Saving .ins

Torpid-x

Torpid-x

Member
Hi, I was wondering how to save...or make .ins files, I've been making allot of soundfonts where each key in piano roll view needs its own name, I've made some of them up but can't find any way to save them or back them up, I'd hate to have to do this EVER AGAIN, do I need a separate program to make these files or can I make them with cakewalk?

Thanks
TX
 
Thanks for the reply AlChuck,

I've already learned how to create the instrument definitions, what there is no documentation on is a way to export them or create an importable .ins file, the ones that have the icon that looks like a pointer arrow blowing up the world.

Yes, you can name each individual key, but it's very repetitive, time consuming, and boring. and after all the work is done, there is no obvious way to make them portable, before I do any more, I'd like to know if I need a separate program to save them.

TX
 
Well, TX, I just created an ASCII file with nothing in it, saved it with the extension ins, and there it is in the SONAR directory with an "icon that looks like a pointer arrow blowing up the world."

It's just a text file -- there's nothing magic about it that makes it "importable" except that it has this extension. It may have to live in a special directory, and of course it has to be correct or it won't work properly...
 
I am pretty interested in this topic because I create a lot of my own drumkits and have really been frustrated creating instrument defintions of them in Cake. In the past, I have created a simple text file, typed what looked like was in the ins files and it would not read it in Cake (9.0). I also tried opening an ins file, deleting part of the text that was there and typing the drumkit in....and had problems with it. So, if there is an easy way to type in data via a text file and save it as an ins.... I would love to know how to do it, so please keep us posted.
 
I see now thanks again AlChuck, I was hoping that there was a way to export from the CW enviroment or there was some kind of wizard or dialog box based program available.

rjt, this is going to take some serious reverse engineering, I'll try the same thing you did, see if I have any luck. I'll also see if I can get some documentation from CW tech support.

TX
 
There seems to be one more key step. From the SONAR help system:

"The file master.ins contains all the instrument definitions currently loaded into SONAR, and determines the list of instruments that appears in the Assign Instruments dialog box. "

Same goes for Cakewalk Pro Audio 9.

So just edit Master.ins too...

Hope that does the trick for you.
 
Yes, the master ini contains the currently loaded data, but if someone else evelops one for a synth you can import the instrument definitions. That is what I tried to do in the past, (I have also tried this from scratch). If you open up say the Roland instrument definitions that you can download from the cake site, it looks like a text file. I tried to cut it down so it was as big as one drumkit, then I typed in the drum names and tried to import the file.... it wasn't recognized as an ins def file. I certainly may have done soething wrong... and it was a year or two ago, so I may not remember the process correctly. I will try it again after I am done this project.
 
Okay, this is what I did before (although I experimented more with it) and I also did the same thing today as a test.

1. Copied an instrument definition file to a new one called test.ins (picked one, selected it, copied it, then pasted it to a folder... so it is a cake produced ins file, then renamed it test)

2. opened it with wordpad (it said it was too big for notepad)

3. the file was very large, so I copied the beginning part of the file (down to the first 0= ). That way it included some of the heading stuff

4. change the name in parenthesis to something like "test kit"

5. changed the name of a few patches and resaved

6. tried to import it in inst definitions and was told (rudely I thought!!!) by cake it was not an inst def file


So, because I am compulsive, I tried a few varieties, such as open a smaller inst def set and deleting only 4 of the 5 banks that were there (one bank of patch names was intact)... tried to rename 2 or 3 and resaved. When I opened it, there were no bank names saved at all.

I don't know much about this stuff, I wonder if there is some formatting convention that I am overlooking when I type in names like follow each name with five returns or something. I have tried very hard to leave the heading info and other stuff alone. When I import other files (like from lil chips) or make my own the old fashioned and slow way (like inside cake or hopefully sonar)... it works okay, but takes forever. If someone figures out how to edit these in a text editor, I'm there!!!

Good luck!
 
Are you sure that when you used WordPad to edit it, you saved it as an ASCII file and not a doc or other file type?
 
I found it

what you do is make your instrument definitions the regular way, Instruments - Define, make your definitions in the right plane, set them up in the left pane, where it says Soundfont Device in the left pane, right click, there's the magic export button. I can't believe I missed that.

thanks for all the help. at least I could see what I created in the Master.ins file.

TX
 
I have made instrument definitions "within" cake and they work, it is just a very slow process.

AlChuck, I'm not sure how I saved it. The first test today, I just changed a few phrases... like the first three patch names and it didn't recognize.... in the other test today, I did a bunch of erasing etc. The program is not asking me how I want to save it, I am just hitting the save floppy disk icon on the task bar, and the file is seen as an ins file by sonar when I am looking for an instrument file to import. If there is a different way to save them... heck I'll try it. My saving choices... in wordpad are rich text, word 6.0 text etc. which one saves it as an ASCII file?
 
this is a tiny example of a working file

; ----------------------------------------------------------------------

.Patch Names


[Drum machine] ----------- whatever your SF file is named
0=Drums 1 ----------------- your patch names
1=Drums 2 ----------------- don't type over here comments don't work
2=Etc
; ----------------------------------------------------------------------

.Note Names


[Drums 1] ---------- patch 0
0=Kick -------------- tags for sounds
1=snare
2=.....etc.

[Drums 2]
0=kick
1=snare
2=.......etc.

[Etc]
0=this shit
1=that shit

; ----------------------------------------------------------------------

.Instrument Definitions


[Sound Font Device] ---------- name of device
Patch[*]=0..127 --------------- the default style for keys,could be diatonic ,1..128,etc also
Key[*,0]=Drums 1
Key[*,1]=Drums 2
Key[*,2]=Etc


;;;;;;;;end of file;;;;;;;;; not in file!!!!

That's what I got after exporting a test file, then I edited it down to that and reimported it, it works.

There's one blank line on top of the page before the...
;------------------------------------------------------------

TX
 
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