couple of questions

Welcome Dan,

Sounds like latency. A common issue when using a quality recording package like MC5 on a factory sound card.

It might be possible to lower it some using the latency slider. But you will never get rid of it until you get a dedicated USB interface (soundcard).... The problem is the factory card can not process the midi data in real time and it ends up being delayed by a noticeable amount.

You can set up TTS or another synth to receive midi data on channel 10,,, the default drum channel. See my web site on how to set up TTS as a drum set.

To get SoundCenter working.... insert a synth, and choose Sound center from the list of available choices. If it's not there in the list, let us know. We'll tell you how to add it .


Back to the soundcard for a minute. Some people can get the factory card working well enough with audio, but with midi, it's best to consider an upgrade to an external USB interface. That will solve the latency issue and let you record with relative ease.

Also, understand that MC5 is not a toy, It is a full featured recording platform that will allow you to record some amazing stuff. All my music is recorded on the version before MC5..... MC4.  It has a learning curve, so take your time, and do one thing at a time..... stick with it.

OPTIONS>AUDIO
but moving the slider with the onboard soundcard is not likely to give you good results.  if you get the latency down to an acceptable level, you're likely going to have popping, clicking, stuttering and dropout.
 
if you have WASAPI driver mode available, try that.  OPTIONS>AUDIO>DRIVER MODE = WASAPI ; CLICK APPLY
if youdon't have it available, then you could google, download and install ASIO4ALL, then change to ASIO mode.  that will get you going until you can get a recording soundcard.  check my website for soundcard recommendations.