(Forum just glitched and ate my post as I was submitting it... take 2)
I have two files with pitch bend on the percussion channel, a single bend of -8192.
One file was created, then the second file is a merge of the original with two additional tracks using Anvil Studio.
As far as I can tell, all of the important MIDI commands are the same, including timing. The only differences are some "sequencer specific" items that Anvil Studio inserts, which should not affect the final playback.
However, in one file (rain4, the merged file) the cymbal at the beginning plays back properly pitch bent.
In the other file (mod3, the original file) it plays at the default pitch.
I am puzzled as to why this is happening and how to fix it. It is occurring with every player I have tried.
See (hear) attached.
Welp, after troubleshooting for quite a while, including finding the first version edit I had that worked properly, and manually rearranging events to match that file and still not getting positive results, I ran mod2 (working) and mod3 ("not working") through Sema's test_midi_files, and compared the results with Notepad++ Compare plugin.
Literally the only difference between the two files was the cymbal that was being played. In the "working" one, it was "China Crash". In the "not working" one, it was "Splash". Doh.
So it HAS been working this whole time, just the instrument was different, and thus the pitch shifted sound would also be different.
To verify, I changed the pitch bend range from 12 to 36, and it was 100% applying the pitch bend.