"Single Track Instrument" and "Simple Instrument Track": Are these the same thing?

I would think so. Unless the tutorial has something else up its sleeve. 

I have never seen the advantage of an instrument track. I don't use them. But I tend to use multi out synths anyway. 

Yes, they are the same thing. It was probably just a misprint.

Scott

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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
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Beepster


More weirdness in the reference manual. In the tuts on page 119 where it is describing inserting a synth it says:

3. Clear all of the check boxes except for Single Track Instrument, Recall Assignable Controls,
and Ask This Every Time.


I've never seen "Single Track Instrument" before in X1 or X2  and it is not in the Insert Synth Options dialogue. I'm assuming this is just a name change. Am I correct in this assumption?

If you submit this as a 'Feature Request' they have folks who will update the documentation to correct that.  Good catch.


Bob Bone

I gave up trying to document all the misprints and errors as I was reading through the manual. I even got the feeling that some of it had been cut and pasted from the X1 manual without giving much thought to what had changed across the versions. 

@sharke... Yeah, I'm just gonna have to keep my wits about me I guess. Good thing I've got X1 Power to hopefully get things sorted out when need be.

Well the one nice thing about having Scott's book open alongside the manual is he goes into different stuff. Like now I know that I can split the Simple Instrument Track with a right click. I likely won't be bothering with the SIT stuff but I'm just trying to follow everything to a T so that way I can absorb and tinker with as much as I can along the way. Every step I make I end up poking around all the options a bit to see what's what. It's gonna take me forever to get through the whole manual but hopefully I'll be extremely proficient at the end of it all.

Hopefully. ;-)

Yup. Looking forward to the X2 edition. Keep up the good work, man. You've saved my sorry arse more times than you can know. ;-)

Personally I think they should get you, Craig and Karl on the manual writing team. Not to say the current team doesn't do a good job especially considering the amount of info they have to cover but the more eyes and brains on it the better.

This stuff is hard to figure out. Still better than the docs on a lot of the other softwares out there though.

Heh. Yeah it's a lot of work but there is a lot of cross over/repetition. Probably the easiest way is go through the tuts then go through them again and click on the "for more info on..." sections after completing each section. That covers most of the stuff you need to get going. Then ask questions here on the forum when needed and dig through the finer points of the manual and various books/vids. The Sonar University and webinar stuff is pretty darned helpful too.

Slow and steady is my philosophy. Good luck.

Okay. This is getting weird. I am REALLY trying my darndest to learn about all this synth stuff but these tuts are crazy. I understand how to insert synths in multiple ways but I'm trying to understand WHAT things mean as I go along. So here is the section about inserting a synth from the Browser.

pg 119

3. Clear all of the check boxes except for Single Track Instrument, Recall Assignable Controls, and Ask This Every Time.


So We've already figured out that Single Inst Track should read SIMPLE Inst Track. Ask This Every Time is straight forward in it's just asking if I want the dialogue to open up every time. I don't know what Recall Assignable Controls means but I guess I can figure that out. What's weirding me out is in the following section it is acting like somehow the process detailed is different when the only thing that has changed is that we are selecting the Synth Property page which AFAIK just means the GUI of the chosen Synth will open up... oh and they fixed the typo from Single to Simple which obviously means nothing... it's just confusing. This section just starts by saying use the main Insert menu instead of the Browser which performs the exact same function so I know that's not different.


pg 126...

4. Select the following options:

• Simple Instrument Track
• Synth Property Page
• Recall Assignable Controls
• Ask This Every Time


A new track is inserted in your project. This track is a combination of the two types of tracks you have learned about in the previous tutorials. It holds MIDI data and accepts a MIDI input, but it outputs the sound of the synth, like an audio track would. The DropZone window may also open. If not, you can open it manually by double-clicking on the track icon.


How is it different? This, as far as I can tell, is the exact same type of track inserted except with a different synth from a different menu and the synths GUI opening.


Am I missing something here?

But am I wrong in thinking both of the methods there result in the same type of track? Specifically a Simple Instrument Track? 

I know if I want to have multiple outputs I gotta mess with the Multiple Outputs stuff (I've done it with BFD) but that's kind of the type of thing I'm trying to sort out in my head. That Synth Properties dialogue really confuses me enough as it is. Oh well... I guess I should just move on. It worries me though what other weird stuff is gonna come up if this is what's happening at the most basic levels. :-/

Cheers.

Okay... seriously, these typos in the tuts are unacceptable. They are supposed to be the first thing new users do when they install Sonar.

Here is a jim dandy of a typo and it cannot be attributed to an old version or copy pasta or whatever. It is just sheer bollocks.

Here they are talking about inserting the TTS to play one of the tut projects. A full MIDI production:

On some computers, the tracks may play back through the TTS-1 at this point. However, on
computers that have hardware MIDI outputs available, you may need to specify the TTS-1 as each
track's output. Here's a fast way to do that:
1. Hold down the CTRL key and click each track to select them.
The tracks are highlighted to indicate they are selected.
2. Hold down the CTRL key and click any selected track’s Input control and select Cakewalk TTS-
1.
All selected tracks are assigned to the same input.


They keep saying INPUT when it should be OUTPUT. There isn't even an option for the TTS on the input. You have to click the OUTPUT control on the track to make the project work.


Are they actively trying to confuse newcomers? I actually remember not being able to do this tut because of this when I first started and thought I was just stupid or something. Now I know enough to have figured it out.

What the heck?!

Maybe I SHOULD type up a revised version. I feel sorry for anyone just starting out trying to slog through this mess.

Okay... rant over.

It's on page 131 of the X2 PDF. Follow the instructions to the letter and you'll see what I mean. I can understand not wanting to revise an almost 2000 page doc in its entirety but these are the tuts. They're not exactly long or overly in depth.

However I have not cross referenced with the current online version yet but still... I figure that would be the first thing they fix up after a new release.

...and yeah I know I'm being pissy. Just bugs me because I truly did feel like a numbskull for not being able to figure this stuff out my first go around. Now I know why.