Sonar 4 on Laptop - No Midi Output

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Flex1227
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2005/01/01 14:46:17 (permalink)

Sonar 4 on Laptop - No Midi Output

Hello everyone. I just got Sonar 4 Producer Edition for christmas and I'm running it on my Centrino notebook. I'm not sure how to get all of the soundcard details, but it's just the standard SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio card with WDM Based MIDI Output. When running Sonar, I get the "You have not selected any MIDI outputs" pop-up error. When I select "Choose MIDI Output Now", on the Input side I have no devices listed and on the Outputs side I only have "Microsoft MIDI Mapper" listed. When I select this and press OK, the same pop-up comes up again claiming that there are No MIDI Outputs Selected. I'm not sure how to get around this, can anyone offer some guidance? Maybe a new software synth would help? Please, any insight would be helpful as this sure was an expensive gift :) Thanks for your time.
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    Phrauge
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    RE: Sonar 4 on Laptop - No Midi Output 2005/01/01 14:50:56 (permalink)
    Try the "Using Soft Synths" tutorial on page 100 in the S4 manual. It uses the TTS-1 that's included with S4.
    #2
    maikii
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    RE: Sonar 4 on Laptop - No Midi Output 2005/01/01 16:13:41 (permalink)
    Does only MIDI not work? Have you played back any audio tracks? Do you get soundcard error messages?

    Did you check your MIDI output (I believe in "Options", "MIDI Devices"), that at least one MIDI out was checked there? (Or as the other poster wrote, you can use a DXI plugin synth (such as the included TTS) instead of whatever MIDI devices you have installed system-wide.)

    If you are getting soundcard error messages (from Sonar), it could be that you are having the same problem I had on my laptop, with WDM. (See another thread I started, I think called "WDM Problems".) Although these built-in laptop soundcards are supposed to support WDM, I think often either they don't do it correctly, or Sonar doesn't interface well with their type of WDM, or something like that. Since they send the message that they are WDM capable, Sonar opens them by default in WDM mode, but then won't play back through them, and sends out error messages.

    If you change to MME mode (in "Audio Options"), then close and re-start Sonar (you might wish to delete the "aud.ini" file before restarting, in the Sonar folder), it will re-start in MME mode, do the wave profiling on it, and if your problem was created by the WDM problem I referred to in the previous paragraph, that should solve it.

    If you don't like MME mode, if you find too much latency, etc., there are a couple of options. These laptop soundcards do not work in ASIO mode, do not have a driver for that. However, there is a free ASIO driver you can download that will work with any soundcard, Asio4all. With that loaded you should be able to use your laptop soundcard in ASIO mode, with less latency. I tried it, and it worked. However, there were some things I didn't like about it, so I uninstalled it. Look at the forum at that web site to see user's comments. It did work, provided ASIO support for my built-in laptop soundcard.

    The other option would be to use an external soundcard. There are many types you can get to use with a laptop,---USB, Firewire, and PCMCIA. There are discussions of these types on this board. I will usually use an external card with Sonar--currently USB, and my soon-to-come Echo Indigo I/O PCMCIA soundcard. When I use the internal soundcard of my laptop, I will just have to change to MME mode. (So--two options for using your internal soundcard, if WDM doesn't work--either use MME mode with that card, or install ASIO4All.) (Unless someone has found a solution to these WDM problems--I asked about it before, and no one came up with a solution. So for now, no WDM with my laptop's internal soundcard.)
    #3
    Stone House Studios
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    RE: Sonar 4 on Laptop - No Midi Output 2005/01/01 16:20:54 (permalink)
    I think the point here is that that soundcard may have a midi synth built into it, but the TTS-1 is a much better alternative. With the availability of decent DXi's and VSTi's, there is really no need to go midi out unless you have an external device that you are trying to play.
    Conversly, if you have a midi device that you need to get into the 'puter, then a midi interface is in order, which will give you midi outs.
    Either way, the soundcard synth is the least favorable option.

    Brian
    < Message edited by Stone House Studios -- 1/1/2005 4:29:04 PM >

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    maikii
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    RE: Sonar 4 on Laptop - No Midi Output 2005/01/05 16:07:53 (permalink)
    I wasn't referring to the built-in MIDI of the soundcard. (Do they still come with that, now that there's the Microsoft GS Synth, which most soundcards use as the default MIDI out?)

    I believe the OP was referring to a laptop, and its built-in sound card. Laptop built-in soundcards are not very good. As was mentioned, there are alternative external soundcard options for a laptop--USB, Firewire, and PCMCIA.

    It is possible that the OP doesn't yet have one of these external options. Also, as a laptop user myself, with two such USB extermal boxes, and the Echo Indigo I/O PC card just received last night, I can still envision times I would wish to use the laptop's internal sound card. One might be away from home with the laptop, and not have any of the external devices with you. Or, one might not have external speakers or headphones with you, which playback on any external solution requires, as the output from them does not go through the laptop's internal speakers, as the built-in card's does.

    Therefore, the OP asked how to make his laptop's internal soundcard function correctly with Sonar.
    #5
    maikii
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    RE: Sonar 4 on Laptop - No Midi Output 2005/01/05 16:14:24 (permalink)
    ORIGINAL: Stone House Studios

    I think the point here is that that soundcard may have a midi synth built into it, but the TTS-1 is a much better alternative. With the availability of decent DXi's and VSTi's, there is really no need to go midi out unless you have an external device that you are trying to play.
    Conversly, if you have a midi device that you need to get into the 'puter, then a midi interface is in order, which will give you midi outs.
    Either way, the soundcard synth is the least favorable option.

    Brian


    Another point about MIDI. There are good system-wide softsynths, not only the DXi and VST plug in type. For instance, I have the Yamaha SYXG50 software synth, a very good all-round XG and GM softsynth. (Unfortunately, Yamaha discontinued it, so haven't updated it with DXI and VST versions.) Roland's VSC-3 comes in a system-wide version, as well as the DXI plug-in. (I think their "Hypercanvas", which is the same as TTS, also comes in a system-wide version, when purchased separately.)

    Therefore, people might have a good system-wide softsynth installed. If so, they will quite likely wish to have it enabled under MIDI Out devices.
    #6
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