Scroll Lock
After a couple of tumultuous months when I got nothing of importance accomplished – we moved, I retired to collect social security, Rose spent some time battling back from an apocalyptic depression – I fired up the studio today. The studio, and what I do in it, is what justifies the nick I've given myself for this weblog.
I hadn't done any music since the end of May last year. That's eight months, going on nine. I get a little crazy when there's no music in my life for periods as long as that. Listening to the radio doesn't count; singing in the choir at Church of Our Savior does count, but not as much as playing in the studio.
So I fired up Sonar and the rest of the equipment, and loaded BWV 852, the E-flat major prelude from the first book of the Well-Tempered Clavier. Back in May I had been on a roll, hoping to complete work on the WTC I by the end of the summer. But then the tumults arose, and the slings and arrows and whatnot, and theBachWorks was on hold for a while.
So it was gratifying to fire up the studio this afternoon.
And it was stupefying to see Sonar refuse to update its window displays as the music scrolled past. A music score, presented by software midi sequencers such as the one I was using, is usually much wider than the screen can hold; the sequencer accommodates this situation by simply scrolling the score sideways under the cursor. That's what Sonar – and its Cakewalk ancestors dating back to my first acqaintance with them in 1991 – had always done for me.
But not this afternoon. The score remained static in the window; the cursor moved from left to right as the first half-dozen measures played, and then toddled off into oblivion.
I fiddled with the scrollbars; it was possible to manually move the score, but nothing I did brought back the automatic scrolling.
I hauled the manual down from the shelf; I ransacked the help index. An hour later I gave up and called the Cakewalk help desk.
Brett, at the help desk, said “...and how can I help you today?”
I told him my story.
He said, “Oh, on your keyboard there's a button called Scroll Lock. Press that button and you'll be back in business.”
I broke into laughter. I ROTFLMAO'ed. Brett waited for me get my voice back.
“Brett”, I said, “That key has been on PC keyboards for twenty years. This is the FIRST TIME in those two decades I have ever seen it do anything.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, I only learned about this a couple weeks ago myself. Bizarre, isn't it.”
“Hang on, I want to confirm this before I hang up.” I did, and everything scrolled just fine. We said our goodbyes and I hung up.
When I've got a listenable version of the E-flat major prelude I'll put an mp3 up on theBachWorks.
8:08:59 PM 
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