README file for JSonar (JAWS Scripts for Cakewalk Sonar), version 5.4

Copyright (©) JSonar Development Team.
JSonar is subject to the terms and conditions of the GNU General Public License. The full text of the license can be found in the file license.txt distributed with these scripts.

Contact us through the JSonar web site.

*** Please READ ME before you ask questions! ***

If this is your first time using JSonar, please skim through this README file to familiarize yourself with features supported and, most importantly, for helpful tips and tricks to help you along the way.

To you: thanks for joining the JSonar community of users!

If you are upgrading from an earlier version of JSonar, please read the Revision History. It describes the changes made in each version of JSonar and may include useful information for those upgrading from earlier versions.

Contents of this README

1. Credits
2. Requirements
3. Manual Installation Instructions
4. Configuring Sonar and JSonar for bbest use
5. Supported Sonar Features
6. Plug-in support via Hot Spot Clicker
7. Known Issues and Troubleshooting
8. Tips and Tricks
9. Revision History

Throughout the existence of the JSonar project, many people have helped us in various ways to keep the project going; either by donating money, translating scripts and documentation into other languages, contributing code, finding bugs, or encouraging the project in other ways. Therefore the following list of contributors is not by any means complete.

• Gordon Kent -- creator of he original JAWS scripts for Sonar.
• Victor Tsaran -- A primary developer in the JSonar team; previously (for much of the project's life), the sole maintainer and developer of the project (with contributions from others); sole developer of the installer; author of the control surface DLL that empowers much of JSonar starting with version 4.2.
• James Teh -- Now officially part of the JSonar team; yet another JSonar developer; provider and maintainer of the resources for the repository.
• Michael Curran -- provided large portions of the toolbar code, automatic window docking functionality, other miscellaneous code and valuable scripting ideas.
• Phil Muir -- creator of the Hot Spot Clicker sets for the entire suite of Sonitus plug-ins as well as other frequently-used software effects and synthesizers. For more information, please visit the HSC web site.
• Tim Burgess -- provided initial code for monitoring control surface output as well as contributed several Hot Spot Clicker sets.
• Jim Bauer -- provided initial idea for accessibility of loop construction view and code for step record dialog.
• All the donors from around the world who fuel this project through their financial support.
• Chris Bell, Geoff Chapman, Slava Hanov, Jason Dasent, Roy Shtupler, Rob Gallo and others.
• Xavier (D!J!X!) -- Updated JSonar Readme documentation.

In order to use JSonar, you will need the following:

• Cakewalk Sonar: This version of JSonar supports both the Producer and Studio editions of Cakewalk Sonar 5.x.
• JAWS screen reader, version 5.1 or above. Be aware that the latest version is always recommended unless specifically discouraged in this README.
• Computer equipped with all of the necessary gadgets for audio production. Please note that NVidea graphic cards are strongly recommended for best compatibility with JAWS.

Note: If you installed JSonar using the installer, these steps have been performed automatically and you should continue to the configuring Sonar and JSonar for best use section. Please be aware that the installer is the recommended way to install JSonar. The zip archive should only be used in special circumstances and by advanced users. If you decided not to use an installer but instead use a zip archive (not recommended), follow these steps after unzipping the scripts:

1. Switch to the folder where you unzipped the scripts.
2. Find and switch to the regkeys folder.
3. Look for files with an extension .reg and the name containing your particular version of Sonar, e.g. the file with registry entries for Sonar 5.0 Producer Edition would be called "Sonar Producer 5.0 Accessibility Mode.reg".
4. Press ENTER key on that file and answer positively to the two dialog boxes that are presented.
5. Move back to the previous folder and switch to the surface folder.
6. Copy the file named jsonar.dll to a Permanent location on your system drive; e.g. c:\Program Files\JSonar 5.
7. Register jsonar.dll in this new location with a command like the following from the Start menu->Run dialog:
   regsvr32 "c:\Program Files\JSonar 5\jsonar.dll"
8. Now proceed to the Configuring Sonar and JSonar for bbest use section for your first run of Sonar and the JSonar scripts.

For best results with Sonar and JSonar, please follow the steps outlined below:

1. *** This step is essential!!! ***
   Upon running JSonar scripts for the first time, use Control+JAWSKey+R to start the "Setup Wizard", which enables the Sonar JAWS control surface plug-in. You need only do this once, unless JSonar complains that the surface is not installed at a later time.
2. In order to run JSonar optimally in Sonar 5, it is necessary to configure Sonar toolbars in the following way. In order for some information to be read or commands to function, certain toolbars must be enabled in Sonar while others have to be disabled. The visibility of toolbars can be toggled in the Toolbars dialog under the View menu. Some toolbar names are self-explanatory, but notes have been included where this is not the case:
   1. Inline Piano View (shift Tab from General) (unchecked)
   2. Standard (checked): "new", "open", "print" etc.
   3. Loop (checked): looping, punching, set loop to selection etc.
   4. Markers (checked): insert, delete and move between markers.
   5. Metronome (checked): , audio metronome, MIDI metronome, set metronome options etc.
   6. Position (checked): Now time etc.
   7. Record (checked): autopunch, recording options etc.
   8. Playback State (checked): mute/solo/arm/input echo for all tracks etc.
   9. Controll Surfaces (checked): control surface monitoring, etc.
   10. Select (checked): From and Through times.
   11. Sync (unchecked)
   12. Tempo (checked)
   13. Transport (checked)
   14. Transport (Large) (unchecked)
   15. Views (unchecked)
   16. Automation (checked): Envelope/Offset mode etc.
   17. Event Inspector (unchecked)
   18. Allow Wrap (unchecked)

JSonar primarily supports the following features of Sonar:

• Track View (track pane, bus pane and track inspector).
• All the standard actions such as soloing, arming, muting, archiving, selecting and toggling input echo of tracks in the track and bus panes are supported.
• Event View.
• Loop Construction View.
• Loop explorer view.
• The SynthRack view is fully accessible. You should be able to navigate through the list of DXI synths with arrow keys. Press say current line (JAWSKey+UpArrow) to read the preset, mute and solo information for the current synth. You can also press m or s to toggle mute or solo for the current synth, respectively.
• Tempo View. The tempo list will be activated automatically, since the tempo graph is completely inaccessible.
• Surround Panner View.
• Lyrics View.
• All Sonar main toolbars are navigable (press JAWSKey+F8, select a toolbar and use left and right arrow keys to move between controls).
• View-specific toolbars are also accessible where they exist (use JAWSKey+Shift+F8). Then press TAB, to move between view-specific toolbars, if there are more than one.
• Toggling track view tools, such as Scrub Tool, Snap-To-Grid, Envelope Tool, Navigator etc.
• Sonar help is accessible (use F1 to start help).

We are now using Hot Spot Clicker software to provide support for many of the third-party plug-ins and software synthesizers. In order to use some of the built-in Sonar plug-ins, such as Session Drummer2 and sonitus suite of effects, you will have to install the Hot Spot Clicker program. Otherwise, you will not be able to use those and other plug-ins because they are not natively accessible. To help you out,, the JSonar installer will copy for you all the hot spot sets that support Sonar's built-in plug-ins. Please note: if you installed JSonar scripts manually, you will have to copy all the necessary HSC sets on your own.

The following are the steps to get started with Hot Spot Clicker:

• Visit the Hot Spot Clicker web site to read about the program, to download the installer and Hot Spot Clicker settings for supported plug-ins.
• Install the Hot Spot Clicker application by using the provided installer.
• After you have carried out all the necessary steps for installing Hot Spot Clicker (also known as HSC) and made sure that it is installed properly, run Sonar at least once in order to initialize support for HSC within JSonar.
• Once Sonar is open and the Hotspot Clicker application is connected, follow these steps to import the new HSC sets:
  • press CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+F1 twice.
  • Scroll down to the list item that says "Import Hot Spot Preset" and choose OK.
  • Select the preset you want to import from the list and press OK.
• Please read Hot Spot Clicker documentation for more information on the features and operation of this software.

• FX/instrument plugin windows may either be floating, which means they are not tied to the main application window and can be moved wherever desired on the screen, or docked, meaning they are integrated into the main application window. In the majority of cases, docking these windows is more benefitial for screen reader users, as they can be accessed from Sonar's Window menu and do not cover the main window when they are not in focus. JSonar can automatically dock these windows. However, this can cause certain plugins to misbehave, such as Dimension Pro, and is thus disabled by default. This setting is called "Automatically dock plugin windows" and can be toggled from the JAWS verbosity settings dialog (JAWSKey+V).
• Effect names will not read for midi tracks. This is due to a limitation of Sonar and cannot be resolved by us.
• Move strip down and move strip up (Backslash and Shift+Backslash, respectively) require that at least two tracks/buses be able to fit on the screen. JSonar attempts to alert the user of this, but this error checking does not appear to work in the bus pane. Also, this functionality is not 100% reliable. We hope to have a fix in a future release.

Here are some initial suggestions to help you along the way:

• Press JAWSKey+H to read the JSonar hot key help! This lists all of the JSonar commands, along with their keyboard shortcuts, available in a given Sonar view.
• If you want to route the JAWS cursor to the current track/bus, press" `" (grauv accent) to route JAWS cursor to the current strip. JAWS will say: "Routed to strip x".
• Press say current line (JAWSKey+UpArrow) to hear information about the current track or bus.
• Use say current line (JAWSKey+UpArrow) twice to open the list of all the fields in the current track, bus or track inspector, pick the first letter of the field and press ENTER to jump to it.
• Use JAWSKey+F8 to display a list of toolbars, pick the toolbar you want, then use left and right arrows to move through controls. Use space bar or enter to toggle the state of checkboxes or activate buttons and edit fields.
• Use TAB and SHIFT+TAB keys while in the track view to switch between track pane and track inspector.
  • To use track/bus inspector, make sure that it is turned on by pressing letter I. You can toggle this on and off at will.
  • To switch between Track/bus Inspector (once it is turned on) and the Track View, use Tab and Shift+Tab.
  • You can doublecheck whether you are in Track Inspector view by pressing JAWSKey+Tab, which will announce the current view.
• Once you are in the Track Inspector, you can use the following commands to navigate or turn on/off different features of the Inspector:
  • Alt+Control+V will hide/show the volume field of Track Inspector
  • Alt+Control+E will rotor between 1-band EQ, multi-band EQ and no EQ
  • Alt+Control+S will rotor between displaying a single send, the minimum possible sends or the maximum possible sends
  • Alt+Control+F will rotor between displaying multiple effects, FX bin with parameters and no FX bin.
  • Up/Down arrows will move between the fields of the Inspector
  • Left/Right brackets will decrease/increase values of the field, like EQ, Volume or FX parameters
  • To switch to another track within the Track Inspector, find a parameter with the name of the track and press Enter to activate the list of all available tracks and buses
  • For more information about Track Inspector, read Sonar's help.
• Visit the JSonar web site to access a wealth of constantly updated information about JSonar, including but not limited to: user FAQ, keyboard shortcuts list, tutorials, and the JSonar blog.

The following is a summary of the changes in each revision. Note that there are most certainly other minor, less noteworthy changes, fixes, etc. not included here for brevity.

Key: new = new feature, bug = bug fix or work around, change = change in functionality.

5.4

• New: added support for Hot Spot Clicker sets; JSonar installer will automatically install a number of them during the installation process.
• New: JSonar installer will now remember which files it installed and will not touched files that were manually added by the user.
• Bug: updated Control Surface Monitoring module to correctly report status during track navigation and selection from the control surface.
• Bug: implemented work-around for reporting tempo values; on some computers "ghost" numbers were spoken (most likely a bug in JAWS).

5.3

• New: added support for verbosity options in JAWS 9.0.
• New: Ported the following functions from JSonar6:
  • Archiving current and all tracks; also AnnounceArchiveTracks, use CTRL+GraveAccent, ALT+SHIFT+GraveAccent and CTRL+SHIFT+GraveAccent respectively.
  • Solo/unsolo, mute/unmute, arm/unarm, archive/unarchive strips by range, press INSERT+H for full list.
  • Speaking of VU meters (including relevant verbosity options), press CTRL+WINDOWS+M while on a track or bus.
  • Meter Clipping Monitor, choose track or bus to monitor and press CTRL+WINDOWS+M twice to toggle the monitor on and off.
  • Added wave files for meter clipping sound notifications.
  • AnnounceDataTracks -- announces tracks with data as well as empty tracks, CTRL+SHIFT+D.
  • SayConnectedStrips -- announces tracks and buses that are connected to a bus under the cursor, CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+C.
  • SayInterleave -- announces whether interleave is set to stereo or mono, CTRL+SHIFT+L, use twice to toggle.
• New: introducing support for surround panner.
• New: added a new script AccessMeterMenu, activated through CTRL+F2 which provides access to all meter options including meter display as well as resetting meters.

5.2

• bug: An issue that was causing some systems to crash intermittently when dialogs were displayed has been resolved.
• change/bug: Say peak meter (Alt+M) has been reverted to the previous behaviour; i.e. pressing once announces the meter peak and twice resets the meters. Control+Alt+M is now used to go to the time where the meter peak occurred. This allows the meters to be reset without moving the now time.
• new: Implemented working support for Cakewalk FX effects: Reverb, Eq, Dynamics Processor, Chorus, Delay, Compressor, Limiter, Expander and Flanger.
• new: Commands such as say selected tracks that report a list of strip numbers now combine contiguous ranges of numbers; e.g. 1 through 5.
• new: The behaviour of the command to select/unselect a track without affecting others (Control+Comma) has changed. If it is pressed once, it will select/unselect the current track as normal. However, on subsequent presses in quick succession, it moves to the next track before changing the selection. For example, if tracks 1 to 3 are unselected and you are positioned on track 1, pressing Control+Comma thrice quickly will select tracks 1 to 3.
• new: Alt+Shift+Space now plays or stops audio. This is useful in effect/synth windows, where Space activates buttons rather than the normal Sonar behaviour.
• bug: Space no longer says "Playing" or "Stopped" when pressed in edit fields in effect/synth windows.
• new: Tracks and buses can now be moved down and up one position using Backslash and Shift+Backslash, respectively. Note that at least two tracks/buses must be able to fit on the screen in order for this to work. This functionality is currently not 100% reliable. We hope to have a fix in a future release. Also, one must press the Number key on a U.K. keyboard instead of the backslash key.
• new: JSonar now automatically reports if view-specific toolbars exist for a view which is currently in focus.
• new: Introduced support for Loop Explorer view.
• change: Say word (JAWSKey+Numpad5) speaks the current field in track and event views. In event view, say character (Numpad5) only speaks the field value; i.e. it does not speak the header.
• bug: JSonar no longer causes the "on stop, rewind to now marker" setting to be ignored in Event View when play/stop (Space) is pressed.
• new: We have replaced the Sonar JAWS control surface plugin with our own control surface plugin. This allows us to implement new features that we could not implement with the previous plugin.
• new: Added next and previous beat commands (Shift+PageDown and Shift+PageUp, respectively).
• new: Added cursor movement commands; Control+J and Control+K move backward and forward by a small unit, Control+Shift+J and Control+Shift+K move backward and forward by a medium unit and Control+Shift+Windows+J and Control+Shift+Windows+K move backward and forward by a large unit, respectively. To configure these units, press Control+JAWSKey+M. To enable scrubbing, press Control+B, keep holding Control and use the cursor movement keys. When finished, release the Control key.
• new: Inputs and outputs for a particular strip can now be listed by pressing Control+Shift+Alt+I and Control+Shift+Alt+O respectively. Use first-letter navigation to select input or output you desire and press Enter to set the track to the new input/output.
• new: Pressing Control+Shift+S will speak the summary for all the sends on a current strip; pressing this keystroke twice will display the summary in the virtual viewer.
• new: Enhanced toolbar navigation such that Tab and Shift+Tab move between toolbars. This makes navigation of standard toolbars and view-specific toolbars identical.
• change: Removed the Sonar 4 Step Record dialog support, which does not work in Sonar 5.
• bug: Alt+C is now passed to the application when not in the Step Record dialog.

5.1

• New: a lot of the code has been reworked to provide better stability in status announcements, thanks to the control surface plugin written by an author who decided to remain anonymous.
• New: color recognition and control surface setup have merged into a single wizard, called "Setup Wizard"; use JAWSKey+CTRL+R to run it.
• New: JSonar commands for manipulating and announcing parameters for tracks, as well as the previously named go to track command, now work for buses as well where appropriate.
• New: The enter and escape keys now function appropriately for controls on the control surfaces toolbar.
• New: A work around has been implemented for the bug whereby Sonar focuses on the track pane instead of the bus pane when closing a bus pane effect window. When this happened, a single press of shift+down would not return to the bus pane and the user had to press shift+down, shift+up, shift+down. JSonar will now set focus to the bus pane where appropriate.
• New: Pressing Control+Alt+G allows the user to jump to a strip by selecting its name from a list.
• New: When the control surface monitoring mode is enabled, track names, numbers and status, as well as markers, are spoken as the user navigates on a control surface. Note that using both the PC keyboard and control surface while this mode is enabled may be too verbose. There is no way for JSonar to work around this issue.
• Change: Removed all settings not absolutely necessary for the operation of JSonar from the JAWS configuration file (jcf). This includes the graphics mode and verbosity settings. These will now be inherited from the default JAWS settings unless explicitly configured for JSonar using the configuration manager.
• Change: Control+Shift+F5 now speaks the time in measure/beat/tick format and Control+Shift+F6 speaks the time in hours/minutes/seconds/frames format. These keys have been reversed from previous versions to be more intuitive; f5 allows the user to move to a given time in measure/beat/tick format.
• Change: Set punch to selection and set loop to selection have been remapped to Alt+Shift+LeftBracket and Alt+Shift+RightBracket, respectively. This was done to maintain consistency for say input echoed tracks (below).
• New: Control+Shift+Apostrophe now speaks tracks with input echo enabled, similar to say armed tracks, etc.
• Bug: The status reporting for the sends button in track inspector has been corrected.
• Change: The old "Announce Tracks By" verbosity setting has been renamed to "Announce Strips By" because it is relevant to both track and bus strips.
• Bug: The strip name will no longer be spoken twice if the "Announce Strips By" setting includes strip names and the user is focused on the strip name field.
• Bug: The project and effect/synth name will now be spoken correctly when entering FX windows!
• New: Control+Shift+C now moves to the Channel field in track view.
• New: JSonar can now announce the track kind (midi or audio) and data status (track contains data or is empty). This can be configured through the "Announce Track Info" setting in the JAWS verbosity dialog.
• New: names of effects on audio tracks and buses are now reported when the user arrows through the FX Bin. This is not possible for midi tracks due to a limitation of Sonar.
• New: Move to FX bin (Control+Shift+F) now functions reliably. Also, list strip fields (Control+Shift+L) now lists and moves to effect names correctly.
• Bug: Move To Tempo Ratio 1, Move To Tempo Ratio 2 and Move To Tempo Ratio 3 functionality has been restored; it has been broken for ages.
• Change: Move To Tempo Ratio functions are now mapped to Alt+Shift+1, Alt+Shift+2 and Alt+Shift+3 respectively; this was done to avoid key conflicts with keystrokes from the Step Record dialog.
• Change: remapped Arm Current Track, Arm/unarm All Tracks, Say Armed Tracks and Choose Record Mode to use Control+;, Control+Shift+;, Alt+Shift+; and Alt+; respectively; this change puts all of the related controls on one side of the keyboard.
• New: Say Current Line (JAWSKey+UpArrow), which is a default JAWS keystroke, will now speak relevant information about the current strip (muted, soloed, armed, has data etc).
• Change: The keyboard command for list strip fields, previously ctrl+shift+l, has been changed to say current line twice; i.e. JAWSKey+UpArrow twice.
• Change: Move to volume trim (Control+Shift+M) moves to the input gain field in the bus pane.
• Change: Most of the move to strip field keystrokes (move to volume, move to input, etc.) now report the value of the field when pressed once and move to the field if pressed twice. The only exceptions are move to channel and move to bus input gain, for which the value cannot be reported without moving to the field, so these keystrokes move when pressed once.
• Change: Speak Status Summary script is now mapped to JAWSKey+PageDown twice; if this key is pressed three times, the status summary will be displayed in a virtual viewer.
• New: added support for Hot Spot Clicker. Please note: JSonar does not actually install Hot Spot Clicker, we only provide necessary hooks to support the application.
• New: Metronome options can now be toggled without entering the Project Options Dialog. The Metronome toolbar must be enabled to facilitate this. All metronome options are preceded by the key Control+M, followed by: P to toggle metronome during playback, R to toggle metronome during recording, A to toggle audio metronome or M to toggle midi metronome.
• Bug: JSonar now speaks the content of dialogs, not just the dialog name. This bug was noticeable, for example, in the Save Changes confirmation dialog.
• Bug: reading of peak meters for the current strip now works as expected.
• Change: The keystroke to speak the peak meter value has been changed to Alt+M for convenience.
• Change: Read Peak Meter keystroke (ALT+M) will now:
  • speak meter information upon first keypress;
  • go to the place where the meter peak occured upon the second keypress;
  • reset meters upon the third keypress.
• Change: Auto docking of plugin windows is now disabled by default. This does not affect existing users.
• New: implemented a hack around Sonar's bug were it loses the current track when either "play" or "stop" functions are performed.
• Change: JSonar now stores settings in a file called sonarX.jsi, where X is the major version number; e.g. sonar5.jsi. Previously, settings were stored in sonarV.jsi, where V was the entire version number; e.g. sonar5.0.jsi. This means that your settings will be lost unless you rename your jsi file, which is stored in the JAWS settings directory under PersonalizedSettings.
• Bug: JSonar should now function correctly in Sonar 5 Studio Edition.
• Bug: List strip fields now handles blank fields correctly. Blank fields will be indicated by the text "(blank field)" in the list and moving to a field after a blank field will not cause the cursor to land on the incorrect field.
• New: JSonar will now speak strip numbers in a quick group, similar to the SaySelectedTracks function; use Alt+Shift+Period to find out which strips are in a quick group. Please note: this feature will only work for tracks and not for buses, due to the limitation in Sonar.
• Bug: Fixed the possible incorrect reporting of input echo all tracks (Alt+Shift+Apostrophe).

5.0

• change: Graphics verbosity is set to all by default.
• change: Control+Shift+M now moves to either the Volume Trim or Velocity Trim column, rather than only the Volume Trim column.
• new: Introduced a feature where users can spell the value of a current field by pressing Numpad5 twice.
• bug: Improved the reliability of the go to track (control+shift+g) command.
• New: The RouteToTrack (Grave Accent key) will now announce other track parameters, e.g. whether the track is muted, soloed, armed and/or input echo is turned on.
• New: introduced an ability to arm/unarm all tracks (alt+shift+graveaccent), solo/unsolo all tracks (alt+shift+/), mute/unmute all tracks (alt+shift+period) and toggle input echo for all tracks (alt+shift+apostrophe) regardless of the selection.
• change: In order to be more intuitive, remapped the move to event hours:minutes:seconds:frames time column command to Alt+Shift+H, where H stands for hmsf. The old Alt+Shift+I binding still remains for the convenience of users who are familiar with the old keystroke.
• change: Restructured JAWS hotkey and Sonar key help.
• bug: Track navigation keystrokes (move to volume, move to pan, etc.) no longer select the current track.
• bug: Move to output (Control+Shift+O) now works for midi tracks.
• new: In the track pane, Control+Shift+H moves to the Patch field and Control+Shift+B moves to the bank field.
• new: Control+R is now a shortcut for record automation.
• new: Input echo for the current track can now be toggled with Control+Apostrophe.
• bug: Time selection keys (set from to now, set through to now, etc.) will now speak in all views.
• new: The edit field will automatically receive focus upon entering the lyrics view.
• New: announcement of descriptive times can now be toggled from the "JAWS Verbosity" dialog.
• New: introduced support for autopunch feature, CTRL+Shift+Semicolon toggles autopunch mode, press this key twice to set punch points to selection.
• Change: loop mode toggle and set loop to selection work in the same way as the autopunch feature does, namely CTRL+Shift+Apostrophe to toggle loop mode and CTRL+Shift+Apostrophe twice sets loop to selection.
• Bug: CTRL+TAB announces project names correctly when more than one project is opened on the screen.

5.0 beta 1

• new: Support for Sonar 5. This version of JSonar no longer supports Sonar 3 and 4. Please use JSonar 4.x if you wish to use Sonar 3 and/or 4.
• new: Support for announcing quick group selection status; i.e. the strip selector. See the topic on "quick groups" in the Sonar help file for more information. Press Period to select a strip for the quick group and Shift+Period when selecting multiple strips. (These are in-built shortcuts for Sonar, but are not documented in the help file.) JSonar also provides [todo: insert key here] to select or unselect strips for the quick group without affecting the status of other strips. As was the case with the Ctrl+Comma command, Sonar's Shift+Period command does not allow for deselection of strips.
• new: JSonar 4 and 5 may now co-exist on the same system. You will need the latest releases of both JSonar 4 and 5, and JSonar 5 must be installed second. This applies even if installing a new version of JSonar 4; JSonar 5 must then be reinstalled. When installing these new releases for the first time, you must first uninstall your previous version of JSonar. Uninstalling is only necessary when upgrading from versions of JSonar that do not support this co-existence.

4.0 beta 6

• bug: JSonar should now correctly function in Sonar 4 Studio Edition.
• new: The step record dialog is now accessible, thanks to Jim Bauer.
• bug: Ctrl+shift+numpad5 now clears the selection as intended.
• change: Labelled more graphics in the synth rack view.
• new: Floating windows (e.g. FX and DXi windows) can now be docked automatically, which is generally better for screen reader users. This can be toggled from the verbosity dialog.
• change: The default for the 'Announce Tracks By' setting (found in the verbosity dialog) has been changed to 'track number' instead of just 'track field' which was the previous default.
• new: Pressing C in the synth rack view will now report the connected/disconnected status of the current synth. If C is bound to 'Toggle Connection for Current DXi', the new status will be reported, similar to pressing M or S for mute or solo.
• new: In the synth rack view, the preset for the current synth is now read as it is changed with the increase/decrease value keys (plus, minus, left bracket, right bracket, etc.).
• bug: Fixed incorrect labelling of EQ one band and EQ multiband graphics (EQ multiband was labelled as EQ one band and vice versa).
• bug: Fixed functionality of JAWSKey+Tab to speak the current widget in windows handled by the scripts (track view panes, Sonar toolbars, etc.).
• bug: Fixed some incorrect script messages.
• bug: Fixed several issues with and optomised move to event column commands (Alt+Shift+T, etc.).
• bug: Fixed reading of new values with increase/decrease value keys in event view, which previously weren't being read at all.
• bug: Attempted to fix some issues in detecting JAWS versions in the installer. This was related to obscure registry keys in the JAWS registry tree.
• bug: Attempted to fix some problems when routing the JAWS cursor to the current track.
• change: Changed move to velocity column in event view from Alt+Shift+L to Alt+Shift+V.
• new: The current event cell can optionally be spoken whenever play single event (Control+Shift+Space) is pressed. This can be configured from the verbosity dialog and is disabled by default. Note that holding all three of these keys down will cause JAWS to attempt to repeat the information continuously. This is unavoidable.
• bug: Stopped movement of mouse cursor when checking play status, which includes pressing prior bar/marker twice or more during playback.
• bug: Fixed announcement of envelope/offset mode toggle. Also, the toggle will be announced as envelope mode or offset mode, rather than envelope/offset mode on or off.
• bug: Fixed Shift+Right and Shift+Left to function as select next/prior character when not in the track view.
• bug: Say tempo (Ctrl+Shift+T) now functions correctly.
• change: Say tempo behaviour has been changed such that pressing twice activates the tempo edit field from within which incremental changes can be performed, and pressing thrice opens the insert tempo dialog. The reverse was previously true, but this implementation is rather unreliable due to some strange JAWS and timing issues.
• bug: The unavailable status of check boxes on toolbars is now announced.
• bug: Announcement of the state of track view toolbar buttons (automatic crossfades, snap to grid, etc.) has been improved.
• bug: Select all, select from top, select to bottom, select prior line, select next line, select prior character and select next character now all function as normal outside of Sonar specific widgets and in the virtual buffer.
• change: The scripts will now compile under JAWS 7.

4.0 beta 5

• Many miscellaneous bug fixes and optomisations!
• CTRL+SHIFT+L, previously only able to list fields for the current track, can now list and jump to fields in the current track, bus or track inspector strip.
• Pressing prior bar or prior marker multiple times while playing may, depending on your system, jump back to previous bars/markers rather than repetitively jumping to the start of the current bar/marker. Note that this is a hack in the scripts and not a feature of Sonar, so there can be no guarantees.
• The current track can be selected or unselected without affecting other tracks by pressing CTRL+COMMA. This is similar to Sonar's in-built SHIFT+COMMA command, except that SHIFT+COMMA does not allow for a single track to be unselected.
• The temporary track inspector toggle mode from the previous beta has been removed. Pressing the inspector buttons (fx, eq, etc.) no longer requires pressing of the space bar to return to the track inspector.
• Synth rack and Tempo views are now accessible.
• We now provide registry (.reg) files for easy installation of registry keys, necessary for better accessibility with Sonar.
• Status Bar information, such as disk space, system load and project's sampling rate can now be spoken with CTRL+SHIFT+S. If the key is pressed twice, the status bar information will be displayed in a virtual buffer.
• Transport messages, such as "playing" and "stopped" can now be toggled. This option can be found under "verbosity settings" accessed via INSERT+V.
• Finding of track windows has been improved. This means that reading of track names, accessing track context menus, etc. should now be more reliable.
• The view-specific toolbars are now accesible, wherever they exist, by pressing INSERT+SHIFT+F8.
• Loop construction view now uses the view-specific toolbar feature to provide more consistent, functional operation. The first toolbar will be activated automatically by default. Use tab and shift+tab to move between the toolbars.
• Event View is now much more responsive than before and does not cause occasional JAWS crashes.
• Toolbar functionality has been greatly improved.
• Whenever you are in a plug-in window and focused on a button, pressing SPACE bar will activate this button instead of trying to play/stop the Sonar project.
• Markers are now automatically announced in track view. Use JAWS Verbosity (INSERT+V) to toggle this setting on and off.
• When you press letter D on the keyboard in a track view, JAWS will report whether Navigator is on or off. Knowing this information became critical when Sonar crashes in the Track Inspector were discovered to be dependent on the Navigator being on.
• The JAWS help for Sonar is now in HTML format and is accessible by pressing INSERT+F1 twice quickly.

4.0 beta 4 and prior

• Envelope tool, Snap-To-Grid, and Scrub tool states are now announced whenever letters E, N, and B are pressed. In addition, if applicable to a particular toolbar, you can press left mouse button key to access options for that toolbar.
• A more robust way of detecting track selection (thanks to James Teh).
• An ability to access and reset peak meters for track and bus panes (thanks to James Teh and Jason Dasent), press CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+M to read the peak meter or CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+M twice to reset it.
• An ability to quickly edit volume and pan parameters by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+V and CTRL+SHIFT+P twice quickly (more parameters are coming soon!).
• An ability to arm, mute and solo tracks without having to move to the respective fields in the strip.
• An ability to announce tracks either by number, track name or by both (use Insert+V to change this setting).
• A more reliable announcement of the state of the audio engine (recording, playing or stopped).
• More shortcut keys and helpful messages with Insert+F1.