I appreciate the replies with great tips. Please, note that I do not own any other software. My background experience was with Logic back in the day when it was available for PC users. I never even tried a DEMO of Abelton. I just see that more and more people using it and I like to know why. I use Sonar since version 4 and released several music albums in the past, but my experience with it is on the surface. I know enough to get by, and if there is a better ways to do things, I like to hear about it. I do not do music for living. I am a nurse, and recently graduated with advanced nursing degree. If you ever been in a graduate school- the time for any projects is limited to Zero. Last 4 years all I could do was to buy different software synths, install them and dream that I will be able to use them in the near future. Setting up software synths was always easy- been doing it for long time. It was hard when I had to configure Nora arpeggiator to play in to Nexus synth. For some reason all different instances of Nexus were triggered. I have seen it on different occasions before. That was software that developers admitted not testing in Sonar.  
 

Oh, and once you have it working, just save the configuration as a track template, you will never have to do it again. 
Your synths do not output to the master but by default because you did not right click on your master and check "Set Default Bus".
About leaking into other tracks, make sure your instruments don't have MIDI output enabled when they don't need to. Uncheck it when you insert the synth unless you specifically need it.

 
Will it save as track template with specific software synth that was used at that instance or will I be able to open template with different synth? Or will I need to make template for each commonly used synth?
 
Click on Master output? I have to try it when I near my music computer. This is very very useful. Now if I use one most common input- is there a way to set it so that every new track created will have lets say Input 3-4 instead of input 1-2?
 
I do not see what you mean by disabling MIDI output. My Midi output is assigned to software synth or hardware synth. If I disable it, then I would have no sound. In case of arpeggiator, it needs to send notes to Soft Synth in order to be heard. I do not know if some synth have MIDI output inside the plugin or if you referring to the MIDI track output.  
 
FastBiker Boy, thank you for your reply. May I ask, where in the tutorial it talks about using more than one synth at the same time? This is why I dont want the tutorials. This was 15 minutes of my life I will never get back. The way a person configures soft synths is backwards. Nobody makes Midi and Audio track and then open soft synth and try to relate it to those tracks. Soft Synths can be inserted easier by Insert from the top menu. It will automatically create already configured midi and audio tracks. So this tutorial was for beginners from somebody who does not use this function often or does not care.
 
I was referring to playing more than one INPUT at the same time. My band used to have 2 keyboardists and drummer with electronic drum set. We needed to be able to play 2 different hardware keyboards at the same time with the drummer recording MIDI from Roland V-Concert. I dont remember the outcome but it did not work very well. We have tried to select more than one track, but there was some issue with it- I can not remember the details. The video you referred me to has nothing to do with the issue. But thank you for trying to help. I do appreciate it.

The best thing about this thread is now I can point to it when I want Cakewalk to include the hardcore locked groove drum loops I've been developing over the years.

Anderton
The best thing about this thread is now I can point to it when I want Cakewalk to include the hardcore locked groove drum loops I've been developing over the years.

See, yet another promise.....  

Beepster, "Talents" was not a sarcastic remark. This is how we call musicians. I would say, "I am bringing a talent at 2 pm, please, have air-condition on". The blog I was referred to had 2 posts on. If there more, it is great. This is actually friendly suggestion and expression of interest. Is somebody had so much interest to my personality, and said, "Hey, Vlada, why don't you make a profile and post some pictures and experience, so that we know what to expect from your band/project before we invest any money in you", I would be flattered. We just talking and changing topic based on replies. The original title implies an interest. I feel that subscription model requires paying upfront for the features that will be "likely" released in the future, and I like to know more about the team to know what to expect. The same goes for the drug companies. The moment there is announcement that new medication is about to be approved, shares prices go up. If promised great new cures without detailed information, nobody would invest in them. I see that you spend a lot of time on the forum and may be more familiar with internal processes of the company. I have no way to know if it is big or small company, how many people they have, who is the main talent behind all the programing and so on. I like it to be on the page, so that I can come and look any time without following multiple threads or blogs. My personal experience with Sonar is full of horror- may be because I was running it on $4000 XP system for too long, but it was crashing and acting crazy for years. The SP8 was first somewhat stable version for me and even with that- it was crashing at least every 3 days. Now I have I7 3770K with 16 Gb of memory and SSDs, and I still see Sonar crashing at least every 5 sessions. I will take screenshots and post it if you dont believe me. So I deserved my attitude by spending years on fixing this thing, and if somebody tells me that they going to sale me something that not working and I need to have subscription in order to receive a fix to what was sold, this frustrates and discourage me. Sorry.  

vladasyn

All you need to do is assign the input, assign the output, and turn on MIDI echo. Repeat that for as many synths and controllers that you want to play across as many tracks as you want. You can either use the same controller to play multiple synths or assign multiple controllers to play multiple synths, the choice is yours. Add in channels for even more possibilities.

 
My experience is that only *SELECTED* track is audible. There is such a thing as "ACTIVE" track. You can select more than one track but you can not have more than one active track, therefor obly one keyboard can be played at the same time, unless you know how to make it work.

That's where input echo comes in. You need to click on it on the non-focus track to hear the synths. It was all explained in the video which is why l linked you to it.

I am totally familiar with Input Eco, and yet- only active/ focused track is playable. I will test it again some time and respond, but I had issue with it in the past. Also- what is the difference between eco and that other version of that button?
 

X3 (or any previous version of SONAR) has ended it's cycle. There will be no more updates to it. The same is true after 12 months on the new SONAR. You will no longer receive updates. NOTHING has changed, and so if you accept how any previous version  of SONAR was sold and maintained then you accept the EXACT same terms for the new SONAR.

 
As I pointed out earlier, I am convinced and will likely buy full $150 version. However, I still do not like tha fact that X3's life cycle is ended. Can you think of at least one issue that was not fixed? Then how could it be ended without fixing it? In any industry- if you buy something, it means it works with no issues and if there documented issues, a company who sold it should fix it till it fixed. If there is a bug, it simply should be fixed for free and not in the next paid version of the same software. To me New Sonar is the same X3 with ok- few new features most of us could live without, and we asked to pay again, when we just paid last year and it still has issues that were not fixed. If I had X2 version that had step sequencer and it does not work in X3, I expect it to be fixed for free, not in the new version one day- I already paid for it to work.  
 
Now there is a thin line between fixes and new features. Many may feel that new features are "must haves" for fully functional production suit. If there was Undo/Redo button and it was taken away and I am waiting for it- it is waiting for the fix, new feature or old feature return? Just saying- had to throw it there. If there was no "count in" for metronome function and then in X4 they said, "We came up with new feature- it is count in for metronome". Would it be a fix or new feature?

As has been stated and posted many times over the past couple days this model makes it so that instead of one big release being dumped onto the market which means all the unknown bugs have to be detected and reported at once by the customers by having things introduce in smaller bits it means if there is a problem it will be a SMALL problem and Cake will be able to fix it quickly. If it is screwing you up really badly you call easily rollback to the previous versio (from the previous month or whatever) from the Command Center.
 
Seriously... it is MAYBE something small being broken that you can easily reverse and then the Bakers can easily fix quickly versus the old way of having a HUGE program with pottentially LOTS of bugs all over the program that need to be detected, reported and fixed all at once.
 
If something is released at the VERY end of your membership and you do not resubscribe then if it is a major problem for you you can revert back to the last working version (which would be a month or two backwards... not a full year) and be okay until you decide to join up again. You lose much less than you would have previously... but that is all very unlikely anyway... AND the bakers said if a bug is REALLY bad they would work something out on a case by case basis for lapsed memberships.
 
It should, in theory, be a lot better and it has been discussed repeatedly.
 
No freakouts necessary.

vladasyn
Beepster, you mean, asking without "this ridiculous thing is not working again and never will I cant stand it why won't it do what it supposed to when I need to work? type of comments?" Ok- here is one: why is my computer "sees" USB controller, while Sonar sees it every other time? Why is it that some time I open a project, start playing and have no MIDI activity, and another time it works fine? It is Novation Lunchpad- I contacted Novation- they mailed me new USB cable. When I unplug it, computer says, "Tam tam tam..." so it knows it was connected. But Sonar does not. When I plug it back, Sonar says, "Wow! Found new MIDI device. Would you like to connect it?" "No sh**, Sherlock!" Been trying to make it work for last 15 minutes. So I have to put up with this drama day after day after day. And then I come and they say, "Another $150, please" and I say, "What you mean- you still did not fix my MIDI! So- forgive me for being frustrated. And yes, I can make this thing crash. Wanna bet? My Sonar P4, P5, 6, 7, 8 all were crashing always on 3. 6 Mhz processor and Cheetah SCSI 15,000 rpm hard drives. It never ever was flawless. When you want a crash report?  

Okay, that is multiple questions and if you posted a thread asking about each question you would get the help you needed to sort it out...
 
BUT I remember offering some advice about the MIDI connection issue... what? Almost two years ago to you about it?
 
DO NOT PLUG IN OR TURN ON YOUR MIDI DEVICES WHILE SONAR IS RUNNING!!!
 
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. If I need to use a MIDI device that is not currently connected and turned on I turn off Sonar (and save beforehand if need be) THEN turn on/connect my controllers and THEN turn on Sonar. I know you have a cmplex studio and you do not want to do that but seriously it takes maybe 5-10 seconds to save what you are doing, close Sonar, turn on whatever it is you want to use and THEN reopen Sonar.
 
Unfortunately we are not living in the Star Trek universe yet and there is a limitation to what our technology can do so we have to kind of do what needs to be done evern if it is annoying or seems dumb.
 
We also talked about using the SAME MIDI PORT that you installed a device on so you do not confuse Windows by moving your devices to different ports.
 
There are also a ton of other things that were discussed in that thread and the following threads you posted.
 
There may be new problems but if you do not follow proper procedure or take basic advice (which did seem to work out for you last time) then we cannot troubleshoot any new problems.
 
So... you are having a lot of problems in your studio. Instead of dumping a million problems into one thread that has nothing to do with those problems write down your problems one by one. Post a thread for each in the appropriate forum and then wait for an answer and provide more details when they are asked of you.
 
Trust me... you will get a HUGE amount of your issues resolved.
 
Salud.

vladasyn 
That is my exact point. I like it to be tested and fixed before they sale it, not after.

It is simply not possible to test all permutations and combinations of computer hardware, computer software, and plug-ins prior to release. It is also not possible to test with things that don't exist yet but could cause a break in the future, like if a plug-in handles VST or outputs in a non-standard way. Also, bugs aren't universal. You could test a feature on 99 systems and it would work fine, but on the 100th, it wouldn't. Another problem is that if Cakewalk cannot reproduce a bug, they cannot fix it. Unfortunately, all of these reasons are why no software can ever be considered bug-free.

Anderton
 Also, bugs aren't universal. You could test a feature on 99 systems and it would work fine, but on the 100th, it wouldn't. 

Case in point.
 
X3 seems to not work (well) for vlad but does for me.
 
Is that SONAR's fault? Maybe and maybe not. 
 
We can never know all the variables (including pilot error or obliviousness) unles we laid both systems side by side and perform the absolute EXACT steps. And then, is it vlad's XP system that was worse than the i7 system (oh wait vlad already said that the new system crashes less, a telling hint) or was it SONAR?

I cannot understand why people are looking at the subscription part of this sale as an evil entity. The way I see it is when we bought X3 we paid about the same amount. $149.00 and got a few good third party plugins. I'm not sure, maybe 30 or so. Now Cakewalk comes out with a Platinum upgrade along with professional etc for $149 dollars and gives you a 12 month membership included in the price. After the 12 (free) month membership , the Sonar software plus everything you got extra is yours to keep. The monthly payments are for those like you who doubt if cakewalk can deliver as promised and don´t want to pay the full price early on. It is also for people that do not have the money to pay $149 all at once. This to me is a very friendly gesture from cakewalk.
All this complaining about membership has gone way out of context. 
12 months free and a Sonar DAW that will probably go far beyond 80 percent of the daws out there right now that is yours to keep for a grand total of $149,00. There is no other company that would ever do this for their customers.
Dont forget that the FX inserts have been greatly expanded along with the send effects. The fx were 5 places and the sends were only 2 places. This daw has the funcionality that is going to boggle your imagination.
After all this you still make a problem because of the free 12 month subscription.
 My advice: If you don't like the 12 month freebee DONT BUY THE UPGRADE!

BTW if Sonar X3E s crashing every 5 sessions then it's almost certainly your environment. Drivers, firmware, BIOS, chip set drivers (ie Intel Auto update) is the first port of call. Dodgy plugins as well (update them!). If you have more detailed info for us please start a new thread. 

[DO NOT PLUG IN OR TURN ON YOUR MIDI DEVICES WHILE SONAR IS RUNNING!!!
 
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. If I need to use a MIDI device that is not currently connected and turned on I turn off Sonar (and save beforehand if need be) THEN turn on/connect my controllers and THEN turn on Sonar. I know you have a cmplex studio and you do not want to do that but seriously it takes maybe 5-10 seconds to save what you are doing, close Sonar, turn on whatever it is you want to use and THEN reopen Sonar.
 
Unplugging and replugging USB device is THE ONLY was to make Sonar to see it. When I open Sonar, some time it sees it, some time it does not. Some time, if I have to close perfectly working Sonar instance and reopen it, it opens without MIDI controller detected. I HAVE TO unplug controller and connect it again while Sonar is open. All my devices always connected except the Maschine- that one has to be unplugged for computer to even start, but that is all another story. My studio is not that advanced. It has Yamaha Motif USB connected and it always sees it, Presonus Fire Wire mixer and Novation LaunchPad MIDI- it is small desk controller- 25 keys- I never know if it will be detected or not. As I said- Novation sent me replacement USB cord. And, yes, I use it on the same port, and I also tried it on other ports.  

Its very common to blame problems on drivers because its very common that they are the problem. True story.