Midi controller no sound recording or playback

[boyceman]

Argh! I hate asking dumb questions like this.

I have an evolution 461c controller, a delta 1010 card w/ breakout box, and a yamaha mg12/4 mixer. I am using Sonar 3.

I have hw outs 1/2 from the 1010 coming into my mixer board and then aux send them to my monitors. Works great for mixing and recording audio tracks.

I plugged the controller via USB into my computer. When I load up sonar, I set a MIDI track with input set to USB Audio device channel 1, and the only output option I have is "Delta 1010 MIDI".

When I record, I see the notes being generated in Sonar, but I cannot hear anything. When I playback the recording, I cannot hear anything.

For the windows sound setup, for MIDI playback I have selected Delta 1010 MIDI. If I load up a .midi file, I don't hear any sound. If I change the MIDI playback device to the Microsoft GS wavetable synth and play the same midi file, I hear it just fine. If I then load up the Sound Studio II software that came with the keyboard, I can hear sound. If I then load up Sonar, it tells me no MIDI outs were selected, and I have three output options: Delta 1010 Midi, Microsoft Midi Mapper, and USB audio device. I have tried both 1010 midi and microsoft midi mapper, still no sound.

Am I missing something completely obvious? I guess I thought I could route midi output to one of my 1010's hardware outs, but I can't. I read the manual for my sound card and that came with the keyboard (a bit lacking). Can anyone help a frustrated soul?

Thanks for your time.

boyceman

 

[fldrummer]

Did you set the midi track to some type of midi / vst insturment on your computer and set that as its output?

 

[Quasar]

Hey Boyceman,

You can't just set the output to your soundcard. You need a voice sample or set of samples (such as a midi wavetable) to play. Otherwise the midi file won't render anything audible. The Microsoft GS plays on the 461c, because it is such a wavetable, included with Windows. It's just not a very good one.

So you need either a hardware or software-based tone generator. Have you tried the VSC that comes with Sonar? I just got my 461c yesterday, and I'm running a collection of soft-sounds from Garriton, EastWest, and Native Instruments. Or you can get an external tone generator that can be controlled via the 461. But you need some form of source audio.

There's a lot of options out there, and of course the higher quality sounds tend to cost more money. Here's a link to an open source standard site that really has a lot of resources on it:

http://www.kvr-vst.com/

Good luck,

Michael

 

[boyceman]

Got it!!! I had mapped the Roland GS to channel 1 so I thought I had selected my instrument... Apparently I did not set a Patch though (I didn't know I had to!). Once I did, viola! Thanks so much for your help.

Quesiton though, are these instruments the VSC that you are talking about? If I'm looking for some middle of the road sounds, should I go for one of the three you mentioned? I guess I need to read up on VST, not sure where to start.

Thanks again!

boyceman

 

[Quasar]

I'm pretty much new to this stuff, too. VST is a standard created by Steinberg, creator of Nuendo and Cubase. DX (or DXi) is a standard created by Microsoft for Windows. Since you already have- as I do- a 461c and Sonar, the sky is the limit. The Sonic possibilities are almost frightening in terms of their potential.

In terms of the sound libraries I mentioned, it all depends on what you want to do. Garritan has a product called GPO (Garritan Personal Orchestra) which I believe is the best $249 I ever spent. It's a whole orchestra plus Steinway concert grand. But if you're not into orchestral music then you wouldn't need that.

I got GPO and then was able to get Kontakt for a reduced "crossgrade" price. Now I can pretty much play any sound I can afford to get my hands on. Kontakt is NI's flagship sampler. It plays and converts any number of formats, including soundfonts, or SF2s, which can often be downloaded for free. If you
have an SB card, my understanding is that you can play SF2s without any kind of soft synth or sampler. But i really don't know how that all works.

The VSC, in my view, has some usable sounds, but I'd go for the more pro level libraries. Your sound sample collection can be built incrementally, as you can afford to. Once you get some of this stuff, then you just hit the FX on Sonar's Audio track, and you can load and play these great voices.

Michael