step sequencer on most soft synths not working?

mickeyratt


i am trying to use the step sequencer from the soft synth insturments. I put together a pattern on the sequencer and it does not play...some of the sounds hit but randomly? any ideas

Can you tell us about your PC and Audio device?  Also a little more specific info such as which synth, which patch (if appropriate) and what kind of pattern have you created.
 
Thanks!
 
Brian

all as I can tell you is that it is a compaq it only 2gb of ram 64 bit and a realtek audio card..this is really the only program I have on this computer. I think I may have installed th sonar in 32 bit? does that make a difference?

@brian...the patterns are simple 2 or 3 notes in a couple of rows or if it a drum beat a simple 4/4 bass drum hi hat and snare

I am not aware of any general problem with dropped notes in X1 as mentioned by Crush. Try increasing the Prepare Using value in Preferences > MIDI > Playback and Recording. If it's less than 500, start there. If it's already there, try increasing in increments of 100 up to 1000 or so, and see if that helps.


This is by far the the most common cause of dropped notes. 

Contrary to what Crush said above, SONAR does not have issues with notes dropping out when looping. The Step Sequencer works just fine over here with the many different synths I use with it (SD3, GrooveSynth, DimPro, Battery, etc.).

The first thing I would do is get an actual audio interface. Built-in sound cards are really just a last ditch effort at best.

If you're running a sequence with fast steps and the synth sounds have a slow attack, you won't hear the notes. 

Sonar X1 has a known issue of sounds dropping out during looping.

 
Not as far as I've noticed - and I've put in quite a few hours now since X1 was launched. Never seen that happen in fact. I would get MIDI glitches in 8.5.3 whan entering lots of notes/edits into the step sequencer while looping it, but not so far in X1. Sonar may not even have been the culprit there - I altered my hardware MIDI routing setup at the time it was released, and as the problem sounded like MIDI "tripping over itself" it may well have been a hardware issue all along.
 
Looped audio is rock solid, and I've gone to 32 stereo 24bit/48K tracks while changing looping on the fly to satisfy myself of that. Tiniest hiccup at worst when changing loop points (which I can live with, though I know it really irritates some people).

Can I ask your opinion of the step sequencer? How has your experience been?

 
I've used it for drum programming since Sonar 6. Having started to control an MFB 503 with it using lots of MIDI CCs I've spotted one or two things that could do with attention - perhaps you'd describe your experience to see if we agree?

I personally find it is 'too large' and 'too long' down the screen when it should be a third of the size.

 
Sorry, don't understand you. It's the size you set it to be - for controlling my SR-16 that's typically 16 or 32 steps wide, 16 rows high. If anything I'd like slightly smaller buttons/rows/columns so I can squeeze a few more steps in without scrolling and maybe a few more rows once in a while. If it was a third of the size I genreally use the buttons/text would be invisible. If there are more rows than you need (because you're not using all of them) then delete the ones you don't want.

I am not aware of any general problem with dropped notes in X1 as mentioned by Crush. Try increasing the Prepare Using value in Preferences > MIDI > Playback and Recording. If it's less than 500, start there. If it's already there, try increasing in increments of 100 up to 1000 or so, and see if that helps.


This is by far the the most common cause of dropped notes.

this was the problem......it was at 250 so I bumped it up to 500 and it works just fine

twisted6s

Crush


Sonar X1 has a known issue of sounds dropping out during looping.

Can I ask your opinion of the step sequencer? How has your experience been?

I personally find it is 'too large' and 'too long' down the screen when it should be a third of the size.

I never use the step sequencer, just tried it for the very first time. Not one word of Crush's claim is true

Twisted,

I couldn't agree more with you.

I don't know of any sound dropping out issues, but the claim about the Step Sequencer is true if you have a certain type of laptop where the screen is slightly narrowed. It's about an inch less wide than standard laptop screen. Since its a touchscreen, the maximum resolution is 1024x768. Sonar appears very large, overall, and the SS takes up half of the screen by default. So, naturally it doesn't fit at all. Unfortunately I've never used the SS due to this fact. But I recently saw a video where this guy was whipping through it doing all sorts of things. I guess I'll have to buy a new laptop.