Reference Guide

1129

Creating instrument definitions

Instrument definitions

Assigning patch names

A MIDI instrument can have up to 16,384 banks of 128 patches each. Patches can have names, like

“Piano” for patch number 0, “Bass” for patch number 1, and so on. Normally, each bank contains a

different set of patches, so each bank needs a separate patch name list. Most synthesizers start with

a patch number of 0.

You can assign a patch name list to each bank. You can also assign a default patch name list to the

instrument, which is used for all banks for which you haven’t assigned a specific list. The previous

section describes how to compute the bank numbers to which each patch name list is assigned.

Each bank can also be assigned a special Drum flag, which indicates that all patches in that bank

contain drum sounds. If you set this flag, the Piano Roll view will display drum notes as diamonds,

and the Staff view will use percussion notation.

To see the assignment of patch name lists to banks

1. Expand the instrument definition by clicking the + sign next to the instrument name.

2. Expand the Patch Names for Banks folder by clicking the + sign. The list expands to show the

bank numbers and the patch name list that is assigned to each bank.

A. There are three defined banks B. Instrument name C. The * indicates that this patch list is the default

D. This is the name of a patch name list

To add a bank or change the patch names for a bank

1. Drag a patch name list from the Names tree to the Patch Names for Banks folder of the

instrument you’re editing in the Instrument tree.

2. Enter a bank number, or enter -1 to indicate that this list of patch names should be used as the

default.

SONAR displays the updated banks and patch name lists. If necessary, SONAR adds a new bank to

the instrument definition.