From VST perspective... every time it is called for the next audio buffer processing, it also has access to the MIDI stream for the same time period. But that is not going to help you...
 
 
a) you write you have signal meters responding to the keyboard. Have you tried to RECORD MIDI and check what is recorded? Record arm MIDI track, record, play something on keyboard, stop. Open Event View to see what exactly was recorded
b) check that other parts are working. Drop some MIDI loop on the track (Sonar has many of them). Press play. Do you get the sound? If not, the problem is not in the keyboard...
 

This would be real dumb... Is input echo on? 
 
And to the guy who thinks Sonar is "broken" as far as midi goes,, the recent threads, and I think I've been part of all of them, are all midi newbies and possibly one thing in common is not understanding midi routing. I think these people  with issues are all using those simple instrument tracks... They might be why things don't work. I've never used them being one who likes my audio and midi separated. 
One person I helped took my advice and is now using  separate midi tracks and reports all is now working for them. 
 
1- Audio track - Records audio from your audio interface via ASIO drivers. Can also drop WAVE loops here.
2- Midi Track - Records midi from your midi controller, Keys or drums pads. Can also drop midi loops, draw them etc, outputs to a VST instrument or MIDI output to hardware. Makes no sound on it's own. 
3- VST instrument track plays midi data from a track or a live input from midi controller. Treated as an audio track. 
4- Simple instrument track combo of a midi and a VST instrument track 

Aslow3.....thank you. You have got me pointed in the right direction.
 
It's something with the vsts. If I record to a straight midi track, Sonar gobbles the midi right up and all is well as far as that goes.
 
I was so focused on midi, midi, midi, that I never bothered to actually see if a sound is made when I press a virtual 'key' with the mouse in Sonar. The answer to that is a big no. I can't believe I didn't even attempt that!!! Dumb-diddley-dum-dum-dum. Tunnel vision.
 
Anyways....I've checked all the Input Echo stuff. It's not that. As mentioned earlier, virtual keyboards in a vst aren't giving the usual visual cues that they've received any input. 
 
I tried rescanning all the vsts from whatever Edit/Preferences page that sits on. That didn't work, but could it be some sort of VST conflict that is causing this? Is there some config file to look at? A vst troubleshooter of some kind? I read somewhere on some forum where someone mentioned vst 'id's(?) conflicting. Is that a thing?
 
Thanks again. Things still don't work, but at least I think the real problem is identified which is the 1st step to getting it solved. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

So, you get no sound from VST, independent from Live/Recorded. Also in case a VST has build-in keys, they are also not working (when "played" with moused). Do I understand you right?
 
General settings to check: Audio buffer size (under 1024), MIDI prepare size (1000 or so)
 
 

Other questions....
 
Do VSTs register themselves with Windows in any way, shape or form, or are they just dlls of a certain type that when placed in a folder known to a DAW are read in and recognized? Or put another way, in software terms is the relationship strictly betwixt a DAW and the VSTs it reads in, and to windows VSTs are just dlls sitting in a folder somewhere and of no special interest?
 
If they aren't registered with Windows somewhere, would it make sense to remove them from the plugins folder and add them back one-by-one (tedious but do-able). Would Sonar bark if some of the vsts were not present?
 
I did find a couple of VST troubleshooters, but they are old (2007-2008), 32-bit and seem to have trouble with 64 bit vsts. Both I found throw up an alert about Addictive Drums that I believe is due to the Win7->Win10 upgrade. Other than that, I found 2 VST folders for some soft synth named Syng2. It may have been a freebie I downloaded long ago. Don't remember. In any case, one folder was named Syng2, the other Syng2 Stereo (or something like that). They both contained a VST with the same id. I moved that folder out of the VSTPlugIns folder, started Sonar, but that wasn't it. 
 
Anyways....that's where I is.
 
Thanks,
Bob
 
 

Hi azslow3....(I misspelled you moniker earlier....my humble apologies!)
 
Let me tell you the settings I have. I tried inserting an image, couldn't see, so I'll type it out.
 
Warning......I'm gonna sound like a newbie because sound drivers are not anything I really understand. I've been plug and play and ignore it with this stuff.
 
Wordy....but here's anything I saw that looked relevant:
 
AUDIO
 
ASIO dialog.
I've got a UA-1G sound card (mine says Cakewalk) using an ASIO driver. If I bring up the ASIO settings thingie, it shows me first an Audio Buffer Size with a scale of 1-10. It looks like the default is 6 as there is a little green arrow under that number. Mine is set to 4 which the dialog reports is favoring real-time slightly over stability.
 
Under that is
ASIO Buffer size set to 160 samples.
Use Smaller ASIO Buffer size is unchecked
Use ASIO Direct Monitor is checked.
 
SONAR AUDIO DRIVER SETTINGS
Playback Timing Master - None
Record Timing Master 1: UA-1G IN
Audio Driver Bit Depth 24
64-bit Double Precision Engine is Checked
Stereo panning Law: 0dB/center...argle, bargle don't feel like typing it
Dim Solo Gain -12 dB
 
Sampling Rate 48000
Buffers in Playback Queue 2 (cannot edit)
Buffer Size: (set at far left i.e. fast, and the slider control is disabled)
 
ASIO Reported Latencies
Let me know if this info is at all useful.
 
SONAR AUDIO PLAYBACK AND RECORDING SETTINGS
Driver Mode : ASIO
Dithering : Triangular
Items checked are:
Use Multiprocessing Engine (Plug-in Load Balancing not checked)
Use MMCSS
Always stream audio through FX
Always open all devices.
 
Let me know if anything else here is at all useful.
 
 
MIDI
All my devices that I expect to be listed are listed. For inputs there's APROs midi in, APRO 1 and APRO 2 and a TD-25 checked as well as at 64 I decided it was finally time to take up drums. Outputs all look right as well.
 
Driver Mode (?) is set to MME. Closed a project and saw the other option is UWP or something like that.
 
Record
Everything is checked, number of buffers is 64, Echo Sys Exclusive is also checked. The Sys exclusive echo port is set to APRO.
 
Playback
250 Millisecond Buffers.
Always Echo Current Midi Track is checked.
 
Nothing interesting looking under Midi files. Let me know if otherwise.
 
Instruments
Everything there....all instruments, all midi channels, etc.
 
Control Surfaces
The APRO is there with In Port APRO 2 and out port APRO. The refresh frequency whatever it is be set at 75 milliseconds.
 
I hope somewhere in there is the information you referred to. And thanks again!
 
Bob
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
[image]file://c:/apps/ASIO.jpg[/image]
[image]file://c:/apps/ASIO.jpg[/image]
 

"So, you get no sound from VST, independent from Live/Recorded. Also in case a VST has build-in keys, they are also not working (when "played" with moused). Do I understand you right?"
 
Yes. That is correct. I created a standalone MIDI track and then inserted a soft synth. I used the standalone midi track to record some notes. The output was routed to the vst and no sound was produced during recording or playback. Bringing up a vst with a virtual keyboard and Mousing a key 'pushes' the key down visually, but produces no sound. Playing a key on the APRO produces no response at all from the vst.
 
One other thing to keep in mind. As noted earlier, this problem does not seem to be Sonar specific. The demo of Studio One I downloaded has the same behavior. 

SONAR AUDIO DRIVER SETTINGS
Playback Timing Master - None           THIS SHOULD SAY THE SAME AS RECORD TIMING MASTER
Record Timing Master 1: UA-1G IN
Audio Driver Bit Depth 24
64-bit Double Precision Engine is Checked
 
This is why your not hearing anything I would guess. 
Your worrying and the location of your VST's and that's not your problem.
 
You need to get your Audio interface working properly. 
 
If you can open a VST instrument you should hear sound when you play the virtual interface in the GUI. Like if it's a Keyboard or drum VST you can play the instrument. You need to get that working. It would seem you need to make sure you have the most up to date drivers for your audio interface and install them again. 
Is there a audio driver for that interface for what ever version of windows your using? 
 
And you've ended up with more than one driver for your keyboard in all this, you should not have A 800 "2" that will certainly cause a problem. See if you can uninstall all these drivers and start fresh. 
 
 
Playback
250 Millisecond Buffers.   THIS SHOULD BE HiGHER  500- 750
 

I just posted the same issue, mine with a nanopad and a Roland!
 
I always create a midi track and an audio. When I play whatever synth, the lights in the system tray flash, there is a response in the meter but no audible sound. I can create an audio track and record guitar with sound. Like you I have run through all the settings over and over, created new projects, tried different synths, etc. to no avail.
 
I am no midi expert by far, but I am stumped and bummed. This week I got the Fall Creators update, a 2nd windows update and a Dell BIOS flash as my pc must have been on the shelf for a while and I am only recently getting to work on it. I hadn't gotten to this point before so I don't know if that had any bearing.
 
I really hope there is a resolution to this issue and I will watch this thread carefully!

Hello Cactus Music.....
 
I owe you one. Weird sequence of events though. I set the playback timing master to the ua-1g out and then brought up a soft synth with a virtual keyboard. Sound when I mouse'd the key, but no response to the controller. So I started composing you a 'thanks, I'm halfway there!!' response, took a quick look-see back at Sonar, twiddled a few notes on the controller, et voila, sound. Brought up the plug-in again, twiddled some more keys and the little virtual keyboard twiddled along.
 
So now it's 'thanks, it's fixed!!!!!'. I must have fumble-fingered that playback timing master setting. As I mentioned earlier, once I've got this stuff set and working I forget all about it. Things have been working for years now, and it's probably been about that long since I even looked at those settings. I would have never noticed my fumble-finger'ed-ness without your help. 
 
So thanks to everyone who chipped in with tips and I am good to go!!!!!
 
Completely off-topic.....where it looks like Gibson isn't selling Cakewalk, but just basically throwing it away, has anybody proposed the idea of releasing the source and continuing it as an open source project? Is that a naïve question business-wise? It seems a shame to just toss all that hard work and effort away, and if they aren't going to sell it and it's bound for the bit bucket, why not make some open source arrangement instead? I write software for a living, I'd chip in to such a project and my guess is there are others who would do the same. 
 
And again, my condolences to everybody who worked at Cakewalk. I've been using your stuff since it was Twelve Tone systems, am old enough to still be amazed at what is now possible to do musically in a little studio in a little room, and appreciate the work put in to make Sonar a pretty darn good DAW. May you all land somewhere you like.
 
Bob