MIDI, Digital Music Composition, Windows Digital Audio Software, Digital Audio Recording, Live Audio Engineering, MIDI Guitar, General Music Theory and Composition.
Experience
Experience in the area:
- 25 years working with Computers and Digital Music.
- 10 years as a professional Live Sound Engineer.
- 5 years as a professional Studio Recording Engineer.
- 2 years as Creative Director of an internet-based Audio Production Company specializing in Sampling and Digital Audio.
Organizations:
- Currently active as a Beta Tester for various Audio Software Companies.
- Regular contributor to various Software Support Forums.
Education/Credentials:
- Dip. Technology Telecommunications Electronics (B.C.I.T.)
- A.A. Degree (U.B.C./S.F.U.)
- College Cert. in Jazz Guitar Composition (V.C.C.)
- College Cert. in Fine Arts (E.C.I.A.D.)
Question QUESTION: When sequencing into Cakewalk Sonar, the drum MIDI kit does not establish itself. It is a pitched instrument. I do sequencing with my 8th grade students. We just put in new Kork X50 keyboards a few weeks ago. The old ones Korg N5ex read MIDI and drum MIDI with no problem. I have the X50 set to MULTI. It produces MIDI with the other instruments, but not percussion. Any ideas how to get the drumkit through the Cakewalk Sonar program? I have it set to channel 10 as always with percussion. Thank you.
ANSWER: It is difficult to help you because this problem is most likely related to the specific settings within the Korg and Sonar... and there are a lot of them!
It is not necessary to always use channel 10 - any channel will do as long as the MIDI track in Sonar that is playing the percussion notes is transmitting on the same channel as the Korg is set to receive, and that the Korg has a percussion (drum kit) library loaded into this channel.
So... to start, set Sonar to transmit on channel 10. Then, still within the Sonar track, set the bank and patch to a General MIDI percussion library. Make sure Sonar is set to "patch/controller searchback before play starts" - this is in the MIDI OUT tab of the PROJECT OPTIONS menu.
Now usually, the Korg should load up the library you have assigned into the channel 10 slot, and you will be good to go. But the Korg may be set to ignore external bank and patch changes, or it may not exactly follow the MIDI standard... so check these things.
Also, make sure Sonar is not transmitting anything else on channel 10, and ensure that the Korg is set to "LOCAL CONTROL OFF" so that it will respond to external MIDI data rather than its own keyboard.
Hope this helps. Let me know how it goes and please follow up with any further questions or info.
Cheers,
j
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Thank you so much for your quick response! I have everything checked that you mentioned. The PROJECT OPTIONS was checked and Local Control is off. The percussion still does not work. I am thinking that Sonar is not reading the percussion drum kit of the Korg X50 instrument. That is what is frustrating me. The instruments change in the tracks, but the percussion is not. Do you know how to help the Sonar program read my Korg X50 percussion drum kit? I know when I click on 'track properties', I go to 'instruments' and can choose instruments, but don't know where to find the Korg X50 info. Thank you.
ANSWER: Sonar does not read anything... it simply sends MIDI data which contains note on, channel, velocity, etc. It is up to the Korg to "read" this data and do something with it.
Can you play percussion using the keyboard? (You will need LOCAL CONTROL ON" If so, then just look at what channel, bank, and patch the keyboard is set to and set Sonar to the same settings.
You might try a factory reset just to be sure of your starting point. Then look in the manual for the patch settings.
It has detailed info on how to set up the percussion libraries of the Korg.
If other voices work, but not percussion... it is likely you simply have not set the patch correctly... try going through all of them one at a time... try bank 128 - sometimes they are hidden there in patch multiples of 8 or 16 (1, 8, 16...).
Any joy?
j
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Thank you, again! I figured it out. I need to 'trick' the keyboard to read the MIDI. I put a Sonar Demo song on the students' folder on the computer that has percussion. The students play it and it sets the keyboard to play the MIDI. Then they can do the sequencing activities I assign. To further my knowledge, I will try what you suggested in your last paragraph. It makes sense and I never thought of it. Thank you so much for you wisdom and help in this matter.
Answer Ahh... the old "demo song" trick.
Check the demo song in Sonar using the VIEW EVENTS list, and see what MIDI info it has at the very beginning. It is likely setting up a particular bank/patch combination for that MIDI channel, which then corresponds to the actual track settings used to transmit the MIDI notes.
You can also (rather than try to figure it all out) just erase all the MIDI notes from the percussion track in the demo song and keep whatever is left (which will be the MIDI info that sets up the keyboard to play)... and call this track "Percussion - Korg X50"
Then just save it to a file.
Whenever you want to create a percussion track in a new project, just copy and paste this track into the new project and use it to record, play, edit, etc. the new percussion.
In any case, thanks for following up and letting me know how things went. Glad you figured it out.
