Reference Guide

174
Controlling playback
The Now time and how to use it
When entering a time in SMPTE format, you can enter a single number (hour), two numbers (hour
and minutes), three numbers (hour, minutes, and seconds), or all four numbers.
If you click in the Time Ruler while the snap grid is enabled, the Now time will be snapped to the
nearest point in the grid. By setting the grid size to a whole note or quarter note, you can easily set
the Now time to a measure or beat boundary.
When playback or recording is stopped, the Now Time either remains at the point where the project
stopped or snaps back to the Now Time Marker. This behavior is specified with the Track view
Options >On stop, Rewind to Now Marker command. For more information, see “The Now time
marker” on page 175.
MIDI note will continue to play If Now time is moved
Changing the Now time while a MIDI note is sounding will cause SONAR to play the full duration of
the note. This behavior was introduced in SONAR 4.0.3, and is necessary as a result of addressing
various gapping issues when editing MIDI data during playback.
If you prefer a slight hiccup instead of hearing the full note duration, you can change the default
behavior with the Set Now Time with Full Restart option in the Track view Options menu.
See:
“Displaying the Now time in large print” on page 177
“Other ways to set the Now time” on page 178
Note: The Time Ruler only obeys snap when Musical Time or Absolute Time is selected in
the Control Bar’s Snap module.
Note: Moving a MIDI note event during playback is affected by this same issue.