KVR Audio

jkotz · Post by **jkotz** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 5:30 pm

I've noticed this with both Sonar2 and now with ver 4. When I insert the arppegiator midi effect into a midi track for a vsti (or dxi) and try to play I get no sound. Changing the arp settings doen't help.
It's not a big deal since I can always program my own arps, but there are times when this would be a nice feature to have. I have a hard time believing Cakewalk would leave this feature so crippled, and am inclined to think I'm missingsomething obvious. Any ideas what that might be?

gentleharp · Post by **gentleharp** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 5:48 pm

I'll give it a try -- although I'm shooting in the dark without my music computer right now

When using the Arp Midi FX, there is still the need for midi input, either from a keyboard or a note in the piano roll. Unless I'm missing something, the arp is not "self-generating" -- you still need a note or chord input for it to play a pattern. Are you using a keyboard to input notes? You might also need to hit "play" when you do the keyboard input -- as I said I don't have it in front of me right now, so I'm working on fuzzy memory

Hope this helps.

jkotz · Post by **jkotz** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 5:58 pm

Yes, I'm trying to arppegiate a chord being played on my controller keyboard. If I route the midi channel to my soundcard's synth everything works fine. The issue is only with plugins.

Nax · Post by **Nax** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 6:10 pm

jkotz wrote:Yes, I'm trying to arppegiate a chord being played on my controller keyboard. If I route the midi channel to my soundcard's synth everything works fine. The issue is only with plugins.

It works OK with recorded midi tracks on my system but I don't have an external keyboard to try it out.

Record some chords in the midi track and test it out to see if the problem appears only with the controller.

gentleharp · Post by **gentleharp** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 6:15 pm

Sorry, jkotz

wish I was in front of Sonar right now to test it out.

Now that you mention it, I don't recall using the arp with softsynths in the past. I'll try it when I get home later today, but hopefully someone will have this sorted out for you before then.

However you are right, if Sonar hasn't implemented this midiFX for use with a VSTi or DXi, it is a major shortcoming.

BTW, you may not be interested in spending more money, but EnergyXT has a fantastic arp that interfaces with VSTi like a dream. You can download the demo and try it out for free.

jeffn1 · Post by **jeffn1** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 6:28 pm

I think you need to make sure (if you haven't already) the arpeggiator is inserted via the insert bin on the midi track. It will not work if it is inserted in the synth rack because it is not a DXi (this may be obvious).

jeffn1

idobs · Post by **idobs** » Sat Dec 18, 2004 2:10 am

I had this problem with Sonar too (v4). It was VERY frustrating.

Basically, I couldn't get the Arp midifx plugin to do the right thing "in realtime". However, if you record cords into the sequencer, and then play them through the arp, it seemed to work.

In general though, I was VERY unhappy with Sonar's midifx Arp. a) It didn't seem to work, and b) The UI is painfully bad.

I suggest (like a previous poster) getting EnergyXT. It is PERFECT as an Arp within Sonar for VST intruments. I can't stress that enough.

-Ido

_niko_ · Post by **_niko_** » Sat Dec 18, 2004 12:32 pm

I just tried the arpegiator in Sonar 4.01 with the dreamstation dxi and it worked flawlessly...

Niko

kevink · Post by **kevink** » Sat Dec 18, 2004 1:41 pm

Since Sonar 2.2, it had been my experience that the Cakewalk arpeggiator only worked with recorded MIDI events - which really sucked as far as I was concerned. But I just ran a couple more experiments. It *does* work live with Dreamstation, and with Tassman DXi. It does *not* work with Cameleon 5000 (wrapped with DirectiXer), nor with Reaktor. Indeed, if I insert in on a Reaktor MIDI track, I get no output from Reaktor DXi whatsoever. Remove the arpeggiator, and voila, the sound is back. I've written some MFX plugins myself, and I'm at a loss as to how it would be possible to write one that would behave so differently depending on the DXi on the channel, but Cakewalk seems to have done it.

WillieJenkins · Post by **WillieJenkins** » Sat Dec 18, 2004 3:02 pm

Start a thread @ Cakewalk's forum and ask people to petition for a new better updated arpeggiator. I agree it sucks, but I never need to use it.

The beauty of cakewalk is if you bring it up and get people support behind it, they will implement it

kevink · Post by **kevink** » Sat Dec 18, 2004 3:31 pm

EricRichmond wrote:Start a thread @ Cakewalk's forum and ask people to petition for a new better updated arpeggiator. I agree it sucks, but I never need to use it.

The beauty of cakewalk is if you bring it up and get people support behind it, they will implement it

Oddly enough, I've had a window open for the past hour composing a message for the Cakewalk Sonar forum to that effect. I wanted to run through a few more tests of which synths work and which ones don't before finishing it, though.

Sonar 4 arppegiator + virtual inst.