Does anyone use LoopBe1 to connect the midi ports of two Cakewalk products? My understanding is LoopBe1 is kind of like the old Midi Yoke but runs in 64 bit systems.
 
I have a jam session on Sundays, and the keyboard player is using soft synths on my DAW. If I put the soft synths in Platinum (the DAW I use to record) the latency is very bad, not because of ASIO settings, but because of the open project's VST effects plug latency.
 
I have discovered that if I put the soft synths in Sonar X2, I can have Platinum open for recording and not be concerned about the latency of the plug ins.  (No more having to push the E key to disable the latency producing plugs).  Sonar X2 is just a shell for the VST soft synths, and no VST effects are loaded in X2.  So the X2 / soft synth combo becomes a sort of stand alone soft synth.
 
This is working well, but if I want to play back a recording made in Platinum, there is no Midi connection to the Sonar X2. The two versions of Sonar are evidently not link-able by midi.
 
I found a program called LoopBe1 that appears to remedy this, and it is free. But I hesitate to install anything extra on the computer, especially if it is running in the background as almost part of the operating system. The webpage says it works as a "native Windows™ WDM kernel mode driver".
 
Any LoopBe1 stories?
 
Or, if I am approaching this all wrong, please let me know.

I have used LoopBe1 only to route a recorded MIDI track to multiple synths inside Sonar. It introduced no obvious latency and the CPU load was undetectable. Essentially, it worked as advertised.
However, I think you may need LoopBe30 (not free) if you need to use more than one MIDI port.

if i understand correctly, you are hosting VST in x2, but recording in Platinum.
 
For this i would not have any vst in platinum and simply record the midi performance of the keyboardist of x2 as a midi track in platinum (ie, no vst).
 
For this,  loopbe is fine.. as is also MidiOX.. just ensure you do not setup a midi loop by enabling midi outs of platinum :D
 
You should be able to sync platinum to x2 for tempo, or to make it easier, just align it up later, and any latency of x2 or loopbe can be eliminated by slipping the track. Then, add the vst and fix his errors lol

Mystic38
For this,  loopbe is fine.. as is also MidiOX.. just ensure you do not setup a midi loop by enabling midi outs of platinum :

Mystic,
I was under the impression that MidiOX is 32 bit only.

MIDI-OX runs fine on 64bit Windows. At least it did when I loaded it on my 64bit Win7 box. I have not tried on my Win10 box.  I have used LoopBe1 to connect virtual keyboards and Jam Origin MIDI Guitar to SONAR. I have never tried connecting two instances of SONAR with a virtual MIDI cable.

I've used LoopBe30 under Windows 7, 8 and 10 with no issues in Sonar over the years.
I just use 2 MIDI ports, but it supports a lot more.
Typically I use an external MIDI program like Fractal Tune Smithy with it.
 
The free version did not work so well for me, but I don't remember why, it was a long time ago.
 
 

I use loopbe 30 in conjunction with Bome midi translator on my Win 7 64 install to run 15 virtual midi ports connecting various software and hardware. It works flawlessly. I have never run two instances of Sonar on a single system, however if you  are doing that successfully already, using loopbe to sync them should not be a problem. At the very least I can assure you Loopbe is safe to install on your system. It will have no adverse effect on performance and is a very handy tool to have in your kit.

its a 32-bit program, but not limited to 32-bit systems.. it works fine in win 7/64
 

microapp
 
Mystic,
I was under the impression that MidiOX is 32 bit only.

OK!
 
Thanks for all of the responses.
 
I will load it up and report back how things work out.
 
BTW, I don't mind paying for the full version if I need to. Most of the free software I have installed on my computer didn't work out in the long run. The developers need financial motivation to keep the software current.
 
 

Update:
 
I installed the LoopBe1 and it works exactly as advertised, no problems so far with the LoopBe1.
 
The idea of using the Sonar X2 (or any other DAW) as a shell for housing VST Synths in order to make them "stand alone" works fine. So now I can load up Platinum with VST effect plugs that cause latency and not have to use the E key to dis-able them. The soft synths operate at the minimum ASIO latency and are independent of the latency caused by big VST effects.
 
There are still a few details to work out, like connecting the X2 audio out to the Platinum audio in in order to record the soft synth audio. LoopBe has a program that does this, or I can just wire a pair of outs on my I/O to a pair of ins.
 
I think Sonar should automatically run the soft synths with no latency caused by effects, incorporating something like this so it is transparent and not require a workaround, all in Platinum.