Version 2005 for Windows ® Copyright PG Music Inc.1989-2005. All rights reserved.
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Table of Contents PG MUSIC INC.
Chapter 1: Introduction This documentation covers the new features in Band-in-a-Box Version 2005. 9 9 9 Chapter 2 is a summary of the new features. Chapter 3 is a QuickStart Tutorial. Chapters 4-17 and Appendix A describe the new features in detail. Band-in-a-Box 2005 for Windows® is here with over 50 cool new features! There’s a new fully featured Piano Roll window, similar to the type found in many sequencer programs. This allows you to edit the Melody or Soloist tracks with greater ease and precision.
Chapter 2: Summary of New Features New Features in Band-in-a-Box Version 2005... New Fully-Featured “Piano Roll” Window! Now you can edit your tracks using the new “Piano Roll” window, similar to the type found in many sequencer programs. Edit the Melody or Soloist tracks with greater ease and precision. There are 2 panes in the window – one for notes and the other for controllers, velocity, and other data. All notes and controllers are displayed as black bars on a grid.
Patch List Converter Make Synthesizer Patch file lists (.PAT files) easily by converting PowerTracks or Cakewalk Patch lists! Band-in-a-Box can now read a patch file list generated by PowerTracks or Cakewalk, and convert it to a .PAT file for use in Band-in-a-Box. The patch file contains the name and numbers for all patches on a synthesizer, so that you can access your patches easily by name.
Multiple lines of Lyrics Supported on Fake Sheet and Printout! If your song has 1st and 2nd endings or multiple verses of lyrics, multi-line lyrics can be displayed, so you’ll see all verses on the same Fake Sheet. Full Stereo or Mono support for Audio Track! You can now choose between mono or stereo for the audio track and the audio plug-ins work for mono or stereo. Tracks can be edited in either format, and converted from stereo to mono or vice versa.
“Favorite Folder-Open Song” button! By opening a song using the “Favorite Folder-Open Song,” you first select the folder from a list of recently used folders, and then you can directly open the song from that folder. This allows you to quickly find a song in another folder. Lyric breaks hidden in Lead Sheet window! For Lyrics, line break and paragraph marks (‘/’ and ‘\’) are no longer shown on the Lead Sheet window.
Auto “Staves per Page” Option! Notation | Options now has an option to allow “Staves per Page” setting to be automatic or not! Print to much larger BMP files! Notation | Print to Graphics command can now print to high resolution BMP’s like 2400 x 3000! This feature is only limited by available memory. Guitar TAB lines easier to see! Guitar TAB lines now print in black, instead of grey, so tab is easier to read.
Chapter 3: QuickStart Tutorial QuickStart Tutorial for the Version 2005 Upgrade. The full descriptions of the new features in Version 2005 of Band-in-a-Box are provided elsewhere. This tutorial is a QuickStart tour of the new features in Band-in-a-Box 2005. Note: It is assumed that you are somewhat familiar with the previous release of Band-in-a-Box. Explore Band-in-a-Box Version 2005 First, we’ll take a quick tour of the new features in Band-in-a-Box 2005.
Let’s examine the improvements in the SongPicker. Open the SongPicker. (The program may rebuild the song list prior to opening the dialog.) Look at the folder name displayed at the bottom of the dialog. Select the checkboxes “Always open in this folder” and “Include Subfolders.” If the folder name isn’t already c:\bb, press the [Change] button near the bottom of the dialog, to change the folder to c:\bb.
So you use the “Allowable Keys” preset in this dialog, and set it to “Jazz keys,” and then the Vocal Wizard revises its recommendation to the key of C. If you select “Auto-transpose to best key when a song is loaded,” every song will automatically be transposed to the best key for your vocal range when loaded. For now, let’s de-select that option, since we don’t want songs to be transposed when loaded. Note that the Vocal Wizard can also be used for instruments like “Tenor Sax,” “Trombone,” etc.
Set the 4 harmonies to the first vibrato setting “1 BNatural Vibrato,” and press the PREVIEW button. You’ll now hear these harmonies, generated from MIDI notes in the BB harmony, but with various types of vibrato and scooping pitch effects. On held notes, the vibrato is essential for a natural vocal sound. Now let’s move on to the Piano Roll Tutorial.
Piano Roll Tutorial The Piano Roll window enables precise graphic editing of note timing and duration. You can also graphically edit Note Velocity, Controllers, Program Changes, Channel Aftertouch, or Pitch Bend. The Piano Roll may be opened as a movable window (which floats above the Band-in-a-Box main window), or it may be opened embedded, which occupies the same position as the Chordsheet/Notation panel in the Band-in-a-Box main window. Let’s load the song “PianoRollDemoSong.MGU.
Splitter Bar A vertical Splitter Bar sits between the Note Editing and Graphic Event panels. To maximize the Note Editing panel, drag the Splitter down. To maximize the Graphic Event panel for more accurate Event editing, drag the Splitter up. Note Selection You can click on individual notes, and also Shift-click or Ctrl-click to select multiple notes. You can make a “box selection” by clicking on white space and drawing a rectangle around notes.
Pencil Tool Hold Shift+Ctrl, and move the mouse cursor over white space in the Graphic Event panel. The cursor becomes a Pencil Tool. Click and then drag a free-form shape. When the mouse button is released, events are inserted or modified to fit the free-form shape. This illustrates the effect of the Pencil Tool for free-form drawing the Velocity of the first 6 notes: Program Changes The Piano Roll demo song contains some embedded program change events as a demo of this new method.
In the example shown, the intro flute ostinato pattern fades in, and then fades back out, via the expression controllers. These events were entered with the Line Tool. Notice that before the trumpet comes in, there is a single expression event of value 127, to kick the loudness up to “normal.” Single controllers are inserted by moving the mouse cursor to the desired position and then clicking the mouse button.
Chapter 4: Piano Roll window New Fully-Featured “Piano Roll” Window! Now you can edit your tracks using the new “Piano Roll” window, similar to the type found in many sequencer programs. Edit the Melody or Soloist tracks with greater ease and precision. There are 2 panes in the window – one for notes and the other for controllers, velocity, and other data. All notes and controllers are displayed as black/gray bars on a grid. You can change note duration and pitch by selecting and dragging with your mouse.
Snap-to-Grid Selections, Inserted Notes, or Edited Notes will snap to the grid spacing. If you do not want snap-to-grid, select [NONE] in the drop-down menu. View/Insert Channel If a track contains multiple channels, “All” will display MIDI events on all channels. Otherwise, select the Channel which you need to see. If “All” is selected, new MIDI events are inserted on the Band-in-a-Box track's assigned channel.
Controller Type If “View/Edit” is set to “Control,” the Controller Type control becomes visible. The Graphic Data panel will display the chosen controller type. If Chan is not set to “All,” only the selected channel events will be displayed. Chord Ruler and Note Time Ruler Panel There are two top rulers. The top Chord Ruler displays chords and the Playback Location Indicator. The Note Time Ruler displays bars and bar subdivisions. When zoomed-in, more subdivisions are displayed.
Note Panel Horizontal bars represent notes. Notes can be selected, edited (start time, pitch, duration), inserted, and deleted. Note Selection Selected notes are Red. 1 Click on individual notes to select. 2 Shift-click on individual notes to add to the selection. 3 Ctrl-click on a note to invert (toggle) its selection. Click on white space and then drag a rectangle around notes to select a group of notes. Only notes which start within the rectangle are selected.
Delete a Note: Select a note (or group of notes), then tap the Delete key. Alternately, select some notes, Right-Click, and choose the "Delete Selected Events" item in the popup menu. Splitter Bar A vertical Splitter Bar sits between the Note Editing and Graphic Event panels. If you want to maximize the Note Editing panel to see more notes, drag the Splitter down. If you want to maximize the Graphic Event panel for more accurate Event editing, drag the Splitter up.
Insert Events Line Tool: With no modifier keys, the “white space” cursor is a Line Tool. Move the cursor to white space and then click-drag to draw a line. When the mouse button is released, a series of events are inserted which follow the line slope. To avoid choking the MIDI stream, the maximum event density is one event per 10 ticks. Repeated events of the same value are not inserted. Therefore, long gradual Line Tool fades have a lower density than short extreme Line Tool fades.
selected which match the CURRENT MIDI CHANNEL. For instance, you could select all Channel 4 Modulation events, then Delete, to easily remove all of those events from the Track. Cut: Copy selected events to the clipboard and then remove them from the track. Can also be accomplished with the menu Edit|Cut (or Ctrl+X) action. If you wish, it is possible to cut from the Piano Roll, and then paste into the Notation window, or vice-versa.
Horizontal Scroll Bar, [+] and [-] Buttons Scroll in time, and zoom the horizontal display. Vertical Scroll Bar, [+] and [-] Buttons Scroll to see different note ranges (does not scroll the Graphic Event Panel) and zoom the vertical display. Zoom to Selection Button Make a selection of notes, and then click the Zoom To Selection button. The vertical pitch range and horizontal time range adjusts to fill the note panel with the selected notes.
Chapter 5: Vocal Wizard The “Vocal Wizard” displays the best song keys for your vocal range! This feature helps you choose the best song key for your vocal range. Open the Vocal Wizard, enter your vocal type (baritone, tenor, etc.), or choose a custom range. Then the wizard analyzes the song and recommends the best keys for that song. Options available to “include/exclude falsetto range,” “restrict choices to these keys […],” and “transpose now.
2. Here you enter your “comfortable” vocal range, from lowest note to highest note. If you can sing falsetto, you can also enter the highest falsetto note, and the % of falsetto notes that would be acceptable as falsetto notes. You can also select a preset (like Baritone Male or Contralto Female). Or you can select one of 8 “User Preset slots” which allow you to enter and save a custom range (if you press the Save Preset button) Selecting the keys that would be “allowable.” 3.
In the example Old Folks at Home, you can see that D is the best key (“green”), but any of the keys from G to Db are also good keys in the selected vocal range. The area in black at the bottom gives an analysis of the vocal range if the song was transposed to the chosen key. Now that the Vocal Wizard has told us the best key for this song, we can either close the dialog, or transpose it now to the recommended key (or any other key that we have selected with the radio buttons.
Chapter 6: StylePicker Editor The StylePicker is now Editable! You can now add your own styles to the StylePicker list by pressing an ADD/EDIT button on the StylePicker. You can see all the information about the style, including memo, genre, feel, tempo, range, etc. The StylePicker allows browsing and choosing a style from the large library of available styles. Now you can add your own styles to this list, including memos, examples, and other information about the style.
1. 2. Name of the Style (8 characters Maximum + .STY). You can type in the style name, or press the Choose button to pick a style name from the BB folder. If the style doesn’t exist, a will appear in the style list beside the style name (as it does for the NONAME.STY). Press the [Choose] button and choose NEWONE.STY. Long Name of the style. This is a descriptive name that appears on the StyleMaker, and can be up to 32 characters. Enter “A Brand New Jazz Style.” 3. Memo and Examples.
to select which patch types will get sent out. Here we choose “Jazz Patches” for our NEWONE.STY We’re finished adding the NEWONE.STY. We could now continue adding new styles, and categories, for all of our new styles that are not in the list. But let’s see our added style on the StylePicker. Press the [OK – Save] button. This exits the dialog, returning to the StylePicker. The StylePicker will recommend rebuilding the style list for the added styles. Answer “Yes” to this.
Chapter 7: Alternate Guitar Tunings Alternate Guitar Tunings added! The Guitar window now supports alternate tunings, including DADGAD, Drop D, Double Drop D, Open G and 11 others! You can also select “Nashville High Strung” tunings, which tune certain strings up an octave. The new tunings are supported in Styles, Chord Diagrams, Guitar Tutor, Notation, Tab, and Printout. Learn how to play these tunings by watching the on-screen Guitar Fretboard or Notation/Tab Window.
Any melody will now display in the chosen tuning. Similarly, you can set the Soloist track to an alternate guitar tuning with the Soloist | Track Type menu. The Guitar track (or piano, strings) are controlled by the style, and will only reflect the type of tuning stored in the style. Load in some alternate tuning styles included in Styles Set 44 – Requested 4 to see the chording on the guitar track in alternate tunings.
The examples above are for DADGAD tuning, but apply similarly to all 11 alternate tunings included. Some of the tunings are “Nashville High Strung.” These tuning have the lowest 3 strings tuned up an octave, to achieve a close sound. So a DADGAD High Strung tuning would have the lowest 3 strings “DAD” tuned up an octave. Listen to some style examples that use this tuning.
Chapter 8: Fourths Harmonies New Harmonies added with voicing in 4ths! Modern Jazz harmonies often voice chords in 4ths. For example, a C chord with C melody might be voiced C, G, D, A, E. Now you can select 4ths voicings easily in Band-in-a-Box to harmonize the Melody, Soloist, or Thru parts using 3, 4, or 5 part voicings in 4ths. We’ve added presets for these harmonies, so you can easily select them. Use these sophisticated 4ths harmonies on your existing melodies to create a new sound.
Chapter 9: Audio Harmonies Enhanced TC-Helicon Audio Harmonies enhanced with Pitch Styles (automatic “Vibrato” and “Scooping”)! Now, when you generate audio harmonies to your recorded vocal tracks, you can select Pitch Styles, which adds vibrato and scooping effects to the vocal harmonies.
Style Name 1 B Natural Vibrato 2 Ballad Rock Vibrato 3 Broadway Vibrato 4 Classic Rock Vibrato 5 Crooner Vibrato 6 Deep Jazz Vibrato 7 Discreet Vibrato 8 Folk Vibrato 9 Funk Vibrato 10 Head Voice Vibrato 11 Hi Energy Vibrato 12 Lite Jazz Vibrato 13 Lounge Vibrato 14 Mellow Folk Vibrato 15 Mellow Pop Vibrato 16 Nervous Tremolo Vibrato 17 Opera Tenor Vibrato 18 Tenor Delayed Vibrato 19 Pop Diva Vibrato 20 Pop Diva XT Vibrato 21 R&B Vibrato 22 Slow Ballad Vibrato 23 Slow Gospel Vibrato 24 Smooth Pop Vibrato 2
Chapter 10: Jazz Chord Symbol Graphics “Jazz Chord Symbol Graphics” (circles, triangles) now supported! Jazz and Pop music often use certain non-alphabetic symbols for chord types. These include a delta (triangle) for major chords, a circle for diminished, and a circle with a slash for half-diminished. Also, tensions like b9 and b13 are stacked vertically and contained in brackets.
Chapter 11: SongPicker Enhancements SongPicker Enhanced – subfolder support! The SongPicker has been enhanced and now can optionally display songs from sub-folders. For example, if you get a song list of c:\bb, it can include songs in subfolders like c:\bb\styles34. You can also lock the SongPicker to always open in the same folder and use the same list to keep track of all songs on your disk. Other enhancements like “change folder,” and “go up one folder” are included.
Chapter 12: Convert Patch Lists Convert Patch Lists from PowerTracks or Cakewalk! Make synthesizer patch file lists (.PAT files) easily by converting PowerTracks Pro Audio or Cakewalk patch lists! Band-in-a-Box can now read a patch file list generated by PowerTracks Pro Audio or Cakewalk, and convert it to a .PAT file for use in Band-in-a-Box. The patch file contains the name and numbers for all patches on a synthesizer, so that you can access your patches easily by name.
Choose the file c:\pt\patches.INI. You’ll then see a menu of synths stored in the patches.INI file. Select one to convert. Create a name for the .PAT file (e.g. My Patch List.PAT) and save it to c:\bb. Converting a Cakewalk .Ins file to a Band-in-a-Box .Pat file. This is done using the same process described above for PowerTracks, except that you open the individual .INS file instead of a PATCHES.INI file. For example, if you have a Cakewalk file called “My Synth.INS” you would select this file name.
Chapter 13: Lyric Enhancements Big Lyrics Window Enhancements Chords can now be displayed on a row above the lyrics on the Big Lyrics window. Separate chord colors are used for the Chords and Lyrics, allowing these elements to be visually separated. On the Big Lyrics Window Options dialog, if you set “Show Chord Symbols Above Lyrics,” you then see the chords written on a separate line. You can also select the color for the chords in the options dialog. Multiple lines of Lyrics Supported on Fake Sheet.
But on the Lead Sheet, the marks are not shown. Lyric Window auto-opens for MIDI files and Karaoke files! If you have the Lyrics Window option “Auto-open lyrics window for songs with lyrics” selected, and a MIDI file (or .KAR) containing lyrics is opened, the lyrics window will open to show the lyrics. Karaoke Files (.KAR) now can be opened, including lyrics! The popular Karaoke file format (.KAR) can now be opened directly into Band-in-a-Box just like MIDI files.
Chapter 14: Audio Enhancements Non-Destructive Audio Track Editing! With previous versions of Band-in-a-Box, any changes to the audio track would be permanent, even if you didn’t save the song. Now the changes are non-destructive and only become permanent if you save the file. If you have a song file called MySong.MGU, the audio track is stored in a MySong.WAV file. If you are editing the audio, the edits are now made to a temporary WAV file called TEMPMAIN.WAV, and not to MySong.WAV.
Preferred default track type for new songs. This setting (mono/stereo) sets the default recording type for new songs that you record. For example, if you have a stereo microphone, you should likely record in stereo. The “Record Audio” dialog displays the Mono/Stereo status of the recording. If you want to change to/from Stereo (to/from Mono), press the Audio Options button in this dialog. The Mono/Stereo track status is also indicated on the Title bar at the top of the screen.
VU meters added for Audio! These show the Record and Playback levels for audio, allowing adjustment of microphone and speaker levels. VU Meters can be launched by pressing the VU Meters button on the toolbar. The VU Meters will also open automatically when the Record Audio dialog is opened. The VU Meters will close or stay open when the dialog is exited depending on the “Leave VU Meters open” setting in the Record Audio dialog.
Chapter 15: Notation Enhancements High visibility Lead Sheet highlighting! During playback, the highlighting of bars on the Lead Sheet and Fake Sheet window is more visible, with red rectangles to highlight the current bar. If the bar is empty (or in Fake Sheet mode), the Lead Sheet will draw the staff lines and bar lines in red. Note Color Editor for Notation Window! The Notation Options allows setting of note colors.
Insert Bends In Notation! In the Editable Notation window, any note can be made into a bend by holding down the “b” key on the computer keyboard and right-clicking on the note. Notation display improved! Notation display improved - first note in every bar is drawn farther away from the bar line! Auto “Staves-per-Page” Option! Notation – Print Options now has an option to allow “Staves per Page” setting to be automatic or not! Notation PRINT Options Print to large .
- Patch changes are cyan. Controller changes are yellow. Pitch Bends are grey. Print one page option! The new [Print Page] button in the Print Preview window prints the current page only, not the complete song or a full chorus. Easy rest insertion! In editable notation mode, you can now insert a rest by holding the back-quote key (tilde key without pressing shift) then clicking on the notation window. This is a way to avoid having to check the Rest checkbox first.
Chapter 16: Guitar Enhancements Alternate Guitar Tunings are now supported! (These are described in Chapter 7.) Pitch Bends are now displayed on Guitar Fretboard! Pitch bends now show up on the Guitar Fretboard. As the pitch bend occurs, a blue line moves along the string in real time, illustrating the height of the pitch bend. Load in the c:\bb\Pitch Bend demo song. You’ll then see pitch bends written as a blue color moving along the string.
Chapter 17: Other New Features Selective Humanize option for the Melody Embellisher! There is a new option for the Embellisher to only humanize the timing of the music if the timing was “stiff” to begin with. This allows the Embellisher to leave the timing of human input melodies alone, and humanize only the ones that were entered in step-time. In the Melody Embellisher dialog, there is a new setting called Humanize (none/only if stiff/always).
Hold the Shift key as you click the [Open] button. This will launch the Favorite Folder dialog, allowing you to pick the folder to load from, and then the typical dialog will open up. This saves you the time needed to navigate through the Explorer-style folder choice, which can be time consuming if you’re hopping back and forth between folders. Similarly, Shift-clicking on the [Save As] button will allow you to choose a favorite folder prior to seeing the Save As dialog.
“Play Selected Area as a Loop” function! Click on the[Loop] button, Shift-click on the [Play] button, or press F10 (Play Selected Area as Loop) and the program will play a selected region, and loop the selection. For example, you can select bars 10 and 11, and then press F10, and bars 10 and 11 will play looped. To use this function: Select a region on the Chordsheet. Choose Play | Play (loop) Highlited Section (or press F10). The selected region will then play, and continue looping until STOP is pressed.
For example, you can open the Arrangement Prefs tab by the keystrokes - Ctrl+E to open the Prefs dialog, then - A to open the Arrangement Options. The underlined letter of the Prefs tab items indicates the hot key. Wider Harmony display boxes! Harmony display boxes are wider by 64 pixels on the main screen and melodist/soloist dialogs! This allows for display of longer harmony names. Mouse Wheel Support! Mouse wheel support added to the Chordsheet screen and other windows.
Appendix A: New Styles and Add-Ons. Styles Set #46 – Requested 4 is included with upgrades to Band-in-a-Box 2005. It is not included with a first-time purchase of the program. - Styles Sets 0-47 are included in the Band-in-a-Box MegaPAK. - Styles Sets 0-3 are included with the Pro version of Band-in-a-Box. - Other Styles Sets are sold separately as add-ons to Band-in-a-Box.
PG Music Inc. Band-in-a-Box ® is protected by copyright and is the property of PG Music Inc. and its licensors. Copyright © 1989-2005 PG Music Inc. All rights reserved. PG MUSIC INC. 29 Cadillac Avenue Victoria, BC V8Z 1T3 Canada Contacts: E-mail: info@pgmusic.com Phone: toll free in the United States and Canada 1-800-268-6272, 1-888-PG-MUSIC (746-8742), Or 1-250-475-2874 (tolls apply) Universal International Freephone Service: Outside of the United States and Canada (where available).
Index Alternate Guitar Tunings, 32 License, 2 Guitar Tutor, 33 Loop region, 53 selecting, 32 Lyrics enhancements, 42 Audio breaks, 42 enhancements, 44 Karaoke file lyrics, 43 import wave, 45 MIDI file lyrics, 43 multiple sound cards, 44 multiple lines, 42 non-destructive editing, 44 Melody Embellisher stereo, 44 selective humanization, 51 stereo plug-ins, 45 Mouse wheel support, 54 VU meters, 46 New features Audio Harmony Pitch Styles, 36 alternate guitar tunings, 5 Auto-endings, 53
multiple lines of lyrics, 7 graphic event panel, 22 multiples sound card support, 6 horizontal scroll bar, 25 non-destructive audio edits, 6 insert events, 23 notation time changes, 7 keyboard pitch panel, 20 note colors editor, 7 note editing, 21 patch list converter, 6 note panel, 21 Piano Roll window, 5 note selection, 21 pitch bend display, 7 note time ruler, 20 Prefs hot keys, 8 right-click contextual menu, 23 previous style restored, 8 track selection, 18 rest insert key, 8 vertic
