Hi guys. I've just set up Sibelius to trigger soft synths in Sonar. It's working well - I am using a Virtual Midi Cable. The only problem I'm having is that I have to tab to Sonar for the audio driver to switch on - it doesn't seem to want to work when Sonar is not the focus window? I never had this problem on my laptop. This is a new PC. This means I can't watch the score while listening to the sound through Sonars synths. That's my first question. Secondly I've heard of rewire - what exactly IS rewire and why would I use that when I can just set the input and output like I've been doing. Thanks!

Nevermind I solved the window issue by unticking share drivers (which seems counter productive in my mind but it works!) So - why use rewire?

i would think rewire would be a more sample/phase accurate method, but have no comparison test data to back that up.

Rewire is a technology that was developed by Propellerhead Soft SE, the makers of Reason.  The purpose of the technology was to create a connection between Reason and other DAWs; at the time, Reason was just a cool synth rack, and not a daw like it is today.

Rewire has become an industry standard technology.  Its not just a way to connect Reason to a DAW anymore, its a way to connect a ton of different softwares... People use it all the time..  I use it all the time.   I do not have a single completed Sonar project that does not make use of Rewire...

the reason to rewire...

Sibelius gives you the ability to work in notation at a high level,  Sonar allows better manipilation of libraries and recording ability.  Together they make an extremely powerful DAW.

Thanks guys! Could you give me some more ideas of how exactly it might work? Because right now I can't see what more I have to benefit from than just having Sibelius playing into Sonar like I already do. Does it sync up the playing and basically become a replacement for the Piano Roll or something?

I'm not using Sibelius..  so I have no idea what the exact benefit might be in terms of rewiring Sibelius Slave --- > Sonar Master.

I suggest trying it though..  You may find that Rewire, once you learn it; presents an experience with, "even more," integration than what you have going on right now.  In terms of that; benefits should be, "self explanatory."

Cheers

Rewiring is normally used for the opposite approach - to treat another rewire slave app like a big softsynth. You can't trigger synths in SONAR using rewire itself since SONAR is a rewire HOST not a slave.

If your workflow is to do all your music editing in Sibelius simultaneously while tracking/mixing in SONAR then its useful to rewire, otherwise it seems like a solution in search of a problem. Sibelius is treated as a slaved virtual instrument when in this mode. BTW you can load and trigger VST synths in Sibelus so I'm not sure why you would want to use a virtual MIDI cable into SONAR to do that. It seems like an unnecessarily complicated setup.