Mysterious changing patches

[ErikJon]

Hello, friends.

I've only been using Waveform for a few days, and only to import existing MIDI files for re-touching, changing instrumentation, extending the duration, tweaking volume and reverb on individual channels, etc., and then mixing down the final product to export to audio format, or sometimes just to MIDI format.

I'm using CoolSoft Virtual MIDI Synth 2.11.2 for my output, no controller connected, and everything sounds fine.

So I imported a new MIDI file that I found on the internet, that was in the wrong key, was not long enough for my needs, and did not have enough drums to it.

So I added a separate MIDI drum track to go along with it, and everything sounded fine, at that point. Then after clicking around here and there, I noticed that my "banjo" track now sounded like a piano. As far as I could tell, I had not changed anything, but just clicked around trying to see what features were available.

So I re-started the program, but the issue did not correct itself.

I tried substituting another virtual MIDI soundfont in the CoolSoft Virtual MIDI Synth, but the result was just another inferior piano sound on the same banjo track, so I re-selected the previous soundfont.

Before I started enlarging this project and changing the key, I thought I should first figure out what was going on with the banjo patch.

So, I figured that a good work-around, in the meantime, would be just to select the banjo track, and re-apply the banjo patch to it. I looked all over, including in the manual, and could not find out how to do that.

I used to use GarageBand and other simple DAWs, and there was always a way to open the bank of available instrument sounds and select manually whichever instrument I wanted to apply to the selected channel, but in Waveform I cannot find out how to do that for the life of me.

Can you tell me how?

Erik

P.S. my PC specs are as follows:

OS Name Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Version 10.0.19041 Build 19041
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Manufacturer Dell Inc.
System Model Latitude 7490
System Type x64-based PC
System SKU 081C
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8650U CPU @ 1.90GHz, 2112 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Dell Inc. 1.15.1, 6/23/2020
SMBIOS Version 3.1
Embedded Controller Version 255.255
BIOS Mode UEFI
BaseBoard Manufacturer Dell Inc.
BaseBoard Product
BaseBoard Version
Platform Role Mobile
Secure Boot State On
PCR7 Configuration Elevation Required to View
Windows Directory C:\windows
System Directory C:\windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "10.0.19041.1110"
Time Zone Central Standard Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 16.0 GB
Total Physical Memory 15.9 GB
Available Physical Memory 9.10 GB
Total Virtual Memory 31.9 GB
Available Virtual Memory 25.3 GB
Page File Space 16.0 GB



I'm using

[BertKoor]

I've only been using Waveform for a few days

Ah yes, Waveform... formerly known as Tracktion. It has a dedicated forum over here:
viewforum.php?f=22

Then after clicking around here and there, I noticed that my "banjo" track now sounded like a piano.

Piano is midi patch #1. So it sounds like the Program Change midi command at the start of the track which switches it to banjo is somehow lost.

How to repair that is explained in the very last post (by pough) in this thread:
viewtopic.php?t=559779

Good luck!

[ErikJon]

Thank you, BertKoor. I will check it out.