Reference Guide

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.
See:
Assigning Instruments
Importing Instrument Definitions
Creating Instrument Definitions
To Import Instrument Definitions
To Create a New Instrument
To Rename an Instrument
To Add a Bank or Change the Patch Names for a Bank
To Create and Edit Name Lists
Creating and Editing Patch Name and Other Lists
Copying Name Lists