Hello,
I am auditioning midi drum loops from the browser window in Sonar Platinum 64 bit and I don't have "preview at host tempo" checked, but all the loops are playing back at host tempo. I'd like to hear them at their original tempo, but they won't play at original tempo. I've tried it with this option checked and un-checked and the loops always play at host tempo. I've tried many loops from various sources. I've used Addictive Drums 1, AD 2 and Dimension Pro as preview synths and all play back at host tempo, irregardless of whether "preview at host tempo" is checked or not. I don't see any options in the soft synths themselves that would cause this. It may be something simple within Sonar, but i can't figure it out at the moment. Can someone help me?
 
Thank You,
Mike

Anybody have any ideas? Please!

As best I can tell, contrary to the documentation, "Preview at Host Tempo" only affects audio files

I'm not sure MIDI loops have a native tempo per se. MIDI data just specifies where in a measure that notes should fall. It doesn't matter if the measure lasts for 250 milliseconds or 10 seconds. So, the MIDI loop will be play back at whatever tempo it sees from the host. 
 
If you open an audio loop in the Loop Construction window, you'll see a native tempo. If you open a MIDI groove clip in the PRV, all you'll see is note data. One of the big advantages of MIDI is that it's data tied to musical time, not audio to absolute time, so it exists independently of tempo.

thank you,
 
Question:
Then why are midi groove clips listed with a specific tempq in the file name? Such as "094 Funk Breaks 01.mid" (one of the Groove Monkee fusion midi clips included with Sonar) Are those just suggestions for which tempo they were intended to be played back at?  So, in that case, the "preview at host temp" option would be irrelevant to midi loops in the preview pane of the media browser?
 
The help file states that "Preview at host tempo" pertains to audio and midi groove clips.
Here is the help file line:
"Preview at Host Tempo. When Preview at Host Tempo is selected, audio and MIDI groove clips follow the project’s tempo at the current Now time."
 
Oh, it looks like that pertains to after the loops have been inserted into the project; not in the preview pane in the media browser. But then I wouldn't be previewing it any more. I would have decided to actually use the loop in the project. It's a bit confusing.
 

Let's dig a little deeper here. A file saved as a Standard MIDI File Type 0 or Type 1 contains "native" tempo information encoded in the file header.
 
SONAR and Logic (and other programs) handle MIDI files the same way. If you have a new, blank project, choose Open, then navigate to a MIDI file and select it, the project will load the Standard MIDI File and acquire its tempo. This is because it's assumed that if you're treating a Standard MIDI File as a project, then you want to force the new project to play back at the tempo at which the file was created. 
 
However if you are importing a MIDI data file into a project, instead of opening it as a project, then the tempo information is ignored because it's assumed you want the file to play back at the project tempo. Preview is a browser function, and as the purpose of the browser is to allow importing files into an existing project, that's how the MIDI file plays back.
 
You might consider entering a feature request that when "Preview at host tempo" is NOT selected, then a MIDI file will play back at its encoded tempo, if present. However, I don't know if it's possible for SONAR to support two simultaneous, different tempos - the one for the project, and the one for file playback. Also, if it's a MIDI groove clip, I highly doubt that native tempo information is encoded anyway as the whole purpose of a groove clip is to be independent of tempo.

Thanks, Craig. That clears up a lot.

mcstringer413
Thanks, Craig. That clears up a lot.

Glad to help

Yes, audio loops are either time stretched to project tempo or not.
With MIDI its meta data so it always adapts to the project tempo. To have it run at original tempo I think we'd need to actually modify the MIDI events themselves dynamically to stretch or compress them. We'll look into it but its not so much a bug as missing functionality. Not sure how complex it would be to do but its not trivial.