Hi -
 
No, I'm not a newb - have been using CW since the old midi-only, sync to smpte stripe days but came across a predicament today in X2; How you preview midi patterns from the Media Browser on an external device.  There's got to be a simple solution but I just haven't found it.  Anyone?
 
Mike

There may not be a way to route the browser MIDI preview to an external device. At least,that is what documentation indicates:
 
Synth Preview Output.  The Synth Preview Output submenu lets you select the soft synth for previewing MIDI files.

I came across this as well. No way to preview midi patterns from the browser to an external device. The only option is to select a soft synth.

Is there a work around for this?

I have looked for workarounds and have found none.  Always thought it was odd.

I got around this by using bidule and just routing the midi staright through it and making sure "Enable Midi Out" checked in the vst options. Then created a midi track with an input of the bidule midi out and then route the midi tracks output to the hardware midi out.

This will only work with one midi out enabled in a project. If you try and have more than one midi out enabled on different vst's then sonar will crash. Several threads on that floating around.

Bidule works great at getting around midi routing issues.

It dawned on me that any vst might work that passes the midi through, don't have to rely just on bidule for this one.