What makes first track display?

[quattj]

I am working on a MIDI soundtrack, as I have done with six others in the past.  Normally the track view has not been showing the "first" (setup) track, containing things like time signature and SYSEX data.  However, with my current soundtrack, some of my songs are showing the first track, while others are not.  What event(s) would cause the track to appear in this soundtrack, but only on some of the files?  In the attachment, the top file is not showing the setup track, while the bottom one is.

[Bristol_Jonesey]

I'm not entirely sure what your issues is - the misunderstanding is almost certainly my fault - but could it simply be you've hidden the Control Bar?

Hitting 'c' will toggle it on/off

[John Vere]

Your wording is not clear. 
But first, sys exclusive and time signature data are not part of a track. Sys ex has its own view which opens in the multi dock. Time signature is found in the transport module. 
All I see is you have a blank midi track and by default the first track inserted is called track 1. It is not a control track.  Possibly you have been using another sequencer that worked like that. 

[quattj]

2 hours ago, John Vere said:

But first, sys exclusive and time signature data are not part of a track. Sys ex has its own view which opens in the multi dock. Time signature is found in the transport module. 
 

They actually are part of a track, for that is the structure of a MIDI file.  MIDI files consist solely of the Mthd header chunk and a subsequent series of Mtrk track chunks.  The very first track in a MIDI file is where all of the setup takes place.  It normally does not contain any note data (unless it is a type 0 file, which only contains a single track).  Normally this first track is not displayed in Cakewalk, but for some reason, with a few of these files, it is being displayed.  My goal it to understand why it is doing this so I can either A) ignore it (though it will make some of my edits a little more tedious because I will need to deselect it all the time) or B) remove or move the offending event(s) to the next track (ie, the first musical track).

Other editors, such as Sekaiju, always display the setup track.  See the attached screenshots from Sekaiju.  You can see the setup tracks at the top of the list, and also the events that are in each setup track.  In Cakewalk, for one of the files (song 02) it does not show the setup track, yet in the other one (song 04) it does, so my assumption is some event in the setup track is causing it to be displayed in Cakewalk.

It is not a setting that is being modified, as I can load all of my files at the same time, and some will show it, while some will not.

More info about the internals of a MIDI file can be found at

https://www.midi.org/specifications/file-format-specifications/standard-midi-files

[John Vere]

To be clear, Cakewalks Midi tracks do not show some types of data, It takes that information and puts it elsewhere like the event list and sys ex view.  It took me a while to get used to the way it works compared to other DAW's and Sequencer software. 

If it is a already created midi file  when you Open  then it will create a track for each midi channel. The track numbers and channels will match. 

If you Import a midi file into a project that already has a few tracks it will populate the project starting with the midi track you had to put in focus to enable the import. 

This is why you always OPEN a complete midi file as that will have all the correct information including tempo and sys ex data. 

IMPORT is for midi clips and data like tempo will not be included.  

[57Gregy]

Are you referring to THIS or THIS?
The green-highlighted box is the timeline.
The red-highlighted box appears to be a MIDI track with nothing recorded in it.

 

[David Baay]

If everything in the setup track has a non-track location defined in CbB to store it, a track won't be needed to hold anything so it won't be necessary to create one. If a track has been created, simply looking at the Event List should reveal what data was in the track that couldn't be stored elsewhere. In the past, I've seen MIDI files that open with a first track that contains only a track name (e.g. the song or author's name), but in your case where it's the default "Track 1" and there appear to be clips in the track, the Event List should reveal something.

[JnTuneTech]

On 10/18/2023 at 12:45 PM, quattj said:

What event(s) would cause the track to appear in this soundtrack, but only on some of the files?

In the screen captures presented, I would assume that the either the method of loading the tracks into Cakewalk was different for each instance, or that one of the versions had information that was not in the other, and Cakewalk presented it as a separate track. -Either way, the information in the other posts here is all great, and you might want to look at how Cakewalk presents MIDI, because it does not do it the same as the other editor you referenced. Primarily, Cakewalk does not create a "track" for SYSEX, or time signature, and in current versions tempo can have its own view which is separate and not numbered along with the main tracking.

[quattj]

7 hours ago, 57Gregy said:

Are you referring to THIS or THIS?
The green-highlighted box is the timeline.
The red-highlighted box appears to be a MIDI track with nothing recorded in it.

 

The red highlighted box is the item in question.

I have completed 145 other MIDI files using more or less the same technique I am using now.

MIDI files are created with a utility.

Files are edited with Anvil Studio, Sekaiju, and a few other pieces of software.

Once the files are essentially "complete", I open them in Cakewalk, trim them to the length I need, and apply a fade out at the end using a CAL script.

Up until now, none of the other 145 files ever showed the setup track, yet in this soundtrack (31 new files that I am opening, no importing) in Cakewalk multiple files are displaying the setup track in  the Cakewalk track view.

I understand how Cakewalk displays data.  I understand it normally has separate views for certain things.

To be clear, whether or not Cakewalk displays this track in the track view, it exists in the MIDI file.

 

So I did just take a look at the event list in Cakewalk for that particular setup track.  It shows a SYSEX reset (forget if it's the GM or GS) and a second line that said "Sysx Bank".

So I checked a setting that I recently changed:

"Always use Sysx Banks for MIDI files (instead of Sysx Data)"

It was originally selected, and I recently unselected it.  I tried re-selecting it, and the setup track is now not displaying.  So to answer the question, something with the way Cakewalk handles SYSEX is the cause for the track displaying when this option is unchecked.

 

Edited October 20, 2023 by quattj

[bvideo]

Raw sysex can certainly be on a track (any track), and you can see it in that track's event list. But another scheme is that sysex banks can be stored in the sysex view and called by a sysex bank event on a track, which can also be seen in the event list for the track. Yet another scheme is that a sysex block can be stored in the sysex view and can be marked to be sent when the project is opened. Then it won't appear in any track's event list.

Sysex events (raw or bank references) on a track will be played and replayed whenever the play head crosses them (as can be seen when watching an event list). Sysex banks sent on project open don't get replayed.

When cakewalk opens a midi file, events like bank/patch, volume, and pan that are seen at the beginning of tracks can get stored in the widgets of track headers, so they won't be seen in event lists. I don't know about sysex events; could be interesting. Of course when cakewalk writes a midi file from such a project, all events need to be written out to the tracks they belong to. Sysex banks that are marked to be sent on project open need to be put somewhere in the file. Does an extra track get created? I don't know.