Reference Guide

282 Recording
Arming tracks during playback/recording
Auto arming
You must arm tracks in order to record. To safeguard your data, there is no automatic arming of any
tracks.
If you want to record MIDI tracks without arming a track, go to Edit > Preferences > MIDI -
Playback and Recording and select the Allow MIDI Recording without an Armed Track check
box.
This feature lets you start recording a new track simply by making it the current track and pressing R
or clicking the Record button in the Transport module. Auto-arming makes it possible to
inadvertently record over existing material in the current track, however.
Arming tracks during playback/recording
SONAR is able to arm and disarm tracks during playback and recording. This allows you to record to
different tracks while the transport is rolling, without first having to stop playback in order to arm a
track for recording.
To allow arming during playback
Go to Edit > Preferences > Project - Record and select the Allow Arm Changes During
Playback/Record check box.
SONAR has an option that can reduce CPU overhead when the Allow Arm Changes During
Playback/Record option is enabled.
When Allow Arm Changes During Playback/Record is enabled, SONAR must keep all hardware
input ports open so that it can dynamically arm tracks on the fly. With some drivers in WDM mode,
this can add significant overhead if there are many input devices enabled in Edit > Preferences >
Audio - Devices).
The new Only For Inputs In Project option instructs SONAR to only open hardware input ports that
are currently active in the project (i.e. assigned to a track).
Note: The Allow Arm Changes During Playback/Record option is disabled by default. When
enabled, SONAR must keep all hardware input ports open so that it can dynamically arm tracks
on the fly. With some drivers in WDM mode, this can add significant overhead if there are many
input devices enabled in Edit > Preferences > Audio - Devices. This may lead to more
frequent drop outs. When using this option in WDM mode, it is recommended that you disable
all unused input drivers in Edit > Preferences > Audio - Devices to minimize this overhead.
Disabling unused inputs is not required when using ASIO mode.