Welcome to Cakewalk and SONAR X1 forum Patrick:

SONAR used to have a scripting language that has stopped being developed but many of the programs are still around and X1 will still run them. They are called CAL Cakewalk Application Language.

There's literally scores of CALs around and one is likely to work.

You dont mention whether you're talking audio or MIDI but I don't think you'll have much luck with Audio.

that being said SONAR's VVocal does do a pitch to MIDI conversion but I don't think it works except on monophonic sources.

You can change pitch with pitch markers - would that work? It's a MIDI effect.

@HumbleNoise: aren't pitch markers used for audio only? I need to control a midi track.

@timidi: something like cheep Yamaha keyboards with an auto-accompaniment can, where left hand (=my first track in Sonar) contains the chords (triads) and the accompaniment music (tracks 2-10 with melody and bass/piano/guitar riffs) follow them by matching the notes to the chord. Sorry, English isn't my mother tongue but hopefully do you understand my question now :-)

regards
Patrick

Do a google search on "VST midi accompaniment"  you will find a slew of VST Plugins that should get you what you want.  There is a pretty good market out there in VST plugins to do pretty much whatever you might need.

VSTPlanet has a lot of free ones or shareware ones.  Check it out.

Best, Harry

I don't think, it's odd function. I just wont to free my composing workflow on that way:

1. find the right chord progression and the melody for a new song when I play my Yamaha keyboard.
2. record chord triads of the found chord progression in track 1 in Sonar
3. record drums, bass, piano, string-lines in tracks 2-10 in C major
4. check out any other chord progression = record new chords in track 1. And this is the point! I don't need to change anything else except track 1!
5. now I can replace my riffs and patterns on tracks 2-10 with drag&drop any other melody-pattern from my riffs/patterns/basslines library I have recorded earlier and they will follow the chord progression (transposed on-the-fly) of track 1. 

Point 4 and 5 are not possible without function I'm looking for.
Or do you have any other workflow to easy change the chord progression of the whole song with all basslines/melody-patterns???????????????????????????????????????????

BIAB is as a standalone application not really good solution (import/export, VSTi instrumments settings ...)
I didn't know VSTPlanet, thanks for the tip, I will check it out.

regards,
Patrick

VST midi accompaniment

Once the MIDI is set up in Band-in-a-Box or something like it, can that MIDI timing be imported and embellished in Cakewalk?


I purchased a MIDI keyboard, and Cakewalk Guitar Tracks Pro 4 to get MIDI for completing my guitar audio recordings in to completed tracks. I am having a lot of trouble with getting my synth to work, but I've figured out why it does this in Cakewalk. I had expected more inter-operability (if that's a word!)


At this point, my biggest weaknesses are MIDI drums and timing working with my riffs that I now realize are a bit unusual. I was always spoiled by a live drummer, now I need to either figure out how to set up the drum patterns or the MIDI timing of the track itself to complete my riffs. The other choice I have is to start with basic drum patterns and force my playing to match, but that is totally different in terms of creativity and really defeats the purpose of doing vertical production (one person I mean).


The reason I went with Cakewalk is to start with, I already had a UA4FX, and I knew that I could get my MIDI keyboard working with Cakewalk, since it's a Roland family product. Once I started running in to trouble, I investigated further in to Sonar X1 (I have the OEM LE version, which is cool, but doesn't have the tools I need).


I'm at a frustrating crossroads, because I feel let down by Cakewalk in hyping the Guitar Tracks Pro product, when it's really a very limited DAW that does not scale up. I really would have spent the money on X1 Studio or Producer had I known more about the limits of GTP4.


What I think I need to make it work is either learn a lot more about how to program MIDI with months of practice,  or get the tools that I thought were included in GTP4, which in Studio and Producer is called "Audio Snap 2" (I expected the same functions but less sophisticate, but I find no way to do this at all, even though it seems like every other cheap DAW like Sony Acid can do this, but I might be wrong). Anyway, no audio snap.



I think with Audio Snap my problems are solved because my workflow would do like this:


Record riffs
Choose which to use
Pull out MIDI drum instrument, laydown the MIDI drum track, and snap the MIDI to the nodes from the peaks identified by the Audio Snap tool. The tool also works by moving the audio nodes according to MIDI, which I did not expect. I thought that might be one of the reasons why you'd get version 2.

But I'm also wondering if I can change MIDI timing in my tracks by manually identifying the peaks in the displayed wave forms. Can I do that, can I drag or somehow edit the MIDI timing with mouse selection?

I really need to buy a book and some videos, but the MIDI market is so incredibly large and confusing in terms on knowing where to start. I need to get instrument too, but it's enough for me to get drums the way I want, then I can worry about the rest I guess.

I'm using the X1 producer on the 15 day trial and I can't afford it. I can't even afford Studio, but if I can't work out the drums, I am screwed. I just don't know where to go or what to do. I think the right book that I know covers the topic would be ideal to find ASAP.

And should I try B-i-a-B? Is that or some other tool able to somehow get drums or midi timing to match my riffs?


One last thing was I looked at Alesis PercPads (percussion). There is at least one model for under $100, and if I can get a MIDI pedal to tap my timing while I perform guitar, that would also be a node to build my timing on, wouldn't it?

So my choices are 
1) Band in a box or some external tool to record and structure the MIDI timing to import in to Cakewalk DAW
2) Using Audio Snap or some function like it, drag the MIDI timing in to place with the nodes created by the tool
3) Use my own manual process to identify timing, build MIDI timing around those nodes
4) Use a pedal for MIDI drum timing to constrain the timing in Cakewalk as I play/perform

Related questions:
1) Where can I get a very basic, cheap pedal for tap timing the MIDI? I have an Alesis QX49, and I am prepared to spend up to another $200 on software and hardware, so if I end up buying X1 studio, I will not have any budget left for drums. IOW, it has to give me enough tools to do everything

2) Is there a Cakewalk product, or a third party author writing about Cakewalk that covers how to perform in MIDI in Sonar X1? What is the most likely place to start my book or training search?

3) I hate to ask this because it will be a long time before I can afford this, but what is the best way for a budget synth to allow practicing without having to use my computer with the active window in focus? Is there an alternate way to configure the MIDI instruments so that it just plays until you tell it not to? In Cakewalk, and I'm not sure about others like VSTi in Reaper, since I haven't been able to try that yet. I need to hear the instruments so that I have feedback on timing with key velocity, etc. I'd like to get a nice keyboard with aftertouch, but wouldn't we all?

Any other suggestions will be hugely appreciated, and I promise to keep notes that should help other users who follow.


Thanks, desperate in the SFBA

pkrupar chord track for on-the-fly chord progression

Maybe this might help someone:
 
REAPER + Temper VST: Adding a chord track to REAPER
 
forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=30916
 
angryredplanet.com/temper/download.html