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#668838 08/17/21 06:18 AM
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I imported a .mid melody. However, it wants to play as a piano sound, and won't allow the change. It's supposed to be ukulele. When I "Select MIDI Instrument(Patch)-->Select GM2 Patch...-->25/1Ukulele, it looks like it selected it, but plays the piano patch. Once I hit "Stop", the name reverts back to "Instrument: GM2 1/1 Acoustic Grand Piano"


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It sounds like the patch is set in the MIDI information you imported. To see if this is the case, do the following...

1. Switch to Piano Roll Mode.

2. Make sure that #1, #2 are set as shown on the upper image at the end of this thread. If a patch is present in the file, it will appear in the region labelled #3.

If a patch is present...

3. As shown on the lower image (#1), hover the mouse over the patch name.

4. Right-click

5. Select "Select all graphic events"

6. Select "Delete selected events"

Now save the BIAB with a slightly varied name. Doing this will allow you to reload the original file should you need to.

Regards,
Noel

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piano roll patch changes 1 small.jpg (36.8 KB, 264 downloads)
piano roll patch changes 2 small.jpg (40.22 KB, 264 downloads)

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Noel,
Thank you for this short and precise explanation.
I search every time anew how to do this.
Your explanation goes now in my note folder!


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Noel, please consider placing this excellent advice in a post in Tips and Tricks.


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Hi Brille and Matt,

I'm glad you like it. I'll transfer the information to Tips and Tricks. It's a good idea to put it there.

All the best,
Noel


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Wow Noel, I never knew this could be done in BIAB. In all these years, I've been taking the song into RB to do these types of changes, and then saving it in BIAB format and then bringing it back into BIAB. What a time saver!

Jeff


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Noel:

Thanks for posting those detailed instructions of finding Patches in the piano roll mode. That will be helpful to people.

But I can confirm that the problem from the original post still exists for trying to make patch changes using "Select MIDI Instrument" >> "Select GM2 Patch"

By coincidence, yesterday I created a midi track using "Select Custom MIDI Style for this Track" -- and I chose a piano part from a midi style that I later wanted to change to Electric Piano.

BIAB created the midi track using Patch 1 (Acoustic Piano) and I was using the Roland TTS-1, which is GM2 compatible.

I then went to "Select MIDI Instrument" >> "Select GM2 Patch" and selected GM2 patch 6/2 EP Legend.

I regenerated the track but the original Acoustic Piano was playing.

I then went to "Select MIDI Instrument" >> "Select General Midi Patch" and chose patch 6 Electric Piano 2.

I regenerated again and the patch changed to one Electric Piano 2 patch I had chosen.

So "Select General Midi Patch" works, but the "Select GM2 Patch" does not.

It would be nice if BIAB development could fix that.

I am using BIAB 2021, Build 840

John

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Yes, this needs to be fixed. I tried different patches, GM, GM2, etc. I only get the acoustic grand piano patch.

Every time the is an update, it costs me weeks worth of work, as some glaring oversight gets in the way.


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Hi John and Funkifized,

I've tried changing MIDI patches and the process works for me. Presently, I'm beta-testing build 841.

Just to check... are you using Standard BIAB tracks or the Utility tracks?

Please double-check the items I've numbered 3, 4 and 5 on the below image. As you can see, I've got the TTS-1 set up as my VST synth and GM2 sounds are enabled (#5).

This window is found in "Options | Preferences | Midi Driver".

Also, out of curiosity, what driver are you using for Audio (#6). This shouldn't make a difference with MIDI sounds but it is still worth considering as a possibility.

Regards,
Noel

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Hi Noel:

Thanks for your screen capture on your settings.

The only difference in my Midi driver settings compared to yours is that,on my setup, #3 was set to "General Midi Instrument Misc."

I tried setting it to "Cakewalk TTS-1" but that didn't make any difference.

I can still make patch changes using "Select MIDI Instrument" >> "Select General Midi Patch" and it works fine but BIAB won't make any patch changes using
"Select MIDI Instrument" >> "Select GM2 Patch."

I am using regular BIAB tracks, not utility tracks.

Also, I am using ASIO drivers. I used to use MME with BIAB when I had a PCI-card audio interface, but now that I have a PreSonus USB interface, I'm getting better results using ASIO.

John

Last edited by jphillips; 08/19/21 09:58 AM.
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I'm using the Melody track.

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Last edited by Funkifized; 08/19/21 03:10 PM.

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Here's my Piano Roll page

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Last edited by Funkifized; 08/19/21 02:52 PM.

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Okay, I created another quick BIAB file, one chord, imported the same .MID melody.

Did the same steps you provided:

1. Switched to Piano Roll Mode.
2. Make sure that #1, #2 are set as shown on the image you provided. A patch was present in the file.
3. I hovered the mouse over the patch name.
4. Right-clicked
5. Selected "Select all graphic events"
6. Selected "Delete selected events"

Still unable to change the patch.

Undid back to before the .MID file was imported. Step-entered a melody. That works, and I can change the patch to Gen MID or Gen MID2.

However, when I re-import the .MID file, it still plays with piano sound, although the notation page states that it is "25/1 Ukulele". Now, I can't change the patch. If I try to change the patch, the name changes in the Mixer to what I change it to, and it shows up on the notation page as this new patch, but still plays with the piano sound.

When I Import Melody from MIDI File I uncheck "Include Patch Changes". Doesn't make a difference either way.

Last edited by Funkifized; 08/19/21 03:47 PM.

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Funkifized.
where did your midi file in your very first post come from ? the net ?
if so i suspect it might have embedded control commands.
is this midi file a complete song ? with different midi traks ?
or just one midi trak ? please clarify.
heres step 1.
1. open realband. and in menu new.
2. import the midi file to seperate traks.
3. in the traks view do you now see "visually" the midi data ? on different traks ?
please post back what you see in traks view.
note...rb has various "views" that will show midi data.
eg event editor, bars view, midi monitor, and piano roll and notation etc.

if you go to event editor you will see the embedded commands in the midi data stream if any.
please post back a pic of what you see in event editor.
OR if you dont want to do above just use a free midi event editor off the net , and it will visually display
whats in a midi file.

are you new to midi ? if so i suggest you get a book on midi as the subject is extensive.
i mention this, cos, over the years a recurring problem
for people new to midi is they sometimes try working with a midi song they have got from somewhere , and embedded
control commands override any settings they make.
thus first step is to edit out those control commands.
this issue baffles lots of people new to midi....which is just computer data.

best
oldmuso
ps if you post your original midi file from your first post somewhere safe...the rest of us can take a gander at it and comment further.

Last edited by justanoldmuso; 08/19/21 11:37 PM.

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I step-entered the melody into Finale, Exported as .MID. When I Import the .MID file into Real Band, it asks "Import E:\Uke Tunes \Alice In Wonderland.WAV as audio into the next empty track of the song?".

I don't know why it is doing this. If I choose "No", I get one MIDI track, which is set to "Acoustic Grand Piano", but the name is still "Ukulele".

However, it does say "MIDIPlayback will be silent because no MIDI Output driver is installed in RealBand

Use the Options | MIDI Devices command to select drivers". I'm not new to MIDI, but I'm not very well versed in the back-end stuff.


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The message sucks. There is no Options | MIDI Devices command. I had to drill down to Options-->Preferences-->MIDI Devices. There I moved Microsoft GS Wavetabe Synth to the top and the MIDI file plays in RealBand. It's still an acoustic piano sound. This is a flaw in BIAB. I'm not seeing Ukulele in that list of patches at all.


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Funkifized - go to File > Import > Import Melody from MIDI File, then choose your MIDI file. You'll get the Import MIDI window - in here, please unselect Include Patch Changes - you can see that in the screenshot I attached. This step is necessary because your MIDI file includes a Piano program change message in it, and this message can override the setting in BIAB.

Next, if you imported the MIDI to your Melody track, go to the Melody menu and change Track Type to Single Channel - as your MIDI file has two tracks in it, this tells BIAB to default to using Multi-Channel mode, which by default uses MIDI channel 4 for patch changes while your MIDI is on channel 1.

You should be able to change patch now.

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I have to say that this soiunds to me a lot like the problem I had back in build 822, where we went through lots of ideas to no obvious benefit. It's hard for me to know whether the following may help, or just add more confusion ... treat very cautiously.

It resolved somewhere around these events:
Quote:
Oh ... I see something I didn't understand.

I just did Melody->Edit Melody Track->Step Edit Melody
and it opened the drum track.

Maybe I've been editing the wrong event list!
The notes I inspected were right, though.

(one should note that I personally would not have expected the melody notes to be in the drum track.)

and

Quote:
Well, that's decidedly odd!

The MIDI channel for all events on the melody track has changed to channel 4 and, if I now remove the Sforzando plug-in, I can get it to play the trombone.

I'm pretty sure it hadn't changed them to channel four after I altered the rest (of the) events from ch1 to ch6 to match the remainder, but it's changed now.

The difficulty is understanding exactly what I did to get that outcome.


As I say, I don't know whether it was that observation that changed things, but the song started behaving after that. In the gap between, I had tried several things aroud which midi player BIAB was supposeed to be using using, but I had tried those before to no benefit.

What I can say with a fairt degree of confidence is that there seemed to be some mingling of tracks/channel at the MIDI level and that it appears to me that MIDI events may have been coming from and going too places they probably should not.

Extract from here:
https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=89028&Number=644769#Post644769


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