Sonar X2's help pages seem utterly incompatible with my Windows 7

A good way to get help on issues like this is to start by listing your entire system specs, including what soundcard/interface/driver

By specs I mean your computer specs - what CPU, how much RAM, how many & size of hard drives, SOUNDCARD/INTERFACE etc.

Teksonik

Bristol_JoneseyBy specs I mean your computer specs - what CPU, how much RAM, how many & size of hard drives, SOUNDCARD/INTERFACE etc.

There goes that odd fixation with System Specs again on this board.........Ram ? How many hard drives ? Really ?

Looking forward to hearing how an expert like yourself would help remedy a problem such as the one in question in this thread?

Bibs

wizard71

Teksonik

Bristol_JoneseyBy specs I mean your computer specs - what CPU, how much RAM, how many & size of hard drives, SOUNDCARD/INTERFACE etc.

There goes that odd fixation with System Specs again on this board.........Ram ? How many hard drives ? Really ?

Looking forward to hearing how an expert like yourself would help remedy a problem such as the one in question in this thread?

Bibs

Simple see above.  I'm pretty sure I can help without knowing how many hard drives he has.........it appears to be an issue with the ASIO4ALL driver from what I've read in his posts........"Stopped Working" is always a key.........

Teksonik

wizard71

Teksonik

Bristol_JoneseyBy specs I mean your computer specs - what CPU, how much RAM, how many & size of hard drives, SOUNDCARD/INTERFACE etc.

There goes that odd fixation with System Specs again on this board.........Ram ? How many hard drives ? Really ?

Looking forward to hearing how an expert like yourself would help remedy a problem such as the one in question in this thread?

Bibs

Simple see above.  I'm pretty sure I can help without knowing how many hard drives he has.........it appears to be an issue with the ASIO4ALL driver from what I've read in his posts........"Stopped Working" is always a key.........

Really?
 
So if he revealed he had 64Gb of RAM & an RME interface with a single 120Gb HDD running Win 7/Sonar/EWQLSO/BFD2 - what would your diagnosis be?
 
 

Teksonik

wizard71

Teksonik

Bristol_JoneseyBy specs I mean your computer specs - what CPU, how much RAM, how many & size of hard drives, SOUNDCARD/INTERFACE etc.

There goes that odd fixation with System Specs again on this board.........Ram ? How many hard drives ? Really ?

Looking forward to hearing how an expert like yourself would help remedy a problem such as the one in question in this thread?

Bibs

Simple see above.  I'm pretty sure I can help without knowing how many hard drives he has.........it appears to be an issue with the ASIO4ALL driver from what I've read in his posts........"Stopped Working" is always a key.........

Excellent. Then why not just post that answer to begin with instead of repeatedly popping up in threads telling us all how stupid it is to ask what people's specs are. I think we are all intelligent enough to realise that they alone don't always provide an answer but you would have to be pretty stupid to think you can solve every problem without ever knowing them.

Bibs

John
Welcome to the forum Savio.
 
ASIO 4 All is a driver wrapper. It says nothing about what your sound card is. For example I have a Edirol M16DX digital mixer. You may be using your built in sound chip on your motherboard.
 
Although you say all was well up until a few days ago with what you have I think you would be far better off with a good solid audio interface meant for multi track audio.  

Thanks.  I just read up on audio interfaces--essentially, they're external, high-functioning sound cards?  As far as I can determine, you're correct about the motherboard sound chip.  Now, would an audio interface bypass the setup in my computer (thus eliminating the ASIO 4 All sound issue)?  
 
I'm using both Sonar X2 and a MAGIX sound editing program (can't get to my PC at the moment for the exact name), and I trust that with an audio interface, I wouldn't have the issue of one or the other (MAGIX or Sonar) wanting to "own" the interface?  (-:  Sorry for the question overload, and thanks again.
 
 

If people would slow down and read the original post in it's entirety, they would realize that the OP wants to know why Sonar's help pages do not reference the menus/dialogue boxes in the same manner as they are presented to him by his O/S - Windows 7. So why not start there? What O/S did Cakewalk use as a reference when building their current help files?
 
System specs. Sheesh.
 
KEv

If there is no physical "card" on your system then you are likely using the "onboard" sound on the motherboard. If you want to find this in Win7 go to Start > Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Sound. A dialog will pop up and you will see what your computer is currently using. For example my Acer laptop which has no other audio devices on or attached to it and uses the motherboard's onboard sound is telling that it is using Conexant High Definition Audio. That is acting as my soundcard/sound driver. I could use Asio4all if I wanted to use that driver and have in the past but it is very unreliable. I believe in Sonar the other driver settings (there are options other than Asio) can handle onboard sound like this but I am unsure.
 
That said go to the Sound section of the control panel as I described and see what the computer is using as it's sound device/driver. Then in Sonar go to Preferences > Audio > Devices and you should see it in the list. If not I think you can run the Wave Profiler or whatever it is called and Sonar will scan for a device and it should appear. Asio4all may actually appear instead. Either way you just need to put a checkmark beside whatever device the computer is using. You may want to try uninstalling and reinstalling Asio4all to see if that shakes something loose.
 
If your Casio keyboard can be used as a USB MIDI controller (meaning you hook it up to the computer VIA a USB cable) then be sure to find the most current drivers for it and read the installation directions to get it running as a USB MIDI device. After that is done go into Sonar and go to Edit > Preferences > MIDI > Devices and there you should see the Casio as an option. Put a checkmark beside the appropriate entries. Now you can input notes and record within Sonar from the Casio. There is however a lot to learn about actually setting up softsynths and MIDI tracks to accept input from the controller. That is covered in the X2 manual. I suggest you work through all the tutorials at the start of the manual. They will give you a better idea about everything I've already described and much more.
 
Basically what I've tried to describe here is how to get it so you can input MIDI data into Sonar and get Sonar to play out through the sound section of your motherboard so you can hear the results. It is very basic and you really should get a proper interface at some point but hopefully if your system is powerful enough simple MIDI editing and playback should be possible.
 
I may have made a few errors in this as I'm still kind of new to the whole Sonar thing but hopefully the other guys will correct any mistakes I made.
 
Good luck.

Beepster
 
Basically what I've tried to describe here is how to get it so you can input MIDI data into Sonar and get Sonar to play out through the sound section of your motherboard so you can hear the results. It is very basic and you really should get a proper interface at some point but hopefully if your system is powerful enough simple MIDI editing and playback should be possible.

Thanks.  Actually, I've been able to do this with no issue (except for Casio's lousy sound mixing upon MIDI playback!).  The problem seems to be that my PC (or driver, or Sonar itself?) is locked in MIDI mode.  Teksonic linked to a Youtube video that addresses my issue.  Windows 7 apparently has a MIDI player for playback, even though it doesn't show up as an option in the on-line menus.  I suspect things are stuck in MIDI playback mode.  In fact, that was my "gut" diagnosis from the start, since I've run into other issues of that type to date.  I literally need to coax things back to audio from MIDI, mode-wise.  That's my layman's way of putting it.

Do you mean the Wavetable synth? That's garbage. What you really want is simply for Sonar to output the sound from the Master bus directly to your sound device. It would be essentially the same thing as having you browser send the sound from a youtube clip to the sound device so you can hear it. The MIDI input really has nothing to do with this. The MIDI track or input gets translated by Sonar into an audio signal and that audio signal gets sent out to the device. That last part seems to be where the problem is. You just need Sonar to point to your audio device. If you mean you want Sonar to send the MIDI to your Casio keyboard to trigger the sounds it contains well that is a more complicated task and you should work on the basics first. Cheers.
 

Thanks, John.
 
One thing I will add though is forget using the Casio for mixing. I'm not sure what you even mean by that actually but you have a complete and very powerful mixer within Sonar that can be controlled with your mouse. Focus your attention on that for mixing your tracks. Once you get the hang of that then you can start learning how to control those parameters with external devices which is in and of itself another large and somewhat confusing subject. If you are using the analog out to record the actual sound output of the device (which is NOT a MIDI signal) then the only thing you should be doing with the levels on the Casio is making sure they are not clipping as they hit the audio device on your computer. When working with audio signals the idea is to get a clear and powerful signal without clipping or distortion. Then you mix those signals within the DAW.

Well I'm not sure what exactly could be going on but one thing I would recommend is if you have not been already then turn on the Casio BEFORE you open Sonar. Make sure that windows is receiving the MIDI connection (in win 7 I get a little icon in my task bar that shows MIDI connectivity). Then open Sonar. May not be related but I know I've experienced odd behavior or no connectivity at all with my MIDI devices if I wait until after Sonar is loaded to connect them/turn them on. Another thing to be aware of is you should always use the same USB port on your computer that you used to install the controller with. If you move it around from port to port it can confuse the OS/driver.
 
I'll go back to saying uninstall the Casio driver and Asio4all then make sure you have the latest versions and the correct versions for your OS. Look at any and all instructions you can find for these installs. Then follow the directions I have already provided in this thread to make sure Sonar is seeing both the Casio and your onboard sound device (which may show up as Asio4all in your audio preferences menu). You may also want to go to the Sound menu I referenced ealier and disable Windows Sounds to make sure that windows isn't hijacking the soundcard to make it's little bleeps and blaps.
 
That's all i got. It should work but getting some kind of interface would really likely make your life much easier.
 
Cheers.

Teksonik

Bristol_Jonesey
By specs I mean your computer specs - what CPU, how much RAM, how many & size of hard drives, SOUNDCARD/INTERFACE etc.

There goes that odd fixation with System Specs again on this board.........Ram ? How many hard drives ? Really ?

Dude - get over the fact that folks ask for these things.  This person has indicated there is a problem with input to his audio device, and until we know what it is we cannot possible help him.
 
YOU seem to be the fixated one - if you don't want to help don't, but get off our backs for trying to.
 
Bob Bone