I have a problem with playback of Band-in-a-Box song files which seems mainly to be related to a pop-up message saying:

“No DXi synthesizers are installed. You can install the Coyote GM Wavetable synth from the main Band-in-a-Box screen Help Menu. Then reboot Band-in-a-Box. More info at pgmusic.com/DXinfo.htm.”

Thus, I do not get any sound where I have selected a Midi instrument patch, most important being the trombone which I have as the on just about every file as the Melody instrument. Also no instruments are heard where I have used Midi Styles, except drums because they are a RealTrack. Real Styles play fine but with no melody of course.

If I select “Route MIDI Thru to MIDI Driver instead of the Synth, I hear only the MIDI tracks and the RealTracks do not play!

A bit of background about my setup:

I am using the 2017 Audiophile version of Band-in-a-Box from the external drive supplied by PG Music. Although the program runs from the external drive, I have all my BiaB song files on the main hard drive, which is the way I have always had it set up. I have installed Build 467 Update but not the 467 RealTracks update.

My Operating System is Windows 10 and it has given me nothing but trouble, including a large update which crashed my hard drive and I had to get a new one installed. When I got my computer back, they had transferred as much a possible from the old hard drive. I did not have to reinstall Band-in-a-Box because it worked fine when I plugged in the external drive. It was working well until a couple of days ago. The only thing I can think of that may have created a problem with the DXi synthesizer was a recent small Windows 10 update.

In the ‘Options’, ‘Midi/Audio Drivers Setup’, under MIDI Output Driver, I have “Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth”. Under Synthesizer/Sound Card, I have “General MIDI Instrumentr Misc.”, a ticked box for “Use VSTi/Dxi Synth”, and the “VSTi/DXi Synth Settings” is outline in blue.

When you select this outlined box, you get another pop-up box headed “VST/DX Synths/Plugins (synth in first slot)” with “Default Synth” highlighted in blue and a dot in the Edit circle of the top item. There is an entry of ‘None’ under plugin. I have absolutely no idea what to do with this box and have never previously had to use it. In fact, I feel there may have been another type of box there previously which did not require any entries – if indeed this one does. To tell the truth, I have never used Plugins previously, as far as I know. The note you get when you put the curser on this blue highlighted box is, “The default synth is the midi synth that will apply to all songs, unless a custom track synth is applied. The other 3 slots are for F/X that apply to all tracks.” So, this does look like the area where I should make a selection. However, the program has already told me that there are ‘No DXi synthesizers are installed’, so I guess that is the reason I cannot find one in the list that comes up?

I have tried to install the Coyote GM Wavetable synth from the main Band-in-a-Box screen Help Menu as instructed and it seems to be installing but I still get the ‘No DXi synthesizers’ are installed message. There is a program called CoyoteWT (dated 2010) and CoyoteWT.dll (dated 2011) in my Program Files (x86) and the uninstall programs seem to have been updated by my latest attempts to install the synth from the Band-in-a-Box main menu etc. I guess this is the program that I was using previously up until a couple of days ago.

When you try to install it into Band-in-a-Box in the plugin slot, you get a message that says “C:Program Files (x86)/Coyote/CoyoteWT/Coyote/WT.dll is not a valid VST plugin! Note that only 32 bit Plugins can be used. You can use 64 bit plugins if you have jbridge installed, info and purchase at www.pgmusic.com/jbridge.htm.” If this is the case, how come it was working previously? But maybe this is a major part of the problem?

You can tell that I am extremely confused by all this and, more importantly, I cannot use Band-in-a-Box, which for me is a daily event often lasting several hours. Frankly, I think the program has progressed to a point which is way beyond my ability with a computer. Or maybe it is Windows 10 causing the problems? I do know that I get at least one call a week from my mates who also use the program with Windows 10 asking me about various problems they are encountering. Perhaps we are all getting a bit too long in the tooth for modern computer technology? smile

Sorry this is so long and rambling but I thought I had better include everything that I have tried to solve this problem. Maybe it’s a simpler solution than I think. Hopefully so anyway.

Grah Jive Talk
"Don't worry baby, they'll swing their arses off."