User Guide
Table Of Contents
- PG Music Inc. License Agreement
- Table of Contents
- Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box!
- Chapter 2: QuickStart Tutorial
- Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2010.5 for Macintosh
- Welcome to Band-in-a-Box 2010.5
- New Features in Band-in-a-Box 2010
- More New RealTracks
- QuickStart Tutorial
- Quick Song Settings
- Save Default Mix
- Improved Audio Rendering
- DAW Plug-in Mode
- Freeze Tracks
- RealTracks Enhancements
- New Favorite Songs/Styles Dialog
- Rendering Tracks
- StylePicker Enhancements
- New in the StyleMaker
- Chapter 4: The Main Screen
- Chapter 5: Guided Tour of Band-in-a-Box
- Chapter 6: Band-in-a-Box PowerGuide
- RealTracks
- RealDrums
- Song Settings
- The Chordsheet
- Chord Preview/Builder
- MIDI file “Chord Wizard”
- Applying Styles
- The StylePicker
- Playing, Pausing, and Stopping Songs
- Changing Volume, Panning, Reverb, Chorus, Bank
- Freeze Tracks
- Saving Songs
- Preferences – User Settings
-
- Show Chords with push/rest chars
- Metronome During Recording
- Harmony Volume Adjust
- OK to Load Style with songs
- Write Guitar part on 6 channels
- Turn External Keyboard’s Local On at end of session
- OK to beep with messages
- OK to prompt to reduce/expand
- For Roman Numerals in minor keys, use relative major
- Save Button on main screen works as Save As
- Name MIDI files with .MID extension
- Allow larger fonts on Chordsheet
- Color for Chordsheet Area
-
- Other Editing Features
- MIDI Setup
- The JukeBox
- Chapter 7: Notation and Printing
- Chapter 8: Automatic Music Features
- Chapter 9: Recording Tracks
- Chapter 10: Audio Features
- Chapter 11: Wizards, Tutors, and Fun
- Chapter 12: User Programmable Functions
- Chapter 13: CoreMIDI and Apple DLS Synth
- Chapter 14: Reference
- PG Music Inc.
- Index
- Registration Form

Chapter 2: QuickStart Tutorial
15
Loading an existing Band-in-a-Box format song
Press the [song] button. The first time you use this button, Band-in-a-Box will offer to build a song
list for you. We’ve included many demo songs for you to use, and they are listed in the song list.
You could also load a pre-existing song by using the File | Open song… menu item, or by pressing the F3 function
key, which will launch the familiar Macintosh file dialog. Note that most songs will automatically load a “Style,”
which we’ll learn about in the next section.
Going to the next step …
Now that you have chords on your chordsheet, you are ready to move on to Step 2 – Choosing a Style.
Step 2 – Choose a Style
Band-in-a-Box creates backing arrangements based on the chords you type in, applied to a particular Style.
What’s a Style?
A style is a set of rules that determine how Band-in-a-Box creates music using your chords. By adjusting the rules,
we have created hundreds of styles that are appropriate for everything from Country to Bebop. Some style examples
would be Jazz Swing, Blues Shuffle, Hip Hop, Country 4/4, Pop Ballad, Waltz and Medium Rock to name just a
few. If you don’t find a pre-made style that suits your tastes, create one from scratch using the StyleMaker. Making
custom styles with the StyleMaker is explained in detail in the full documentation.
Four Fast ways to Open a Style
Method 1: From Disk
To open a user style from disk, you can use the menu command User | Load Style From Disk or type Command+U.
You will be presented with the Open Style dialog from which you can select a specific style from the Styles folder.
Method 2: The StylePicker
You can use the StylePicker window to select your style. Select the [Style] button above the
Chordsheet to open the Select Style window.
Selecting a Style using the StylePicker.