User Guide

Chapter 12: User Programmable Functions
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For the Shearing Quintet harmony, we will set the patches as follows:
Channel A: Piano
Channel B: Vibes
Channel C: Guitar
When we have made changes to the harmony, we will hear these changes on the harmony channel.
Important note: You need to press the UPDATE button after you've made any changes for the changes to take effect.
You make Copy a Harmony to the clipboard, and then move to a new
harmony and PASTE the harmony to the new location.
For example, if you want to make a harmony similar to the Shearing Quintet harmony, choose [Copy], move to a
new harmony, and choose [Paste]. Then rename that harmony “Shearing - modified” and you can make changes to
it (such as using different instruments).
You should never have to press these [Save] buttons since the harmony is
saved automatically for you. All of the 256 harmonies are saved in a
single .har file called default.har. If you have run out of harmonies, you can start a new harmonies file by pressing
the [SaveAs]. For example, if you want to make a disk of add-on harmonies, you can make one and save it as
MyName.HAR. Then you could share it with other Band-in-a-Box users who could load in your bank of harmonies
(from the Har| Edit a Harmonies File…) without disrupting their own existing default.har file.
As stated above, each .har file has 256 harmonies, so you probably need
only 1 file (default.har) for all your harmonies. But if you've made a great
harmony and want to give it to your friend for example, you can export a single harmony as a.h1 file. Your friend
can then import this harmony into their .har file. Or, you could upload some.h1 files that you've created to your
favorite web site for other Band-in-a-Box users to enjoy by importing them into their default.har harmonies file.
The best way to develop a harmony is to hear it as it’s playing. The preferred way to do this is to have a song
playing that has a melody in it. Any changes to the harmony will be heard on the melody as soon as you press the
[Update] button. You can also play along as the song is playing, and hear the new harmony on the Thru channel.
If you don't want to have a song playing, and want to hear the harmony, then set
the Test Chord to a certain chord. Then you can play on the MIDI keyboard
(with no song playing) and hear your harmony. This allows you to examine
exactly what notes Band-in-a-Box is using to make your harmony.
Additional harmony settings are accessed by pressing the [More] button, which brings up the
Additional Harmony Options dialog box: