Tracks

A track is represented by a horizontal strip in the Track view that has a name and number on the left side (each track is also represented by a vertical module in the Console view). A track is a container you usually use to keep the sound from each instrument separate from the others—you usually keep the sound from each instrument on a separate track.

In the following picture, you can see the visual results of recording the first 3 notes of “Three Blind Mice” as audio in Track 1, and as MIDI in Track 2.

A. Name of Track 1 B. Three C. Blind C. Mice

Notice that the graph (or picture, SONAR stores these picture files in the Picture Cache folder in the Cakewalk Projects folder) of the audio data follows the natural decay in loudness of a sound after each note is struck. This is as expected since the pictures represent the actual sound that is recorded. The MIDI track’s graph is much simpler, since it only represents commands to turn a certain note on for a certain time period, then turn another note on, etc. We zoomed in on these two tracks far enough to expose all the track property fields, such as Volume, Pan, Input, Output, etc. Notice the different logos left of the track names that distinguish audio tracks from MIDI tracks. Notice the data in the audio track’s Out field: A. This is the name of the output driver that this particular sound card uses. If your sound card only has one pair of outputs (or one stereo output), you don’t have to change anything in the Out field. SONAR fills it in automatically as soon as SONAR finishes running the Wave Profiler. If your sound card has more than one pair of outputs, or you have more than one sound card installed and enabled on your computer, you can use this field to choose what pair of outputs you want to hear a specific track played back through.

Note: It is not necessary to run the Wave Profiler for a sound card using an ASIO driver.

 

For more information, see:

Clips

Track-by-track playback

Connecting an instrument, home stereo, or microphone to your sound card

Choosing inputs

Audio recording

Audio hardware (sound cards) and drivers

MIDI