V-Studio 100..... how to use DRUM TRACK soft synth....HELP!

go to insert/soft synth.
choose cakewalk instruments,si-drums.

so gather youve got this far ?

see with recording midi its a little different than anything youve ever used before,unlike audio where you can see a wave inside your track,midi are these litte dots/dashes if you will.
these little dots/dashes represent the notes you are rec.

so once you have inserted that synth.
arm your track and as long as your hearing this drum kit you should be good to go.

press record/play these drums using your keyboard/controller,exc.
when you press stop and play it back,its playing back the notes you have entered,almost like a morse code.

rather than record you can alternitively drag and drop midi clips in to your tracks as well.
Sonar Le,exc comes packed with a lot of midi content just for this purpose.

its a good idea to go to your profile settings here in this forum and choose edit my profile/signiture.
type in as much info on your computer,soundcard and version of sonar you are using.
this will speed up responces from users who know exactly what they're dealing with.(your sys specs)

please feel free to ask more questions and welcome to the forum,congrats on a great control surface/soundcard such as the vs 100.
i have a vs 20,i love it.

.....also, I put my system specs in my sig but for some reason it isn't showing up....

Hey chuke, thanks again, I had to get back to work today so I won't have time to work on this until I get home. I will try to update my profile again, sig, e-mail alerts, etc. Just wanted to give you a heads up. I see you are in Boston, I'm in California. So it may not be until late in the evening your time. Thank you again for taking the time to help out a noob, it's appreciated.

Intel i3 Core processor  
6 GB DDR3 RAM  
Sonar VS 100 


I'll have to get back to you with the sound card.

Hey chuke.

Sorry for the late response. I tried scrolling right on the track I selected to drag and drop the drum pattern but there was nothing there.

On the track, it does show a small section of the drum track that I am able to expand. It sort of looks like this:

--------------------------- _______----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------               
   empty track             [ drum    ]   rest of empty track
                                  [ pattern]
                                  [             ]
----------------------------_______---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

the empty and armed blank track is colored red, the little section of drums is blue and includes the name of the drum track itself (2TON-B, etc).

I can expand the drum pattern, which I do, from the start of the track to measure 20. I then click record. 

once I click record I hear the click track and nothing else. 

then I play the whole thing back but here nothing but silence.

there is content before I click record.

I did not have input echo on, I turned it on, tried again and nothing.

Sorry, but I am unsure on how to adjust the input/output settings....

I did just realize that when I startup the VS software, I keep telling it I don't don't have a midi controller for the output (will be purchasing one in the next week or so, do you have any recommendations? I've been looking at one of the cheaper m audio ones for now) is there a way I can set it to my laptop keyboard for now?  

i had the lpk 25,its a great starter controler.
it is a controler,let me explain the difference.
a keyboard is something that has sounds built in to it.
a controler looks just like a keyboard but it has no sounds,it uses sonars sounds,like demention pro,cakewalk sound center,rapture,zt3a,understand ?  :)

i know whats happening right now your saying holy cow,more money?..lol.
and you went with the cheapest controler you could find..i dont blame you,
your walking in the same foot steps as i did,get a feel forit them upgrade :)
my next purchase after the lpk was a m audio oxygen 49.
it has full size keys and more importantly,it has knobs and sliders,which control the faders and pan knobs in sonar.
your lpk doesnt,but thats okay,it was a wise choice for right now.

let me get back to you later when i have more time,for now check out this video i made on setting up session drummer 3 for midi.its for using a drum machine but it still shows basic set up techniques.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjZS61Wg-XY
then theres this one which is how i write drum parts in the Piano roll view
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruAnAPR6-hQ

these tutorials might help you out a bit to understand basic/advanced triggering methods.
by the way when you get you lpk 25,set it up just as i show you in this video,only replace the drum machine example,for the lpk.

enjoy and congrads on the keyboard purchase.

Charlie Roy

if you have a keyboard you can do a lot as well.
but to be honest once you master the prv tools.
you write drum parts by hand fast as lightning.

check out the vid on editing in the prv,it will get you going in the right direction.

i hope everything is working out for you man.

talk to you later  :)

Soo... I finally had a minute to sit down with the LPK25... plugged it in, installed everything, but suddenly I am getting no sound with the cakewalk vs software. The meter rises and falls whenever I play with the drum soft synth but there is no actual sound coming in through the headphones...:-/ 

I tried the options in the troubleshooting guide but I didn't get very far. :-/