Tips Needed for cakewalk midi bass and drums

You have two ways to go.  1st, you don't tell us what midi sounds you are talking about.  Several Cake Daws come w/ midi patterns as well as audio loop compilations.

The midi clips can a soft-synth.  You need to INSERT a softsynth, find an appropriate bass patch on said synth and then drag the patterns into the timeline.  SONAR 8 will let you audition these patterns w/ your choosen synth.  There is also the step sequencer function that lets you "write" the notes.  Finally, you can use notation for midi. 

Audio loops can be dragged into an Audio timeline track (they can also be previewed like midi if you have SONAR 8). 

Give us more info on your software and follow up w/ a sitrep.

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P.S.  Some of you might have cars with systems in them.  I do, I have 2 12 inch subs at 800 watts each.  They only play very low frequency bass.  I am talking about the sounds that come out of them.  I am having trouble reproducing this when my only tools available are the default instruments provided by sonar 8 and midi sound quality. 

Lee.... the sounds that come with Sonar are pretty good. I have MC5 and the sound center sounds are very good...... however.... there are better sounds available.....for a price.....

Many users that start with cake products soon begin to build a library of sorts with other better sounding third party synths.   A good one that many use including me is some of the Native Instrument synths and sound sample libraries.  Check them out here>>> Native Instruments  and they have sound samples on the site that you can listen to. There is a couple of Freebies there that you can download and play with. I did not see the free Kore player, which is pretty good, but they do have the Kore 2 player for free...... might be the same thing....

(edit: I think it is since it looks like the original Kore player...comes with 150 sounds like the original.... download it and have fun)

I have the Komplete 6 collection which was a really good deal for the money..... so many synth sounds it's unbelievable.

NI is just one of many really nice synths that you will be looking at in the future to expand your horizons.


for drums, check out NI's Battery.... lots of kits, and sounds in there.

Here we go, what I think you are looking for is a sub bass right? The sound that's only heard on your subs and felt in your stomach... Lots of times it's just a sine wave played at a very low octave, ad some legato between the steps and you're set.

Also you can try the Record Hiphop Bass in z3ta (bank B), also the Mono Man-bass in PSYN II's bank B is pretty nice (triangle based).

If you don't already have lots of synth you can also try downloading ASynth from Annti: http://antti.smartelectronix.com/
Set both osc's to triangle, put the filter in mini-mode and 4P low pass, not to much drive and cutoff around 200-300hz and no resonance (play around some with the keytrack so see what you like). Then put no decay and full sustain on both adsr and amp and it should get you started.

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Yeah I agree there are great sounds outh there (I got NI, YT, Musiclab, IK etc...) but what comes with Sonar can get a person a long way. Also, eve though I have a fair amount of payed for software there are still some freeware I continually use and Sonar Producers VST's are still used in almost every project as well - they are really great instruments in their own right.

File077


Until recently, I haven't touched cakewalk in just about 10 years.  So I am very ruff around the edges.  I manage, but barely.  I really use the sheet music view, volume, and velocity.  I have found in PRV view that I can adjust the wheel, and velocity, and volume separately for each note (although I can do that in sheet music view as well, by right clicking on the  notes, but not with such an easy to manage visual view of what I've done).

I have found the echo, but that's where the re-verb used to be, and actually can't find that.  The basic (I think it is 127) instruments that I used to have available 10 years ago, appear to be the same instruments that are available today.  I find that very, very sad.  That in 10 years, the instruments haven't changed a bit.  Not even any new ones.  Same pianos, guitars still sound horrible, and no good sounding bass. 

Well...have you actually really gone through the soft synths you got in 8.5PE? Ten years ago soft synths were a relatively new thing. Are you familiar with using them? Your pessimistic post leaves me unsure of what you do actually know about SONAR...with all due respect.
 
127 instruments???? What do you mean? In TTS-1, yes, but with the synths and Dropzone in 8.5 there is no limit to the amount of sounds you can create!
Are you looking for a natural bass sound or what? Most likely not, because you mention r&b and rap.

Kalle, No I don't know anything about the soft synths.  I just write sheet music, and usually asign the pianos, and strings of some sort.  Other instruments just tweak the sound, but are still the built in patches.  I use the built in mixer to alter the volume, and such of the tracks while they play.  I guess I keep it simple, but I do this as a hobby, I never did this for a living, or went to school for it.

I guess I may need to watch some youtube howto videos on these soft synths you speak of.

I'll be damned, there is a whole other world inside of cakewalk!  And to imagine, I've been making **** the hard way. 

P.S.  I haven't shown this one off yet, but this just goes to show what I've been doing the hard way.

http://www.soundclick.com...162&songID=9224338

The 127 instruments you mention are the general midi sound banks.... and no, they have not changed.

HOWEVER: Theere are many, many other synths and sampled sounds available that will give you better sounds.

Look into the Native Instruments FREE kore2 player that I mentioned.  IT's FREE and it has some pretty good sounds in it.

For info on soft synths, I have some basic stuff on my web site that show's you how to load one up.  The new synths will blow your mind.

BTW: for what it's worth.... I listened to the song...... not bad at all especially considering how you did it and the synths you are working with. Get a few new synths and you'll be doing some really interesting stuff.

Now, I love Kontakt and the other products in Komplete, Independence Pro, Moog Modular V, AAS Ultra Analogue as well as Musiclabs guitar romplers and use at least one of them (often many more) in almost every track I make as well as third party inserts and send effects. What I'm sayin though is that one can easily get by and create great sounding tracks with only the bundled 8.5 Producer content. Also, the softsynths I've bought has not replaced the Sonar ones but rather complement them. I still use the bundled software a lot as well and they have really not been made obsolete by my other options.