Hi,
 
I'm  new to cakewalk and I've recently purchased sonar x2 essential.
 
After a couple of weeks of screaming at my laptop and coming close to launching it out the window, I've come to accept that I need help with the step sequencer.
 
I've been experiencing two problems -
 
The first is that the step sequencer doesn't seem to care that I set the probability of each step to 100% - it still just misses out beats when it feels like it even though they are set to 100% probability and are clearly in the row.
 
The second is that I've been having trouble using the created pattern in the track view. A sequence seems to work perfectly when the play cursor is placed directly at it but not any where else (eg a sequence placed 30 seconds into a song will perfectly when the playback is started from the 30 second mark but the sequence placed at the 30 second mark will play totally incorrectly if the playback is started from anywhere else in the song leading up to it)
 
Hope this makes sense!
 
Would anyone be able to help?
 
I've got a load of songs written and really want to record them and this step sequencer is ruining my ****ing life!!!
 
Thanks.

Welcome to the forum.  Your post does not make any sense to me.  Are you missing beats? 

You may need to increase your MIDI Playback Prepare Using buffers by a bunch.

Glen

I use Step Sequencer all the time, but have never had those issues.

I do not ever use the per-beat probability feature of Step Sequencer, as I just sequence my own variations in my drum tracks.  I will have a look into that feature to see if anything jumps out at me as to what may help you.

Sorry I cannot offer you more than compassion for the problems, 

Bob Bone

Jamesf89: Sounds like a MIDI buffers issue as Glen says. Go into Edit menu/preferences/MIDI/Playback and Recording and near the bottom of the window is Prepare Using: XXX Millisecond Buffers. By default that's set to something like 200, which is usually too low to get reliable MIDI playback. Try setting it to 500 and see if your Step Sequencer problem goes away. If that doesn't fix it, try a higher number. The problem is that if Sonar doesn't have enough time to buffer and line up MIDI far enough in advance it kind of trips over itself once the buffer is full. The step sequencer is particularly prone to this. In fact, all kinds of very common MIDI record and playback weirdness can be fixed by increasing that buffer. Including strange playback problems such as the one you describe. Why it's set so low by default is anyone's guess. If that doesn't sort the problems out, say so and we'll see if we can work out any other fixes. Setting the MIDI buffer to a higher figure is a good idea in any case. Bob - I use the per step probability feature quite a bit (a little randomness can be an interesting thing - and I use the step sequencer for more than drums - it's great for bass lines for a start). I've never found any problems with that particular function at all. My (educated) best guess is the MIDI buffers are the issue here.

Sorry about formatting of above. Not my fault, not at my usual PC and this one only has Firefox installed. The forum software doesn't get on with Firefox. As you can see. :-/

You are using a laptop. Have your laptop tuned and configured for DAW use.
Look for issues like: Do not run on battery if you can.
                                CPU loading up like, Bluetooth and Wireless Network be turned off.
                                Hard drive specs like, do not use 5400rpm magnetic drive.
More stuff, but these are good questions to ask of you to comply too.

Thanks a lot for the help. Working great.
 
Appreciate it.
 
Cheers!