Hi all. I'm confused as to exactly what's going on, so I'll just tell you what I'm sure of. Sometimes when I try to use "select midi patch" using the drop-down menu of an instrument in the mixer, it will change the name but not the actual voice, which remains the same. More accurately, it changes the name in the far left field (Bass, Piano, Drums, etc), and then seems to add a colon after the existing description in that field (next field over to the right, for example Instrument 1 Acoustic Piano) and then the name of the thing trying to be changed to (so you might end up with Instrument 1 Acoustic Piano: trombone in that field).
Now, so far I want to say this happens only when I am trying to change a midi instrument that has previously been changed to a Hi_Q Midi synth patch. What dumb thing am I doing? Or, is it really a bug? Thanks in advance for the certain cascade of gracious help and/or "read the manual, idiot!"-esque admonitions.
The instrument you are trying to change is Yellow (MIDI) and not Green (Real Tracks)?
I cannot recall seeing a Colon in the Instrument name at left, and at any rate, there's not enough room for the long name you describe: "Instrument 1 Acoustic Piano: trombone"
Is it possible to attach a screen capture?
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
What is listed as your output MIDI device? E.g. is it using Soft Synth, VSTi or DXi or other hardware device?
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
Okay, lets disregard the colon thing, maybe it only happen if there's room such as on a short-named instrument; or, maybe I am simply mistaken but that's not my main focus anyway, I just thought it might be a useful clue. What is sure is that the main name changes, and yet the actual voice and the description field does not change as it should change. See screen shots, below.
Okay, so notice that the instrument has been renamed "Slap Bass" (one of the choices I get under "select MIDI patch") and yet the description remains "Hi-Q 01 Bass", the existing patch that I wish to change (in the example**).
**This isn't my actual project, I just did this to reproduce the problem scenario. It reproduces consistently, so far.
So, more background info: I don't have any trouble changing the midi patch if the existing patch is not Hi-Q. In fact, I worked around this problem in this case by going to a prior version of the file, before the Hi-Q patch was added. That wouldn't be possible, of course, if I had only saved versions after hi_Q patches were added.
What happens if you generate and play. Does the instrument then play correctly? I.E. pressing the Piano keyboard might not play the sound immediately, but BiaB sends the patch when the song starts.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
Try selecting NONE for the Hi-Q instrument (which will leave the track with no instrument selected) then load the desired instrument into the track.
Beautiful, Jim...thanks so much!
In my version of BIAB, you go to Select Hi-Q Midi Patch, leave it on the default selection at the top of the list "No Preset Wanted" and hit OK. Boom, that clears it (as promised). THEN you can go ahead and get whatever midi patch you want. Huh. Did not know that, and wouldn't have expected that it would work that way...but that works for me. Thanks again, Jim!
What happens if you generate and play. Does the instrument then play correctly? I.E. pressing the Piano keyboard might not play the sound immediately, but BiaB sends the patch when the song starts.
That didn't work for me, and it didn't change anything that I can see. Jim's solution works nicely, though, so I'm gonna chalk this up as problem solved.
Great! Thanks for letting us know that you solved it, and how. Good reference material for others.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
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