That must be an old version of Biab as the new one will split the channels of the midi to Utility tracks. If it's all going to the Melody track you need to move each channel to another track by selecting all notes on a channel (by Ch drop down in piano roll) and cutting and pasting to another track. EDIT: I see you have Playable Tracks so it must be a new version, try drag and drop the midi onto Biab
If you open a midi file in BIAB you get all the midi information with as many midi tracks as there are (up to 16) each on a different channel, but all on one BIAB track (I think the melody track.)
But if you want separate midi tracks you can do this by a different method. From your windows browser, drag the midi file onto the chord sheet, and follow the dialog to assign each midi track/channel to whatever BIAB track you want them on. You can put each midi track on a separate BIAB track, or have some combined and some not.
BUT - and it is a big BUTT! - although you can load midi tracks into utility tracks, you will find that on first load they play the midi instrument patch correctly. But if you save the song and reload, the utility tracks cannot correctly read or play the patch information. They just play using a piano or something like that. You can change the patch information in BIAB (go to piano roll, or easier go to music notes and click the # symbol) and set a new midi patch number, but this will not play correctly after saving and reloading.
Therefore - as far as I can tell - the utility tracks are not yet ready for prime-time when it comes to storing and playing midi tracks, even though they can actually store the information. I am sure they will fix this, or perhaps someone here knows how to get the utility tracks to retain and play back midi patch information (which I can't.) I wonder if there is some setting in preferences that can change the way utility tracks store and playback midi patch information, that I may have missed, because I do not understand why they can store the patch information (visible in the piano roll) but won't play them. The utility tracks are great for realtracks generating new players parts, but still not able to handle midi tracks properly.
At the moment there are three good tracks you can assign separate midi tracks and retain patch information: Melody, Soloist and Audio. These work fine if you drag midi tracks on to them, and they playback correctly. So three tracks is all you can get, but if the midi file has more than this you can assign one to the Melody, another to the Soloist and all the rest to the Audio, or any combination like that.
Band-in-a-Box, BiaB, handles opening a file and importing a file differently. If one way is not working for you try the other way.
If the midi data resides on the Melody track you can navigate to Melody > Sequencer Window for Multi-Channel Melody. The sequencer will divide the data by channel.
As others have pointed out, you can either (A) "Open" a MIDI file, or (B) "Import" a MIDI file into the current song. There are various ways to accomplish each, but in general:
A) File - Open. You can select a MIDI file, and it will open a new file with your MIDI file imported to a multi-channel track, with the style tracks disabled. This is like a MIDI file player.
B) File | Import | Import melody from MIDI file. This will import your MIDI file into the existing song - by default it will import it all to the Melody track. However the Import MIDI dialog does give you the option to select a separate track for each individual channel that exists in the MIDI file.
Quote:
although you can load midi tracks into utility tracks, you will find that on first load they play the midi instrument patch correctly. But if you save the song and reload, the utility tracks cannot correctly read or play the patch information.
The issue is specifically the MIDI channel. It does seem to be a bug that the channel is not saved on Utility tracks with the .MGU. There is an easier work-around though - right-click on the track --> Track Settings --> MIDI Channel --> select "Multi-channel". This setting is saved, and your MIDI file should play with the correct patch.
There is an easier work-around though - right-click on the track --> Track Settings --> MIDI Channel --> select "Multi-channel". This setting is saved, and your MIDI file should play with the correct patch.
Thank you Andrew. This work-around is very helpful. It solves a problem I have been struggling with for a while. The only (little) problem with it is that it takes time to manually change each track (sometimes 10 or more) and it would be great for there to be a preference to always import midi files into utility tracks as multi-channel (either in main preferences or in the import dialogue). As mentioned, this change to "multi-channel" is not needed for importing into the Melody, Soloist or Audio tracks, so shouldn't it be possible for utility tracks to behave the same way?
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