Reference Guide

Setup

Introduction

If you have a dedicated MIDI interface, lots of electronic music gear, or work with many different

music software packages, see the online help topic “Hardware Setup.”

Before you attach or detach any cables from your computer, you should shut down your computer

and turn off the power to all your equipment. This greatly reduces the chance of electrical damage to

your equipment while plugging and unplugging cables.

User accounts

Previous versions of SONAR required a user to have Windows Administrator status. This is no

longer the case. Any level of user can now install and run SONAR. Only one copy of SONAR per

machine is necessary for multiple users to run SONAR with each user’s personal settings.

When you first install SONAR, all application data files and .ini files are installed to the system-

specified “all users” application data folders:

Windows XP:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Cakewalk

Windows Vista:

C:\ProgramData\Cakewalk

When you launch SONAR for the first time, all content files (such as track templates and project

templates) will be copied from the global application data folder (All Users) to the user application

data folder (User Account), before the program launches.

If you install a SONAR patch on top of the original installation, any updated content files in the patch

will not overwrite existing content files in your personal user application data folder. However, you

can force SONAR to update the default content files in your personal user data folder.

To force SONAR to update and overwrite any default content files, hold down the CTRL key while

starting SONAR.

Data in the Program Files folder will be common to all users.

Next topic: Audio connections

Audio connections

There are several types of audio interfaces (soundcards). CardBus (PCI), USB/USB2 and FireWire

are the most common. Laptops can use an audio PCMCIA card. Many audio interfaces also have

MIDI inputs and some have built in MIDI synthesizers as well. This section covers the various audio

connection options.

Warning: The following action will overwrite any SONAR data files such as track templates

and project templates that you may have customized. A message box will prompt you if you wish

to continue or cancel. Only proceed if you are certain that you will not overwrite any important

customized files.