Yes Susan but think of it this way Sonar is not the sequencer here. It is the sound module. The MPC is driving  Sonar's softsynths not the other way around.

BTW I use hardware synths too. This situation is totally different.

I clearly misunderstood John's question, then.

The best way would be to export and import the midi file.

The MIDI data is already in SONAR when I record the Motif's output. I'm just playing it back and/or recording it into SONAR.

Sorry for the misunderstanding.

-Susan

Yes Susan but think of it this way Sonar is not the sequencer here.

Oh, okay, I see. Sorry I misread the OP!

In the past, I've usually taken the easy way out that the Motif provides and just saved the MIDI sequence to a memory card and imported that into SONAR.

However, I've also done it the hard way, and synced SONAR and the Motif and recorded it that way. It's not pretty, but it definitely can be done, depending on the sync options available.

-Susan

Same here Susan that is what I was trying to get the OP to understand. The MIDI data that is driving the softsynths can be recorded in Sonar and then use to bounce or freeze the synths to audio. It is really a simple process. Plus it gives the OP the option of being able to edit it at will, the MIDI data that is.

I think everyone is doing something some-what similar but bvideo and brundlefly got what I was trying to do. 

I think the idea of transferring files, and such is cumbersome and old school.  The way bvideo described worked exactly how I would expect.  It is like running an MPC 2000 as a sequencer and a Yamaha Motif as the sound module and then recording the tracks into Sonar, except instead of using a Motif as a sound module, you use Sonar VSTs.  A very simple process, thanks again.

EGreenMusic


I think everyone is doing something some-what similar but bvideo and brundlefly got what I was trying to do. 

I think the idea of transferring files, and such is cumbersome and old school.  The way bvideo described worked exactly how I would expect.  It is like running an MPC 2000 as a sequencer and a Yamaha Motif as the sound module and then recording the tracks into Sonar, except instead of using a Motif as a sound module, you use Sonar VSTs.  A very simple process, thanks again.

I'm thinking using a hardware sequencer is the old part of this, transfering files to a computer is how you get out of old school.

I felt that way too, and then I started to really explore how I want my music to 'sound' (the very very fine details) and I ended up going back to a sequencer sampler because some things software just cannot do, at least not as fast.  And when i first used a hardware sequencer a few years back I did not know what I wanted to accomplish.  But I am also very much sample-based as a producer.  Sonar imo is the best sequencer I've used for MIDI (vs. MPC's, Cubase/Nuendo, Korg, etc) but everything has limitations.  Hardware has many limitations, but for what I want to do it does not limit me.  But I still use Sonar for tracking and mixing before I send for mastering.  I love Sonar!

bvideo
I tried something freaky and got a result. Perhaps you can make a procedure out of it.

I made a project with just one softsynth track pair. I entered one MIDI event on the midi track. As you predicted, this enabled "bounce to tracks" in the edit menu. I enabled the echo on the midi track. I selected "all" and then went through the bounce to track procedure, with the synth audio track as the source and a new track as the destination, and with fast bounce off, live bounce on, audible bounce on. The trick is to place an event far enough out on the timeline so that the bounce will spend enough (real) time to let you play the whole song from your external sequencer. While the bounce was running, I played notes on my controller. I could see meters running and hear the audio. When I canceled the bounce and elected to "save the audio", I saw the new track and an audio waveform appear and I could play back that track and it did indeed record the audio of what I played.

Bill B.

Unbelievable.  Is this still the way to record live soft synths using lets say the UA1G, which has one stereo in and out?

You realise this thread is 5 years old of course...
 
No,  it's not the way to record live soft synths, it's a workaround to force Sonar into doing something it's not intended to do.  You're expected to record the midi stream not the audio.  Once you have the midi stream you can edit it, bounce it, whatever.  But you're not expected to record the live audio directly.  It's not what Sonar is intended for.