Midi track reduced volume

[dftlm]

I add some midi tracks, all with output to keyboard arranger for tones, everything is ok, but, after a while, one of the tracks loses its volume, it is barely audible. Without me turning up or down the volume, without plugins, without effects, regardless of the patch.

No volume sliders changing, no automation, no velocity.
So, I have 4 tracks, empty (without notes), piano, drums, bass, guitar, outputs to external keyboard.
All sounds ok, I can monitor, I can play, all ok...
After some time, one of the tracks, say guitar, has volume very low.

Does anyone know what is going on?
Muse 4.2, arch linux, jack.
Thank you!

[Tim E. Real]

Hello. When the volume decreases like that, do you notice any MusE volume slider controls changing?
If you open the mixer, do you notice any of the volume controls changing over time, especially for that one track?

If the answer is yes, then you might have some midi track automation graphs, that are affecting the volume on that track.
Check carefully for any midi automation graphs in the pianoroll or drum editor.
There is a track volume midi controller graph, and there are a few others such as master volume, filters and so on.
Also, check carefully the note-on and note-off velocities of each of the notes on the track, in the pianoroll or drum editor.
Maybe somehow each of the notes on the track was programmed with decreasing velocities with each successive note?

If the answer is no, if everything else looks OK, then somehow MusE might not be the trouble here.
Maybe the external keyboard?

[dftlm]

@Tim E. Real

In an attempt to solve the problem, I made things as simple as possible: a new muse project, only the audio out track and four MIDI tracks, say piano-1, drums-10, bass-11, guitar-12.
I have two external midi hardware: one Impulse49 midi controller and another Casio ct-x3000 keyboard.
I don’t use synth instrument. For play, all midi tracks output to Casio.
In order not to complicate things, I don’t use a control surface. I have the patchfile for my Casio Instrument.
Initially, everything is ok, after I make midi tracks, everything is ok, it sounds normal, I don’t add anything, no plugins, no effects, I don’t touch the volume sliders, no automation, nothing. I start to play, work, add more notes, delete, normal…
At some point, when I come back, the guitar track, let’s say, is barely audible, as if I had reduced the volume to 5. Another time I happened with bass track.

[Impostor]

If you suspect MusE you can easily find out if that's the case:

Even though you can run MusE as muse4 -M such that it logs the midi output, snooping on the midi with aseqdump result in more readable output. One caveat, if MusE's midi out is already connected to another port, you can't snoop with aseqdump directly on musE for some reason, so you'd either have to disconnect that other connection, or route MusE's midi out via a midi through port to its destination.

Snooping on already connected midi through ports works fine. Just direct the output of aseqdump to a file, then you can search the file for suspect cc messages.

If there aren't any, I'd say the problem lies elsewhere.

At some point, when I come back, the guitar track, let’s say, is barely audible, as if I had reduced the volume to 5.

Although, if it only happens when you're out of the room, maybe the cat walked over your gear...

[dftlm]

@Impostor

When I come back to work on a midi guitar track, I mean, after working on bass or drums. Without going to other settings, I find the volume reduced in the guitar track. It's curious!

[Impostor]

@Impostor

When I come back to work on a midi guitar track, I mean, after working on bass or drums. Without going to other settings, I find the volume reduced in the guitar track. It's curious! :D

You do assign all tracks distinct midi channels?

[dftlm]

@Impostor

As I already described above, piano ch1, drums ch10, bass ch11, guitar ch12.

No matter how many midi tracks I have, at some point one of the tracks drops the volume.

[Impostor]

Well, as I said, snoop on the midi with aseqdump. You'll get something like this if midi data is being sent by MusE (I've used midi-thru port 2 in MusE as output port, and assigned 4 tracks to midi channels 1-4 (=0-3). I'm snooping on midi-thru, not MusE itself:

Code: Select all

Source  Event                  Ch  Data
  0:1   Port subscribed            129:0 -> 131:0
 14:2   Control change          0, controller 7, value 102
 14:2   Control change          0, controller 7, value 103
 14:2   Control change          0, controller 7, value 104
 14:2   Control change          0, controller 7, value 105
 14:2   Control change          0, controller 7, value 104
 14:2   Control change          0, controller 7, value 103
 14:2   Control change          0, controller 7, value 102
 14:2   Control change          0, controller 7, value 101
 14:2   Control change          0, controller 7, value 100
 14:2   Control change          0, controller 7, value 99
 14:2   Control change          1, controller 7, value 106
 14:2   Control change          1, controller 7, value 107
 14:2   Control change          1, controller 7, value 108
 14:2   Control change          1, controller 7, value 109
 14:2   Control change          1, controller 7, value 108
 14:2   Control change          1, controller 7, value 107
 14:2   Control change          2, controller 7, value 102
 14:2   Control change          2, controller 7, value 101
 14:2   Control change          3, controller 7, value 104
 14:2   Control change          3, controller 91, value 41
 14:2   Control change          3, controller 91, value 41
 14:2   Control change          3, controller 91, value 42
 14:2   Control change          3, controller 91, value 43
 14:2   Control change          3, controller 91, value 44
 14:2   Control change          1, controller 91, value 51
 14:2   Control change          1, controller 91, value 52
 14:2   Control change          1, controller 94, value 1