Hi Husky, and welcome to RO. I use Sonar 2.0 XL. There's not much difference between the two(just someplug-ins. Before ya get your hopes up, I'm pretty clueless about midi. I do know that Sonar's help files do give some insight. If you already know how to assign channels/banks/patches just double click the midi track you're going to arm for recording and your track properties window will come up. You can also right click the track and chose it from the pop-up menu. Oorrrrrr, in your menu bar, at the top, click track and chose properties from there(keep in mind that this will only show the properties from the highlighted track). Anyway you choose, once you get to the track properties window, you can set up your midi accordingly. I hope this helps. Honestly, though, I really am the wrong person to ask about midi.

If this don't help let us know. The intellect here at RO is immeasurable and everflowing. I'm sure someone will chime in.

you don't mention what midi interface you are using or how you have set up your system for midi. that would be helpful.

Correct me if I am wrong, but it sounds as if you are getting the midi parts *recorded*, but they do not play back correctly...is this right?

If so, there are several things that could be going on. I do not use Sonar, so I am not sure of the exact keystrokes/mouse clicks, but the principle should be the same...

Not to insult you, but you did say you are new at this...you do realize that midi is not audible music, right? It is just a set of data, or instructions that tell a midi device what to play. After you have recorded your midi parts, and can see them in the track arrange window, you will just need to tell Sonar how to play them.

There are a couple of ways to do this, depending on the data, but the principle is the same...you must send that data to a device that will interpret it, and convert it to audible sounds.

1) Midi Synthesizer:
Do you have a midi synthesizer on your sound card? Not all soundcards have this ability, and in reality, most don't...especially the upper-end ones. If you have a Soundblaster cord however, you are probably in luck, as they usually *do* have one. If you do have a synth on your soundcard, set the output from the midi track you just recorded to the midi synth on your soundcard. If not, you may need to route the signal back to your keyboard (via midi), have the keyboard play the parts you recorded, then route the audio outs from the keyboard *back* to another channel in Sonar (this time to an audio channel rather than a midi channel). You will need to make sure that you are transmitting/receiving on the same midi channel, and that your keyboard is set up to receive data, etc.

2) Virtual Instrument:
Sonar uses the DXi standard for virtual instruments, and you should have at least one instrument included with Sonar. (If not, there are lots of freeware/shareware DXi instruments on the Internet...do a search, and I'm sure you'll get plenty of hits.) The priciple here is the same as example #1 above, the DXi will will translate the midi data that is recorded, and turn it into audible sounds. Once again, you need to set the output of the midi channel to a DXi you will need to "load" the DXi first (or "open" it), check your Sonar manual for details. This virtual instrument will now translate that midi data into an audible sound (that should be "music", depending on your keyboad skills!!! ;) ). Most DXi's have many preset patches that will allow you to get a variety of sounds out of each DXi, just like the different patches on your keyboard. Experiment! That is the beauty of using a virtual instrument...once you record the midi part, the note/velocity, etc. data is there until you change or delete it! You can now apply differnet patches, different DXi's to your heart's content!

The next step in the process is usually to translate that midi data to an audio file once you have found the synth or virtual instrument that you want to keep. Once you do this, you are now locked into that sound for that track! It is probably wise to save the midi file (just be sure to mute it) just to make sure. That way, you can always go back and make a few changes, and create a new audio file from the midi data later. You cannot change the patch on an audio file, so once it is recorded as audio, "it is what it is"! I am pretty sure that you must convert the midi file to audio in Sonar if you want to burn it to CD, but I may be wrong here...some of the Sonar experts around here might be able to chime in!

Good luck!