Thomas,

Regarding your original post...

1) I loaded the MIDI file into BIAB using the Open command.
This created an MGU file with the MIDI file loaded on the Melody track as a multichannel MIDI (this is standard BIAB behaviour).

2) I then used 'Save Special' to save the file as a MIDI file with the lyrics.
I noticed that you mentioned that you had been unable to get BIAB to save lyrics in a MIDI file. To do this, when you get to the option regarding what format to save the MIDI, click on "Options" and make sure that "Write lyrics" in General MIDI format is selected.

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I then opened the original MIDI file and the BIAB-saved MIDI file in Reaper so that I could more clearly see what was happening.

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As can be seen, BIAB saves MIDI as "Text events" while the original MIDI saves the lyrics as a "Lyric" event. As Matt has already mentioned, MIDI is quite old. I don't know whether it's true or not, but I have read that in the early days of MIDI, storing lyrics was not part of the MIDI format. These days, I think text events are stored as a kind of meta-data (I'm not absolutely sure about this and I'm quite happy to be corrected).

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Also... when I save your MGU file as a MIDI file from BIAB with the MIDI options of "save harmony to individual tracks" active, things look fine. Once I load the file into Reaper, all the tracks are visible and individual.

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As many long-time users of BIAB will attest to, it has often been the case the internet MIDI files are not an exact fit with BIAB because the way in which the internet files were created and saved is not exactly the same as the way BIAB works with MIDI. This would seem to be another one of those cases. The best fix, which you have already discovered is to open the file in BIAB and then save it using BIAB. This will create a version of the file that is the most compatible with the BIAB.

I'm not sure that this helps but, hopefully, the insight shown in the above images is useful.

Regards,
--Noel

P.S. I love your version of "Try to Remember"! It has a "Swingle Singers" sound about it. That's pretty incredible smile

MY SONGS...
Audiophile BIAB 2024