Failed midi instrumens importing midi files

[AD999]

I can’t get the MIDI instruments to work in Ardour. When I import a MIDI file, everything appears as piano, including the percussion. What should I do?

[ccaudle (Chris)]

Did you add an instrument plugin to your MIDI track, and configure sounds you want for the MIDI channels in use?

[AD999]

No I didn’t. How you configure sounds when is imported a midi file to the program? They should be already configured… In other programs (ex audacious) the midi file play the others instruments, only in ardour they don’t. What should i do?

[Majik (Keith Milner)]

@AD999

They should be already configured

Well, that depends…

I’m assuming the track is a GM compatible MIDI file, and I’m guessing you are using the General MIDI Synth which will appear against the track in the mixer strip like this:

General MIDI (GM) is a specification that defines which MIDI patch number corresponds with which instrument. So patch number 1 is “Acoustic Grand Piano”, patch number 17 is “Drawbar Organ” and so on.

For this to work with Ardour (or, really any music player) the MIDI file must contain the MIDI patch change messages to tell the MIDI synth to switch to a particular sound. These should show up in the MIDI track. For instance, I downloaded this MIDI file and imported into Ardour, and this is what I see:

The blue boxes are the MIDI patch changes. If you don’t see these, then either the MIDI file doesn’t have them, or they’ve not imported correctly for some reason.

Or you have a very old version of Ardour which doesn’t support this. Which version are you using?

The screenshots come from my v8.12 install, and it imports and plays MIDI files perfectly, including the correct patch changes.

Cheers,

Keith

[ccaudle (Chris)]

@Majik

I’m assuming the track is a GM compatible MIDI file

Thanks for filling out the details, Keith. My synthesizers don’t support those new standards like General MIDI (not standardized until 1991), so sometimes I forget that is a thing.

@Majik

I’m guessing you are using the General MIDI Synth

The track may have defaulted to Reasonable Synth, which Robin has previously described as “just a toy that can only do a reasonable e-piano imitation.” That would match the original description of all parts sounding like a piano.

[Majik (Keith Milner)]

@ccaudle

My synthesizers don’t support those new standards like General MIDI (not standardized until 1991),

Kids and their new-fangled technology…

@ccaudle

The track may have defaulted to Reasonable Synth

Yes, that is a reasonable scenario (see what I did there).

I guess we have to wait for the OP to respond.

Cheers,

Keith