Hello:
 
I've been off the grid for a very long time.  I recently upgraded to Sonar X3 Producer and am enjoying getting back into recording again.  I am very impressed with the stability of X3 so far.  
 
I have mainly just produced music using vsti's and midi editing but am now interested in mixing it down to audio so I can create some CD's. 
 
There is something I am very confused about and can't seem to get any clarification on.  I'm sure I'm just being "dense" and this is obvious.  I've read Sonar X3 power and am still confused.  Audio recording is very new to me - so forgive me if this is obvious. 
 
First:  I can lay down a midi track with a softsynth just fine.  I see the midi data and can edit it. I also hear the audio on playback.   I then try to take the audio output of that midi track and record it to an audio file.  I insert an audio track, select the input from the vsti but can't get it to record the audio.  If I click on the audio waveform preview I see the audio waveforms are there.  Was the audio really recorded?   If I try to play back or solo just the audio track I don't hear anything.  Is the Midi and audio track automatically joined together and I don't realize it?   I guess I was thinking that the two tracks were independent and I would have a midi track and audio track separate and I could edit either. 
 
Here are my stupid questions. 
 
When laying down a midi track is the audio already being recorded?  If not, how do I record the output from that softsynth onto an audio track?  If I insert an audio track and select the input from the vsti is the audio automatically being recorded?  I notice that there isn't any "arm" button on the audio track when I do this.  Is the audio automatically recorded when I play back the midi track?  If so, I don't see any audio waveform being recorded unless I hit the waveform preview button. 
 
I currently am using a Focusrite 2i4 audio interface and only have two outputs running directly to my active monitors. I'm not running an external mixer at the moment.   I wasn't sure if I needed to route outputs from the audio interface to the inputs of the audio interface.  I didn't think this was necessary since the audio should be looping back to the software through the computer. 
 
If anyone could straigten me out on this I would greatly appreciate it.  I'm sure this is simple and obvious but I am confused as to how this works within sonar.  If I can get past this lack of understanding, I should be good to go. 
 
Thanks in advance for anyone's help. 
 
 

Use bounce to tracks to put out your synth to a wave file.

I use freeze for converting MIDI to audio. I freeze the synth. You can not record the audio of a soft synth within Sonar and you don't need to. 

Thanks for the reply.  That was easy.   So - that is just an option when I right click on the audio track? 

Bouncing & Freezing are 2 different things, with superficially similar results. Actually there's a 3rd option mentioned by John, which is to freeze the synth.
 
You can:

• Bounce the track
• Freeze the track
• Freeze the synth

All of them have their place, so it's probably a good idea to open the manual and have a good read.

Highlight and solo the midi track and the associated synth track, then execute a "Bounce to track" under the Tracks drop down menu. Sonar will create a new audio track containing the audio.  Be sure to set the gain correctly so you get a hot enough signal, but not an overload.

Thanks very much for everyone's replies.  I did notice when I froze the Midi Track that it converted it to audio.  I will try the bounce technique.  I am now learning how this works.  I understand that in order to mix down to a CD all of the tracks need to be in audio form.  I can then mix the audio tracks with busses from there. 
 
This is starting to make sense to me now.  I was just confused about how to get the midi tracks converted to audio so I could mix the audio tracks. 
 
Once again, I appreciate everyone's help here.  Great forum! 

There are such things as stupid questions but this one is not one of them. We are not born with this sort of information printed on our brains. What is stupid is not asking. 

I feel this way as well John.  But, I think one should do their research first before asking.  Especially if the answer is out there and you only need to look it up.  I was having problems finding this information. 
 
Most of my work has been in MIDI and I'm just starting to dip my toe into the Audio arena.  I'm a keyboardist by nature so all of my work is done with MIDI and softsynths.  I now want to start learning how to mix with Audio tracks. 
 
I had a mental block on how this was supposed to work.  Previously I had an external 32 channel mixer and I was routing all of the MIDI track output back into the sound cards input from the mixer onto an audio track.  I now do now have the mixer so I was confused as to how to convert the midi tracks to audio within Sonar. 
 
I appreciate everyone here helping me past this. 
 
Thanks again to all. 

digitaleagle
 
I understand that in order to mix down to a CD all of the tracks need to be in audio form.  I can then mix the audio tracks with busses from there. 

It has been a while since I did a mix but I don't recall ever being forced to convert MIDI to audio, assuming of course that the MIDI is being routed through an instrument. It is possible that you are creating work for yourself. Perhaps someone can set me straight if I'm wrong.
 
I believe in the past people bounced and froze because our systems in those days could not handle all of the processing that was going on. Of course if you have a ton of automation and FX processing going on you might have to.
 
Regards,