When I launch Cakewalk Sonar, why does my keyboard stop playing sound but otherwise seems to function properly? It seems to mute it or put it to sleep.

Cakewalk and Sonar send a Local Control Off (also called Local off or Local Echo off) message when starting up. This tells the keyboard not to play what keys are pressed. Instead, only send the note out the MIDI port to Sonar. Then, when you record-enable a MIDI track in Sonar, that track will send the MIDI notes back to the keyboard and correctly play the notes you play. This is usually the way you want to have Sonar set because otherwise, it could play double notes (once when you press the key -Local- and once when the note goes through Sonar and comes back to the keyboard.) This round-trip MIDI trip usually takes only a few milliseconds so it will sound like your note is flanged.

If you want to disable the Local Control Off messages from being sent at Sonar’s startup, you can follow these directions:

Go into the Cakewalk or Sonar directory (typically C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Sonar X\ (where X is the version of Sonar you are using: 1, 2, or 3) and double-click a file named TTSSEQ (it may be named TTSSEQ.INI) and it should open up in Notepad.

If you do not have a heading named [Options], add one on a line. Below [Options], add the line exactly like this (with capital letters as shown):

SendLocalOff=0

Go to File – Save and exit Notepad. Then launch Sonar, the messages should not be sent.

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