I have Sonar X3 Studio and considering an upgrade to ....?  (Producer or Platinum)
(I rec. for our band and have just recently started playing with audio samples includ. in Studio.)
In current global settings, midi will not play, but audio waves will.   If I change my preferences (Change the Driver Mode to "MME (32-bit) and click Apply) to allow midi to be heard, will it interfere with anything?
I've seen that 3rd party samples are avail. in wave and midi.   Should I just stick with wave formats?
Thanks!
 

Audio and midi should both play.
What kind of audio interface (sound card) are you using and what are your system specs/Win version etc...
ASIO works very well, but doesn't like to share it's drivers with other programs.

Sounds like you are using Windows built in wavetable synth to play your MIDI. That uses MME, and it will give you long latency which may be a problem. Plus it is a cheesy synth with very limited capability. I would find a quality softsynth and use ASIO or WDM drivers for Sonar. I never owned studio, but I think you probably have some version of Dimension Pro.

K... in the right hand window under the media tab - audio library, there is: Loops and One shots.
these all act like waves ~ paste/drag'em  them right into a trk.
there is also a midi tab with a ton of files but these will not play.
I did obviously see that I can change my driver mode to MME 32 bit, but I still have the question: will it compromise anything else in Sonar?
 
Here is what was s'posed to show up in my forum signature:
Sonar X3 Studio 64 bit, AMD 3.4Ghz, 64 bit op. sys., 12 GB RAM, 1 TB HD, Windows 7 Ultim., I/O MOTU 2408 MKll PCIe 424 sound card, Sound Forge sound card (not default player tho), no addtl. 3rd party plug-ins or audio files.
 
thanks in advance!
Ed

A quick Q, why are you using the MME drivers instead of MOTU's drivers?
Have you tried MOTU's drivers?   http://www.motu.com/download
 
MME drivers really won't be able to handle the demands of softsynths/midi playback. You should try using WDM or even better the ASIO drivers.

You need to insert a soft sent to play midi sounds. Sonar does not play midi without a soft sent installed and the midi tracks output pointed at it. As said when you switched to MME mode you are directing Sonar to on board wavetable sounds which are low fi compaired to the proper soft synths. 
Studio has fewer synths than Producer and the newer versions. But there are more than enough to get started. 
TTs-1 is the GM synth you can use instead of Wavetable and it will play all midi files. 
It can take a lot of time to explore all the sounds that come with Sonar. 
And there are many free VST's from 3rd party vendors. 
Session drummer is the best for drum sounds but you needto load a kit to make it work. 
Sounds like your just getting started with midi so it's a slow learning curve hang in there. 
Recording real audio is much easier than figuring out midi if your new to the concept.
 

Good point Johnny....I took it for granted that Ed had a softsynth already inserted. In case you don't know how to do this, here's a good link to show that:
 
https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR%20X2&language=4&help=SoftSynths.04.html

Thanks all,
I've inserted soft synths, but yet to get it to play.
I can see Cake. Sound Center Soft Synth glowing blue and right click it, "Enable Midi Output" is checked.
For the "In" I chose Cack. Sound Center Ch.6 (the only midi channel in this proj.)
For the "Out"  I selected Cakew, Sound Center
For the "C" (don't know this one)  Cake. Sound Center #6
solo this trk. and the meter is jumpin' but no audio
all other wave trx. still play
I followed the various Insert Soft Synth Options choices...  confusing...
 
 
Any sugg.?
thanks again,  "whew, learning curve ahead!
Ed

You shouldn't have to futz around with the inputs or outputs, Sonar will do all of this for you.
 
Simply go Insert > Soft Synth > (choose anything from the list)
 
At this stage, do not choose "Simple Instrument Track", choose separate Audio & Midi and choose First Stereo Output (or something like that, sorry not at my DAW). Sonar will create all the necessary tracks and set the IO accordingly.
 
All you have to do now is feed the midi track with some notes & you're good to go.

http://www.cakewalk.com/D...&help=Browser.04.html#

Look for the heading To Preview Midi Content from the browser - full explanation on this subject.