Need help with music software (cubase,cakewalk sonar,..)

2529 Views 24 Replies 8 Participants Last post by Carnage, Jun 12, 2005

Carnage

Discussion Starter · May 16, 2005

I've been using fruity loops for a while but was getting irritated because of the fact that instruments that I wanna use such as the violin and orchestra,... really sound like on an old synthesiser,in other words,not good enough...

So I started to use cakewalk sonar...the only problem is,I hear no sound...
When I load a soundclip like an mp3 file into sonar I do hear sound,but none of the examples for the tutorials make any sound...the exemple of tutorial 5 on the other hand DOES work properly and makes sound.Ive been trying multiple things but nothing really works,configered the input and output a billion times as it should be,still no effect...

Not only do I have this problem with sonar,I also tried cubase,but it doesnt seem to make any sound either,not the sound its supposed to make that is (a guitar that makes the noise of a piano? :???: ).

I desperitly need some help on this as I really wanna use violins and better sounding virtual guitars and orchestras,... because fruity loops is way more directed towards making techno,wich I dont wanna do...

If anyone can suggest me another good program (is Reason any good?) or help me with this...thank you very very very much
(ps: im making doom-metal ,if that makes any difference )

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refraction

· #2 · May 16, 2005

get yourself Edorial Orchestral, got proper orchestra sounds, failing that get Sampletank, both brilliant VST plugins, should work with fruity and cubase

Aided Onslaught

· #3 · May 16, 2005

Have you ever messed with finale? it's a music program from orchestra stuff but you can also do guitar stuff too (tabs or with the music staff) I don't know if it's what you are looking for since you were talking about sonar which is for recording...I'm not sure about the no sound problem, I had that before but I messed with my sound card settings and got it to work. also mess with your playback settings in the options...

Carnage

Discussion Starter · #4 · May 17, 2005

Well...Finale isn't really the kind of thing I'm looking for...and I can't find Edorial Orchestral anywhere,not even on the internet oO .And sampletank their download for some reason doesnt work...My cubase and other programs still arent working either -_- thanks tough for the help

Aided Onslaught

· #5 · May 17, 2005

Alright, well I'll keep an eye out for you...I'm always into making music myself (mostly folking metal like blind guardian and stuff like twilighting) so if I find software that I find is very helpful to me, I'll let you know...

Carnage

Discussion Starter · #6 · May 18, 2005

Sounds great,thx

Btw Blind guardian rocks!!!You should try and search for some songs from Wintersun,a bit folky too (black voice ex-ensiferum) and very good!

Aided Onslaught

· #7 · May 18, 2005

haha I already know about them...I love that stuff. The only guy in metal that sweaps with a telacaster that I know of...haha Awesome sound

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refraction

· #8 · May 19, 2005

Carnage said:
Well...Finale isn't really the kind of thing I'm looking for...and I can't find Edorial Orchestral anywhere,not even on the internet oO .And sampletank their download for some reason doesnt work...My cubase and other programs still arent working either -_- thanks tough for the help

sorry spelt it wrong, its

Edirol Orchestral

Boltzmann

· #9 · May 20, 2005

My brother had some problems with Sonar too; apparently it was because he was choosing the wrong MIDI output. I'll see if I can talk to him about it (he has a heavy metal band too, and he does his own editting).

Anyway, you should try to mess with your MIDI output settings, if you haven't already done so.

KillerShots

· #10 · May 20, 2005

Just load up a decent Sound Font (assuming that you're using an SB Live! or Audigy (or anything else in that line)). My little bro uses Finale and an ancient 32M sound font called Musica Theoria (something I found a long time ago and has since gone commercial) that sounds very realistic. And yes, make sure your output is set to Midi Output (not software synth or anything vulgar like that).

If you don't know what I'm talking about with Sound Fonts and you use one of those cards, then you have the default (crappy) 4MB sound font loaded... There is an 8MB SF included as well, but it's still not that great. Look online, and be prepared to spend many hours because the really good ones have become commercial.

Carnage

Discussion Starter · #11 · May 21, 2005

hmm...well I've spended a lot of time on the midi outputs and stuff but I think my sound card just isn't good enough and that I need a better one because the only ouputs I have are "VIA MIDI External Port" "Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth" and "Microsoft Midi Mapper"...for some reason the second one wasnt there the previous times so now I found out it does work with the MS GS one, but the sound is still crap

its still like im playing on my old synth..not realistic at all...but could this be because of the output being that "ms gs sw synth" thing?

meanwhile im still working with fruity loops while trying to figure out a way to make my sound in cubase work now...but I hope it aint the same crappy sound -_-

thx for the help guys

KillerShots

· #12 · May 23, 2005

Ah, I see what's going on... you're not using a sound board with a hardware MIDI chip. The best hardware you have is an FM modulator (that hasn't improved since the mid 80's).

Out of the options you listed, the best you're going to get is the Microsoft WaveSynth. Alternatively, there may be some software out there that will emulate a better MIDI chip... it would make sense to me, but I'm not familiar with any.

Aided Onslaught

· #13 · May 23, 2005

I dont really know if this will help or not, but what about that yamaha thing. I remember it shiped with the pc version of FF7. It made midi sound so much better. would that be able to be applied here? SOmething of that sort. (which is kinda like sound font I guess...)

KillerShots

· #14 · May 25, 2005

Yes, that's one option - you can probably find it somewhere online. I remember that particular one... no where near as good as the AWE64 I was using at the time, but certainly better than FM modulation... and probably better than the Microsoft Wavesynth option he has.

2short

· #15 · May 25, 2005

I highly recommend reason. it might lack the support of vst's however that's not a problem since it (almost) has all you need. + it comes with 3cds of samples. and if you really want to use vst's with it you can connect it to cubase via a function called "ReWire". pm me if you need some help with it!!

Carnage

Discussion Starter · #16 · Jun 9, 2005

Thx guys for all the help,but I've checked out reason,and damn this is one hell of a program! Neither cubase or the one from cakewalk were sufficient for me and I gave up quite quickly with them but now with reason,I have much more hope

Altough..there are a few things that I don't really understand...when I try to simulate a guitar with the samplers and then attach the sound4 distortion of whatever to it,it still sounds like crap,very unrealistic...BUT when I load a loop with Dr.Rex,the sound of the clean guitar that the guitar loops in rex produce,is really much much much better,plus when I attach it to the scream4 I can go every way I want with distortion and it sounds great! The problem here is,I can't use the matrix sequencer nor the main sequencer with it to make my own loops with that guitar sound,because they are already pre-made loops of course...so I was wondering,how the hell can I get that GOOD guitar sound that I get with the loops in dr.rex in the other samplers???I've also thought about recording every guitar string on my electric guitar(in clean mode),then making a patch out of it,load it into a sampler,and then put the scream4 on it,but I don't know if this actually works...

also,I made a sample of a (8:50 min.) song that I'm making in fruity loops (been working on it for quite some time now,but my mic is broken at the moment) so if you want you can listen to that...not that you'll like it,it's funeral doommetal

(or thats what it is supposed to be...) Don't mind the second song on the site tough,it's something I recorded and edited in cool edit pro,aint much good...Lament Of Suffering

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om3gablue

· #17 · Jun 9, 2005

Sounds great! I honestly didn't know what to expect when I downloaded it. I love the part that starts at :47, great solo. Kinda sounds like something out of Castlevania.

When do you think it'll be finished?

Carnage

Discussion Starter · #18 · Jun 10, 2005

Well it depends...I might use Reason (or FL) to add more elements to give it a bit more feeling but the only thing besides that that I still have to do is find how to make a heavy enough guitar sound in Reason to add it on one particular part of the song,add a vocalline to that one,and then normally it should be finished...It could also be that I won't "release" it until I remake of an older song (not on the site) in Reason,wich is a real long one (min. 14 minutes) and a remake of "the beaufitul..." (will probably change the title and some things in the lyrics) in Reason,wich is the second download on the site but was made,as I already stated in another post,when I had almost nothing to work with qua software...

Also if I succeed in making that heavy guitar sound in Reason,I'll prolly make a song wich is waaaaay heavier and might come as second song right after an intro,wich is a small part of a classical music piece(forgot the title).

So it depends...if I'm patient enough to finish the other songs,I will take a while before I'll release it but it will be along with more songs and that in total should be around 40 min. long,but If I'm not patient and not in the mood to wait for the others to be finished,I'll release it right away...not that it matters THAT much

Thanks for the good comment

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2short

· #19 · Jun 10, 2005

well, while reason is good for a lot of stuff, getting it to sound like a "real" guitar is close to impossible. it will most of the time sound like a cheap midi synth compared to the real thing hehe...
plug your guitar to your computer, use some vst's on it and then mix it all in cubase. that's the way to go

Carmofin

· #20 · Jun 11, 2005

so far, i do all my music in fruity loops. since you can use soundfonts you can get any quality you need. of course im not trying to simulate any real instruments, im doing mostly electronic stuff and for everything authentic that i need, soundfonts are more then sufficient.

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