Newbie - sorta

Hi all, glad to be here...first let me say that I have been using/sequencing with cakewalk/sonar since DOS 3.0 and have sequenced over 1500 songs (my band used them so I just kept sequencing full blown songs (all instruments). Everything from 50's to now, from The Brecker Bros to Tower Of Power...from Nat King Cole to Katy Perry. Needless to say...I can sequence. (need a tune..ask me lol) My work flow has been evolving over the years and now a new comp (i5 quad/windows7/64bit etc.) with a new learning curve of which I'm here to see if I can shorten that curve. I have Sonar Producer x2...and couldn't be happier... Ok the skinny... I started with DOS 3.0 and know the ins and outs of sequencing and am really fast...that's all I used it for. Any other versions I've owned over the years were for sequencing only (I still use Sonar1 since I don't use it to record audio it's done me well)...I create then drag midi sequences into reason or acid or use my keyboard to get the sounds I wanted, create waves and send all that to Pro Tools to record anything that required a mic (vocals, guitars etc) and put tunes together there. Although I have learned to work this way...it's way to taxing to be opening and closing programs like that (I don't use rewire - just don't know how) Sonar Producer X2 has made it possible for me to do all of the above in one program...fricken yeah!!! ty :) With that said I need some help with the following, even if it's just to point me to video tuts or places in the manual etc...or better yet direct answers (not lazy and don't mind searching and learning from you tube, but hey..someone here knows the answers to these) I'm not new to this and will reference old work habits as I try to convert what I've done previously to this app...so cut me to the chase...thanks in advance Things I need to know asap 1. How do I add and use Native Instruments?(I want to use studio drummer, but this info will apply to any NI Instrument.)In PT I would create a stereo aux track >add kontakt>send the midi file/channel to the aux> send the aux to the master fader. From there I could manipulate the loaded NI Instrument. I've been right clicking on everything and trying to find out how to do this to no avail. How do I achieve this in SPX2? 2. I guess busses are the same as the aux tracks in PT...how do I create subgroups and assign things to a buss if that's how it's done.? 3. In PT aux's were numbered. In SPX2 are letters used instead of numbers? Believe it or not those are my biggest concerns right now...once I figure these two idiotic things out, I'm sure I'll have a few more q's, but I shouldn't have any major issues. It's weird to know a bunch about this daw thing yet I don't know the minimum basics here...I feel embarrassed, but it might help someone else out as well. Thank you very much

1. Check out this video for some information about using software synths in SONAR...
http://www.digifreq.com/digifreq/video.asp?ID=9

2. Click the Output parameter of a track and either choose an existing bus or choose New Stereo Bus to automatically create a new bus and route the track there.

3. Yes, buses are lettered, however, its the name of the bus that shows up in the track outputs. So you can use numbers for the bus names, if you'd like. Just double-click the name of a bus to change it.

Scott

--
Scott R. Garrigus - http://garrigus.com
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series: http://garrigus.com/?PowerBooks
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar ProAudioTutor video tutorial series: http://garrigus.com/?ProAudioTutor
* Publisher of the DigiFreq free music technology newsletter: http://digifreq.com/?DigiFreq
* Publisher of the NewTechReview free consumer technology newsletter: http://newtechreview.com/?NewTechReview

Regarding your 2nd point, yes, Sonar uses Letters to identify busses, but there's also a Name strip which you can double click to over-type with your own descriptions.

I find the easiest way to insert busses is in Console View (Views-----> Console View)

Scroll to the right hand side of the screen, there you will see your Main Outs (Some people call these their Soundcard or Interface Outs). To the left of these are your busses. Right Click in the grey space between existing busses & mains and choose "Insert New Stereo Buss"

Now you can route any (audio) tracks you like to this buss