Using StudioWare panels

Every StudioWare panel is made up of a collection of controls and other information displays. The controls are software representations of the knobs, buttons, and sliders on an external MIDI device. By moving the controls on the screen, you adjust the controls on the external MIDI device. If you want, you can also configure the StudioWare panel so that moving the controls on the external device adjusts the controls on your computer screen. Some StudioWare panels contain controls that perform other functions within SONAR, such as changing track parameters or running CAL programs.

Because StudioWare panels can be used to control many different types of devices, and because each and every panel can be tailored for a specific application and hardware environment, it is impossible to explain here all the different ways to use a particular panel. Instead, this section tells you how to use the different types of controls and how to record the changes you make to each control as part of your project.

There are three types of controls in most StudioWare panels: buttons, knobs, and sliders. In addition, panels may contain LED indicators, level meters, text, and bitmap images. The appearance of controls and other displays may vary greatly from panel to panel. They may be of very different sizes, and they may be designed with custom styles, bitmaps, and colors. In addition, sliders and meters may be laid out either horizontally or vertically.

There are a variety of ways to adjust the values of buttons, sliders, and knobs:

 

Table 219.  

To change this	Do this
The status of a button	Click on the button
The value of a slider	Click on the desired slider position to move the slider to that position, or drag the slider to the desired position
The value of a knob	Click along the outer edge of the knob to move the knob to that position, or drag the outer edge of the knob in a circular motion to set the desired position

To change the value of a knob or slider using the keyboard, you must first select the control:

To select a control that has a numeric value display or label, click on the value or the label.

To select a control without a numeric value display, click on the control, being careful to click at the current control position. If you do not click at the current control position, the control will change values as a result of the mouse click.

To adjust a knob or slider using the keyboard:

Press the - and + keys to decrease or increase the value of the selected control by the smallest amount

Press the [ and ] keys to decrease or increase the value of the selected control by steps of 10