I have Sonar Platinum and I am working with a virtual synth and a pre recorded midi file.  I have worked with virtual instruments for years and I have used them with midi files but I have a head scratcher that I cannot figure out.  The first note of the track is totally silent and then the 2nd note gradually fades in.  Then it plays normally.  I have looked at the events viewer and the first event shows volume 0 but then there is no event that shows why the second note "fades" in.  I want the 1st note to play and all following notes to play as well.  
 
A couple of things to note.  The meter on the midi track pulses when the first note plays for a brief moment, less than a second and then stays off until the 2nd note fades in 4 bars later.  I am totally stumped.
 
I have tried several synths and they all have this issue.  There is some controller event I am not able to see that is doing this, I am almost sure of it.  I really want to resolve this because the rst of the project is great.  
 
Thanks in advance for your help.

Did you try sliding the whole song over to the second measure? I find you should never start a zero. 
 
And I have found Sonars Event list hides some stuff like PG changes. 
My solution has been to open the file in Cubase and edit out any weird events that Sonar seems to hide. 
 

in your ttsseq.ini file add the line GeneralMidiSMFs=0.  this should let you see what's going on.  http://www.cakewalk.com/D...;help=INI_Files.5.html

Cool tip, but I am a bit confused.
 
Reading the description for that parameter, as well as looking at the meaning of its values (0 or 1), it would appear that setting that parameter to '1' would tell it to do the GM setup.
 
So, wouldn't I want to set that to '1', instead of '0'?
 
Bob Bone
 

I think all GeneralMidiSMFs=1 is going to do is cause all events to be imported one measure later, leaving the first measure empty for you to add MIDI setup messages.
 
The easiest way for us to troubleshoot the OP's issue would be for him to share the first few measures of the file simewhere. But my first guess would be that there's an attack time (CC73) message somewhere (possibly on another track) that's causing the attack to be so long that the first short note isn't long enough to be audible, and the second one fades in. But this would only affect synths that are capable of responding to CC73 (Dim Pro and Rapture will IIRC). But it also sounded like the first note has velocity=0, in which case it would just need to be edited to a higher velocity.

Well, I tried the ttsseq.ini edit and I am seeing everything I saw before.  There are 7 controllers but only velocity and pitch wheel have any data in them.  There are 2 expression CCs and 2 phaser CC2, both are flatlined. 
 
I will try to get the track out here so everyone can have a look at it.  It may be this evening before I can do that though.  It is a very simple keyboard part.

I have looked at the events viewer and the first event shows volume 0 but then there is no event 
 
So are you saying the first event is CC 10 - 0 and is it the same channel as the missing note? 
Delete it. 

cloudrunner77
There are 2 expression CCs and 2 phaser CC2, both are flatlined.

Expression = 0 will silence a synth. Expression (CC11) operates as a secondary volume control within the limit set by CC7 Volume.

We have success.  I eliminated the first command but it didn't change anything so I said WTH and deleted everything leading up to the first note's event and after it and that worked.  Logically, none of the commands should have had that effect but as we all know sometimes our "version" of logic doesn't match up with what is actually happening. 
 
Thank you everyone for your input.

This question comes up often with MIDI files made by others. What's worse is when they're gear-specific, and send out sys ex to configure things which other gear doesn't recognize.