Using Instrument
Definitions
Instrument definitions are a powerful feature of SONAR™ that makes it easier for
you to find the banks, patches, and controllers of your MIDI instruments. An
instrument definition is a file that contains the names of the banks, patches, note
names, bank select method, and controllers of an instrument. Instrument
definitions for many popular MIDI instruments are included with SONAR or are
available on the Cakewalk web site (www.cakewalk.com). If an instrument
definition is not available for your instrument, and you are familiar with MIDI and
how it works, you can use SONAR to create your own instrument definition.
Most MIDI instruments available today are General MIDI (GM) compatible, which
means that they come with the standard set of sounds or patches defined by the
GM standard. SONAR initially assumes that your MIDI instruments are GM
compatible. The names of patches and controllers that you initially see displayed
throughout SONAR are drawn from the GM specification.
At the same time, many MIDI instruments provide additional sounds and
controllers beyond those required by the GM standard. In addition, some older
MIDI instruments are not GM compatible. If you are using one of these
instruments with SONAR, you can use instrument definitions to make sure that
the names of banks, patches, and controllers that you see in SONAR are the same
ones you see on the display screens of your MIDI keyboards and modules.
In This Chapter
Assigning Instruments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570
Importing Instrument Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572
Creating Instrument Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573
Instrument Definition Tutorial. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582
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