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A General MIDI Patch will not load to a song. I'm using 2015 Build 414. When I select an instrument on the patch list (Select MIDI Patch>Select General MIDI Patch or Select GM2 Patch) and click OK, nothing happens; the track remains blank. Songs that I built with MIDI patches prior to upgrading to 2015 still play; I just can't add a new patch to an empty track in 2015.
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What have you selected as your GM source? What were you using before 2015?
"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."
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Sorry, I didn't make my question clear. What I meant was, what GM synth were you using in each case?
"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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MIDI Input Driver is <No MIDI/sound input>.
MIDI Output Driver is Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth. Synthesizer/Sound Card is General MIDI Instrument Misc. VSTi/DXi Synth is CoyoteWT. GM2 Support is General MIDI 2 (GM2) support. Audio Driver Type to MME. This is the same MIDI/Audio Drivers Setup I used in 2014.
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Looks good to me. 'Fraid I got nothing for you.
"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."
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Hi rpuff,
In addition to what Ryszard has said ...
I have BAIB version 2015 (414). What I did was as follows.
1. I opened a backing style that.
2. The Melody and Soloist tracks did not contain any data.
3. There was no patch assigned to these tracks because no midi data were present. Because of this, it was not possible to assign any sound.
4. I generated a midi solo on the Soloist track using the "S" button.
5. Now that the track contained data, it was possible to assign and to change patches.
Hope this helps,
Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Noel,
Thanks, that worked. Your solution is still a workaround to the problem. Before 2015 Build 414 I was always able to load a MIDI patch to an empty track as I described in my original post.
But, thanks to you, I at least have a way to get the result I want.
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Hmmm... if something changed, that might affect me since I routinely assign patches to empty MIDI tracks in order to control external MIDI devices.
But, even if it won't stick from the track's right click menu , you can insert patch changes in a MIDI track 2 other ways:
1) from piano roll, click on CONTROL then from the next drop down listbox pick PROGRAM CHANGE... then in the lower pane, click on the number of the patch you want to use.
2) Another way to do exactly the same thing is to ...
...a) hilite the MIDI track
...b) open the event editor...
...c) insert a program change
...d) enter the number of the patch you want loaded
These two approaches should stick whether you have MIDI data on the track or not
Keep in mind that if you ever want to change the patch later, the track right click menu will NOT override patch changes in the event editor. If you set the patch in the event editor, you have to update it there too.
------------oops-----------
I was talking about RealBand.. I just realized this is the BIAB forum. My bad.
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Note: Noel's workaround only works with the Soloist track and not the Melody track or any other empty track. Use the Melodist to populate midi data to the Melody track, then replace it with a midi patch or Hi-Q instrument.
Last edited by rpuff; 01/11/15 09:11 AM.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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A midi patch will only play the midi data on a track. An empty track has no data. Therefore there is nothing for the patch to play. You have to have a style or a melody or some other data.
Bob Coy
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Bob,
That sounds logical but I can't seem to get it to work. Here's an example:
I started with a new song and selected the ROCKABIL.STY style. This style has 4 instruments. The Strings, Melody and Soloist tracks are blank in the mixer. For the Strings track, I selected a General MIDI patch but nothing appeared in the mixer. I then selected a Hi-Q instrument and its name appeared in the mixer, although the text was white instead of yellow, and there was no sound from this track when I clicked Generate and Play.
Would you be so kind to try this test and tell me what results you got?
Ron
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Hi Ron,
The ROCKABIL.STY file does not have any note patterns set up for the Stings track. It's part of this particular styles design. In other words, no midi instructions have been added to the Strings track (that's why the track name is white). This is why it's not possible to assign midi patch sounds.
By comparison, if you have a look ROLBILY1.STY, you'll see that this style has midi data present on the String track and, as a consequence, you can change patches.
Hope this helps,
Noel
P.S. There are a number of styles in BIAB that do not use all available tracks for instrumentation. These styles will have a white track name for those tracks that don't have midi instructions attached.
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Journeyman
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You'd need to load not just a patch, but a style to that track. I copied this from the help file under Hybrid styles:
"Note: You can add MIDITracks individually (from any style) to play on any track of your current song. This is done from the right-click context menu for any track, or by clicking on the [MIDITracks] toolbar button."
Check it out! I just did it on my setup -- it works. Then you could save it as a Hybrid style when you find what you like and want to use it again.
Bob Coy
HP Desktop
Windows 10 Home, AMD A6-7310, 6GB Ram 1TB Hard drive. Radeon Graphics & Sound
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Noel and Bob,
Thank you gentlemen for this education about midi files. I think I'm getting the hang of it. I may be slow but I make a lot of mistakes.
Here's a question that perhaps either of you could answer:
When selecting a Hi-Q instrument from the Select a Prefix F/X track dialog box, there is the option to Play the instrument to preview what it sounds like. When I click on the Play button in the dialog box, however, I get a message box that tells me "there is no audio demo available for the file". Doesn't matter which instrument.
When I first upgraded from 2014 to 2015, this function worked; now it doesn't. I'm now on Build 414. Does it work for you?
Thanks again,
Ron
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Journeyman
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Yes, I noticed this before build 414. Not sure when, because I don't use the sample files that much. but I agree with your find --get the same result.
Bob Coy
HP Desktop
Windows 10 Home, AMD A6-7310, 6GB Ram 1TB Hard drive. Radeon Graphics & Sound
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I'm not at my machine, so I can't check, but some styles don't have any MIDI data for the A substyle, but do for the B substyle. Just one other thing to check.
John Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 12TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 12TB SATA BB2026/UMC204HD&404HD/Casios/Cakewalk/Reaper/Studio One/Notion/Dorico/Noteworthy/NI/Halion/IK http://www.sus4chord.com (under rehosting/construction)
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