No MIDI devices shown

[quattj]

I've just installed Sonar for the first time after my Cakewalk activation finally expired.

I use Coolsoft VirtualMIDISynth for my MIDI playback.  It worked fine in Cakewalk.  No MIDI devices are showing in Sonar preferences, and it defaults to using (I assume) the horrible Microsoft GS Synthesis. 

Editing MIDI files it literally the only thing I use(d) Cakewalk for because of the CAL script and file trimming functionality.  Without proper MIDI playback my long-term project will suffer.

How can I make it cooperate?

Edited Wednesday at 08:54 PM by quattj

[Bass Guitar]

Yes they removed the access to MSWavetable and it would seem the Virtual Midi Synth as well. 
I can understand the MS Wavetable as it is no longer supported but the Virtual Midi Synth is supported by the developers. 

It’s still available in a number of different Daw’s. 

The work around is the VST SynthFont which even has a VST3 version. It’s only $14 euros. 
it uses almost all the same sound fonts. 

[quattj]

I've submitted a bug report.  I hope they fix it.  I used Cakewalk solely for features I could not find elsewhere for editing my MIDI files.  I've tried many other MIDI editors and DAWs and none are sufficient for what I need to do.

I need the exact configuration I use on my machine, so VST SynthFont will not work as a complete substitution.  I have tons of stacked soundfonts that I change and modify regularly, depending on the soundtrack I am working on at the time.

Edited Wednesday at 09:15 PM by quattj

[Xoo]

I think that changing the MIDI mode (from MME to UWP?) can make this work too.

[Jonathan Sasor]

1 hour ago, Bass Guitar said:

Yes they removed the access to MSWavetable and it would seem the Virtual Midi Synth as well. 
I can understand the MS Wavetable as it is no longer supported but the Virtual Midi Synth is supported by the developers. 

It’s still available in a number of different Daw’s. 

The work around is the VST SynthFont which even has a VST3 version. It’s only $14 euros. 
it uses almost all the same sound fonts. 

We didn't remove anything. It's dependent on what Windows is exposing as a MIDI port. We default to using WASAPI for integrated audio cards these days as it has much better performance in general, but you may see the Wavetable synth if you change the audio driver mode to MME. 

[quattj]

1 hour ago, Jonathan Sasor said:

We didn't remove anything. It's dependent on what Windows is exposing as a MIDI port. We default to using WASAPI for integrated audio cards these days as it has much better performance in general, but you may see the Wavetable synth if you change the audio driver mode to MME. 

Even if nothing was removed, something is not working the same in Sonar as it did in Cakewalk for MIDI playback devices.

With MME selected as the MIDI driver mode, no inputs or outputs are shown.  If I switch the MIDI driver mode to UWP, I can then see Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth as an output.  However, either way it completely ignores/bypasses any of my system MIDI settings to use Coolsoft VirtualMIDISynth as the playback device, and playback sounds like garbage.  I believe VirtualMIDISynth showed up as a separate device in Cakewalk, but now I have no way of checking.  I do know that it played back properly as expected in Cakewalk, as no matter which app I played back with, it was and still is correct except for in Sonar.

Changing the driver mode in the audio section has no effect on the MIDI section.

Nothing has changed on my system (Windows 10 Home 22H2) since the last time I successfully used Cakewalk to edit my MIDI files on September 24th, except that I have now had to install Sonar.

Edited yesterday at 12:28 AM by quattj

[quattj]

I did a recording of creating one of my soundtracks, and luckily I had an issue where I ran through all of the settings to check them, so I was able to pull screenshots of Cakewalk settings from the video to compare with Sonar.

Both programs have "WASAPI Shared" selected under Audio->Playback and Recording

I've attached screenshots of the comparison of Cakewalk vs Sonar for the MIDI preferences for ->Playback and Recording and ->Devices.  Cakewalk on the left, Sonar on the right.  All setting are identical, except that all devices are missing in Sonar.

[David Baay]

19 hours ago, quattj said:

If I switch the MIDI driver mode to UWP, I can then see Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth as an output.  However, either way it completely ignores/bypasses any of my system MIDI settings to use Coolsoft VirtualMIDISynth as the playback device, and playback sounds like garbage. 

It's not clear what you mean by "it completely ignores/bypasses any of my system MIDI settings to use Coolsoft VirtualMIDISynth as the playback device".

If you can see Coolsoft in MIDI Devices when the mode is set to UWP (necessary to see virtual MIDI devices in Sonar), then you just need to assign the Outputs of the MIDI tracks to that device. If GS Wavetable is first in the list, the MIDI track outputs may be defaulting to that.

[Bass Guitar]

This started when Noel explained why they had removed access to Wavetable due to the end of life. And I swear that he said that they had removed it. Fine either way it is gone. 

I looked into what is still supported and that was the Virtual midi synth. 
The reason why I did this is I have a few apps that still depend on it like Media Player and Chord Pulse and I didn’t want to suddenly lose them because of some upcoming Windows update. 
I simply made Virtual midi synth the default. Everything works and not only that it seems to sound better. 

The following might not be all accurate as I am in Mexico right now and can’t verify. So this is what I’m pretty darn sure I learned. 

My main computer is W11 so checking around in all my music apps I found that it was only new Sonar and Cubase  15 that blocked Virtual Midi synth and MS Wavetable.
Studio one blocked MS Wavetable but not VMS. Note this is what I am requesting Cakewalk needs to consider. 

Waveform. Mixcraft and Harrison still have both Players available. 

As well as other apps like Band in a box and Jjazzlab. 

Virtual Midi synth is an upgrade from MS Wavetable and all my apps recognize it. Its free. 
 

[quattj]

4 hours ago, David Baay said:

It's not clear what you mean by "it completely ignores/bypasses any of my system MIDI settings to use Coolsoft VirtualMIDISynth as the playback device".

If you can see Coolsoft in MIDI Devices when the mode is set to UWP (necessary to see virtual MIDI devices in Sonar), then you just need to assign the Outputs of the MIDI tracks to that device. If GS Wavetable is first in the list, the MIDI track outputs may be defaulting to that.

It plays only through what it can, and no, VirtualMIDISynth does not show as an option with UWP.  MS GS Synth is the ONLY option, and ONLY in UWP mode, and even then it stutters and is awful.  It still plays MIDI somehow in MME mode, even though NO devices are shown, but again it is awful and does not run through VirtualMIDISynth, which I have set as the default Windows MIDI playback device on my system.

VirtualMIDISynth is essentially a "complete" implementation of GS MIDI support (and fairly complete XG support within the limitations of soundfonts), while the Microsoft version is very basic in its support, and many commands simply have no effect.

In Cakewalk, VirtualMIDISynth showed as a device as displayed in my screenshots above.  In Sonar, it does not, with no other changes to my computer.