This may have been asked before ...
 
Sonar (or I reckon Windows) is naming MIDI devices based on which USB port it is connected to ... so e.g. it can be "X-USB MIDI OUT" first and when you have to plug it into another USB port (which is on a different internal USB hub) on the same machine, it may get another name like "2- X-USB MIDI OUT" ...
 
Is there any way to manually rename that MIDI device name ??? The Sonar friendly name doesn't really help here, either.
 
It doesn't matter in the studio (where I follow a strict power on sequence and don't unplug cables) but for the live rig and its backup these MIDI device names always end up being different (despite same audio interface / digital mixer) and require going into each song of the play list to change that and save again ...
 
what am i missing?
 
 
 
 

Windows itself has a habit of not realising that what was plugged into USB port 1 yesterday is the same thing that's now plugged into USB port 2, 3 or whatever (to be fair, how could it tell?). So Windows treats it as a new device and loads the relevant driver for the device on the port it's now connected to while setting up a new entry in the device manager for it. That new device is then retained and opening Window's device manager and telling it to show hidden devices will often turn up quite a few of these "ghosts" if you don't always plug a device into the same USB port.

Windows sees USB MIDI devices as ports and assigns them an identity. Once in a while Windows might not notice that a device hasn't changed but still assign it a new identity.

Sonar can only report what Windows is telling it is there, so if Windows announces a "new" MIDI port to Sonar that's how Sonar will treat it. The "friendly names" will only work properly if the MIDI ports things are attached to don't change.

ok, so I don't have a chance to rename the MIDI device that Windows shows to Sonar ...
 
but is there any option/flag/functionality in Sonar to simply use the only activated MIDI port, even if it has a different name now ... it does prompt to select new MIDI input for every project that is opened - would be nice if it does this automatically for all projects afterwards (something like a "Yes to All" button or a default MIDI device in some *.ini file) ...

I'm back on this ... because it is really an annoyance and I have browsed the web and hacked the registry but without luck ...
 
Here's the situation:
We use a playlist of Sonar projects for live shows which switch FX and digi mixer scenes ... on the main machine windows named the MIDI port "X-USB MIDI OUT" but on the backup it named it  "2- X-USB MIDI OUT" ... so when transferring the projects to the backup machine, they will not work because when used in the playlist, each project prompts for reassigning a missing MIDI device (due to the different MIDI port names despite being the same device) ... so the only way to "fix" this is opening and modifying each project on the backup (which is time consuming and error prone and a hassle) ...
 
... it would all be so simple if Sonar would (A) address MIDI devices using their friendly names and (B) allow assigning a default MIDI interface to which all missing devices get assigned to (is there anything like this in some ini file)???
 
well, since I don't really believe in finding a solution, I might as well put in a feature request ...

You know, that you can rename the midi friendly name in the preferences and use that name instead of the physical port name by checking the option "Use friendly names.." ?
http://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR%20X3&language=3&help=Dialogs2.057.html
 
regards
_Markus
 
 
 

mdages
You know, that you can rename the midi friendly name in the preferences and use that name instead of the physical port name by checking the option "Use friendly names.." ?
http://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR%20X3&language=3&help=Dialogs2.057.html
 

Hi Markus,
 
yes i do indeed know and use that functionality ... however, this is only a way of shortening names in the MIDI device selection of Sonar tracks ... apart from that it does nothing i.e. it does not use the MIDI device if it is addressed by the "friendly name" (e.g. when opening a project), it only goes by its actual (=hardware port) name ... hence, my troubles ...
 
so in short: same physical MIDI device, but different OS assigned MIDI device name => assigning same MIDI friendly does NOT allow transfer between DAWs with proper assignment of MIDI devices

So I finally found a workaround for this issue:

• Install a virtual MIDI looper (e.g. "loopmidi")
• Create a new virtual MIDI port using exactly the name you need to duplicate ("2- X-USB MIDI OUT" in my case)
• Install a virtual MIDI thru program (e.g. "BOME MIDI translator")
• Virtually route MIDI THRU from fake/virtual MIDI port ("2- X-USB MIDI OUT") to physical one ("X-USB MIDI OUT")

Sonar now opens projects without complaining and sends MIDI messages via MIDI loop and MIDI thru to physical port.
 
However, it would all be so easy if Sonar would just reassign MIDI ports based on identical friendly names, as suggested here. Pls go there and vote :-)