Instruction Manual

556 Software Synthesizers
Inserting Soft Synths
For step by step instructions, see:
Inserting Soft Synths
Waveform Preview for Buses and Synth Tracks
Tutorial 8—Using Soft Synths
ReWire Instruments
Freeze Tracks and Synths
Inserting Soft Synths
In order to play a soft synth from a MIDI controller or with recorded MIDI
data, you need to have at least one synth track that lists the soft synth in its
Input field, and at least one MIDI track that lists the soft synth in its Output
field. The data from the MIDI track feeds the synth track and plays the soft
synth. If you’re playing the soft synth with a MIDI controller, the MIDI track
that’s feeding the synth track must have the focus (lighter color). You can
also patch the soft synth into an audio track’s FX bin instead of a synth
track’s Input field.
To add a soft synth to the audio and synth tracks’ Input menus (drop-
downs) and the MIDI tracks’ Output menus, you have to insert each soft
synth that you want to use into each project. There are two basic ways to
insert soft synths in SONAR:
1. You can insert soft synths from the Synth Rack view or with the Insert-
Soft Synths command. If you use this method, you can choose to have
SONAR create the necessary synth and MIDI tracks, and patch them
together correctly. If you want to use multiple synth tracks to take
advantage of SONAR’s support for the multi-output soft synth format,
you need to create and patch additional MIDI tracks manually to feed
the additional synth tracks.
2. You can insert soft synths into FX bins of individual audio tracks. If you
use this method, you need to set a MIDI track’s Output field to the name
of the soft synth you inserted. Then you can record MIDI data in the
MIDI track to play the soft synth with.
The procedure for inserting multi-output and single-output soft synths is
basically the same. There are just more tracks possibly involved when you
insert a multi-output soft synth.
You can insert more than one copy (also called an instance) of the same
soft synth. Each new copy has the same name as the previous copy except