MIDI how to?!?

The thing is you will have to read about it here or in a manual. You will have to read up on it to have any hope of understanding it.

MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It was developed to connect synths to one another. It quickly became clear that it could be connected to a computer as well. From there we have Sonar as years of development have been put into it.

MIDI is a protocol, a language that can be used to trigger hardware synths or soft synths. It is displayed for us as either notation or dots and can be displayed as events as well.

An easy way to learn about MIDI is load a MIDI project into Sonar and try and play it. Most likely you will want to use the Sonar soft synth TTS-1 to play back the sound. Using some of the views Piano Roll View or the Score View you should see how the events have a direct control of making the TTS-1 produce sound.

Sonar should come with some MIDI files that are full songs as demo projects but if it doesn't you can get tons of Standard MIDI files known as GM files off the net.

After you have had some time looking and listening to these files you will most likely have many questions. It is then I would come back and ask away.

You don't need a keyboard for inputting MIDI notes. It can be very useful but there are many ways to get MIDI into Sonar. Sonar has no computer keyboard MIDI input ability.

AS John said-There is no magic answer. You will have to read and learn. Or you will be in for many days of frustrations. The help on this forum is the best. But you really need to get a basic understanding before you can ask for help. Basic midi is not that tough.
Give it a try!~

Thanks a lot for the replies. I'm using version 8.0 of SONAR in Windows Vista32 with an E-MU 0404 audio/MIDI interface. I suppose the best thing would be the tutorials in the manual. It appears that my version has Rapture LE, but not dimension. I also have Cyclone, Dreamstation, Pentagon, and Roland Groovesynth. I don't know what these things are or what they do, and I can't seem to find any documentation for them. The main thing is that I hate taking time away from the guitar but it is obviously necessary if I am to tap the full potential of such a powerful program as this. I am, at this point, interested in what Keebo had to say about adding synth parts w/o a MIDI keyboard. Are there any tutorials available for this process, specifically, besides those in the manual? Thanks again for the replies.  

On the DVD that your software came on there is a SONAR Reference manual in pdf format (over 1500 pages) that will give you plenty of info on MIDI, Audio and all the included plugins from Effects to Synthesizers.

If you have SONAR 8 without Dimension Pro its likely that you have SONAR Studio version not SONAR Producer. If you do have SONAR Producer Edition then there will be 4 DVD's which include The main SONAR installation DVD + Dimension Pro + Content and Beatscape + Content

There are updates avaiable for registered users from the Cakewaalk website that will give you access to more content and upgrades to SONAR 8.3.1. Its pretty well essential that you get the latest updates.

R.T.F.M!
No way to avoid it.
Search the SONAR help file for Synth Rack and
Piano Roll View (PVR) and read up on them.

Search this forum for the same topics.

It will take some time coming from the total noob,
beginner level that you're currently at. 
Sorry to be so blunt about it, not meaning to be
offensive, but it's the cold hard truth.
Ain't no other way.

Look at it like learning a new instrument.
You wouldn't expect to just pick up a Guitar,
having never played one before, and expect
to be able to play it well within 24 hours.

SONAR and MIDI the same.

It takes time and effort, like anything worthwhile. 

As a starting point, learn how to load a synth 
via the Synth Rack and then open up the Piano
Roll View on that track and left click on the virtual
piano keyboard on the left hand side.

I play guitar and bass, and that is all I really want to do.

So your problem is ...???  It is a strange mindset that considers it is better to ask a forum like this to take its pain away, as if somehow the folk that dwell here can discern exactly what minimum amount of knowledge can be imparted to allow you to handle a complex product to do sophisticated things with virtually no effort on your part.  Collectively, we are just too polite to say "RTFM, then RTFM again" or "Consultant/Tutor/Mentor? Why certainly, sir! That'll be €1,000 per diem plus expenses.  When do I start?". HTH.

John


You will find this helpful in the meantime.

John,

That's just unreasonable.  How can you expect OP to read 29 - yes, twenty-nine - chapters of words and other boring stuff?  Can't you produce an "Executive Summary" on half a page to help him?  No long sentences, no long words, and just bullet points, mind you.

ChristopherM

You might also want to check out my SONAR 8 Power! book.

Hey, Scott - Back off! I saw him first!  I'm about to sign him up for €1,000 a day and you want to tread on my toes and sell him a book that's 0.5 versions behind the state-of-the-art?  You should be ashamed!

Hey Chris,

LOL! Have fun tutoring.

Scott

PS. (to anyone starting out with SONAR) you'll find a lot of useful info in my book. But of course, you can still consider taking lessons with Chris.

--
Scott R. Garrigus - Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series. Get Sonar 8 Power - Today! Go to: http://www.garrigus.com/  - http://www.musictechshop.com/ - http://www.cooltechshop.com/

Publisher of DigiFreq - free music technology newsletter. Win a free SoundTech Vocal Trainer Package, go to: http://www.digifreq.com/digifreq/

Publisher of NewTechReview - free consumer technology newsletter. Win a free i2i Stream Wireless Music Pack, go to: http://www.newtechreview.com/newtechreview/