Hi all
 
I had signed up for a film scoring project 6 months ago and this issue has been haunting for me ever since.  I am sure it is not a glitch first of all.  I will try my very best to describe the issue in detail so please bare with me? 
 
There are many ultra soft and quiet areas in the music track due to the nature of film scoring. Sometimes just a hanging note of a atmospheric patch/choir/string, sometimes a piano note.  These MIDI notes are being played with ultra soft touch and therefore the velocity is ultra low like "11" or "10".  That is the lowest velocity value which Sonar 1/2/3 will record on a MIDI track. 
 
The issue -
 
Portion of the notes disappeared after Freeze Synth into audio.  Sometimes the front portion was cutoff until the part where velocity/volume turned stronger. Sometimes the sustain portion at the end were being cut where velocity turned soft.  Especially frustrating when I am using a Midi volume/pedal/controller on certain track where the Midi note faded in, Sonar will cutoff all the lower volume portion after Freeze Synth into Audio track.
 
Like I explained earlier.  The nature of the music work is very moody and many notes has to be ultra soft depending on the scene.  Playing harder was not an option.
 
My tedious low tech crude solution.
 
A.  I will marked down all the cut off area and un-Freeze the synth tracks.  Next I will insert a longer and louder Midi note in front of the "Cut Off Portion" and just leave some air space.  Freeze Synth.  I will now manually deleted the inserted note and air space.  It is tedious but it works.  sigh....
 
B. For the ending/sustain note being cut off.  I will make the note slightly stronger and longer.  Freeze Synth. Use volume envelope automation to create a natural fade out like how I originally intended to do.......sigh.
 
C. For the Fade in issue.  I now will delete the Volume/Controller Midi event track.  Thank goodness I always record controller event on a separate track.   Freeze Synth.  Next I will now use Volume Envelope to draw a manually fade in effect to match my original composition.
 
 
Thank you for reading.  I hope I explained the issue clearly?  Any suggestion for this issue? 
 
Sam
 
 

Which synths are you using?   Does a manual bounce vs. Freeze make any difference?   How about with Fast Bounce off?   
 
Also, do you have any FX in that track (particularly gate or compression) that could be cutting the lower signals?   If you increase the waveform preview (drag up in the separator between clips and track strips) do the silent portions have a true flat-line? 
 

Hi Stevec
 
99.9% of the time I usually will turned off all the EFX when I Freeze Synth. I normally do not use any noise gate or compression until final mix stereo tracks unless there are some martial Art/Fighting scene drum tracks.  But then these tracks are loud.  For sentimental/moody scoring tracks, I almost never used any compression because I want the dynamic level to be similar to a Classical Symphony piece.
 
It really does not matter what soft synth I am using.  I really believe this issue is a Cakewalk design flaw because it happens to every soft synth since Sonar 1.  From EZDrummer to MachFive, Hollywood String Platinum, Saxophone Brother, Emu Proteus, Korg Legacy Wavestation, FM8...etc.  It has happened to all of them.  I can fix them but then it is tedious and time wasting.
 
Actually Stevec, I have yet try by just using Bounce Track.  I guess I really missed the forest but only focus on the small plant.  However, I am in the middle building a new DAW for my East West Quantum Leap CC2 Pro so I will have to wait before I try.
 
Thank you
 
Sam

On the side note.  I actually suspect Cakewalk did build in a noise gate for Freeze Synth function.  Why? Because if I insert a note before the "cut off" portion and just leave enough space so they don't over lapped , the Freeze Synth will not cut off that portion anymore.  If my suspicion is true then that is a design flaw if the user cannot customize the gate level. 
 
That is my theory