I've been using Sonar since the Cakewalk days. 
 
In X3 I just opened a Midi file and found the TTS was automatically instantiated and the midi tracks assigned to it!
 
How long has this been going on lol. Can we assign a different synth to auto attach?
 
Sometimes the little things surprise you the most!

It is new to X3 documented here http://www.cakewalk.com/D...atures.25.html#2389777
 

Added in X3 afaik - I think its great, especially when auditioning midi files. Saves bucketloads of hassle just to hear what the base midi file sounds like without needing to first load a whole set of vst's to hear it!
 
EDIT: Sorry Scook - we posted at the same time

I think this is a fabulous feature.  I have literally over 2000 midi files, from all kinds of musical genres, and this makes checking out their quality super simple, with reasonable starting sounds.
 
For midi files I will end up doing something with, I then go about the business of swapping out the sounds for better ones, such as with Kontakt and Battery 3.
 
COOL stuff with X3.
 
Bob Bone
 

As already mentioned, new feature in X3. But unfortunately, no, you can't choose which synth is used. Still, the TTS-1 does a pretty good job with General MIDI files.
 
Scott

--
Scott R. Garrigus - http://garrigus.com - SONAR X2 Power! - http://garrigus.com/?SonarX2Power
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series: http://garrigus.com/?PowerBooks
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar ProAudioTutor video tutorial series: http://garrigus.com/?ProAudioTutor
* Publisher of the DigiFreq free music technology newsletter: http://digifreq.com/?DigiFreq
* Publisher of the NewTechReview free consumer technology newsletter: http://newtechreview.com/?NewTechReview

 
Scott wrote;
"no, you can't choose which synth is used. Still, the TTS-1 does a pretty good job with General MIDI files."
 
 
 
This is true for soft synths but not true if yo set a default MIDI out for a hardware synth. 

John
Scott wrote;
"no, you can't choose which synth is used. Still, the TTS-1 does a pretty good job with General MIDI files."
 
This is true for soft synths but not true if yo set a default MIDI out for a hardware synth. 

Yep, that's a good workaround if you still use hardware synths.
 
Scott

--
Scott R. Garrigus - http://garrigus.com - SONAR X2 Power! - http://garrigus.com/?SonarX2Power
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series: http://garrigus.com/?PowerBooks
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar ProAudioTutor video tutorial series: http://garrigus.com/?ProAudioTutor
* Publisher of the DigiFreq free music technology newsletter: http://digifreq.com/?DigiFreq
* Publisher of the NewTechReview free consumer technology newsletter: http://newtechreview.com/?NewTechReview

I wouldn't call it a workaround Scott. It has functioned this way for a very long time. 

Hmmm... I saw this thread and haven't seen this, then right clicked on a MIDI file and selected "Open With" to reassign its file association. Currently it is assigned to X1, so I browse to X3, click okay and Win7 keeps it on X1 (I guess because the actual program name is identical).
 
Is there another method to change this file association to X3?

Right click a MIDI file select 'open with' choose Sonar x3 then check set as default