Using DSP Trigger FREE in Sonar 6 +

[Rob]

Getting DSP Trigger FREE working in Sonar is a bit of Challenge as Sonar doesn't normally support audio effects that produce MIDI. The following HOW-TO was based on a document put together by Koen Tanghe (the author of KTDrumTrigger). You can have a look at his original document to get an idea of how to setup DSP Trigger in various hosts.

Configure DSP Trigger so that Sonar allows you to use it as a MIDI event source.

1. In Sonar, go to Tools -> Cakewalk Plugin Manager.
2. Under PLUGIN CATEGORIES, select 'VST Audio Effects" and then under "REGISTERED PLUGINS select "dspTrigger".
3. Next, under VST CONFIGURATION, click the "Plug-in Properties" and make sure the following items are checked:
   • "Enable as plug-in"
   • "Configure as synth"
   • "Enable delay compensation"
4. Press "OK" to finish the VST configuration

Now comes the "trick(y)" part. Time to play with the Windows Registry

1. Go to Windows "Start" menu, select "Run..." and type "regedit" to start the registry editor (it's possible you need administrator rights to do this)
2. Just to be safe, create a backup of the registry (File --> Export... --> select "All" for export range)
3. browse for this key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Cakewalk Music Software\Cakewalk VST Adapter\Inventory. Another user reported that he had to change the following key instead: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Cakewalk Music Software\Sonar Producer\Cakewalk VST\Inventory.
4. Look for a key that ends in dspTrigger.dll or dspTriggerFree.dll and select it.
5. You should now see a list of key-value pairs at the right. Set the value for the "generateEvents" key to 1 (in case the key doesn't exist, create it (type = REG_WORD) and set it to 1).
6. exit regedit
7. restart Sonar

Setting up DSP Trigger in Sonar

1. Add an audio track to your project.
2. Right click in the "FX Pane" and under "Soft Synths" -> "vstplugins" select "DSP Trigger" or "DSP Trigger Free".
3. Go to Views -> Synth Rack, and make sure that when right-clicking on DSP Trigger, "Enable MIDI output" is checked (you can only change this when the sequencer is not playing).
4. Next, on the track we created, add an instance of a VSTi drum sampler after DSP Trigger.
5. Click the "Echo Input" button to turn it on.
6. Next, we need to route the MIDI from DSP Trigger to our drum sampler.
7. Add a MIDI track.
8. Set the input for the track to DSP Trigger
9. Set the output of the track to your drum sampler