Kev999

mwmcbroom
...I prefer working from the Console View and I make my channel/bank/patch selections for the tracks in Console View. It seems to me, though, that it shouldn't matter where the changes are made from.

 
What happens if you select the same presets from the TTS-1 GUI itself instead of via Track View or Console View?

Yes you can do this , but you need to select "none" in the track inspector boxes as I noted above.  
Some VST synths ignore the track inspector selections but not TTS"1 

Kev, I haven't tried selecting patches from the TTS-1 GUI, and Johnny, thanks for the "none" tip. I wasn't aware of that one. But then I don't usually select patches from the TTS-1 GUI.
 
I've been working with several MIDI tunes generated by BiaB since my last post here. I ran into a situation in a couple of them where the patch was playing the wrong sound, but using that technique I discovered of changing channels and then patches, I've gotten them to respond properly. So I've just motored along using that method. I'm still doing this. I have a list of some 15 more tunes I need to convert from MIDI over to Cakewalk's format, so this little situation will most likely continue.
 

After a few weeks of SPlat (and CbB) behaving more or less normally, I'm again plagued by this odd behavior, but with a new file. The file is straight MIDI with a totally clean Event List. It's five parts, and was originally set for violin in all five parts. It is J.S. Bach's famous Chaconne for violin, from his Partita for solo violin in Dm, BWV 1002. I found this transcription at a site dedicated to Bach that has many MIDI files available for download. The transcription is clean and accurate, but what the original arranger did was break up a single violin's part into five different tracks, thus five different channels -- but all violin. It works quite well that way. I suspect he did it because the file would have become dense with notation, the way the original work is, and perhaps too dense for his MIDI editor.
 
I assigned TTS-1 as the synth for the voices. It worked well with the straight violin patches. But I decided to play around with the voices, assigning them to other instruments, and this was where I began to run into problems. SPlat decided that Track 5 should be percussion instead of the electric piano that I assigned for that track. And when I tried to unstick it from odd percussion noises, I was successful by changing channels -- I wound up on 15 -- but now it's stuck on an acoustic piano setting and I can't get it unstuck. And then it started misbehaving with other tracks. SPlat decided that Track 1 should play odd percussion noises instead of the keyboard I assigned, and I finally got it unstuck by changing channels, but its voice decided to shift to another piano sound. I was successful in changing the voice to vibraphone, so I left it there.
 
So anyway, now I'm faced with a disorganized jumble. Other tracks are resisting voice changes the same as Tracks 1 and 5 did. This is very frustrating.
 
What I'd still like to know is, why is SPat (and CbB -- I'm actually working in CbB at the moment) doing this? What on Earth is causing SPat and CbB to decide to switch a patch from a melodic instrument to percussion noises? Why won't it just do what I tell it to do?  Very frustrating.
 
What I find so odd about this is I just completed work on a large project with 10 tracks of MIDI instruments. It was a lot of work and I played around a lot with various voices before I found a combination I liked. And not once did I have a problem with that work that I'm having with this one. It is much more complex, but CbB handled it with aplomb. So go figure.
 
 

mwmcbroom
The file is straight MIDI with a totally clean Event List.

Please post the MIDI file so others can try to replicate the problem.
 

Hmm . . . how should I post it?
 
Tell you what, I'll put it up at my website and y'all can d/l it if you want. The voices are all messed up in this copy, so have fun. Just left click on it to d/l. I went ahead and saved it as a Cakewalk work file. Didn't seem to make a difference.
 
http://michaelmcbroom.com/photo/bach_chaconne_bwv1002.cwp
 

Have you tried Kev999's suggestion? I prefer it because the layout of the instruments in the Preset menu.

This image was taken from the project above notice channels 4, 10, 12 and 16 are set to the standard drum set. By default TTS-1 assigns this kit to channel 10 only. These channels are not in use at the moment but does show some unusual channel assignments.

I see in the synth rack that you added the TTS twice. Did you intend to?
 
In some of your tracks you have chosen banks other than "Preset Normal 0" which gives you variations of instruments. Was that your intention?
 
If I choose the bank "Preset Normal 0" for each track, I can then choose any instrument from the "patch" drop-down list and the TTS1 dutifully changes to that instrument in the UI.
 
I could successfully choose instruments in both SPlat and CbB.
 

Yeah, I did not find anything in the project preventing instrument assignment.

Initial state of the downloaded test project:
 

• In the TTS-1 GUI I found the settings for parts 1, 3, 4, 5, 12 & 16 were set to "User" instead of "GM". 
• In the project tracks banks, I observed the same thing that Eddie had, that some banks were using other than "Preset Normal 0".
• Parts 12 & 16 were set to rhythm parts, in addition to part 10.  Since nothing was routed to MIDI ch 12 & 16, probably not an issue.

• Track 1 routed to MIDI ch 14, and track 4 routed to MIDI ch 15.  Just an observation, probably not an issue.

 
Actions taken:
 

• For starters, I reset the project tracks #1-5 to use MIDI channels 1-5, to align all tracks, channels and parts for simplicity.  I set all tracks with bank "Preset Normal 0".  I wanted to use "Preset Normal 0" across the board.

• In TTS-1, for the parts 3 & 5, I had to manually go in to the part and select an instrument in TTS-1 to get the TTS-1 selection to switch from "User" back to "GM".  From that point on, TTS-1 would switch the instruments on the respective channels/parts according to my track selections in the project.

 
Conclusion:
 
Once the TTS-1 settings and the track banks were back to default, I could find nothing preventing me from assigning instruments as desired.

Thanks guys for delving into this mystery for me. I need to call up the file now and see if I can duplicate what y'all have done. One comment -- when I use TTS-1, I'm always using one of the "Preset Normal" bank selections to choose my patches -- from the console view, not from TTS-1 directly. I never select "none." And I have no idea how some of those tracks got set to "User" in TTS-1. I'll have to look out for this in the future.
 
abacab, what you did is what I normally do. I just guess I missed the "User" business in TTS-1. Had no idea.
 
Okay, I tried out just setting the patch selections in TTS-1 directly, and everything worked fine, for the most part. Once I started playing the piece, a couple patches reverted to what the console was showing but once I put them back they stayed put. I notice that the console doesn't get updated when I enter the patch changes directly into TTS-1, so I updated the info in the console also -- just for good housekeeping if no other reason.
 
Well this seems to solve the mystery.
 
Eddie, TTS-1 ended up getting selected twice because that was me working out of habit. First thing I do when loading a MIDI file -- well it used to be, at any rate -- was to also load TTS-1. But I've noticed recently when I load a MIDI file, TTS-1 is already loaded, but only a single track of it -- usually it loads two tracks. Such was the case here, but it was working fine, so I just left it alone and never bothered deleting the second installation of it.
 
Okay, so it is behaving normally now, and now I get to play around with the voices in this very famous piece of Baroque music. I love playing around with Bach's voicing. Strings can get so boring after a while.