Instrument definitions (and help) missing

[OPunWide]

Today I installed and launched Sonar. It froze. I waited for the "not responding" popup, and clicked "wait..." to give it a second chance. Nope, so I selected close when it came up again.

I relaunched and it opened. I did the basic setup and made sure it was functional. I copied an older very simple project to a new location and opened it.

Good news: the right noises seemed to be coming out from an external synth.

Bad news: all (most?) of the instrument definition information seems to be missing.

So I clicked Help/Documentation. It took me to the legacy site, where I can get some support for Sonar Platinum.

I remembered that the definitions are in Preferences, so went there. It looked like default midi instrument information (I assume, because it's not mine). So I clicked on Help and it was back to the Legacy site.

Any idea how to get the old ins information into the new product?

Any idea if there is actual help for this product?

[Promidi]

Which external synth?

If you already have the right ins file, then it's Preferences - MIDI - Instruments > Define > Import 

If you already have instrument definitions defined in Platinum, then it's Preferences - MIDI - Instruments > Define > Then right click on an item in the left column, then export. Then you have the ins files to import into Sonar (see previous)

If you do not have any ins files then you will have to google for them (if they exist)

Edited Monday at 10:33 PM by Promidi

[OPunWide]

I guess I thought they were telling the truth that our projects would just work when we switched to Sonar. 🤣

I dug up my old ins files and combined them into a single file, and the import was fine. 

Warning to others: all the midi routing information will be gone. (example: I use channel 7 for my  D-50 in projects where I use it). Once the ins imports are done, do that routing in preferences / MIDI to be able to see the project patch names, etc.

While any Help button in my Sonar goes to a search in the legacy section of cakewal.com, documents do exist:

https://bandlab.github.io/cakewalk/docs/Cakewalk Sonar Reference Guide.pdf

[User 905133]

3 hours ago, OPunWide said:

Warning to others: all the midi routing information will be gone. (example: I use channel 7 for my  D-50 in projects where I use it). Once the ins imports are done, do that routing in preferences / MIDI to be able to see the project patch names, etc.

Is it safe to assume by "all the midi routing information will be gone," you are not talking about the routings that had been saved with your old project files but rather the per channel instrument definition assignments?

If so, I'd be interest to know (1) where those assignments were stored and (2a) if there's a way we can pull them off of older PCs so be can (2b) port them over to a current PC. **

**Nevermind. I looked at an old INSTRMAP file from when I had gear set up with various instrument maps for the several bank-switched preset configurations I used, and it says,

Quote

; Cakewalk Instrument Assignments.
; We recommend that you do not edit this file by hand.

 Looking at the file, I can see that making changes might be inadvisable.  What follows are a sampling of the channel 1 entries for my assignments.  After taking a look, I'd say it would take considerable time (and space) to set up all the gear just to try to match the INSTRMAP. 😛  

Quote

; Cakewalk Instrument Assignments.
; We recommend that you do not edit this file by hand.
0=E-MU Proteus 2500 . . .

256=VZ-8m #3 + PST2 Op-Mem . . .

768=VZ-8m 2004 # 1 + PST1 Op-Mem . . .

1024=E-Mu Proteus 1 . . .

1536=VZ-8m #3 + PST2 Op-Mem . . .

1792=Roland M-GS64 . . .

2560=E-Mu Proteus/1 # 2 - RAM 2 . . .

3072=E5000 Flash RAM . . .

3328=Roland CM-32P+Sax/TBone . . .

3584=Roland U-220 # 2 Timbres . . .

4608=VZ-8m 2004 # 1 + PST1 Op-Mem . . .

 

3 hours ago, OPunWide said:

I dug up my old ins files and combined them into a single file, and the import was fine. 

To me, this ^^^ is the best thing to do.  In fact, you jogged my memory.  I seem to remember back in the day creating my own Master.ins file that only had the preset / bank variations for my own gear, including visual spaces to better find what I was looking for and notes [as comments]. 

Quote

; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
.Patch Names

; ===========================================================================
;               PATCH NAMES:     E-Mu
;            --->    P2500 RAM: Electronica in User Bank 0
; ===========================================================================

; ------------------- E-MU P2k: Composer: Bank ROM --------------------------

[E-MU P2k: Electronica: Bank 0 (0)]
0=000^0: rwt:EtherVox
1=001^0: rwt:Movie Magic2
2=002^0: rwt:OBX Brass
3=003^0: rwt:VoxWerks

 

Thanks for bring this issue up thereby jogging my memory.  I have been thinking about setting up some ancient gear.

Edited 4 hours ago by User 905133
(2) added a snipped from a 2004 instrument definition file compilation; (1) struck out a paragraph and added new info re instrmap files

[OPunWide]

1 hour ago, User 905133 said:

To me, this ^^^ is the best thing to do. 

To clarify, the single .ins file I created just had my own instruments, then I imported it. The advantage is that it will be available to import again when something breaks and they suggest reinstalling Sonar.

The midi routing I did was only in the Preferences area. I haven't made it to any projects yet other than a test one that I copied. 

Now that you mentioned it, I probably don't have any project routings because I've been using the same old hardware for decades. I want the old projects to work with a minimum of hassles, so I try to not change anything that doesn't need to be changed. One of those items just died, so I might have to learn if per-project routing is even possible.

[User 905133]

6 minutes ago, OPunWide said:

To clarify, the single .ins file I created just had my own instruments, then I imported it. . . . 

Thanks for the clarification.  It makes sense to me.