Boss Dr-880 Sonar x1

to change the bass you need to insert a bass synth(cakewalks studio instruments/bass guitar is perfect for this.
but to be honest you would better far with a keyboard or the piano roll.
those bass accompanyments <<that, are great.

as for synching its easy.
but first you need to explain what you want to do here ..is sonar the master or the slave?

have you set up your drum machine to send midi signals?
if you dont then this isnt going to work.
its not about MMC is about midi synch.
 
under PROJECT in the preference menu,select MIDI.
look over to the right and you see the part where it says "SEND MIDI SYNCH"  ??
you need to check the first two boxes:
(TRANSMIT MIDI START/STOP and USE START NEVER CONTINUE.)
also the menu on this part has a section where your drum machine must be checked( a tick mark )
youll see it,depending on the devices you are pluging in it may only have your drum machine and your audio interface,
make sure the drum machine is the only one checked or sonar will go bananas looking for other data and will possibly crash.
 
thats it,dont go messing with any other buttons or anything.
simple.
but make a note so when your done,you know which buttons to switch back,butcause you need to un tick the boxes when your done synching because heres what happens.
 
when you hit the start button in sonar,your drum machine will begin playback.
what you need to do is experiment a little bit.
because not for nothing what is simple for some is a little indepth for others.
midi signal doesnt send any sound,so your bass is just an impulse and nothing more,its not a sound,sonar could care less about what your sound is,thats up to you to determine.
so think of it like that.
here comes an impulse...what are you going to do??
well set up the catcher mit and catch it with a bass synth instrument.
P.S.- you cant do the bass and the drums at the same time so make sure when your sending your midi data from your drum machine to sonar your not sending both(drums and bass midi)
because even though the bass is an instrument,its still going to send impulses and those will make sonar think you want these impulses as drum parts...so you will have drums flying every where.
 
remeber set up your drum machine to send midi messages.
if you are already using the machine with session drummer or something,then it should already be sending them.
it might be worth it to mention in the drop down list in the track box look for your drum machines drum map,sonar comes with alot of drum maps already in memory. 
do your drum track,then your bass track.
by making sonar the master like i have explained here your tracks will line up perfectly and you will love your life....and me for giving you this in depth tutorial on midi.

see this is what really kills me,someone asks for help and then just leaves.
i wrote a whole chapter up there helping this guy and either he read it and didnt give his appreciation,or doesnt plan on responding.

a small message for the newbies here.
if you ask for help on something,at least be here within the first 8 hours or so to respond with a thank you or another question.

all done here.

m-glenn,
thanks alot buddy.

tell you what set it up when your ready and if you need any help.
please feel free to let me know and ill walk you through it.
i used to do the audio thing as well but things got out of time and were never dead on the beats.
this way all your beats and measures line up with the time line which makes it easier for editing later,lassoing clips,slip editing,exc.

you can still write all your parts on the drum machine,but if you let sonar be the master,it will sound so much tighter in the end.

Good stuff. Thanks again.
I'm going to try this again but it's going to take a while because I need an interface.
I returned the little 1X usb interface I had due to latency issues with my guitar synth that folks here couldn't solve.
A few felt it was the cheap interface's issue.
I'm using a BR800 as an audio interface but it has no MIDI.
I'm going to buy a better MIDI interface and try again.
I'm kinda stuck at that point not knowing what to get.
Would a small MIDI keyboard work as an interface for both the DR880 and my GR20 guitar synth?
I'd want to be able to use keys for input too as most of the MIDI instruction I've seen suggests Sonar is set up for keys.

Duh! Thanks for that. 
I didn't know I could go direct from the DR!  (RTFM right?)
I only started exploring midi setups because of the GR 20 I'm going to try this, this weekend. Cool.
I'll still get an interface too. 
I need to get my head around MIDI.

my bad on not responding sooner...lessons learned as a newbie....won't happen again....

  Do you add the 1 or 2 bar gap within X1 or within the DR880? I know you can put a count in on the DR880 before recording begins, but I am not sure this is what you guys are referring to. I appreciate the info here I have learned something I have been trying to figure out...I too am not to slick with MIDI, as I have done mostly audio...Thanks guys! David

Nevermind...I got it all by myself...

So do you have a lot more control over the quality and kit choices converting to midi and using the Sonar synths?
I have always just recorded various samples as audio from the DR880 and patched them together (it's pretty quick) but only get a stereo track out of that, and only the samples that the DR880 has.

I hope we can stay in touch on this as I am also just considering the baffling world of MIDI.
I do include a bar or two (I just include the intro clicks) but I just highlight the whole thing and move it to position if necessary.  
If I need to time it with existing tracks, I start the Sonar Recording and hit Start on the DR at the right time (listening to the 4 beat intro metronome on Sonar as cue) as the DR has no latency.
I've also used it real-time with the pads for the odd bongo, crash or hand clap.

I've created a midi track and the DR-880 is coming thru at full volume but I've no control over the sound level or able to record. In the midi devices it doesn't show up as I've seen on the cakewalk video. Not sure what to do, any advice out there? thanks in advance

I have a roland cakewalk ua-25 audioface, midi in/out from the dr-880. I'm getting a midi drum sound when I create a midi track. Just no way to control it, no volume control, etc. Not sure what you mean by how I have things setup within the x1. Could you be more specific? Thanks very much for your help....Kinda new at this, lots to learn...whew...

Hmmmm....I might be trying this USB thing myself...and I'm sorry I can't be of more help as I am also learning this thing called MIDI as well. Are you trying to record what the DR is playing or are you using it to trigger a drum synth, such as SD3?

Check your DR 880 setting to enable receiving midi volume data (Edit - Midi - Setting - Rx Midi Vol (on/off).

Thanks for helping me this. I did change the setting to "on" awhile back. Just checked it again and it is "on". Still not able to adjust the volume. As chuckebaby described above I do click the "transmit midi start/stop" and  "use start never continue" in order to get the drums to come thru on sonar. Also I have to change the input to "2-microsoft wavetable synth" in order to hear the drums as well...but still nothing as far as controlling the volume. Kinda frustrating...(when in sonar I edit-preferences-midi devices- it shows "input ua-25ex" and "output ua-25ex" and "2-wavetable synth"... no mention of drum machine but I'm assuming what is showing up on behalf of the dr.880 is the ua-25ex...as that's what the midi input output is going thru) just thought I'd mention that....again...thanks for the assistance...I'll keep at it...