Nope no dice.

Well I just tested it out with Dropzone so something else is wrong.
 
Close your project, open a new project, insert Dropzone (as a Simple Instrument Track) and set the input to the Virtual Controller as I described above. What happens?
 
I'm getting you to do this so that all previous changes you may have made will be deleted because you may have set something else that's now screwing things up.
 
Remember you NEED to make sure the MIDI Echo button is enabled. If you do not see a big blue button on your track controls it is not engaged. If you need help with that let us know.
 
Cheers.

What happens if you click on the keys in DropZone's controller? If you get audio, it's a MIDI routing issue. If not, it's an audio issue.
 
Also make sure nothing else is soloed...

Oh... and by the way the "Default" patch for Dropzone is a "swelling" type patch so that may be misleading. There is no sound at first when you hold down the Virt Keyboard keys (or the keys in the Dropzone GUI). You have to hold it down for a while before the patch swells up and is audible.
 
Switch to another patch to get a more immediate sound when you press the keys.
 
That screwed me up a bit when I tested this.

Work through tutorial #4.
Disable the MS GS synth, it is not necessary. Use TTS-1 instead if you want GM sounds.

You can also replace Dropzone in the tutorial with any other bundled synth. The all connect the same way either with an instrument track or at least one audio and one MIDI track.

Good thing for a very clear manual chapter --- how to get a simple midi to audio thing working immediately.

williamcopper
Good thing for a very clear manual chapter --- how to get a simple midi to audio thing working immediately.

I take it that you are not actually commenting on the usefulness of scook's suggestion of going through Tutorial 4 or the many videos on Cake TV, but choosing instead to make what you think is some oh-so-clever sarcastic remark instead of actually reading his post and trying to be helpful. His problem is obviously not getting it to work, he already had it working. His problem is finding out what changed so that it no longer works. 
 
If the premise of a thread is asking for help, comments that contribute nothing to that process have no value.
 
We have no idea what type of audio interface is being used, how Windows is set up, which operating system, how tracks are assigned...it's crucial to define the problem more precisely, particularly since we are talking with someone who describes himself as a "newbie."
 
I'm still waiting to find out if it's an audio or MIDI issue as determined by playing DropZone's keys, then more constructive troubleshooting can begin.

Sorry guys figured it out. When I added my Soft Synth tracks the tracks were defaulting to 'First Synth Audio Output' or something like that. Once I changed it to 'All Synth Audio Outputs: Stereo' it started working though now I get a ton of tracks.

kennyrosenyc
Sorry guys figured it out. When I added my Soft Synth tracks the tracks were defaulting to 'First Synth Audio Output' or something like that. Once I changed it to 'All Synth Audio Outputs: Stereo' it started working though now I get a ton of tracks.

Yes. That's actually more desirable because it gives you an audio track for every voice but it can be more complex to use at first (and you may need to go into the synth/instrument GUI to set the outputs from the synth manually to each track).
 
If you don't want all those tracks you could try using a Simple Instrument Track (which is an option in the Insert Synth Dialog). That is a combination MIDI and Audio track in one BUT they limit your mixing options in Sonar. SIT is actually the default so you changed something to make it load as "First Synth Audio Output".
 
It is weird though that you did not get sound from "First Synth Audio Output" because that usually makes the audio track inserted route to the "Master" bus from synths. So all sound from the synth would get mixed (inside the synth) and sent to that track. That would normally mean you'd get sound from it.
 
So in that case maybe your Master output in your synth got muted/turned down somehow (or maybe one of the other channels got soloed).... OR for some reason the audio track associated with the synth in Sonar (which is actually called an Instrument Track... not to be confused with a "Simple Instrument Track" which is the hybrid track I referred to earlier) is getting muted or routed improperly.
 
The above may sound like gobbledygook but there is a logic behind it all. You just have to really study what each of those terms mean and how the routing works in Sonar and in the individual synths/intruments you are using. It's all available in the Reference Guide.
 
There is also a good video series up on youtube that describes this as well as many other topics.
 
Google SWA Sonar Complete Youtube.
 
That should bring up the vid and a couple forum posts here on the forum that has the Chapter names/details so you can look up the one on inserting softsynths and general MIDI concepts.
 
Cheers.