Instrument Manager™ defines three Sound Objects that it categorizes, Banks, Instruments, and Samples. Since Instrument Manager™ deals with many formats, these are generic terms that apply to verious terminologies that the formats use.

	Banks Banks are files that reference Instruments, usually for the purpose of using them together and they are separated by MIDI Channel and/or Program Number. Equivalant terms: Performance, Multi, Folder, Group, Volume, SoundBank, Mix.
	Instruments An Instrument is a single unit like a Clairinet or a Flute or a Piano. Generally it's something "one person plays at one time". We consider a Drum Kit an Instrument, although it appears some forms as a Preformance/Bank. Equivalant terms: Program, Preset, Timbre.
	Samples One single- or multi-channel piece of audio data. Equivalant term: Sound.

There are some objects that appear in certain contexts that Instrument Manager™ doesn't pay attention to. Some of these are Akai Partitions, Ensoniq, Emu, and Kurzweil folders. Most of these are simple disk organizational devices that have no equivalent in Instrument Manager™'s organizational structure.

Each Sound Object is represented as an entry in a Database. Each entry has the following attributes: