Note Entry Help Needed Please

Hi Guys
 
I have Sonar X1D and I want to enter notes manually on the stave.
 
Is there any help anywhere on how to do this please?
 
Thanks
 
Alan
 

CJaysMusic


Are you unable to enter the notes with your mouse in the staff view?
 
I want to learn how to use notation.
 
From assigning an instrument to a track,to how to input notation
manually so I can hear what I am entering.
 
I thought there may have been a video somewhere about it.
 
Alan
 

While CJ is absolutely correct, I personally use Staff view for 90% of my music creation.  It has some quirks and does not do everything a full notation program does, but once you get used to it, it is fine.  I was classically trained and find Piano Roll views frustrating (except for specific tasks).

One tip: sometimes Sonar is goofy about which note value it enters when you click with the pen.  I enter a note, right click it, and then change the duration.  Once I have some quarters, eights, etc. entered, I CTRL+Click to drag them where I need new notes.  This is really fast once you have the first bar or so of music done.
 
Editing to explain more.  Let's say you have set the clock in Preferences to 120 ticks per quarter.  This means a whole note is 480, an 1/8 note is 60, etc.  So if I click and Sonar puts a quarter where I want an eighth, I right-click the note and change the duration to 60.  Then when I want more eighth notes, I can just drag-copy that one.
 
Sonar defaults to 960 ticks per quarter, I believe, but I find I don't need that much resolution for MIDI and the bigger the numbers are, the more typing you have to do when you edit notes.  120 is fine for most things.  If you want more resolution, you can go to 480 or whatever.  Most people will not hear a one-tick difference at 960 unless the tempo is really slow, but whatever works for you and your music...

 Asimmd - while I don't know about the possible tutorials on what you're interested in - I enter almost all of my MIDI via X1's 'staff view' (I don't have a MIDI piano/keyboard/controller, but will eventually buy one).
I create a MIDI track,
'insert a softsynth',
assign the MIDI track's 'output' to the softsynth,
open the 'staff view',
select the 'pen tool' with which I then enter the notes,
each time I put a note on an appropriate place in the staves, I can hear the note created.

This is exactly what first got me interested in Cakewalk, it worked very intuitively for me. From scratch, I created a whole drum track merely in the staff view, entering per mouse and duplicating with copy/paste. Continuing with a MIDI bass track, then pianos/synths, I had a complete song ready for mic input from vocals and guitars in an afternoon. I've found no need to change this method since.

Thanks for the replies,the reason I don't use piano roll is I don't play keyboards very well. 

Alan, I don't play at all, let alone very well.


I enter everything a note at a time in the prv (using copy/paste as required)


It helps to have a keyboard attached of course but if you make full use of the Smart Tool it couldn't be simpler.