Imported midi tracks

[Craig_a_h]

I'm new to DAWs and Cakewalk.  I have some midi files of music I created in music notation software.  I would like to bring them into CW and assign different VST instruments to them (other than TTS-1).  I can import the files just fine and play them through TTS-1, but when I try to assign a VST instrument to a track, nothing plays.  For instance, I imported a midi file and deleted all tracks except the bass, then created a new instrument track using CW's SI-Bass Guitar.  Sometimes I when I open the instruments' interface I can click the strings and get sound, and other times there is no sound.  And when I try to rout the bass midi track through the new instrument track, I get nothing.  I admit I'm clueless about this stuff, and I'm very frustrated at this point.  Can anyone help?

[scook]

Assuming the notes are in the playable range for the plug-in, this may help when using 3rd party MIDI files.

 

[Craig_a_h]

Thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately it didn't help.    I'm currently working with the tracks in the picture below, trying to figure things out.   The top track is the midi track I imported, and as you can see, the midi track is routed to the instrument track, which has ASIO4All as the output.   At this point, I don't get sound from any of it.  When I play the track there is no sound, and when I open the instrument properties (this picture of the bass guitar) there is no sound when I click the strings.

So now I just replaced the synth in the instrument track, setting it back to SI-Bass Guitar again, and everything works.  I can open the SI-Bass Guitar properties and get sound when I click the strings.  And when I play the track there's sound as well.  It works, but I feel like I just stumbled into a solution.   It seems I've had it working like this before, but then I bring in a new track or something and it stops working.  My understanding of how all this works is so lacking it's all trial and error, and when I can finally get it to work, I have no clue why it works.

[scook]

The fixes posted in my link must happen before the plug-in receives any data.

If the fixes are performed after the plug-in receives data that causes the synth engine shuts down, only restarting the project or replacing the plug-in (and applying the fix) will cause the plug-in to play again.

[John Vere]

 

[msmcleod]

One gotcha with SI Bass that gets me every time, is the fact that it's transposed down an octave, while still only playing the range of a bass guitar.

In other words playing A2 in SI Bass will play the open A string on the bass (whereas on GM / GS you'd play A1 to get the same note).

If you play a A1 in SI Bass, there will be give silence because there's no lower octave A on a standard tuned bass guitar.

The answer is (for this issue anyhow) is to transpose the MIDI track up an octave.

[scook]

4 minutes ago, msmcleod said:

One gotcha with SI Bass that gets me every time, is the fact that it's transposed down an octave, while still only playing the range of a bass guitar.

That may explain why SI-Bass has a built-in transpose control