Couple things, First I'd like to know how to sync the drum machine to sonar. I've tried a few things, getting frustrated. I can hear drums in Sonar when I play the dr-880 but can't sync the unit to sonar. Secondly, the dr-880 also has bass guitar sounds in midi channel 2 along with the drums. But I just hear a piano sound. I'd like to be able to change the patch to a bass guitar. Anyone dealt with this?

to change the bass you need to insert a bass synth(cakewalks studio instruments/bass guitar is perfect for this.
but to be honest you would better far with a keyboard or the piano roll.
those bass accompanyments <<that, are great.

as for synching its easy.
but first you need to explain what you want to do here ..is sonar the master or the slave?

have you set up your drum machine to send midi signals?
if you dont then this isnt going to work.
its not about MMC is about midi synch.
 
under PROJECT in the preference menu,select MIDI.
look over to the right and you see the part where it says "SEND MIDI SYNCH"  ??
you need to check the first two boxes:
(TRANSMIT MIDI START/STOP and USE START NEVER CONTINUE.)
also the menu on this part has a section where your drum machine must be checked( a tick mark )
youll see it,depending on the devices you are pluging in it may only have your drum machine and your audio interface,
make sure the drum machine is the only one checked or sonar will go bananas looking for other data and will possibly crash.
 
thats it,dont go messing with any other buttons or anything.
simple.
but make a note so when your done,you know which buttons to switch back,butcause you need to un tick the boxes when your done synching because heres what happens.
 
when you hit the start button in sonar,your drum machine will begin playback.
what you need to do is experiment a little bit.
because not for nothing what is simple for some is a little indepth for others.
midi signal doesnt send any sound,so your bass is just an impulse and nothing more,its not a sound,sonar could care less about what your sound is,thats up to you to determine.
so think of it like that.
here comes an impulse...what are you going to do??
well set up the catcher mit and catch it with a bass synth instrument.
P.S.- you cant do the bass and the drums at the same time so make sure when your sending your midi data from your drum machine to sonar your not sending both(drums and bass midi)
because even though the bass is an instrument,its still going to send impulses and those will make sonar think you want these impulses as drum parts...so you will have drums flying every where.
 
remeber set up your drum machine to send midi messages.
if you are already using the machine with session drummer or something,then it should already be sending them.
it might be worth it to mention in the drop down list in the track box look for your drum machines drum map,sonar comes with alot of drum maps already in memory. 
do your drum track,then your bass track.
by making sonar the master like i have explained here your tracks will line up perfectly and you will love your life....and me for giving you this in depth tutorial on midi.

That's a great tutorial.
I also have a DR880 and never could figure out how to use the MIDI function.
I'll have to give it another try with this info.
I have always directly and separately recorded the drum and bass tracks as audio and simply moved the tracks to align later. It's easy if you record the intro clicks.
I got pretty good at starting the drums on time by listening to the metronome on Sonar.
But then I can't use the Sonar drum sets with that.
I'd be interested to hear if the OP gets it going.

see this is what really kills me,someone asks for help and then just leaves.
i wrote a whole chapter up there helping this guy and either he read it and didnt give his appreciation,or doesnt plan on responding.

a small message for the newbies here.
if you ask for help on something,at least be here within the first 8 hours or so to respond with a thank you or another question.

all done here.

Well I appreciated it.
Thanks again.

m-glenn,
thanks alot buddy.

tell you what set it up when your ready and if you need any help.
please feel free to let me know and ill walk you through it.
i used to do the audio thing as well but things got out of time and were never dead on the beats.
this way all your beats and measures line up with the time line which makes it easier for editing later,lassoing clips,slip editing,exc.

you can still write all your parts on the drum machine,but if you let sonar be the master,it will sound so much tighter in the end.

I have the DR880 too.

It's easiest to use X1 as master, and the DR by default is in auto sync mode (if you start DR first, it's master, otherwise it will listen to midi sync).

You just have to configure X1 midi preference exactly as highlighted by chuckebaby.

DR also respond to Song Position Pointer (SPP) at the midi preference. Getting this option checked will be handy if you start X1 in the middle of the song and DR will chase to that location to begin playback.

I found the DR work best if you insert an empty bar at the beginning of the song mode if you like to sync X1/DR (DR playback, record into X1), so DR may catch up when X1 starts. If not, the very first hit may sometimes sound off.

Good stuff. Thanks again.
I'm going to try this again but it's going to take a while because I need an interface.
I returned the little 1X usb interface I had due to latency issues with my guitar synth that folks here couldn't solve.
A few felt it was the cheap interface's issue.
I'm using a BR800 as an audio interface but it has no MIDI.
I'm going to buy a better MIDI interface and try again.
I'm kinda stuck at that point not knowing what to get.
Would a small MIDI keyboard work as an interface for both the DR880 and my GR20 guitar synth?
I'd want to be able to use keys for input too as most of the MIDI instruction I've seen suggests Sonar is set up for keys.

M_Glenn_M


I'm going to buy a better MIDI interface and try again.
I'm kinda stuck at that point not knowing what to get.
Would a small MIDI keyboard work as an interface for both the DR880 and my GR20 guitar synth? 

The DR 880 usb cable can also be used for midi to X1 direct, so can work without having to wait for the midi interface. You do need to install the DR USB midi driver for this to be enabled, as well as selecting a midi setup from the DR menu to enable USB midi.

However, you cannot connect the GR20 to DR (via regular midi) and use the USB midi from DR to X1, because the DR midi only works either as USB midi or regular midi.

You can get a midi keyboard controller for the GR20 - I think most controller with midi in/out connection allows additional midi in, to be pass through. Mixing multiple midi interface is possible. For example, I'm using the M-audio midi sport 4x4, together with my Quad Capture midi at the same time and Sonar see all of them.

Duh! Thanks for that. 
I didn't know I could go direct from the DR!  (RTFM right?)
I only started exploring midi setups because of the GR 20 I'm going to try this, this weekend. Cool.
I'll still get an interface too. 
I need to get my head around MIDI.