Patch change doesn't appear to work on midi tracks

Getting Stuff Done Hints and Tricks
#1

I can’t figure out how to change an instrument on a midi track on Ardour8. The patch menu seems to have no effect.

#2

What synth plugin do you use?

(not all plugins support patch-changes).

#3

Thanks for the speedy reply. I suspected the plug-in was at fault, but
I couldn’t find out how to change it (I’ve spent 2 days trying to fix it).
I’m probably using the ASC Reasonable Synth and yes somewhere in the
manual I did eventually see that it didn’t respond to patch changes.
I built ardour8 from source using the excellent resource at
Compiling Ardour 8 On Debian 12 – Interfacing Linux.
I didn’t add anything to the build instructions.

I normally create my midi files with multiple tracks elsewhere (using
Python) and I only need to change instruments on tracks in ardour.
It would be great if you could let me know how to select a different
plugin like ACE Fluid Synth.

Thanks again for the reply.

#4

Further to my previous reply, I have now found out how to select ACE
Fluid Synth for any given track, but now I get no sound.

#5

The manual page with info on plugins mentions explitly regarding Fluid Synth that “This instrument plugin doesn’t work without 3rd party SF2 files, otherwise it will be silent.”

Try using General MIDI Synth to get a feel for how MIDI tracks work, then look for a different plugin that makes the sounds you want (and look up the manual for the plugin to find out how to load patches into that plugin).

1 Like
#6

Cheers. Seems far from intuitive. Don’t have any more time to investigate.