X2 MIDI Synth Problem - Need help

Hang tight for a couple of minutes - watching the end of the debate here - I will put together a list of things to do and to look at.

Bob Bone

I am a bit unsure as to exactly how you have the tracks set up - can you give me a little more info?

I would like to know what tracks you have set up for this situation.

Did you set it up as a simple instrument track (audio and midi merged into a single track)?

If you have a separate midi track 'pointing' to the synth, are you meaning that the output selection for the midi track is set to drive the SD3 module?

Is there a separate audio track set up?  If so, what do you have specified for Input for that track?  (Should be SD3 - Primary Output:Stereo)

You indicate you hit play but there is no sound - what is trying to play?  Is there midi data that is recorded on the SD3 midi track?

Do you have the 'Focus' on the midi track for SD3?  Sonar will only produce sound for a synth if a midi track associated with that synth has Focus (meaning you have that track selected).

Please respond, so that I know how to explain things to you.

Thanks, 

Bob Bone

ive found session drummer to be a bit finicky at best when setting up.
sometimes it goes stright in and plays sound,sometimes i get no sound.
but there are things to make sure you have no problems almost everytime.
make sure your synth is plugged in and showing up in preferences.
make sure you pick a kit,though its default is to load one,sometimes it can be strange.
hit the midi engine reset button in the transport module.

mostly,just click play.
i find sometimes if i just click play it resets the engine and works right away.

other then that its always an I/O issue where something isnt routed correctly.

Thanks. This happens with all the SI plugins - piano, bass and strings as well as the Truepiano and CakeWalkSoundCenter. The only synth that seems to work all the time is TT1.
This is playing a pre-recorded sequence. There are no instruments hooked up to the MIDIman module. 

OK - I like the no hurry thing - I'm still sleepy, but DID wake up because I promised to.

I'll go back to sleep then and respond in the morning.

I posted a rather lengthy set of steps the other day for a midi newcomer and he followed those steps and got everything working right - I will dig that up and post it here for you to try out - just to get a valid working midi sound output to your master bus.  From there we can see what's up with your project.

So, I am zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Bob Bone

I have this one project at the minute where I have 3 audio tracks and 1 synth so far (Rapture, which works). When I try to add additional synths, either by laying a simple instrument track or setting up separate audio and MIDI tracks, no sound comes out of them. The MIDI from my controller isn't registering on the MIDI tracks. Funnily enough, the MIDI is registering in the soft synths themselves, but no sound is coming out. It's really confusing. 

Then, if I start a fresh project and set the same synths up in exactly the same way, they all work. I really can't figure out what is different about this project that it will only allow one synth to work. 

Mine are already set to 500. I really wish I knew what was causing this - there is obviously some setting in this particular project which is stopping synths from playing back, or MIDI tracks from registering. 

brundlefly


I'm going to guess:

A. Initial volume widget in MIDI track header or CC7 controller in the clip set to 0, silencing the synth every time you start playback.

Or

B. Zero Continuous Controllers When Play Stops is enabled in Project > MIDI preferences, and you don't have the initial volume widget enabled or a CC7 event in the clip for searchback to reset it on start.

This has definitely happened to me in the past.... made me crazy until I figured it out.

OK, Jim - thanks for sending me your trauma (midi file).

I figured out why nothing is being played, even though the meters are moving.

They have each track assigned to a different midi channel (all events on the 2nd track are recorded on midi channel 2, etc.).

The reason it works with TTS-1 or whatever it's called is that it is multi-timbral - meaning it can play more than one sound on up to 16 midi channels at the same time.

So, when everything is assigned to the TTS-1, each instrument is on a different midi channel by default, and it just works.

When you try to use different synths for the tracks, you have to make sure you set the synth up to match the midi channels in each track.

When I opened your project and assigned Kontakt 5 to play the 2nd midi track in your project, on a piano sound, I saw the midi track meter moving but no sound came out.  Once I looked at the midi events (they have some really weird cc 7 events galore on that track by the way), anyways once I looked at the events, I went back and set the Piano sound in Kontakt to play on midi channel 2, and I also set the Midi Output Channel for that midi track to channel 2.

Then, everything for that track played no problem.

It is going to be the same thing for each of those tracks.

Once you make your synth assignments for each track, make sure you have the midi channels set to what the track is expecting, and you will be fine.

Please verify this works with YOUR project, and I will be up for at least an hour, if you want to post more questions - and I also sent you my cell number if you would rather call me.

Hope this helps you out with your troubles here, 

Bob Bone

It's kind of fun- and I enjoy helping folks.

I am disabled, with a BUNCH of herniated discs, so I generally have some time available to do things like this.

I also have 2 bad knees - one got an injection of stem cells, and is happily growing new cartilage in the joint (VERY cutting edge).  The other knee is getting replaced in a few weeks.

The 9 herniated discs will be undergoing minimally-invasive surgery in the first part of the year.

But in the meantime, I work on my music and work some at trying to help folks with X2.

Bob Bone

No sweat.

Bob Bone

OK - finally have this resolved.

The imported midi track splits into multiple midi tracks, 1 per channel of recorded data.  No problem there.

Each of these tracks has embedded midi events of type RPN, which for some reason can whack out some synths, the free ones included with Sonar included.

The painful workaround is to delete these events from each track - I suggest this NOT be the method used.

Better method: 

1.  This will require a reload of each synth modified so go ahead and delete any of the SI-Piano etc synths you may have loaded into the rack
2.  Go into Utilities> Cakewalk Plugin Manager
3.  Click on VST Instruments (VSTi) on the left side
4.  Click on Dimension Pro - yup this one too
5.  At the bottom, click under VST Configuration, click on Plug-In Properties to open the property page for Dim Pro
6.  Check the box that says Do Not Intercept NRPNs.
7.  Click OK

You will need to do this for all of the Cakewalk included synths.

After you are all done, any of these synths that were loaded into the synth rack will have to be unloaded and reloaded to pick up the changes.  I do not know if a Sonar restart was required - I just went ahead and did one - I was playing Minesweeper anyways.

Now, if you load up 1 synth per midi track, and an associated audio track is set to pick up the output from each synth, and each imported midi track is set to output to a loaded synth, everything should play.

I verified the client's midi file that you sent to me in my email, and everything plays just fine on all the tracks.

Please feel free to ask me any additional questions on the above.

Bob Bone

I want to thank Bob for all of his tireless detective work on this matter. His finding this issue has kept me from looking like a dummy in front of a client and furthered my MIDI education by leaps and bounds. Seeing the cure to my issue I would NEVER have found it without Bob's efforts. This sequence was suppllied by the client and done on the latest version of Notae so apparently that program added the offending instructions to the file.
Again THANKS BOB!