Apologies up front if this topic is well worn and I simply have not found the answer. I am trying to assign new instruments to MIDI tracks created in a different DAW.
This is likely covered in MIDI 101, day 1 but I am stumped! Specific Problem: MIDI track provided is labeled “Conga” for example. MIDI data is imported into Ardour 8.12 and played within MIDI track created at the initiation of session. Conga note events are played as GM Piano. Going thru track properties in mixer window and changing chanel to 10, selecting different patch, even selecting different sf2 plugin does not alter how Ardour plays the “Conga” part. It always plays as GM Piano.
Q: How do I get Ardour to play a “conga” sound (or whatever other instrument I may want) as conceived by composer?
One way to get around this is to first change your mouse edit mode to “Internal Edit Mode” (shortcut E). Next selected the midi region then press Ctrl+A to select all the notes. Right click on one of them and select Edit. Next change the Channel to whatever channel you need (top left). This will change all notes in the region to respond to that channel.
A Conga may be a specific note in a GM drum set (maybe note #64). Not sure, but you will want channel 10 for that. You may even need to slide all those notes up or down to put it on the correct note number for the kit you are using. If you make the track large, it will show you the drum names on the keyboard and you should be able to find the Conga there.
Another useful tip, right click on the track in Track Edit mode (not to be confused with the Mixer page) and select Patch Selector. This will show you all the patches available for the selected plugin.
Which instrument plug-in did you select when creating the track?
The Ardour manual page describing bundled instrument plugins notes that ACE Reasonable Synth is “a very minimal synth with a piano-like sound,” which could be what you are describing.
Use the General MIDI Synth. It’s by far the best and most flexible in Ardour so far. Depending on your build, you may or may not have it (most do) but if you don’t, you can download it from here:
Thank you for the very helpful replies. I was just looking to see if there are third party virtual instruments. I was able to assign correct instruments to the provided MIDI tracks using the suggestions seen above. Now I’m in the “up the game” phase.
I opted with General Midi Synth. There are other options shown; some of which produce no sound (I haven’t chased that one down yet). So I used the built in GM and was able to discover where I made my mistake.