Reference Guide

810
System Exclusive Data
Importing, Creating, and Dumping Sysx Banks
When your instrument starts sending the bank, the Sysx Receive window counts the bytes as
SONAR receives them. If the count stays at zero for more than a couple of seconds, something is
wrong. The synthesizer may not be hooked up to the MIDI interface in both directions, or you may
have answered a DRM prompt incorrectly. Click Cancel. If any data were received, you will see
the number of bytes in the bank list.
6. Once the bytes received count stops increasing, you can click Done to tell SONAR to stop
receiving. However, if your synthesizer also displays a message when the instrument is finished
sending a bank, wait until that message says the transmission is finished before you click Done.
The currently selected bank now holds the received Sysx data. At this point, you may want to give
the bank a descriptive name by selecting it and clicking .
See also:
Editing Sysx Banks
Sysx View Buttons
More about Dump Request Macros
DRMs are defined in your DRM.ini file in the [Dump Request Macros] section. You may add
your own DRMs or modify the ones that we have provided. Use the Windows Notepad to edit the file.
Comments in the DRM.ini file itself describe how to write DRMs. The specific Sysx messages can
be found in the instrument manual, or they can be obtained by contacting the manufacturer.
Remember that a DRM must start with F0 and end with F7.
Sometimes you will find that the byte size is different when you use a DRM, as opposed to initiating
the dump from the instrument. It is possible the instrument is dumping some additional information
when you initiate the dump from the instrument, but you should be able to use either method without
any problems.
When you press the Receive button in the Sysx window, you may pick from a list of Dump Request
Macros. These are short System Exclusive messages sent to a synthesizer to make it dump (send
back) System Exclusive data. DRMs are defined in your Cakewalk.ini file in the [Dump
Note: The SONAR librarian may not support synthesizers that require handshaking dump
protocols. Some of these synthesizers have a backup protocol where they will do a normal dump
if they don’t get a handshake. Others do not.