Cannot play MIDI files in SONAR X1, X1a or X1b ...

Hello ...
 
I have recently purchased SONAR X1 and have installed it on one of my PCs (spec summarised below). However, whilst I am able to play the demo audio files and projects supplied with SONAR, I am completely unable to play my own MIDI files.
I have tried the following so far without success:
 - saving the MIDI to a SONAR project
 - playing the MIDI track as-is
 - selecting the MME-32 driver
 - selecting the ASIOforALL v2 driver
All to no avail.
My MIDI files play perfectly in Mixcraft 5, Calkwalk Music Creator and several other DAWs of various vendors and vintage.
 
Any help would be appreciated and rewarded with a beer if ever you are in Wiltshire.
 
Kenneth Spencer
(Intel Core2Quad, 8Gbyte RAM, nVidia GeForce graphics, onbaord Realtek HD Audio, Vista x64 Ultimate)
 

Yes, you need to load in a VST instrument...say, Dimension Pro for instance...to play your midi files through.  Midi is just informational data and needs to "trigger" an instrument to play.  HTH.

+1 to what's said above.
Using the onboard Realtek will surely cause you latency problems when trying to multitrack with soft syntyhs, so getting a decent audio interface is recommendable.
You won't be able to use the full recording potential of you computer with that chip, unfortunately.

If you did not choose any soft synths when using Mixcraft and MC and could still hear sound it might be that being entry level apps they perhaps used the Wavetable Synth as default. It's the weakest option qualitywise.


Having used DAWs of "several vendors and vintage" I'm sincerely surprised you haven't pumbed into the basics of MIDI, because it's a standard that follows the same rules totally in spite of the
software.

The manual and the tutorials are useful, really.

Hi kaspencer, you need a proper audio interface. The onboard sound of your motherboard is ok for listening to mp3's or playing games, but you now have Rolls Royce audio software, and you need to splash out on a decent audio interface. 

like putting a lawn mower engine in a race car.

 
Dude, have you ever seen those racing lawn mowers?  Gotta be the equivalent to a good Soundblaster, at least! 
 
Brian

chuckebaby


..i find it amazing you just spent 400 dollars on a software but your using asio4 all?lol.seriously,asio4all creates conflicts and though does work sometimes well if set up right its a bandaid...your going to need something better.

Some people start at entry level with X1 Essential which only costs about £60 in the UK not 400 dollars and I use ASIO4ALL drivers with my A&H ZED10 because no ASIO drivers are provided, so it all seems reasonable to me.

First, thanks for all the comments and advice on this little problem.

Regarding the absence of sound when playing MIDI files: Wicked, you were dead right, I hadn't realised that there was no built-in synth in SONARX1, and as soon as I loaded one, all was well. Thanks for that.

Regarding the somewhat disparaging remarks about "low-end DAWs": in my opinion you may be confusing "low-end" with "higher-value", as I consider Mixcraft 5 to be a very good product, and it has most of the features of SONARX1 at a much lower cost. And I also consider the Acoustica Instrument set which is supplied with it to be amonst the best I have heard. If you are in any doubt please try them.

Regarding "getting a proper sound-card": Plazma, I'm glad to say that I already have an M-Audio Delta 1010LT card in the PC. It was not mentioned because at the time I wasn't using it with SONARX1, but I have it, and I recognise the comments made - they were just a bit presumptive!

And Plazma - I have 2 Strats, and a Gibson Les Paul eh! And a Yamaha baby grand! You can't really beat real instruments eh! Until you gat a Hauptwerk console that is. And a Terratec AXON (but now I want one of those new Roland Guitar synths).

Finally, all is now well I'm glad to say, so thanks again for the help! My real error was not failing to understand MIDI (as Kalle-Rantaho said) but simply missing a point about SONARX1.
 
All the best,
 
Ken
 

Thanks for that, Kalle ... that's all fine.
 
Regards
 
Ken
 

Chris Foster Songs
The Quick answer is go to 
 
Edit 
preferences
then select midi output. It is most likely unchecked. 

OP has resolved this (see previous post).
As the thread is from 2011 it certainly wasn't a quick answer LOL :).