Reference Guide

1112 Notation and lyrics
Working with lyrics
To notate a Bb trumpet part
1. Record or enter the notes using the pitches that the musician who will be reading the part needs
to see. For example, if the non-transposing instruments are playing in the key of C, a Bb trumpet
player needs to see the notes a whole step higher—the key of D. The instrument itself sounds a
whole step lower than concert pitch, so when a Bb trumpet plays in the key of D, it sounds in the
key of C.
Now that the pitches appear the way that the trumpet player needs to see them, the problem is
that when you play your project, the MIDI notes in the trumpet track sound a whole step too high.
2. In the Track Inspector, force SONAR to play the trumpet track a whole step lower by entering -2
(negative 2) in the Key+ field and pressing ENTER.
Now the trumpet part in the Staff view appears in the key of D—SONAR automatically adds two
sharps to the trumpet track’s key signature—but the track sounds in the key of C because you
entered -2 in the Key+ field (you may need to close the Staff view and reopen it to see the new key
signature). The Staff view automatically transposes the key signature for each track according to the
track's Key+ value. Multiple tracks appear and can be printed as an orchestral score, with the proper
different key signatures for each track.
Note that this Key+ information is saved in SONAR .cwp files, but not in standard MIDI files. If you
save a file as a MIDI file, the Key+ transposition will be applied to each note event, so that the file will
sound the same, but the Key+ information will be lost. If you're reading in a MIDI file, you can easily
set up the non-concert instrument tracks and then save the file as a normal project file. First set the
Key+ offset to reflect the non-concert instrument's key signature. Then, use Transpose to
compensate for the Key+ offset.
Working with lyrics
SONAR lets you create, edit, and display lyrics, the words and syllables associated with notes in a
track. Lyrics can be the words to a song, the text of a vocal passage, a narration to be read along
with the music, cues of some type, or text totally unrelated to the music. Each word or syllable in the
lyrics must be associated with a note in a MIDI track. Each MIDI track can have its own lyrics.
Although lyrics can logically be associated with digital audio data, you cannot actually place lyrics in
an audio track. If you want to create lyrics for an audio track, you must create an auxiliary MIDI track
to hold the lyrics.
You can enter and edit lyrics in several ways:
• Using the Lyrics mode in the Staff view
• Using the Lyrics view
• Inserting lyric events in the Event List view
The Staff view is usually the preferred location for entering lyrics, since you can see the notes with
which the lyrics are associated. The Lyrics view can also be used for entering or editing lyrics, but its
main strength is that it can display lyrics in a larger, more readable format. You might use the Lyrics
view to display song lyrics during recording and playback, so performers can see the words and sing