CAKEWALK Cakewalk SONAR, User Manual

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What Is System Exclusive?
System Exclusive data is MIDI’s way of letting each synthesizer manufacturer transmit private data
about its products. A System Exclusive message has a manufacturer ID; the rest of the message is
completely proprietary and varies for each manufacturer, even for each of its products. SONAR does not
understand what this data means; it simply can hold onto it for you. You can take snapshots of your
equipment’s configuration and store them in SONAR’s System Exclusive banks for transmitting back to
the equipment. You may want to do this simply to back up your equipment’s patches and/or settings,
much like backing up your computer’s hard drive in case something goes wrong. Or you may configure
your equipment differently for each project’s requirements, which is why storing System Exclusive
banks with each SONAR project file can be useful. Of course, for merely backing up your equipment,
you can have a project containing only System Exclusive data and no notes.
Sysx Events
SONAR provides two distinct kinds of Sysx events: Sysx Bank and Sysx Data .
• Sysx Bank: You can use Sysx Bank events to transmit one of the project’s 8192 banks of System
Exclusive data. These banks can be recorded, viewed, and edited in the Sysx view, and each bank
can contain one or more very large System Exclusive messages. Sysx Banks may also be marked
Auto, so that they are sent when the file is loaded rather than during the start of playback.
• Sysx Data: You can also use Sysx Data events, which can each contain a single System Exclusive
message up to 255 bytes long. You can view the message bytes in the Event List view.
Sysx Data events can be recorded in real time. See “Real-time Recording of System Exclusive Messages”
on page 524 for more information.
Using the System Exclusive View
The System Exclusive view has a list box for a maximum of 256 Sysx banks, plus a toolbar of buttons.
Most of the buttons affect whatever bank you have selected in the list. Certain buttons will be disabled
if the selected bank is empty. To open the System Exclusive view, choose the
Sysx command from the
View menu, or click the Sysx view icon in the Views toolbar.
SONAR stores Sysx messages as either Sysx banks or Sysx data. The main difference is in the number
of bytes in the message, and also that Sysx data is only visible in the Event List view as SysxData
events. A Sysx data message can have up to 255 bytes in it. You can send Sysx data to an instrument
without interrupting playback (depending on the speed of your computer and the number of bytes in the
message), however, sending a Sysx bank stops playback until all of the Sysx bank is transmitted. Sysx
banks are usually sent to your instrument when you load your work file. SONAR asks you each time
you load a project file if you want to send any existing Sysx banks the file contains that are marked for
auto-sending. Clicking the Auto Send Bank button
in the Sysx view toolbar marks or unmarks a
selected bank for auto-sending.
Sending Sysx Banks at Startup
You can tell SONAR to send certain Sysx banks to your instrument(s) each time you open the project
file that the banks are in.
To Send Sysx Banks at Startup
1. In the Sysx view, select a bank that you want to send to an instrument when you open the current
project.
SONAR highlights the bank you select.