really stupid midi question!

G

guitarlover

New member
Hi all. I have used Calkwalk for several years now. I've always used in the same way, to master stereo recordings of guitat. In other words, wave files. I know very little of the program's capabilities so for kicks this evening, I thought I should (finally) go through the tutorials. Btw, I have Cakewalk 2004.

The funny thing is, I cannot get any output form the tutorial samples! None. Not a drop! My imported wave files play and save just fine but the samples are midi. I have to believe the problem is a simple one but I can't ID it to save my life.

Can anyone help?

Regards, Steve
 
Midi is a computer protocol that tells a particular instrument what note(s) to play, how loud, how long etc. To hear midi, you must use a Cakewalk midi track to play a particular synth.... and that synth must be hooked up to your audio system. I'm not sure if you already knew that and were asking a different question or ???

Take Care
 
make sure in windows mixer if using an on board sound card you dont have midi muted in the playback applet of win volume control.
 
What sound card are you using. Perhaps it does not have MIDI synth capabilities. Many of the better cards do not.

If that is the case, if your program supports DXi's (I don't know what Cakewalk 2004 is), you could use soft synths instead.
 
dachay2tnr said:
If that is the case, if your program supports DXi's (I don't know what Cakewalk 2004 is), you could use soft synths instead.
Click to expand...

Cakewalk 2004 is just the newest version. It's basically the same as 2002.

Thanks, Steve
 
rjt said:
Midi is a computer protocol that tells a particular instrument what note(s) to play, how loud, how long etc. To hear midi, you must use a Cakewalk midi track to play a particular synth.... and that synth must be hooked up to your audio system. I'm not sure if you already knew that and were asking a different question or ???

Take Care
Click to expand...

I think I understand what you are saying but I find it peculiar that all the "Getting Started" guide says is to make sure that your sound card is listed as the output device. You'd think that if I was to have something else hooked up, they'd tell me. Hmmm...

Or maybe I completely misunderstood what you said. I'll keep plugging away.

I think part of what is confusing me is that I have no problems playing midi through my notation editting program (Scorewriter). I assumed, I could do the same in Cakewalk Homestudio.

Thanks all, Steve
 
guitarlover said:
I think I understand what you are saying but I find it peculiar that all the "Getting Started" guide says is to make sure that your sound card is listed as the output device. You'd think that if I was to have something else hooked up, they'd tell me. Hmmm...

Or maybe I completely misunderstood what you said. I'll keep plugging away.

I think part of what is confusing me is that I have no problems playing midi through my notation editting program (Scorewriter). I assumed, I could do the same in Cakewalk Homestudio.

Thanks all, Steve
Click to expand...

There are essentially three methods you can use to generate sound from a midi track:
1. Your sound card (if it has an onboard midi synth)
2. An external midi device (if you have one)
3. Software synths (if your recording software supports soft synths)

The Cakewalk instructions seem to assume you have a sound card with the midi synth. That is quite typical for most store bought computers.

RJT is describing method #2.

If you don't have the right equipment for #1 or #2, then use method #3. I believe Home Studio 2004 is DXi capable and comes equipped with the Edirol Virtual Sound Canvas. Using a soft synth is slightly different than the Cakewalk instructions in that it uses two tracks - one midi and one audio. The soft synth is patched onto the audio track, and the midi track output is routed to the soft synth.
 
dachay2tnr said:
There are essentially three methods you can use to generate sound from a midi track:
1. Your sound card (if it has an onboard midi synth)
2. An external midi device (if you have one)
3. Software synths (if your recording software supports soft synths)

The Cakewalk instructions seem to assume you have a sound card with the midi synth. That is quite typical for most store bought computers.

RJT is describing method #2.

If you don't have the right equipment for #1 or #2, then use method #3. I believe Home Studio 2004 is DXi capable and comes equipped with the Edirol Virtual Sound Canvas. Using a soft synth is slightly different than the Cakewalk instructions in that it uses two tracks - one midi and one audio. The soft synth is patched onto the audio track, and the midi track output is routed to the soft synth.
Click to expand...

Makes sense. Thanks for the detailed explanation. My guess is that the notation software sets up method #3 automatically whereas Calkwalk doesn't make the same assumptions because of its greater capabilities. I'll check my sound card to see if its specific driver is missing (it may be using the Windows default which doesn't necessarily have all the same outputs.

Warm regards to all that helped and I wish you all a Felice Navidad! :D

Steve
 
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