Program change numbers getting shuffled around?

[Mike Beckett]

Hello all,

Another disconcerting \"feature\" of GigaStudio... http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

Having only one MIDI port to work with, I recently had to make extensive use of program change messages in order to squeeze as much out of 16 parts as possible. I manually wrote all of the PC messages into my sequence, taking a good fifteen, twenty minutes or so.

Imagine my annoyance when I restarted GigaStudio (after a repeatable, too-many-notes-playing-at-once induced crash) and found that many of the program change numbers assigned to the various instruments in my performance had changed!! http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/frown.gif

It seems that GigaStudio rebuilds its list of instrument numbers when reloading a performance to fill in numeric blanks left by instruments that were \"unloaded\". This might seem like neat and tidy behaviour at first glance, but it turns out to be quite frustrating and, as far as I can tell, useless. I had to go through each track, identify those program changes that were now calling up the wrong instrument, and change them one by one.

I may have missed it in the \"manual\", but is there a way to \"lock\" the program change number assigned to a instrument?

[John Matrix]

Even with 4 midi ports, this behaviour slows your work. Now and again, GSt is assigning \"random\" (?) instruments to empty midi channels AND channels that are not empty.

My GSt is 2.01.8 but I just checked the bug fix release.txt of GSt 2.001.022 which says:

\"9. Instruments with Banks other than 0 would not be properly saved/restored
in a performance.\"

I do not know if the problem is related to that bug.

[Haydn]

I have also ran into this problem and it drives me crazy!! I normally use the 1st port and have ran the patches but still run into the same problem.

Usually I record the Xsample harp into cakewalk as audio to free up voices and memory in Gigastudio. I then remove the harp sample and this causes a problem everytime. This problem definitely needs a fix.

[Mike Beckett]

Hi John and Haydn!

Sorry to hear it\'s not just my failure to \"RTFM\". http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

The release notes for the .22 update notwithstanding, I am running the latest patch (.22) and am still having the problem. <sigh>

I guess we\'ll add this to the pile of issues waiting for the boys at Nemesys.

I really dig GigaStudio (and GigaSampler), but the company\'s small size seems to be becoming a big problem. These are the kinds of things that should be caught and fixed in beta testing, BEFORE a product is released. Now that the product is out, they seem so desperately busy, trying to plug these holes, that they can\'t even maintain their website or technical support channels.

I know Dave and the gang will be working their butts off, but sometimes you need to work >smart<, not just >hard<. Hire another programmer, guys! http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif

[ondrej]

Another frustrated here. Will be very nice if Nemesys finds time to fix the problem.
It would be also nice if one could change the channel assignment of the instruments which are already loaded. Not to have to reload everything if you change your mind regarding the channels.

ondrej

[Boydbob]

I have the latest patch (2.1.019?) and I can\'t reproduce this problem.

I loaded 4 random numbered patches (0,1,4,33) in channels 1 - 4 and saved and reloaded the performance (and variations) several times (including ch 1 empty).

Each time the performance came up with the right patches on the right channels and the patch numbers (0,1,4,33) had not changed.

Unless I\'m missing something, the latest patch should solve your problem.

Boyd