When you go to Preferences and click the "Channels" button, a "MIDI Settings" window opens.
The problem I've been having with this window is the behavior of the Channel column's "Piano" Channel Assignment Box--which is the 2nd item down from the top... just under "Bass".
When the program is freshly opened, this item always displays "Channel 3" regardless of the changes I've implemented and saved.
There are 8 items in this column: Bass, Piano, Drums, Guitar, Strings, Melody, Soloist, and Thru Chn.
I am able to change all 8 items and all 8 items will stay changed and in effect while the program is currently open, but when I create and save my own custom channel assignment environment, via the Save button in this MIDI Settings window, only 7 of my custom channel assignments will be written and saved in the MySETUP.DK file. (All except the Piano Channel)
Try it!
Change the Piano channel in a current song or project from "3" to a different channel, let's say to channel 8. It will stay on channel 8 for that project and I think it will stay on channel 8 while the program is currently open. However, when you close and freshly open the program again, the Piano Channel displays a "3".
The MIDI channel assignments are defaults and are embedded in the Band-in-a-Box program. You can change them during a session but they will revert back to the default once you close the program.
Thanks for responding. Yes, I realize that what you say is true however, that's only if you haven't created and saved a customized channel scheme into the program via the file I referenced in my opening post of this thread.
From the days when I used Cakewalk 3.0, I've always made my own MIDI files and I've always used the same customized MIDI channel setup for Cakewalk and Band in a Box... (When I learned that BIAB allowed permanent custom MIDI channel assignments)
So for many versions of BIAB, I've been able to save my custom channel assignments into a special file titled, "MySETUP.DK" which appears when you click the "SAVE" button located in the bottom row of buttons in the Channels MIDI Settings Window. (pictured in the graphic of this thread's parent post)
BIAB always uses this "MySETUP.DK" as its "new default" channel setup scheme so that, upon each new opening of the program, my customized channel choices are retained and reflected in the Preferences Channels MIDI Settings window.
The point I'm trying to bring out is this:
When setting up a new permanent or semi-permanent MIDI channel scheme, 7 of the 8 channel boxes under the channel column are being saved into the "MySETUP.DK", there is only a single channel box that is not getting written into the file... and that is the Piano box which continually reverts to channel 3.
Since each of the other 7 channel reassignments are saved, retained, and retrieved upon each new program opening, it seems like there is a "bug" of some sort with the Piano channel assignment because it is the only one where the new channel assignment is not retained.
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