Bass Guitar

I really don’t expect anything to get fixed, I was just wondering if it was something that got changed. These projects are only backing tracks and probably won’t get any more attention from me. All important projects when I see a split track I re insert the instrument as a simple track and drag the midi to it and delete the split track. Much more tidy.

I toss in that yes it has always been a pain. And my biggest complaint is that I click on the dialogue to edit the name and that never seems to stick. Next thing you know you’ve just triggered 4 keyboard shortcuts. I forget which Daw it is that has a track info section where you can name , colour and icon tracks and it doesn’t loose focus. And every other Daw I use seems to only use the track number as the default. And the name of the synth will change when you swap it out. Sonar rarely changes the name to reflect the change if you use Replace synth.

@Base 57 did you try inserting a split instrument track to confirm? I guess the question is this intended or another graphic bug? How come nobody has noticed this? It’s been almost two years?

Look at the project at the top That is New Sonar. It contains a mixture of Simple and Split instruments but all the icons are the same. It should look like the picture below which shows a combination of icons. Unless they have recently changed this? These are old projects from back when I was still splitting tracks.

In another thread here we are sorting out how to add multi output drums after the fact. All is fine but then I thought to save time I would create a track template and then use that. Take note that these are all my backing track projects which are all very much the same layout and are pure midi. Many are also holdovers from the early days when I used split instrument tracks. More on that in a minute. So I opened another project and I inserted the track template. All went as planed and I now had the SSD5 drums with 6 outputs all properly named and routing all good. I dragged the Midi drums into the what I assumed was an instrument track and it wouldn't play? I dragged the midi back to the midi track and set the output to the instrument track and it plays?? ( by the way holding down shift does not keep the data in sync) Then I start noticing that all the icons for the midi tracks look like what I remember as instrument tracks as there is just a little keyboard. I confirmed that this was happening by first inserting an instrument and then inserting a split instrument. Both have the same icon? Now the question? is this something new or is this yet another graphics issue? So as it is there is no way to distinguish between the two types of instrument tracks. If you look at my screen shot you can see that Addictive drums is a split track. True pianos is not. And then the Combi organ, orange track is a instrument track and below the green tracks are split instrument tracks but all use same icon. Here is new Sonar Here is Platinum

Here's a few more tips: Reading what @Chaps posted a light bulb went off. I saved the 6 output set up as a Pre Set in SSD5. Opened a different project. I didn't bother opening the Synth Properties this time. It's not necessary. Loaded the Pre set. This saved a lot of work. and then using Add tracks set the output to my C bus and added 5 new tracks. Now just assign the inputs and name, done. The SSD5 routing options like in the case of choosing the multi output option on first inserting, creates way to many tracks to my liking. For me 6 or 8 stereo tracks is plenty. In many cases I really only want to process the snare and kick separately from the rest of the kit. Any fine tuning can be done in the drum GUI mixer. What I will do is create a few different track templates for this and see if that works even faster.

For me the deal breaker with the free version was no workspaces and as a rule I won't use any software that has a nag screen. I always toss them a few pennies to just get rid of them. I don't like wasting time when I open a program no matter how brief. And you never realize how dependent you are on simple things like the Workspaces. It is also a time waster for my workflow to have to re set up my views. I prefer the one button reset that workspaces allows. The rest I could care less about. I have hundreds of plug ins including the ones from Platinum etc. I haven't used Sonitus plug ins for years and don't plan on returning to them. Sonar is not my main Daw but I have important workflows that I need to use it for because it is still the best at doing certain things for me. Especially working with Midi. I think no one should only use only one Daw. I am 100% am against the Membership plan but that looks like it will never go away now. And when asked if the Free version would be available forever a staff member said there was no answer to that because it's a business and things can always change. The membership is on sale right now for a reasonable price. I am just going year by years for now. I can always use Platinum in an emergency but it become very apparent how far we have come since then and it's like driving an old car with no ABS brakes.

OK this works Opened an old project with the SSD5 as a stereo out only set up. From the synth rack open the Synth Properties and change to multi output. Open the SSD 5 Mixer and assign kick to output 1, snare 2 , toms 3 hats 4 and so on. Now on playback only the kick is heard. Outputs 2 to 6 are going nowhere. Insert new audio tracks, open the Input menu and choose the appropriate input from the dropdown which looks just like your audio interfaces list with left right or stereo as options. I chose stereo. Now just name the tracks and your done. EDIT: I forgot to change the output of the new audio tracks to my drum bus C. The best way to do this is use the Add tracks / advanced and choose it there as well as inserting the 5 new tracks. Even though the mixer in the GUI can do a lot this gives you the option of not just mixing but using 3rd party effects. Totally a game changer for working with canned drums.

As said Normalizing the audio doesn’t solve anything. It is also a destructive editing technique so it can’t be reversed after you save and close the project. So that is one reason why we use methods like clip gain and plug ins to solve the problem. They are not destructive. First important tip is to use your Pop filter to make sure you are always the same distance from your Mike. I find some condenser mikes are terrible for recording evenly. The correct equipment and set up will go a long ways towards solving this problem. I used to use clip gain but now I’m using Melodyne to even out my vocal track. Yes it’s destructive too but I always work with a second copy of the track. I find it faster and easier than clip gain because it breaks it down into each note. You can also do groups of notes or tell it to automatically even things out. You are more or less working with audio the same way you work with midi. I have gotten pretty good at this so it’s quick. The I use the CA2A and Boost 11 to smooth it out. The CA2A is also found as the PC2A pro channel module. I set it so it rarely moves and add just a little gain. The Boost 11 is actually one of the best limiters out of 60 I tested a few years ago. But don’t add the Boost gain past +5 or it will add nasty harmonic distortion. I rarely use it past +3 if at all. I use the limiter set between-2.0 and -5.0 db. Depending on material. If I need more gain I add it in the CA 2A because I prefer the smooth harmonic distortion it adds. I have not had a chance to test the Concrete Limiter yet. The best limiter over all is Thomas Munts free Loud Max. It is the most faithful at keeping true to the setting. Most limiters let as much as 8 db true peak pass through what you had set them to. Not really Brick wall, more like rubber. Be aware that compressors come in 2 flavours. Ones that colour and the ones that don’t. Some can be adjusted to do both. Example the CA2A adds colour. Which is really harmonic distortion. it is well done so is like the smooth texture of a good tube guitar amp This is rarely the case. The other design is the clear clean sound like the Sonitus or Melda compressor. The Sonitus actually has a way to add distortion but it’s a bit on the nasty scale. If you own a Focusrite interface make sure you download the free Effects they include. The Red series is one of my favourite compressors. If that’s still available it worth more than the price of the Solo.

I’ll have to try this tomorrow morning but I always thought that you could only choose multiple outputs when you first inserted the synth. But then I have never tried inserting a few audio tracks and seeing if you could set them up as the optional outputs from a synth. Im thinking you’d have to first assign them in the synth mixer first before Sonar would see them.

This is exactly what happens to me.

@jan.ynske You should really start a new topic for new questions.

What I remember from back in the days when we were using floppy disks is any continuous controller data would quickly run out of room on the disks.. You had to thin out the data manually. I was very disappointed when I bought my GR50 midi guitar that it was next to impossible to record the midi due to the constant pitch bending that was recorded. But 100MB sounds like a small project to me? That shouldn’t take more than a few seconds to open?

This is easier to do using the Console view Create 2 new stereo buses. Set their output to the master. Name one VOCALS. and thee other INSTUMENTS At the bottom of each of the track channel strips is the dialogue for the output of each track. It will have defaulted to master Change each track to the bus you want the track to go to. If there are a lot then you can select all the tracks that belong to a group and use the dialogue shown in the post above by @Chaps This sends the entire track to the bus. As pointed out by @reginaldStjohn you don’t use the send. The send is used when you want to split the signal and send it more than one place. Usually this is a reverb bus.

I find that Sonar and Cubase in the design never show you every event in one place. Example the tempo and program changes are not on the event list. So the midi data is scattered across 4 places. The event list, the transport. System Exclusive list and the track header. I have often had to open the midi file in a very basic Midi sequencer to view all the information in one place. Im away from home so can’t recommend one but they are all pretty easy to find by search for “Free Midi Sequencer “. The one I have allows me to edit the start and add events in a list that has a lot more information than any Daw gives me. Sorry I can’t remember what it is called. The GUI looks like it is DOS based.