I am using BiaB 2014 build 83 on a macbook pro running macos 10.12.2
I am unable to set the melody patch to anything but piano. Well, I can set it to something else, but the only sound I get is a piano sound.
Here are the events in the melody track: (I had to type them in because no way to copy and paste that I could find).
0:1:000 Patch Change 57 Trumpet Ch 1 0:1:001 Note A5 (69) Vel = 87 Dur = 122 Ch 1 0:2:003 Note A5 (69) Vel = 87 Dur = 122 Ch 1 0:3:002 Patch Change 57 Trumpet Ch 1 0:3:002 Note A5 (69) Vel = 87 Dur = 122 Ch 1 ... continues without any more patch changes
In the upper right subwindow (where it has Mixer, Piano and Patches tabs) I have set the melody patch to Trumpet. The Patch is displayed as: " Instrumet: Trumpet. and it continues to say Instrument: Trumpet while the song is playing.
The style is Joplin.Sty. I have not edited this style. It is the standard style that comes with BiaB.
I have verified using other music programs that my computer is capable of generating a trumpet (or any other sound).
I have tried to reset the sound canvas. i.e. GS->Reset Sound Canvas to Factory...
I have made sure that General MIDI mode is on. I.e. Gs->Send General MIDI Mode on.
I'm sure there is some simple, stupid setting that I need to change, but I don't know what else to try.
1) I have an MGU file that includes a trumpet as the melody instrument. This file, when loaded into my old computer running BiaB v12 bld 21 on a macbook running OS 10.6, works just fine. I.e. I get a trumpet for the melody. the other instruments (i.e. the BB generated backup) also play the correct instrument.
However, when I load this file into BiaB 2014, I get a piano sound no matter what.
Note, this file was generated a long time ago, in that old version of BiaB.
2) I'm not sure that my BiaB 2014 ever worked properly. I don't use most of the really cool features of BiaB. Mostly I just generate a simple back up track so I can practice fiddle tunes on my concertina. I find it's much more realistic than using a metronome because I can hear the chord changes.
So I rarely mess with a melody track. A simple oom-pah from the Joplin style (and sometimes a jig style) are all I need.
Because of that, this is the first time I can remember when I needed anything other than a piano sound. So if this NEVER worked in BiaB 2014 on this computer, I wouldn't know it.
3) The buttons on BiaB are really slow. It takes 2 full seconds between clicking on any button and an action from BiaB. For example, if I try to change the tempo by clicking the up or down arrow next to the tempo, the tempo doesn't update until a full 2 seconds have passed.
4) I have noticed that BiaB sounds a little out of tune with the concertina. Not a lot, but enough to be annoying at times. I have been ignoring it. But today I decided to try and see if the concertina or BiaB was the problem.
Using a strobe tuner I measured a single note (I muted all tracks except the melody which played a single, repeated note). and, amazingly, the note is about 15 cents sharp!!!!
Yet, using a separate notation program, the computer plays that same note exactly in concert tuning.
------------------
I am totally frustrated at this point. I know there must be something simple going on, but I can't figure it out.
Until one of you folks has a suggestion, I will do my work on that old V12 version of BiaB.
ALL the instruments (except the drum track) are piano. Using that previously mentioned MGU file and muting all tracks except one at a time:
The bass track is supposed to be an acoustic bass -- sounds like piano The guitar track is supposed to be acoustic guitar -- sounds like piano The violin track is supposed to be violin -- sounds like piano.
All of these tracks are displayed with the correct instrument (up in that sub-window in the upper right corner).
Of course they all sound correctly using v12 on my old mac.
Presto!! the four files are regenerated and every problem goes away.
1) trumpet sounds correctly 2) no more annoying 2 second wait between click and action 3) correct pitch!!
I chose those 4 files because they were the binary files in Preferences (I could look at the other files and see that there was no problem. AND -- this is very important -- I have a lot of respect for the people coding BB, so I was pretty sure the program would regenerate these files to the default.
So from my point of view, this is solved (though how they files got that way is a mystery).
w: I will try to PM you the four original Preference files.
Presto!! the four files are regenerated and every problem goes away.
1) trumpet sounds correctly 2) no more annoying 2 second wait between click and action 3) correct pitch!!
I chose those 4 files because they were the binary files in Preferences (I could look at the other files and see that there was no problem. AND -- this is very important -- I have a lot of respect for the people coding BB, so I was pretty sure the program would regenerate these files to the default.
So from my point of view, this is solved (though how they files got that way is a mystery).
w: I will try to PM you the four original Preference files.
David,
I have taken another look at your problem and am attaching some screen shots of working thru your problem and was able to get the trumpet melody track.
What i find odd is how you ended up with a " windows " preference within macOS Sierra ( 10.12.2 OS ).
Terminal seems much easier to me than using Finder to change file names. I'm an old UNIX guru, so I just wrote a little script to change the 4 names. took a couple of seconds and had a lot fewer keystrokes and mouse clicks than using finder. Really, just changing the file names to give BB a chance to recreate them.
and, YES, the problem seems permanently fixed. I have entered and exited BB several times and it is working fine now.
not sure what you mean by the windows preference. I don't see where it is in the screen shots.
The problem actually occurred first on mac os 10.9.5. I still have that computer and it's still set up with 10.9.5 and BiaB.
How I got there is this:
1) I had been happily using a 2010 version of BB on OS 10.6, but I had to upgrade to 10.9 in order to use some new software. Of course, power PC apps aren't supported anymore, so I had to upgrade BB, which I did.
2) As I said earlier, I don't use very much of the capability of BB, so I never noticed if I could change the melody patch.
3) recently I upgraded to 10.12. I backed up my disk, as is, to an old mac mini. I don't use it, but it's there as a backup and I won't migrate it to 10.12 until I've had at least 12 months with the new OS. Today I fired it up and sure enough it had the same problem with the melody patch.
So this problem has been around since I upgraded from BB 2010(??) to 2014.
as to where the "windows" setting came from, I have no idea.
well, this is weird. It started doing it again. THe inability to set the melody patch. Just minutes after I posted that all was OK.
once again I moved the preferences files and once again it seems fixed.
I've entered and exited BB a few times and played different song files and all seems OK, again, at least for now.
I suspect that one of my .SGU or MGU files is corrupted in some way?!?!?!? I'm going to go thru them one by one and if one of them causes it, I will send you the file so you can look at it.
Seems that you will have to move the preferences files every time you work on a new file which is a huge pain in the **** not to mention the time/frustration.
Is it just : THe inability to set the melody patch ?
And yes, send me the BB file so that I can launch it in BinaBox to determine why you are having that problem.
OK, it's been 3 days and I can't make the problem re-occur no matter what I do, so I'll declare this fixed. Don't know what caused it to reoccur the other day, maybe I was just hallucinating.
so the fix was: delete these four files from the BiaB Preferences folder(directory), and BiaB will regenerate them and magically the problem goes away:
I just saw your question about the X_86 file. (the way the forum organizes the posts is hard for me to follow, but I suppose I'll get used to it).
No, this is a MAC version of BiaB. And when I delete the preferences file, BiaB regenerates it, so it is coming from BiaB, not me. Remember this is the 2014 version of BiaB, maybe the file names are different from the latest version.
I tried to download the zippyshare file, but the zippyshare site tells me my flash player is out of date and tries to download a new version from an unknown (to me) site (i.e. not adobe).
My flash is up to date (updated it today), so I'm not doing that.
but anyway, I appreciate your efforts on this.
BTW I've looked for a way to mark this thread solved, but can't find it. If you know how to do it....
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