Hi, another basic question here (I'm doubling down on my efforts to patch the many holes in my computer-music knowledge base):
Is there a way to use a cc event to change the midi channel for an instrument? I can't find that there is a dedicated cc event for this, but perhaps there is another way? Why would I want to do this? Well, my Kontakt Player, on which I have Cinematic Strings, isn't working right, and I can't use cc events to switch articulations. So, I thought, what if I loaded up a Kontakt Player with the articulations I need, each on a different channel, but all for the same instrument, say, violins. Then to switch from arco to pizz, I just change the channel in the event  list. I could have a different KP for the 5 string groups, loaded with the artic's. I need, but I need only one inst. in the track view. I could use just one violin track, changing channels as I need. Is this too crazy, or is there a better way?

I guess there are Kontakt specific solutions.
 
General solutions:
* "Channel Switch" from http://tencrazy.com/gadgets/mfx/
* My own "channel switcher" http://www.azslow.com/index.php/topic,286.0.html , download examples bundle
 
If you want more stability, use the first one. It is there for long time and so it is tested well.
If you need more flexibility, try my version. It is easy to modify (not leaving Sonar) but "alpha". "Channel Switch" is using CC values 0-16 and that is near impossible to use with a knob on surface. In my version you can specify the number of channels to switch between and use the whole range on input.
 
You can use both MFXes to apply the result, so CC is removed and the channel in notes is changed permanently.
 
I can write reverse processor to convert existing multichannel clips into "editable" form with CC changes. Let me know if you need that.

Changing the midi channel of the receiving synth would not have the desired effect, when you have configured the synth to play different patches or articulations for different channels. What you would want is to change the channel of the events as they are being sent to the synth. For that, you would have to edit the events. Or, have the TenCrazy.com or a special lua-mfx effect driven by controller events, as azslow3 is proposing. Those two seem like the best bet. Unfortunately there is no track event or automation that Sonar could recognize to be a track-midi channel switch.

If I understand your goal correctly, it won't work.   Sonar overrides midi event channel with a per-track channel.  
 
To test, set up two notes on one track.   Go to Event List, change the Channel Number of one of the events to a different channel.  Send to your Kontakt player.

Thanks for the replies, azslow, bvideo and William. It doan look too promising...maybe I'd be better going to the NI forum and figuring out why the key-switching isn't working right. The problem is, it will switch to a new patch and play that fine, but when I switch back to the original patch, there's no volume. Not only that, but the top half of all patches on Cinematic Strings will have no volume. The bottom ones will work fine...weird.

williamcopper
If I understand your goal correctly, it won't work.   Sonar overrides midi event channel with a per-track channel.  

Sonar does not override channel in case it is not asked to do this. TTS-1, ST3 and other will be unable to work as intended otherwise.
 

michael diemer
Thanks for the replies, azslow, bvideo and William. It doan look too promising...maybe I'd be better going to the NI forum and figuring out why the key-switching isn't working right. The problem is, it will switch to a new patch and play that fine, but when I switch back to the original patch, there's no volume. Not only that, but the top half of all patches on Cinematic Strings will have no volume. The bottom ones will work fine...weird.

It can be something wrong with NI. But it also can be something wrong with MFX processing in Sonar. To exclude MFX, create simple clip with just several notes on different channels (use Event List to change/check). With no MFX in the track and with no Channel/Patch/Bank set in the track inspector.