Reference Guide

Synchronizing Your Gear
Your computer is often used with other equipment: sound cards, MIDI equipment, and digital tape
decks or other digital recording tools. All these devices can have their own built-in clocks or timing
mechanisms.
When several pieces of equipment are used together, it’s important that they operate in
synchronization. For this to happen, all the equipment must rely on the same source of clock or
timing information. SONAR lets you use many different types of synchronization so that you can get
your work done quickly and efficiently.
See:
Synchronization Overview
Choosing Clock Sources: SONAR as Master
MIDI Synchronization
SMPTE/MIDI Time Code Synchronization
MIDI Machine Control (MMC)
Synchronization Overview
SONAR supports several different types of synchronization, which rely on a variety of different clock
sources:
Clock source Timing is determined by
Internal The clock on the computer motherboard
Audio The clock on the computer’s sound card
MIDI Sync The clock on an external MIDI device
SMPTE/MIDI Time Code (MTC) A time code signal (in SMPTE or some other format) recorded on some
external medium or generated and sent by SONAR
Table 168.