Lap top with XP doesn't recognise midi

  • Thread starter Thread starter Paul881
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Paul881

Paul881

Look Mom, I can play!
Computer genius required, please help.

I'm a relatively experienced Sonar user, normally using a tower system. I've now loaded Sonar onto my new laptop and it doesn't play midi nor does it recognise any midi drivers to load under Options>midi, nor any inputs under Options>Instruments. The soundcard is a bog standard internal Yamaha ac-xg but it does play midi, cos I can load a floppy disk in the a:\ drive and it will play midi files from the disk using microsoft media player. So why doesn't Sonar recognise the midi driver in the sound card? How can I get Sonar to import midi files and play them? Or get Sonar to play midi from the piano roll view?

Any help gratefully received.
 
Do you have MIDI ports listed in the Control Panel? Can you play MIDI files in Media Player?

Another solution that would probably sound better would be to just use the Virtual Sound Canvas DXi softsynth rather than the Yamaha hardware synth on the soundcard.
 
Hi brzilian, thanks for your reply.

Yes, as I said in my post, I can play imported midi files in media player. I'll look to see if there are any midi ports listed in win xp Control Panel and post back later.

Before I use Sound Canvas DXi softsynth, wouldn't Sonar have to recognise a midi input and output? Or can I use it as a stand alone device? What I am trying to do is compose a piece of music in Sonar's Piano Roll view, but my midi tracks in Sonar don't recognise any midi in/out, so I can't get to even start this project.
 
Paul, I can understand this problem as in WinxP it is very difficult to see where any midi in devices are in the system - if you look in devices manager you can find midi under the soundcard properties but no ins and outs. It is normal for any laptop built in s/card to have a typical joystick port which incorporates midi input. In this case you may need to go into the bios in order to activate the midi and indeed the full features of the soundcard(Under Integrated perpherals). It may have options for MPU-401 port / Soundblaster Mode . Turn them all on.
 
Johnjoe, I looked in Device Manager and found three listings for the soundcard, all specified correctly, including the midi WDM based device. This item was checked(enabled) for it to use midi. I thought it must be enabled, otherwise it wouldn't play back midi files from my floppy disk.

So it looks as if the midi device needs to be enabled from bios. Thats a scary proposition!

I'll keep you posted as to my success - or otherwise!
 
I've got the exact same problem with my Sonar 1.0. I'm using a laptop and the midi plays fine with other programs. Keep me posted on what fixes the problem. I'll do the same. I'm diving into my bios right now.........
 
Have you tried assigning *.mid file types defualt to SONAR? One of the things I had problems with is that it had to be assigned either to Media Player/Winamp or SONAR. Only one or the other could be enabled at any given time.
 
Well it's definitly not a bios problem.:( My stupid bios wont let me tweak anything. I installed a version of cakewalk guitar studio.....ehem...kazaa.......excuse me, and it recognizes the midi just fine. The driver is Microsoft Gs Wavetable SW Synth in Guitar Studio but it is no-existant in Sonar. I'll leave you all to contemplate that.
 
Paul some questions..
1) What version of Sonar are you using?
2) Are no midi devices shown as input and what synths as shown as outputs?

It may be that Sonar refuses to play when it sees no midi ins. Whereas media player simply looks for an output device to play it to. I am shooting in the dark here..

It looks like this may be a Sonar bug in that version. Paul are you able to put any other sequencer on the laptop to test this?

By the way Zen you have a nasty cough! Perhaps you need a pirate doctor to help you with your potential virus!
 
It definately is not Sonar cos I'm using it on my Tower okay.

I think the problem is in Bios. The guy who set the laptop up disbled the Yamaha ac-xg soundcard midi capability.

There are no inputs listed at all for midi devices or Instrument output/channel only listing I have for outputs is Microsoft MIDI Mapper. But the system will play imported midi files via my floppy drive, using m/s media player.

Remind me again, how do I get into the Bios?

BTW, Zen, the members on this site are very sensitive to pirate copy users of software that they have paid $$$$ for.
 
You didn't mention your brand of laptop, but the Bios is usually accessed either by hitting DEL right as the computer starts powering up (sometimes accompanied by a message that says "Press DEL to enter SETUP" or something similar, or it's a combinination of keys pressed once the computer is running (like Fn-F10 or similar). Check your computer's manual and it should give you the exact procedure.

Editing values in your bios is not a big hairy deal, just find the setting that refers to MIDI and change it, then exit Bios and select the Save Settings option.

Note that I have never heard of midi hardware being accessed through the bios, even on a laptop, but I suppose it is possible.
 
Paul, you and Zen are giving conflicting information. So you may or may not be talking about the same problem.

The fact that u only have midi-mapper as an output seems strange. From what I remember the midi-mapper is only a router for customising outputs and is not a true output device in itself (Please correct me someone if this is wrong!)

1) If it was a "bug" in Sonar this may be something to do with the way it handles the sound device drivers for your Laptop. So the fact that Sonar works on your Tower system may not be relevant.
2) Try updating the laptop Yamaha Sound driver. If this was just the native driver that came with XP it may be buggy.
3) Getting back to the bios. Normally one presses the "del" key on bootup and this puts u into the bios screen. But depending on your make of laptop there are various keys that sometimes are used f10, ctrl+esc etc etc. I would refer to the manual or get the info from the manu. website.

Good luck with the problem Paul. I am off on holiday so I wont see the outcome for 2 weeks.
 
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