Technical information

Chapter 8: Automatic Music Features
142
Automatic Embellishments – “The Embellisher”
Overview
When musicians see a lead sheet that has a melody written out, they almost never play it exactly as written. They
change the timing to add syncopation, change durations to achieve staccato or legato playing, add grace notes, slurs,
extra notes, vibrato and other effects. You can have Band-in-a-Box do these automatically using the Embellisher so
that you hear a livelier, more realistic Melody - and it's different every time. 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.
The Melody Embellisher feature is turned on and off by the
Embellisher checkbox on the main screen. The Embellisher only functions during playback. You will see the
Embellished Melody on the notation as the Melody plays, so you can see the Embellished notes. When [Stop] is
pressed, the notation will revert to the original (unembellished) melody. Here is a “before and after” example that
shows a typical embellishment of a Melody.
Normal (unembellished) Melody…
Embellished Melody…
As you can see in the notation examples, the Embellished melody adds an anticipation in bar 9, and in bar 10 adds
extra notes, timing changes, and grace notes to “spice up” the melody.
If you disable the Embellisher, by de-selecting the Embellisher checkbox, the Melody will function
as normal with no changes.
Using The Embellisher
The Embellisher settings are accessed during playback with the Embellisher button in the main screen
toolbar, or with the menu item Melody | Embellish Melody Dialog, or with the key strokes Ctrl+Alt+L.
There is a Melody Embellisher dialog that allows you to:
- Customize the settings of the Embellisher, or choose Embellisher presets.
- Make a particular Embellishment permanent.
“Live Auto-embellish during every playback” is the same