Recording or real-time automation with Sonar 3/DreamStation

Use this forum to discuss Midi Issues as they relate to Cakewalk.
ComposerTed
Posts: 17
Joined: Sun Jan 25, 2004 5:16 am
Location: Michigan, USA

Post by ComposerTed » Fri Sep 16, 2005 3:29 am

I'm using the Dreamstation synth that came with Sonar 3 to get sound out of midi tracks. I have an M-Audio Audiophile 2496 soundcard and am using Windows XP. I can play a piece just fine. I can also bounce to track just fine to create audio. What I can't seem to do is to arm the track to record and get it to produce audio. It looks like it is trying to work, but instead of producing an audio track with real sound, it produces an audio track with flat (silent) left and right tracks. My reason for wanting to do this is so that I can adjust the a setting in DreamStation "on-the-fly" rather than leaving it at the same value throughout the piece.

It would be equally effective for my purpose if I could arm the track for automation and record the automation for the desired
parameter. I can do this for some parameters (volume for instance, moving the track volume setting in real time). I can also create a track envelope (midi) and paint/draw the parameter, which is my fallback option if I can't get the other two to work, but I'd really like to be able to hear it as I am doing it as opposed to adjust, playback, adjust, playback, etc. Anyone have any ideas?


andychap
Posts: 685
Joined: Wed Aug 27, 2003 7:26 pm
Location: UK

Post by andychap » Wed Sep 21, 2005 12:17 pm

You record the automation on the midi track that triggers the DreamStation.

Right click the midi track and select arm fro recording and arm for automation. Press record and wiggle the knobs to your choosing. When finished the automation will be on the midi file controlling the parameters on the Dreamstation. You can only bounce the audio to another track but now it will bounce the effects of your automation.

ComposerTed
Posts: 17
Joined: Sun Jan 25, 2004 5:16 am
Location: Michigan, USA

Post by ComposerTed » Wed Sep 21, 2005 5:29 pm

Hi Andy,

Thanks for the reply. I armed the midi track which triggers the Dreamstation for both automation and recording as you suggested, but I (initially) could not seem to get the desired result, HOWEVER ... when I played around with it a bit I found that the automation was indeed being recorded albeit the "automation clip" if that's the correct term ends up all scrunched up on the left so I need to grab the right side of it with the mouse and drag it to expand it to its proper size. Then I can play it back or bounce to audio track as desired and it works fine.

It was not exactly the result I thought I'd get as I expected when I recorded automation I'd be recording an envelope (which I could then tweak by adding/deleting/adjusting nodes etc). I also tried the "automation snapshot" to get the envelope from the recorded automation but I'm guessing from my results and the phrasing of your answer that envelopes/nodes have to be drawn rather than recorded with Dreamstation. Oh well, in a perfect world ...

Anyway, just being able to record the automation for Dreamstation parameters is great! I'm gonna have a lot of fun with that :D Thanks much!

Ted

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