mentioned above:

http://rbowser.tripod.com/hs7-1.png

Now see where the synth rack has minimized to - On top of "For Help"--and that's no problem. My computer icon tray is still visible of course, and everything else I needed to see in HS7 is still available:

http://rbowser.tripod.com/hs7-2.png

NOTE: The minimized Synth Rack says "Kontakt" because that was the name of this project. It was an experiment with Kontakt. Didn't want that to confuse you.

I'm hoping that at least some things in this post will be helpful to you. I'll check the thread again later.

Randy B.

[raweber]

Here's another option for you, Tom. It's something I learned about recently and have been using almost exclusively since. (Caveat - I'm a full Sonar user so I don't know for sure if this applies to HS).

In the track view (and mixer veiw, for that matter) there are pull-down menus on each track for the track's inputs and outputs. As you know, for the MIDI track's output and corresponding audio track's input, you choose the appropriate channel of the Aria player.

Once the synth has been selected, you can double-click on either the input or the output and Sonar will launch the window for that synth! I now just x-out all my synths when I'm done playing with the knobs and any time I need to see them again, they're only a double-click away.

Let me know if this works for you!

[rbowser-]

Hi, Rob - That's an option that can work for some people, good to mention it here, so thanks. Since I have HS7 on this laptop, I've been checking its functioning so I can steer Tom right. Just now I ran a test to see if HS7 has that same function as in Sonar, and it does! Double click the name of the synth in a track header and its GUI pops up.

Hope you try these ideas out soon, Tom.

Randy

[TinPanAlley]

Thanks a bunch to all! I never thought about just closing Aria when I'm temporarily finished with it instead of minimizing it. I have actually used the scheme of double clicking on the track "heading" to open other synths but for some reason I just got in the habit of minimizing Aria - Duh! Now that I have Aria & GPO4, I practically never use any other synths so I quickly forgot about opening them from the track "heading" - ain't Alzheimers fun?

Thanks again for helping me maintain a modicum of sanity. I know I use all sorts of wrong terminology in my posts but you guys are pretty good cryptologists.

Tom

[TinPanAlley]

One more thing, Randy. I can only minimize my loop stuff to about the lower 3/4 inch or so of the screen. I still have to click it out each time I open HS7 to reclaim that bit of screen. It just bugs me to have something that I never use taking up even that much screen. I talked to a Cakewalk rep in person and also wrote a squawk to Cakewalk - both told me "they're working on it for a future version".

Thanks again,

Tom

[rbowser-]

Glad to hear the posts have been helpful, Tom!

When you do use more than one instance of Aria, or you have a project with several synths, just remember how handy the Synth Rack is. It has programmable knobs for synths available in that view also. And when you use the Synth Rack, you should find that in HS7 it'll minimize to where you see it in my screen shot. It doesn't obscure anything you need to get to.

More questions are always welcome, so hope to see you again soon.

Randy B.

[rbowser-]

One more thing, Randy. I can only minimize my loop stuff to about the lower 3/4 inch or so of the screen. I still have to click it out each time I open HS7 to reclaim that bit of screen. It just bugs me to have something that I never use taking up even that much screen. I talked to a Cakewalk rep in person and also wrote a squawk to Cakewalk - both told me "they're working on it for a future version".

Thanks again,

Tom
Hello again, Tom - This new post of yours went up the same time as my last post, that's why what I wrote earlier doesn't seem responsive.

I don't understand Cakewalk's reply to you about the Loop Explorer. I remember when I first opened HS7 for the first time, there was that giant browser, and with the controls for auditioning clips with a chosen synth (it's actually pretty cool, but I haven't used it much - it's in Sonar also)---But once I squished it down out of sight, I hadn't seen it again until today when I was testing things in HS for you.

In other words, it's not coming up in the default position that it is for you. Can't understand why there's a difference. I'll try to make time to poke around some more in HS - maybe there's a setting somewhere I've forgoten about.

Randy

[rbowser-]

GOT YOUR ANSWER, Tom - About the Loop Explorer.

In the upper menu, click View. The 7th option down is Loop Explorer. If it's checked - un-check it. I just ran a test. With it un-checked, you'll never see the LE again. I started a new project to make sure - it didn't come up.

The Cakewalk people you talked with were completely wrong, and it's very odd they said they were working on fixing that for a future upgrade. There's nothing to fix. It already works.

NOW, if they'd just give HS7 Toolbars!--Well, that's for starters. Tabbed Views would be more than nice. And I can't STAnd that track header, the way you have to click a million arrows to see things, it's silly, and strangely, I find it more difficult to deal with than Sonar.

It'd be wonderful if you could "downgrade" to HS6. It's a much better program, and ironically, an upgrade from the newer HS7.

Randy

[TinPanAlley]

Randy,

Once again you have come to my rescue. How could I have overlooked something so obvious as the View menu. More importantly, how could the Cakewalk rep have overlooked telling me what you just told me. Several other things I squawked to the rep at a face-to-face meeting here in Atlanta. Some of the fixes he came up with made no sense when I got home to try them (there was no computer/HS7 available at the meeting). I have come to the conclusion that most of his experience must be with the higher end products and he had spent little time with HS7. Don't mean to knock the guy - he was very personable and very knowledgeable about the general aspects of what I try to do using software. As you have hinted, apparently HS7 is something of a step-child even to some at Cakewalk.

Before I ask any more stupid questions, I promise to look at every blasted selection on every menu.

Thanks so much for taking your time to help me.

Tom

[rbowser-]

I'm glad to hear that worked for you, Tom.

It's not easy to keep this in mind, but there really are no "stupid questions." And there's no law that says we have to figure this stuff out on our own. I've also had problems that had easy solutions, but I just didn't get it until someone pointed out the answer.

You're right about the Cakewalk guys who were trying to be helpful, but just aren't familiar enough with HS7. Their focus is Sonar and steadily moving that forward.

I suggest you take a look at the Cakewalk Forum dedicated to Home Studio:

HOME STUDIO FORUM (http://forum.cakewalk.com/tt.aspx?forumid=16)

It's not as active as the Sonar Forum there at Cakewalk, but you'll see questions being asked and answered which could very well be helpful to you. Like this morning, I see a thread called "Problem with Sends" and another called "Sound Card Confusion." Those are common problems, and there are knowledgeable members helping out with answers. I've picked up several good tips from being active at the Sonar Forum.

So, keep on going, using the Help files in the program, poking at all the buttons to see what they do, but also keep asking questions, both here and at the HS Forum.

Randy

[TinPanAlley]

OOps. This thread might be closed as I thought we had her nailed. Randy, it turns out that unchecking the Loop Explorer view does the same thing as clicking the LE button by the other view buttons. It only lasts as long as HS is up and running. When I close HS and re-open it later, the LE box in the View menu comes up checked (default). So I still have to hit the LE view button as I have been doing, or drop down the View menu and uncheck the box. I suppose this was what the Cakewalk people said they are going to fix in a future version. I'm curious how when you uncheck the box on your computer, the LE goes away forever.

I've pretty much resigned myself to just punching out LE every time I use HS, so don't feel any compunction to further research. It keeps me in practice of using a few swear words when I really don't have that much to complain about.

[rbowser-]

OOps. This thread might be closed as I thought we had her nailed. Randy, it turns out that unchecking the Loop Explorer view does the same thing as clicking the LE button by the other view buttons. It only lasts as long as HS is up and running. When I close HS and re-open it later, the LE box in the View menu comes up checked (default). So I still have to hit the LE view button as I have been doing, or drop down the View menu and uncheck the box. I suppose this was what the Cakewalk people said they are going to fix in a future version. I'm curious how when you uncheck the box on your computer, the LE goes away forever.

I've pretty much resigned myself to just punching out LE every time I use HS, so don't feel any compunction to further research. It keeps me in practice of using a few swear words when I really don't have that much to complain about.

---Hello again, Tom. - I don't understand why my installation is different, but ever since I minimized the LE screen when I first poked around with HS7, it has remained out of sight.

I checked again just now. LE's browser is not seen, it's stayed where I put it. I can't explain why it's not staying hidden for you.

I also checked on the View menu item, and that part is the same for me - it Is checked again after now re-opening the program. But - the browser isn't visible. I have to drag up the bottom edge of the screen to see it.

So - Don't know why, but my LE stays off the screen.

Randy