50. Why do I hear the drums playing with a piano patch?

This is usually because your drum track is set to a non-drum channel. Most synths/sound cards use channel 10 as the drum channel. On the drum channel, each patch corresponds to a different drum kit, and each MIDI note corresponds to a different drum sound (for example, snare, bass drum, etc.). Very old synths might use channel 16 or another channel. Another possibility is that in the case of some Yamaha synths, you may need to disallow patch and/or bank changes.

Check under Opt. | Preferences | Channels and make sure that the drum channel corresponds to what your synth uses. You may need to check the documentation for your synth. You could also look under the Synthesizer / sound module menu in the MIDI Driver Setup dialog to see if your synth is listed there. When you select a synth from this menu and press [OK], Band-in-a-Box® will load a .DK file that matches your synth. This file will set up the GM patches, drum kit, and channels to what they should be for that synth. While this is not normally necessary for most modern synths, it may be necessary for some older and non-General MIDI synths. Additional .DK files can be downloaded from our website at http://www.pgmusic.com/support_miscellaneous.htm

If you have a Yamaha synth, try going to Opt. | Preferences | MIDI Options and deselecting "Allow patch changes".


Alyssa - PG Music