A question about recording audio with Sonar

[The Legendary Zoltan]

Hey guys. I've looked all over the help menus in Sonar 3 but can't figure this out. I made a simple drum beat just for the purpose of keeping time while I record audio with my guitar. Everytime I do it, the audio track with which I am recording records my guitar AND the drum part as it plays. Is there any way I can make an audio track only record my guitar while still listening to other parts at the same time? Thanks a bunch.

CHIPP Damage

[dannthr]

Is the audio source for your drum beat external?

If it's internal, then you should be able to select the audio bus that your drum beat goes to and your guitar should be coming in on a separate audio signal.

Also, make sure you're listening to the click track on your headphones if you're mic'ing your guitar.

[The Legendary Zoltan]

I tired some things but they aren't working out. the drums are midi with soundfonts on them and the output is the . . . What should I call it, the Soundfont's own output. It's called Hypercanvas. So the Hypercanvas track's output can be SoundMax 1/2, SoundMax 3/4. or SoundMax 5/6. If it's not set to one of those, I can't hear it. Then for the audio track to which I'd like to record guitar, I can only choose inputs of: None, Hypercanvas, or SoundMax Audio. I just don't get it yo. is there some way I can make sure the input is just "line in" or something?

Thanks for your help.

[Chaos in a Can]

Your "line-in" should be SoundMax Audio.

SoundMax Audio is the name of your computer's sound card driver.

Simply put, it is a program that handles the audio coming in from line-in and audio going out to your speakers.

If Hypercanvas is a VST, your setup in Sonar should look something like this:

Synth Rack:
-Hypercanvas

Tracks:
-Track Folder: Drums
 -Audio Track: Drums Audio
  -I: Hypercanvas Primary Out: Stereo
  -O: SoundMax Audio 1/2
 -MIDI Track: Drums MIDI
  -O: Hypercanvas 1

-Audio Track: Guitar (armed to record)
 -I: SoundMax Audio
 -O: SoundMax Audio 1/2

Hypercanvas takes the MIDI input and generates audio which is redirected throught the Drums Audio track to your speakers.

Audio from your guitar is recorded in the Guitar Audio track, which is played through your speakers when you aren't recording.

If all this is set up correctly and you still have this problem, I believe you may want to try the solution presented by dannthr.

Also, make sure you're listening to the click track on your headphones if you're mic'ing your guitar.

If whatever you're using to record can hear the drums being played through your speakers, then the drums are being recorded too.

Simple way to check: Start recording (without playing anything) and move your recording device towards and away from the speakers.

Stop recording, Solo the recorded track, and play it back.

If you hear the drums in the recording get louder and softer, you're unintentionally recording the drums along with the guitar.

[The Legendary Zoltan]

Thanks for the advice guys. It looks like you guys really know what you're doing. Despite that, I still haven't fixed the problem, which probably means I just need to describe my situation in better detail. Here we go.

I'm recording with my guitar plugged into my sampler (just acting as a kind of mixing board because directly from the guitar never seems to work) and the sampler's line out going into the computer's line in. (so, no mics or amps.)

I wrote a drum beat and applied the HyperCanvas sample library to it. They are or WERE VSTs. To use them in Sonar they were converted to DXIs. I have no idea what the difference is, but any time I want to use a VST, I have to use Sonar's VST to DXI converter first.

Tracks:

I got a midi track for the drums I wrote with the output set as "hypercanvas 1 output" and the input as "none" or "omni."

I got the DXI track for the Hypercanvas. Input: "Hyper Canvas 1 Output" Output: "SoundMax Digital Audio 1/2"

And I got my Audio track for recording guitar. Input: "Stereo SoundMax Digital Audio" Output: "SoundMax Digital Audio 1/2"

The Goal:

Once again, is to listen to my drum beat while simultaneously recording ONLY my guitar playing to the audio track.

The Problem:

However, is that every time I try it, my recording audio track picks up the drums as well. I tried my best to mimic the stuff you showed me, Chaos in a Can, but it didn't work out. I wonder if I can make this work by using the mic instead of the line in jack.

Thanks again for your help guys. If you can help me solve this problem, you'll be changing the way I make music forever! Until now, I've been doing the "drawing notes with the mouse" method and it's TEDIOUS yo!

[The Legendary Zoltan]

Dude! I think I figured it out. I opened up the volume control and set it the recording source to line in. It sounds dumb, I know. But I just assumed that since it was always picking up my guitar from the line in jack, it was always set on line in. . . But it wasn't. interesting. Thank you!

[Chaos in a Can]

Well, that is interesting.

I've never come across anything like that, but I've only used recording to get a midi sequence from a hardware synth into audio. I've never recorded while SONAR was playing audio before.

Regarding VST and DXi, they're two different plugin formats.

For most purposes, there's not really a difference, but VST's seem to be a bit more prevalent.

And also, you're welcome!