Reference Guide

1167
Key bindings
Templates and key bindings
Key bindings
Key bindings let you associate SONAR commands with keys on both your MIDI keyboard and your
computer keyboard. This makes it easy for you to access specific features more quickly and
efficiently.
In addition, SONAR supports:
• Importing key bindings from other popular sequencer programs (see “Importing key bindings” on
page 1169)
• Exporting key bindings from SONAR (see “Exporting key bindings” on page 1170)
• Use of any single key as a key binding (number keys on the number pad are separate keys from
the other number keys)
• Changing the key bindings for commands that were previously hardwired, including hotkey
commands in the various views
Any one or two of the CTRL, ALT, and SHIFT keys can be used in combination with other keys.
Preset key combinations appear in bold, with the command that they’re currently assigned to listed
at the bottom of the Preferences dialog box (Edit > Preferences > Customization - Keyboard
Shortcuts).
Rather than tie up all the notes on your MIDI keyboard with key bindings, SONAR lets you define a
key binding shift key on your MIDI keyboard that indicates when you want to use a key binding. For
example, you could designate the lowest note on your MIDI keyboard as the key binding shift key,
and then assign different notes to specific commands (for example, C4 to Process > Quantize, C5
to Process > Groove Quantize, and so on). If you press the C4 key by itself, the note plays
normally. If you press the C4 key in combination with the lowest key on your keyboard (the key
binding shift key), then it’s just as if you had chosen the Process > Quantize command from the
menu.
You can choose one of two options to define the key binding shift key:
• MIDI key (typically, the very lowest or highest key on your MIDI keyboard)
• Controller event (typically, one of the pedals)
If you use a MIDI key as the key binding shift key, then you lose the ability to play that note by itself.
When you play the note, SONAR assumes you are about to choose one of the key bindings you
have created and ignores the note. If this is ever a problem, you can disable MIDI key bindings
without canceling the key assignments and then re-enable the MIDI key bindings later on.
You can use a key binding to execute a command only when that command is possible. For
example, the File > Save command is disabled when no projects are open. If you have assigned the
CTRL+F2 key combination to the File > Save command, it won’t do anything when no projects are
open.
You can use MIDI key bindings and computer keyboard key bindings at the same time.
Note: The SPACEBAR is “globally” bound to the Play/stop button, so that when you have a
plug-in window open, you can still start and stop playback with the SPACEBAR.