Chaps

Thanks muchly. I don't know if I'll ever actually finish the track but I'll keep chipping away at it. And I'll never stop listening to Mazzy Star!

I have nothing to add except good luck.

I think the key element you are overlooking is that the drum channels in Superior Drummer 3 have to be assigned to different output channels if you want to use them on separate tracks in Sonar, or any other DAW. I can't find anything Superior Drummer 3 that is Sonar specific on YouTube but here is a related video on setting up Superior Drummer 3 output channels in a different DAW. I have it set so the video starts where he's assigning the drum channels to different OUTPUT channels, and that is the most important thing to understand before you can go any further. https://youtu.be/Yv7J6o4fY_w?si=-DMjJb20g1NV7EA4&t=412

Thanks for the listen and comments. I think the bass you are referring to is the Scarbee Rickenbacker Bass for the Kontakt Player. The other is a Dimension Pro Bass. Not sure which one because I've already deleted both synths from the project, keeping just the MIDI files. I added the Dimension Pro Bass first and the Ricky bass later so I could compare the two. I had already planned on redoing the bass parts so I didn't pay it too much attention.

That sounds like a most elegant solution.

I inserted SSD5 free with the First Synth Audio Output option then clicked the insert soft synth option button in the synth rack and as far as I can tell this changed nothing in the SSD5 internal routing or available audio tracks for the instrument. All instruments were still output to the first stereo pair out 1 st. While you can click the output at the bottom of the volume slider to choose a different audio output for the instrument another option is to use the Routing Presets in the Mix section which offers three default options for instrument outputs, as shown in the image below. Then when you create the audio tracks for them you can easily tell which output to use. What I sometime do is to insert a drum synth with All Synth Audio Outputs: Stereo (or mono) which creates a LOT of audio tracks, and then I just delete the ones I am not going to use leaving the audio tracks remaining already receiving output from the correct kit piece.

Thanks for the listen and comments. Yeah, I've already been working on addressing those issues as well as other things in there that are bothering me about the mix. I'm also working out an outro guitar solo while trying to improve my guitar playing technique that is currently inadequate to perform that solo. Those years of not playing guitar after almost cutting my left hand in half in an industrial accident have really affected my ability to play the things I hear in my head. I didn't do any singing during those years either and that vocal track really reflects that. It was just a scratch vocal anyway so I'm going to work on improving that as well.

Yes. In Superior Drummer 2 if you insert the synth with the First Synth Audio Output, if you look at the mixer all the instruments are routed to S1/2. which is the master stereo output, and the buses are routed to 'None'. You can right-click the instrument Output and keep it Stereo, select Multichannel which puts the instruments on sequential stereo outputs, or manually select an output channel for the instrument (or bus) you want to assign to an audio track. Then on the audio track you use those channels as the input.

Another option in addition to what @57Gregy posted is to insert necessary audio tracks and change the track input to the synth instrument you want playing on it. Like if you wanted all the drums on on stereo track but wanted separate tracks for the snare and kick drums, for example.

Splitting clips and using normalize is how I usually level-out my audio but splitting a clip can be produce annoying clicks it you don't make sure the audio is at zero where you split it. Cakewalk has a tool called Enable/Disable Automatic Crossfades which can keep that from happening. See image below on the options it has. I keep it enabled unless I have a reason to disable it. Really, though, it would be in your best interest to learn the basics of compression because it can be very useful in the situation you describe. There are many informative videos on YouTube about it. Here is a good place to start because it covers the basics of compression. Splitting clips and adjusting the volumes through gain or normalization is a blunt-force process and can be time consuming. I think it is best to know how to use both methods so you can use the one that works best for any given situation. https://youtu.be/B20p-G-SBLw?si=PplJ3Y8lY43zFcwP

Well, for sure something isn't right but without knowing exactly what you did it is hard to pin down what happened. Are you using Simple Instrument Tracks or a MIDI track output to the synth? Anyway... Here is a simple process for outputting one or more synth audio tracks to one bus. 1, You need to have a bus created for the instruments. In the image below I am using a bus named New Bus. 2. Select all the synth audio tracks you want going to that bus. 3. Click Tracks in the menu at the top of the track pane 4. Click Selected Track Outputs. 5. In the menu that opens click the down arrow to the right of the Audio Outputs box. This will open a list of all available audio outputs that you can direct the outputs of your synth tracks to. After selecting the bus you want, click OK. Now all the tracks you selected are output to that one bus.

If you put all your templates in the folder that Sonar uses they will all show on the Start Screen in the Create window. You can change the default Template folder in Edit>Preferences>File>Folder Locations. Mine are in C:\Cakewalk Content\Sonar\Project Templates and I believe that is the default location. That seems simpler than trying to keep track of template files in multiple locations.

Thanks for the listen and the comments. For sure there is a lot going on in there and I have been having trouble balancing separation and the dream-like quality I am trying to express. Maybe I should stop listening to so much Hope Sandoval and Mazzy Star.

Thanks for the listen and the comments. For sure the snare drum is much too bright. I have four drum synths playing the snare part (pretty much everything except the vocal and the Desolate Guitars Fragment part in the beginning is being played with multiple instruments with minor variations in MIDI velocity and placement) and just a minor change in the balance can have major consequences in the sound. I wish I had listened to the exported file before I uploaded it or I would have redone the mix before posting. I know the panning is off but that was a conscious decision that probably didn't work the way I wanted it to. The guitar solo, or as I think of it, the interlude, over the verse is made up of me playing the same part six times as well as being doubled by two synths playing the same line. I spent a lot of time on that and I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. I always have a hard time mixing my vocals. Maybe because I'm too focused on getting the lyrics across instead of how it blends in. Thanks again for your comments and I will keep all of them in mind when I get back to that project. It is still very much a work in progress.

I've been fiddling with this one for months. Lots of things in it I am not happy with but can't seem to get it right. Maybe someone could offer a suggestion that will create an epiphany for me and help me on my way. All comments welcome. https://soundclick.com/song/15155752