Beware, in MIDI > SYNC > Prog Change CH = AUTO is NOT Auto Channel.
If AUTO is chosen the first MIDI channel used by the audio tracks, and not used by any of the MIDI tracks, will be used.
Which means that by default it’s channel 1, because Audio Tracks channels are 1-8 by default. If you set a midi track to channel 1, AUTO becomes channel 2, and so on.
If you turn Audio Tracks channels to off, no channel at all!
Just don’t use that setting.