No sound..

[Cyper]

Hello,

I wanted to learn to make music. I am a complete beginner. But I have problems with the sound.

When I test the sound in Settings -> Sound Devices there is sound. When I review different previews of sound sets, such as drums, there is sound. But as soon as I put it into the mixer table there is no sound anymore. If I change the setting on the far right from ''Default audio output'' to ''Default MIDI output'' there is sound - but the drums, guitar or whatever preset it is - gets converted to piano.

What is the problem?

[mikoatkvr]

If I understand correctly, you are putting a MIDI clip onto a track, this is just MIDI notes that are basically just a trigger which need a plugin which converts these notes into actual sounds.
You want to place for example 4osc which ships with Waveform onto the mixer on your MIDI track. Do this by dragging down the grey clip with a + icon on the top right of the GUI to the mixer track or right click just to the left of the volume indicator on the track and choose ' add plugin to the left'
Make sure to set your tracks output to default audio output, not MIDI.

[Peter Widdicombe]

You MAY have placed a MIDI VST in the MASTER output section lower right? That block of 4 slots in the MASTER section is for overall AUDIO output effects, like reverb, delay, overall sound shaping. "Never" put a MIDI instrument there; but you can put VST effects there.

Typically you want the final output of each of the individual tracks to be audio, which then goes to the master output. Audio is, well, already audio and you'd know what that sounds like. Put reverb or EQ on each track for those, unless it's an overall mix, in which case put it in the master output section.

MIDI is non-audible notes. An instrument VST takes those notes and "plays" them, converting to audio. Everything else AFTER that should work on audio - volume control, reverb, delay, etc, and that get sent as more audio to the master audio out.

These simple suggestions should make things easier. Just remember MIDI is NOT audio, until you convert it with an instrument. Audio INTO a VST instrument, typically will give you nothing; although Audio into a VST EFFECT will normally be what you want (echo, reverb, EQ...).

[Cyper]

Thank you very much for all the answers. There is now sound and I have managed to make some beats!

There is one thing that boggles my mind though: I want a particular bass tune in the background of my track - but I want this tune to be constant, e.i not to fade out and repeat itself again.

To get what I mean, listen to this from 0:08

[fde101]

Seems you are looking for a drone? That is just one MIDI note held out for the time span you want to hear the drone, coupled with an instrument that is configured to produce the desired sound. There are various tutorials around on how to create such sounds if you want something custom or specific.

If you don't want to create your own sound at this point, in either Subtractive or Collective (if you have those in your Waveform license) look under Category - Synth Bass, Character - Sustain for a handful of sounds that could be made to work; 4OSC includes at least one drone preset as well. Once you have a drone set up you can duplicate the track with the drone and select different patches in the duplicates, mixing them together to create a fuller more custom sound.

Other 3rd-party synths often include samplings of such sounds as well.

In many cases pad sounds can also be combined to create suitable drones; just play them with a very low note. In addition to what comes with Waveform there are some interesting pads to be found amongst the free Labs instruments from Spitfire Audio for example.