Previewing MIDI groove clips

In addition to audio loops, the Browser also allows you to preview MIDI groove clips. Let’s try this now with one of the clips included with SONAR. Unlike audio loops, MIDI groove clips require a soft synth or instrument track to play through.

1.	Click the Views menu and select Synth Rack View to open the Synth Rack.

2.	Click the Insert button , point to Insert Synths > DirectX and select Cakewalk TTS-1.

The Insert Soft Synth Options dialog box appears.

3.	Clear all of the check boxes except for Simple Instrument Track, Recall Assignable Controls, and Ask This Every Time.

4.

Click OK.

Cakewalk TTS-1 is added to your project.

Now that we have a synth in our project that we can preview MIDI groove clips with, let’s find some and give them a listen.

1.	Click the Media button to show the Media Browser.

2.	In the Browser, click the Content Location drop-down list and select MIDI Library.

3.	Double click the Smart Loops folder and select the file named Bangin 10.mid.

Before we can preview a MIDI groove clip, we need to tell SONAR what instrument or synth we would like to preview it with.

4.	Click the Media button , point to Synth Preview Output and select Cakewalk TTS-1 1 on the submenu.

5.	Now that SONAR knows what synth to play MIDI groove clips through, select the groove clip named Bangin 10.mid just as you did with the audio loop previously.

6.	Click the Play button in the Browser.

Just like with audio loops, you can set MIDI groove clips to auto-preview by clicking the Media button and enabling the Auto-Preview option.

In addition to using soft synths to preview MIDI groove clips, soft synths also have many other useful and powerful features. For more details and instructions on using them, see Tutorial 4 - Playing and recording software instruments.

 

See:

Adding audio loops to your project