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My Cakewalk Sonar 8 Producer Edition gives no sound when playing back tracks and it does not register audio/MIDI input. A track imported from a CD into Sonar plays perfectly when played back from the programme. I have a pair of Behringer MS40 monitors, but I use mostly a pair of SONY earphones as monitors. WMP and Realplayer and other sound sources produce sound in the monitors.

Chain: instrument/mic into Roland VM-3100 digital mixer, connected to an M-Audio 1010 LT sound card: into PC via phono cords from 'bus out' into 1 and 2 IN, from computer to mixer through 1 and 2 OUT into mixer channels 11 and 12, also phono cords.

The drivers currently used under Options>Audio>Advanced are WDM/KS, but I've used WASAPI and ASIO with similar (no) effect. The track output indicates that the sound is sent to the M-Audio 1010 LT.

I've tried the troubleshooting advice in the manual provided. I'm running out of ideas. How do I get sound in and out of Sonar?

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TheJackAttack Wed, 04/14/2010 - 10:22

First you need to use the ASIO driver by M-Audio. Next, when you arm a track for recording you need to actually assign where the input is coming from. It's not default. MIDI isn't going to work at all unless you have a MIDI generator of one type or another so we'll just leave that out of the equation. The output of anything needs to be assigned also. The default there may not be what your monitors are plugged into. Basically what you are describing is a routing problem. If you were all analog you would simply trace the signal path physically until you found the cable or switch that was wrong. You need to do that virtually through a combination of the Sonar options and the M-Audio GUI (graphical user interface). Manuals for each are available for free download. I don't have a Delta 1010LT and don't use Sonar so I can't necessarily walk you through it step by step but it is ultimately the same regardless of brand or analog/digital. There are only two options. Gozinta and Gozouta.

anonymous Thu, 04/15/2010 - 05:58

Response and report

Thanks for the useful advice.

The physical gozinta and gozouta checked, I specified Microsoft GS Wavetable as output for each individual track in an audio project and in a MIDI project, and there was plenty of output. This seems to isolate the problem in the M-Audio 1010 LT, and the way it interacts with Sonar. The driver used is the newest and Control Panel/Device Manager claims that it functions properly, so that's where I am now.

Any advice to move me on from here?

TheJackAttack Thu, 04/15/2010 - 10:38

Are you sure there is sound going to the Bus Out jacks? I don't intend to offend you I'm just starting at the beginning and working my way through.

So let's say I set up a multitrack session in Sonar. I've got two mono input channels. The 1st one I tell to receive signal from M-Audio Input 1. The 2nd one I tell to receive signal from M-Audio Input 2. For output of both channels I assign to Master Out or Bus or whatever it is in Sonar. On the master bus I tell it to send that signal to M-Audio stereo output 1(or 1/2 whatever). I hit Arm on both of my recording tracks in Sonar.

Now I move over to the Roland-which I'm also not too familiar but it's a mixer so.....

I plug a microphone or two into channels 1 and 2. I sound check the mic's to make sure I'm getting signal into the VM3100 and the levels are good. Now I go down the stick until I find the button that tells those channels where to go. I make sure that the Bus Assign button is set correctly on both microphone channels. Otherwise no sound will go to Sonar period. Pan channel 1 hard left and pan channel 2 hard right just for now as diagnostic. Now presuming that I'm getting signal into the VM3100 I should now be getting signal into the Delta 1010LT.

Again, I'm not familiar with Sonar but if the tracks are armed you should see some sort of VU meter (lights whatever) moving as you speak into the microphones. If not, then you need to double check all the track assignments in Sonar and also in the M-Audio GUI. The M-Audio GUI should also indicate sound coming into the card.

I'm not sure if any of this helps you or not. It's difficult to troubleshoot a virtual machine.