Recording a stand-alone synth

There are several ways to record a stand-alone synth:

You can use the synth’s wave capture function, if it has one. See your synth’s documentation for a procedure. Make a note of where the resulting captured Wave file is stored, and then you can import the file into Sonar by using the File > Import > Audio command.

You can connect your sound card’s outputs to your sound card’s inputs, either internally or externally, depending on your sound card’s design. After you do this, you need to arm an audio track in Sonar and select one of your sound card’s wave drivers as an input. Start recording, and make sure the MIDI track that is routed to the synth is playing back.

You can use your sound card’s wave capture or what-you-hear option, if it has one. See the following procedure.

To record a stand-alone synth with your sound card’s Wave Capture function

1.	Pick a destination audio track and set the Input field to Stereo.

Note: If you have more than one sound card installed, select the one that your stand-alone synth uses as an output.

2.	Arm the destination track.

3.	Mute or archive any tracks that you don’t want to record to the destination track.

4.	If Sonar’s metronome is set to use any software synth to produce a click, disable the recording metronome. To do so, click the Record Metronome button in the Control Bar’s Transport module, or go to Edit > Preferences > Project - Metronome and clear the Recording check box.

5.	Open your sound card's mixer device. This is normally done by double-clicking the speaker icon on the Windows taskbar, or by choosing Start > Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Volume Control in Windows 7.

Note: Some sound cards, such as the SoundBlaster Live, have their own proprietary mixer. If yours has one, please use it instead.

6.	Click Adjust Volume For Recording, and make sure all boxes below are checked.

7.	Click OK, and locate the slider marked MIDI, Synth, Mixed Input, or What You Hear. Select the Select check box at the bottom, then close the window.

8.	In Sonar, click the Record button.

Sonar records all the MIDI tracks that are assigned to the stand-alone synth as a stereo audio track.

After you finish recording, mute the MIDI tracks that you just recorded so you don’t hear them and the new audio track at the same time.