Setup cant hear midi

[Mike Rothacker]

This should be real easy , I am setting up cakewalk for the first time on my laptop , I want to play midi files and have either the sound card or cakewalk generate the tones. I open a file play it , I see the data , I see meters moving but I hear nothing. So what settings do I need to change to make the audio happen ?  Thanks !

[Kurre]

Could it be so easy that you forgot the input echo button?

[rsinger]

Midi is information, have you set up an instrument or instruments to play the midi data or do you have a sound card that plays midi?

[Promidi]

Where have you routed your MIDI track do?  This either needs to be an external MIDI device, or a VSTi plugin.  Otherwise you are just sending data to nowhere.

It's a bit like trying to send print data without a printer.

[Mike Rothacker]

Kurre we should go on the assumption that i know absolutely nothing about cakewalk. First time user essentially. I bought a version around the year 2001 and used it a little bit to record. So i did find that button and it does nothing. I know the card will play midi because i opened a file in the hertage media player. I think what i need to know is how to tell cakewalk how to send the data to the sound card or how to tell the tracks how to play the software sounds. Really , i am serious when i say assume i know nothing ! Thanks

[Mike Rothacker]

Rsinger i have not set up the midi , in spite of my poking around i have not been able to figure that out. I know the sound card plays midi , i played a midi file in the legacy media player. Thanks

[Mike Rothacker]

Promidi , right i have not routed the tracks to either the sound card or vst plugins yet as i basically have no clue what i am doing. Thanks

[Mike Rothacker]

I dont know if this helps or not but i ran the wave profiler again and then went to preferences then midi input and output devices and it lists nothing on inputs or outputs. But this confuses me because i did get the computer to play a midi file in media player legacy. 

[Promidi]

What make and model sound card do you have?

[Kurre]

Ok. The soundcard works. The media player can read the midi information and convert it to soundwaves and pass it on to the soundcard that use your speakers to generate audible sound.

There's nothing wrong about missing midi devices, you don't use any. You have a midi file not a device.

There are three track types.

Audio track handles soundwaves. Those can be played direct to the output, which is the soundcard, with default settings.

Midi track. The midi you put here has to be routed to an instrument track.

Instrument track. This needs an instrument plugin that take the midi info and convert it to soundwaves and pass those on to the output which is the soundcard,  You can either route the midi from the midi track or put the midi directly into this track. It's this track that needs the input echo button to be enabled to hear sound.

For instrument plugins you can use a free synth. There's a thread about it here -

Edited August 20 by Kurre

[rsinger]

13 hours ago, Mike Rothacker said:

Rsinger i have not set up the midi , in spite of my poking around i have not been able to figure that out. I know the sound card plays midi , i played a midi file in the legacy media player. Thanks

As Kurre wrote the midi player is likely converting the midi to audio and the sound card is playing the audio. In CbB you need to route midi to an instrument track or external HW that plays midi. Go to yt and search cakewalk midi and find a midi tutorial about CbB.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIDI

 

Edited August 20 by rsinger

[Mike Rothacker]

Thans everybody so far ! Ive made som progress , i checked for updates and downloaded the latest update and there was something in that that allowed me to start routing midi. I dont know if something jappened on the initial install that prevented me from routing mido ?  So now i am exploring instrument vst's. When i installed one of them it said i did not have a tts-1 , i read up on it and i think i dont need it. Anyways thanks for all of the help !