I recently purchased a Roland XP-50 Music Workstation second hand. Its got some really amazing sounds! How does one import sounds from the XP-50 into X1? The XP-50 manual is impossible to decipher!! I have a feeling the procedure will be somewhat complicated and so I'll thank in advance anyone taking the time to explain!

The XP-50 ouputs analog audio signal --really old fashioned. You import the sounds into Sonar the same way you import sounds from a microphone pre-amp, by plugging the audio out from the back of the synth into the audio in of your audio interface. If you are able to hear the sounds it makes, you must already have done that with a headphone jack or an amplifier. There is no digital output, so you do not actually import your sounds, you record them. You will need cords with the appropriate plugs and connectors or adapters to hook up your computer's audio input to the jacks on the back panel of the synth. The illustration on page 9 of the manual shows you how to make the connection to an amplifier. You need to do the same thing, only to the audio input of your computer, whatever that is. If you know how to record from your audio interface input into Sonar you are there. 

If you want to route a MIDI track thru the XP-50 and record the sound slartabartfast pretty much nailed it.
 
If you want to be able to duplicate the sounds of the XP-50 inside Sonar without having to access the unit every time you can sample the sounds and use an internal sampler program like Kontakt or convert to a format like SF2 (soundfonts) instead. It may not be worth the money as you are only dealing with the XP-50, but this is a nice little piece of software for these purposes:
http://www.soundlib.com/samplit/
 
Depends on how much your time is worth! Not to mention, after you sample all the sounds you like you could resell the unit.

slartabartfast


The XP-50 ouputs analog audio signal --really old fashioned. You import the sounds into Sonar the same way you import sounds from a microphone pre-amp, by plugging the audio out from the back of the synth into the audio in of your audio interface. If you are able to hear the sounds it makes, you must already have done that with a headphone jack or an amplifier. There is no digital output, so you do not actually import your sounds, you record them. You will need cords with the appropriate plugs and connectors or adapters to hook up your computer's audio input to the jacks on the back panel of the synth. The illustration on page 9 of the manual shows you how to make the connection to an amplifier. You need to do the same thing, only to the audio input of your computer, whatever that is. If you know how to record from your audio interface input into Sonar you are there. 

Dave, the XP50 comes with the usual complement of 3 Midi sockets on the back panel

There's a manual in pdf format here

Bristol_Jonesey

slartabartfast


The XP-50 ouputs analog audio signal --really old fashioned. You import the sounds into Sonar the same way you import sounds from a microphone pre-amp, by plugging the audio out from the back of the synth into the audio in of your audio interface. If you are able to hear the sounds it makes, you must already have done that with a headphone jack or an amplifier. There is no digital output, so you do not actually import your sounds, you record them. You will need cords with the appropriate plugs and connectors or adapters to hook up your computer's audio input to the jacks on the back panel of the synth. The illustration on page 9 of the manual shows you how to make the connection to an amplifier. You need to do the same thing, only to the audio input of your computer, whatever that is. If you know how to record from your audio interface input into Sonar you are there. 

Dave, the XP50 comes with the usual complement of 3 Midi sockets on the back panel

There's a manual in pdf format here

Chances are Dave already knew this when responding as it the norm. The MIDI ports allow it to play MIDI data coming from Sonar but the audio outputs of the XP-50 will still be analog so output from the XP-50 will have to be recorded as Dave mentioned. The MIDI outs will perform basic MIDI tasks like bulk dump or patch back-up etc. but there is no way to transfer the actual sound coming out of the XP-50, nor the internal building blocks of patches, to Sonar via MIDI. At least not that I know of. I own several older Roland synths including a GR-50.

I own an old D-50 and this thing outputs all the usual Midi stuff and was, I believe, one of the first Roland synths to have full Midi capability. It also pre-dates the XP50 by at least a decade.

I'd be surprised if the XP doesn't do this, but I bow to your greater knowledge if this is indeed the case.

Bristol_Jonesey


I own an old D-50 and this thing outputs all the usual Midi stuff and was, I believe, one of the first Roland synths to have full Midi capability. It also pre-dates the XP50 by at least a decade.

I'd be surprised if the XP doesn't do this, but I bow to your greater knowledge if this is indeed the case.

Hey, you write great stuff here, I don't think you need to bow for anything!
 
I guess I'm a little confused here as to why you are talking MIDI when the OP appears to want audio  - the OP appears to want to be able to play the XP-50, whether manually or thru MIDI output from Sonar, and to record the subsequent audio coming from the XP-50 into in Sonar. You can't mixdown a song that uses the XP-50 as long as the actual audio is still coming from the XP-50. MIDI will not transfer sound, it will only transfer MIDI data which contains no actual sounds. Where are the oscillators used to create the sounds? Where are the wavetables/partials? How is it that you propose that the sound output from the XP-50 can be translated to MIDI data and be then sent into Sonar and subsequently re-converted into audio?
 
When you say it outputs "all the usual MIDI stuff" you fail to address the issue which is: how do you transfer the -audio- from the XP-50 to Sonar?

Scott, we're definitely singing from the same hymn book mate!

I was thinking one step ahead (as per usual) with a view to editing his Midi performances inside Sonar, then as you rightly say, to convert any EXTERNAL synth sounds to audio he would have to record the audio, as there's no other way.

Thanks to all of you - I have a much better understanding of what I need to do.