Has anyone seen this bug?

[Chris Beck]

This happened for the first time (GS 1.6) yesterday:

I had lots instruments loaded (was in the process of auditioning). I don\'t know how many but I would say over two hundred.

As I continued the process of aditioning I dragged an instrument from the laoder into a midi channel. Instead of the instrument I dragged showing up, an instrument I had loaded earlier showed up - actually if memeory serves it was the *first* instrument loaded. And it wasn\'t just a display bug either, it actually sounded like the earlier-loaded instrument.

The instrument shows up in the (super-slow-scrolling!) pop up list for that midi channel, but again, when I select it from the list, the other instrument shows up.

When I go to load another instrument, it happens again, with a different earlier-loaded instrument - again if memory serves, the *second* instrument I loaded.

The problem disappeared when I (tediously!) unloaded a bunch of instruments and tried again.

Here\'s another thing: my assistant had the exact same problem on his (separate) system the next day. So it sounds like a software thing.

This leads me to believe that GS can only work with a limited number of instruments. Next time this happens I\'ll count how many. 256??

- Chris Beck (feeling the need to announce my love of GS since messages on this forum focus necessarily on the negative)

[jbibbo]

Chris,

Could you post this bug to gssuport@nemesysmusic.com so that we have some record of it.

Also, a couple of things to look for next time you get this bug. Are the instruments you loading, all have the same patch/bank number (0/0)? You can check this with the editor. Technically it should work even if all the banks/patch are 0/0, but I am trying to see if the problem lies in the loader.

The other thing to be careful of - is something called unique Identifiers - UID. Each instrument has a unique ID. This is how the software is able to uniquely identify any instrument loaded or sitting on the disk. For example if you had an instrument on your harddrive called c:\\mygig.gig, and you used Windows file explorer to copy it to d:\\mygig2.gig - this could cause problems for the loader. The Windows copy command copied all the instrument\'s data including the UID to the new file. The software sees
both instruments as the same instrument. We do not use file name and file path to distinquish instruments. By using UID we can make performances work across different machines, regardless of where the instruments are stored on the harddisk.

So how does some make a copy of a .gig without screwing up the loader? Use the editor, and save the instrument with the \'Save As ..\' option. This will generate a new
UID for you. NOTE: any instruments created by the GS editor or SConverter will properly generate new unique IDs and you should have
no need to worry. The only issue comes when the users make hand copies or some outside utility tries to create a .gig file.

Hope some of this info relates to your issue.

Joe (NemeSys)

[Chris Beck]

Joe,

Thanks for your reply.

I don\'t think I did any of the copying that you mentioned but I could be wrong.

Also it happened on two separate machines.

Thanks for the info on UID stuff, now I know I don\'t need to freak out about keeping all my paths identical on both machines.

Question:

Is there the equivalent of a UID renumber? Is that what profiling the drives does? If not am I screwed? Will this behavior occur only on certain \"corrupted\" instrument files?

Bottom line... if it happens again what can I do?

Thanks again!
- Chris

[Danny Lux]

Her\'s the deal with your problem..... I have been complaining about this problem for months!!!!!!! It comes down to the GS not working correctly with bank changes. Chris your problem occurs when you have the magic number of more than 128 instruments loaded. Any instrument loaded after 128 is only available if you drop that instrument onto a channel. If you make a patch change on that channel you can never play that sound again unless you unload it and drop it on the channel again. Dropping it on the channel again without unloading it will not work. I beg Nemesys to fix the bank change right away. PLEAS DO NOT wait 6 MONTHS for version 2 to fix this. Working professionals need major bug fixes responded to in a quick fashion.

[jbibbo]

Actually, I think Danny is correct in identifying your problem. We do have an issue with bank selects that needs to be fixed. Currently, he has correctly stated the only workaround to the problem. If you notice when you load the 129th instrument it will get assigned bank 1, patch 0 (use the layout button to view). If you try to \'get to\' the 129 instrument the sampler will find the first instrument you loaded. The same will be true of the 257 instrument, which will be on bank 3, patch 0.

NemeSys is working to get a fix to this problem. Thanks for you patience.

Joe (NemeSys)