Hello,
I have been buying the Cakewalk DAW since the very beginning.  I currently have Sonar platinum (Dorchester).  I have never really used the DAW for playing music because I never understood it.  But I am currently trying to set up a project to play a MIDI song file with 8 tracks to play on the included soft synths.  I can't tell you how many hours I have tried to get this thing to work.  Here is my problem:
 
My driver is set to WDM/KS.  I have also tried WASABI, ASIO doesn't work on my laptop, but these shouldn't matter for my problem.  I imported a multiple-track MIDI song file.  It plays fine, in that the meters on the MIDI tracks bounce as expected.
 
I created a Dimension Pro soft synth track and assigned a patch/program to it.  On the MIDI tracks I assigned the inputs to None, since there would be no additional sources.  On one tracks output I selected Dimension Pro 1, the soft synth track.  Seems kinda intuitive.
 
I set the Dimension synth track input to None (or most any of the other choices from "Dimension Pro 1", or "All Inputs" and various MIDI channels in these groups), and the output goes to Master.  But the Dimension track doesn't play.  It's output meters don't bounce no matter how I set the inputs and outputs.
 
This has been my problem forever with Sonar.  After more than ten years with this product I want to get over this one hurdle.  I have tried so many combinations of inputs and outputs, to no avail.  What can be my problem?

When MIDI files imported into SONAR do not play through Cakewalk sfz engine synths like DPro it is usually because there is extra data which causes the sfz engine to shut down. There are a couple of ways to deal with the problem. Clean up the MIDI file in the event view removing everything but the note and CC data. Another way is in DPro plug-in properties, enable "Do not intercept NRPNs." The plug-in properties dialog is on the VST2 dropdown in the DPro UI header and in the Cakewalk Plug-in Manager. It is also possible to setup the MIDI Event Filter MFX to prevent the data from going to the synth.

Thanks for the suggestions.  This is a Note data only file with no CC's or volume events, created by the Overture score editor, formerly a Cakewalk product.  I set "Do not intercept NRPNs." in DPro but no help.  Still no triggering of the synth.
 
There is one additional Synth, Serum from Xfer Records (top rated in Keyboard Dec 2014).  It doesn't trigger either.
-Mike

Do the files play using TTS-1?

mbunkerusa
Hello,
I have been buying the Cakewalk DAW since the very beginning.  I currently have Sonar platinum (Dorchester).  I have never really used the DAW for playing music because I never understood it.  But I am currently trying to set up a project to play a MIDI song file with 8 tracks to play on the included soft synths.  I can't tell you how many hours I have tried to get this thing to work.  Here is my problem:
 
My driver is set to WDM/KS.  I have also tried WASABI, ASIO doesn't work on my laptop, but these shouldn't matter for my problem.  I imported a multiple-track MIDI song file.  It plays fine, in that the meters on the MIDI tracks bounce as expected.
 
I created a Dimension Pro soft synth track and assigned a patch/program to it.  On the MIDI tracks I assigned the inputs to None, since there would be no additional sources.  On one tracks output I selected Dimension Pro 1, the soft synth track.  Seems kinda intuitive.
 
I set the Dimension synth track input to None (or most any of the other choices from "Dimension Pro 1", or "All Inputs" and various MIDI channels in these groups), and the output goes to Master.  But the Dimension track doesn't play.  It's output meters don't bounce no matter how I set the inputs and outputs.
 
This has been my problem forever with Sonar.  After more than ten years with this product I want to get over this one hurdle.  I have tried so many combinations of inputs and outputs, to no avail.  What can be my problem?

it's a bit confusing from your post but if that is the audio track then it needs to have as input the output from Din Pro

No, the MIDI file doesn't play through the TTS-1 either.
 
I started over with a clean new project, imported the MIDI tracks and set up a single synth.
 
The MIDI tracks are imported from a pure MIDI song file with no controller data or Volume events.  One track is output to the TTS-1 synth currently, and the TTS-1 input is set to either "Virtual Controller Omni" or None, the only options available except "Manage Presets".  The synth is not triggered, and that is the current problem.
-Mike

The routing is incomplete. If MIDI tracks output to a synth there must be an audio track with the input set to the synth to play the audio. Or use an instrument as described in tutorial #4 http://www.cakewalk.com/D...;help=Tutorial4.1.html
 
 

OK, I have been working on this problem for weeks.  It is a problem that I have had with each DAW since Pro-Audio.
 
I have a pre-recorded input MIDI track and am plugging it into a soft synth (I have tried several soft synths, TTS-1, DPro, etc.).  The problem is NOT capturing the audio from the soft synth.  It is that the synth is not triggering from the MIDI data.  I can see the MIDI data in the track window and that track is playing fine, per the output bar.
 
What could be simpler?  One MIDI track with data, plugged to a single soft-synth set to receive data from that track.  It all occurs within Sonar.  No external devices are involved!
 
There is something spooky here.  I have viewed several tutorials (U-Tube, Cakewalk tutorials, forum suggested tutorials from here and there).  I am desperate to get a soft synth to trigger.

If you put the midi file up somewhere I can d/l it I will try it for you on my system to see if I get the same problem.

mbunkerusa
OK, I have been working on this problem for weeks.  It is a problem that I have had with each DAW since Pro-Audio.
 
I have a pre-recorded input MIDI track and am plugging it into a soft synth (I have tried several soft synths, TTS-1, DPro, etc.).  The problem is NOT capturing the audio from the soft synth.  It is that the synth is not triggering from the MIDI data.  I can see the MIDI data in the track window and that track is playing fine, per the output bar.
 
What could be simpler?  One MIDI track with data, plugged to a single soft-synth set to receive data from that track.  It all occurs within Sonar.  No external devices are involved!
 
There is something spooky here.  I have viewed several tutorials (U-Tube, Cakewalk tutorials, forum suggested tutorials from here and there).  I am desperate to get a soft synth to trigger.

So what happens if you (for now) bypass using your pre-recorded  Midi track and just enter some notes of your own?
 
Do they sound properly?
 
I assume you're going through the Insert > Soft Synth : Check "Midi Source" and "First Synth Audio Output" routine yes?