Instruction Manual

Chapter 11: User Programmable Functions
289
Band-in-a-Box StyleMaker window showing Drums patterns window.
The StyleMaker always opens to the Drums window, as indicated by the highlighted button to the left of Drums.
Other parts are selected by clicking on their buttons, just as in the main Band-in-a-Box screen.
The rows of cells are for the musical patterns that have been recorded for the style. Each numbered cell is a pattern;
the blank cells are for new patterns. The numbers are the weights assigned to the pattern, a higher number, or
weight, means that a pattern will be played more often. The average weight is 5.
In the example above, you will notice that there are 4 rows of drum patterns.
- A pattern is the row to record drum patterns for the A substyle.
- B pattern is the row to record for the B substyle.
- drum fills are recorded on the drum fills row
- end drums are ending patterns (2 consecutive patterns of 1 bar)
This style shown has nine drum patterns for its “a” substyle, and eight more for the “b” substyle variation. It also
has eight drum fills and four ending patterns.
What’s a pattern?
A pattern is one musical figure, a single element of a musical style. When Band-in-a-Box combines the various note
patterns into arrangements we hear what the different instrumentalists would play for a song in that style.
Drum Patterns
In our example, the drum patterns are what the drummer plays for a Light Rock song.
You can view any drum pattern in the row if you click on the box and then on the drum grid button to
open the Drum Pattern Editor.
The Drum Pattern Editor grid shows which drums in an 18-piece kit are being played on what beats and with what
velocity (force) they are being hit. Each group of columns separated by a vertical line represents one beat in a four-
beat bar, sub-divided into 16
th
notes. If there was a number in each cell across the row for any instrument, that
instrument would play sixteenth notes for the whole bar.
In a swing style each beat would be sub-divided into eighth-note triplets, with three columns to a beat.
Let’s examine the pattern in detail.
The highlighted cell shows that the Bass Drum is being played on beat 1 at a velocity of 83. (The loudest possible
note has a velocity of 127, while 0 is silent.) Moving to the right, you will see that the Bass Drum plays again on the
second eighth note of beat 2 with a velocity of 73, and then on beat 3 with a velocity of 93, the familiar “boom-ba-
boom” Pop/ Bossa Nova beat.
The Closed High Hat plays straight eighth notes at different velocities.
The Snare Drum plays on beats 2 and 4 in a typical Light Rock backbeat.
You can easily create new patterns of your own by selecting an empty box in a row of patterns and then clicking the
[Rec] button to open a blank Drum Pattern Editor grid. To hear the pattern you have made click on the [Play]
button. Click on the [Help] button for more tips and details.