What's your audio setup? A Creative card?

Are you able to record regular audio tracks?? (such as those from the card's line-in)

Hello Falkon,

Here are the specs of my music system:

Dell Dimension 4100, Intel Pentium 1.0GHz, 512 MB
Aardvark Aark 24 audio card
MidiSport 4X4 MIDI interface
Roland XV-5050 synthesizer
Roland U20 synthesizer
Yamaha SY77 synthesizer
Korg keyboard, 88- key (controller)

Yes, I can record audio tracks in Sonar (using my synthesizers).

I just started using soundfonts. And I use LiveSynth Pro to load them in Sonar 2XL.

A Turtle Beach Santa Cruz computer soundcard is also installed, but I disabled it since I am using a pro audio card, the Aark 24.

As I mentioned in the first post, I am able to record soundfonts and play them back, but unable to record them as audio.

Thanks for your help.

Interesting... I assume the soundfonts actually make noise during playback? :D

This is the way I do it... hope it helps.

1) Create midi track. Record midi events into midi track

2) Create audio track. Put Livesynth in the FX box for audio track

3) Set midi track output as LiveSynth.

4) (probably the step you're looking for) Select both tracks, and Edit-->Bounce to Track(s).

Depending on the situation I may bounce the tracks to stereo or mono, with or without whatever effects I set up on the track and bus after Livesynth. Experiment!

edit: I reread your post... I think a slight clarification would be that you record in midi, and play back the midi events THROUGH soundfonts, rather than record soundfonts themselves. I think that's where I got a little confused. Correct me if I'm wrong, of course.

Hi again Falkon, and thanks for your help.
I followed your instructions but it's not working, unfortunately. What happened was it recorded an empty audio track.

I don't hear noises when I play back the MIDI tracks.

This is how I am recording these soundfonts (as MIDI):
1. I load LiveSynth Pro and browse for a soundfont I like and load it
2. A LiveSynthPro track is created automatically
3. I choose a MIDI track, set the output to LiveSynth Pro
4. I start recording in this MIDI track, using my 88-key Korg piano
5. If I want another soundfont, I load it and record it on another MIDI track the same way, etc.

That's it.

There's this beautiful Steinway piano soundfont that is astonishing, and also a flue. I recorded a short piano passage along with the flute and I loved how they flow together. Sounds really acoustic. I wish I could record the short passage as audio. I'd send it to you, but I can only play back the MIDI tracks. No way to convert to audio. Very unfortunate indeed.

I never had this problem with my synthesizers (hardware, not soft stuff). Go to my web page and listen to the audio demos when you get a chance.

http://hebscope.tripod.com/

Well, at least we've narrowed down the problem. Sound SHOULD come out when playing back the midi, since output already goes through LiveSynth. Once you can get sound to come out during playback, bouncing to track will result in an audio track.

Check your solos and mutes... could be that.

I'm assuming when you record, you're hearing the soundfonts being played with keypresses? Or do you record midi while using the Korg samples as monitoring?

edit: Something just occured to me... what about the midi track channel and bank settings? Do those correspond to the SoundFont bank and channel settings within LiveSynth?

Yes it does.

Yes, but like I said, the resulting audio track has no audio data in it (silence is recorded).

I always do.

Yes, how else would I hear them? I don't compose music by "inserting" notes in a MIDI track. I record music live, by playing it. I only insert/delete/edit notes AFTER I have recorded a passage live.

The Korg keyboard is used as a master keyboard/controller, not as a source of samples. Because it's got 88 weighted hammer action keys, it allows me to "express" myself while playing/recording, let's say, piano passages. Again, I cannot just insert piano notes of a melody passage that's got 1,000 notes or so, one by one. There would be no "feel" to it.

Yes, the MIDI channels are set accordingly. For example, MIDI channel 1 would have bank 1 assigned to it, and MIDI channel 2 bank 2 assigned to it. The channel settings are also set accordingly.

Thanks for your help.

Gotcha... this is really odd.

For the life of me I don't see why it shouldn't work either - if you can hear the soundfonts in action while recording but not during playback... weird. If you ever get down to the source of the problem, tell me what it was.

Sorry for not being more of a help.

< if you can hear the soundfonts in action while recording but not during playback... weird.>

I said I do hear them in playback!

Thanks anyway. Guess I'll go back to using my synthesizers. It just sucks that I can record and playback that great sounding Steinway soundfont as MIDI but can't convert it to audio..

Composer wrote:
I don't hear noises when I play back the MIDI tracks.

Well, sorry about the confusion then. I thought that by this sentence, you meant that there's no sound coming off Livesynth during playback.

No Falkon. I meant no "bad/background noise" because in your second post, you wrote:

make noise during playback?>

I hear the soundfonts perfectly as I play them back on MIDI tracks after recording them. Again, it's being able to convert them to audio that I am trying to figure out.

It could have something to do with the "Midi Instruments" under "Options" in Sonar, but this is just a judgement call I am making, so I don't want to mess with those settings unless I am sure it is the source of the problem.

What version of SONAR are you using? Maybe you could send your project file over and I could take a look.

Hi Falkon, it finally worked!

I had to mute ALL MIDI tracks BUT the one needing bouncing, then "Edit"--->"Bounce to Track". Not select the tracks that need to be bounced to audio. So it's the reverse process.

The strange thing is that EVEN empty MIDI tracks HAVE to be muted. That was the catch. Thank you very much for your help, time, and patience.

I recorded a 38-second piece (piano and flute). First time using SoundFonts. Tell me your e-mail address. I'd like to share it with you.

LOL, I've never had to do that... but if it causes things to work over there, great for you!

Unfortunately, I've not had an active email account since early 2002 (personal reasons... don't ask, and I will not have to bore you with details ;) ) but perhaps ICQ or AIM could work?

How large is the file? If it's small enough, I could 'loan' a relative's email account.