Midi, Soundfonts, Sonar 5

stonemartin

I've been using KX drivers for a few months with my Soundblaster Live! card and it works great for lots of different applications, including Sonar 5. Problem is, I like to program all my drums in Sonar using midi and soundfonts. Ever since installing KX drivers, I can't get Midi to play in Sonar at all. I installed the Soundfonts both in Sonar and in the KX control panel, plus I've tried every output option listed, but it doesn't seem to make any difference. I get nothing.
I hope I'm missing something simple.
Help?

stonemartin

Anyone? Still haven't solved the problem. Next step is to dump the KX driver altogether, although I'd rather not if I can find another solution.

thomasabarnes

Hi stonemartin:

Did you uninstall the Creative drivers correctly?

See the link to my site in my signature for a SONAR and kX guide that may help you?

Also, if you can wait a while, I'm sure Maddogg will reply to your posts here.

Cya, I'm running out of time on the Internet at a Public Library.

Maddogg6

hmmm = seems posts are still easily missed here...

Anyway - Using KX - and soundfonts is pretty easy in Sonar - as long as your not using KX V3538I - it had a bug with CH10 - and drums.

Also soundfonts - pertaining to drums can be a bit confusing - as in the SF itself you could spec out if a patch was meant to be melodic or percussion/set on CH 10 - but this was severly limiting how many drum sets one can use at one time - SO - many pre-made drum kits SF2 files dont have the drum kit setup to be used on MIDI CH10 like the GM & SF2 spec's.

So - some drum kits CAN NOT be used on CH 10 - and have to be accessed on other Midi Channels - while some HAVE to be accessed on CH 10 ONLY.

You can see this if you edit the SF2 file in vienna - as it shows melodic and percssive 'banks' of that SF file.

All this is on top of the typical confusion caused by what CC to use for bank selecting. (bank select method in KX synth compatability options - and instrument setting for Sound Font devices in Sonar)

Now normally - I have KX load ONLY GM into bank 0 (not GS compa - with Banks 8 / 128 etc defined)
I then use Sonars SF manager to load per project SF2 files - makes much better use of available SF memory - I think we are limited to 32MB (playing at one time - some kind of dynamic caching is used to make more accessable' at one time - as I understand it)

So without more specific info on your circumstance - thats all the hint I can offer.

stonemartin

Thanks, Maddog, but the root of the problem here is not Soundfonts - I can't get ANY midi to play in Sonar. I just uninstalled KX and reinstalled. Have yet to try Sonar with it, as I have tried this so many times it makes me want to vomit.

Thomas - I will give your guide a look.

Russ

You did not mention whether midi (specifically the kX Synths) works in any other applications, does it?

Maddogg6

hehe - how silly of me to make this mistake...

mrvomit

yep it does'nt appear clear the poblem.

I had similar problems before in sonar , as kx installation is tricky (windows blame ,not kx behaviour).to be safe ,You would have to :

uninstall creative driver_reboot in Safe mode_uninstall/removing from hardware devices_using driver cleaner_then installing Kx.

After that ,it could be Just the properties of the track th. you have to set in sonar (right click midi track_properties_"instruments"_then set correctly the midi chan to "default" or "soundfont device"( it depends ).

For DRUMS:
If you want to write Drum/scores (as i do) i assign like that :midi track properties->instruments->there i assign chan 10 to "roland gs drumsets".
Don forget after that ,in "track view" to select the "percussion key/layout" so you can write drum notes on the pentagram /bars (if you want to write scores )