Pg Music Band In A Box 2009 Windows Upgrade Manual Version 9

Band in a Box - 2009 (Windows) - Upgrade Manual BB_2009_windows_upgrade Free User Guide for Band in a Box Software, Manual

2015-07-28

: Pg-Music Pg-Music-Band-In-A-Box-2009-Windows-Upgrade-Manual-778374 pg-music-band-in-a-box-2009-windows-upgrade-manual-778374 pg-music pdf

Open the PDF directly: View PDF PDF.
Page Count: 127 [warning: Documents this large are best viewed by clicking the View PDF Link!]

PG Music Inc. License Agreement 1
Band-in-a-Box
Version 9
for Windows
Copyright PG Music Inc. 1999. All Rights Reserved.
PG Music Inc. License Agreement2
PG Music Inc. License Agreement
Program 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.
LICENSE
A. The program may only be used on a single machine.
B. You may transfer the program and license to another party if the other party agrees to accept
the terms of this Agreement. If you transfer the program, you must either transfer all copies, whether
in printed or machine readable form, to the same party, or, destroy all copies not transferred. This
includes all modifications and/or portions of the program merged into other programs.
C. You may receive the program in more than one media. Regardless of the type or size of
media you receive, you may install or use the media on a single machine.
D. The program (including any images, "applets", photographs, animations, video, audio, music
and text incorporated into the program) is owned by PG Music Inc. or its suppliers, and is protected
by international copyright laws and international treaty provisions.
YOU MAY NOT USE, COPY OR TRANSFER THE PROGRAM, OR ANY COPY,
MODIFICATION OR MERGED PORTION OF THE PROGRAM, IN WHOLE OR IN PART,
EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY PROVIDED FOR IN THIS LICENSE. IF YOU TRANSFER
POSSESSION OF ANY COPY, MODIFICATION OR MERGED PORTION OF THE PROGRAM
TO ANOTHER PARTY, YOUR LICENSE IS AUTOMATICALLY TERMINATED.
LIMITATION OF REMEDIES
PG Music Inc.'s entire liability, and your exclusive remedy shall be:
A. The replacement of any media not meeting PG Music Inc.'s "Limited Warranty", which are
returned to PG Music Inc., or an authorized PG Music Inc. Dealer, with a copy of your receipt.
B. If PG Music Inc. or the authorized dealer is unable to deliver replacement media which is free
of defects in materials or workmanship, you may terminate this agreement, and your money will be
refunded.
IN NO EVENT WILL PG MUSIC INC. BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DAMAGES,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOST PROFITS, LOST SAVINGS, OR OTHER
INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR THE
INABILITY TO USE SUCH PROGRAM, EVEN IF PG MUSIC INC. OR AN AUTHORIZED PG
MUSIC INC. DEALER HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES,
OR FOR ANY CLAIM BY ANY OTHER PARTY.
TRADEMARKS
Microsoft® and Windows® are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation
in the United States and/or other countries. Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Macintosh, Power Mac ,
the MacOS logo, QuickTime, and True Type are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. IBM and
Power PC are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. Other brands and their
products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be noted as
such.
Printed in Canada
Table of Contents 3
Table of Contents
PG MUSIC INC. LICENSE AGREEMENT 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS 3
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 6
CHAPTER 2: SUMMARY OF NEW FEATURES 7
Notation Enhancements 8
StyleMaker Enhancements 10
CHAPTER 3: QUICK-START TUTORIAL 12
Quick-Start Tutorial For Version 9 Upgrade 12
Band-in-a-Box: Overview 12
Explore BB Version 9.0 12
Find these buttons on the main screen: 13
Let's RENDER a BB song to audio. 15
Let's Add a GUITAR CHORD SOLO to an existing song. 16
Let's input some Lyrics to Old Folks at Home 18
Let's check out Styles Disk #19 … 20
CHAPTER 4: AUDIO FEATURES 21
Audio Features Overview 21
Using The New Audio Features. 21
Audio Items on Main Screen 22
Audio Menu 23
Audio Track Recording 25
Applying Audio Plugins 29
Audio Rendering 31
CHAPTER 5: LYRICS FEATURES 36
Table of Contents4
New Lyrics Features 36
Other Lyric Functions 42
CHAPTER 6: GUITAR ENHANCEMENTS 44
CHAPTER 7: THE 'GUITARIST' 48
Select Guitarist Window. 48
Guitarist Maker 52
Strumming Settings 54
CHAPTER 8: STYLE SELECTION ENHANCEMENTS 57
CHAPTER 9: STYLEMAKER ENHANCEMENTS 59
CHAPTER 10: BIG PIANO WINDOW 61
CHAPTER 11: NOTATION ENHANCEMENTS 63
CHAPTER 12: HARMONY ENHANCEMENTS 65
CHAPTER 13: OTHER NEW FEATURES 67
APPENDIX A: "AUDIO PLUGINS" 71
DSP Effects - A Primer 71
APPENDIX B: STYLES DISKS #15 – #19
DOCUMENTATION 91
Styles Disk #15 : Nashville Country Styles for Band-in-a-Box 91
Styles Disk #16: All Blues Styles for Band-in-a-Box 94
Styles Disk #17: Unplugged Styles for Band-in-a-Box 98
Styles Disk #18: Praise and Worship Styles for Band-in-a-Box 102
Table of Contents 5
Styles Disk #19: 'Requested' Styles for Band-in-a-Box 105
PG MUSIC INC. CONTACT INFORMATION 111
PG MUSIC INC. MUSIC SOFTWARE PROGRAMS 112
INDEX 125
Chapter 1: Introduction6
Chapter 1: Introduction
This documentation covers the new features in Band-in-a-Box Version 9.
! Chapter 2 is a Summary of the New Features
! Chapter 3 is a Quick-Start Tutorial
! Chapters 2-13 and Appendix A-B describe the New Features in detail
This major new upgrade to Band-in-a-Box includes over 50 new features! We've
added a full featured digital audio track, so you can add live vocals or guitar
playing to your song. There's also an intelligent style selection wizard which
shows you what styles would work best in your song, highlighting all styles that
have a similar tempo, genre, and feel. Guitarists will love the guitar
enhancements, tablature display, and a great automatic feature that creates a pro
quality guitar chord solo to any melody, displayed perfectly on the guitar
fretboard. There's a new Big Lyrics Window with selectable font and size, and a
Big Piano Window that displays a piano with large size keys and optional note
names. And much more…Read on for details!
There have been many improvements and added features in Version 9.0 for
Windows. People familiar with the previous versions of Band-in-a-Box will be
pleased to know that we have kept the same functionality of our previous
releases. All of the new features are optional and don't interfere with familiar
methods of using the program. All songs, styles etc. are completely compatible
with previous versions, so that you can upgrade without losing any of your
existing work.
Chapter 2: Summary of New Features 7
Chapter 2: Summary of New Features
New Features in Band-in-a-Box Version 9 are ...
• Audio Track! – Feel like adding vocals to your Band-in-a-Box song? Or a
live guitar part. No problem with version 9. You can easily record a track of
CD quality audio using the new audio features. Plug in your guitar or a
microphone to your soundcard, press the Microphone record button in
Band-in-a-Box, and Band-in-a-Box will add your track to the song. You can
overdub the audio parts to add in harmonies etc. The MIDI and audio tracks
are compatible with other sequencers and sound programs (like
PowerTracks Pro Audio, SoundForge, Cubase or Cakewalk), so your full
MIDI and Audio performance can be used in these other programs.
• Save Song as wave file (.WAV) Band-in-a-Box normally exports it songs
as MIDI files. Now you can directly export the song as a .WAV file as well.
This is referred to as 'rendering' the file from MIDI to audio. Once you have
it as a .WAV file, you can send it to others, or put it on the Internet, and
they will hear it exactly as you did. Or use "CD-burning" software to save
the .WAV file onto a conventional audio CD, so your Band-in-a-Box
creations will play in standard audio CD players.
• Save song in Internet formats. There are many new formats for saving
audio files that take up less space than a wave file. Band-in-a-Box can save
files directly in these 'compressed audio' formats, using the drivers that
come with Windows. (Note: you must have already have these drivers with
your Windows system, they are not included with Band-in-a-Box.)
• Note-based lyrics. Previous versions of Band-in-a-Box had lyrics based on
a "line at a time". We've added note-based lyrics. This allows more accurate
placement of lyrics as you can place a word under each note. As you enter
the lyrics, the note is highlighted, and pressing the TAB or Enter key moves
to the next word. Note-based lyrics are saved with the MIDI file, so you can
use them in your other MIDI programs.
• Big Lyrics (Karaoke) Window. We've added a 'Big Lyrics Window' to
Band-in-a-Box. Selectable font, font size, and Window size. This is great
for singalongs or 'Karaoke' .
• Style Selection Enhancements. Selecting a style to use for your song has
been made much easier, and more fun! When you open the new StylePicker
Window, it shows you which styles would work best in your song,
highlighting all styles that have a similar tempo, genre, and feel to your
Chapter 2: Summary of New Features8
song. You can preview styles before loading them so you can hear what
they'll sound like in your song. The window remembers the style and genre
that you've used, and will return to it the next time you visit the window.
• Big Piano Window. We've added a new Big Piano Window, showing you
the notes of any track on a piano keyboard. You can set the size of the
Window, range of the piano, and number of octaves to display. You can
also display notes names, or guide notes showing the scale notes of the
current key. Notes can be displayed using a different color for each note.
There's an "Auto-Octave" setting that will scan the track to be displayed,
and auto-size the piano to the largest size that would display all of the notes.
This 'Big Piano' makes it easier to learn piano parts from within Band-in-a-
Box.
• Guitar Tablature. The notation screen now has an option for Guitar
Tablature, that displays any track in standard Guitar TAB. This can be seen
on the notation screen, leadsheet window or printed out.
• Automatic Guitar Chord Solos to any Song! Now you can easily make
and learn a professional quality guitar chord solo to your favorite song!
Load in any song with a Melody into Band-in-a-Box (or generate a song
with a melody). Then open the Guitar Window and Press the 'Auto-
Generate Chord Solo' button . Band-in-a-Box then generates a chord solo on
guitar for that song, using the same guitar chords that the pros use. Chord
types can be selected to use standard, advanced, or embellished chords. The
chord solo plays on the correct positions on the guitar window, so you can
see the performance played on guitar. Or view it in notation, or TAB , and
print it out!
• 'Jazz Up' the Chords, 'Jazz Down' the Chords. When switching genres
(from Pop to Jazz, or Jazz to Pop) , its often necessary to change the chords
from 'Pop/Rock' chords (C) to Jazz Type chords (Like CMaj7) . Now you
can quickly do this, by new menu options called 'Jazz Up', 'Jazz Down'.
• Convert Harmony Part to Notation track. Previously if you added a
harmony, the harmony parts wouldn't be seen on the notation, you would
only see the lead part. Now you can write the harmony part directly to the
notation track, so you can see it and print it out, just like any other part.
Notation Enhancements
• Keystroke Note Editing. You can easily edit notes using only keystrokes
now. By stepping through the notes one-by-one, when a note is highlighted
you can change the pitch using the cursor keys, and other values (timing,
Chapter 2: Summary of New Features 9
duration, channel) with other hot keys. This speeds up editing of notes. For
example, you can record a song using the Melody Wizard, which will have
the correct timing and durations but incorrect pitches. Then you can quickly
step through the notes of the song, using the cursor up/down keys to fix the
notes, and you'll end up with a Melody as good as if you had played it on a
MIDI keyboard.
• Notation range. You can specify an upper limit of a note range so that
high notes won't result in an excessive number of ledger lines.
• Enhanced Event List Editing. You can edit events including all MIDI
events and lyric events using the new Event List.
• Harmony enhancements. You can specify a harmony to only occur for
notes longer than a certain duration. There are new options for how the
program 'fixes' the harmony when chord changes occur during a sustained
note harmony. And there's a 'use guitar voicings' harmony type that uses
real guitar chord voicings that display correctly on the guitar fretboard.
We've enhanced the existing harmonies file to take advantage of these new
features, so your harmonies will sound better.
• Solo Around The Melody option. There's a new option for the Soloist part
to create a solo around the melody, that is solo at times when the Melody is
silent.
• Add your own chord shortcuts. Have you found a chord that BB doesn't
recognize? If so, add it to the your chord shortcuts file, and BB will allow
you to type in that chord in the future. This also lets you define chord
"shortcuts", one letter abbreviations for longer chord names ('J" for "Maj7"
etc.).
• Read in Chords from a PowerTracks 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 chord sheet.
Chapter 2: Summary of New Features10
StyleMaker Enhancements
• Larger style limit. Previous limit was 40K for styles. This is now 65K,
allowing for bigger styles.
• Copy all 'a' substyle patterns to 'b' slots. This feature is handy when only
a volume increase tweaking is required for the 'b' substyle.
• Delete all patterns in this row option added.
• Pattern trim routine that deletes notes past the end of a pattern, or
(optionally) a specified distance from the end of a pattern.
• Event list for Editing Notes in patterns using a list.
• Enhanced Song List Window. The Song List Window (accessed by
pressing the SONG button) used to have a limit of 800 songs. This has been
enhanced to 5,000 songs, and full information shows for each song (title,
filename, stylename , Melody/ Lyric / style present status). The window
auto-sizes to fill the screen.
• Song Endings option. The usual Band-in-a-Box ending is 2 bars appended
to the end of the song. This new option gives you an alternative to end the
song on the last bar of the song. Band-in-a-Box will still play an ending on
the chord that you specify, and the ending will occur as a 2 bar phrase
beginning 2 bars before the end of the form. This results in more natural
endings for many songs.
• New Lyric Functions. Since there are now 2 types of lyrics (line-based
lyrics and the new note-based lyrics), we've added functions to convert
note-based lyrics to line lyrics. This will update your old songs that might
have line-based lyrics to note-based. The copy-lyrics-to-clipboard feature
has been enhanced, you can select which elements should be copied, margin
size, etc.
• Enhanced Volume Control. When adjusting the volume of a part (say to
increase the volume) , if you hold down the Alt key while clicking on the
volume change, it will also decrease the volume of the other parts. This is
especially useful when you've reached the maximum volume of a part, but
still 'want it to be louder'. By holding down the alt key, the other volumes
get reduced, which has the desired effect. This is most useful for Melody
parts, or the THRU part that you are playing along.
Chapter 2: Summary of New Features 11
• Easy STEREO/MONO panning menu items. These allow you to quickly
set the instruments to a stereo panning or mono panning.
• Total time for song in Minutes and seconds are now displayed at the top
of the screen (e.g. 4:58).
• Polyphonic adjust of Melody tracks. This function will convert a
polyphonic track to a monophonic track by eliminating note overlap,
optionally preserving the double stops (chords) in the track.
• If a song has an intro, its usually not necessary to play the 2 bar lead-in
count. There's a new option to always OMIT the lead-in if an intro is
present.
• "K"- Quick-Copy-Option. By simply typing K at a bar (followed by
ENTER key), you can instantly copy the last 8 bars to the current position.
By adding additional keys in the K command, you can customize this (e.g.
Typing K12,3 would copy from bar 3 for 12 bars to the current position.
The current position is advanced to the bar beyond the copy. This speeds up
song entry!
… and more!
Chapter 3: Quick-Start Tutorial12
Chapter 3: Quick-Start Tutorial
Quick-Start Tutorial For Version 9 Upgrade
The full description of the new features in Version 9 of Band-in-a-Box are
provided elsewhere. This tutorial is a quick-start tour of the new features in
Version 9.
Band-in-a-Box: Overview
It is assumed that you are somewhat familiar with the previous release of
Band-in-a-Box. If not, here is a brief "primer". Band-in-a-Box is an
automatic accompaniment program. Type in the chords to any song (like C or
Fm7b5) , pick a style, and press PLAY. Band-in-a-Box (or "BB" as it often
referred to) then automatically generates a full backing arrangement of piano,
bass, drums, guitar and strings. This allows you to, by typing in the chord
progressions, quickly build up a library of songs. Over the years BB has added
new features, such as a Notation Window, Notation Printout, Melody track,
auto-Harmonization and a StyleMaker allowing you to create your own styles.
With recent releases of BB (version 7/8), we added major new features called
"The Soloist" and "The Melodist". BB can, using the Soloist, automatically
generate a professional quality solo improvisation along to any chord
progression. This is written to the Soloist Track. The Melodist creates songs
from scratch, including Chords, Melodies and even a Title.
Explore BB Version 9.0
OK, let's begin to explore BB version 9.0.
We'll begin the tutorial in earnest when we get a song playing with the new
guitar, audio, lyric, style selection and guitar features. But first, let's just look
around the main screen.
Boot up the program, and look at the main screen.
There are several new areas visible on the main screen:
• New Buttons for Version 9
• New Menu Items
• New Windows
There are new audio features, allowing you to record an audio track along
to any song.
Chapter 3: Quick-Start Tutorial 13
Find these buttons on the main screen:
Find the microphone button, this is the way to launch the recording of
audio.
There is a button that allows you to set your Recording inputs. This is
essential, since you need to select Microphone or Line-in if you plan on
recording audio.
Find the playback audio settings button, this allows you to view levels of
playback, and also can lead to the Recording Panel by choosing Options-
Properties-Recording.
Look at the new audio menu, with access to all of the new audio features.
Locate the Render MIDI to Stereo .wav menu item. This allows you to
convert a BB song to a .wav file, with all of the BB music on it. The other items
on the menu allow utility functions to erase/ delete/ insert portions of the audio
that have been recorded.
Let's record an audio section!
Note: We'll assume we're recording vocals using a microphone. Alternatively,
you could be recording a guitar using the line-in on your soundcard.
Load in a song, like Old Folks at Home . MGU (or any song).
Press the microphone button to start recording, or choose the Audio-Record
audio menu item. You'll now see the Audio – Recording Dialog.
Chapter 3: Quick-Start Tutorial14
The Dialog usually opens up with another window at the right – this is the
Recording Control .
(Hint: If your soundcard doesn't open with the recording control shown, and
instead shows the playback control, you'll need to select Options-Properties-
Recording in the menu of this Mixer – or upgrade from Windows 95 to
Windows 98.)
If the Recording Control has not launched, you can manually launch it by
pressing the Recording Control button on the audio dialog.
As you can see from the Recording Control checkboxes at the bottom, we've
selected to record the input from Microphone, and have de-selected the other
options (line-in, audio CD). We've also de-selected record of outgoing MIDI,
since we don't want this to 'bleed' on to our audio track.
Now that we've set the Recording Properties, we can set our VU levels of the
recording.
Press the Test Recording Level button to
do this. As this dialog displays, you can test the level of your microphone
("testing 1 2 3"), so that the VU levels are not too high (should be green/yellow,
but not red).
OK, now we're ready to record.
Set the record audio to the start of the song, and press
RECORD.
You'll now hear the 2 bar count-in and can record your voice singing along to
Band-in-a-Box!
Chapter 3: Quick-Start Tutorial 15
As the song plays, you can look at the VU meters to ensure that you haven't
sung too loud and got into the red zone of the VU meters – indicating a 'clipping'
of the sound.
When you've completed recording your section (say after 16 bars of singing),
press the ESCAPE key or STOP button on the main screen, answer YES to
Keep Audio Take.
Now press SAVE, and Save your new vocal arrangement. Call it "Old
Folks at Home With Vocals. MGU"
Technical note: There'll now be an Old Folks at Home With Vocals .MGU song
with just the BB MIDI information, and there'll also be an Old Folks at Home
With Vocals .WAV audio file with the audio information. If copying this file from
one computer to the next, you'd need to copy both the song and the .WAV file.
Adjust the volume of the wave file using the Audio – Adjust volume permanent
command, or just use the playback Volume Control.
That's the end of the record audio portion of the tutorial.
Let's RENDER a BB song to audio.
Rendering a song involves recording the outgoing MIDI and converting it to a
.WAV file. This is separate from the recording of an audio track as we've done
in the previous tutorial (though you can include any audio track in the final
rendered wave file).
Load in one of your favorite BB compositions.
Press the Render to .WAV button or choose Audio – Render to .WAV.
This opens the Render Dialog, and the Recording Control panel.
Chapter 3: Quick-Start Tutorial16
Use the Recording Control to select recording of OUTGOING MIDI, and de-
select everything else, including microphone, line-in and audio CD.
Now press the Render to WAV file button.
This begins the process of recording the outgoing MIDI to WAV. The Rendered
wave file name is shown at the top. It will be called "_Old Folks at Home
.WAV" in this example. Note that the underscore at the beginning is a
convention that BB uses to indicate that this is a Rendered wave file.
Press the STOP Render button after about 10 seconds, so that we can test the
level.
Pressing the Test WAV allows us to hear the WAV played by the
Windows Media Player.
If we're satisfied with the recording levels
and playback, then press the Re-Render-to WAV, but this time let it play for the
whole song, and it will auto-stop at the end.
We've now rendered the whole song to audio. We now have the Rendered
WAV file in a file called "c:\bb\_Old Folks at Home.wav". We can work with
this file in any other programs that we have, converting it to other audio formats
for example.
We can also make a compressed wave file of
this directly inside the BB Render dialog if we want. This is discussed
elsewhere.
That ends the Render to Audio Portion of the tutorial.
Let's Add a GUITAR CHORD SOLO to an existing song.
Load in a song with a Melody on it. We suggest the song GIT_TEST that should
be in your c:\BB directory. If it isn't there, choose the song "Old Folks at Home"
or any other song with a Melody.
Open the Guitar Window. (Ctrl-Shift-G)
Press the Chord Solo button (or alternatively, you could
choose menu Melody- Convert Melody to Guitar Chord Solo).
Chapter 3: Quick-Start Tutorial 17
You'll see the Select Guitarist Dialog.
Choose Guitarist #2 "Jazz Guitar Single Position".
(If you've been already changing these setting make sure that the other settings
haven't been changed from their defaults, and that the Fret Position is at 5, Track
is Melody, and Generate is set to Whole song.)
Press OK
You'll now see a confirmatory dialog, indicating that a chord solo has been
added. The music will begin playing and you can hear the chord solo added to
your song. In this case, the whole solo is using chords within the current
position, other Guitarists use a wider range. Listen for the strumming effect on
the guitar, see the authentic guitar voicings on the fretboard, and choice of when
to voice note vs. chord for the arrangements.
Chapter 3: Quick-Start Tutorial18
STOP the song. Let's edit this chord solo a little.
Open the Notation Window.
You'll notice that there is guitar tab displayed. This is because the track type for
the Melody has been set to Guitar (automatically by the Chord Solo routine).
You can change this on the Melody menu if you don't want to see tab, by setting
the track type to Normal.
On the Guitar Window. Press the Chord Step Advance buttons (INS
and DEL on the NUMPAD). These advance and highlight a chord at a time.
When you have a note or chord highlighted press the Ch- or Ch+
(Insert Guitar Chord) button on the guitar ( or 7 or 8 on the NUMPAD keypad).
Each time you press the Ch- or Ch+, you'll see that the guitar chord changes to a
different voicing, cycling through the available 5-10 voicings possible for each
chord. (Some notes won't have any chord voicings, for example a C# note on a
Cmaj7 chord, because it is always a passing tone.)
In a similar manner, you can convert a chord to a guitar note, and
use the Insert Guitar Note button for this. Pressing the N+ (or 3 or 4 on the
NUMPAD keypad) repeatedly cycles through playing the same note on all 6
strings.
Save the song as a BB song. The guitar information is stored on channels 11 to
16 of the Melody track, so it will be saved with the correct information. You can
make a MIDI file which will preserve this information, as long as the Melody
Track Type menu item is set to "Guitar".
That ends the guitar portion of the tutorial.
Let's input some Lyrics to Old Folks at Home
Load in the song, Old Folks at Home. MGU.
We'll add lyrics for the first 4 bars, "Way down upon the Swanee River …".
Open up the Notation, and choose the Melody track so that you can see the
Melody for the first 4 bars of Old Folks at Home.
Chapter 3: Quick-Start Tutorial 19
Click on the Lyrics button on the notation
window, this is an L button (on the notation toolbar) , or press Ctrl L. The lyric
edit will open up.
Use ENTER to advance by a chord, and Shift TAB to move back by a chord.
When the highlighted note is on the note for the word "Way" (i.e. Bar 1 Beat 1),
then type "Way" into the edit, and then press Enter to move to the next chord
and type "down" <ENTER> then continue with the rest of the notes, until you
have entered the lyrics for the first 4 bars.
They should now look like this!
You can adjust the height of the lyrics by pressing the Notation Options button,
and setting the lyric height (smaller values like –7 are higher on the notation).
Press Ctrl L (or the Lyrics L button again) to get stop the entering of lyrics.
Now,. Press PLAY and open up the Big Karaoke Window, by pressing
Ctrl-Shift-L or the Big Lyrics Button. (on the main screen).
You'll now see the lyrics in a big font.
Chapter 3: Quick-Start Tutorial20
You can see that they are interleaved with the chord names. This is called the
"Busker format", since Buskers usually work with a sheet of chords and words
only.
You can press the Options button to de-select the show chords option, and you'll
just see the lyrics without chords interleaved.
Choose the Option – Lyrics – Copy to clipboard. This will copy the lyrics we've
done, with or without the "Busker format" chords interleaved, to the text
clipboard, so that we can paste the text into other applications like Word or
Notepad for future work.
That ends the Quick Tutorial.
Many other features are described in the documentation of the new features.
Let's check out Styles Disk #19 …
Note: Styles Disk #19: If you ordered Band-in-a-Box 9 as an upgrade, the
package includes Styles Disk #19 (this is not one of the styles disks that are
included in the first time purchase). If you have the first time version of
Band-in-a-Box, and don't have a \bb\styles19 directory, instead use the
\BB\SOLODEMO directory of BB for this example.
To try out the new styles from Styles Disk #19, press the OPEN button and load
in a song from c:\bb\styles19. Once you have a song loaded in, the directory will
be set to c:\bb\styles19. You can then press the SONG button to see a full list of
the songs.
Since the songs are shipped as short file names, let's convert them to long file
names, using the title of the song as the new file name. Choose File - File
Utilities, Auto Rename to Long File Names. Use the default settings. After
pressing OK, the songs will be converted to long file names. The program may
then rebuild the songlist.doc file. Now load in the demo songs for styles disk
#19, and listen to the new styles.
Press the JukeBox button to hear all of the styles demo'ed.
This is the end of the tutorial. The next sections examine the features in
detail.
Chapter 4: Audio Features 21
Chapter 4: Audio Features
Audio Features Overview
• Audio Track! – Feel like adding vocals to your Band-in-a-Box song? Or a
live guitar part. No problem with version 9. You can easily record a track of
CD quality audio using the new audio features. Plug in your guitar or a
microphone to your soundcard, press the Microphone record button in
Band-in-a-Box, and Band-in-a-Box will add your track to the song. You can
overdub the audio parts to add in harmonies etc. The MIDI and audio tracks
are compatible with other sequencers and sound programs (like
PowerTracks Pro Audio, SoundForge, Cubase or Cakewalk ), so your full
MIDI and Audio performance can be used in these other programs.
• Save Song as wave file (.WAV). Band-in-a-Box normally exports it songs
as MIDI files. Now you can directly export the song as a .WAV file as well.
This is referred to as 'rendering' the file from MIDI to audio. Once you have
it as a wave file, you can send it to others, or put it on the Internet, and they
will hear it exactly as you did. Or use "CD-burning" software to save the
.WAV file onto a conventional audio CD, so your Band-in-a-Box creations
will play in standard audio CD players.
• Save song in Internet formats. There are many new formats for saving
audio files that take up less space than a wave file. Band-in-a-Box can save
files directly in some of these 'compressed audio' formats, using the drivers
that come with Windows. (Note: you must already have these drivers with
your Windows system, they are not included with Band-in-a-Box.)
Using The New Audio Features.
You can do the following with the new Audio Track in Band-in-a-Box:
1. Add an audio track to your Band-in-a-Box song, such as vocals, guitar, sax
etc.
2. Process the Audio track using Audio Plugins like reverb, chorus etc. (over
20 plugins included).
3. Export the Audio (and MIDI) track to sequencers like PowerTracks Pro
Audio, Cubase or Cakewalk for further work.
22
Even if you aren't recording an audio track, you can use the new "Rendering
Features" to convert an all MIDI "Band-in-a-Box Song" to a .WAV file. You
can do the following:
1. Convert a Band-in-a-Box song file to a stereo 44K (CD Quality) .WAV file
(with the audio track included as an option)
2. Use the Rendered .WAV file in your other sequencers (PowerTracks etc.)
3. Convert your compositions to "compressed .WAV" files that don't take up
much space, and are more suitable for Internet use.
4. Use third party CD-R burning software like Adaptec EZ-Creator to write
the Rendered wave file to an audio CD. This means you can go from a new
song in Band-in-a-Box to a completed song on an audio CD – all on your
PC!
5. Use third party conversion programs (such as Real Player Plus or
Microsoft Windows Media Tools –available from www.microsoft.com)
to convert your Band-in-a-Box compositions (.WAV files) to the newest
Internet streaming formats.
There are two types of Audio Features in Band-in-a-Box.
1. The first refers to the "Audio Track". This is a single audio track, 44K
Mono track that you can use to add vocals etc.
2. The second refers to "Rendering" which is the process of converting a
MIDI performance in BB to a stereo .WAV file.
The "Audio Track" just includes your added vocals, whereas the "Rendered
WAV" file includes the entire performance (MIDI and Audio Track).
First we'll describe the features of the Audio Track.
Audio Items on Main Screen
If you look at the BB screen, you can see the new additions for the audio track.
There is a microphone button on the main
toolbar. This is used for audio recording. The 'Record' button to the left of it is
used for MIDI recording.
23
Audio Menu
There is now an Audio menu, where all of the audio functions are found.
The Record audio function is used to Record Audio (using a microphone
plugged into your soundcard, or a guitar (optionally plugged into a mixer) and
then into the line-in on your soundcard. This launches the Record Audio Dialog
(discussed elsewhere).
The next 2 items (Record audio and MIDI) refer to the situation where you
want to simultaneously record an audio track (vocals etc.) as well as a MIDI
piano part. You can record the MIDI to the Melody or Soloist track.
The Plugins menu command refers to running a 'plugin' audio effect. This
applies an audio effect such as Reverb or Chorus to the already recorded audio
part. BB comes with a large selection of high quality audio effects built in –
The Kill Entire Audio menu item is used to erase the Audio Track.
24
Erase Audio Choruses will erase some of the choruses.
Erase Region will erase a specified region of bars/beats of audio.
Adjust Output level – quick uses the Windows Mixer to adjust the output
level of the audio track. You can also use the Windows Mixer directly by
pressing the Speaker icon.
Adjust Level of .WAV file permanently changes the volume of the audio track
itself. It uses a sophisticated peak-limiting algorithm to ensure that increases in
the volume do not result in 'clipping' of the sound (which would be heard as a
loud distortion). It accepts units of decibels (dB). Zero means no change in the
level, whereas +6 would be a doubling of the sound, and –6 is a halving of the
sound level.
Timeshift audio in ms (milliseconds) is used to timeshift the whole audio track
a certain number of milliseconds. Normally you wouldn't have to timeshift a
track at all. There are settings in the Audio-Options Dialog (see below) that can
adjust for synchronization differences between your soundcard and MIDI
devices (for example, the VSC-88 has a 430ms latency). But the timeshift audio
command can be useful in special cases. (1000ms = 1 second. Positive values
move the audio track ahead, negative values move it back)
Insert Beats in Audio and Delete Beats in Audio are used to insert silence or
remove parts of the audio track. You can specify the region to use. For example,
if you decide to add an extra 2 bars to the intro in Band-in-a-Box, and you've
already recorded an audio track, you should insert 2 bars (8 beats in a 4/4 time
signature) in the audio track as well.
Render MIDI to Stereo .WAV file This command launches the dialog that
allows you to Render (convert) the BB song (with or without an audio track) to a
stereo .WAV file. This rendering is discussed in detail elsewhere.
Audio Options Dialog – this allows you to set options for the audio track, and is
discussed elsewhere.
25
Audio Track Recording
Band-in-a-Box has a single audio track. It is a 44 K mono track (CD quality).
This allows you to record vocals or other instruments using a microphone or
line-in from a mixer or guitar.
To record audio to your song, first prepare the Band-in-Box song (i.e. type in the
chords or load in an existing song).
Then press the microphone button (or choose menu Audio-Record). This
launches the Audio Record Dialog
Before you begin recording, you'll need to:
1. Set the Recording Properties, this tells
your soundcard (and BB) what sources you would record from. You'd normally
be recording from a microphone or a line-in plug into your soundcard, and you
select those items.
A soundcard is capable of recording from the following sources:
• Microphone –plugged into the soundcard e.g. vocals, sax
• Line –in . e.g. Guitar or Mixer
• CD-ROM player – this would record the audio from an audio CD, normally
you wouldn't be doing this in BB.
• Outgoing MIDI. (not used when recording audio tracks, but is used if
'Rendering' the whole BB song to Audio.) This is an important point to
understand when using audio in BB. The soundcard is capable of recording
the outgoing MIDI* that is being sent from your soundcard out to the
speakers. When recording an audio track (vocals etc.), you'd almost never
want to record the outgoing MIDI as well (or it would 'bleed' onto the audio
26
track), whereas when Rendering the whole composition to a single .WAV
file, you always want to record the outgoing MIDI. It is essential that you
understand this!
*Technical Note: This is only true if you are using the soundcard for your output
MIDI driver. If you have an external MIDI device like the Roland Sound
Canvas, the outgoing MIDI doesn't get recorded – you'd need to route it back
into the line-in to record the MIDI.
When you press the Recording Properties Dialog, you'll see the Recording
Properties panel of your soundcard's Mixer.
The Panel displayed here is the typical panel that soundcards use. Newer
soundcards (like the SoundBlaster Live) have additional panels.
From this panel, you can set the recording level for the items you want to record.
Since we are discussing recording of an audio track, this is usually vocals, guitar
etc. We'll be using a microphone input or a line-in. Let's assume we're using a
microphone.
We select the check box to record the microphone.
We de-select the items that we're not using (recording outgoing
MIDI, CD audio recording, and line-in recording).
Then we set the level of the recording input for the microphone.
To do this properly, you'll need to see a
"Recording VU Meter" that shows you the level of input on your soundcard.
This should be done prior to recording. You do this by pressing the "Test
Recording Level (VU Meter). While this dialog is open, you can sing (or talk
…"Testing 1 2 3") and you should be able to see the levels of the recording
color coded as green/yellow/red. Ideally the sounds should remain in the green
and avoid the red altogether. Unlike analog recording (where its good to get a
27
"hot" high signal, digital recordings need to absolutely avoid high levels, since
any overload (clipping) of the signal will result in a ruined recording.
When you press the "Test Recording VU Meter" button, this launches the
Windows mixer. The recording settings are on the recording panel of this Mixer.
Note: BB opens the Windows Mixer with the window titled "Recording
Control". On some older systems (Win 95) ,it may open with the Window titled
"Volume Control"- this is the playback window, and you'll need to select the
Recording Control manually by choosing Options-Properties - Recording.
If you don't see any movement on the VU meters , then its possible that your
soundcard shows its VU meters on the Playback panel - the SoundBlaster Live
does this. In this case, you should set the option "Recording VU Meter" to "is on
the Playback Panel"
Next, you should set the start point for the recording. You can record from the
Start of the song, or somewhere in the middle, by choosing a bar and chorus # to
start the record.
In most cases you will only be recording audio, so you should set this to "No
MIDI recording". But if you want to record MIDI at the same time (in a situation
where you were playing a MIDI piano at the same time as you are singing for
example), then you could set this setting to "Also Record MIDI to Melody
(assuming that you wanted the MIDI to get recorded to the Melody track - use
the Soloist setting if you want it recorded to the Soloist track).
If you have previously recorded audio on
the track, and want to overdub (to add a harmony for example), then you should
select the Overdub underlying Audio. It is not essential to select it at this point,
since you'll get another chance at the end of the recording. Note that the audio
track will not play during record, so you'd have to sing the harmony without
hearing the original audio part.
When you press RECORD, the audio recording begins.
28
If you've set the 'SHOW VU Meter"
option, then the Recording VU Meter will open up and display during recording,
so you can monitor the VU meters.
.When you are finished recording, press STOP or hit the Escape Key.
You will then see the "Keep the Audio Take Dialog"
If you are happy with the recording, you should choose
Keep Take. Then the Audio will get added to the Audio Track. You can listen to
the results by pressing PLAY. If you are then not happy with the results, you can
choose Edit - Undo Keep Take, and you will be back to where you were prior to
the recording.
You can also choose the option to "Take Again". That rejects the take, and starts
the Recording dialog again.
Technical Details: The recorded take is recorded to a temporary wave file
called TEMP_REC.WAV. This resides in the BB directory or the directory of the
current song. Once you decide to keep the take, the TEMP_REC.WAV is merged
with the main wave file for the program, which is usually titled with the same
name as the song (e.g. MySong.wav).
If you've recorded only 1 chorus of the
song, you can choose the option to copy that first chorus of audio to the whole
song. This will fill up the whole song with audio. Then you'd just need to do
another recording and record to the ending of the song.
29
At the end of recording, you get an option to
Overdub with the underlying audio.
Playing the Audio File.
Now you can play the Audio file that you've recorded.
The size of the audio file will be displayed at the top of the screen. If you
haven't saved the song yet, your window title will look like this. In the example,
above, the song is titled NoName.SG1, and there is a 3.4mb .WAV file
associated with the file, and that's 38 seconds of audio. The total duration of the
song is 3 minutes and 20 seconds.
You should save the song, give it a name of "My First Song". Then the window
title will look like this…
Once the song is saved, the wave file will be called with the same name as the
song, that is "My First Song.wav". So if you ever need to work with the .WAV
file in another program, you can just directly edit the wave file. If you do this,
make sure the .WAV stays a 44K mono .WAV file.
Applying Audio Plugins
When you've recorded audio, you'd likely want to apply some type of effect to
the audio recorded. The usual one is Reverb. Choose the Audio Plugin that you
want from the Audio -Plugins menu. For Reverb, choose the Reverb option.
You'll then see a plugin with its own settings, specific to the type of plugin. The
plugins are described in Appendix A of the manual. There is also extensive on-
line Help, accessed from the plugin directly. Inside the plugin, you can Preview
the plugin effect, and if you like it, you can then Proceed with processing the
entire .WAV file. You can UNDO the plugin effect from within Band-in-a-Box
by choosing Edit-Undo.
Technical Note for Programmers: Writing Band-in-a-Box Audio Plugins.
External Audio Plugins can be easily written for Band-in-a-Box. When BB calls
the plugin, it writes an c:\bb\input.txt file that includes information such as the
tool number for the plugin, and the name of the input wave file and the output
wave file. The plugin gets registered on the BB menu by including a small
P^NNN.INI file, where NNN is the name of the Plugin's EXE. If you have a
30
look at the Delay plugin, i.e. the P^.DLY.INI file and then look at a sample
INPUT.TXT file that BB writes prior to launching the plugin, and the small
Output.txt file that the plugin writes on completion, you should have what you
need to write a plugin. There are more DOCS available on our web site
www.pgmusic.com, and sample Delphi code to write plugins if you're interested.
The plugins can be written in any language, since they just need to interface
with BB through the Input.txt, Output.txt and P^NNN.INI file.
Audio Options Dialog
Most of the settings in this dialog are set automatically by the auto-testing of the
soundcard. This test can be repeated by pressing the "GET FROM
SOUNDCARD" button. This includes the DMA Size and Offset settings. The
usual value for all of these settings is zero.
You can over-ride these settings (if you know what you're doing!). Otherwise,
just press the Get From Soundcard button, and they'll set themselves.
The Offset in MS is not a setting that gets
set automatically. It defaults to zero. This allows you to adjust the timing that
the soundcard plays audio in relation to MIDI. Normally you'd leave this at zero,
but if you need to fine tune the sync between audio and MIDI, you could change
this setting.
When Opening songs, show message if WAV file not found.
31
A Band-in-a-Box song called "My Song.MGU" will have the associated wave
file called "My Song.wav". If BB loads this song file, and it can't find its
associated file, it will put up a message to that effect. If that message is
distracting, and for some reason you don't have the wave files that were recorded
with the songs, then you can disable that message.
Reading the Audio and MIDI tracks into other programs.
If you have a BB song that has an Audio Track as well, and want to export that
song to a sequencer like PowerTracks Pro Audio, Cubase, or CakeWalk, you
can do it as follows:
• For a Band-in-a-Box song called MySong.MGU, the associated .WAV file
(audio track) will be called "MySong.wav".
• You should make a MIDI file (by pressing the .MID button). Save the .MID
in the same folder as the song. Then your sequencer can read the entire file
by doing the following inside your sequencer:
• Open the MIDI file
• Import the .WAV file track into the sequence.
Note: PowerTracks Pro Audio version 6 automates this, it recognizes that this is
a BB file with a wave file associated with it, and will read them both in. In
earlier versions of PowerTracks Pro Audio, and other sequencers like
CakeWalk, you'll need to do steps #1 and #2 as above.
Audio Rendering
You can Render a MIDI file to an Audio .WAV file by pressing the
.WAV button or choosing Audio-Render to wave file.
The Process of Converting a MIDI file performance in Band-in-a-Box is
referred to as "Rendering". It involves "Recording" the MIDI performance in
real time, as a stereo .WAV file.
The process differs from usual audio recording, in that you aren't recording from
an input source of a microphone or line-in, but instead are recording the
OUTPUT of the MIDI as it goes out your soundcard to your speakers. (note: if
you use an external MIDI module as your driver, then you would be recording
from the line-in to the soundcard).
If you use your soundcard as your MIDI driver …
It is essential that when you Render the file, you have selected the correct inputs,
and are recording the outgoing MIDI, and not recording the mic or line-in.
32
If you use an external MIDI module (Sound Canvas etc.) as your MIDI
Driver …
You should connect a cable from the audio out of the Sound Canvas to the line-
in on the soundcard, and then de-select the recording of the rest of the inputs
(Audio CD, microphone in and MIDI).
All of these selections are done from the
Recording Panel of your Windows soundcard Mixer. This is launched from the
Rendering dialog.
Here is the Rendering to WAV dialog.
Rendering is a 3 -step process:
Set the inputs to record your outgoing
MIDI. This would be MIDI if you use a soundcard for MIDI, and line-in if you
use an external module.
Press the "RENDER to WAV" file button,
and wait as the song is recorded (rendered) in real time.
33
Test the WAV file by playing it, to ensure that the MIDI is being
recorded, and the volume levels are correct, and that the volume of the audio
track (if any) is in balance with the MIDI track.
If the audio track Volume isn't
in balance with the MIDI tracks, adjust the level of the audio track to put it in
balance. A setting of 6 dB would make the audio track twice as loud.
It's quickest to do this with a small sample of the wave file. Once you have the
volume in balance, you can record (Render) the whole file. This process takes as
long as the song takes to play in real time, 3-4 minutes for a typical song.
Setting the Recording Properties.
These settings would be correct for recording MIDI if you use a soundcard for
MIDI (select line-in instead if you use an external module.
When you press this, the Rendering will
begin. The file will be rendered with the name stored in the field above. If your
BB song is called "My First Song", the Rendered wave file will be called "_My
First Song.wav" The Rendered WAV files are always named beginning with an
Underscore character, so you can easily identify them. OF course you can
rename them afterwards, and can use the choose button to choose a completely
different name for the wave file. Don't call it "My First Song.wav" since that is
the name of the audio track wave file.
34
When you press the Render button, a dialog will popup indicating that the
Rendering is proceeding. You can STOP this at any time, and if you stop it
early, you'll be able to listen to the portion of the file rendered.
When the Render is finished, a message will popup indicating the name and size
of the saved file.
You can then use the TEST WAV button to test the WAV file.
This uses Media Player (MPLAYER.EXE) to play the wave file.
Compressing the WAV file using the Windows Audio Compression Manager
(ACM Drivers).
If you choose this option, BB will launch the
Windows Audio Compression Manager applet. That is the same Windows
dialog that launches from the Sound Recorder - File-Properties-Convert option.
35
From this dialog, you can choose the type of compression that is appropriate
(from the available drivers). You can save your settings as named presets by
using the "Save As" button.
For example, if you choose Microsoft ADPCM as the compression method, and
choose 44K, you'll get a 4:1 compression and a bit rate of 43K / second. You can
save this as a preset called "MS ADPCM44K" or whatever name you like.
Using the Audio Rendered Stereo .WAV file with other programs.
In the example above, we have Rendered a stereo 44K wave file called "_My
First Song.wav". This file can be read directly into other programs. For example,
from Media Player, or "Real Player Plus" you would choose "File-Open". Most
audio programs have a similar ability to read a 44K Stereo .WAV file. These
programs are able to convert and process the wave file into other formats,
including the latest Internet formats. See these programs for details and
requirements for converting files. For example, Microsoft has the Windows
Media Tools – available from www.microsoft.com - that can convert WAV files
to ASF or WMA files.
Chapter 5: Lyrics Features36
Chapter 5: Lyrics Features
New Lyrics Features
Note-based lyrics.
Previous versions of Band-in-a-Box had lyrics based on a "line at a time". We've
added note-based lyrics. This allows more accurate placement of lyrics as you
can place a word under each note. As you enter the lyrics, the note is
highlighted, and pressing the TAB or Enter key moves to the next word. Note-
based lyrics are saved with the MIDI file, so you can use them in your other
MIDI programs.
Big Lyrics (Karaoke) Window.
We've added a 'Big Lyrics Window' to Band-in-a-Box. Selectable font, font size,
and Window size. This is great for singalongs or 'Karaoke'.
New Lyric Functions.
Since there are now 2 types of lyrics (line-based lyrics and the new note-based
lyrics), we've added functions to convert note-based lyrics to line lyrics. This
will update your old songs that might have line-based lyrics to note-based. And
the copy-lyrics-to-clipboard feature has been enhanced, you can select which
elements should be copied, margin size etc.
With previous versions of Band-in-a-Box, the only type of Lyrics input was
"line-based-lyrics". This allowed you to type in a line of lyrics that would
correspond to the notation. This was limited in that the Notation then couldn't
change its layout to a different number of bars per line, and the Lyrics weren't
written to MIDI files, since MIDI files expect lyrics to be done on a note-for-
note basis.
With Version 9, you are still able to enter and display lyrics in "line-based'
format, but now have the option to enter and display lyrics in "note-based'
format.
The Lyrics functions are accessed from the new menu called Lyrics.
Chapter 5: Lyrics Features 37
Entering Lyrics on a note-by-note Basis.
You can enter note-based
lyrics by pressing Ctrl-L or pressing the Lyrics button on the Notation toolbar.
When you do this, you'll see that the notation window is open, and a lyric edit
window has appeared on top of the notation toolbar.
Let's enter the Lyrics for the first 4 bars of the song "Old Folks at Home". The
Lyrics are, "Way down u-pon the Swa-nee Ri-ver … ".
When you press the lyrics button, the lyric edit window opens up, and the
current note (or group of notes at the same time) are highlighted. In this case it's
Chapter 5: Lyrics Features38
highlighting the first note of the song. We type "Way" in the lyric window, and
then move to the next note. We can do this by pressing ENTER or TAB. (Shift
TAB gets us moving back one note.) You can enter each word or syllable as it
corresponds to the notes. "Way down u- pon the Swa- nee Ri- ver\" would be the
syllables you'd enter. Note that a hyphen is put at the end of syllables, and a
backslash is put at the end of a phrase, to indicate a line break. The notation now
looks like this …
You can see that the lyrics are written under each word.
You can control the height that the lyrics are written
by the setting in the Notation Options called Lyric Position. A setting of -10 puts
the lyrics directly under the treble clef, higher values put them lower down.
Lyrics Event List.
You can edit the lyrics using an event list as well. This
allows you to enter lyrics at any point, not just tied to a note.
Once you press the # button, you then press the Edit Lyrics
button. You can then see the Lyrics Event List.
Chapter 5: Lyrics Features 39
From here, you can edit lyrics, or INSERT new lyrics , or APPEND lyrics to the
end of the track, or DELETE lyrics. A single lyric event can be 128 characters.
So note-based lyrics can be entered using the note-by-note method, or fine tuned
with the Lyrics Event List.
Tip: Lyrics can be used to store other types of text information - for example you
could use them for comments about sections of the music.
Big Lyrics Window.
Once you have the lyrics entered for the song, you can view the lyrics in a Big
Lyrics Window.
Launching (or closing ) the Big Lyrics Window.
Press Ctrl-Shift-L to launch the window, or use the on-screen Big Lyrics
Button (or the menu item Lyrics-Big Lyrics Window). You'll then see the
Lyrics displayed in a window.
Chapter 5: Lyrics Features40
As you can see, the lyrics are displayed, interleaved with the chord names. This
is referred to as the "Busker format", since it shows the chords and lyrics in a
manner similar to "Busker Leadsheets".
If you set the option on the Big
Lyrics Window to not display the chord symbols, you'll get only the lyrics
displayed.
When the song plays, the lyrics will highlight in a bouncing-ball manner. Note
that the hyphens that we entered are not displayed in the Big Lyrics window,
and the backslashes used for end of line are also not displayed (or printed).
The Big Lyric Options Dialog
The Big Lyric Options Dialog has settings for the colors and font used for lyrics
display. You can set colors for text color / background color, and the highlight
color. You can also select whether you want Chords to be interleaved with the
lyrics ("Busker Leadsheet").
Copy Lyrics to Clipboard (Print Lyrics only).
This function allows you to copy the lyrics (and/or chords) to the text clipboard.
By pasting into a word processor, you can print out the lyrics in the font of your
choice.
Chapter 5: Lyrics Features 41
This dialog has options to allow "printing" (i.e. copying to clipboard) of note-
based and/or line-based lyrics.
With either option, you can choose to include the chord symbols or not, have
double line spacing, and margin settings.
Process Lyric Lines cleans up the display of lyrics by inserting/ removing extra
spaces in line-based lyrics
By doing this function (on the first 4 bars of the song), you'd get the following to
Paste into your word processor. This is the Busker Leadsheet referred to in the
previous section.
Old Folks At Home
[F] Way [F7] down upon the [Bb] Swanee [Gm7] River … etc., etc.
Chapter 5: Lyrics Features42
Other Lyric Functions
On the Lyrics menu, you can see a number of Lyric functions. These all apply to
note-based lyrics. There is a sub menu at the bottom of items that apply to line-
based lyrics.
The note-based lyrics functions are:
Erase all Lyrics: Erases note-based and Note-based Lyrics.
Erase Note Lyrics: Erases only the note-based lyrics.
Move Lyric ahead to time line. If you have a note based lyric that you want to
time shift backward, you can click on the time line at the destination that you
want, and then choose this item.
Move Lyric back to time line works in a similar manner. You can also shift
lyric times using the Lyric Event list.
Timeshift Lyrics, Insert Beats, Delete Beats are functions that apply to the
entire lyric track, and are useful when you're inserting bars or beats into the
song, and need to move the lyrics around to keep them in sync.
There are functions for Line-based Lyrics at the bottom of the Lyrics menu.
Chapter 5: Lyrics Features 43
Copy Line Lyrics to Note Lyrics. This converts line-based lyrics to note based
lyrics. It is imprecise, because the line-based lyrics don't correspond to
individual notes. But you can edit the positions of the note-based lyrics using the
event list or the Move Lyric back/ahead to time line functions discussed
above.
Move Line lyrics to Note Lyrics works like the Copy Line lyrics to Note Lyrics
function, except it erases the Line-based lyrics.
Auto - Update all songs in folder to Note-Based lyrics will update an entire
folder worth of songs, copying the Line Lyrics to Note Lyrics. Only Note based
Lyrics get displayed in the Big Lyrics Dialog, so this feature will allow you to
see these lyrics in the Big Lyrics Window.
Move Lyrics Up/Down Rows moves a line of line-based lyrics up/down a
number of rows.
Erase Line-based Lyrics erases only the line-based lyrics, preserving the note
based lyrics.
Chapter 6: Guitar Enhancements44
Chapter 6: Guitar Enhancements
Guitar Tablature.
The notation screen now has an option for Guitar Tablature, that displays any
track in standard Guitar TAB. This can be seen on the notation screen, leadsheet
window or printed out.
Automatic Guitar Chord Solos to any Song!
Now you can easily make and learn a professional quality guitar chord solo to
your favorite song!
Load in any song with a Melody into Band-in-a-Box (or generate a song with a
melody). Then open the Guitar Window and Press the 'Auto-Generate Chord
Solo' button. Band-in-a-Box then generates a chord solo on guitar for that song,
using the same guitar chords that the pros use. Chord types can be selected to
use standard, advanced, or embellished chords. The chord solo plays on the
correct positions on the guitar window, so you can see the performance played
on guitar. Or view it in notation, or TAB , and print it out!
There have been many enhancements to the Guitar functions in Band-in-a-Box.
You can set the Melody or Soloist track to be a "Guitar Track".
This is set from the Melody-Track Type menu.
It can also be set from the Notation Options.
When you set a Track Type to Guitar:
• The Notation/ Leadsheet and Printout shows as Guitar Notation (up an
octave, in treble clef only).
Chapter 6: Guitar Enhancements 45
• Tablature is shown on the Notation.
• When saving the file as a MIDI file, any notes on the "Guitar Channels (11
to16) are preserved, so that any fret positions are preserved. (Channels 11 to
16 correspond to strings 1 to 6, so that a G5 note on Channel 11 would be
shown on the high E string at the third fret.)
How about the Guitar Part in BB styles?
Most of the time, when we're referring to the new guitar features in BB however,
we are referring to a Guitar Track that you've input on the Melody or Soloist
channel, not the Guitar Part of the auto-accompaniment.
But this Guitar Part has been enhanced as well. The 'Guitar Part' in Band-in-a-
Box is a generated part of the auto-accompaniment (unlike the Melody or
Soloist track ). It is now considered to be a Guitar Track, however, and will also
display as a guitar track, with Tablature. As well, a special algorithm is auto-
applied to the Guitar Part to attempt to play it 'correctly' on the guitar neck,
instead of showing impossible positions. Since anything can be played on the
Guitar Part in a Style, this is not always possible.
For the discussion of the new Guitar Track features, we'll refer to the Melody
part. They apply equally to the Soloist part however, and all of the commands
are available for either the Melody or the Soloist Track.
Melody- Re-channel to Guitar Channels menu command.
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 its 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.
Guitar - Convert to Chord, Convert to Note.
Chapter 6: Guitar Enhancements46
On the Guitar Window, you will notice some new buttons.
Ch- and Ch+ are the Convert to Chord Buttons. The hotkeys for these are
NUMPAD 7 and NUMPAD 8. When you press these buttons, the current note
on the Melody track gets highlighted, and the note gets converted to a guitar
chord. This is a 'real' guitar chord, with a proper voicing that a pro guitarist
would play if he/she was doing a chord solo with the original note as a melody
note. You can repeatedly press the Ch- or Ch+ buttons to toggle between
available guitar chords. There may be 5-10 chord variations available for each
note.
For example, a Cmaj7 chord with a single melody G note on top at the 5th
position, might show this display originally on the guitar and notation.
When you press the Ch+ button, you now get a guitar chord.
Chapter 6: Guitar Enhancements 47
You can see that a chord has been inserted with the G melody note on top. It is
present on the guitar neck, notation and TAB. If you continue to press the Ch+
button you get different variations of the chord.
The N- and N+ buttons work in a similar manner, except they
convert to a single guitar note. Pressing the buttons repeatedly will change the
note to be displayed on a different string (at the same pitch).
These functions are useful for preparing a guitar track to be displayed exactly as
you'd like to see it on guitar.
Guitar Harmony Option.
The Harmony editor has a new option that allows a Harmony to be assigned as a
Guitar Harmony. In this case, the harmonies chosen will always be playable on
guitar. For example, Harmony 32 (J. Pass) has been assigned to a guitar
harmony. So if you choose Harmony 32, you'll hear realistic Guitar chords. The
harmony features are discussed in more detail elsewhere.
The Guitarist - Automatic Guitar Chord Solos.
We've saved the best new Guitar feature for last - this is called "The Guitarist" .
This feature auto-generates a guitar chord solo for any melody, in many
different guitar styles. It is discussed in detail in the next chapter.
Chapter 7: The 'Guitarist'48
Chapter 7: The 'Guitarist'
With Band-in-a-Box 9, you can now generate a guitar chord solo for any
melody. BB will intelligently arrange the melody to a guitar chord solo, by
inserting real guitar voicings throughout the piece. You can select from among
many "Guitarists" to create your arrangement. And you can define your own
guitarists, choosing parameters such as strum speed, types of voicings
(pop/jazz), embellishments, and many more.
You launch the Chord Solo function from the Guitar
Window, using the Chord Solo button. An alternative is to select the Melody-
Generate Chord Solo item.
Select Guitarist Window.
Once you press the Chord Solo button, you'll see the Select Guitarist Window.
Here are the steps needed to generate your Chord Solo:
1. Select the Guitarist to Use. In
the main list at the left of the Window, you see the List of Guitarists that are
already defined. For example, you can see that Guitarist #2 is called "Jazz
Chapter 7: The 'Guitarist' 49
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. Confirm the Selection the
Guitar Patch. The Guitarist that you pick (see item #1) will already have
chosen the guitar patch to use, but you can over-ride it with this setting.
Select the Range of the song to use. You can either generate a chord solo for
the whole song, or just a region of the song. In either case, remember that you
need to have an existing melody to work with (of course you can use the
Melodist to generate a Melody if you don't have one).
Chapter 7: The 'Guitarist'50
Select the Main Guitar Position to
use. BB has a setting called Auto-Set that will set the main guitar position for
the solo for you, based on the key signature. For example, in the key of C, BB
will choose the 5th position as the best position for the chord solo to be played.
But you can over-ride this, for example if you wanted the solo to be in the 12th
position, you could de-select the "Auto-Set" and then set the guitar position to
12th position.
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 BB not to
change the guitar positions of the notes that it finds. Normally you'd want to set
the "OK to change existing guitar channels" to true.
Press OK to generate the Solo.
To illustrate this, let's generate a guitar solo to an existing Melody. We could
pick any Melody for this, let's pick the file GIT_TEST.MGU which should be
found on your BB directory. This file has a single melody., with no chords in it.
Let's generate a Chord Solo for the song GIT_TEST.MGU
Press the Guitar Chord Solo button to launch the "Guitarist".
Select Guitarist #2 "Jazz Guitar, single
position".
Make sure that the Range is set for "Whole Song" and that the Preferred Fret
Position is set to =5 – this should be the defaults, unless you've changed them.
Press OK to generate the solo.
You'll then see a dialog box like this ...
Chapter 7: The 'Guitarist' 51
This tells you that that the solo has added a solo to the track, adding about 500
notes to the existing 1,000 notes. You'll notice that the guitar doesn't add a chord
to every note, it intelligently decides which notes to add chords to.
The playback will begin automatically, and you'll see the guitar voicings on the
Guitar neck. For example, at Bar 8 the chord is a C#dim, and BB has voiced a
Bb melody note with a 4 note Guitar voicing of the notes Bb,E,C#, and G.
This particular solo will be played in a single position, because those are the
parameters of this particular guitarist. Other Guitarists will play in a range of
positions (Guitarist #1) , or in open position (e.g. Guitarist # 8).
As you listen to the solo, you'll notice the following:
1. Some of the notes are left as melody, and some are assigned to chords.
2. A wide variety of guitar chords are used, including some advanced chords.
All of them are popular chords played by real guitarists – there are no
theoretical chords.
3. The chords are strummed, to simulate a real guitar player.
4. The Track Type for the Melody has been set to Guitar – so the notation
shows TAB, 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 Editor, described
below.
Let's Re-Do 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. Let's redo that part of the solo, using a
higher fret position. We'll press the CHORD-SOLO button again, and de-select
Chapter 7: The 'Guitarist'52
the auto-set position button, and choose the 12 position. Since we only want to
regenerate this for the choruses 4 to 6. We set the range to "Part of Song" and
the range to start at chorus 4, bar 1, and range of 96 bars. This will rewrite the
solo, by first removing the existing guitar chord solo (if any) and then generating
a new one.
Technical Note: Since some of the guitarists can be assigned to strum the chords
in a delayed fashion, if you repeatedly re-generate the solo, the melody will
become more and more delayed. The solution(s) would be to choose Edit-Undo
Solo prior to re-generating the solo, or picking a Guitarist that doesn't delay the
strum. The Strum delay status is indicated on the "Info" panel of the Select
Guitarist screen.
Once you have generated a Guitar chord solo …
The chord solo is now part of the notation track. You can edit it like any other
part, by deleting/ inserting notes etc.
You can use the special guitar features discussed
earlier to change the guitar voicings or replace a note with a chord or vice versa.
The solo will be saved with the song (MGU) and exported to a MIDI file, with
the string positions intact (because we use channels 11 to 16 for the Guitar part).
You can remove the solo at any time (even after the solo has been saved/re-
loaded, by choosing Melody-Remove Harmony part.
Guitarists can be customized, using the Guitarist Maker. This is described in the
next section.
Guitarist Maker
The Guitarist Maker is launched from the Guitarist
Selection Window. When you launch it, you'll see the available options.
Chapter 7: The 'Guitarist' 53
• 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. If set to 5 (for
example), the chords will be limited to chords that can be played within the
current position and up to 5 frets away from the current position.
• Force Open Position forces all of the guitar voicings to the open position.
The exception is when the Melody notes are so high that they can't be
played using open position voicings. If the Melody is in a high range, and
you want a "forced open position", you should likely transpose the Melody
to a lower octave prior to generating the solo.
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.
Chapter 7: The 'Guitarist'54
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.
- If a note occurs (not the first note of a chord), that is on "Beat 1 of a bar",
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.
- Similar interpretations for notes occurring on "Beat 2, 3 and 4". You can
see that the threshold is higher for notes on beat 2 and 4, which is how a
guitar player makes chord solos.
- "Passing notes" are defined as short duration notes that aren't on the beat,
and are followed by a note that is on the beat. In the example above, passing
notes will never be voiced as chords, since the tick threshold is set to zero.
There is a further threshold applied to whether or not a note gets voiced to a
chord. These are durations in milliseconds.
In the settings as illustrated, if the note occurs less than 100ms after the previous
note, the note will not be voiced as a chord. If the note is followed by another
note within 80ms, then the note will not be voiced as a chord.
Strumming Settings
If the Guitar Chord was all played at the same time, it would sound as if it was
'plucked'. Guitar playing is more typically a strum.
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 till the time of the original note. The most musical setting is
Chapter 7: The 'Guitarist' 55
about 50% delay. A delay of 0% also sounds good, and has the added advantage
that it doesn't shift the actual time of the Melody note (relevant if you keep re-
generating the solo on the Melody track).
Pressing the PLUCKED or STRUMMED button sets these settings to preset
values.
Chord Types To Include.
You can decide which types of chords should be included in the chord solo:
Chord Types (Best/ Good/ Advanced/ Unusual / Barre/ Open Strings).
• Best Chords are the most commonly played chords by pro guitarists.
• Good chords are popular alternate chords.
• Advanced chords are chords that are difficult to play, or have advanced
voicings.
• Unusual chords are voicings that should be avoided in most cases, but have
some uses.
• Barre chords are chords that require the index finger to be played in a
Barre position.
• Include Open Strings can be set to Never/ Sometimes/ Favor. If set to
Never, no chords that require and open string will be played, if set to
"Favor", it will play open strings whenever possible, and "sometimes" is a
"middle ground" setting.
Include 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.
Chapter 7: The 'Guitarist'56
Embellishment types allows 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.
• The "7/9/11/13" embellishment should be used for "Advanced Jazz"
Guitarists and add 11ths and 13ths voicings.
If you make changes to the Guitarist settings, you need to
manually save them, by pressing SAVE-AS, and then finding the BB home
directory and saving the file as c:\bb\default.git.
Individual Guitarists can be
copied/ pasted / exported or imported to/from disk.
Chapter 8: Style Selection Enhancements 57
Chapter 8: Style Selection Enhancements
Style Selection Enhancements. Selecting a style to use for your song has been
made much easier, and more fun! When you open the new StylePicker Window,
it shows you which styles would work best in your song, highlighting all styles
that have a similar tempo, genre, and feel to your song. You can preview styles
before loading them so you can hear what they'll sound like in your song. The
window remembers the style and genre that you've used, and will return to it the
next time you visit the window.
Pressing the STY button launches the Style Picker Window.
You can see a lot of new information on the Style Picker screen.
The current style of the song is listed at the top of the window, in this case it is
the Jazz Swing Style (ZZJAZZ.STY). This is referred to as the Prototype Style.
The prototype style can be changed to the current style that is highlighted by
pressing the "Change Prototype Button".
Styles that are in a Similar Feel to the Prototype will be indicated with a (*)
asterisk. These would be styles that have the same feel (triplets/ eighth/
sixteenths) and a similar tempo range. Styles that have a similar range but a
different tempo range are marked by a (^) caret symbol. So you can quickly see
styles that are similar to Jazz Swing (in this example). The Styles J_BASIE,
J_DIXIE could be substituted with a perfect match, so are marked with an (*) .
Styles like J_DJANGO are marked with a (^) because they sound best in a much
faster tempo than the prototype style Jazz Swing.
Chapter 8: Style Selection Enhancements58
For each style, you see the following information:
(the example will describe the J_DIZZY.STY)
• The asterisk (*) or (^) tilde indicates if the style is a perfect or good match
to the prototype style (as described previously).
• 'Sw' indicates that the style is in a Swing feel (vs. Ev for Even feel) of the
beat.
• The '8' indicates that the style is an 8th note feel (vs. 16th note feel)
• Jazz Dizzy Style is the full name of the style.
• SD #5 indicates that the style is found on styles Disk #5.
Here's how to use the Dialog.
1. Launch the dialog by pressing the STY button (or Ctrl F9).
2. You can search for styles similar to the one you are prototyping by looking
for ones with the (*) asterisk or (^) caret symbol.
3. When you find one that you'd like to test out, double click on it, and you
will hear a preview of your song in the new style.
4. Note: you must set the option Preview on
Double Click for this to work. Alternatively you can press the PREVIEW
button.
5. As you hear the style playing, you can control playback by pressing the
PREVIEW button (to play) or STOP. The Tempo can be set at the top. You
can REDUCE or EXPAND the duration of the chords, useful when
changing the feel of songs. If the Prompt With Preview item is set, the
program will ask you if you want to change the feel of the song's melody, or
auto-reduce/ expand the chord durations when the styles change.
6. When the new style is prototyped, patches appropriate to the new style get
loaded in (as long as you have the "Auto Change Melody/Soloist Patch". So
when you load in a "Chopin Piano Style", the Melody patch of your song
will change to Piano. This allows the song to blend in with the new style.
The new style picker window is a useful and fun way to audition new styles. If
you load up a song in a jazz swing style, you can quickly find out what
Pop/Rock/Classical etc. styles would also work in that feel and tempo, and
preview how they would sound without leaving the dialog. What starts out as a
jazz tune can quickly change to another genre, complete with new style, new
tempo, and new patches for Melody.
Chapter 9: StyleMaker Enhancements 59
Chapter 9: StyleMaker Enhancements
Larger style limit. The Previous limit was 40K for styles. This is now 65K,
allowing for bigger styles. The larger style limit can only be loaded in by BB
version 9. If you are designing styles for older versions of BB, you should keep
the size to 40K.
There is a new command to "Copy all 'a' substyle patterns to 'b' slots." This
feature is handy when only a volume increase tweaking is required for the 'b'
substyle. You can access this from the Style menu in the StyleMaker, with
"Copy all 'a' patterns to ''b' substyle.
The item to Delete all patterns in this row option is added on the Style menu in
the StyleMaker.
The Pattern trim routine deletes notes past the end of a pattern, or (optionally)
a specified distance from the end of a pattern. This can be accessed from the
Pattern – trim Pattern command.
In the dialog displayed, we are trimming 50 ticks from an 8 beat pattern. This
means that all of the information past 8 beats (less 50 ticks) will be deleted. This
feature is useful to erase "busy playing" that is present near the end of a pattern,
and also delete notes that are just taking up space in the style.
Chapter 9: StyleMaker Enhancements60
There is an event list for Editing Notes in patterns using a list editor.
To access this, press the Notation Editor for the Style Maker, then press the #
button.
You can then edit the notes of the current pattern using an event list.
Chapter 10: Big Piano Window 61
Chapter 10: Big Piano Window
Big Piano Window Overview
Big Piano Window. We've added a new Big Piano Window, showing you the
notes of any track on a piano keyboard. You can set the size of the Window,
range of the piano, and number of octaves to display. You can also display notes
names, or guide notes showing the scale notes of the current key. Notes can be
displayed using a different color for each note. There's an "Auto-Octave" setting
that will scan the track to be displayed, and auto-size the piano to the largest size
that would display all of the notes. This 'Big Piano' makes it easier to learn piano
parts from within Band-in-a-Box.
The Big Piano Window is launched (or closed) by pressing the Piano Icon
on the toolbar at the right middle of the screen, or pressing Ctrl-Shift-N, or
choosing Notation-Big Piano Window.
Once launched, you'll see the Big Piano Window.
These are the default settings for the Big Piano Window. (These can be
customized using the Settings button.)
The Big Piano Window displays a single track on the piano. The piano can be
sized, by dragging the bottom of the Window to enlarge it vertically. The key of
the song (in this case Eb) is displayed at the top. The range of the piano is set
automatically (based on the actual notes in the track) to show the largest
possible piano). The notes of the scale (in this case Eb) are circled on the piano,
with the note names included. The root of the scale is colored in red. As the song
plays, scale tones are colored green, other notes are colored yellow. The name of
the note that the mouse cursor is over is highlighted at the top of the window.
Clicking on the Big Piano plays a note (using the THRU part) and this can be
recorded, or sent to the Notation Window when entering notation. You can
select the track to use by clicking the BDPGSMS line of buttons.
The Settings dialog allows you to set the various options on the Big Piano.
Chapter 10: Big Piano Window62
• You can set a specific range for the Big Piano, a starting note and a # of
octaves, by over-riding the "auto" settings.
• Show Out of Range notes ensures that all notes will be played on the big
piano.
• If "Send Notes to Notation Window" is clicked, clicking a note on the big
piano will insert a note to the notation track, if the notation is in editable
notation mode.
• Note Names and Note Colors can be used, in a manner similar to the
Notation settings.
Chapter 11: Notation Enhancements 63
Chapter 11: Notation Enhancements
Notation Enhancements: Overview
Keystroke Note Editing. You can easily edit notes using only keystrokes now.
By stepping through the notes one-by-one, when a note is highlighted you can
change the pitch using the cursor keys, and other values (timing, duration,
channel with other hot keys. This speeds up editing of notes. For example, you
can record a song using the Melody Wizard, which will have the correct timing
and durations but incorrect pitches. Then you can quickly step through the notes
of the song, using the cursor up/down keys to fix the notes, and you'll end up
with a Melody as good as if you had played it on a MIDI keyboard.
To use this function, you do the following:
1. Open up the Notation Window.
2. Move to the note that you want to edit, and then press the Chord Advance
(INS or DEL key on the Numeric Keypad). This highlights the current note.
3. With the note highlighted in red, use the cursor up/down keys to change the
pitch of the note. You hear the pitch change as the note changes. (Tip: If the
function highlights a chord, and you only want a note highlighted, use the
SHIFT-Arrow Right/Left to move a note at a time.)
4. Use the cursor left/right keys to change the note's start time, duration,
channel or velocity (depending on the setting of the "Right/ Left Cursor
Edits" field in the Notation Options Dialog.
5. Press the Escape Key (or STOP button) when you're done.
Notation range. You can specify an upper limit of a note range so that high
notes won't result in an excessive number of ledger lines. This is set in the
Notation Options, using the setting called "Max Ledger Lines". The default is 6,
which would show a maximum of 6 ledger lines above the treble clef staff.
Enhanced Event List Editing. You can edit events including all MIDI events
and lyric events using the new Event List. The newer event list is more tightly
integrated into Band-in-a-Box. You can edit the Melody, Soloist, Lyrics or
StyleMaker Patterns using this Event list.
The event list is launched from the Notation Window, by pressing the event
list button. You then see the event list window.
Chapter 11: Notation Enhancements64
The Event List allows you to edit/ insert and delete notes:
• Double click on an event to edit it (or press Edit).
• Insert puts an event before the current event.
• Append puts an event at the end of the track.
• Update redraws the notation screen.
• Edit Lyrics – Edit Soloist – Edit Melody selects which track to edit.
Chapter 12: Harmony Enhancements 65
Chapter 12: Harmony Enhancements
Harmony Enhancements: Overview
Convert Harmony Part to Notation track. Previously if you added a harmony
the harmony parts wouldn't be seen on the notation, you would only see the lead
part. Now you can write the harmony part directly to the notation track, so you
can see it and print it out, just like any other part.
(Note: these features are all described for the Melody track, but apply equally to
the Soloist (or THRU) part.)
To convert a melody (or Soloist) track to a Harmony, do the following:
1. Select the Harmony that you
want to use.
2. Choose the menu item Melody – Convert Harmony to Melody track.
3. Choose the range that you'd like to convert, either the "whole song" or a
portion of the song.
4. Your harmony will now be written to the track, and you'll get a
confirmation dialog.
The harmony may be removed from the track at any time, even after you've
saved and re-loaded the song. This is done from the menu item Melody –
Remove Harmony from the Melody track.
Harmony Maker enhancements.
These new options are present in the Harmony Maker, by pressing the More
button.
Chapter 12: Harmony Enhancements66
You can specify a harmony to only occur for notes longer than a certain
duration.
Many harmonies like the "Garner Piano" harmony previously harmonized every
note. This produced un-realistic harmonies, since a piano player (like Garner)
wouldn't harmonize notes of a short duration. You can specify a harmony to
only occur for notes longer than a certain duration. In the example of Garner, we
set the threshold to 200ms, notes shorter than that will not be harmonized.
There are new options 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. This sounds
unrealistic for certain types of harmonies like 'Garner' or 'Guitar harmonies',
since it would be unrealistic for those instruments to change the inner voicings
in this manner. If you de-select the option to "Make new harmony with new
chord", the voices that would conflict with the new chord merely stop playing
instead of changing to new notes.
There's a 'use guitar voicings' harmony type that uses real guitar chord voicings
that display correctly on the guitar fretboard. Setting the "Use Guitar Harmony
Voicings" checkbox means that guitar chord voicings will be used, instead of
any other voicings specified in the Harmony Maker. Check out Harmony #32 (J
Pass) for an example of this.
We've enhanced the existing harmonies file to take advantage of these new
features, so your harmonies will sound better. Many harmonies have been
changed, including Harmonies # 32 (J Pass), 6, 7, 8, 16, 25, 26, 30, 32, 35, 36,
49, 50, 107, 108, and more.
Chapter 13: Other New Features 67
Chapter 13: Other New Features
Fly-by Hints: Band-in-a-Box now has the popular 'yellow text' windows that
pop up when you are passing the mouse over buttons and other controls. These
can be set to display brief or detailed descriptions of the selected controls.
To access the settings for the fly-by hints: Choose options-Preferences 2.
From here you can enable/ disable the hints, and enable comprehensive (long)
tips. You can set the delay time before the hint appears, and the duration of the
tips in milliseconds.
'Jazz Up' the Chords, 'Jazz Down' the Chords. When switching genres (from
Pop to Jazz, or Jazz to Pop) , its often necessary to change the chords from
'Pop/rock' chords (C) to Jazz Type chords (Like CMaj7) . Now you can quickly
do this, by new menu options called 'Jazz Up', Jazz Down'. Choose the menu
item User – Jazz Up or User – Jazz Down to do this:
• Jazz Up - This function simply converts triads to 7th chords, producing a
leadsheet more suitable for Jazz. If you have a song with triad chords like C
or Dm, you can choose to 'Jazz Up' the chords. When you do this, you get
an option of whether you'd like to see Maj7, Maj6 or Dominant 7th for the
major triads.
• Jazz Down - This function converts 7th chords to triads, for a leadsheet
more suited to Pop music.
Solo Around The Melody option. There's a new option for the Soloist part to
create a solo around the melody, that is solo at times when the Melody is silent.
To solo around the Melody, do the following:
Chapter 13: Other New Features68
1. Open up a song that has a Melody, preferably a sparse Melody with some
space in it that a Soloist might be able to "jump in".
2. Press the Soloist button. Select the Solo Mode "Around Melody".
3. Set the Soloist to play in All Choruses, and un-check the Mute Melody in
Middle option.
4. Press Ok, and the Solo will be generated, playing riffs at times when the
Melody isn't playing.
5. Tip: For added effect, add a guitar chord solo to the Soloist part (using the
Chord Solo button on the Guitar and choosing Solo as the destination, or
simply choose a Guitar Harmony like 32 J Pass).
Add your own chord shortcuts. Have you found a chord that BB doesn't
recognize? If so, add it to the your chord shortcuts file, and BB will allow you to
type in that chord in the future. This also lets you define chord "shortcuts", one
letter abbreviations for longer chord names ('J" for "Maj7" etc.).
The text file c:\bb\Shortcut.txt allows you to add new chord shortcuts. Note that
this file doesn't ship with BB (or it would overwrite your file!). The file
c:\bb\pgshortc.txt should be used only by PG Music for shortcuts supplied by
PG Music. You can add your own shortcuts in a text file you can make called
c:\bb\shortcut.txt.
If you find a chord that BB won't accept like Csus2, when it expects C2 instead
you can enter this on a single line (without the quotes) "Csus2@C2". Then
Band-in-a-Box will enter the chord C2 if you type in Csus 2. These allow
someone to type in Csus2 and the program will accept it. You can also use it for
shortcuts, like if you entered j@maj7, Band-in-a-Box would let you type Cj for
CMaj7. See the file c:\bb\pgshortc.txt for examples of shortcuts.
Read in Chords from a PowerTracks 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
chord sheet. To import the chords from a PG Music MIDI file (i.e. a MIDI file
made by Band-in-a-Box, PowerTracks or some other PG Music programs),
choose the menu item File-Open Special –Import chords from MIDI file (or
clipboard). The chords will then appear on the leadsheet, starting at bar 1,
overwriting any chords that were there previously.
Enhanced Song List Window. The Song List Window (accessed by pressing
the SONG button) used to have a limit of 800 songs. This has been enhanced to
5,000 songs, and full information shows for each song (title, filename, style
name, Melody/ Lyric / style present status). The window auto-sizes to fill the
screen.
Chapter 13: Other New Features 69
Song Endings option. The usual Band-in-a-Box ending is 2 bars appended to
the end of the song. This new option gives you an alternative to end the song on
the last bar of the song, BB will still play an ending on the chord that you
specify, and the ending will occur as a 2 bar phrase beginning 2 bars before the
end of the form. This results in more natural endings for many songs.
For example, the song Old Folks At Home is a 32-bar chorus song from bar 1 to
bar 32. It ends with the last Melody note on bar 31 with the word 'home", but
Band-in-a-Box normally plays a 2 bar ending, starting at the end of bar 32, and
going for 2 bars more. For a song like this, it is more natural to end the song at
the end of bar 32.
To set this in BB, press the Song Settings button,
and set the "Start the ending 2 bars early"
to true.
Enhanced Volume Control. When adjusting the volume of a part (say to
increase the volume), if you hold down the Alt key while clicking on the volume
change, it will also decrease the volume of the other parts. This is especially
useful when you've reached the maximum volume of a part, but still 'want it to
be louder'. By holding down the alt key, the other volumes get reduced, which
has the desired effect. This is most useful for Melody parts, or the THRU part
that you are playing along with Band-in-a-Box.
For example, let's say you're listening to a song, and can't hear the Melody
properly. You select the Melody part, and click on the volume control to
increase the Melody to full volume 127 – but it's still not loud enough. Now you
hold down the ALT key and click to continue to increase the Melody. The
Melody will stay at 127, but the other instruments will all drop in volume, the
overall effect is an increased prominence of the Melody "beyond full volume".
Easy STEREO/MONO panning menu items. These allow you to quickly set
the instruments to a stereo panning or mono panning. Choose these items
directly from the GM Menu – Set Panning to MONO, and Set Panning to Stereo.
Total time for song in Minutes and seconds are now displayed at the top of
the screen (e.g. 4:58).
Polyphonic adjust of Melody tracks. This function will convert a polyphonic
track to a monophonic track by eliminating note overlap, optionally preserving
the double stops (chords) in the track.
For example, if you have a Melody that has a lot of notes that overlap each other
(for example a G note that lasts 2 beats, followed by an A note a beat later).
Chapter 13: Other New Features70
Choosing the command Melody- Eliminate Note Overlap will cut the duration
of the G note to a little less than 1 beat in duration, so there is no note overlap.
Choosing the next option on the menu will preserve double stops, so that notes
that start at near the same time (as in a chord or "double stops") are not
considered to be overlapping, and therefore not truncated.
Omit Lead-In if Intro is present. If a song has an intro, its usually not necessary
to play the 2 bar lead-in count. There's a new option to always OMIT the lead-in
if an intro is present.
This option is set on the Options Prefs
Dialog. Normally if there is an intro to the song, you don't need a count-in.
"K"- Quick-Copy-Option. By simply typing K at a bar (followed by ENTER
key), you can instantly copy the last 8 bars to the current position. By adding
additional keys in the K command, you can customize this (e.g. Typing K12,3
would copy from bar 3 for 12 bars to current position. The current position is
advanced to the bar beyond the copy. This speeds up song entry!
For example, if you're entering a song that has a repeating section of chords for
8 bars. Type in the first 8 bars of chords, and then move to bar 9, and then type:
k <ENTER>
The last 8 bars will be copied to bar 9-16, and the cursor will be moved to bar
17, so you're ready to continue with the tune. If you get to bar 25, and would like
the chords from 1-8 to be copied to 25-32, type k,1 and this will copy 8 bars
from bar 1 to bar 25.
The chords always get copied. The Melody, Soloist and Lyrics also get copied if
these items are set in the 'Edit – Copy from to …' dialog.
Appendix A: "Audio Plugins" 71
Appendix A: "Audio Plugins"
DSP Effects - A Primer
Band-in-a-Box is capable of producing high-quality 'rendered' DSP effects in
software. These effects are designed to simulate 'outboard effects' (i.e. rack-
mount devices or 'stomp-boxes') without the additional cost of extra equipment.
Since each software effect is actually a small 'program', they are much more
flexible than the hardware they simulate, providing for many more parameter
changes and 'presets' than are usually available in outboard equipment
Additionally, unlike most hardware outboard effects, software DSP effects are
applied directly to the digital waveform, and require no analog-to-digital
conversion process to impact a track- the result: no 'A to D' noise! These
features combine to make internal software-based DSP effects an indispensable
tool for the computer audio engineer.
Real-time effects can aid in both the recording and playback process, while
'rendered' effects are used more in the mix-down process. Band-in-a-Box offers
'rendered' effects, which aids in this 'mix-down' process.
Rendered effects are effects that are applied to tracks after the recording
process, and when applied, take some time to generate before the affects can be
auditioned. They are generally of much higher quality than their real-time
counterparts. Rendered effects are also much easier to create, so there is usually
more of them; and a more varied selection of different effects to choose from.
Tip: When using more than one effect on a given track, it is best to plan the
order in which you apply the effects, as the order in which they are applied can
significantly vary the end result. (e.g., Compression/Expansion is usually added
last, whereas Reverb or Echo is added after Distortion and/or Chorus, etc.).
The Band-in-a-Box effects 'plug-ins' are all accessed under the AUDIO menu.
What follows is a list of some of the 'rendered' effects and the user-definable
settings that Band-in-a-Box ships with at the time of this writing, with more
being added all the time.
Compressor
A compressor can "squeeze" the dynamics of a performance. In other words,
compression reduces the difference between loud and soft parts of a track.
Compression is useful for leveling a performance. If sections of a performance
are too loud, and other sections too soft, compression can level the performance.
Appendix A: "Audio Plugins"72
Compression can make a signal loud and punchy. This is desirable when
preparing music for noisy environments, such as club music, car music, radio
and television sound, or small computer multimedia speakers.
The Band-in-a-Box compressor is an upward compressor. An upward
compressor works by making quiet signals louder.
A downward compressor works by making loud signals softer. Downward
compression is useful in analog boxes, but a digital downward compressor can
reduce the resolution of a signal.
Threshold: Set the level where compression begins. Below Threshold, the
signal is boosted a fixed amount. Above Threshold, as the input gets louder, the
gain is gradually reduced. Gain is always unity at 0 dB (full scale) input level.
Ratio: Adjust how drastically the compressor behaves.
At a 2:1 ratio, an input change of 6 dB would yield an output change of 3 dB.
An input change of 12 dB would yield an output change of 6 dB.
At a 10:1 ratio, the difference between loud and soft signals is reduced. An input
change of 6 dB would yield an output change of only 0.6 dB, and a 12 dB
change would yield an output change of 1.2 dB. At high ratios, loud and soft
signals come out almost the same level.
The 32 bit processing has a maximum gain of 24 dB (which is adequate in most
cases.) If you adjust Threshold so it would cause maximum gain above 24 dB,
the Ratio knob is automatically reduced. Similarly, if you adjust Ratio to cause
maximum gain above 24 dB, the Threshold knob is automatically adjusted.
Attack: The time it takes for the compressor to respond to increases of level.
To compress individual notes in a track, set Attack to low values. To gently
compress the overall level of a track, set Attack to higher values.
At low Attack settings, each note will be modified, which can keep the notes in
a phrase more consistent.
At high Attack settings, individual notes are not affected. Individual notes can
retain their emphasis, but the overall level of the track is controlled.
Release: The time it takes for the compressor to respond to decreases of level.
Low Release settings allow the compressor to "spring back" quickly after a loud
note. High Release settings cause the compressor to wait awhile before raising
gain after a loud note.
Appendix A: "Audio Plugins" 73
Use low Release settings to compress individual notes. Use high Release
settings to compress the overall level of a track.
Very fast Attack and Release settings can sometimes cause intermodulation
distortion on full-range mixes. For instance, on a track with both kick drum and
hihat, the kick drum might audibly pump the level of the hihat notes.
It is a good rule of thumb to use moderate Attack and moderate-to-long Release
on mixes, but use shorter Attack and Release on individual instruments.
Peak Limit: This checkbox adds a Peak Limiter to the output of the
compressor, making compressor clipping impossible. The Peak Limiter has
instant Attack, and program-dependent release.
With Peak Limit disabled, a slow Attack setting could cause compressor
clipping on fast loud transients.
Some classic, old-style tube compressors had fairly long attack time, perhaps
100ms, and fairly short release time, perhaps 250ms. This gives a "pumping"
sound which is prized by many musicians. It is not a transparent compressed
sound, rather a pleasing special effect. Settings in this range can easily cause
transient distortion unless Peak Limit is enabled.
Gate/Expander
An Expander increases the difference between soft and loud sounds. The Band-
in-a-Box Expander is a downward expander, which means it does not affect loud
signals, but reduces the level of quiet signals.
Threshold: Signals below threshold are attenuated, but signals above threshold
are not affected.
Ratio: Adjust how drastic the attenuation is below threshold.
At 1:2 Ratio, a -6 dB reduction of input level, yields a -12 reduction in output
level.
At 1:10 Ratio, a -6 dB reduction in input level would have a -60 dB reduction in
output level, effectively chopping off or gating low-level signals.
Modest Ratio settings can subtly reduce low-level noises between musical notes
and phrases, without having obvious undesirable side-effects. High Ratio
settings can give more easily audible results. Sometimes these high Ratio effects
are useful as a special effect.
Attack: The time it takes the Expander to respond to increases of input signal.
Appendix A: "Audio Plugins"74
Release: The it takes the Expander to attenuate the signal after it falls below
threshold.
Low Release, combined with high Threshold and high Ratio, can cause odd-
sounding decay tails. Sometimes it can sound distorted. This is called Gate
Chatter, and is a common side-effect on expanders. If you get Gate Chatter, try
more conservative settings.
Using Compressor and Expander Together
High compression settings can raise low-level noise (between musical phrases)
to objectionable levels. In these cases, enable both the Compressor and
Gate/Expander. Set the Expander to attenuate between musical phrases, so the
Compressor will not sound so noisy.
When both compression and expansion are enabled, the signal passes through
the Expander first, then passes through the Compressor, and finally the Peak
Limiter (if enabled.)
Soft Distortion
Soft Distortion is similar to the effect of over-driving analog tape or tube
amplifiers. Hard Distortion is caused by over-driving digital audio systems or
solid-state amplifiers.
Soft Distortion is mellow. Soft distortion generates mostly even harmonics.
Even harmonics can complement musical tones and chords.
Odd harmonics have a raucous sound, making un-musical tones and chords.
Tape or Tubes have soft distortion because overloaded signal peaks are not
abruptly "whacked off" with a straight line. Instead, overloaded signal peaks are
gently rounded off.
There is only one control, Gain. Increase Gain to increase the amount of Soft
Distortion.
Reverb
Reverb is the spacious sound of multiple reflections in a room. In most rooms,
reverb has three distinct phases.
The listener first hears the direct sound from the instrument. Then he/she hears a
group of distinct echoes, first reflections from the walls and ceiling.
Appendix A: "Audio Plugins" 75
After the first reflections, comes a build up of more closely spaced echoes from
secondary reflections bouncing between the room surfaces. As the reverb
decays, the echo density builds up into a final sheen of hundreds of ever-quieter
echoes.
The Reverb knobs can be adjusted to emulate various types of rooms.
Pre-Delay: The delay before the onset of first reflections.
Rvb Time: The time it takes for reverb to decay. Reverb Time is usually
measured as RT60, the time it takes for reverb to decay to a level -60 dB below
the dry signal level.
Rvb Density: The density of low-level echoes near the end of the reverb tail.
High density settings add a sheen to the sound.
HF Decay: The rate at which the high frequencies die away as the reverb
decays. Rooms with hard surfaces do not have much high frequency decay, but
rooms with soft absorbtive surfaces have more high frequency decay.
Mix: The proportion of dry signal to the reverb.
Peak Limit: A peak limiter to avoid signal clipping. With most reverb settings,
clipping is not a danger, so the Peak Limiter defaults to OFF. If extreme reverb
settings cause clipping, enable the Peak Limiter.
A large hall will have long Pre-Delay, long Rvb Time, and moderate Rvb
Density.
A hard large room such as a Gymnasium, would have high Rvb Density and
little HF Decay. A soft large room like a concert hall with carpet, padded seats,
and hangings, would have medium Rvb Density and high HF Decay.
A small hard room such as a tile washroom, would have short Pre-Delay,
medium-to-long Rvb Time, high Density, and low HF Decay.
A small soft room such as a large living room, would have short Pre-Delay,
short Rvb Time, medium-to-low Density, and high HF Decay.
Echo
Echo: A thinner effect than Reverb. Short echoes can sound like a tunnel, and
long echoes can sound like the Grand Canyon.
Delay: The time between the original signal and the first echo.
Appendix A: "Audio Plugins"76
Feedback: The number of times the echo will repeat.
Mix: Relative balance between the original signal and the echoes.
Modulation: When Modulation is enabled, the pitch of the echo is modulated,
or "wobbled".
Rate: The speed at which the pitch is modulated.
Random: Make the modulation Rate slightly unstable, so it has a less
mechanical sound.
Depth: The amount of pitch change.
Slight pitch modulation can make an echoed track sound "fatter" by beating the
pitch of the delayed signal against the unmodified pitch of the original signal.
Old tape-based echo units, such as Echoplex, had cheap tape transports. These
units had a lot of wow-and-flutter in the tape speed, which wobbled the pitch of
the echo. That is one reason tape-based echo units sounded fatter and more
musical than many modern digital delay units. Adjust the modulation controls to
emulate this aspect of a tape-based echo unit.
Feedback EQ: Old tape echo units did not have flat frequency response.
Sometimes highs would fade away before lows, and on other units the lows
would die away before the highs.
The Echoplex was designed to have a peak in the upper midrange, with low freq
and high freq rolloff. The Echoplex was excellent for many guitar and voice
effects, giving a spacious sound without making the musical lines muddy.
Enable Feedback EQ to emulate some of the old tape-based echo effects. The
Feedback EQ only affects the signal on the delay line; it doesn't affect the tone
of the dry signal.
The Feedback EQ is a three-band cut-only parametric EQ. It is a cut-only effect,
to avoid runaway feedback at extreme settings.
For a bright echo decay, assign one or more of the EQ bands to cut lows and
mids. For mellow echo decay, assign EQ bands to cut highs.
Chorus
A chorus of voices sounds thick, because each individual voice has slightly
different pitch and timing. The Chorus effect attempts to mimic this effect by
adding pitch- and time-modified copies to the source signal.
Appendix A: "Audio Plugins" 77
Delay: The average delay between original and chorus signals.
Feedback: The amount of delay which is routed back to the delay input. High
Feedback settings make "tunnel" or "tight steel cable" effects.
Modulation Rate: The rate at which pitch is "wobbled."
Random: Make the modulation Rate slightly unstable, so it has a less
mechanical sound.
Depth: The amount of pitch modulation. If Depth is set too high, the effect will
have an objectionable out-of-tune sound. At slow Rate, you can use high Depth
settings, but at fast Rate, lower Depth settings are recommended.
Flange: A distinctive, hollow, whooshing effect. It is caused by mixing a signal
with a very short delay.
The delay causes a comb filter effect, where there are many peaks and dips in
the frequency response. As the Flanger sweeps up and down, all the peaks and
dips sweep up and down, with the spacing of notches constantly changing.
Many Flangers have controls for Delay and Modulation depth. However, since a
Flanger acts like a filter, we have implemented our Flanger with frequecy knobs
instead.
Min Base Freq/Max Base Freq: These two knobs set the upper and lower
limits of the first peak or notch in the comb filter. To get a wider sweep, set a
wider distance between Min and Max Base Freq.
Resonance: The amount of Flanger feedback. High resonance settings make the
peaks louder and the notches deeper, creating a more pronounced effect.
Invert: Invert the delay against the original signal. Invert and non-Invert have
distinctly different Flange sounds, with the Invert version being a bit more
"classic."
With Invert enabled, low frequencies are attenuated, and the first filter Peak is
at the Base Frequency. With Invert disabled, low frequencies are not
attenuated, and the first filter Notch is at the Base Frequency.
Invert might be better on guitar, but non-Invert may be better on bass guitar.
Modulation Rate: The rate that the filter sweeps between the Min and Max
Base Frequencies.
Appendix A: "Audio Plugins"78
Random: Randomize the rate, to avoid a mechanical sweeping sound.
Ring Modulator
Ring Modulation is a strange effect, which is best for non-pitched sounds such
as gongs, unusual percussion, and robot voices. Ring Modulation is not very
useful on ordinary melodic or chordal parts.
Ring Modulator is a balanced modulator, or four-quadrant multiplier. Carrier
and Modulator signals are mixed together, and only the sum and difference
frequencies are passed. The original frequencies in each signal are supressed.
Modulator Freq: Set the frequency of the modulator sine wave.
Modulator Amt: The amount that the audio (the carrier) is modulated by the
sine wave. At 100%, you get "pure" ring modulation. At lower values, you get
partial ring modulation, which makes gritty sounds that are somewhat
recognizable.
Mix: The mix between original signal and ring modulated signal. Mix has an
effect similar to the Modulator Amt knob.
Equalizers
The three supplied equalizers have some common features.
EQ Type
Passive EQ is cut-only EQ, which is the most common type of EQ found on
guitar amplifiers and some studio-quality tube equipment. A band can be cut,
but it cannot be boosted very much. Passive EQ is very gentle tone modification.
Turn the desired bands very high, and cut the bands you don't want.
Active EQ is the type of EQ found on mixer boards and solid-state rack-mount
equalizers. Unity gain is in the center of knob travel. Each band can be either
boosted or cut by 18 dB.
Peak Limit: If boosting bands, Equalizer clipping is very likely. If you are
boosting a lot, enable Peak Limit to avoid distortion.
Tone Control
The Tone Control is a basic four band equalizer as commonly found on mixer
strips or guitar amps. It provides gentle tone modification.
Appendix A: "Audio Plugins" 79
The frequencies of Lo, Lo Mid, Hi Mid, and Hi, are 80 Hz, 400 Hz, 2.5 KHz,
and 8 KHz.
Graphic EQ
A ten-band Graphic EQ with ISO centers. Each band covers one octave.
Parametric EQ
There are six independently tunable filters.
The Parametric EQ is the tool of choice for precise control; especially handy for
adjusting narrow bands for corrective surgery on problem tracks.
Frequency: The center frequency of each bandpass filter.
Bandwidth: The relative width of each filter. One hundred percent bandwidth is
approximately one octave wide. Ten percent bandwidth is about one tenth of an
octave wide, and 200% bandwidth is about two octaves wide.
Gain: The boost or cut of each band. If Gain of a band is set to zero, that filter is
not calculated. So if you only need two bands of correction, leave the four other
bands at zero and the equalizer will ignore the unused bands, processing faster.
Other Effects
Gain Change: Gain Change offers several useful tools to modify track levels.
Constant Gain Radio Button: With Constant Gain enabled, the same gain is
applied to the entire selected region of a track.
Pre Normalize: Pre-scan each file, and determine how much gain should be
applied to raise the level of the track to -0.3 dB full scale. A little headroom is
left at the top, because some DA converters in computers and CD players do not
perform very well with full-scale levels.
Gain Change: The amount of boost to be applied to the track. If Pre Normalize
is enabled, the boost is added to the normalize boost, and can cause clipping
unless Post Peak Limit is enabled.
Post Peak Limit: An instant-attack, program-dependent release Peak Limiter.If
you want a very hot track, try enabling Pre Normalize, set Gain Change to +6
dB, with Peak Limit enabled. This will give you a clean track that is "hotter than
a firecracker." For special effects like ultra-sustain guitar or wall-of-drums, try
higher gain settings.
Appendix A: "Audio Plugins"80
Variable Gain: These effects change gain over the selected region.
Fade In: Level will begin at zero at the beginning of the region, and rise to the
original level at the end of the region.
Fade Out: Begin at the original level, then fade to zero at the end of the region.
Adjustable Fade: Level will begin at Start Gain Percent, and fade to End Gain
Percent.
You can access the effects described here by choosing from the AUDIO menu.
You will be presented with the selected plug-in dialog like the ones shown here:
Examples of Band-in-a-Box Soft Distortion and Reverb Effects Plug-ins.
Choose from one of the many presets available for each effect, or 'dial-up' your
own unique combination. Press the PROCESS button to apply an effect, or the
PREVIEW button to audition an effect using a portion of the audio you wish to
process. You can save your own presets by dialing in some unique effects
settings and choosing the SAVE PRESET button.
Hum Filter
Remove hum with minimal effect on the music.
Appendix A: "Audio Plugins" 81
Line Frequency: Set to the local power frequency. USA and Canada uses
60 Hz.
Filters: Choose the active notch filters, among the lowest six harmonics of
power hum. Each filter is a tenth-octave wide.
Sometimes hum is "pure" and sometimes hum contains upper-frequency
harmonics.
Though these notch filters are narrow, they still affect your audio to some
extent, so it is best to use the smallest number of filters necessary to do the
job.
For instance, if there is no noticeable hum above the 180 Hz range, the
Harmonic 4, 5 and 6 filters are not necessary, and should be disabled.
Try a short Preview with only the first filter enabled. If hum is audible in the
Preview, enable the second filter and Preview again. Keep Previewing and
enabling filters, until the hum is gone.
Appendix A: "Audio Plugins"82
The Hum Filter is not very useful for "buzz." Buzz contains high-frequency
hum harmonics caused by RF interference from fluorescent lights, electric
motors, or cheap light dimmers.
Sixty Hz line buzz can contain harmonics at 60 Hz intervals all the way into
the high frequencies (420, 480, 540, 600, 660, 720, 780, 840, 900 Hz, etc).
Since there are so many possible buzz harmonics in mid and high
frequencies, notch filters are not very practical.
Of Band-in-a-Box's current available audio tools, the Gate plugin is probably
the best tool for Buzz.
Enhancer
Dynamically brighten tracks while adjusting the relative balance of mid and
bass frequencies. The Enhancer is a "clean" effect which does not use
distortion.
The Enhancer can be more effective than High frequency EQ, for brightening
tracks. High frequency EQ boost can increase any hiss that might be in the
audio. The Enhancer boosts highs when the midrange frequencies are loud
enough to mask hiss in the recording, so an Enhanced track may sound less
noisy than an EQ'd track.
Audio recorded with a cheap microphone or transferred from cassette can
benefit from the Bass Balance controls.
The Enhancer processes audio in three bands, Bass, Midrange, and High
frequencies. The relative levels within the bass can be adjusted. The overall
Appendix A: "Audio Plugins" 83
level of the mid-frequencies can be adjusted, and the highs can be expanded
relative to mid-frequency signal level.
The Bass band in the Enhancer includes frequencies below 480 Hz. The
Midrange band is between 480 Hz and the HF Corner Frequency. The High
Frequency band is above the HF Corner Frequency setting.
Mid Level: Adjust the loudness of mid frequencies.
HF Corner Freq: The border between the midrange and high frequency
bands.
HF Exp Thresh: High frequencies are boosted when mid frequencies get
louder than the HF Expander Threshold. Reduce this control to increase the
High Frequency boost.
HF Time Align: Advance high frequencies in time. This may make
percussive tracks more interesting, but can also introduce mid-frequency
notching effects. HF Time Align is occasionally useful, but leave HF Time
Align at zero for the "purest" result.
Bass Balance: Adjust relative levels in the Bass band.
Peak Limit: Enable Peak Limit to avoid clipping on hot signals.
Operation:
Many musicians' graphic equalizers are permanently set to the "smiley face"
curve: bass and highs boosted with mids cut. It may seem silly that the smiley
face setting is so common, but indicates a very common taste in sound.
The Enhancer makes ear candy easy to accomplish. Cut the mid-level –3 to –
12 dB, according to taste. Kick up the low bass if it makes you happy. Then
adjust HF Exp Thresh to increase brightness.
As with any effect, the Enhancer usually works best in moderation.
Exciter
Add harmonics to high frequencies, without affecting low frequencies. The
Exciter is basically a "high frequency fuzz tone".
Appendix A: "Audio Plugins"84
Used conservatively, the Exciter can brighten some types of audio. Add some
"air" to vocal, horn, hihat, or acoustic guitar. Exciter usually works best on
monophonic tracks. Exciter can sound distorted and aggravating if over-used.
Exciter can sometimes brighten old low-fidelity cassette tapes, by adding
some highs which do not exist on the tape.
Frequency: The cutoff point for high-frequency distortion. It is best to
adjust Frequency to include only the top octave which is present in the source
audio. For instance, if a track has frequency content up to 5000 Hz, try a
Frequency setting around 2500 Hz. This will create new harmonics primarily
above 5000 Hz, where they are least likely to interfere with harmonics in the
original source audio.
Hi Freq Level: The level of the extra harmonics. If Frequency is set
properly, this control will typically be in the –12 to +12 dB range. Excessive
use of this effect can sound very bad. Hi Freq Level should be adjusted for a
subtle effect.
Pitch Shifter
Transpose audio pitch without changing play length.
Appendix A: "Audio Plugins" 85
Semitones, Cents: Set the pitch shift amount.
Granularity: The size of individual time-slices which are pitch-shifted.
When transposing down, the Pitch Shifter occasionally deletes a snip of
audio to preserve tempo. When transposing up, an occasional snip of audio is
repeated to preserve tempo. The Pitch Shifter uses a pattern-matching process
to locate the best splice points.
When the shifter has to insert or delete pieces of audio to preserve file length,
it will not insert or delete snips any smaller than half the Granularity length.
Small Granularity has tighter timing, but can sound nasty on low-pitched or
complex signals.
Large Granularity sounds smoother, with possible damage to rhythmic
timing.
A granularity of 50ms works for many types of audio, a compromise between
smoothness and rhythmic timing.
Pitch Shift Applications
Re-Tuning: Adjust out-of-tune tracks with the Cents control.
Appendix A: "Audio Plugins"86
Fattening: Fatten a track by slightly detuning copies of the track. Fattening
can be effective on many instruments, including vocal, solo instruments,
bass, and snare drum.
Flange and Chorus are also useful for fattening, but Flange and Chorus has a
vibrato effect.
Pitch Shift fattening doesn't introduce vibrato, and it also slightly disturbs the
rhythm of the clone tracks, which can enhance the doubled effect.
Transposing: Pitch shift by semitones to change the key of a track.
Transposing uses larger shift amounts than the previous applications. Audio
quality can suffer with large pitch shifts— if possible, avoid large
transpositions.
Monophonic instruments usually transpose better than polyphonic tracks.
Some instruments transpose better than others.
Bass, horn, or lead guitar shows less degradation than vocal, piano, or full
mixes.
You can transpose pre-recorded Karaoke tracks to match a vocalist's range.
If you have a MIDI sequence in E, and want to make it easy on the sax
soloist you could temporarily transpose the MIDI to Eb or F. After recording
the sax, transpose the MIDI back to E, and do a 1 semitone audio pitch shift
on the sax track to bring the solo into the proper key.
Harmonizing: Harmonizing is possible, but can be a lot of work.
Harmonizing is most practical on melodically simple parts. It can help to pick
repeating parts like hooks and chorus melodies, so you can re-use the
harmonized part in several locations in a song, rather than laboriously
harmonizing every note in every verse.
Make a clone of the track. Open the clone in an Audio Edit window. Select
and pitch shift each note.
To make a third-interval harmony line, different notes in the melody need to
be transposed a minor third (+3 semitones), a major third (+4 semitones) or a
fourth (+5 semitones). It is a lot of work. Best to avoid this task on busy
bebop leads!!
Appendix A: "Audio Plugins" 87
Octave Doubling: Octave doubling is great on instrumental leads, especially
electric guitar or sax. Duplicate a track, then shift the copy by one octave.
An octave down usually works better than an octave up. If you double an
octave up, the pitch shifted track has very noticeable echo-tremolo artifacts,
which may not be desirable.
Artifacts: In science, the word artifact can mean, "Erroneous results caused
by imperfections in the measurement technique." Lens Flare (multiple
reflections in a camera lens) is a good example of a photographic artifact.
Similarly, audio artifacts are defects introduced by a DSP process.
All pitch shift algorithms introduce artifacts. Different pitch shift designs
create different types of artifacts. The best-sounding pitch shift algorithms
take a long time to process; a tradeoff between speed and quality. To
complicate matters further, some of the best vocal pitch shifters sound
terrible on instruments, and vice-versa.
Large pitch shifts have large artifacts. Polyphonic audio has more artifacts
than monophonic audio.
The Pitch Shifter algorithm used here, is a fast, general duty algorithm. It
sounds good in some applications, and not so good in others. Please don't
expect perfect results. We haven't yet seen any perfect Pitch Shifters.
Auto-Wah
Wah effects were invented in the 60's, pedal-controlled band-pass filters. In
the 70's, 'envelope-follower' boxes became common for electric bass,
clavinet, and guitar.
This Auto-Wah plugin is a classic envelope-follower effect. Loud input
signals increase the filter cutoff frequency, and quiet input signals allow the
filter to "close down." Loud notes become brighter than quiet notes.
Appendix A: "Audio Plugins"88
Distortion: Add some grit before filtering. When Distortion is set to a value
of 1, there is no distortion.
The Auto-Wah distortion has a razzier sound than the Band-in-a-Box Soft
Distortion plugin. The Auto-Wah distortion takes a mathematical root of all
the sample values. This raises the amplitude of small sample values.
When set to 2, Distortion takes the square root of all values. A value of 3
takes the cube root of all values, and a value of 10 takes the tenth root of all
values (a very nasty sound indeed).
Lo Freq, Hi Freq: The filter's lower and upper frequency cutoff limits.
Quiet audio input levels allow the filter to drop to the Lo Freq cutoff, and
very high input levels will pin the filter at the Hi Freq cutoff.
Wah effects usually sweep the filter in a range somewhere between 100 and
2000 Hz. The wah effect doesn't sound very "traditional" if the frequency
settings go too high or low.
If the Wah effect is too dark on quiet notes, try increasing Lo Freq. If the wah
effect is too bright on loud notes, try decreasing Hi Freq.
Lo Thresh, Hi Thresh: The lower and upper thresholds that will modulate
the filter within its frequency range.
In the pictured example, input signals below –36 dB are filtered at 168 Hz.
Input signals above –12 dB are filtered at 1538 Hz. Levels between these
thresholds will sweep the filter between the Hi and Lo Frequency settings,
producing a Wah effect.
Resonance: Resonance adds a loudness peak at the cutoff frequency. When
the filter sweeps around, this loudness peak emphasizes (resonates with)
Appendix A: "Audio Plugins" 89
harmonics at the cutoff frequency. High resonance has a biting, synthetic
effect. Low resonance is mellower sounding.
Release: The time it takes for the filter to track note loudness decay. Adjust
to taste.
Filter Mode: The 2 pole filter has a more gradual high-frequency
attenuation slope than the 4 pole filter. Each setting has a unique sound.
Filter Tracking:
• Linear- Filter cutoff frequency linearly tracks the input signal. Linear
may be better on instruments with wide dynamic range.
• Exponential- Filter cutoff frequency exponentially tracks the input
signal level. This causes more sudden filter changes, and may be
preferable on smooth musical parts with little dynamic variation.
De-Ess
Reduce sibilance (ssss consonants) and fricatives (lip smacks or tongue
clicks) in vocal or speaking tracks. It can be nice to record a bright vocal,
with plenty of 'air' in the sound. But when high frequencies are emphasized,
sibilance can become irritating.
The De-Esser can reduce the level of sibilance and fricatives, without
reducing the bright 'air' tone on sustained notes.
Appendix A: "Audio Plugins"90
This plugin works like a high-frequency limiter— limiting loudness of high
frequencies without affecting low frequencies.
Frequency: Adjust the crossover point for the De-Ess function. Frequencies
below this setting are not limited, and freqencies above are limited.
Threshold: The high frequency limit threshold. Zero dB would offer no
limiting, and –96 dB would cut almost all high frequencies out of the signal.
Loud sibilance can be rather quiet compared to the lower frequencies.
Threshold may need to be set pretty low to get the desired result.
Release: The time required for the high-frequency limiter to recover. A short
release time may "bounce back" too fast after a fricative. A long release time
may "pump" the highs too much.
Appendix B: Styles Disks #15 – #19 Documentation 91
Appendix B: Styles Disks #15 – #19 Documentation
Styles #0-14 are documented in Appendix E of the Band-in-Box 8 manual.
Styles #19 is included in the upgrade package to Version 9 of Band-in-a-Box
(not included with a first-time purchase of the program).
Styles Disks 0-3 are included with the Pro version of Band-in-a-Box. Other
Styles Disks are sold separately as add-ons to Band-in-a-Box.
Styles Disk #15 : Nashville Country Styles for Band-in-a-Box
Introduction and Overview
As usual, we paid a lot of attention to your requests for Country styles as posted
in the PG Music Forum - Styles wishlist. We enlisted Nashville session player
Mike Harrison to assist with our latest styles disk featuring these 22 great new
contemporary and classic Country styles.
Most of the styles use 5 instruments and many feature multiple guitar sounds
which were inputted from a MIDI guitar controller. Some of the styles cross
over into the Pop/Rock genre. Other highlights are: sparse and uncluttered
contemporary Country ballads a la Shania, Judds and GeoJones; classic Country
shuffles; an up-tempo fast pickin' guitar style; a drivin' Cajun style a la
Buckwheat Zydeco; contemporary Country Rock a la Judds or Shania; a train
beat style a la Vince G.; a Country honky-tonk style a la Hank Jr.; a Rockabilly
style a la Dwight Y.; a Hillbilly Country blues rock style a la Marty S. and much
more. ALL of the solos that are included in the demos (middle chorus) are auto-
generated by Band-in-a-Box. Only the melodies are composed by musicians.
More detailed information about each style is available by pressing the Memo
button of the Demo tune. Many of these Demo tunes were saved with some
added reverb, chorus and panning - mainly on the guitars. The Demo songs for
these styles follow the same naming convention as the styles themselves. So, for
example, the DEMO song for C_Cajun.Sty is C_Cajun.Mgu.
Appendix B: Styles Disks #15 – #19 Documentation92
22 New Nashville Country Styles
C_90BAL.STY Contemporary Country Ballad
Memo: Contemporary med-tempo Country Ballad Style a la Judds, Reba
McIntyre. Instruments - Piano, El.Piano at b, Bass, Drums and Acoustic Guitar.
Tempo 80-126
Examples: Grandpa, Somebody Should Leave, Mama He's Crazy
C_BLUE.STY Classic Country Shuffle
Memo: Classic Country Shuffle - Similar To C_Clasic.Sty but with more
edge. 5 Instruments: Drums, Bass, Piano, Elec. Guitar and Acoustic Guitar.
Tempo 90-130
Examples: Walkin' After Midnight, Crazy Arms
C_BWILLS.STY Up-tempo Country
Memo: Up-tempo Country Style with Fast Pickin' Guitar on chorus (b).
Insts -Drums, Bass, Acoustic Guitar, Elec. Guitar and Piano. Medium to Fast
Tempos 90-160
Examples: Orange Blossom Special, My Window Faces The South, Right
Or Wrong
C_CAJUN.STY Country Cajun
Memo: Drivin' Country Cajun style a la Buckwheat Zydeco 4 Insts -
Drums, Bass, Piano Accordian and Elec. Guitar. Tempo 110-160
Examples: Hey Good Lookin'
C_CLASIC.STY Classic Country Shuffle
Memo: Grand Ole Opry 'Classic' Country Shuffle Style. 5 Instruments:
Drums, Bass, Piano, Elec. Guitar and Steel Guitar. Tempo 90-130
Examples: The Key's In The Mailbox, Crazy Arms
C_GEORGE.STY Sad Country Ballad
Memo: Sad Country Ballad style a la George J. 4 Insts - Drums, Bass,
Piano, Acoustic Guitar . Tempo 80-100
Examples: He Stopped Loving Her Today, Tennessee Whiskey
C_GIRL.STY Contemporary Country
Memo: 'Girl' Country style a la Mary C., Trisha Y. 5 Insts - Drums, Bass,
Piano & 2 Acoustic Guitars. Tempo 90-120
Examples: She's In Love With The Boy, You Never Had It So Good
C_HANK.STY Country Honkytonk
Memo: Country Honkytonk style a la Hank Jr. or David Alan C. 5 Insts -
Drums, Bass, Piano, Acoustic Guitar and Elec. Guitar. Tempo 100-140
Examples: You Never Even Called Me By My Name, Family Tradition
Appendix B: Styles Disks #15 – #19 Documentation 93
C_HBILLY.STY Hillbilly Country Blues Rock
Memo: Hillbilly Country Blues Rock Style a la Marty S. 5 Instruments -
Piano, Bass, Drums, Elec. Guitar and Acoustic Guitar. Tempo 130-150
Examples: Hillbilly Rock, Six Days On The Road
C_JUDDS.STY Contemporary Country Rock
Memo: Contemporary Country Rock Style a la The Judds, Dixie Chicks.
5 Instruments -Piano, Bass, Drums and 2 Acoustic Guitars. Tempo 110-138
Examples: Have Mercy, I Feel Lucky
C_JUKBOX.STY Country Honkytonk
Memo: Country Honkytonk style a la Alan J., Mark C., Brooks and Dunn.
5 Insts - Drums, Bass, Piano, Acoustic Guitar and Elec. Guitar. Tempo 115-160
Examples: Don't Rock The Jukebox, Working On My Next Broken Heart
C_LEROY.STY Contemporary Country Blues Rock
Memo: Contemporary Country Blues-Rock Style a la Leroy P. or Delbert
McC. 4 Instruments - Piano, Bass, Drums & Elec. Guitar. Tempo 100-130
Examples: Hearts Desire, Everybody Knows
C_PICKIN.STY Up-tempo Country
Memo: Up-tempo Country Style with Fast Pickin' Guitar on chorus (b). 4
Insts. Drums, Bass, Elec. Guitar and Piano. Medium to Fast Tempos 110-160
Examples: One Way Rider, Country Boy, That's What I Like About You
C_ROCKIN.STY Contemporary Country Rock
Memo: Medium Contemporary Country Rock style a la Shania. 5 Insts -
Drums, Bass, Piano, Acoustic Guitar and Elec. Guitar. Tempo 115-140
Examples: You Win My Love
C_ROSE.STY Contemporary Country Rock Ballad
Memo: Contemporary Country Rock Ballad style a la Roseanne C., Hal
K. 5 Insts -Drums, Bass, 2 Acoustic Guitars and Elec. Guitar. Tempo 100-130
Examples: Seven Year Ache
C_SHANIA.STY Contemporary Country Ballad
Memo: Slow Contemporary Country Ballad style a la Shania. 5 Insts -
Drums, Bass, Piano, Acoustic Guitar and Synth Strings. Tempo 63-78
Examples: The Woman In Me, You're Still The One
C_SHUFLN.STY Rockin' Country Shuffle
Memo: Medium Rockin' Country Shuffle Style a la Kentucky
Headhunters, The Tractors. 5 Insts - Drums, Bass, Piano, Elec. Guitar and
Acoustic Guitar. Tempo 115-160
Examples: Dumas Walker, Old Pipeliner
Appendix B: Styles Disks #15 – #19 Documentation94
C_SMOOTH.STY Contemporary Country
Memo: Radio Country style a la Restless Heart or Diamond Rio. 5 Insts -
Drums, Bass, Piano & 2 Acoustic Guitars. Tempo 90-120
Examples: The Bluest Eyes In Texas, That Rock Won't Roll
C_SWEET.STY Contemporary Country Ballad
Memo: Slow Contemporary Country Ballad style a la Leann R. or Trisha
Y. 5 Insts - Drums, Bass, Piano Acoustic Guitar and Strings. Tempo 63-78
Examples: How Do I Live
C_VINCE.STY Medium Tempo Train Beat
Memo: Medium Tempo Train Beat Style a la Vince G. 5 Instruments -
Drums, Bass, Piano, Elec. Guitar and Acoustic Guitar. Tempo 90-130
Examples: Liza Jane, Oklahoma Borderline
C_WORKIN.STY Workin' Man Country
Memo: Med-tempo 'Workin' Man' Country Style a la Merle H. or Elvis. 4
Insts - Drums, Bass, Piano & Elec. Guitar . Tempo 95-160
Examples: Workin' Man Blues, That's Alright Mama, Mystery Train
C_YOKEM.STY Rockabilly Country
Memo: Rockabilly Country Style a la Dwight Y. or Elvis. 5 Insts -
Drums, Bass, Organ, Elec. Guitar and Acoustic Guitar. Tempo 125-160
Examples: Little Sister
Styles Disk #16: All Blues Styles for Band-in-a-Box
Introduction and Overview
This is a collection of 23 great new Blues styles featuring - funky blues piano
sounds in the style of DrJon; some great 'Stevie Ray' styles with strat guitar,
organ and fender bass; Clapton styles with bass and guitar riffs; BeeB rock and
shuffle styles; a Chuck B style featuring the repeated guitar riff; down and dirty
slow blues styles a la Curtis, Muddy and Elmore; a Stones shuffle blues jam; a
dynamic James B with horns groove; up-tempo Jitterbug; fast 24 bar blues; wild
and crazy Jerry Lee piano and more. There's a good mixture of shuffle (swing
8ths) and straight 8ths rhythms.
This styles disk features over 20 blues styles that we felt were most needed
(using your feedback and requests from the PG Music forum Styles wishlist).
ALL of the solos that are included in the demos are auto-generated by Band-in-
a-Box. Only the melodies are composed by musicians.
Bonus! Styles Disk 16 also includes 80 Blues Jam tunes featuring every
conceivable blues chord progression. You will find them in 2 folders: BlueJamC
Appendix B: Styles Disks #15 – #19 Documentation 95
(80 tunes in the key of C) and BlueJamF (the same 80 tunes in the key of F).
Turn on the BB Jukebox and wail!
Because these are specifically Blues styles, typing in a C or a C7 chord will
have the same effect - the Stylemaker will respond with a bluesy lick based on a
C7 type of chord. If you specifically want a Major (only) chord, you should type
in a specific chord such as C2, C6,Cmaj7, C69 etc. Of course all other chords
are also supported.
Another suggestion: study how the demo tunes were done. More detailed
information about each style is available by pressing the Memo button of the
Demo tune. The Demo songs for these styles follow the same naming
convention as the styles themselves. So, for example, the DEMO song for
CURTISM.STY is CURTISM.MGU.
23 New Blues Styles
BEEBROCK.STY BeeB Rock Blues
Memo: This St. 8ths back-beat rock blues style features 5 insts. - el. Piano,
el. Bass, el. Guitar, LiveMIDI Drums & Strings at a & b. Sparse fills & comps
from the Guitar.T=106
Examples: The Thrill is Gone, Any St. 8th rock tune
BEEBSHUF.STY BeeB Blues Shuffle
Memo: This blues swing shuffle features off-beat snare drum rhythm. 5
insts. - Piano, ac. Bass, overdrive Guitar fills, LiveMIDI Drums. Organ w/fills
at b. T=130
Examples: Caledonia, Everyday I Got the Blues
CHUKSHUF.STY ChuckB Blues Shuffle
Memo: There are 5 insts. in this med-fast swing-shuffle blues a la Chuck -
Honkytonk Piano fills, el. Guitar lick, ac. Bass, LiveMIDI Drs. Rock Organ at b.
Bass in 2 at a, in 4 at b. T=185
Examples: Joint Was Rockin', Mabeline
CLAPTON1.STY Clapton1 Rock Blues
Memo: This is a British hard rockin' blues style which features the Bass &
Guitar playing a busy riff thru-out. Drs a la Ginger. 4 insts. - OvDrv Guitar, el.
Bass, LiveMIDI Drs, Rock Organ. T=130
Examples: Crossroads, Scuttlebuttin'
CLAPTON2.STY Clapton2 Rock Blues
Memo: Similar to the Brit-Rock blues style, Clapton1, this variation
features a steady Guitar comp, rather than the busy Bass line. 4 insts.- OvDrv
Guitar, el. Bass, LiveMIDI Drs, Rock Organ. T=130
Examples: Crossroads
Appendix B: Styles Disks #15 – #19 Documentation96
CURTISM.STY Curtis M Slow Blues
Memo: A very slow New York funky 70's blues style a la Curtis. Straight
16ths. 5 insts. - el. Piano, Guitar, el.Bass, LiveMIDI Drums, Organ at b. T=75
Examples: Any slow blues, The Thrill is Gone
DRJONROK.STY DrJon Rock Blues
Memo: This 5-inst. st.8 rock blues style features Piano a la Dr Jon and
simple Guitar comp. It has a New Orleans blues-jam feel. ac. Piano, el. Bass, el.
Guitar, LiveMIDI Drums. Organ at b. T=110
Examples: Any med-tempo St. 8ths blues
DRJONSHF.STY DrJon Shuffle Blues
Memo: A 2-handed full Piano blues trio style in the mode of the Doctor
with ac. Piano, ac. Bass & LiveMIDI Drums. T=105
Examples: Any Shuffle or Swing blues
ELJAMES.STY ElJames Basic Blues Shuffle
Memo: Based on the basic repeated Guitar riff, this 4 inst. shuffle blues
style features Otis-type Honkytonk Piano fill at b. el. Guitar, el. Bass &
LiveMIDI Drums. T=105.
Examples: Goin' to New Orleans, Any med. shuffle
HOWLINW.STY HowlinW Drivin' St.8 Blues
Memo: A St.8 primitive blues style a la Howlin' or Stones. 4 insts. - ac. P,
el. B, OvDrv Guitar & LiveMIDI Drums. Driving quality. Piano maintains
steady rhythm. Off-beat Guitar shots.T=105.
Examples: Any med-tempo st.8 blues
JB_BRASS.STY JB_Brass Funky Blues
Memo: Similar to JBrown.Sty with Brass Section instead of guitar. A St.8
funky blues style in the mode of James B. With Brass Section and syncopated
organ fills. Brass Section, el. Bass, Rock Organ & LiveMIDI drums. Tempo =
120
Examples: Sex Machine, Popcorn
JBROWN.STY JBrown Funky Blues
Memo: A St.8 funky blues style in the mode of James B. With spare
rhythm Guitar chops and syncopated organ fills. el. Guit, el. Bass, Rock Organ
& LiveMIDI Drums. T=120
Examples: Heard It Through the Grapevine, any St.8 blues
JERYLEE.STY JeryLee Fast Boogie Blues
Memo: A fast St.8ths Piano trio style featuring lots of wild R&R Piano fills
ala Jerry Lee. Piano, ac. Bass & LiveMIDI Drums. T=180
Examples: Great Balls of Fire, Roll Over Beethoven
Appendix B: Styles Disks #15 – #19 Documentation 97
JITERBUG.STY Jiterbug Fast Blues Shuffle
Memo: A 5 inst. Sw.8 instrumental jam style at a fast tempo. Also in the
mode of Stevie Ray. Guitar is less busy than Jiterbug2. W/ ac. Piano, el. Bass,
el. Guitar, LiveMIDI Drums & Organ.T=215
Examples: Stray Cats, Rock Around the Clock
JITRBUG2.STY Jitrbug2 Fast Blues Shuffle
Memo: A variation on Jiterbug.Sty, this version features busier Guitar. 5
insts. - ac. P, el. B, el. G, LiveMIDI Drums & Organ. T=215
Examples: Rip It Up, Rock Around the Clock
JONLEE.STY JonLee Slow Blues Shuffle
Memo: Real gritty slow Chicago urban blues in the style of JLH. Features
Guitar riff with Honkytonk Piano fills. 4 insts. - Honkytonk Piano, strat Guitar,
el. Bass & LiveMIDI Drums. T=95
Examples: Goin' to Chicago, Any slow blues shuffle
MOJO24BR.STY Mojo 24 bar Fast Blues
Memo: A fast 24 bar swing-shuffle blues with ac. Piano, el. Guitar, el.
Bass & LiveMIDI Drums. Organ at b. T=240
Examples: Got My Mojo Workin', Any fast 24 bar blues
MUDYSLOW.STY MudySlow Slow Blues
Memo: A very slow 12/8 blues a la Mud. 5 insts. - ac.Bass, Guitar,
LiveMIDI Drums & Organ pad. ac. Piano fills at b.T=65
Examples: Tobacco Road, Any Slow Blues
SLOARPBL.STY Slow Arpeggio 12/8 Blues
Memo: Triplet style ac. Piano and a smooth Sam Cook feel are the main
features of this slow 12/8 style. 5 insts. - ac. Piano, el.Bass, g & LiveMIDI
Drums. Rock Organ at b. T=65
Examples: It's a Wonderful World, any slow 12/8 blues or non-blues
STONESHF.STY StoneShf Blues ala Stones
Memo: This med-tempo shuffle blues has a jam-like feel and features
Keith Richards-style Guitar and Billy Preston Gospel-style Piano. 5 insts. - ac.
Piano, el. Bass, OD Guitar & LiveMIDI Drums. Organ at b. T=125
Examples: Stone Blues, Bad Mama Blues
STRAYSHF.STY StRay Shuffle Blues
Memo: Big loud and proud blues shuffle a la Stevie. The 'b' section
features Guitar Bass & comp. 4 insts. - el. Bass, el. Guitar, Organ (at b) &
LiveMIDI Drums. T=105
Examples: Pride and Joy
Appendix B: Styles Disks #15 – #19 Documentation98
STRAYST8.STY StRay Straight 8ths
Memo: A 4 instrument med-tempo st.8 blues style featuring organ fills
thru-out. W/ el. Bass, el. Guitar, LiveMIDI Drums & Rock Organ. T=125
Examples: Why I Sing the Blues, Watermelon Man
TAJMALL.STY TajMall St.8 Blues
Memo: This med-tempo blues is based on a repeating Bass rhythm which
gives it a slight Latin flavor. Sparse Guitar comp. 4 insts. - el. Piano, el. Bass, el.
Guitar & LiveMIDI Drums. T=145 Examples: Teeny Weeny Bit
Styles Disk #17: Unplugged Styles for Band-in-a-Box
Introduction and Overview
Styles Disk # 17 - Unplugged - is a set of 26 new all-acoustic styles featuring -
modern and classic Bluegrass - Blues, Boogie, Folk, Ballad, Rock, Funk, Waltz,
Jug band, Samba, and much more. To get that natural feel, we asked San
Francisco session player, Marty Cutler, to assist us with this project which
features driving mandolins, acoustic guitars, banjos, fiddles and acoustic bass,
inputted from a MIDI guitar controller. Marty has worked with us on other PG
Music programs, such as The BlueGrass Band and the Bluegrass Soloist Disk.
You asked for great sounding acoustic styles. We got 'em ! You'll find styles
emulating groups like the great David 'Dawg' Grisman , Dave Mathews, Bon
Jovi, Newgrass Reunion, Ry Cooder. There are also classic driving straight-
ahead Bluegrass styles ala Bill Monroe, Folk-Rock ala The Band or Van
Morrison, a James Taylor Latin style, 60s Folk styles ala Limeliters, Kingstons
& PP&M, up-tempo Appalachian with fast fingerpickin' banjo licks, a new
acoustic Grisman-type Samba, slow Folk-blues with finger-picked guitar, and
lots more.
These modern and classic styles feature 4 or 5 instruments and they all use
acoustic instruments only! That's why we're calling them Unplugged (see -
we're getting you ready for Y2K). We picked the styles by using your
suggestions and requests from the PG Music forum Styles wishlist. Incidentally,
at www.pgmusic.com it's now possible to hear and download the demos for
any of our 475 Band-in-a-Box styles. ALL of the solos that are included in the
demos are auto-generated by Band-in-a-Box. Only the melodies are composed
by musicians.
Here's a tip for those of you who would like to have more style variation within
a tune: try combining similar (or different) styles by pressing the F5 key at any
bar. For example, subtle variations can be achieved by combining similar styles
such as DOGFUNK.STY and DOGFUNKD.STY. Of course, combining
different sounding styles will produce more dramatic variations.
Appendix B: Styles Disks #15 – #19 Documentation 99
Another suggestion: Study how the demo tunes were done. More detailed
information about each style is available by pressing the Memo button of the
Demo tune. The Demo songs for these styles follow the same naming
convention as the styles themselves. So, for example, the DEMO song for
BGWALTZ.STY is BGWALTZ.MGU.
26 New Unplugged (acoustic) Styles
ACBALLAD.STY Acoustic Ballad style
Memo: A slow, Ballad style a la Grisman quartet with Bass, Drums, Guitar,
Violin and Mandolin. Guitar plays fills and Violin is added at 'b'. T= 70
Examples: Slow Ballads, Lover Man, Willow Weep for Me
BG101_D.STY Bluegrass 101 (with drums) style
Memo: Variation on Bgras101 with drums added, a la Bill M. Banjo,
Mandolin, Guitar, Bass and Drums. Great at faster tempos. T=165
Examples: Foggy Mountain Breakdown, Lonesome Road Blues
BGRAS101.STY Bluegrass 101 style
Memo: Driving straight-ahead Bluegrass a la Bill M. with Banjo, Mandolin,
Guitar and Bass. At 'b', Banjo in higher register and more active guitar and
mando.T=165
Examples: Foggy Mountain Breakdown, Lonesome Road Blues
BGBOOGIE.STY Bluegrass Boogie style
Memo: Acoustic style a la Bill Monroe band of the 40's and 50's with bass,
banjo, guitar & Mandolin. Walking bass and guitar runs at 'b'.T=50-120
Examples: Heavy Traffic Ahead, Foggy Mountain Special
BGWALTZ.STY Bluegrass Waltz style
Memo: An acoustic up-tempo Bluegrass 3/4 time style with bass, banjo,
guitar & mandolin. At 'b', crosspicked guitar, mandolin fills and chordal banjo.
T=90-180
Examples: Blue Moon of Kentucky, Tennessee Waltz
BGWALTZD.STY Bluegrass Waltz (with drums) style
Memo: Alternate to BgWaltz.Sty with light simple drums added. Up-tempo
Bluegrass in 3/4 time. At 'b', crosspicked guitar, mandolin fills & chordal
banjo.T=90-180
Examples: Blue Moon of Kentucky, Tennessee Waltz
BIGPINK.STY Big Pink style
Memo: In the style of The Band, Van M., Bob D., this acoustic style
features acoustic rhythm guitar, piano, bass and drums. At 'b', add 2nd guitar.
T=80
Appendix B: Styles Disks #15 – #19 Documentation100
Examples: The Weight, Tears of Rage, Tupelo Honey
DOGFUNK.STY Dog Funk style
Memo: Mandolin-driven funk-groove style, with a 16th note shuffle feel.
With mandolin, guitar, acoustic bass and fiddle. Fiddle plays staccato chops at
'a', fills at 'b'. T=100
Examples: Butterfat, Dawgfunk
DOGFUNKD.STY Dog Funk (with drums) style
Memo: DogFunk.Sty with drums added. Mandolin-driven funk-groove
style, with a 16th note shuffle feel. (mando, g, b, drs & fiddle. T=100
Examples: Butterfat, Dawgfunk
DOGSAMBA.STY Dog Samba style
Memo: A modern 'New Acoustic' Samba in the style of "Dawg". Features
guitar, bass, mandolin & congas. The mandolin is slightly less busy at 'b'. T =
140
Examples: Caravan, Mugavero
F_ROK3_4.STY Folk Rock 3/4 style
Memo: Loping Folk-Rock waltz with acoustic guitar, bass and drums. At
'b', a '2 against 3' feel and acoustic piano joins in. T=130
Examples: Lucky Man, Edmund Fitzgerald
FOLK101.STY Folk 101 style
Memo: Popular Folk style of the '60s typified by PP&M, Kingston Trio &
early Beatles. Nylon guitar, bass and percussion. At 'b', add 2nd ac. guitar arps.
T=110
Examples: And I Love Her, Where Have All the Flowers Gone
FOLK101P.STY Folk 101 (with Piano) style
Memo: Similar to Folk101.Sty with ac. piano added. Nylon guitar, ac.
Piano, bass and perc. At 'b', add 2nd ac. guitar arps. T=110
Examples: And I Love Her, Where Have All the Flowers Gone
FOLKBLU.STY Folk Blues style
Memo: A slow Folk-blues style with finger-picked guitar, ac. Piano, bass,
harmonica & drums. Drum variation at 'b'. T=70 - 120
Examples: Steamroller Blues, King Bee
FOLKFUNK.STY Folk Funk style
Memo: An acoustic Diddley shuffle style with strummed guitar, bass and
drums. At 'b', add second guitar playing "popcorn" parts. T=100
Examples: Who Do You Love, Black Cow
FOLKROK1.STY Folk-Rock 1 style
Appendix B: Styles Disks #15 – #19 Documentation 101
Memo: A modern Folk-Rock acoustic style with 2 acoustic guitars, bass
and drums. At 'b', Half-time drums and Pete Townsend-style strumming ala
'Pinball Wizard'. T= 80-150
Examples: Pinball Wizard, Trains
FOLKTRIO.STY Folk-Trio style
Memo: A Folk style a la Limeliters or Kingstons, featuring strummed
banjos & guitars, bass & tambourine. At 'b', add bongos, banjo fingerpicking &
different guitar rhythm. T=170
Examples: This Little Light, Wimoweh
JTLATIN.STY JTaylor Latin style
Memo: Acoustic Folk-pop with a Latin flavor featuring soft ac. Piano,
Arpeggiated guitar, Bass, Drums, and percussion (Congas and Maracas). Add
strings at 'b'. T=110
Examples: You've Got a Friend, Mexico
JUGBAND.STY Jug Band style
Memo: Acoustic Jug Band style, featuring fiddle, banjo, guitar, washboard
(drums)and tuba. At 'b', guitar comps chordally. T=100
Examples: Sadie Green, San Francisco Bay Blues
MOUNTAIN.STY Mountain style
Memo: Uptempo Appalachian acoustic style, featuring Clawhammer-style
banjo, guitar, fiddle, and bass. Guitar plays fills at 'b'. T=140
Examples: Little Birdie, Mountain Dew, any Old-Time tune
MOUNTN_D.STY Mountain (with Drums) style
Memo: A variation of Mountain.Sty style with washboard Drums added.
Up-tempo Appalachian style w/banjo, guitar, fiddle, bass & drums. Guitar fills
at 'b'. T=140
Examples: Little Birdie, Mountain Dew, any Old-Time tune
NGR.STY NGR style
Memo: Acoustic bluegrass-rock fusion, in the style of Newgrass Revival.
With banjo, mandolin, guitar, and bass. Syncopation with pushes at 'a'. Driving
bluegrass feel at 'b'.T=120
Examples: Fly Through the Country, Reach
NGR_D.STY NGR (with drums) style
Memo: Similar to NGR with drums added. Acoustic bluegrass-rock fusion
ala Newgrass Revival, with banjo, mandolin, guitar, bass and drums. More
driving at 'b'.T=120
Examples: Fly Through the Country, Reach
NUGRASS.STY Nugrass style
Appendix B: Styles Disks #15 – #19 Documentation102
Memo: Up-tempo acoustic contemporary bluegrass a la David Grisman
and others. Features guitar, banjo, mandolin & bass. 'a' substyle is more
syncopated than 'b'. T=160
Examples: Ride the Wild Turkey, Gingeng Sullivan
SWAMPROK.STY Swamp Rock style
Memo: An acoustic style a la groups like Dave M. & Bon J., with banjo,
guitar, bass, drums & fiddle. At 'b', add fingerpicked banjo & heavier drum
backbeat. T=100
Examples: Don't Drink the Water, Dead or Alive
WRYCODER.STY Wry Coder style
Memo: Bouncy acoustic style a la Ry, with guitar, piano, mandolin, bass
and drums. In the 'b' substyle, guitar plays bluesy fills, and drums get slightly
less busy. T=90
Examples: Tamp 'Em Up Solid, How Can You Keep From Moving
Styles Disk #18: Praise and Worship Styles for Band-in-a-Box
Introduction and Overview
In response to your many requests for Styles in the Praise and Worship genre,
we are glad to bring you these 20 great new contemporary styles. Today's Praise
And Worship scene has an abundance of great groups who play very hip,
exuberant and contemporary Pop-Rock style music, so these styles would be a
great addition to your Band-In-a-Box styles library, even if you are not generally
into Praise And Worship music.
We've got styles that emulate the group sounds of a broad spectrum of the Praise
and Worship genre - like Rich Mullins, Out of the Grey, Point of Grace,
Michael Smith, Carolyn Arends, 2nd Chapter of Acts and more.
There are some great foot-stompin' Congregational styles that make you want to
clap your hands and get right into the spirit. There are slow and peaceful
contemplative Pop Ballads as well as medium and fast contemporary Pop-Rock,
Shuffle, 3/4 tempo, Rock-Latin, and Country grooves.
Many of our ideas for these styles came from your requests for Praise and
Worship styles as posted in the PG Music Forum - Styles wish list - so keep
those suggestions coming - we really listen to, and appreciate your feedback.
Here's a tip for those of you who would like to have more style variation within
a tune: try combining similar (or different) styles by pressing the F5 key at any
bar. For example, subtle variations can be achieved by combining styles with a
Appendix B: Styles Disks #15 – #19 Documentation 103
similar time-feel, such as CRYSTAL.STY with KINGDOM.STY. Of course,
combining different sounding styles will produce more dramatic variations.
More detailed information about each style is available by pressing the Memo
button of the Demo tune. Many of these Demo tunes were saved with some
added reverb, chorus and panning - mainly on the guitars. The Demo songs for
these styles follow the same naming convention as the styles themselves. So, for
example, the DEMO song for PRAISE.STY is PRAISE.MGU.
20 New Praise and Worship Styles
BROWNSVL.STY Brownsvl - Praise and Worship style
Memo: Slow Pop 16ths w/ 5 inst.- piano, bass, drums 9, guitar 28 & organ
19. 'a' sec is quiet and un-busy. At 'b', add guitar, busier organ, tamb. & claps,
busier drums w/16th feel. T=75
Generic Example Tune: Yesterday
CRYSTAL.STY Crystal - Praise and Worship style
Memo: This is a slow 16ths Pop-Rock style with 5 insts - clav, frt. bass,
elec. drums (25), Fr. Horn & Strings. Backbeat at 'a'. Bigger sound at 'b'. T=72
Generic Example Tune: The Long and Winding Road
FAITH.STY Faith - Praise and Worship style
Memo: Combines 2 styles in one - funky swing 16ths at 'a', double time -
driving' feel with bass in '4' at 'b'. 5 inst. - piano, bass, drums, guitar & organ
T=120
Generic Example Tune: You Won't See Me
FOREVER.STY Forever - Praise and Worship style
Memo: Soft & gentle Pop 8ths style with 5 insts - el. piano, frt. bass,
strings(50), strings (49) & un-busy drums. 'a' sec.- string bg's. 'b' sec.- higher
strings and more intensity. T=68
Generic Example Tune: Hello
FORGIVEN.STY Forgiven - Praise and Worship style
Memo: This is a soft acoustic folk-pop style with 5 insts - el. piano, bass,
drums, nylon guitar & ac. guitar. T=95
Generic Example Tune: The Water Is Wide
GLORY.STY Glory - Praise and Worship style
Memo:This is a medium Pop/Rock 8ths style with 5 insts - el.piano,
Synbass (39), strat guitar, drums & strings. T=100
Generic Example Tune: How Deep Is Your Love
˝
Appendix B: Styles Disks #15 – #19 Documentation104
GRACE.STY Grace - Praise and Worship style
Memo: This is a medium Pop 16 style with 5 insts- el. piano, bass, drums,
muted guitar & brass. The 'b' section is bigger and more intense. T=100
Generic Example Tune: I Second That Emotion
HALELUIA.STY Haleluia - Praise and Worship style
Memo: Soft Pop medium tempo with 5 insts - piano arps., bass, guitar, strings
& drums. 'a' is soft with Alberti piano. 'b' - big backbeat & strat guitar added.
T=100
Generic Example Tune: Won't Last a Day
HOSANNA.STY Hosanna - Praise and Worship style
Memo: This is a medium-tempo Country-Swing style with 5 insts - frt.
bass, ac. guitar, strat guitar & organ. T=155
Generic Example Tune: Blowin' In the Wind
JACQUE.STY Jacque - Praise and Worship style
Memo: Latin-Rock style with 5 insts - ac. piano, bass, organ, strat & drums.
The drum figure has a Latin flavor throughout. Repeated rhythmic motif at 'a'.
More intensity at 'b'. T=95
Generic Example Tune: Get Closer
KINGDOM.STY Kingdom - Praise and Worship style
Memo: Soft pop-folk 16ths w/ 2 ac. guitars (16th strum & 8th arps.) 5 insts-
2 ac. guitars, bass, strings & light drums. Softer at 'a'. At 'b', drums - soft
backbeat & higher strings. T=85
Generic Example Tune: Here, There and Everywhere
MINISTRY.STY Ministry - Praise and Worship style
Memo: Bouncy-swing style with 5 insts - piano, bass, drums (big back beat
at 'b'), ac. guitar (easy folk strum) & organ (easy at 'a', fuller at 'b'). T=95
Generic Example Tune: Raindrops
MORNING.STY Morning - Praise and Worship style
Memo: This style has a Pop - Latin feel. 5 insts - ac. piano, el. bass, mt.
guitar, drums & choir. Vocal background throughout. Section 'b' is more intense.
T=104
Generic Example Tune: Everybody's Talkin'
PRAISE.STY Praise - Praise and Worship style
Memo: This is a simple 3/4 Praise and Worship style with 5 insts - ac.
guitar-strumming, organ, piano, drums & bass. T=95
Generic Example Tune: Amazing Grace, or any slower 3/4 tempo tune
Appendix B: Styles Disks #15 – #19 Documentation 105
REVEALED.STY Revealed - Praise and Worship style
Memo: Med-slow pop 16ths with a warm string section and arpeggiated
guitar sound. 5 insts - ac. guitar, fr. bass, Atmosphere (100), strings (50). T=105
Generic Example Tune: We Are the World
REVIVAL.STY Revival - Praise and Worship style
Memo: This is a medium - fast rock style with 5 insts - ac. piano, el. bass,
drums, strat guitar and organ. T=155
Generic Example Tune: Jesus Is Just Alright
SAVED.STY Saved - Praise and Worship style
Memo: This is an exuberant, Congregational, up-tempo 8ths rock style with
5 insts - ac. piano (2), bass (34) , drums, guitar (28) and organ (19). More
intensity at 'b'. T=155
Generic Example Tune: Higher and Higher
SPIRIT.STY Spirit - Praise and Worship style
Memo: Medium - fast shuffle style with 5 insts - piano, bass, drums, guitar
& brass section. Spirited, congregational feel. At 'b' - more intense, add hand-
claps & tamb. T=175
Generic Example Tune: Leroy Brown
TWILA1.STY Twila1 - Praise and Worship style
Memo: This is a fast 3/4 rock style with 5 insts - piano, bass, drums,
PolySynth GM 91 & slow strings. T=180
Generic Example Tune: Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
WORSHIP.STY Worship - Praise and Worship style
Memo: A slow 16th Pop-Rock ballad style with 5 insts - el. piano (6), bass
(36), guitar (28), drums, strings (50). The 'a' section is un-busy. Busier with big
back beat at 'b'. T=85
Generic Example Tune: Rainy Days and Mondays
Styles Disk #19: 'Requested' Styles for Band-in-a-Box
Introduction and Overview
Note: Because these styles use some of the newer Stylemaker features, you must
have Band-in-a-Box Version 8.0c (or higher) for these styles to work properly.
Over the past year, we've been reading your suggestions for styles (as posted in
the www.pgmusic.com Styles Wish-List page). We realized that it was time for
Appendix B: Styles Disks #15 – #19 Documentation106
us to create some of those requested styles which might not warrant a full styles
disk of their own.
You'll find many of those styles in Styles Disk #19 - including Brazilian Canção,
Contemporary Celtic, African, Soca (Caribbean Soul Calypso), a great new Jazz
Ballad style, Reggae, and we even answered a request for a Peanuts style. The
sound of groups like - TijuanaBr, SergioM, B-Gees, Blondy, Elvis, BennyG
quintet, BMarley and more are all represented.
Speaking of more, you told us how much you liked Styles Disk #15 - Country,
so once again, we enlisted the assistance of Nashville guitarist and producer
Mike Harrison. Styles Disk #19 has 8 great new Country styles in the mode of
groups like GarthB, VinceG, DwightY, MerleH, RickyS, -including all new,
Contemporary Country Ballads, Country Honkytonk, Train beat, Cowboy,
Drivin', Country Piano Ballad, and Classic Country.
You can learn more about the new styles by pressing the Memo button on the
Demo tune or by reading the descriptions below. Many of these Demo tunes
were saved with some added reverb, chorus and panning - mainly on the guitars.
The Demo songs for these styles follow the same naming convention as the
styles themselves. So, for example, the DEMO song for BGEE_BAL.STY is
BGEE_BAL.MGU. Many of the demos feature a Solo in the middle chorus
which was created by one of the Band-in-a-Box Soloists. The memo usually
references which one was used.
Our style name convention uses the '~' character to indicate brushes. One of
these styles (J~LIONEL.STY) uses the brushes drum kit (GS #41). For
SoundBlaster users, only SB with Sound Fonts will have brushes, and the SB
defaults to "no brushes". SB users need to launch the AWE Control panel (the
top SB BB button will do that), and then you need to load in the GS Sound Font.
SB 16 users will not brushes available. The SB AWE32, AWE64, SB Live! and
better will have a GS SoundFont (and hence brushes) available. If you do not
have brushes available, you should use the alternate style (J_LIONEL.STY)
which uses the standard drum kit (GS #1).
Once again, remember, at PG Music we take requests! Thank you for your
suggestions and keep them coming!
Appendix B: Styles Disks #15 – #19 Documentation 107
26 new 'Requested' Styles
3GIT_16.STY 3 Guitars 16ths
Memo: A versatile Pop-Jazz-Folk 16ths style with 3 acoustic guitars &
acoustic Bass (no drums). 4 insts - 2 acoustic guitars, 1 nylon guitar and acoustic
bass. Tempo range from 80 - 150. T=100
Examples: Any Pop, Jazz or Rock ballad, any Bossa
B_GEES1.STY BGees 1 - 80s Disco
Memo: 80s Disco a la BGees. 5 instruments - electric piano, muted guitar,
electric bass, drums & strings. At 'a', muted guitar riff, low string pad &
sustained chords. At 'b', Disco feel, higher strings. T=110
Examples: Any Disco tune
B_GEES2.STY BGees 2 - Pop 16ths
Memo: 70s & 80s dance-craze Pop 16ths a la BGees. 5 instruments -
smooth electric piano, acoustic guitar, muted guitar (low riffs), bass (straight '2'
feel) & drums. More intense at 'b'. T=98
Examples: Could Be Dancin', any medium16ths
BGEE_BAL.STY BGees 70s Pop swing Ballad
Memo: A smooth, slow, simple, 70s & 80s Pop-Rock swing ballad a la
BGees. 5 instruments - acoustic piano, frt. bass, acoustic guitar, drums and
strings. Slightly louder at 'b'. T=75
Examples: After the Lovin', How Do You Mend
BLONDY1.STY Blondy1 - Pop-Techno
Memo: Smooth 80s & 90s Pop-Techno style with 5 instruments - electric
piano 6, guitar 28, electric bass 36, strings 49 & drums. Bass plays quarter notes
at 'a', octaves at 'b'. Disco feel at 'b'. T=108
Examples: Take My Breath Away
C_COWBOY.STY Cowboy - Country Style
Memo: Cowboy Country Style ala Alan J. or Hank W. 5 instruments -
drums, bass, piano, acoustic guitar & muted guitar. T = 115-160
Examples: Chattahoochie, Tall Tall Trees, Jambalaya
C_DRIVIN.STY Drivin - Country Rock style
Memo: Upbeat drivin' Country Rock style a la Dwight Y., Brooks and
Dunn, Leroy P. 5- Instruments - drums, bass, organ, acoustic guitar and elec.
guitar. T = 110-140
Examples: Fast As You, Rock My World, Oughta Be A Law
Appendix B: Styles Disks #15 – #19 Documentation108
C_GARTH.STY Garth - Country Ballad
Memo: Contemporary Country Ballad Style a la Garth B., Keith W. etc.. 5
Instruments - piano, bass, drums, acoustic guitar and strings (at 'b'). T= 80-126
Examples: If Tomorrow Never Comes, Don't Close Your Eyes
C_HAG.STY Hag - Country Classic style
Memo: Classic Country style a la Merle H. or Clint B.. 5 Instruments -
drums, bass, piano, acoustic guitar and electric guitar. T = 105-145
Examples: Okie From Muskogee, Better Man
C_PIANO.STY Country Piano Ballad style
Memo: Contemporary Country Ballad style a la Trisha Y. or Matraca B.. 4
instruments - piano & acoustic guitar at 'a'. Bass & cello added at 'b'. T = 70-90
Examples: Walkaway Joe, I Swear, Lying To The Moon
C_RICKY.STY Ricky - Fast Classic Country
Memo: Uptempo Classic Country style a la Ricky S. 5 instruments -
drums, bass, piano, acoustic guitar & electric guitar (with wild fills). T = 120-
160
Examples: Country Boy, Orange Blossom Special
C_UPTOWN.STY Uptown - Country Honyktonk
Memo: Country Honkytonk style (a la Patty L.) with a driving guitar &
bass sound. 5 Instruments - drums, bass, electric guitar, acoustic guitar and
muted guitar. T = 115-160
Examples: Blueside Of Loveless, Six Days On The Road
C_VINCE2.STY Vince 2 - Country Boogie Train
Memo: Uptempo Country Boogie Train Beat style ala Vince G. or
Tractors. 4 Insts - drums, bass, piano, elec. guitar. T = 150-180
Examples: One More Last Chance, Baby Likes To Rockit
CELTIC1.STY Celtic 1 - Contemporary Celtic
Memo: Contemporary med-fast 12/8 (triplet feel) Jig or Re electric 4
instruments - acoustic guitar, banjo, acoustic bass & percussion. Full guitar
strum, simple acoustic bass and banjo off-beats. T=125
Examples: Irish Washerwoman, Morrison's Jig
CELTIC2.STY Celtic 2 - Contemporary Celtic
Memo: This variation of CELTIC1 adds a second (nylon) guitar. Med-fast
12/8 Jig or Reel. 5 instruments - acoustic guitar, nyl. guitar, banjo, acoustic
bass & percussion. T=125
Examples: Irish Washerwoman, Morrison's Jig
ELVIS1.STY Elvis1 - 50s Rock shuffle blues
Appendix B: Styles Disks #15 – #19 Documentation 109
Memo: 50s rock blues shuffle with 4 instruments - piano, bass, drums &
vocal background. Piano plays strong shuffle figure. T=170
Examples: Rip It Up, Don't Be Cruel
J_LIONEL.STY Lionel - Slow 40s Jazz Swing Ballad
Memo: Non-Brushes variation of J~LIONEL style. A slow 40s swing
ballad style. Smooth Vibes. 5 instruments - vibes, piano, bass, guitar, drums (no
brushes). T=75
Examples: Lover Man, But Beautiful
J~LIONEL.STY Lionel - (Brushes) 40s Swing Ballad
Memo: A slow 40s swing ballad style a la Hamp with Benny. The vibes
lay down a smooth chordal pad throughout. 5 instruments - vibes, piano, bass,
guitar, drums (brushes). T=75
Examples: Body and Soul, Misty
L_CANCAO.STY Latin Canção - Brazilian Pop Bossa
Memo: Slow, smooth Brazilian Pop-Bossa. Canção means 'Song'. 5
instruments - warm pad, b, d, nyl. guitar, and strings (Cello at 'a'). Drums play a
backbeat, guitar plays bossa rhythm. T=85
Examples: Any Bossa, wave, Dindi
L_VOCE.STY Latin Voce - Brazilian Pop Bossa
Memo: Pop-Bossa-Rumba with 3-2 Clave Pulse. Drums play light
backbeat. 5 instruments - acoustic piano, nylon guitar, acoustic bass, drums,
congas and strings. Fuller strings and shaker added at 'b'. t=110
Examples: Any Bossa, Like a Lover
MARLEY1.STY Marley1 - Reggae Swing
Memo: A laid-back, medium tempo, swing Reggae style with 5
instruments - organ, muted guitar, overdrive guitar, fretless. bass, and drums.
T=120
Examples: Any Med-tempo Reggae, Jammin'
PEANUTS.STY Peanuts - Fast Pop 8ths style
Memo: Fast st. 8ths Pop/Jazz with left-hand piano & bass playing a
repeated rhythm with pushes. 4 instruments - acoustic piano, fretless bass,
drums. Add strings and shots at 'b'. T=170
Examples: One for Linus
SERGIO1.STY Sergio 1 - 70s Pop Latin
Memo: 60s and 70s Pop-Brazilian. 5 instruments - piano, bass, guitar,
drums, percussion. and strings). 'b' is more intense w/ Timbale figure. T=102
Examples: Any Rock Bossa, Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing
SOCA1.STY Soca 1 - Caribbean Soul Calypso
Appendix B: Styles Disks #15 – #19 Documentation110
Memo: The Caribbean 'Soca' style, a combination of (So)ul & (Ca)lypso,
originated in the 70s. 5 instruments - drums and percussion., bass, kalimba and
steel drums. At 'b', add guitar. T=100
Examples: Soca Party, Highway Robbery
THEMBA.STY Themba - Contemporary African
Memo: A contemporary African 4/4 style with 5 instruments - percussion,
bass, marimba, kalimba. Xylophone at 'b'. At 'b' the xyl. plays a ' 5 over 2'
figure. Tempo = 102
Examples: Angelena, Hakuna Matata, Layaye
TIJUANA.STY Tijuana - 70s Pop Swing
Memo: A 60s and 70s fast Mexicali Pop shuffle-swing style. 5 instruments
-marimba, nyl. guitar, 2 acoustic guitars, acoustic bass & drums. Happy Tijuana
feel. Tempo = 180
Examples: The Happening, any Jazz-swing tune, Green Onions
PG Music Inc. Contact Information 111
PG Music Inc. Contact Information
PG Music Address and Phone Numbers
Band-in-a-Box™
Copyright © 1989-1999 PG Music Inc. All rights reserved.
Band-in-a-Box™ is a trademark of PG Music Inc.
PG MUSIC INC.
29 Cadillac Avenue
Victoria, B.C. V8Z 1T3
Canada
Email sales@pgmusic.com
Internet www.pgmusic.com
phone toll free (800)-268-6272, (888) PG-MUSIC or ph. (250) 475-2874
fax toll free 1-877-475-1444 or fax (250) 475-2937
Technical Support
(250) 475-2708 Hrs. 9:00am - Midnight, Eastern Time (GMT-5:00)
Email: support@pgmusic.com
PG Music Inc. Music Software Programs112
PG Music Inc. Music Software Programs
PG Music Inc. is a leading innovator of computer music software that is easy,
powerful and fun! As a registered PG Music Inc. software user you will receive
regular updates on all of our latest programs, so please be sure to register.
Band-in-a-Box
(Windows/Mac) intelligent music software
Simply select the style of song you'd like to create, and Band-in-a-Box
will automatically generate a complete song in that style, in the key and
tempo you want, complete with intro, chords, melody, arrangement and
solo improvisations. Or just type in the chords to ANY song, using
standard chord symbols (like C or Fm7), choose a style and press PLAY.
Band-in-a-Box then generates a complete, professional quality 5 piece
arrangement of bass, drums, piano, guitar and strings to be played back
through your MIDI system or multimedia computer. Record melodies and
live audio tracks, Band-in-a-Box even makes your song "Internet ready".
Add-on Band-in-a-Box Style, Song, & Soloist Disks available:
( … get "the works" in the Band-in-a-Box MegaPAK!)
• Styles Disk #4 - 25 Styles - Jazz, Country, Pop, 'Old Pop", Ethnic
• Styles Disk #5 - 25 Styles - Jazz, Waltz, Country, Pop, Ethnic
• Styles Disk #6 - 30 Styles - Jazz and Latin
• Styles Disk #7 - 25 Styles - Country and Pop
• Styles Disk #8 - 25 Styles - Jazz, Classical, Pop, Ethnic, Country, Latin
• Styles Disk #9 - 20 Styles - Latin and Salsa
• Styles Disk #10 - 20 Styles - Pop & Rock
• Styles Disk #11 - 28 Styles - Classical & Classical MIDI-Fakebook
• Styles Disk #12 - 27 Styles - Country, Swing, Rock, Waltz & Boogie
• Styles Disk #13 - 20 Styles - Euro-Tek Dance/Techno/Pop
• Styles Disk #14 - 21 Styles - Jazz/Fusion
• Styles Disk #15 - 22 Styles - Nashville Country
• Styles Disk #16 - 22 Styles - All Blues
• Styles Disk #17 - 26 Styles - Unplugged
• Styles Disk #18 - 20 Styles - Praise And Worship
• Styles Disk #19 - 26 Styles - Requested
• Soloist Disk Set #2 - "Killer" Jazz Soloist Disk Set
• Soloist Disk Set #3 - Jazz Soloist Disk Set
• Soloist Disk Set #4 - Rock Soloist Disk Set
• Soloist Disk Set #5 - Bluegrass Soloist Disk Set
• Soloist Disk Set #6 - "Killer" Pop & Older Jazz
• Soloist Disk Set #7 - Blues, Pop, Funk & More
• Soloist Disk Set #8 - "Killer" Jazz Waltz/Older Waltz/Jazz Fusion
• Soloist Disk Set #9 - Blues Guitar, Country Piano, and Pop
• Melodist Disk Set #2 - Country, Pop and EZ-Listening
• The MIDI Fakebook - Traditional/Original Jazz and Pop - 50 Songs,
Classical - 200 Songs, Bluegrass - 50 Songs.
PG Music Inc. Music Software Programs 113
PowerGuide CD-ROM Video (Windows/Mac)
video instruction for Band-in-a-Box
Both Volume 1 (Basics) and Volume 2 (Advanced) of the popular "Inside
Band-in-a-Box" training videos with program author/creator Peter
Gannon on one convenient CD-ROM. Everything you need to become a
"power user" - from easy setup to 'hot' tips and advanced techniques.
(Included in the Band-in-a-Box MegaPAK.)
… creating and working with songs, generating solos, entering and
printing notation, MIDI driver setup, creating new harmonies, creating
new soloists, creating new styles … and much more!
"Inside Band-in-a-Box" with program creator Peter Gannon!
PowerTracks
Pro Audio (Windows)
integrated digital audio and MIDI workstation
PowerTracks Pro Audio is a professional, fully featured Digital Audio
MIDI workstation, packed with features for musicians, students &
songwriters. With seamlessly integrated stereo digital audio/MIDI
recording, & built-in music notation, PowerTracks Pro Audio turns a
typical soundcard equipped Windows PC into a music production
powerhouse! Up to 48 tracks of stereo recording, with awesome effects
& audio plug-ins! You can record up to 48 tracks of CD quality audio
(vocals, guitar, etc.) or MIDI using your soundcard and microphone.
Monitor audio levels with stereo VU meters for Input and Output. Full
screen Lead Sheet notation display and printout - enter, edit, display
music in standard music notation with chord symbols, lyrics & Karaoke
style 'Big Lyrics window. On-screen piano keyboard & guitar fretboard
show notes as they are played. Comprehensive support for guitar
including tab display and printout and built-in Guitar Tuner. Cool
animated 3D Drum Kit window, play and record the dynamic drum kit
with your computer keyboard! Great Jukebox player with user controls.
Seamlessly integrated digital audio and MIDI workstation!
2 Volumes of MultiTracks play along CD-ROMS
now available!
Now you can have full-length (4-5 minutes) songs recorded by top studio
musicians! Each MultiTracks volume comes with 3 CD-ROMs packed
full of great live recordings of Jazz, Blues, and Rock songs. Each song is
conveniently provided in MultiTracks format, with each individual
instrument recorded on a separate track.
PG Music Inc. Music Software Programs114
PG Music Inc. MasterClass Instruction Series
Jazz Guitar MasterClass with Oliver Gannon
(Windows) instructional music program
The Jazz Guitar MasterClass is a fully featured instructional music
program containing interactive guitar lessons. Master jazz guitarist Oliver
Gannon is your teacher in this software program designed to illustrate
basic skills to the beginning guitarist while enhancing the skills of more
advanced guitarists.
You'll be studying 60 lessons with topics such as Chord Voicings,
Inversions, Right Hand Techniques, Comping, Scales, Modes,
Arpeggios, Common Progressions, Improvisation, Chord Melodies and
more. Each lesson has an accompanying exercise and a tip on how to
practice it. The lessons refer to the 10 program tunes, which feature
common chord progressions in a variety of styles and tempos. There are
also reference sheets and practice (backing) tracks.
The Jazz Guitar MasterClass integrates interactive audio lessons with
on-screen guitar display and notation, allowing you to see and hear
exactly what Oliver Gannon is playing.
Everything you need to master jazz guitar!
Jazz Piano MasterClass with Miles Black
(Windows) instructional music program
The Jazz Piano MasterClass is a fully featured instructional music
program containing interactive piano lessons. Master jazz pianist Miles
Black is your teacher in a software program designed to illustrate basic
skills to the beginning pianist while enhancing the skills of more
advanced pianists.
You'll be studying over 60 topics such as Roots and Shells, Block
Chords, Stride Piano, Playing the Blues, Scales, Common Progressions,
Improvisation and more. All the lessons are accompanied by practice
exercises, backing tracks, and are further illustrated with 11 tunes
included in the program.
The Jazz Piano MasterClass integrates interactive audio lessons with on
screen piano display and notation, allowing you to see and hear exactly
what Miles Black is playing.
Jazz piano mastery at your fingertips!
PG Music Inc. Music Software Programs 115
Master Guitar Solos Series
Master Jazz Guitar Solos Volume 1 (Windows)
guitar study program
Note: the program also includes the same files in Band-in-a-Box song format.
Full featured program includes over 50 tunes with jazz guitar solos in the
style of the great Jazz Guitarists (Joe Pass, Pat Metheny, John Scofield
and others). What a great way to learn jazz guitar soloing! Let a master
show you solos in the styles of the greats. All tunes are done in MIDI
format, with a complete band arrangement (drums, piano, bass, guitar).
Watch and learn the tunes as they play on the guitar fretboard, notation
and tablature. Slow the music to the tempo you want, or step through
the solo note by note.
What a great way to learn!
Master Flatpick Guitar Solos Volume 1 (Windows)
guitar study program
Note: the program also includes the same files in Band-in-a-Box song format.
Full featured program, including 50 tunes with guitar flatpick solos in
styles similar to Doc Watson, Jerry Reed and others. Since guitar is such
a visual instrument, it is easiest to learn by watching the on-screen guitar
as a flatpick master plays these great solos. Slow the music to the tempo
you want, or step through the solo note by note. View or printout the
material in notation and tablature.
The easiest way to learn!
Multimedia CD-ROM Performance Series
The Blues Guitarist (Windows)
multimedia guitar program
The Blues Guitarist is a professional, fully featured music program
containing studio recordings of great electric blues guitar music.. Listen
to hot session players perform great sounding blues music, while you
learn the riffs, licks and tricks! See the music notation on-screen as you
listen to the audio performance or watch the on-screen guitar. Learn the
music by slowing down the performance or print out engraver quality
notation and tablature for further study. PLUS … biographies, history,
trivia and much more!
The thrill of electric blues!
PG Music Inc. Music Software Programs116
The Rock Guitarist (Windows)
multimedia guitar program
The Rock Guitarist is a professional, fully featured music program
containing studio recordings of great Rock electric guitar music. Listen to
hot session players perform great sounding Rock music while you learn
the riffs, licks and tricks! See the music notation on-screen as you listen
to the audio performance or watch the on-screen guitar. Learn the music
by slowing down the performance or print out engraver quality notation
and tablature for further study. PLUS … biographies, history, trivia and
much more!
Hot players, cool licks, neat tricks!
The Jazz Saxophonist (Windows)
multimedia instrumental program
The Jazz Saxophonist is a professional, fully featured music program
containing studio recordings of great jazz saxophone music. Listen to hot
session players perform great sounding jazz saxophone music while you
learn the riffs, licks and tricks! ! See the music notation on-screen as you
listen to the audio performance or watch the on-screen keyboard. Learn
the music by slowing down the performance or print out engraver quality
notation for further study. PLUS biographies, history, trivia and much
more!
A "must-have" program for students, teachers and jazz buffs!
The Rock Saxophonist (Windows)
multimedia instrumental program
The Rock Saxophonist is a professional, fully featured music program
containing studio recordings of great rock saxophone music. Listen to hot
session players perform great sounding rock saxophone music while you
learn the riffs, licks and tricks! ! See the music notation on-screen as you
listen to the audio performance or watch the on-screen keyboard. Learn
the music by slowing down the performance or print out engraver quality
notation for further study. PLUS … biographies, history, trivia and much
more!
Learn the riffs, licks and tricks!
PG Music Inc. Music Software Programs 117
The Barbershop Quartet (Windows)
multimedia vocal program
The Barbershop Quartet is a professional, fully featured music program
containing all-time favorite Barbershop songs and an interactive
multimedia history of barbershop singing in America. We've recorded
each voice (tenor, lead, baritone and bass) on a separate track, allowing
you to listen to each part independently. Powerful multimedia features
let you study the arrangements, hear the music, and sing along with a
top barbershop quartet. Made with the assistance of SPEBSQSA, the
Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet
Singing in America, Inc.
Sing along to 'the songs that made America a singing nation'.
The Bach Chorales (Windows)
multimedia vocal program
The Bach Chorales is a professional, fully featured music program
containing inspiring performances of Bach's famous Chorales. Listen to
a professional choral ensemble sing some of J.S. Bach's greatest
compositions, complete with a detailed multimedia history of the life and
times of Johann Sebastian Bach. See the music notation on-screen as
you listen to the audio performance. Print out engraver quality notation
for further study. Powerful multimedia features let you study the
arrangements, hear the music, and sing along with a top choral
ensemble.
The foundations of vocal harmony PLUS multimedia fun!
The Sor Studies For Classical Guitar (Windows)
multimedia guitar program
The Sor Studies is a professional, fully featured music program
containing superb professional classical guitar performances of 121 of
Fernando Sor's celebrated studies for guitar (Opus numbers 6, 29, 31,
35, 44, and 60, complete). See the music notation on-screen as you
listen to the audio performance or watch the on-screen guitar. Watch the
onscreen fretboard and fingering to see exactly how these famous
studies should be played. Print a high-resolution engraver quality copy
for further study. This interactive program contains hours of high quality
classical guitar music on 3 CD-ROMs plus a complete Sor biography, a
historical timeline, and many more powerful multimedia features for
enhanced appreciation and study!
'Complete Technique' for classical guitar PLUS videos!
PG Music Inc. Music Software Programs118
PG Music Inc. Pianist Series Programs
The Pianist (Windows/Mac)
classical piano performance program
A music program containing an 'indispensable' collection of over 200 of
the world's most popular classical piano pieces. All pieces have been
recorded live-to-MIDI in real time by concert pianists on an 88-note
weighted MIDI piano keyboard. They are never quantized or step
recorded. All are complete artistic performances professionally
performed, recorded and saved as standard MIDI files. Hear the CD-
quality music through your PC sound card, MIDI system, MIDI piano or
sound module as if the pianist was in your home. Program notes and
Biographies provide a wealth of information. The onscreen piano
keyboard lets you see the music as it's played - learn the music by
watching the keyboard or slowing down the performance. Other
functions: Stop, Pause, Rewind, Slow Motion, Tempo Changes,
Transposition, Volume, and Velocity. Background playback lets you
listen to your favorite music while you work in other programs.
PLUS...Music Trivia Game, "Guess the Song", Musical Dictionary … and
much more!
"The Pianist is indispensable … an embarrassment of riches!"
Piano & Keyboard
The Pianist Volume II (Windows/Mac)
classical piano performance program
By popular request, we've recorded 200 more fabulous classical pieces
for The Pianist program - many titles were suggested by our customers
on registration cards. This Volume 2 upgrade includes a new version of
the program, plus the 200 new pieces - all played by world class concert
pianists. It adds to your existing program, doubling the number of pieces
to over 400!
200 selections from the great composers by popular request!
Did you know?
All of the performances in the PG Music Inc. Pianist/Performance Series
are recorded live-to-MIDI on an 88-note, weighted piano keyboard.
These brilliant performances are never edited or quantized, you hear
them exactly as played by our top professional piano artists.
PG Music Inc. Music Software Programs 119
The Pianist Volume III (Windows/Mac)
classical piano performance program
Volume 3 is packed with 170 brand new performances of Chopin,
Brahms, Bach, Liszt, Debussy, Ravel and many more! You'll find popular
selections from light opera, including Delibes, Léhar, Rossini, Gounod,
and Gilbert and Sullivan! For duet lovers, there are the complete Brahms'
Waltzes and Liebeslieder Waltzes. If you already own Pianist 1 and 2,
Volume 3 will give you the complete set of Chopin Etudes and Preludes.
Plus... you will find new memos about the composers and their music, as
well as improved memos on all of the music in The Pianist. This is simply
a "must have" upgrade!
170 selections including the complete Brahms Waltzes,
Light Opera and Duets!
The Pianist Volume IV (Windows/Mac)
classical piano performance program
Volume 4 adds 200 fabulous selections to The Pianist program. There is
now more music by your favorite composers including Haydn, Mozart,
Liszt, Debussy, Fauré, Schumann and Schubert. Now listen to the
complete Mozart Piano Sonatas, Chopin Etudes, Nocturnes, Preludes,
Ballades and Scherzi, Schumann Carnaval and Album for the Young
(complete), Debussy Preludes (complete) and much more!
Debussy Preludes, Mozart Sonatas, Chopin Etudes and more!
The Pianist Volume V (Windows/Mac)
classical piano performance program
For the first time, all 32 Beethoven Piano Sonatas are available on this
new "must have" volume of live-to-MIDI performances for The Pianist
program. The greatest sonatas ever composed for the piano have been
performed by world-class pianists, they are all here for your study and
enjoyment. Hear all new performances of your favorite masterpieces
including: Pathétique, Moonlight, Pastorale, Tempest, Waldstein,
Appassionata, Les Adieux and Hammerklavier!
All 32 Beethoven Piano Sonatas. A 'must-have' volume!
Did You Know?
You can play any Pianist/Performance Series program in the background
when using other programs. Enjoy your favorite music while you work.
PG Music Inc. Music Software Programs120
The Blues Pianist (Windows/Mac)
piano performance program
Volume 1: 50 selections, older styles. Volume 2: 50 selections, newer styles.
We've recorded great down-home blues piano stylings by top
professionals, 100 selections in all. A wide variety of blues piano styles
are included - Boogie Woogie, Slow/fast boogies, New Orleans style,
Chicago blues and more. These are the styles made famous by Pete
Johnson, Albert Ammons, Jelly Roll Morton and others. Hours of
listening pleasure plus info and trivia on the great masters of piano blues.
For the student, a full range of playing techniques are presented through
the piano roll and the on-screen notation (Windows version) - slow them
down and learn the licks. The perfect gift for any blues lover!
Great 'down-home' blues, virtuoso piano performances!
The Children's Pianist (Windows/Mac)
piano performance program
Over 90 great piano performances of the worlds best-loved children's
songs - presented with the care, artistry, and craftsmanship that will
spark the interest of young and old alike. The words are displayed in a
large "Karaoke" style display while the song plays so you can sing along!
Includes piano arrangement tutorials. Easy-to-understand examples
from within the actual performances illustrate a host of techniques used
by real pianists to create arrangements. Work through the tutorials
yourself to learn about these and other methods:
Alternating Bass · Broken Chords · Vamping Syncopation · Parallel 3rds ·
Embellishments ·
"Mozart" bass · Stride accompaniment · Passing Chords · "Bent Notes" ·
Chorale Style · Modulations
Sing-along with the world's best-loved children's songs!
The Christmas Pianist (Windows/Mac)
piano performance program
The Christmas Pianist contains great piano performances of over 50 all-
time favorite Christmas songs and carols -ideal for listening or sing
along. The words are displayed in a large "Karaoke" style display while
the song plays so you can sing along! (Windows version) The on-screen
piano keyboard lets you see the music as it's played - learn the music by
PG Music Inc. Music Software Programs 121
watching the piano keyboard or slowing down the performance. All-time
favorites including:
Adeste Fideles · All Through The Night · Angels We Have Heard On
High · Away In a Manger · The First Noel · God Rest Ye Merry
Gentleman · Hark The Herald Angels Sing · It Came Upon a Midnight
Clear · O Christmas Tree · The Twelve Days Of Christmas · We Wish
You a Merry Christmas · What Child is This … and many more!
Fill your home with wonderful piano music this Christmas!
The Gospel Pianist (Windows/Mac)
piano performance program
The Gospel Pianist is a music program with over 50 "Gospel Style" piano
standards played on MIDI keyboard by top gospel pianists. Plus we've
also included Music Trivia questions, Guess the Song game, program
notes, pianist biographies (all on disk) and much more!
The Gospel Pianist is a powerful program for playing and studying a
piano style that is both universally appealing and which underlies much
of the blues, jazz and popular music played today. An on-screen piano
keyboard shows you exactly what the pianist is playing. Slow down the
piece, or step through it chord-by-chord. Learn the music note-for-note
by watching the notes on screen. Load the MIDI files into your favorite
programs for future study! We've included all your favorites, recorded by
top Gospel pianists playing in a wide variety of Gospel piano styles:
Amazing Grace · By and By · At The Cross · Go Tell it on the Mountain ·
Will the Circle Be Unbroken · Sweet Chariot · Wade in the Water · Give
Me That Old Time Religion … and many more!
Powerful Gospel performances with that 'old-time' spirit!
The Latin Pianist (Windows/Mac)
piano performance program
The Latin Pianist is a music software program containing over 50 Latin
and Salsa pieces recorded live-to-MIDI by popular Latin pianist Rebeca
Mauleón-Santana (editor of Sher Music's Latin Real Book) in a wide
variety of Latin Piano styles. The Latin Pianist includes authentic piano
songs and styles such as Conga, Cumbia, Merengue, Son, Mambo,
Cha-Cha, Guaracha, Samba, Partido Alto, and much more. With the
onscreen piano keyboard, you can see exactly what the pianist is
playing. Slow down the piece or step through it chord by chord. Learn
the music "note for note" by watching the notes onscreen, or load the
MIDI files into your favorite programs. This program is hot, Hot, HOT!
Authentic Latin and Salsa stylings, hot piano performances!
PG Music Inc. Music Software Programs122
The Modern Jazz Pianist (Windows/Mac)
piano performance program
The Modern Jazz Pianist is the software that makes it too easy to learn
how to be a great jazz pianist. Top studio musicians Renee Rosnes,
Miles Black, Ron Johnston, and Brad Turner perform over 50 tunes in a
wide variety of modern jazz styles, such as those by Herbie Hancock,
Fred Hersch, Cedar Walton, Mulgrew Miller and many others. With the
on-screen piano keyboard, you can see exactly what the pianist is
playing. Slow down the piece or step through it chord by chord. Learn the
music "note for note" by watching the notes on screen, or load the MIDI
files into your favorite programs for further study.
It's "too easy" to learn from these great jazz pianists!
The New Age Pianist (Windows/Mac)
piano performance program
This program includes over 70 "New Age" and "New Age-Jazz" style
piano pieces, performed by top New Age Artists. This is a beautiful
collection of solo piano compositions inspired by the natural world.
Learn all about New Age piano music, where it came from, and how it's
played. A full range of piano techniques are presented, from the ambient
music style of George Winston to the "New Age-Jazz" styles of Chick
Corea and Keith Jarret. PLUS a photo album of stirring nature scenes
and much more! Over 4 hours of beautiful music, perfect for playing in
the background while you work in other programs!
Beautiful piano music inspired by nature!
The New Orleans Pianist (Windows/Mac)
piano performance program
In a theme similar to "The Blues Pianist", we have created "The New
Orleans Pianist". This program has a huge library of over 50 "New
Orleans" style piano music standards, played on MIDI keyboard by top
New Orleans Pianists Henry Butler, Jon Cleary, Tom McDermott, Joel
Simpson, and David Torkanowsky. This is the wonderful 'rolling', 'bluesy'
New Orleans piano style made famous by Professor Longhair and Dr.
John. Includes on-screen music notation and printout ability (Windows
version) so that you may learn every nuance of the pieces ! Plus we've
included music trivia questions, a "Guess the Song" game, program
notes, pianist biographies (all on disk) and much more!
Good-time piano performances "New Orleans" style!
PG Music Inc. Music Software Programs 123
The PG Music Inc. Performance Series
The Bluegrass Band (Windows/Mac)
instrumental performance program
A "feel good" pickin'-and-grinnin' program. We've recorded virtuoso
performances by top bluegrass musicians, playing 50 Bluegrass
standards on their MIDI equipped bluegrass instruments (banjo, fiddle,
bass, guitar and mandolin). These MIDI files are hot! As you listen to the
tunes, you can single out any of the instruments using the on-screen
fretboard display, tablature, or notation. PLUS ... Lots of Bluegrass
pictures, bio's, and trivia (all on disk) and much more. You'll be singing
and dancing along with your computer! And since it's MIDI, you can slow
them down to learn them at your own speed. Includes: Wildwood Flower,
Sally Goodin, Cripple Creek, Fire on the Mountain, Pigtown Fling, Red
Haired Boy, Jesse James … and many more!
Dazzling performances, you'll "feel good all over"!
The Jazz Soloist (Windows/Mac)
instrumental performance program
Volume 1: Swing (50 pieces), Volume 2: Swing (50 pieces),
Volume 3: Latin, Blues, Waltzes (60 pieces).
The Jazz Soloist is a music program with professional jazz quartet
arrangements of over 50 songs per volume. Each song features a great
jazz solo played by top jazz musicians, as well as piano comping, bass
and drums.
Sight-reading was NEVER so much fun before the Jazz Soloist series!
Start the program playing, slow it down to a tempo that you can sight-
read the solos at, and then read along with these great jazz solos. You'll
be improving your reading and playing while having FUN at the same
time! The on-screen notation "scrolls ahead" so you can sight-read
without interruption.
Musicians studying improvisation typically learn by copying other soloists'
performances. There are several key ingredients for this process to work
correctly - hearing the solos, seeing and printing the music - and they are
all offered together in this program.
Includes the standalone "Jazz Soloist" program PLUS files in Band-in-a-
Box format. Windows users can see/print the notation in the standalone
program and Band-in-a-Box. Mac users can see/print the notation in
Band-in-a-Box.
Learning to solo has never been so much fun!
PG Music Inc. Music Software Programs124
The Roland Virtual Sound Canvas (Windows/Mac)
software MIDI synthesizer
The Virtual Sound Canvas is a software application for Windows and
Macintosh that directs MIDI file data in real time through the CPU of a
sound capable computer rather than the MIDI processor chip of an
existing sound card. This high-speed software adds a sophisticated
musical enhancement for a dramatic improvement in the performance of
MIDI files and any PG Music Inc. program, with the true instrument
fidelity found in a Roland GM/GS format wavetable synthesizer.
Windows requirements: Windows 95/98 with Pentium 166 MHz, Pentium II or equivalent.
Macintosh requirements: OS 7.55 or later with PowerPC 603e 133 MHz or higher.
PG Music programs sound spectacular!
SC-PRO Editor/Librarian (Windows/Mac) utility program
Full featured Editor/Librarian for Roland Sound Canvas and other
Roland GS Products. On screen programming for easy patch edits and
storage, built-in mixer, MIDI file player, and more!
Sound Canvas editing made easy!
Index 125
Index
Audio Features, 21
applying audio plugins, 29
audio menu, 23
audio options dialog, 30
audio rendering, 31
audio track, 21
audio track recording, 25
compressing the WAV file, 34
Internet song formats, saving, 21
main screen, 22
other audio formats, 34
overdub, 27
playing the audio file, 29
save song as wave, 21
set recording properties, 25
start point, 27
test recording level, 26
using with other audio programs, 35
writing audio plugins, 29
Audio Plugins, 71
Auto-Wah, 87
Chorus, 76
Compressor, 71
De-Ess, 89
DSP primer, 71
Echo, 75
Enhancer, 82
Equalizers, 78
Exciter, 83
Gain Change, 79
Gate/Expander, 73
Hum Filter, 80
Pitch Shifter, 84
Reverb, 74
Ring Modulator, 78
Soft Distortion, 74
auto-wah plugin, 87
Band-in-a-Box
guitar chord solo, 16
lyrics, 18
main screen, 12
record audio, 13
recording control, 14
recording level, 14
render audio, 15
Big Piano
Overview, 61
Settings, 61
Using, 61
Big Piano Window, 61
chorus, 76
compression, 71
de-ess plugin, 89
Delay, 75
distortion, 73
Distortion, 74
Echo, 75
Echoplex. See
effects, 71
enhancer plugin, 82
EQ, 78
exciter Plugin, 83
Expander, 73
expansion, 74
Flange, 77
Gain Change, 79
Graphic EQ, 79
Guitar Enhancements
automatic guitar chord solos, 44
convert to chord, 45
convert to note, 47
guitar harmony option, 47
guitar part, 45
guitar tablature, 44
re-channel Melody to guitar
channels, 45
set guitar track, 44
'Guitarist', 48
chord solo, 48
chord types, 55
Index126
generate chord solo, 48
Guitarist Maker, 52
Guitarist window, 48
strumming settings, 54
Harmony Enhancements, 65
convert harmony to notation, 65
new options, 65
overview, 65
hum filter, 80
Introduction, 6
Lyrics, 36
Big Lyrics options dialog, 40
Big Lyrics window, 39
Busker format, 40
copy lyrics to clipboard, 40
entering lyrics note-by-note, 37
lyric edit window, 37
lyric event list, 38
lyrics menu, 36
new lyrics features, 36
note-based lyrics functions, 42
New Features Summary, 7
Notation
Enhancements
Overview, 63
Notation Enhancements, 8, 63
Other New Features, 67
custom chord shortcuts, 68
enhanced song list, 68
fly-by hints, 67
'jazz up' or 'jazz down' chords, 67
polyphonic adjust of Melody tracks,
69
quick copy option "K", 70
read in chords, 68
solo around melody, 67
song endings option, 69
stereo/mono panning, 69
time display, 69
volume control enhancements, 69
Parametric EQ, 79
Peak Limit, 73
PG Music
Address, 111
Tech Support, 111
pitch shifter plugin, 84
Quick Start Tutorial, 12
Band-in-a-Box primer, 12
Rendered, 71
Reverb, 74
Ring Modulation, 78
Style Selection Enhancements, 57
StylePicker window, 57
Stylemaker Enhancements, 10
StyleMaker Enhancements, 59
copy all, 59
delete row, 59
event list editor, 60
pattern trim, 59

Navigation menu