® Version 2010 for Macintosh ® ©Copyright 1989-2010 PG Music Inc. All rights reserved.
PG Music Inc. License Agreement CAREFULLY READ THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS BEFORE COMPLETING THE INSTALLATION OF THIS SOFTWARE. USAGE OF THE SOFTWARE INDICATES YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS. A. B. C. D. LICENSE The program may only be used on a single machine. You may transfer the program and license to another party if the other party agrees to accept the terms of this Agreement.
Table of Contents PG Music Inc. License Agreement...............................................2 Table of Contents...........................................................................3 Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box! ......................................6 What is Band-in-a-Box? .................................................................................... 6 Chapter 2: QuickStart Tutorial ...................................................7 Step 1 – Enter the Chords ......................
The StylePicker.............................................................................................. 107 Playing, Pausing, and Stopping Songs ........................................................... 112 Changing Volume, Panning, Reverb, Chorus, Bank ...................................... 114 Freeze Tracks................................................................................................. 116 Saving Songs ...............................................................................
The Guitarist.................................................................................................. 248 Guitar Tutor ................................................................................................... 252 Chord Substitution Wizard ............................................................................ 254 Chord Builder ................................................................................................ 257 Animated Drum Kit .......................................
Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box! Congratulations on your purchase of Band-in-a-Box 2010 for Macintosh, the favorite of musicians, students, and songwriters everywhere. Get ready to have fun! What is Band-in-a-Box? Band-in-a-Box is an intelligent automatic accompaniment program for your multimedia computer. You can hear and play along to many song ideas and go from “nothing” to “something” in a very short period of time with Band-in-a-Box as your “on demand” backup band.
Chapter 2: QuickStart Tutorial Creating music with Band-in-a-Box is as easy as 1-2-3! In this tutorial, you’ll see just how easy it is to get Band-in-a-Box making music for you. Step 1 – Enter the Chords There are numerous ways of entering chords into Band-in-a-Box. We’ll discuss five fast ways of entering chords: 1. Using the Computer Keyboard 2. Playing directly on a MIDI Controller Keyboard 3. Using the Chord Builder 4. Importing Chords from a MIDI file 5.
Enter Chords Using a MIDI Controller Keyboard If you have a MIDI controller keyboard, you can use it to enter chords into Band-in-aBox. First, you must make sure that your cables are properly connected and you have the correct input drivers selected. If you play a chord on your MIDI keyboard, and then press Ctrl+Return, the chord will be entered into the chordsheet at the current highlight cell position. Enter Chords Using the Chord Builder Press the Chord Builder button.
Choose File | Import Chords from MIDI File on the File menu, or use the keystrokes Ctrl+Option+I, to open the Chord Wizard dialog. When the Chord Wizard dialog opens, press the [Open (Change)…] button to choose the MIDI file that you want Band-in-a-Box to interpret the chords from. To help Band-in-a-Box interpret the chords better, you can choose a preset for the song. Choose from among such genres as Pop, Rock, or Jazz Standard. Loading an existing Band-in-a-Box format song Press the [song] button.
Selecting a Style using the StylePicker. This window shows styles listed by categories. RealStyles are styles entirely made with RealTracks and RealDrums. Styles with RealTracks use a combination of RealTracks and MIDI instruments. MultiStyles are styles with more variations than the standard “a” and “b” substyles. Select a Set or genre from the left pane, and choose the specific style on the right pane. There are memos and examples for each of the styles.
Step 3 – Play your song! We’ve entered chords on the chordsheet and chosen a style. Now it’s time to play the song! First we need to tell Band-in-a-Box how long our song is, how many times we want the program to play through the chords, in what key, and how fast. Framing the Song To tell Band-in-a-Box where the start and end of the song is, we look at the middle of the Band-in-a-Box main screen. Locate the framing settings; there are three of them.
offer to transpose the chordsheet for you. If you’ve entered a progression that you intend for a particular key, and then choose the key afterward, you should say no when asked to transpose the chordsheet. Setting the Tempo If you know the tempo value of your song, you can enter it in the tempo box. The song example above has a tempo of 120. There is an even faster way to enter a tempo.
Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2010 for Macintosh Summary of New Features Overview Band-in-a-Box 2010 for Macintosh is here with over 50 cool new features! There are some exciting new features in Band-in-a-Box. We've added a new “Plug-in” mode, allowing you to simply Drag-n-Drop tracks between Band-in-a-Box and your favorite sequencer (GarageBand, ProTools, Logic, Nuendo, Reaper and more). RealTracks generate much faster now, typically 4X faster. RealTracks now support Shots, Holds, and Pushes.
Soloist generated RealTracks are now saved with the song, so you will hear the RealTracks play the same solo when you reload the song. RealTracks now support new features, including Shots, Holds, and Pushes. Simply type in the chords as you normally would, adding periods (…) for shots and holds, and the RealTracks will play them. Note for this, you need the installer that creates a LibraryM/Holds folder in your RealTracks folder.
RealDrums Picker dialog has been enhanced, with information about Artist name, Artist bio, and RealDrums Set number. Rendering now has a Normalize option, to normalize individual tracks or the complete arrangement. Normalizing boosts the volume to a maximum level without distortion. Most professional music tracks are normalized. Songs that are “Saved-As” a different name now have the new name added to the Recently Played Song dialog. Support enhanced for non-concert instruments (Bb/Eb sax, trumpet etc.).
QuickStart Tutorial How to Use the New Features in Band-in-a-Box 2010 Band-in-a-Box 2010 is here with over 50 cool new features! There are some exciting new features in Band-in-a-Box. We've added a new “Plug-in” mode, allowing you to simply Drag-n-Drop tracks between Band-in-a-Box and your favorite sequencer (GarageBand, ProTools, Logic, Nuendo, Reaper and more). RealTracks generate much faster now, typically 4X faster. RealTracks now support Shots, Holds, and Pushes.
You can also drag files to other programs, besides DAW’s, if they accept a drop of audio files (AIFF, M4A) or MIDI files. For example, Finder allows this. Please see the DAW Plug-In Mode chapter for a full tutorial. Freeze Tracks Freezing (locking) MIDI or RealTracks/RealDrums Any track (MIDI or RealTrack) can now be frozen. When frozen, it won’t be changed or re-generated. This saves time when replaying previous songs, and allows you to freeze an arrangement that you like.
This is also done by the Freeze button. Choose a frozen track to un-freeze it, or choose “Un-Freeze all tracks.” Forcing Generation of a Song that is Frozen Band-in-a-Box won’t touch tracks that are frozen. But if you want to change that, without having to Un-Freeze the tracks, you can do this easily. Hold down the SHIFT key as you press the [Play] button (the fly-by hint will remind you of that), or go to the Song menu and choose Generate (even if tracks are frozen).
To edit a MIDI track (bass, drums, piano, guitar, strings), or the MIDI part of a RealTracks that has a RealChart (MIDI transcribed solo), simply open up the Notation window (or Piano Roll window), and click on the track and edit it. Make sure to Freeze the track by pressing the Freeze button and choosing Freeze for that track, or right-clicking on the instrument at the top of the screen and choosing Freeze. Now your edited tracks will save with the song.
4-bar Endings RealTracks endings have been enhanced, and are now 4-bar endings instead of 2-bar, allowing time for a natural decay of the instruments. By “4-bar endings” we are referring to a 2-bar ending that has additional two bars to allow for the natural decay of the audio instrument (instead of being quickly faded out). To add the 4-bar ending support, you need to have updated ST2 and XT2 files for the RealTracks.
If you just want more or less added, you can adjust the “Strength %.” For example, the default adds a reverb of 40 to most tracks, but if you set the strength to 75%, then 30 will be added. You can also set the type of reverb. The default is a “room” type of reverb. To do this, press the Audio Reverb button, and adjust the various parameters. You can then save your reverb types as presets, and the current settings will also be saved with the song. The presets all get saved to a PGReverbSettings.
Timebase and Tempo Controls Double-time and half-time support for RealTracks Now you can play any RealTracks at half-time or double-time. This allows you, for example, in a ballad at a tempo of 70, to add a RealTracks Sax solo with a tempo of 140, and play it as a double-time, which will match the ballad tempo of 70. So now all of your existing RealTracks can be used at 3 different tempos (normal, half-time, double-time). You can control over when/how RealTracks would play.
The “T” column of the RealTracks Assign dialog shows which RealTracks are eligible for Tempo Swapping. The tempo swapping only occurs if you have the RealTracks in your installation. RealTracks Picker dialog enhanced. - Opens up faster. - New columns are added (tempo swappable, holds type). RealDrums Picker dialog has been enhanced, with information about Artist name, Artist bio, and RealDrums Set number.
The “Favorites” and “Recently Played” Radio buttons toggle between a list of your recently played songs (or styles), and your Favorite songs (or styles). The favorites list will start off as an empty one, but you can add songs/styles as your favorites, by clicking the [Add Favorite] button. (This button is also found in the StylePicker.) Technical Note: The list of songs/style favorites is stored in a text file called SongFavorites.txt (or StyleFavorites.txt) in the Band-in-a-Box folder.
The favorite styles are the ones that you’ve identified as favorites, either by pressing the [Add Favorite] button in the Favorite Styles dialog, or the similar button in this StylePicker dialog. Note that an “F” appears beside the name of any style that is a favorite. You can make any style a favorite by clicking the [Add Favorite] button. If you want to remove it, click the button again. “Only Show favorites” will only show the favorite styles in any list that you have opened.
Chapter 4: The Main Screen Main Screen Overview The main screen gives direct access to the major features and program settings of Bandin-a-Box for ease and convenience during a session. There are five different areas on the main screen. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. The Status Bar is used to show program running status messages and path names of the currently loaded song. The Synth Window is the area between the Menu Bar and the Piano Keyboard where Instruments patches are set and levels are adjusted.
Personalizing the Main Screen Macintosh themes are supported. You can choose different colors for the chordsheet area of the screen, and you can also choose to use larger fonts for the chord display. These two settings are found in the Preferences 2 dialog. Support for larger screen sizes allows the program to fill the entire screen. There are also options to restrict the screen size to a certain size. To force the screen size to a certain size, use the Preferences “Limit Screen size to” item.
Sol, etc.), move your mouse pointer over the instrument panel box (i.e. Piano: (1) Acoustic Piano), and click anywhere on the instrument name. Then select the new patch from the popup menu. Clicking on the up ▲ and down ▼arrows will move up and down the list of instrument patches one at a time. The Favorite Instrument Panel allows you to assign up to 10 of your favorite instruments for each instrument part.
- Find a patch by keyword by clicking the [Search..] button and typing some letters that you know are in the name, e.g., “mando” will find your mandolin patch and any others containing “mando.” Note: You can open a new patch file by pressing the [Open *.PAT…] button. You can also customize the names and descriptions of the patch file list to suit your tastes by pressing the [Edit…] button and editing a small text file. Press the [Update] button for your changes to take effect.
which notes to play. (Band-in-a-Box will supply the correct notes; see the next section for details.) Recording Using the Wizard To record the Wizard, press the [Record] button to record, and play the Wizard. This will be recorded. You can use the feature of recording the Wizard to enter music without a MIDI keyboard that doesn't sound as stiff as most music entered in step time. This is how it works: - Press [Record] to record.
The Embellisher is only active while the music is playing, it doesn't permanently affect the Melody track. There is an option to make the Embellishment permanent, so that if you like a certain embellishment you can add it to the Melody track. This is especially useful to spice up songs that have been entered in step time with “robotic” velocities and durations of notes.
[Loop] plays the selected (highlighted) section of the chordsheet in a loop. [Replay] plays the song from the beginning without creating a new arrangement. [Stop] button stops the song or the Jukebox from playing. [Pause] button pauses the song during playback. [From] button is used to play a song starting anywhere in the song, including tags or endings. [Rec] button records MIDI from an external keyboard or the Wizard to the Melody track.
This button sends out an “all notes off” message to your MIDI or software synthesizer. It functions as a “panic” button to stop a hung or stuck note. This opens up the pgmusic.com website to the page with video tutorials for learning Band-in-a-Box. Opens the Band-in-a-Box PDF manual, which is in the /Manuals folder. When playing songs in the Jukebox, this arrow will jump back to the previous song in the list. The Jukebox plays a folder of songs according to the specified options.
The Reharmonist creates a chord progression based only on the melody of the song. It can also reharmonize existing chord progressions. The grace note button opens the Melody Embellisher dialog for customizing the Melody Embellisher. Press the ChdSolo button to launch the Generate Guitar Chord Solo dialog. Based on the existing Melody track, this generates a guitar chord solo using correct guitar fret positions. This button connects to the www.pgmusic.com web site.
The favorites list will start off as empty one, but you can add songs/styles as your favorites, by clicking the [Add Favorite] button. (This button is also found in the StylePicker.) Check “OK To Add recent files...” to allow your recently loaded songs to be added to this list. (File | Open Favorite Songs... or Shift+F3 also opens this window.) Press the [song] button (or Ctrl+F3) to launch the Select song by Title window, described in full elsewhere in this manual.
Chordsheet Area Chord Entry The basic way of entering a song in Band-in-a-Box is by typing in the chords to the song using the computer keyboard. Chords are typed in using standard chord symbols (like C or Fm7 or Bb7 or Bb13#9/E). Chords can be cut, pasted, and copied from one location to another. Another way of entering chords is through MIDI chord recognition. Play any chord on your MIDI keyboard; and Band-in-a-Box will recognize it instantly and insert it onto the chordsheet.
Style variations for your arrangement are entered in the chordsheet by clicking on a bar number to set a part marker. Each click toggles to the next available substyle part marker (a, b, etc.) or removes the part marker. Regular styles have two substyles, and Band-in-aBox MultiStyles have four substyle variations – a, b, c, and d. … You can add more substyles to an individual song with a right-click on any bar number.
Chapter 5: Guided Tour of Band-in-a-Box You can arrange, record, save, and print your own song ideas with Band-in-a-Box. Just type in the chords to any song; choose a style and press [Play] to hear the “band” play a full arrangement. Have some fun by changing to different styles. For even more fun record a MIDI Melody – or have Band-in-a-Box write a Melody for you. Add Harmony, an automatically improvised Soloist, an Intro, and print out a lead sheet and play along.
If you’ve added some new songs to a folder just click on [Rebuild List] and the SongPicker will add their titles to the list. There is also a Find feature to help you locate songs in the list. Click on the [Find] button and then type in the word you want to search for and click on Find. [Find Again] repeats your search. Start song playback. Alternative methods are to double click on any bar in the Chordsheet, including the tag or ending if defined, or by pressing the spacebar. Stop song playback.
Play along with your MIDI Controller Keyboard If you have an external MIDI keyboard controller connected to your computer system, you can use the MIDI THRU features to play along with the program. The Thru part is the part that you play along on your MIDI keyboard or with the Wizard feature. It can be harmonized by pressing the [T] button in the Harmony area of the main screen. Select Thru Harmony This opens the Select Thru Harmony dialog.
For example, you could add a SuperSax harmony to a saxophone soloist to create the effect of a full saxophone section. This button opens the Harmony Maker, where you can customize Harmonists. This button is to turn off any notes that are stuck on. (There shouldn’t be any.) Enter the number of the harmony you want to go to and press [Go To #]. Favorite Thru Harmony This option brings up your favorite 50 Harmony styles (based on recent usage) and allows you to choose one to use on the Thru or Soloist track.
The default is “No Transpose,” so the [Default] button sets all fields to 0. If you are playing along while changing these settings, the [Update] button will apply the changes you have made so you can hear the difference. [Do it now] sends your transpose settings for either the song or the Thru part, as selected. Change the Style The hundreds of musical styles available for Band-in-a-Box include lots of variations for any style you choose.
This is an especially useful feature if you have a synthesizer or sound source that has patches on higher banks beyond the basic 128 General MIDI instruments. The window that appears when you click on this button looks like this: This will provide you with a list of all the patches available to you by name on the left, and where the patch is located (patch #, bank) on the right. Add RealDrums The RealDrums feature replaces MIDI drums with audio drums recorded live by top studio drummers.
Multiple search terms work with RealDrums Picker. If you separate terms with a space, each term is searched for separately. So a search for “Bossa Rock Ev 120”, will find any Bossa Rock styles with an Even feel that would work with a tempo of close to 120. Adding a search term that has a number will filter for RealTracks that match the tempo or within a compatible range. Pressing [Show All] will cancel the filter, and show all RealDrums again. This shows the current RealDrums for this song.
[Rebuild] builds the list of RealDrums present as folders in the Drums folder. If you add new drum styles, press this button to update the list. RealDrums made by you (or others) that you add to the RealDrums folder also appear in the RealDrums Picker dialog. [Defaults] returns the dialog to default settings, which will show all available styles. Press [OK] to make your selection and return to the song. Press [Cancel] to return to the song without making a selection.
In the RealTracks Settings dialog you can Enable/Disable the RealTracks feature. Audio Reverb There is a Reverb control for individual tracks with RealTracks or RealDrums, so you can easily add reverb (0 to 127) for any RealTrack. At the top of the screen, there is an “A.REV” (Audio Reverb) control. Click on an instrument radio button, and then set the Audio Reverb for it. Note that this only applies to RealTracks, since MIDI tracks have MIDI Reverb, which is set via a “REV” control.
You can make tracks Frozen by pressing the Freeze button (snowflake) on the toolbar, and then choosing which tracks that you want to freeze or unfreeze. Add a Melody Band-in-a-Box is much more than an arranger and accompanist. You can also record your live MIDI performance to the Melody track, enter a Melody in the Notation note-by-note, or use the Wizard to record from your computer keyboard. Enable the Embellisher, and the Melody will be embellished as it is played.
Enter the number of the harmony you want to go to and press [Go To #]. Favorite Melody Harmony This option brings up your favorite 50 Harmony styles (based on recent usage) and allows you to choose one to use on the Melody track. It opens from the Harmony | Favorite Melody Harmonies menu item or by pressing either the [F] button next to the Melody Harmony box or the [Favs] button in the Select Melody Harmony dialog.
Add a Solo That’s right! Band-in-a-Box can “solo like a pro” in over 200 styles. Use the [Soloist] button on the main screen to open the Select Soloist dialog box and choose from hundreds of soloist profiles, including RealTracks for authentic live audio solos. The RealTracks soloists start at #361 in the list. Use the preset Soloist settings, or choose your own Solo Mode and the Choruses where you want a solo.
Click on the [Open] button in the toolbar to launch the Open Song dialog. From the /Band-in-a-Box /Songs folder select OLDFOLKS.MGU and load it into Band-in-a-Box Let’s have a look at the Notation window! Press the “note” button to launch the Notation (or press ^+N). You’ll now see this Notation window. Look around the Notation Window Chords Line Just as in the chordsheet, you can type in chords using the same keystrokes.
- Notation display for the Bass, Drums, Guitar, Piano, Strings, Melody, or Soloist track. - As the notation plays, the notes that are sounding are highlighted in red. This helps with sight reading or following the music. - You can set the notation to scroll either 1 or 2 bars ahead of the music without interfering with your view of the current notation. - Standard notation handles Jazz eighth notes and triplet figures correctly.
Using the Mouse to Edit Velocity and Duration Place the mouse cursor on the note head and hold down the Option button on the computer keyboard. Then, starting at the note head, drag the cursor horizontally to set the note's duration, or vertically to set the note's velocity. Let’s print the song OLDFOLKS.MGU. Press the [Print] button on the Notation window, or the Print icon on the main screen, or press Ctrl+P to launch the Print Options dialog box.
These buttons stand for Bass, Drums, Piano, Guitar, Strings, Melody, and Soloist. The selected part (Bass) is highlighted in color. Get back to the Melody track, by pressing the [M] button. Ctrl+Shift+F5 is the hot key that allows you to switch tracks using keystrokes. Try turning the Clean function on/off. “Clean” notation is an intelligent mode that eliminates grace notes and unusual notation, producing a cleaner and much more readable notation.
Automatic Songs - “The Melodist” Feel like composing a brand new song? With Band-in-a-Box you can compose a new song, in the style of your choice complete with intro, chords, melody, arrangement and improvisations, all created by the program! All you have to do is pick from one of the Melodists and press [OK] - the program then automatically generates the intro, chords, melody, and arrangement in the chosen style.
Import a MIDI File With the amazing Band-in-a-Box Chord Wizard, you can convert any MIDI file into a Band-in-a-Box song, complete with Melody and Solo parts. MIDI File Chord Interpretation Wizard Many people who play music by ear think of songs in terms of “Chords and Melody.” However many MIDI files lack chord symbols, so they become difficult to learn without the user having to figure out the chords in a time consuming process.
Make Your Own Songs Now that you know how much fun it is to play music with Band-in-a-Box, you’ll be pleased to see how easy it is to make songs of your own. This section shows you how to make a new song, with step-by-step instructions from start to finish. Start with a clean sheet. Use either the menu command File | New or Edit | Clear Lead sheet, or the keystrokes Cmd+N to blank the chordsheet. Name the song. Enter the title of the song by clicking in the title area.
Press Cmd+C, or select the Edit | Copy menu item. The highlighted area will be copied to the clipboard. It can then be pasted back into the chordsheet at any location, and reused as many times as you like. Move the highlight cell to the bar that you want to paste the chords into, using the arrow keys or the mouse. Paste the copied section with press Cmd+V command, or select the Edit | Paste menu item. The chords will then appear at the new location.
You get to the StylePicker window by pressing the [Style] button or Ctrl+F9. This launches the StylePicker window. Choose the “Show Styles” filter” to display all styles, or only styles that match the prototype partially or fully. Use the “Disk #” filter to view only the styles from one styles set disk. Category List: Use the Category list on the left to select a style category (Jazz / Pop etc.) or a style set. Click on the list to choose.
The Search button helps you find data in any of the fields. Frame the song Here we have selected bar one to be the first bar of the chorus and bar 32 to be the last. The chorus will repeat three times before proceeding to the two bar ending. Set the Tempo Let’s set the tempo to 160 beats per minute. The tempo is displayed in the song title window with a default setting of 120 beats per minute. Click with the mouse to adjust the tempo in increments of 5 beats per minute.
Record a Melody Band-in-a-Box has 2 built-in MIDI sequencer tracks, Melody and Soloist, so you can record and edit your own melodies or solos. These tracks are recorded from a MIDI keyboard (or other MIDI controller) connected to Band-in-a-Box by your MIDI driver. Press the [Record] button to begin recording. This launches the Record Track dialog box. You can punch in, overdub, and record directly to the ending or the tag. Use the filter to choose which MIDI events are recorded.
Adding Lyrics to your song Use the menu command Edit | Enter Lyrics at Current Bar to open the Lyrics Entry window. The Escape key closes this window. Use the cursor arrows to move down and enter your lyrics a line at a time. Two lines of lyrics are displayed while the song is playing, and the lyrics are highlighted as the highlight cell moves across the chordsheet. Add a Memo A song memo of up to 2000 characters may be added with your own notes about the song and the Band-in-a-Box song summary.
The [Save +] button lets you save your song with all of its settings. It launches the Assign Instruments and Harmonies to Song dialog where you can save custom patches for your song as well as Volume, Pan, Reverb, Chorus, Bank, Harmony, and RealDrums settings. The [.MID] button will save your file in Standard MIDI File format. Press the [Audio] button and Band-in-a-Box will render the song arrangement to an audio wave file.
Chapter 6: Band-in-a-Box PowerGuide Yes, it’s as “easy as 1-2-3” to make great music on your computer using the intelligent automatic accompaniment features of Band-in-a-Box, but there’s much more to this amazing program. Work your way through this chapter to become a “power user.” RealTracks What are RealTracks? Just as RealDrums replace the MIDI drum track with live audio recordings of top session drummers, RealTracks add “real” instruments recorded by top studio players and recording artists.
Global settings for RealTracks are made in the RealTracks Settings dialog, which opens with the menu command Windows | RealTracks Settings or with the [Settings] button in the Assign RealTracks to Tracks dialog (RealTracks Picker). In the RealTracks Settings dialog you can Enable/Disable the RealTracks feature. RealCharts (notation from RealTracks) Most RealTracks display notation, i.e. RealCharts, showing the notes that are being played.
RealCharts are optional and are selected in the RealTracks Settings dialog. ; “Show notation for RealCharts in styles” will show RealCharts that have been generated from styles with RealTracks. ; “Show Notation for Soloists” will show RealCharts that have been generated from the Select Soloist dialog. ; “Save RealChart in MIDI file” will save the RealChart to a MIDI track so you can analyze it in other programs.
This “speedup” feature works automatically for faster generation of RealTracks using CPU resources during playback. If you have a multi-core machine, you may not notice this at all, since it will use different cores than the main Band-in-a-Box thread. If your machine is older, low on memory, slow hard drive etc., you can disable this “speedup” feature so that your machine is doing less CPU work during playback. When set, the program will find the best RealTracks to use at the current tempo.
Press [OK] to make your selection and exit the RealTracks Settings dialog. Press [Cancel] to exit the RealTracks Settings dialog without making any changes. Using RealTracks There are three ways that you can use RealTracks with Band-in-a-Box. 1. RealTracks in songs. The [RealTrks] toolbar button launches the Assign RealTracks to Track dialog, which also displays the current RealTracks that are assigned to each track. This dialog is also available with a right mouse click on any Band-in-a-Box part name.
The dialog allows you to assign a specific RealTracks instruments to a track in a song. It also displays any RealTracks that are currently assigned to each track. This will assign a RealTracks to the current song only, overriding any RealTracks stored in the style. The [None] button sets the current track to no RealTracks assigned for the song. This sets all RealTracks for the song to “None.” It will also optionally disable RealTracks present in the style for this song.
“Artist Bio” - The RealTracks have been recorded by top studio musicians. The artist names and bios are displayed for the RealTracks. Double click here to view the full memo. “Memo” field - This describes the currently selected RealTracks style, and includes some useful tips, such as a suggested tempo range and Band-in-a-Box styles to use it with. “User comments” - You can enter your own comments about any style in this field. The comments are saved in RTUserMemos.
- The letter “t” in the “T” column indicates RealTracks that are tempo swappable and can be substituted with other RealTracks that are made at different tempos. - If the “H” column is blank it means that Holds, Shots, and Pushes are available for the listed RealTracks. The letter “n” in this column means that they are available but not installed. A dash – means that no Holds, Shots, and Pushes are available for the style.
Using RealTracks in Styles The StyleMaker has settings to assign RealTracks to styles in the Misc. Style Settings dialog. This allows you to create or edit styles to assign specific RealDrums or RealTracks to the style. To access this dialog, enter the StyleMaker (User | Make A New Style), and then press the [PATCH] button to launch the Misc. Style Settings dialog.
MultiStyle(s) Enter the name of a style: zzjazz, or multiple styles separated by semicolons: zzjazz;zzbossa and these will appear as MultiStyles, substyles c/d/e/f etc. You can click on the [Style] button to choose the styles for your MultiStyle from the StylePicker window. Styles with RealTracks There are many existing Band-in-a-Box styles that have been made with RealTracks. The style names begin with an equals sign. RealStyles are styles that use only RealTracks and no MIDI instruments.
2. 3. Choosing Favorites to return to a recently chosen Soloist. Click on the [RealTrack] button to jump directly to the start of the RealTracks soloists listings. As with other Soloists, press the [All Solo] button to make sure that the Soloist will be generated for all choruses, or “Melody and Solo” if you just want the Soloist for a certain chorus.
How Do RealDrums Work? There are several ways to hear RealDrums with new or existing Band-in-a-Box songs. RealDrums can be added to a single song, or substituted for MIDI drums in existing styles. We provide many styles that already have RealDrums. These styles can be identified by the style name beginning with a minus sign. For example “-ZZJAZZ.Style” is a version of the ZZJAZZ.Style that uses RealDrums. Let’s Explore the Real Drums The [RealDrms] button on the toolbar opens the RealDrums Picker.
With “Enable RealDrums” checked RealDrums may be used rather than MIDI. This setting can be changed while the song is playing so that you can compare MIDI drums and RealDrums. This will substitute RealDrums for MIDI styles in all songs where a suitable RealDrums style is available. You can change the setting from 1 to 5. If set to 1, almost all MIDI drums will be substituted by RealDrums. If set to 5, only RealDrum styles that match the style perfectly will be substituted.
Use “If RealDrums style not found, use other RealDrums style” to replace RealDrums styles that you don’t have (i.e., haven’t purchased yet) with ones that you do have. This feature also has a range of settings from 1 to 5. If set to 1, almost all missing styles will be substituted. If set to 5, only RealDrum styles that match the style perfectly will be substituted. Technical note: The a_pgmusic.ds text file controls this feature.
You can choose any folder for your RealDrums. This allows you, for example, to conserve space on your hard drive by storing the RealDrums on an external drive. Since you can type in your own folder name directly, you should update the setting when you are finished typing the name. If you want to store your Drums folder somewhere other than /Applications/Band-in-a-Box/Drums, then specify that location by choosing its folder here. This button clears the currently selected RealDrums for the song.
There are additional settings to define your selection in the RealDrums Picker. “Show if Tempo is out of Range” will show styles that wouldn’t work well at the current song tempo. The acceptable range is shown in the list of styles Lo/Hi (9th and 10th) columns. “Show if Feel does not match” will show a song where the drums are in Even feel and the style is Swing (or vice versa). “Show RealDrums that are not favorites.” You can assign a style as one of your favorites by clicking in the first column.
“Memo” is a memo description of the style. These are stored in the Band-in-aBox/Data/RDPGMemos.txt file. You can also add your own memos in the User Comments box below. This shows the current RealDrums for this song. This sets the drums to no RealDrums override for the song, and optionally also forces MIDI drums (i.e., no RealDrums for the style either). The RealDrums list can be sorted by any of the column headings.
RealDrums styles ending in a caret (^) have variations available. They are listed here. Where there are two instruments shown, such as Brushes/Sticks, the first one plays in the “a” substyle and the second in the “b” substyle. [PlayNow] loads the selected RealDrums and starts playback. The [Stop] button stops the song playback. Click on [PlayNow] to resume. The [Audition] button doesn’t load the style but instead uses Media Player to play a demo .AIFF file for the style.
RealDrums style change at any bar (F5) The Edit bar settings dialog opens with the menu command Edit | Bar Settings, with the F5 function key, or the keystrokes Alt+B. Tip: If the F5 key (or F8 key) does not perform the expected function in Band-in-a-Box you will need to go to the Apple System Preferences and uncheck the system setting in the Keyboard Shortcuts list. In this dialog you can change the style of RealDrums at the current bar (location of the highlight cell).
Transpose If you change the key you can transpose all of the MIDI parts to the new key by checking the Transpose box. This is especially useful when loading in new songs and transposing them to other keys. If you’ve entered a progression that you intend for a particular key, and then choose the key afterward in order to show the correct key signature, you would leave Transpose unchecked. Then the key signature will change to the new key you type in, but the chords you entered will stay the same.
key. When the tempo is tapped on the [=] key, song playback will start automatically at the tapped tempo. To change the tempo of a song while the song is playing you may use the [ and ] keys to change the tempo by 5 at a time. Or you can move the mouse pointer over the tempo setting and click the mouse as follows: The tempo display is broken up into 4 quadrants. Mouse clicking in these four areas will change the tempo by +1, -1, +5, or -5 before or during play.
Chord Types can be Jazz or Pop. Intro Length can be 2, 4 or 8 bars to suit the tempo of the song. Starting Chord (after intro) is lets the intro lead in to the song correctly. Pedal Bass has a list of pedal bass options, based on the key entered in the box. Press the [(Re)-Generate Intro Chords] button to auto-generate chords for an intro. Press the [Remove Intro] button to remove the intro from the song. The Melodist feature will also generate an introduction for the songs it creates.
the Main Settings dialog (Song | Title/Key/Tempo/Embel…). These additional song settings are saved with the song. Vary Style in Middle Choruses Default = If checked, the song will play in substyle B throughout the Middle Choruses. The Middle Choruses include all choruses except the first and last. If not checked, the middle choruses will play “a” and “b” substyles as set in the chordsheet with part markers.
Chapter 6: Band-in-a-Box PowerGuide
Tag Settings A tag (or coda) is a group of bars that are played in the last chorus of a song. If you check the “Tag Exists?” field, then the tag will play during the last chorus of the song. The tag begins after the bar you specify as “Tag Jump After Bar #.” The song then jumps to the “Tag Begin at Bar #” and plays until “Tag Ends After Bar #.” At the end of the tag, the song then plays a 2 bar ending as usual. Generate 2-Bar Ending for This Song Default = You can disable the ending for a certain song.
The Chordsheet The chordsheet is a spreadsheet where the numbered cells represent bars of music. The chord changes for the song are shown in the corresponding bars. Band-in-a-Box chordsheet area. As well as entering the chords for your song, the chordsheet is where you put in style variations, fills, and breaks. The basic procedures for entering information in the Chordsheet follow, but be sure to see the right-click contextual menu for the chordsheet for alternate methods and additional features.
- - Use # or 3 for a sharp, e.g. F#7. (# is the uppercase symbol of 3, so you can actually type F37 to get F#7. Band-in-a-Box will sort out the case, saving you the effort of using 3 to type the # symbol). Use / for slash chords with alternate Roots such as C7/E (C7 with E bass). Use a comma (,) to enter 2 chords in a cell. In the example below, we would type Ab9,G9 to get the 2 chords in the cell (on beat 3 and 4 of bar 2).
automatically inserted into your song (chordsheet or notation view) at the current cursor location. Then, Band-in-a-Box is ready for the next chord. You can insert up to two chords per bar in this fashion. Erase Chords To erase chords, place the highlight cell over top of the chords you would like to erase. Press the [spacebar] once. Then move your cursor to the right or left, or mouse click on another measure, and the chord(s) will be erased.
2 bars of C chord (no break on bar 2). This is the usual situation without any break. Note that the piano plays rhythmically on bar 2. Rest on bar 2. This rests the instruments until the next chord on the chordsheet. The rest is typed in as a C chord followed by one period. A shot is put on bar 6. The shot plays a staccato chord on bar 6, and then rests until the next chord on the chordsheet. The shot is typed as a C chord followed by two periods. This illustrates a held chord on bar 10.
C.bd To exempt instruments, add their letters following the break. Typing c.bd will put a rest on all instruments EXCEPT the bass and drums. C...p This will put a held chord on all instruments except the piano. Pushes Pushes in Styles. “Pushes” (also called anticipations) are chords that are played before the beat. For example, in Jazz Swing, the piano player often “pushes” a chord change by playing the chord an eighth note before the beat.
Chord Settings Dialog Box Chord settings control the “breaks” in a song when one or more of the instruments rests, plays a shot, or holds a chord. These breaks are all referred to as Rest Types in Band-ina-Box, and they can be entered along with the chord name or with keystrokes. Chords can also be “pushed,” which makes them play early. There is an alternative to the various keystrokes to put in rest types and pushes for chords. You can use the Chord Settings dialog box instead.
Rest Only Rests can specify any, some, or all instruments to rest at any bar. For example, you could rest all instruments except the bass for the first 4 bars, then add in the piano for 4 bars, and then add in the entire band for the rest of the song. You may optionally disable the rests in the middle or final choruses (where people are likely taking solos, and rests are not appropriate). Shot You can specify certain instruments play a “shot,” where the chord is played and then a rest follows.
- When you have selected (highlighted) the proper region of chords to copy, you can copy the selected region to the clipboard with the keystrokes +c, or by selecting Copy from the Edit menu. Pasting chords to the chordsheet. When you have copied some chords to the clipboard you can then paste them into the chordsheet by: Moving the highlight cell to the destination bar where you want to begin the paste of chords.
The settings allow you to specify the bar and beat to copy from, the number of bars to copy, and the location to copy to. Erase Chords and/or Melody To erase chords with additional control for erasing the melody and/or soloist choose Edit | Erase From.. To.. or press Option+K to launch the Erase Chords and / or melody dialog box: As you can see, you can erase a number of bars of chords and/or melody and/or soloist.
Click on the “Chord Display Type” box and choose from the list of five options; 1. Normal. 2. Roman Numeral. 3. Nashville Notation. 4. Solfeggio Notation. 5. Fixed Do. When a new notation mode is selected a message will report the change on the main screen. Click anywhere in the message box to close it. The Roman numeral and other non-standard displays use superscript for the chord display when in the Notation window (or print out), so they look best in the Notation window.
substyle. This is great for Jazz songs, allowing you to play swing throughout the middle (soloing) choruses and revert to the “a” substyle for the last chorus. Note: If you want to keep the same substyle in the middle choruses, you would need to uncheck the “Vary Style in Middle Choruses” option in the Additional Song Settings option on the Song menu. Adding More Substyles … You can add more substyles to an individual song with a right-click on any bar number.
When making any changes to a measure using the Edit bar settings dialog box, Band-ina-Box will place a colored indicator box around the measure number of the edited measure. Settings apply to Chorus # is a setting that lets you apply the changes at the specified bar in all choruses or just in the chorus you choose. Change the Number of beats/bar. The initial time signature of the song is determined by the style (e.g. Jazz =4/4, Waltz =3/4).
- Press the F5 key to open the Edit bar settings dialog (or choose the Edit | Bar Settings menu command, or use the keystrokes Option+B). Use the [Style…] button to select a style using the StylePicker dialog. Use the [*.sty] button to select a style from a folder on your hard drive. You should select a style that is present in the Styles folder in Band-in-a-Box (or the same folder where the song resides). The name of the new style you choose will be displayed.
Tempo can also be set by clicking on the metronome button. Clicking on this button 4 times will set the tempo to your tapped-in value. The tempo change takes effect at the beginning of the bar and remains until a new tempo change at another bar is inserted. Volume Changes Volume levels can be changed at any bar, either for All parts or for each part individually. Changes can be entered manually, or selected from presets.
Chord Preview/Builder You can instantly hear how any chord sounds by selecting it in the chordsheet and pressing Shift+Return, or use the “Chord Builder” feature to audition different chords until you find the one that sounds best to you. In other words, you can enter chords “by ear” without having to know the actual chord names or any music theory. This feature also illustrates the differences between various chord types. Previewing Chords This feature allows you to hear chords as you to type them in.
You can now click on the root of the chord (in the “Root” group), the extension (Maj7 etc.), and also an alternate “slash-note” root. For example, to make the chord F9/A, you would click on the “F” root, the “9” extension, and the Slash Root of /A. As you click on them, you'll hear the bass note played on the Bass part, and the extension played on the Piano track. If you are happy with the sound of the chord, you can press the [Enter Chord] button to enter the chord at the bar and beat specified.
- You'll see this Chord Wizard dialog: Press the [Open (Change)…] button, and select the MIDI file to import. Choose a preset, and the Chord Wizard will interpret the chords in that style. Press the [INTERPRET CHORDS NOW] button to see the chords written into the Band-in-a-Box chordsheet. Chord Wizard results – interpreting from a Standard MIDI File.
The dialog has options to read channels into the Melody and/or Soloist tracks. Read in Chords from a PG Music or Band-in-a-Box MIDI file. Many of PG Music's programs have MIDI files with the chords in them. You can open these files in Band-in-a-Box, and the chords will be imported onto the chordsheet. To import the chords from a PG Music MIDI file (i.e.
The “Favorites” and “Recently Played” Radio buttons toggle between a list of your recently played styles and your Favorite songs styles. This lets you quickly load in styles that have been used your last few sessions with Band-in-a-Box. The favorites list will start off as an empty one, but you can add songs/styles as your favorites, by clicking the [Add Favorite] button. (This button is also found in the StylePicker.
The first 24 styles that we made were built into the program, and are still referred to as “Built-in Styles.” These styles are no longer built into the program, making them editable like all other Band-in-a-Box styles. The built-in styles may be selected from the Styles pull down menu. They are a convenient way to quickly apply a basic style to a song. User MIDI Styles The other styles that we make are called user styles because they are editable.
The StylePicker allows easy selection of styles by category or from a complete list of all styles. For example, you can select Jazz styles and see a list of all of your Jazz styles. Then you can select any style to see its full title, description, and examples of songs appropriate to the style. The current style of the song is listed at the top of the window; in this case it is the Jazz Swing style (ZZJAZZ.Style). This is referred to as the Prototype Style.
Styles with RealDrums The StylePicker has another category called Styles with RealDrums. This lists many RealDrums styles (.Style) that we’ve made. We always name the RealDrums style beginning with a minus sign, so that “-ZZJAZZ.Style” would be the ZZJAZZ.Style, but using RealDrums instead of MIDI drums. MultiStyles Original Band-in-a-Box styles had two substyle variations, “a” and “b.” Bandin-a-Box MultiStyles have four substyles, “a” through “d.
can quickly see styles that are similar to Jazz Swing (in this example). The styles J_BASIE and J_DIXIE could be substituted with a perfect match so are marked with an asterisk (*). Styles like J_DJANGO are marked with a caret (^) because they sound best in a much faster tempo than the prototype Jazz Swing style. Use the filters to display all styles, or only ones that you choose. Auditioning Styles You can press the [Preview] button.
List Management This adds the currently selected style to the list of Favorite styles. Favorites have a letter “F” beside their name in the left column of the Styles list, they also appear in the Favorite Styles dialog. If this option is selected, only styles that are favorites will appear in the Styles list. If you have added new styles to Band-in-a-Box (or edited the BBW.LST file) the StylePicker’s [Re-Build] button will update the styles list. This will copy the Styles List to the clipboard.
Style Aliases Let's say you have a new style for Jazz called “Dizzy.” You can create an alias so that when Band-in-a-Box looks for a Jazz Swing style, it will load in “Dizzy” instead, so you don't have to change all your songs that were made with the old style. And when you find a new favorite style, just change the alias. Aliases are accessed by the MIDI | Style Aliases… menu item.
- Press the [Play] button, or - +a, or Press the keystrokes Press the F4 function key, or Select the menu command Song | Play. To play a song in Band-in-a-Box from a particular measure, Press the [From] button and select the bar from which to play, or With the song stopped, type the letter x on the computer keyboard to restart from the current location of the highlight cell, or Select Play From Bar # from the Song menu, or Press Ctrl+F.
Changing Volume, Panning, Reverb, Chorus, Bank To change the volume, panning, reverb, chorus, or bank of a part: 1. Select the part by clicking on the desired part to change. 2. Then click in the box for the desired setting to affect. 3. Clicking on the number in the box will change the value by 1. To increase the setting, click on the upper half of the number. Click on the lower half of the number to decrease the setting by 1. 4.
At the top of the screen, there is an “A.REV” (Audio Reverb) control. Click on an instrument radio button, and then set the Audio Reverb for it. Note that this only applies to RealTracks, since MIDI tracks have MIDI Reverb, which is set via a “REV” control. The Audio Reverb varies from 0 to 127. Adjust the value by clicking a key on the onscreen piano keyboard. Or right-click (or control-click) the control to enter a value.
Freeze Tracks Freezing (locking) MIDI or RealTracks/RealDrums Any track (MIDI or RealTrack) can be frozen. When frozen, it doesn’t get changed or regenerated. This saves time when replaying previous songs, and allows you to freeze an arrangement that you like. If you freeze the whole song, you don’t have to wait at all for the song to regenerate. Next time you play, it is ready to go.
Forcing Generation of a Song that is Frozen Band-in-a-Box won’t touch tracks that are frozen. But if you want to change that, without having to Un-Freeze the tracks, you can do this easily. Hold down the SHIFT key as you press the [Play] button (the fly-by hint will remind you of that), or go to the Song menu and choose Generate (even if tracks are frozen). When you do this, the song will regenerate, the tracks will get rewritten, and the song will stay frozen.
Saving song with Patches… You can save your song with patches and other settings. This is done by selecting the [Save +] button or the Save song with Patches… option from the File menu. This allows you to save the instrument patches MIDI controller settings, harmonies, Soloist, mixer settings, and RealDrums style in a particular song. You can also save the instruments as “On” or “Off” for each song. For example, you could have a song with no piano part.
Other parameters that can be saved (volume, reverb, etc.) are shown on the right side of the window. You can save all settings, including patches, by selecting “Save all settings with Songs.” Uncheck this box to customize the settings that are saved with the song. Storing Volume, Reverb, Panning, Chorus, and/or Bank Settings You can optionally save these MIDI controller settings with your songs.
Select the [Prefs] button or press Option+P or Command+comma to go to the Preferences dialogs. There are buttons for Preferences, Preferences 2, Soloist Prefs, Reverb, and DAW Plugin settings. Preferences Dialog (Preferences 1) Boost Vel. of Pushes by The pushes in Band-in-a-Box are the chords that get played before the beat. Typically, pushes are played a little louder than other patterns. You can leave this setting at 0, or set it to between 0 and 10.
the drums providing the beat (due to the drums resting). If so, you can temporarily disable the rests so that you can record and listen to the drums. Allow any Pushes If for some reason you don't want a style or a song to have pushes, you can uncheck this box. Allow Style Pushes If for some reason you don't want a style to have pushes, you can uncheck this box. Chord Display Type This box allows for non-standard display of chords on the chordsheet area.
To set this, choose Prefs | CountIn, and set Lead-in Type to one of “b” substyle fills/ “a” substyle fills/ or fill-pattern or pattern-pattern combinations. Audible Lead In / Volume Use these settings for the audible drum count-in. You can select any drum instrument for the count-in. You can choose different count-in rhythms (e.g. Tap on 2 and 4 instead of 1-2-3-4). Instrument Choose your pick of drum instruments for the lead-in count.
These different functions can be assigned to the spacebar. The default is to play from the current position, which will also stop play when the spacebar is pressed during playback. OK to Load Harmony w/songs If checked, the harmony settings for each song will be loaded and saved with each song. If set to NO, the harmony setting won't be saved or loaded with the songs.
Write Chords, Part Markers META event Writes the chords and part markers to the MIDI file. Include Guitar Position Controller This will insert a controller 84 which PG Music uses to indicate the fret position. Since some synths also use this for “Portamento Control,” you should use this setting with caution. Write Soloist Part on channel 5 Normally the program writes the Soloist part on channel 8.
Send XG Mode On at startup For sound modules that are XG compatible, this command will ensure that the module is ready to accept XG-specific MIDI data such as Bank, Controller, and Patch information. Turn External Keyboard’s Local On at end of session Normally while using Band-in-a-Box the “local-off” setting for your MIDI keyboard is best, since the THRU part will be coming from Band-in-a-Box and you don't want to hear your MIDI keyboard doubling the notes that are being played.
For Roman Numerals in minor keys, use relative major Option for minor keys base roman numerals on the relative major. For example in key of Am, Am is either the Im chord or the VIm chord. Save Button on main screen works as Save As The [Save] button will launch the file dialog where the location and name of the file being saved can be changed. Name MIDI files with .MID extension This will append the file extension .
Soloist Prefs… The More Soloist Settings dialog can be opened with either the [Soloist Prefs] button in the Preferences dialogs, or the [More] button in the Select Soloist dialog. Use MIDI Volume for Soloist Wizard Set to “true” if you want MIDI velocity information sent to the Soloing Wizard. If you have a velocity sensitive MIDI device attached to your computer and you want to control the dynamics of the Soloist, you should enable this feature.
You can enable/disable the audio reverb. If you disable it, this will save some CPU cycles, so this might be advisable on an older/slower machine if you hear that the audio is clicking or not keeping up. Click on the green Select a Preset button to open the list of presets. This list will show only the “Band-in-a-Box Default Reverb” until you save some presets of your own. As you adjust the settings, they will be applied to the current song.
LF Rolloff gradually reduces the bass frequencies. If you can’t add enough reverb because the sound gets too muddy, try increasing the LF Rolloff slider. It is adjustable between 50 Hz and 500 Hz. HF Rolloff is the rate at which the high frequencies die away as the reverb decays. Rooms with hard surfaces are typically bright, but rooms with soft surfaces are usually darker. It is adjustable between 1 KHz (dark) to 11 KHz (bright). Density is the density of low-level echoes near the end of the reverb tail.
Select [Yes] to save the new preset to the chosen location. Auto Reverb Enable “Auto-Add Reverb to RealTracks” to automatically apply preset amounts of reverb to RealTracks according to the instrument type. No reverb is added to the Bass part, for example, but most instruments get reverb. If you just want more or less reverb added overall, you can adjust the “Strength %.” For example, the default Band-in-a-Box reverb setting is 40 for most tracks.
3. COMBO (MASTER) TRACK. If you want the entire performance dragged to Finder, drag the Combo button to the drop station. Then when it turns green, drag to Finder. It will be dragged as audio, unless you have set it to be dragged as MIDI in Plugin Settings dialog. Normally, a single file is dropped, with the entire arrangement, but if you want all tracks transferred as separate files, you can enable this option in Plugin Settings dialog.
Allow Drag and Drop (default=true) If disabled, the Drag and Drop feature will not work. There shouldn’t be a reason to disable this. Drag individual MIDI tracks as audio (default=false) When enabled, the chosen MIDI tracks get converted to audio, using Apple Synth. Drag Combo (Master) track as audio (default=true) When enabled, the entire arrangement gets converted to audio, using Apple Synth. If not selected, the MIDI tracks in the arrangement get transferred as MIDI, in a single file.
Unfold (convert to 1 big chorus) If you have a song with 3 choruses, and want to convert it to a single large chorus, this command “unfolds” the song into just that; one BIG chorus. This is useful for customizing a song. When selected, Band-in-a-Box will display all choruses and verses of a song without loops or repeats. This is a useful command if you wish to make use of the Patch/Harmony change at any bar feature, or if you are going to generate a MIDI file for use with a sequencer or sequencing program.
Song Memo… A song memo of up to 2000 characters may be added with your own notes about the song and the Band-in-a-Box song summary. Clicking on the [M] button located to the right of the song title launches the Song Memo dialog where you can type in a short memo about the song, style, etc. A red border around the [M] button indicates that the song has a memo. The keystrokes Option+M will also launch the Song Memo.
MIDI Setup Connecting to MIDI Here is an illustration of the connections for a MIDI system using a MIDI Interface to connect to an external MIDI synthesizer. The Band-in-a-Box program running on your computer sends a stream of MIDI data via the MIDI Driver to your MIDI interface. The MIDI interface transmits information between the computer and your synthesizer. The Synthesizer or Sound Module (e.g. Roland Sound Canvas) produces the musical instrument sounds.
“MacOS X CoreMIDI” lets you configure a custom setup with other software synths or external MIDI devices. The CoreMIDI and Apple DLS Synth chapter gives detailed instructions for your MIDI setup. Click on [MIDI Drivers Help] to go to the CoreMIDI and Apple DLS Synth help tutorial. MIDI Settings The MIDI Settings dialog box lets you make settings for each part (bass/drums/piano etc.) and also to set the Harmony channels. CHANNELS: Range 0 to 16. (If set to 0, part will be Off). Some synths (e.g.
REVERB: Range 0 to 127. Typical setting = 40. CHORUS: Range of 0 to 127. Typical setting = 0. PAN: Panning refers to the left/right stereo placement. Range is –63 (hard left) to +64 (hard right). A setting of 0 is centered. Press the [Harmony] button to launch the Harmony Channels dialog box. Setting the Harmony Channels Melody Harmony Channel A Always uses the Melody channel. Melody Harmony Channel B Default =11 Melody Harmony Channel C Default =12 Thru Harmony Channel A Always uses the Thru channel.
Piano Display: Default = Uncheck this box if you don’t want to see notes played on the onscreen piano keyboard. Color Notes? Default = The notes that play on the onscreen piano are usually in different colors for each part. Bass – Aqua, Piano – Blue, Guitar – Green letter G, Strings – Pink letter S, Melody – Red letter M, Solo – Red letter S. Uncheck this box to show them all in black and white. Allow Patch Changes: Default = Do not check this box if you want to disable All Patch changes.
option to boost the THRU velocity and make your THRU playing louder. (For example, non-velocity sensitive keyboards are usually set to output a quiet velocity of 64). MIDI Output to an external device. Output Chords to External Device Some external music hardware devices require chords played in root position to drive them in real time. An example of this is the Digitech Vocalist. It will let you sing into a microphone and harmonize your voice according to the chords that are input to the device.
The JukeBox Overview of the Jukebox The Jukebox will Load and Play an entire folder of songs. Songs play continuously, one after the other. The Jukebox will continue to play while you move to other programs, so you can use the Jukebox to provide background music for your Macintosh! To play the Jukebox, click on the toolbar button, press Command + J, or choose Juke Box Play from the Song menu to open the Juke Box Options dialog. Then choose how you want your songs to be selected and played.
Audible lead-in: While listening to the Jukebox, you might not want to hear the count-in click. If not checked, you won't hear the count-in click. Vary Melody Instrument: Hearing a song after a song is played with the same melody instrument would get a little monotonous. If you check this option, the program will randomly change the melody instrument between your favorites. Use Tap in click to start: This option is used to control when the next song starts and allows you to control the tempo of the song.
Chapter 7: Notation and Printing Notation Opening and Closing the Notation Window To get to the Notation inside Band-in-a-Box you need to open the Notation window. You can do this by pressing the [Notation] button. You can also open the Notation window from the menu (File | Notation Window) or by pressing +w. The Notation window covers the previous window (the Chordsheet) and is fixed (not movable).
These determine whether a Note or a Rest will be inserted when a mouse is clicked. Mono Mode When this checkbox is selected, the notation is entered as monophonic (one note only). This is useful for melodies that only have one note playing at a time. Mono mode is a faster way to enter notes, because the Notation Window will automatically delete a note that is present at the same location that you are putting a new note on.
This vertical line, called the time bar, indicates the current time position. You can click anywhere on the Current Time line to set a new position. This is useful to set a different location to type in chords, or to play from a different location. The clef is displayed, and the key signature of the song. If you want some extra space for the notation, you can press the options button and set “Show Key Signature” to “No,” and this key signature won't be displayed. Setting the Key Signature.
Notation Modes There are 3 modes to the Notation window, 1. Notation Mode To display or print notation and enter chords. 2. Editable Notation Mode To enter or edit notation and chords. 3. Staff Roll Mode To enter/edit notation duration and velocity. You can toggle between each of the modes by pressing the Notation Mode button on the Notation toolbar. Shift+click on the [N] button will back up one notation mode.
- you're on. Click with the mouse button to insert the note. To insert a SHARP hold down the SHIFT key as you click the note. To insert a FLAT hold down the CONTROL key as you click the note. key as you click the note. To insert a NATURAL hold down the How long does the note last that I insert? Band-in-a-Box uses an intelligent auto-duration feature to determine how long the note should be. A note that is put in will initially have a duration of 2 bars (2 whole notes).
Staff Roll Notation Mode Click on the Notation Mode button again to enter Staff Roll mode. It will look like this. This mode is similar to the Editable Notation mode, except the beats begin right on the bar line. You can also see the durations of the notes visually, represented by horizontal blue lines. Similarly, you can see the velocities of the notes displayed as vertical blue lines. Note: If you can't see these lines press the [Opt.
the right to set the note's duration. Use the same procedure to set velocity, but drag the mouse vertically from the note head. Notation Options Dialog Box Resolution Setting Band-in-a-Box automatically sets the resolution whenever a Style is loaded. If a style has a triplet feel (such as Jazz Swing or a Shuffle style), then Band-in-a-Box will set the resolution to “3 (swing).” This will ensure that Jazz eighth notes (swing triplets) are handled correctly.
You may change this setting, but normally Band-in-a-Box will determine the best tick offset automatically. Tip: The notation of Jazz Swing music will often be improved by a Tick Offset setting of about minus 5. This is because Jazz music is typically played a little after the beat or, in Jazz terms, “laid-back.” Transpose The Transpose setting lets you adjust the Notation window to display notes either higher or lower than their actual pitches.
Use Chord Scale for Enharmonics Band-in-a-Box will automatically use the chord tones (1, 3, 5 and 7) in choosing its enharmonics. If “Use Chord Scale for Enharmonics” is checked, Band-in-a-Box will also use the enharmonics for the passing tones of the chord scale. For example, on an F#7 chord in the key of Eb, the Ab note is part of the F#7 scale (as a G#, the 2nd of the scale), but is also part of the Eb key of the song.
- The Channel # and Velocity settings determine the MIDI channel and velocity of inserted notes. Play Inserted Notes If the “Play Inserted Notes” checkbox is checked, notes that you insert will sound briefly as they are inserted. This lets you hear that the note you inserted sounds correct. Entering Chords Using the Notation Window This is identical to the operation of the chordsheet. You use the Current Time Indicator (time bar) to see where you are in the bar.
Printing Lead Sheet Style Printing Your created songs can be printed out in the style of a lead sheet style. Most songs will fit on 1 page, so your printout will look similar to a standard lead sheet. You can easily make and printout a custom fake book of all of your tunes, and you can easily transpose parts to print out for trumpet /sax players etc. The printout includes title, bar #s, composer, style, and copyright information.
Lyrics. Lyrics can either be printed above the chords, below the staff, or not printed at all. Normally lyrics are printed below the staff. Lyrics Below By. Positions the lyrics below the staff, with settings from 1 (highest) to 7 (lowest). Treble Clef. Normally you will want to include the treble clef. If you're printing out the Bass part, you probably don't want the treble clef. Bass Clef. For Melodies, you likely won't want the bass clef printed.
if there are any notes in the lead-in measure. You can over-ride this automatic setting, if necessary. Staves per page. This determines how many staves will be shown per page. The title takes up 1 stave on page 1, so that if you set the # staves to =10, you will get 9 staves + the title on page 1 and 10 staves on page 2, 3 etc. Title / Style / Composer / Tempo / Copyright The title is written in a big font that is underlined and centered.
Chapter 8: Automatic Music Features Automatic Songs - “The Melodist” Feel like composing a brand new song? With Band-in-a-Box you can compose a new song in the style of your choice - complete with intro, chords, melody, arrangement and improvisations, all created by the program! Just pick a “Melodist” and press [OK] - the program then automatically generates the intro, chords, melody, and arrangement in the chosen style.
The left of the screen has the list of the Melodists. In this example, the “Swing Tenor” is selected. This Melodist will generate intro, chords, melody harmony, style, and solos using the group of settings preset with this Melodist. For example, “Swing Tenor” uses “Jazz Easy Style” (J~EASY.Style) and a Tenor Sax patch, and the Melody and Chord settings in the Melody Maker. Scroll down the list, and pick a Melodist that you'd like to use.
- - If you want to generate Chords, Melody, and an Intro, make sure that these items are selected. If you'd like a Pedal Bass figure during the intro and at the end of sections, select the Insert Bass Pedals option. Selecting Solo in Middle Ch. will generate an improvisation in the middle choruses of the song. If you'd like Band-in-a-Box to generate a title for your song select the Auto-Titles option. The Allow Style Changes checkbox, if set, allows a Melodist to load in the style associated with it.
In songs with an AABA form, it is common for the second “a” section to be transposed. For example, the first “a” section might be in the key of Eb, and the second would be transposed up to the key of Gb. Melodists store these settings, and some Melodists are set to transpose the A2 sections. If you don't want to allow Melodists to transpose the form in this way, set the A2 transpose to none. If set to “section plus” it will transpose the A2 section, and might transpose 2 bars early or 2 bars late.
want the regenerated section to be repeated throughout the form, in all of the “a” sections. The Replace Thru form will set the Melodist to copy the generated bars 5 and 6 to the other “a” sections (bars 13, 14 and 29, 30). If you'd like to remove the current Intro, Melody or Soloist Track, press the [Kill Intro], [Kill Melody] or [Kill Soloist] button. You can press the Search button and then type in part of a Melodist name, memo, style name or other text associated with a Melodist.
The favorites button allows you to pick a Melodist that you've used recently. Editing Melodists If you'd like to create your own Melodists, or permanently change the settings of existing Melodists, press the[Edit…] button to launch the Melodist Maker, which is described in detail elsewhere. Using the Melodist Generating Complete Songs Here are some ways that you can use the Melodist by generating complete songs.
- see the chords easily on the music stand. Working with new chord progressions is useful to “get-out-of-a-rut” in your practicing by playing new chord progressions. You can also improve your harmony ear training, by figuring out the chords as they are being played, without looking at the chord symbol display. Generate Melodies only, over existing chord progressions. Using Melodist Jukebox Use the versatile Melodist Jukebox feature to: Generate Songs (Chords & Melodies) in succession.
Automatic Solo Generation – “The Soloist” Pick any song or chords in any style, and choose a “Soloist.” Band-in-a-Box then creates and plays a professional quality solo in the style of your choice. In addition to great Band-in-a-Box accompaniment, you can hear sensational solos as well - showing you exactly what notes are played.
When you generate a solo using RealTracks, Band-in-a-Box will remember this, and when you go to save the song, Band-in-a-Box will ask you if you want to save that solo (and thereby freeze the Soloist track). If you say yes, then the solo will play instantly the same way when the song is reloaded. Of course, you can freeze the Soloist track yourself at any time. Note that only one solo can be saved. You can’t generate a bunch of different segments of solos; only the last one will be saved.
Solo Modes As well as the normal mode of soloing for a number of choruses while the melody is silent, the Soloist has several other modes. For example, Fills will “noodle” over the changes for a percentage of time. Other modes are Solo Around Melody, Trade 4s, Solo Wizard, and Custom Solo for a Specific Range of Bars. Around Melody option. This option for the Soloist part creates a solo around the melody, that is, at times when the melody is silent. To solo around the melody, do the following: 1.
Another method is to choose the trade 4's option, generate 4's using the first setting, and then choose Soloist | Edit Soloist Track | Swap Melody and Soloist Track, and then generate a solo again, using the second set of four bars. This will result in 4's with one track on Melody and the other on the Soloist track. Solo Wizard Additionally, you will find another great feature in the Solo mode list, the “Solo Wizard.
Soloing over Slash Chords The Soloist analyzes slash chords (like C/Bb) to determine the best scale type to use (e.g. Bb Lydian). There's nothing you need to do, this function happens automatically behind the scenes. Editing Soloists If you'd like to create your own Soloists, or permanently change the settings of existing Soloists, you can press the [Edit] button to launch the Soloist Maker, which is described in detail elsewhere.
melody tracks, two solo tracks, or one melody and one solo track all at your disposal for any song, without having to resort to an outboard sequencer. Automatic Guitar Chord Solos – “The Guitarist” With Band-in-a-Box, you can generate a guitar chord solo for any melody. Band-in-aBox will intelligently arrange the melody into a guitar chord solo by inserting real guitar voicings throughout the piece. You can select from among many Guitarists to create your arrangement.
1. Select the Guitarist to Use. In the main list at the left of the Window, you see the list of Guitarists that is already defined. For example, you can see that Guitarist #2 is called “Jazz Guitar, single position.” That will create chord solos that stick to a single position on the guitar neck whenever possible. 2. Select Melody or Soloist track. You'd normally want the Guitar Chord solo to be written to the Melody track, but you can also select the Soloist track as the destination. 3.
6. Change Guitar channel. In case you already have a guitar track that has guitar channels (for example if it was already played on a guitar controller as a single string guitar part), then you might want to tell Band-in-a-Box not to change the guitar positions of the notes that it finds. Normally you'd want to set “OK to change existing guitar channels” to true. 7. Press [OK] to generate the Guitar Chord Solo. You'll now see a message box confirming that a chord solo has been added.
4. The Track Type for the Melody has been set to Guitar, and the MIDI file will be saved with the Guitar Channels (11-16) preserved which preserves the fret positions. Note: All of these items can be customized in the Guitarist Maker, which is launched by the [Edit...] button in the Select Guitarist dialog. Redo Part of the Solo Let's redo part of the solo at a higher fret position. This particular song GIT_TEST.MGU has 6 choruses, and the last 3 choruses have a much higher range of soloing.
window, regardless of the original instrument intended for the track data. It also offers the ability to enter notation using the on-screen guitar, and to play back track data in specific fretboard positions for educational and sight-reading purposes. Note Display Options If MIDI Thru is selected (default = On), the Guitar will display the music played on a MIDI keyboard.
There is an AutoSet Octave setting (discussed elsewhere). If selected, the Guitar Octave is set automatically. Use Index Finger Position: If set, the scale will use the “index finger” to play notes that are one fret outside of the normal position, instead of the little finger. Show out-of-range notes: If set, any note will be displayed on the guitar, regardless if it is the range of the guitar or not.
[Set to Defaults] button sets the Guitar window to factory defaults. The [Update] button will apply any change you have made to the fretboard size. Editing Guitarists Guitarists can be customized using the Guitarist Maker, which is described in detail elsewhere and is launched by the [Edit Guitarist Maker] button in the Select Guitarist dialog.
Chapter 9: Recording Tracks Overview Band-in-a-Box has a built-in sequencer allowing you to record and edit up to two MIDI tracks. One track is the Melody track, the other is the Soloist track, and they are identical in function. Most often melodies are recorded, but the two sequencer tracks can be used for any type of MIDI recording – overdubs, extra parts, or 2-part melodies. MIDI can be recorded into Band-in-a-Box in a number of ways: From a MIDI keyboard or MIDI controller connected to your computer.
If you select “Overdub Underlying Notes,” you will hear the melody that you're overdubbing. Click on the [Filter] button to open the Record Filter dialog. This lets you choose which MIDI information you want to record and which you want to leave out. This lets you eliminate unnecessary MIDI information. Click OK to return to the Record Track dialog, and press the [Record] button or the letter R again to begin recording.
If you have recorded one chorus of the song, checking this at the end of the recording will copy the same recording to all of the choruses. Overdub Underlying Notes You have the option to merge the recording with existing melody. If there is no underlying melody - this option will be grayed out. Retain Past Last Recorded You have the option to keep or erase any melody after the last recorded note. Step Edit Notes You can step edit a recorded track, or create a new track in the Edit Note/Time Etc., dialog.
Bar #, Beat Number, Tick The Bar, Beat, and Tick show the time that the note is played. Ticks are the smallest unit, equal to 1/120th of a quarter note. Duration This is the length of time that the note is played. 120 ticks of duration = 1 beat (quarter note). Previous/Next Event Use these arrow controls to move through the MIDI track one note at a time. Insert Before/After This allows you to insert an event before or after the currently displayed event.
Importing Pre-Recorded MIDI Data Standard MIDI files can be read in to the Melody or Soloist tracks from MIDI files or from the clipboard. You can read in all of a MIDI file, or selected channels and a specific range of bars. Use one of the following two commands: 1. Melody | Import Melody from MIDI File… to select a MIDI file from disk using the file dialog. 2. Melody | Import Melody from Clipboard - when the MIDI data is already copied from another program to the clipboard.
# bars to offset from start If you want to start reading from the beginning of the MIDI file, select 0 as the offset. If you want to be read starting at bar 32, for example, select an offset of 32 (bars). How many bars to import Leave this setting at the default of 1000 to read-in the entire file (unless it’s longer than 1000 bars!), or set it to the number of bars that you are interested in if you don't want the whole file. # blank b.
In this example, Melody | Humanize Melody was selected. This opens the Quantize to New Tempo or Feel dialog box. We have broken down the Humanize effect into 5 main categories: 1. Tempo 2. Lateness 3. 8th note spacing 4. Legato 5. Feel The best way to learn how these parameters combine is to try them. You can always press [Undo] button if you don't like the results. For example, try changing the tempo of a song to see the changes that this will make to the 8th note spacing and lateness.
Melody Embellisher When musicians see a lead sheet that has a melody written out, they would almost never play it exactly as written. They would change the timing to add syncopation, change durations to achieve staccato or legato playing, add grace notes, slurs, extra notes, vibrato, and other effects. Now you can have Band-in-a-Box do these automatically using the Melody Embellisher.
Embellished Melody… As you can see in the notation examples, the embellished melody adds anticipation in bar 9, and in bar 10 adds extra notes and timing changes to spice up the melody. Using the Embellisher If you disable the Embellisher, by de-selecting the Embellisher checkbox, the melody (or solo) will play as normal with no changes. There is a Melody Embellisher dialog. This allows you to, Customize the settings of the Embellisher. Choose Embellisher type from presets.
“Live Auto-embellish during every playback” is the same setting that is on the main page checkbox. If enabled, embellishment will occur during every playback. If disabled, embellishment will not occur unless you choose the [(Re-) Embellish NOW - Permanent] button in the dialog. Embellisher Presets The presets allow you to choose a combination of common settings for the Embellisher quickly. The Embellisher Memo describes the current embellishment, with statistics counting the number of embellished notes.
Embellisher Settings The settings contain a number of parameters that affect the embellishment. They can be turned on and off, and can be set with certain percentage strength. The settings are: Humanize: The velocities, durations (legato), and timing of the notes are humanized. The original velocities etc. of the notes are ignored. This is useful when the melody has been entered in a stiff manner. Octave: The octave of the Melody is changed to the best octave for the current Melody instrument.
Vibrato: Vibrato can be added according to the additional vibrato settings available in the “More” dialog. The vibrato can't be seen on the notation window, but you can examine the events in the Event List. If set, the Melody will be delayed a little, providing a “laid-back” feeling. There are additional settings in the Embellisher Additional Settings dialog box. This allows you to set advanced settings for the Embellisher.
Chapter 10: Audio Features Rendering Audio Files Direct-to-Disk Audio Rendering Audio rendering means converting a MIDI song to audio format, usually to an AIFF file or a compressed M4A file. With Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh, rendering couldn’t be easier. Press the [Audio] button on the main Band-in-a-Box screen to render your Band-in-a-Box song to an AIFF, M4A, or WAV file. The song is rendered automatically in 5 – 10 seconds through the built-in Apple DLS Music Device or Core MIDI.
When rendering audio files you have the choice of making stereo or mono files. The Auto Channels setting will use the current Band-in-a-Box setup. The Normalize option will normalize individual tracks or the complete arrangement. Normalizing boosts the volume to a maximum level without distortion. Most professional music tracks are normalized. To enable this, set the “Normalize Rendered Files” option to true.
Chapter 11: User Programmable Functions The StyleMaker The StyleMaker is the section of the program that allows you to create brand new styles or edit existing styles. This is done by recording patterns for each of the Drums, Bass, Piano, Guitar, and Strings parts. Styles with RealTracks and RealDrums The StyleMaker has settings to assign RealDrums, RealTracks, Volume Adjustments, Timing Offset adjustments, Long Style Name, Tempo, and Resolution.
Using RealDrums in Styles You can assign a RealDrums style to replace the MIDI drums in an existing Band-in-aBox style with the RealDrums Settings. Enable “Style uses RealDrums” in order to designate a RealDrums style. If your style is in the correct directory, it should appear when you press the “RD” button. You can then select your RealDrums style, and whenever the current style is played, it will use your RealDrums style (provided that RealDrums are enabled).
Then select the RealTracks instrument that you want for this part in the style. Note: This list also includes soloists, the RealTracks listing begins at #361. Styles can have multiple RealTracks. For example, you could have RealPedalSteel and RealAcousticGuitar. And also RealDrums. Styles with RealTracks There are many existing Band-in-a-Box styles that have been made with RealTracks. The style names begin with an equals sign. RealStyles are styles that use only RealTracks and no MIDI instruments.
MIDI Styles The simplest style consists of 1 pattern each for the instruments that you want in the style. If you like, you can use options available to you called “masks.” Masks are options that you set for a pattern to specify when you want the pattern to be played. There is a list of masks below. Masks Available for Patterns Complex styles can be made allowing patterns to be recorded that are played only at certain times. These are referred to as masks.
- Are always entered as 1-bar patterns (longer patterns may be chained together using BAR MASKS – described below). The drum patterns are entered from the drum screen in 4 sections (these 4 sections appear when you click on the drum button). A patterns B patterns Fills Endings This row is for 1 bar drum patterns for the “a” substyle. This row is for 1 bar drum patterns for the “b” substyle. This row is for 1 bar drum patterns for the “a” substyle. This row is for endings.
recorded patterns in terms of number of beats. For example, a 2 bar pattern would be = 8 beats. Explanation of the numbers on the StyleMaker screen. The StyleMaker screen is full of patterns, mostly empty indicated by a period (.). When a pattern has been recorded, there is a number in place of the period for example (5). These numbers indicate whether a pattern has been recorded at the location.
similar patterns on playback. The number that is recorded and displayed on the screen refers to the weight assigned to that pattern. Normally if you have three similar patterns with equal weight they will be picked equally, but if you assign lower or higher weights in the range 0 - 8, you can fine tune how often patterns are played. Note: Normally weights are in the range 0 - 8.
1. To select a style for editing from the main screen: Mouse click over top of the style on the Title window. This area on the main screen indicates the style that is currently in memory. If you want to edit the current style, (in this example it is ZZLITROK.Style) then choose either User | Edit Existing User Style or press Option + Y.
other patterns. The 2 patterns with a weight of 2 will be played less often than the patterns with weights of 5. Use of a weight of 9 on one of the patterns is a special case. Patterns with a weight of 9 will always be played instead of any other patterns on the same row. These patterns usually have other options associated with them to ensure they are played under certain circumstances only.
- This displays the Misc. Style Settings dialog box. Select the [Set Patches...] button. You will then see a dialog box allowing you to type in patches you would like for the style. If you don't need a specific patch, use 0 for no change of patch number. Let's add Strings to the Style. There are 2 ways to do this. 1. You could move to the strings part (by clicking on the strings button) and then record the strings patterns. - or 2.
When you're finished recording the pattern, you'll see a dialog box listing all of the options available. Just accept all of the defaults by pressing the [OK] button. Press the [SAVE] button to save your new style. Press the [EXIT] button to close the StyleMaker window and exit. Make sure that you have saved the style first, otherwise edits will be lost. Creating New Styles Making Drum Patterns There are 2 screens in the StyleMaker associated with making drum patterns. 1.
Moving around the Drum Editor Screen Move around the screen with cursor keys, or mouse click. The black flashing highlight bar indicates where you are. The different drum instruments are named along the left side and the 4 beats are displayed along the top. Tempo Changes Tempo changes are done using the [TEMPO] button or press the [ and ] keys from the main StyleMaker screen. Entering notes onto the drum editor screen.
Playing the Drum Patterns Play the drum pattern by pressing the [PLAY] button. Stop playback by pressing the [STOP] button or the < Spacebar >. Press the [PLAY] button again to hear the pattern again if you have made changes. When the pattern is sounding like you want, press the [EXIT] button. Drum Pattern Options Relative Weight (USUAL SETTING =5) Relative Weight is the number that you assign to the pattern from 1 - 9.
This setting is only relevant on the Drum Fills line. It lets you specify if you want the drum fill to be used on the “a” substyle, the “b” substyle, or either. The default setting is Any. Late Triplets (usual setting = 0) This is only relevant in drum patterns with timebase =12 (triplet feel). If you want the 3rd triplet to be played late (as is usually done in slow jazz style), then set a number from 0 - 11. Default is 0 (not late at all).
After you have recorded the bass pattern, a dialog box with options will appear. This allows you to specify the conditions that must occur for this pattern to be played back in the song. These are called masks. Usually you can just accept all the defaults, which allow the pattern to be played at any time. Bass Pattern Options Relative Weight Usual Setting = 5 Set this number higher/lower if you want the pattern to be played more/less often than the other patterns on the same row.
1. 2. PRE-FILL special value - refers to the bar before a fill. FILL refers to the bar of a fill (this allows you to put in “bass fills” for example). 3. POST-FILL refers to the bar after a fill (same as the first bar after a part marker). Playback Beat Mask Usual Setting = 0 Set the beat mask to a beat from 1-4, if you want the pattern to only be played on certain beat numbers. 1= Beat 1, 2= Beat 2, 3= Beat 3, 4= Beat 4.
- Check the “OK To Use Macro Notes” box. Playback the pattern with the [CHORD] button. (The [PLAY] button gives you an “as played” playback with the strange sounding high macro notes.) Making Piano, Guitar, and Strings Patterns Piano, Guitar and Strings are all considered together because they have all the same options available. They, like the Bass patterns, are recorded live from a MIDI keyboard.
Playback Weight (usual setting = 5) Set this number higher/lower if you want the pattern to be played more/less often than the other patterns on the same row. This number is also displayed on the main StyleMaker screen. A setting of 9 (always) is a special setting that instructs the pattern to always be played instead of the other patterns on the same row. These patterns always have other options set which specify the times that this pattern would be eligible to be played.
Chord Type (usual setting = Any Chord) This setting is very useful. This allows you to record patterns that will only work on certain types of chords. For example, you can record a specific riff that will only work on a minor 7th chord. You then play the pattern on a Cmin 7 (not a C7). There are chord types for most types of chords. Half Octave Range (usual setting = Full Octave) This is a new setting in the StyleMaker. Usually a pattern will be picked on any of the 12 roots.
transposed a maximum of 2 semitones down, and therefore up to 10 semitones up to play all 12 possible roots of the chords. Type Of Voice Leading (usual setting = Transpose Only) Transpose Only = C7 chord based Smooth voice leading Riff based The easiest type of voice leading is transpose only. If the notes C E G Bb were played as a C7 pattern, the Band-in-a-Box would transpose that voicing to a F7 chord as F-A-CEb, which is fine but not very smooth.
record 2 and 1 beat patterns. The new style is made as a waltz, and will play with a 3/4 lead-in. There is no need to put a 3/4 time signature change in bar 1. You will also notice that any style will play better if set to 3/4 time. This makes songs like “'Take Five” sound better, which are written as 3/4 + 2/4 bars. Try out the Swing_number9 demo of 5/4 time signature. So, if we haven't made as Bossa Waltz for example, you can set a time signature of 3/4 in bar 1, and get a Bossa Waltz.
Melody Patch If set to other than 0 all melodies will be played on the specified instrument. If you're making a “Grover Washington” style for example, you might want any melodies to be automatically set to Saxophone. Volumes You can set a default volume for each instrument in your style. The default volume is 90. The volume range is 0 - 127.
Jazz Style? This lets Band-in-a-Box know if the style you've made is a Jazz style or not. If it’s a Jazz style it will use the Jazz Snare/Bass Drum instead of the Pop Snare/Bass Drum, and also makes some other decisions based on this setting. Tempo This allows you to set the default tempo for the Style. This is stored with the style. You can also change this tempo by the tempo button on the StyleMaker main screen. Tempos can also be changed by the [ and ] keys.
The Timing offset (RealTracks or MIDI) in ticks (120 per beat) setting allows you to make a song or style with a more laid-back feel for a certain RealTracks. MultiStyle(s) Enter the name of a style: zzjazz, or multiple styles separated by semicolons: zzjazz;zzbossa and these will appear as MultiStyles, substyles c/d/e/f etc. You can click on the [Style] button to choose the styles for your MultiStyle from the StylePicker window.
Intelligent Guitar Styles Would you like to hear some realistic, accurate MIDI guitar from Band-in-a-Box styles, with strumming, picking, and accurate fret fingering? You'll get it with Version 11! “Guitar Styles” are styles that show strummed and picked guitar parts accurately on the guitar fretboard, and they sound great. These styles also play accurate guitar voicings, in your choice of Pop, Jazz, Country, or Folk Guitar chording.
Open the Guitar window and click on the [G] button to view the Guitar track on the guitar fretboard. As the song plays, you'll see and hear the guitar played on the fretboard using correct Jazz voicings. For some chords, you'll notice that the guitar plays different voicings on each beat in a walking pattern. For example, on an F7 chord lasting 4 beats, the guitar might play “F7, Gm7, Abdim, and F7/A,” with each chord lasting one beat, just as a professional Jazz guitarist might do. The !Freddie.
channel. Sophisticated options control usage of passing harmonies (diatonic, dominant approach and chromatic), drop octave voicings (e.g. drop 2), octave doubling, patch selection, and more. An unlimited number of harmonies can be created and can be saved to disk as harmonies files. Changes in harmonies can be heard “live” as a song is playing. The Harmony Maker screen allows you to design a harmony. This harmony can be used in the future for the melody or the thru harmony part.
Channel is described above. A 1-instrument harmony will use Channel A only. Additional instruments can use Channel B and C. Note: These channels are set to numbers in the Harmony Channels dialog box, available in the M | MIDI Settings… dialog box. For the Shearing Quintet harmony, we will set the Piano to Channel A, the Vibes to B, and the Guitar to C. Octave This allows the harmony to “drop down” or “go up” by a number of octaves.
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.
Use Close Harmony This only applies to 2 and 3 part harmonies. If set to =0, then it will use only close harmonies (mainly 3rds for 2 part harmonies). If set to =1, it will use mostly 3rds, with some 6ths for 2 part harmonies. If set to =99, it will use mostly 6ths, with some 3rds for 2 part harmonies. If set to =100, then it will use only wide harmonies (i.e. mainly 6th for 2 part harmonies). If set to between 2 and 98, it will vary between close and open harmonies (for 2 and 3 part harmonies).
duration. In the example of Garner, we set the threshold to 200ms, notes shorter than that will not be harmonized. OK to make new harmony with chord This option is for how the program fixes the harmony when chord changes occur during a sustained note harmony. Most harmonies have a feature that changes the pitch of the harmony voices under the Melody note when the chord changes, if the underlying voice wouldn't be a chord tone.
7. Modify (if required) the phrase length, space length, and outside range parameters. 8. Change the Legato Boost to 10 % to add 10% to the duration of the notes. 9. Increase the Lateness by -5. This will play the notes more “on the beat” than other jazz soloists. 10. Increase the 8th Note spacing by -5. This will play the 8th notes in a more even feel than other Jazz soloists. If your screen looks something like the one shown, press [OK].
Melodist Editor Dialog This dialog has settings that allow you to create a Melodist. The Num selection box allows you to select the Melodist that you'd like to edit. The top area of the Melodist Maker screen allows you to set the Title of the Melodist and supply a Memo. The ST2 area allows you to select the associated ST2 database for the Melodist. Here are some ST2 Melodist databases. Melody1.ST2 (Jazz Swing, 8th notes) MelodyPOP1.ST2 (Pop Ballads, 16th notes) MelodyWLZ1.
- MelodyROK1.ST2 (Rock, 8th notes) Note: Soloist databases also have extensions of ST2, but they are not compatible with Melodists. Melodist databases can be easily identified, as they all begin with Melody. The Patch change area of the Melodist Maker screen allows you to select a Patch (instrument), Harmony, and Change Instrument setting (each chorus). You can also Change Style for the Melodist, and specify the feel for the style in the “.Style is” box.
Simple 1st and 2nd Endings Default = 80% This setting only applies to Melodists that are using the Jazz Swing (Melody1.ST2) or Waltz (MelodyWLZ1.ST2) databases. This determines the % of time that endings of the A sections (in AABA forms) will be simple endings (1 or 2 notes) instead of complete phrases. Usually AABA tunes end with simple phrases at the end of the A section, so this option is normally left at 80% or higher.
As the Melodist is determining what type of phrase to generate, it will narrow the possibilities to the number of variations set in this variable. Setting a higher number results in more interesting melodies, but the chord progressions are more unusual. Tempo Range Default from 110 to 180 bpm The Tempo Range setting determines the tempo range that the tune will be created with (it will be a random tempo in the range).
- - 224 The Guitarist is selected from the “Num” field. You can title the Guitarist using the “Title” field. The Memo field allows a 100-character memo about the Guitarist. The Guitar Patch is selected using the Guitar Patch field. Frets To Move field: If set to zero, the guitar chord solo will be limited to chords that can be played within the current position.
The settings for Note duration thresholds to get a chord refer to the length that a note must be before a chord will be generated. Looking at the settings above (for Guitarist #2), these would be interpreted as follows: If a note occurs and it is the “First Note of a New Chord,” and the note is not followed by another note for at least 50 ticks (120 ticks = 1 quarter note), then a chord will get voiced 90% of the time.
Strum Speed: If you set the Speed of the strum to, say, 80ms, then the guitar chord will be “strummed” over a period of 80ms. Strum Delay: If the Delay start time is left at zero, the strum will end at the original time of the melody note. If you set it to 50% delay, the strum will be in its midpoint at the original start time of the Melody note, and if it's set to 100%, the strum won't start until the time of the original note. The most musical setting is about 50% delay.
OK to use chords with this # of Notes. You can select the # of notes for chords to be included in the chord solo. In the example above, chords with 2-6 notes will be included. Embellishment types allow setting of the types of embellishments to do, “Pop” Guitarists should be set to use 9ths only. This will change C7 chords to C9 and Cm7 to Cm9. The “7ths/9ths” setting should be used for Jazz. This adds the embellishments of C to Cmaj7 and Cm to Cm7.
Chapter 12: Wizards, Tutors, and Utilities Audio Chord Wizard (“Chords from MP4”) This amazing wizard automatically figures out the chords from any MP4, M4A, AIFF or other audio file and displays them in Band-in-a-Box. Just load an audio file to instantly see the chords. Using the Audio Chord Wizard is a great way to learn and practice popular songs as you play along and see the chords. Launch the Audio Chord Wizard with the toolbar button or with the Windows | Run AudioChordWizard menu commands.
Primary Program Controls & Keyboard Shortcuts Toggle Play/Pause (Space bar or multimedia Play/Pause key). Stop play, rewind to start with Esc key or multimedia Stop key. Press the letter W to rewind without Stop. Set the Bar One location. The Audio Chord Wizard works best if you do this first, before any other actions. Moves nearest bar line to current play position. Tab or F8 keys also set bar lines. Exit and send chords to Band-in-a-Box. Average tempo, Control+click the tempo box for options.
- Jump forward one bar: ► right arrow key. Jump back one bar: ◄ left arrow key. Jump forward four bars: ▼ down arrow key. Jump back four bars: ▲ up arrow key. Chordsheet Overview There’s a Chordsheet window in the Audio Chord Wizard that shows the chords for the whole song on a single screen. This allows you to click on a bar on the chordsheet to jump to that area of the song.
If we wanted to renumber the bars, we could right-click on the waveform timeline at the place that we would like to be bar 1, and choose “Set Bar One” from the context menu. To change the # of bars per row or the row height, right-click on the chordsheet. The +/- buttons at the bottom right of the window also change the row height. Chords may be edited in the Audio Chord Wizard with a right mouse click on the chord. When Edit Chord is selected, a highlight cell opens at the chord location.
The Audio Piano Roll is divided by a blue horizontal line. Notes below the blue line have been identified as the bass part by the Audio Chord Wizard. The note bars look like a MIDI Piano Roll, but they are not exactly the same as a MIDI Piano Roll. Audio Chord wizard detects the strongest frequencies found in each eighthnote time slot, and displays them in the Note Bars window. Sometimes the displayed frequencies REALLY ARE instrument notes played in the audio file.
well aligned then the Chord Detection can be expected to be rather poor. It is quick and easy to align the bar lines on most songs, once you get the hang of it. The first task is to locate the beginning of Bar One. Since an audio file could have an arbitrary amount of silence at the beginning of the song, and many songs begin with a pickup partial bar, ACW cannot easily guess the first bar without a hint from you. The shortcut keys and mouse playback controls make it easy to find Bar One.
When satisfied with the bar lines and chords, click the [OK – Send to BIAB] button to return the chords and tempo map to Band-in-a-Box. Special Cases Time Signature: If a song is not in the default 4/4 time signature, set the Time Signature very early before you do anything else. Bad Initial Tempo Estimates Double/Half Tempo: Sometimes Audio Chord Wizard will guess double or half of the tempo you might prefer.
Note: If you want to use the Avg Tempo Menu functions, use the menu very soon after you have opened a song, before you have done much bar editing. If you invoke the Avg Tempo Menu functions after you have laboriously edited a lot of bar lines, the automatic nature of these functions can ruin your previous editing. In some cases, there is a good reason to initially set the tempo artificially slow by using the “Find Best Half Tempo” function.
recording studio had a broken tape recorder. Perhaps the piano tuner was smoking crack, or the singer couldn't quite hit the highest note. Maybe the vinyl record cutter was offspeed, or some record executive decided that the song was 10 seconds too long for airplay, and instructed the mastering engineer to speed it up a little bit. In such cases, the Audio Chord Wizard can get confused, mis-identifying some pitches too high and other pitches too low, detecting nonsense chords.
Odd Length Bars and Drastic Tempo Changes If a 4/4 song contains occasional bars of 3/4, 5/4, or whatever, or if there are sections where the music has an extreme ritard or accelerando, sometimes you can just Tap Bar Lines to adjust it. But it is sometimes more convenient to manually add or delete bar lines. The following example song has an overall Time Signature of 4/4, but Bar 9 should have a time signature of 2/4.
Change Bar 10 to its desired duration. Hover the mouse over the red triangle marker at Bar 11, and the mouse cursor becomes a drag cursor. Click and drag the bar line to the location marked 11:3. Now we have edited bar 9 to have its proper 2/4 Time Signature and preserved the song tempo on both sides of the 2/4 bar. Display Controls Horizontal Scroll Bar Scroll forward/back in the wave file. Plus/Minus Zoom Buttons Zoom the display to show more or less detail.
Then select the menu item File | Import Chords from MIDI File or press the keystrokes (Ctrl+Option+I). This launches the Chord Wizard dialog. Press the [Open (Change)…] button to select the MIDI file that you'd like to import. If you select the “All” checkbox, then all files will be displayed. If you deselect the “All” checkbox, then only filenames ending with .MID will be displayed. /Note: Any Band-in-a-Box song can quickly be converted into a MIDI file by pressing the [.
- for the song. It usually gets it right, but if it’s wrong, it’s likely out by a 4th or 5th interval. Tempo, time signature. The channels used for the Bass part, Piano (comping) parts. The channels used for the Melody parts. The number of bars in the song to import, including the number of lead-in bars in the song.
Presets for Chord Options Now, after loading in the MIDI files, you'd normally have a look at these settings to see if they seem reasonable for your MIDI file. If they are not, you can change the settings. For example, if you know that they key signature of the song is not F but is C, then you would set that. Similarly, if you knew that the Melody channel was on channel 3, you could set that to override the Chord Wizard settings.
Chord Resolution: (Range from 1 beat to 4 bars, default = 2 beats). This is the minimum number of beats for a chord. For example, if you set it to 2 beats, then the Chord Wizard will never attempt to come up with different chords that are only a beat apart. Tip: If you have a song that has a short section that does include chords every beat, you can redo that section of the song with a 1-beat resolution. Include Slash Chords: If set, the Chord Wizard will include “slash chords” like F7/A.
So, to recap, using the Chord Wizard is a 3-step process. We loaded in the song “Violet Song.MID.” Pressing the preset button called “Jazz Standard,” we then looked at the Chord Options settings for the various channels and they looked OK so we didn't make any changes. Then we looked at the Chord Options. They looked OK so we didn't make any changes there. We then press the [INTERPRET CHORDS NOW] button – this gets the Chord Wizard to interpret the chords and write them to the chordsheet.
If you've read in the entire MIDI file, you have 103 bars of chords on the Chordsheet. This actually contains 3 choruses of the song. You might want to reduce that to a single chorus, by setting the chorus end of the song to bar 36, and then erasing the excess bars (after bar 36) by choosing Edit | Erase. Examining the song that has been interpreted by the Chord Wizard You'll notice that the title (Violet Song), key (F,) and tempo (120) have been set to the values found in the file.
The setting for “Write Chord Summary Notes to Soloist Track” is only used for diagnostic or special purposes. If set, the Soloist track will contain a special track that has a chord written every 2 beats (or whatever the setting for chord resolution is) that contains every note found for the chord. This shows you the type of logic that the Chord Wizard was basing its decisions on.
Note that the program has analyzed the melody, and decided that the key should be F (this is independent of any key that was already set in the song). Now press “OK – Reharmonize.” You will then have an entire chord progression written for the song, in a Bossa Nova style. The Chord Progression generated is different every time, so the one that you get will be different from this one. Play the file that you have generated.
Here are two of the possible variations the Re-Harmonist has suggested for the first two bars. See a List of Possible Reharmonizations This could also be done with the menu command Windows | Chord Reharmonist Dialog (choose your own). In the Reharmonize melody – new chords for 2 bars of the melody dialog you can choose from a list of reharmonizations for any 2 bar segment of the song.
The progressions are sorted in alphabetical order, or from “best to worst” depending on this setting. Chord Breaks Insert Breaks (silence) in arrangement, also called Chord Breaks, is found in the Preferences 2 dialog. This is a great feature for practicing tempo control. Select the # of bars, and Band-in-a-Box will play for, say 4 bars (selectable), and then will rest all instruments for the next 4 bars. Once set, this feature works automatically with all songs until you turn it off.
The top title bar states the key of the song is F, the Soloist track is displayed, and the guitar is at the 5th position. The fretboard is displayed with the highest notes of the guitar at the top, and the open position of the guitar on the left. There are names for the open strings displayed on the left (E B G D A E). There are fret positions marked at the bottom of the fretboard. You can mouse click on these positions to change the current fret position.
The Guitar Settings Dialog Note Display Options: If MIDI Thru is selected (Default=On), the Guitar will display the music played on a MIDI keyboard. If Current Track is selected (Default=On), the current track will be displayed. The guitar will display information on channels 11 to 16 on strings 1 to 6 if MultiChannel Mode is set to on (default). Channel 11 is referred to as the base channel (Default=11.). You can edit notes on the notation to set the channels of the notes.
If you elect to not display note names, you can select “Use Inlays” and a Guitar inlay will be displayed along the neck. The inlays will only display if note names are not being displayed. If Send Notes to Notation Window (Default =On) is set, when you click on the Guitar notes (and the notation window is open in editable notation mode or note roll mode) the note will be inserted at the current time line on the notation window. You can set the fretboard octave.
The Auto-Switch position setting allows the program to automatically switch the display of the guitar when a new track is loaded in. This auto-chooses the best position to display the track. The [Set to Defaults] button sets the Guitar window to factory defaults. Guitar Tutor Use the Guitar Tutor to analyze any song. This feature will show the chords that are playing on the virtual guitar fretboard, in your choice of a Jazz, Pop, or Folk perspective.
The Tutor part uses the MIDI Thru part to playback on. You can control volume, panning, etc. by using the Thru settings at the top of the main Band-in-a-Box screen. You can select the patch in the Tutor dialog. The tutor will display Jazz, Pop, and Folk voicings in easy, medium, and advanced forms. The advanced forms use inversions, and changing patterns of chords, while the easy ones just stick to the common “campfire” chords.
Chord Substitution Wizard Reharmonizing a song with the Chord Substitution Wizard is a fun and educational way to perform or practice a familiar song in a brand new way. This feature is very easy to use; simply highlight an area of chords and select “Chord Substitution.” The possible chord substitutions are instantly displayed for you.
You can control what types of substitutions to see by using the Jazz/Pop checkbox. Some substitutions include more chords than the original, some simplify the progression, and these can be viewed using the checkboxes. You can elect to exclude substitutions that have a chord on each beat. The “Types of Substitutions to include” combo box will filter the substitutions to include only the best substitutions or all of them. The “reload” [Recompile] button is only used if you have edited the chordsub.
If you'd like Band-in-a-Box to only generate for a certain range of bars, you should first highlight that range of bars in the chordsheet, then launch the dialog. The Range will then be set to Part of the song and the bar # and # of bars settings will also be set. You can override these settings with manual settings, if necessary. Using the Chord Substitution Wizard Load in the song !Freddie.MGU. The tune begins with an F7 chord for 8 beats.
There are a number of substitutions that have been identified. For example, the first substitution replaces the two bars of F7 with a Cm7, F7 progression. The program has also looked at the melody of this song (which contains an “a” note) and commented in the Memo that this “a” melody note is not compatible with the Cm7, so doesn't advise this substitution. Choose one of the substitutions that you would like, and press the [Do Substitutions now] button (or double click on the substitution).
For example, to make the chord F9/A, you would click on the “F” root, the “9” extension, and the Slash Root of “/A.” As you click on them, you'll hear the bass note played on the Bass part, and the extension played on the Piano track. If you are happy with the sound of the chord, you can press the [Enter Chord] button. That enters the chord at the bar and beat specified.
Acoustic Bass Drum Bass Drum 1 Side Stick Acoustic Snare Hand Clap Electric Snare Low Floor Tom Closed Hi-Hat High Floor Tom Pedal Hi-Hat Low Tom Open Hi-Hat Low-Mid Tom Hi Mid Tom Crash Cymbal 1 High Tom Ride Cymbal 1 Chinese Cymbal Ride Bell Tambourine Splash Cymbal Cowbell Crash Cymbal 2 Vibraslap Ride Cymbal Hi Bongo Low Bongo Mute Hi Conga Open Hi Conga Low Conga High Timbale Low Timbale High Agogo Low Agogo Cabasa Maracas Short Whistle Long Whistle Short Guiro Long Guiro Claves Hi Wood Block Low Wood
High Conga - Mute, Open Surdo - Mute, Open Cuica - Mute, Open Metronome - Bell, Click Whistle - Long, Short Triangle - Mute, Open Guiro - Long, Short Scratch - Push, Pull Computer “QWERTY” Drum Keys Numeric Keypad Drum Keys Strike computer keys to play drums. Drums are grouped on the computer keyboard by category. The kick, snare, and hi-hat sounds are on the lowest keyboard row. The lower-middle row contains toms and cymbals.
Drum Transport Controls Place the mouse cursor on each control to see its function. Record: Place Band-in-a-Box in Record mode so drum instruments can be recorded. Play: Start Band-in-a-Box song playback. Rewind: Stop and return to song start. Stop: Stop Band-in-a-Box playback. Size Buttons 1/1, 1/2, 1/4: Preset the window to full size, half size, or quarter-size. If the window has been changed to a size different from these, by dragging a window border, none of the size buttons will be down.
Chapter 13: CoreMIDI and Apple DLS Synth CoreMIDI and Apple DLS Synth Tutorial Selecting a MIDI Driver Band-in-a-Box offers two MIDI Output options - Apple DLS Music Device (Built-in Mac sounds) and CoreMIDI. The Apple DLS Music Device (Synth) does not require a Mac MIDI Interface or external synthesizer, and is the simplest way to quickly make Music with Band-in-a-Box. Hint: The Apple DLS Music Device is an Audio Unit softsynth which has properties very similar to the QuickTime Music Synthesizer.
Hint: It is helpful to occasionally check your manufacturer’s web site and download/install MIDI Interface driver updates which might become available. Apple “Audio MIDI Setup” Application Audio MIDI Setup is usually found in your Applications folder. It can be helpful to locate Audio MIDI Setup in the Finder, then drag its icon to the Dock, so it will be easy to launch the program (from the Dock) when necessary. Audio MIDI Setup can also be launched from Band-in-a-Box...
After your external devices have been created and configured, the last step is to “wire them up” to the picture of your MIDI interface. For instance, in the above illustration, the KX-88 keyboard controller is connected to MIDI input/output pair #8 on the MTPII MIDI Interface. Click on an input/output “pin” on the picture of your MIDI Interface, and drag to an output/input “pin” of the picture of an external device.
Apple DLS Synth and a Controller Keyboard If you have a small MIDI controller keyboard, but you do not have any external MIDI Synthesizers, Band-in-a-Box can easily support this. Select the port that your controller is connected to as your MIDI Input, and then select QT Music Instruments for your output ports. Band-in-a-Box will receive/record from a keyboard connected to the MIDI interface, but playback and keyboard MIDI Thru will go to the built-in Mac synth.
Next, launch your third party MIDI application, and select IAC as the input port. This is often done in the program's Preferences | MIDI window. Hint: It can sometimes make a difference which MIDI application you open first. For example, you may need to launch the third party application before you launch Band-in-aBox. On Non-GS Synthesizers, Avoid GS Commands GS is a Roland-authored set of SysEx commands. GS is recognized by many (but not all) Roland synthesizers.
Chapter 14: Reference Band-in-a-Box Menu Descriptions File Menu New is used to blank the chordsheet and start a new song. Open song… is used to open an existing song. Open Filtered by Style lists only the songs in a folder with current style. Open Song with Melody lists only the songs in a folder with melodies (*.mg?). Open Favorite Songs opens the dialog listing the last 150 songs played. Open Song by Title opens the Song List with the full title, file name, and style of each song in the folder.
(re)-make Song Titles list makes the list of song titles for the current folder. It can be used to update the list when new songs are added to a folder. Save saves an existing song to the same folder with the same file name. Save song As… saves songs using the file dialog to name the file and choose a folder for the saved file. Save Standard MIDI File makes a standard midi file. You can save in Type 1 (multitracks) or Type 0 (single track) files. Karaoke MIDI files are also supported.
Replay Already Constructed Song plays an existing song arrangement from the beginning without regenerating a new arrangement. Notation Window opens the Notation. Page Setup… takes you to the setup dialog for your printer. Print… opens the Print Options dialog. Lyric Window opens a lyric entry line above the Notation Toolbar where lyrics can be typed in line by line. Use the esc key to exit from the Lyric window. Quit exits the program entirely.
Edit | Cut functions like a delete command. It removes bars of chords from a song. Edit | Copy and Edit | Paste are to copy chords from one part of the song to another. Copying a section of chords can be done in the same manner as copying text in a word processor. Copy From…To… / Copy Rests / Erase From… To… One of the best ways to copy chords is the Copy From… To… command, or pressing Option+C, which will launch the Copy Chords and/or Melody dialog.
Song Memo… A song memo of up to 2000 characters may be added. When a song has a memo associated with it, a little red square is visible around the [memo] button (located to the right of the song title). Clicking on the [M] button launches the Song Memo dialog, where you can type in a short memo about the song, style, etc. Automatic Memo-Generation The Song memo has a “summary” checkbox.
Song Menu Title/Key/Tempo/Embel… Opens the Main Settings dialog. This dialog offers you the option to set the title, key, and chorus begin/end, etc. These settings are usually entered on the main screen. Chorus begins at Shows the bar number for the start of the chorus. Choose this command to set a new beginning for the chorus by clicking on the bar in the chordsheet. Chorus ends after Shows the current bar setting for the end of the chorus.
Vary Middle Style If checked, the middle chorus(es) of the song will be played in the “b” substyle. Overall Loop If checked the song will play again from the beginning each time it reaches the end. Additional Song Settings These additional song settings are saved with the song.
Vary Style in Middle Choruses Default = If checked, the song will play in substyle B throughout the Middle Choruses. The Middle Choruses include all choruses except the first and last. If not checked, the middle choruses will play “a” and “b” substyles as set in the chordsheet with part markers. For example, in Jazz Swing, since the B substyle is Swing, all of the middle choruses will have swing bass. (The A substyle is playing half notes on the bass.
Generate 2 Bar Ending for This Song Default = You can disable the ending for a certain song. You can disable the endings for all songs by clearing the checkmark for the “Allow Any Endings” setting in the Preferences dialog. Start the 2 bar ending early The usual Band-in-a-Box ending is 2 bars appended to the end of the song. This option gives you an alternative to end the song on the last bar of the song.
Wizard Playalong Enables the Wizard feature for play along on the computer keyboard. Wizard Uses ‘Smart’ Notes Toggle this on so the Wizard will only play notes based on the chord/key of the song. Toggle smart notes “Off” (unchecked) to have the Wizard provide you access to the chromatic scale. Freeze all Tracks Freeze all tracks so that Band-in-a-Box will not overwrite them with new arrangements. Un-Freeze all Tracks Un-freeze all frozen tracks.
Styles Menu Use this list for a quick pick from the list of 24 original Band-in-a-Box styles. You either can pick a musical style before or after you have entered the chords to a song. Once you load a style, the song will be played back using your chosen style. All style files have a .Style extension. Besides these built-in styles, there are many more styles available for use with the Bandin-a-Box. Here are other ways to access styles.
User Menu Load Style From Disk… Go to the file dialog and open a style from the Styles folder. Load Favorite Styles… Opens the favorites list of the most recent styles selections. Save Style As… Save a new style or and edited style, or rename an existing style. Make A New Style (StyleLE MAKER) Launches the StyleMaker with a blank new style. Edit Existing User Style Launches the StyleMaker with the current style selection loaded. This allows you to edit an existing style (*.Style) from disk.
This shows the file name of the current style in use. Style Information… Shows a summary of information about the current style. OK to Load Styles w/ songs Normally this is checked so that songs load with the associated style. But let’s say we’ve discovered a new style, and want to try it out on many different songs. In that case, we would ensure that this item is NOT checked. Then when a song is loaded, it will play in the new style we are trying out.
Melody Menu Import Melody from MIDI File… allows you to import MIDI data from a file (*.MID) into the Melody track. Import Melody from Clipboard… allows you to import MIDI data that has been pasted into the clipboard (e.g., from a sequencer). Record Melody… launches the Record Tracks dialog to record a MIDI melody. Record Melody From Bar #... lets you click on any bar to start recording there.
Step edit Notes… allows you to enter/edit a melody in step time using an event list. Quantize Melody… This menu command opens the Quantize dialog, where all or part of the Melody track can be quantized. Resolution Choose the division you would like the track quantized to. Choosing 16 will quantize to 16th notes. Starting at Bar# and Chorus # Quantization will begin at the place you select and applied for the number of bars.
Humanize Melody… Opens the Quantize to New Tempo or Feel dialog. The humanize effect is broken down into 5 main categories: Tempo, Lateness, 8th Note Spacing, Legato, and Feel. Transpose Melody… Transpose the melody track without affecting the other tracks in the song. Copy 1st chorus to all song This stretches the melody track out over the entire song (all choruses). Kill entire melody Erases the melody track and any data that was contained therein.
- - Multi – All channels are preserved and output on the channels. This would be useful for importing an entire MIDI file, and playing it from the Melody channel (using a silent style). Piano – In this mode, channels 8 and 9 are treated as the left and right hand of a piano part. Note: When saving a MIDI file and the track type is Guitar, any notes on the guitar channels (11 to 16) are preserved, so that any fret positions are preserved.
This takes a melody, and converts it to Guitar Channels 11 to 16. When it encounters a chord, it will determine the fret position that it's most possible to play that chord with. Otherwise, if it’s a single note, it will play it at the current position at the guitar neck. If you want to convert an existing melody to a customized Guitar part, this command is a good starting point, and you can edit the track further to achieve a better result.
Transpose 4/4 Melody & Soloist to Waltz You can automatically transform any 4/4 song/melody to a Waltz 3/4 feel. To use this feature, load in any song in 4/4 time. Then load in a Waltz style. If there’s a Melody (or Soloist) present, you’ll be asked if it’s OK to change the Melody from 4/4 to 3/4. If you click YES to that, the transformation will occur and you can listen to the Melody in 3/4 time.
Edit a Soloists File… opens a file dialog where you can select any Soloist file (*.Soloist) to edit. If you have not created any of your own Soloist files or if you want to edit the one you are using, use the Edit Current Soloist File command. Band-in-a-Box comes with over 100 Soloists built-in. If you want to make your own or modify an existing Soloist, use the Soloist Maker (edit) module. The Soloist Maker allows you to define the parameters essential to a soloist's playing, such as instrument range (i.e.
Transpose Soloist … allows you to transpose the Soloist track without affecting the other tracks in the song. Copy 1st chorus to all song stretches the Soloist track out over the entire song (i.e. first, last, and middle choruses). Kill entire Soloist erases the soloist track and any data that was contained therein. Kill Soloist Choruses eliminates the Soloist from the First Chorus, Middle Choruses, or Last Chorus as selected from a list box.
Copy to Melody Track copies the entire contents of the Soloist track to the Melody Track. This is useful for a temporary holding area for your soloist or for bouncing tracks. Move to Melody Track copies the entire contents of the Soloist track and erases the original data from the Soloist track, preparing it for a new track or data. Swap Melody and Soloist Track performs a “double copy/move” so that the data that was in the Soloist track is transferred to the Melody track and vice versa.
Harmony Menu Melody Harmony… Shows the current Melody harmony selection. Click to open the Select Melody Harmony dialog. Thru Harmony… Shows the current Thru harmony selection. Click to open the Select Thru Harmony dialog. Favorite Melody Harmonies… This option brings up your favorite 50 Harmony styles (based on recent usage) and allows you to choose one to use on the Melody track.
Edit Current Harmonies File… allows you to edit the Harmony file that is currently loaded on your system. OK to Load Harm. w/ songs Toggle this option “On” if you want to load any harmony settings that were saved/embedded in a given song. Save Harmony with this song Toggle this option “On” to allow Band-in-a-Box to embed the harmony settings for the currently open song so that they may be recalled automatically later.
MIDI Menu MIDI Settings This dialog box allows you to setup settings for each part (Bass/Drums/Piano etc.). You can also set the Harmony channels by pressing the [Harmony] button inside this dialog box.
**Select MIDI Driver or Apple DLS Synth… Opens the MIDI Drivers dialog where you can choose from the installed drivers. MacOS X CoreMIDI CoreMIDI is the OS X standard MIDI driver method. CoreMIDI facilitates communication with external MIDI devices, and it also enables inter-application “piping” of MIDI data between MIDI applications. This opens the Select Ports/Instruments dialog where MIDI ports are configured. Note: Please see the MIDI tutorial in Chapter 13 for detailed instructions.
A Favorite Combo is a group of patch changes (1 for each part) that are sent out as a “batch” when you send one of the combos. Edit Drum Kit (Note Values)… If you have been unable to find a preset drum map that matches your synth's drum notes, then you may need to type in the drum notes that your sound source uses. To do this, you need to hook your MIDI controller up to play the Drum sounds from the Keyboard. Play up and down the keyboard to hear all the drum sounds. Locate note 36 as a starting point.
Choose Patch from Higher Bank… This will display a list of higher bank patches as found in *.PAT text files. Choose a .PAT file from the Synth Kits folder. Insert Current MIDI Chord Enters the last MIDI chord played on the MIDI controller into the current location in the song. Output chords to external device… This is useful with an external arranger that can read chords in real time. Band-in-a-Box will output chords in root position on the selected channel during playback.
GS Menu Reset Sound Canvas to Factory… resets the module to factory settings. Reset Sound Canvas And Send BB… sends a reset message to the Sound Canvas and then sends the startup Band-in-a-Box patch changes. Adjust Master Volume… sets the overall output level for Band-in-a-Box. Reverb Type … or Chorus Type … Roland GS instruments allow different type of reverb and chorus settings. These settings boxes allow you to make a selection.
Send General MIDI Mode ON sets the external module to General MIDI mode. This command will ensure that the module is ready to accept GM-specific MIDI data such as Bank, Controller, and Patch information. Send GS mode On Message (Roland) / Send XG Mode On (Yamaha): Since the inception of the GM (General MIDI) standard, there have been two major subsets/extensions of this standard - GS (Roland) and XG (Yamaha).
Windows Menu Notation Window toggles between the notation and the chordsheet views. Drum Window launches the animated Drum Kit. Guitar Window launches the on-screen Guitar fretboard. List Editor Window launches the List Edit utility for editing MIDI events. (The Event List Editor is not present in the OS X version, though it should be added in the future.) Switch to Next Track / Switch to Previous Track selects parts in the row of Notation buttons.
RealTracks Settings opens the dialog for enabling RealTracks and showing notation and saving RealCharts. RealTracks Picker opens the Assign RealTracks to Track dialog for assigning RealTracks to any BB part. Run Audio Chord Wizard (standalone) launches the Audio Chord Wizard program. Run Audio Chord Wizard (with Audio file) presents an Open Wave File window for the Audio Chord Wizard. Read Chords from AudioChordWizard enters the chords into Band-in-a-Box.
Copy C Delete the Highlighted Chord Area D Set the Last (Ending) bar of the Chorus E Display and edit Favorite Patches Dialog F Reset Sound Canvas and send BB MIDI settings G Melody Harmony H Insert x bars in the highlighted chord area I Jukebox play J Previous jukebox song [ Next jukebox song ] Open Main Settings dialog (title, key, tempo, etc.
Save song with patches +F2 Open song Load favorite song Load songs with melodies F3 Shift+F3 +F3 F4 Shift+F4 Play song Select Soloist Quit + end program +F4 F5 Shift+F5 F6 F7 Shift+F7 F8 Shift+8 F9 Shift+F9 Edit current bar options Melodist Generate Chords/Melody Save MIDI file Open filtered by style Refresh Soloist Jukebox start/stop Load next song Choose a user style Choose a favorite style Edit user style +F9 F10 Shift+F10 F11 Shift+F11 F12 Allow Melody harmony Select Melody harmony Allow Thru ha
Muting Parts You can also mute a Part by Option-Clicking its button at the top-left of the Main Window.
Cdim, (Dominant 7th chords ) C7,7+, C9+, C13+, C13, C7b13, C7#11, C13#11, C7#11b13, C9, C9b13, C9#11, C13#11, C9#11b13, C7b9, C13b9, C7b9b13, C7b9#11, C13b9#11, C7b9#11b13, C7#9, C13#9, C7#9b13, C9#11, C13#9#11, C7#9#11b13, C7b5, C13b5, C7b5b13, C9b5, C9b5b13, C7b5b9, C13b5b9, C7b5b9b13, C7b5#9, C13b5#9, C7b5#9b13, C7#5, C13#5, C7#5#11, C13#5#11, C9#5, C9#5#11, C7#5b9, C13#5b9, C7#5b9#11, C13#5b9#11, C7#5#9, C13#5#9#11, C7#5#9#11, C13#5#9#11 ( suspended 4 chords ) Csus,C7sus,C9sus, C13sus, C7susb13, C7sus#1
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Index 2 bar ending early.............................................. 87 generate ........................................ 87 A2 Transpose.................................. 158 alternate root ................................... 102 anticipations.................................... 184 Apple Audio MIDI Setup ............... 263 Assign RealTracks to Tracks ............ 67 Audio formats ....................................... 186 rendering ....................................
chord options.............................. 241 dialog ......................................... 239 summary .................................... 245 Chords List ............................................. 301 Typing in -how to......................... 88 chordsheet ...................................... 256 Chordsheet...................................36, 88 bar settings ................................... 98 breaks........................................... 90 chord entry ...............................
information................................. 212 inversions ................................... 212 patterns ....................................... 212 tracks .......................................... 212 voicings ...................................... 212 Guitar Tutor .................................... 252 chord tutor .................................. 252 Guitarist .................................. 167, 248 chord solo ................................... 167 generate chord solo.....................
Allow Style Changes.................. 157 Auto-Tempo............................... 157 Auto-Titles ................................. 157 Defaults...................................... 157 Favorites .................................... 160 Form........................................... 157 Generate Less than a Complete Song ............................................... 160 Generating Complete Songs....... 160 Go To # ...................................... 159 Insert Bass Pedals ......................
drivers......................................... 135 Files Standard ................................. 178 Note Offs.................................... 138 settings ....................................... 136 setup ........................................... 135 sync ............................................ 138 MIDI chord entry................................ 8 MIDI drivers ................................... 262 Apple DLS ................................. 265 CoreMIDI...................................
options........................................ 131 Plug-in settings............................... 131 possible substitutions...................... 257 Preferences ..................................... 119 more ........................................... 124 Preferences 2 .................................. 124 Preview button................................ 256 preview chords ............................... 102 Printing........................................... 152 print options ...........................
Song entering chords ............................... 7 save settings ............................... 119 saving ........................................... 61 song endings option .......................... 87 song memo................................ 61, 134 Song menu ...................................... 272 Song settings..................................... 81 additional...................................... 84 choruses........................................ 83 intros ...................................
Pushing Patterns......................... 208 RealDrums in styles ................... 189 RealTracks in styles ..............71, 189 Relative Weight ..........200, 202, 205 Roman Numeral Mask ........203, 205 Selecting a Style to Edit ............. 195 Soloists in styles......................... 190 styles with RealTracks ..........72, 190 Time Signatures ......................... 194 timing offset..........................71, 190 Transpose Down Limits ............. 206 Voice Leading........................
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