588
What Is System Exclusive?
System Exclusive data is MIDI’s way of letting each synthesizer manufacturer
transmit private data about its products. A System Exclusive message has a
manufacturer ID; the rest of the message is completely proprietary and varies for
each manufacturer, even for each of its products. SONAR does not understand
what this data means; it simply can hold onto it for you. You can take snapshots of
your equipment’s configuration and store them in SONAR’s System Exclusive
banks for transmitting back to the equipment. You may want to do this simply to
back up your equipment’s patches and/or settings, much like backing up your
computer’s hard drive in case something goes wrong. Or you may configure your
equipment differently for each project’s requirements, which is why storing
System Exclusive banks with each SONAR project file can be useful. Of course, for
merely backing up your equipment, you can have a project containing only System
Exclusive data and no notes.
Sysx Events
SONAR provides two distinct kinds of Sysx events: Sysx Bank and Sysx Data.
• Sysx Bank: You can use Sysx Bank events to transmit one of the project’s
8192 banks of System Exclusive data. These banks can be recorded, viewed,
and edited in the Sysx view, and each bank can contain one or more very large
System Exclusive messages. Sysx Banks may also be marked Auto, so that
they are sent when the file is loaded rather than during the start of playback.
• Sysx Data: You can also use Sysx Data events, which can each contain a
single System Exclusive message up to 255 bytes long. You can view the
message bytes in the Event List view.
Sysx Data events can be recorded in real time. See “Real-time Recording of System
Exclusive Messages” on page 596 for more information.
Using the System Exclusive View
The System Exclusive view has a list box for a maximum of 256 Sysx banks, plus a
toolbar of buttons. Most of the buttons affect whatever bank you have selected in
the list. Certain buttons will be disabled if the selected bank is empty. To open the
System Exclusive view, choose the Sysx command from the View menu, or click
the Sysx view icon in the Views toolbar.
SONAR stores Sysx messages as either Sysx banks or Sysx data. The main
difference is in the number of bytes in the message, and also that Sysx data is only
visible in the Event List view as SysxData events. A Sysx data message can have
up to 255 bytes in it. You can send Sysx data to an instrument without
interrupting playback (depending on the speed of your computer and the number
To Next Page
Loading...