Reference Guide

1149
Options > Audio
Menu Reference
SONAR lets you assign a MIDI instrument definition to each available MIDI port and channel. The
assignments you make determine the MIDI bank names, patch names, note names, and controller
names that you see during your SONAR session.
Suppose that you have a Roland GS compatible synthesizer attached to MIDI port 1. By assigning
all 16 channels of MIDI port 1 to the Roland GS instrument definition, you ensure that the bank,
patch, note and controller name lists you see displayed in SONAR are the ones that match your
synthesizer.
Often, you want to assign a different instrument to channel 10, which is usually used for percussion.
For example, you might assign the Roland GS instrument definition to channels 1 through 9 and 11
through 16, but you would most likely want to assign the Roland GS Drumsets instrument definition
to channel 10. If you have several MIDI ports, with a different instrument attached to each one, you
would normally assign a different instrument to each MIDI port.
For convenience, you can assign a block of channels to one instrument, and then change the
assignment of one or more of those channels without changing the others. For example, you can
highlight all 16 channels of the first MIDI port and assign them to the Roland GS instrument
definition. Then, you can highlight channel 10 of the first MIDI port and assign it to the Roland GS
Drumset instrument definition. Channels 1 through 9 and 11 through 16 on the first MIDI port will
stay assigned to Roland GS.
You might also want to split channels to different instruments if you have several instruments
attached to a single MIDI port. For example, you might have a Roland synth receiving on MIDI
channels 1-9, a Roland drum machine receiving on channel 10, and a basic GM-compatible synth
receiving on channels 11 through 16. In this case, you'd use three different instrument definitions for
your one and only MIDI port.
Assign Instruments dialog
Options > Audio
The Options > Audio command opens the Audio Options dialog box (see below), which contains
all the necessary controls to completely configure your audio setup. SONAR configures all of these
options automatically, but allows you to customize them to a great degree.
For more information about configuring your audio system, see System Configuration.
For more information about the various tabs or pages in the Audio Options dialog box, see:
Audio Options dialog—General
Audio Options dialog—Advanced
Audio Options dialog—Drivers
Audio Options dialog—Driver Profiles