Not even exaggerating – it was like a slightly off-beat metronome was overpowering what I was playing.

Getting the Sound…

I plugged my Alesis Photon x25 into my Windows 7 laptop and then started Sonar 8.  I’m immediately greeted with the message that either the Photon is not supported or in use.  I’m going to assume it’s in use by Windows and just move on … click “Use Anyway”

Create a new project … delete all the audio tracks … add a MIDI track … hit a key.  Whoa!  Hmmm … no sound.  Oh!  Forgot to add a synth (I came across this when doing “Tutorial 1” in the Sonar help file … yeah … I read it.  I read the Readme too).  So I add a synth.  Now I hit a key and … still nothing.  The signal indicator is peaking so I know I’m getting the input from the keyboard to the DAW.  Time to try some random things and then hit the tubes looking for an answer.

Let me save you the trouble:

http://www.cakewalk.com/Support/FAQ/MIDI2Audio.aspx

Read the whole thing.  It was section three I cared about.  Specifically to check “All Synth Audio Outputs: Stereo” and to map the outputs to the synth.

But still no sound – oh crap – it’s playing through the Photon and not my sound card!  Awesome!  I plugged in a set of head phones and I’m off.  This is great.

But it sounds horrible …

clicks and pops like mad.

Again … let me save you the trouble:

http://www.cakewalk.com/support/FAQ/SR_FAQ.aspx#9

Adjusting my buffer to “Safe” made it better so I knew I was on the right track – but changing my driver from WDM to MME was the key (ASIO didn’t work – no sound … I’ll look into that some other time).  Once I was switch to MME I was able to drop my latency back to 10ms.  At 10ms I get an occasional pop.  At 30ms almost none.  At 90 – I’ve yet to hear any.  Beauty!

Now to find some free VST synths because the ones in the Trial are … just horrible.  It’s like they are punishing you for using the trial.  Give me a drum kit or piano please!  Some congas and a shaker … anything.  Jeez.

(they are probably there and I just don’t know how to use them yet … but the forums I read all said things like “the trial has crap sounds … get free VSTs”).

But why?

Creating a home studio is as much about software as hardware – and testing what DAW I like requires two things:

1. A DAW
2. An input device to do something useful in said DAW

This unit comes with Cubase LE and Sonar 8 Producer is available for a 30 day trial … so there I go.  I have the software and a crazy cheap way to test it out.  And when I’ve made up my mind I’ve also got a nice little MIDI controller.

That’s how I rationalized it to myself.  Did it work for you too?

My contented feeling was short lived though.  After picking it up I went out to dinner with a few of my kids and got to spend a few hours fretting over whether or not this device would be compatible with Windows 7.  The M-Audio KeyRig isn’t (more) – would this device be?  It’s not the newest unit on the block – discontinued in fact.

But I plugged it in and …

Now … I haven’t done anything beyond this.  So does it work?  I’m installing Cubase LE now …

Hmmm.

Well.  Plan has hit a kink.  The previous owner claimed he never registered Cubase but apparently he took the registration code.  So I have 30 days to decide if I want to keep this or not.  Let’s see how Sonar likes it… (next time).