I’m using Sonar Home Studio 6 on XP with a Motif XS.  Whenever I push play (or hit the space bar) on a midi track, it always sounds like it’s starting a 16th note value ahead of where it’s supposed to and the first note gets chopped.  I always make sure I start at the beginning of a measure, or rewind to the beginning of the song.  But I can never get a clean first note.  Is that some timing setting in Home Studio or do I have something messed up on the Motif?

Re: Play always chops the first note

This comes up a lot.

Do you have an empty measure at the beginning?

In other words, the 1st beat comes at Measure 2 beat 1?  If not, try that.

Cakewalk sends a lot of stuff when you first hit PLAY.  Sometimes that data gets in the way of the first few notes.

Re: Play always chops the first note

I can do that.  But if that’s what’s required, I think that’s a significant bug.  Are they working on a fix for it?  I never had that problem in Home Studio 2002.  I’ll check their website.

Re: Play always chops the first note

Bad_Mister has discussed this issue before; you might try searching.

But no, it’s not a bug.  It’s more a limitation of the SYNTH not wanting to make a sound if it’s sent a Patch Change too closely to a NOTE event.

CAKEWALK, by default, will send ALL TRACKS a Patch Change when you press PLAY, as well as ALL of the controller settings (Volume / Pan / Reverb Level / Chorus Level, etc. etc. etc).

IIRC, there’s a way to turn that behavior off.

Re: Play always chops the first note

HERE ya go…

Re: Play always chops the first note

Thanks for the link.  That made perfect sense.  But it didn’t work for me.  I still have the same problem.  I’ll keep looking but if you find anything else, let me know.

Re: Play always chops the first note

I found the answer one of Cakewalk’s forums.  Go to Options / Audio / Advanced and change the I/O Buffer Size to 1024 (or higher if need be).  That took care of the problem.

Re: Play always chops the first note

That’s odd, since that parameter has nothing to do with MIDI tracks… But, glad that it worked out!! /forums/images/icons/smile.gif alt=

Re: Play always chops the first note

Sorry, false alarm.  It worked for one song, the first time I tried it.  But I loaded another song and things were back to the garbled start.  I tried increasing the I/O buffer size to the maximum without any success.  I don’t know why an audio setting would have anything to do with midi tracks either.  But that’s what a couple of people on the Cakewalk forum have told me.

Re: Play always chops the first note

A LOT of those people are VST-centric (ie, SoftSynth, as opposed to outboard gear.) Their suggestion would definately be applicable in that situation.

Let’s try something extreme.  Reduce your tempo by like 90%.  See if the problem is lessened or removed.

If it is NOT, then it’s something that Cakewalk is doing that’s delaying the NOTE events.  You might be able to look in the EVENT editor and see what’s going on.

Alternatively, if you have an extra MIDI INPUT to your PC, plug it into the THRU port of your synth and use MIDI-OX to take a dump of exactly what SONAR is doing in real-time.

If you want, post your CWP file; I can take a look and see if I see anything with a fresh pair of eyes, or see if I can reproduce your issue.

Re: Play always chops the first note

I tried the tempo reduction.  What I found is that the slower the tempo, the less chopping that occurred. Also, the fewer number of voices being used, the less chop.  For example if the entire song consisted of just 4 quarter notes with a concert grand piano, there was no chop at all, even at a fast tempo.  But adding more tracks and more complex voices adds more hesitation.  So I think unless I hear otherwise from Cakewalk tech support, I will just be adding an extra measure at the beginning of all my songs.  Thanks for following this post for so long.  I really appreciate it.  But I need to move on.  I’m sure you do too. :-)

Re: Play always chops the first note

Heheh… Don’t hold your breath waiting for a response from Cakewalk.  Their e-mail tech support is notoriously unreliable.  I’ve been waiting now for 4 months for an answer to a question—sent twice…

However, if you have a little coin to spare (or free wireless calling), their TELEPHONE tech support is quite good.

Re: Play always chops the first note

There’s a lot of “stuff” that’s sent on the first beat of a MIDI file, patch changes (from the Patch/bank # in the MIDI track properties, etc.). In addition, if a lot of instruments have their first note on “1” that’s further load for a serial protocol. For as long as I can remember in all MIDI sequencers, I’ve put one or two measures before the song actually starts. If I actually need to go from one song to another immediately (in the days I used this live) I’d put the two songs together in one MIDI file. I think it’s a “bug” that’s due to the MIDI protocol, but adding that extra bar hasn’t been a big deal (for me anyway)

Re: Play always chops the first note

For now, I have the Same problem :’(

I tried the next:

Create a new project with Sonar.
Add a new Midi Track
Write some notes align with tempo, by example a escale.
Set the chanel and program to your track.

If you play these, the problem occours.

Now, quit the program of your track (I select none in “Patch” combo option).
Then the error not occours.

Greetings from Mexico.

Grios

Re: Play always chops the first note

OK, the problem might be that Sonar is sending MIDI setup data for all tracks on before time 0. This can amount to a lot of data for 16 tracks, and Sonar can’t get all the data out in time to play the first notes on time.

You can prevent this behavior by the following:

1. Open the Options / Project / MIDI Out

2. Disable Patch/Controller Searchback Before Play Starts

Also, you can reduce the amount of data sent by enabling the following:

In Options / Global / General

Enable: Always Use Sysx Banks for MIDI Files (instead of data)

Re: Play always chops the first note

Hello!!!

Ok, I ve tried your steps ipgrunt:

a) Disable Patch/Controller Searchback Before Play Starts
b) Enable: Always Use Sysx Banks for MIDI Files (instead of data)

but the problem persists /forums/images/icons/frown.gif alt=

I think that the problem is with Motif XS because these problem occours too with other sequencers as Midi Work Shop (a legacy sequencer) and GVox Encore.

I ve made the same experiment with a Yamaha PSR-520 and with my Audigy sound car and the playback is good, but the Motif XS is the problem…

I don’t think that only two users (Curtis and I) have this problem when we wanna to playback a midi file with sonar on a Motif XS.

Thanks for your reply and hope more answers…

Greetings!!!

M. Angel