Ensoniq SQ-1 to Sonar

You have to send the MIDI out (and possibly the audio, as well if that's what you want) from the SQ-1 into SONAR via your Fast Track...

How do you have it configured?

I know this is more of a SQ-1 question than a Sonar question but any help is appreciated.

Yeah some hardware sequencers don't send MIDI to the Output when driving an internal synth. I don't know whether the SQ1 can be made to do it or not. Google is your friend.

Can't you save your MIDI data to the floppy and either pull it into Sonar, or if that is not possible use some sort of convert program to put it in a format that modern DAWS can read? Chicken systems had/has conversion programs.

Yes, it can be done!

I have a VFX-SD and I believe they have the same if not similar sequencer.  

You just need to change the Clock in Sonar to look for MTC (Midi Time Code) as an external event.

Set up all your tracks for the corresponding Midi channels on both Sonar and your ESQ-1, and arm the tracks.  Under ESQ-! midi control there's a send stop/start that needs to be enabled.  Hit Record in Sonar and play on your esq-1 and it should trigger Sonar..  Sonar will wait (and seems like it's locked up) until you hit play. After the song is ended (hitting stop, or however you have it set up), then you cna hit escape in sonar, and change the clock to audio or whatever it was previously . Then you can mute the tracks and record audio to each track independantly, if desired.

Let me know if this progresses you or not, as I'm going by memory.
 
Also, you may want to put the PPQN to 96 (Ensoniq standard), or at least experiment with it.

You can also do the reverse (sonar driving esq1) up to the 24 track limit at once!  This is cool, as you can noodle later w/o turning on your daw.

I really love the Ensoniq Sequencer.  That company is sorely missed in the industry.

There's also an alternative, using the Gieblier software, which takes the ensoniq format and converts it to a midi smf file.  The downside, that you need a DOS computer for it due to the way it reads the floppy.  Look for it on Giebler.com.

FWIW, I still occasionally use my Ensoniq ASR-10 in SONAR and it works fine...I would thik the SQ-1 wouldn't be much different...It's all in how you configure the SQ to play "nicely" with SONAR...

A DOS computer?  hmmm that might be tough :)

I keep an old warhorse 286 around for just this kind of thing. It has 5.25" and 3.5" floppies, and can read and write all the old DOS formats. I used it get my Roland MC-500's system disks backed up. 


It has an MPU-401 MIDI interface in it, too.