Hello, here is my problem:
i'm running two instances of Biab in order to avoid the silence between a song and the following one. For each song i've selected an Hi-Q patch in Thru channel for playing along by an usb keyboard. On first song (instance 1) thru channel works properly with the assigned sound. On second song (instance 2 of biab) thru channel keeps playing the sound of instance 1 and there is no way to get it playing the sound assigned for this song.
Is there a way to solve this?

I can't think of what would cause that. To simplify the problem a little, could you try the same thing with a track other than the Thru track? e.g. in each instance of BB, select the same STY, then select a Hi-Q instrument for the Piano track (select an organ in one instance of BB, and a bass in the other so the difference is clear).

Perhaps you could give us more details about your MIDI and audio driver settings as well.

Hi Andrew, thanks for replying.
I've made that test on a different track and it works. Not yet on the thru track.
Midi-audio setup is:

midi input: irig keys (i did try with another keyboard also, without fortune)

midi output: microsoft midi mapper

audio drivers are set on Behringer usb audio.

What other info do you need?

Are you using ASIO or MME drivers (audio settings window)?

When you play on the Thru track, are you sure that you are in fact hearing the Hi-Q sounds? i.e. the sounds played by the SampleTank DXi synth.

Thru playback can be routed differently depending on whether the song is playing/stopped, and whether using MME/ASIO drivers. There are also two settings that affect this: "ASIO always on" (audio drivers dialog) and 'Route MIDI Thru to MIDI driver" (MIDI Driver Setup dialog)

In any case, to verify if you are hearing SampleTank and not some other MIDI device, you can:
1. Click the Plugins button --> DXi Synth Settings.
2. Choose the Thru track. Provided you have a Hi-Q instrument selected on the Thru track, you should see the SampleTank synth appear.
3. Play some notes by clicking on the Thru piano in Band-in-a-Box, or by playing your keyboard. If you see no activity in SampleTank, then you are not hearing Hi-Q instruments...

> Are you using ASIO or MME drivers (audio settings window)?

ASIO

> When you play on the Thru track, are you sure that you are in fact hearing the Hi-Q sounds? i.e. the sounds played by the SampleTank DXi synth.

Yes, i'm sure of that.

> Thru playback can be routed differently depending on whether the song is playing/stopped, and whether using MME/ASIO drivers. There are also two settings that affect this: "ASIO always on" (audio drivers dialog) and 'Route MIDI Thru to MIDI driver" (MIDI Driver Setup dialog)

I've tried to check and uncheck both, without fortune.

So this is not a general issue? It happens on my system only?

Anyway thanks again for your support!

Well, in my testing with MME drivers, it works 'as expected'. I play the keyboard in a particular instance of BB, and it plays through the instance of the SampleTank DXi synth that is loaded on the thru track of that instance of BB. I couldn't test with ASIO, because I'm not able to use ASIO in multiple programs.

It's unlikely that it happens only on your specific system. More likely it's just a combination of settings and the way you are doing it. For testing purposes, try MME and see if your results are the same.

Also, you could simplify this problem further by seeing if the same thing happens on the Thru track for a regular patch. (i.e. not Hi-Q)

> For testing purposes, try MME and see if your results are the same.

I've unplugged the behringer usb audio device for this test, since it works with Asio drivers only, and used the headphone output of my laptop. Set audio drivers on MME:

- With vst/dxi synth activated, first instance plays well, second instance doesn't play at all (thru channel)

- With vst/dxi synth off, and using regular midi sounds, again i got on second instance the same sound of first instance.

Will do further tests today and let you know.
Thanks for now

Try going to File -- Save song with patches and harmony, and see if "Save thru settings with songs" is checked. Could it be that simple? Hopefully...

I wish it did, but no happy news here.

What about if instead of playing your external MIDI keyboard, you play notes on the Thru virtual piano in Band-in-a-Box (Piano tab of the Mixer window)?

Yes, it works properly in this way. Should this mean it is a hardware problem?

I suppose it is because your MIDI input driver is still connected to the first instance of BB. Before starting your second song, try going to Opt. | MIDI Driver Setup and press OK...

Another tip if you want to see what is going on, is to use the MIDI Monitor (under the MIDI button in the top toolbar). Filter it to only show channel 5 (which is the thru channel by default). Also filter Events to only show Note on, Note off, Program Change, and Control Change. Then filter Controls to only show #0 and #32. The result of this is to only show notes and patch changes on the Thru channel.

It doesn't work, but i've tried to unplug and plug again the usb cable of midi keyboard before playing the second song, and it get thru channel playing the right sound. Might this be a little help in understanding?

Yes, that makes sense and I should of realized what was happening earlier. So you do need to release the driver from the first BB instance, and unplugging is one way to do that.

There is another way I thought of, but you need to route different MIDI channels to each BB, and you need to change the channel your keyboard is using between songs. There are a variety of free MIDI utilities out there. I haven't done a thorough check for what the most current utilities are, but one that's been around a long time is MIDI Ox. This program allows you to select your USB keyboard for MIDI input, and then route specific channels to specific MIDI outputs. You'll also need to install a 'virtual MIDI cable' which allows you to connect two applications together and pipe MIDI data between them. MIDI Yoke was typically used for this purpose.

I did try this out and it worked for me. The programs are a little old though, and I'm not sure if they work on 64-bit - so your mileage may vary. I used MIDI Yoke 1 for the first BB, and MIDI Yoke 2 for the second BB. I routed all channels except channel 9 to BB1, and all channels except 5 to BB2. Then all I needed to do was select either channel 9 or 5 on my keyboard to determine which BB I was playing through.