Hi, something's bugging me, and I'd appreciate help fixing it (or telling me it can't be fixed)...
I'm using Cakewalk by Bandlab v2018.07
If I have a project containing nothing but imported midi tracks (call them piano, violin, cello...etc), but no audio or synth tracks. The midi tracks' outputs are all set to nothing, for obvious reasons, as there are no audio tracks to output them to. This is the behavior I'd expect. However, if I insert just one VST synth (say, Kontakt), every single midi tracks' output is automatically set to that one synth, regardless of whether I want them to be output to that synth or not. This happens even if all the boxes in the "insert soft synth options" dialogue box are unchecked. Furthermore, there doesn't appear to be any way to disconnect the midi tracks from that synth. This is not what I would expect. I prefer to manually connect midi tracks to a synth only when I want to, or at least be able to disconnect the ones I don't want. Is there a way to fix this? What am I doing wrong? Or is this a "feature" (bug)?
Any help would be much appreciated!

Hi. I believe that this is by design. Most of the time, a Vsti is needed to get sound from MIDI.
To remove several inputs at once, try selecting them, Ctrl-click and set output to none.
Hope it helps.
All the best.

Midi tracks' outputs usually default to the first softsynth loaded. As a workaround you could load up a dummy softsynth first and either not load a patch or turn it off. Then each midi track outputting to this synth would remain silent until you eventually set its output to something else.

This appears to work by design.  You can change the MIDI track output to any available synth in the project.  You can also click the mute button on any track that you do not wish to hear.

Thanks everyone. This is helpful. I'll leave it to the "powers that be" whether this is a good design choice. In my humble opinion the most logical design would be to give a choice of "none" among the soft synth output options on the midi tracks. But at any rate, at least now I'm convinced I'm not missing something obvious, and have some good work-around options. Thanks!

Tracks not is use should be archived. This lets the program ignore them completely.