• SONAR
  • Using Trillian in Sonar without a Midi Keyboard
2017/02/11 06:48:36
Chrisdude
Hi Folks. I am a guitarist and recording guitar I know. I have played on many CD's, however, for the first time I have decided to record a full track. Drums are fine, guitar ghost is done. 
My question is I have Trillian as a bass module, how can I program bass without a midi keyboard? I have seen manual note by note programming done in Nuendo using the on board "Piano Thingy". I can load up Trillian as a track and the module is there, but I have NO IDEA how to arm it and use the screen piano to play notes. Can someone PLEASE help me? It's probably just a button I have missed. I realise this is a newbie question, like I say, I am a guitarist ;-)
2017/02/11 07:23:05
garrigus
You can manually program a MIDI track in SONAR in a variety of ways. You can use the Staff view to enter music notation. You can use the Piano Roll view to enter notes represented as rectangles lined up to a piano keyboard. You can use the Step Sequencer to create your own MIDI loops and then piece those loops together to create a track. You can use SONAR's Step Recording feature to record a MIDI track one note at a time.
 
You'll need to decide how you want to work and then look up those features in the SONAR documentation to learn how to use them to create a track.
 
In addition, there are companies that provide MIDI bass loops, which would allow you to just drag and drop the loops into a track to arrange a track from pre-recorded parts.

--
Scott R. Garrigus - http://www.garrigus.com
* Cakewalk SONAR Video Tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/u...gus?sub_confirmation=1
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series: http://garrigus.com/?PowerBooks
* Publisher of the DigiFreq music recording newsletter: http://www.digifreq.com/
* Publisher of the NewTechReview consumer tech newsletter: http://www.newtechreview.com/
2017/02/11 07:42:41
stevesweat
select the track then click view>piano roll view, or staff view. If you read music staff view might be easier
you don't have to "arm" the track to use either method, here are videos on each method:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_N7NDWhYik&list=PLKRYWdEpbc5PgUgvrNuSvVyfv5qkll0qj&index=13
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3IGVTwBe5M&list=PLKRYWdEpbc5PgUgvrNuSvVyfv5qkll0qj&index=33
 
2017/02/11 09:12:16
Chrisdude
You guys are awesome. I was just going to post a screen shot of "What to click on". I am sorry for a fundemental question guys.

Ok, let's get this done then!!!
2017/02/11 10:02:57
57Gregy
I don't have Trillian, but for most synths, the onscreen keyboard is just for auditioning sounds, not recording notes. But, if you're referring to SONAR's onscreen keyboard, that can be used to enter notes in some newer versions.
2017/02/11 12:36:20
sharke
Also don't forget Trilian has an excellent arpeggiator if you want to spice things up a little depending on the genre of music you're making. 
2017/02/11 13:40:57
mudgel
Sonar also has an inbuilt "piano thingy".
2017/02/11 14:04:13
Sanderxpander
Or, you know, since you're a guitar player, record the bass line on your guitar (play as clean as possible) and then drag the recorded audio file to your midi/Trillian track.
2017/02/11 20:25:39
bbach
You can use the pitch to midi feature in Melodyne, but it will not accurately do pitch bends. Save up for a Fishman Triple Play. It's works really well and is a total gas, especially with Trillian.
2017/02/11 22:26:03
sock monkey
What sander pander just said is by far the easiest way to turn any audio track into midi. Certainly a real bass would play it better but no reason not to be able to play the bass line on a guitar. Super simple to drag and drop to a blank midi track and melodyn will turn the audio to midi. Now you lower it -12 and then you will probably have to edit a few glitches. Then quantiz and send to any synth.
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