burkek
If people would slow down and read the original post in it's entirety, they would realize that the OP wants to know why Sonar's help pages do not reference the menus/dialogue boxes in the same manner as they are presented to him by his O/S - Windows 7. So why not start there? What O/S did Cakewalk use as a reference when building their current help files?
 
System specs. Sheesh.
 
KEv

Thanks!  That's exactly what I'm wondering.  This may be an issue others are facing, too.  There may be Windows 7 menu variations between PCs; that's one theory.  Which would be utterly illogical, but typical! 

Beepster
 
Basically what I've tried to describe here is how to get it so you can input MIDI data into Sonar and get Sonar to play out through the sound section of your motherboard so you can hear the results. It is very basic and you really should get a proper interface at some point but hopefully if your system is powerful enough simple MIDI editing and playback should be possible.

Thanks.  Actually, I've been able to do this with no issue (except for Casio's lousy sound mixing upon MIDI playback!).  The problem seems to be that my PC (or driver, or Sonar itself?) is locked in MIDI mode.  Teksonic linked to a Youtube video that addresses my issue.  Windows 7 apparently has a MIDI player for playback, even though it doesn't show up as an option in the on-line menus.  I suspect things are stuck in MIDI playback mode.  In fact, that was my "gut" diagnosis from the start, since I've run into other issues of that type to date.  I literally need to coax things back to audio from MIDI, mode-wise.  That's my layman's way of putting it.

I had no problem using the user guide tutorials to set up in Win7. Use the tutorials. There are some sections in the manual that may be outdated I guess but the tuts should point you in the right direction. Even still it's not that hard to get to the same areas in 7 using XP terminology. If you are unfamiliar with your OS Microsoft's website has a metric poopload of info on pretty much anything and everything.
 
You could also google Windows 7 God Mode and follow the instructions on one of the articles that comes up. It will create a global menu on your desktop that gives you access to literally every setting within windows in one screen. It's a lot more similar to the XP Control panel than how 7 deals with this stuff. It's not an addon or produced by a separate company. It is an "Easter Egg" that was built into the OS by MS. I'm assuming to give quick access to MS techs and whatnot.

Do you mean the Wavetable synth? That's garbage. What you really want is simply for Sonar to output the sound from the Master bus directly to your sound device. It would be essentially the same thing as having you browser send the sound from a youtube clip to the sound device so you can hear it. The MIDI input really has nothing to do with this. The MIDI track or input gets translated by Sonar into an audio signal and that audio signal gets sent out to the device. That last part seems to be where the problem is. You just need Sonar to point to your audio device. If you mean you want Sonar to send the MIDI to your Casio keyboard to trigger the sounds it contains well that is a more complicated task and you should work on the basics first. Cheers.
 

I'll turn this over to the Beep. He clearly has this well in hand. 
 
No point in making the OP answer multiple posts all vying for attention and confusing everyone.
 
Follow the advice of Beepster and you will be good to go in no time Savio. 
 
 

Thanks, John.
 
One thing I will add though is forget using the Casio for mixing. I'm not sure what you even mean by that actually but you have a complete and very powerful mixer within Sonar that can be controlled with your mouse. Focus your attention on that for mixing your tracks. Once you get the hang of that then you can start learning how to control those parameters with external devices which is in and of itself another large and somewhat confusing subject. If you are using the analog out to record the actual sound output of the device (which is NOT a MIDI signal) then the only thing you should be doing with the levels on the Casio is making sure they are not clipping as they hit the audio device on your computer. When working with audio signals the idea is to get a clear and powerful signal without clipping or distortion. Then you mix those signals within the DAW.

Beepster
Do you mean the Wavetable synth? That's garbage. What you really want is simply for Sonar to output the sound from the Master bus directly to your sound device. It would be essentially the same thing as having you browser send the sound from a youtube clip to the sound device so you can hear it. The MIDI input really has nothing to do with this. The MIDI track or input gets translated by Sonar into an audio signal and that audio signal gets sent out to the device. That last part seems to be where the problem is. You just need Sonar to point to your audio device. If you mean you want Sonar to send the MIDI to your Casio keyboard to trigger the sounds it contains well that is a more complicated task and you should work on the basics first. Cheers.
 

 
I've been using MIDI software for close to 30 years, starting with the infinitely easier to use Mark of the Unicorn Composer program, c. 1985.  So I had a fairly easy time setting up Sonar to MIDI-interface with my Casio.  The Casio sound mixing I refer to is the Casio "mixer," which allows me to assign specific tones to each of the 16 MIDI channels.  This feature is very quirky (my tone assignments pop in and out, for some reason) but usually I can get it to work.  But the mixing/layering in the Casio itself is kind of lousy.  As for audio mixing on the Sonar, I've been doing that for months with fabulous results.  But I want to be able to control the tempo of my tracks in some instances, so I tried the MIDI feature and had nice results.  However, once I used Sonar's MIDI, suddenly my ASIO 4 All's audio output isn't being received by Sonar.  I've concluded there's a connection.  I realize MIDI and Line In audio are two different things, but if (as I suspect) Sonar is still connecting to a MIDI function in Windows, that would explain the sudden refusal of Sonar to accept audio input from ASIO 4 All--namely, it's still interacting with Windows 7's MIDI device.
 
 
 
 

Well I'm not sure what exactly could be going on but one thing I would recommend is if you have not been already then turn on the Casio BEFORE you open Sonar. Make sure that windows is receiving the MIDI connection (in win 7 I get a little icon in my task bar that shows MIDI connectivity). Then open Sonar. May not be related but I know I've experienced odd behavior or no connectivity at all with my MIDI devices if I wait until after Sonar is loaded to connect them/turn them on. Another thing to be aware of is you should always use the same USB port on your computer that you used to install the controller with. If you move it around from port to port it can confuse the OS/driver.
 
I'll go back to saying uninstall the Casio driver and Asio4all then make sure you have the latest versions and the correct versions for your OS. Look at any and all instructions you can find for these installs. Then follow the directions I have already provided in this thread to make sure Sonar is seeing both the Casio and your onboard sound device (which may show up as Asio4all in your audio preferences menu). You may also want to go to the Sound menu I referenced ealier and disable Windows Sounds to make sure that windows isn't hijacking the soundcard to make it's little bleeps and blaps.
 
That's all i got. It should work but getting some kind of interface would really likely make your life much easier.
 
Cheers.

Good luck to the OP!
It's bad enough this website contains/forces so much white space, but this thread in particular was unnecessarily elongated!

Teksonik

Bristol_Jonesey
By specs I mean your computer specs - what CPU, how much RAM, how many & size of hard drives, SOUNDCARD/INTERFACE etc.

There goes that odd fixation with System Specs again on this board.........Ram ? How many hard drives ? Really ?

Dude - get over the fact that folks ask for these things.  This person has indicated there is a problem with input to his audio device, and until we know what it is we cannot possible help him.
 
YOU seem to be the fixated one - if you don't want to help don't, but get off our backs for trying to.
 
Bob Bone