User Guide

Chapter 14: User Programmable Functions
383
List of Piano Macro Notes (same as Guitar/String macro notes)
MIDI Note # 83 B Pop Chord Diatonic Below
MIDI Note # 84 C Pop Chord
MIDI Note # 85 C# Pop Chord Diatonic Above
MIDI Note # 88 E Jazz Chord Chromatic Below
MIDI Note # 89 F Jazz Chord
MIDI Note # 90 F# Jazz Chord Chromatic Above
Remember that to get macro notes working you must:
- Hit the right note # (you may be out by an octave).
- Set OK to use macros to Yes.
- Playback the pattern with [F8] key or [CHORD] button. The [F4] playback key gives you a literal playback
with strange sounding high macro notes.
Check “Use Guitar Macros” to enable guitar macro notes for this pattern.
Click the [Guitar Options..] button to specify guitar macro note parameters.
Transpose Root Pattern (Usual Setting = No)
This is a rarely used setting. It only is relevant when voice leading is set to smooth. It determines where the center
of the pattern is considered to be. If set to “Yes,” the center of the pattern will be moved to the key of the song.
Embellish Pattern (Usual Setting = None)
If set to “embellish 1” the pattern will be embellished. This is useful in Jazz styles. “Embellish 1” embellishes the
chord once in the pattern, whereas “embellish 2” changes the embellishment during the pattern.
Transpose Down Limit (Usual Setting = 6)
This setting is quite useful. It controls the range that the pattern will be played over. For example, if the transpose
down range is set to =2 the pattern (recorded in C) will be transposed a maximum of 2 semitones down, and
therefore up to 10 semitones up to play all 12 possible roots of the chords.
Voice Leading (Usual Setting=Transpose)
The easiest type of voice leading is transpose only. If the notes C-E-G-Bb were played as a C7 pattern, then Band-
in-a-Box would transpose that voicing to an F7 chord as F-A-C-Eb, which is fine but not very smooth.
A more pleasant setting would be “smooth” voice leading. Then the F7 would be voiced automatically as C-Eb-F-
A.
“Riff based” voicing is used when you have recorded a pattern with a melodic riff in it. This setting ensures that
Band-in-a-Box will not try to transform any of the notes into chord tones.
Guitar Styles with the StyleMaker
Guitar Styles with incredible authenticity are possible in the StyleMaker. You can use new macro notes to be played
back as a Jazz, Folk, or Pop guitar chord using correct fret positions for accurate guitar-friendly chords.
Playing back Guitar Styles
Guitar Styles are identified by the exclamation point (!) in the style name. This is not a requirement, but is usually
present in the style name. For the typical user who is just using the styles for playback and isn't making their own
styles there's not much that you need to know about the styles, since they play normally like other Band-in-a-Box
styles.
You can see which tracks have intelligent guitar parts by looking at the title window of the Guitar fretboard, when
the track is highlighted. If it is a Guitar Style track, it will say [Guitar Voicings] after the name of the track. The
usual track that has the intelligent guitar styles is of course the Guitar Part. Some of the styles have more than 1
guitar, so the piano and/or strings part might also have an intelligent guitar part. In these cases, you can also view
the guitar on those tracks.