Instruction Manual

975
MIDI Files
• The MIDI file is a GM-compatible Standard MIDI Format 1
• All patches, banks and/or controllers are stored in one track
• All related note events are stored in a different track
When SONAR loads such a file, it may try to optimize the program changes,
causing incorrect selection of synthesizer voices during playback (the GM,
GS, and XG specifications all recommend the use of Standard MIDI Format
0 for distribution of music data, which would make this problem irrelevant). If
you encounter this problem, simply re-select your instruments and re-save
the file.
If You Plan to Publish Your Songs
If you plan to publish your own songs, we encourage you to follow the
General MIDI authoring guidelines. These guidelines are quite detailed
about the exact layout of many types of song data, and a complete
discussion of them can be found on the World Wide Web at www.midi.org.
However, SONAR can help you to conform with the GM guidelines if you
follow these practices:
• Always save your master copy of any work in progress in SONAR
project (.
CWP) file format. When you are ready to publish your work, use
the File-Save As command to create a Standard MIDI Format 0 file.
• All of the major publishing guidelines recommend that you use
Standard MIDI File Format 0 instead of Format 1. Some sequencers
cannot read the more complex Format 1 files, particularly sequencers
embedded in some types of hardware such as karaoke players.
• Load the “Turn GM System On” system exclusive bank (
gmsystem.syx in
your Cakewalk directory) in the Sysx view, and set the bank to Auto
Send. This message will not only re-initialize a General MIDI compatible
sound module to a known state, but will also tell SONAR to generate
GM setup measures for your program changes when you save the
project in Standard MIDI Format. See Variables in the [Options] Section
for information on disabling setup measure.
• For best results, you should always place program changes and other
MIDI messages in the same tracks as the notes they affect. This keeps
the data for each track together as a single unit, and avoids problems
that might occur when SONAR cannot easily correlate the program
changes with the note events.