I am using Sonar 8.5 with an EMU sound card.  I am simply trying to convert a Midi track to an Audio track so I can burn a CD and store as a WAVE file.  I have checked my inputs and outputs and balance levels per the meter readings in both Sonar and my EMU sound card.  It all looks level on both left and right side the stereo input/output.  I have a good level, with no clipping.  When i record the audio track by playing the Midi track thru the db level on the upper side (don't know if that is the left or right side) comes out higher (up to 15 db) than the lower side (up to 9 db).  The overall audio track sounds ok, but I would like to have both sides mirror each other as I believe they are supposed to.
 
Any help would be appreciated.

What is the MIDI track playing back through? Soft synth? Hardware?
 
Other thoughts regardless of the answer to that are MIDI CCs 8 and/or 10. (balance & pan). Any present on the MIDI track?

Playing back thru hardware, a synthesizer.  Balance and pan all set at 0.
 
Thanks

Follow the link to the Cakewalk documentation site.  You can find most answers there.
 
http://www.cakewalk.com/D...elp=SoftSynths.12.html
 
Since you have 8.5, you may want to start with the main Sonar document site and see all of the help they have for Sonar under version X.   http://www.cakewalk.com/D...ge=3&help=toc.html
 
Peace
 
 

Thanks for the info regarding the Cakewalk documentation.  I have spent several hours reading it already to no avail.  I have always found this forum much more helpful.
 
Is there someone out there that can help please?
 
Thanks

Basics... MIDI is simply "note data" without sound. In order to get sound, you either need to insert a soft synth or route it through an external synth (which seems to be what you are doing).
 
In your case, you would need to send the MIDI to the external synth, but loop an audio cable (not MIDI), back from this synth into an audio track in SONAR (either an audio out or even a headphone out). If you play the MIDI track, you can arm/record that audio "loopback" into SONAR as a wav file. This would be a "real-time" process as there is no shortcut to speed up an external "render." This recording can then be mixed for export.
 
I am not sure if I understand your situation correctly, so please reply back if I missed the mark there.
 
Welcome to the forums btw!

All you need do is add an audio and record the audio from the hardware synth into that track. 

Thanks Mettelus and John.  I have done all you suggested, have converted numerous Midi tracks to audio in the past.  For some reason I just can't get the left and right side to balance on the audio track as explained above.

I never used 8.5, so not sure offhand what FX came with it. There are a few which will balance out channels fairly readily. (I think) You can also bounce the track (in Track View) into two mono tracks, normalize them, and then balance them with different fader settings on each channel as appropriate. I will shoot a PM to Bitflipper and link this thread since he is a hard-core 8.5 user. (Don't get too frustrated yet).
 
Another (much more extreme) option is to bounce the track to mono, and then back to stereo. However, this will negate stereo effects from the synth, but can also be put back (to a certain extent) with FX.
 
With variations that you are seeing, it almost seems that it could also be a connection issue. Does twisting/unplugging-replugging connections to remove some oxidation help any?

Mettelus, you are the winner tonight!  Sometimes the answer is so simple.  Your last suggestion sounded so right, given everything else and my not having any problems converting Midi to audio in the past.  I changed cables, and sure enough, I have a deficient one.
 
Thanks so much to all for your time in responding.