diana2
Thanks for that, I really appreciate your help, and I am getting it, but…when I click on my Midi track, in the drop-down for Outputs I’m getting:
A list of three instances of Cakewalk TTS (numbered 2-4) + 3 drum things (I guess synths)
That sounds like you have more than one instance of TTS inserted into your project. As 57Gregy has said, TTS will respond to all 16 MIDI channels (some synths don't) but you can also have as many instances of the synth as you want as well. Have a look in the Synth Rack and see how many you have loaded. To get to that show the Browser by pressing 'B' and access the synth rack by clicking on the 'Synth' tab.
The drum things are your drum maps, a whole load usually show by default, they are specifically for drum synths and only respond to channel 10.
Only one of the Cakewalk TTS plays sound.
You probably only have one synth as a MIDI track output. The other possibility if playing from a keyboard is that you don't have a channels input echo button lit. The in focus channel will be on by default but if a track isn't in focus and you want to hear playback from it you need to click on it's "Input Echo" button, it's next to the track's record icon. If you don't want to hear it, make sure it is off.
My questions, if one of them is playing sound, and if that must be thru an audio track, how do I now which audio track that Cakewalk TTS #X is playing thru?
As 57Gregy said you'll see the audio meters moving on the track that is playing back, or mute them one by one until the playback goes silent.
Can a softsynth only play thru one audio track within the same project?
No you can have as many audio tracks as you want taking the same input (from anywhere not just synths) although that would be unusual if it was from the same channel of the same synth, but you could if you wanted.
In fact if you insert a drum synth it's quite common to have each drum sound play back through a different audio track. That way you have full control over a sound. You'd probably want to EQ and compress the Kick drum differently to the snare for example.
Why is the list of synths in the Midi Output dropdown different from the list I get when go menu- Insert Soft-Synth?
A synth won't show in the MIDI output dropdown until it has been loaded or inserted into the project/synth rack. The list in Menu-->Insert-->Softsynth is a list of all the synths installed on your system but not necessarily inserted into the project yet. hope that makes sense.
MIDI can seem quite complicated at first but when you get your head around it you'll find it quite easy, if you want a little more explanation...........
Have a look at the TTS, as already said it can take 16 channels input at once. So channel 1 could be a Piano, channel 2 a Bass guitar sound, channel 3 an organ sound, etc. etc. Channel 10 is traditionally used for drums. You can see those channels if you open the TTS interface and assign each sound there.
You may also have noticed that the TTS can output has 4 different audio outs. You assign which MIDI channel outputs to which audio output by clicking on the "System" button to the right, and then clicking on the "Options" button. You'll then see how to assign each MIDI channel to one of the four outputs.Each one of the four outputs would then need it's own audio track to playback through. That can be handy for separating sounds for different audio EQ etc. Drums through one output, Bass through another etc.