Reference Guide

1572
Preferences dialog
The Instruments section lets you choose one or more output/channel configurations and assign an
instrument to it or them.
SONAR lets you assign a MIDI instrument definition to each available MIDI output 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 output 1. By assigning
all 16 channels of MIDI output 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 outputs, with a different instrument attached to each one,
you would normally assign a different instrument to each MIDI output.
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 output and assign them to the Roland GS instrument
definition. Then, you can highlight channel 10 of the first MIDI output and assign it to the Roland GS
Drumset instrument definition. Channels 1 through 9 and 11 through 16 on the first MIDI output 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 output. 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 output.
The Instruments section contains the following settings:
Output/Channel
This field lists all your MIDI outputs and all the channels for each output. Highlight the output/channel
combination you want to assign an instrument definition to. You can select several output/channel
combinations at the same time (for example, all 16 channels of a output) by CTRL-clicking or SHIFT-
clicking.
Uses Instrument
This field lists all the instrument definitions that are currently stored by SONAR. Selecting one binds
it to any output/channel combinations that are selected in the Output/Channel field.