Just got SONAR ARTIST (Couple questions)

Welcome to the forums.
Try inserting a soft synth by using the Insert/ soft synth menu.
Your Roland is simply transmitting midi data to trigger. if you want the sounds of your Roland keyboard, you need to use an audio track but also must hook up the audio outputs of the Roland keyboard. make sense ?
 
Your probably losing sound from Pandora because your soundcard cant share audio with 2 different applications at the same time. Sonar is a professional DAW and will produce better results with a dedicated soundcard.
What are you using ?
 

Thanks Chuck and Scook,
 
I was using track one. When I opened track two there WERE options for assigning MIDI IN and OUT, and when I activated them, what I played on my keyboard was recorded on that track, but far from verbatim. It was a mishmash of notes that continued to sound after I stopped the playback. After that initial attempt, I couldn't record any more notes. I want to do this all with MIDI, no audio inputs. But something is not set properly.
 
Chuckie,
 
I regards to your reply, it is a Realtek sound card. It will play YouTube and Pandora audio simultaneously.
 
I want to try soft synth, but I can't find the Insert menu. Where is that?
 
EK

Im afraid the WASAPI mode might not do much for you with Windows 7 but ASIO4ALL is a substitute and WILL get you where you want to go (using your keyboard and the soft synths). ASIO4ALL will take a bit of reading up on documentation and installation. You do not want to use onboard audio with Pandora and sonar though at the same time if you are going to use ASIO4ALL. you will create a feedback loop within the soundcards and it is nasty ugly.
 
but if you don't have a soundcard this is a clear choice among many.
If not your going to have Latency = you hit a note on your keyboard and the sound is produced a 1/2 second later.

If you have been into preferences and selected everything that applies, you must also click on "TRACKS" and select inputs and outputs, then expand each track. This can be done by dragging the bottom line of the track downwards sufficiently with the mouse, to reveal more selections of input and output devices, and also "Clips" where you may want to make other selections. (Quite a lot of clicking and selecting before you can start recording) don't worry it gets quicker with practise! After dispensing with the clip requirements, you can attend to the Input and output devices which appear at the left-hand side of each track. The identification icons or symbols for these are really tiny and hard to distinguish, so use your glasses or a magnifying glass. PLEASE Cakewalk, could you use larger print and symbols here, it would make life a lot easier. Now, after completing all of the foregoing, save the file, then click on "EXIT" at the bottom, and when you reopen it you should find everything working.
PS: IMPORTANT:  You may also find that connecting your Roland using a MIDI lead will solve some of your problems.
 
Let me give you the benefit of my experience: I am an 84 year-old novice (Admittedly with some accrued experience now) and recently, I had a baffling problem. I had bought a new M-Audio controller keyboard and a new Bespeco sustain pedal, and I had just upgraded to Sonar Artist, and I also upgraded my music libraries.  They worked well with the program in stand-alone mode. However, when I tried to use them within a VST plugin situation, that's when it all went wrong. Every time I used the sustain pedal I either lost the sound or it sustained and wouldn't stop! I worked at it for about three weeks, and only then asked for help from several experts. No one could advise me, but this is no reflection on the experts all of whom were really trying to help but they didn't know the state of my PC. So, I made a decision: I decided to save all the important files by doing a complete backup to a removable drive, and then format the hard drive in my desktop, reinstall Windows, repopulate with all my music production software, and guess what? I did all that, and everything worked and the sustain pedal worked! 
 
So, my advice is: start off with a clean sheet, get rid of all the dross that builds up in your computer, give the new software a proper chance to do it's stuff, it will pay dividends. I'm glad did. Hope you find this helpful. Best wishes,  Bernard.      

If you click in the Help menu there's a link to various tutorials which I recommend you do. Very basic but it will get you going .

Hi All,
 
Three Quick Questions, 1.) How do you set the start and end loop points?
 
2.) When I assign a MIDI Channel other than One to a track, my keyboard doesn't sound on playback. This results in all my tracks having to go through MIDI Channel One if I want to hear them, and any adjustment to volume, Pan, etc. effects all the tracks.
 
3.) It would also be nice to assign different patches to these tracks, but I haven't figured that out yet either, and my Roland Keyboard only supports a few patches (Harpsichord, Strings, Electric Piano) It would be great to grab a couple of those for some polyphonic work through MIDI.
 
EK

Hey Chuck,
 
That was VERY helpful. I've got the looping now. Still working on MIDI Channels... Leaving these unanswered.
 
1.) When I assign a MIDI Channel other than One to a track, my keyboard doesn't sound on playback. This results in all my tracks having to go through MIDI Channel One if I want to hear them, and any adjustment to volume, Pan, etc. effects all the tracks.
 
2.) It would also be nice to assign different patches to these tracks, but I haven't figured that out yet either, and my Roland Keyboard only supports a few patches (Harpsichord, Strings, Electric Piano) It would be great to grab a couple of those for some polyphonic work through MIDI.
 
ek
 

engineerkyle2447
 
1.) When I assign a MIDI Channel other than One to a track, my keyboard doesn't sound on playback. This results in all my tracks having to go through MIDI Channel One if I want to hear them, and any adjustment to volume, Pan, etc. effects all the tracks.
 
You may have to set local control on the keyboard to Off. Check it's documentation for how to do that.

2.) It would also be nice to assign different patches to these tracks, but I haven't figured that out yet either, and my Roland Keyboard only supports a few patches (Harpsichord, Strings, Electric Piano) It would be great to grab a couple of those for some polyphonic work through MIDI.
 
Scour the internet for an Instrument Definition for your keyboard. That will allow you to select which banks and patches you want to hear from within SONAR. You can also create your own.
 
getting a bass and treble clef in staff view.
 
In X3 (my most recent program), you open the Staff view, select Edit>Layout and choose Treble/Bass in the Staff Properties.