Sonar doesn't see SW Synth Midi output

[jimjones]

Hi -
I'm a Midi newbie. Perhaps you can help me solve the following problem:

I can't seem to get Sonar 2.0 to produce sound on my system, though Cakewalk Express will work. My computer has a Creative Soundblaster PCI card. The problem seems to be that Sonar doesn't see the 'Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth' midi output device. Cakewalk Express DOES see this device (and lets me pick it from the 'Tools->Midi Devices...' dialog).

(The other Midi output options which are available on my system are 'Microsoft Midi Mapper' and 'Out USB Keystation' (my midi keyboard), visible in both Sonar and Cakewalk. Selecting either of these does NOT produce sound.)

Any suggestions?

[jimjones]

I've figured out the answer to this.

It turns out, in order to see the Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth Midi output, I need to use the MME (slower driver) interface (in Sonar: Options->Audio Options->Advanced Tab->Check 'Always use MME Interface...")

Unfortunately, this means high latency (the best I could achieve was 30ms, but it seems longer than this in practice).

Is there anyway to get around this problem? Is the answer - 'use a new driver' or 'get a new sound card which supports Wavetable synth through WDM'.

Any suggestions?

[jimjones]

Keywords: Latency, Soundblaster, WDM, MME

Found yet another answer. Just posting this for the interest of others out there with the same problem:

The solution to the latency problem I had with my SoundBlaster AudioPCI card was to install the latest driver available from the Creative website. After installing the new drivers, Sonar showed "SB PCI Synthesizer" under Output->Midi Options->Outputs.

This gives a WDM interface to the SW synth capabilities of the soundcard. The latency is now very low (although Sonar says it's 93ms @44kHz, it seems noticeably faster than the reported 30ms latency offered under MME).

Here's the link to the drivers:
http://www.americas.creative.com/support/files/download.asp?Centric=17&OS=13

One of the things which threw me off is that this driver is not properly cross-listed. I found this file under SoundBlaster PCI 128, but it works for all of the following boards:
Sound Blaster® Vibra128, Sound Blaster 16 PCI, Sound Blaster PCI 128, Sound Blaster 4.1 Digital, Sound Blaster Ensoniq AudioPCI, Sound Blaster PCI4.1 Digital and Sound Blaster Vibra128 4D.

Hope this helps someone.