User Guide

Chapter 14: User Programmable Functions
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text file, and the current pattern is ending with that Fill. The other message you may see is “*** BB song has no fill,
but WAV has a fill ***(Could be Error2 if mask0)” This means that Band-in-a-Box has recognized that a bar that is
designated as a Fill occurred within the pattern, but not at a place where a Fill is required. Fills often sound good 4
bars into phrases, even if no fill has been designated, so in these cases, this could be fine. If, however, the Fill
sounds out-of-place, you made need to examine this further in your text file.
At the end of the DrumAudioResults.txt file there is statistical information about the song you just played. Because
of the random nature of styles, this information will likely be different every time you play the same song, however
you may see some patterns develop that can help you fine tune your style.
The total bars will always be the same for the same song, but the number of patterns written will be different
depending on how many short or long patterns were randomly selected. The average bars per pattern gives you an
overview of the length of patterns selected. Long patterns are desirable because they generally sound more
consistent, while short patterns are desirable because they lend themselves to greater variation. It’s therefore good
to get a balance between the two, and a good average is between 2 and 4 bars.
It’s also good to have a high average candidates amount, as this is also a sign that your style will have good
variation. If any Band-in-a-Box bars had 3 or less patterns to choose from, they were flagged as “FEWCandidates,”
and the total number is listed at the bottom. This lets you know if you need to define more patterns.
“MultiBarPatternPercent=“ simply lets you know the setting you have entered in your text file.
Using your RealDrums style in Band-in-a-Box
As we have shown above, you can select your RealDrums style for a particular song in the RealDrums Settings. It is
also possible to assign your RealDrums style to a particular Band-in-a-Box style. This is done in the StyleMaker. If
you have either a new or existing Band-in-a-Box style open in the StyleMaker, simply select “Style | Misc. Settings”
or press Ctrl+F10. This opens the Misc Style Settings dialog. At the bottom of this is the RealDrums Settings.
Example 11: RealDrums settings in the StyleMaker.
You can 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).
There are also additional volume controls here. If you have your dB setting exactly where you want it in your style
file, but with this particular Band-in-a-Box style you want it a bit higher or lower, you can enter a setting here.
There are also fields for adjusting the ‘A’ or ‘B’ subsection volumes only.
You can also remove the check mark from either “Allow ‘a’ substyle RealDrums” or “Allow ‘b’ substyle
RealDrums”, which means that for this style, the one with the checkmark remaining will be used for the entire song,
regardless of what substyle is currently called for in the song.
The Harmony Maker
The Harmony Maker allows you to create or edit your own or existing harmonies. This can be used in the program
to harmonize melodies or for live playing on the Thru 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.