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Do I even need to remind you guys that I am new to all of this any more?

Here are my questions. Sonar up and running on nice DAW with 2 Q10's. The Q10's have MIDI ports, the keyboard we have is a casio home piano type with two 1/4" outs (L/R) and a midi in and a midi out.

Am I correct in assuming that I could plugin two midi cables from the the Casio to the Q10 and then be able to drive the MIDI soft synths included with Sonar?

For reference, I am primarily doing Micing and recording of rock and roll. I just want to know, can I do what I describe above, and if I can, does anyone out there have a simple recipe or step by step of how to do it?

Also, if you do not know, who would you suggest I ask... Aardvark or Sonar?

Thanks in advance.

Jim

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Ethan Winer Tue, 04/01/2003 - 07:47

Jim,

> I could plug in two midi cables from the the Casio to the Q10 and then be able to drive the MIDI soft synths included with Sonar? <

If the Q10 is a sound card with a MIDI input, then the answer is a resounding Yes. I do this all the time with Sonar, my MIDI card, and a lot of very cool software synths!

--Ethan

anonymous Thu, 04/03/2003 - 18:08

As far as defining outputs, the DXi synths behave just like any other sound module. (Some of them haven't implemented the bank/patch interface, but that shouldn't affect what you're doing.) Just make sure you have at least one midi track which specifies the soft synth as the output and the the input is either midi omni or the specific channel from the Casio.

kevinwhitect Sun, 04/20/2003 - 20:35

What Dan meant was check Options>Midi devices and make sure that the Q10's drivers are highlighted...that will make sure that at least they're active...it's okay if microsoft is active too...or inactive....it's not that important.

Running a softsynth in Sonar is a little tricky, and it took me a couple of tries to get it right.

First off, use the DXi synth rack to create the softsynth tracks.....it's the green DXi box.

Once there, hit the crooked arrow in the upper left tool bar, and it will give you a list of all the active DXis you have available. Choose your preference.

Sonar will now create the track.

Go to a separate midi track and drop down the OUTPUT menu...the DXi should appear as one of the outputs....choose it.

Now here's where it get tricky...first, remember that Sonar will only take midi from the track that's highlighted...so if you're not getting an output, make sure the track is highlighted.

Also, make sure your "midi in" is set to omni....you don't want to exclude any channels coming in.

Next, set the "Ch" dropdown menu starting at midi channel 1. This was the tricky part for me. Some of the percussion voices only responded to ch10, some others to ch2...but as a starter, ch1 should work. If it doesn't...change the channel one at a time until it starts to respond.

Good luck and have fun!

Kev.

Ethan Winer Tue, 04/22/2003 - 08:44

Jeff,

> What software synths <

I love the DreamStation synth that comes with Sonar. I was an early customer of the original stand-alone version, and it's just like having a MiniMoog except it's much clearer sounding, it's polyphonic, it doesn't drift out of tune, and it costs a lot less than a real MiniMoog.

Other faves are the Native B4 and FM7. Between these three and a soft-sampler - I use Live Synth Pro - I can get pretty much any sound I want.

--Ethan