Using Dimension Pro in X1.

I recently upgraded from 8.5 producer to X1 producer and I'm having a hell of a time trying to get my head around something.

I know there is a Cakewalk Instruments forum, but this section has much higher traffic, hence I might get a response!

Since installing X1 producer I've coincidentally been left in a situation without a synth player, which has led me towards using Dimension Pro for the first time (I'm a drummer and part time keys user!). 

I've got an absolute tonne of existing midi tracks of our songs which have all been converted to midi from the guitar pro software they were composed upon. I am able to import these into Sonar and play them through the usual GM method, but the second I load Dimension Pro and try and route the midi outputs to Dimension Pro... silence. I even lose the playback from my keyboard controller when I load the midis.  I have followed the recommended method of assigning an audio track for the synth output and assigning the midi output to Dimension pro, but I get absolutely nothing. Similarly the exact same thing happens when I try and load existing midi tracks into Session Drummer. 

Am I doing something blazingly stupid here, the solution to which lays under my nose, or what? Some help would be great!

Are you loading an instrument into Dim Pro?

Be sure that the channel setting is set correctly. Though it shouldn't matter for those synths. Also save the project and exit X1 and restart X1 and reload the project. See if that works.

Yeah, I've done both the closing and reopening sonar + matched the midi channels etc... It's just bizarre. In theory it should all work fine, but it just drops out. I can even record midi data with D.P. and play that back fine, but it is when I load any other midi files that the problem comes into play. 

Open up Dim Pro via the synth rack. It'll give you a midi and audio track. Load a patch in Dim Pro. Drag your midi file onto the midi track and see if you get sound.

I have followed the recommended method of assigning an audio track for the synth output and assigning the midi output to Dimension pro, but I get absolutely nothing. Similarly the exact same thing happens when I try and load existing midi tracks into Session Drummer. 

There may be a clue here.  You assign the audio out to an output of your soundcard, and the MIDI out should be assigned to the MIDI port of your soundcard rather than the DP.  Try this and see if it helps.

That sounds EXACTLY like the problem I am having. The dead sound etc... It's a real baffling problem.

These midi files were created and bounced down from Guitar Pro software, so I'm not sure if there may be an underlying reason there.

I figured there was something up with the midi file type. I've absolute zero clue on how to change it though, it's all a learning curve for me at the moment. 

I'm glad to see it's not just me or my system that has the same problem, it's slightly restored my sanity!

I did just figure out something: I started a new project, instance of dim pro, dragged the midi file into the project but did NOT hit play, opened up the piano roll and selected the notes and it played via Dimension pro. It's the moment that I hit play that Dimension Pro dies. I'm sure at this point there is some tiny event at the beginning of the midi file that is killing it. It is just a matter of zooming in and deleting whatever it is.

It is a  multitimbral file?

DimPro doesn't do mulitimbral - well, four midi channels if you switch dP to that function.

It seems to me that is the problem - you have a midi file that is split across 16 channels (drums start on 10).  Find the notes that are playing on midi channel 1 or whatever DP is set for and play from there.  Or switch the notes at the beginning of the file to the DP channel.  See if that doesn't help.  another thing to try is putting DP in to 4 channel mode.

@

I actually got it to work..sorta (still testing).  I opened it in Acid just because I find it easier to specify the type of midi file to export and simply exported the midi file twice.  Once as type 1 and once as type 0.  Then imported each into Sonar.  Each works now.  Not sure what info was added or stripped by exporting the midi file in another program but it seems to work.  i can upload the mid files if you like to test yourself.

dubdisciple

I actually got it to work..sorta (still testing).  I opened it in Acid just because I find it easier to specify the type of midi file to export and simply exported the midi file twice.  Once as type 1 and once as type 0.  Then imported each into Sonar.  Each works now.  Not sure what info was added or stripped by exporting the midi file in another program but it seems to work.  i can upload the mid files if you like to test yourself.

Yeah, If you could drop me a link so I can test the file out that'd be great. I guess I'm going to have to manually convert the midis in another program then eh?

http://www.sendspace.com/file/aber85

be careful where you click.  sendspace tends to have misleading ads


click on the "Click here to start download from sendspace" surrounded by blue

glad i could help...even if i kind of tripped into a solution.

The only way I know of in Sonar which is what I tried, is to use Save As and select Midi 0 or 1 under File Type.  But that didn't work for me which makes me wonder about the difference between the Sonar and Acid process of converting/saving Midi?

Bud: what was the process you used to make those files?  I noticed that both files contained multiple tracks and each track channel was sequential while the original was not.
 
Edit: just saw Dave's post.  While DP is not multitimbral, the files Dub posted played fine albeit all channels played the same patch set in DP though that was not the case with the original file.