Bass Guitar

@57Gregy Glad to hear that. It’s probably because HS 6 is a complete different file system than the newer Sonars. I think the issue was due to Home Studio doesn’t have the Pro Channel. This contaminated Sonars system folder. Nothing I did would fix it. My Sonar pro channel was screwy. It would crash any projects that contain the CA2A etc. This also why you never should install older versions afterwards.

I just made a video on this very topic But the first option in the video the Coolsoft Virtual MIDI Synth was also removed by the new Sonar. It works in Platinum. So VST SynthFont and Coyote are the only options now. Coyote is free but DX so Sonar might not support that option someday.

I noticed in the screenshot that the OP was not using ASIO because when you use ASIO you don’t see the unwanted inputs and outputs. And the device will be listed with ASIO in the text. There is definitely a proper ASIO Driver on the website as I just checked. So this is undoubtedly the problem. Simply download and install the driver. I recommend when troubleshooting audio issues to open Windows sound settings and disable all audio devices except the device that you want to use. You can re-enable them later. As well as it is also a good idea to remove any 3rd party ASIO drivers - Realtek, Asio4all, Steinberg and Magix as example. The best method is to use the RegEdit Look under Software/ ASIO. Delete everything but legitimate ASIO drivers. Sonar cannot usually co-exist with these drivers. Therefore the warning you got. Now restart computer and double check that the audio interface is the Windows sound device. You can simply click on the speaker icon in the task bar. Now make sure that your Daw is set to ASIO mode.

Hey @57Gregy . My story was when Cakewalk Next came out I got curious about how many features it had compared to Home Studio. So I installed the latest version of Home Studio to see what was up. In the end it totally trashed New Sonar. What seems to have happened is in the Platinum Era each version used the version as the folder name. You will find Sonar Professional. Sonar Platinum but Heres the problem! Home studios folder is just called Sonar. Just like the new Sonar. I guess it totally messed everything up. Crash crash crash. In the end I redid my computer with W11 and started over. So I hope you don’t have any problems like that!

If it is on a CD and you have the serial numbers that is all that matters. Seems to me Zeta would not be registered on the internet. Selling software second hand probably breaks some old rules but I doubt something that old would be considered of any value to the original vendor. As you say, that might have been Roland or Gibson. Or it might have even been the original 12Tones Cakewalk people. And if you’re giving it away I really don’t think that matters at all.

Im am pretty sure that is what Workspaces are for. If you set it to none possibly it would maintain project specific layouts but then there’s also screen sets involved. Im pretty sure that screen sets are project specific but Workspaces are global. So try saving the screen set and then use None for workspaces. I’m using Platinum there’s no Workspaces only screen sets so I’m slowly figuring that out. With out workspaces every existing project opens differently. Randomly I get the Multi dock on the second monitor etc. But seems once I fix stuff and save the project always now open s the same each time.

Yes those wonderful microscopic icons. The people who designed Next must becoming from developing apps for cell phones. Next has a lot of empty space so no real reason to make everything almost invisible.

Glad you got it working. Troubleshooting is a process of elimination and swapping out hardware components is the first step. And yes originally my Motu didn't work smoothly and Motu told me I needed a proper USB C connection. That was my old computer. My new one has the USB C connection. Your Tascam can use a power supply which I would recommend if you do have issues again.

Im thinking the jump in Operating Systems would be a much bigger hurdle than going from Sonar 7 to the latest version. I can confirm that Sonar 8.5 64 bit runs on W10 no problem so I would think Sonar 7 64 will too. But if you have 8.5 I recommend that as it’s pretty much the same. Take note that you will need it to be 64 bit. Otherwise you will have to revert to W7. It’s a huge challenge to try and set up 32 bit systems these days unless you do have everything you need still on disk. You’re better off going to the Goodwill or a local computer repair shop and getting an older computer and just upgrade the drives and RAM. I finally tossed out my W7 custom build as it was just taking up space. I think it cost over $1,200 back in 2008 to build. I only kept the drives. Nothing else in it was compatible with new machines. I still have a W7 laptop.

Thanks for the info. I've used midi since it was born but I've never desired to go past note on and off and velocity!! I still have no clue what this Articulation stuff is all about. I did a quick test. The user manual recommends using Staff View. Took a few minutes but I figured that out. But for it to go quickly you actually need a midi vocal track! oh well, I new this was going to be a time suck. Then the words you type actually follow the notes but you need to break it down into syllables. Once sorted out it all goes as planed. Sonar tracks the lyrics perfectly in staff view, So I'll give it a 7 out of ten compared to all the other apps I tried. Lyric View?? why did they even bother to include this POS. Yet another feature Cakewalk Next has that Sonar Doesn't. I'm going to try Next tomorrow. I saved the file as a Midi type 1 and opened it in Midi Sound synth, The lyrics were there just like they are in Sonars Lyric view.. ONEBIGLONG STRINGOFWORDSWITHNO SPACES. Nice. But it did recognize the fact that there were lyrics. At least that proves that they are stored in the midi files. But getting the scrolling to work??? ? At least weird investigations like this are just out of curiosity and usually what I learn is it's a stupid idea and all this weird midi freeware is better off used on a DOS computer. It most certainly looks like that was where it came from.

OK probably not a lot of users hanging around here that might have tried this but here goes! Im fascinated by using this Midi player called Midi Sound Synth 2. I’ve had it for years now but really never used it for anything other than previewing download midi files. I did that today and I opened the lyrics view and Lo and behold there they were! It’s mainly because of midi Karaoke that it exists but it would also work for musicians who use midi backing tracks. So I Googled “How do you add lyrics to a midi track? “ Top of the list was Cakewalk and Cubase. So before I waist a couple of hours exploring this the big question is does lyric view export with the midi file?? I downloaded a Karaoke creator app and it totally sucks and it’s audio not midi. Thank you for your advice.

It is nice if people do solve the problem to report back as solved so the thread serves as a useful function for future users searching for the same problem. It’s what user forums are good for.

VST SynthFont is both VST 2 and 3 . It’s been around since Windows XP! I will test on 8.5 because I still have it installed. I think it blows away the TTS-1 in many ways. 1- Better sound which is also something that you have 100% control over due to the millions of sound fonts available free. 2- it’s a VST both 2 and 3 so future proof 3- It is still maintained by the developers. 4- 16 track audio output available 5- There is very deep midi control down to the smaller details of what midi is capable of 6. It has a screen reader mode for the GUI 6- Not only does it support GM midi but you can create 16 instruments and choose which channels feed that. It can be as few as 1. Talk about layered sound!

That’s what I like about Cakewalks Next. 270 pages! It sort of makes it clear as to which Daw would be better for beginners. It’s interesting that the page count of each Daw corresponds to how complex and steep the learning curve is. I guess it also depends on how many features are included. Next and Waveform 260 pages Studio one , Reaper and Mixcraft 450 pages Abelton live and Mixbus 850 pages Logic 1,100 pages Cubase and ProTools 1,560 pages

Another thing that I forgot to mention is that as you install VST SynthFont it asks you if you want to enable the screen reader function. I do believe that this is of importance to the OP. The other thing I learned this morning is that the Coolsoft Virtual MIDI Synth is not available for New Sonar users. It doesn’t show up on the list of Midi output options. Only Platinum, Mixcraft and Waveform. It doesn’t show up in S1 either.

I first read this yesterday and when I saw the screenshot I first looked to see that there’s no punch in selected. Then I looked at the input and saw it was Quad Capture so I assumed that was also OK and the op was using the midi ports. I guess that was wrong. Good catch. @David Baay

Back to the OP who asked a question and seemed to have visited the forum a few days ago but didn’t respond. But for others asking this question I spent a few day scouring the internet and Heres my conclusion

I’ll put this here as this and a few other threads about GM playback got me looking for alternatives. I found 2. These were the only two that are meeting the requirements. GM midi player, Multi Timbrel and only one was a VST. The other is the replacement for the soon to be removed MS Wavetable synth.

I’ve read this issue a few times. The older Casio’s with midi ports made decent controllers but since they switched to USB people have minor issues. It’s because there’s no manufacturer midi drivers so you’re relying on Windows to sort that out. In other words it’s a generic USB midi driver. You might try switching to the new midi driver mode UMP instead of the default MME. Most brands like Roland supply Microsoft with the midi driver which now is included in a Windows update. If you’re using older versions of Windows that also can cause issues. With the keyboard connected open device manager and look for it and you can see what the driver is.

This has been one of those things that goes way back in time that they have never bothered to fix. The website is flagged as not secure so your browser is protecting you from harm.

What Im not understanding is that it seems like the only reason why you need to use VM software is to have control of different sources of audio within your computer system. Example is podcasts of video games or playing live from a Daw and at the same time you might be Talking or using multiple cameras etc. It seems to me instead of iffy software that doesn’t get along with your Daw in ASIO mode, that using an audio interface with Loopback is the best solution. Actually using any hardware to mix audio is the better solution. Example is my Zoom L8 is loaded with features for doing crazy things with computer audio. Including a Cell phone connection. The other key part is learning how to properly set up Windows and then for video OBS studio. OBS studio can access all your audio streaming from your computer. Using my Motu M4 or SSL2 with Loopback. : I get good results using my Loopback and inputs 1/2 of my interface as the feed to OBS. The Loopback will give me audio from Media player etc. The ASIO output of my Daw also goes there. Then my Mike is a separate channel into OBS how many mikes depending on how many channels your interface has. Most live input mixing can be done with OSB ‘s mixer. Sometimes I will adjust levels using the apps or Daw’s control. You can also open and use the Windows audio mixer. With my Zoom L8 I can run everything through that and use it for the mixer. Theres also 4 different monitor mixes say if you’re playing with 4 people live into the podcast or recording. Asio4 all And Voicemeeter are hold outs from the old school way of doing things. Why spend days fighting with crazy systems that don’t work well. Get the right hardware.

Is input echo on?

It’s free! Try it out. The M Tuner alone is worth the time to set up the Melda free bundle. I’d say they make some of the best plugins out there. The compressor is my go to for a long time now.

I always wanted to try this. Keep up posted. It's sort of like using Midi guitar I guess. https://www.jamorigin.com/

Yet another example of what you will dig up in the GM midi graveyard.