MIDI Software Grand Piano - what am I hearing?

[musjer]

From listening to piano MIDI files, I have observed that there are variations in sound for the Acoustic Grand Piano
in different files.
I experimented by opening a file with a high-quality sounding grand piano.  The instrument shows   
'Acoustic Grand Piano' in my 90s MIDI software called Skulptor.
Next I open a not-so-high-quality MIDI file, copy a few bars, and paste into a different
track back in the first file.

I play each track separately and hear a $50,000 grand in track #1, and in the other track, I hear a
$300 bargain piano;) from the second-hand store.  Both are the same instrument in the MIDI file.
Question: why the sound variation?

Can I convert other piano MIDI files to the $50,000-grand-piano sound?

I have a Windows 7 laptop and route MIDI playing to a CASIO keyboard via USB cable.
I use the media player that comes with Windows.
Thanks.
Jerry

[JohnG]

Hi again Jerry,

Yup, the symptoms you describe are not unusual.
I suspect that there may be some Bank Select commands preceding the $50,000 dollar piano and/or a few commands to switch on some other effects like reverb and maybe chorus too.

If you'd like to send the two files you mention as attachments to musicforuma at ymail dot com (replace the at with @ and the dot with . and remove the spaces, of course), then I'll take a look at them and be able to add some more detail for you.

The model number of your keyboard will help too.

Kind regards,
JohnG.

[musjer]

Maybe this is not such a big mystery after all...as I search through my MIDI files for one of those honky-tonk sounding grand pianos,
I see in my MIDI editor that there are two tracks (channels?).  Channel #1 has a 'Pan' value of 80 and channel #2 has 50.
I assume this accounts for the grand piano sound variations where no Pan setting sounds richer and files with this setting
sound like an antique piano.

My CASIO model is WK-200.  I use CoolSoft VirtualMIDISynth to route MIDI music to the keyboard.
I believe this issue is solved.  Thanks.