Korg Forums

[soarsco]

Hi,

I have some MIDI music files that I occasionally play through my K2. Years ago I had Sonar Pro and eventually migrated to BLs version. Recently I decided to see hat else is out there, BLs announcement that they are bringing back the Sonar name as Cakewalk Sonar got me to looking again what else is out there.

I messed with Cubase which seems similar to me, then I saw I could get Nuendo for almost the same price, so played with it. I loaded some of my MIDI files into it just to see and noticed that they sound very different than when I play the same file through Cakewalk. I did some looking and noticed the program changes were slightly different between the two for the same MIDI file. It was only one or two instruments, but not sure why they should different at all. Even when I changed the instruments in Nuendo to match what I get in Cakewalk, the playback is completely different. I would describe Cakewalk to be more Bass heavy/dark and Nuendo to be more bright.

Now, all of this is just fun and games to me but stumbling on this difference has me curious as to why it should be? I would think the MIDI file defines how the playback should be, but there is an obvious difference.

Most the stuff I have are just the free MIDI downloads you can get which play fine on my Kronos, once in a while I will change the instrument being played on a given track.

Can anyone explain what might be going on different between two DAWs?

[soarsco]

I think I solved my issue. This particular MIDI file I made changes to in Cakewalk, so perhaps Cakewalk does something non standard?? I grabbed the original MIDI file and it plays the same through Cakewalk and Nuendo. So I guess no worries. Still curious what is different in my edited file. Tried MIDIOX to capture what was being sent, but it wouldn't work.

[ChrisDuncan]

I've been on Cubase for a decade or so, but I was Cakewalk for many years, even before Sonar. Back in the day they had the best midi implementation of anyone (they began as midi only). It would be surprising if they did anything non-standard.

If I was debugging a problem like this, I'd open up the midi in event view, whatever Cakewalk calls that. That way you could inspect each event, the values, etc. individually. It would be easier than trying to use MIDIOX in real time to see what was going on.
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Studio: Cubase 13 | Windows 10 | Yamaha TF5 | Mackie MCU | CMC AI, QC
Keyboard Station: Kronos 2 88 | Fantom 7 | JV 2080 | Cubase 13 | Windows 10 | Focusrite 18i20 | CMC TP
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Chris Duncan
Atlanta, GA, USA, Earth

[soarsco]

I will try again to capture what is happening. I am curious to know what is going on. I'll take a look and see where to do that in Cakewalk and Nuendo.

Thanks