If I Export a MID file from another DAW what kinds of Data, other than the typical MIDI 1.0 info will follow it into Cub14?
Also, I’m considering purchasing a NI Controller that has MIDI 2.0 capability. Does Cub14 have MIDI 2.0, if not, when do you think it will?
The other DAW is unlikely to export anything other than a MIDI v1.0 file. Cubase will read and understand the entire content of that file.
Rolling out MIDI 2.0 has been a slow process. I’ve eagerly been waiting for it ever since the MIDI Association started talking about it almost 20 years ago. I don’t know what it will take to make MIDI 2.0 an industry standard but I do believe there has to be support by the OS for a DAW to be able to take advantage of it. As I understand it, Microsoft Windows only partially support MIDI 2.0 as of now. (Apple might be further along.) Then of course hardware and software developers need to follow suit.
At this rate, I wouldn’t be surprised if it will take another 10 years before the full implementation MIDI 2.0 becomes commonplace.
@mlib has already given a good answer to this literal question. However, if I’m reading between the lines correctly based on the thread title, specifically that you are looking to transfer data from SONAR Platinum or SONAR 7 projects into Cubase, transferring the MIDI file is one key (assuming you use virtual instruments or other MIDI instruments, of course), but insufficient if you also want audio. Here are a few other things you can do if that is part of your need (based on my personal experience in remixing songs that I’d originally created in SONAR in Cubase, most recently including doing that for 4 songs from a 2006 EP that was probably done in SONAR 5 or 6):
First, I should note that I have the latest version of Cakewalk by BandLab (CbB) on my system, which is critical for allowing me to read old SONAR projects (and probably even Cakewalk Pro Audio projects) in order to access information and data in those projects that I didn’t think to explicitly export in some DAW-agnostic way when the project was archived. As long as you still have access to the latest version of SONAR you ran, you could equally use that.
The first step for me is indeed to make sure I’ve got a Type 1 MIDI file. Beware that there are some cases where MIDI/instrument tracks in SONAR don’t get exported into a MIDI file. From memory, I think it may be if those tracks are archived at the time when the MIDI file is exported. This is just one other reason why having a working version of SONAR or CbB available can be useful, so you can go into the project and tweak things you might need tweaked for data transfer purposes. (I also use this even just to look at some plugin settings, especially for instruments, when those plugins still work, but many old ones don’t at this point, so the best I may be able to get in those cases may be the name of the plugin. But, when an instrument plugin does work still, it can be nice for getting a preset name to get to a starting point. Plugin chains can also be helpful in some cases, even if you won’t use the same plugins or settings, since they might give an idea of what you were trying to do – one key on in mine was when I used Antares Mic Modeler, which tells me I was trying to change the character of a specific mic that wasn’t great for my voice, meaning I may want to also do that in the remix in Cubase.)
Once I’ve got the MIDI Type 1 file, I read that into Cubase as a new project. I don’t remember what options, if any, there are on doing this, but the key thing I’m looking for, beyond the MIDI instrument data, is for it to import the timeline, tempo map, and markers to make sure audio imported later will line up properly.
On the SONAR/CbB end, one key is if you were using Broadcast Wave File format for all audio data. If you were, audio timestamps help with getting any imported audio data to line up, and you may be able to just drag audio files from the SONAR project into the Cubase project’s pool then insert them at their timestamps on the relevant tracks from the Pool. (As far as I’ve been able to figure to date, just dragging them directly into Cubase does not honor the timestamp information, but puts them where you drag them instead.)
Another thing you can do with SONAR projects is save OMF (Open Media Format) to get any audio from the project into an intermediate file for transfer. Cubase can read that format to recreate the audio tracks data, and this can be very useful if you’ve got it (or can create it).
When tracks are frozen in SONAR, you can also take the audio files from the freezes to get any tracks with their effects and such if you want those exactly (I usually don’t, as the whole point of remixing is to do better than I could years ago). But these sorts of files can also be helpful for virtual instrument tracks where using the virtual instrument is no longer practical (e.g. for me, a biggie was Steinberg Virtual Guitarist and the Electric Edition of that). Again, making sure you’re using BWF format for the audio can help to make sure the timestamps are there.
I tend to import everything I can get on the audio front, and do as much detective work as I can as to what might be important to know from the SONAR side, segregating any audio versions of instrument tracks into a separate Cubase folder that I’ll use initially for playing back the project in Cubase, but disabling tracks as I recreate virtual instrument tracks in Cubase or duplicate an audio track that as a starting point for a Cubase remix track. In the latter case, I’m usually looking for the version of an audio part that is as unprocessed as is available so I can start from scratch on the Cubase side, but something like a track frozen with effects may be better than nothing.
One last note: I’ve found cases were CbB hangs on trying to open a project, assumedly due to some ancient plugin compatibility issue. SONAR/CbB does allow opening files in safe mode by Shifting when you invoke the Open command, and that lets you choose whether to disable each plugin as prompted or all plugins. It can be tedious to do the former, but useful if you are pretty sure where the problem is likely to lie and you want to view more information from the plugins that still are live in the project. (I particularly like to view the instrument plugin information.) CbB also warns of any missing plugins and what tracks they’re on, and you can copy and paste that list to a text file if the information may be useful. (Sometimes you may have versions of the plugins other than the ones the old project used, for example.) The project will actually show the missing plugin slots, so you can even get the chain order (just not the settings) in those cases.
The bottom line for me has been that converting old SONAR projects to the degree I need for a remix, while not exactly automatic (I think it typically takes me anywhere from about 15-30 minutes to maybe a few hours to get what I need out of CbB then into Cubase to start the actual work, with the differences mainly relating to the state of project tracks, such as what was active versus archived at the point I left the project, and whether I need to bring back archived material – e.g. individual background vocals if only a rendered submix was active – for the remix), has allowed me to move projects to Cubase for remixing, and that is actually a lot more efficient for me these days than trying to go back into CbB to do it since I’ve been using Cubase steadily since V10.5 now (and it would be hard to live without Control Room).
Well, I just discovered NI’s MkIII series DOES offer MIDI 2.0. I’d be inclined to agree with you if I hadn’t just seen it. Also, I recently imported a MIDI 1.0 file into Sonar Plat from SO7 where I had a Marker trk, Arranger trk, Chord, Tempo trk. It DID carry the Marker trk. Now, I didn’t expect to see any of the other trks, however, seeing that Cubase 14 has all of those trks, I was just wondering if Cubase might push them over as well. Maybe the aliens 
that we’ve been seeing evidence of lately will have it?