Suddenly developed wrong drum sound

[Lawrence (lak)]

After using the Notation Musician without problems for weeks in a new laptop, it suddenly developed the same frustrating problem I described in a post before:
http://www.notation.com/discus/messages/30409/36822.html?1227266033

Basically, all the drums sounds are wrong when using my Yamaha as MIDI output device.

I am using Yamaha DGX-630 with their latest USB-midi driver 3.0.3.; and instrument definition file from jososoft.dk. The problem I had before in my old laptop was never solved without time consuming work around. I basically gave up on it as I was planning to get a new laptop.

I was relieved when everything worked as expected after installing in the new laptop. All the sounds were correct without manual adjustment for dozens of midis I used.

Then one day, after loading a new midi, the drum sounds came out wrong. "O-oh, not again!", I thought. And now, ALL the midis which worked perfectly just a day ago, would give wrong drum sounds. In the mean time, my other software such as One Man Band continued to work fine. This time, I was sure that I did not install any new programs or make any system changes. So the very same midi files which worked perfectly before would now give wrong drum sound.

Here are the things I have tried:
- remove midi device, delete mididev.cfg, and redo the midi device setup, re-import ins file.
- uninstall Yamaha USB-midi device driver, and re-install.
- uninstall Notation Musician, delete all the registries with RegEdit, delete Notation directories in Users/Public folder; and then re-install. (The uninstall did pop up an error about "shfolder.dll", not sure if that would prevent a clean uninstall).

Still, I cannot get the drum sound correct. Sometimes, manually reassigning the instrument bank would make it work (and it does not work in some cases). But this should not be necessary in the first place. And some of my more complex midis have close to 30 staffs, and it is very time consuming to manually adjust them.

I would really appreciate any pointers. TIA.

My System:
Lenovo Thinkpad X61s, Vista Business 32 bit, 3GB RAM
Yamaha DGX-630

[Lawrence (lak)]

The system won't allow me to edit the post.
I am using Notation Musician 2.52.

[Sherry Crann (sherry)]

Howdy Lawrence,

From above:
<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

Then one day, after loading a new midi, the drum sounds came out wrong. "O-oh, not again!", I thought. And now, ALL the midis which worked perfectly just a day ago, would give wrong drum sounds. <!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>


And from the previous exchange you had with David J., linked from above:

Lawrence:<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

> If your instrument definition has multiple banks, then be sure that
> the drum bank is selected: bank MSB 127, LSB 000d in my Yamaha XG
> instrument definition.

This did the trick, thanks for your help.

But does this mean that I have to select the drum bank for the drum track every time I open a new midi file? Is there a default bank I can select for channel 10 or any other settings which would avoid manual selection every time? Thanks.<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>

David J.: <blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

It may just have been that particular file.

If the file has bank selections already in place which specify non-drum sounds then it will jump to that bank when played.

Try several different files and see what happens.

I've never had any trouble in that regard, so it may just have been a file specific problem.

Glad you're up and playing!<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>

I have a couple questions to help us get a clear picture of what has happened with any settings.

1. When you first installed Musician on your new machine and then played MIDI files, were the drum sounds ALL correct, or did you have to follow David's advice to re-set some of the drum banks?

2. Now that you've been experiencing incorrect drum sounds, are you opening those same original MIDI (.mid) files, or are you opening your previously saved .not files ?

ttfn,
Sherry

[Sherry Crann (sherry)]

p.s. Adding to the above http://www.notation.com/discus/clipart/happy.gif

3. What is the specific definition of "drum sounds are wrong"? Is it that all the sounds are drum sounds, but not the right one (eg. what should be a bass drum is now a high hat)? Or do the drums sound like an entirely different instrument (eg. piano or guitar)?

Thanks!
Sherry

[Lawrence (lak)]

> 1. When you first installed Musician on your new machine and then
> played MIDI files, were the drum sounds ALL correct, or did you have
> to follow David's advice to re-set some of the drum banks?

No, for the first 3 weeks of using Musician on my new laptop, all the midis would play fine without any manual adjustment. Just load and play away.

> 2. Now that you've been experiencing incorrect drum sounds, are you
> opening those same original MIDI (.mid) files, or are you opening
> your previously saved .not files ?

Yes, I am loading the same original midi files which played perfectly before; not the ".not" files.

> 3. What is the specific definition of "drum sounds are wrong"? Is
> it that all the sounds are drum sounds, but not the right one (eg.
> what should be a bass drum is now a high hat)? Or do the drums
> sound like an entirely different instrument (eg. piano or guitar)?

Entirely different instrument like piano.

[Sherry Crann (sherry)]

Howdy Lawrence,

Do you perchance remember which MIDI file it was that appeared to trigger this problem? If you do, could you please send us a copy of that original file.

Thanks!
Sherry

[Lawrence (lak)]

Hi Sherry:

> Do you perchance remember which MIDI file it was that appeared to
> trigger this problem? If you do, could you please send us a copy of
> that original file.

I am sending you an email with the midi attached. I believe it was this one, it was a XF SMF 1 midi.
Just to clarify, this problem only happens when using my Yamaha keyboard as MIDI output device. If I switch to Microsoft GS Synth, then there is no problem.

[Sherry Crann (sherry)]

Howdy Lawrence,

Is this an original .mid file, or has it been opened and then saved/exported from another application?

The reasons I'm asking are that
(1) all the instrument patches are set to "001 acoustic grand piano" (except "Sorry", which has no notes) and
(2) some of what appear to be drum instrument staves are set for channel 11 rather than channel 10.

Do you have a .mid file that you know worked properly for your DGX prior to things going haywire again? If so, please attach one of those for comparison for me.

Perhaps if there are other Yamaha DGX users out there, you can chime in if any aspects of this conundrum ring a bell for you.

Thanks!
Sherry

[Lawrence (lak)]

Hi Sherry:

> Is this an original .mid file, or has it been opened and then
> saved/exported from another application?

No, this is the original midi. Actually, this is a commercial midi and it came in different versions: GM, G2... and some for Roland and Tyros keyboards; and some in SMF 0 format, and some in SMF 1 format.

I just thought the XF format would be a good one to try first.

> The reasons I'm asking are that
> (1) all the instrument patches are set to "001 acoustic grand
> piano" (except "Sorry", which has no notes) and
>(2) some of what appear to be drum instrument staves are set for
> channel 11 rather than channel 10.

I never quite understand all the channel names. I also a few other midis which has drum track labeled as acoustic piano. But all the other midi player do play them correctly as drum including the midi I sent you.

> Do you have a .mid file that you know worked properly for your DGX
> prior to things going haywire again? If so, please attach one of
> those for comparison for me.

Yes, I will do that when I get home tonight.

[Sherry Crann (sherry)]

Howdy Lawrence,

Thanks for your patience here. I'm just trying to untangle whether there is some setting that got "bumped" in Musician that is affecting how things get routed to your keyboard or if it's a setting for your DGX that got/gets lost in the MIDI communication between Musician and your DGX. We know that at some point in the past it worked properly, but now it doesn't. That much at least is a good thought http://www.notation.com/discus/clipart/happy.gif

You mentioned that One Man Band still works fine, but that doesn't surprise me. I see from the description at http://www.1manband.nl/omb.htm that it's very much a Yamaha-oriented package, and so I would expect it to support Yamaha products quite well.

ttfn,
Sherry

[Lawrence (lak)]

Hi Sherry:

Actually, I want to thank you for your patience. I understand how hard it is to diagnose problems when you don't have my hardware in front of you.

And I found tonight that the problem is more than just drum sound. I have attached one more midi for you in my last email. This midi (LG-JD.mid), the bank assignment is not there. And many tracks do not play at all.

Here's a screen capture of the Staff setup. As you see, most of the instruments were silent, drum played as piano:

http://www.notation.com/discus/messages/30409/37010.jpg

And this midi actually plays fine when directly loaded into my keyboard using a USB drive.



Here's another song (DW-SMLCS.mid), the 5th attachment of my previous email. Here, the bank shows general midi even though the table shows XGlite, and the drum would come out as piano.

http://www.notation.com/discus/messages/30409/37011.jpg

[Sherry Crann (sherry)]

Howdy Lawrence,

Sorry to be tardy getting back to you - busy day http://www.notation.com/discus/clipart/happy.gif

The issue does indeed to be centered on how the bank assignments are made in the file, and whether they're actually being communicated properly to your Yamaha. The fact that at one point they were but then that changed is the part that baffles me the most.

My best guess, without having your setup right here, is that perhaps the Bank Select Method has gotten goofed up somehow.

When Musician (or any Notation product) plays a file, it uses the bank, channel, and instrument patch information that it is in the file for each track/staff. If the track/staff has a bank listed which does not have any instrument patches in it in your playback device, then it uses the default GM MIDI patch. This is probably why some of your drum instrument sounds played like piano - the standard drum kit is "patch 001", which is also the same as the acoustic grand piano. If (1) the channel number isn't 10 or (2) the channel number is 10 but there's no drum kit for that bank, then you'll hear that staff/track as piano. Does this much make sense?

So, one thing we can check is the following:

1. Setup/MIDI Device Configuration (the Big One) http://www.notation.com/discus/clipart/happy.gif
2. Right-click on your Yamaha device, and select "Properties"
3. Take a look at the "Bank select Method" (it's about half-way in the dialog box), and see if it's set to "Normal" or if it's set at something else.

Here's where I'm not sure, because I don't have your device. You may need to try testing different Bank Select Methods, and see if that clears up the problem.

Got my fingers crossed ;)
Sherry

[Lawrence (lak)]

Hi Sherry:

>3. Take a look at the "Bank select Method" (it's about half-way in the
>dialog box), and see if it's set to "Normal" or if it's set at
>something else.

It says "Normal"; and that should be correct. I confirmed with the manual that Bank Selection is the normal 0,32.

I found that even the ".not" file that I saved last week (when the midi played correctly) would now play wrong drum sound. So there must be some corrupted file or configuration somewhere.

Is there some way I can do a complete cleanup of any traces of Musician and start afresh? I thought uninstall + registry cleaning would do the trick, but it didn't. So I suspect there is still some hidden files out there.

In the mean time, while we are trying the figure this out, I am manually selecting the banks for each midi files. So should I set all the channels to (000,000)XGLite Bank 0, and (127,000d)XGLite Drum Kit for the drum track 10? Or is there a quicker way to force the bank selection on loading the midi?

[David Jacklin (dj)]

Hi, Lawrence, Sherry:

Can you post a couple of the midi files that you have trouble with, Lawrence? I'll see what happens when I play them into my Yamaha DGX 500.

David

[Lawrence (lak)]

Hi David:

>Can you post a couple of the midi files that you have trouble with,
>Lawrence? I'll see what happens when I play them into my Yamaha DGX
>500.

I would prefer to email you the file, as one is a commercial midi which I don't want to post in a public forum. There is no email link in your profile, so maybe Sherry can forward the attachments to you?

Be careful though. If one of the midi is the culprit and it can somehow corrupt the system, it does not seem to be easily reversible as I found out.

Lawrence

[Sherry Crann (sherry)]

Howdy guys,

Lawrence, I emailed the "first problem" file to David.

ttfn,
Sherry

[David Jacklin (dj)]

Thanks, Sherry, Lawrence.

I'll have a look at it.

David

[David Jacklin (dj)]

Hi, again:

Okay. From what I can see, the first problem lies in the fact that the "Sorry" midi file has a master track (which appears at the top of the Composer Staff Setup box).

This Master track contains ALL of the voice and other sysex information for the song. It sets each channel's voice allocation first. There is no voice information in the individual channel tracks.

Unfortunately, I think that Composer is interpreting no voice information as Voice 000 or Grand Piano and, because the Master Track is Track #1, the lower tracks supercede the voicing information in the Master Track.

So, the Master Track sends the voice information, then each succeeding track is reset to Grand Piano because it has no specific setting and Composer defaults.

Is that possible, Mark?

Secondly, the several drum tracks are not set to the XG Drum Sets bank, which is sloppy programming for a commercial track. They work correctly if set to the drum bank. Two are on Channel 11 which is unusual but not necessarily wrong: I suppose the Master Track sets some FX or other settings specifically for those two sounds that the programmers didn't want on the other (Channel 10) sounds.

Thirdly, as this problem is persistent, I wonder whether you have batteries in your Yamaha keyboard, Lawrence? If so, that would possibly account for the non-resetting of the mucked up sounds. If you have batteries, pop one out for a couple of minutes and see if things are reset. IIRC, holding down the top key while powering on the keyboard should do the same, but I might be wrong on that.

FYI, the Master Track voice settings are:

Channel 2 Synth Brass 2
Channel 3 Slow Strings
Channel 4 Piano 1
Channel 5 Clean Gt.
Channel 6 Synth Brass 2
Channel 7 Synth Brass 1
Channel 8 Muted Gt.
Channel 9 Choir Aahs
Channel 10 Standard Kit
Channel 11 Syn Brass 2
Channel 12 Distorion Gt
Channel 13 Flute
Channel 14 Polysynth

Channel 1 seems to left to default to Piano.

Each channel has Volume, Pan, Expression and Effects 1 and 3 settings in the Master Track as well. And there is a 400-and-some byte Sysex bank which I didn't interpret yet.

I would think that you should be able to get it to work properly by manually setting each drum track to the XG Drum Bank and adding the above Voice settings into each track.

I would also consider muting or deleting the Master Track (top track in the Staff Setup box). I'm not sure what the Sysex does, but it probably isn't going to work with XGLite, just with full XG.

Be sure to save that under a new name.

Hope that helps.

David

[Sherry Crann (sherry)]

Howdy guys,

David J., thanks so much for taking a look at this and for your fine analysis. (slaps forehead) I didn't even pay attention to the Master Track set up - I was so busy looking at the rest of the MIDI config and the bank setup because that's where I've seen similar problems before. I'll just stick that bit of info in my hip pocket for future reference.

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

Unfortunately, I think that Composer is interpreting no voice information as Voice 000 or Grand Piano and, because the Master Track is Track #1, the lower tracks supercede the voicing information in the Master Track.

So, the Master Track sends the voice information, then each succeeding track is reset to Grand Piano because it has no specific setting and Composer defaults. <!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>

This sounds like the explanation. I'll confirm that with Mark. I do know that if there is an incorrect bank/patch info, that the voice will default to the GMbank/patch voice. In this case it makes sense that since there is no voice info, it would default to 000 piano.

I had noticed (and mentioned) that some of the drum tracks were on channel 11, but wasn't sure if that wasn't some "Yamaha" thing. Thanks for clarifying that point.

And batteries! Tech Support is always supposed to ask if it's plugged in first, aren't I? ;)

Thanks again David - let's see how this washes for Lawrence.

ttfn,
Sherry

[Lawrence (lak)]

Hi David: Thanks for taking the time to do the detailed analysis. I can see how that midi could cause problems. There is no user accessible battery in my keyboard. And I really don't think that it is related to the keyboard as my other software play all the midis fine (including this one); and I can play all the other midis (I won't try playing this one though) directly using a USB drive plugged into the DGX-630. All with correct drum sound.

But here is my main concern that could not be resolved:
- why is Musician failing to assign drum track not only to this problem midi, but to all other midis which was working properly previously? You can see the wrong assignment in the Staff setup screen.

- yes, I can work around this problem by manually assigning bank selection - but this is very time consuming and tiring to do this for each and every midi.

For the time being, I am using MidiPlayer 2 at SVPWorld as a work around. This is another software which has no problem playing all the midis through my keyboard. And it can also optionally assign panel voices in place of XG voices. Just load, click and save. And all the tracks would have proper DGX specific bank selection assignment and would then be played properly by Musician.

Sherry: can you give me some info how to clean all traces of Musician from my PC and start afresh? Are there any hidden files / registry entries which are not erased by uninstall?

[Sherry Crann (sherry)]

Howdy Lawrence,

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

Sherry: can you give me some info how to clean all traces of Musician from my PC and start afresh? Are there any hidden files / registry entries which are not erased by uninstall?<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>

I'm checking with Mark on that one.

ttfn,
Sherry

[Mark Walsen (markwa)]

Hello Lawrence, Sherry, and David,

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

Sherry: can you give me some info how to clean all traces of Musician from my PC and start afresh? Are there any hidden files / registry entries which are not erased by uninstall?<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>The only place that information about your MIDI devices is stored is in the MidiDev.cfg file, not any other files or registry entries.

Please help me understand what the Master Track is in this MIDI file. Is it the track #2 named "CONTROL" in a screenshot above? What's in the track? No notes? If no notes, then what's in the track? Is it responsible for assigning bank/programs to the other tracks?

There might be a problem that this "CONTROL" track is assigned to Auto channel. Try assigning it to a free fixed channel number.

Is this MIDI file format 0 (one track with multiple channels) or format 1 (one track per each separate channel)? If it is MIDI file format 0, then maybe Notation Musician is not correctly distributing bank and program changes to the tracks. If so, it seems like that bug would have been revealed many years ago. However, there's a way we can check whether Musician is goofing up with the MIDI file format 0 (if this is indeed a format 0 MIDI file). We can open the MIDI file format 0 in an independent MIDI maintenance utility app (several at http://www.synthzone.com/utilities.htm) and resave it as a file format 1, and read that into Musician. That might work-around the problem; and if it doesn't, that indicates that Notation isn't correctly handling some aspect of the MIDI file 0 format.

The above are my best guesses at this point as to how to further trouble-shoot and solve the problem. Uninstalling an re-installing Musician is unlikely to help with this particular problem.

Cheers
-- Mark

[Lawrence (lak)]

Hi Mark:

> Uninstalling an re-installing Musician is unlikely to help with this
> particular problem.

My main concern is not this particular midi though - I can keep it in the recycle bin http://www.notation.com/discus/clipart/happy.gif !
It is all the other midis (including previously saved ".not" files) which Musician played flawlessly at one time; and now with wrong drum bank assignment. I am trying to figure out why there is a change in how Musician handles the very same midis - and how musician translates GM or XG/XF midi into DGX XGlite bank selection. And most importantly, how I can play midi without manual bank selection (which I need to do now for every midi file and save to .not file).

BTW, this midi is supposed to be SMF 1 format (the first midi I sent to Sherry). There is a SMF 0 format version of the same song included in the second email attachments to Sherry - but I have not used Musician to load this midi.

Thanks for all the help so far.

[David Jacklin (dj)]

Hi, Mark, Sherry, Lawrence:

The file in question is a type 1 track, but all of the voice assignments and panning, etc are place on one master track.

At least that's how it comes up in Power Tracks and in Cakewalk. It also has some Sysex that I think sets up the XG features.

The specific information in the Master track has a specific channel attached to it (I guess it's actually Sysex information.)

David

[Mark Walsen (markwa)]

Hi David and Lawrence,

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

The file in question is a type 1 track, but all of the voice assignments and panning, etc are place on one master track.<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>David, this would be a new type of MIDI file data arrangement I'm not familiar with. I interpret the above statement to mean that the Master Track sends out MIDI program (patch) changes (and perhaps bank select changes?) to different MIDI channels. Each of the other tracks is assigned to a distinct channel. But those tracks strangely do not include in themselves their own MIDI patch changes? Is that what you're saying?

I've looked at the LG-JD.mid file that Lawrence sent to our helpdesk. Track 2 has about 30 SysEx events, but no MIDI program change events. Maybe the problem here is that the SysEx events are doing the job of sound changes but are not being sent by Musician to the MIDI device.

Lawrence, with your LG-JD.mid file, please try changing the channel assignment from Auto to some fixed channel number (1 to 16) and play the MIDI file. Does that fix the problem?

Cheers
-- Mark

[Lawrence (lak)]

Hi Mark:

> please try changing the channel assignment from Auto to some fixed
> channel number (1 to 16) and play the MIDI file. Does that fix the
> problem?

Do you mean in Staff setup, change from auto to sequentially assign channel numbers? No, it does not make much difference. The channels get switched around, but those which does not have bank assignment is still empty and the channel 10 is still assigned to piano.

[David Jacklin (dj)]

Hi, Mark:

Here are some screen shots that show what the file looks like in Cakewalk:

In (a very old) Cakewalk, showing the track list. Note that the first track "Sorry" does not show a specific channel assignment and that the Port assignment is "Creative Labs SB Live! External Midi" as a result, whereas tracks with specific assignments show "Yamaha XG", even though all are Port #6 (which is the SB Live! output port).

http://www.notation.com/discus/clipart/your_image.gif

This is part of the Cakewalk Event List screen for the "Sorry" track. Note that voice and other control data for multiple channels are on this track.

http://www.notation.com/discus/clipart/your_image.gif

This is the bottom of the same Event List screen, showing that there is embedded Sysex information. This doesn't show the actual sysex data.

http://www.notation.com/discus/clipart/your_image.gif

This is the same Event list in Power Track Pro Audio 12. Some of the sysex data is cut off in the display. PTPA shows the sysex at the top of the file, which Cakewalk does not.

Here is the actual sysex data:

Sysex Bank 1:

F0 7E 7F 09 01 F7 F0 43 10 4C 00 00 7E 00 F7 F0 43 10
4C 02 01 5A 01 F7 F0 43 73 01 50 12 00 00 00 F7 F0 43
73 01 50 12 00 01 00 F7 F0 43 73 01 50 12 00 02 7F F7
F0 43 73 01 50 12 00 03 7F F7 F0 43 73 01 50 12 00 04
7F F7 F0 43 73 01 50 12 00 05 02 F7 F0 43 73 01 50 12
00 06 7E F7 F0 43 73 01 50 12 00 07 03 F7 F0 43 73 01
50 12 00 08 00 F7 F0 43 73 01 50 12 00 0A 00 F7 F0 43
73 01 50 12 00 0B 7F F7 F0 7F 7F 04 01 00 64 F7

Sysex Bank 2:

F0 43 10 4C 00 00 7E 00 F7

And all of that is embedded in track 1 of the Madonna "Sorry" file.

I assume that it's done this way with the commercial file in question in order to make it easy to change voice assignments for XG, GS, GMII and so on.

David

[David Jacklin (dj)]

Hi, Mark:

Here are some screen shots that show what the file looks like in Cakewalk:

In (a very old) Cakewalk, showing the track list. Note that the first track "Sorry" does not show a specific channel assignment and that the Port assignment is "Creative Labs SB Live! External Midi" as a result, whereas tracks with specific assignments show "Yamaha XG", even though all are Port #6 (which is the SB Live! output port).

http://www.notation.com/discus/messages/30409/37021.jpg

This is part of the Cakewalk Event List screen for the "Sorry" track. Note that voice and other control data for multiple channels are on this track.

http://www.notation.com/discus/messages/30409/37020.jpg

This is the bottom of the same Event List screen, showing that there is embedded Sysex information. This doesn't show the actual sysex data.

http://www.notation.com/discus/messages/30409/37022.jpg

This is the same Event list in Power Track Pro Audio 12. Some of the sysex data is cut off in the display. PTPA shows the sysex at the top of the file, which Cakewalk does not.

http://www.notation.com/discus/messages/30409/37023.jpg

Here is the actual sysex data:

Sysex Bank 1:

F0 7E 7F 09 01 F7 F0 43 10 4C 00 00 7E 00 F7 F0 43 10
4C 02 01 5A 01 F7 F0 43 73 01 50 12 00 00 00 F7 F0 43
73 01 50 12 00 01 00 F7 F0 43 73 01 50 12 00 02 7F F7
F0 43 73 01 50 12 00 03 7F F7 F0 43 73 01 50 12 00 04
7F F7 F0 43 73 01 50 12 00 05 02 F7 F0 43 73 01 50 12
00 06 7E F7 F0 43 73 01 50 12 00 07 03 F7 F0 43 73 01
50 12 00 08 00 F7 F0 43 73 01 50 12 00 0A 00 F7 F0 43
73 01 50 12 00 0B 7F F7 F0 7F 7F 04 01 00 64 F7

Sysex Bank 2:

F0 43 10 4C 00 00 7E 00 F7

And all of that is embedded in track 1 of the Madonna "Sorry" file.

I assume that it's done this way with the commercial file in question in order to make it easy to change voice assignments for XG, GS, GMII and so on.

David

[David Jacklin (dj)]

Sorry about the double post. The first one didn't load the images, as they were too large. I had to shrink three of the four down, which accounts for the fuzziness. Hope it's still legible.

David

[Lawrence (lak)]

Hi Sherry &amp; Mark:

Have we reached a dead end? There still does not seem to be a solution to my initial problem - why I have to do bank assignment for each and every midi I load when I do not have to do this before.

This problem is not as urgent as before, as I have found a workaround by using MidiPlayer II's batch processing to assign all the channels to DGX-630 specific banks first before using them with Musician.

Still it would be nice to find out where the problem is. And I wonder if all of David's hard work has given any clue to problem midis.

Lawrence

[Sherry Crann (sherry)]

Howdy Lawrence,

We're still working on it http://www.notation.com/discus/clipart/happy.gif

ttfn,
Sherry

[Sherry Crann (sherry)]

Howdy Lawrence,

I'm glad that you've found a reasonable workaround by using MidiPlayer II's batch processing.

The problem seems to lie (as David has so graciously dug into and pointed out) in the way the Master track is set up as opposed to "standard" MIDI track/channel assignments. Musician deals with "standard" MIDI format files, and is not really set up to deal with the special circumstances of these other file formats. Musician doesn't have the capability to edit MIDI data, and so the workaround that you've found is probably your best answer at this point. We do have a related task in our database (706) that will probably fix this problem as well. It's scheduled for release later this year.

ttfn,
Sherry

[Lawrence (lak)]

Hi Sherry:

I could understand that midi like this one might be out of the norm. But what I could not understand was why my installation has been permanently changed so that all other "standard" midis could not be handled properly as well. What I was hoping was to revert back to a freshly installed state when everything worked as it would.

Mark said that mididev.cfg is the only one place where my device info is stored. But deleting it and re-configuring it did not help. So there must be some other files or registries not erased by "UNINSTALL" which affected the drum bank assignment; resulting in persistent problem despite uninstall->re-install.

The frustrating thing was that everything worked so perfectly before, and now I could not get it back to that state. My priority was not those "problem" midi, but all the other "standard" midis that I am having problem without pre-processing with MidiPlayer first.

What I need is list of files/registries which needs to be manually erased after standard "UNINSTALL" to achieve totally clean uninstall; and I hope it would then allow me to revert back to a freshly installed state.

Thanks!


Lawrence

[Sherry Crann (sherry)]

Howdy Lawrence,

Mark is correct that the only place that device information is stored and used by our software is the MidiDev.cfg (he would know - he's our chief developer http://www.notation.com/discus/clipart/happy.gif ).

Is it possible that the change may have occurred to some stored information in the Yamaha or routing software on your computer? I know that resetting some devices to "factory preset" may help, especially where Sys Ex commands have been involved, as in this case.

It might be worth asking on one of the Yamaha forums (or the developer who created MidiPlayer II) for any experience and/or help here.

ttfn,
Sherry

[Sherry Crann (sherry)]

p.s. I should have added that if such a change occurred to the device, it certainly could have been caused by Musician's faulty handling of the Master track "over ride" data for the individual tracks. This specific handling of Sys Ex and other routing events is what we're working to improve.

For now though, resetting the device is my best recommendation.

ttfn,
Sherry

[Lawrence (lak)]

Hi Sherry:

> Is it possible that the change may have occurred to some stored
> information in the Yamaha or routing software on your computer?
> I know that resetting some devices to "factory preset" may help,
> especially where Sys Ex commands have been involved, as in this case.

I have already tried the resetting routine, even though I am fairly positive that the keyboard was not the problem - why?

- No other software has the same problem. All of them load all the midis and play them with problem voices and drum sound.

- You can see clearly from the Staff setup that Musician has assigned Channel 10 drum sound to the wrong bank assignment, and it should not be surprising that the sound would come out wrong.

- When the midi has been pre-converted to XG lite by MidiPlayer, Musician has no problem playing the file.

So the main issue here seemed to be how Musician handled the GM to XG lite conversion; something was not dealt with correctly and it was unable to reassign the GM's bank 0 in channel 10 to XG lite's bank 127. But I could not explain why this was not a problem initially, and what caused the change in Musician setup.

Lawrence

[Lawrence (lak)]

Edit:
> - No other software has the same problem. All of them load all the
> midis and play them with problem voices and drum sound.

Should be:
- No other software has the same problem. All of them load all the midis and play them with proper voices and drum sound.