Sonar Metronome

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Fret

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Help!!!!

I just installed Sonar I am currently unable to use the internal metronome. It appears to be working except I do not get any sound. It did work with Guitar Studio. It appears that none of the Midi is working. If I plug in a keyboard I can play the Sonar examples but with out that plugged in I don't get sound their as well. It seems like I just don't have the Midi drivers/settings correct but I know absolutely nothing about Midi. I am using Windows 2000, a Delta 66 and also an onboard sound card. Any thoughts??
 
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Hey man,
Sorry it took someone so long to reply to ya... I'm going by memory here, so lemmee know if I mistake anything... go to options, click on midi devices, and then make sure you have a synthesiser output for your card selected, and then you should be able to hear the click, since its midi. You can then alter the click with the tempo and metronome taskbars found under VIEW, toolbars and then checking them, OR by right clicking the bar that processor precentage and stuff is on, in a blank spot. I'm not sure how familiar you are with everything, so don't be offended if I just went back to grade school with ya :) When you get done, shoot through the tutorials, they are awesome for picking up a few new tricks in Sonar that rock.
Peace,
Paul
 
For input and output I have MPU-401 selected. The Microsoft Midi Mapper is also in the list for outputs but I can't select it.

It seems to be working correctly (plays without errors). It just seems like it doesn't have a correct sound source. Again this is my first time playing with midi so I know very little. I will have to check out the tutorials tonight.
 
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Yeah, check out the tutorials... they'll make you smile at least 3 times... pretty cool new tricks. I'd go through all of them, I think ther are 6 or 8.
Try going to midi devices and selecting a new device. Try all of them once and see which one works. Make sure the little speaker on the toolbar is selected. Ummm, thats all I can think of!
Peace,
Paul
 
The Delta cards have no onboard midi source. You will need to use your onboard sound card as the midi source (assuming it has a midi source). The Delta midi is simply for connecting external midi devices. That's probably why it works when you plug in your keyboard.

Go to Options -> Midi devices and make sure your onboard sound card is selected. Then make sure you are using it in Track Properties.

Hope this helps.
 
I may be doing something wrong but when I enable my on board sound card within Sonar it prompts me to close and re-open. When I re-open it gives me an error that my sound card is not compatible with the current format and I have to either disable it or cancel and go on with out it. Paraphraseing, I am not in front of the computer. Guitar Studio did work with my on board sound card and did play midi sounds.

I spoke with Sonar's tech support (again wasn't in front of the computer). There fix which I feel is more of a work around was to use the virtual sound canvas. Add an audio track and select virtual sound canvas on the FX tab and on the Midi track select virtual sound canvas. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me now but he said it would if I went through the Sound Canvas tutorial. He said it wasn't working for the same reason dachay2tnr said.

I will do the tutorials and then maybe I can make some more since of it for all of our sake.
 
I'm guessing that the reason you got that message was that you have Sonar set up for 24 bit recording, and that your onboard sound card is only capable of 16 bits.

Try setting Sonar to 16 bits and see if you can then use your system sound card.

The other possibility is if you are using Delta's WDM drivers. In that case you might need to set up Sonar to use MME drivers.

Just some things to check.
 
You are correct, but don't I want to use the 24 bit and the WDM drivers? If I understand correctly both of those features are going to be more important for the sound quality then using the standard metronome and it would be better to find another means for a click track.?
 
You would not have to enable the onboard sound cards audio to get acces to it's midi. At least that's how it works for me. When I did this with PA 9 I didn't hear the click. A few hours later I realized that my volume control for my other card was on mute!! So be sure that the onbard sound card is working (and is on and you have a line out going to however you're monitoring signals :D) before you start hunting down conflicts.

-jhe
 
The volume is up and nothing is muted but I still think it is a Windows 2000 problem and not a Sonar problem. If I open a wav file real audio opens and I can hear what it plays. If I play a midi file *.mid real audio opens and plays as well but I can not hear anything. the wav files do play from my computer monitors and not my studio monitors but that's how I have it selected in control panel.

Ok wait a minute. Good call. I switched the midi playback in control panel from MPU-401 to Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth. Went into the volume options unmuted the SW synth track and now Real Player will play *.mid files audibly. Sonar still only has the option for MPU-401 and Microsoft Midi Mapper, which I can not select and does not audibly play midi files.

Still working on the Tutorials. They of course will only play if I have an external keyboard attached.
 
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hmmm

I didnt even think about the soundcard not having midi... kinda took that for granted. Use your onboard soundcard, if you have one. Do like dach said, everything'll be fine (or should be). The WDM drivers probably wont change sound quality, and the 16 bit will do you fine if you arent working on important projects. 24 bit takes up 50% more space, too.
Upgrade your soundcard if you need to. The aardvarks seem real nice.
 
Actually I did try it and I still didn't end up with another midi device to enable or any midi sounds. Oh the joys of a first release.
 
tubedude,

If his problem is no onboard MIDI synth, how's an Aardvark card going to help?

Fret, there are few (if any) cards on the market so far with on-board synths that also record in 24-bit resolution -- maybe the Creamware Pulsar @ ~$1200? You can either run a softsynth, run your on-board card (restricting you to 16-bit resolution), or send the MIDI data out to an external device. An old drum machine would work fine as a metronome; use the side stick or some other click-like sound.

One thing -- when you say "Sonar still only has the option for MPU-401 and Microsoft Midi Mapper," do you mean in the Track properties -- that is, these are the choices you get when you want to assign a track to a device? There is also a global list of devices that you can select or deselect. Or at least there was in Cakewalk 9. This list should show all the devices the computer knows about, and allow you to enable or disable them for SONAR's use. Perhaps the Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth is not enabled here.

In Cakewalk 9 this was under Options -> MIDI Devices. I presume there's still the same thing somewhere in SONAR, possibly organized differently. I still haven't seen SONAR; though I preordered my upgrade, I'm on the west coast and I ordered it shipped UPS ground... it's been an agony waiting while everyone else is running it. (But to be honest, I couldn't install it until I get my taxes done anyway, so what the hell...)

-AlChuck
 
When I look under Options - Audio - Drivers, I have the options for Delta 66 1/2, 3/4, 5/6, 7/8, and the AC 97 Sound Card under input. Under output I have all the same stuff except not the Delta 66 7/8. I'm not sure where the 5/6 and the 7/8 came from but as long as I have it selected to not see the card as mono I can set a track to use the Delta 66 1/2 left or right. Left being one right being two. I have tried selecting everything here. Under Options - Midi Devices I have the MPU-401 and the Microsoft Midi Mapper regardless of what I have selected under Options - Audio - Drivers. I'm begging to wonder if Sonar just doesn't see my on board card correctly and I may need to find a work around such as the external drum machine.
 
I'm not at home, so this is from memory. But there is a setting in Sonar to use MME drivers. You mentioned using WDM drivers, and I'm guessing you do not have WDM drivers for your onboard sound card. So I suspect the problem is that you have told Sonar to use WDM drivers, and it's not seeing your onboard card since it uses MME drivers.

Try changing the Sonar setting to use MME drivers and I'll bet it shows up then.

However, you are correct, you should forget about the click track (or find another way) and use the Delta and the WDM drivers. The 24 bit recording capability and the reduced latency from WDM are much more important than a click track (if that's the only reason you want MIDI).
 
Oddly enough when I forced Cakewalk to use the MME drivers it still did not have software-based Midi support. I think there is something going on between Sonar and my on board sound card and it's not going to be worth fighting. When is the patch due out???? I do wonder what I will hear back from Sonar Support. In the mean time, I will probably just use a keyboard for my sounds and record a click track. That is until I can learn to do some Midi/drum programming and make it a little more interesting then just a snare or hi hat. Hopefully there is a tutorial on that; I am still working on those. Oh and of course, I am memorizing the little manual thingy. ;)

That posses a similar question. The majority of what I am trying to record is church music and very keyboard based. So, the first thing I record is the keyboard. That's why I was saying I would actually have to record the click track otherwise my first track would be keyboard and click since I will be using the keyboard for my Midi sounds. Anyone have a better idea? I already have a keyboard and really don't want to buy a drum machine just for a click track.
 
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