Incoming MIDI Data Displayed but Not Recorded

[Tim Elmore]

Sonar (paid version, 2025.09 Build 038) is showing MIDI data as I record, but the displayed data disappears when I press STOP. Here is a simple, one track project showing an attempt to record three MIDI notes. The data is displayed as the notes are played on the keyboard, but they disappear when I press the SPACE bar to stop recording.

 

Here is the Track View for the project (a single MIDI track):

Here is the MIDI driver setup:

The MIDI data must be successfully reaching Sonar because the PRV shows the incoming data as the notes are played on the keyboard. However, when I stop recording, the displayed MIDI notes disappear.

This happens with old projects that were working properly the last time I used them, so this issue doesn't seem to be tied to a specific project. I just now made the above simplified project to illustrate the issue with as little complexity as possible.

It seems as though the notes are recorded into memory, but are not written to the project file when recording is stopped. I verified that the Sonar project file is not write protected, and the HD still has over 500GB of free space. Is there any setting I may be overlooking that might prevent MIDI data from being written to the project?

[Promidi]

On the “Notes” menu item on the PRV, is “Show Notes”, selected and “Show Note on Selected Notes” deselected?

[Tim Elmore]

In the "Notes" menu, "Show Notes" is selected. "Show Velocity on Selected Notes Only" (I think that is the one you meant) is not selected.

The interesting thing is that the notes from the keyboard are displayed correctly while recording, but they disappear when the transport is stopped.

[Promidi]

This is really strange.  You have done a full PC reboot haven’t you?

[Amberwolf]

48 minutes ago, Tim Elmore said:

The interesting thing is that the notes from the keyboard are displayed correctly while recording, but they disappear when the transport is stopped.

In the main track view, is there a clip actually recorded on the track?  (asuming not, from the second image in you rfirst pst)

 

Are there any punch in points set?  (data recorded outside those may not be saved)

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 03:26 AM by Amberwolf

[Amberwolf]

In the MIDI options, is "Notes" one of hte checked items?   

(it is possible to setup global options to not record them, so that one could record just CC data, etc., if desired, though I have never used this option)

[Tim Elmore]

1 hour ago, Amberwolf said:

In the MIDI options, is "Notes" one of hte checked items?   

(it is possible to setup global options to not record them, so that one could record just CC data, etc., if desired, though I have never used this option)

Thanks for the suggestion. I checked the "Show Notes" option indicated in my screen shot above. I am now looking for the "Notes" option you mentioned, that allows one to record only CC data. Can you tell me exactly where to find it?

BTW, I did reboot and try again with no luck. Also, the MIDI notes disappear from the Track View when I stop recording, just as they do in the PRV.

[Chaps]

Look in your Preferences for MIDI record options.

[Promidi]

As a test, I deselected “Notes” in Preferences - MIDI - Playback and Recording, and all this did was prevented the notes from appearing in the first place after the record attempt.

To be clear, are the notes actually disappearing, or just disappearing from view?

After your recording attempt, are there any note events in the Event list view?

[Tim Elmore]

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. Special thanks to David Baay, who posted the following on 11/11/2022 in the FAQ forum:

---------------------------------------------------------------

Two possibilities:

1. You have inadvertently enabled punch-recording of a range later in the project.

2. CbB will show "confidence recording" of events arriving on other ports/channels than the one you've assigned as Input to the track so make sure the Input assignment is matching your controller. I consider this a bug.

---------------------------------------------------------------

The second possibility he mentioned proved to be the culprit in my case. I had selected the wrong MIDI input. The data was displayed during recording even though it was not arriving through the selected MIDI channel ("confidence recording"). When I stopped the transport, the display showed what was actually recorded, which was nothing. Just now, I selected the correct MIDI channel and everything is working.

[David Baay]

22 minutes ago, Tim Elmore said:

Special thanks to David Baay

Glad to help. I was just now reading through the responses and getting ready to post the same solution. 😜

Edited Tuesday at 05:00 PM by David Baay

[Bass Guitar]

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

Edited Tuesday at 04:53 PM by Bass Guitar