Reference Guide

1669

Preferences dialog

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.

Save Changes for Next Session

Click this check box if you want to reuse any new combinations you made the next time you open

SONAR.

Define button

Clicking this button opens the Define Instruments and Names dialog box, which allows you to

define your own MIDI instruments, if they are not MIDI standard.

For step by step instructions, see:

“To assign instrument definitions to MIDI outputs and channels” on page 1119

“To clear instrument assignments” on page 1120

“To create a new instrument” on page 1124