My First Rapturious Experience With Sonar 6
I had used Cakewalk Guitar Tracks Pro 3 for a long while, and just recently upgraded to Sonar 6 along with the amazing synth software Rapture. I am just starting to learn MIDI so I don't know how ridiculous this thread is but here goes.
I figured since this board is relatively quiet I would just post my experience this afternoon messing around with Sonar 6 and Rapture. Any advice would be appreciated.
I got an Axiom 49 midi keyboard. The install was kind of weird in that at one point it was looking for Dazzle software which is some crappy video software I had thought I completely deleted off my PC a year ago. But either way, when I plug in the USB and the MIDI cables the Axiom works when Sonar is loaded up and Soft Synths are inserted. The TTS-1 synth that has piano and other sounds seems extraordinarily quiet though. Even when I crank up the input volume on the screen, it is still not really usable because it is so quiet. Rapture on the other hand, I have to reduce the input volume because the sound is so huge which is great. I am not sure how to work the MIDI keyboard other than playing the keys themselves. I tried moving a slider (D9, 1) and it changed the sound slightly, I slide it back and the sound totally disappeared altogether. Are all those sliders and knobs really necessary?
So anyhow, this is what I did just for the record in that it may help someone and that you guys can point out where improvements can be made in the steps taken.
1. Turned on MIDI keyboard that was connected via MIDI and USB
2. Started Sonar
3. Selected Jazz Trio template
4. In Drum track inserted Soft Synth Session Drummer, picked a beat, dragged it into the track then copied and pasted the MIDI info to total 2 minutes or so.
5. In Piano track inserted Soft Synth Rapture then played a simple E-D-A Sympathy For The Devil kind of progression. I think the Rapture sounds are amazing and used Rapture's RGC Instant Electronic 2 preset after trying out about 4 or 5. Again they all sound cool, but just picked this one to get the project going.
6. In Bass track I picked a Rapture bass and recorded 4 measures of E-D-A-E, fined tuned it in piano roll, then cut and pasted for most of the duration of the song.
7. Since my guitar is tuned Eb, I transposed the MIDI stuff down a half step.
8. Inserted an audio track for guitar and improvised over the Rapture and SessionDrummer2 stuff.
9. Mixing consisted of adjusting output levels only, no time for panning tracks, effects on individual or multiple tracks or other adjustments.
10. Highlighted all the measures of the song, then all the individual tracks including the MIDI info track and the related MIDI output track.
11. Exported to an mp3.
In case anyone wants to hear the little jam session, this is it:
http://www.compobeachbum.com/music/song1.mp3 Edit: I played it back and the bass was a little off sounding, so I went back to Sonar and saw that I had lowered the bass track a half step in addition to transposing the track down a half step previously so I undid that extra half step and re-exported the mp3.
post edited by Snouter - 2006/12/03 20:57:28