Sonar Workflow 1 - Recording Audio And MIDI

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Contents

Recording Audio

Recording audio in SONAR is quite easy. You simply need to make sure your signal chain is up and working, your sound card control panel is set right, and your track in SONAR is selected as the source and armed.

Signal Chain

This is where it's happening outside the box (e.g. your computer). Simply connect your mic to your mic preamp or mixer, your preamp or mixer to your sound card / audio interface, and connect that to your computer. If you're recording an electric instrument through a direct box of some sort, the process is even simpler: connect your instrument to the direct box IN and your direct box OUT to you sound card / audio interface.

Sound Card Control Panel

Every sound card / audio interface maker has a different control panel applet, but some general rules do apply.

You want to make sure whatever physical IN jack you've connect your mixer or direct box to on your sound card has its volume/input fader all the way up in the control panel, and that it's not muted. Same with the master volume on multi-input sound cards.

Also, if you're using a stereo channel as two discrete mono channels, make sure IN 1 is panned hard left and IN 2 is panned hard right, in both your mixer and your sound card control panel.

Finally, configure your sound card's latency, sample rate, signal levels and other settings in its control panel. Start with a very generous latency, such as 512 or 1024 samples, just to make sure you're not getting instant drop outs in SONAR that keep you from recording.

SONAR track

Select or create a new audio track in SONAR. Go to its input "slot" and select the soundcard and input port your have your equipment plugged into and your sound card control panel configured to use.

Arm the track in SONAR by clicking on the small R on the track's top bar (this is the R that follows M and S). Now hit the record button in SONAR's transport control or the R key on your computer keyboard.

You should now be making music.

SMS 14:02, 15 September 2006 (EDT)

Troubleshooting

Sometimes things just don't work. After all, there are enough cables, boxes, assorted electronic gear and configuration involved in recording audio that anyone can have a mishap. The good news is that once you get your setup working, you shouldn't have to touch it again!

Below is an exhaustive troubleshooting procedure for recording audio, written for users at the "desperate" level. It's based on the Delta44 and Delta1010 audio interfaces, but the suggestions are good for any equipment, though a few specific names of parts may change.

Signal Chain Troubleshooting

Set your signal chain up as follows:

  1. Mic →
  2. Your mixer's Mic IN 1 (make sure mixer is turned on, gain is very high, faders are very high too [just to eliminate low levels as a potential source of problems], and pan is hard left) →
  3. Your mixer's Main Mix 1, Main Out 1, or whatever it may be named →
  4. The Hardware IN 1 on your sound card / audio interface.

Later, you'll also want to connect your mixer's Main Out 2 / Main Mix 2 to the sound card's Hardware IN 2, but that's for later.

TO TEST: Plug your mixer's Main Mix 1 / Main Out 1 directly into a guitar amp or equivalent. If you get sound, you know your mic is working, your cables are good and your mixer is both functional and properly configured. And you can forget about this whole part of your signal chain as a potential source of problems. (You may have to temporarily pan to center to get sound this way).

Sound Card Control Panel Troubleshooting

(The following was written with the M-Audio Delta series in mind, but is easily adapted to other sound cards).

  • Monitor Mixer Page
Make sure that:
  1. All levels are at their absolute highest
  2. Nothing is muted (e.g. everythings is "Solo'd".)
  3. Hardware IN 1 is panned hard left, Hardware IN 2 is panned hard right, and so on, alternating hard left (odd-numbered inputs) with hard right (even-numbered inputs) on both your mixer and the sound card control panel. You can do this any way you please, actually, as long as the mixer and control panel settings are identical.
  • Patchbay / Router Page
  1. Set Hardware OUT 1/2 to "Monitor Mixer" here.
  2. Go to the control panel's "Monitor Mixer" page, stare intently at the colored bars, and sing like a banshee.
  3. Do any of the meter bars move?
  4. If so, your signal chain is working (your cables are good, your mixer is set up right, your sound card is properly installed, you've chosen the right inputs) and your sound card's driver and control panel are properly configured. These, too, can be eliminated as possible problems.

If not, the problem is almost certainly in the control panel configuration. The other alternative is a gear problem -- a loose cable, an short circuit somewhere, etc.

If you've made it this far, go to the next section.

Output Troubleshooting

This is where SONAR comes in. Set it up to use your soundcard as its inputs and outputs:

  1. Go to SONAR's OPTIONS → AUDIO → DRIVERS and select everything that has the name of your soundcard, for both inputs and outputs. Then restart Sonar just to be completely sure the changes have been made.
  2. Go to SONAR's OPTIONS → AUDIO → ADVANCED and make sure the Playback and Recording section's "Driver" item is set to ASIO.
  3. Go to SONAR's OPTIONS → AUDIO → GENERAL and pick the first item listed for your soundcard in both "Playback timing" and "Record Timing". Any will probably do fine, you just don't your onboard sound card or whatever being selected here.
  4. At the very bottom of this page, you will see a button labeled ASIO Panel.... Click it. The M-Audio control panel should appear, and it would be a smart move to double-check all the settings here.

SONAR Troubleshooting

  1. Create a mono audio track.
  2. Set the input to "(Your Sound Card) ASIO" > "LEFT ASIO Analog In 1 (Your Soundcard) [1]" or something very similar to it.
  3. Arm your track: toggle the little R button in the top bar of the track, to the right of the name and the M (Mute) and S (Solo) buttons. It shoudl be red now.
  4. Hit the R key on your computer keyboard or the record button in the SONAR transport controls to start recording. Sing away.
  5. Stop, go back to the beginning, and SEE if anything was recorded -- look at the wave form in the track and if it's not flat, you (or your audio, to be more precise) are getting in! (Make sure OPTIONS → GLOBAL OPTIONS → GENERAL → "Display Waveform Preview While Recording" is checked to see things in real time).

If you see your sound here, everything from your mic on through your sound card and Sonar's INs are properly configured. Breathe a sigh of relief. But don't break out the six-pack yet.

Now, if you can also HEAR your audio upon playback, your problems are solved. But assuming you can't:

  1. Go to your audio track in SONAR.
  2. Go to the "Output" section (the horizontal bar with a stylized O at the far left).
  3. Click it and select Master.

You could go out directly here, instead of throught the Master, but that will probably only cause you problems later. So we're going to do it right, though it takes another step or two. So, you've selected Master. Now...

  1. Go to the bottom of the SONAR screen and you should see a buss (looks just like a track really) that says Master.
  2. On ITS output select "ASIO Analog OUT 1/2 (Your Sound Card) [1]" or similar.
  3. Plug your left studio monitor's audio cable into it at one end and into HW OUT 1 of your sound card at the other.
  4. Plug your right studio monitor's audio cable into it at one end and HW OUT 2 of your sound card at the other.
  5. Plug your monitors in and turn them on, if you have active (powered) monitors. Do the same with your monitor amplifier if you have passive (unpowered) monitors.
  6. Play your recording, cranking the volume as needed.

You should hear something here. If you've followed all the above steps, AND you don't happen to have faulty hardware, it's inevitable.

Assuming you are getting sound, now you'll want to use different outs -- at least one direct to your monitors (you've just done that) and one to your mixer for the headphones used in tracking.

That's easy! Just...

  1. Go to SONAR's Master buss.
  2. Right click on some grey part of it.
  3. On the pop-up menu, select Insert Send.
  4. Follow that menu to "(Your Sound Card) ASIO Analog Out 3/4 [1]" and select it.
  5. Now connect your sound card's Hardware OUT 3 and Hardware OUT 4 to the appropriate input on your mixer.

Wasn't that a great cop-out -- "appropriate input"!

  1. On smaller mixers the TAPE/CD IN L & R inputs are commonly used. This often requires a custom cable using two 1/4" TRS cables at the soundcard OUTs end and two RCA jacks soldered on to the other end and plugged into the TAPE/CD IN L & R.
  2. On many mixers this also requires the Main / CD-Tape button be be down in order to work.
  3. You may have another IN on your mixer that works for this. If so, no soldering or RCA jacks will be needed -- just plug the TRS cable into the mixer.
  4. Plug headphones into mixer's Phone Out plug (or something similarly named).

If you follow these directions to the letter you SHOULD be good to go. Otherwise, you may have a problem with your gear.

Gear Troubleshooting

In the first case, you will have to test every single physical component of your system. That means either swapping each component out for an identical one, or testing each component on another system:

  1. Mic / instrument
  2. Every single bloody cable you have
  3. Mixer / direct box
  4. Sound card breakout box (if applicable)
  5. Sound-card-to-computer cable
  6. The sound card itself

When you do this:

  1. Test one component at a time
  2. Make very sure that everything is plugged in completely and solidly.
  3. Move, jiggle and shake each one to make sure there's no short anywhere (who knows -- maybe your out jacks' soldering is coming loose or something along those lines).
  4. Use whatever type of cables your manufacturer suggests. Using 1/4" unbalanced (TS or guitar) cables when 1/4" TRS (balanced) cables are specified might work, but it also might not. Don't take the chance -- use what the manufacturer suggests. Using balanced cables will also drastically reduce the noise in your recordings, so it's double plus good!

TIP: When troubleshooting anything, you must be extremely disciplined and systematic. Change one thing at a time (no more!) and then test your entire rig out. Then change another and test again. And so on. It's tempting to change a bunch of things at once, in hopes of saving time, but though you may get lucky this way, chances are you won't, and you also won't have any more of an idea of what's wrong than when you started.

SMS 13:58, 15 September 2006 (EDT)

Recording MIDI

From Softsynths, Samplers, Etc.

From External Controllers / Synths

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