Re:Sonar X2 Essential Step sequencer
2013/04/30 21:17:34
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Jamesf89: Sounds like a MIDI buffers issue as Glen says. Go into Edit menu/preferences/MIDI/Playback and Recording and near the bottom of the window is Prepare Using: XXX Millisecond Buffers. By default that's set to something like 200, which is usually too low to get reliable MIDI playback. Try setting it to 500 and see if your Step Sequencer problem goes away. If that doesn't fix it, try a higher number. The problem is that if Sonar doesn't have enough time to buffer and line up MIDI far enough in advance it kind of trips over itself once the buffer is full. The step sequencer is particularly prone to this. In fact, all kinds of very common MIDI record and playback weirdness can be fixed by increasing that buffer. Including strange playback problems such as the one you describe. Why it's set so low by default is anyone's guess. If that doesn't sort the problems out, say so and we'll see if we can work out any other fixes. Setting the MIDI buffer to a higher figure is a good idea in any case. Bob - I use the per step probability feature quite a bit (a little randomness can be an interesting thing - and I use the step sequencer for more than drums - it's great for bass lines for a start). I've never found any problems with that particular function at all. My (educated) best guess is the MIDI buffers are the issue here.
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