HI, guys, I'm new to the whole recording realm. Been playing and writing songs for years but I am mostly clueless when it comes to recording. I am at the point where I have installed all the software, plugged in a microphone and did some test recording. I am now taking a look at the soft synths that are included in the v studio 100 version of cakewalk. Subsequently, I am having trouble figuring out how to import the drum tracks from the soft synth program (I hope I'm saying that right) and recording them as an actual drum track for my song. 

I have come as far as opening the drum synth, messed around with a few of the stock patters. Even tried dragging a stock pattern over to one of the tracks (to no avail).

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Also, am I only able to do 8 tracks on a given song or am I able to record as many tracks as I want with the v studio 100 (taking potential latency in to account). Thank you so much for even taking the time to read this post.

go to insert/soft synth.
choose cakewalk instruments,si-drums.

so gather youve got this far ?

see with recording midi its a little different than anything youve ever used before,unlike audio where you can see a wave inside your track,midi are these litte dots/dashes if you will.
these little dots/dashes represent the notes you are rec.

so once you have inserted that synth.
arm your track and as long as your hearing this drum kit you should be good to go.

press record/play these drums using your keyboard/controller,exc.
when you press stop and play it back,its playing back the notes you have entered,almost like a morse code.

rather than record you can alternitively drag and drop midi clips in to your tracks as well.
Sonar Le,exc comes packed with a lot of midi content just for this purpose.

its a good idea to go to your profile settings here in this forum and choose edit my profile/signiture.
type in as much info on your computer,soundcard and version of sonar you are using.
this will speed up responces from users who know exactly what they're dealing with.(your sys specs)

please feel free to ask more questions and welcome to the forum,congrats on a great control surface/soundcard such as the vs 100.
i have a vs 20,i love it.

Thanks Chuke. 

So I am still having problems loading the midi drum tracks and recording them as the actual drum track for my song. what I have been doing is:

arming the track 

opening up the drum program

selecting a pre-made drum track (faster for this purpose) and dragging my selected drum pattern over to the track I am trying to record it to. 

it allows me to add the drum pattern but only shows a small section of the track covered by the pattern. 

I then expand the drum patter so that it fits over 20 seconds or so, click the main record button located at the top of the sonar vs recording software window.

when I do this it looks like it's recording, but I only hear a click track w/ no drums. when I try to play it back I hear silence.

.....also, I put my system specs in my sig but for some reason it isn't showing up....

okay,heres what i want you to do,try this,
i want you to look in the track where you are putting your file in,only this time,dont look right in front of you,scroll down to the right..all the way down the timeline,like close and see if your midi file is there.

there is a setting in preferences called import media at broadcast timestamp i believe,what might be happening is when you are dropping your sample down,its not being dropped where it should,but instead its being dropped like 20-40 measures away,so llok closely down the timeline on the same track,just hit the arrow button to scrool sideways,to the right.

im not going to get in to the logistics of why this happens but it does for a purpose,but this setting will change that.

try updating your signiture again,if not post your soundcard/specs right here in a post,im working blind here without them.
its too your advantage,

sorry im a little late responding.
you can also set it up so the second i respond to this thread you will recieve an email.

check back later

Charlie

Hey chuke, thanks again, I had to get back to work today so I won't have time to work on this until I get home. I will try to update my profile again, sig, e-mail alerts, etc. Just wanted to give you a heads up. I see you are in Boston, I'm in California. So it may not be until late in the evening your time. Thank you again for taking the time to help out a noob, it's appreciated.

Intel i3 Core processor  
6 GB DDR3 RAM  
Sonar VS 100 


I'll have to get back to you with the sound card.

good enough fridge,thanks 4 the heads up.

i normally dont check back on threads like i have been on this one.
im usualy on a totaly different part of this forum(sonar x1-x2)
but ive pretty much taken over the VS-20 forum(answering every question in there)
thats how i found your post,its one over from the VS-20(which i what i have)

i just want to make sure you're all set,thats why ive been checking in here on/off
so i do appreciate that your greatful  :)

i think you may find the solution i provided in our last discussion will provide useful.
the more i started thinking about it,the more im confident on thats what it is.

when i mention what kind of soundcard are you usind i also should have been specific.
i know your using the vs-20 as your interface/it should be your soundcard as well.
so hopefully you have installed those drivers and are running this unit in its native ASIO format.

talk to you soon

Hey chuke.

Sorry for the late response. I tried scrolling right on the track I selected to drag and drop the drum pattern but there was nothing there.

On the track, it does show a small section of the drum track that I am able to expand. It sort of looks like this:

--------------------------- _______----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------               
   empty track             [ drum    ]   rest of empty track
                                  [ pattern]
                                  [             ]
----------------------------_______---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

the empty and armed blank track is colored red, the little section of drums is blue and includes the name of the drum track itself (2TON-B, etc).

I can expand the drum pattern, which I do, from the start of the track to measure 20. I then click record. 

once I click record I hear the click track and nothing else. 

then I play the whole thing back but here nothing but silence.

when you play that section of blue track,it has no content on it?

have you checked you inputs/outputs on that track?
for instance,your input should be (your soundcard)the vs100
your output should be the synth you are trying to use.

make sure when recording,your input echo button is engaged,your rec.button is engaged and you input/ouputs set up as i have discribed here.

try a test and record a synth to see if your getting I/O correctly.
go to insert/soft synth.
then check your I/O

make abso lutely sure that in preferences,your device is selected correctly.
what ever your using for a keyboard.
your soundcard/vs100 should also be using ASIO as your driver device

there is content before I click record.

I did not have input echo on, I turned it on, tried again and nothing.

Sorry, but I am unsure on how to adjust the input/output settings....

I did just realize that when I startup the VS software, I keep telling it I don't don't have a midi controller for the output (will be purchasing one in the next week or so, do you have any recommendations? I've been looking at one of the cheaper m audio ones for now) is there a way I can set it to my laptop keyboard for now?