General MIDI MIDNAM doesnt show SOMETIMES, especially when dragging imported midi files onto a newly created track. This was using the General MIDI Synth that was installed with Ardour 8.0
This problem existed in previous versions, I just could not pinpoint what was causing the MIDNAM not to show and how to reproduce it.
I DeInterlaced the MIDI, and dragged channel 10 to a previously created blank GMI MIDI track. When I hovered the notes, I can confirm that they are channel 10.
Also, I could not find ‘Drums’ or ‘Percussion’ in theTeal colored text in the lower left of the MIDI event. I could hover the mouse and scroll all the available options however. That is why it is showing ‘Rock Organ’ instead of ‘Drums’ or ‘Percussion’.
@x42 I do not know if this is an Ardour bug or General MIDI Instrument LV2 bug, or maybe operator error. The GM Instrument LV2 was the one installed with Ardour 8.0 according to plugin manager. Let me know if you need me to check or do something.
It depends on the patch chosen for the given channel. By default a drumkit is loaded on channel 10, but if you change the patch for channel 10 to something else then you don’t get drum-names.
Likewise if you change the patch for channel 1 to be a drumkit, the plugin provided MIDNAM will change to provide note-names for channel 1.
In your case there is a patch-change to “Rock Organ” as part of the MIDI data, so you get note-names for it.
Thank you for clarifying that. I did not know the teal box was a MIDI patch change. I did not see that in the manual at first, but realized that they can be edited with Ardour!
I tried several PC in banks 120 and 128 , and none of them seemed to work for populating MIDNAM. I never got into understanding how MIDI Patch Changes work.
I completely removed the PC from the MIDI track using Ardour. I cannot get the MIDNAM names to populate on that track. When I drag that MIDI file without the PC to a new track with GM Instrument, I select channel 10 and the MIDNAM names appear!
EDIT: after restaring Ardour, It seems to have applied the MIDNAM names to the track that I deleted the PC from. So Ardour does not seem to refresh MIDNAM when PC’s are removed. I will verify when I have more time and see if I can reproduce the issue consistently.
It was a workaround to get it to show MIDNAM, but I don’t think I should have to create a new track. Is there a way to refresh a plugin / track for MIDNAM ? Or is there a specific PC I should select ?
I have noticed that when a Patch Change is removed, and there are no more Patch Changes present in the MIDI, the MIDINAM is not updated until Ardour is restarted.
I added a Patch Change for channel 10 ( I assume this would be the same for any channel, my example happens to use channel 10 though), hit play, let the Patch Change play through and happen. Delete the Patch Change and then
Before Restart :
After Restart :
This is how I can reproduce what is happening when MIDI files are imported.
I manually tried to get MIDNAM to show by changing the channel of the plug-in, playing, and manual selecting another MIDNAM, and switching back. Nothing I did could bring back up the proper MIDNAM names except to close the session and reopen.
I would think that the MIDINAM should update far before the restart.
Removing the patch change does not change the active patch. Check the plugin’s GUI which shows a list of currently active patches for each channel.
It is odd that reloading the session changes things.
That would also mean that a different patch is active after reload. By default Ardour replays the most recently used patch (unless you disable this, MIDI track header context menu > Restore patch).
Playing a patch-change into the track, or explicitly selecting one using the patch-change selector, or picking one using GMsynth’s plugin GUI is saved/restored by the MIDI track.
Patches played via a patch-change from a MIDI file are volatile.
Ok. Thank you for the explanation. It makes sense. I flip the MIDI Instrument preset back and it shows the MIDNAM names again without a restart. I assumed it would revert when playback started.
