Tutorial - How to insert and use VST instruments in Sonar

Hi all,
 
Time and time again, I find that people ask how to use midi instruments here on the forums.  I have created a short (13 minutes) video to describe the process of adding a VST to a track, the various insert options that you will get, the use of TTS-1 for assigning instruments to different channels of the synth, a description of the path the data takes, and the manual creation of new midi tracks to feed additional channels in a multi-timbral synth.
 
If you are trying to figure out how to use a VST (especially if it's multi-timbral, or specifically the TTS-1), please go to the Sonar page of my website and click the button to watch the video at www.blades85.com
 
I hope this is useful information for the people who need it.

Nifty tute, Blades.  Very clearly outlined, un-rushed.  I enjoyed it, piano clam and all--ha!

Interesting the way you set up new MIDI tracks by Cloning and then reconfiguring parameters for the new track.  I always just right click, add a track.  Same results 'twould seem.

Thanks.

rbowser

Great job Blades.  I just referred your site for another thread that was running into a problem with understanding how to set it up.  This will be a great resource for the whole forum as it is one of the most frequent problems newbies run into and is sometimes so difficult to explain to them.

This is great! Even though I've gotten pretty good and setting this kinda stuff up, I've already discovered "synth track folder" which is of course, very nifty!

thanks blades.

Good job but i thought the TTS-1 is multi-timbral how come you keep saying it's multi-tambral.

michaelna


Good job but i thought the TTS-1 is multi-timbral how come you keep saying it's multi-tambral.

Cause he`s not Canadian EH!!!!

rbowser

michaelna


Good job but i thought the TTS-1 is multi-timbral how come you keep saying it's multi-tambral.

hehe--You want Tiiiiimber, as in what you yell when a tree is falling? 

actually, it's a good note - Blades, it's nice to hear someone pronouncing the word correctly. 

rbowser

What makes you say that tambre is the right pronounciation for timbre?

That was really good Blades. Picked up some simple tricks I didn't know about - Thanks a lot

Thanks a lot Blade...appreciate you taking the time to record the video and post!

Dave

Excellent resource for our ever increasing band of newbies and a terrific resource for us to use in offering them help.
Thanks for doing this. With a little tighter scripting you could easily make this a pro venture.

Nice to hear the correct pronunciation of 'timbre' being used. Its all in the detail.

BTW. Excellent audio levels in that video. All too often I've found video tutorials on audio a little lacking in the level department. Ironic really.

Jack

The only external hardware device I could use for the purpose would be my quadraverb, but I suppose that might cover the basics.  I don't even know if the thing powers up any more, but if I can find the QV, figure out how to do the external insert, and find the time to record, edit, convert, incorporate into web page, and upload, I'll try to create it.

thanks for the comments - I'm glad that this worked out to be useful.

I'm not much of a scripting guy and I've heard from a number of people that the reason that the videos are effective is that they are a little on the loose side and don't feel so scripted.  I think people can relate a little better or something.  I recorded this in two passes, one to get a feel for what I will cover and the steps, and one to record the final.  I actually had to edit out a number of bad starts before I got that one right keyboard part in the second take...I also intentionally left the "double recorded track" in there, because it shows what CAN and does happen.

mudgel
Regarding the levels - what a pain to get that all right, but I found a way that seems to be consistent at least.

I have a Layla 3G and a Line6 UX2 hooked here.  The Layla is being controlled by Sonar.  The way it's configured is that the first audio out pair mirrors the headphone out.  I have my monitors attached to the second pair, so I can switch between monitors and headphones by changing the destination of the master bus.  That said, I have a pair of audio cables going out the first pair that sounds as the headphones do going to the inputs on my UX2 (which is not enabled as a driver in Sonar).  Then, in camtasia, I have the UX2 setup as the input.  My mic is a live input track in Sonar, so it also goes to the same place.  This gets everything out to camtasia and I can monitor what it sounds like via the headphones, so the mix is what I expect it to be.

Then there's the export from Camtasia format and the web page hosting.  I have made this all relatively easy on myself at this point, but it still takes a good bit of time.  This is why I don't post more than I do - not because I don't want to, but it really is a big effort to do, so I appreciate the positive comments and the fact that they are useful to people.  Now if there were only some income from it!

michaelna

rbowser

michaelna


Good job but i thought the TTS-1 is multi-timbral how come you keep saying it's multi-tambral.

hehe--You want Tiiiiimber, as in what you yell when a tree is falling? 

actually, it's a good note - Blades, it's nice to hear someone pronouncing the word correctly. 

rbowser

What makes you say that tambre is the right pronounciation for timbre?

 
Any musician with any sort of formal training whatsoever knows that the term "timbre" is pronounced as "TAM-ber"...
 
It's been that way for many, many years...
 

I had heard Cakewalk had become a bit more "modern" (read like other DAWS) with the way it now handled MIDI (not my term, but MusicRadar.com's).

I think that the "simple instrument tracks" are just a cosmetic way to hide what's really going on (IOW, nothings really changed under the hood - only hidden where you can't see it.)

I think that the "simple instrument tracks" are just a cosmetic way to hide what's really going on (IOW, nothings really changed under the hood - only hidden where you can't see it.)

 
Yeah, that's why I'm running "Windows for DOS 7". I don't want to have to deal with all that ugly, under-the-hood stuff.