Pg Music Band In A Box 2010 5 Windows User Guide Manual
Band in a Box - 2010.5 (Windows) - User Guide BB_2010_5_windows_en Free User Guide for Band in a Box Software, Manual
2015-07-27
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Version 2010.5 for Windows ® © Copyright PG Music Inc.1989-2010. All rights reserved. PG Music Inc. License Agreement CAREFULLY READ THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS BEFORE COMPLETING THE INSTALLATION OF THIS SOFTWARE. USAGE OF THE SOFTWARE INDICATES YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS. 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 Band-in-a-Box®, Band-in-a-Box for Bozos®, CloudTracks™, CopyMe®, GuitarStar®, JazzU®, PG Music®, PowerTracks Pro®, RealBand®, RealDrums®, RealSolos®, and RealTracks® are either the trademarks or registered trademarks of PG Music Inc. in the United States, Canada, and other countries. Microsoft® and Windows® are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Apple®, the Apple logo, Leopard®, Macintosh®, Mac®, Panther®, Power Mac®, QuickTime®, Tiger™, and TrueType® are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. IBM® is the registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. Roland® and “Roland” Logo, EDIROL® and “EDIROL” Logo, GS® and “GS” Logo, are registered trademarks and “MIDI2” Logo, EDIROL Virtual Sound Canvas Multi Pack, VSC-MP1™ are trademarks of Roland Corporation. ASIO is a trademark and software of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. VST is a trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. Other brands and their products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be noted as such. PATENTS Band-in-a-Box is protected under US Patent 5990407. The TC-Helicon Harmony feature in Band-in-a-Box and PowerTracks Pro Audio is protected under US Patents 5567901, 5641926, 5986198, 34583, 296.80.173.9, PI9603819.5, 0368046, 0750776, 6,046,395, and patents pending. Printed in Canada 2 PG Music Inc. License Agreement Table of Contents PG MUSIC INC. LICENSE AGREEMENT.............................................................................................................2 TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................................3 CHAPTER 1: WELCOME TO BAND-IN-A-BOX!...............................................................................................12 WHAT IS BAND-IN-A-BOX? ......................................................................................................................................12 INSTALLING BAND-IN-A-BOX FOR WINDOWS ..........................................................................................................13 Minimum System Requirements ...........................................................................................................................13 Installing the Program.........................................................................................................................................13 Band-in-a-Box External Hard Drives..................................................................................................................13 MIDI SETUP .............................................................................................................................................................14 Output to Software Synthesizers (DXi and VSTi).................................................................................................15 AUDIO SETUP ...........................................................................................................................................................19 ASIO Audio/Software Synth Drivers....................................................................................................................19 Understanding Latency........................................................................................................................................21 CHAPTER 2: QUICKSTART..................................................................................................................................23 STEP 1 – TYPING IN THE CHORDS .............................................................................................................................23 STEP 2 – CHOOSING A STYLE ....................................................................................................................................26 STEP 3 – PLAY YOUR SONG!......................................................................................................................................28 CHAPTER 3: BAND-IN-A-BOX 2010.5 .................................................................................................................29 WELCOME TO BAND-IN-A-BOX 2010.5 ....................................................................................................................29 40 New Features!.................................................................................................................................................29 NEW FEATURES INCLUDED IN BAND-IN-A-BOX 2010...............................................................................................30 Band-in-a-Box 2010 added over 50 cool new features!.......................................................................................30 THE DETAILS ............................................................................................................................................................31 MORE NEW REALTRACKS ........................................................................................................................................32 RealTracks Sets 83 - 101 .....................................................................................................................................32 QUICKSTART TUTORIAL FOR THE VERSION 2010 AND 2010.5 NEW FEATURES ........................................................36 Quick Song Settings .............................................................................................................................................36 Quick-Load Songs and Styles ..............................................................................................................................36 Easy Big Lyrics Display.......................................................................................................................................36 Improved Audio Rendering..................................................................................................................................36 DAW Plug-in Mode..............................................................................................................................................36 Freeze Tracks ......................................................................................................................................................37 RealTracks Enhancements...................................................................................................................................38 Audio Reverb .......................................................................................................................................................39 Rendering Tracks.................................................................................................................................................40 New Favorite Songs/Styles Dialog ......................................................................................................................41 StylePicker Enhancements...................................................................................................................................42 Lyrics Enhancements ...........................................................................................................................................43 CHAPTER 4: THE MAIN SCREEN.......................................................................................................................45 MAIN SCREEN OVERVIEW ........................................................................................................................................45 Personalizing the Main Screen ............................................................................................................................46 Descriptive Hints .................................................................................................................................................47 Options and Utilities............................................................................................................................................48 STATUS BAR .............................................................................................................................................................48 SYNTH WINDOW / PIANO KEYBOARD .......................................................................................................................48 Toolbars...............................................................................................................................................................52 Table of Contents 3 Floating Toolbars ................................................................................................................................................54 TITLE WINDOW ........................................................................................................................................................56 CHORDSHEET AREA .................................................................................................................................................58 Chord Entry .........................................................................................................................................................59 Chordsheet Options .............................................................................................................................................60 Part Markers........................................................................................................................................................61 MultiStyles ...........................................................................................................................................................61 Play Selected Area as a Loop ..............................................................................................................................61 CHAPTER 5: PLAYING SONGS IN BAND-IN-A-BOX ......................................................................................63 OPENING FILES .........................................................................................................................................................63 Find File ..............................................................................................................................................................63 File Associations..................................................................................................................................................64 Open File Dialog .................................................................................................................................................64 Custom File Selection Dialog ..............................................................................................................................64 Favorite Songs (and Styles) .................................................................................................................................65 GLOBAL SONG OVERRIDES ......................................................................................................................................66 LOADING AND PLAYING BAND-IN-A-BOX SONGS ....................................................................................................67 The SongPicker....................................................................................................................................................68 Change the Style ..................................................................................................................................................71 Make a MultiStyle Song .......................................................................................................................................72 SETTINGS FOR PLAYBACK ........................................................................................................................................72 Patch Changes.....................................................................................................................................................73 General MIDI 2 support ......................................................................................................................................73 Additional Patches...............................................................................................................................................74 CHANGING VOLUME, PANNING, REVERB, CHORUS, BANK .......................................................................................76 PLAYING/PAUSING/STOPPING SONGS .......................................................................................................................76 Lead-In Counts and Metronome ..........................................................................................................................77 Slide Tracks .........................................................................................................................................................77 Play Selected Area as a Loop ..............................................................................................................................78 Loop any Section of the song. ..............................................................................................................................78 “Conductor”- Live Looping/Playback control. ...................................................................................................80 Play along with your MIDI Controller Keyboard ...............................................................................................80 Play Along with the Wizard .................................................................................................................................80 MIDI Normalize...................................................................................................................................................81 Outputting MIDI to an External Device ..............................................................................................................81 ADD REAL INSTRUMENTS – REALDRUMS AND REALTRACKS ..................................................................................81 RealDrums ...........................................................................................................................................................81 RealTracks ...........................................................................................................................................................83 FREEZE TRACKS .......................................................................................................................................................85 THE GUITAR WINDOW .............................................................................................................................................86 Launching the Guitar Window.............................................................................................................................86 Guitar Window Toolbar.......................................................................................................................................90 BIG PIANO WINDOW.................................................................................................................................................90 THE CONDUCTOR .....................................................................................................................................................91 THE JUKEBOX ...........................................................................................................................................................95 Jukebox Options ..................................................................................................................................................96 MEDLEY MAKER ......................................................................................................................................................98 CHAPTER 6: MAKING SONGS IN BAND-IN-A-BOX .......................................................................................99 MAKE YOUR OWN SONGS ........................................................................................................................................99 Getting Started.....................................................................................................................................................99 Setting the tempo .................................................................................................................................................99 “Framing” the Song ............................................................................................................................................99 CHORD ENTRY .......................................................................................................................................................100 Computer Keyboard Entry.................................................................................................................................100 4 Table of Contents Audio Chord Wizard (Chords from MP3) .........................................................................................................101 Copy and Pasting Section of Chords .................................................................................................................101 Deleting Chords.................................................................................................................................................103 Previewing Chords ............................................................................................................................................103 Support for other chord display types................................................................................................................103 Advanced Chord Entry and Editing Features....................................................................................................104 BREAKS - RESTS, SHOTS, AND HELD CHORDS ........................................................................................................105 Chord Options ...................................................................................................................................................106 PART MARKERS AND SUBSTYLES ...........................................................................................................................106 Part Markers......................................................................................................................................................106 MultiStyles .........................................................................................................................................................107 APPLYING STYLES ..................................................................................................................................................109 The StylePicker Window ....................................................................................................................................110 RealStyles, Classic RealStyles and Styles with RealTracks ...............................................................................111 StylePicker Editor..............................................................................................................................................113 Favorite Styles Button........................................................................................................................................117 Style Aliases Dialog...........................................................................................................................................117 Using MultiStyles...............................................................................................................................................119 USING REALTRACKS AND REALDRUMS IN SONGS .................................................................................................120 Using RealTracks in Songs - Assign RealTracks to Track Dialog.....................................................................120 Using RealDrums in Songs................................................................................................................................122 ARRANGING YOUR SONG .......................................................................................................................................125 Setting the tempo ...............................................................................................................................................125 “Framing” the Song ..........................................................................................................................................125 Song Settings Dialog..........................................................................................................................................125 Repeats and Endings..........................................................................................................................................128 ADD A MELODY – MIDI AND/OR AUDIO ................................................................................................................129 Record a MIDI Melody......................................................................................................................................129 Sequencer Mode ................................................................................................................................................129 Record a Live Audio Track ................................................................................................................................130 Opening and Importing Audio Files ..................................................................................................................132 Harmonize the MIDI Melody.............................................................................................................................133 Play Along with the Wizard ...............................................................................................................................136 IMPORT A MIDI FILE ..............................................................................................................................................137 MIDI File Chord Interpretation Wizard ............................................................................................................137 ADD A SOLO - “THE SOLOIST”................................................................................................................................138 AUTOMATIC SONGS - “THE MELODIST” .................................................................................................................140 Launching the Melodist .....................................................................................................................................141 EDIT FUNCTIONS ....................................................................................................................................................141 Edit Dialogs.......................................................................................................................................................146 PIANO ROLL WINDOW ............................................................................................................................................150 Track Selection ..................................................................................................................................................150 Keyboard Pitch Panel........................................................................................................................................151 Note Panel .........................................................................................................................................................151 Graphic Event Panel..........................................................................................................................................151 Chord Ruler and Note Time Ruler Panel...........................................................................................................153 Note Editing.......................................................................................................................................................154 Right-Click Contextual Menu ............................................................................................................................155 Horizontal Scroll Bar, [+] and [-] Buttons .......................................................................................................157 Vertical Scroll Bar, [+] and [-] Buttons............................................................................................................157 Zoom Buttons.....................................................................................................................................................157 VIEW AND PRINT NOTATION ..................................................................................................................................157 Standard Notation Window................................................................................................................................158 Editable Notation Mode.....................................................................................................................................158 Staff Roll Notation Mode ...................................................................................................................................160 Adding Note-Based Lyrics to Your Song ...........................................................................................................160 Table of Contents 5 LEAD SHEET NOTATION WINDOW ..........................................................................................................................161 Launching the Lead Sheet Window....................................................................................................................161 Multiple Tracks of Notation...............................................................................................................................162 Multiple lines of Lyrics on Fake Sheet...............................................................................................................162 Lead Sheet “Lyric Text Block”..........................................................................................................................163 Lead Sheet Printing ...........................................................................................................................................164 Multi-Channel Notation (Sequencer Mode).......................................................................................................165 DIGITAL AUDIO FEATURES .....................................................................................................................................167 Audio Chord Wizard (Chords from MP3) .........................................................................................................167 Add Audio Harmonies........................................................................................................................................170 Audio Reverb .....................................................................................................................................................171 More Audio Effects ............................................................................................................................................172 THE MEDLEY MAKER .............................................................................................................................................172 SAVING SONGS .......................................................................................................................................................173 Saving MIDI and Karaoke Files........................................................................................................................175 SAVING AUDIO FILES .............................................................................................................................................179 SAVE YOUR CONFIGURATION .................................................................................................................................180 BURN YOUR OWN AUDIO-CD................................................................................................................................181 Congratulations!................................................................................................................................................181 CHAPTER 7: REALTRACKS AND REALDRUMS...........................................................................................182 REALTRACKS .........................................................................................................................................................182 What are RealTracks? .......................................................................................................................................182 REALTRACKS SETTINGS .........................................................................................................................................182 USING REALTRACKS ..............................................................................................................................................186 Freeze Tracks ....................................................................................................................................................190 Using RealTracks in Styles. ...............................................................................................................................191 Using RealTracks in Solos.................................................................................................................................192 Saving Your RealTracks ....................................................................................................................................192 REALDRUMS ..........................................................................................................................................................193 How Do RealDrums Work? ...............................................................................................................................193 RealDrums Settings ...........................................................................................................................................193 RealDrums Picker – Assign RealDrums to Songs .............................................................................................195 AUDIO CONTROLS FOR REALTRACKS AND REALDRUMS .......................................................................................199 Tone Control......................................................................................................................................................199 Audio Reverb Control ........................................................................................................................................199 REVERB SETTINGS ..................................................................................................................................................200 Reverb Parameters ............................................................................................................................................200 Saving Settings to Presets..................................................................................................................................201 Auto Reverb .......................................................................................................................................................201 CHAPTER 8: NOTATION AND PRINTING ......................................................................................................202 Exploring the Notation Window ........................................................................................................................202 STANDARD NOTATION WINDOW ............................................................................................................................203 Right-click menu for Standard Notation ............................................................................................................204 Keystroke Commands ........................................................................................................................................204 EDITABLE NOTATION MODE ..................................................................................................................................205 Right-click Editable Notation menu...................................................................................................................207 Editing Note Values ...........................................................................................................................................209 STAFF ROLL NOTATION MODE ...............................................................................................................................210 NOTATION WINDOW OPTIONS ................................................................................................................................211 Notation Settings................................................................................................................................................216 Display Patch Names on Notation.....................................................................................................................217 Keystroke Note Editing ......................................................................................................................................219 Section Text for Notation ...................................................................................................................................220 Scrub Mode on Notation....................................................................................................................................220 6 Table of Contents LEAD SHEET WINDOW ...........................................................................................................................................221 Lead Sheet Options Dialog................................................................................................................................222 Fake Sheet Mode ...............................................................................................................................................225 Multiple lines of Lyrics on Fake Sheet...............................................................................................................225 Lead Sheet Memo...............................................................................................................................................226 Harmony Notation Display................................................................................................................................227 Multi-Channel Notation (Sequencer Mode).......................................................................................................228 LYRICS ...................................................................................................................................................................228 Note-based Lyrics ..............................................................................................................................................229 Lyric Document Window ...................................................................................................................................231 Big Lyrics (Karaoke) Window ...........................................................................................................................232 PRINTING ................................................................................................................................................................234 Print Options .....................................................................................................................................................234 Print Preview.....................................................................................................................................................237 Print Multiple Songs ..........................................................................................................................................240 CHAPTER 9: AUTOMATIC MUSIC FEATURES.............................................................................................243 AUTOMATIC MEDLEYS - “THE MEDLEY MAKER” ..................................................................................................243 AUTOMATIC SONGS – “THE MELODIST” ................................................................................................................244 Automatic Intro – Song Intros ...........................................................................................................................247 Automatic Song Title Generation ......................................................................................................................248 AUTOMATIC SOUND TRACK GENERATOR - “SOUNDTRACK” .................................................................................248 AUTOMATIC SOLO GENERATION – “THE SOLOIST” ................................................................................................250 RealTracks .........................................................................................................................................................251 Melody Influenced Solos....................................................................................................................................253 Using the Soloist Feature ..................................................................................................................................255 Soloist Maker.....................................................................................................................................................256 AUTO PIANO HAND-SPLITTING ...............................................................................................................................258 Piano Track (Notation Options) ........................................................................................................................258 Melody and Soloist Tracks.................................................................................................................................258 AUTOMATIC GUITAR SOLOS – “THE GUITARIST”...................................................................................................259 AUTOMATIC EMBELLISHMENTS – “THE EMBELLISHER”.........................................................................................262 Overview............................................................................................................................................................262 Using The Embellisher ......................................................................................................................................262 Embellisher Settings ..........................................................................................................................................263 CHAPTER 10: WORKING WITH MIDI.............................................................................................................266 RECORDING LIVE IN REAL TIME.............................................................................................................................266 Count-In and Metronome Options.....................................................................................................................267 Recording to an external sequencer ..................................................................................................................267 ENTERING NOTES MANUALLY ...............................................................................................................................267 RECORDING WITH THE WIZARD FEATURE ..............................................................................................................268 Melody Wizard...................................................................................................................................................268 MELODY/SOLOIST SEQUENCER ..............................................................................................................................269 IMPORT A BAND-IN-A-BOX SONG...........................................................................................................................272 IMPORTING MIDI FILES..........................................................................................................................................273 Importing MIDI Files to the Melody or Soloist Tracks .....................................................................................273 Import to the Melody with the MIDI Chord Wizard ..........................................................................................274 Additional Options for Melody/Soloist Track ....................................................................................................274 EDITING THE MELODY TRACK................................................................................................................................275 Event List Editor................................................................................................................................................275 Event List Filter .................................................................................................................................................276 Notation Window Editing ..................................................................................................................................277 Piano Roll Window Editing ...............................................................................................................................278 CHAPTER 11: WORKING WITH AUDIO .........................................................................................................281 Table of Contents 7 ABOUT BAND-IN-A-BOX AUDIO FILES ...................................................................................................................281 AUDIO TRACK ........................................................................................................................................................281 Audio Playback Settings ....................................................................................................................................281 PG Music Reverb...............................................................................................................................................282 Import Audio File to Audio Track......................................................................................................................283 Audio Offset .......................................................................................................................................................284 RECORD AUDIO ......................................................................................................................................................285 Audio VU meters................................................................................................................................................286 Punch-In Recording...........................................................................................................................................287 PLAYING THE AUDIO FILE ......................................................................................................................................288 EDIT THE AUDIO FILE .............................................................................................................................................288 Audio Edit Window Toolbar ..............................................................................................................................289 Non-Destructive Audio Track Editing ...............................................................................................................289 AUDIO HARMONIES ................................................................................................................................................289 Audio Harmonies Tutorial.................................................................................................................................290 Choir Effect........................................................................................................................................................293 Audio Harmonies Pitch Styles (automatic “Vibrato” and “Scooping”) ...........................................................294 Pitch Styles Preset Details (one per voice)........................................................................................................294 APPLYING AUDIO PLUG-INS ...................................................................................................................................295 Direct-X or VST Plug-ins...................................................................................................................................295 Reading the Audio and MIDI tracks into other programs .................................................................................298 RENDERING AUDIO FILES .......................................................................................................................................299 Rendering WAV Files ........................................................................................................................................299 Rendering in Other Audio Formats ...................................................................................................................301 BURN YOUR OWN AUDIO-CD .................................................................................................................................303 CHAPTER 12: TUTORS, WIZARDS, AND FUN ...............................................................................................307 AUDIO CHORD WIZARD (“CHORDS FROM MP3”)...................................................................................................307 Chordsheet Overview.........................................................................................................................................307 Opening Files ....................................................................................................................................................308 Audio Chord Wizard Window ............................................................................................................................309 Primary Program Controls................................................................................................................................309 Chord Detection ................................................................................................................................................310 Keyboard Shortcuts ...........................................................................................................................................311 Special Cases.....................................................................................................................................................312 Bad Initial Tempo Estimates..............................................................................................................................312 Odd Length Bars and Drastic Tempo Changes .................................................................................................314 Notes Display.....................................................................................................................................................315 Display Controls................................................................................................................................................315 MIDI FILE CHORD INTERPRETATION WIZARD .......................................................................................................317 Importing Chords ..............................................................................................................................................318 Importing Part of a MIDI file or re-doing a section of the Chordsheet) ...........................................................321 Other Settings for the Chord Wizard .................................................................................................................321 PRACTICE WINDOW ................................................................................................................................................322 EAR TRAINING TUTOR ............................................................................................................................................324 Interval Tutor.....................................................................................................................................................325 Chord Tutor .......................................................................................................................................................326 EAR TRAINING GAMES ...........................................................................................................................................327 Pitch Invasion ....................................................................................................................................................327 Music Replay .....................................................................................................................................................328 VOCAL WIZARD .....................................................................................................................................................329 REHARMONIST (CHORDS FOR A MELODY)..............................................................................................................332 Generate Chords for a Melody ..........................................................................................................................332 CHORD SUBSTITUTION WIZARD .............................................................................................................................334 Chord Substitution Dialog.................................................................................................................................334 CHORD BUILDER ....................................................................................................................................................336 8 Table of Contents RHYTHM GUITAR CHORD TUTOR ...........................................................................................................................337 CHORD “BREAKS” ..................................................................................................................................................338 MIDI FILE TO STYLE WIZARD................................................................................................................................338 Using the MIDI File to Style Wizard .................................................................................................................339 Advanced Settings and Preferences...................................................................................................................341 REPEATS AND ENDINGS WIZARD............................................................................................................................344 Tutorial ..............................................................................................................................................................344 CHAPTER 13: TOOLS AND UTILITIES............................................................................................................348 DAW PLUG-IN MODE ............................................................................................................................................348 Plug-In Options .................................................................................................................................................349 FIND FILE ...............................................................................................................................................................350 ROLAND VSC3 VIRTUAL SOUND CANVAS .............................................................................................................351 TRANZPORT SUPPORT - WIRELESS REMOTE CONTROL ..........................................................................................351 Using TranzPort with Band-in-a-Box................................................................................................................352 GUITAR/BASS TUNER .............................................................................................................................................353 Master Tuning....................................................................................................................................................354 DYNAMIC 3D DRUM KIT WINDOW.........................................................................................................................354 Drum Display ....................................................................................................................................................354 Control Buttons: ................................................................................................................................................355 Computer “QWERTY” Keys..............................................................................................................................356 Numeric keypad .................................................................................................................................................356 Multi - Note Instruments....................................................................................................................................356 Settings Dialog ..................................................................................................................................................356 MIDI MONITOR......................................................................................................................................................357 MIDI Monitor- Main Window............................................................................................................................358 Display Filter.....................................................................................................................................................359 SOUND BLASTER SUPPORT .....................................................................................................................................360 AWE 32/64 editor ..............................................................................................................................................360 EVENT LIST EDITOR ...............................................................................................................................................360 Event List Filter .................................................................................................................................................361 PG VINYL DIRECTX PLUG-IN.................................................................................................................................362 PG Vinyl Tool Features .....................................................................................................................................362 PG RTA DIRECTX PLUG-IN ...................................................................................................................................366 Control Descriptions .........................................................................................................................................366 PG VOCAL REMOVER PLUG-IN ..............................................................................................................................367 Operation...........................................................................................................................................................367 CHAPTER 14: USER PROGRAMMABLE FUNCTIONS.................................................................................369 THE STYLEMAKER .................................................................................................................................................369 StyleMaker Toolbar Buttons ..............................................................................................................................372 Exploring the StyleMaker ..................................................................................................................................373 Drum Patterns ...................................................................................................................................................373 RealDrums Styles...............................................................................................................................................376 Bass Patterns .....................................................................................................................................................377 Piano, Guitar, and String Patterns....................................................................................................................383 Guitar Styles with the StyleMaker .....................................................................................................................385 Miscellaneous Style Settings..............................................................................................................................389 More Settings (for Rests, Pushes, RealTracks) ..................................................................................................391 Assign Instruments to Style Dialog Box.............................................................................................................393 Advanced Editing Of Patterns ...........................................................................................................................394 Style Log Options...............................................................................................................................................395 Alternatives to Recording Patterns....................................................................................................................396 Editing Patterns.................................................................................................................................................399 Using the MIDI File to Style Wizard .................................................................................................................399 Advanced Settings and Preferences...................................................................................................................401 Table of Contents 9 MAKING REALDRUMS STYLES ...............................................................................................................................404 Introduction to RealDrums ................................................................................................................................404 Making A RealDrums Style Using An Existing Template ..................................................................................405 Elements of RealDrums Styles ...........................................................................................................................408 Elements of the Text File ...................................................................................................................................409 Pattern Definition ..............................................................................................................................................412 Shots Definition .................................................................................................................................................417 Additional Entries in the Text File.....................................................................................................................418 Alternate Styles & Expanded/Reduced Styles ....................................................................................................419 Testing Your RealDrums Style...........................................................................................................................420 Using your RealDrums style in Band-in-a-Box .................................................................................................422 THE HARMONY MAKER..........................................................................................................................................422 THE SOLOIST MAKER .............................................................................................................................................426 THE MELODIST MAKER ..........................................................................................................................................430 THE GUITARIST MAKER .........................................................................................................................................432 CHAPTER 15: REFERENCE................................................................................................................................436 BAND-IN-A-BOX MENU DESCRIPTIONS ..................................................................................................................436 FILE MENU .............................................................................................................................................................436 EDIT MENU ............................................................................................................................................................440 STYLES MENU ........................................................................................................................................................446 OPT. MENU.............................................................................................................................................................448 Preferences….....................................................................................................................................................451 Preferences Buttons ...........................................................................................................................................453 Display Options .................................................................................................................................................453 Arrangement Options.........................................................................................................................................455 Count-in and Metronome Options .....................................................................................................................457 MIDI File Options .............................................................................................................................................459 MIDI Driver Setup.............................................................................................................................................460 MIDI Options.....................................................................................................................................................462 MIDI Settings.....................................................................................................................................................463 Harmony ............................................................................................................................................................464 Soloist ................................................................................................................................................................464 Colors ................................................................................................................................................................465 Patch Map .........................................................................................................................................................466 Drum Kit............................................................................................................................................................467 Favorite Instruments..........................................................................................................................................468 Output Chords on Channel................................................................................................................................469 Transpose ..........................................................................................................................................................470 Record Filter......................................................................................................................................................470 Notation .............................................................................................................................................................471 Lead Sheet Options ............................................................................................................................................471 Audio Settings ....................................................................................................................................................472 Guitar Settings...................................................................................................................................................475 Big Piano Settings .............................................................................................................................................476 Lyric Window Options .......................................................................................................................................477 Overrides ...........................................................................................................................................................478 RealDrums .........................................................................................................................................................479 RealTracks .........................................................................................................................................................481 Tranzport ...........................................................................................................................................................484 Practice..............................................................................................................................................................485 Reverb................................................................................................................................................................486 DAW Plugin.......................................................................................................................................................487 PLAY MENU ...........................................................................................................................................................489 LYRICS MENU ........................................................................................................................................................491 MELODY MENU ......................................................................................................................................................493 10 Table of Contents SOLOIST MENU .......................................................................................................................................................499 Utilities ..............................................................................................................................................................502 AUDIO MENU .........................................................................................................................................................504 GM MENU ..............................................................................................................................................................507 HARMONY MENU ...................................................................................................................................................510 NOTATION MENU ...................................................................................................................................................512 WINDOW MENU .....................................................................................................................................................513 HELP MENU............................................................................................................................................................517 SHORTCUTS: KEYSTROKE COMMANDS - HOT KEYS ...............................................................................................519 Quick Song Settings ...........................................................................................................................................519 Quick-Load Songs and Styles ............................................................................................................................519 Keystroke Commands ........................................................................................................................................519 Muting Parts ......................................................................................................................................................519 Selecting Parts...................................................................................................................................................519 Instrument Part Settings ....................................................................................................................................519 Volume Settings .................................................................................................................................................520 Looping / Song Navigation Keystrokes..............................................................................................................520 Transpose Settings.............................................................................................................................................520 Custom File Open Dialog..................................................................................................................................520 Windows ............................................................................................................................................................520 StyleMaker Hot Keys .........................................................................................................................................521 StyleMaker Drum Screen Hot Keys ...................................................................................................................521 Additional Keystrokes........................................................................................................................................521 CHORD LIST ...........................................................................................................................................................522 BAND-IN-A-BOX FILES ...........................................................................................................................................523 Essential Program Files ....................................................................................................................................523 PG MUSIC INC. ......................................................................................................................................................525 APPENDIX: REALTRACKS SETS.....................................................................................................................526 INDEX ......................................................................................................................................................................536 PG MUSIC REGISTRATION FORM ..................................................................................................................546 How To Register ................................................................................................................................................546 Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box! 11 Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box! Congratulations on your purchase of Band-in-a-Box, the favorite of musicians, students, and songwriters everywhere. Get ready to have fun! What is Band-in-a-Box? Band-in-a-Box is an intelligent automatic accompaniment program for your multimedia computer. You can hear and play along to many song ideas and go from “nothing” to “something” in a very short period of time with Band-ina-Box as your “on demand” backup band. Band-in-a-Box is so easy to use! Just type in the chords for any song using standard chord symbols (like C, Fm7, or C13b9), choose the style you’d like, and Band-in-a-Box does the rest, automatically generating a complete professionalquality arrangement of piano, bass, drums, guitar, and strings or horns in a wide variety of popular styles plus optional live audio tracks with RealDrums and RealTracks. And that’s not all... Band-in-a-Box is a powerful and creative music composition tool for exploring and developing musical ideas with near-instantaneous feedback. Over the years many features have been added to Band-in-a-Box – Notation and Lyrics, Piano Roll, 16-channel MIDI Multitracks, Harmonization, the StyleMaker and StylePicker, a live performance Conductor window, Medley Maker, and 24 –substyle Multistyles. The Soloist and the Melodist are popular “intelligent” features that generate professional solos or even create whole new songs from scratch. RealDrums adds the human element of a live drummer while RealTracks add even more live session musicians, bringing the entire Band-in-a-Box arrangement to life. The Audio Chord Wizard has the amazing ability to analyze, extract, and show the chords from audio recordings onscreen and then write them to the Band-in-a-Box chordsheet. The inclusion of digital audio features makes Band-in-a-Box the perfect tool for creating, playing, and recording your music with MIDI, vocals, and acoustic instruments. Band-in-a-Box for Windows® can also record an acoustic instrument or voice to add to the composition, with processing through its own DirectX audio effects. Its built-in TC Helicon audio harmonies will turn your audio track into multiple harmony parts or adjust its pitch, with vibrato and scooping effects for realistic vocal styles and up to sixteen choral parts. You can print out your finished creation with lyrics, chords, repeats and endings, DC markings and codas, or save it as a graphics file for web publication or to e-mail to a friend. And when you're ready to let others hear your composition, you can burn it directly to an audio CD. Or save your composition as a Windows Media File (or in any other compressed formats you have) for a file that’s “Internet ready.” You’ll have even more fun making automatic medleys, playing your favorite song lists in the Band-in-aBox Jukebox, and singing along to your Karaoke files with CDG graphics. Let’s get started! This is a comprehensive guide to the program, including information not included the printed manual. We’ll begin with the easy installation and setup procedure. 12 Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box! Installing Band-in-a-Box for Windows ® Minimum System Requirements - ® Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista/7. 256 MB of available RAM. Digital audio features require a Pentium-class system. Minimum 400 MB available hard drive space. More space is required for RealDrums, about 1 GB per set. RealTracks (included with Band-in-a-Box) requires 2.5 GB of free hard disk space. Band-in-a-Box is fully functional with or without RealTracks and RealDrums. A MIDI sound source is required. This could be a sound card, a MIDI keyboard, MIDI sound module, or software synthesizer. Band-in-a-Box comes with both the DXi and VST versions of the high quality Roland VSC (Virtual Sound Canvas) software synthesizer. Installing the Program Use any of the following three methods to install the program files into the Band-in-a-Box directory. By default this directory is C:\bb; you may choose another location. Method 1 – Auto Run. 1. Insert the program CD-ROM into the CD drive. 2. In a few seconds, a browser window will open with a list of the CD contents. 3. Double click on SETUP.EXE to run the installation program. Method 2 – My Computer. 1. Insert the program CD-ROM into the CD drive. Access your CD-ROM drive from the Windows desktop by double clicking on the My Computer icon. 2. Then, double-click on the CD-ROM drive icon and double-click again on the SETUP.EXE program found in 3. the root or main folder of the CD-ROM. Method 3 – Start Menu. 1. Insert the program CD-ROM into the CD drive. 2. From the Windows [Start] button select Run. 3. Type D:\SETUP in the “Open:” command line box. If your CD-ROM drive uses another drive letter type the appropriate letter, for example E:\SETUP. 4. If you don’t know the drive letter for your CD-ROM you can use the [Browse…] button to find it. SETUP.EXE will copy all of the program files to your Band-in-a-Box subdirectory (usually C:\bb) and install icons to a Band-in-a-Box program group. Click on the Band-in-a-Box icon or launch bbw.exe to open the program and configure the setup. Band-in-a-Box External Hard Drives Larger versions of Band-in-a-Box ship on portable USB hard drives. They include the entire Band-in-a-Box and RealBand programs plus all RealTracks and RealDrums sets. Hard Drive Setup You can run Band-in-a-Box and RealBand directly from the hard drive by using the program shortcuts in the PG Music folder. Before you use the programs, you should double-click on UltraPAK Setup.exe. This will set up any files that need to be installed/registered on your computer. You only need to do this once. Alternatively, you could copy the entire PG Music folder to another hard disk, and run Band-in-a-Box from there. This is useful if you don't want to run the program directly from this hard disk, or if you want to make a backup. Installing From the External Drive You can also find the Band-in-a-Box installer in the Installers folder, however most people wouldn't use this file. We have included it in case you would like to install Band-in-a-Box on your computer's hard drive the “traditional” way. It is also useful if you want to upgrade a previous version of Band-in-a-Box that you already have installed. We haven't included the large installer files for RealTracks and RealDrums. These files are all in the bb folder and can be copied over manually if need be. Please see the “readme” files on the hard drive for more detailed information. Note: Before unplugging the hard drive from your computer, make sure it is not in use, then click the ‘Safely Remove Hardware’ icon in your taskbar. When you plug the drive in, Windows may prompt you to select an appropriate action - if so, select 'Open folder to view files'. Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box! 13 MIDI Setup Band-in-a-Box uses the multimedia drivers for your MIDI interface and/or sound card that are supported by the Windows operating system. To get sound playback you need to have a MIDI (and audio - for songs with digital audio, RealDrums, and RealTracks) driver installed. To start using the program you will need to make sure that your MIDI interface, audio driver, and Windows sound source is installed and configured. Run the program by double-clicking the program icon. The first dialog you should encounter is a MIDI Output Driver message similar to this one: The program sets your initial MIDI output driver automatically. Note which driver has been selected and press [OK] to continue. The next dialog you encounter is the MIDI/Audio Drivers Setup. If the driver that was selected is not the best choice, simply make an alternate selection from the MIDI Driver Setup dialog. Select a MIDI Output Driver to use for MIDI sound playback and optionally a MIDI Input Driver if you are using an external MIDI controller keyboard or guitar. If the setup is panned to mono, the program offers to change it to stereo. Perhaps the easiest way to configure Band-in-a-Box is to press the [Run Driver Wizard..] button in the Opt. | MIDI driver setup window. 14 Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box! The MIDI Output Driver Wizard dialog will take you step-by-step through the process of auditioning and selecting an appropriate driver. This assumes that the appropriate Windows sound drivers are installed and correctly configured. Output to Software Synthesizers (DXi and VSTi) Software synthesizers allow Band-in-a-Box to play high quality sounds directly through your computer sound card, without requiring any external MIDI hardware. Most new software synthesizers are released as “plug-ins,” so they will work in a standard way with many programs. Connecting Band-in-a-Box to the software synth as a plug-in provides several advantages over the previous method of connecting as a MIDI driver. The plug-in allows Band-ina-Box to merge/synch in any existing audio file (vocals etc.) with the synth output. You can also directly render your performance to a .WAV file using the plug-in. Sampler-based synths allow you to assemble a huge, customized library of instrument samples to use with Band-in-a-Box. The current DXi or VSTi synth name is displayed in the button that launches the VST/DXi settings. DirectX Instrument Synthesizer (DXi plug-in) Support To use DXi with Band-in-a-Box, you should think of the DXi as a type of “MIDI Out Driver.” As such, you visit either the Opt. | MIDI driver setup or click on [Pref] [MIDI Driver] and select the “Use DXi Synth” checkbox. When you do this, you can select the type of DXi to use (from a list of installed DXi, if any), and also will see a panel display of the DXi that allows you to make settings directly for your DXi synth. The DXi will convert the MIDI information to audio, which Band-in-a-Box will playback through your sound card to audio speakers. You can select DirectX DXi Software Synthesizers as the MIDI destination, and also apply DirectX Audio plug-ins to the Band-in-a-Box audio track. Check the Use DXi Synth checkbox to enable DXi playback. While using DXi or VSTi, all playback information is routed to the DXi/VSTi, including the option to route the THRU part from your MIDI keyboard to the DXi/VSTi synth. Note: To use this option, you must have a polyphonic DXi synthesizer installed on your computer, such as the Roland/Edirol VSC DXi. It will also be most convenient if your DXi synthesizer can use General MIDI or GM2 patches. To select the DXi synthesizer, click the [DXi Synth Settings] button, which will open the DirectX Plugins window. Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box! 15 The Synth Track tab edits Synthesizer settings, and the Audio Track tab edits Band-in-aBox audio track DirectX plug-ins. Select your desired DXi synth in the top plug-in Insert Slot 1. To apply DirectX audio plug-ins to the synth, insert DX audio plug-ins to Insert Slots 2, 3, or 4. This can be useful to add EQ, Reverb, Compression, or Peak Limiting plug-ins, if the “raw sound” of the synthesizer needs sweetening. VSTi Instrument Synthesizer (VST plug-in) To add VSTi synthesizer plug-ins, please make sure the Synth Track tab is selected, and use the plug-in menu on the top synthesizer slot. VST plug-ins appear at the bottom of the plug-in list below the DirectX plug-ins. VST plug-ins and synthesizers have the text ““ prefixed to the name of the plug-in or synthesizer. To select a VST plug-in for the first time, select the “Add VST plug-in...” item at the bottom of the plug-in Menu. Select a VST plug-in .dll file in the following Select a VST plug-in dialog, and it is added to the plug-in list. After you add each VST, the plug-in is permanently added to the list. You only have to add each plug-in one time. Note: Some VST host programs scan for all available plug-ins every time they start up. We decided not to use that method, because the scanning can take a long time if there are many plug-ins on your system. Additionally, a badly-written or corrupt plug-in could cause program malfunctions. Therefore, we feel the method of selecting only the plug-ins you wish to use is both safer and faster. VST/VSTi Additional Panel Controls VST is necessarily different from DirectX/DXi, and some extra controls are available for VST plug-ins. DirectX/DXi plug-ins save their presets to the Windows Registry and only one setting is “alive” at a time. VST/VSTi plug-ins save their presets to disk files. VST/VSTi plug-ins contain a bank of presets in memory. You can switch between presets while editing, and each edited preset is remembered in the current bank. If you save the bank, it will save all the presets you have edited. You can save individual presets, or you can build a custom bank by loading individual preset files into different preset slots, and then save the new bank file. 16 Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box! Select Preset Menu Select a preset. You can also use the small Right/Left arrow buttons to step forward/backwards through the presets one at a time, to audition each preset. Note: Some very nice plug-ins, including some advanced synthesizer plug-ins, may only have one preset, but that single preset can be a doozy containing many settings. Even with single-preset plug-ins, you can Save/Load Presets or Banks. Rename Pst: Rename the currently selected Preset (in the plug-in's memory). Save Preset: Save the currently selected Preset. VST/VSTi preset files use the “.fxp” extension. Load Preset: A Select Preset To Replace dialog appears where you should pick which preset in memory to replace. Then select the desired Preset file in the following File dialog. Save Bank: Save a Bank file of all the current presets in the plug-in. VST/VSTi bank files use the “.fxb” extension. Load Bank: Load an entire bank of presets. Different plug-ins have different bank sizes. One plug-in might contain 10 presets in a bank, but another plug-in might have 128 presets in a bank. VST Generic User Interface VST/VSTi plug-ins are not required to have a fancy graphic control panel. There are many “faceless” VST plug-ins which have many adjustable parameters, but no fancy control panel. When you open such a plug-in, the control panel will look like this example. Band-in-a-Box presents one “generic” slider for each adjustable parameter in the plug-in. Parameter Name: Simply the name of each adjustable parameter. Value Slider: Move the slider to adjust the parameter value Value Indication Text: Displays the value of the slider, as interpreted by the plug-in. In the above example, Parameter 0: Bright is interpreted as an ON/OFF switch, but Parameter 1: Volume is interpreted as a value from 0 to 10. Options: Remove VST Plug-In (from list) This feature allows the removal of unwanted plug-ins from the Band-in-a-Box VST/VSTi plug-in lists. Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box! 17 Driver Latency Software synthesizers have some inherent latency, which is the delay between the time a note is played and it is processed by the computer. Older softsynths had noticeable latency, whereas a DXi synth using ASIO drivers has very little. This setting is used to synchronize the visual display (notation, chords, virtual piano etc.) with the sound you hear. Band-in-a-Box automatically sets the latency for DXi and some other softsynths. The [Latency Adjust…] button opens the SoftSynth Latency Adjust dialog where you can manually adjust the latency. Alternate Patch Maps You can choose the patch map (instrument list) that matches your synthesizer keyboard or sound module. Original equipment sound cards or integrated sound chips are General MIDI (GM) compatible. We have made preset drum/patch files for many synthesizers and sound cards including the Roland VSC and VSC DXi. If your synth is not listed you should use the General MIDI Instrument Misc. patch kit (default). You can probably omit this step unless you're using an old synth that is not General MIDI compatible. If your non-GM synthesizer or sound card is not listed you can easily make your own patch map with the [Patch Map] button in Opt. | Preferences. General MIDI 2 (GM2) Support General MIDI 2 patches are supported for 128 additional instruments. The type of GM2 support is set in this dialog. 18 Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box! The choices are: - General MIDI 2 support: If you're using the Roland VSC3, or a newer Sound Canvas (i.e. newer than 1999, or newer than the Roland SC88), then choose this GM2 support. - Roland GS (older Modules): “Older” Sound Canvases (SC55/SC88) support GS, but not GM2. The good news is that they have the same patches available, just at different locations. So if you choose this option, Band-in-a-Box will find the patches at the “GS” locations instead of the “GM2” locations. If you have a newer GS module like the SC8820, it supports both GM2 and GS - you should likely choose GM2. - No GM2 support: Some sound cards don't have GM2 support but they do support the original 128 General MIDI sounds. Band-in-a-Box will use the closest instrument in these cases. Audio Setup The [Audio Settings] button in the MIDI/Audio Drivers Setup displays the current audio driver and status, MME/ASIO/ASIO Always On. Band-in-a-Box performs the audio setup automatically using the installed system audio components To restore or modify this set up click on the Preferences button and then select the [Audio] button to launch the Audio Settings dialog. To reset the default MME driver settings click on [Get from soundcard…] and Band-in-a-Box will analyze the sound card and enter the correct audio settings. If your computer has ASIO capability you can use these drivers instead of the default MME drivers. ASIO Audio/Software Synth Drivers By using an ASIO audio driver, software synths like the Roland VSC (DXi or VSC) will play with almost no latency (delay is only 5-10ms). So you’ll hear the sounds instantly, and be able to play along using MIDI Thru with the same ultra-low latency. Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box! 19 On the Preferences [Audio] tab, you’ll see the following options for “Audio Driver Type,” MME or ASIO. MME is the default Windows audio driver type. MME is good, but there is latency (delay) associated with MME drivers. For this reason, Steinberg developed a faster type of audio driver system, called ASIO. It allows for much lower latency than ordinary MME drivers do. Note: Many OEM or value sound cards do not include an ASIO driver, so you may not have an ASIO driver yet. In this case, you’ll need to get an ASIO driver from the Internet. This ASIO Audio Drivers dialog lets you choose an ASIO driver. You can arrive at this dialog in 3 different ways: 1) If you haven’t used ASIO drivers, but Band-in-a-Box detected them, and you answered “Yes” when Bandin-a-Box asked if you want to use an ASIO driver. 2) If, within the Audio Settings, you change the “Audio Driver Type” from MME to ASIO. 3) If the ‘Audio Driver Type’ is already set to ASIO, but you later press the [Audio Drivers…] button in the Audio Settings. The Select one ASIO Driver list box lets you select an ASIO driver to use. You can only select one ASIO driver at a time. Once you have selected an ASIO driver, you will see the Input Port and Output Port list boxes filled with your driver’s input and output ports. By default, the first of each will be selected. You are allowed to select different ports (but only one input and one output port at a time can be selected). The ports you selected will be available for 20 Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box! output within Band-in-a-Box. If you do not hear input or output, then you may need to try different ports than the defaults. You may need to read your sound card’s instructions to determine the correct ports to use. Tip: The ASIO4All driver sometimes cannot connect if the Microsoft GS Wavetable synth is being used as a driver. So if this happens, you will get a message that ASIO will be silent, and the solution is to de-select the ASIO4All driver. The ASIO Driver’s Control Panel button launches the Control Panel for your driver. This usually lets you adjust the latency by letting you choose different buffer sizes in milliseconds. Some drivers might let you choose the buffer size in samples, which is less convenient than milliseconds. The smaller the buffer size, the lower the latency, and the faster the response. Smaller buffers require more CPU power and if you hear dropouts or artifacts, you may need to increase the buffer size. See the Understanding Latency section that follows. Since many ASIO drivers do not support multiple sample rates, Band-in-a-Box has a built-in resampler which lets you play and record songs that have a different sampling rate than the rate(s) directly supported by your ASIO driver. For example, if the driver does not support 44.1K sampling rate, but supports 48K, then Band-in-a-Box will use the resampler to convert to 48K when playing back, and to convert FROM 48K when recording. The Resampler Quality combo lets you choose Fast, Good, Better, or Best. Fast is the quickest, but is the lowest of the four levels of quality. Best is the slowest (uses more CPU time), but the most transparent and accurate quality. The ASIO Driver’s Control Panel button launches a settings dialog specifically provided by your driver manufacturer. This usually lets you adjust the latency, and usually you will have a choice between buffer sizes in milliseconds. See the following section on Understanding Latency. Show Warning for Untested Soundcard Formats is an optional setting that shows a warning if your ASIO driver format has not been tested in Band-in-a-Box. This message does not necessarily mean your driver will not work, and it can be disabled if you want. The Driver Info field shows various characteristics of your driver. The Name is the driver’s name. The Version is the version number of your driver. Input Channels is the total number of mono input channels that your sound card has. (Note: Band-in-a-Box groups each into a stereo pair.) Output Channels is the total number of mono output channels that your sound card has. (Note: Band-in-a-Box groups each port into a stereo pair.) The Allowed Sample Rates field shows the sample rates are allowed by your sound card’s ASIO driver. Band-in-aBox has a built-in resampler which lets you play and record files that aren’t directly supported by your ASIO driver. The Buffer Sizes In Samples shows the range of allowed buffer sizes. The “Pref” is the preferred size, and this is the size that Band-in-a-Box uses. Your driver may alter the preferred size if you’ve launched the ASIO Driver Control Panel and have selected a new buffer size from within the driver’s Control Panel. If your driver changes the preferred size, then Band-in-a-Box will be aware of the new preferred size. Understanding Latency Latency is based on the buffer sizes. The smaller the buffer sizes the lower the latency. Lower latency allows you to hear mixer volume changes very quickly, as well as hear MIDI thru echoed out via a DXi soft synth practically in real time. The latency, in MS is determined by the buffer size in samples, as well as the driver’s sampling rate. Note: If your ASIO driver’s control panel lets you select the buffer size in MS, then you don’t have to pay much attention to the part of discussion below about converting samples to MS. Converting Samples to MS: For example, suppose the driver’s sample rate is 48K. A 48K sampling rate means that it is playing at 48,000 samples per second. If the buffer size were 48000 samples, then the latency would be 1 second, or 1000ms (which is very large and slow, and usually not allowed in ASIO). If the buffer size were 4800 samples, which is 1/10 second, then the latency would be 100ms. If the buffer size were 2400 samples, which is 1/20 second, the latency would be 50 ms. If the buffer size were 240 samples, which is 1/200 second, the latency would be a mere 5ms which is incredibly low and very fast. Normally, you can change your driver’s latency by pressing the Launch ASIO Driver’s Control Panel button. Normally, the driver specifies the buffer sizes in milliseconds which is equal to the latency. Low latency is faster and more responsive, but uses more CPU power. Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box! 21 Depending on the speed of your computer, you may find that the playback has dropouts, clicks/pops, or other artifacts if you set the buffer sizes too small. This is because smaller buffers use more CPU power and if your computer can’t handle the low latency you will hear artifacts. If this happens, you would need to use larger buffer sizes. You may need to experiment to find what works well. You may be able to use smaller buffers with songs that don’t have a lot of tracks and effects, but may find that you need to use larger buffers with songs that have more tracks and use more effects. This is because more tracks and more effects use more CPU power, which leaves less CPU power available for the audio routines to keep up with lower latencies. Now you’re ready to have fun with Band-in-a-Box! 22 Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box! Chapter 2: QuickStart Creating music with Band-in-a-Box is as easy as 1-2-3! In this chapter, you’ll see how easy it is to get started with Band-in-a-Box. Step 1 – Typing in the Chords There are numerous ways of entering chords into Band-in-a-Box, we’ll discuss six of them: 1. Using the computer keyboard. 2. Playing directly on a MIDI controller keyboard. 3. Using the Chord Builder feature. 4. Importing chords from a MIDI file. 5. Importing chords from an audio file (WAV, MP3, WMA, WMV) with the Audio Chord Wizard. 6. Loading an Existing Band-in-a-Box format song. On the main screen of the program, you’ll see an area called the chordsheet. Band-in-a-Box main screen showing chordsheet. Each of the numbered cells on the chordsheet represents a bar. In this example, we see that there is an E chord in the first bar of this song, an A chord in bar 5, and later in the song, an E7 in bar 12. Notice the box in the first half of bar 1. This is the highlight cell, and it represents the bar you are currently working on. You can move the highlight cell around using the cursor keys, or click on any bar with the mouse. Enter Chords Using the Computer Keyboard To enter a specific chord, move the highlight cell to where you want to place the chord. For example, to add (or change) a chord in bar 10, you would highlight bar 10 on the chordsheet. Next, type in your chords. If you want an A chord at bar 10, type the A key on your keyboard, and press [Enter]. Notice that when you use the enter key, the highlight cell moves to the second half of the bar. You could then enter another chord at beat 3. Chords names are normally typed using standard chord symbols (like C or Fm7 or Bb7 or Bb13#9/E), but you can enter them in any of the supported chord symbol display formats like Roman Numerals, Nashville Notation, Solfeggio, and Fixed Do (popular in Italy and other parts of Europe). Chapter 2: QuickStart 23 Enter Chords Using a MIDI Controller Keyboard If you have a MIDI controller keyboard, you can use it to enter chords into Band-in-a-Box. Play a chord on your MIDI keyboard, and then type Ctrl+Enter. The chord will be entered into the chordsheet at the current highlight cell position. Another method allows you to choose alternate chords. From the Window | MIDI Chord Detection menu item, you’ll see this window: When you play chords, Band-in-a-Box shows you the chord name and suggests alternates that you can choose from. Typing Ctrl+Enter enters the first selection, and advances the highlight cell by ½ bar. To place an alternate chord in the chordsheet click on the [Enter] button beside the chord you want. Enter Chords Using the Chord Builder Press the Chord Builder button. This opens the Chord Builder dialog with a list of chord roots and their extensions. To enter a chord at the current bar, select the chord root from the left pane, and then the extension on the right pane. Pressing [Enter Chord] or using the arrow keys will enter the chord and advance the highlight cell to the next half bar. Import Chords from a MIDI File You can have Band-in-a-Box import chords from an existing MIDI file. Choose Import Chords from MIDI File on the File menu. When the dialog opens, press the [Open (Change)…] button to choose a MIDI file that you want Band-in-a-Box to interpret the chords from. To help Band-in-a-Box interpret the chords better, you should choose a genre (Preset) for the song. Choose from among such genres as Pop, Rock, or Jazz Standard. Tip: It helps if you’ve previously listened to the MIDI file, in order that you can choose a genre most appropriate to the song. 24 Chapter 2: QuickStart Import Chords from the Audio Chord Wizard The Audio Chord Wizard is the amazing feature that automatically figures out the chords from MP3 files (or other audio files like WAV, WMA, and audio CD etc.). Chapter 2: QuickStart 25 You can make adjustments for the start of bar 1 and individual bar lines and also mark sections of the song using part markers, and the sections will begin on a new line with a line space between so they are clearly seen. Chords can be edited with a right-mouse click on the chord symbol. Edited chords are colored blue. Send the chords to Band-in-a-Box to make your own arrangement, tranpose to your key, and print your own lead sheet for the song with chords, melody, and lyrics. Loading an existing Band-in-a-Box format Song Press the [Song] button to launch the SongPicker, which lists up to 10,000 songs in any folder. Songs can be sorted and filtered by various criteria such as alphabetically, by title or by style. The first time you use this button, Band-in-a-Box will offer to build a song list for you. We’ve included many demonstration songs; they are listed in the song list. You could also load a pre-existing song by using the File | Open menu item, or by typing [F3], which will launch the BB File open dialog. Songs usually load a Style, which we’ll learn about in the next section. Step 2 – Choosing a Style Band-in-a-Box creates backing arrangements based on the chords you type in, playing them in a particular style. What’s a Style? A style is a set of rules that determine how Band-in-a-Box creates music using your chords. By adjusting the rules, we have created hundreds of styles for everything from Country to Bebop, such as Jazz Swing, Blues Shuffle, Hip Hop, Country 4/4, Pop Ballad, Waltz, and Medium Rock to name just a few. If you don’t find a pre-made style that suits your tastes, create one from scratch using the StyleMaker. There’s a “how-to” section on custom Styles in this manual. Four Fast Ways To Pick A Style Method 1: The StylePicker window assists your selection with its categorized list, detailed descriptions, preview, search, and filter features. Select the [Style] button or type Ctrl+F9 on your computer. 26 Chapter 2: QuickStart Select a Set or genre from the left pane, and choose the specific style on the right pane. There are Memos and examples for each of the Styles. In addition to the selection categories, styles can be filtered by “feel” and “tempo.” They can also be selected by the number of the styles set. Method 2: To make a quick selection, go to the Styles menu and choose from among the 24 “built-in” generic styles. This list provides a convenient way to choose from among the most popular music genres. Method 3: Styles that you’ve used previously show up in the Favorite Styles dialog. Choose this with the [F] button next to the [Style] button in the song title window, from the Styles menu, or type Shift+F9 on your computer keyboard. You can choose to save a Favorites set for use later. You can also load a set of favorite styles in this manner. Method 4: To open a user style from disk, you can just type the F9 key. You will be presented with an Open File dialog from which you can select a specific style. Alternately you can select the Styles menu item Open a User Style from disk. Chapter 2: QuickStart 27 Step 3 – Play your song! You’ve entered chords on the chordsheet and chosen a style. Now it’s time to play the song! You’ll need to tell Band-in-a-Box how long your song is, how many times to play it through, in what key, and how fast. Framing the Song To tell Band-in-a-Box where to start and end the song, take a look at the middle of the main screen. Locate the framing buttons. There are three of them, one each for Beginning of Chorus, End of Chorus, and Number of Choruses. In the example above, the chorus starts at bar 1, ends on bar 32, and is going to play 3 times. Setting the Key In the example above the key is set to C. However, you can set this to any key. In our first view of the chordsheet the Blues song was in the key of E. If you do change the key, Band-in-a-Box will offer to transpose the chordsheet for you. Setting the Tempo If you know the tempo value of your song, you can enter it in the tempo box. The song example above has a tempo of 120. There is an even faster way to enter a tempo. Locate the minus sign key [-] and the equal sign key [=] in the number row of your computer keyboard, they are usually next to each other. If you tap the minus sign key 4 times at your tempo, Band-in-a-Box will set the tempo automatically for you. If you tap the equal sign key four times, Bandin-a-Box will set the tempo and begin song playback at the tempo you tapped. Shortcuts for song formatting Typing special words, instead of chord names, will make the following settings: begin + Enter sets the beginning of the chorus to the current bar chorusend + Enter sets the end of the chorus to the current bar end + Enter sets the end of the song to the current bar tkc + Enter sets key signature to c, tkbb would set it to bb trc + Enter transposes song to key of C t125 + Enter sets tempo to 125 More fun with Band-in-a-Box… That’s how easy it is to start creating music with Band-in-a-Box. Band-in-a-Box has many more features and user options, which are discussed in later chapters. Have fun making music with Band-in-a-Box! 28 Chapter 2: QuickStart Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2010.5 Welcome to Band-in-a-Box 2010.5 There were over 50 cool new features added in Band-in-a-Box 2010, and now version 2010.5 adds 40 more! These include user wish list requests and enhancements to existing features, plus some wish list requests of our own. 40 New Features! The amazing RealTracks features in Band-in-a-Box keep growing more powerful. Many of the new features in Band-in-a-Box 2010.5 let you make even better use of these exciting live studio tracks - features like enhanced pushes, the option to have Jazz chords play as triads or 7ths, half-time and double-time timebase settings, and StylePicker filtering. Plus we’ve released 101 new RealTracks in Sets 83 to 101 featuring more Jazz bass and guitar, Bluegrass fiddles and mandolins, Jazz B3 organ, Smooth Jazz guitar, bass, and saxophone, and much more. There have also been enhancements to audio rendering, entering song settings, and notation. These are the new features in Band-in-a-Box 2010.5 - The StylePicker now has a filter to show show/hide RealTracks styles or MIDI styles. So you can set this if you only want to see MIDI styles, or if you only want to see styles that use some or all RealTracks. - If you like the current mix (of volumes, panning, reverb), and you want this applied as a default for all songs, you can now set this by Right clicking on the Combo radio control. Choose “Make Current Mix the Default,” “Load Default Mix,” or “Reset Mix (to factory defaults).” - RealTracks’ naturally occurring pushes are enhanced in many styles. This requires updating the ST2/XT2 files, and these are included in the 2010.5 update. - When rendering, you can now add a dB amount to the whole mix, so that the mix will be louder or softer. There is automatic “peak-limiting” added, so that the music will not distort if you set it too high. - For Audio Track rendering, Reverb is now added to the mix if there is Reverb set for the audio track. - Improved timing and performance on MIDI DXi/VST Softsynths. Files now render about 20 percent faster. - Styles can now be made that are set to use Half-Time and Double-Time RealTracks. We include some of these styles. For example, you can make a Jazz Ballad style (tempo 65) that uses a Sax Soloist at tempo 140 (playing double time). The StyleMaker- Misc-More dialog now has setting called TimeBase: Normal/HalfTime/DoubleTime for RealTracks. - MIDI Styles can now be expanded or reduced. For example, if you have a Bluegrass style at a typical tempo of 130 that is 16ths note based, and you would prefer it as a style that is 8th note based at a typical tempo of 260, you can do this in the StyleMaker by selecting the menu item Style-Expand. Style-Reduce is available also for styles that you want to reduce from 8th notes to 16th notes. - If Band-in-a-Box cannot find your RealTracks folder or your Drums folder, a yellow hint message appears at boot up to alert you to that, and tells you how to fix it: “Note: You have RealTracks installed, but none are found in your RealTracks folder. You should point to your correct RealTracks folder in Prefs-RealTracks Settings.” - RealTracks Pushes are now played a little quieter (2 dB quieter), so that they don't stand out as much. - For HyperCanvas or TTS-1 users only. The Roland HyperCanvas and Cakewalk TTS-1 sound better in Band-in-aBox if you use note 36 for bass drum, instead of note 35 (36 is more velocity sensitive). Now you will get a message to that effect when you exit the MIDI Driver dialog, and if you answer yes, it will set this for you, improving the sound of the drums with your HyperCanvas/TTS-1. - For RealTracks, many Jazz comping styles now play triads (instead of 7ths) when simple triads are entered, instead of “jazzing them up” to 7ths chords (e.g. Guitar: Freddie, Wes Piano: Some Jazz. All Stride, Rehearsal). If you prefer this “the old way,” where triads are automatically “jazzed up” when comping using Jazz RealTracks, then you can set the Prefs-Realtracks settings option to force 7ths for triads. - Enhancements for entering songs quickly: Typing special words, instead of chord names, will make the following settings: begin - sets the beginning of the chorus to the current bar end - sets the end of the song to the current bar chorusend - sets the end of the chorus to the current bar Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2010.5 29 tkc trc t125 - sets key signature to c, tkbb would set it to bb - transposes song to key of C - sets tempo to 125 - Quick-load a song by typing only. In chord entry mode (chordsheet or notation) type the word “song” followed by a file name or partial file name + Enter and the song will get loaded if it is in the current folder. Type “bossa” to load in the first song with bossa in the name AFTER the current song name in the current folder. - To change to another folder, type “song” followed by the full path and file name. For example, type song and then c:\bb\zzjazz.mg1+Enter to load in that exact song file. - Quick-load a style by typing “style” followed by a style name, e.g., stylezzbossa+Enter will load in zzbossa.sty. - Enhancements for playing songs from the chordsheet - or double click on ending bar (or a bar in the tag), and it will play from the ending (or tag). This only applies to the chordsheet, since notation windows always play from the ending or tag already. - Right click on Chordsheet (or Notation) window to quickly set Chorus Begin, Chorus End, or Song Ending - Utility function added to “Change all songs in current folder to a specific tempo.” - Utility function added to “Change all songs in current folder to the current style name.” - Utility command added to change channels by N on melody or soloist. - Real Drums button now has a menu (like the RealTracks button) to choose RealDrums Preferences or the RealDrums Picker. Use Ctrl+click or Shift+click to choose the Preferences or the Picker directly. - The auto-generated song memo now says if Real Drums come from the song or style. - A message now appears if a frozen track is loaded, but the required RealTracks or RealDrums folders do not exist. - Frozen tracks now start playing faster if played again. - In the RealTracks Picker, the columns for Set # and Holds # sort are improved. - Important change: The default for the tempo swapping feature for RealTracks is now true. It used to be false. Tempo-swapping is a nice feature that will automatically substitute a similar RealTracks that is recorded at a tempo closer to the current tempo. For example, if you load a ballad style, with a RealTracks piano at a tempo of 60, and then speed the song up to 200, BB’s tempo-swapping feature will choose a RealTracks piano that is closer to 200, likely one that is 190. Go to Prefs | RealTracks to disable this feature. - Improved: Will keep on generating RealTracks even if some wav files are missing. - Improved: Will not show this message if using ASIO and MS GS Wavetable is selected: “MIDI driver installed properly but in use.” Notation Enhancements: - Notes like Fb, Cb, E#, B# can now be entered. To do this, right click on a note (like F), and set the forced accidental to #, and the note will appear as E#. - Right Click menu item added “edit section text” - Option added for the Leadsheet Lyric memo start on new page on printout. - If a song has lyrics (or other text) in the Lyric Memo or Lyric Document, these lyrics will now show up on the Big Lyrics window, so that they can be seen during playback. Note: if you have lyrics in text format, it is easy to paste them in as a Leadsheet Memo, and now you will see them on the Big Lyrics Window as well. - When entering lyrics, additional buttons are available “Close lyrics” “Edit Lyrics” and “Enter as Section Text” (instead of Lyrics). New Features included in Band-in-a-Box 2010 Band-in-a-Box 2010 added over 50 cool new features! These exciting new features were added in Band-in-a-Box 2010. There’s a “Plug-in” mode, allowing you to simply Drag-and-drop tracks between Band-in-a-Box and your favorite sequencer (RealBand, Sonar, Reaper, ProTools, FLStudio, Nuendo and more). RealTracks generate much faster now, typically 3X faster. RealTracks now support Shots, Holds, and Pushes. Endings are improved, and RealTracks endings are now 4 bars long, giving time for the natural decay of the instruments. Individual MIDI or RealTracks can be frozen now, so the arrangements can be saved and fixed, and will replay quickly without need for regeneration. Soloist RealTracks are now saved with the 30 Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2010.5 song. We added Multiple Undo support, up to 999 levels of Undo. There are new Reverb and Bass/Treble controls for each track, allowing you to add these to individual RealTracks. All settings are now saved with each song. The Details The New Features in Band-in-a-Box 2010 for Windows are... There now is a “Plug-in” mode for your favorite sequencer (RealBand, Sonar, Reaper, ProTools, FL-Studio, Nuendo and more). With the new plug-in mode, Band-in-a-Box is open as a small always-on-top window, and acts as a plug-in for your favorite DAW/sequencer, so that you can Drag-and-drop MIDI and audio (WAV) tracks from Band-in-a-Box to your favorite sequencer. Work in your favorite sequencer, type a progression in Band-ina-Box, and then simply drag the track from Band-in-a-Box to your sequencer’s track at the desired track and bar location. No more long waits for RealTracks to generate! RealTracks generate much faster, 3X faster on average. A typical song with RealTracks that took 20 seconds to generate will generate now in about 6 seconds. And if you freeze some or all tracks in the song (see below), playback of RealTracks is almost instantaneous. Freezing (locking) MIDI or RealTracks/RealDrums. Any track can now be frozen (MIDI or Real track). When frozen, it won’t get changed or regenerated. This saves time when replaying previous songs, and allows you to freeze an arrangement that you like. If you freeze the whole song, you don’t have to wait at all for the song to regenerate. Next time you play, it is ready to go. (Note: this new freeze feature is different than the previous limited freeze feature that renders the whole arrangement to the audio track) All Tracks can be Edited and Saved. MIDI tracks for bass, drums, piano, guitar and strings can now be edited, and saved with the file. If you freeze a track, edits can still be made to it, because it is only frozen from Band-in-aBox making changes to it (you can still edit it), so that the MIDI track will be saved to the file. So you can customize the bass part to match a certain song, and save it with a frozen bass part, so that Band-in-a-Box won’t overwrite your edits. This includes RealCharts – if you wanted to edit the notation of a RealTracks solo for example. Soloist generated RealTracks are now saved with the song, so you will hear the RealTracks play the same solo when you reload the song. RealTracks now support new features, including Shots, Holds, and Pushes. Simply type in the chords as you normally would, adding periods (…) for shots and holds, and the RealTracks will play them. (Note: For this, you need the installer that creates a Library\Holds folder in your RealTracks folder.) RealTracks endings have been enhanced, and are now 4-bar endings instead of 2-bar, allowing time for a natural decay of the instruments. Multiple Undo support. Up to 999 levels of undo (configurable). Always Save all song settings. Now all settings are saved with songs, including patches, reverbs, volume etc., so that the song will play the same way each time, without having to set this in the Save With Patches dialog. Reverb control added for individual tracks with RealTracks or RealDrums, so you can easily add reverb (0 to 127) for any RealTrack. Reverb type also settable, and saved with the song. Bass/Treble Tone Control added for individual tracks with RealTracks or RealDrums, so you can easily adjust the bass/treble EQ for any RealTrack. Settings save with the song. Band-in-a-Box window is now sizable, when size changes, chordsheet, notation, and other windows redraw in proportion to the new size. This allows you to have Band-in-a-Box open as a small window on screen with other programs, and you still see a full chordsheet. The screen size is remembered between sessions. New favorite songs/styles dialog, with separate lists of “recently played” and favorite songs or styles. The previous “favorite” songs/styles dialog was a list of recently used songs/styles. Now there are 2 tabs in this dialog, showing you both recently used songs/styles, and a new list of “favorites” that you select as a favorite songs or styles. Favorite Song/Style lists can be edited, sorted, saved/loaded, and used with the jukebox. You can add an unlimited # of favorites. Also, a Sort button has been added to Favorite/Recent songs/styles dialog. Play any RealTracks at normal, half-time, or double time with the Timebase option. Half time is used for fast tempo songs when a much slower tempo RealTrack has been chosen. Double time is used for slow tempo songs (e.g. ballads) when a much faster tempo RealTrack is chosen. This allows you, for example, in a ballad at a tempo of 70, to add a RealTracks Sax solo with a tempo of 140, and play it as a double time, which will match the ballad tempo of 70. All of your existing RealTracks can be used at three different tempos (normal, half-time, double time). Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2010.5 31 Automatic Tempo swapping of similar RealTracks. If you have similar RealTracks available at different tempos, Band-in-a-Box will automatically choose the best one to use. For example, if you have a ballad loaded, with an Acoustic Bass RealTracks at a tempo of 60, and you speed up the tempo to 140, and press play, Band-in-a-Box will automatically choose an Acoustic Bass RealTracks closer to tempo of 140, if it is the same genre and feel. This means you can use a simple Jazz style, and play it at various tempos, without having to set the best RealTracks based on tempos. The RealTracks that support the Tempo Swapping are listed in the next to last column of the RealTracks assign dialog. There is an additional option to replace the current RealTracks selections with similar ones that would work better at the current tempo. This is an option available by pressing the Realtracks Toolbar button and then clicking on Select better RealTracks for this tempo. To use this feature disable the auto RealTracks selection in the Preferences. Rendering now has a Normalize option, to normalize individual tracks or the complete arrangement. Normalizing boosts the volume to a maximum level without distortion. Most professional music tracks are normalized. RealDrums picker dialog has been enhanced, with information about Artist name, Artist bio, and RealDrums Set number. Songs that are “Saved-As” a different name now have the new name added to the Recently Used song dialog. Support enhanced for non-concert instruments (Bb/Eb sax, trumpet etc.). Now when the chordsheet is transposed, you can type in chords in the transposed key, and they will show up as you have entered them, instead of requiring you to enter the chords in the concert key. Rendering songs to audio is now much faster for songs with no MIDI, such as RealStyles. Rendering RealTracks no longer require you to have a DXi or VST in use. Lyrics enhanced: - Undo added for entry of individual lyrics. - [Enter] and [Close] button added to lyric entry. More Soloists are now available, up to 2000. RealTracks Picker dialog enhanced: - Opens up faster. - New columns added (tempo swappable, holds type). - Columns are now sizable, and remember the sizes. Rendering Wav dialog enhanced. It has a simpler layout. The Render wav file doesn’t need to be in same folder – it can be in any folder/drive. The Render dialog has a [Default] button. StylePicker is enhanced. Favorites and Recent styles now appear in this dialog as separate lists. It now has the ability to add/remove styles as favorites. A Favorite Style indication (F) shows up for each style. You can filter any list by only showing favorite styles. Over time, you can build up a list of favorite styles, and only show them when needed. Many messages changed to “yellow alerts” at top right of screen, so that you don’t have to respond to the message, interrupting work flow. More New RealTracks There are now one hundred and one sets of RealTracks available for Band-in-a-Box! The basic Band-in-a-Box Pro package includes a basic set of RealCombos for Pop, Country, and Jazz. In addition, there are hundreds more RealTracks instruments available in one hundred and one different sets. See the Appendix for a full list. RealTracks Sets 83 - 101 RealTracks sets 83 to 101 were released with Band-in-a-Box 2010.5. They include: Rock - Electric and 12-string Acoustic Rhythm Guitars in Modern Rock, Waltz and Blues Rock styles, also Acoustic Piano solo-accompaniment. Jazz - Acoustic and Electric Bass, Rhodes and Acoustic Pianos, Acoustic and Electric Guitars in Ballad, Ballroom and more. Country - Rhythm Electric and Acoustic Guitars in Memphis, Country Boogie, Swing, and Waltz styles. 32 Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2010.5 RealTracks Set 83: LA Hard Rock This set provides you with four distinct Electric Guitar styles, two with a “crisp” tone and two with a “fuzzy” tone, so you're sure to find what you need for your song or section. Also included is the HardRockLA Bass style, a syncopated bass style with a big fat tone. As a bonus, we're also thowing in the HardRockLA RealDrums style! This style has 5 different substyle options, combined together for a total of 8 different style variations. Each substyle was recorded at 3 different tempos, and with the superior stretching features in Band-in-a-Box, the entire tempo spectrum in between tempos is also covered. RealTracks Set 84: Lite Pop This set features 12-string Acoustic Guitar RealTracks styles, as well as 3 Pop Piano styles. The 12-string Acoustic Guitar provides a beautifully full sound which works great on its own, or in the context of a full band. There are two of these styles, one picking, and the other strumming, both at a slow ballad tempo. Additionally, we also include a style that uses the picking for the “A” section of your song, and strumming for the “B” section. The 3 Pop Piano styles continue our collection of “solo-accompaniment” piano styles. Two of the styles embody the melodic California sound, one a slow ballad, the other an upbeat energetic style. The third style is a flowing melodically arpeggiated style. RealTracks Set 85: Rockin' Bass This set features two classic Brit-Rock basses, a heavily scooped and distorted thrash bass, and a deep rockin' bass that turns out pulsing eighth notes. You can view tab and notation for every style in this set in Band-in-a-Box or RealBand. The wide range of tempos ensures that you'll have a rockin' bass for every occasion. RealTracks Set 86: Blues Rock Three unique and driving guitar styles are included: two with a crisp, unrelenting single-coil tone (which can be linked together as an A/B substyle) and one with a low, twangy fuzz tone. Also included is a dark-toned blues rock bass that syncs up nicely to the guitar styles. All of these styles are equipped with RealCharts, which means that even though you're listening to actual audio recordings of real musicians, you can see the notes they're playing on the on-screen fretboards, in TAB, in standard notation, and on the on-screen piano keyboard. Our unique stretch methods insure that you're covered for a range of tempos and all twelve keys. RealTracks Set 87: Electric For All Occasions This set offers an extensive selection of bright guitar sounds for all occasions. At each of the three tempos, we provide you with both clean and slightly distorted guitar tones. Plus you also have control over the particular texture of the guitars. All of the styles were recorded with both open chords, if you want a brighter sound, and barre chords, if you want a slightly more muted effect. All styles play any chord in any key, and our stretch methods insure that all in-between tempos are covered! All of these styles also come complete with notation and tablature. RealTracks Set 88: 12-String Electric RealTracks Set 88 offers some unique, clean 12-string electric guitar tones. The styles are split into two main categories: strumming and fingerpicking. The strumming styles offer a silky, sustained, solid rhythm while the fingerpicking styles deliver an open and bright feel that fills in the eighth notes. Both the strumming and fingerpicking styles were recorded at multiple tempos ranging from slow ballad to uptempo pop, and with the superior stretching features in Band-in-a-Box and RealBand, all the tempos in between are covered too! Notation and tableture are also included for all of your scoring and learning needs. RealTracks Set 89: Northern Rock Ballad RealTracks Set 89 provides Acoustic Guitar, High-Strung Acoustic, Banjo & Electric Bass. Both guitar styles feature open chords with traditional folk strumming patterns. These two guitars used together provide a full, rich sound by covering the full sonic spectrum. In addition, both guitars and the electric bass are equipped with RealCharts, which means not only are you getting real instruments played by real musicians, but you can see what they're playing in notation, TAB, and on the on-screen guitar/bass fretboards. The banjo is a nicely subtle, understated fingerpicking style that blends perfectly with the other instruments. RealTracks Set 90: Jazz Organ A collection of Jazz B3 organ styles from slow, laid-back ballads to energetic up-tempo swing and bebop. The style provides both comping and killer bass lines which play “in-2” for the A sections and walk for the B sections. There are 5 separate styles recorded over the range of tempos from 60 to 190 beats-per-minute. And, with the superior stretching features in Band-in-a-Box, all styles in between are automatically covered as well! Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2010.5 33 RealTracks Set 91: Smooth Jazz - Sax Soloing Five new additions to your Smmoth Jazz RealTracks collection: three alto saxes, a soprano, and a tenor. All of these styles show tasteful contrast with soothing melodies intertwined with fast jazz runs and phrases. This set also covers three avenues of smooth jazz: cool, poppy, and ballad. It offers a wide range of tempos ranging from dramatically slow to moderately fast. The inclusion of RealCharts means that not only will you be hearing Real Saxophone played by a top studio musician, but you'll be able to see exactly what's being played in both notation and on the on-screen piano keyboard. RealTracks Set 92: Smooth Jazz - Trumpet Soloing This set features four different soloists in the subgenres of cool, poppy, and ballad. The cool Jazz styles have a funky swung sixteenth note feel while the down-tempo poppy and ballad styles rely on even spacing and tasteful phrasing. You'll have a variety of tempos and all twelve keys at your fingertips thanks to the stretching methods used by Band-in-a-Box and RealBand, and with our RealCharts you'll be able to see what's being played, in both notation and on the on-screen piano keyboard. RealTracks Set 93: Smooth Jazz - Trumpet Soloing RealTracks Set 93 adds more Rhythm & Soul to our collection of Smooth Jazz RealTracks styles! This set includes two electric piano soloist styles and two rhythm guitar styles all together. Both split up into two subgenres: a funky swung sixteenth feel and a slow even sixteenth ballad feel. And, the two electric piano styles provide you with even more options, as each one has three different effects sets: Chorus with delay effect, chorus alone, and completely dry. If you want the slick Smooth Jazz sound, go for the chorus & delay, but if you want the unadulterated sound of the real vintage electric piano, go for the dry. All four styles are also equipped with RealCharts which allow you to see the notes that are being played in notation and on the on-screen piano keyboard, and the guitars have the added benefit of correctly displaying TAB & the notes on the on-screen guitar freboard. We've got you covered in ALL keys, and with the superior stretching features in Band-in-a-Box, a wide tempo range is covered. RealTracks Set 94: Jazz Guitar Soloing and More This set includes 4 electric guitar styles, ranging from medium-slow tempos up to fast bebop tempos, in both jazz waltz meters, as well as straight ahead 4:4 swing. In addition, there's an energetic samba soloist played on nylon guitar, and two solo accompaniment piano styles! These real pianos offer a fun and energetic feel and are the perfect companion to a show tunes singer. Every single style in this set is equipped with RealCharts, which means not only will you be hearing great real audio recordings of real musicians, but you'll be able to SEE what they're playing too, in notation, and on the on-screen piano keyboard. The electric guitars have the added bonus of displaying correctly in TAB and on the on-screen guitar fretboard. RealTracks Set 95: Jazz Rhythm Guitar: Bossa and Swing Included are four electric guitar styles that cover a large range of tempos, as well as two bossa styles, and a fast “Freddie” Acoustic Guitar. The Electrics are split into “FreeComp” and “GrooveComp” styles. The FreeComp styles are intended to be the sole comping instrument (no piano) featuring sophisticated rhythms and harmonies. The GrooveComp styles use more repetitive rhythms and more basic harmonies so that they can be used with other comping instruments such as piano or organ without getting in the way. The Bossa Guitars have a warm nylon tone, and were recorded at the tempos of 85 & 140, and with the superior stretching features in Band-in-a-Box, all of the tempos in between are also covered. The electric & acoustic guitars are also equipped with RealCharts which means that not only are you hearing actual audio performances by actual musicians, you can also see what they're playing in notation, TAB, and on the on-screen guitar fretboard. RealTracks Set 96: Modern Bluegrass Waltz This set includes a total of six new waltz styles on five different instruments! You will receive two acoustic guitars (one fingerpicking, one strumming), acoustic bass, fiddle, mandolin, and banjo. Every one of these styles covers all twelve keys, and covers a wide tempo range thanks to the high quality stretching features in Band-in-a-Box and RealBand. RealTracks Set 97: Unplugged Country Swing There are four country swing fiddle styles included, three of which feature melodic background playing over the tempo spectrum of 85 bpm ballads to the sprightly tempo of 140. Since they were recorded at intervals, the entire tempo range is covered, since Band-in-a-Box's superior stretching features can use those three tempos to cover all of the tempos in between. At 140, you also have the option of choosing the "chops" style, where the fiddle plays very short chordal shots on beats 2 & 4. This is a style that would generally only be used on faster tempo tunes. All of 34 Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2010.5 these styles also feature RealCharts which means that not only are you hearing audio recordings of top studio musicians playing your song, you can SEE what they're playing too, in notation & on the on-screen piano keyboard! RealTracks Set 98: Unplugged, 12-String & Fiddle Three strummed acoustic 12-string guitar styles and two country boogie fiddle styles, all recorded over a wide tempo range. And with the superior stretching features in Band-in-a-Box, all the tempos in between are also covered. The 12-string styles were recorded at 85, 120 & 165 beats-per-minute, so if you're song is at 95, no problem, you're covered with 85, which Band-in-a-Box can easily stretch up. Or, if you need 12-string at 160, no problem, the 165 bpm style can easily stretch down to cover that too! RealCharts are included with all 5 styles here, which means that not only do you get real audio recordings of top studio musicians playing your songs, you can see what they're doing in notation, on the on-screen piano keyboard, and for the guitars you can also view the notes in TAB and on the on-screen guitar-fretboard. And all keys are covered, so if you want to boogie down in C sharp, no problem! RealTracks Set 99: More Country Waltz: Pedal Steel, Bass & Fiddle Three bass styles offer a solid, rhythmic foundation over a wide tempo range, two fiddles offer a variety of melodic ideas, and two pedal steels offer rich layers of harmonies. That's a total of seven new styles, all of them crucial to your Country Waltz songs! In conjunction with previously release Country Waltz styles, it's easy to put together a full band at any tempo. All styles play effortlessly in any key, and the pedal steel & fiddle styles have the added bonus of RealCharts, which let you see the notes that are being played in notation or on the on-screen keyboard. RealTracks Set 100: More Western Swing: Pedal Steel & Electric Guitar RealTracks Set 100 includes 4 new electric guitar styles that can be used in conjunction with our previously release Western Swing styles. The styles were recorded at 2 tempos, 165 and 190, with basic comping patterns at both tempos; a "picked" style at the slower tempo, and a "held" style at the faster tempo. Plus we add to our increasing collection of Pedal Steel styles at both of these tempos as well. These swinging styles use the classic Western Swing C6 tuning. And you're not limited to 165 or 190, all tempos in between are also covered with the superior stretching features in Band-in-a-Box. With tempo-swapping enabled in Band-in-a-Box, the program will automatically use the best tempo for your song. RealTracks Set 101: Folk and Country Swing This library of country and folk crossover styles delivers a large collection on a variety of instruments. Included are Ukulele, Acoustic Bass Guitar, Electric Guitar, and Fiddle styles. The Ukulele and Acoustic Bass Guitars work well as playful duos: a moderate tempo acoustic-bass guitar and ukulele duo with a country feel and a faster tempo acoustic-bass guitar and ukulele duo with a cheerful island feel. The “Memphis” fiddle adds to our existing Electric Guitar styles, and the two Country Swing electric guitar styles can be used independently, or together as an A-B style. The fiddle and guitar have the added bonus of having RealCharts enabled, which allows you to view the notes being played in notation, on the on-screen piano keyboard, and on an on-screen guitar-fretboard. More about RealTracks For full descriptions of all of the RealTracks sets, please go to www.pgmusic.com and see the RealTracks page, http://www.pgmusic.com/products_realtracks.htm. While you’re there be sure to check for new releases. Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2010.5 35 QuickStart Tutorial for the Version 2010 and 2010.5 New Features Quick Song Settings These are enhancements for entering songs quickly. Typing special words, instead of chord names, will make the following settings: begin - sets the beginning of the chorus to the current bar chorusend - sets the end of the chorus to the current bar end - sets the end of the song to the current bar tkc - sets key signature to c, tkbb would set it to bb trc - transposes song to key of C t125 - sets tempo to 125 Quick-Load Songs and Styles You can quick-load a song by typing only. In chord entry mode (Chordsheet or Notation window) type the word “song” followed by a file name or partial file name + Enter and the song will get loaded if it is in the current folder. Typing “bossa” would load in the first song with bossa in the name AFTER the current song name in the current folder. To change to another folder, type “song” followed by the full path and file name. For example, type song and then c:\bb\zzjazz.mg1+Enter to load in that exact song name. Quick-load a style by typing “style” followed by a style name, e.g., stylezzbossa+Enter loads in zzbossa.sty. Easy Big Lyrics Display If a song has lyrics (or other text) in the Lyric Memo or Lyric Document, these lyrics will now show up on the Big Lyrics window during playback. If you have lyrics in text format, it is easy to paste them in as a Lead Sheet Memo or into the Lyrics Document, and then you will see them on the Big Lyrics Window as well. Improved Audio Rendering For Audio track rendering, reverb is added to the mix if there is A. Reverb set for the audio track. If you choose to merge in the audio track, you can adjust the volume to match it to the other tracks. You can add a dB amount to the whole mix to make it louder or softer. There is automatic “peak-limiting” added, so that the music will not distort if you set it too high. DAW Plug-in Mode There now is a “Plug-in” mode for your favorite sequencer (RealBand, Sonar, Reaper, ProTools, FL-Studio, Nuendo and more). With the new plug-in mode, Band-in-a-Box is open as a small always-on-top window, and acts as a plug-in for your favorite DAW/sequencer, so that you can Drag-and-drop MIDI and audio (WAV) tracks from BB to your favorite sequencer. Work in your favorite sequencer, type a progression in Band-in-a-Box, and then simply drag the track from Band-in-a-Box to your sequencer’s track at the desired track and bar location. The DAW Plug-in mode is a mode within the regular Band-in-a-Box program. This mode allows you to transfer tracks, or parts of tracks, to other DAW Sequencers easily, by simply dragging the track icons from Band-in-a-Box (BB) to the tracks window of your DAW. You can enter and exit the plug-in mode easily. Press the [Plugin] button on the main toolbar and choose the menu item Start DAW Plug-in mode, or go to the Windows menu and choose Plug-in Mode for DAW. When you do this: 36 Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2010.5 1. 2. Window size of Band-in-a-Box changes to a small size (you can resize it to the size/position that you want, and it will remember that). Band-in-a-Box becomes always-on-top window (if this is option is set in Plug-In options). 3. You can now easily drag tracks from BB to your DAW, by mouse clicking on the part at the top (Bass, Piano etc.), and dragging to your DAW’s track. You can also drag files to other programs, besides DAWs, if they accept a drop of audio files (WAV, WMA) or MIDI files. For example, Windows Explorer allows this. For this documentation, we will use Windows Explorer as an example. The [Drop] button is for DAWs that do not accept a direct drop of tracks that are not yet generated. Freeze Tracks Freezing (locking) MIDI or RealTracks/RealDrums Any track can now be frozen (MIDI or Real track). You can make tracks Frozen by pressing the Freeze button (snowflake) on the toolbar, and then choosing which tracks that you want to freeze or unfreeze. When frozen, it won’t get changed or re-generated. This saves time when replaying previous songs, and allows you to freeze an arrangement that you like. If you freeze the whole song, you don’t have to wait at all for the song to regenerate. Next time you play, it is ready to go. This new freeze feature is different than the previous limited freeze feature that renders the whole arrangement to the audio track. There are a number of reasons that you would freeze a track. Reasons to Freeze a RealTracks track (audio): - Frozen tracks will play back instantly, not requiring time to generate. - They play back the same way each time, so if you like a solo, you can “freeze it.” - If you send a song to a friend as “frozen,” they will hear the same performance. - For the Soloist track, if you generate a solo, it can now be saved (by freezing the track). Reasons to Freeze a MIDI track: - You can edit the MIDI data, to customize the performance to match a certain song, and this will be saved. Use the Notation window or Piano Roll to edit the track. More reasons to freeze any track: - Frozen tracks play back instantly, without requiring time to regenerate. - They play back the same way each time. - You can change the chord progression of the song, and have one part playing a different chord progression than the rest of the band. For example, type a “blowing” chord progression, generate a solo, freeze the solo track, then type a normal chord progression and generate the rest of the instruments (bass/guitar etc.) that will play the normal changes. - Have different instruments play different styles. For example, the Bass could be generated using Reggae, then Frozen, and then the rest of the instruments generated using a Techno style. Un-Freezing a Track(s) This is also done for the Freeze button. Choose a frozen track to un-freeze it, or choose “Un-Freeze all tracks.” Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2010.5 37 Forcing Generation of a Song that is Frozen Band-in-a-Box won’t touch tracks that are frozen. But if you want to change that, without having to Un-Freeze the tracks, you can do this easily. Hold down the Shift key as you press the [Play] button (the fly-by hint will remind you of that), or choose the menu command Play | Generate (even if tracks are frozen). When you do this, the song will regenerate, the tracks will get rewritten, and the song will stay frozen. So if you’re freezing songs to get the instant playback with RealTracks, but get tired of the “same-old” frozen arrangement, just press Shift+Play, generate a new arrangement, and press Save. Then the new “fresh-frozen” arrangement will play instantly, even with many RealTracks. Tip: Obviously you wouldn’t use this feature to force regeneration of a frozen song if you have made custom edits to the song that you don’t want to lose, unless you’ve saved the song and have a backup copy. All Tracks can be Edited and Saved. MIDI tracks for bass, drums, piano, guitar and strings can now be edited, and saved with the file. If you freeze a track, edits can be still made to it, because it is only frozen from Band-in-aBox making changes to it (you can still edit it), so that the MIDI track will be saved to the file. So you can customize the bass part to match a certain song, and save it with a frozen bass part, so that Band-in-a-Box won’t overwrite your edits. This includes RealCharts – if you wanted to edit the notation of a RealTracks solo for example. To edit a MIDI track (bass, drums, piano, guitar, strings), or the MIDI part of a RealTracks that has a RealChart (MIDI transcribed solo), simply open up the Notation window (or Piano Roll window), and click on the track and edit it. Make sure to Freeze the track by pressing the Freeze button and choosing Freeze for that track, or right-clicking on the instrument at the top of the screen and choosing Freeze. Now your edited tracks will save with the song. If you keep the default setting of “Save all Settings with Songs,” you will find that all settings are saved, and loaded with each song. You shouldn’t have to visit the File | Save Song with Patches & Harmony dialog, unless you have some custom items that you don’t want to save with the song. Note that if you have set a MIDI patch for one of the instrument parts (bass/drums/piano/guitar/strings) and you load in another style, Band-in-a-Box will overwrite your patches with the style patches. If it didn’t do that, you would be stuck with the same patches regardless of the style. So if you want a certain patch for a track, set it after you have loaded in the style that you want RealTracks Enhancements No more long waits for RealTracks to generate! RealTracks generate much faster, 3X faster on average. A typical song with RealTracks that took 20 seconds to generate will generate now in about 6 seconds. And if you freeze some or all tracks in the song (see below), playback of RealTracks is almost instantaneous. This “speedup” feature works automatically; you should just notice that generation of RealTracks is much faster. 38 Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2010.5 Soloist generated RealTracks are now saved with the song, so you will hear the RealTracks play the same solo when you reload the song. When you generate a solo using RealTracks, Band-in-a-Box will remember this, and when you go to save the song, Band-in-a-Box will ask you if you want to save that solo (and thereby freeze the Soloist track). If you say yes, then the solo will play instantly the same way when the song is reloaded. Of course you can freeze the soloist track yourself at any time. Note that only one solo can be saved. You can’t generate a bunch of different segments of solos; only the last one will be saved. Shots, Holds, and Pushes RealTracks now support new features, including Shots, Holds, and Pushes. Simply type in the chords as you normally would, adding periods (…) for shots and holds, and the RealTracks will play them. Note: You need the installer that creates a Library\Holds folder in your RealTracks folder. The RealTracks Assign dialog that lists each RealTrack has the last column called “Holds” that lists whether that RealTrack supports Shots, Holds, and Pushes. If there is a number there (other than a blank field), then they are all supported. If there is an “n” this means that they are supported, but you don’t have the Holds_## files in the RealTracks\Library\Holds folder. This feature is enabled in the RealTracks Settings dialog. There is an override for the setting in the Song Settings dialog that will enable or disable the feature for just a certain song. Jazz 7ths Option For RealTracks, many Jazz comping styles now play triads (instead of 7ths) when simple triads are entered, instead of “jazzing them up” to 7ths chords. If you prefer them “jazzed up” then you can set the RealTracks Settings option to force 7ths for triads. Play any RealTracks at normal, half-time, or double time. With the Timebase option in the RealTracks Picker you can play any RealTracks at normal, half-time, or double time. Half time is used for fast tempo songs when a much slower tempo RealTrack has been chosen. Double time is used for slow tempo songs (e.g. ballads) when a much faster tempo RealTrack is chosen. This allows you, for example, in a ballad at a tempo of 70, to add a RealTracks Sax solo with a tempo of 140, and play it as a double time, which will match the ballad tempo of 70. All of your existing RealTracks can be used at three different tempos (normal, half-time, double time). Automatic Tempo swapping of similar RealTracks. If you have similar RealTracks available at different tempos, Band-in-a-Box will automatically choose the best one to use. For example, if you have a ballad loaded, with an Acoustic Bass RealTracks at tempo of 60, and you speed up the tempo to 140, and press [Play], Band-in-a-Box will automatically choose an Acoustic Bass RealTracks closer to tempo of 140, if it is the same genre and feel. This means you can use a simple Jazz style, and play it at various tempos, without having to set the best RealTracks based on tempos. The RealTracks that support the Tempo Swapping are listed in the next to last column of the RealTracks assign dialog. There is an additional option to replace the current RealTracks selections with similar ones that would work better at the current tempo. This is an option available by pressing the Realtracks Toolbar button and clicking on Select better RealTracks for this tempo. To use this feature disable the auto RealTracks selection in the Preferences. RealTracks Picker dialog enhanced: - Opens up faster. - New Columns added (tempo swappable, holds type). Columns are now sizable, and remember the sizes. Audio Reverb Reverb control added for individual tracks with RealTracks or RealDrums, so you can easily add reverb (0 to 127) for any RealTrack. The reverb type is also settable, and saved with the song. Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2010.5 39 At the top of the screen, there is an “A.Reverb” control (Audio Reverb). Click on an instrument radio button, and then set the Reverb for it. The Audio Reverb varies from 0 to 127. Clicking on the left hand side of the control allows you to enter a setting, or click on the up/down arrows. See the RealTracks and RealDrums chapter for more about this feature. Note that this only applies to RealTracks, since MIDI tracks have MIDI Reverb, which is set via a MIDI Reverb control. Bass/Treble Tone Control added for individual tracks with RealTracks or RealDrums, so you can easily adjust the bass/treble EQ for any RealTrack. Settings save with the song. Choose an instrument and then use the tone control to adjust the tone from -18 (maximum bass) to +18 (maximum treble). Default is 0. Audio Reverb and Tone can be set by clicking on the audio label. Master Reverb and Tone can be set by clicking the Combo button, and then using the Audio Reverb and Tone controls. For Audio track rendering, reverb is added to the mix if there is reverb set for the Audio track. Rendering Tracks Rendering now has a Normalize option, to normalize individual tracks or the complete arrangement. Normalizing boosts the volume to a maximum level without distortion. Most professional music tracks are normalized. To enable this, in the Render dialog, choose the Normalize checkbox. Rendering songs to audio is now much faster for songs with no MIDI, such as RealStyles. Rendering RealTracks no longer require you to have a DXi or VST in use. 40 Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2010.5 Rendering Wav dialog enhanced. It has a simpler layout. The Render wav file doesn’t need to be in same folder – it can be in any folder/drive. The Render Dialog has a [Default] button. You can add a dB amount to the whole mix to make it louder or softer. There is automatic “peak-limiting” added, so that the music will not distort if you set it too high. New Favorite Songs/Styles Dialog There’s a new dialog for these favorites with separate lists of Recently Played and Favorite songs or styles. The previous favorite songs/styles dialog was a list of recently used songs/styles. Now there are 2 tabs in this dialog, showing you both recently used songs/styles, and a new list of “favorites” that you select as a favorite songs or styles. Favorite Song/Style lists can be edited, sorted, saved/loaded, and used with the jukebox. You can add an unlimited # of favorites. The [F] button launches the dialog. The “Favorites” and “Recently Played” Radio buttons toggle between a list of your recently played songs (or styles), and your favorite songs (or styles). Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2010.5 41 The favorites list will start off as an empty one. But you can add songs as your favorites, by clicking the Add Favorite button (this button is also found in the StylePicker). Songs that are “Saved As” with a different name have the new name added to the Recently Played song dialog. Technical Note: The list of songs/style favorites is stored in a text file called SongFavorites.txt (or StyleFavorites.txt) in the BB folder. Also, a [Sort] button has been added to Favorite/Recent songs/styles dialog. You can save and load sets of favorites or recently played songs (or styles). You can also make a custom play list order, and press the Juke button to play a jukebox in a certain order. So, for example, you can make a favorites list of your favorite Jazz songs, or favorite “Thursday Night Jam” songs, and load those in when needed. StylePicker Enhancements Favorites and Recent styles now appear in this dialog as separate lists. It now has the ability to add/remove styles as favorites. A Favorite Style indication (F) shows up for each style. You can filter any list by only showing favorite styles. Over time, you can build up a list of favorite styles, and only show them when needed. Notice the two new categories, Favorite Styles and Recent Styles. 42 Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2010.5 The favorite styles are the ones that you’ve identified as favorites, either by pressing the [Add Favorite] button in the Favorite Styles dialog, or the similar button in this StylePicker dialog. Note that an “F” appears beside the name of any style that is a favorite. You can make any style a favorite by clicking the [Add Favorite] button. If you want to remove it, click the button again. “Only Show favorites” will only show the favorite styles in any list that you have opened. There is new a filter to show show/hide Real or MIDI styles. So you can set this if you only want to see MIDI styles, or if you only want to see styles that use some/all RealTracks. Lyrics Enhancements Undo has been added for the entry of individual lyrics using the Edit | Undo command. Ther e are new buttons in the Lyric Entry window. The [Line] button enters a forward slash “/” line break marker in the current lyric. The [Para] button enters a backslash “ \” paragraph break marker in the current lyric. The [Enter] button enters the current lyric, equivalent to hitting Enter key or Tab key. The [Close] button closes the Lyrics Edit mode, equivalent to hitting the [L] button again. The [Section Text] button enters the text in the lyric box as section text at the current bar. The [Edit] button opens the Edit Lyrics dialog where lyrics and section text can be edited. And much more… Multiple Undo Support Up to 999 levels of undo (configurable). The default number of undos is 99. If you need to change this, it can be done in Opt. | Preferences “Number of Levels of Undo.” Range can be 5 to 999. You can also choose Edit | Redo to redo an undo. Technical Note: Audio Undos are large WAV files, so are stored in an Undos folder in the BB directory. This directory is emptied when the undos are no longer needed. Always Save All Song Settings Now all settings are saved with songs, including patches, reverbs, volume etc., so that the song will play the same way each time, without having to set this in the “save with patches” dialog (Alt+F2). Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2010.5 43 Band-in-a-Box Window is Sizable When size changes, chordsheet, notation, and other windows redraw in proportion to the new size. This allows you to have Band-in-a-Box open as a small window on screen with other programs, and you still see a full chordsheet. The screen size is remembered between sessions. To resize the Window, first un-maximize it. Then use the sizing control at the bottom right. The various Band-in-a-Box windows will scale as you do this. Band-in-a-Box will remember the position and size of the window between sessions. The RealDrums picker dialog has been enhanced, with information about Artist name, Artist bio, and Real Drums Set number. Support enhanced for non-concert instruments (Bb/Eb sax, trumpet etc.). Now when the chordsheet is transposed, you can type in chords in the transposed key, and they will show up as you have entered them, instead of requiring you to enter the chords in the concert key. To try this out, go to [Prefs] and click on [Display] to open the Display Options dialog. For the “Transpose” setting, choose “Alto Sax +9.” Now when you type in a chord (like Am7) it will show up as Am7 without requiring you to enter it in the Concert key. More Soloists are now available, up to 2000. Many messages changed to “yellow alerts” at top right of screen, so that you don’t have to respond to the message, interrupting work flow. This is the end of the tutorial. Thanks for taking the time to read this chapter. Have fun! 44 Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2010.5 Chapter 4: The Main Screen Main Screen Overview Band-in-a-Box supports Windows themes. It will use the current theme that you have selected in the Windows Control Panel to use for windows and dialogs. The main screen gives direct access to the major features and program settings of Band-in-a-Box for ease and convenience during a session. There are five different areas on the main screen. 1→ 2→ 3→ 4→ 5→ The main screen of Band-in-a-Box with a new, blank song. 1. The Status Bar is used to show program running status messages and path names of the currently loaded song. 2. The Synth Window is the area between the Menu Bar and the Piano Keyboard where Instruments patches are set and levels are adjusted. It also includes buttons for adding harmonies to the Melody, Thru, or Soloist parts. 3. The Tool Bar area under the Piano Keyboard has buttons for direct access to important program features and menus. Hold the mouse cursor on any button to see a pop-up hint that describes its function. 4. The Title Window shares the Tool Bar area. In addition to the song title, it includes all the other settings for the song such as its Key Signature, Tempo, and Chorus settings. To the right of the Title Window are two floating, dockable toolbars that can be configured by the user. 5. The Chordsheet Area occupies the lower part of the screen. Chord changes for the song are typed into the numbered bars (cells) in the sheet. Part markers (a, b, through x) are entered here to switch between up to 24 Band-in-a-Box substyles. Double lines are drawn on the chordsheet at the bar before a part marker. Repeats and endings are also shown. The Band-in-a-Box window is sizable. When the window size changes the Chordsheet, Notation, and other windows redraw in proportion to the new size. This allows you to have Band-in-a-Box open as a small window on screen with other programs, and you still see a full chordsheet. The screen size is remembered between sessions. To resize the Window, first un-maximize it. Then use the sizing control at the bottom right. The various Band-in-a-Box windows will scale as you do this. Band-in-a-Box will remember the position and size of the window between sessions. Chapter 4: The Main Screen 45 Alert messages You’ll see that many Band-in-a-Box messages appear as “yellow alerts” at the top right of screen. That way you don’t have to respond to the message, interrupting work flow. Personalizing the Main Screen Band-in-a-Box gives you many options to personalize the main screen. Screen Layout The Chordsheet area (or Notation Screen) can be placed at the top of the screen if desired by selecting the “Put Notation/Chords on Top” from the Window menu or by pressing Ctrl+T. (This is reversed by selecting the same option.) Display Options Go to Opt. | Preferences or click on the [Pref] button to open the Preferences dialog. Then click on the [Display] button to open the Display Options dialog where you can select a toolbar mode, show or hide the on-screen piano, pick a song title font and set options for the chordsheet display including the number of rows to display for the main chordsheet, the font to use, and the font size too. This allows you to read the chordsheet window from “across the room.” If you choose a Custom font, you can choose the size as well. Choose a preset font, and the size will be set automatically to fit into the height of the row. Choose Jazz Symbols to see shorthand Jazz chord symbols in the chordsheet and notation. To revert to the “old look” that used a small System font, and lots of rows, you can choose that as the type of font “Small font (system).” Whenever a new section occurs (a part marker) you have the option to start the new section on a new line and draw a grey line above to clearly mark the new section. A section can be just 2 bars long. With this Section Paragraphs feature you’ll see each section on a new line so that the form of the song is easy to see. Transpose visually transposes the chordsheet and notation a number of semitones, e.g. +14 for tenor sax. 46 Chapter 4: The Main Screen Color Schemes You can choose from several color sets using the 256-color palette in Windows. Choose from pre-made color schemes or make your own. To change the color scheme, select Opt. | Preferences from the main screen, and then click on the [Colors] button in the Preferences dialog to launch the Color Selection dialog. To select a pre-made color scheme, press the [Import..] button and choose from the list of schemes. Select [OK] to make the changes permanent. Use the [Export..] button to save and share your customized color schemes. To make your own color scheme, click on the name of the element you wish to change (Chord Area, List Box, etc.), then click on the [Choose…] button to bring up the Windows Color palette and click on the color you desire. Descriptive Hints The pop-up hints make it “too easy” to become a power user. They are comprehensive fly-by hints that appear when you move over an item, including hints for the dialog boxes and various windows. Go to Opt. | Preferences or select the [Pref] button to open the Preferences dialog and set the type of hints to display, the time delay, and duration. Set a longer delay if you find that the hints are popping up too often and getting in your way. Chapter 4: The Main Screen 47 Options and Utilities These settings are found in the Opt. menu and the Opt. | Utilities submenu. Language Selection This item in the Opt. menu allows you to change language from English to another language for display. If there are other languages supported by your version of Band-in-a-Box, then they will display in this dialog box. The new language will be displayed the next time Band-in-a-Box is launched. Edit Chord Shortcuts file (shortcut.txt) Add your own chord shortcuts. Have you found a chord that Band-in-a-Box doesn't recognize? If so, you can make a text file called \bb\shortcut.txt for your own shortcuts. (Note that this file doesn't ship with Band-in-a-Box or it would overwrite your file!) The file \bb\pgshortc.txt is only for shortcuts supplied by PG Music. Refresh Chord Shortcuts… When you have saved your shortcuts file click on Refresh Chord Shortcuts… to start using them. Changes to your chord shortcuts won’t take effect until you choose this command. Status Bar The name of the open song is identified in the status bar at the top of the screen. The full file name and path name are shown, as well as audio track information if present, the length of the song in minutes and seconds, and the current position of the highlight cell. Other “running status” messages such as Soloist Generation and Song Generation display in the status bar. The status bar changes during playback to show additional information like the current bar and chorus location and the current style. The on-screen file name includes “*” when a file has been changed. Status bar during playback. Taskbar hint The entire song name displays in the taskbar hint when Band-in-a-Box is minimized. This is useful to find the name of a song playing when Band-in-aBox is playing in the background. Synth Window / Piano Keyboard The Piano Keyboard: This keyboard displays the notes (in different colors) that are being played by all instruments on various parts of the piano keyboard during playback (except drums). The MIDI Thru/Soloist is also displayed on the piano keyboard. On the top row, guitar (green), melody (red), and soloist (pink) are displayed. On the bottom row, bass (brown), piano (blue), and strings (grey) are displayed. 48 Chapter 4: The Main Screen Instruments and Parts: Part Settings: The Bass/Drum/Piano/Guitar/Strings/Melody/Soloist and Thru buttons refer to instrument parts. The MIDI parts in use for the current song and style are shown in yellow, RealTracks and RealDrums are colored green. When a RealTracks part is underlined it has RealCharts notation or tablature that displays in the Notation window and also on the piano keyboard or guitar fretboard. Parts that are not used are in white. The names of muted parts display in red. To change a setting for one of the parts you need to do the following: - Select the part by mouse clicking on the part name, or on the button immediately to the left of the part name. - Change the desired parameter to affect the new setting. Right click or double click on a part name for a menu of more settings and actions for the selected part. - You can Mute or Solo the individual part. Assign RealTracks generates the part as a RealTrack using any available RealTracks instrument. The RealTrack can be regenerated. An individual MIDI part can be rendered into a WAV file and saved in the location you select as a file named in the format “Untitled Song BBGuitar_MIDI_SingleRender.WAV” - Set Track offset allows the track to moved ahead or behind by +/- 1000 ticks (at a resolution of 120 PPQ). - Erase Track removes either the MIDI data or RealTracks audio from the track. - Freeze the track if you do not want the part regenerated on each play. Tracks can be unfrozen. Instruments - Choosing The instrument panel allows you to change the instrument for any part: - Clicking on the drop-down arrow produces an instrument list that you can choose from by highlighting and clicking on the desired instrument name. - Clicking the [F] button produces a representative list of predefined favorite instruments that you can choose from. The [GM2] button lets you select patches from a list of both General MIDI and General MIDI 2 patches if your system supports GM2. Clicking on the instrument panel [+] button produces a comprehensive list of ALL of the patches available for your synthesizer, including ones on higher banks (if applicable). This list displays your patch names by name, where the patch is located (patch #, bank) and lets you pick them from an easily customizable list. Chapter 4: The Main Screen 49 Combo Settings When the combo button is selected you can choose one of your ten favorite preset instrument combos. The patches are set from the [Fav. Patches] button in the Preferences. For example, you could setup Combo #1 to be an Acoustic Jazz combo which would send out patches like Acoustic Bass, Acoustic Piano, Acoustic Guitar, Flute, etc. When a Combo is selected changes to volume, reverb, etc. will apply to all parts. Right-click on the Combo radio button to open a menu of commands that apply to the entire combo. Mute will mute all parts. Save all tracks as WAV file will render the tracks together into one wave file or render them as individual wave files. Song has changed, needs regeneration will regenerate a new arrangement for all parts. You can Render Song to Audio Track, which mutes the individual tracks and plays the rendered audio wave, or you can Un-Render Song from Audio Track, which will erase the audio track and play the individual tracks again. The Freeze and Un-freezecommands apply to all tracks. If you like the current mix (of volumes, panning, reverb), and you want this applied as a default for all songs, you can choose Save Current Mix as Default. Load Default Mix restores the default mix you have saved, and Reset Mix sets the mix back to “factory defaults.” Drop Panel The [Drop] button is used to drag and drop tracks from Band-in-a-Box to Digital Audio Workstations that don’t support direct drag and drop. Many DAWs will allow you to do this directly, but, if your sequencer does not support the direct drop of a track that is not yet generated, you can drag from a radio button (Combo, Bass, Piano, etc.) to the Drop panel. When the button turns bright green the track has been generated and is ready to drag from the [Drop] button to your DAW. 50 Chapter 4: The Main Screen Audio The Audio Playback settings dialog makes it easy to mute, solo, or change the volume of the audio track, similar to the control of the other instrument parts in Band-in-Box. There are also Tone and Reverb controls for RealTracks. Click on the “Audio” label on-screen to open this dialog. Master Reverb and Tone can be set by clicking the Combo button, and then using the Audio Reverb and Tone controls. Harmony The Harmony area displays the current Melody and Thru Harmony. At the top right, you'll see the harmony boxes for the Melody and the Thru/Soloist. The [M] button is for Melody harmony--pressing the [M] button produces a list of harmonies you can choose from. In this case it's set to SuperSax for a Big Band Sax-section harmony. This button permanently writes the generated harmony to the Melody track. Once converted, set the harmony to none to prevent a “harmony-on-harmony” effect. The [No harmony] button disables the harmony for the song. The keystrokes Shift+F10 also allow or disable the Melody harmony. Chapter 4: The Main Screen 51 Tip: You can also search for a harmony by a keyword (i.e. typing in the first few letters of a harmony name) in either the Harmonies or Favorite Harmonies dialog. Pressing the [F] button produces a list of your favorites; the 50 most recently loaded harmonies. The [T] button is for Thru/Soloist harmony. Either your live part or the Soloist will be harmonized in real time--in this case using George Shearing Quintet type harmony (piano, vibes and guitar). Pressing the [F] button produces a list of your favorites (the 50 most recently loaded harmonies). Pressing the Shift+F11 keys toggles the Thru harmony on and off. Loop Section Settings The loop button launches the Loop Section Settings dialog, allowing you to set a range of bars to loop in Band-in-a-Box. The “LoopSec/LoopScn” checkbox turns the Loop Section on/off. When it shows “LoopSec” a selected range of bars repeats in an endless loop. “LoopScn” indicates a screen of notation is looping. The selection of “range of bars” or “screen” is made in the dialog The Wizard and Embellisher The Wizard is an intelligent play along feature that uses your QWERTY keyboard as a substitute for an external MIDI piano-style keyboard or optionally works with a connected external MIDI keyboard on the Thru channel. Toggle this checkbox “on” to play along with Band-in-a-Box. The bottom row of the computer keyboard plays chord tones, the second row plays passing tones - you play any key in either row and never make a mistake! During playback, the Melody Embellisher changes timing of notes, durations, velocities, and legato, as well as adding grace notes, additional notes, and “turns.” It is turned on and off by the Embellisher checkbox on the main screen. Embellisher settings are accessed from the menu item Melody | Embellisher or the Embellisher button on the toolbar. Toolbars The main toolbar extends the full width of the screen. (It is divided in two here.) The [New] button clears the Chordsheet to start a new song. Band-in-a-Box reminds you to save your work before it erases the chords. 52 Chapter 4: The Main Screen The [Open] button is used to open (load) songs into the program from a standard Windows Open File dialog. Use the [Prev.] button to immediately open the previous song in the same folder (in alphabetical order) without going through the usual file opening process. Use the [Next] button to instantly open the next song in the same folder (in alphabetical order) without going through the usual file opening process. The [Save] button saves the song to disk with the standard Windows Save As dialog. This saves the song, allowing you to choose or confirm the name and location for the file save. The [Save +] button opens the Assign Instruments and Harmonies to Song dialog where custom patches, harmonies, and other settings can be permanently saved with the song. Click on the [Plugin] button to start the DAW plug-in mode and select plug-in settings for dragging and dropping tracks to your favorite digital audio workstation. The [.MID] button allows you to make a Standard MIDI File and save it to disk as a file with extension .MID or to the Windows Clipboard with type “Standard MIDI File.” Type 0 and Type 1 MIDI files are supported, or you can also choose to save the song as a Karaoke file with the .KAR extension. This is the “Render to WAV file” button, which will convert (render) your MIDI arrangement to an audio wave file. It includes a batch render feature to convert an entire folder of songs in a single operation. Transport Controls These buttons are like the transport controls on a CD player or a media player. [Play] button generates a new arrangement and plays the song. [Loop] plays the selected (highlighted) section of the chordsheet in a loop. [Replay] plays the song from the beginning without creating a new arrangement. [Stop] button stops the song or the Jukebox from playing. [Pause] button pauses the song during playback. [From] button is used to play a song starting anywhere in the song, including tags or endings. This feature is also available from the right-click menu in the Chordsheet. The [Melodist] button opens the Generate Chords and/or Melody dialog, where you can choose the type (or genre) of Melodist you wish to have generate a complete new song with chord changes and melody as well as an improvised solo and an original song title. The [Soloist] button opens the Select Soloist Dialog, where you can choose the Soloist you wish to have play over any given chord changes. The [Juke] button is used to start or stop the Jukebox. The [Õ] and [Ö] arrow keys are used to move to either the previous or next song in the Jukebox. Chapter 4: The Main Screen 53 The [Rec.] button is to record a song from the beginning. The music that you play in to the computer will then be stored on the Melody track. The “R” key is the keyboard equivalent. The [R. Aud] button launches the Record Audio dialog for live audio recording. You can make yourself sound like a 5 piece vocal group or a 16-voice choir! Record a vocal part, and add a 4 part audio harmony. Press the audio harmony button on screen to do this. Band-in-a-Box supports DirectX and VST audio plug-ins – you can apply them directly to the digital audio track. Use the cool PG Music plug-ins provided, or any other DirectX and VST plug-ins that you have. This allows you to select and configure DXi (DirectX instruments) or VSTi software synthesizers. The “Use DXi Synth” checkbox must be selected in the MIDI Driver Setup dialog. Sends out an “all notes off” message to your MIDI or software synthesizer, so it can function as a “panic” button to stop a hung or stuck note. This button resets General MIDI devices by sending a GM mode On message and then setting up the Band-in-a-Box patches. Opens the PG Music Reverb window where the type of audio reverb is selected. Preset reverb settings are available, or custom settings can be applied and saved. This opens a list of tracks with the option to freeze or unfreeze all tracks or just freeze individual tracks. Frozen tracks play without regenerating for faster playback. Floating Toolbars These are Copy and Paste buttons for chords or notes. They copy to the Windows clipboard, and paste from the clipboard. The Folder button allows you to change song and style folders or directories from within the program. Use the Favorite Folders button to select a folder from previously used folders. Shift-click on this button to choose any folder. Open an audio file (WAV, WMA, MP3) and the Audio Chord Wizard will automatically figure out the chords. The Practice Window is where many of the features and add-on programs useful for learning can be launched. This opens a menu with selections for the RealDrums Picker and RealDrums Preferences (settings). This opens a menu with selections for the RealTracks Picker, RealTracks Preferences (settings), and a command to ‘Select better RealTracks” for the song tempo. The Medley Maker allows you to quickly make a medley out of existing Band-in-a-Box songs. The guitar button launches a guitar fretboard window that displays guitar notes as music is playing. 54 Chapter 4: The Main Screen This button allows you to enter repeats, 1st and 2nd endings, DS al coda, DC al coda and more. The Auto-Find feature enters them automatically. The [Intro] allows you to generate and insert an intro into a song with a “press of the button.” The Big Piano button launches a Big Piano window. It will display the notes to any track (except drums) as the music is playing. This launches the applet for your sound card mixer. Use the mixer to make global settings to your sound card's input and output options. Press the Guitar Chord button to launch the Generate Guitar Chord Solo dialog. The Ear Training button opens the Ear Training window that plays chord types and intervals for you to improve your playing-by-ear. Launches the Pitch Invasion game that helps to develop perfect pitch as you shoot down “alien” notes invading from above. Launches the Music Replay game that develops pitch, rhythm, and melody recognition by replaying what the program plays. The Vocal Wizard selects and transposes the song to the best key for a singer’s vocal range. This button launches the Chord Options dialog box, which allows you to add chord pushes, rests, shots, and held chords for any given bar. The grace note button opens the Melody Embellisher dialog for customizing the Melody Embellisher. You can convert your composition to an audio CD. Press the CD button to burn a CD with the built-in CD burner program. This button connects to the www.pgmusic.com web site. If you have a Sound Blaster card, this button runs the Creative Mixer. The SoundTrack feature allows you to generate music of fixed length for backgrounds in videos, corporate presentations, jingles, etc. The Reharmonist creates a chord progression based only on the melody. It can also reharmonize existing chord progressions. This button opens the Notation window, where you can enter chords and lyrics, edit notation, and view MIDI notation. The Lead Sheet notation is a full-screen notation window with optional Fake Sheet mode that shows 1st and 2nd endings, repeats, and codas. Launches the Piano Roll window for editing the Melody or Soloist tracks in a piano roll format, including graphic controller editing. The Audio Edit window displays a graphical waveform and allows editing. Hold Shift when pressing to open a moveable window. Use the Print button to launch the Print Options dialog, which allows you to print Lead Sheet or Fake Sheet style notation. The Drum button launches an animated Drum Kit window. Press it to launch this fully functional (and fun) GM-MIDI “virtual” drum kit. Chapter 4: The Main Screen 55 The Song Title button generates a song title for the current song. Each time it is pressed a new title is generated. This button opens the Big Lyrics window for full screen “Karaoke-style” scrolling lyrics. Runs the Sequencer for control of multi-channel Melody or Soloist tracks. Each track can record up to 16 separate channels. The Conductor window allows live, real time QWERTY keyboard or MIDI control of the song as it is playing. The Audio VU meters display the input volume for audio recording and the output volume for audio playback. There’s a Lyric Document window so you can easily copy and paste lyrics to and from your favorite word processor. The lyrics will then display in the Big Lyrics window. This button opens the Windows Recording mixer where you set your recording inputs. Select Microphone or Line-in to record audio. The [Pref] button will bring up a dialog box where you can set various settings all at once and access most of the program options. The StyleMaker button opens the current style in the StyleMaker, allowing you to edit the style by editing the patterns. This button opens the “Hybrid Styles” feature that allows you to create a new style by using instrument parts from up to five different styles. This opens the Style Creation Wizard dialog, where Band-in-a-Box will automatically convert a MIDI file into a Band-in-a-Box style. This is the Chord Builder button. Chords may be heard and entered to the chordsheet by clicking in this dialog. The MIDI Monitor button launches a MIDI Monitor that displays the MIDI Data flowing in and out of your computer/synth. The tuner button opens the Guitar Tuner so you can tune a guitar or other instrument that is plugged into the sound card. The SB button opens the Sound Blaster control panel, but only if you use a Sound Blaster card. Sound fonts are loaded in the control panel. This button toggles the chord display among standard (CMaj7), Roman Numeral (Imaj7), Nashville (1Maj7), Solfeggio (DoMaj7) and Fixed Do. This runs the stand-alone Title Generator program, which will generate and print 50 new song titles at a time. Title Window The Title window shows the basic information about the current song at a glance - its title, style, key, tempo, and the length and number of choruses. It also gives quick access to the Song List, the StylePicker, Memos, and Song Settings. The [Song] button launches the Load Song by Full Titles dialog box. The [F] favorites button opens either a list of favorites or 150 recently played songs. 56 Chapter 4: The Main Screen The [Style] button launches the StylePicker window. This window offers detailed information about each style. The [F] favorites button either a list of favorites or 150 recently played styles. The names of the last five songs are listed at the bottom of the File menu, and are numbered from 0 to 4. Note: Pressing Shift+F3 on your computer keyboard will bring up a list of the last 150 songs that you’ve loaded. The Song Title window allows you to enter the name of a song. Click in the box with your mouse to start an insertion cursor and type in the name of your song. The title is automatically included when the song is printed. Style Display Window This window displays the current style in use. Both the name of the style file and the long name are shown. Mouse over the style to see the full name or right mouse-click on the style name for a menu of style utilities. These include choosing and changing styles as well as playing the demo song for the currently loaded style. A right click also brings up the style memo at the same time. Key Signature The key signature of the song is displayed on the main screen under the title. To change the key, click on the key signature to choose a new key from the dropdown list box. Band-in-aBox then asks you if you would like to transpose the song or not. Press [Yes] to confirm, or [No] to leave the melody and chords untransposed (only the key signature will change). An instance where you would say “no” is where you have entered a song without first setting the key signature and you want to apply the correct key signature. Tempo Control The current tempo displays in the Title window, with controls for easy tempo settings and adjustments. Click the mouse on the spin control arrows to raise or lower the tempo in by 5 bpm (beats per minute) at a time. Use a right mouse click on the tempo arrows to change the tempo by 1 bpm at a time. Tap the = (equal sign) key on the number row of your computer keyboard for 4 beats to set the tempo and start the playback immediately at that tempo. Or click the [=] button on the screen with your mouse pointer. Tap the – (minus sign) key on the number row of your computer keyboard for 4 beats to set the tempo. Or click the [-] button on the screen with your mouse pointer. Chorus Control The Chorus Control buttons are used to set the overall format of your song. Chorus Begin button: Click on the Chorus Begin Button to select the first bar of the chorus. The Bar number that you select is displayed. Chorus End button: Click on the Chorus End Button to select the last bar of the chorus. The Bar number that you select is displayed. Chapter 4: The Main Screen 57 The number of choruses possible for a tune is 40. Click on the chorus button and choose how many choruses you require. As the song is playing the current chorus is displayed at in the chorus button. 2/3 shows that the second of three choruses is playing. If you change the number of choruses, Band-in-a-Box will offer to fill up or remove choruses of the Melody track to match the new number of choruses. Title window checkboxes When the loop checkbox in the Title window is checked, the song plays endlessly until stopped by the Esc key, the space bar, or the [Stop] button. Enables fake sheet mode for the chordsheet with 1st and 2nd endings and repeats. Right click to auto-detect repeats. Press the [S] button, or choose Edit | Settings (for This Song)… to select additional settings for the current song. The [Memo] button allows you to put in a memo to a song. You can type in a memo or you can paste text from the Windows clipboard. The song memo has a “Close w/play” option to close the memo automatically when Play is pressed, and not reopen when Stop is pressed. This setting, in combination with the “Auto-open” setting, ensures that the memo opens when the song opens but closes during playback. The font for the song memo is size selectable. Automatic Memo-Generation The Song memo has a “summary” checkbox. If selected, you’ll see an additional window that automatically displays a full summary of the song (title/tempo/patches used in the song), as well as other special features, like substyle patch changes or harmonies. The Auto-generated song memo says if RealDrums come from the song or style. Chordsheet Area Chords, rests, shots, holds, and part markers are entered in the Chordsheet. The chordsheet can be viewed in the full linear view showing all bars, or optionally in fake sheet view that shows 1st and 2nd endings and repeat signs. Another option shows bars past the end of the song in gray. 58 Chapter 4: The Main Screen In the Chordsheet, typing special words, instead of chord names, will make the following settings: begin + Enter sets the beginning of the chorus to the current bar end + Enter sets the end of the song to the current bar chorusend + Enter sets the end of the chorus to the current bar tkc + Enter sets key signature to c, tkbb would set it to bb trc + Enter transposes song to key of C t125 + Enter sets tempo to 125 You can quick-load a song by typing only. In chord entry mode type the word “Song” followed by a file name, or partial file name, and the song will get loaded in. For example, type c:\a\MySong.sgu to load in that exact song name. Type “bossa” to load in the first song with bossa in the name AFTER the current song name, in the current folder. Quick-load a style by typing only “style” followed by a stylename, e.g., stylezzbossa will load in zzbossa.sty. Chord Entry The basic way of entering a song into Band-in-a-Box is to type in the chords to the song on the chordsheet (worksheet). The arrow keys move the active (highlighted) cell around in the chordsheet. The Enter key advances to the next ½ bar. Chords can be entered from the QWERTY keyboard or an external MIDI keyboard (see Window | MIDI Chord Detection…). Chords are typed in using any of the supported chord symbol displays: 1. Standard chord symbols (e.g., C or Fm7 or Bb7 or Bb13#9/E). 2. Roman numerals (Imaj7). 3. Nashville Notation (1Maj7). 4. Solfeggio (DoMaj7). 5. Fixed Do. In Italy and other parts of Europe, chords like C7 are always referred to by the Solfeggio name (Do7 for C7) regardless of the key signature. Notes: It is not necessary to type upper or lower case. The program will sort this out for you. Any chord may be entered with an alternate root (“Slash Chord”) e.g.: C7/E = C7 with E bass. Separate chords with commas to enter 2 chords in a 2 beat cell, e.g., Dm, G7 Shortcut Chords: If you enter a lot of songs, you'll appreciate these shortcut keys. - J = Maj7 - H = m7b5 (H stands for Half diminished) - D = dim - S = Sus Example: To type CMaj7, just type CJ (it will be entered as CMaj7) Chapter 4: The Main Screen 59 Add your own chord shortcuts. You can make your own shortcuts text file and name it \bb\shortcut.txt. This allows you to add new chord shortcuts. (Note that this file doesn't ship with Band-in-a-Box or it would overwrite your file.) If you find a chord that Band-in-a-Box won't accept like Csus2 (it expects C2), 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 Csus2. Chordsheet Options You can set up the chordsheet with your own preferences. Go to Opt. | Preferences or choose the [Pref] toolbar button to open the Preferences, and click on the [Display] button to open the Display Options. In the Chordsheet area of the Display Options you can pick a chordsheet font and the number of rows to display, or set an option to automatically adjust the number of rows to display. Whenever a new section occurs (a part marker) you have the option to start the new section on a new line and draw a grey line above to clearly mark the new section. Sections can be as little as 2 bars long. The “Extra line space between sections” setting determines the amount of space (in pixels) to add on a new line when there is a part marker. Transpose Chordsheet option The “Transpose” option is also found in the Display Options dialog. It is useful for nonconcert pitch instruments like Tenor Saxophone. This option is also available on the Notation window. 60 Chapter 4: The Main Screen If a Chordsheet or Notation window transpose setting is in effect, a yellow hint message opens on bootup as a reminder. When the chordsheet is transposed, you can type in chords in the transposed key, and they will show up as you have entered them, instead of requiring you to enter the chords in the concert key. To try this out, go to [Prefs] and click on [Display] to open the Display Options dialog. For the “Transpose” setting, choose “Alto Sax +9.” Then type in a chord, like Am7, and it will show up as Am7 without requiring you to enter it in the concert key. Part Markers Part Markers are placed on the chordsheet to indicate a new part of the song, to insert a substyle change, or to insert drum fills. They typically occur every 8 bars or so, but may be placed at the beginning of any bar. Double lines are drawn on the chordsheet at the bar before a part marker. Section Paragraphs When you’re reading a book, a new section begins on a new line, with space between. Band-in-a-Box does that for chords too. Whenever a new section occurs (a part marker), we start the new section on a new line and draw a grey line above to clearly mark the new section. A section can be as short as 2 bars.You’ll see each section on a new line so that the form of the song is easier to see. The feature is configurable and optional. MultiStyles Band-in-a-Box MultiStyles are styles that can have up to 24 substyles; original Band-in-a-Box styles had two substyles, “a” and “b.” Band-in-a-Box MultiStyles typically have four substyles, but may have up to twenty-four, selected by using part markers “a” through “x.” You can easily make your own MultiStyles, either from scratch, or combining parts from existing styles to make a MultiStyle. For example, if you have 10 favorite Country styles, you can quickly make a single MultiStyle that has 20 substyles available within the same song. Play Selected Area as a Loop To use this function, select a region on the Chordsheet. Chapter 4: The Main Screen 61 Click on the [Loop] button, Shift+click on the [Play] button, or press F10 (Play Selected Area as Loop) and the program will play a selected region, and loop the selection. For example, you can select bars 19 and 20, and then press F10, and bars 19 and 20 will play looped. 62 Chapter 4: The Main Screen Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box Opening Files The SongPicker is the commonly used feature for finding and opening Band-in-a-Box song files, but Band-in-a-Box also has helpful features for locating and opening all types of music files. Find File So many files, so little time? The Find File feature is a “Swiss Army Knife” that allows you to find a Band-in-a-Box song (or any file that Band-in-a-Box can open), including filtering by words found in the file name or any text in the file. The File song files dialog opens from the File menu with the command Find File. For example, you can - get a listing of all Band-in-a-Box songs on your PC with the word “Blues” in the title. - get a listing of all Band-in-a-Box songs in the BB folder with the word “Reggae” in them. This produces a list of over 50 songs in the MegaPAK so you can quickly choose from them and know that, if you’re a reggae lover, you haven’t missed out on any Band-in-a-Box songs/styles with Reggae. A similar listing for “Blues” reports 454 files. The listing stays between sessions, so you can then take your time to explore all the files that Band-in-a-Box offers matching your find term. Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box 63 File Associations Go to the menu item File | File Utilities to associate the file types for Band-in-a-Box songs and styles in Windows. Once set, this means that you can double click on a song or style and Band-in-a-Box will open up with that song or style. Choose the menu items File | File Utilities | Associate File types (songs, styles) with Windows… to associate the Band-in-a-Box file types, and Remove File Associations (songs, styles) with Windows… to remove the associations. Open File Dialog The Open File dialog is opened with the Open toolbar button, the menu command File | Open, or the F3 function key. It shows and opens all available file types (MGU, WAV, WMA, MP3, MID, KAR, CDG, and CDA). And it remembers your preference, so you can restrict it to a certain file type. If MySong.MGU is loaded, and a same named audio file (MySong.WMA, MySong.MP3, MySong.WAV, etc.) is present, Band-in-a-Box will open the audio file to the audio track. This allows third parties to make audio files with chords in them, by making a MySong.MGU and MySong.MP3 pair of files, which will load into Band-in-a-Box, yet will have the audio compressed to take up little disk space. For example, make a teaching set of trombone files for Band-in-a-Box, with audio trombone track, and Band-in-a-Box file with chords, all fitting in a small file size. Custom File Selection Dialog The custom Open File dialog opens if you press Ctrl+Shift+F3 to load a song. You can make it the default dialog if you go to Opt. | Preferences and select “Use custom filename dialog” under the Environment Options in the Preferences dialog. Then the [Open] button, or the menu command File | Open, or the F3 key will launch the custom Open File dialog. The custom Open File dialog has several advantages over the traditional Windows dialogs: - The window is much bigger than the traditional one, allowing more room. - There is a selectable font size and typeface. - You can adjust the widths of the various columns. - The Window remembers your settings. - There are tabs at the top that allow sorting by name, date etc. - Additional information is displayed (file size, time of file). - You can open a song without typing the extension. For example, to open the song MySong.MGU you just have to type MySong, without MGU. 64 Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box The Font Selection button lets you pick a font, size, and style for the dialog from any of the fonts installed in Windows. The Search button allows you to search for a file by its name or part of a name. The Favorite Folders button remembers the last few directories that you've used, allowing you to easily change between directories. Favorite Folders The menu command File | Favorite Folders launches the Favorite Folders dialog with a list of recently used folders. To open a song using this dialog you first select the folder from the list, and then you can directly open the song from that folder. This allows you to quickly find a song in another folder. Hold the Shift key as you click the [Open] button. This will launch the Favorite Folders dialog, allowing you to pick the folder. This saves you the time needed to navigate through the Explorer-style folder choice, which can be time consuming if you’re hopping back and forth between folders. Similarly, Shift-clicking on the [Save As] button will allow you to choose a favorite folder prior to seeing the Save As dialog. Favorite Songs (and Styles) There’s a dialog for these favorites with separate lists of Recently Played and Favorite songs or styles. There are 2 tabs in this dialog, showing you both recently used songs/styles, and a list of “favorites” that you select as a favorite songs or styles. The [F] button launches the dialog. Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box 65 The “Favorites” and “Recently Played” Radio buttons toggle between a list of your recently played songs (or styles), and your favorite songs (or styles). Favorite Song/Style lists can be edited, sorted, saved/loaded, and used with the jukebox. You can add an unlimited # of favorites. The favorites list will start off as an empty one. But you can add songs as your favorites, by clicking the Add Favorite button (this button is also found in the StylePicker). You can make a new list of songs for a set by using the [Clear] button followed by the [Append], [Insert], and [Delete] buttons to add songs. You can save and load sets of favorites or recently played songs (or styles). Once you have the set, you can press the [Juke...] button. This will play the set file in order, not randomly. It will start from the currently selected song. The [Sort] button sorts the list alphabetically. When “Save As” is used to save a song with a different name the new name will be added to the Recently Played song dialog. Technical Note: The list of songs/style favorites is stored in a text file called SongFavorites.txt (or StyleFavorites.txt) in the BB folder. Favorite Styles in the StylePicker In the StylePicker, an “F” appears beside the name of any style that is a favorite. The favorite styles are the ones that you’ve identified as favorites, either by pressing the [Add Favorite] button in the Favorite Styles dialog, or the similar button in this StylePicker dialog. You can make any style a favorite by clicking the [Add Favorite] button. If you want to remove it, click the button again. “Only Show favorites” will only show the favorite styles in any list that you have opened. Global Song Overrides Global overrides are found in Preferences [Overrides], which allow you to set the overall song looping (always OFF, always ON, or as set in the song). Similar overrides are available to see which other information gets loaded from a file, such as patches, harmonies, volume/reverb/chorus/panning/banks. For example, you can set every song to load with looping ON, and don’t load any reverb settings from songs. For example, if you want every song loaded to have looping set to on, then set “Always set loop to ON.” But if you are going out on a playing job, and don’t want any songs to loop, then set it to “Always set loop to OFF.” If you want the settings to work the same way they did in previous versions, use the “As set in the song” setting, or press the [Defaults] button. 66 Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box If this is not selected, notation symbols (slurs, staccato, crescendos) will not be loaded from the song. The “Defaults for new songs” are settings from the Song Settings dialog. When “Vary Style in Middle Choruses” is selected (default) the song will play in substyle B throughout the middle choruses, playing substyle A for the first and last choruses only. If this setting is not selected the substyle changes will follow the part markers entered on the chordsheet. When “Allow Embellishment of Chords” is selected (default) Jazz styles can play embellished chords. For example, C7 might play as C13 or C7b9 for a more authentic sound. The [Pop/Country] preset button turns both of these settings off for a typical Pop or County arrangement that follows part markers and does not embellish chords. The [Jazz] preset button turns both of these settings on for a typical Jazz arrangement to support soloing over the middle choruses and allow Jazz chord embellishments. Loading and Playing Band-in-a-Box Songs Band-in-a-Box supports most popular song formats in addition to its own native song files. It will open most audio file formats, and its powerful Audio Chord Wizard feature will interpret the chords from an audio file and write them to a Band-in-a-Box song file. You can also play karaoke files, including Karaoke MP3/CDG files with scrolling graphical lyrics, in Band-in-a-Box. You can quick-load a song by typing only. In chord entry mode type the word “Song” followed by a file name, or partial file name, and the song will get loaded in. For example, type c:\a\MySong.sgu to load in that exact song name. Type “bossa” to load in the first song with bossa in the name AFTER the current song name, in the current folder. Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box 67 In this section we will explain how to load and play existing Band-in-a-Box song files. Open any song file with the familiar Windows-style dialog box, just like any other file on your disk. Or use the Find File feature (File | Find File) to filter files by words found in the file name or any text in the file. Start song playback. The [Loop] button plays the highlighted section of the chordsheet or notation in an endless loop. Click and drag the mouse to highlight a section of bars to loop. Replays the song without regenerating the tracks, so the current arrangement is preserved. (Save the song to a MIDI file to permanently save the arrangement.) Stop song playback. Pause playback with the [Pause] button; resume by pressing it again. Jump to any bar in the song. Press the [From] button to choose which chorus and bar number to jump to. The SongPicker The [Song] button opens the SongPicker window, a resizable window that lists all of the songs in the current directory and, optionally, its subdirectories. For example, if you get a song list of c:\bb, it can include songs in subfolders like c:\bb\styles34. You can lock the SongPicker to always open in the same folder and use the same list to keep track of all songs on your disk. The first time that you select the [Song] button Band-in-a-Box automatically writes the song list. The current folder name is displayed in the title bar, with the total # of songs displayed. The Song List generation has a [Cancel] button so that it can be interrupted. From then on, the SongPicker opens when the button is pressed and songs can be selected by title from the alphabetical list. Songs can be sorted by any of the column headings, like Song Title, File Name, Style, Tempo, etc., by clicking the mouse on the heading at the top of the column. Either a plus (+) or minus (-) sign will appear beside the selected column heading. A plus sign indicates that the column is sorted in ascending order; a minus sign indicates that it is sorted in descending order. Filter Use the filter to search by column, song title, file name, or style. 68 Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box Folder Settings The folder settings are at the bottom of the SongPicker. The Current Folder name is displayed. The folder can be changed, either by: 1. Selecting the new folder. 2. Choosing a folder from recently used favorites folder. 3. Changing the current folder to the BB home folder. 4. Going “up” a folder (e.g. from c:\bb\styles to c:\bb). When the new folder is chosen, the song list for that folder will be displayed. The song list may need to be rebuilt; the program will do that automatically. If the “Always open in this folder” item is selected, the song picker will always open up in the specified folder. So if you put all of your songs in c:\songs, you can make the SongPicker always open to the c:\songs folder. If “Include Subfolders” is selected, the SongPicker list will contain songs from the folder and any subfolders. So if you have subfolders to c:\songs like c:\songs\country and c:\songs\jazz, you can see/search them all in the same SongPicker dialog. Tip: If you choose c:\ as your folder, the SongPicker would find every Band-in-a-Box file on your hard drive and display it in the SongPicker. You might instead find it easier to put all of your songs within a folder like c:\songs, and have various subfolders to that. And then set the SongPicker to always open up in the c:\songs folder. Then you’ll have access to all of your songs easily. Choose a song from the Favorite Songs dialog. Open a song (or any media type) using the Open File dialog. Find a song using the Find song files… dialog. Copy the song list to the Windows clipboard where it can be pasted into any word processing program and printed. Search for song by keyword will find the search term if it is present in any field. The filter (upper right) can also be used to search the song list. Search Again repeats the previous search starting from the current point. [Rebuild List] will exit the dialog and build or rebuild the song list file by loading in all of the songs in the directory. It will then launch the SongPicker dialog with the updated information. Exports the list as a Comma Separated Value text file that can be opened by spreadsheets. Click here to change the fonts in the SongPicker window. Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box 69 The SongPicker lists if any RealDrums or RealTracks were not found, in a separate column (“d” indicates missing RealDrums and “t” indicates missing RealTracks). If you want to disable this feature, you can make a file named c:\bb\AlsoReadStylesWithSongListBuildUp_False.txt (contents irrelevant). Check “Play when chosen” to automatically play the selected song. Once you’ve loaded a song you’ll see the chords on-screen in the chordsheet so you can follow the chord changes and play along with the band. You can double click on any bar to start playback at that location. There is also an option in the Preferences dialog to start and stop playback with the spacebar. The spacebar or double click can be used on an ending bar (or a bar in the tag), and it will play from the ending (or tag). 70 Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box There are right mouse menu options on the Chordsheet. They give quick access to frequently used edit functions and features including “Play from bar and chorus #.” Change the Style Try different styles by clicking on the [Style] button to choose from a list of the styles available in the StylePicker window. Styles that have the same feel (triplets, eighths, sixteenths) and a similar tempo range to the current prototype will be indicated with an (*) asterisk. Styles with a (^) caret have a similar feel but a different tempo range. Band-in-a-Box StylePicker window. RealStyles and Styles with RealTracks RealStyles are Band-in-a-Box styles that use RealTracks only. There is a separate category in the StylePicker for RealStyles. It also lists Styles with RealTracks, a blend of MIDI tracks and RealTracks, with subsets for different musical genres. The style names for RealStyles are prefaced by an underscore, _. Style names for Styles with RealTracks are prefaced by an equals sign, =. Styles with RealDrums Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box 71 You can select RealDrums styles within the StylePicker. Highlight a MIDI style that you like, and press the RealDrums [Best] button, to see a list of the most compatible RealDrums styles for that style, or the [RealDrums] button to select from all available RealDrums. You can also change the style at any bar in the song, so you could use a few similar styles to add variety while keeping the same feel. This is done in the Edit Settings for Current Bar dialog, which opens with either the F5 function key or the Edit | Settings for Current Bar menu command. In the style change dialog (F5 and others) you can audition the style that you are considering. This dialog can also be opened with the [Bar Settings] button in the Song Settings dialog. Make a MultiStyle Song If you have a song, you can also use more than 2 substyles for that song. For example, let’s say we have a song that is a Bossa Nova and you want to have a Jazz Swing section. Rather than finding a MultiStyle that has this exact combination, we can make one, in the song, for this song only as follows: Load a song like c:\bb\styles0\zzbossa.mg4 Right click on a bar number, and choose “Define c/d.” Then choose ZZJAZZ.STY from the StylePicker. You will then see that there are 4 substyles now, a, b, c, d. You can use the “d” substyle for Jazz Swing walking bass, since it is the same as the “b” substyle from ZZJAZZ. Load the song c:\bb\Tutorial BB 2008\ “Demo of MultiStyle in song only Bossa 2 Jazz.MG4” and you can see the finished result. This song switches styles using part markers. Note: The RealDrums will play for all of the styles if you have enabled RealDrums and “Substitute RealDrums for \ MIDI drums” in the RealDrums Settings dialog. Settings for Playback You’ll find the Synth window at the top of the screen. Select an instrument part by clicking its name. The dot in the radio button beside the name indicates the selected part. Any changes to the Instrument, Volume, Pan, Audio Reverb, Tone, Bank, or MIDI Reverb will apply to that part. 72 Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box The Band-in-a-Box Synth window controls instrument settings. Patch Changes Patch changes are embedded in the Band-in-a-Box styles and these patches are loaded with songs by default. They can be disabled in the MIDI Options dialog found in the Preferences. Alternate patches can be saved with a song (Alt+F2). Change the instrument patch by scrolling through the 128 General MIDI instrument names in the Instrument box, even while the song is playing. General MIDI 2 support General MIDI 2 standard (GM2) adds 128 new instruments to Band-in-a-Box styles and songs, including ukulele, mandolin, 12-string guitar plus many new and improved piano, organ, guitar, brass, and string sounds. Note: The included Roland VSC3 synth supports the new GM2 instruments, as do many newer modules/sound cards. If yours doesn't, a similar instrument from the existing 128 General MIDI sounds will be substituted. The type of GM2 support is set in the MIDI Driver Setup dialog (Opt. | MIDI driver setup…). The choices are: - General MIDI 2 support: If you're using the Roland VSC3, or a newer Sound Canvas then choose this GM2 support. - Roland GS (older Modules): “Older” Sound Canvases (SC55/SC88) support GS, but not GM2. The good news is that they have the same patches available, just at different locations. So if you choose this option, Band-in-a-Box will find the patches at the “GS” locations instead of the “GM2” locations. If you have a newer GS module like the SC8820 that supports both GM2 and GS you should likely choose GM2. - No GM2 support: Most sound cards don't have GM2 support yet, so just support the original 128 General MIDI sounds. Band-in-a-Box will use the closest instrument in these cases. You can select the GM2 patch using the GM2 button next to the Instrument box. This shows a menu organized by instrument types. Technical note: For a GM patch like Nylon Guitar the patch is 25. For a GM2 patch like Ukulele, the patch is also 25, but it is accompanied by two bank settings, MSB Bank Controller 0 setting of 121 and LSB Bank Controller 32 setting of 1. Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box 73 When you select the instrument from this menu, it will make the bank settings (Bank0 and LSB) for you. You can also change the bank #s directly, and the patch in the box will change. GM2 patches can also be selected elsewhere in the program, such as the Edit Settings for Current Bar dialog and the StyleMaker. Additional Patches A “patch” is a MIDI instrument name. Examples of patches are Acoustic Bass, Electric Piano and Violin. Patches are used to emulate real instruments through MIDI playback. Band-in-a-Box defaults to using the standard bank of General MIDI patches used by all MIDI manufacturers, but many MIDI synthesizers and sound cards have additional patches available as alternatives to the basic GM list. These sounds are typically found on higher banks in memory. Patches on Higher Banks Dialog This displays your patch names by name and lets you pick them from an easily customizable list. You've probably got great sounds on higher banks -- now you can find and use them easily! Clicking on the [+] button opens the Patches on Higher Banks dialog for easy access to patches on all other banks as well as General MIDI. To narrow your sound search you can do one or all of the following: - Open the patch list and select an instrument (i.e. Electric Bass, Acoustic Piano, etc.) - Click on the “Include Family” checkbox to have other offerings of similar type shown. (i.e., all bass family patches, all keyboard family patches, etc.) - Find a patch by keyword by clicking the [Search…] button and typing some letters that you know are in the name (e.g., “mando” will find your mandolin patch and any others containing “mando”). 74 Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box Click on this button to go to the PG Music web page where you can download more patch files from http://www.pgmusic.com/support_miscellaneous.htm. Converting Synthesizer Patch Lists in Band-in-a-Box Band-in-a-Box can read a patch file list generated by PowerTracks Pro Audio or Cakewalk, and convert it to a .PAT file for use in Band-in-a-Box. Converting PowerTracks patch list to Band-in-a-Box .Pat files. PowerTracks stores its patch lists in a single file, called PATCHES.INI. This file contains all of the patch lists for the synths supported by PowerTracks. Band-in-a-Box stores the patch list for each synth in a separate file, with an extension of .PAT. To convert a PowerTracks patch file to a Band-in-a-Box Patch file, you will be choosing the c:\pt\ptw\patches.ini, and then choosing the synth that you want to convert to a .PAT file. Press the [+] button to the right of the Instrument name on the main Band-in-a-Box screen. This will open the Patches on Higher Banks dialog. Note: If a .PAT file has not been previously selected, a File Open dialog will appear. Select a .PAT file from the \bb directory to launch the Patches on Higher Banks dialog. Press the [Open INI/INS…] button to launch the Open File dialog. Choose the file c:\pt\patches.INI. You’ll then see a menu of synths stored in the patches.INI file. Select one to convert. Create a name for the .PAT file (e.g. My Patch List.PAT) and save it to c:\bb. Converting a Cakewalk .Ins file to a Band-in-a-Box .Pat file. Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box 75 This is done using the same process described above for PowerTracks, except that you open the individual .INS file instead of a PATCHES.INI file. For example, if you have a Cakewalk file called “My Synth.INS” you would select this file name. You would then save that converted list to c:\bb\My Synth.PAT. Solo an Instrument Part While listening to Band-in-a-Box, you can easily solo (isolate) a certain part by holding the Control key and mouse clicking (left or right) on the instrument at the top of the screen. For example, if you want to hear only the Piano part, Control-Click on the Piano part. If you want to use hot keys for this, you can press Alt+2 (Mute-All) and then Alt+4 (Unmute Piano). Mute All Parts To mute/unmute all parts as the song is playing, simply press Alt+2 or right-click on the “Combo” radio buttons at the top of the screen. Changing Volume, Panning, Reverb, Chorus, Bank To change the Volume, Panning, Reverb, Chorus, or Bank of a part, click on the desired part to change. The names of MIDI instrument parts that are playing are colored yellow. If the part name is white when the song is playing it means that the instrument is not present. A red instrument part name means that the part is muted. Green instrument names indicate RealTracks and RealDrums. (Underlined parts have RealChart notation.) Then click on the spin control arrow keys to increase or decrease the setting. - The left mouse button increases/decreases by 5 at a time. - The right mouse button increases/decreases by 1 at a time. You can also click directly on the number field to open a dialog and type the value in directly. Chase Volumes. For a file with Volume change events (Controller 7) written into the Melody (or other tracks) – if the song is played back from somewhere in the middle, the most recent volume setting prior to the start of playback will be sent. Solo an Instrument Part While listening to Band-in-a-Box, you can easily solo (isolate) a certain part by holding the Ctrl key and mouse clicking (left or right) on the instrument at the top of the screen. For example, if you want to hear only the Piano part, Ctrl+click on the Piano part. If you want to use hot keys for this, you can press Alt+2 (Mute-All) and then Alt-+4 (Unmute Piano). Muting Instruments To mute/unmute all parts as the song is playing, simply press Alt+2 or right-click on the “Combo” radio buttons at the top of the screen. To mute an instrument click on the name of the desired part with the right mouse button. Click again to unmute. When the part is successfully muted, the instrument name will turn to red in color, indicating that the part is muted. Right mouse-click on “Combo” to mute/unmute all instruments at the same time. Playing/Pausing/Stopping Songs Use the tool bar buttons to control the playback of your song in Band-in-a-Box. Play song Loop selection Replay song Stop playback Pause (Hold) Play from any bar You can also use the Play menu commands or keystrokes. 76 Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box You can double click on any bar to start playback at that location. There is also an option in the Preferences dialog to start and stop playback with the spacebar. The spacebar or double click can be used on an ending bar (or a bar in the tag), and it will play from the ending (or tag). Lead-In Counts and Metronome These settings are made in the Preferences dialog. Click on the [Count-in/Met.] button to open the Count-in and Metronome Options. The default count-in is two bars, but there is an option to shorten it to a 1 bar lead-in. You can select any drum instrument for the count-in and choose different count-in rhythms (e.g. Tap on 2 and 4 instead of 1-2-3-4). The Smart Lead-in feature avoids playing the count-in drum sound during a Melody pickup. There's an option to play the drum count-in in all circumstances, useful when the style doesn’t have drums or for drummers who play along with Band-in-a-Box by muting the drum track. You can display the Visible Metronome on-screen during the entire song (or just the lead-in). Choose the screen position, the size (up to near full screen size), and the visual metronome pattern. The on-screen metronome is a great way for a student to learn to keep on the beat, and with a settable size, students can view this from across the room. The Audible Metronome can be set to sound “During record,” during “Record and Play,” or “None” - turned off entirely. Slide Tracks This is a menu command (Play | Slide Tracks…) that allows you to move any of the Bass, Drums, Piano, Guitar, Strings, Melody, or Soloist tracks ahead or behind by a definable amount. For example, slide the Bass track a little ahead of the rest of the band to make the bass player “drive the band.” To slide tracks, select the Slide Tracks option from the Play menu. The values are measured in “ticks-per-beat” with 120 ticks being the equivalent of a quarter note. The musically useful range is from -10 to 10. Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box 77 Allow Any Slides If you want the slides to occur, then set this to YES. Humanize Slides If set to YES, the slides will be humanized to slide the track a different amount for each note. The amount varies from 0 ticks (none) to the slide setting for the instrument. - Press the [Default] button to fill the tracks with default slide values. - Press the [Zeros] button to 'zero-out' the slide values for all tracks. - Press the [Update] button to affect your changes and hear the result instantly. Tip: A track that always plays notes early by a certain amount tends to sound out of time, whereas humanizing the slide makes the track sounds more alive. Play Selected Area as a Loop Click on the [Loop] button, Shift-click on the [Play] button, or press F10 (Play Selected Area as Loop) and the program will play a selected region, and loop the selection. For example, you can select bars 10 and 11, and then press F10, and bars 10 and 11 will play looped. To use this function, select a region on the Chordsheet. Choose Play | Play (loop) Highlighted Section (or press F10). The selected region will then play, and continues looping until STOP is pressed. Loop any Section of the song. You can loop any section of the song. The program will then start playback at the first loop point and play the looped section until stopped. Looping of a section of the song is enabled by the “LoopSec/ LoopScn” checkbox or with the keystroke NUMPAD 1. Open up the Loop Section Settings dialog by clicking the Loop button, or pressing NUMPAD 2. The Loop settings dialog will then display. The “Play within loop” command allows you to quickly play a looped section. Highlight the range of bars to loop on the Chordsheet, press NUMPAD 2 to open the Loop Section Settings dialog, and click the [Play within loop] button. 78 Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box To enter settings manually in this dialog, you start by choosing either “Loop a Single Screen of Notation” or “Loop Range of Bars.” “Loop a Single Screen of Notation” (Ctrl+NUMPAD 7) loops a single screen of notation at the current song location. The length of the loop is determined by the number of “Bars/Screen” specified in the Notation Window Options. Select “Loop Range of Bars” if you want a custom range of bars, then enter the starting “From Bar” number, the “Chorus #,” and the “# bars” for the length of the looped section. You can then play the song with the [Play within loop] button and then [Close] the dialog. Presets are available to set the loop points to Introduction, First / Middle /Last Choruses or First & Middle, Middle & Last combinations, Ending, or All. As the different buttons are selected you will see the “Loop Range of Bars” settings update. Hot keys are also available for these, look in the Play menu under the Looping submenu. Loop Keystroke Commands (useful for live performance) Toggle looping on/off. NUMPAD 1 Open Loop Section Settings dialog. NUMPAD 2 Play with last chorus looped. Ctrl+NUMPAD 1 Play with middle choruses looped. Ctrl+NUMPAD 2 Play with middle and last choruses looped. Ctrl+NUMPAD 3 Jump to last chorus. Ctrl+NUMPAD 4 Jump to ending. Ctrl+NUMPAD 5 Loop Notation screen. Ctrl+NUMPAD 7 Advances the notation, lead sheet, and guitar window by one chord (group of notes). NUMPAD [DEL] Backs up the notation, lead sheet, and guitar window by one chord. NUMPAD [INS] Notebook users should set “Simulate NUMPAD Keys” to “ON” in the Preferences dialog, then use the regular number keys to trigger looping. The Title bar at the top of the main screen indicates the looping status. If a song has a looped section, this will be listed at the top of the screen (e.g. “Will loop Middle Choruses” or “Currently looping Middle Choruses”). So you can tell what is going to happen with the looping during a live performance. Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box 79 “Conductor”- Live Looping/Playback control. As the song is playing, many “single key” hot keys are now available to control the playback and looping of the song. Play along with your MIDI Controller Keyboard If you have an external MIDI keyboard controller connected to your computer system, you can use the MIDI THRU features to play along with the program. When playing along on a keyboard to the Band-in-a-Box “band,” if the sound of your keyboard is too quiet and increasing the THRU Volume doesn't help enough, use this option to boost the THRU velocity and make your playing on the THRU channel louder. To set this “THRU velocity boost,” open the MIDI Settings dialog (Opt. | Preferences | Channels). Click on the [Options] button and set “Boost THRU Velocity by” to a value in the range of –127 to +127 in the MIDI Options dialog. (Default is 0.) Harmonize your play along part by pressing the [T] button in the Synth window to choose a harmony, just as you would for the Melody. Play Along with the Wizard The Wizard is an intelligent play along feature that is controlled with the bottom two rows of your computer’s QWERTY keyboard or your connected MIDI keyboard. The bottom row of keys plays chord tones; the second row plays passing tones. You play any key in either row and never make a mistake! The Wizard keys are active during playback. In the Play menu, toggle Wizard uses “Smart” notes to “off” (unchecked) to have the Wizard provide you access to the chromatic scale. Toggle it “on” to have access only to the notes based on the chord/key of the song. Also, the Wizard works with the harmony feature, so you can play along live in 4-part saxophone harmony for example. MIDI Keyboard Wizard By turning on this Wizard setting in the Opt. | Preferences Transpose dialog, notes played on a 80 Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box Thru channel MIDI keyboard will be played through the Wizard. C, E, G, and Bb will be mapped to chord tones while D, F, A, and B will be passing tones. Changing Instruments / Settings for the Wizard As a play along instrument, the Wizard uses the Thru instrument part. To change the instrument patch, volume, reverb, etc. for the Wizard select the Thru instrument in the synth window. MIDI Normalize If performing a live set, or at a jam session, it helps to have the volume of all of the songs be similar. Now, with a MIDI Normalize feature, you can level the volumes to a setting in the program options. For example, you can set all volumes to be 70 and the program will make each song play within those levels. This is done in the Preferences [Arrange] tab. When you have set the normalize to “on” the title window at the top of the screen reports that Normalization is set to 70, and that the velocity of the currently playing song has been increased from 49 to 70. The normalization will affect bass, drums, piano, guitar and strings. If you select the “Including melody and Soloist” option, the normalization will also affect the Melody and Soloist parts. Outputting MIDI to an External Device Some external music hardware devices require chords played in root position to drive them in real time. An example of this is the Digitech Vocalist. It will let you sing into a microphone and harmonize your voice according to the chords that are input to the device. Band-in-a-Box has the capability of outputting a separate channel with the chords in root position to support such external devices automatically. There are also settings such as complexity of chords, output channel, velocity, and note range. It will also drive “Real time Arrangers” like the Roland RA series. The best way to accomplish this is to access the Opt. | Preferences and select the [OutputCh.] button. You will then be given a window like this: Click on the [Vocalist] button if you have such a device connected to your MIDI system. Band-in-aBox will then send it the appropriate chord information automatically as your song is playing (e.g., root position triads). Add Real Instruments – RealDrums and RealTracks Your songs, styles, and solos can use live audio tracks recorded by studio musicians. These live recordings can be substituted for the Band-in-a-Box tracks in the RealDrums Settings or RealTracks Settings dialogs. RealDrums There are several ways to hear RealDrums with new or existing Band-in-a-Box songs. We provide many styles that already have RealDrums. These styles can be identified by the style name beginning with a minus sign. For example “-ZZJAZZ.STY” is a version of the ZZJAZZ.STY that uses RealDrums. Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box 81 Styles (.STY) can have RealDrums (e.g. “–ZZJAZZ.STY”). This setting is found in the StyleMaker’s Misc. Style Settings dialog. You can set the RealDrum style inside the StyleMaker, by pressing the [Misc] button, and then typing the name of the RealDrum style. RealDrums can be substituted for MIDI drums on existing styles in the RealDrums Settings dialog, which opens with Ctrl+click on the RealDrums toolbar button or with the [RealDrums] button in the Preferences dialog. With “Enable RealDrums” checked RealDrums may be used rather than MIDI. There is also a hot key combination to turn RealDrums on/off (Ctrl+Shift+F6). The hot keys also work while the song is playing. This will substitute RealDrums for MIDI styles. You can change the setting from 1 to 5. If set to 1, almost all MIDI drums will get substituted by RealDrums. If set to 5, only RealDrum styles that match the style perfectly will get substituted. Technical note: The text file a_pgmusic.ds provided by PG Music controls this, and users can make other files MySubs.ds if they make their own RealDrums styles. Individual songs can have RealDrums assigned to them. You can set the desired style in the RealDrums Settings dialog with the “For this song only, use this RealDrum style” setting. This will let the current song use the specific RealDrums style. The [RD] button opens the RealDrums Picker where you select the specific RealDrums style that you would like to assign to your song. You can also open the RealDrums Picker directly from the toolbar with the RealDrums button. 82 Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box RealDrums are normally saved with songs, unless you have unchecked “Save all Settings with Songs” in the Assign Instruments and Harmonies to Song dialog. In that case, you can select and save a RealDrums style with your song by going to File | Save Song with Patches & Harmony (Alt+F2) to assign a RealDrums style. The Edit Settings for bar… dialog (F5 key) lets you use multiple RealDrums styles within a song - either using the RealDrums from a Band-in-a-Box style or specifying a RealDrums style to use at a particular bar. RealTracks What are RealTracks? Just as RealDrums replace the MIDI drum track with live audio recordings of top session drummers, RealTracks add “Real” instruments recorded by top studio players and recording artists. These tracks replace the MIDI track for that instrument, and can be controlled just like the MIDI instrument (volume changes, muting, etc.). Best of all, they follow the chord progression that you have entered, so that you hear an authentic audio accompaniment to your song. These are not “samples,” but are full recordings, lasting from 1 to 8 bars at a time, playing along in perfect sync with the other Band-in-a-Box tracks. RealTracks can be built in to the style, and would replace the Bass, Guitar, Piano, or Strings part, or they can be generated to the Soloist (or Melody) track using the Soloist feature. We include a selection of Pop, Jazz, and Country RealTracks Combos with Band-in-a-Box Pro. Many more RealTracks are available as separate add-ons, or bundled into the various Band-in-a-Box PAKs for better value. Using RealTracks in Songs - Assign RealTracks to Track Dialog The Assign RealTracks to Track dialog assigns a RealTracks instrument to any of the Band-in-a-Box instrumental tracks. It also shows any RealTracks that are assigned to Band-in-a-Box tracks. Note: RealTracks can either be assigned from the style or from the song. This dialog allows you to assign the ones in the song. This dialog is launched by 1. 2. - or 3. Clicking on the RealTracks toolbar button and selecting RealTracks Picker Dialog. Right-clicking or double clicking on an instrument name at the top of the Band-in-a-Box main screen and choosing Assign RealTracks in the menu. Press the [Assign to Track…] button in the RealTracks Settings dialog. Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box 83 The dialog allows you to assign a specific RealTracks instruments to a track in a song. It also displays any RealTracks that are currently assigned to each track. Tip: RealTracks in styles are assigned in the StyleMaker. Press the [Misc.] button or use the StyleMaker menu command Style | Misc. Settings to go to the Misc. Style Settings dialog, then click on the [More] button for the More Settings dialog. To use the dialog, first select the track that you want to assign. Then, select the RealTracks that you want in the list below it. 84 Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box Freeze Tracks Freezing (locking) MIDI or RealTracks/RealDrums Any track can be frozen (MIDI or RealTracks). When frozen, it won’t get changed or re-generated. This saves time when replaying previous songs, and allows you to freeze an arrangement that you like. If you freeze the whole song, you don’t have to wait at all for the song to regenerate. Next time you play, it is ready to go. You can make frozen tracks by pressing the Freeze button (snowflake) on the toolbar, and then choosing which tracks that you want to freeze or unfreeze. There are a number of reasons that you would freeze a track. Reasons to Freeze a RealTracks track (audio): - Frozen tracks will play back instantly, not requiring time to generate. - They play back the same way each time, so if you like a solo, you can “freeze it.” - If you send a song to a friend as “frozen,” they will hear the same performance. - For the Soloist track, if you generate a solo, it can now be saved (by freezing the track). Reasons to Freeze a MIDI track: - You can edit the MIDI data, to customize the performance to match a certain song, and this will be saved. Use the Notation window or Piano Roll to edit the track. More reasons to freeze any track: - Frozen tracks play back instantly, without requiring time to regenerate. - They play back the same way each time. - You can change the chord progression of the song, and have one part playing a different chord progression than the rest of the band. For example, type a “blowing” chord progression, generate a solo, freeze the solo track, then type a normal chord progression and generate the rest of the instruments (bass/guitar etc.) that will play the normal changes. - Have different instruments play different styles. For example, the Bass could be generated using Reggae, then Frozen, and then the rest of the instruments generated using a Techno style. Un-Freezing a Track(s) This is also done for the Freeze button. Choose a frozen track to un-freeze it, or choose “Un-Freeze all tracks.” Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box 85 Forcing Generation of a Song that is Frozen Band-in-a-Box won’t touch tracks that are frozen. But if you want to change that, without having to Un-Freeze the tracks, you can do this easily. Hold down the Shift key as you press the [Play] button (the fly-by hint will remind you of that), or choose the menu command Play | Generate (even if tracks are frozen). When you do this, the song will regenerate, the tracks will get rewritten, and the song will stay frozen. So if you’re freezing songs to get the instant playback with RealTracks, but get tired of the “same-old” frozen arrangement, just press Shift+Play, generate a new arrangement, and press Save. Then the new “fresh-frozen” arrangement will play instantly, even with many RealTracks. Tip: Obviously you wouldn’t use this feature to force regeneration of a frozen song if you have made custom edits to the song that you don’t want to lose, unless you’ve saved the song and have a backup copy. Editing and Saving Tracks MIDI tracks for bass, drums, piano, guitar and strings can be edited and saved with the file. If you freeze a track, edits can be still made to it, because it is only frozen from Band-in-a-Box making changes to it (you can still edit it). The MIDI track will be saved to the file. So you can customize the bass part to match a certain song, and save it with a frozen bass part, so that Band-in-a-Box won’t overwrite your edits. This includes RealCharts – if you wanted to edit the notation of a RealTracks solo for example. To edit a MIDI track (bass, drums, piano, guitar, strings), or the MIDI part of a RealTracks that has a RealChart (MIDI transcribed solo), simply open up the Notation window (or Piano Roll window), and click on the track and edit it. Make sure to Freeze the track by pressing the Freeze button and choosing Freeze for that track, or rightclicking on the instrument at the top of the screen and choosing Freeze. Now your edited tracks will save with the song. The Guitar Window This is a window for guitar and bass players! The on-screen fretboard displays any track on guitar, bass, mandolin, ukulele, or banjo. This feature has many option such as auto-setting of correct positions, notes named on-screen, auto-octave adjust to play in selected position, and a resizable guitar fretboard. Launching the Guitar Window To launch the Guitar window, press the Guitar Button, or Ctrl+Shift+G, or choose the Window | Guitar Window menu item. 86 Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box Notice the various areas of the Guitar window. - The top title bar states the key of the song is Cm, the Melody track is the track displayed, and the guitar is at the 8th position. - The fretboard is displayed with the highest notes of the guitar at the top, and the open position of the guitar on the left. - There are names for the open strings displayed on the left (E B G D A E). - There are fret positions marked at the bottom of the fretboard. You can mouse click on these positions to change the current fret position. - There are Note Names displayed for two positions on the guitar fretboard. One of the positions is the scale beginning with the third of the scale on the lowest string. In the key of F, this is the 5th position beginning on an A note (the third of the scale). Because it begins on the third of the scale, this position is referred to as the Phrygian Position (since an A Phrygian scale is the same as an F scale). Similarly, the other popular scale is the scale beginning on the 6th of the scale, in the key of F, this is up at the 10th position, and is called the Aeolian Position. - There are note names displayed in color, with ellipses around the notes that are in the scale. The root note of the scale is highlighted in red, the third and fifth of the scale are in purple, and the rest of the scale tones are circled in gray. - Pitch bends show up on the Guitar Fretboard. As the pitch bend occurs, a blue line moves along the string in real time, illustrating the height of the pitch bend. Load in the c:\bb\Tutorial\Pitch Bend demo song. You’ll then see pitch bends written as a blue color moving along the string. Automatic Settings for Guitar Display Band-in-a-Box does a lot of things automatically on the Guitar window to ensure that the notes are displayed intelligently on a guitar fretboard. These include: - Automatically setting the two positions that will display the note names based on the key. - Auto-Scanning the track to be played, and adjusting the display octave on the guitar fretboard to ensure that the best octave is picked to minimize the number of notes that will be outside of the current position displayed on the fretboard. - After Auto-scanning the track, the best position for displaying the music on the guitar is determined. This is always one of the two positions, Aeolian or Phrygian, though you may over-ride this by clicking on any fret position. - Color-coding note displays. In addition to the note names being outlined in the colors, when the note is played it is highlighted in green if it is a scale note and yellow if it is an out-of-scale note. Alternate Guitar Tunings The Guitar window supports alternate tunings, including DADGAD, Drop D, Double Drop D, Open G, and 11 others. You can also select “Nashville High Strung” tunings, which tune certain strings up an octave. These tunings are supported in Styles, Chord Diagrams, Guitar Tutor, Notation, Tab, and Printout. Learn how to play these tunings by watching the on-screen Guitar Fretboard or Notation/Tab window. Easily change any style to use the alternate tuning that you want. In this discussion, we’ll be referring to DADGAD tuning, a popular alternate tuning. The same reasoning applies to all of the other alternate tunings available. There are four ways you can use Band-in-a-Box playing in DADGAD (or any alternate) tunings. 1. See any Melody (or Soloist track) displayed in DADGAD tuning. This will display on the guitar fretboard, tab, and printout. 2. See guitar parts (chording etc.) in DADGAD tuning, using correct chord shapes. For this, choose a style that has DADGAD tuning, and view the guitar part. 3. Use the Guitar Tutor, to view DADGAD chording for any style. 4. View guitar chord diagrams in DADGAD tuning, by setting the Notation Window Options “Guitar Chord” to “DADGAD.” Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box 87 Guitar Fretboard To see the guitar neck displayed in DADGAD, choose Melody | Track Type | Guitar – DADGAD Tuning. When you open up the Guitar window and choose the Melody track, you’ll see the DADGAD tuning. 88 Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box Any melody will now display in the chosen tuning. Similarly, you can set the Soloist track to an alternate guitar tuning with the Soloist | Track Type menu. The Guitar track (or Piano, Strings) is controlled by the style, and will only reflect the type of tuning stored in the style. Load in some alternate tuning styles included in Styles Set #44 – Requested 4 to see the chording on the guitar track in alternate tunings. Another way to see the guitar play chords in alternate tunings is to use the “Guitar Tutor.” Select DADGAD tuning, and enable guitar Tutor. Now, during playback, you will see guitar chords on the guitar fretboard in DADGAD tuning. Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box 89 The examples above are for DADGAD tuning, but apply similarly to all 11 alternate tunings included. Some of the tunings are “Nashville High Strung.” These tuning have the lowest 3 strings tuned up an octave, to achieve a close sound. So a DADGAD High Strung tuning would have the lowest 3 strings “DAD” tuned up an octave. Listen to some style examples that use this tuning. One of the tutors uses 3 note Jazz voicings to simulate the famous BigBand chord guitar comping styles. If you use this tutor you'll only see 3 notes in the chords of course. Since it sometimes helps to see the entire 4 chord voicing in this case, there is the option to show the muted note as well. The Tutor normally just shows the guitar part without writing it to any track. If you want to see the track in notation copy it to the Melody or Soloist track. Guitar Window Toolbar At the bottom of the Guitar window is the toolbar. The [Set…] button opens the Guitar Settings dialog, which allows you to set the guitar options. These buttons will chord step advance, or note-step advance. The chord step advance is the most commonly used function. It is also accessible by the hotkeys Ins and Del on the numeric keypad and will advance or go back one chord at a time, leaving the chord displayed on the guitar. This is the name of the current note that the mouse is over. If you click on the guitar at that position, the note will sound. If the Notation Window is open (in Editable Notation or Staff Roll mode), that note will get inserted on the notation at the current position on the timeline – you can disable that option to insert notes. When you open the Guitar Window, the first thing you'll want to do is choose the track that you want to display. Usually this will be a Melody track or a Soloist track. In the diagram here, the Melody track is the current track, and it has a red rectangle around it to indicate this. To get to the Soloist track, you would click on the [S] button or use the hotkey Ctrl+F5, which toggles between the Melody and the Soloist. Similarly, you can display other tracks like Bass, Piano, or Strings. The “position” button. This toggles between the two popular positions displayed with note names. There is a Guitar Tutor button. Generate a guitar chord solo based on the existing Melody track using correct guitar fret positions. 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 using the insert guitar note button. Pressing the [N+] (or 3 or 4 on the NUMPAD keypad) repeatedly cycles through playing the same note on all 6 strings. Big Piano Window The Big Piano window can display the notes of any track on a resizable piano keyboard. You can also set the range of the piano and number of octaves to display. Additionally, you can 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 “AutoOctave” 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 by pressing Ctrl+Shift+N, or choosing Window | Big Piano Window. 90 Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box - - The default settings for this feature can be customized by pressing the [Settings…] button. The Big Piano window displays a single track on the piano. The piano can be resized by dragging the bottom of the window to enlarge it vertically. The key of the song 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 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 [B|D|P|G|S|M|S] line of buttons. RealTracks (and MIDI style) piano parts that are on the piano track will appear with hands-split (right hand in red, left hand in blue) in the Big Piano window The Conductor The Conductor provides live looping and playback control. As the song is playing, there are options to allow control the flow of playback by one of three methods: 1. Conductor window 2. QWERTY hot keys 3. MIDI keyboard Many “single key” hot keys are available to control the playback and looping of the song. For example, pressing the “4” key will insure that the middle chorus is the next one played, and pressing the “S” key will insure that the middle section is looped. This would be useful to extend a song that has the last chorus playing. Custom loop points can also be set for each song. These settings are ideal for live performance, or “jam sessions” where you aren’t entering new Band-in-a-Box songs, but want full control of the playback. These loops happen seamlessly at the end of the chorus, so are suitable for the “dance floor.” In addition, you can control Band-in-a-Box from a standard MIDI keyboard, pressing MIDI keys corresponds to program functions. For example, load the next song, play/pause/tempo adjust/change thru patch/jump to middle choruses/open the notation or lead sheet window – all from your MIDI keyboard! The Conductor is launched with the Conductor button on the toolbar, or the tilde (~) hot key, or menu option Window | Conductor Window. Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box 91 You must enable the QWERTY keys to be active for the Conductor during playback. This is done by selecting the “Enable Control by QWERTY keys” checkbox on the Conductor window. If you want to control the Conductor using the MIDI keyboard, you need to enable this by selecting the checkbox “Enable control by MIDI keyboard.” When this setting is enabled, any MIDI input will be interpreted as a hot key for the Conductor, and you won’t hear MIDI thru. If you’d like the ability to switch your MIDI keyboard between Conductor mode and regular playing mode, you can do this using the lowest “A-natural” MIDI note on your keyboard. This is A1 on an 88-note keyboard. Note A1 will turn the Conductor off, Bb1 turns it on, and B1 will toggle the Conductor on only when the Bb1 note is held down. If you don’t have an 88-note keyboard, you can set the octave setting to a number higher than 1, for example if you set it to “3,” then notes A3/Bb3/B3 will turn the Conductor Off/On/Toggled. Using the Conductor QWERTY or MIDI keys, you can: - define and jump to up to 10 user defined sections in the song, - jump back 1 bar/4 bars/# of bars/screen/part/chorus/section, - jump ahead 1 bar/4 bars/# of bars/screen/part/chorus/section, - LOOP 1 bar/4 bars/# of bars/screen/part/chorus/section, - Pause/stop the song. In addition, using the MIDI keyboard, you can also use the Conductor to: A1 (note#21)Turn MIDI Conductor OFF Bb1 Turn MIDI Conductor ON B1 Turn MIDI Conductor ON only as note is held down Here are the various functions available using the Conductor. The MIDI key and QWERTY hot key are shown. C3 Normal Tempo Ctrl = 92 Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box C# D3 Eb3 E3 F3 F#3 G3 G#3 A3 Bb3 B3 C4(48) Db4 D4 Eb4 E4 F4 F#4 G4 G#4 A4 Bb4 B4 C5(60) Db5 D5 Eb5 E5 F5 F#5 G5 G#5 A5 Bb5 B5 C6 Db6 D6 F6 to D7 Eb7 E7 F7 F#7 Half Speed Tempo Ctrl Quarter Speed Tempo Eighth Speed Tempo Loop Section Enabled NUMPAD 1 Play with last chorus looped Ctrl-NUMPAD 1 Play with middle choruses looped Ctrl-NUMPAD 2 Play with middle and last choruses looped Ctrl-NUMPAD 3 Jump to last chorus (no loop) Ctrl-NUMPAD 4 Jump to ending (no loop) Ctrl-NUMPAD 5 Loop notation screen Decrease Tempo by 1 Shift [ Increase Tempo by 1 Shift ] Decrease Tempo by 5 [ Increase Tempo by 5 ] Tap tempo - (press 4 times) Tap Tempo and play = (press 4 times) Play F4 Stop Escape Pause Backspace (or Ctrl H) Replay Ctrl A MIDI Panic F12 Previous Song Ctrl-Shift-F8 Next Song Shift-F8 This is a control character for THRU patches. When C5 is held down, pressing MIDI notes 61/62 decrease/increase the THRU patch by one, and 63-72 change THRU patches to Favorite patches. Open Notation Window Ctrl-W Lead sheet Window Alt-W Reduce All Volumes by 5 Ctrl-Alt-Shift-Q Increase all Volumes by 5 Ctrl-Alt-Shift-W ALL Mute/Unmute Alt-2 Bass Mute/Unmute Alt-3 Piano Mute/Unmute Alt-4 Drums/Unmute Alt-5 Guitar Mute/Unmute Alt-6 Strings Mute/Unmute Alt-7 Melody/Unmute Alt-9 Soloist Mute/Unmute Alt-8 THRU Mute/Unmute Alt 0 Audio Mute Jump to Sections 1-10 of the song 1-9 and 0 Loop Current Chorus a Loop Current Section s Loop Current Bar z Loop Current 4 Bars x Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box 93 G7 Loop current Part c Ab7 Looping ON, previous setting v A7 Looping OFF b Bb7 Go Back 1 Chorus Ctrl a B7 Go Back 1 Section Ctrl s C8 Go Back 1 Screen Ctrl d Db8 Go Back 1 Bar Ctrl z D8 Go Back 4 Bars Ctrl x Eb8 Go Back 1 Part marker Ctrl c E8 Go Ahead 1 Chorus Shift A F8 Go Ahead 1 Section Shift S F#8 Go Ahead 1 Screen Shift D G8 Go Ahead 1 Bar Shift Z Ab8 Go Ahead 4 Bars Shift X A8 Go Ahead 1 Part marker Shift C Customizing the Sections Sections: This allows you to define up to 10 points in the song that are sections. By default, the following sections are defined for each song. - Section 1: Start of song - Section 2: Intro - Section 3: First Chorus - Section 4 :Middle Chorus (i.e. start of chorus #2) - Section 5: Last Chorus - Section 6: Ending - Sections 7-10 are user definable. To do this, type in any bar # using the bar/chorus format (e.g. 21/2 would be bar 21, chorus 2). If you prefer to enter custom values for the section numbers, you can do this if you check the “custom” checkbox, and then type in up to 10 bar numbers for each section. The section numbers are saved with the song. Once you have defined the sections, you can jump to a certain section of the song as the song is playing, simply by: 1. Pressing the 1-9 or 0 key on the QWERTY keyboard or, 2. Opening the Conductor window (~ hot key) and clicking on the section button or, 3. Pressing MIDI keys 77-86 (F6 to D7) corresponding to sections 1-10. Mode (when to do the action). 94 Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box By pressing a QWERTY hot key prior to an action, you can control when the action will take place. If no mode hot key is pressed prior to an action, the default mode will occur. The default is set in the “Default Mode for section change” or “Default Mode for going back or ahead” combo box. For example, by default, the section change will occur as soon as you press the key, and it will go to the equivalent place in the bar immediately before the beginning of the target section (so that the music stays in time, and the next section begins at the end of the bar). But you can change the default for the action to take place at the end of the current bar or current part marker etc. Example uses of the Conductor: In this example, we don’t have custom sections set, so the default sections apply (middle chorus = section 4 etc.). - Jump to the start of middle choruses during playback (press “4”). - Loop the middle chorus (press S, which is Loop Section). - Jump to the end of the song (press 6). - Pause the song (Backspace). - Go back 1 chorus (Ctrl a). - Go ahead 1 chorus (Shift A). At the end of the current chorus, go back 1 section, press Y then Ctrl S. Note: Pressing the Y sets the mode to do the action at the end of the current chorus These actions can also be done with the MIDI keyboard. See the MIDI keyboard mapping diagram for details. Example using the MIDI keyboard. Assume Charlie is a piano player who uses his MIDI keyboard with Band-ina-Box, and would like to play his keyboard, but also use it to control Band-in-a-Box. He sets the conductor to allow his MIDI keyboard lowest notes A/Bb/B to turn the Conductor mode OFF/ON/Toggled-when held. When he turns it off (low A note), he can play his keyboard normally. If he wants to pause the song, he holds down the low B3 note as he presses the MIDI key for pause, which is G4. The song will pause, and the conductor mode turns off as he lets go of the B3 key, and he can resume his piano playing. If Charlie didn’t plan on using the MIDI keyboard for piano playing, he could leave it in conductor mode by turning it on with the A3 key. The Jukebox Use the Jukebox for continuous playback of a whole list of Band-in-a-Box songs or to play all or the songs in a folder. The Õ Juk button plays the previous song in the directory; the Juk Ö button plays the next song in alphabetical order. The Jukebox will continue to play while you move to other Windows programs, providing continuous background music. Click the [Juke] button to open the Options for Juke Box dialog. Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box 95 Jukebox Options Only Play song with melodies: If set to YES, the program plays only songs with melodies, that is, songs with an .MG? file extension. If NO, the Jukebox will include ALL songs in the subdirectory. Change Melody instrument: If you set this option to “Yes,” then the program will randomly change the melody instrument among your favorite 10 Melody instruments. Random order Playback: If set to “Yes,” the songs will be played in random order (though not repeating a song). If set to “No,” the songs will be played in the order they are listed in the subdirectory. Hide Titles (until title clicked): This feature is used to play the “Guess the Song” game. When set to “Yes,” the titles are hidden till you click the title box. Audible Count-in Click: While listening to the Jukebox, you might not want to hear the Count-in Click. If set to “No” you won't hear the count-in click. Harmony Settings: Set the Change Harmony box to true/enabled if you would like harmonies in a given number range to be randomly assigned for use with the Melody and Soloist/Thru tracks (if applicable to the song). Generate Solos: Set this option to “On” to permit the Soloist to play a Solo over all the songs selected for Jukebox Playback. 1. Change to this directory by loading/opening a song from the c:\bb\solodemo directory. 2. Instead of playing the song you have loaded, press the [Juke] button. 3. Ensure that the Generate Solos checkbox is set to “Yes.” 4. Select [PLAY JUKE BOX]. The Soloist Select Dialog will pop up with a suggestion to use a Soloist for the first song in the Jukebox list. This is normal. Press [OK] to accept the Soloist suggestion. (The Jukebox will not bother you with the Select Soloist dialog again; it will simply choose an appropriate Soloist for any given song in the Jukebox song list.) 96 Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box Preview: The Jukebox Preview mode will optionally play just one chorus of each song, or play a set number of bars of each song (e.g. 8 bars). To access this, press the [Juke] button, and select the Preview checkbox. Set the # of bars to use for the preview, a setting of 99 plays one chorus of each song. Delay between songs: The user can set a selectable time delay (in seconds) between songs. Note: To manually start playback of each song in the jukebox list, set “Pause Play Until MIDI or Key received” to On (checked) in the Preferences dialog. At the end of each song the jukebox will load the next song in the list and then pause until playback is started by sending a MIDI note or a computer keystroke. Check “Loop Jukebox at end” for continuous jukebox play rather than stopping at the end of the list. Change Directory: You can change the directory before starting the Juke Box with the [Change Directory] button. You can also type a folder name directly, instead of using the folder dialog. In the main screen, click on the [F] button to open the Favorite Songs list and make your own custom set lists for the Jukebox. Use the [Clear] button to blank the list. Songs can be added or removed from the list with the [Insert], [Append], and [Delete] buttons. [Add Fav] also adds a song to the Favorite Songs list. - Use the [Save Set..] button to save the list of selected songs. - The [Load Set] button loads a saved list of songs. - The [Juke..] button plays through the list of songs automatically, like a jukebox. This is a great feature for saving a list of current song projects, or for performing a live set with Band-in-a-Box accompaniment. - Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box 97 Medley Maker Would you like to make a medley of various Band-in-a-Box songs (MGU) using Band-in-a-Box? This is easily done with the Medley Maker. Inside the Medley Maker, simply select the songs that you want, and Band-in-a-Box will make the medley for you. A medley is not simply joining songs together. A good medley uses a “transition” area between songs to introduce the new style, key, and tempo. The Medley Maker automatically creates a nice transition area for you, writing in chords that would smoothly modulate to the next song, style, key, and tempo! To open the Medley Maker, click on the [A+B] button on the toolbar or choose File | Medley Maker. This launches the Medley Maker dialog. 98 Chapter 5: Playing Songs in Band-in-a-Box Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box Make Your Own Songs Now that you’ve seen how much fun it is to play music with Band-in-a-Box, we’ll show you how easy it is to make songs of your own. This section gives you step-by-step instructions from start to finish. Getting Started Clear the Chordsheet Click on the [New] button to blank the Chordsheet. Name the Song Enter the title of the song by clicking in the title area and typing in the name. Choose a Key You can use the special operators “tk” and “tr” to set or transpose a key signature. Typing tkc plus the Enter key will set the key of the song to C. Typing tkbb sets it to Bb. Note that this sets the key signature but does not transpose the song. The “tr” operator sets the key signature and transposes the song. Typing trf and pressing Enter would transpose the song to the key of F, typing trab would transpose the song to Ab. Another way to set a key signature is to click on the Key Select List and choose the key of your song. It's easy to change the key by simply selecting another key from the list. Click on “YES” when the program asks, “OK to transpose WorkSheet” and Band-in-a-Box will automatically transpose the entire song into the chosen key. You can have multiple keys in a song by changing the key signature in the Edit Settings for bar dialog (F5 function key). The new key signature is shown on notation. Setting the tempo The tempo is displayed under the title. You can quickly enter a specific tempo for the song by by typing the letter “t” together with the tempo and pressing the Enter key. For example, type t140 and Enter to set the tempo of the song to 140. Click on the tempo box (hot key is Ctrl+Alt+T, or menu item Play | Tempo | Set Tempo…), and a dialog will open up allowing you to type in a tempo. When choosing File | New the tempo will be set to the best tempo for the current style. The tempo for this style is 160 beats per minute (bpm). Click the mouse on the arrow buttons to adjust the tempo. LEFT mouse click to change by 5 beats per minute at a time. RIGHT mouse click to change by 1 beat per minute at a time. Tap the tempo Not sure of the tempo for your song? Tap it in real time on either the minus [-] key or the equals [=] key on your computer keyboard. Four taps on the minus key sets the tempo, four taps on the equals key sets the tempo and starts the song playing. You can also click the mouse on the on-screen [-] and [=] buttons to the right of the tempo box. “Framing” the Song Framing a song designates the first and last bars of each chorus and the number of choruses Band-in-a-Box will play before playing the standard 2 bar ending. You can type special words to set the beginning and end of the chorus, and the end of the song. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 99 - sets the beginning of the chorus to the current bar begin + Enter sets the end of the chorus to the current bar chorusend + Enter - sets the end of the song to the current bar end + Enter Another option is to right-click a bar in the chordsheet to set it as the beginning or end of the chorus or the end of the song from the settings in the context menu. For example, these settings are available with a right-click on bar 16. For this song, bar one is the first bar of the chorus and bar 32 is the last bar of the chorus. The chorus will play three times, jumping to the two bar ending the third time through. With the “Loop” checkbox enabled the entire song will keep repeating until stopped. (This is a different feature from the “LoopSec” checkbox, which loops a selected section of the song.) The “Fake” checkbox is for a “fake sheet” style of chordsheet display with 1st and 2nd endings and repeats. The [S] button opens the Song Settings dialog for additional settings such as endings, tags, style variations, pushes, rests, and chord embellishments. Chord Entry Computer Keyboard Entry The most common way of entering the chords for a song in Band-in-a-Box is by typing them in from the computer keyboard. Up to 4 chords per bar may be entered. Chords are commonly typed-in using standard chord symbols (like C or Fm7 or Bb7 or Bb13#9/E), but you can enter them in any of the supported chord symbol display formats - Roman Numerals, Nashville Notation, Solfeggio, and Fixed Do. Tip: To view a list of chords recognized by Band-in-a-Box refer to the Chord List topic in the Help file. To start typing in chords: - Go to the top (Bar 1) of the chordsheet. The Home key will go directly there. - Blank the Chordsheet (if necessary) by clicking on the [New] button. This is the chord highlight cell. Chords will be entered wherever this is placed. You may move this around by cursor keys, the Enter key, or a mouse pointer click. The chord highlight bar moves 2 beats at a time (½ a bar). When you have the chord highlight cell over the area that you want to enter a chord, you simply type the name of the chord you would like to see there. For example, type c6 to get the C6 chord. Note that you should never have to use the Shift key, as Band-in-a-Box will sort this out for you. - Use b for a flat, e.g. Ab7. - Use 3 for a sharp #, e.g. for F#7 type f37. - Use / for slash chords with alternate roots, e.g. C7/E (C7 w/E bass). A chord like Gm7b5/Db will display correctly using a Db instead of a Gm7b5/C#, since Band-in-a-Box bases it on a Gm scale. - Use a comma to separate the ½ bar, enabling you to enter 2 chords in a cell. In the example below, we would type Ab9,G9 to get the 2 chords in the cell on beat 3 and 4 of bar 2. The sequence of keystrokes to enter all these chords above would be: HOME c6>am7>dm7>ab9,g9>c6/e>>a739 Note: We're able to type A7#9 as “a739” because Band-in-a-Box knows to use the uppercase of the 3, which is #. The > indicates a carriage return, or the Enter key. 100 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box An option (in Prefs-Display) for “11th chords” allows display of “9sus” chords as “11” (e.g., Bb11 instead of Bb9sus). This only affects how the chord is displayed, not how it is stored, and you can type either C11 or C9sus to enter the same chord. Press Ctrl+F2 or right click on a chord, and an Edit control allows you to see and edit the current chords. Enter Chords From MIDI Keyboard You can also enter chords from an external MIDI keyboard using the Window | MIDI chord detection… feature. Play the chord on the keyboard, then press Ctrl+Enter to insert the chord into the chordsheet on the first beat of the current chord cell, i.e., beat 1 or beat 3 of the bar. Use Ctrl+Shift+Enter to insert the chord on the next beat, i.e., beat 2 or beat 4 of the bar. Import a Band-in-a-Box Song Easily import part or all of an existing Band-in-a-Box song to your current song, with options to specify source and destination range, type of information to import (chords, melody, lyrics, etc.) and more. Choose File | Import Song. In the Import Band-in-a-Box Song dialog, choose the range that you want to import (Import from Bar and # of bars), and the destination bar (Import to Bar). You can also choose which information to import, and the insert mode (Insert/Overwrite). Audio Chord Wizard (Chords from MP3) This feature analyzes a WAV, WMA, MP3, WMV, or CDA audio file and imports it to Band-in-a-Box. The Audio Chord Wizard is fully described in the Tutors, Wizards, and Fun chapter. It works out the tempo, bar lines, and chord changes so you can easily make your favorite files into Band-in-a-Box songs. Copy and Pasting Section of Chords Copying of sections or selections can be done using drag-and-drop, simply drag regions around the chordsheet to quickly rearrange your song. Hold down the Ctrl key for finer control about insert/overwrite etc. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 101 For example, if you have an 8-bar section at bar 9: To copy it to bar 23, and insert the 8 bars at that location drag the bar # and drop it at bar 23. To copy it to bar 23, and OVERWRITE the 8 bars at that location hold down the Ctrl key, and drag the bar # and drop it at bar 23. In the dialog that appears, just press OK. Another way to copy chords is to launch the Copy Chords and/or melody dialog by pressing Alt+C. This allows you to copy chords/ melody/ soloist/ lyrics for a range of bars by entering the From and To locations and the number of bars to copy. Select the checkboxes for the items you want to include in the copy. Insert Bars at destination If selected prior to the Copy bars will be inserted onto the Chordsheet at the destination chosen. # of times to repeat copy If set to more than one, multiple copies will be made, optionally with transpositions on each copy. These are all applied to the first chorus only. With each copy, transpose ___ semitones If more than one copy is selected, this will transpose the song with each copy. This is most useful when wanting to learn a short phrase (“riff”) in different keys, or modulating a section of a song. Random # of semitones This will transpose the copy a random transposition and would be useful for advanced students who are trying to master a riff or phrase in all keys. Copy 1st Chorus to whole song If set, this will apply any of the copying commands in this dialog to all choruses of the song, not just chorus #1. This button toggles between [Show More] and [Show Less], depending on whether just the basic functions or all Copy functions are displayed. Copying chords to the clipboard. Select the region to copy. To select a region of the Chordsheet (or the Notation or Audio Edit window), you can Shift+click on the end point to easily select a large area. - Click on the starting bar. - Shift+click on the ending bar. Another way to select a region is by dragging the mouse over it. Place the mouse cursor at the bar to begin the selection. Then, holding down the left mouse button, drag the mouse over the region. As you do this you will see that the region will be inverted (white characters on a black background). When you have selected the proper region of chords to copy, then - copy the selected (blackened) region to the clipboard - click on the Copy button or choose Copy from the Edit menu. Pasting chords to another section of the chordsheet. 102 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box Assuming you have already copied some chords to the clipboard you then paste them into the chordsheet by: 1. Move the highlight cell to the bar to begin the paste of chords. 2. Click on the Paste button or choose Paste from the Edit menu. Tip: Remember that the copied section remains in the clipboard and can be repeatedly used. Example: If you're inputting a song with verse, verse, bridge, verse you can just copy the first verse to the clipboard, and then repeatedly paste in the other verses. The information on the clipboard remains intact even if you load in a new song, which means you can copy and paste between songs. Copy, Repeat X times, with Transpose. The Edit | Copy From.. To.. menu command opens the Copy Chords and/or melody dialog, which has additional fields allowing you to define the number of times to repeat each copy and define the number of semitones you transpose. For example, you could have a 16 bar section, copy it 3 times with a semitone transpose each time. Or, take a single 4 bar phrase, and copy it 11 times, transposing up a 4th each time, generating the same 4 bar phrase in all 12 keys. Deleting Chords The chords at the current location of the highlight cell are cleared by the Delete key, the Windows “Cut” command, or by typing a comma and pressing Enter. Deletion of chords over a range of bars can be done by selecting the range and pressing the Delete key on your computer keyboard. No confirmation dialog is required. Previewing Chords This feature allows you to hear chords as you to type them in. After you type a chord name onto the Chordsheet (or notation window), press the Shift+Enter keys. This enters the chord onto the chordsheet and then plays the chord for you, using the patches on the Piano part and Bass Part. You can also listen to a chord that has already been entered, by just pressing the Shift+Enter keys after moving to that bar with the chord. If there is no chord entered at that bar, you will hear the last chord that was entered. You can right-mouse click on the chordsheet and choose Chord Settings to launch the Chord Options dialog, and then press the [Preview] button to hear the current chord in the Chord Options Dialog. The [Clear All] button erases all Rests/Shots/Pushes/Pedal Bass from a song. Support for other chord display types You can enter or display chords in Roman Numeral notation, Nashville notation, Solfeggio, or Fixed Do notation. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 103 For example, the chord Gm7 in the key of F would be displayed as IIm7 in Roman Numeral Notation, 2m7 in Nashville Notation, and Rem7 in Solfeggio. “Fixed Do” Notation In Italy and other parts of Europe, chords like C7 are always referred to by the Solfeggio name (“Do 7” for C7) regardless of the key signature. These systems are very useful for learning or analyzing tunes, since they are independent of the key signature. You can take an existing song, and print it out in Roman numeral notation, so you can study the chord progression. You can also type a chord in these systems, like “4” which will enter the 4 chord in the current key. You can switch among any of these systems by pressing the Roman Numeral button on the right side of the screen to toggle among the various settings. The Roman numeral and other nonstandard displays use superscript for the chord display when in the Notation window (or when printing out). Therefore, the alternative chord symbol displays are best viewed in the Notation window. maj7 Tip: Print out a song in Nashville Notation or Roman numeral notation. Then, learn the song this way, i.e. 1 4maj7 3m7b5 67b9. You'll soon discover that it is much easier to play the song in any key. Since you know the song goes from the 1 chord to the 4 chord, so you can easily play it in the key of Bb, for example. Advanced Chord Entry and Editing Features “Nudge” Chords feature allows moving a range of chords by a number of bars/beats. For example, let’s say that you have entered a complete song chord progression, and you then realize that all of the chords starting at bar 23 are 1 beat too late (maybe due to a time signature change). You can move all of the chords 1 beat earlier, by setting the nudge at bar 23, beat 1, and duration of the nudge to -1 (minus 1) beats. You can nudge chords and/or Melody/Soloist parts. A “Fold” routine converts a song with a single large chorus to multiple smaller choruses, with optional tag ending. 104 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box A Search/Replace Chords feature will search and replace chords, including support for asterisks (*) as wildcards. Search and Replace can be used with Roman numerals or numbers for chord names. So you can replace the V chord with V7, or the 5m chord to 5m7. Since these are remembered between songs, this feature is useful if you are changing multiple songs. A “Simpler Jazz” option will simplify chords like C13#11#5 to simply C9. Breaks - Rests, Shots, and Held Chords Breaks are points in a song when one or more of the instruments rests, plays a shot, or holds a chord. - Rests can specify any, some, or all instruments to rest at any bar. For example, you could rest all instruments except the bass for the first 4 bars, and then add the piano for 4 bars, and then add the entire band for the rest of the song. You may optionally disable the rests in the middle or final choruses (e.g., where you would likely have a solo, and rests may not be appropriate). - Shots can specify certain instruments play a “shot,” where the chord is played and then a rest follows. For example the song “Rock Around The Clock” has a shot on beat 1 followed by a rest for 2 bars. The duration of “shots” is 60 ticks per beat. - Held chords specify that certain instruments hold a chord sustained for a certain number of bars. For example, you can have the bass and piano hold a chord sustained while the drums continue to play a pattern A chord can be specified as a REST by adding a period after the chord. indicates a C chord that is a REST. indicates a C chord that is a SHOT. indicates a C chord that is a HELD CHORD. Selecting BREAKS for different instruments. You can specify that some instruments not be affected by the rhythm break. The coded names for the instruments are: - B for Bass - D for Drums - P for Piano - G for Guitar - S for Strings To type a rest for all instruments on a C chord type C. To exempt instruments, add their letters following the break. For example, C.bd will put a rest on all instruments EXCEPT the bass and drums. To indicate a held chord for all instruments except the piano, type C...p Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 105 Breaks can also be set in the Chord Options dialog. Chord Options Chord options include rests, pushes, and pedal bass. The Chord Options dialog opens with the C7 toolbar button, or from the right-click contextual menu in the Chordsheet. Normally, when a “shot” or a “held” chord is assigned, the instruments that are excluded from the shot/held chord play normally. There is an additional option for those excluded instruments to stay silent. To set this, open the chord options dialog, and select a shot or held chord, and then select “Excluded instrument(s) should rest.” This option gives you the ability to rest some instruments while others play the shot or held chord. Other settings for how chords play are made in the Edit menu. You can choose Edit | Settings (for This Song) to open the Song Settings dialog and set the rests (breaks) to happen only in the first, middle, or last choruses. There are also settings to allow pushes, pedal bass, and chord embellishment. Pushes ”Pushes” (also called anticipations) are chords that are played before the beat. For example, in Jazz Swing, the piano player often “pushes” a chord change by playing the chord an eighth note before the beat. To execute a “push,” you can use either keystrokes or open the Chord options dialog box by right mouse clicking on a given chord. To use keystrokes : Type the caret symbol [^] before the chord. The caret symbol is located above the numeral 6 on your computer keyboard. Type a single caret to get a chord an eighth note before the beat, e.g., Type a double caret to get a chord a sixteenth note before the beat, e.g., ^C7 ^^C7 In Jazz styles (and other triplet feels), the chord will be pushed by a triplet, regardless of whether there is a single or double caret (^^). Velocity Boosts for Pushes, Shots, and Held Chords You can set the amount of velocity boost, so that the effect won't be too loud. In the Preferences dialog (Opt. | Preferences) click on the [Arrange] button to open the Arrangement Options. Then type in the amount of velocity boost for pushes, shots, and holds. The style can override the velocity for the pushes, and drum velocity for shots, held chords, and pushes is also set in the StyleMaker. Part Markers and Substyles Part Markers Part Markers are placed on the chordsheet to indicate a new part of the song, to insert a 106 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box substyle change, or to insert drum fills. They typically occur every 8 bars or so, but may be placed at the beginning of any bar. Double lines are drawn on the chordsheet at the bar before a part marker. Section Paragraphs When you’re reading a book, a new section begins on a new line, with space between. Band-in-a-Box does that for chords too. Whenever a new section occurs (a part marker), we start the new section on a new line and draw a grey line above to clearly mark the new section. Sections can be as short as 2 bars. You’ll see each section on a new line so that the form of the song is easier to see. The feature is configurable and optional. MultiStyles Band-in-a-Box MultiStyles are styles that can have up to 24 substyles; original Band-in-a-Box styles had two substyles, “a” and “b.” Band-in-a-Box MultiStyles typically have four substyles, but may have up to twenty-four, selected by using part markers “a” through “x.” You can easily make your own MultiStyles, either from scratch, or combining parts from existing styles to make a MultiStyle. For example, if you have 10 favorite Country styles, you can quickly make a single MultiStyle that has 20 substyles available within the same song. Part Markers Part Markers are placed on the chordsheet to indicate a new part of the song, to insert a substyle change, or to insert drum fills. They typically occur every 8 bars or so, but may be placed at the beginning of any bar. Changing Substyles Each style has “a” and “b” substyles. Band-in-a-Box Multistyles also have “c” to and “d” substyles, and could have from “a” to “x” for a total of up to twenty-four. Most of these MultiStyles that we’ve made have 4 substyles, conforming to the following pop song format: Substyle “a” is usually used for the verse of a song. Substyle “b” is usually used for the “b-section” or the chorus, and for soloing in the middle choruses. Substyle “c” is usually used for the intro or for an opening verse or pre-verse. Substyle “d” is usually used for a break or interlude. || Double lines are drawn on the chordsheet at the bar before a part marker. You can see the MultiStyle markers on the chordsheet. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 107 There is always a part marker at bar 1 so that Band-in-a-Box knows which substyle to begin with. The song continues to play in one substyle until it encounters a new part marker. The substyle will change automatically on second choruses when the “Vary Style in Middle Choruses” song setting is selected. Placing Part Markers - Move the highlight cell to the bar where you want to place the part market. Then press the P key on the computer keyboard. Repeatedly pressing P scrolls through all available part markers, or - Position the mouse cursor directly over the bar line (or an existing part marker). Then, click the left mouse button. Repeat this procedure to scroll through the available options. - To remove a part marker keep pressing P or clicking the mouse until you reach the end of the available part markers and there is no marker on the bar number. Placing Drum Fills A one bar drum fill will occur in the bar preceding a part marker. If you want a drum fill at bar 7 of a song, you insert a part marker on the bar after the bar with the drum fill (i.e. Bar 8). You can either retain the original substyle or change the substyle (a, b, c, d, etc.) when you place the part marker. Section Paragraphs When you’re reading a book, a new section begins on a new line, with space between. Band-in-a-Box does that for chords too. Whenever a new section occurs (a part marker), we start the new section on a new line and draw a grey line above to clearly mark the new section. You’ll see each section on a new line so that the form of the song is easier to see. For example, if you have a song with a 7-bar section, followed by 8-bar sections, earlier versions of Band-in-a-Box wouldn’t start the other sections on a new line. The result was that it was hard to delineate the sections, as if an entire story was told within one paragraph. 108 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box With the Section Paragraphs feature you’ll see each section on a new line so that the form of the lead sheet is easier to see. Sections can be as short as 2 bars. The feature is configurable and optional with the “New line for every section (part marker)” setting in the Display Options dialog (Opt. | Preferences [Display] button). Applying Styles There are many styles available for use with the Band-in-a-Box program. Styles refer to styles of music like Jazz Swing, Latin, Blues, Pop, Rock, or Country. You can pick a musical style either before or after you have entered the chords to a song. Once a style is loaded, the song will be played back using your chosen style. All style files have the .STY extension. In the chordsheet or notation you can quick-load a style by typing only “style” followed by a stylename, e.g., stylezzbossa will load in zzbossa.sty. Note: The program defaults to the “Jazz Swing” style or it may be “aliased” to another style, such as the newer J_WYNT_K style. When a requested style is not found, Bandin-a-Box makes an intelligent substitution. This feature is available for every style that PG Music has made, and also can be customized by third-party or any users by making a text file (*.NA) with suggested alternative styles. Load Previous Style, Load Next Style. This function, analogous to the Load Next Song function, loads in the previous (or next) style in alphabetical order of the file name. These functions are found in the Styles menu, or use the hot keys Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F8 (or Alt+Shift+F8). Current Style Window The name of the current style is shown in the window below the song title. The full (long) style name is displayed in a pop-up hint and also at the top of the screen. There is a convenient “Load Song Demo” option for style demos. Click on the name of the style on the main screen, and the menu that displays will include the option to “Load Song Demo” for the current style. The [Style] button opens the StylePicker window. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 109 The [F] button opens a window with tabs for lists of Favorites and Recently Played styles. The StylePicker Window The StylePicker window is opened by pressing the [Style] button or the Shift+F9 keys. It lists all of the styles that are present in the \bb folder. The StylePicker window allows easy selection of styles by category or from a complete list of all styles. For example, you can select Jazz styles and see a list of all of your Jazz styles. Then you can select any style to see its full title, description, and examples of songs appropriate to the style. If you have styles that don’t appear in the StylePicker (because you’ve just made them, or got them from a 3rd party) the StylePicker will automatically find those styles and add them to your list in an “Other Styles” category. The information regarding style name, Even/Swing, 8ths/16ths, and time signature are filled in for you. 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 selection that is highlighted in the list by pressing the [*Change Prototype Style] button. Favorite and Recently Played styles appear in this dialog as separate lists. An “F” appears beside the name of any style that is a favorite.You can filter any list by only showing favorite styles. Over time, you can build up a list of favorite styles, and only show them when needed. 110 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box The favorite styles are the ones that you’ve identified as favorites, either by pressing the [Add Favorite] button in the Favorite Styles dialog, or the similar button in this StylePicker dialog. Filters As well as only showing favorite styles, there are filters to display only styles of a certain “Feel” or “Tempo” or only the styles of a certain Styles Set number, as well as displaying the name of the Styles Set. To select this, open the StylePicker, and choose “Only Show Styles Set #.” When you pick Styles Set #, you can then see only that Styles Set listed, regardless of the category you are in. There is also a filter to show show/hide Real or MIDI styles. So you can set this if you only want to see MIDI styles, or if you only want to see styles that use some/all RealTracks. Styles can have different instruments (patches) for the “a” and “b” substyle. You can see a list of styles with multipatches by looking at the “Styles with Instrument Changes” category. RealStyles, Classic RealStyles and Styles with RealTracks RealTracks, live audio recordings by top studio players and recording artists, replace MIDI tracks and can be controlled just like MIDI instruments (volume changes, muting, etc.). Best of all, they follow the chord progression that you have entered, generting an authentic audio accompaniment to your song. They are not “samples,” but are full recordings, lasting from 1 to 8 bars at a time, playing along in perfect sync with the other Band-in-a-Box tracks. RealTracks can be built in to styles to replace some or all of the MIDI parts. RealStyles are Band-in-a-Box styles that use RealTracks only. There is a separate category in the StylePicker for RealStyles. There is also a Classic RealStyles category in the StylePicker. It contains styles that are intended to be commonly used RealTracks. They are divided into genres, so you can go to Classic RealStyles – Jazz to easily find RealStyles for Jazz Swing, Bossa, etc. It also lists Styles with RealTracks, a blend of MIDI tracks and RealTracks, with subsets for different musical genres. The style names for RealStyles are prefaced by an underscore, _. Style names for Styles with RealTracks are prefaced by an equals sign, =. Styles with RealDrums The StylePicker has a special category called “Styles with RealDrums.” This lists many RealDrums styles (.STY) that we’ve made. We always name the RealDrums style beginning with a minus sign, so that “-ZZJAZZ.STY” would be the ZZJAZZ.STY, but using RealDrums instead. Selecting RealDrums Styles You can also select RealDrums styles within the StylePicker. Highlight a MIDI style that you like and press the RealDrums [Best] button, to see a list of the most compatible RealDrums styles for that style, or the [RD] button to select from all available RealDrums. The RealDrums for this style shows you the current style that would be substituted (assuming you have RealDrums enabled, and MIDI substitutions enabled in RealDrums Prefs). You can override the RealDrums for a certain song by selecting any RealDrums set with the [RD] button, which opens the RealDrums Picker. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 111 Or use the [Best] button, which will show you RealDrums that match the feel of the currently selected style. Or force MIDI drums for this song. There is a hot key combination to turn RealDrums on/off (Ctrl+Shift+F6). This also works while the song is playing. When you open the 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. For each style, you see the following information: - The asterisk (*) or (^) caret indicates if the style is a perfect or good match to the prototype style. - ZZJAZZ is the name of the .STY style file. - “sw” indicates that the style is in a Swing feel vs. “EV” for Even feel. - The “8” indicates that the style is an 8th note feel (vs. 16th note feel). - 160 is the tempo for this style. - Jazz Swing Style is the full name of the style. - SD #0 indicates that the style is found on Styles Disk #0, one of the original 24 Band-in-a-Box styles. Styles that are similar to the prototype are indicated with an asterisk (*). These are styles that have the same feel (triplets/ eighths/ sixteenths) and a similar tempo range. Styles with similar feel 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 and J_DIXIE could be substituted with a perfect match so are marked with an asterisk (*). Styles like J_DJANGO are marked with a caret (^) because they sound best in a much faster tempo than the prototype Jazz Swing style. Use the filters to display all styles, or only ones that you choose. There is also a filter to show show/hide Real or MIDI styles. So you can set this if you only want to see MIDI styles, or if you only want to see styles that use some/all RealTracks. You can play the style demo from the StylePicker window by pressing the [Load Song Demo] button. The [Search] button that lets you find data in any of the fields. Also, the StylePicker window opens up at the current style. There is an option for this called “Defaults to current style.” When you choose a style with the song playing, it will switch to the new style and continue playing! When you find a style that you'd like to test, double click on its name in the list to hear a preview of your song in the new style. Note that you must set the option Preview on Double Click for this to work. Alternatively you can press the [Preview] button. The [Preview] button generates and plays an arrangement with the new style; use the [Stop] button to end the preview. Change the tempo by typing in a new tempo in the t= field at the top. You can [Reduce] or [Expand] the duration of the chords, useful when changing the feel of songs. 112 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 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. When a new style is previewed, patches appropriate to the new style get loaded in if you have selected “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. This will copy the Styles List to the clipboard so that it can then be printed as a text file from any word processor. If you have added new styles to Band-in-a-Box (or edited the BBW.LST file) the StylePicker’s [ReBuild] button will update the styles list. You can add your own styles to the StylePicker list by pressing the [Edit] button to launch the StylePicker Editor. StylePicker Editor When you first launch the StylePicker Editor, there won’t be any styles added, so you’ll see a screen with only a blank category with no styles on it. Technical Note: All of the styles that you add will be appended to the bottom of the StylePicker under new category and style names. This is because we don’t want editing of the main style list (BBW.LST) provided by PG Music, because we update that list frequently ourselves, and the updated list would overwrite your changes. The edits that you make in the StylePicker editor will stay permanently, and not be overwritten by future versions of Band-in-a-Box. The category here is called “My Styles,” you can change the name using the yellow “Category Name” area. For this example, change the name to “Favorite Jazz.” Let’s add a Style to the list. Press the [Add New Style] button. A style has been added, called NONAME.STY. You now need to fill in all of the information in the colored fields to supply the information for the style you have added. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 113 Note: For this example, we’ll add a Jazz style called NEWONE.STY. This style is included in the C:\bb folder. This information includes: 1. Name of the Style (8 characters maximum + .STY). 2. You can type in the style name, or press the Choose button to pick a style name from the \bb folder. If the style doesn’t exist, a will appear in the style list beside the style name (as it does for the NONAME.STY). Press the [Choose] button and choose NEWONE.STY. Long Name of the style. This is a descriptive name that appears on the StyleMaker, and can be up to 32 characters. Enter “A Brand New Jazz Style.” 3. Memo and Examples. You can enter a memo for the style, and example songs that could be played in that style. The memo and example can total 200 characters maximum. Enter a memo and examples for NEWONE.STY. 4. We now enter settings to tell Band-in-a-Box what Soloist it should use when making improvisations using this NEWONE.STY. For this, we need to know the genre of the style (Jazz, Country, and Pop etc.), whether it is in an even or shuffle feel, and whether a soloist should be playing primarily 8th or 16th notes. From the drop down combo box that appears, for this Jazz Swing style (newone.sty), we should choose “Jazz Swing Triplet feel 8th notes.” By doing this, Band-in-a-Box will then choose from many Jazz Swing type of Soloists available in BB. 5. 114 But if we want a specific soloist to always be used, we can specify that soloist number. You can see the soloist numbers in the Soloist dialog. In this example, we leave this at zero, so Band-in-a-Box will choose between many different soloists. This setting enables double time soloing when the style is played at slower tempos. Next we describe the feel of the style. Are the 8th notes straight or shuffle? Is the time signature 3/4 (waltz) or 4/4, is it a 16th note based style (tempo usually less than 120), or an 8th note style (tempo usually above 120). For the NEWONE.STY, enter these checkboxes as shown. (Not straight 8ths, not a waltz, and not 16th notes.) 6. Next is the Tempo area. Here you can enter the typical tempo and the range of the tempo for the style. 7. You can assign a number for the style disk. We recommend that you use numbers higher than 1,000 and pick a unique number for your styles. You can then search for them easily. It is not necessary to enter a Style disk #. 8. When a style is chosen in the StylePicker, it will send out patch changes on the Melody and Soloist tracks, to make the song sound more authentic in that style. The settings for Melody and Soloist patches allow you Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box to select which patch types will get sent out. Here we choose “Jazz Patches” for our NEWONE.STY We’re finished adding the NEWONE.STY. We could now continue adding new styles, and categories, for all of our new styles that are not in the list. But let’s see our added style on the StylePicker. Press the [OK – Save] button. This exits the dialog, returning to the StylePicker. The StylePicker will recommend rebuilding the style list for the added styles. Answer “Yes” to this. You will then see a rebuilt style list, and your category “My Styles” and your new style “NEWONE.STY” will appear in that category. Technical notes: Information about styles you make yourself is stored in a file called A_USER.LS3. This is a text file, but it is better to edit it using the StylePicker editor. You can make other .LS3 files using the StylePicker editor, using the [Save As] and [Open] buttons. You can also erase an .LS3 file from disk. Third party added styles are also stored in .LS3 files. Band-in-a-Box will load in all of the .LS3 files that are in the \bb folder (in alphabetical order), and append them to the StylePicker list. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 115 Technical Information about the BBW.LST file The Help topics “Select Style with information” and “LS3 files” have information about adding styles to the Styles List. If you are technically minded and want to modify the styles list file then read on. The Styles List is built from a text file called BBW.LST. You should only edit this file if you want to change the list of styles, or add styles that you have created. Technical Information about the BBW.LST file This is the text file that defines the styles that appear in the Style Picker Dialog box in Band-in-a-Box. You may edit this file to change the information, add/remove styles etc. File Rules: - Any line beginning with a semicolon “;” is a comment - Lines beginning with ~ indicate a new category like jazz, country, pop - Lines beginning with @ are a description of a style in the format @a\b^c*d - where a = style file name e.g. zzjazzsw.sty (max. 8 chars + .sty ) - b= Long Style Name e.g. Jazz Swing Style (max. 32 chars) - c= Style memo - d= Examples of songs that can be played in this style - c and d combined can be a maximum of 255 characters, e.g. c could be 200 characters and d could be 50 - Each style description must be on one-line, carriage returns not allowed in the middle of a style description. Once made, you add the new information to the style picker by choosing the re-build option inside the style picker. This rebuilds the binary file BBW.LSV from this file BBW.LST. You can list a style more than once, for example Pop Ballad might be listed under Jazz and Pop Ballad. You can also make your own categories. Like My Favorite styles, and build up a list. The limit of number of styles in the StylePicker is 20,000 to accommodate the large number of third party styles developed for Band-in-a-Box. Example excerpt from the BBW.LST file ~Jazz @ZZJazzSW.STY\Jazz Swing Style^This is the “built-in jazz swing style”using bass, drums and piano. Bass plays half notes in “a” section and walks in “b” section.*Satin Doll, Sweet Georgia Brown @A.STY\This is A^ How about this A style Useful for A songs @BluHill.sty\Blueberry Hill Style^This is Blueberry Hill*Fats Domino songs @GARNER.STY\Errol Garner Style^This is garner*I'll Remember april @GARNER2.STY\Errol Garner Style #2^This style is in 2 feel for a and b*OLDFOLKS Third Party Styles – LS3 Files You can create LS3 files to add information to the StylePicker dialog about your styles. The LS3 files are for third party added styles and style data descriptions. An LS3 file cannot exceed 65,000 bytes (65K). If you need more, use 2 LS3 files. The style data and descriptions show up in the style picker dialog. - Lines beginning with @ are for style descriptions (memos etc.) - Lines beginning with the 3 chars ^@ are for the style data - More information on the format of the style data line is found at pgmusic.com/styledata.htm. Here's a summary of the style data line (on the next 4 lines) ; stylename,soloist# to use (1-255),soloist type to use (see list on web),double time OK (false/true), ; time sign. (3 or 4),straight or swing (sw/ev),16ths or 8ths (8/16),tempolow(30-500), ; tempo high range (30-500), tempo mid range (30-500), style disk # (0-30000) PG uses 1-255) ; melody patch to use (1-128 or higher-see list on web),soloist patch to use (1-128 or higher-see list), 116 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box Favorite Styles Button Another way to load a style is with the favorite styles [F] button, located to the right of the StylePicker button. This opens a dialog with separate lists of Recently Played and Favorite styles. You’ll see “Favorites” and “Recently Played” Radio buttons that toggle between lists of recently played styles and your favorite styles. The favorites list will start off as an empty one. You can add styles as your favorites by clicking the [Add Fav] button. A similar button is found in the StylePicker window. Use these buttons to navigate the list. Use these buttons to modify the list. The [Search] button will search for a style in the list by name, or part of a name. The [Sort] button sorts the list alphabetically. You can save and load sets of Favorites or Recently Played styles. Use the [Clear] button to clear the list and start a new one. Click the “Play When Chosen” checkbox to have Band-in-a-Box play your song immediately upon selecting a style. If this is enabled, every style you select will be added to the top of the list. Technical Note: The list of style favorites is stored in a text file called StyleFavorites.txt in the BB folder. Style Aliases Dialog The Style Aliases selection is found in the Styles menu. Let's say you've got a new style for Jazz called “Wynt_K.” You can create an alias so that when Band-in-a-Box looks for a Jazz Swing style, it will load in “Wynt_K” instead, so you don't have to make changes to all your songs. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 117 And when you have found a new favorite style, just change the alias. You can also load or save sets of “Alias” files and share them with others. To type in a style name that you don't have, use the [Custom] button. 1. To create a new alias, click on an empty spot (i.e. no alias defined) in the alias list, or click on the alias you wish to edit if you wish to change an existing alias. 2. Press the [Choose] button below the Original style box and select the style you wish to be replaced. 3. Press the [Choose] button below the Substitution box and select the replacement style (alias). If you have made a mistake and wish to change your style selection, press the [Clear] button. When you have successfully made an alias, you will notice that there will be a small arrow in the Styles box on the main screen indicating that you have an alias loaded. You can Export and Import alias files to share with your friends by clicking the [Import..] button to read an alias file from a floppy, or click the [Export..] button to send one out to a disk. Tip: You can temporarily totally disable the Alias feature by unchecking the “Allow Any Style Aliases” checkbox. You can also have confirmation of alias substitutions by checking the “Confirm Substitution” checkbox. Enable/Disable Style menu item. (Alt+S E) The Styles menu has an item to Enable/Disable the style. When disabled, the name of the style will have an X at the beginning, which indicates a disabled style. The disabled style won't sound or write any data to the MIDI file. The most common use for disabling a style is when a MIDI file is loaded to the Melody track. Then the style won't sound and conflict with the full arrangement on the Melody track. Forced Styles option This allows you to keep a style in memory. This way, all subsequent songs that are loaded will not change the style (even if they have a different associated style), so you can easily play songs in the same style. If you've found a new favorite style, you can try it out in all kinds of songs without having to reload the style each time. For example, let's say we've discovered the “GARNER” style, and want to try it out on all kinds of songs. Select Styles | OK to load styles with songs so that the item is NOT checked. Now when you load a song the new style doesn't load and you can play the song in GARNER.STY. You can temporarily override this setting by loading in another style using the [STY] button or the Style menu, and the new style loaded will stay in until you choose another one. 118 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box Using MultiStyles Band-in-a-Box MultiStyles are styles that can have up to 24 substyles; original Band-in-a-Box styles had two substyles, “a” and “b.” Band-in-a-Box MultiStyles typically have four substyles, but may have up to twenty-four, selected by using part markers “a” through “x.” You can easily make your own MultiStyles, either from scratch, or combining parts from existing styles to make a MultiStyle. For example, if you have 10 favorite Country styles, you can quickly make a single MultiStyle that has 20 substyles available within the same song. There are 2 types of MultiStyles 1. MultiStyles in styles, working for every song (e.g. NR_CURR+.STY Nashville Rock Current Multistyle). 2. MultiStyles for a specific song only. MultiStyles in Styles (“+” Styles) Styles can be made that have multiple substyles, and you can choose the various substyles using the letters a, b, c, d, etc. up to “x” for 24 substyles. Our naming convention for MultiStyles is to use a + sign at the end of the style name. For example, MyStyle+.STY would be a MultiStyle. You can use these substyles easily, just enter the StylePicker and find the category “Styles With MultiStyles,” or search for the “+” character. For example, load the song NR_CURR+.MGU from the c:\bb\Tutorial BB 2008 folder. This loads the NR_CURR+.sty. When you see the “+” in the style name, you’ll know that this is a MultiStyle. Right click on a part marker, and you’ll see that there are 4 substyles available. In the style NR_CURR+, there are 4 substyles, a, b, c, and d. Standard Pop Song form with 4 substyle MultiStyle In NR_CURR+ (and as a general rule for styles with 4 substyles): - “a” substyle is for the verse. - “b” substyle is for the chorus. - “c” substyle is for the intro (or first verse). - “d” substyle is for the break (or interlude). Choose your substyle by clicking on the part marker, or right clicking to select and define substyles. Here we have chosen “c” substyle, appropriate for the intro or first verse of the song (because the playing is sparse and sustained). Making your own MultiStyles in Styles You can make a style that is a MultiStyle. For example: - Open the StyleMaker, press [Misc]. In the MultiStyles group box, type the name of a style that you would like to use for the c/d section. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 119 If you’d like more substyles, add more styles separated by semicolons (e.g. “zzjazz;z5bossa;c_george”). Then you’d have 8 substyles from “a” to “h.” Note that each of these styles can have a specific RealDrums style, either stored in the style itself (Misc. Style Settings “RealDrums Settings”), or substituted via MIDI substitutions in RealDrums settings. MultiStyles in Songs If you have a song, you can also use more than 2 substyles for that song. For example, let’s say we have a song that is a Bossa Nova and you want to have a Jazz Swing section. Rather than finding a MultiStyle that has this exact combination, we can make one, in the song, for this song only as follows: Load a song like c:\bb\styles0\zzbossa.mg4 Right click on a bar number, and choose “Define c/d.” Then choose ZZJAZZ.STY from the StylePicker. You will then see that there are 4 substyles now, a, b, c, d. You can use the “d” substyle for Jazz Swing walking bass, since it is the same as the “b” substyle from ZZJAZZ. Load the song c:\bb\Tutorial BB 2008\ “Demo of MultiStyle in song only Bossa 2 Jazz.MG4” and you can see the finished result. This song switches styles using part markers. Note: The RealDrums will play for all of the styles if you have enabled RealDrums and “Substitute RealDrums for \ MIDI drums” in the RealDrums Settings dialog. Using RealTracks and RealDrums in Songs Your songs, styles, and solos can use live audio tracks recorded by studio musicians. Many Band-in-a-Box styles already use these tracks, and you can substitute these live recordings for the Band-in-a-Box MIDI tracks in any song. There is a full chapter on RealTracks and RealDrums, but here is what to do to use them in your song. Using RealTracks in Songs - Assign RealTracks to Track Dialog The Assign RealTracks to Track dialog assigns a RealTracks instrument to any of the Band-in-a-Box instrumental tracks. It also shows any RealTracks that are assigned to Band-in-a-Box tracks. Note: RealTracks can either be assigned from the style or from the song. This dialog allows you to assign the ones in the song. This dialog is launched by 120 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 1. 2. - or 3. Clicking on the RealTracks toolbar button and selecting RealTracks Picker Dialog. Right-clicking or double clicking on an instrument name at the top of the Band-in-a-Box main screen and choosing Assign RealTracks in the menu. Press the [Assign to Track] button in the RealTracks Settings dialog. The dialog allows you to assign a specific RealTracks instruments to a track in a song. It also displays any RealTracks that are currently assigned to each track. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 121 Tip: RealTracks in styles are assigned in the StyleMaker. Press the [Misc.] button or use the StyleMaker menu command Style | Misc. Settings to go to the Misc. Style Settings dialog, then click on the [More] button for the More Settings dialog. To use the dialog, first select the track that you want to assign. Then, select the RealTracks that you want in the list below it. Using RealDrums in Songs There are several ways to hear RealDrums with new or existing Band-in-a-Box songs. Many styles already use RealDrums, and there are several ways to tell if your song is is using them. At the top of the Band-in-a-Box window, the status bar will display the name of the set if RealDrums are in use. You’ll see that “Drums” is colored green in the Synth window, and by selecting the Drums radio button the name of the RealDrums set will show above the instrument box. Right-click on “Drums” and a menu opens that includes the name of the RealDrums in the style. Click on this menu item to open the RealDrums Picker and select a different set. 122 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box The RealDrums Picker can also be opened directly by clicking on the toolbar button. This action selects a RealDrums for the current song. It does not change the RealDrums set used in the style. RealDrums Styles There is a separate category in the StylePicker for styles with RealDrums. These styles can be identified by the style name beginning with a minus sign. For example “-ZZJAZZ.STY” is a version of the ZZJAZZ.STY that uses RealDrums. Styles (.STY) can have RealDrums (e.g. “–ZZJAZZ.STY”). This setting is found in the StyleMaker’s Misc. Style Settings dialog. You can set the RealDrum style inside the StyleMaker, by pressing the [Misc] button, and then typing the name of the RealDrum style. RealDrums can be substituted for MIDI drums on existing styles in the RealDrums Settings dialog, which opens with Ctrl+click on the RealDrums toolbar button or with the [RealDrums] button in the Preferences dialog. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 123 With “Enable RealDrums” checked RealDrums may be used rather than MIDI. There is also a hot key combination to turn RealDrums on/off (Ctrl+Shift+F6). The hot keys also work while the song is playing. This will substitute RealDrums for MIDI styles. You can change the setting from 1 to 5. If set to 1, almost all MIDI drums will get substituted by RealDrums. If set to 5, only RealDrum styles that match the style perfectly will get substituted. Technical note: The text file a_pgmusic.ds provided by PG Music controls this, and users can make other files MySubs.ds if they make their own RealDrums styles. Individual songs can have RealDrums assigned to them. You can set the desired style in the RealDrums Settings dialog with the “For this song only, use this RealDrum style” setting. This will let the current song use the specific RealDrums style. The [RD] button opens the RealDrums Picker where you select the specific RealDrums style that you would like to assign to your song. You can also open the RealDrums Picker directly from the toolbar with the RealDrums button. RealDrums are normally saved with songs, unless you have unchecked “Save all Settings with Songs” in the Assign Instruments and Harmonies to Song dialog. In that case, you can select and save a RealDrums style with your song by going to File | Save Song with Patches & Harmony (Alt+F2) to assign a RealDrums style. The Edit Settings for bar… dialog (F5 key) lets you use multiple RealDrums styles within a song - either using the RealDrums from a Band-in-a-Box style or specifying a RealDrums style to use at a particular bar. 124 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box Arranging Your Song Note: The chapter titled The Main Screen has additional information on the settings described here. Setting the tempo The tempo is displayed under the title. Tempo is set based on Style when choosing File | New. The tempo is set to the best tempo for the current style. Let’s say you wanted to change the tempo to 160 beats per minute (bpm). Click the mouse on the arrow buttons to adjust the tempo. - LEFT mouse click to change by 5 beats per minute at a time. - RIGHT mouse click to change by 1 beat per minute at a time. You can quickly enter a specific tempo for the song by clicking on the tempo (hot key is Ctrl+Alt+T, or menu item Play | Tempo | Set Tempo…), and a dialog will open up allowing you to type in a tempo. Tap the tempo Not sure of the tempo for your song? Tap it in real time on either the minus [-] key or the equals [=] key on your computer keyboard. Four taps on the minus key sets the tempo, four taps on the equals key sets the tempo and starts the song playing. You can also click the mouse on the on-screen [-] and [=] buttons to the right of the tempo box. “Framing” the Song Framing a song designates the first and last bars of each chorus and the number of choruses Band-in-a-Box will play before playing the standard 2 bar ending. Here we have selected bar one to be the first bar of the chorus and bar 32 to be the last. The chorus will play three times, jumping to the two bar ending the third time through. With the “Loop” checkbox enabled the entire song will keep repeating until stopped. (This is a different feature from the “LoopSec” checkbox, which loops a selected section of the song.) The “Fake” checkbox is for a “fake sheet” style of chordsheet display with 1st and 2nd endings and repeats. The [Memo] button allows you to put in a memo to a song. You can type in a memo or paste text from the Windows clipboard. The song memo has a “Close w/play” option to close the memo automatically when “Play” is pressed, and not reopen when stop is pressed. This setting, in combination with the “Auto-open” setting, ensures that the memo opens when the song opens, but closes, during playback. The [S] button opens the Song Settings dialog for additional settings such as endings, tags, style variations, pushes, rests, and chord embellishments. Song Settings Dialog As well as the [S] button in the Title window, the Ctrl+N keys or the Edit | Settings (for This Song)… menu command brings up the Song Settings dialog. Here, you can choose from song settings such as chorus variations, chord embellishments, tag jumps, and endings, to make your song interesting and varied. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 125 This button opens a dialog box where the song’s title and its main settings can be typed in. These settings are usually made in the main screen title window. This buttons opens the Edit Settings for Current Bar dialog. This button opens the Chord Options dialog where you can edit chords and add rests and pushes. These are additional song settings that are saved with the song. 126 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box Vary Style in Middle Choruses If set to “Yes,” the song will play in substyle “b” throughout the Middle Choruses. The Middle Choruses are considered all choruses except the first and last ones. For example, in the Jazz Swing Style, since the “b” substyle is Swing, all of the middle choruses will have swing bass. (Whereas the “a” substyle is playing half notes on the bass.) If set to “No” the middle choruses will play A and B substyles exactly as they appear in the song as outlined by the part markers. Allow Pushes in Middle Choruses This is most frequently used if there are pushes in a song (indicated by the “^” symbol), but you don't want these pushes to play in the middle choruses. Simply set the checkbox to “No” (disabled) and the pushes will be ignored in the middle choruses. This is to allow for uninterrupted soloing choruses. Allow Rests in First/Middle/Last Chorus These parameters allow you to decide which choruses will play any rests that are present in a song (indicated by the “.” symbol). For example, you may have put rests into a song but don't want the rests to play in the middle choruses, since you are using them for soloing: simply set the ALLOW RESTS IN MIDDLE CHORUSES checkbox to “No” (off). Allow Pedal Bass in Middle Choruses This determines whether Pedal Bass effect will be allowed in middle choruses. Allow Embellishment of Chords The Jazz styles include embellishment of chords. This means that if you type a C7 chord, the piano part may play a C13 or a C7b9. This makes the arrangement sound more authentic, as this is a common practice in Jazz playing. It also means that you don't have to worry about inputting these types of extensions into your arrangements, since they will turn up automatically if this feature is enabled. Tip: If you are hearing b9 and b13 embellishments on a C7 chord that is clashing with the melody, you should rename the chord C9 or C13, which will ensure natural 9 and 13 embellishments. Tag Settings A tag (also referred to as a coda) is a group of bars that are played in the very last chorus of a song. If you select the “Tag Exists?” check box then the tag will play during the last chorus of the song. After the bar you specify as the “Tag Jump After Bar #” the song jumps to the “Tag Begin At Bar #” and plays through the “Tag Ends After Bar #” and then plays a 2 bar ending as usual. Song Endings Band-in-a-Box will optionally create a two bar ending for your song, the standard ending is 2 bars appended to the end of the song. The “Use 4 Bar ending for RealTracks” option allows extra time for the natural decay of the instruments. The “Start the ending 2 bars early” option gives you an alternative to end the song on the last bar of the song. Bandin-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. No Endings Song endings can be turned off for all songs, or on a song by song basis. For example, you might want to have your own custom ending that ends the song on the 3rd beat of a bar by playing a shot. To turn the song ending off for a single song, set the “Generate 2 bar Ending for this song” checkbox to = “Off” (cleared). To turn song endings off for all songs, choose Opt. | Preferences and then press the [Arrange] button to open the Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 127 Arrangement Options dialog. Set the “Allow any Endings” checkbox = “Off” (cleared). Fade Out Song You can now quickly choose a fadeout ending, just press the [Fade] button in Song Settings, and Bandin-a-Box will fadeout the last “x” bars of the song (you can specify how many bars). Or customize the fadeout with precise values for each bar. Sections on a new line (for this song) is an option to enable/disable the Section Paragraphs feature for this particular song. RealTracks options for this song only set the RealTracks options for the song without changing the global RealTracks Settings. Solos should have a ‘bluesy’ feel When set, any soloist or RealTracks background soloist, will treat any major triad (C, F, etc.) like a dominant seventh (C7, F7) and use flatted 7th for soloing. Allow RealTracks substitutions based on tempo When set, the program will find the best RealTracks to use at the current tempo. For example, it might substitute an acoustic bass recorded at a higher tempo, closer to the tempo of your song. The RealTracks name will appear on the main screen with a tilde (~) to indicate the substitution. Allow RealTracks Shots, Holds and Pushes When set (recommended), Band-in-a-Box will create realistic shots, holds, and pushes in your song. If unchecked, Band-in-a-Box will simulate a shot. Not all styles have these available. Check the RealTracks\Library\Holds folder and the RealTracks Picker “Holds” column listing the set number. Allow RealTracks Half-time/Double-time When set, this song will allow RealTracks to play at half time (twice the usual tempo) or double time (half the usual tempo). This allows you, for example, in a ballad at a tempo of 70, to add a RealTracks Sax solo with a tempo of 140, and play it as a double time, which will match the ballad tempo of 70. Repeats and Endings You can add repeats and endings so that the Lead Sheet window will display and printout using 1st /2nd endings. The Repeats and 1st/2nd Endings button launches the Edit Repeats and Endings dialog where you can enter repeats, 1st and 2nd endings, DC, DS al coda and more. The “Auto-Find” feature will intelligently detect 1st/2nd endings automatically for you, so you can view and convert any Bandin-a-Box song to include 1st/2nd endings in lead sheet format. The Edit Repeats and Endings dialog can also be entered by right-clicking on the chordsheet and selecting Repeats/Codas/1st-2nd endings from the pop-up menu. When you have created your repeats and endings, either manually or automatically, simply select the “Fake Sheet” checkbox on the Chordsheet or Lead Sheet window. Band-in-a-Box will hide the repeated bars and display the fake sheet using 1st and 2nd endings. There is a tutorial for this feature in the Tutors and Wizards chapter, and also in the Help file topic Repeats Edit Dialog. 128 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box Add a Melody – MIDI and/or Audio Record a MIDI Melody Band-in-a-Box is much more than an intelligent arranger and accompanist. You can record your live MIDI performance to the Melody or Soloist track, enter a melody in the Notation note-by-note, or use the Wizard feature to record with either your computer keyboard or a connected MIDI keyboard controller. If you want a metronome to play while you are recording, you can select it in the Opt. | Preferences dialog. You can even have a visual metronome if you like. Press the [Rec] toolbar button to begin recording. This launches the Record Melody dialog box, which prompts you to set the position (bar and chorus) where you wish to start recording. Pressing the [Record] button will start Band-in-a-Box recording what you play on the Thru track. An audible count-in is played prior to recording. You can punch in/out, overdub, and record directly to the ending or the tag, and use the filter to choose which MIDI events are recorded. Once you have completed recording your melody, Band-in-a-Box will ask you if you would like to keep the take and if you would like to copy the recorded chorus to the whole song. Sequencer Mode There are 2 tracks in Band-in-a-Box to add your own recordings. These are the Melody and Soloist tracks. Normally you would want a single part on each of them. But, since MIDI information can have separate channels, it is possible to store 16 separate parts on each of the Melody and Soloist parts. When the track has been set to “Multi (16) -Channel” we refer to this as “Sequencer Mode.” If you want to use the 16 separate parts for the Melody track, you need to set the Melody Track type to “Multi (16) Channel.” Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 129 This is done from the Melody (or Soloist) menu, or can be done by pressing the Sequencer button. Now, when you are in this multi-channel mode, output from the Melody part will be on whatever MIDI channel the information is stored on, and will not be using the Melody MIDI channel. Both the Melody and Soloist tracks can be set to multi-channel play, for at total of 32 channels. Tip: Looking for inspiration? At the click of a button, the Band-in-a-Box Melodist will write entire new songs from scratch, complete with Chords, Intro, Melody, Solo, Ending, and even an original Title. Or you can enter your own chord changes and let the Melodist create a new melody over them. There are more than 100 Jazz, Pop, Rock, Latin, Country, and Classical melody styles. Embellishing the Melody When musicians see a Lead Sheet that has a melody written out, they almost never play it exactly as written. They change the timing to add syncopation, change durations to achieve staccato or legato playing, add grace notes, slurs, extra notes, vibrato, and other effects. Now you can have Band-in-a-Box do these automatically using the Embellisher. If you enable the Embellisher, any Melody will be embellished as it is played so that you hear a livelier and more realistic Melody - and it's different every time. The Embellisher button opens the Melody Embellisher dialog with many user options to control the embellishment settings. The Embellisher Presets allow you to choose a combination of common settings for the Embellisher quickly. The Embellisher is only active while the music is playing; the recorded Melody track isn’t affected. There is an option for the Embellisher to only humanize the timing of the music if the timing was “stiff” to begin with. This allows the Embellisher to leave the timing of human input melodies alone, and humanize only the ones that were entered in step-time The Embellisher Memo describes the current embellishment, with statistics counting the number of embellished notes. You can save/load your own presets for the Embellisher. When you have made a custom setting in the Embellisher dialog, press the Export button to save the data as an .EMB file. When you want to recall the saved preset, press the Import button, and load in a previously made .EMB file. You can share your favorite presets with other installations of Band-in-a-Box using the EMB files. Record a Live Audio Track You can record an audio track of your live vocal or instrumental performance and save it to an audio wave file along with the Band-in-a- Box accompaniment. Make sure that you have a microphone plugged in to your sound card, or a connection from a mixer, keyboard, or other audio device connected to the Line In jack on your sound card. 130 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box Click on the [R.Aud] button to prepare to record and audio track. The VU Meters will also open automatically when the Record Audio dialog is opened. The VU Meters will close or stay open when the dialog is exited depending on the “Leave VU Meters open” setting in the Record Audio dialog. The VU meters show the average strength of the signal, with a dB scale, and a clip indicator. Clipping indicates that the signal has overloaded, and will sound distorted (clipped). The green area represents normal levels, while red indicates an overload. Ideally, the sounds should remain in the green and avoid the red altogether. Unlike analog recording, where it's good to get a “hot” high signal, digital recordings need to absolutely avoid high levels since any overload of the signal will result in clipping and a ruined recording. The Record Audio dialog displays the mono/stereo status of the recording. If you want to change to/from stereo (to/from mono), press the [Audio Options] button in this dialog. The mono/stereo track status is also indicated on the Title bar at the top of the main screen. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 131 Set the start point for the recording. You can record from the Start of the song, somewhere in the middle, or punch in by choosing a bar and chorus # to start recording. Press [Record]. Audio recording begins. If you've set the “Show VU Meter while recording” option, then the Recording VU Meter will open up and display during recording so you can monitor the VU meters. Press [Stop] or press the [Esc] key. You will then see the “Keep Take?” dialog. If you are happy with your recording, you should choose [OK -Keep Take] and the audio will be added to the Audio track. You can listen to the results by pressing [Play]. If you are not happy with the results, you can choose Edit | Undo Keep Audio Take and you will be back to where you were prior to the recording. You can also choose the option to [Take Again], which reopens the Recording dialog. Options 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 the audio by repeating it as many times as necessary. Then you'd just need to record the ending of the song. At the end of recording, you receive an option to overdub with the underlying audio. This means that both recordings will be merged together to form a new file, with both recordings preserved. There is also an option to “Retain audio past last recorded.” This allows you to “punch out” and preserve the rest of a previously recorded take. Opening and Importing Audio Files A mono or stereo WAV file can be imported to the Audio track, optionally merging with or replacing any existing audio track. Choose the menu item Audio | Import Audio (WAV, WMA, MP3, WMV) File. You then choose an audio file to import. The Import Audio File dialog is then displayed, which allows selection of the point to insert the audio file, and whether to merge or overwrite existing audio in the range. Audio Chord Wizard (Chords from MP3) This feature analyzes a WAV, WMA, MP3, WMV, or CDA audio file and imports it to Band-in-a-Box. Using the Audio Chord Wizard is a great way to learn and practice popular songs as you 132 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box play along and see the chords. There is a Chordsheet window in the Audio Chord Wizard that shows the chords for the whole song on a single screen. This allows you to click on a bar on the chordsheet to jump to that area of the song. You can mark sections of the song using part markers, and the sections will begin on a new line with a line space between so they are clearly seen. You can then learn the form of the song, as you can see the various sections (intro/verse/chorus/break) at a glance, or quickly jump to any section simply by double clicking on that part of the chordsheet. The Audio Chord Wizard is fully described in the Tutors, Wizards, and Practice Aids chapter. Harmonize the MIDI Melody Press the [M] button in the Synth window to add a MIDI harmony to the Melody track. Pressing the [F] favorites button brings up a list of the last 50 harmonies used. The Select Melody Harmony dialog box allows you to choose from any of the pre-defined harmonies and even allows you to define your own. This button opens the Harmony Maker, where you can customize Harmonists. You can search for a harmony by a keyword (i.e. typing in the first few letters of a harmony name) in either the Harmonies or Favorite Harmonies dialog. This button is to turn off any notes that are stuck on. (There shouldn’t be any.) Enter the number of the harmony you want to go to and press [Go To #]. Pressing either the [Fav] or the [F] button produces a list the 50 most recently loaded harmonies. The [No harmony] button disables the harmony for the song. The keystrokes Shift+F10 also allow or disable the Melody harmony. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 133 When adding a harmony to the Melody (or Soloist) you can use the option to loosen up start times of for the harmony notes to achieve a more natural, richer harmony sound. Choose menu item Melody | Edit | Utilities | Loosen Start Times. You can select the range of adjustments. For example, if you want the notes to be played earlier, use a negative number. A setting of minus 5 to positive 6 would cause the start times to be varied up to 5 ticks early and 6 ticks late. There is also a setting to choose whether you want only the harmony notes present on the track to be affected, leaving the original melody unaffected. Convert Track to Harmony This feature permanently writes the specified harmony to the Melody or Soloist track, instead of being applied in real time. Use the buttons in the Select Melody/Soloist Harmony dialogs, or the Convert Harmony… menu command found in the Melody and Soloist menus. You’ll then see a dialog allowing you to choose the range of the song to add the harmony, either the whole song or a specified range of bars. There are options to “Eliminate Note Overlap” and “Loosen start times of notes” for the harmony notes to achieve a more natural, richer harmony sound. The melody is not affected, only the harmony notes, and there are options for the range of spread for the harmony notes. 134 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box Note: Once the track is converted you should set the harmony to “None” or you will hear harmonies being applied to the harmony notes, i.e., “harmony-on-a-harmony.” Live Harmonies While Band-In-A-Box Is Stopped Normally, the Live Harmony feature is not active when Band-in-a-Box is stopped. But you can in fact use the Live Harmony even while a song is not playing. You need only to open the Harmony | Real Time MIDI Harmonies menu item. Note that this Live Harmony dialog must remain open for this feature to be active. When this dialog (shown above) is open, you can play a chord in the Left hand (below the split point set in the dialog), and the chord you play is and displayed in the dialog. Then, the notes that you play in the right hand will get harmonized according to this left-hand chord. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 135 If you set the Only Harmonize if Left hand chord held down you'll be able to control what notes get harmonized by holding down the chord when you want a note to be harmonized. Play Along with the Wizard The Wizard is an intelligent play along feature that is controlled with the bottom two rows of your computer’s QWERTY keyboard. The bottom row of keys plays chord tones; the second row plays passing tones. You play any key in either row and never make a mistake! In the Play menu, toggle Wizard uses “Smart” notes to “off” (unchecked) to have the Wizard provide you access to the chromatic scale. Toggle it “on” to have access only to the notes based on the chord/key of the song. This also allows you to record to the Melody or Soloist track without an external MIDI keyboard, and can even be used to trigger the Soloist Wizard. Also, play along using the Wizard works with the harmony feature, so you can play along live from your QWERTY keyboard in 4-part saxophone harmony for example. Playing the Wizard The Wizard Keys are active during playback. The active keys are the lower 2 rows of the keyboard. Melody Wizard For songs with melodies, there are QWERTY keys (Enter, \ , T, 6) that trigger notes from the melody as the song is being played. Other keys trigger 1-4 approach notes from below or above. The notes can be recorded, to humanize a stiff melody with better timing, and approach notes also useful for sight reading, rhythm practice or to perform. Works with harmonies - Melody notes: T, 6, Enter, \ - Same Melody note: 5 - Approach notes: QWER YUIO - Octave set: 1, 2, 3 MIDI notes also work (if Preferences [Transpose] is set to “Allow Melody Wizard on THRU part”). - Octave set: E(40), F(41), G(43) - Melody notes: F(53), G(55) - Approach notes: B(47), C, D, E A, B, C, D(62) To use the Melody Wizard, make sure the Keyboard Wizard is enabled on the main screen. This will also enable the MIDI Wizard on the QWERTY keys. If you also want to use the Melody Wizard on MIDI notes, go to Preferences [Transpose] and enable “Allow Melody Wizard on THRU part” in the Settings for transposing songs when loaded or “Do it Now” dialog. *.MGU Then, choose a song that has a Melody track. Mute the Melody track by right clicking on the Melody track (Alt+9). Play the song. ENTER or \ W,E,R,T Q,E,R,T I,U,Y,T O,U,Y,T 136 As you play the song, you can use the Enter key or the \ key (or T or 6 above the T) to play Melody notes. These will be approach notes up to the melody. You can start on any note. Starting on a Q instead of W will use wider voicings for approach notes. These will be approach notes down to the melody. Start on any note. Starting on an O instead of I will use wider voicings for approach notes. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box MIDI Keyboard Wizard By turning on this Wizard setting in the Opt. | Preferences Transpose dialog, notes played on a Thru channel MIDI keyboard will be played through the Wizard. C, E, G, and Bb will be mapped to chord tones while D, F, A, and B will be passing tones. Changing Instruments and Settings for the Wizard As a play along instrument, the Wizard uses the Thru instrument part. To change the instrument patch, volume, reverb, etc. for the Wizard select the Thru instrument in the synth window. Import a MIDI File With the amazing Band-in-a-Box Chord Wizard, you can convert any MIDI file into a Band-in-a-Box song, complete with Melody and Soloist parts. Then apply all of the powerful music making features of Band-in-a-Box to create new accompaniments, add harmonies, add soloing, and embellish the melody. And when you're finished, you can always resave your song as a MIDI file again. MIDI File Chord Interpretation Wizard You can open up any MIDI file in Band-in-a-Box, and Band-in-a-Box will automatically figure out the chords of the song for you. It automatically analyzes the MIDI file, figures out where the bass, piano, melody and other tracks are, and then figures out the chord changes for the song. The chords are written onto the Band-in-a-Box Chordsheet like any other song. You can also read tracks into the Melody and Soloist tracks. To interpret a MIDI file, go to File | Import Chords from MIDI file or use the keystroke combination Ctrl+Alt+I. This launches the Interpret Chords from MIDI file dialog where either user settings or presets can be applied to specify how the chords should be interpreted. Select a preset or choose custom settings for the MIDI Chord Wizard. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 137 You can open an entire MIDI file into Band-in-a-Box. The chords will be automatically interpreted by the Chord Wizard and the MIDI file will play and display on the Melody track. A “silent” style will be loaded so you'll only hear the MIDI file. When the file is saved, the extension will be MGX, allowing you to easily identify the BB songs that you have that contain entire MIDI files. Add a Solo - “The Soloist” That’s right! Band-in-a-Box can “solo like a pro” in hundreds of styles. Use the [Soloist] button on the main screen to open the Select Soloist dialog box and choose from over up to 2000 Soloist profiles. You can select a Soloist type (e.g. Modern Jazz) and see only soloists matching the type. And you can also filter to show/not show soloists from Soloist sets that you don’t have. Use the preset Soloist settings, or choose a Mode and which Choruses to solo. RealTracks Solos Band-in-a-Box has RealTracks instruments, which are live audio recordings of studio musicians. These RealTracks replace the MIDI track for that instrument, and can be controlled just like the MIDI instrument (volume changes, muting etc.). RealTracks can be can be generated to the Soloist (or Melody) track using the Soloist feature. There are hundreds of RealTracks soloists available, starting at #361 in the list of soloing styles. 138 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box RealTracks solos are saved with the song, so you will hear the RealTracks play the same solo when you reload the song. When you generate a solo using RealTracks, Band-in-a-Box will remember this, and when you go to save the song, Band-in-a-Box will ask you if you want to save that solo (and thereby freeze the Soloist track). If you say yes, then the solo will play instantly the same way when the song is reloaded. Of course you can freeze the soloist track yourself at any time. Note that only one solo can be saved. You can’t generate a bunch of different segments of solos; only the last one will be saved. With the “Trade” feature, you can Trade 2’s, Trade 4’s, or Trade 8’s between your live playing and the Soloist. There is a dedicated function to vary the start times of notes on the Melody or Soloist tracks, with options for what notes to affect (harmony, chords, and amount of variance). Choose menu item Soloist | Edit Soloist Track | Utilities | Loosen Start Times. Using the Soloist Feature 1) Generate a Soloist and practice the solo by loopingit, slowing it down, or printing it out, until you can perform a great solo on any chord changes! 2) Generate a Soloist and attach a Harmony such as “Big Band Brass” to create phenomenally quick and interesting Big Band Arrangements automatically. Generate a standard MIDI file or print them out (with PowerTracks Pro) for you and your friends. 3) Have the Soloist play a solo according to your accompaniment and arrangement (along with the other members of your Band-in-a-Box, of course!) 4) Trade 4’s in a call-response fashion with the Soloist (you solo for 4 bars, Band-in-a-Box solos for 4 bars, etc.) 5) Concentrate separately on different aspects of your playing with assistance from the “Wizard.” From soloing with proper phrasing and “feel” (the best notes are included automatically) to accompanying a soloist with confidence and authority (Tip: try muting out one of the accompaniment parts such as the piano or guitar part and play along to the Soloist in a supportive role-- its fun!) 6) Use the Soloist track to record another part in addition to the Melody and other parts provided by Band-in-a-Box. 7) Generate a Soloist on chords/keys that you would like to practice. Band-in-a-Box will play and solo with you all day without getting bored. For example, if you want to work on your II-V7-I progressions (“two-five-one”), you can just type the chords you want, and generate a solo to play over those changes. As the solo plays, you see the notation, can you can sight read along. Pressing the “Loop Screen” checkbox on the notation will loop the notation the screen so you can master each 4 bar phrase (II-V-I) and then move ahead to the next one! The Soloist Maker [Edit] button gives access to the advanced settings in the Soloist Editor where you can edit existing profiles or create new Soloists of your own. To see the Soloist part play in standard music notation open the Notation window and press the [S] button at the far right of the instrument buttons. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 139 Automatic Songs - “The Melodist” Feel like composing a brand new song? With Band-in-a-Box you can compose a new song, in the style of your choice complete with intro, chords, melody, arrangement, and improvisations, all created by the program! All you have to do is pick from one of the “Melodists” and press [OK] - the program then automatically generates the intro, chords, melody, and arrangement in the chosen style. It even auto-generates a title! You can go from nothing to a completed song in less than 1 second! You can also auto-regenerate any part of a song and modify it to suit you. The Melodist will also generate a melody over an existing chord progression. A “Melodist Juke Box” mode creates and performs new compositions in succession. 140 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box Launching the Melodist To launch the Melodist, press the [Melodist] button on the main screen, or use the Shift+F5 hot keys. Melodists can be filtered by “Genre” (e.g. EZ listening) to show only Melodists in that genre. You can also filter to show/not show Melodists from Melodist sets that you don’t have. Check “Show if N/A” to list all Melodists, even if they are not present in the :\bb folder. Note: Band-in-a-Box also has a SoundTrack feature that allows you to generate music in the style you choose for any length of time you specify. Click on the SoundTrack toolbar button to launch this feature. Edit Functions The on-screen display of the song file name includes “*” when the file has been changed. - Edit | Undo and Edit | Redo allow you to Undo (or redo) most operations. Multiple Undo supports up to 999 levels of undo (configurable). The default number of undos is 99. If you need to change this, it can be done in Opt. | Preferences “Number of Levels of Undo.” The range can be 5 to 999. You can also choose Edit | Redo to redo an undo. Technical Note: Audio Undos are large WAV files, so are stored in an Undos folder in the BB directory. This directory is emptied when the undos are no longer needed. - Edit | Cut functions like a delete command. It removes bars of chords from a song. Highlighting Regions This feature makes it easier to perform editing operations, such as copy/insert, etc. Simply highlight the region and select the option. This feature also aids in Copy from..to...; Erase; Transpose; Insert; and Delete. For example, if you select (highlight) a region by dragging the mouse and then choose one of the Edit menu commands the dialog box will automatically adjust to the correct values, based on the region that you've highlighted. To select a region of Chordsheet, Notation, or Audio window, you can Shift+click on the end point to easily select a large area The Copy Chords and/or melody dialog is typical of the range selection dialogs used by several functions. You are able to set a range for the function to be either part of the song, or the whole song. Copy and Pasting a Section of Chords Copying a section of chords is done in the same manner as copying text in a Windows word processor (read on if you are unfamiliar with how this is done). There are also similar “keyboard shortcuts” for these operations as listed in Keystroke Commands – Hot Keys section of this guide. Copying Chords to the Windows Clipboard - Select the region to copy. Place the mouse cursor at the bar to begin the selection. Then, holding down the left mouse button, drag the mouse over the region. As you do this you will see that the region will be inverted (i.e. looks dark). When you have selected the desired region of chords to copy, release the mouse button. - Copy the selected region to the clipboard. Click on the Copy button or choose Copy from the Edit Menu. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 141 Pasting Chords from the Windows Clipboard Assuming you have already copied some chords to the Clipboard (see previous topic), you are then ready to paste the copied chords into another part of your chordsheet. - Move the highlight cell to the bar to begin the paste of chords. - Click on the Paste button or choose Paste from the Edit Menu. Tip: The copied section remains in the clipboard and can be used repeatedly. Example: If you're inputting a song with verse, verse, bridge, verse, you can simply copy the first verse to the Clipboard, and then repeatedly paste-in the other verses. The clipboard contents remain intact even if you load in a new song, so you can copy and paste between songs. Additional Copy function for Chords/Melody The menu command Edit | Copy From.. To.. launches the Copy Chords and / or melody dialog. This allows you to copy Chords, Melody, Soloist, and Lyrics for a range of bars. If you're copying the Melody/Soloist you'll need to specify which chorus you wish to copy. If you want to extend the song by inserting a new section by copying an existing range of bars, then select the “Insert Bars at destination” checkbox to insert the extra bars. ”K” Quick Copy Method By simply typing “K” at a bar followed by the 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 shortcut (e.g. typing K 12, 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 Copy Chords and/or melody dialog. Copy Rests With the menu selection Edit | Copy Rests you can copy the attributes of a chord over a range of other chords. Rests also include shots and held chords. 142 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box Erase From.. To.. To erase bars with additional control for erasing the Melody, Soloist, and/or Lyrics, choose Edit | Erase From.. To.. to launch the Erase Chords and / or melody dialog box: With this dialog, you have complete control over erasing a number of bars of chords and/or the Melody, Soloist, and Lyrics. If you're erasing the Melody, Soloist, or Lyrics you need to specify which chorus you wish to erase. Intro Bars – Auto Generate (or Remove) To generate an intro, press the [Intro] button (or choose the Edit | Intro Bars… menu item). The Generate Chords for Intro dialog opens. With a single press of a button you can auto-generate a 2, 4, or 8 bar intro for any song. The chords will be different each time, and you can keep trying as often as you like until you get the progression that you want. The intro generated will be an intelligent chord progression (i.e. appropriate for an intro) in the chosen style of music (Jazz/Pop). It can have optional pedal bass, and will “lead” correctly to the first chord of the song. The duration of the intro can be set to 2, 4, or 8 bars. You can also get a pedal bass figure inserted throughout the intro. Press the [Remove Intro] button to delete any intro present in your song. Insert / Delete Bars - Choose Edit | Insert Bars and the program will ask you to type in the number of bars you wish to insert. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 143 - Choose Edit | Delete Bars and the program will ask you to type in the number of bars you wish to delete. Nudge Chords/Melody The “Nudge” feature allows moving a range of chords by any number of bars/beats. For example, let’s say that you have entered a complete song chord progression, and you then realize that all of the chords starting at bar 23 are 1 beat too late (maybe due to a time signature change). You can move all of the chords 1 beat earlier, by setting the nudge at bar 23, beat 1, and duration of the nudge to -1 (minus 1) beats. You can nudge chords and/or Melody/Soloist parts. Repeats/codas/1st-2nd endings Most lead sheet-style printouts contain 1st/2nd endings, repeats, coda, tag, and sign markings. Band-in-a-Box now supports entry, display, and printout of song forms using these symbols. This command launches the Edit Repeats and Endings dialog where you can enter repeats, 1st and 2nd endings, DC, DS al coda and more. The “Auto-Find” feature will intelligently detect 1st/2nd endings automatically for you, so you can view and convert any Band-in-a-Box song to include 1st/2nd endings in lead sheet format. When you have created your repeats and endings, either manually or automatically, simply select the “Fake Sheet” checkbox on the Chordsheet or Lead Sheet window. Band-in-a-Box will hide the repeated bars and display the fake sheet using 1st and 2nd endings. Reduce (durations of chords by ½) cuts chord durations by 50% (e.g., 4beats>>2beats, 2beats>>1beat, etc.). Expand (durations of chords by 2) doubles the durations of chords (e.g., 1beat>>2beats, 2beats>>4beats, etc.). Unfold (convert To 1 BIG Chorus) Choose Edit | Unfold (convert to one BIG chorus) to unfold a multi-chorus song into one BIG chorus. becomes If you have a song with 3 choruses and want to convert it to a single large chorus, this command unfolds the song into just that; one BIG chorus. This is useful for customizing a song with style, patch or tempo changes in different verses. Fold (convert 1 chorus to multiple) A “Fold song” routine converts a song with a single large chorus to multiple smaller choruses with optional tag ending. If you have imported a MIDI file, you might have a file that is 96 bars long, but really consists of 3 choruses of 32 bars each. You can convert this to a 32-bar song by using the Edit | Fold song option, including inserting tag endings, and 2-bar endings. becomes 144 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box Set Time Signature (range of bars) Under the Edit | Set Time Signature (range of bars) menu item, you can assign a specific time signature at any bar and apply it to a range of bars, as often as you want. For example, to have one bar (bar 13) of 5/4, select Edit | Set Time Signature… and toggle the 5/4 button. Then, type in the bar beginning and ending range in the space provided. (In this case, 13 and 1.) Transpose This submenu lets you transpose the entire song by a number of semitones, or specify a range to transpose with the Transpose From.. To.. command. To transpose part of a song, simply highlight the area you wish to transpose and select Transpose From.. To.. in the submenu. When you have confirmed the starting bar and the number of bars you wish to transpose, click on the “Transpose to Key” area and select the destination key. A Song Memo of up to 2000 characters may be added. When a song has a memo associated with it the label on the Memo button (located to the right of the song title) is pink. Clicking on the [Memo] button launches the Song Memo dialog, where you can type or edit a memo about the song and select an “Auto-open” option that will show the memo each time the song is loaded. The Song Memo has an option to close automatically during playback. When this option is set, the Memo button will close when play is pressed, and not reopen when stop is pressed. This setting, in combination with the “Autoopen” setting, ensures that the memo opens when the song opens, but closes during playback. The font for the song memo is size selectable. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 145 If the “Summary” checkbox is selected, you’ll see an additional window that automatically displays a full summary of the song (title/tempo/patches used in the song), as well as other special features, such as substyle patch changes or harmonies. Auto-Generate Song Title allows you to generate a title for a song. There is also a button on the main screen for this. ‘Jazz Up’ The chords This will “Jazz Up” the chords by changing chords like C and Cmaj to 7th and 6th chords. Song embellishment will be turned on for the song. Select the type of 7ths from the list box, and then click on the [OK – Jazz UP] button. ‘Jazz Down’ The chords This will “Jazz Down” the chords by changing chords with 7ths (e.g. C7) to triads (e.g. C) and 9ths and 13ths to 7th chords. Song embellishment is turned off. Press [OK – Jazz Down] to proceed. Search/Replace Chords allows you to search and replace chord names, including wild cards. Edit Dialogs Chord Settings If you can’t remember the various keystrokes to put in rests and pushes, you can use the Chord Options dialog box instead. To get to the Chord Options dialog box press the [C7] button, click with the right mouse button onto the chordsheet, or use the keystrokes Alt+F5. You can launch the Preview, Chord Builder, or Chord Substitution functions from this window. 146 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box You can enter pedal bass with any chord. For example, if you are in the Key of F, and would like a pedal on a C note for 2 bars (on an Fm7 chord), then type in the settings as shown. This will play the rhythm specified – in this case the pattern will play on beat 2 and 4. The [Clear All] button erases all Rests/Shots/Pushes/Pedal Bass from a song. Settings for Current Bar The number of beats per bar, tempo changes, patch, style, and harmony changes can be made by selecting the Settings For Current Bar option on the Edit menu or by pressing F5 after you have selected a bar to edit. Settings Apply to Chorus # You can specify the changes you make to happen for every chorus and/or a specific chorus. This applies to bar settings like tempo changes, style changes, RealDrums changes, patch changes, volume changes, and harmony changes. Number of Beats this Bar The initial time signature of the song is determined by the style (e.g., Jazz =4/4, Waltz =3/4). In some songs you will want to change the time signature, for example, you might want a single bar of 2/4, or 8 bars of 3/4 time. This option allows a change of time signature during a song. The change takes place at the beginning of the bar and continues until a new time signature change is specified. You can select from 1 to 4 beats per bar. Time signature changes are printed on the Notation/Lead Sheet. Example: A song in 4/4 time with a single bar of 6/4 time. The maximum # beats per bar is =4, so we’ll split the 6/4 bar into 2 bars, a 4/4 bar and a 2/4 bar. Insert a # beats per bar =2 at the beginning of the 2/4 bar, then restore the time signature to 4/4 by assigning # beats per bar =4 for the next bar. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 147 Tempo Change If you want to change the tempo at a certain bar of the song, then use this dialog box to type in the new tempo in beats per minute. The tempo change takes effect at the beginning of the bar and remains until a new tempo change at another bar is inserted. Alternatively, you can specify a percentage change in tempo. Key Signature Change You can have multiple keys in the same song with the new key signature shown on notation. Select the new key signature you want from the combo list and you will see the new key signature drawn on the notation at that bar. 148 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box Style Changes To choose a new style for this bar you can select the style from the StylePicker by pressing [.STY] or from the \bb folder by pressing [Open]. The [Preview] button in the StylePicker allows you to listen to the style before loading it. This allows you to hear what the selected style will sound like in your song. When chosen, the name of the style change for the current bar will be displayed. Click on [Clear STY] if you want no style change to occur. You can have multiple RealDrums styles within a song. You can either enter a change of RealDrums or you can enter a change of style, which will also result in a change of RealDrums. The name of the new RealDrums style is displayed. The [Clear RD] button deletes the style change. Individual styles have instrument patches assigned to them. “Send Patch changes with style change” allows the option to send those assigned patches at the current bar. If you would like to keep the patches that had been previously used in the song, deselect this option. Notation - Start a New Line You can set the notation to start a new line at any bar. This allows you to customize the number of bars on each line, and is used in conjunction with the Notation Options settings of bars-per-line on the notation. This feature works for chord sections. Instrument Changes Volume and patch changes can be made for instrument parts and the audio track at any bar. Volume changes can be specified values or fade up/down amounts. There are presets to mute or restore the volume level for a part. Patch selections include patches on higher banks, which are accessed with the [+] button. Harmony Changes at This bar You set a harmony to begin or end at this bar for the Melody or Soloist/Thru track. If you choose < no harmony > a harmony that was previously playing will stop. Set a specific beat for the harmony to begin, for example on a lead-in or pickup note at the end of a bar. You can also switch to different harmonies in the middle of your song. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 149 Style, tempo, keysignature, volume, patch, and harmony changes will be recorded on your song worksheet indicated by a small red square around the bar that will be affected. Changes remain in effect from that bar forward until new changes are recorded or until the next chorus if you have set the changes to apply only to the current chorus. Piano Roll Window You can edit your tracks using the “Piano Roll” window, similar to the type found in many sequencer programs. Edit the Melody or Soloist tracks with greater ease and precision. There are 2 panes in the window – one for notes and the other for controllers, velocity, and other data. All notes and controllers are displayed as black/gray bars on a grid. You can change note duration and pitch by selecting and dragging with your mouse. The Piano Roll window enables precise graphic editing of note timing and duration. You can also graphically edit note velocity, controllers, program changes, channel aftertouch, or pitch bend. The Piano Roll may be opened as a movable window, which floats above the Band-in-a-Box main window, or it may be opened embedded, in the same position as the Chordsheet/Notation panels in the Band-in-a-Box main window. Track Selection Select the Track - Bass, Drums, Piano, Guitar, Strings, Melody, or Solo. It is most practical to edit the Melody and Solo tracks. The other tracks for the accompaniment are rewritten every time Band-in-a-Box rebuilds the song (every time you click the [Play] button). So if you edit a “backing track,” be sure to save as a MIDI file before rebuilding the song, or your edits will be lost. 150 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box Keyboard Pitch Panel 1. Click on a single note of the keyboard to select all notes of the clicked pitch. 2. Click-drag on the keyboard to select all notes in a pitch range. 3. Shift-click-drag to add another set of notes to the selection. 4. Ctrl-click-drag to invert a pitch selection. For instance, you could drag C5 thru C6 to select an octave of notes. Then Shift-click A3 to add all A3 notes to the selection. Then Ctrl-click F5 to remove all F5 notes from the selection. Note Panel Horizontal bars represent notes. Notes can be selected, edited (start time, pitch, duration), inserted, and deleted. Note Selection Selected notes are red. 1. Click on individual notes to select. 2. Shift-click on individual notes to add to the selection. 3. Ctrl-click on a note to invert (toggle) its selection. Overlapping notes are displayed in bold Aqua color, making them easy to identify. Overlapped notes can be eliminated from the right-click menu in this window. Click on white space and then drag a rectangle around notes to select a group of notes. Only notes that start within the rectangle are selected. If the left edge of a note is not inside the rectangle, it will not be selected. This is a feature, not a bug! 1. Shift-drag a rectangle to add another group of notes to the selection. 2. Ctrl-drag a rectangle to toggle the selection of the notes in the rectangle. Graphic Event Panel Graphically display and edit non-note MIDI events. This panel only shows MIDI events specified in the Chan, View/Edit, and Controller Type controls. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 151 Zero-value events are drawn as small hollow squares, to make them easy to identify. When graphically inserting controller and pitch bend events the event density is adjustable from one event per 1 tick up to one event per 30 ticks. With events such as pitch bend or controllers like modulation and sustain, it is important to take care to end a “gesture” with a zero-value event. Otherwise, subsequent notes will be affected, with an unwanted “hanging” permanent pitch bend, permanent vibrato, or sustain pedal locked down. Event Selection Selected Events are red. Graphic Event Ruler Time Selections: The Graphic Event Ruler will only select non-note events. In addition, it will only select the type of MIDI events specified in the Chan, View/Edit, and Controller Type controls. When you make a Ruler Time selection, ONLY THE VISIBLE events in this time range are selected. Other MIDI events in this time range are not selected. Snap-to-Grid Selections, Inserted Notes, or Edited Notes will snap to the grid spacing. If you do not want snap-to-grid, select [NONE] in the drop-down menu. Note Duration Set the default duration of new inserted notes. It is easy to mouse-edit a note's duration after a note is inserted, so it is usually sufficient to select a typical note duration that makes sense for your purposes and then mouse-edit the duration of “exception” notes after they are inserted. View/Insert Channel If a track contains multiple channels, “All” will display MIDI events on all channels. Otherwise, select the channel that you need to see. If “All” is selected, new MIDI events are inserted on the Band-in-a-Box track's assigned channel. Except for perhaps multi-channel Guitar tracks, Band-in-a-Box plays all track events on the assigned track channel. Therefore, in almost all cases, the channel of track events does not matter. For instance, if the Melody track is set to transmit on channel 4, all events on the Melody track will be sent on channel 4 regardless of the “actual channel” of each track event. Ghost Notes When viewing a single channel, notes on other channels can be ghost-displayed in light gray. This is 152 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box useful when viewing multi-channel tracks. View/Edit Graphic Data Determine what graphic data to view or edit in the bottom Graphic Data panel. Choose Velocity, Controller, Program Change, Channel Aftertouch, and Pitch Bend. If Chan is not set to “All,” only the selected channel events will be displayed. Controller Type If “View/Edit” is set to “Control,” the Controller Type control becomes visible. The Graphic Data panel will display the chosen controller type. If Chan is not set to “All,” only the selected channel events will be displayed. Cursor Location Info Panel The Info Panel shows the cursor's Bar:Beat:Tick and MIDI note or controller value (depending on the cursor location). In cursor locations where a value would be nonsensical, the status text values are blank. For instance, in the Note panel, Bar:Beat:Tick and Pitch are displayed. In the Ruler panels, only Bar:Beat:Tick is displayed. In the left Piano panel, only Pitch is displayed. In the Graphic Event panel, Bar:Beat:Tick and Event Value are displayed. Chord Ruler and Note Time Ruler Panel There are two top rulers. The top Chord Ruler displays chords and the Playback Location Indicator. The Note Time Ruler displays bars and bar subdivisions. When zoomed-in, more subdivisions are displayed. When zoomed-out, fewer subdivisions are displayed. Click or drag in the Chords Ruler to set the Insertion Point (useful if you wish to use the menu Edit/Paste (Ctrl+V) to paste into the Piano Roll). If a song is playing, a Chords Ruler click will stop playback. Double-click the Chords Ruler to start playback at the indicated bar. You can also set the Insertion Point and then tap Ctrl+G to start playback at the desired location. Notes can be selected with the Note Ruler. However, the Note Ruler does not select non-note events such as controllers or pitch bend. 1 Click-drag on the Note Ruler to select a time-range of notes. 2 Shift-click-drag to add a time-range of notes to the selection. 3 Ctrl-click-drag to invert the note selection of a time range. For instance, you could drag to select all notes in bars 2 thru 7. Then you could Ctrl-drag to toggle off note selections in bar 4. By using the Shift and Ctrl keys, very flexible time selections can be made. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 153 Note Editing Edit Note Time Stamp (start time): Move the cursor over the left of a note. An east-west cursor appears. Then click-drag the note to a new time (horizontal dragging). If multiple events are selected, and you want to move all selected events, use Shift-click-drag. Otherwise a click on a note will deselect the previous selection, and it will only select/edit the clicked note. Edit Note Pitch: Move the cursor over the middle of a note. A north-south cursor appears. Then click-drag the note pitch (vertical dragging). If multiple events are selected, and you want to transpose all selected events, use Shift-click-drag. Otherwise a click on a note will deselect the previous selection, and it will only select/transpose the clicked note. Edit Note Duration: Move the cursor over the right of a note. A right-arrow cursor appears. Then click-drag the note duration (horizontal dragging). If multiple events are selected, and you want to change duration of all selected events, use Shift-click-drag. Otherwise a click on a note will deselect the previous selection, and it will only select/edit the clicked note. Insert a Note: Hold the Shift+Ctrl keys. The cursor becomes a pencil. Click where you want the note and it is inserted with a duration from the “Dur” drop-down menu, and on the channel selected by the “Chan” drop-down menu. If “Snap” is enabled, the note is inserted at the nearest grid boundary. For instance, if the snap-to-grid setting is a quarter note, inserted notes will snap to the nearest quarter note boundary. There are many on-screen visual cues to assist cursor positioning. The Cursor Position Time Markers in the Time Rulers can assist time positioning. The Cursor Pitch Marker in the Keyboard can assist pitch positioning. The Cursor Location Info Panel gives precise time and pitch info. Also, the Note Panel has time grid markings, and pitch accidentals are marked in light gray on the background. If you make a mistake inserting a note, you can hit the Delete key to remove the new note. Alternately, it is very easy to immediately drag the note to correct mistakes in time, pitch, or duration. Delete a Note: Select a note (or group of notes), then tap the Delete key. Alternately, select some notes, right-click, and choose the “Delete Selected Events” item in the pop-up menu. Eraser tool For quickly deleting individual notes or controllers. Shift+Ctrl-click on a note or graphic event. If multiple events have been selected, all selected events will be deleted. Splitter Bar A vertical Splitter Bar sits between the Note and Graphic Event panels. If you want to maximize the Note panel to see more notes, drag the Splitter down. If you want to maximize the Graphic Event panel for more accurate event editing, drag the Splitter up. Two graphic event mouse editing modes for editing graphic events: 1. Add Mode Add/subtract the same amount to all selected events. 2. Scale Mode Scale the selected events. Select one or more Graphic Events, and move the mouse over one of the events. Shift-drag vertically, and the events are scaled in a proportional fashion. Large-value events are scaled more than small-value events. This keeps the same shape of a gesture, but makes the gesture bigger or smaller. Note Velocity Line Tool - With Add Mode, note velocities will exactly match the slope of your drawn line. - With Scale Mode, the Line Tool will shape the dynamics, but note velocities are scaled to follow the approximate shape of your drawn line. With Scale Mode, you can insert a Velocity fade, or change the velocity of a region, while preserving the Velocity dynamics of the music. 154 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box Edit Events Edit Event Value: Move the cursor over the top half of an event. A north-south cursor appears. Click-drag vertically to scale event values. To scale a selected group of events, Shift-click-drag vertically on one of the events in the selection. Edit Event Time: Move the cursor over the bottom half of an event. An east-west cursor appears. Click-drag horizontally to slide the event in time. To slide a selected group of events, Click-drag horizontally on one of the events in the selection. Insert Events Line Tool: With no modifier keys, the “white space” cursor is a Line Tool. Move the cursor to white space and then click-drag to draw a line. When the mouse button is released, a series of events are inserted which follow the line slope. To avoid choking the MIDI stream, the maximum event density is one event per 10 ticks. Repeated events of the same value are not inserted. Therefore, long gradual Line Tool fades have a lower density than short extreme Line Tool fades. Pencil Tool: Move the cursor over white space and hold the Shift+Ctrl keys. A Pencil Tool appears. Shift+Ctrl-drag to freehand-draw a curve. If you don't get the curve quite right on the first pass, just keep holding the mouse button and move the mouse back-and-forth to draw your desired freehand curve. When the mouse button is released, a series of events are inserted to follow the freehand curve. To avoid choking the MIDI stream, the maximum event density is one event per 10 ticks. Repeated events of the same value are not inserted. Therefore, many freehand curves have a fairly low density. Delete Events Make a selection of events with the Ruler or by clicking on events. Then tap the Delete key. You can also rightclick and choose the “Delete Selected Events” item in the pop-up menu. Right-Click Contextual Menu The pop-up menu can be accessed by right-clicking on the notes, graphic events, or any of the rulers. Undo: Duplicates the Band-in-a-Box Edit | Undo (or Ctrl+Z) action. Delete Selected Events: Deletes any selected events (highlighted in red). This can also be accomplished by tapping the Delete key. Select All Notes and Graphic Events: If the “Chan” combo box is set to All, this item will select ALL EVENTS on ALL CHANNELS (all events in the track). Otherwise, ALL EVENTS are selected which match the CURRENT MIDI CHANNEL. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 155 Select All Note Events (Of Current Channel): (right-click the Note Panel or Note Ruler) If the Chan combo box is set to All, this item will select ALL NOTES on ALL CHANNELS, but it will not select any non-note events. Otherwise, ALL NOTES are selected which match the CURRENT MIDI CHANNEL. Select All Note Events (Of Current Channel): (right-click the Graphic Event Panel or Graphic Event Ruler) If the “Chan” combo box is set to All, this item will select ALL GRAPHIC EVENTS of the CURRENT VIEW/EDIT TYPE on ALL CHANNELS. Otherwise, ALL GRAPHIC EVENTS of the CURRENT VIEW/EDIT TYPE are selected which match the CURRENT MIDI CHANNEL. For instance, you could select all channel 4 modulation events, then Delete, to easily remove all of those events from the track. Cut: Copy selected events to the clipboard and then remove them from the track. Can also be accomplished with the menu Edit | Cut (or Ctrl+X) action. If you wish, it is possible to cut from the Piano Roll, and then paste into the Notation window, or vice-versa. Copy: Copy Selected Events to the clipboard can also be accomplished with the menu Edit | Copy (or Ctrl+C) action. If you wish, it is possible to copy from the Piano Roll, and then paste into the Notation window, or vice-versa. Paste - Replace: If no events are on the clipboard, this item is dimmed. The paste occurs at the time location of your right-click. Move the mouse cursor to the desired insert location. Right-click on the Note Panel, Graphic Event Panel, or any of the Rulers. Then choose this item from the pop-up menu. Any previous event types in the paste range which match event types in the clipboard are removed before the clipboard data is added to the track. If the “Chan” combo box is set to All, pasted events keep their original (copied) MIDI channel. Otherwise, the pasted events will be re-channeled to match the “Chan” combo box. Paste - Merge: If no events are on the clipboard, this item is dimmed. The paste occurs at the time location of your right-click. Move the mouse cursor to the desired insert location. Right-click on the Note Panel, Graphic Event Panel, or any of the Rulers. Then choose this item from the pop-up menu. Events from the clipboard are merged with existing data in the track. If the “Chan” combo box is set to All, pasted events keep their original (copied) MIDI channel. Otherwise, the pasted events will be re-channeled to match the “Chan” combo box. The feature can also be accomplished with the menu Edit | Paste (or Ctrl+V) action (to match the Notation window, which also uses a merge style of pasting). Before using the main menu Edit | Paste (or Ctrl+V), first make sure the insertion marker is set to your desired paste time location. This is easy to do. Just click or drag in the Chord Ruler to place the insertion marker where you want it. Then tap Ctrl+V. Re-Channel All Events to the Track Channel (Ch = xx) Re-channel all notes and graphic events (the entire track) to the MIDI Output channel assigned for this track. Sometimes this can come in handy to bring some “sanity” into Piano Roll editing. For instance, though the default Melody output channel might be channel 4, meaning that Band-in-a-Box transmits any events in the Melody track on channel 4. The actual events in the Melody track might be channel 1, or a mixture of several channels. For ordinary playback or note tweaking, it doesn't matter if the event channels are “mixed up,” as long as you have the view channel set to All. But if you wish to use Paste - Replace, the Paste - Replace function is smart enough not to “stomp on” a track's events that differ from the channels of the clipboard MIDI data. So if you force all events to the track channel, the Paste - Replace function will always replace appropriately. Re-Channel Selected Events to the Track Channel (Ch = xx) Re-channel only the selected events to the track channel. Re-Channel Selected Events to the View Channel 156 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box When editing a multi-channel guitar part or editing an imported multi-channel MIDI file, this command may be useful. Beware that it might initially appear confusing. For instance, one might set the view channel to ALL, and make a selection (intending to set these events to Ch 12). Then set the view channel to 12, and of course the selected events disappear (if the events had some other MIDI Channel). But then when you invoke “Re-Channel Selected Events to the View Channel,” the MIDI events will reappear on the Piano Roll. Eliminate Overlapped Notes Overlapping notes are displayed in bold Aqua color, making them easy to identify. Selecting this menu command will remove the overlap. Horizontal Scroll Bar, [+] and [-] Buttons Scroll in time, and zoom the horizontal display. Vertical Scroll Bar, [+] and [-] Buttons Scroll to see different note ranges (does not scroll the Graphic Event Panel) and zoom the vertical display. Zoom Buttons Use these buttons, found in the right border of the Graphic Event panel, to zoom and un-zoom the Piano Roll view. Zoom to Selection Make a selection of notes, and then click the Zoom To Selection button. The vertical pitch range and horizontal time range adjusts to fill the note panel with the selected notes. Un-Zoom Return to the previous view range after zooming in on a region. Zoom All Zoom the window so that all track notes are visible at a glance. View and Print Notation Open the Notation window with the Notation button. You will see standard notation on the grand staff. There are 3 notation modes in Band-in-a-Box, selected with the buttons in the Notation window toolbar. 1. Standard Notation for display of notes, chords, lyrics, and optional guitar tablature as well as entering chords and lyrics. Notation is not editable in this mode. 2. Editable Notation to enter or edit notation with the mouse 3. Staff Roll Notation works like the Editable Notation plus note velocities and durations can be viewed and edited with the mouse. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 157 Standard Notation Window The Standard Notation window can be used for notation display and the entry of chords and lyrics. Just type a chord name and it will be inserted at the current time line location (the black vertical stripe just under the tool bar.) Click on the instrument buttons to see the notation for the different parts: Bass, Drums, Piano, Guitar, Strings, and the Melody [M], or the Soloist [S]. Press the [Opt.] button to set Notation window options such as track type, bar resolution, lyric font size, and position, transpose options, and Regular or Jazz fonts. This button opens the Lead Sheet window, which provides a full screen of notation either for an individual instrument or for multiple instruments that you choose to view together by clicking the instrument buttons while holding the Ctrl key. Print out any part with the Print Button. In the Print Preview window save your notation as a graphic file to upload to the Internet or to e-mail. The [#] button opens the Event List for editing the Melody or Soloist tracks. This is the button for note-based lyrics, which are automatically aligned with the corresponding note in the Melody track. Use the plus and minus buttons to zoom the Notation in and out. The text button lets you enter section text or boxed text into the notation. When the Scrub button is selected, notes will play as the mouse is dragged over them while holding down the left mouse button. Switch to Editable or Staff Roll notation modes with these buttons. Editable Notation Mode Click on the Editable Notation button to go to Editable Notation mode. Chords, lyrics, and text can be entered as in the Standard Notation window; the Editable Notation mode also permits point-and-click entry of notes and rests as well as drag-and-drop editing. 158 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box This is the screen for step-entry of a melody or for editing existing parts. There are checkboxes for different note entry modes. The Note or Rest checkboxes determine whether a note or a rest will be inserted when the mouse is clicked. When the Mono checkbox is selected, the notation is entered as monophonic (one note only). This is useful for melodies that only have one note playing at a time. Mono mode is a faster way to enter notes, because the Notation window will automatically delete a note that is present at the same location that you are putting a new note on. So if you have mistakenly put a B note on as a C, you just click on the B note, and if in mono mode the C note will be deleted automatically. The notation has confirmation dialogs to prevent accidental entry of a duplicate note (same pitch near same time) of a very high or very low note (large # of ledger lines). Clean Notation When music has been played in from a MIDI keyboard, there are frequently effects like grace notes, glitches, and notes played off time. The Clean Notation mode is an intelligent feature that “cleans up the notation” for you. It does this by eliminating the display of grace notes and glitches, and also simplifies the Notation display so it is more readable. Clean Notation doesn’t affect the actual track it just controls how it is displayed. In general this should be on, since it improves the display. But if you want to see every grace note or glitch that was played, then turn it off. Beat Divisions In the Editable Notation mode each beat is sub-divided by either 3 or 4 broken vertical lines. - Swing styles use 3 lines to divide each beat into eighth note swing triplets. - Straight styles use 4 lines to divide each beat into sixteenth notes. Example of swing (triplet) resolution. Example of straight (16ths) resolution. Tip: The edits you make to Band-in-a-Box accompaniment parts will be overwritten when the [Play] button is pressed and the program generates a new arrangement. To hear the song play as edited, use the [Replay] button found next to the [Play] button. Edited songs can be permanently saved as a MIDI file with the [.MID] button. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 159 Staff Roll Notation Mode Click on the Staff Roll Notation button to go to Staff Roll Notation mode. Band-in-a-Box Staff Roll Notation window. In addition to the editing features of the Editable Notation mode, in Staff Roll mode the velocity (vertical line) and duration (horizontal line) of notes can be edited with the mouse. Adding Note-Based Lyrics to Your Song Open the Notation window by pressing the notation button. Press the [L] button on the Notation toolbar. The Lyric Edit window opens up and the current note is highlighted. In this example, lyrics have already been entered in bars 1 and 2, and the first note of bar three is highlighted. The first syllable of the word “Swanee” has been typed in the lyric box. Now by pressing Enter or Tab “Swa –” will be entered under the highlighted note and the highlight will automatically advance to the next note. Entering note-based lyrics. Lyric Edit Window The [Line] button enters a forward slash “/” line break marker in the current lyric. The [Para] button enters a backslash “ \” paragraph break marker in the current lyric. The [Enter] button enters the current lyric, equivalent to hitting Enter key or Tab key. The [Close] button closes the Lyrics Edit mode, equivalent to hitting the [L] button again. 160 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box The [Section Text] button enters the text in the lyric box as section text at the current bar. The [Edit] button opens the Edit Lyrics dialog where lyrics and section text can be edited. Viewing the Lyrics The big [L] button in the user configurable toolbar opens the Big Lyrics/Karaoke window. The font and colors are selectable, you can show or hide the chords, and words highlight as the music plays. Band-in-a-Box Big Lyrics window. Lead Sheet Notation Window The Lead Sheet Notation window displays a full page of notation with lots of options such as a selectable number of staves per page, clefs to show, font size, margins, scroll-ahead notation, and lyrics. You can set it to a big font size and read the notation from across the room. Since the notation scrolls ahead, you can read ahead without waiting for a page turn. Launching the Lead Sheet Window You can launch the Lead Sheet window from the main screen by pressing the Lead Sheet button (or Alt+W). The Lead Sheet button is also accessible from the Standard Notation window. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 161 During playback, red rectangles highlight the current bar. If the bar is empty (or in Fake Sheet mode), the Lead Sheet will draw the staff lines and bar lines in red. Multiple Tracks of Notation Multiple tracks of notation can be viewed together in the Lead Sheet window. To select tracks, hold down the Ctrl key and click on the part buttons at the top of the screen in the order that the tracks should appear from top to bottom. For example, clicking on [M], and then on [P] and [B] with the Ctrl key held down would display and print the multi-stave staff system shown. Multiple tracks can also be printed like a score. Band-in-a-Box Lead Sheet Notation window displaying multiple parts. Multiple lines of Lyrics on Fake Sheet. If your song has 1st and 2nd endings or multiple verses of lyrics, multi-line lyrics can be displayed, so you’ll see all verses on the same fake sheet. Load in the song c:\bb\ Tutorial - BB 2005\Listen Multi-line lyrics Demo.MGU. Open the Lead Sheet and select “Fake Sheet Mode.” 162 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box This song has a 1st/2nd ending entered, with separate lyrics for each ending. Multiple lines of lyrics will also appear if there are lyrics in multiple verses (choruses). In the Notation Window Options, “Lyric Position” allows you to vertically position the height of the lyrics. Lead Sheet “Lyric Text Block” A large text block can now be appended to the Lead Sheet window and printout. This is ideal for song lyrics that you want entered as a text entry appended to the end, multiple verses of lyrics, or any other text. Open the Lead Sheet window and select the [Memo] button to launch the Lead Sheet Memo. The memo will be automatically positioned after the end of the lead sheet and printout. Use extra blank lines in the Lead Sheet Memo to control where it displays on the page. There is an option to print the Lead Sheet memo on a new page of the printout. Press the [Choose Font] button to select the font you would like for the memo. A text block will be appended to the Lead Sheet window and printout. This could be song lyrics that you want appended to the end, multiple verses of lyrics, or any other text. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 163 Lead Sheet Printing Click on the [Print] button to print your song as sheet music. There are print options for “# of copies to print” and “print specific page #.” In the Print Preview screen the notation can be saved as a graphics file to be imported to a document or uploaded to an Internet page. Choose the file type that you'd like to save to. If you want an exact rendition of the screen, choose MONO BMP, since bitmap files are saved without any loss of quality. If you want a smaller file of your composition for Internet use, choose a format like JPG, or PNG. These are smaller, because they compress the data, with some loss of quality. To save a JPG file, press the [OK -Preview/Graphics] and [Save…] buttons and then select “Save to File Type: JPG.” You can then see the estimated size of the file, and can change settings by pressing the Low/Medium/High resolution buttons. The notation can also be copied as a bitmap to the Windows clipboard and then pasted into any application. This is done by clicking on the [Clipbd] button in the Print Preview screen. To print a specific page, press the [OK -Preview/Graphics] and [Print Page] buttons. 164 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box Band-in-a-Box MultiTrack notation. Multi-Channel Notation (Sequencer Mode) Normally you would want a single part on the Melody and Soloist tracks. But, since MIDI information can have separate channels, it is possible to store 16 separate parts on each of the Melody and Soloist parts. When one of these tracks has been set to “Multi (16)-Channel” we refer to this as sequencer mode. Now, when you are in this multi-channel mode, output from the Melody/Soloist part will be on whatever MIDI channel the information is stored on, and will not be using the Melody/Soloist MIDI channel. If you click on the Lead Sheet window, you’ll see the entire MIDI file displayed on separate tracks of notation. This is likely “too much information” to read, unless you are a symphony conductor. To customize the notation display for sequencer mode, press the lead sheet options button and see the settings for Multi-Channel Track display. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 165 Note: These settings are only visible when the track type for the Melody or Soloist is set to Multi (16) – Channel. Select “CUSTOM channels play/display” and press the [Set…] button to launch the Sequencer Window (Multichannel track on Melody/Soloist) dialog. Then you can customize which channels will play and display. This dialog can also be opened by clicking on the [SEQ] button on the toolbar. In the example picture, we have set Channel 2 (Bass) and Channel 4 (Trumpet) to show on the notation, and have set all of the channels to play (to hear them). For a specific channel, (e.g. channel 3: piano), we see the following information. Channel 3: Acoustic Piano (this is the patch name found on the track). 842 There are 842 events in the track; usually every note is an event. We have customized the piano track so that it can be heard (play=true), but not seen in notation (Show=false). There is a small button at the right of the track line that allows you to delete/ rechannel or merge the channel with another channel. You can also change the patch (instrument) for that track by using the instrument patch combo box. Now that we’ve customized the display, we are seeing bass and trumpet on the notation, and hearing the entire track. 166 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box Digital Audio Features There is a File | Open Audio command, to open WAV, WMA, MP3, WMV, or CD Audio files. Once opened, you can play the audio track along with a Band-in-a-Box song. Open an MP3/WAV/WMA or audio CD track, and play back at 1/2, 1/4, or 1/8 speed without affecting pitch. This is great for transcribing or analyzing audio. To play it at a slower speed, choose the desired speed on the Play | Tempo menu. Audio Chord Wizard (Chords from MP3) This amazing wizard automatically figures out the chords from any MP3, WAV, or WMA (Windows Media Audio) file and displays them in Band-in-a-Box. Just load in any MP3 file and you’ll instantly see the chords. Using the Audio Chord Wizard is a great way to learn and practice popular songs as you play along and see the chords. Chordsheet Overview There’s a Chordsheet window in the Audio Chord Wizard that shows the chords for the whole song on a single screen. This allows you to click on a bar on the chordsheet to jump to that area of the song. You can mark sections of the song using part markers, and the sections will begin on a new line with a line space between so they are clearly seen. So you can then also learn the form of the song, as you can see the various sections (intro/verse/chorus/break) at a glance, or quickly jump to the any section simply by double clicking on that part of the chordsheet. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 167 If we want to renumber the bars, right click on the waveform timeline at the place that you would like to be bar 1, and choose “Set Bar One.” To change the # of bars per row, or rows per screen, right click on the chordsheet. The +/- buttons at the bottom right of the window also change the row height. Chords may be edited in the Audio Chord Wizard with a right mouse click on the chord. When Edit Chord is selected, a highlight cell opens at the chord location. Type in the name of the new chord using standard Band-in-a-Box chord entry characters and press the Enter key to make the edit. The edited chord name is blue in color. Individual edits can be removed with the Remove Chord Edit command, or all edits in the song can be removed with the Remove All Chord Edits command.Part markers, chord symbols, key signature, and tuning setting are saved in Band-in-a-Box, and are passed back and forth to the Chord Wizard. As well as the chords of the song, the Audio Chord Wizard also figures out, - the tempo of the file, - bar lines throughout the song, - fine tuning detection (e.g. 5 cents sharp from A440), Note: Audio Chord Wizard estimates the chord progression of an audio file. It is NOT an Audio-to-MIDI transcriber, which would be a much more elaborate program. The digital audio capability offered in Band-in-a-Box enables you to combine MIDI music with live digital audio recordings of voice and live instruments in a fully produced arrangement. It also offers the ability to render a MIDI or MIDI+AUDIO composition into a single digital audio wave file. This file can then be converted into a CD-Audio or streaming Internet audio file. Digital audio features are fully described in the Working With Audio chapter. 168 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box Record a Vocal or Any Live Instrument To start recording audio, plug your instrument or microphone into the computer’s sound card. The Line Out from electronic instruments or amplifiers can be plugged directly into the Line In jack. To record your voice, or an acoustic instrument such as a flute, plug a microphone into the Mic jack. If you have a Sound Blaster card, this button is used to select the Microphone input and/or Line In input to record digital audio. The Windows mixer Record settings can also be used. Open the Record Audio dialog box with the [R. Aud] button. This dialog box lets you set the parameters for the recording session. You can adjust recording levels from this dialog with the [Set Recording Properties] button. Once you have set the recording properties and tested the recording input levels, recording is easy. Simply tell Band-in-a-Box the place in the song where you want to start recording, whether or not you want to record the MIDI data along with your acoustic instrument, and press [Record]. If you choose to start recording from the beginning of the song, Band-in-a-Box will start with a lead-in count before the music starts playing. If you are starting from elsewhere in the song recording starts instantly. Punch-In Recording Punch-in audio recording allows you to punch-in record or overdub a section of audio. You can hear the existing audio part when you are overdubbing. To select a punch-in range, open the Audio Edit window and highlight the punch-in section. The highlighted range will set the From: and Thru: values for Punch-In Record. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 169 Press the Esc key or click on [Stop] to stop recording. Band-in-a-Box will prompt you to keep the take or take again. When you get a take you like, press the [OK – Keep Take] button to save your recording. Use the Options to record one Chorus and then copy it to the whole song, to overdub underlying audio on the track, and to retain audio past the new take just recorded (punch out). Add Audio Harmonies You can apply a harmony to the audio part – allowing you to automatically create up to 4 part vocal harmonies from your singing. And don’t worry if your singing is not in perfect tune, Band-in-a-Box can now “fix” vocals to the correct pitch - automatically! Band-in-a-Box generates the harmonies using the world-leading TC-Helicon Vocal Technologies engine. 170 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box Once you have recorded a vocal part into Band-in-a-Box, you can use this feature in many ways, including: - Record yourself singing into a Band-in-a-Box file. Create a vocal harmony for part or all of the song by selecting a Band-in-a-Box harmony and choosing the Generate Audio Harmonies option (Harmony | Audio Harmonies & Pitch Tracking or Audio | Audio Harmonies & Pitch Tracking). You can then hear yourself singing in perfect harmony! - Did you hit a few “out-of-tune” notes when you recorded your singing to Band-in-a-Box? Fixing your “out-oftune” singing is easy, by instructing the program to correct the pitches to the Melody track. - When you’ve recorded your singing voice, in addition to harmony voices, you can add unison voices that “fatten” your sound. Each unison voice can have different vibrato and pitch characteristics. - Each harmony voice can have up to 4 “choir” voices, duplicated and shifted slightly in time, pitch and more to create an authentic, full choir sound. Create a 16 voice choir from your single vocal performance! Audio Reverb The Audio Reverb control for individual tracks with RealTracks or RealDrums lets you easily add reverb (0 to 127) for any RealTrack. The reverb type is also settable, and saved with the song. At the top of the screen, there is an “A.Reverb” control (Audio Reverb). Click on an instrument radio button, and then set the Reverb for it. The Audio Reverb varies from 0 to 127. Clicking on the left hand side of the control allows you to enter a setting, or click on the up/down arrows. See the RealTracks and RealDrums chapter for more about this feature. Note that this only applies to RealTracks, since MIDI tracks have MIDI Reverb, which is set via a MIDI Reverb control. Bass/Treble Tone Control added for individual tracks with RealTracks or RealDrums, so you can easily adjust the bass/treble EQ for any RealTrack. Settings save with the song. Choose an instrument and then use the tone control to adjust the tone from -18 (maximum bass) to +18 (maximum treble). Default is 0. Audio Reverb and Tone can be set by clicking on the audio label to open the Audio Playback settings. These settings can also be applied to the audio track in Band-in-a-Box. Master Reverb and Tone can be set by clicking the Combo button, and then using the Audio Reverb and Tone controls. For Audio track rendering, reverb is added to the mix if there is reverb set for the Audio track. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 171 More Audio Effects You can add professional audio effects like reverb, echo, and compression by choosing a plug-in from the Audio menu (Audio | Plug-in). Band-in-a-Box comes with a large selection of high quality audio effects built-in, and DirectX plug-ins are supported. The plug-ins apply audio effects or utilities such as compression to the already recorded audio part. A typical plugin dialog is shown. The [Preview] button will play a short sample of the processed track, and the Edit | Undo command will restore the original track if applied before another edit is performed. The Medley Maker Would you like Band-in-a-Box to make a medley of various Band-in-a-Box songs (MGU)? This is easily done with the new Medley Maker. Inside the Medley Maker, simply select the songs that you want, and Band-in-a-Box will make the medley for you. 172 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box A medley is not simply joining songs together. A good medley uses a “transition” area between songs to introduce the new style, key, and tempo. The Medley Maker automatically creates a nice transition area for you, writing in chords that would smoothly modulate to the next song, style, key, and tempo! To open the Medley Maker, click on the [A+B] button on the toolbar or choose File | Medley Maker. This launches the Medley Maker dialog. To make a medley, - add songs by pressing the [Append] or [Insert] button. - remove songs using [Delete]. - change the order of the songs using [Move Up], [Move Down]. - for any song, customize using the “Settings for this song” group box, including changing the style, tempo, key, start bar, # of bars, and # of transition bars. Press [Update] after customizing to see your changes in the medley list. - choose the type of information to include with your medley (styles, key signature changes, lyrics, etc.) in the “Include with Songs” group box - choose a number of transition bars (the default is 4). Transition bars are automatic bars of chords inserted by Band-in-a-Box to transition from one song to the other, generating an “outro” and an “intro” between songs. Press the [Make Medley NOW] button to generate a medley. The maximum size of the medley is 255 bars (about 7 minutes). The current size and time of your medley is displayed in the Length label. You can have multiple choruses, so if you had 3 choruses of a 250 bar medley, it would last 750 bars. Tip: Your medley will use RealDrums if you have RealDrums enabled. If so, you should keep the various tempos of the songs within a close range. Because the quality of the RealDrums stretching would go down if a song in the medley had a much lower tempo than the previous one, it is tempos that slow down to avoid. Saving Songs Once you have made a song (or have made changes to a song), you will probably want to save the song by clicking on the [Save] button. Or choose Save from the File menu, or press F2, or Ctrl+S. Use [Save As] to save a song with a different name or in a different location. Shift-clicking on the [Save As] button will allow you to choose a favorite folder prior to seeing the Save As dialog. (Songs that are “Saved As” with a different name have the new name added to the Recently Played song dialog.) Songs will always be saved with last file extension letter of “U,” regardless of whether they are made with a built-in style or not. For example, if you make a song with ZZJAZZ.STY as the style (one of the 24 built-in styles) early versions of BB would save the song as MySong.MG1, where the “1” indicates Style #1 – ZZJAZZ. Now it is saved as MySong.MGU. Older songs loaded in with .MG1 will still be re-saved as MG1 to prevent duplicate song files. Note: Make sure you remember to save your songs as Band-in-a-Box song files (not only as MIDI files). The Band-in-aBox song files contain the names of the chords, etc. and are much smaller than MIDI files. If you have an audio file associated with the song, the audio portion will be saved separately, and will be called MySong.WAV. Saving Song Settings By default all settings are saved with songs unless the “Save all Settings with Songs” box is unchecked (off) in the Assign Instruments and Harmonies to Song dialog (Alt+F2 or File | Save Song with Patches & Harmony). Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 173 This includes RealTracks, RealDrums, and RealTracks solos as well as Patches, Volume, Audio and MIDI Reverb, Tone, Panning, Bank, Harmony (both Melody and Thru), and the Soloist. If you have some custom items that you don’t want to save with the song you can uncheck the “Save all Settings” box and use this dialog to save only the settings you want to keep. To save certain patches with a song: a) Choose the patch (instrument) that you would like from the dropdown patch list. Leave the other instruments at = 0 for no patch change. Remember that the General MIDI numbering system is always used for instruments. or b) Press the [Fill w/Patches] button. This will fill the patch number boxes with the current patch settings showing on your main screen instrument panel. Use the checkboxes to choose which instruments you would like to save and whether you would like to save the Melody and Thru harmony assignments and the Soloist selected to play on the song. You can also save the instruments as “On” or “Off” for each song. For example, you could have a song with no piano part. Tip: You can optionally save these kinds of settings with your songs for added realism. You can, for example, make a song with the piano a little quieter than usual, or add reverb to the melody patch, or pan the bass to one side, etc. Use the “Frozen” checkbox to put the track into a frozen state where it gets saved with the specific arrangement and won’t be overwritten by Band-in-a-Box. You can still edit the frozen tracks. Select the “For this song only, force MIDI drums” checkbox if you always want MIDI drums, not RealDrums, used with the song. Select “For this song only, use this RealDrum style” to assign a specific RealDrums style to your song. Press the [RD] button to choose the RealDrums style. 174 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box This dialog box is usually used in combination with and not instead of saving a song. To save a song with this embedded information to your hard drive, you therefore: 1. Choose File | Save with Patches and Harmony (Alt+F2). 2. Choose the patch and other settings that you want to embed. 3. Press the [Save] button to save the song to disk. Note that if you have set a MIDI patch for one of the instrument parts (bass/drums/piano/guitar/strings) and you load in another style, Band-in-a-Box will overwrite your patches with the style patches. If it didn’t do that, you would be stuck with the same patches regardless of the style. So if you want a certain patch for a track, set it after you have loaded in the style that you want. Saving Frozen Tracks Any track can be frozen (MIDI or RealTrack). When frozen, it won’t get changed or re-generated. This saves time when replaying previous songs, and allows you to freeze an arrangement that you like. If you freeze the whole song, you don’t have to wait at all for the song to regenerate. Next time you play, it is ready to go. All tracks can be edited and saved. MIDI tracks for bass, drums, piano, guitar and strings can be edited, and saved with the file. If you freeze a track, edits can be still made to it, because it is only frozen from Band-in-a-Box making changes to it (you can still edit it), so that the MIDI track will be saved to the file. So you can customize the bass part to match a certain song, and save it with a frozen bass part, so that Band-in-a-Box won’t overwrite your edits. This includes RealCharts – if you wanted to edit the notation of a RealTracks solo for example. To edit a MIDI track (bass, drums, piano, guitar, strings), or the MIDI part of a RealTracks that has a RealChart (MIDI transcribed solo), simply open up the Notation window (or Piano Roll window), and click on the track and edit it. Make sure to Freeze the track by pressing the Freeze button and choosing Freeze for that track, or rightclicking on the instrument at the top of the screen and choosing Freeze. Now your edited tracks will save with the song. Saving MIDI and Karaoke Files Your Band-in-a-Box songs can be saved as Type 0 and Type 1 MIDI files as well as Karaoke files and General MIDI lyrics. Click on the [.MID] button to launch the dialog. Select the type of MIDI file you want to save in the dropdown “MIDI File type” combo box. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 175 By default, Band-in-a-Box writes Type 1 multiple track Standard MIDI Files. You can also save Type 0 MIDI files, they have all of the parts on a single track and are used by many hardware modules and other devices that play MIDI files because they are simpler to play (since they only have 1 track). Karaoke files (.KAR) are a special type of sing-along MIDI file with text events for the lyrics and a specific order for the tracks. There is an option to write the MIDI file with separate tracks for each drum instrument. In the “MIDI File type” combo box select “Drums on separate tracks.” MIDI File Options Use this button to set custom MIDI file settings in the MIDI file options dialog. This dialog is also available from the [MIDI File] button in the Preferences dialog (Opt. | Preferences). Include Patch Changes in MIDI files will include the patch (instrument) changes. Include Part Marker text markers writes descriptive text part markers to the MIDI file if selected. If “Include Part Marker text markers” is selected the resulting MIDI file will have text markers. Then, in PowerTracks Pro Audio (in the Bars window) you’ll see the descriptive text markers. For example, at bar 3, there is an “A, Chorus 1” marker, to indicate a part marker “a” substyle and chorus 1. Text markers are also read in from MIDI files, and displayed as Section Markers on the Notation. 176 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box Include 2 bar lead-in in MIDI file If you don't want to create a MIDI file containing the first 2 bars of the 1—2—1-2-3-4 count-in you can select this option. If there is a Melody pickup, then the 2 bar lead-in will remain in the file. Write Lyrics in General MIDI format The GM specification has agreed upon specific requirements for writing lyrics in MIDI files, which are supported, so that lyrics that you save in Band-in-a-Box should show up identically in other MIDI programs. This is one of the MIDI File options in the Preferences dialog. We recommend the GM format. Write Section Text as Text Events Your section text can be included in the MIDI file as text events. Include Volume/Reverb/Chorus/Panning This will include the volume, reverb, chorus, and panning settings that you have made in the Band-in-a-Box synth window in your MIDI file. Include Forced Channel Meta Event This will include the forced channel META event. It is recognized by PowerTracks Pro Audio and other PG Music Inc. programs only. Include Guitar Position Controller This will insert a controller 84 which PG Music uses to indicate the fret position. Since some synths also use this for Portamento Control, you should use this setting with caution. Write Soloist Part On Channel 5 Normally the program writes the Soloist part on channel 8. Since that could also mean the left hand of a piano track using the convention of channel 8/9 for piano, this option allows you to write it on channel 5 instead. Write Harmony To MIDI File If set to YES, the harmony will be written to the MIDI file. If not, just the melody will be written to the MIDI file. MIDI File Harmony on separate tracks If set to YES, the harmony will be written to the MIDI file on separate tracks for each voice. You could use this to print out individual parts to your printer for example. Write Guitar part on 6 channels If set to YES, the styles that are Intelligent Guitar Styles will result in a MIDI file that has the Guitar part written on 6 channels (11-16). Then, when you read it in PowerTracks, or another sequencer that uses the convention of 11-16 for guitar strings, the guitar part will display correctly. For partial range MIDI files, chop off sustaining notes at end turns off notes that would be “hung” because their associated Note Off event does not fall within the range of bars saved to the MIDI file. If song has RealDrums Also generate MIDI Drums in the MIDI file can be unchecked if your song uses RealDrums and you don’t want MIDI drums included in the MIDI file. Also generate RealDrums in xxxx_RealDrums.WAV file saves the RealDrums (which are audio) as a separate wave file. This allows you to easily import the entire Band-in-a-Box song into another program for editing. Set range of bars for MIDI files. When making a MIDI file, you can select a range of bars to be included. Highlight any range of bars, and the MIDI file will be made for just that range. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 177 For example, you could select Chorus #2 if that is the chorus that you want. The resultant MIDI file will be made from the selected range. Alternatively, without selecting a range on the chordsheet, you can make a MIDI file for a partial range by pressing the MIDI file button, and then the “Set Range” button. Batch convert a folder of songs to MIDI files. You can convert an entire folder of Band-in-a-Box songs to MIDI files with a single command and choose the resultant file names to be based on either the file name or the song title name. Press the “Batch mode” button in the MIDI file dialog to access this feature. 178 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box Save Options [File on Disk] saves a MIDI file to your hard drive or floppy disk. You can then load the MIDI file into your sequencer for further editing. [Clipboard] copies the MIDI file to the Windows Clipboard as a Standard MIDI File. This feature allows clipboard enabled programs to Edit | Paste the Band-in-a-Box MIDI file directly into the program. For example, you can clipboard-paste Band-in-a-Box MIDI data to PowerTracks Pro Audio, CakeWalk, Musicator, etc. The Melody/Soloist (with harmonies) will be written to the MIDI file. If you’ve set a Melody or Soloist/Thru Harmony, that MIDI data will be written to the MIDI file also. See the settings in the Opt | Preferences dialog box to control how the harmony is written to a MIDI file. The Chordsheet part markers are written to the MIDI files. They can be read by PowerTracks Pro Audio and by Band-in-a-Box if re-importing the MIDI file with the Chord Wizard. Recording to External Hardware Sequencers Many people use Band-in-a-Box in live situations. If you are unable to bring your computer with you, a good alternative is a hardware sequencer or a keyboard with a built-in sequencers that reads Standard MIDI Files. To transfer songs to the Sound Brush, follow these simple steps: - ·Make a MIDI file of the song by pressing the button. - ·Either save the file directly to a floppy disk or copy it to the floppy from your hard drive. - ·The Sound Brush is then able to read the IBM formatted disk with MIDI files on it. MGX Files When a MIDI file is loaded onto the Melody (or Soloist) track, the Track Type for the Melody (or Soloist) gets set to Multi-Track. When the file is saved, the extension will be MGX, allowing you to easily identify the Band-in-a-Box songs that you have that contain entire MIDI files. Saving Audio Files If you have recorded an acoustic instrument, Band-in-a-Box can render the MIDI data to a wave file (*.wav) and merge it with your live audio recording to produce a complete digital audio file. Press the [.WAV] button and Band-in-a-Box will render the song arrangement to an audio wave file. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 179 The Render to Audio File dialog box permits you to save your file as a wave file (*.wav), a Windows Media Audio (*.wma) file, or other compressed audio formats supported by your system. You can direct render “MIDI only” songs into high quality wave files with the included Roland VSC DXi or any other DXi or VST softsynth you have. The MIDI parts are converted directly to audio without being rendered (recorded) in real time, usually in just a few seconds. Use the Batch feature to convert an entire folder of Band-in-a-Box songs to audio files. There is an option to name the resultant audio files based either on the original file name or the song title name. Another option resets the DXi synth after each render. This insures that no audio (stuck notes etc.) from the previous file is retained. Frozen Tracks Any track can be frozen (MIDI or RealTrack). When frozen, it won’t get changed or re-generated. This saves time when replaying previous songs, and allows you to freeze an arrangement that you like. If you freeze the whole song, you don’t have to wait at all for the song to regenerate. Next time you play, it is ready to go. Save your Configuration The [Pref] button opens the Preferences dialog box, which allows you to set the program settings that are saved in the Band-in-a-Box for Windows configuration file called INTRFACE.BBW. The various Preferences are described in detail in the Reference chapter. Custom Preferences You can save and load custom preferences files with your current settings saved and restored. For example, you can have a preference that remembers a certain group of songs, notation transpositions, etc. The Opt. | Return to Factory Settings menu command saves preferences to disk, so that the settings can be restored at any time. 180 Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box Choose the menu item Opt. | Save Preferences As to save a configuration or Options | Open Preference to load a saved configuration. Burn Your Own Audio-CD You can burn your Band-in-a-Box composition directly to an audio CD that will play in any standard CD player. To burn your CD: Press the [.WAV] button to open the Render to Audio File window. Then press the [Burn to Audio CD] button. This renders the file to a stereo wave file, and then launches MiniBurn, the built-in CD burner application in Band-in-a-Box. The song just rendered will be listed in the burn list. You can add other files to the list to make up a full CD, or choose [Burn CD – No Finalize] to allow other files to be burned to the CD later. The CD will not be playable until finalized. Note: This feature requires that you have a CD-R or CD-RW drive. If your drive is not recognized by MiniBurn then you should burn the rendered .WAV file to CD using the software supplied with the CD drive. Congratulations! You have completed the full process of song production in Band-in-a-Box. You can now produce a complete song in Band-in-a-Box with a melody, solo, and harmonies plus RealDrums and RealTracks and your own audio track with harmonies and professional effects. You can print out beautiful notation in a professional Jazz font, complete with chord symbols, lyrics and your own text markers and annotations. And you can save your song in various MIDI and audio formats for playback from your computer, over the Internet, or from an audio CD. You’re ready for endless hours of fun and great music with Band-in-a-Box. Chapter 6: Making Songs in Band-in-a-Box 181 Chapter 7: RealTracks and RealDrums RealTracks What are RealTracks? RealTracks create Band-in-a-Box tracks with live audio recordings of top studio musicians and recording artists. These tracks take the place of the MIDI track for that instrument, but can still be controlled just like the MIDI instrument (volume changes, muting, etc.). Best of all, they follow the chord progression that you have entered, so that you hear an authentic audio accompaniment to your song. RealTracks are not “samples,” but are full recordings, lasting from 1 to 8 bars at a time, playing along in perfect sync with the other Band-in-a-Box tracks. There are many Band-in-a-Box styles that use RealTracks, and they can be built into any style to replace the Bass, Guitar, Piano, or Strings part. They can also be generated to the Soloist (or Melody) track using the Soloist feature and saved with the song. Band-in-a-Box Pro includes a selection of RealTracks combos for Pop, Jazz, and Country. More RealTracks There are hundreds of RealTracks available, either as separate add-ons, or bundled into the various Band-in-a-Box PAKs for better value. To see which RealTracks you have, visit the (main menu) Opt. | What add-ons do I have? dialog. This will list the RealTracks sets that you have. This feature is also available from the Help menu. When a song is loaded, played or saved, a yellow hint message will appear if any RealTracks are missing, listing the files that are missing. RealTracks Settings Ctrl+click on the RealTracks toolbar button to go directly to the RealTracks Settings dialog , or Shift+click to open the RealTracks Picker. A single click on the toolbar button opens a menu with selections for the RealTracks Picker Dialog, the RealTracks Preferences (RealTracks Settings dialog), and a manual command to Select better RealTracks for this tempo for the Bass, Piano, Guitar, and Strings parts if there are any available. The RealTracks Settings dialog can also be accessed by selecting the [RealTracks] button from the Preferences window. 182 Chapter 7: RealTracks and RealDrums In the RealTracks Settings dialog you can Enable/Disable the RealTracks feature. RealCharts (notation from some RealTracks) Most RealTracks now display notation, i.e. RealCharts, showing the notes that are being played. Some Guitar RealTracks also show tablature and an accurate on-screen fretboard guitar display to show what is being played on guitar. To see which instruments have RealCharts, visit the Assign RealTracks to Tracks dialog and sort column 11, “Chart.” Instruments with an “N” or “Gt” in this column have RealCharts. - Instruments with “Gt” in the Chart column have RealCharts with accurate guitar tab and on-screen guitar fretboard display. - If the instrument is Acoustic Piano and there is an “N” in the Chart column, the instrument has a Jazz piano RealChart. RealTracks piano parts that are on the piano track will appear with the right and left hands split in notation. - The various other instruments with an “N” (Pedal Steel, Slide Guitar, Resophonic, Trumpet, Alto Sax, Tenor Sax) have RealCharts in standard notation. At the top of the screen, if a track has RealTracks, but is NOT a RealCharts track, then the track name is green. Real Instrument charts: If a track has a RealChart, the track name is green and underlined with a short line. RealGuitar charts: If a track has RealChart, and is a guitar track with accurate tab and on-screen guitar fretboard display, then it is green and underlined with a long line. The RealCharts can be saved to MIDI files or with Band-in-a-Box songs (MGU). RealCharts are optional and are selected in the RealTracks Settings dialog. ; “Show RealCharts notation from styles and songs” will show RealCharts that have been generated from styles or songs stored with RealTracks. ; “Show RealCharts notation for Soloists” will show RealCharts that have been generated from the Select Soloist dialog. ; “Save RealCharts in MIDI files” will save the RealChart to a MIDI track so you can analyze it in other programs. ; “Save RealCharts in BB Songs (MGU)” will save the RealChart MIDI information to the MGU file. Chapter 7: RealTracks and RealDrums 183 RealTracks Folder The RealTracks styles are stored in c:\bb\RealTracks (assuming that c:\bb is your Band-in-a-Box folder). You can choose an alternate location by pressing on the folder button and picking an alternate folder. Then, click on the [Update] button to confirm the new location. You don’t need to visit this folder when using RealTracks; it is used internally by Band-in-a-Box, so you shouldn’t add or remove files from this RealTracks folder unless you “know what you’re doing.” If Band-in-a-Box cannot find your RealTracks folder a yellow hint message appears at boot up to alert you to that, and tells you how to fix it: “Note: You have RealTracks installed, but none are found in your RealTracks folder. You should point to your correct RealTracks folder in Prefs | RealTracks Settings.” Applying RealTracks Settings You can apply an overall Volume Adjust to the RealTracks. If they are too loud overall, try a Global Volume Adjust of about -10 dB. “Allow soloing to crescendo” can be applied to some RealTracks to have the intensity of the solo building up, with the flashiest part of the solos playing as the solo builds. If you have similar RealTracks available at different tempos, Band-ina-Box will automatically choose the best one to use. For example, if you have a ballad loaded, with an Acoustic Bass RealTracks at tempo of 60, and you speed up the tempo to 140, and press [Play], Band-in-a-Box will automatically choose an Acoustic Bass RealTracks closer to tempo of 140, if it is the same genre and feel. This means you can use a simple Jazz style, and play it at various tempos, without having to set the best RealTracks based on tempos. The RealTracks that support the Tempo Swapping are listed in the next to last column (headed TS) of the RealTracks assign dialog. For example, if we load in a Ballad Jazz style like _BALFRED.STY. We can see that the name of the Bass RealTracks style has a tilde (~) symbol at the beginning. That indicates that it could be changed to a different RealTracks style at a higher tempo. Now let’s increase the tempo of the song to a higher tempo, like 115. We will see that the name of the RealTracks instrument switches to one that is suitable for a tempo=110. So when you press play, you’ll hear the RealTracks closest to your tempo, without having to do anything to make this happen. The default for the tempo swapping feature for RealTracks is “true.” (It was originally false.) There is an option in the RealTracks Settings dialog to disable automatic tempo swapping. When automatic RealTracks substitution is disabled (unchecked) the “Show message when better RT are available at this tempo” setting will be turned on. A yellow message appears if RealTracks are selected, but better RealTracks are available for the current tempo. 184 Chapter 7: RealTracks and RealDrums You can then substitute all four parts by pressing the RealTracks toolbar button and then clicking on Select better RealTracks for this tempo. The Tempo Swapping (TS) column of the RealTracks Assign dialog shows which RealTracks are eligible for Tempo Swapping. The tempo swapping only occurs if you have the RealTracks in your installation. This “speed up” feature works automatically and uses CPU resources during playback. If you have a multi-core machine, you may not notice this at all, since it will use different cores than the main Band-in-a-Box thread. If you have an older machine, low on memory, slow hard drive etc., you can disable this feature to ensure that your machine is doing less CPU work during playback. 4-bar endings allow time for a natural decay of the instruments. By “4bar-endings” we are referring to a 2-bar ending that has an additional two bars to allow for the natural decay of the audio instrument (instead of being quickly faded out). 4-bar endings are on by default. You can disable 4-bar endings globally by leaving this box unchecked or on a song-by-song basis in the Song Settings dialog, Edit | Settings (for this song). When this is set, reverb will be added to the RealTracks and RealDrums. RealTracks support Shots, Holds, and Pushes. Note: You need the installer that creates a Library\Holds folder in your RealTracks folder. The RealTracks Assign dialog that lists each RealTrack has the last column called “Holds” that lists whether that RealTrack supports Shots, Holds, and Pushes. If there is a number there (other than a blank field), then they are all supported. If there is an “n” this means that they are supported, but you don’t have the Holds_## files in the RealTracks\Library\Holds folder. Assuming that you have the Holds files for the RealTracks that you are generating, then you just use Band-in-a-Box as you would normally, and type chords with shots (e.g. C.. ), holds (C…), or pushes (^C or ^^C for 8th or 16th note push), or combinations of push and hold (^C….). Many Jazz comping styles play triads (instead of 7ths) when simple triads are entered, instead of “jazzing them up” to 7ths chords. Enable this setting if you prefer to have triads automatically “jazzed up” when comping using Jazz RealTracks. The [Demos] button displays a menu of song demos with RealTracks in the bb\RealTracks – Demos folder. Chapter 7: RealTracks and RealDrums 185 [Assign to Track] launches the Assign RealTracks to Track dialog, where RealTracks instruments are listed and assigned to Band-in-a-Box tracks. Save the new settings you have made in this dialog by pressing the [Update] button. Most changes will take effect the next time you press [Play]. The installation routine for Band-in-a-Box usually installs (decompresses) the audio files to WAV files. If you decided not to decompress them during the installation, you can press the [Install] button to complete that process by decompressing any WMA/MP3 files in the RealTracks folder that do not have a .WAV file, or that have an older .WAV file. The small button to the right of the [Install] button installs .WAV files for a single folder. This will search the selected folder and find .WMA files that can be expanded to .WAV files. The [Archive] button will erase the .WAV files in the RealTracks folder when there is a smaller .WMA file available. The .WAVs can be restored at a later time by pressing the [Install] button. The small button to the right of the [Archive] button archives .WAV files for a single folder. This will search the selected folder and find .WAV files that can be erased because a .WMA file with the same name also exists. [Install] will restore the .WAV file. The [Verify] function checks your installation to find if RealTracks are properly installed, or any files are missing. 1. It checks the Bt0 status of the RealTracks st2, compared to the Bt0 found in the RealTracks folder. 2. It issues error messages if a st2 is found, but not the RealTracks folder. 3. Issues a message if xt2 not found (for a chording RealTracks). [Defaults] sets RealTracks Settings back to default settings. Press [OK] to make your selection and exit the RealTracks Settings dialog. Press [Cancel] to exit the RealTracks Settings dialog without making any changes. To see the [Cancel] button, it may be necessary to expand the window by maximizing it or dragging down the lower border. Using RealTracks There are three ways that you can use RealTracks with Band-in-a-Box. 1. RealTracks in songs. The [Assign to Track] button in the RealTracks Settings dialog allows you to assign specific RealTracks instruments to a track in a song. It launches the Assign RealTracks to Track dialog, which also displays the current RealTracks that are assigned to each track. This dialog is also available with a right mouse click on any Band-in-a-Box part name. Then select the Add/Remove RealTracks menu command. 2. RealStyles. These are Band-in-a-Box styles (.STY) that have at least one RealTrack. For example the style called “=GeorgeP.sty” is a RealStyle because it uses RealPedalSteel for the Strings part, as well as other instruments (MIDI bass, MIDI piano, MIDI guitar, RealDrums). Technical note: You can add a RealTrack to an existing style in the StyleMaker, using [Misc] [More] “Assign RealTracks to style.” The RealTracks gets generated on one of the Band-in-a-Box style tracks (Piano, Guitar, or Strings). 3. 186 RealSoloists. These are Soloists that are generated on the Soloist track, by pressing the Soloist button on the main screen. Soloists 361-363 are using the RealTracks. Chapter 7: RealTracks and RealDrums Tip: You can quickly go to Soloist 362 by typing 362 and pressing “Go To #” or using the Favorites if you’ve previously chosen this soloist. Using RealTracks in Songs - Assign RealTracks to Track Dialog The Assign RealTracks to Track dialog assigns a RealTracks instrument to any of the Band-in-a-Box instrumental tracks. It also shows any RealTracks that are assigned to Band-in-a-Box tracks. Note: RealTracks can either be assigned from the style or from the song. This dialog allows you to assign the ones in the song. This dialog is launched by 1. 2. - or 3. Shift+click on the RealTracks toolbar button, or click and select RealTracks Picker Dialog. Right-clicking or double clicking on an instrument name at the top of the Band-in-a-Box main screen and choosing Assign RealTracks in the menu. Press the [Assign to Track…] button in the RealTracks Settings dialog. The dialog allows you to assign a specific RealTracks instruments to a track in a song. It also displays any RealTracks that are currently assigned to each track. Chapter 7: RealTracks and RealDrums 187 Tip: RealTracks in styles are assigned in the StyleMaker. Press the [Misc.] button or use the StyleMaker menu command Style | Misc. Settings to go to the Misc. Style Settings dialog, then click on the [More] button for the More Settings dialog. To use the dialog, first select the track that you want to assign. Then, select the RealTracks that you want in the list below it. The list can be sorted by clicking on any column heading. As well as Name, Instrument, Type (Rhythm or Soloist), Feel (Even or Swing), Tempo, Genre, and Number there are more columns with additional information about each RealTrack instrument. The tempo shown is the “base” (or typical) tempo for the RealTracks instrument as it is played, but RealTracks have a tempo stretching capability that enables their application over a wide range of tempos. If saving a song with RealTracks and the audio base tempo is different than the song tempo, a warning message will show, asking you to confirm that you want to save it like this. - The “N/A” column shows “N/A” for RealTracks that you have not installed yet or haven’t purchased, if “Show RealTracks that are N/A” is checked. - “Set” is the number of the RealTracks set that includes the instrument. - The “Stereo” column shows whether the instrument playback is stereo or mono. - Instruments with an “N” or “Gt” in the “Chart” column will display the RealTrack in notation. - The “Artist” column has the name of the musician playing on the RealTrack instrument. See the “Artist Bio” box for information about the player. 188 Chapter 7: RealTracks and RealDrums - The letter “Y” in the “TS” column means that Tempo Swapping is supported for the instrument. If you have similar RealTracks available at different tempos, Band-in-a-Box automatically chooses the best one to use. - “Holds” indicates whether that RealTrack supports shots, holds, and pushes. If there is a number there (other than a blank field), then they are all supported. “Memo” field - This describes the currently selected RealTracks style, and includes some useful tips, such as a suggested tempo range and Band-in-a-Box styles to use it with. “Artist Bio” - The RealTracks have been recorded by top studio musicians. The artist names and bios are displayed for the RealTracks. Double click here to view the full memo. “User comments” - You can enter your own comments about any style in this field. The comments are saved in RTUserMemos.txt Use the song and style demos to audition RealTracks. The [Song Demo (MGU)] button will display a list of songs in the bb\RealTracks – Demos folder that use the selected RealTrack instrument. Click on the song name and then press the [Play] button to hear it. The [Style Demo (.STY)] button shows a list of styles that use the currently highlighted RealTracks instrument. Clicking on a style name will load the style into the current Band-in-a-Box song. Press [Play] to hear your current song played with the RealTracks style that you want to audition. This will display installation errors of RealTracks when you open the dialog. Press the [Rebuild] button for more information, or after you have installed new RealTracks. With the Timebase option you can play any RealTracks at normal, half-time, or double time. Half time is used for fast tempo songs when a much slower tempo RealTrack has been chosen. Double time is used for slow tempo songs (e.g. ballads) when a much faster tempo RealTrack is chosen. This allows you, for example, in a ballad at a tempo of 70, to add a RealTracks Sax solo with a tempo of 140, and play it as a double time, which will match the ballad tempo of 70. All of your existing RealTracks can be used at three different tempos (normal, half-time, double time). [Defaults] sets the dialog to default values. [Settings] launches the RealTracks Settings dialog. The [Save Style] button saves the current style, but with RealTracks assigned to the style equal to the current song’s RealTracks. The volumes used in the style will match the volumes set on the main screen in Band-in-a-Box (compared to a default of 90). For example, if you set the bass volume to 40, the Style will be saved with a negative decibel (dB) setting, so that it will playback at a quieter volume (when all volumes are set to 90). [Audition (WMA)] and [+] buttons play a short WMA file demo of the currently selected RealTracks, without affecting the currently loaded song in Band-in-a-Box. The [Audition WMA] button plays a solo file, and the [+] button plays a file in context with a band. The [None] button sets the current track to no RealTracks assigned for the song. This sets all RealTracks for the song to “None.” It will also optionally disable RealTracks present in the style for this song. Select “Disable RealTracks for this track (Force this track to MIDI)” if you want to have no RealTracks instrument for this track, even if the style specifies a RealTrack. Since RealTracks are add-on purchases for Band-in-a-Box, your version may not contain all RealTracks. Selecting the “Show RealTracks that are N/A” checkbox will show you all available RealTracks. Chapter 7: RealTracks and RealDrums 189 Tip: Opt. | What add-ons do I have? will tell you what RealTracks sets you have. Some RealTracks have variations available, such as the Acoustic Jazz Bass, which has variations that play in “2” only, in “4” only, or in “2”and “4” (for “a” and “b” substyles). Normally you will want to “Show RealTracks Variations.” Use “Show if Tempo is out of Range” checkbox to show/hide RealTracks that are out of compatible tempo range. A filter is available. Type a filter text, (e.g., bass) and press [Update] and you will then see the list filtered to show only RealTracks that have the word bass somewhere in the title, memo, genre, etc. Pressing [Show All] will cancel the filter, and show all RealTracks again. Multiple search terms work with the filter. If you separate terms with a space, each term is searched for separately. So a search for “Country Guitar Ev 120” will find any Country Guitar styles with an Even feel that would work with a tempo of close to 120. Adding a search term that has a number will filter for RealTracks that match the tempo or within a compatible range. [Generate Track] will generate a RealTracks instrument on the currently selected track. This button will close the dialog, and assign the RealTracks instrument to the current track. Then, when play is pressed, the RealTrack will generate. Freeze Tracks Any track can be frozen (MIDI or Real track). When frozen, it won’t get changed or re-generated. This saves time when replaying previous songs, and allows you to freeze an arrangement that you like. If you freeze the whole song, you don’t have to wait at all for the song to regenerate. Next time you play, it is ready to go. This freeze feature is different than the previous limited freeze feature that rendered the whole arrangement to the audio track. You can make frozen tracks by pressing the Freeze button (snowflake) on the toolbar, and then choosing which tracks that you want to freeze or unfreeze. There are a number of reasons that you would freeze a track. Reasons to Freeze a RealTracks track (audio): - Frozen tracks will play back instantly, not requiring time to generate. - They play back the same way each time, so if you like a solo, you can “freeze it.” - If you send a song to a friend as “frozen,” they will hear the same performance. - For the Soloist track, if you generate a solo, it can now be saved (by freezing the track). More reasons to freeze any track: - Frozen tracks play back instantly, without requiring time to regenerate. - They play back the same way each time. - You can change the chord progression of the song, and have one part playing a different chord progression than the rest of the band. For example, type a “blowing” chord progression, generate a solo, freeze the solo track, then type a normal chord progression and generate the rest of the instruments (bass/guitar etc.) that will play the normal changes. 190 Chapter 7: RealTracks and RealDrums - Have different instruments play different styles. For example, the Bass could be generated using Reggae, then Frozen, and then the rest of the instruments generated using a Techno style. Un-Freezing a Track(s) This is also done with the Freeze button. Choose a frozen track to un-freeze it, or choose “Un-Freeze all tracks.” Using RealTracks in Styles. For this discussion, we will assume that we are using RealPedalSteel, in the style “=GeorgeP.sty.” Note: We use this naming convention for Real Styles. This is optional. The first letter of “=“ indicates that at least one instrument is a RealTrack. The last letter(s) indicate(s) which instrument it is. “P”= Pedal Steel, “G”=Guitar, “PG”=Pedal Steel and Guitar. So the name “=GeorgeP.sty” tells you that it is a style called George, that has RealPedalSteel. The MIDI tracks will be the same as another country style that we have called C_George.STY Load in the song c:\bb\Tutorial BB2008\=GeorgeP.mgu You will see that the Strings part at the top of the screen is highlighted in green. That indicates that this is a RealTrack. To play the song, just press [Play]. You’ll then hear pedal steel guitar on the String part. You can adjust the volume of the pedal steel part with the Volume control for the String part, just as with any Band-in-a-Box part, or mute it by right clicking on the String part. Note: The RealTrack can optionally be generated on the Piano, Guitar, or Strings parts in a Band-in-a-Box style. Finding all styles that have RealTracks. Open the StylePicker and locate the category called RealStyles. RealStyles are styles that use only RealTracks instruments and RealDrums. They are all audio, with no MIDI tracks. Styles with RealTracks are a combination of RealTracks instruments and MIDI instruments. They use RealDrums. Styles with RealDrums are MIDI styles that use RealDrums. Chapter 7: RealTracks and RealDrums 191 New styles can be created with RealTracks and RealDrums in the StyleMaker, and existing styles can also have RealTracks or RealDrums substituted for the original MIDI tracks. See the StyleMaker topic in the chapter titled User Programmable Functions. Using RealTracks in Solos. Press the Soloist button (Shift+F4) and launch the Select Soloist dialog. Get to Soloists in the range 361and higher. You can do that either by: 1. 2. 3. Typing 361 and pressing [Go To #]. Choosing Favorites will allow you to return to a recently chosen Soloist Choose the Genre “RealTracks (audio soloists)” from the list of genres to see all available Soloists that use RealTracks. As with other Soloists, press the [All Solo] button to make sure that the Soloist will be generated for all choruses, or [Melody and Solo] if you just want the Soloist for a certain chorus. Your RealTracks solo will be saved with the song and the Soloist track will be frozen and marked with an asterisk (*). Saving Your RealTracks RealTracks that have been frozen will be saved with the song. Frozen tracks will play back instantly, not requiring time to generate. They play back the same way each time, so if you like a solo, you can “freeze it.” If you send a song to a friend as “frozen,” they will hear the same performance. Rendering RealTracks to .WAV The RealTracks performance is not saved with the Band-in-a-Box MGU file. This is because the Band-in-a-Box MGU file only contains chords/melody/lyrics (and an optional audio track WAV file) As with other MIDI Band-in-a-Box parts and RealDrums, the RealTracks can be saved by Rendering the performance to a WAV file, or - separate WAV files. Technical Tip: If you want to permanently attach a RealTracks WAV file to a MySong.MGU song, you could render to separate WAV files, and then rename the RealTracks WAV file to MySong.WAV. Then the RealTracks will be on the Audio track. When a song is loaded, played or saved, a yellow hint message will appear if any RealTracks or RealDrums are missing, listing the files that are missing. Are other RealTracks available? There are hundreds of RealTracks available with more in production. Check http://www.pgmusic.com/products_RealTracks.htm for the latest releases. 192 Chapter 7: RealTracks and RealDrums RealDrums The RealDrums feature replaces MIDI drums with audio drums. A single click on the toolbar button opens a menu with selections for the RealDrums Picker Dialog and the RealDrums Preferences. Shift+click on the RealTracks toolbar button to go directly to the RealDrums Picker, or Ctrl+click to open the RealDrums Settings dialog. Why do RealDrums sound better than MIDI Drums? The RealDrums are recordings of top studio drummers, playing multi-bar patterns. MIDI drums are patterns based on single drum hits, being programmed, typically on a quantized grid, of what people assume drummers are typically playing. We record drummers at multiple tempos, so the playing you hear at various tempos is also musically different, not just “sped up.” Drummers play different types of fills etc. at slower/faster tempos, and these are captured with RealDrums. Technical note: If interested, you can see which tempos have been recorded by looking in the c:\bb\drums\ folder for the particular style you are interested in. How Do RealDrums Work? There are several ways to hear RealDrums with new or existing Band-in-a-Box songs. The simplest way is to select a style that already uses RealDrums. They have their own category in the StylePicker. Styles with RealDrums are identified in the list by a style name beginning with a minus sign. For example “ZZJAZZ.STY” is a version of the ZZJAZZ.STY that uses RealDrums. You can see what RealDrums set is used in a particular style is in the StyleMaker’s Misc. Style Settings dialog. Open the StyleMaker and click on the [Misc] button to get there. You can change the RealDrums style, or assign RealDrums to a style that doesn’t have them, by clicking on the RD button and making a selection from the RealPicker list. RealDrums can also be enabled to substitute for MIDI drums when a song is played, or they can be assigned to a specific song. This is done in either the RealDrums Settings or the RealDrums Picker. RealDrums Settings RealDrums can be substituted for MIDI drums on existing styles in the RealDrums Settings dialog, which opens from the RealDrums toolbar button (Ctrl+click) or with the [RealDrums] button in the Preferences dialog. Chapter 7: RealTracks and RealDrums 193 With “Enable RealDrums” checked RealDrums may be used rather than MIDI. There is also a hot key combination to turn RealDrums on/off (Ctrl+Shift+F6). The hot keys also work while the song is playing. This will substitute RealDrums for MIDI styles. You can change the setting from 1 to 5. If set to 1, almost all MIDI drums will get substituted by RealDrums. If set to 5, only RealDrum styles that match the style perfectly will get substituted. This feature selects variations of RealDrums instruments with each PLAY. Most RealDrums styles (starting with RealDrums set 5) contain may instrument variations (“brushes vs. Sticks”, “HiHat vs. Ride Cymbal” “Percussion only” etc.). Now, by selecting [Pref] [Real Drums] “…choose different variations with each PLAY,” you can hear a different variation each time play is pressed, so the song sounds fresh each time. One time you’ll hear it with brushes, the next time with sticks and ride cymbals, etc. When selecting RealDrums styles to use for a style, BB will use your preferences for brushes and sticks. For example, if you choose “Favor Brushes”, BB will always choose from among variations that include brushes (when available). We have “artist” support. This allows you to choose among different drummers playing the same style. For example, we have multiple artists playing the “JazzBrushes” style. You can set Band-in-a-Box to choose a different artist with each play, or always choose a specific artist. This will replace the RealDrums that you don’t have with ones that you do have. Technical note: The text file a_pgmusic.ds provided by PG Music controls this, and users can make other files MySubs.ds if they make their own RealDrums styles. Songs can have RealDrums added to them. To do this, set the desired style in the Preferences RealDrums Settings dialog, or with File | Save Song with Patches & Harmony. This will let the current song use the specific RealDrums style. Click on the [RD] button to select a specific RealDrums style to use in a particular song. This will launch the RealDrums Picker with a list of all available RealDrums styles. The [Clear] button clears the currently selected RealDrums for the song. When this is set, if you save a specific style with a song, you’ll hear a new variation of that style each time you press PLAY, with different drum instruments. This allows the RealDrums to change styles with multistyles, style changes, or specific RealDrums style changes entered at any bar in the Edit Settings for Bar dialog (F5). RealDrums “Compatible song/style finder.” 194 Chapter 7: RealTracks and RealDrums In the RealDrums Settings dialog, there are now buttons that will, for a chosen RealDrums style, enable you to (1) play the RealDrums demo song, (2) show a menu of BB styles that would work with the Real Drum style and (3) play a song demo of various BB styles that work with the Real Drum style. INSTALL button. When this is pressed, WAV files will be created from any RealDrums styles that are still WMA files. Make sure that you have enough space available on your hard drive prior to installing the RealDrums. The small button installs WAV files for a single folder. Note: Usually the WAV files have already been created upon installation, if so this feature isn’t needed. This will erase the WAV files in the Drums folder when there is a smaller WMA available. The WAV files can be restored by pressing the [Install] button. The small button archives files for a single folder. Selectable Folder for your RealDrums styles. Now you can choose any folder (e.g. e:\Drums) for your RealDrums. This allows you to, for example, conserve space on your C:\ drive. If Band-in-a-Box cannot find your Drums folder, a yellow hint message appears at boot up to alert you to that, and tells you how to fix it: “Note: You have RealDrums installed, but none are found in your Drums folder. You should point to your correct Drumss folder in Prefs | RealDrums Settings.” Tempo checking for chosen RealDrums styles. If you choose a RealDrums style, and the tempo is out-ofrecommended-range for the style, Band-in-a-Box will inform you of that – you can still use the style of course. RealDrums styles that get chosen automatically by Band-in-a-Box will always be compatible with your song. RealDrums Picker – Assign RealDrums to Songs Shift+click on the RealTracks toolbar button to open the RealDrums Picker , or Ctrl+click to go directly to the RealDrums Settings dialog. A single click on the toolbar button opens a menu with selections for the RealDrums Picker Dialog and the RealDrums Preferences (RealDrums Settings dialog). The RealDrums Picker is also available from the RealDrums Settings dialog, by selecting “For this song only, use this RealDrum style” and clicking on the [RD] button. The RealDrums Picker is used to assign a particular RealDrums style for just the one song you are working on. RealDrums made by you (or others) that are added by you to the Drums folder also appear in the RealDrums Picker dialog. Chapter 7: RealTracks and RealDrums 195 A filter is available. Type a filter text, (e.g. bossa) and press [Update], and you will then see the list filtered to show only RealDrums that have the word bossa somewhere in the title, memo, genre etc. Pressing [Show All] will cancel the filter, and show all RealDrums again. Multiple search terms work with the RealDrums Picker. If you separate terms with a space, each term is searched for separately. So a search for “Bossa Rock Ev 120”, will find any Bossa Rock styles with an Even feel that would work with a tempo of close to 120. Adding a search term that has a number will filter for RealDrums that match the tempo or within a compatible range. There are additional settings to define your selection in the RealDrums Picker. “Show if Tempo is out of Range” will show styles that wouldn’t work well at the current song tempo. The acceptable range is shown in the list of styles Lo/Hi (9th and 10th) columns. “Show if Feel does not match” will show a song where the drums are in Even feel and the style is Swing (or vice versa). “Show RealDrums that are not Favorites” (*) You can assign a style as one of your favorites by clicking in the first column. Then you can sort by favorites or use this option to only see favorites. “Show RealDrums” that are N/A” These are styles not found in the Drums folder, likely because they are add-on styles not purchased yet. Press the [Rebuild] button and check the RealDrums Settings to confirm that you have the correct Drums folder selected. If Band-in-a-Box cannot find your your Drums folder, a yellow hint message appears at boot up to alert you to that, and tells you how to fix it: “Note: You have RealDrums installed, but none are found in your Drums folder. You should point to your correct Drums folder in Prefs | RealDrums Settings.” 196 Chapter 7: RealTracks and RealDrums “Memo” is a memo description of the style. These are stored in bb\RDPGMemos.txt file. You can also add your own memos in the User Comments box below. The “Artist Bio” shows brief summaries of the careers of the top drummers featured in RealDrums. This shows the current RealDrums for this song. This can either come from the style, or a specific RealDrums for this song, set in this dialog. Tip: RealDrums in styles are assigned in the StyleMaker. Press the [Misc.] button or use the menu command Style | Misc. Settings to go to the Misc. Style Settings dialog and make your selections in “RealDrums Settings.” Set this if you want MIDI drums and want to override a RealDrums that is set in the style. This sets the drums to no RealDrums override for the song, and optionally also forces MIDI drums (i.e., no RealDrums for the style either). The RealDrums list can be sorted by any of the column headings. * Click in this column to enter an asterisk, indicating that this is a favorite style. Click on the name of the RealDrums style name that you want to select for the song. Names ending in a caret ^ have variations available. ^ Clicking in the caret column will show the variations for the selected RealDrums style (if available). Genre is the type of music that the RealDrums style comes from, such as Jazz, Rock, or Country. Genre (more) suggests additional types of music that the RealDrums style might work for. /4 indicates the time signature, which is 4/4 by default. If the column is empty the time signature is 4/4, if there is a 3 in this column the time signature is 3/4. Ev* indicates the feel of the RealDrums style, either Even or Swing. The listing in the 8 column indicates whether the meter is based on eighth notes (8) or sixteenth notes (16). Lo is the slowest tempo for which the RealDrums style is suited. Hi is thefastest tempo recommended for the style. X indicates a style with a tempo that is out of range for the song. N/A are styles not found in the Drums folder. Artist is the name of the drummer who recorded the RealDrums. # is the number of the RealDrums set for the style. You can type in your own comments about any style in the “User comments” field and they are are saved in a file called RDUserMemos.txt Chapter 7: RealTracks and RealDrums 197 RealDrums styles ending in a caret (^) have variations available. They are listed here. Where there are two instruments shown, such as Brushes/Sticks, the first one plays in the “a” substyle and the second in the “b” substyle. [RD Demo] loads and plays a demo of the chosen RealDrum style. [SongDemo] shows Band-in-a-Box styles that will use this RealDrums style if “Substitute RealDrums” is selected. The song demo for the style will get loaded. [BB Styles] shows Band-in-a-Box styles that will use this RealDrums style if “Substitute RealDrums” is selected. The style will get loaded if the menu selection is made. [PlayNow] loads the selected RealDrums and starts playback. If you haven’t played the song yet, since you haven’t generated non-drums tracks, you will only hear drums. In that case, press Shift+Click to generate all tracks. The [Stop] button stops the song playback. Click (or Shift+Click) on [PlayNow] to resume. The [Audition] button doesn’t load the style but instead uses Media Player to play a demo .WAV file for the style. [Rebuild] builds the list of RealDrums present as folders in the bb\Drums folder. If you add new drum styles, press this button to update the list. (These are stored in a bb\DrumFolderNames.txt file.) [Defaults] returns the dialog to default settings, which will show all available styles. Press [OK] to make your selection and return to the RealDrums Settings dialog. Press [Cancel] to return to the RealDrums Settings dialog without making a selection. Note: When a song is loaded, played or saved, a yellow hint message will appear if any RealTracks or RealDrums are missing, listing the files that are missing. RealDrums Selection in the StylePicker You can also select RealDrums styles within the StylePicker. Highlight a MIDI style that you like, and press the RealDrums [Best] button, to see a list of the most compatible RealDrums styles for that style, or click on the [RD] button to open the RealDrums Picker and select from all available RealDrums. 198 Chapter 7: RealTracks and RealDrums Audio Controls for RealTracks and RealDrums Tone Control There is a bass/treble Tone control for individual tracks with RealTracks or RealDrums, so you can easily adjust the bass/treble EQ for any RealTrack. The Tone settings save with the song. Choose an instrument and then use the tone control to adjust the tone from -18 (maximum bass) to +18 (maximum treble). Default is 0. Audio Reverb Control The A. Reverb control for individual tracks with RealTracks or RealDrums is so you can easily add audio reverb (0 to 127). The reverb type is also settable, and saved with the song. At the top of the screen, there is an “A. Reverb” control (Audio Reverb). Click on an instrument radio button, and then set the Reverb for it. The Audio Reverb varies from 0 to 127. Clicking on the left hand side of the control allows you to enter a setting, or click on the up/down arrows. Note that this only applies to RealTracks, since MIDI tracks have MIDI Reverb, which is set via a MIDI Reverb control. Auto-Add Reverb There is also a feature that automatically adds reverb to RealTracks, according to instrument type. No reverb is added to the Bass part, for example, but most instruments get reverb. This feature defaults to on, but you can turn it off in the PG Music Reverb dialog, which opens with the [Aud. Rev] toolbar button or in [Pref][RealTracks]. If you just want more or less reverb added, you can adjust the Strength %. For example, the default Band-in-a-Box reverb setting is 40 for most tracks. If you set the strength to 75%, it becomes 30. Audio Playback Settings Audio Reverb and Tone can also be set in the Audio Playback settings by clicking on the audio label. Master Reverb and Tone can be set by clicking the Combo button, and then using the Audio Reverb and Tone controls. For Audio track rendering, reverb is added to the mix if there is reverb set for the Audio track. Chapter 7: RealTracks and RealDrums 199 Reverb Settings The default is a “room” type of reverb but you can also set the type of reverb. To do this, press the Audio Reverb toolbar button, and adjust the various parameters in the PG Music Reverb dialog. You can enable/disable the audio reverb. If you disable it, this will save some CPU cycles, so this might be advisable on an older/slower machine if you hear that the audio is clicking or not keeping up. Click on the green Select a Preset button to open the list of presets. This list will show only the “Band-in-aBox Default Reverb” until you save some presets of your own. As you adjust the settings they will be applied to the current song. The [Swap “Default”] button toggles between your current settings and the default settings. This allows you to hear the effect of the changes you make to the settings. Use the row of “room” buttons to load typical settings for different types of spaces. These buttons are a convenient way to either apply a particular effect or to load settings that you can then tweak to make your own preset. Reverb Parameters Pre-Delay is the time delay of first reflections. Decay is the time it takes for reverb to decay. Reverb time is measured as RT60, the time it takes for reverb to decay to a level -60 dB below the dry signal level. LF Roll off gradually reduces the bass frequencies. If you can’t add enough reverb because the sound gets too muddy, try increasing the LF Roll off slider. It is adjustable between 50 Hz and 500 Hz. HF Roll off is the rate at which the high frequencies die away as the reverb decays. Rooms with hard surfaces are typically bright, but rooms with soft surfaces are usually darker. It is adjustable between 1 KHz (dark) to 11 KHz (bright). Density is the density of low-level echoes near the end of the reverb tail. High Density settings add a sheen to the sound. 200 Chapter 7: RealTracks and RealDrums Mix the proportion of original signal to the reverb signal. Output adjusts the final level of the plug-in. Typical Reverb Settings - A large hall might have long Pre-Delay, long Decay, and moderate Density. - A hard large space such as a Gymnasium, might have long Pre-Delay, high Density and high HF Roll off. - A soft large space such as a concert hall with carpet, padded seats, hangings, might have medium Density and low HF Roll off. - A small hard space such as a tile washroom, might have short Pre-Delay, medium-to-long Decay, high Density, and high HF Roll off. - A small soft space such as a large living room, might have short Pre-Delay, short Decay, medium-to-low Density, and low HF Roll off. Saving Settings to Presets You can save your reverb types as presets, and the current settings will also be saved with the song in a DX Settings\PGReverbSettings.bin file. To save the current settings to a preset, type in a name for your preset in the “Preset Name” field. Then click on the Save Preset arrow and choose a location in the Preset list. You can write over an existing name. A prompt will ask you to confirm that you want to save the preset. Select [Yes] to save the new preset to the chosen location. Auto Reverb Enable “Auto-Add Reverb to RealTracks” to automatically apply preset amounts of reverb to RealTracks according to instrument type. No reverb is added to the Bass part, for example, but most instruments get reverb. If you just want more or less reverb added overall, you can adjust the Strength %. For example, the default Band-ina-Box reverb setting is 40 for most tracks. If you set the strength to 75%, the Band-in-a-Box becomes 30. You can save the current settings as the Default Reverb. Click on [Restore Defaults] to go back to the original “factory” reverb settings for Band-ina-Box Default Reverb. Chapter 7: RealTracks and RealDrums 201 Chapter 8: Notation and Printing Band-in-a-Box offers a variety of notation and printing features, both for viewing parts on-screen as they play and for printing them as sheet music. To view the notation, open the Notation window by pressing the notation button on the main screen. Close the Notation window by pressing the notation button again. Band-in-a-Box Notation screen displaying the melody track in Standard Notation mode. Tip: You can rearrange the windows so that the Notation window is at the top of the screen with Window | Put Notation/Chords On Top or with Ctrl+T keys. Band-in-a-Box offers multiple modes of notation for different purposes. The notation defaults to Standard Notation mode, other modes are selected with buttons on the Notation window toolbar. Standard Notation to display or print Notation and enter lyrics. The grand piano staff and/or guitar tablature with notes, chord symbols, and lyrics. Editable Notation to enter or edit notation. A special staff with time divisions for mouse-based editing. Staff Roll Notation, to enter or edit notes, velocity, and duration. The note heads are shown with editable velocity and duration lines. Lead Sheet Notation to display or print notation as full arrangements or in fake sheet style. This is a full screen notation window with notes, chord symbols, and lyrics. Exploring the Notation Window With the Notation window open, the toolbar at the top of the window gives you access to its many features and options. Opens the Options dialog box. Options Button Press to launch the Lead Sheet Notation window. Lead Sheet Button Press this button to print the notation to any printer supported by Print Button your Windows system. 3-stage buttons to select a Notation window mode - Standard Notation Mode Buttons Notation, Editable Notation, or Staff Roll mode. This box displays the name of the note that will be inserted when Current Note you click the mouse. 202 Chapter 8: Notation and Printing Note / Rest checkboxes Mono Mode Clean Notation Loop Screen Track Select Event List Editor Lyrics Button Zoom Buttons Section Text Scrub Mode These determine whether a Note or a Rest will be inserted when the mouse is clicked. When this is selected, the notation is entered as monophonic (one note only) to avoid extra notes in a single note melody line. The Clean Notation Mode cleans up the notation by eliminating display of redundant grace notes and glitches for easier reading. While a song is playing, click the “LoopScn” button and the song will loop the bars shown on the notation screen. You can display or print any track from the program. Press the appropriate button to change to the desired track. You can edit events including all MIDI events and lyric events using the Event List Editor. To enter note-based lyrics press the Lyrics button on the Notation toolbar. The zoom buttons make it easy to increase or decrease the font size of the notation. Add or edit Section Text on the Notation. When this button is pressed in you can drag the mouse over notes to hear them. Chord Step Advance Use the Ins and Del keys on the numeric keypad to step advance on any track by one chord. The track MIDI data can display on the on piano, guitar, lead sheet, drums, and notation window(s). This feature advances the current track and displays the next group of notes on that track. For example, if the current track is set to the Melody track, pressing the chord advance buttons will display the next note or chord of the melody. The Chord Advance feature is a great way to study the notes being played, and to navigate around the track. Note: In this context, “chord” is referring to any group of notes, or a single note, that occurs in a track at or near the same time. You can adjust the width of what Band-in-a-Box determines a 'chord' to be in the Notation Options - More dialog. Standard Notation Window The Standard Notation window displays the notation for any individual track, and allows for the entry of chords and lyrics. Features include: - Notation display for the Bass, Drums, Guitar, Piano, Strings, Melody, or Soloist track. - Optional display of guitar chord diagrams. Chapter 8: Notation and Printing 203 - As the notation plays, the notes that are sounding are highlighted in red. This helps with sight reading or following the music. You can set the notation to scroll either 1 or 2 bars ahead of the music without interfering with your view of the current notation. Handles Jazz eighth notes and triplet figures correctly. Automatic options such as auto durations, clean notation, mono display, minimize rests, hard rests, and engraver spacing produce very musical and readable notation. Beamed notes are automatically given slanted beams. Groups of 5 notes will automatically display as groups of 3+2 or 2+3, or can be set this way manually. If you'd prefer to see them as a group of 5 notes, you can right mouse click on the timeline, and set the resolution to 5 for that beat. Right-click menu for Standard Notation This menu opens with a right mouse button click in the Standard Notation window. Use this menu to access major editing features and dialogs. You can change to another notation mode by selecting it in the list. Keystroke Commands - 204 To bring up the Notation Options window, press Alt+N+O. To change between notation views, press Alt+N+N. To bring up the Print Options window, press Alt+N+P. To loop the screen, press 1 on your numeric keypad. To jump 4 bars ahead, press the DOWN arrow key. To step 4 bars back, press the UP arrow key Chapter 8: Notation and Printing Editable Notation Mode Enter the Editable Notation mode from the notation screen with a single mouse click on the Editable Notation button. In the Editable Notation mode you can enter, move, and edit notes and rests using standard mouse techniques – point and click, drag and drop, and right-click to open the Note Edit dialog box. Band-in-a-Box Editable Notation window. This is the screen for step-entry of a melody or for editing existing parts. Notice the grid of vertical lines, which sub-divide each beat. These lines indicate where the notes will be placed according to the resolution of the song. When mousing over notes in this window, summary information about the note is displayed (pitch/channel/velocity/duration). To enable this feature, click on the [More.. ] button in the Notation Options to open the Other Notation Options dialog. Then select the “Show Popup Hint for Note Properties” checkbox. Resolution The above example is in Jazz Swing style so Band-in-a-Box has automatically set the grid resolution to 3 per beat (triplets). This resolution can be changed in the Notation Options dialog, but the program automatically sets the resolution to the correct value based upon the Band-in-a-Box style that is in use. - Swing styles use 3 lines to divide each beat into eighth note swing triplets. - Straight styles use 4 lines to divide each beat into sixteenth notes. Example of swing (triplet) resolution. Example of straight (16ths) resolution. Chapter 8: Notation and Printing 205 Beat Resolution The user can manually set the resolution for any beat in the Beat Resolution dialog, which opens with a right click on the black vertical time line. Setting the Treble Clef Resolution for this beat to 5 allows a group of five notes to be placed on one beat. Tip: Although you can edit any track (e.g., Bass track), your edits to Band-in-a-Box instrument parts will be lost if you press [Play] and the song arrangement is regenerated. To save edits to accompaniment parts, save your song as a MIDI file for export. Entering Notes To insert a new note on the staff move the mouse to the location that you want. If you want beat 1, move to the first dotted line in the bar. Click on the staff over the note that you want. Confirmation dialogs show warnings to prevent accidental entry of a duplicate note (same pitch near same time) and of a very high or very low note (large # of ledger lines). The Current Note box in the toolbar will give you the name of the note that you're on. Click with the left mouse button to insert the note: - To insert a sharp: Hold down the Shift key as you click the note. - To insert a flat: Hold down the Ctrl key as you click the note. - To insert a natural: Hold down the Alt key as you click the note. Brackets (#) are drawn around accidentals after a bar line as a courtesy, where no accidental is required. How is the length of the notes determined? Band-in-a-Box uses an intelligent auto-duration feature to determine how long the note should be. Auto-durations mean that you can enter a lead sheet style melody by just clicking once per note, dramatically speeding up the entry of notation. Any note that is entered will initially have a duration of 2 bars (2 whole notes). When the next note is put in 2 beats later, Band-in-a-Box will adjust the duration of the previous note to just shorter than 2 beats. This means that you don't have to worry about durations at all, and can simply point and click to enter the notes where you want them. If you want to override the auto duration, you can edit the note using the right mouse key, which will permit you to type the exact duration that you want. Entering Rests Insert a rest by holding the back-quote key (tilde key without pressing Shift) then clicking on the notation window. Another way to enter a rest is to click the Rest checkbox and then point and click where you want the rest to appear. This automatically shortens the duration of the previous note. Tip: If it is important to see rests less than a quarter note, make sure you de-select the Minimize Rests checkbox in the Options dialog box. Forced Rests (Hard Rests) This allows you to insert a rest in the notation, which will be in effect even if you have Minimize Rests set to false. For example, we are able to display a 16th note rest even though the Minimize Rests feature is on. To do this, click 206 Chapter 8: Notation and Printing on the [Rests] button and then click on the notation at the location that you'd like a 16th note rest. The Hard Rest will show up in blue in the editable notation window and can be removed by holding the [DEL] key and clicking on the rest. Moving a note in time. If you want to change the start time of a note, drag the note with the left mouse button to the new location. This is a simple way to move the note. Alternatively, you could edit the note numerically with the right mouse button. Changing the pitch of a note. Similarly, you can drag the note vertically to change the note value, and release it when you're on the note you want. Hold down the Shift, Ctrl, or Alt key to have the note inserted as a sharp, flat, or natural respectively. Insert Bends In Notation. In the Editable Notation window, any note can be made into a bend by holding down the “b” key on the computer keyboard and right-clicking on the note. Right-click Editable Notation menu A right-click of the mouse in the Editable Notation window will open this menu. Edit Current Chord This opens a text box with the name of the chord at the current location. Type in any changes and press Enter or Tab to return to the Editable Notation window. Insert Lyrics opens the Lyric Edit window. Edit Lyrics opens the lyrics event list editor. Edit Section Text opens the Text Events list where section text can be inserted, edited, or deleted. Insert Section Text opens the Section Text Event dialog box where either regular or boxed section text is entered along with its time and vertical position in the window. Section Letters Select a section letter from an alphabetical list and it will be inserted into the notation at the current location of the time line bar. Use this same item to remove section letters. Chapter 8: Notation and Printing 207 Notation Symbols for Expression and Articulation The Notation Symbols are entered from the Notation Event dialog, which is accessed from the right-click menu in the Editable Notation window. This dialog lets you insert (or remove) notation symbols such as, Slurs Accents Crescendo - Legato Decrescendo - Marcato Staccato - Staccatissimo Select a notation symbol from those listed and the Notation Event dialog will open. In this dialog you can further define the event and its precise location, then press [OK - Insert Event] to insert it into the notation. Use the [OK Remove Event] to delete an existing event that is no longer needed. The Event Type list box lets you choose the event type (slur, decrescendo, etc.). The Length of Event field determines the length of a slur, crescendo, or decrescendo. The length is specified in beats and ticks. If an event is a “single-peg” event, such as a staccato or accent, then this field will cause multiple events to be inserted if the range is greater than zero (and the range spans multiple pegs). If you had highlighted an area of the Notation window prior to right clicking on it (to launch the pop-up menu and choose the notation symbols menu item) then this field is set based on the length of the highlighted area. Note: The highlighted area does not actually include the very last peg at the very edge of the highlighted area. The Clef field, if present, indicates the clef in which the event will be inserted (or removed from). Most events affect only one clef at a time, and therefore you must choose the clef and this field will be preset based on where you had initially right-clicked with the mouse on the Notation window (you did this to get 208 Chapter 8: Notation and Printing the pop-up menu that launches this dialog). For example, if you had right clicked on the treble clef, then this will be set to treble. When Snap to notes toward beginning / end of range is enabled slurs, crescendos, and decrescendos will be based on notes that exist at the beginning and end of the specified range. The Offset field, if present, lets you adjust make adjustments to the vertical position of an event, e.g. slurs or chord height. The Start Time field is the start time of the event (in Measures:Bytes:Ticks). OK – Insert Event – exits this dialog and then inserts the event into the notation track. OK – Remove Event – exits this dialog and then REMOVES the event (if it exists in the specified time range) from the notation track. Cleanup Orphaned Notation Controller Events This command will remove notation symbol events (such as staccato) that are no longer close enough to a note to display properly. Chord height adjustment Use this to adjust the height of a certain chord by adjusting the “Offset:” value in the Notation Event dialog. Note that a positive value moves the chord symbol lower, and vice versa. Modes Clicking on another notation mode will change to that screen while staying at the same location in the song. Editing Note Values Right click on a note. This brings up a variation of the right-click window with added commands for editing or deleting notes. Click on Edit Note to launch the Note dialog. In the Note dialog box, you can manually change the characteristics of a note by entering the exact values you wish for any given note. For example, you can change the velocity and duration by increments of 1 tick, as well as the note's pitch and relative positioning in the bar. There are spin buttons in the note attributes window. Holding the spin increments continuously, and Shiftclicking (or right-clicking) increments by a higher amount. Shift+clicking on the spin buttons changes: - the pitch of a note by an octave instead of a semitone. - The velocity, duration or time stamp by 5 instead of 1. For example, to change the octave of a note, Shift-click (or right click) on the spin arrows. Click on Delete Note in the right-click menu to remove the selected note from the Notation. Chapter 8: Notation and Printing 209 Select a region of notation to edit To select a region of the notation you can Shift+click on the end point to easily select a large area. - Select a small region by dragging the mouse.* - Enlarge the region by Shift-clicking on the end point. *Note: Shift-click is also used to enter a sharp (#) note, so the selection via Shift-click requires that a small region be already selected. Force Accidental - If a note is being displayed as a sharp, but you want it to appear as a flat (or vice versa), you can force that here. Notes like Fb, Cb, E#, B# can be entered. To do this, right click on a note (like F), and set the forced accidental to #, and the note will appear as E#. Note Type - You can choose for the note to be Normal, Invisible (note will sound but will not appear in regular notation), or Guitar Bend (a B will appear above the note). Note that the guitar bend is for notation only and does not affect the sound of the note. Staff Roll Notation Mode Click on the Staff Roll notation mode button to enter the Staff Roll mode. This mode is similar to the Editable Notation Mode, except that the beats begin right on the bar line. You can see the duration of the note visually represented by a horizontal blue line and the note’s velocity displayed as a vertical blue line. Tip: If you can't see these lines, press the [Opt.] button to check that “Show Note Durations, Show Velocity Lines,” and “Show Bar/Beat Lines” options are enabled. Using the Mouse to Edit Velocity and Duration There is an additional function available in this mode; right mouse drag. Place the mouse cursor on the note head and hold down the right-mouse button. Then, starting at the note head, drag the cursor horizontally to set the note's duration, or drag it vertically to set the note's velocity. 210 Chapter 8: Notation and Printing Piano Roll Window For advanced editing of notes plus graphic controller editing, go to the Piano Roll window, either by selecting the Piano Roll button on the toolbar, or the Window | Piano Roll Window menu item. Notation Window Options Press the [Opt.] button in a notation window to bring up the Notation Window Options dialog box: Track Type Normally you'd leave the track type set to Single Channel, but you can also set it to Multi-Channel, Guitar, or Piano. Multi (16) All MIDI channel assignments are preserved and output on playback. This would be useful for -Channel: importing an entire MIDI file, and playing it from the Melody channel using a silent style. Guitar: MIDI channels 11 to 16 are assigned to the guitar strings 1 to 6. Correct guitar tablature replaces the bass clef, the notation will be up an octave, and guitar channel assignments are saved with MIDI files. Piano: In this mode, channels 8 and 9 are treated as the left and right hand of a piano part. Triplet Resolution (Swing) Band-in-a-Box automatically sets the resolution whenever a style is loaded. When a style has a triplet feel (such as Jazz Swing or a Shuffle style), Band-in-a-Box selects Triplet Resolution. This ensures that Jazz eighth notes (swing triplets) are handled correctly. When a style with a straight feel loads (Pop, Latin) the Triplet Resolution setting is automatically turned off. Then the notation shows even eighth notes, not triplets, and each note and duration is rounded to the nearest sixteenth note when displaying the music. Show Bar/Beat Lines This setting is for the Staff Roll mode only. When turned off (unchecked) only the staff lines will show, helpful for editing note Duration and Velocity lines. Show Note Durations A Staff Roll mode setting to show or hide the horizontal Duration lines. Duration Line Color (Green /Blue) There are two color choices for the Duration lines, green or blue. Chapter 8: Notation and Printing 211 The [Update] button applies the changes made to the Notation Window Options. Pressing [OK] will have the same effect. Snap to grid lines If the Snap To Grid Lines checkbox is checked, the inserted note will be lined up with the closest grid line. This is similar to the way a graphics or typesetting program aligns elements accurately on a page. This means that you don't have to click exactly on the beat to have the note inserted precisely on the beat. Scroll Ahead The Notation window can be set to scroll 1 or 2 bars ahead of the music without interfering with your view of the current notation. To enable this feature, select the number of bars you wish to scroll-ahead in the Notation Window Options (1 or 2). Select zero bars to disable this feature. When the notation scroll-ahead feature is enabled, the lyrics will also scroll ahead. Highlight playback notes in Red Good sight-readers who like to read ahead can use this option to disable the highlighting of notes in red as the song is playing so it won't be distracting. Note Colors Notation can display notes in different colors based on absolute note names or relative to chord or key. Colors are definable; the default color scheme is one that was introduced by the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin (18721915). Colored notes will appear in color for printout on color printers or when saved in a color graphics file. Pressing the [Edit] button launches the Note Color Editor dialog. Change the colors by clicking on the color above the note name. Pressing the [OK-Save] button will close the dialog and save the file as c:\bb\default.NCL. You can also save/load different NCL files for different color sets. 212 Chapter 8: Notation and Printing Note Names There is an option to display note names in the center of the note head. You can display absolute note names (A, Bb etc.) or you can display numbers relative to the key or the current chord. This is helpful for learning to read music. Combined with the ability to display large font sizes, this achieves the big note look common to “EZ-2-Play” music books. Channel numbers can also be displayed on the notation. When editing notes, it is often helpful to see the channel number of each note. By setting Note Names to “Channel Numbers” you'll see the channel number for each note written into the note head of the notes. This is useful when viewing an entire MIDI file that you've loaded onto the Melody track, and want to examine the channel information, or for editing a guitar track that uses channels 11 to 16. Notation Fonts You can use the PG Music fonts or Jazz fonts for your chords and notation. Or you can choose Arial or any other font on your system for chords, lyrics, text, and titles. The Jazz fonts have the “handwritten manuscript” look. It's a great alternative to music fonts that look too “computerized.” Jazz Music Fonts for Notes, Symbols, Chords, and Titles. To select just the Jazz music font select the “Use Jazz Music Font” option, then choose your Chord, Lyrics, Text, and Title fonts. Click [Regular Fonts] for a quick overall change to regular fonts in the Notation window. The [Jazz Fonts] button installs a pre-selected group of Jazz fonts. The [Arial] button installs the regular notation font and Arial for everything else. You can select from any of the fonts installed on your computer using the settings found in the Notation Options dialog. Check “Use Jazz Music Font” to use the Jazz font, and check “Jazz Symbols” to use shorthand Jazz chord symbols in the notation. The Lyrics and Text fonts appear in the Notation window, the Lead Sheet and the printout. The Title font is used for the Titles, Composer, and Styles names that appear on the Lead Sheet window and printout. You can choose from selected fonts, or use the “Other…” selection to use any font. For example, you could use PG Jazz Text Extended (PGTextje) for a jazzy look. Note: Using the PG Music notation and text fonts requires that they be installed in your Windows | System directory. The fonts are installed automatically with the program. Chapter 8: Notation and Printing 213 Jazz Chord Symbol Graphics (circles, triangles) Jazz and Pop music often use certain non-alphabetic symbols for chord types. These include a delta (triangle) for major chords, a circle for diminished, and a circle with a slash for half-diminished. Also, tensions like b9 and b13 are stacked vertically and contained in brackets. You can now select this option, and see these symbols for display/printout on the Chordsheet, Notation, and Lead Sheet windows. The Jazz Chord Symbol Graphics can be displayed independently on the Chordsheet and the Notation or Lead Sheet windows. To get the Jazz Chord Symbol Graphics on the Chordsheet, choose Opt. | Preferences | Display Options and set “Chordsheet Font” to “Jazz Chord Symbols.” You’ll then see a chordsheet like this. To see the Jazz Chord Symbol Graphics on the Notation/Lead Sheet printout, set the Notation Options. The Notation will then look like this. The Lyrics and Text fonts appear in the Notation window, the Lead Sheet, and the printout. The Title font is used for the Titles, Composer, and Styles names that appear on the Lead Sheet window and printout. You can choose from selected fonts, or use the “Other…” selection to use any font. For example, you could use PG Jazz Text Extended (PGTextje) for a jazzy look. Note: PG Music notation and text fonts are installed automatically by the program in your Windows | System directory. Bars/Screen This option lets you to choose the number of bars per line for both the on-screen notation display and printing. Guitar Chord Diagrams These are available on the notation, lead sheet, or printout for Folk, Pop, and Jazz voicings. There is an option to show the fret numbers on the diagrams. 214 Chapter 8: Notation and Printing Tab When set, the Guitar and Bass parts will print tablature notation. Show fret #s on chord diagrams This will display the fret numbers for each string on the guitar chord diagrams. Load notation layout w/songs When this box is checked your Notation Option settings will be saved with the song and restored the next time you load the song. Show Key Signature If turned off, you won't have the key signature box displayed on the Notation Screen. This will save some space on the screen. Transpose Options These preset transpose settings for non-concert instruments like brass and woodwinds will auto-select the correct transpose settings and clef split points for the instrument. For example, Trumpet +2 will write the music up 2 semitones, and the split point will be adjusted to display the music in treble clef. Guitar and bass settings are also included. If a Chordsheet or Notation window transpose setting is in effect, a yellow hint message opens on bootup as a reminder. Transpose The Transpose setting lets you manually adjust the Notation window to display notes either higher or lower than their actual pitches. Clefs split at This setting determines the split point for placing notes on the Bass or Treble clef. The default setting is C5, middle C. Use a higher split point, such as C6, if you want notes up to a B above middle C written on the bass clef with ledger lines. Max Ledger Lines You can specify an upper limit of a note range so that high notes won't result in an excessive number of ledger lines. The default is 6, which would show a maximum of 6 ledger lines above the treble clef staff. Show Velocity Lines This is a Staff Roll mode setting to show or hide the vertical Velocity lines. Line color is determined by the Duration Line Color setting. Use chord scale for enharmonics The sharps and flats in Band-in-a-Box notation are context sensitive to the chord names. For example, if you are in the key of Eb, and the chord is E7, a G# note will show up as G#, and not Ab. This means that the notation accidentals will automatically show up correctly. Enharmonics for chord tones are automatically based on the chord. Chapter 8: Notation and Printing 215 Enharmonics for passing tones are based on chords if “Use Chord Scale Enharmonics” is set to true. For example, on an F#7 chord in the key of Eb, the Ab note is part of the F#7 scale (as a G#, the 2nd of the scale), but is also part of the Eb key of the song. If you want to display based on the chord scale, setting “Use chord scale enharmonics” will display the note as a G# instead of an Ab. Enharmonics on slash chords A chord like Gm7b5/Db will display correctly using a Db instead of a Gm7b5/C#, since Band-in-a-Box bases it on a Gm scale. Engraver Spacing This is another one of the program's intelligent features which spaces the Notation appropriately to avoid overlapping notation while accounting for space required by accidentals, rests, etc. This feature is visible only in Standard Notation mode. Notation Settings Tick Offset The Tick Offset on the notation options is one of the keys to great looking notation. It accounts for playing that is before or behind the beat. The track is automatically scanned to determine the best tick offset so that you don't have to set this yourself. This results in better looking notation. You can change/override this setting in the Notation Window Options dialog box, but normally the best tick offset is set automatically. For example, to properly notate Jazz performances, it is sometimes necessary to set the tick offset to approximately 15. This effectively adjusts for a performance that has been played slightly ‘behind’ the beat or, in Jazz terms, “very laid back.” Minimize Rests When checked, Band-in-a-Box will eliminate unnecessary rests. For example, if staccato eighth notes are displayed as sixteenth notes separated by sixteenth rests the setting will remove the rests and show the notes as eighth notes. Detect Fine Resolution Notation Improved auto-transcription identifies and correctly displays up to 128th notes. If for some reason you prefer to disable it, there is an option to do so. To set a beat to a certain specific resolution right mouse-click on the Time Line located at the top of the Notation window. You'll then see a Beat Resolution dialog where you can set the resolution for both the Treble and Bass clefs. New Line each Use this setting to automatically start a new line on each chorus, on each chorus and the intro, or on each part marker. It applies to the Lead Sheet notation screen and to printing. If you want to control how many bars per line get displayed for a regular (non-fake sheet mode) display, use the Edit Settings for Current Bar (F5) options, and select “Notation - Start a New Line” on bars that you’d like a new line of notation. That setting, in combination with the Notation Window Options setting for “Bars/Screen,” and “New Line each” allow you to save custom settings for bars per line in non-fake sheet mode. R/L Cursor Edits This is used in the Keystroke Note Editing features. 216 Chapter 8: Notation and Printing Bar Number Font and % Select any installed font for the bar numbers and adjust its size in a percentage range from 10% to 1000%. These settings affect the notation, lead sheet, and printout. Display Font Size % To select the notation font size for display, enter the Display Font Size as a percentage, either more or less than 100%. The same setting is available in the Lead Sheet window and the Print dialog. Chord Vertical Position This controls how high the chords will be written above the staff. If set to 5 the chords will be written 5 notes above the top of the staff. If your piece contains a lot of high notes, then set the chord position to a high setting. Lyric Position You can adjust the height of the lyrics by setting the lyric height (smaller values like –8 are higher on the notation). Auto-Hand split Piano track When checked, the Piano track (not any other track) will be displayed on both clefs with intelligent hand-splitting. You can print out the Piano track with the hands separated. You can also manually split a piano part on a Melody or Soloist track using the intelligent hand-splitting routines. The left/right hands display in red/blue on the big piano, and on the bass/treble clefs on the notation. For example, if you have a MIDI file that is a solo piano piece, File | Open MIDI file will put the music on the Melody track. Then choose Melody | Edit | Utilities | Piano Hand Split. Make sure that Melody | Track Type is set to piano. You will then see the piano part split into 2 hands intelligently. Display Patch Names on Notation When this box is checked in the Notation Window Options, the patch name for the track is displayed on the notation, lead sheet, and printout. Chapter 8: Notation and Printing 217 [More] button The [More..] button opens the Other Notation Options dialog. Inserted Note Defaults These settings determine the default values for notes that you enter manually. Duration % Notes are not always played for their full duration. If a whole note is inserted with a duration of 80%, the note would play for 80% of 4 beats = 3.2 beats. Velocity The loudest possible note has a velocity of 127; a velocity of 0 is silent. 218 Chapter 8: Notation and Printing Channel Assign the MIDI channel of the inserted notes. Play Inserted Notes When checked, notes that you insert will sound briefly as they are inserted. This lets you hear that the note you inserted sounds correct. Advanced Notation Settings These advanced settings give you control over the clean notation features. Chord Note Separation in MS and Chord Total Separation in MS This lets you set the width of chords. Band-in-a-Box will display a new group of notes on the notation for every chord. If you know that a track is single notes and therefore couldn't have any chords, set the chord note separation to a small value like 10ms and then every note will be displayed on a new note stem. The chord width parameter is also used for the “chord step advance” feature. Glitch Duration in MS and Glitch Velocity When set properly, “Glitches” will not be shown on the notation. Any note less than a certain length of time or less than a certain velocity can be filtered out. Line Thickness Settings These settings allow you to control the thickness of various line elements of the notation. For example, if you set the Bar Line width to 200%, the bar lines will be twice as wide, and easier to see. This affects display and printout. Show Popup Hint for Note Properties If this is checked the note properties pop-up will open if you hover the mouse cursor over a note in the Editable Notation window. Confirmation Required to enter a note more than X Ledger Lines To prevent accidental entry of very high/low notes, this means that a confirmation dialog would be needed to enter notes with more than X ledger lines. Defaults button Click [Defaults] to have all modifications revert back to factory settings. Keystroke Note Editing You can easily edit notes using only keystrokes. 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. To use this function, you do the following: 1. Open up the Notation window. 2. Move the mouse cursor 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. Chapter 8: Notation and Printing 219 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. Press the Esc key or [Stop] button when you're done. Section Text for Notation You can add custom Section Text and Boxed Text messages at any position in the notation track, with optional box to appear around the text. To put a section text comment on the notation track: - Open up the notation window, and press the button to enable Editable Notation mode. Right click on the track at the point that you want to enter the section text. Answer YES to the question “Would you like to enter Section Text?” This launches the Section Text Event dialog box that allows you to type in the text. You can set the Text Event Type to “Boxed” or “Regular.” Easy Entry of Section Text on Notation Window Typing a backslash “\” followed by any text puts that text at the beginning of the current bar as a boxed section text message. For example, \Hello would put “Hello” in a boxed section text event. Typing \ launches the edit dialog for the section text. Type the section text that you want, such as “Guitar Solo”, and then press Enter. This text can be entered once per bar. You can use this for section headings, or even to enter lyrics bar by bar. Scrub Mode on Notation Scrub mode allows you to move the mouse over a group of notes and hear them playing. To enable the scrub mode, press the Scrub button in the Notation window toolbar. Then hold the mouse and drag it over the notes that you want to hear. 220 Chapter 8: Notation and Printing Lead Sheet Window The Lead Sheet window displays a full screen of notation with one or more parts. Other options include a selectable number of staffs per page, clefs to show, font size, margin, scroll-ahead notation, guitar chord diagrams, and lyrics. If you like to sight-read along with Band-in-a-Box, this is the window for you. Launch the Lead Sheet window from the main screen by pressing the Lead Sheet button (or Alt+W keys), or with the Window | Lead Sheet Window menu option. This button is also available from the Standard Notation window. As the notation scrolls ahead, you can read ahead without waiting for a page turn. During playback, red rectangles highlight the current bar. If the bar is empty (or in Fake Sheet mode), the Lead Sheet will draw the staff lines and bar lines in red. The Lead Sheet is also useful as a kind of “Print Preview” feature, as it offers you the ability to correlate the onscreen notation to a printout. You can move around the Lead Sheet window in various ways. Cursor keys and mouse clicks will move a small blue rectangle around the screen, which lets you type in chords at that location. Double-clicking the mouse at any bar will start playback from that position. Chapter 8: Notation and Printing 221 Selecting Parts in the Lead Sheet Click on the track selection toolbar to select a different track. The tracks are [B]ass, [D]rums, [P]iano, [G]uitar, [S]trings, [M]elody, and [S]oloist. To view multiple parts, click first on the button for the top part you want to view, and then hold down the Ctrl key and click on the other parts you want to view in the order you want to see them, from top to bottom. You will then see a group of tracks, displayed in the order that you requested them. To revert to a single track of notation, simply click on a track without holding the Ctrl key down. There is an option in the Lead Sheet Options dialog to allow you to display the chords above each track, or just the top track of the notation. If you press [Print] from the Lead Sheet window you will be able to print out the multiple tracks of notation. Lead Sheet window showing multiple parts. Lead Sheet Options Dialog Pressing the [Opt.] button in the Lead Sheet window or the [Leadsheet] button in the Preferences dialog launches the Lead Sheet Options dialog. The settings in this dialog are applicable to the Lead Sheet window only. If you want to set options that are shared by the Lead Sheet window and the Notation window, press the [Notation Options…] button. Treble Clef and Bass Clef These checkboxes choose which clefs will display in the Lead Sheet view. AutoSet Clefs When set, Band-in-a-Box will attempt to pick the clef for you automatically displaying the bass clef when you are on the bass track or any other track with low bass notes. It will show both clefs when on the piano or drum track. Clef Sign Every Line and Key Signature Every Line By default, the Clef and Key will be shown at the beginning of every page, but if you want one every line, you can check these options. 222 Chapter 8: Notation and Printing Band-in-a-Box have multiple keys in a song, the new key signature is shown on notation. Band-in-a-Box Lead Sheet Options dialog Chords and Staff Lines Both are shown by default. Uncheck this box if you don’t want them to display. Show Bar #s Choose whether the bar numbers will be shown for each bar, only at part markers, or not at all. Show Title If set, the song title will be displayed along with other information like Composer Names and Style information that is set in the Print Options dialog of the Notation window. To set these options choose File | Print from the menu. Fake Sheet displays multiple lines of lyrics shows lyrics for 1st and 2nd endings or multiple choruses stacked as multiple lines on the fake sheet. Fakesheet bars/line You can set a custom number of bars to display on each row of the fake sheet. For example, enter “4,6,4” in the Lead Sheet Window options and the program will use 4 bars for the first row, 6 for the second, and 4 for the rest. Fakesheet include ending bars Fakesheets can optionally include the 2-bar song ending. Restore Defaults You can reset all the Lead Sheet Options back to default settings by pressing the [Restore Defaults] button. Notation Options To set Options that are shared by the Lead Sheet window and the Notation window, press the [Notation Options…] button. Chapter 8: Notation and Printing 223 Margins Set margins for the Lead Sheet window, just like the margins in a word processor. For example, if you want the lead sheet window to only take up the top part of the screen, set a bottom margin (of, say, 2 inches) and then make the lead sheet window smaller by pulling the bottom up. This feature has no effect on printout; the Print dialog has its own margin settings. Show Chords above each track When using multiple tracks of Notation, this determines whether each track will show the chord names or not. Show track names for multi-track notation If checked, the Band-in-a-Box track names will be inserted at the start of each part in the multitrack notation display. Harmony display [Convert Harmony to track] will add a harmony to an existing Melody. [Remove] will remove the harmony from the track. Split Harmonies to different tracks enables the splitting of the harmonies to different tracks on the lead sheet. Show Harmony Voice allows you to select ALL tracks, which will cause each track to display on a different track on the Lead Sheet. Or select a specific Voice to display only that voice. For example, if you choose “Voice 2” and press OK, you'll now see just voice 2 of the harmony. You can control the volume of the selected harmony voice relative to the other voices in the harmony. The Play Volume of harmony voice setting can be set to: - Normal Harmony plays as normal. - Solo Only the selected voice will play. - 50% Solo Selected voice is much louder than other voices. - Quiet Selected Voice is much quieter than other voices. - Muted Selected Voice is muted. These settings are useful to sight-read along on harmonies, and learn to hear inner voices of a harmony. Staves Per Page The number of staves shown in the lead sheet can be set by typing in a number or using the [+] and [-] buttons. If “Auto-Set” is selected, the number of staves will be set automatically, attempting to fit the lead sheet on a single page. Font Size Choose the font size with one of the preset buttons for popular sizes, or type a number between 45% and 300% in the Lead Sheet Options dialog. - 224 Chapter 8: Notation and Printing Fake Sheet Mode The Lead Sheet window has its own Fake Sheet Mode checkbox. When it is NOT selected, the lead sheet will work as it always has (in linear mode). When Fake Sheet Mode IS selected, the form will show like a lead sheet, with only one chorus showing, and 1st/2nd endings and repeats displayed. The Fake Sheet can show multiple lines of lyrics for 1st and 2nd endings or several verses stacked in multiple lines. Multiple lines of Lyrics on Fake Sheet. If your song has 1st and 2nd endings or multiple verses of lyrics, multi-line lyrics can be displayed, so you’ll see all verses on the same fake sheet. Load in the song c:\bb\ Tutorial - BB 2005\Listen Multi-line lyrics Demo.MGU. Open the Lead Sheet and select “Fake Sheet Mode.” Chapter 8: Notation and Printing 225 This song has a 1st/2nd ending entered, with separate lyrics for each ending. Multiple lines of lyrics will also appear if there are lyrics in multiple verses (choruses). In the Notation Window Options, “Lyric Position” allows you to vertically position the height of the lyrics. Lead Sheet Memo You can enter a memo to add to the Lead Sheet printout. Click on the [Memo] button in the Lead Sheet to open the Lead Sheet Memo window. You can copy/paste from/to this memo. The text in the Lead Sheet Memo also displays in the Big Lyrics window. If you have lyrics in text format, it is easy to paste them in the memo and then see them on the Big Lyrics window as well. The memo will be automatically positioned after the end of the lead sheet and printout. Use extra blank lines in the Lead Sheet Memo to control where it displays on the page. There is an option to print the Lead Sheet memo on a new page of the printout. Press the [Choose Font] button to select the font you would like for the memo. A text block will be appended to the Lead Sheet window and printout. This could be song lyrics that you want appended to the end, multiple verses of lyrics, or any other text. 226 Chapter 8: Notation and Printing Harmony Notation Display Harmonies can be displayed on the Lead Sheet window (or printed) with separate notation tracks for each harmony voice. View each harmony on a separate track, or view/print a single harmony voice. To examine the harmony display features, load in the song “Night_T.MGU.” The melody of this song was previously converted to a harmony using the Melody | Edit | Convert Melody to Harmony option, so this song contains a harmony on the Melody part. Open the Notation window (Ctrl+W) and you'll see all four voices of the harmony on the same treble clef. Four-part harmony on single staff. Now open the Lead Sheet window. Band-in-a-Box now recognizes that this is a harmony (generated by Band-in-a-Box), and displays each voice on a separate track of the lead sheet. Chapter 8: Notation and Printing 227 For example, you can see the first Bb note has the other harmony voices playing G (drop 2), F, and D. Four-part harmony on four separate staves. Press the [Print] button to print out “Voice 2.” If needed, press the notation “Transpose Options” to first visually transpose the instrument to Eb for an “Alto Sax” chart. Multi-Channel Notation (Sequencer Mode) Normally you would want a single part on the Melody and Soloist tracks. But, since MIDI information can have separate channels, it is possible to store 16 separate parts on each of the Melody and Soloist parts. When one of these tracks has been set to “Multi(16)-Channel” we refer to this as sequencer mode. Now, when you are in this multi-channel mode, output from the Melody/Soloist part will be on whatever MIDI channel the information is stored on, and will not be using the Melody/Soloist MIDI channel. If you click on the Lead Sheet window, you’ll see the entire MIDI file displayed on separate tracks of notation. This is likely “too much information” to read, unless you are a symphony conductor. To customize the notation display for sequencer mode, press the Sequencer toolbar button, and see the settings for Multi-Channel Tracks. Press the “CUSTOM channels play/display” buttons to launch the Sequencer Window (Multi-channel track on Melody/Soloist) dialog. Then you can customize which channels will play and display. Lyrics Band-in-a-Box supports lyrics in three different ways, Note-based Lyrics, Line-based Lyrics, and a Big Lyrics (Karaoke) window. The complete list of lyrics functions is found in the Lyrics menu. 228 Chapter 8: Notation and Printing Note-based Lyrics Note-based lyrics offer accurate placement of lyrics by placing a word under each note. You can enter note-based lyrics by pressing Ctrl+L keys or pressing the [L] button on the Notation toolbar to open the Lyric Edit window. Lyric Edit Window The [Line] button enters a forward slash “/” line break marker in the current lyric. The [Para] button enters a backslash “ \” paragraph break marker in the current lyric. The [Enter] button enters the current lyric, equivalent to hitting Enter key or Tab key. The [Close] button closes the Lyrics Edit mode, equivalent to hitting the [L] button again. The [Section Text] button enters the text in the lyric box as section text at the current bar. The [Edit] button opens the Edit Lyrics dialog where lyrics and section text can be edited. As you enter the lyrics, the note is highlighted. Pressing the Tab or Enter key moves to the next note. You can “undo” lyrics with the Edit | Undo command. When you are finished a line of lyrics, hit the [Line] button. This enters a backslash “\” line break marker in the current lyric. Note-based lyrics are saved with the MIDI file, so you can use them in your other MIDI programs. Vertical placement is set in the Notation Options dialog. A setting of -10 puts the lyrics directly under the treble clef, higher values put them lower. 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 Edit Lyrics dialog. From here, you can Edit lyrics, Insert new lyrics, Append lyrics to the end of the track, or Delete lyrics. A single lyric event can be 128 characters. Chapter 8: Notation and Printing 229 The Lyrics Menu The complete list of Lyrics functions is found in the Lyrics menu. Enter Lyrics at current bar - Big Lyrics Window - Lyric Document Window - Copy Lyrics to Clipboard - Copy 1st chorus Lyrics to whole song - Erase all Lyrics Erase Note Lyrics only Kill Lyrics Choruses - Move Lyric ahead to time line Move Lyric back to time line - Timeshift Lyrics (ticks) Insert Beat(s) in Lyrics Delete Beat(s) from Lyrics Edit Lyrics as Event List - Opens the Lyric entry box at the current location of the timeline or highlight cell. Opens the Big Lyrics window for viewing lyrics and, optionally, chord symbols. Displays a full screen of formatted lyrics. Easily copy and paste lyrics to and from your favorite word processor. This function allows you to copy a song's lyrics (and/or the chords) to the Standard Windows Clipboard. By pasting this data into a word processor, you can print out the lyrics in the font of your choice. The dialog has options to allow copying of notebased and/or line-based lyrics. With either option you can choose to include the chord symbols, have double or single line spacing, and make margin settings. Copies the note-based lyrics for the first chorus to the rest of the song. Erases note-based and line-based Lyrics. Erases only the note-based lyrics. Select to kill lyrics in the First Chorus, Middle Choruses, or Last Chorus from a list box. If you have a note-based lyric that you want to time shift ahead or back, you can click on the time line at the destination that you want, and then choose this item. You can also shift lyric times using the Lyric Event list. These are functions that apply to the entire lyric track. They are useful when you're inserting bars or beats into the song and need to move the lyrics around to keep them in sync. Opens the Edit Lyrics dialog with Edit, Insert, Append, and Delete functions. Line-based Lyrics opens a submenu with additional features. 230 - Chapter 8: Notation and Printing Copy Line Lyrics to Note Lyrics converts line-based lyrics to note based lyrics. It is imprecise, because the linebased 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 Linebased 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 or down row(s)… moves a line of line-based lyrics up/down a number of rows. Erase Line-based Lyrics only erases only the line-based lyrics, preserving the note-based lyrics. Tip: Lyrics are printable above or below the chord line, or printed separately after song end. Lyrics will also support international characters such as è, š, and ó. Lyric Document Window The Lyric Document window displays a full screen of fully formatted lyrics so you can easily copy and paste lyrics to and from your favorite word processor. If you have the lyrics available you can quickly paste them into Band-ina-Box. You may already have the lyrics to your song typed into a word processor, nicely formatted with font/color/bold choices etc. Previously, you would need to retype them into Band-in-a-Box and would lose your formatting. Now Chapter 8: Notation and Printing 231 you can simply Copy/Paste them to/from your word processor. This allows you to quickly add lyrics to any Bandin-a-Box song, and they will display in the Big Lyrics window. You can open this window by choosing Window | Lyric Document Window, or pressing Ctrl+Alt+Shift+L. In addition, if “Auto-open lyrics window for songs with lyrics” is set to true in the Lyric Window Options dialog (Opt. | Preferences [Big Lyrics]), the Lyric Document Window will open up automatically when the song is loaded, and close when the next song is loaded. To use the window type or paste in text from a word processor. You can select fonts and colors as you would in a word processor. Since the data is stored in RTF format, it should look very similar to the appearance it would have in WordPad. You can transfer “line based” or “note based” lyrics from the Notation Screen of Band-in-a-Box to the Lyric Document window. Press the Copy Lyrics button to do this. This launches the Options for Copy Lyrics to Clipboard dialog allowing you to select which elements to copy (line lyrics/ note-based lyrics/ chords) and formatting options. Then click on [OK Copy to Text Clipboard]. A message will tell you that the lyrics have been copied to the clipboard. Click on [OK] to paste the lyrics into the Lyrics Document Window. These lyrics will then display in the Big Lyrics window. You can also print directly from this window and copy to/from the Song Memo (using copy/paste). Big Lyrics (Karaoke) Window The Big Lyrics window is great for sing along or Karaoke. It opens from the Lyrics menu, with the keystrokes Ctrl+Shift+L, or with the [L] toolbar button. Each word is highlighted as it plays, and the window can be customized by clicking on the [Options] button. Click on any word in the Big Lyrics window to start the song playing from that point. Lyric Window Options Add chord symbols, customize your color scheme, choose a favorite font, and select a size in the Lyric Window Options dialog. Chords can be displayed on a row above the lyrics on the Big Lyrics window. On the Big Lyrics window Options dialog, if you set “Show chord symbols above the lyrics,” you then see the chords written on a separate line. When there are no lyrics for a few bars, the Big Lyrics window displays the chords in a line divided by bars so that they are easy to read. Separate chord colors are used for the Chords and Lyrics, allowing these elements to be visually separated. You can also select the color for the chords in the options dialog. With this option selected the Big Lyrics scroll a page at a time. When the lyric cursor reaches the next-to-last line of the lyrics it will scroll to the top of the page, allowing uninterrupted reading of lyrics. 232 Chapter 8: Notation and Printing If you have the Lyrics window option “Auto-open lyrics window for songs with lyrics” selected, and a MIDI file (or .KAR) containing lyrics is opened, the lyrics window will open to show the lyrics. The popular Karaoke file format (.KAR) can be opened directly into Band-in-a-Box just like MIDI files. Chord symbols are displayed (Band-in-a-Box intelligently analyzes the chords of the song), as well as the lyrics from the Karaoke files. Karaoke MP3/CDG Files Audio Karaoke files are popular using several formats. The most common is CDG format, which includes the lyrics in graphic format on audio CDs. Since the computer user doesn’t always use audio CDs, there is a format that combines MP3 (containing the music) and CDG (the graphical lyrics). You can open up MP3/CDG files inside Band-in-a-Box and see the scrolling lyrics from your Karaoke files. If you want to play along on your own instrument, you can use the Audio Chord Wizard to figure out the chords and display them in its Chord window. To Open a Karaoke File, use File | Open, and find a WAV, MP3, or WMA file that has a same named CDG file in the same folder. Then the Karaoke window will open and display the lyrics. The Big Lyrics window has some options for the Karaoke window. Chapter 8: Notation and Printing 233 You can choose to have a background to the window, either a moving one, or fixed picture. These pictures are in the c:\bb\KaraokeBMP folder, and you can add your own BMP or JPG image to that folder. The Big Lyrics window’s [Print] button opens the Options for Copy Lyrics to Clipboard dialog. This function allows you to copy a song's lyrics (and/or the chords) to the standard Windows clipboard. By pasting this data into a word processor, you can print out the lyrics in the font of your choice. The dialog has options to allow note-based and/or line-based lyrics to be copied to the clipboard. With either option you can choose to include the chord symbols, have double or single line spacing, and make margin settings. Process Lyric Lines cleans up the display of lyrics by inserting and/or removing extra spaces in line-based lyrics. Printing Band-in-a-Box prints Lead Sheet style notation with chords, melodies, lyrics, and text notes. It will also print instrument parts from your Band-in-a-Box arrangements, either individual instruments or multiple parts. Most songs will fit on one page, so your printout will look similar to a standard fake book. You can easily make and print out a custom fake book of all of your tunes. Instantly transpose and print parts for brass or reed instruments. Print options include title, bar numbers, composer, style, and copyright information. Print Options Pressing the printer button launches the Print Options dialog box. Print options include title, bar numbers, composer, style, and copyright. 234 Chapter 8: Notation and Printing Customize your printed sheet music in the Print Options dialog box. Chords If selected, this will include the chords of the song on the lead sheet. Remember that you can set the height that the chords will appear in a different dialog box (the Options Dialog box). Notes If you want only a chord lead sheet with no Notes, then turn this off. Otherwise it should be ON. Staff Lines Set to off (uncheck) to print a “chords only” fake sheet with chord symbols and bar lines but no staff lines or notation. Treble Clef Normally you will want to include the treble clef unless you're printing a bass part or left hand piano part alone and want to save space. Bass Clef For melodies or solos, you probably won't want the bass clef printed. For other parts (piano, bass, drums, etc.) you should set this option to YES. AutoSet Clefs With this setting the program will print only the clefs that are necessary. For example, a Melody would probably print with just the treble clef, while a bass part would use only the bass clef, and a piano part would use both clefs. Tab Enables tablature display and printout for guitar and bass tracks. Clef Split At This determines where the notation will split the treble and bass clefs. Middle C is normally considered to be C5, and C4 is one octave below. For a melody or soloist part, you will probably want the entire part to be printed on the treble clef, so you could choose to split the clefs at C4. Chapter 8: Notation and Printing 235 Show Bar #s There are options to include the bar # on the printout (e.g., every bar, every part marker, every row, every page). Template There are print templates in the print dialog to achieve various printout styles - Normal/Lyrics Only/Chords and Lyrics/Chords Only/Blank Paper. In the print dialog, select the desired print template. To return to default settings choose the “Normal” template Bar #s Below By This sets the vertical position of the bar numbers in the printout between 1 and 7. 1 is closest to the staff and 7 is farthest from the staff (lowest). Lyrics Lyrics can either be printed above the chords, below the staff, separately at the end (on a separate page), or not printed at all. Normally lyrics are printed below the staff. Clef Sign Every Line Leave this unchecked if it’s not needed and you want an uncluttered look. Key Signature Every Line Most modern fake books don't include the key signature every line. If you would like to see a key signature at every line, set this to “Yes.” Print Note-based Lyrics Set to “Yes” to print the Melody part with Lyrics, or turn off to print just the music for the melody line. Print Range (First Chorus/Last Chorus/Whole Song) You can either print the First chorus, the Last chorus, or the whole song. When you change this setting, Band-in-aBox will reset the number of staves per page setting in order to auto-fit the printout to one page, if possible. Tip: You'll want to print the last chorus in a song that has a tag ending, or if you want to see a 2-bar ending printed. Custom A specific range of bars can be printed, either by highlighting a region or entering a range of bars. To print out, for example, bars 11 to 16 of a song in the Print Options dialog, press the [Custom] button, and enter the range bar 11 for 5 bars. The song will then print only that range of 5 bars. Include Lead-In If your song has a lead-in (pickup) to bar 1 then make sure you've checked the Lead-In. Actually, Band-in-a-Box sets this for you by looking for notes in the lead-in measure. You can override this automatic setting, if necessary. Font Size This is the font size for the printed music. Changes will be seen in the Print Preview. Staves per page Band-in-a-Box will automatically auto-fit on 1 page, use this to override the auto setting. Remember that the title takes up 1 stave. The “Auto-Set” option will set the number automatically, and will try to fit the lead sheet on a single page. 236 Chapter 8: Notation and Printing Click here to set margins. You can also select the Always fill tempo option, which automatically writes the current tempo on the song sheet. On print out, if “Include ‘a’ / ’b’ part markers” is set bar numbers will include “a” or “b” after them (the name of the substyle). Use “Offset Bar Numbers by” to offset the display of bar numbers on the prinout or lead sheet. For example, if you want bar 1 to display as bar 17, enter an offset of 16. Title/Style/Tempo/Composer/Copyright Enter this information in the fields provided. If the title is long the font size will be reduced, and the title won’t be underlined. Titles are limited to 60 characters. - Click the [A] button to print the title in upper case. - The [T] button automatically inserts the current tempo setting for the song. - The [©] button will insert the copyright symbol into the copyright field. - The [S] button will enter the full style name into the Style field. Setup Printer This launches the setup dialog box for your printer. If you choose a new printer, Band-in-a-Box will automatically set this as your default printer. Click on the [Setup…] button to open the printer properties to set paper size, resolution, page orientation and other settings controlled by the printer driver. Tip: In the Notation Options you can specify an upper limit of a note range with the “Max Ledger Lines” setting high so notes won’t have an excessive number of ledger lines. Print Preview This feature allows you to preview what the printed pages will look like by displaying them on-screen. Use the [Prior], [Next], [First], and [Last] buttons to navigate additional pages. Press the [Opt] button to open the Preview Options dialog. Chapter 8: Notation and Printing 237 In the Preview Options you can set the exact number of pixels to display for the print preview, the same settings are also used if you choose to save the pages to a graphics file in the popular .JPG, .TIF, or .BMP file types. Printing your song to a graphics file allows you to embed your notation in a document, or in an HTML file for use on your web site. This feature is only limited by available memory. This allows high resolution BMP’s like 2400 x 3000. A BMP of 2400x3000 is 300 dpi for an 8”x10” image. When saving to a JPG file there are additional quality settings. When you have selected your file options press the [OK] button. You will then see a high-res graphic on screen, and you can save that to a BMP using the [Save…] button. To save a JPG file press the [Save…] button and then select “Save to File Type:” JPG. You can then see the estimated size of the file, and can change settings by pressing the Low/Medium/High resolution buttons. Display Options Use this button to display the notation across the full width of the screen. This button will shrink the notation to display a full page at a time. Saving the page(s) as Graphics files The [Save…] button saves the current page as a Graphics file. The [Save + +] button saves all of the pages to graphics files named songnamexxx.bmp, where xxx is the page number. With the clipboard button you can quickly copy a bitmap to paste into other applications. Printing from the Print Preview You can print the page(s) by pressing the [Print…] button to return to the Print Options and then pressing the [OK – Print] button. In the Print Options you can set the number of copies to print. Press the [PrintPage] button to enter a page number and print only that page, not the complete song or a full chorus. 238 Chapter 8: Notation and Printing Chords-Only Lead Sheet Display and Printout Need a simple fake book style chord chart? You can display just the chords in the Lead Sheet window or print out a lead sheet with just chord symbols. To print a chords-only lead sheet, uncheck the Staff lines checkbox in the Print Options dialog. Band-in-a-Box chords-only Lead Sheet. There are print templates in the Print Options dialog to achieve various printout styles - Normal/Lyrics Only/Chords and Lyrics/Chords Only/Blank Paper. In the Print Options dialog, select the desired print template. To return to default settings choose the “Normal” template. Printing Multiple Parts To print more than one track of notation: - Open the Lead Sheet window. - Click the mouse on the track that you want on the top stave. - Ctrl+click (hold down the Control key and click the mouse) on the tracks that you want below the top stave. You will then see a group of tracks, displayed in the order you selected them. Note: When you are viewing Multiple Tracks of notation, the clefs will be auto-set for you, ignoring the clef settings in the Lead Sheet options window. For example, the bass would always be on bass clef, you won’t be able to see it on bass and treble clef. Press [Print] from the Lead Sheet window to print the multipart Band-in-a-Box notation. Chapter 8: Notation and Printing 239 Print Preview of Band-in-a-Box multipart notation including guitar chord diagrams. Print Multiple Songs To print out a single song you use the [Print] button in the Notation window. If you want to print out several songs, use the Print Multiple Songs feature to print them all out at once. 240 Chapter 8: Notation and Printing This allows you to print all of the songs in a subdirectory with one command. This feature is accessed from the File | Print Multiple Songs menu item. You can set options to refine which songs will get printed. For example, you might want to only print songs in a certain style (e.g. Bossa Novas ), or only songs beginning with letters R to Z, or only songs with melodies. Before you print out a whole bunch of songs, it is important to set the options that you'd like, as the program will use the same options for each song. Use the Print Options dialog box. Perhaps you want to print out only the first chorus of each song, for example. The program will automatically set each song to print out on 1 page if possible. First, make sure that you are in the correct directory that you want to print. This is displayed in the [Change Directory] button. For example, if the box under the [Change Directory] button says “C:\bb” then the songs in C:\bb will be printed. If you want to print songs in a different subdirectory, then press the [Change Directory] button. If you want to print all of the songs in a subdirectory, then press the [All Songs] button. Pressing this button sets the “Start” and “Finish” ranges to start at “ 0 “ (blank) and finish at “ZZ.” Since song files with names like 8dayweek.mgu will appear before the letter A when sorted alphabetically, the blank string “ 0” is used instead of the letter A to ensure the inclusion of all songs. Normally you'll want the “Range of Songs to Print” set to “All Songs,” but if you've already printed out songs from A to M, and want to resume printing starting at N, you can specify this range N to Z so that you don't have to print out everything again. If “Only print songs with melodies” is set then only files that have a melody in them (i.e., song files ending in mg?) will print. “Only print songs with style extension of _” is useful if you want to only print out certain styles. For example if you only want to printout Jazz Swing songs, then you can set this to style 1 which is Jazz Swing. Style 4 is Bossa Nova. The 24 built-in styles each have a number associated with them. All user styles have a style character of U. Here are the style #s for the built in styles. Jazz Swing 1 Heavy Rock D Country 12/8 2 Miami Sound E Country 3 Milly Pop F Bossa 4 Funk G Ethnic 5 Jazz Waltz 3/4 H Blues Shuffle 6 Rhumba I Blues Even 7 Cha Cha J Waltz (Old) 3/4 8 Bouncy 12/8 K Chapter 8: Notation and Printing 241 Pop Ballad 9 Irish L Shuffle Rock A Pop Ballad 12/8 L Light Rock B Country old 12/8 M Medium Rock C Reggae N If your printer requires loading each sheet, you might want the program to beep after each printed song. The “Beep after each printed song” setting is useful to monitor the printout if you aren't near your printer, because if it stops beeping, then printout has stopped, and you may be out of paper. “When completed, beep “x” times” will notify you that the job is finished by beeping a specified number of times. These buttons start and stop printing the multiple songs. Band-in-a-Box monitors the Print Manager to avoid overloading it with songs to print. So if the Print Manager has more than 2 songs waiting to print, Band-in-a-Box will pause before printing a new song. If your printer runs out of paper, the Windows Print Manager and Band-in-a-Box will wait for you to put more paper in before automatically resuming printout. The status of the Printout is displayed at the top of the dialog box. 242 Chapter 8: Notation and Printing Chapter 9: Automatic Music Features Automatic Medleys - “The Medley Maker” Would you like to make a medley of various Band-in-a-Box songs (MGU) using Band-in-a-Box? This is easily done with the new Medley Maker. Inside the Medley Maker, simply select the songs that you want, and Band-in-aBox will make the medley for you. A medley is not simply joining songs together. A good medley uses a transition between songs to introduce the new style, key, and tempo. The Medley Maker automatically creates a nice transition area for you, writing in chords that would smoothly modulate to the next song, style, key, and tempo! To open the Medley Maker, click on the [A+B] button on the toolbar or choose File | Medley Maker. This launches the Medley Maker dialog. To make a medley, - Add songs by pressing the [Append] or [Insert] button. - Remove songs using [Delete]. - Change the order of the songs using [Move Up], [Move Down]. - For any song, customize using the “Settings for this song” group box, including changing the style, tempo, key, start bar, # of bars, and # of transition bars. Press [Update] to see your changes in the medley list. - Choose the type of information to include with your medley (styles, key signature changes, lyrics, etc.) in the “Include with Songs” group box - Choose a number of transition bars (the default is 4). Transition bars are automatic bars of chords inserted by Band-in-a-Box to transition from one song to the other, generating an “outro” and an “intro” between songs. Press the [Make Medley NOW] button to generate a medley. The maximum size of the medley is 255 bars (about 7 minutes). Chapter 9: Automatic Music Features 243 The current size and time of your medley is displayed in the Length label. You can have multiple choruses, so if you had 3 choruses of a 250 bar medley, it would last 750 bars. Tip: Your medley will use RealDrums if you have RealDrums enabled. If so, you should keep the various tempos of the songs within a close range. Because the quality of the RealDrums stretching would go down if a song in the medley had a much lower tempo than the previous one, it is tempos that slow down to avoid. Automatic Songs – “The Melodist” Feel like composing a brand new song? Using the “Melodist” feature you can compose a new song in the style of your choice, complete with intro, chords, melody, arrangement, etc. All you have to do is choose from one of the many “Melodists” available and press [OK] button. The program then creates the intro, chords, melody, and arrangement in any given style. The Melodist will also generate a melody over an existing chord progression. Once the song is generated, the chords and melody are part of the regular Band-in-Box tracks, and as such can be edited, printed, saved as MIDI file, etc. You can also regenerate any part of a song to further refine your Band-in-aBox compositions. A Melodist “Jukebox” mode creates and performs new compositions in succession. Besides the compositional advantages of the Melodist, utilizing this feature can also be a powerful practicing aid for improving your sight reading by reading the melodies generated in various keys using the Lead Sheet window, and improving your ear by playing along with the chord progressions in the generated songs using the ear training window. This feature can be a powerful practicing aid for sight reading and improving your ear. Press the [Melodist] toolbar button to launch the Melodist. 244 Chapter 9: Automatic Music Features The left side of this screen displays the list of the Melodists available, including Pop, Swing, Bossa, Waltz, Rock, Bebop, and Jazz Ballad. Selecting the “All” checkbox displays all available Melodists, or they can be filtered by genre (e.g. Dixieland) to show only melodists in that genre. To filter the Melodists, de-select the “All” checkbox and then check on the genre that you are interested in. You can also filter to show/not show melodists from Melodist sets that you don’t have. Scroll down the list, and pick the Melodist that you'd like to use. The Melodist will generate Intro, Chords, Melody Harmony, Style, and Solos using the group of settings preset with the selected Melodist. Scroll down the list, and pick a Melodist that you'd like to use. Generate Chords / Generate Melody / Generate Intros / Auto-Titles The items that are selected will be generated. The convenient preset buttons will automatically set the appropriate settings to popular presets. The [Chords & Mel.] button will set the checkboxes to Generate Chords & Melody (but not Solos). The [All] button will generate Chords, Melody, and Solos. The [Chords] button sets the options to generate Chords only (no Melody). The [Melody] button will set the options to generate only a Melody (no chords) over an existing chord progression. Insert Bass Pedals When selected, a Pedal Bass figure will be inserted during the intro and at the end of sections. Solo in Middle Choruses This will generate an improvisation in the middle choruses of the song. Any Soloist can be selected. Allow Style Changes When selected, this option allows a Melodist to load in an associated style. If you don't want Melodists to change the current style that you have loaded, then de-select this option. Form This selection box allows you to choose between a song generated with a specific form (AABA 32 bars) or “free” form. The AABA defaults to 32-bar form, which is the most popular song form. If you'd prefer for the song to have no form, you could set the song to “no form” This wouldn't be a very musical setting, but might be useful for practicing or ear training. Tip: Melodists may alternatively be set to 64 bars (e.g. Melodist # 18 ColeP 64 bar form). The song form refers to the pattern that the verse and chorus repeat. An “AABA 32” form has 4 sections of 8 bars each: the “A” section is the verse and the “B” is the chorus (or bridge) of the song. # Choruses This determines how many choruses of the song form (Melodies) are to be generated. For example, if set to 5, the Melodist will generate 5 choruses, enough for an intro chorus, ending chorus, and 3 Middle Choruses. The # choruses setting defaults to the # choruses present in the current song. This button sets the Melodist back to its default settings. Tempo / Auto Tempo The Tempo Setting determines the tempo of the song, and defaults to the current tempo of the previous song. If the “AutoTempo” is checked, the tempo will be set at the tempo range stored within that Melodist. For example, if a Melodist is called “Fast Waltz,” it would have a fast tempo range stored inside the Melodist, and the song would be generated at a fast tempo if the “AutoTempo” option is set. Chapter 9: Automatic Music Features 245 A2 Transpose In songs with an AABA form, it is common for the second “A” section to be transposed. For example, the first “A” section might be in the key of Eb, and the second would be transposed up to the key of Gb. Melodists store these settings, and some Melodists are set to transpose the A2 sections. If you don't want to allow Melodists to transpose the form in this way, set the A2 transpose to none. If set to “section plus” it will transpose the A2 section, and might also transpose 2 bars early or 2 bars late. The song will only get transposed if the particular Melodist is set to transpose the section. This feature is discussed in more detail in the Melody Maker section. This area determines the key for the song. If set to “Any Key” the program will randomly pick a key for the song, weighed more heavily toward the popular keys (C, F, etc.). “min. key%” determines what % of songs are generated in minor keys vs. major keys. If set to 20, then 20% of the songs would be generated in minor keys. Select whether you want to generate the Whole Song or just part of it. If you select Part of Song, you can specify which bar and chorus to start at, and how many bars to generate. Tip: You can also set the “Song Key Combo” box to a specific key, or set it to use the current key of the previous song. If you want to generate only part of a song, an easy way to set the range of bars is to highlight/select the bars by dragging the mouse over the chord area prior to launching the Melodist dialog. Then the “Generate” form will be automatically set to “Part of Song” and the range of bars will be set to the selected area. Replace Thru form If you have set the Melodist to “Generate Part of Song” you might choose to generate only bars 5 and 6 of the song form in the “A” section of an AABA form. If the form of the song is AABA, you'd normally want the regenerated section to be repeated throughout the form in all of the “A” sections. This option will instruct the Melodist to copy the generated bars 5 and 6 to the other “A” sections (bars 13 and 14 and bars 29 and 30). Tip: If you'd like to remove the current Intro, Melody, or Soloist Track, press the [Kill Intro], [Kill Melody] or [Kill Soloist] button. Press the [Search] button and type in part of a Melodist name, memo, style name, or other text associated with a Melodist. This will cause the Melodist selection to change to the next item containing the text. Similarly, you can type in a # of a Melodist and press the [Go To #] button. The Memo area displays a memo for the current Melodist, as well as the name of the database (e.g. MELPOP1.ST2) used for that Melodist. Instrument / Harmony / Style / Change Instruments Melodists can store patch and harmony settings, and these are displayed in the Instrument area of the Melodist selection screen. You can also set the instrument to change each chorus. You can override the settings of the current Melodist and choose your own patch, harmony and change instrument settings in these controls. The Melodist Juke Box Press [Juke Songs Now] button to launch the Melodist Jukebox. It will continuously generate new songs and play them in Jukebox fashion. Using the “From…To” setting, you can set the range of Melodists to include in the Jukebox, or keep the Jukebox on the same Melodist by deselecting “Change Melodists.” Write to track Usually, the Melodist is written to the Melody track. If you'd prefer the Melody to be written to the Soloist track, perhaps as a counter-melody, then change this setting to Soloist. 246 Chapter 9: Automatic Music Features The Favorites button in the Generate Chords and/or Melody dialog allows you to pick a Melodist that you've used recently. The Favorite Melodists dialog keeps track of the last 50 melodists that you've used, so you can easily recall them. Highlight the melodist you want to use and press the [OK] button, or double-click on the selection you would like to make. If you'd like to create your own Melodists, or permanently change the settings of existing Melodists, press the [Edit…] button to launch the Melodist Maker. Automatic Intro – Song Intros With a single button you can generate a 2, 4, or 8-bar intro for any song. The chords will be different each time, and you can keep pressing until you get the progression that you want. The intro generated is an appropriate chord progression in the chosen style of music (e.g. Jazz/Pop), with optional pedal bass, and leads correctly to the first chord of the song. Intros can also be removed. Press the [Intro] button or select Edit | Intro Bars to generate an intro. Once you press the [Intro] button, the Intro Dialog is displayed. Pressing this button will insert or replace an intro in the song, with the given settings. Chord Types - You can choose between Jazz and Pop styles of chords. Intro Length (bars) - This sets the duration of the intro to 2, 4, or 8 bars. Starting chord (after intro) is - This setting assures the generated intro smoothly transitions into the song. Remove Intro - Pressing this button removes the intro. Pedal Bass - Inserts a pedal bass figure throughout the intro. Use Maj7 instead of Maj6 - Choose between using Maj7 or Maj6 chords. Note: The Melodist also has settings to auto-generate intros and song titles. Chapter 9: Automatic Music Features 247 Automatic Song Title Generation The Song Title generator names every song that the Melodist writes, if the Auto-Titles checkbox is selected. This feature can be used on its own to suggest titles for your own compositions. It will keep making titles until you get one you like. Press the [TITLE] button to generate a song title , a new title will appear immediately in the title area of the screen. Click again for another one. Select Edit | Undo Title to go back one title. Customizing the song title generator These word lists stored in a text file calledTITL1.TXT. This file has several sections, each with two sets of words that will be put together. You can add new sections, with an adjective section and a noun section. Please see the comments included in the file TITL1.TXT for details on adding text to the file. Automatic Sound Track Generator - “SoundTrack” The SoundTrack feature allows you to generate music in the style you choose for any length of time you specify. As the “producer,” you select the genre, length of time, instruments, and fade-in/fade-out options. The SoundTrack adjusts the tempo and duration to match the settings, and then allows you to save the file as a WAV, WMA (Windows Media Audio), or MP3 file for further use in your own projects. Generate original music (over 20 genres) or select from over 50 supplied SoundTrack types (Bluesy/Excite/Healing/Jazzy/Tropics, etc.). For example, you can generate a 30-second audio music clip in the genre of your choice in just a few seconds! To use the SoundTrack feature, press the SoundTrack button (on the toolbar at right/middle of screen), or choose the Window | Generate Soundtrack menu item. You will then see the Generate SoundTrack window. Note: The SoundTrack feature renders to audio files (WAV/WMA/MP3) using DXi or VSTi synths only. You need to have at least 1 DXi/VSTi synth installed for the feature to work. Typical Band-in-a-Box installations include the Roland VSC DXi. First, you should load in a song. There are several types of songs that you can load in: You can generate a brand-new-royalty free composition by pressing the [Generate Song Now] button, after choosing a Genre and variation. You can choose from over 100 premade “SoundTrack” compositions that we have made. These are designed to be suitable for background music for various uses. 248 Chapter 9: Automatic Music Features You can load in existing songs, song demos that we have provided for the styles, or songs that have RealDrums, or finally there is a button to load in any song. Please note, if using an existing song (composed by someone else), make sure that you have sufficient rights to use the song for your project. Once you have loaded in a song, you can now choose a portion of the song to use for your project. Assume that you want a 30 second clip of music. Set the desired duration to 30 seconds. Then press the [Adjust # of bars and Tempo] button. This will give a number of bars at a tempo that closely matches your current settings, that will last 30 seconds. Adjust the “Starts at Bar” of the music. To start at the beginning, choose bar 1. Chapter 9: Automatic Music Features 249 You can choose which instruments to include in the arrangement. Use the [Play] and [Stop] buttons to hear the work-in-progress. You can also loop the song playback. Now, generate your SoundTrack file. This will save a file in WAV, WMA, or MP3 format. Set Fade-in, Fade-Out options in seconds for the audio clip. You can hear your finished audio clip by pressing the [Preview] button. Automatic Solo Generation – “The Soloist” To select a pre-made Soloist, click on the [Soloist] button on the toolbar, or press Shift+F4, or choose Soloist | Generate and Play a Solo. The “Select Soloist” window opens. Pick a type of Soloist in the “Soloist type” list box and choose the appropriate style, or enable the “Auto” checkbox and press the [Suggest] button next to it. This brings up a list of Soloists in that style; simply choose which one you like. You can select genres of soloists (e.g. Modern Jazz) and see only soloists in that genre. To do this, de-select the “All Genres” checkbox, and then check on the genre that you are interested in. The [Fav] button on the Select Soloist window brings up a list of the most recently used (favorite) 50 Soloists. The Soloists that you use most often will likely be at or near the top of this list, making it easier to select the Soloist you want than scrolling through your entire list of available Soloists. Select the “Double Time?” checkbox (set to “true”) if you want a double-time solo; 16th notes instead of 8ths. You can also filter to show/not show soloists from Soloist sets that you don’t have. If you can’t find the Soloist you’re looking for, try pressing the [Search] button to type in part of a name to search for. Go To# box allows you to select from the list exactly which Soloist to choose (if known). The “Memo” field has a brief description of the Soloist style, and the name of the current database is shown. 250 Chapter 9: Automatic Music Features The pre-made Soloists may set the style, instrument, and harmony, but you can change these settings to your own choices. The [Clear] buttons will remove the currently selected Instrument, Harmony, or Style. Use the [Choose(1)] button to select an instrument and automatically set the soloist note range for that instrument. For a harmonized solo, choose a harmony from the Harmony list. Use the [Choose(2)] button to select any style from the \bb folder. RealTracks “Real” instruments replace the MIDI track for that instrument, and can be controlled just like the MIDI instrument (volume changes, muting etc.). Best of all, they follow the chord progression that you have entered, so that you hear an authentic audio accompaniment to your song. These are not “samples,” but are full recordings, lasting from 1 to 8 bars at a time, playing along in perfect sync with the other Band-in-a-Box tracks. RealTracks can be generated to the Soloist (or Melody) track. Get to Soloists in the range 361-363. You can do that either by: 1. 2. Typing 361 and pressing [Go To #]. Choosing [Fav] will allow you to return to a recently chosen Soloist. Chapter 9: Automatic Music Features 251 3. Choose the Genre “RealTracks (audio soloists)” from the list of genres to see all available Soloists that use RealTracks. As with other Soloists, press the [All Solo] button to make sure that the Soloist will be generated for all choruses, or [Melody and Solo] if you just want the Soloist for a certain chorus. Your RealTracks solo will be saved with the song and the Soloist track will be frozen and marked with an asterisk (*). Soloist generated with RealTracks are saved with the song, so you will hear the RealTracks play the same solo when you reload the song. Solo Mode In Normal Solo Mode, Band-in-a-Box solos in the normal way of improvising choruses of the song. Several other options are provided for adding improvisation to your song in a variety of ways, including Fills, Around Melody, Trade, Solo Wizard, and a user-defined Custom setting. Fills% Fill instructs the Soloist to play fills or “noodle” on the song for a user-defined period of time (% box). Around Melody To solo around the Melody, do the following: - Open up a song that has a Melody, preferably a sparse Melody with some space in it so that a Soloist might be able to “jump in.” - Press the [Soloist] button. Select the Solo Mode “Around Melody.” - Set the Soloist to play in All Choruses, and uncheck the “Mute Melody in Middle” option. - Press [OK] and the Solo will be generated, playing riffs at times when the Melody isn't playing. Tip: For added effect, add a guitar chord solo to the Soloist part using the Chord Solo button in the Guitar window and choosing Solo as the destination, or simply choose a Guitar Harmony like 32 J Pass. Trade There is a type of soloing where different soloists trade phrases. For example, “trading fours” refers to a solo lasting four bars, usually followed by a different melodic solo or drum solo for the next four bars. Band-in-a-Box can trade 2, 4, or 8-bar phrases. This means that you can alternate your own phrases with those played by the Soloist. Click on the number button beside the “Trade” radio button to toggle between trading 2’s, 4’s, or 8’s. Band-in-a-Box can generate the first phrase or the second phrase. Soloist Wizard This option in the Select Soloist dialog enables the Soloist Wizard. As you play notes on either a MIDI keyboard connected to the computer or on the QWERTY keyboard, the program will play correct notes in the style of the current Soloist! This means that you can play a “perfect” solo every time, simply by pressing any key on your MIDI keyboard or QWERTY keys. Tip: The Soloist will use the velocities you play or pick its own, depending on the setting in Opt | Preferences | Use MIDI velocity for Soloist Wizard. 252 Chapter 9: Automatic Music Features Custom Solo Generation The [Custom] button located on the Soloist Selection dialog launches the Generate Solo for a Specific Range of Bars dialog. This allows you to set the range for the solo: Tip: You can have these values preset to the values you'd like by first selecting/highlighting the range of bars that you'd like from the Chordsheet screen, then clicking on the Soloist button. In real life, a Soloist tends to play a couple of extra notes after the solo section ends. Setting “OK to solo for an extra beat”allows the Band-in-a-Box soloist to behave in the same way. If you want to overdub a solo and you have multiple solo tracks going at once, de-select “Overwrite existing solo in range.” Once you press the [Generate Solo Now] button, the portion of the solo that you have selected will be (re)generated. The song will automatically start playing 2 bars before the new part, so you can quickly hear the new solo. There are additional buttons and checkboxes to further define the Soloist. Auto-Suggest If the “Auto” checkbox in the Select Soloist Dialog is on, you will find that an appropriate soloist is already selected for you. If you would like a different soloist, press the [Suggest] button and Band-in-a-Box will suggest another appropriate choice. Keep pressing until you are satisfied with the choice. Load/Save settings w/song These settings allow the saving and loading of Soloist settings. Enable these checkboxes if you with to load and save these settings with a song. Force to # of Choruses Allows you to set a song to a definable number of choruses (e.g. 5) so that there are enough choruses for everyone to take a turn Soloing. This box allows you to quickly decide how many choruses you would like Band-in-a-Box to generate without having to open the Play | Looping | Force loaded songs to # choruses menu item. The default is 5. Note that when this setting is enabled (by setting the checkbox to “true”), all songs subsequently loaded using this Soloist will also change to the number of choruses indicated in this box. Solo Which Choruses? Select which choruses you would like the Soloist to solo over. Choose from first, middle, last, any combination, or all three choruses. Press the [All Solo] button if you wish to have the Soloist play over everything. Press the [Melody & Solo] button to have the Melody play the first chorus, then have the Soloist come in on the second chorus, then have the Melody “play the tune out” on the last chorus. Melody Influenced Solos When musicians solo for a song, the solo is typically influenced by the melody as well as the chords. Band-in-aBox can also allow the melody to influence the type of solo generated by its Soloist feature. The result is a much better solo generated for the song. Chapter 9: Automatic Music Features 253 A strength (%) setting allows you to control how much the solo will be influenced by the melody. Choose the melody influence (%), and one of several presets to control the type of influence (pitches/rhythms/note density, etc.). To generate a solo that is influenced by the Melody, select the Enabled checkbox in the “Melody Influences Solo” group box. Then choose the type of influence by choosing a strength (0 to 100%) and a type. The default method works best on simple melodies or Pop tunes, and others work on Jazz and complex melodies. Melody Influenced Soloist Settings A “Custom” method is available, allowing you to launch a dialog that let’s you change various parameters to control how the solo will match the notes, rhythm, and density of the melody. When this method is selected a [+...] button will display. Click on this button to open the Melody Influenced Soloist Settings dialog. Enable Melody Influenced Soloist – enables melody influenced soloing when selected (true). Overall strength – how much you want the melody to influence the solo. First melody note MUST match riff – the first note of the riff must match the pitch of the melody at this point in the song. Last melody note MUST match riff - the last note of the riff must match the ptich of the melody at this point in the song. Overall Melody MUST match riff – the pitch needs to be found somewhere in the riff for this condition to be true. 254 Chapter 9: Automatic Music Features Target Phrase Anchor Point score – phrase anchor points are points where both the pitch and timing of the Melody note and the riff match each other. Rhythm Matches – per cent of time that a melody note is found at the same time as the note in the riff at the same point (pitch is irrelevant). Density -# of Notes Matches – the number of notes in the melody compared to the number of notes in the solo. For example, 8 melody, 10 solo = 80%. Note: If set to exactly 49, 59, 69 etc., soloist will stay quieter when the melody is not playing. If Melody is not playing, then soloist is not playing Passing Notes acceptable % - percentage of time that passing notes in the riff are OK (if not found in the melody). For example, if set to 20%, it is OK if 20% of the notes are passing notes. Melody – Favor phrases that match melody – higher numbers will make the soloist follow the melody more. Soloist Maker The [Soloist Maker [Edit] button launches the Soloist Editor module where you can make your own or modify an existing Soloist. This feature allows you to define your own Soloists. See the following Soloist Maker topic for a full description of this feature. This button launches the More Soloist & Melodist Settings dialog. This dialog can also be accessed from the Opt. | Preferences [Soloist] button. Set “Use MIDI Volume for Soloing Wizard” to true if you want MIDI velocity information sent to the Soloing Wizard. If you have a velocity sensitive MIDI device attached to your computer and you want to control the dynamics of the Soloist, you should enable this feature. Set the “Trigger Playback Early” to true to enable song playback to start before the Soloist has actually completed composing a solo. Otherwise, Band-in-aBox will completely compose a solo before song playback begins. Soloist/Melody Velocity Adjust This box allows you to quickly boost or reduce the volume of the Soloist part relative to the other instrument parts. For a realistic mix the soloist instrument is set slightly louder than the other instruments/parts in a song. The default is 5. Use large soloist files (ST3) is selected to use the optional large soloist databases, *.ST3 files, instead of the smaller ST2 files. The ST3 files have improved phrases, but the solos take longer to create. Create Long Phrases Set this checkbox to “true” (enabled) if you would like the Soloist to use the longest musical phrases it “knows.” If OK to treat the V Major triad as a V7 is set, all Jazz MIDI soloists and some Jazz and Country RealSoloists will treat the V chord as V7 (dominant seventh). Using the Soloist Feature 1. 2. 3. 4. Generate a Soloist and practice the solo by looping it, slowing it down, or printing it out, until you can perform a great solo on any chord changes! Generate a Soloist and attach a Harmony such as “Big Band Brass” to create phenomenally quick and interesting Big Band Arrangements automatically. Generate a standard MIDI file or print them out for you and your friends. Have the Soloist play a solo according to your accompaniment and arrangement (along with the other members of your Band-in-a-Box, of course!) Trade 4’s in a call-response fashion with the Soloist (you solo for 4 bars, Band-in-a-Box solos for 4 bars, etc.) Chapter 9: Automatic Music Features 255 5. Concentrate separately on different aspects of your playing with assistance from the “Wizard.” From soloing with proper phrasing and “feel” (the best notes are included automatically) to accompanying a soloist with confidence and authority Tip: Try muting out one of the accompaniment parts such as the piano or guitar part and play along to the Soloist in a supportive role - its fun! 6. Use the Soloist track to record another part in addition to the Melody and other parts provided by Band-in-aBox. Generate a Soloist on chords/keys that you would like to practice. Band-in-a-Box will play and solo with you all day without getting bored. For example, if you want to work on your II-V7-I progressions (“two-five-one”), you can just type the chords you want, and generate a solo to play over those changes. As the solo plays, you see the notation, can you can sight read along. Pressing the “Loop Screen” checkbox on the notation will loop the notation the screen so you can master each 4 bar phrase (II-V-I) and then move ahead to the next one! 7. Technical Notes: 1. The Soloist has its own separate channel and settings. But when the Soloist uses a harmony, it becomes linked to the Thru Harmony channels and settings. Since we are already using 12 of the available 16 MIDI channels in Band-in-a-Box, we didn't want to use up another 2 channels on dedicated Soloist Harmony channels. So if you want to hear a Soloist with harmony, use the THRU Harmony settings. In other words, wherever a Thru harmony is selected, the Soloist part will use the Thru Harmony settings. 2. We have designed the Soloist to not repeat any solo ideas so that the solos are always fresh, with new ideas forming and playing all the time. As a result, we have included a refresh Soloist menu item (under the Soloist menu) that, when selected, will allow the Soloist to think about all of its musical notions again. Choosing the Refresh Soloist option is like telling the soloist “It's O.K., you can play whatever you like, even if it's something that you played 5 minutes ago...” It's a good idea to refresh the Soloist regularly to ensure maximum “idea” availability. 3. The Soloist menu contains many options. It has all of the same editing options found in the melody menu, so you can treat the Soloist track as a 2nd melody track. Even if you don't plan on using the Automatic Soloist feature, you can just use the Soloist track as a 2nd track for counter melodies, overdubs etc. The result: two melody tracks, two solo tracks, or one melody and one solo track all at your disposal for any song, without having to resort to an outboard sequencer. Soloist Maker The [Soloist Maker [Edit] button launches the Soloist Editor module where you can make your own or modify an existing Soloist. This feature allows you to define your own Soloists. 256 Chapter 9: Automatic Music Features Insert the title of your ‘soloist’ in the Title box, and any memo note you wish to add. (The Num field will be filled in for you.) For the Memo box, you can put in information like “extra legato, straighter 8th notes, on top of the beat, laid back, etc. The “Soloist is” box allows you to define what type of notes the Soloist will play (i.e. swing 8th notes, straight 8th notes, 16th notes, etc.) There are several databases of Solo ideas to choose from. This button will launch an Open File dialog for the \bb folder where you can the select a database (ST2 or ST3) appropriate for the type of song the Soloist will be playing over (e.g., J_SWING.ST2 for Jazz Swing songs). Note: If you have an .ST3 database available for the style of soloing you want to generate, you can still choose the .ST2, and the program will automatically substitute the appropriate .ST3 file if, (a) it is available and, (b) you have selected the “Use Large Soloist files” checkbox in the “Select Soloist” dialog. Press the [Choose] button in the Soloist Editor to select the instrument the Soloist should play (i.e. Tenor Saxophone). You may also select an instrument from the “Patch Change” window, but selecting an instrument with the [Choose] button also fills in the specific note range for that instrument. If you wish to have a harmonized solo, select the harmony type by clicking on the Harmony box and choosing from the drop-down list. “Change Instrument” allows you to quickly set how the Soloing will “take turns” with other instruments. Use this option to change instruments every chorus, every 4, 8, 16 bars, etc. Press the [Set..] button to choose the instruments you would like to change to, including the appropriate note rang for each instrument. Chapter 9: Automatic Music Features 257 The Sub-Soloist checkboxes are for use ONLY with add-on hybrid soloists such as the ones found on the SOLOISTPAK for Band-in-a-Box. These checkboxes can be used to “sub” a different instrument and playing style in a Soloist which contains more than one playing style, such as BG_BAND.ST2 found on Soloist Disk Set #5. For more information on additional Soloist Disk Sets and the additional features available with them, contact PG Music. To Modify (if required) the “Phrase Length,” “Space Length,” and “Outside Range” parameters, simply click in the box you wish to change and type-in the new number. For example, change the “Legato Boost %” to 10 %. This will add 10% to the duration of the notes. Adjust the lateness by -5 to have the Soloist play the notes more “on the beat” than other Jazz soloists. Adjust the 8th Note spacing by -5 to have your Soloist play 8th notes in a more even feel than other Jazz soloists. The Increase Velocity setting will increase the velocity of each note in the solo by the value entered, or DECREASE the velocity if a negative value is entered. You can control the maximum number of notes per quarter note that the Soloist will use. For example, you can set a “Rock Guitar” Soloist to use nothing shorter than 16th notes. This would produce less “guitar hero” solos with bursts of 32nd notes etc. Or you could create a Jazz solo that uses only quarter notes or longer to help with sight-reading or student study. Use the [Import] button to bring a soloist in from a disk and use the [Export] button to save your Soloist to a disk to share Soloists with your friends. You can also save your soloist to another Soloist file (*.s1) by pressing the [Save As] button Use Copy/Paste to copy all settings from one Soloist to another. Copy to an undefined Soloist # to create a new soloist. Changes are saved to the default file. Press the [OK] button when you are satisfied with your choices. Auto Piano Hand-splitting This feature applies to the Piano, Melody, and Soloist tracks. It is found in the Notation Window Options and in both the Melodist and Soloist Utilities submenus. Piano Track (Notation Options) The Piano part can be displayed on both clefs, using intelligent hand-splitting routines that dynamically the split point. This happens automatically. When you do this, the Piano track (not any other track) will be displayed on both clefs with intelligent handsplitting. You can print out the Piano track with the hands separated. Melody and Soloist Tracks You can also manually split a piano part on a Melody or Soloist track using the intelligent hand-splitting routines. The left/right hands display in red/blue on the big piano, and on bass/treble clefs on the notation. Import a piano MIDI file to the Melody track to get a split-hands display and printout! For example, if you have a MIDI file that is a solo piano piece, File | Open MIDI file will put the music on the Melody track. Then choose Melody | Edit | Utilities | Piano Hand Split. Make sure that Melody | Track Type is set to piano. You will then see the piano part split intelligently into 2 hands. 258 Chapter 9: Automatic Music Features When this is done, the left hand will be stored on channel 8, and the right hand on channel 9, on the Melody track. You can export the MIDI file to a sequencer, and these 8/9 channel assignments will be preserved. Automatic Guitar Solos – “The Guitarist” The Guitarist allows you to generate a guitar chord solo for any melody. Band-in-a-Box 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” in order to create your arrangement. You can also define your own Guitarists; choosing parameters such as strum speed, types of voicings (Pop/Jazz), embellishments, and much more. Guitar Solos are selected from the Guitar window, which opens with the Guitar button. Press the [Ch Sol…] button to launch the Generate Guitar Chord Solo function from the Guitar Window. It is also accessible from the Melody | Edit Melody Track | Generate Chord Solo menu item. Chapter 9: Automatic Music Features 259 Here are the steps to generate a Guitar Chord Solo: Select the Guitarist to use. In the main list at the left of the Window, you see the list of the Guitarists that are already defined. For example, you can see that Guitarist #2 is called “Jazz Guitar, single position.” That will create chord solos that stick to a single position on the guitar neck whenever possible. Select Melody (or Soloist) track. Normally, the Guitar Chord solo is written to the Melody track, but you can also select the Soloist track as the destination. Confirm the Guitar Patch selection. The Guitarist that you pick (see item #1) will already have chosen the guitar patch to use, but you can override 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. Select the Main Guitar Position to use. The “Auto-Set” feature sets the main guitar position for the solo based on the key signature. For example, in the key of C, Band-in-a-Box will choose the 5th position as the best 260 Chapter 9: Automatic Music Features position for the chord solo to be played. 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. If you already have a guitar track that has guitar channels (if it was played on a guitar controller as a single string guitar part), then you might want to tell Band-in-a-Box not to change the guitar positions of the notes that it finds. Otherwise set “OK to change existing guitar channels” to true. Press OK to generate the Solo. You'll then see a dialog box that tells you a solo has been added to the track. As you listen to the solo, you'll notice the following: - Some of the notes are left as melody, and some are assigned to chords. - 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. - The chords are strummed, to simulate a real guitar player. - 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. - All of these items can be customized in the Guitarist Editor. Technical Note: Since some of the guitarists can be assigned to strum the chords in a delayed fashion, if you repeatedly regenerate the solo, the melody will become more and more delayed. The solution(s) for this occurrence would be to choose Edit | Undo Solo prior to regenerating 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 in the Guitar Window section to change the guitar voicings or replace a note with a chord and vice versa. When you have a note or chord highlighted press the [Ch-] or [Ch+] Insert Guitar Chord button on the guitar window (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. 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 or reloaded, by choosing Melody | Remove Harmony part menu item. Guitarists can be customized using the Guitarist Maker, described in the User Programmable Functions chapter of this manual. Chapter 9: Automatic Music Features 261 Automatic Embellishments – “The Embellisher” Overview When musicians see a lead sheet that has a melody written out, they almost never play it exactly as written. They change the timing to add syncopation, change durations to achieve staccato or legato playing, add grace notes, slurs, extra notes, vibrato and other effects. You can have Band-in-a-Box do these automatically using the Embellisher so that you hear a livelier, more realistic Melody - and it's different every time. The Embellisher is only active while the music is playing; it doesn't permanently affect the Melody track. There is an option to make the embellishment permanent, so that if you like a certain embellishment you can add it to the Melody track. The Melody Embellisher feature is turned on and off by the Embellisher checkbox on the main screen. The Embellisher only functions during playback. You will see the Embellished Melody on the notation as the Melody plays, so you can see the Embellished notes. When [Stop] is pressed, the notation will revert to the original (unembellished) melody. The embellishment changes timing of notes, durations, velocities, legato, as well as adding grace notes, additional notes and turns. Here is a “before and after” example that shows a typical embellishment of a Melody. Normal (unembellished) Melody… Embellished Melody… As you can see in the notation examples, the embellished melody adds an anticipation in bar 9, and in bar 10 adds extra notes, timing changes, and grace notes to “spice up” the melody. If you disable the Embellisher, by de-selecting the Embellisher checkbox, the Melody will function as normal with no changes. Using The Embellisher The Embellisher settings are accessed during playback with the Embellisher button in the main screen toolbar, or with the menu item Melody | Embellish Melody Dialog, or with the key strokes Ctrl+Alt+L. There is a Melody Embellisher dialog that allows you to: - Customize the settings of the Embellisher, or choose Embellisher presets. - Make a particular embellishment permanent. “Live Auto-embellish during every playback” is the same setting that is on the main page checkbox. If enabled, embellishment will occur during every playback. If disabled, embellishment will not occur unless you choose the [Embellish NOW] button in the dialog. 262 Chapter 9: Automatic Music Features Embellisher Settings The settings that affect the embellishment can be turned on and off, and given a percentage strength. Humanize The velocities, durations (legato), and timing of the notes are humanized. The original velocities etc. of the notes are ignored. The option to only humanize the timing of the music if the timing was “stiff” to begin with allows the Embellisher to leave the timing of human input melodies alone, and humanize only the ones that were entered in step-time. Adjust Octave The octave of the Melody is changed to the best octave for the current Melody instrument. For example, if the instrument were a piccolo, the octave would be raised to the best range for a piccolo. Anticipations An anticipated note is playing a note early (“ahead of the beat”). Unembellished notes. ANTICIPATIONS on beat 1 and 3. Less Anticipations This is the opposite of anticipations. This finds notes that are anticipated, and “embellishes” them by playing them later (on the beat). Grace Notes The grace notes are brief notes played just before, and a semi-tone below the original note. The grace notes intentionally don't show on the notation, so that it will remain easily readable. They can be heard. Doubled Notes Melody notes are doubled with the same pitch. Chapter 9: Automatic Music Features 263 Quarter note doubled. Unembellished. Extra Notes Extra notes are added between melody notes. Unembellished. With extra notes added. Note Turns With a note turn, a single note is replaced by a group of notes that include the original note and semitone or scale tones above and below the note. In this “before and after” example, the C note is replaced by a turn of 3 notes with a note a scale tone above the C. Unembellished. Embellished with turn. Vibrato Vibrato can be added according to the additional vibrato settings available in the “More” dialog. The vibrato can't be seen on the notation window, but you can examine the events in the Event list. If set, the Melody will be delayed a little, providing a laid-back feeling. The Embellisher is usually referred to as the Melody Embellisher, because you'll usually want to have it on the Melody track. But if you'd like, you can choose to embellish the Soloist track. If you have done this, and want to restore the original Melody, you can press the [Restore Original Melody] button. 264 Chapter 9: Automatic Music Features Embellisher Presets The presets allow you to quickly choose common combinations of settings for the Embellisher. The Embellisher Memo describes the current embellishment, with statistics counting the number of embellished notes. If the song is playing and the Embellisher is enabled, you can update the embellishment by pressing this button. This is useful if you've changed settings, and want to hear what the new embellishment sounds like. The [Defaults] button reverts to the original Embellisher settings. There are additional settings, in the Embellisher Additional Settings dialog box. This allows you to set advanced settings for the Embellisher. These include: - Vibrato Depth: The amplitude of the vibrato, in a range from 0-127. - Vibrato Speed: This is the speed of the vibrato (slow-fast) range 0-127. - Only use Vibrato if Note is this many ticks: e.g. If set to 120 ticks (one quarter note), then only notes of duration at least 120 ticks will get vibrato. - Start the Vibrato after this many ticks: For notes that will get vibrato, the vibrato will start after this many ticks. - Adjust Octave Method: If the octave is to be adjusted, it will either only adjust it if the notes are outside the playable range, or always adjust it to the best octave, according to the setting you make here. - Dynamic Range: Refers to the range of velocities used for the humanization. Useful range 30-50. - Legato Settings: Refers to the amount of legato for the notes. Useful range 55 to 75. This displays the same thing that appears in the Memo field, but will display it even when there is no current embellishment. You can save/load your own presets for the Embellisher. When you have made a custom setting in the Embellisher dialog, press the Export button to save the data as an .EMB file. When you want to recall the saved preset, press the Import button, and load in a previously made .EMB file. You can share your favorite presets with other installations of Band-in-a-Box using the EMB files. If the song is not currently playing, you can still create an embellishment and have it apply permanently by pressing the [Embellish NOW – Permanent] button. The original melody is not affected permanently unless you have pressed the [Embellish NOW – permanent] button. Normally the embellishment occurs live when the song is playing, and doesn't affect the melody permanently. But if you like the Embellishment, and want to apply it permanently to the melody, you can choose the “Make Current Embellishment Permanent” option. You can use the [Undo] button to reverse a permanent embellishment before the song is saved to file. Use these transport controls for song playback within the Melody Embellisher dialog. Chapter 9: Automatic Music Features 265 Chapter 10: Working With MIDI Band-in-a-Box has two built-in MIDI sequencer tracks. They are named the Melody and Soloist tracks, but they can be used to record any MIDI part you like – such as drum overdubs or layered accompaniments. MIDI can be recorded in Band-in-a-Box - Live with a MIDI keyboard, MIDI guitar, or MIDI wind controller. - In step time by entering notes in the Notation window with the mouse. - Using the Wizard feature to “play” notes with your QWERTY keyboard. - Importing a pre-recorded Standard MIDI File into the Melody or Soloist. Recording Live in Real Time You can punch in/out, do unlimited overdubs, record directly to the tag or the ending, and start recording from any bar. To record live using your MIDI keyboard, guitar, or wind controller click on the [Rec.] button, or type the letter R, or choose the menu option Melody | Record Melody. The Record Melody dialog box will appear. If you're sure that the settings are correct, just click [Record] or press “R” twice to immediately start recording. Tip: If you select the “Overdub underlying melody” option in the Record Melody dialog, you will hear the underlying melody while recording. Pressing this button will launch the MIDI Recording Filter. The Record Filter supports all MIDI controllers including the sustain pedal. You can record any type of MIDI information to the Melody or Soloist tracks, and use the Record Filter to select what types to include. Choosing Opt. | Filter for recording will also launch the Record Filter dialog. Press [Record] or the R key again to begin recording. Stop recording by pressing the Esc key, or the spacebar, or by clicking the [Stop] button. The OK – Keep Take dialog will open. 266 Chapter 10: Working With MIDI [OK - Keep Take] (yes/no) saves the take you just recorded. Remember that it’s easy to fix small glitches in the Editable Notation window or in the Event List editor. [Take Again] lets you quickly reject a take and start the recording again. Press the “A” key to do this with a keystroke. [Cancel] ends the recording session; nothing is saved. To start again press the [Rec.] button or the [R] key. Copy 1st chorus to whole song If you have recorded one chorus of the song, checking this at the end of the recording will copy the same recording to all of the choruses. Overdub Underlying melody You have the option to merge the recording with the existing melody. If there is no underlying melody this option will be grayed out. Retain Melody past last recorded You have the option to erase any melody after the last recorded melody note, or keep it. Use this feature when you want to punch out at the end of a take. Count-In and Metronome Options To set these options, go to the Opt. | Preferences dialog and select the [Count-in/Met.] button. Recording to an external sequencer Many people use Band-in-a-Box in live situations. If you are unable to bring your computer with you, a good alternative is a hardware sequencer or a keyboard with a built-in sequencers that reads Standard MIDI Files. To transfer songs to the Sound Brush, follow these simple steps: - Make a MIDI file of the song by pressing the button. - Either save the file directly to a floppy disk or copy it to the floppy from your hard drive. - The Sound Brush is then able to read the IBM formatted disk with MIDI files on it. Entering Notes Manually You can enter melody notes directly to the track in the Notation window in either the Editable Notation Mode or the Staff Roll Mode. Chapter 10: Working With MIDI 267 Enter the Editable Notation mode from the Standard Notation screen with a single mouse click on the Editable Notation button. In the Editable Notation mode you can enter, move, and edit notes and rests using standard mouse techniques – point and click, drag and drop, and right click to open the Note Edit dialog box. Conirmation dialogs prevent accidental entry of a duplicate note (same pitch near same time) and accidental entry of a very high or very low note (large # of ledger lines). Once you have some melody entered, you can copy and paste chunks of it as you would in a text document. To copy and paste notation, highlight an area of notation by dragging the mouse over the region. Then select Edit | Copy. Click on the place where you want to paste to (by clicking at the time line on top of the notation window) and then choose Edit | Paste. You can specify a precise paste location in the Paste Melody dialog. Recording with the Wizard Feature This is a very helpful feature if you don’t have a MIDI keyboard but you want to record with a “live” feel. Use the Wizard to record notes from the computer’s QWERTY keyboard for a track that’s more natural than step time. Here’s how it works: Enable the Wizard checkbox. - - Press R key to record. As the song plays, play the melody on any keys on the bottom two rows of the QWERTY keyboard, in the rhythm of the melody. The “wizard” notes won't be the correct melody of course, but don't worry about that as you record. When you're finished, look in the Notation window. You’ll see the wrong notes in the right places with the correct durations. Drag the notes (with the left mouse button) to the correct place on the staff. You’ll hear the notes play as you drag them, and the names will show in the note name box. For sharps, flats, and naturals, hold down the Shift key, Ctrl key, or Alt key respectively. You'll end up with a melody that sounds like it was recorded live, without the rigid feel of tracks entered in step time. Tip: If you have the Wizard “On” the spacebar won't stop playback. You need to press the Esc key to stop playback when the Wizard is on. This is to prevent stopping the song if you mistakenly hit the spacebar while playing the Wizard. Melody Wizard For songs with melodies, there are QWERTY keys (Enter, \ , T, 6) that trigger notes from the melody as the song is being played. Other keys trigger 1-4 approach notes from below or above. The notes can be recorded, to humanize a stiff melody with better timing, and approach notes also useful for sight reading, rhythm practice, or to perform. This feature works with harmonies - Melody notes: T, 6, Enter, \ - Same Melody note: 5 - Approach notes: QWER YUIO - Octave set: 1, 2, 3 MIDI notes also work (if Preferences [Transpose] is set to “Allow Melody Wizard on THRU part”). - Octave set: E(40), F(41), G(43) - Melody notes: F(53), G(55) - Approach notes: B(47), C, D, E A, B, C, D(62) 268 Chapter 10: Working With MIDI To use the Melody Wizard, make sure the Keyboard Wizard is enabled on the main screen. This will also enable the MIDI Wizard on the QWERTY keys. If you also want to use the Melody Wizard on MIDI notes, go to Preferences [Transpose] and enable “Allow Melody Wizard on THRU part” in the Settings for transposing songs when loaded or “Do it Now” dialog. *.MGU Then, choose a song that has a Melody track. Mute the Melody track by right clicking on the Melody track (Alt+9). Play the song. ENTER or \ As you play the song, you can use the Enter key or the \ key (or T or 6 above the T) to play Melody notes. W,E,R,T These will be approach notes up to the melody. You can start on any note. Q,E,R,T Starting on a Q instead of W will use wider voicings for approach notes. I,U,Y,T These will be approach notes down to the melody. Start on any note. O,U,Y,T Starting on an O instead of I will use wider voicings for approach notes. Using the Wizard with MIDI keyboard input The Wizard can also be used with a connected MIDI keyboard. The keyboard wizard always plays correct notes, and is a fun way to play along with Band-in-a-Box. The MIDI keyboard also sends volume information (unlike the QWERTY keyboard), so is a better choice if you have a MIDI keyboard connected. This feature is accessed with the [Transpose] button in the Preferences dialog. To turn on the Wizard to allow MIDI control, choose “Use Wizard for THRU part.” Make sure that the Wizard checkbox is enabled on the main screen. Now, when you play notes on the MIDI keyboard (during playback), they will get remapped to chord tones. C/E/G/Bb notes played on a THRU keyboard will be mapped to chord tones, and D/F/A/B will be passing tones. This scale - C D E F G A Bb B - is considered the “Bebop” scale, useful for playing over dominant 7th chords. The Wizard is useful for entering notation quickly. If you can’t play piano well, play the wizard in the correct rhythm. The pitches will be wrong, but you can fix them in the Editable Notation window later, and the durations, volume, and timing are already correct. Melody/Soloist Sequencer There are 2 tracks in Band-in-a-Box to add your own recordings. These are the Melody and Soloist tracks. Normally you would want a single part on each of them. But, since MIDI information can have separate channels, it is possible to store 16 separate parts on each of the Melody and Soloist parts. For the following discussion, we’ll assume that you’re using the Melody track, but the same functions are available for the Soloist. When the Melody track has been set to “Multi(16)-Channel” we refer to this as “Sequencer Mode.” Also, for this discussion we’ll assume that you have a multi-channel track loaded in. Let’s load a MIDI file, using File | Open MIDI file, and choosing a MIDI file like c:\bb\Violet.MID. If you want to use the 16 separate parts for the Melody track, you need to set the Melody Track type to “MultiChannel.” Chapter 10: Working With MIDI 269 This is done from the Melody menu, or can be done by pressing the Sequencer button. Now, when you are in this multi-channel mode, output from the Melody part will be on whatever MIDI channel the information is stored on, and will not be using the Melody MIDI Channel. You can examine the track to see the channels by looking at the event list, which you can access by pressing the [#] button on the Notation window. You’ll notice that the information in the event list is color coded by channels for multi-channel tracks. For example, channel 7 is pink, and channel 10 is gold. If you click on the Lead Sheet window, you’ll see the entire MIDI file displayed on separate tracks of notation. Since this represents 6 separate tracks (in the case of violet.MID), this is likely “too much information” for you to read, unless you are a symphony conductor. To customize the notation display for sequencer mode, press the lead sheet options button, and see the settings for Multi-Channel Tracks. Press the “CUSTOM channels play/display” buttons to launch the Sequencer window. Then you can customize which channels will play and display. 270 Chapter 10: Working With MIDI In the example picture, we have set Channel 2 (Bass) and Channel 4 (Trumpet) to show on the notation, and have set all of the channels to play (to hear them). For a specific channel, (e.g. channel 3: piano), we see the following information. Channel 3: Acoustic Piano (this is the patch name found on the track). 843 There are 842 events in the track, usually every note is an event. We have customized the piano track so that it can be heard (play=true), but not seen in notation (Show=false). There is a small button at the right of the track line that allows you to delete/ rechannel or merge the channel with another channel. You can also change the patch (instrument) for that track by using the instrument patch combo box. So now that we’ve customized the display, we are seeing the bass and trumpet on the notation, and hearing the entire track. Removing All Tracks Except Melody From A Midi File One use for the Sequencer mode is to load in a MIDI file, and then delete all of the channels except the melody, so that you can allow the Band-in-a-Box rhythm section to provide the accompaniment. To do this, open the Sequencer window, and use the Edit pull down menu to delete all tracks except the melody. Once you have done this, you don’t need the Melody | Track Type to be multi-channel anymore, so you should set it to be Track Type [Single Channel], so that it will be like any other Band-in-a-Box song, and use the Melody channel for playback. Chapter 10: Working With MIDI 271 Recording Your Own Parts To The Melody Sequencer Normally you would record your parts to the Melody, and not be concerned about what MIDI channel they are using, because Band-in-a-Box uses the Melody channel (usually channel 4) for this. But if you have set the Track type to be multi-channel, the output on the Melody part will be whatever channel is stored in the tracks. When you record a Melody part and the track type is set to multichannel, the “Keep Take” dialog will have a selection for the channel that should be used for the recording. Also, make sure that you have “Overdub underlying melody” checkbox set, or you won’t hear the other melody parts during the recording. Example: Recording 4 Separate Counter Melodies On The Melody Track So if you want to record, for example, 4 separate parts to go along with a Band-in-a-Box song, you should do the following. 1. Set the Melody track to Multi(16)-Channel (Sequencer) 2. 3. Record a Melody part. At the end of the recording, pick a channel for the part that is not already used by Band-in-a-Box. BB uses channels 2-10, so channels 11 to 16 are available for your counter melody parts. Repeat step 2 by recording additional melody parts. Assign patches to the Melody parts using the 4. Sequencer Window. Import a Band-in-a-Box Song Easily import part or all of an existing Band-in-a-Box song to your current song, with options to specify source and destination range, type of information to import (chords, melody, lyrics, etc.) and more. Choose File | Import Song. In the Import Band-in-a-Box Song dialog, choose the range that you want to import (Import from Bar and # of bars), and the destination bar (Import to Bar). You can also choose which information to import, and the insert mode (insert/overwrite). 272 Chapter 10: Working With MIDI Importing MIDI Files Importing MIDI Files to the Melody or Soloist Tracks Standard MIDI files can be read in to the Melody or Soloist tracks from MIDI files or from the Windows clipboard. You can read in all of a MIDI file, or selected channels and a specific range of bars. Use one of the following two commands: Chapter 10: Working With MIDI 273 1. 2. Melody | Import MIDI File – to select a MIDI file from disk using the Windows Open File dialog. Melody | Import MIDI File from Clipboard - when the MIDI data is already copied from another program to the Windows clipboard. The clipboard option will be grayed out if there is no MIDI data in the clipboard. Once chosen, the Import MIDI File - Options dialog box opens. Import Which Channel(s)? You'll need to know which channel(s) of your MIDI file the melody is on. You then select these channels for Bandin-a-Box to read-in. If you select all of the channels, Band-in-a-Box will read in all of the channels and merge them to the Melody track. You can import and play the complete file on the Melody track if the Track Type is set to Multi (16) -Channel in the Melody menu. # bars to offset from start of MIDI file If you want to start reading from the beginning of the MIDI file, select 0 as the offset. If you want to start at bar 32, for example, select an offset of 32 (bars). How Many Bars to import? Leave this setting at the default of 1000 to read-in the entire file (unless it’s longer than 1000 bars!), or set it to the number of bars that want. # blank bars to insert at beginning This will insert blank bars into the Melody track. Remember that Band-in-a-Box normally has a 2 bar lead-in count. If your MIDI file has no lead-in, then you'll need to set this to = 2 to compensate for the 2 bars of lead-in. Include notes early by (120 PPQ) If you’re reading in a MIDI file starting at bar 5, it would be annoying to have a note that was played 1 tick earlier than bar 5 left out of the MIDI file that is read in. To include it, you can set this, and the note will be read in. Include continuous controllers and pitch bend / Patch changes / Lyrics If you don’t need these items you can save space by not importing them. Merge with Existing Data on the track You can choose to merge the imported data with your existing Melody track. Import to the Melody with the MIDI Chord Wizard You can open an entire MIDI file into Band-in-a-Box using the MIDI Chord Wizard. The chords will be autointerpreted by the Chord Wizard and the MIDI file will play and display on the Melody track. A “silent” style will be loaded so you'll only hear the MIDI file. When the file is saved, the extension will be MGX, allowing you to easily identify the songs that contain entire MIDI files. The MIDI Chord Wizard is opened from the File | Import Chords from MIDI File menu item. In the Interpret Chords from MIDI file dialog, select the “Open ENTIRE MIDI File to Melody” radio button, and then click on [INTERPRET CHORDS NOW]. The chords will be interpreted and written to the Band-in-a-Box chordsheet and an “X” will appear in front of the style name, indicating that the style is silent. Press [Play] to hear the MIDI file play on the Melody track. Additional Options for Melody/Soloist Track Choose Melody | Edit Melody Track | Time Shift Melody. This will move (slide) the melody a certain # ticks. There are 120 ticks per quarter note. For example, to give the song a more laid-back feel, shift the melody about 10 ticks ahead. In the same submenu, choose Insert Beats or Melody | Delete Beats to insert or delete beats in the Melody. For example, to insert 2 bars in the melody at bar 5, choose Melody | Insert Beats, select bar 5, and select 8 beats (2 bars) to insert. Intelligent Humanize of Melody and Soloist Track Quantize routines can leave the music sounding stiff and unmusical. Some routines attempt to humanize a part by adding “randomization,“ which rarely has the desired effect since humans don't randomly change timing or volume. Band-in-a-Box uses intelligent humanization routines to humanize a melody from one feel to another, from one tempo to another, and vary the amount of swing to 8th notes. The results are very musical, with natural sounding melodies. Let's look at some of the parameters found under Humanize. In this example, Melody | Edit Melody Track | Humanize Melody was selected. The window for Humanize Soloist is the same. 274 Chapter 10: Working With MIDI As you can see, we have broken down the Humanize effect into 5 main categories: tempo, lateness, 8th note spacing, legato, and feel. The best way to learn how these parameters combine is to try them (you can always press the UNDO button if you don't like the results.) For example, try changing the tempo of a song to see the changes that this will make to the 8th note spacing and lateness. Press the [Quantize NOW] button to apply your changes to your song. Tip: Often, when musicians play at faster tempos they play the swing 8th notes closer together and a little later. We feel that these categories are straightforward and you should have no trouble achieving the desired results. Remember to apply such parameters as Legato and Lateness sparingly, then press the Quantize NOW button to apply your changes to your song. Editing the Melody Track Event List Editor You can edit events including all MIDI events and lyric events using the Event List Editor. It can be launched in several ways. - In the Melody menu, choose Edit Melody Track | Step Edit Melody. - In the Soloist menu, choose Edit Soloist Track | Step Edit Soloist Part. - In the Notation menu, choose Event List Editor… Chapter 10: Working With MIDI 275 or in the Notation window by pressing the event list button (#). Different colors are used for different event types in the event list, to visually distinguish notes, patch changes, etc. The Event list for the notation colors the events differently as follows: - Notes starting near the beat boundary are dark pink. - Notes starting on the off-beat are light pink. - Patch changes are cyan. - Controller changes are yellow. - Pitch Bends are grey. The Event List Editor allows you to modify, insert, and delete notes: - Double-click on an event to edit it (or press the [Edit] button.) - [Insert] puts an event before the current event. - [Append] puts an event at the end of the track. - [Delete] removes an event. - [Update] redraws the notation screen. - [Edit Lyrics] – [Edit Soloist] – [Edit Melody] selects which track to edit. Event List Filter There is a filter for the Event List Editor, allowing you to quickly spot all patch changes. For example, to examine the patch changes on the Melody track choose “Use Event Filter,” and then press the [Filter…] button. In the Event List Filter select the type of information you want to display. In this case, it is program changes (patches) only. The track will then display with the program changes only. 276 Chapter 10: Working With MIDI The Event Type to Edit dialog opens when either the [Insert] or [Append] buttons are pressed in the Event List Editor. This dialog allows you to select which type of event to insert or append - note, controller, pitch bend, etc. – and then opens the selected edit dialog. Notation Window Editing You can often get better results by using the Notation Window to edit notes instead of the Event List window. To do this, open the Notation window in either Editable Notation or Staff Roll Notation mode. In both of these modes, notes can be dragged and dropped with the mouse. For precise note editing, right mouse click on the note you want to edit and choose “Edit Note” in the contextual menu. This opens the Note dialog where all of the parameters of the note can be addressed. Chapter 10: Working With MIDI 277 Piano Roll Window Editing The Piano Roll window enables precise graphic editing of note timing and duration. You can also graphically edit note velocity, controllers, program changes, channel aftertouch, or pitch bend. The Piano Roll may be opened as a movable window, which floats above the Band-in-a-Box main window, or opened embedded in the same position as the Chordsheet/Notation panels in the Band-in-a-Box main window. Note Panel Horizontal bars represent notes. Notes can be selected, edited, inserted, and deleted. Selected notes are red. - Click on individual notes to select. - Shift+click on individual notes to add to the selection. - Ctrl+click on a note to invert (toggle) its selection. Overlapping notes are displayed in bold Aqua color, making them easy to identify. Overlapped notes can be eliminated from the right-click menu in this window. Click on white space and then drag a rectangle around notes to select a group of notes. Only notes that start within the rectangle are selected. If the left edge of a note is not inside the rectangle, it will not be selected. - Shift+drag a rectangle to add another group of notes to the selection. - Ctrl+drag a rectangle to toggle the selection of the notes in the rectangle. Splitter Bar A Splitter Bar sits between the Note and Graphic Event panels. Drag the splitter bar down to maximize the Note panel and drag it up to maximize the Graphic Event panel. Two graphic event mouse editing modes for editing graphic events: 278 Chapter 10: Working With MIDI 1. Add Mode Add/subtract the same amount to all selected events. 2. Scale Mode Scale the selected events. Select one or more Graphic Events, and move the mouse over one of the events. Shift-drag vertically, and the events are scaled in a proportional fashion. Large-value events are scaled more than small-value events. This keeps the same shape of a gesture, but makes it bigger or smaller. Note Velocity Line Tool - With Add Mode, note velocities will exactly match the slope of your drawn line. - With Scale Mode, the Line Tool will shape the dynamics, but note velocities are scaled to follow the approximate shape of your drawn line. With Scale Mode, you can insert a Velocity fade, or change the velocity of a region, while preserving the Velocity dynamics of the music. Edit Events Edit Event Value: Move the cursor over the top half of an event. A north-south cursor appears. Click-drag vertically to scale event values. To scale a selected group of events, Shift-click-drag vertically on one of the events in the selection. Edit Event Time: Move the cursor over the bottom half of an event. A horizontal arrow cursor appears. Clickdrag horizontally to slide the event in time. To slide a selected group of events, Click-drag horizontally on one of the events in the selection. Insert Events Line Tool: With no modifier keys, the “white space” cursor is a Line Tool. Move the cursor to white space and then click-drag to draw a line. When the mouse button is released, a series of events are inserted which follow the line slope. To avoid choking the MIDI stream, the maximum event density is one event per 10 ticks. Repeated events of the same value are not inserted. Therefore, long gradual Line Tool fades have a lower density than short extreme Line Tool fades. Pencil Tool: Move the cursor over white space and hold the Shift+Ctrl keys. A Pencil Tool appears. Shift+Ctrldrag to freehand-draw a curve. If you don't get the curve quite right on the first pass, just keep holding the mouse button and move the mouse back-and-forth to draw your desired freehand curve. When the mouse button is released, a series of events are inserted to follow the freehand curve. The maximum event density is one event per 10 ticks. Repeated events of the same value are not inserted. Therefore, many freehand curves have a fairly low density. Delete Events Make a selection of events with the Ruler or by clicking on events and tap the Delete key. You can also right-click and choose “Delete Selected Events” item in the pop-up menu. Eraser tool For quickly deleting individual notes or controllers. Shift+Ctrl-click on a note or graphic event. If multiple events have been selected, all selected events will be deleted. Graphic Event Panel This panel only shows MIDI events specified in the Chan, View/Edit, and Controller Type controls. When graphically inserting controller and pitch bend events the event density is adjustable from one event per 1 tick up to one event per 30 ticks. Chapter 10: Working With MIDI 279 With events such as pitch bend or controllers like modulation and sustain, it is important to end a “gesture” with a zero-value event. Otherwise, subsequent notes will be affected, with “hanging” permanent pitch bend, permanent vibrato, or sustain pedal locked down. Event Selection Graphic Event Ruler Time Selections: Selected Events are red. The Graphic Event Ruler will only select nonnote events. In addition, it will only select the type of MIDI events specified in the Chan, View/Edit, and Controller Type controls. When you make a Ruler Time selection, ONLY THE VISIBLE events in this time range are selected. Other MIDI events in this time range are not selected. 280 Chapter 10: Working With MIDI Chapter 11: Working With Audio About Band-in-a-Box Audio Files The File | Open menu command shows and opens all available file types including audio files (WAV, WMA, MP3, and CDA). And it remembers your preference, so you can restrict it to a certain file type. If MySong.MGU is loaded, and a same named audio file (MySong.WMA, MySong.MP3, MySong.WAV, etc.) is present, Band-in-a-Box will open the audio file to the audio track. This allows third parties to make audio files with chords in them, by making a MySong.MGU and MySong.MP3 pair of files, which will load into Band-in-a-Box, yet will have the audio compressed to take up little disk space. For example, make a teaching set of trombone files for Band-in-a-Box, with audio trombone track, and Band-in-a-Box file with chords, all fitting in a small file size. Audio Playback and Audio Rendering In addition to RealTracks and RealDrums, there are two types of audio features in Band-in-a-Box: 1. The first refers to the Audio track. This is a single 44K mono or stereo track that you can use to record vocals or live instruments. In addition, the most popular types of audio files can be imported to this track and played. 2. The second refers to rendering which is the process of converting a MIDI performance in Band-in-a-Box to a stereo .WAV file or to different compressed audio formats for playback in media players or export to other audio software programs. Audio Track The audio track includes only your live recording or the imported audio file, whereas the rendered .WAV file includes everything in the file; MIDI parts plus the audio track. Try the following with the Audio Track in Band-in-a-Box: - Press this button and add an audio track to an existing Band-in-a-Box song. Add live vocals, guitar, sax, etc. - Process an audio track using audio plug-ins - such as reverb, chorus etc. (choose from over 20 plugins included). - Export the audio (and MIDI) track to sequencers such as PowerTracks Pro Audio, Cubase, or Cakewalk for further work. Audio Playback Settings Notice the “Audio” label at the top right of the screen, beside the “Thru” part setting. Clicking on the “Audio” label launches the Audio Playback settings dialog. In this dialog you can mute, solo, or change the volume of the audio track, similar to the control of the other instrument parts in Band-inBox. Simply click on the “Audio” label on-screen, and choose these options. There are also Tone and Reverb controls that act on the audio track. The Tone control is a combined Bass/Treble control. The range of settings is from -18 (maximum bass) to +18 (maximum treble). Default is 0. The Reverb has a range of 0 to 127. Chapter 11: Working With Audio 281 Master Tone and Reverb Master Reverb and Tone for all parts can be set by clicking the Combo button, and then using the Audio Reverb and Tone controls. The audio reverb type is settable in the PG Music Reverb window. PG Music Reverb To make your own reverb settings, press the Audio Reverb toolbar button, and adjust the various parameters in the PG Music Reverb dialog. You can enable/disable the audio reverb. If you disable it, this will save some CPU cycles, so this might be advisable on an older/slower machine if you hear that the audio is clicking or not keeping up. Click on the green Select a Preset button to open the list of presets. This list will show only the “Band-in-aBox Default Reverb” until you save some presets of your own. As you adjust the settings they will be applied to the current song. The [Swap “Default”] button toggles between your current settings and the default settings. This allows you to hear the effect of the changes you make to the settings. Use the row of “room” buttons to load typical settings for different types of spaces. These buttons are a convenient way to either apply a particular effect or to load settings that you can then tweak to make your own preset. Reverb Parameters Pre-Delay is the time delay of first reflections. Decay is the time it takes for reverb to decay. Reverb time is measured as RT60, the time it takes for reverb to decay to a level -60 dB below the dry signal level. LF Roll off gradually reduces the bass frequencies. If you can’t add enough reverb because the sound gets too muddy, try increasing the LF Roll off slider. It is adjustable between 50 Hz and 500 Hz. 282 Chapter 11: Working With Audio HF Roll off is the rate at which the high frequencies die away as the reverb decays. Rooms with hard surfaces are typically bright, but rooms with soft surfaces are usually darker. It is adjustable between 1 KHz (dark) to 11 KHz (bright). Density is the density of low-level echoes near the end of the reverb tail. High Density settings add a sheen to the sound. Mix the proportion of original signal to the reverb signal. Output adjusts the final level of the plug-in. Typical Reverb Settings - A large hall might have long Pre-Delay, long Decay, and moderate Density. - A hard large space such as a Gymnasium, might have long Pre-Delay, high Density and high HF Roll off. - A soft large space such as a concert hall with carpet, padded seats, hangings, might have medium Density and low HF Roll off. - A small hard space such as a tile washroom, might have short Pre-Delay, medium-to-long Decay, high Density, and high HF Roll off. - A small soft space such as a large living room, might have short Pre-Delay, short Decay, medium-to-low Density, and low HF Roll off. Saving Settings to Presets You can save your reverb types as presets, and the current settings will also be saved with the song in a DX Settings\PGReverbSettings.bin file. To save the current settings to a preset, type in a name for your preset in the “Preset Name” field. Then click on the Save Preset arrow and choose a location in the Preset list. You can write over an existing name. A prompt will ask you to confirm that you want to save the preset. Select [Yes] to save the new preset to the chosen location. Import Audio File to Audio Track Most types of popular audio files can be opened directly in Band-in-a-Box, but you may want to import an audio track into your Band-in-a-Box song. A Mono or Stereo audio file can be imported to the Audio track, optionally merging or replacing any existing audio track. Most popular types of audio files are supported, including WAV, WMA, MP3, WMV and CD audio. Choose the menu item Audio | Import Audio (WAV, WMA, MP3, WMV…). You then choose an audio file to import. The Import Audio File dialog is then displayed, which allows selection of the point to insert the audio file, and whether to merge or overwrite existing audio in the range. Chapter 11: Working With Audio 283 Audio files can also be opened from the File menu with the command Open Audio (WAV, WMA, MP3, WMV). Open an MP3/WAV/WMA or audio CD track, and play back at 1/2, 1/4, or 1/8 speed. This is great for transcribing or analyzing audio. If you load in an audio song (WAV file, MP3), when the song plays you can: - change the tempo of the audio to slow/speed up the song. - press Ctrl+[-] for half speed, Ctrl+[=] for full speed. - highlight an area of the Audio Edit window and press [Play Selected Area]. This will loop the audio. - use the Audio | Set Audio Master (Base) Tempo menu item to insure that tempo stretches are based on correct master tempo. These features are useful as an aid for transcription. Using the Half-Speed Audio feature to help you transcribe a piece of music. Once you open the Audio file, open the Audio window and you can see the audio data on the track. Choose “Half-speed tempo” (Ctrl+minus (-) hot key). Ctrl+equals (=) returns to normal tempo. (Use the Play | Tempo menu for slower speeds like 1/4, 1/8.) Highlight the range that you want to hear, and then press “Play Selected Area.” You can then move around the window to play different sections as you transcribe the recording. Audio Offset The Audio Offset feature allows you to synchronize any point of the audio file with bar 1 of the Band-in-a-Box song – usually to sync the audio file with the rest of the song. 284 Chapter 11: Working With Audio Let’s say you have a home recording of a live performance of one of your songs, saved as a WAV file (or MP3/WMA). File | Open Audio will load the song into Band-in-a-Box. Now open up the Audio Edit window, and when you hear the point in the file that you would like to be considered bar 1, right click at that point, and answer YES to “would you like this point to be bar 1.” Then, as the song is playing, use the tap tempo feature (the minus key, pressed 4 times in tempo) to set the tempo of the piece. Your audio file will then start playing at bar 1 of the Band-in-a-Box song in sync with the audio starting at the place you have marked as bar 1, and the bars will be in sync (approximately in sync, they will drift as the tempo of your live performance varies.) You can put tempo changes on certain bars to keep it perfectly in sync if you want to. Record Audio Before you begin recording, you'll need to: Set the Recording Properties This tells your sound card (and Band-in-a-Box) what sources you would record from. You may be recording from a microphone or a line-in plug into your sound card. If so, you need to have those items selected in the recording properties panel for your sound card. Most sound cards are capable of recording from the following sources: Microphone – plugged in to the sound card to record vocals or live instruments. Line-In – from the Line-Out of a mixer or keyboard, or a guitar direct box. CD-ROM player – to record the audio from an audio CD. Outgoing MIDI - not used when recording audio tracks, but is used if “rendering” the whole Band-in-a-Box song to Audio. This is an important point to understand when using audio in Band-in-a-Box: the soundcard should be 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 get mixed in with the audio track. However, when rendering your whole composition to a single .WAV file to distribute on a CD or the Internet you always want to record the outgoing MIDI. Technical Note: This is only true if you are using the sound card for your output MIDI driver. If you have an external MIDI device like the Roland Sound Canvas you'd need to route the Line Out from your Sound Canvas back in to the Line-In of your sound card in order to record (render) the MIDI. When you press the Recording Properties button, you'll see the Recording control panel of your sound card's mixer. The panel displayed here is the typical panel that sound cards use. Different makes and models may not look exactly like the example, but the basic layout and operation is the same. From this panel, you can set the recording level for the items you want to record. Let’s take the example of recording live with a microphone. - We select the check box to record the microphone. - Then, we set the level of the recording input for the microphone with the aid of the built-in VU meters in Band-ina-Box. Chapter 11: Working With Audio 285 Audio VU meters These show the Record and Playback levels for audio, allowing adjustment of microphone and speaker levels. VU Meters can be launched by pressing the VU Meters button on the toolbar. The VU Meters will also open automatically when the Record Audio dialog is opened. The VU Meters will close or stay open when the dialog is exited depending on the “Leave VU Meters open” setting in the Record Audio dialog. The VU meters show the average strength of the signal, with a dB scale, and a clip indicator. Clipping indicates that the signal has overloaded, and will sound distorted (clipped). The green area represents normal levels, while red indicates an overload. Ideally, the sounds should remain in the green and avoid the red altogether. Unlike analog recording, where it's good to get a “hot” high signal, digital recordings need to absolutely avoid high levels since any overload of the signal will result in clipping and a ruined recording. Press the [R.Aud] button to start recording audio. The Record Audio dialog will open. This dialog displays the mono/stereo status of the recording. If you want to change to/from stereo (to/from mono), press the [Audio Options] button in this dialog. The mono/stereo track status is also indicated on the Title bar at the top of the main screen. 286 Chapter 11: Working With Audio Set the start point for the recording. You can record from the Start of the song, somewhere in the middle, or punch in by choosing a bar and chorus # to start recording. Punch-In Recording Punch-in audio recording allows you to punch-in record or overdub a section of audio. You can select a section to punch-in by highlighting it in the Audio Edit window. You can also hear the existing audio part when you are overdubbing. This is automatic. Also Record MIDI? 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). Overdub underlying Audio 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. Press [Record]. Audio recording begins. If you've set the “Show VU Meter while recording” option, then the Recording VU Meter will open up and display during recording so you can monitor the VU meters. Chapter 11: Working With Audio 287 Press [Stop] or press the [Esc] key. You will then see the “Keep Take?” dialog. If you are happy with your recording, you should choose [OK -Keep Take] and the audio will be added to the Audio track. You can listen to the results by pressing [Play]. If you are not happy with the results, you can choose Edit | Undo Keep Audio Take and you will be back to where you were prior to the recording. You can also choose the option to [Take Again], which reopens the Recording dialog. 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). Options 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 the audio by repeating it as many times as necessary. Then you'd just need to record the ending of the song. At the end of recording, you receive an option to overdub with the underlying audio. This means that both recordings will be merged together to form a new file, with both recordings preserved. There is also an option to “Retain audio past last recorded.” This allows you to “punch out” and preserve the rest of a previously recorded take. Playing the Audio File You can play the Audio file that you've recorded by pressing [PLAY]. 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 this example, the song is titled NoName.SGU, and there is a 6.1mb .WAV file associated with the file, and that's 1 minute and 9 seconds of audio. The total duration of the song is 3 minutes and 20 seconds. Save the song with the name “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, which is MY FIRST SONG.WAV. 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. Edit the Audio File In the Audio Edit window you can edit audio data using Copy, Cut, and Paste. Launch the Audio Edit window by the Audio | Audio Edit Window menu item or pressing the Ctrl+Shift+A keys. You can see the dB (decibel) scale at the left of the Audio Edit window. To select a region of the Audio Edit window, you can Shift+click on the end point to easily select a large area. - Click on the starting bar. - Shift-click on the ending bar. 288 Chapter 11: Working With Audio Audio Edit Window Toolbar These buttons zoom in and out to the audio window. The 100% button sets the Audio Window to display about 8 bars per screen. This button zooms to the sample level so that you can see the actual sine waves present. The [100%] button restores the wave view. This setting allows you to select audio by snapping to a 16th note (or a triplet in swing styles). This button plays the selected area, and then stops. The other instruments are all muted; you just hear the audio. This button selects the whole track, useful for applying one of the built-in audio plug-ins. Non-Destructive Audio Track Editing The changes you make to the audio track are non-destructive and only become permanent if you save the file. If you have a song file called MySong.MGU, the audio track is stored in a MySong.WAV file. If you are editing the audio, the edits are now made to a temporary WAV file called TEMPMAIN.WAV, and not to MySong.WAV. If you save the song, the changes get written to the MySong.WAV audio file, but if you don’t save, the original file is preserved. Audio Harmonies You can apply a harmony to the audio part – allowing you to automatically create up to 4-part vocal harmonies from your singing. And don’t worry if your singing is not in perfect tune, Band-in-a-Box can “fix” vocals to the correct pitch - automatically! Simply record your vocal part, choose a harmony, and Band-in-a-Box will generate the vocal harmony part for you using the world-leading TC-Helicon Vocal Technologies engine. Once you have recorded a vocal part into Band-in-a-Box, you can use this feature in many ways, including: - Record yourself singing into a Band-in-a-Box file. Create a vocal harmony for part or all of the song by selecting a Band-in-a-Box harmony and choosing the Generate Audio Harmony option. You can now hear yourself singing in perfect harmony! - Did you hit a few “out-of-tune” notes when you recorded your singing to Band-in-a-Box? Fixing your “out-oftune” singing is easy, by instructing the program to correct the pitches to the Melody track. Chapter 11: Working With Audio 289 Audio Harmonies Tutorial Note: All of the demo songs are located in the Tutorial - Audio Harmonies folder in the Band-in-a-Box (C:\bb) folder. Let’s load in the song “Listen.MGU.” First off, play the song “Listen” – it has an audio track, so you’ll be hearing a male vocal track lasting about 16 bars (since WAV files are big, we only include a small 16 bar sample of the WAV file). We’re going to apply some audio harmony to this “Listen” demo. Since any edits we save to the audio WAV file are permanent, we want to make sure that we keep a copy of the original file around that is unaltered. Save a copy of the song as “Listen 4 Part Harmony.” Press the [Save As] button, and choose a name of “Listen 4 part harmony.” We will now be working with this file, so our original Listen file won’t be affected. Choose menu item Harmony | Audio Harmonies & Pitch Tracking. You’ll see the Generate Audio Harmonies dialog. In this dialog, there are 3 types of harmony that we can choose from: 1. Melody Pitch Tracking only (this would change the pitch of our singing to the correct pitches found on the MIDI Melody track). 2. Harmonize to the MIDI Melody. This applies a 1-4 part audio harmony – turning your singing track into a harmony singing quartet. 3. Harmonize to the chords of the song. If your song doesn’t have a MIDI melody, you can still create a vocal harmony, based only on the chords of the song. Let’s harmonize to the MIDI melody, so choose the radio button with that title. Then select Harmony type “131 Four Freshmen 4 part Vocal Harmony.” This is a 4 part harmony that includes the melody, and one of the voices is above the melody. Since we want to harmonize the entire song, choose “Whole Song.” The output can be mono or stereo. Since we’re making a 4-part harmony, and we want to hear the voices panned across our stereo speakers, we choose STEREO here. We want Band-in-a-Box to play our files directly, and since Band-in-aBox plays only one WAV file at a time, we won’t be exporting the 4 voices as separate WAV files, and we don’t select the “Output (Export) as separate WAV file” option. Press OK, and this launches the TC Helicon Harmony dialog, which lets you control the sound of your harmonies. 290 Chapter 11: Working With Audio Let’s examine the various sliders on this dialog, as they apply to our “Listen 4 part Harmony” File. The “Dry Voice Level” slider is the level of our original voice. We can make the harmony to include more of our original voice by raising this slider. Set it half way up (to 12dB). The 4 columns labeled Melody, Voice 2, Voice 3, and Voice 4- 8va are the 4 part MIDI harmony that will be transformed to an audio harmony using our original voice. The “8va” tells you that Voice 4 will be above the melody. Each of the voices have sliders for “Level” (loudness) and “Gender.” The “Gender” slider makes the voice sound like a male or female (raise the slider to make it more female). Higher pitches of harmony should have a female gender applied. Make the settings as in the picture above. The Octave is an important setting that controls the overall octave of ALL the generated harmonies. If the harmony generated is too high, lower the octave setting here. Try out the preview with the octave on 0, and then again on –1, you’ll hear all of the voices an octave lower on the – 1 setting. Leave it at 0 for this demo. There are 3 Humanization settings (timing, pitch, and portamento) that affect the sounds of the individual voices. Timing controls how “tight” the group sounds, with a setting of zero being perfectly synced start/stop times. Let’s set it to about 20, to give some natural looseness to the group. Pitch controls how steady the pitch will be. If set to zero the pitch will be exactly the MIDI pitch, if set higher, the pitch will vary up/down with the original WAV file. Portamento controls how fast the pitch will change from one pitch to another. Settings above zero give smooth transition from one pitch to another. Pitch Styles When you generate audio harmonies to your recorded vocal tracks, you can select Pitch Styles to add vibrato and scooping effects to the vocal harmonies. There is a drop down combo list at the bottom of each voice. You can Chapter 11: Working With Audio 291 choose a type of “pitch effect” (combination of vibrato and scooping) called a Pitch Style to be applied to each harmony voice. In the example screenshot, we have chosen “Crooner,” “Lite Jazz,” “Lounge,” and “Head Voice” – somewhat similar vibrato types, but different for each harmony voice. The Pitch Styles are especially useful for harmonies generated from MIDI tracks, because these lack any vibrato. Now by applying these pitch effects, you can get a natural sounding vibrato for these harmonies. Now let’s preview our harmonies! Press the [PREVIEW] button, and after a 5-10 second delay, you’ll hear a 10 second sample of the harmony. Once you hear it, you can tweak the settings, for example: make the original voice louder by increasing the Dry Voice Level slider. to make the individual harmony voices louder, increase their sliders. to change the stereo separation, change the Pan sliders to make the group more “loose” sounding, increase the Timing slider to make the pitches and pitch-transitions more human, increase the Pitch and Portamento sliders change the whole Octave of all of the harmonies with the octave slider. If you’d like to get more help on-line about the settings, inside the dialog press the Help button and then click anywhere in the dialog. This launches the Band-in-a-Box Help file with more information. When you are happy with the settings, press the [GENERATE] button. This generates a harmony for the complete song (takes about 20 seconds for “Listen” depending on your CPU speed). The dialog then exits, and your song is ready to play in Band-in-a-Box. Band-in-a-Box gives you a confirmation message that the audio harmony has been created. - Tip: When playing back the harmonies, mute the MIDI melody (right click on Melody part at the top of the screen or Alt+9). If you want to hear what the harmonies should sound like – we have included a completed version of “Listen 4 part harmony.MP3” and this is included on the “c:\bb\Tutorial - Audio Harmonies” folder. Melody Pitch Tracking Now let’s use the Audio Harmonies for a different purpose, to “fix” pitches that may be out of tune, or to change some pitches to more interesting notes. For this, reload the song Listen.MGU. Now resave it by [Save As] and give it the name “Listen Pitch Tracking.MGU.” Now, we’re going to change some notes of the MIDI melody. Open the notation, and change the pitch of the D note at the end of bar 2 to an E. Also change the ‘B’ at bar 7 to a ‘G’ below it. At bar 10, change the ‘E’ note to a C#. Now, choose Harmonies – Audio Harmonies, and select “Melody Pitch Tracking” and press OK to again launch the TC-Helicon Harmony Dialog. Now, we’re going to be changing the vocal track into a different vocal track that instead is matching the pitches of the MIDI melody (without any harmony). So the dialog reflects this, by only showing one of the columns with a track name, and it is “Melody (BB).” For this one, we should leave the original voice at ZERO (so we don’t hear any of it), and put some humanization settings as shown. Now try the [PREVIEW] button. You’ll hear that the harmony is ONE OCTAVE TOO HIGH. This is because the MIDI melody is one octave higher than the vocal track (males sing in the bass clef!). No problem, just adjust the Octave setting to –1, and try the preview again. You’ll hear what sounds like the original voice, except you’ll notice that the pitch is fixed to perfectly in tune, and some of the notes are changed in pitches (the ones we changed above, for example the E note on end of bar 2). Now press [GENERATE] to hear this whole song. If you want to hear what the pitch tracking final file should sound like – we have included a completed version of “Listen Pitch Tracking.MP3” in the “c:\bb\Tutorial - Audio Harmonies” folder. (Play this file from Explorer by double clicking on it.) Your tutorial example should sound very close to this. 292 Chapter 11: Working With Audio Chordal Harmony For the last example on “Listen,” we’ll do an example of the “Chordal Harmony.” This is a 4 part harmony based only on the chords, when we don’t have a MIDI melody available. Load in Listen.MGU. Save the file as “Listen – Chordal Harmony.MGU.” Now erase the Melody (just to convince yourself that the Melody is not going to be used). Melody-Edit-Kill Entire Melody. Now choose Harmony-Audio Harmonies to open the dialog, and then choose Chordal Harmonies. You’ll see that the only harmony type available will be the Chordal Harmony, because there is no Melody available. You can choose many different harmony variations, such as Four Above, or Three above etc. Let’s choose Four Above. This will give us 4 harmony voices above our original melody. We want to include the original vocal track as well, so we will mix the “dry voice level” up into the mix. Make the settings as shown in this dialog, and press [PREVIEW], and then [GENERATE]. Playback this demo song, and also play the included “Listen Chordal Harmony.MP3” file – your file should sound similar. Unison Harmonies Unison harmonies are available for the Chordal harmony. For example, if you recording a vocal track, and then choose Chordal Harmony (i.e. “Harmonize to the Chords of the Song”), you can then choose a new preset called “1 Unison, 2 Down, 1 Up.” This will give you 4 harmonies, and one of them will be a unison harmony doubling your voice. You can assign specific vibrato and other settings to the unison voice so that it sounds slightly different than your own, creating a “fattening” effect to your voice. Choir Effect In the TC-Helicon dialog, you can select a choir effect, from none/small/medium/large. A “large” choir effect makes each voice sound like 4 people singing, so if you use a 4 voice harmony, you will hear the effect as if 16 people are singing. Chapter 11: Working With Audio 293 Audio Harmonies Pitch Styles (automatic “Vibrato” and “Scooping”) When you generate audio harmonies to your recorded vocal tracks, you can select Pitch Styles, which adds vibrato and scooping effects to the vocal harmonies. Choose from many vibrato/pitch presets, including “Ballad,” “Broadway,” “Pop Diva” and more! When you launch the TC-Helicon Audio Harmony dialog, you can see that there is a new drop down combo list at the bottom of each voice. You can choose a type of “pitch effect” (combination of vibrato and scooping) called a Pitch Style to be applied to each harmony voice. In the example screenshot, we have chosen “Natural Vibrato,” “Ballad,” “Broadway,” and “Crooner” – different vibrato types for each harmony voice. The Pitch Styles are especially useful for harmonies generated from MIDI tracks, because these lack any vibrato. Now by applying these pitch effects, you can get a natural sounding vibrato for these harmonies. Pitch Styles Preset Details (one per voice) Each of the four voice banks has a Pitch Styles preset selection list. This control allows pitch scooping and vibrato effects to be added to the harmony voices. These effects can be used to increase the naturalness of vocals processed by melody pitch tracking, produce a more polished, professional sound in the harmonies, and even to create strange special effects. (Have you ever harmonized with a flock of sheep?) The following table provides a list of the presets, as well as descriptions to help you decide when to use them. Style Name Description 1 B Natural Vibrato This is a very subtle vibrato along with pitch effect that causes the harmony voice to slightly scoop up into some notes, making it seem more distinct from the lead voice. 2 Ballad Rock Vibrato A Rock vibrato typically used in slower pieces. 3 Broadway Vibrato The classic vibrato of the New York Show-Tune sound. 4 Classic Rock Vibrato Classic Rock - A rich and potent sound. 5 Crooner Vibrato The classic sound of the Las Vegas entertainers. 6 Deep Jazz Vibrato Reminiscent of the great Jazz singers of the 1950s. 7 Discreet Vibrato A very light vibrato. 8 Folk Vibrato A warm and pleasant vibrato. 9 Funk Vibrato An energetic sound from the 70s. 10 Head Voice Vibrato A very resonant vibrato, using pitch and amplitude modulation. 11 Hi Energy Vibrato A fast vibrato. 12 Lite Jazz Vibrato A lighter Jazz sound. 13 Lounge Vibrato The bold and big sound of the lounge entertainer. 14 Mellow Folk Vibrato A sweet, mellow sound. 15 Mellow Pop Vibrato Light accents to a Pop vocal. 16 Nervous Tremolo Vibrato A very fast, “nervous,” and choppy vibrato. 294 Chapter 11: Working With Audio 17 Opera Tenor Vibrato 18 Tenor Delayed Vibrato 19 Pop Diva Vibrato 20 Pop Diva XT Vibrato 21 R&B Vibrato 22 Slow Ballad Vibrato 23 Slow Gospel Vibrato 24 Smooth Pop Vibrato 25 Soprano Vibrato 26 Tremolo Vibrato 27 Warm Vibe Vibrato 28 Memphis Scoop Vibrato 29 Changing Scoop Vibrato 30 Country Scoop Vibrato 31 Jungle Vibrato 32 Landing Vibrato 33 Motorbike Vibrato 34 Nervous Vibrato 35 Sheep Vibrato 36 Siren Vibrato 37 Slicer Vibrato 38 UFO Vibrato The sound of a Classical Tenor singer. A Classical tenor sound with a delayed onset. Better for slow songs. The sound heard on many hit Pop recordings. A thicker and fuller Pop Diva vibrato, with a faster onset time. Vibrato from another Pop music culture - Rhythm and Blues. A style typical of slow Pop ballads of the 1970s. Use this on slow songs only because the vibrato isn’t triggered on short notes. The big sound of the southern US Gospel singer. A smoother Pop vibrato. The vibrato sound of a Classical soprano. No pitch modulation, just amplitude modulation. A warm and quick vibrato sound. A style typical in ballads of a certain singer from Memphis. Long scoops into some notes, and a strong, slow vibrato. A style typical of a certain tambourine man. This one works best on slow songs if you just speak the lyrics without singing them! A style that mimics that Country “flip” sound on note onsets. Special Effect. The sound of the jungle-man. Special Effect. The sound of a close encounter with a spaceship landing. Special Effect. A motorcycle-like sound. Special Effect. An agitated, uneasy sound. Special Effect. The likeness of sheep bleating in the field. Special Effect. The sound of a North American emergency vehicle. Special Effect. A choppy alternative to a standard vibrato. Special Effect. The sound of your science-fiction imagination Applying Audio Plug-Ins 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 plug-in that you want from the Audio | Plugin menu. For reverb, choose the Reverb option. You'll then see a plug-in with its own settings, specific to the type of plug-in. Inside the plug-in, you can preview the plug-in effect, and if you like it you can then proceed with processing the entire .WAV file. You can undo the affects of any plug-in by choosing Edit | Undo. Direct-X or VST Plug-ins You can apply your favorite DirectX or VST plug-in to the digital audio track. To process a WAV track with a DirectX or VST plug-in, choose Audio | Plugin | DirectX Audio plugins. Important! This feature requires that you have Microsoft DirectX installed. You can download the latest version of Microsoft DirectX from www.microsoft.com. Real time DirectX or VST Audio Plug-ins You can real time-process the Band-in-a-Box audio track using DirectX or VST Audio plug-ins. This is useful to “non-destructively” apply EQ, Echo, Reverb, Dynamics, and other effects to a Band-in-a-Box audio track. The advantage of real time processing is that you can set effects today, and if you decide you don’t like the effects tomorrow, the settings can be easily changed, since the real time effects did not permanently affect your audio track on the hard disk. Chapter 11: Working With Audio 295 To use real time DirectX or VST audio plug-ins, open the Band-in-a-Box Audio Settings dialog with the Preferences [Audio] buttons. Check “Use Realtime DX Audio Plugins” to enable this feature. DX/VST audio plug-ins are not enabled by default, in case an older/slower computer might have trouble with DirectX. If your computer misbehaves with DX/VST audio plug-ins, simply make sure this option is unchecked. DirectX or VST audio plug-ins and DXi/VSTi synthesizer plug-ins can have playback latency (the delay between when a note is played, and when a note is heard). Adjust “Audio Latency in mS” to fine-tune for your computer. If you have a fast computer and excellent sound card, the audio latency can be adjusted rather low. However, if you hear audio dropouts, you can set the latency as high as 2000 milliseconds. Playback timing is equally good with long or short latency. But with longer-than-necessary latency, you have to wait awhile before hearing playback begin, and there is a noticeable delay if you adjust DX plug-in settings during playback. To edit DX plug-ins, click the [Edit Plugin Settings…] button. The Edit radio buttons let you chose which of the four in-line effects to edit. The Bypass checkboxes let you bypass any of the four effects in a group. In the above picture, four DX plug-ins are applied to the Band-in-a-Box audio track. First, PG Dynamics to balance input levels, PG Ten Band EQ for tone polishing, PG Reverb to add ambiance, and PG Peak Limit to boost and level the amplitude. The [Load Group] and [Save Group] buttons let you load and save the effects settings for the currently selected track. 296 Chapter 11: Working With Audio The [Load Preset] and [Save Preset] buttons let you save and load presets for the current effect (such as PG Reverb). The [Delete Preset] button lets you remove a preset from the list of already saved presets. The [Options] button brings up DX/VST Options (useful utility functions you may occasionally need). Chapter 11: Working With Audio 297 The [Edit DX Exclusion List] button lets you edit the list of plug-ins to include or exclude in the DirectX editor. This is useful if you have plug-ins installed, which are not compatible with Band-in-a-Box. If you edit the exclusion list, you’ll see a dialog box with the left side displaying the included plug-ins and the right side displaying the excluded plug-ins: The [<] button lets you move a plug-in from the excluded list to the included list. The [>] button lets you move a plug-in from the included to the excluded list. The [Scan for New Plugins] button will re-scan for newly installed plug-ins. Use this option if you have installed a new plug-in since starting Band-in-a-Box. The [Register a New Plugin] button can register a plug-in with Windows, so that audio applications such as Bandin-a-Box or PowerTracks can use the plug-in. Most DX plug-in installers register themselves, but this option is useful if you have a plug-in that doesn’t automatically register itself. The [Un-Register a Plugin] button removes a plug-in from Windows so it will no longer be available. Many DX plug-ins have uninstallers that automatically unregister, but this option is useful to remove plug-ins that do not have uninstallers. This function does not delete a plug-in from your hard drive. It only removes it from the Windows registry so that is can’t be used. The [Run DirectX Diagnostic Tool] button runs the Microsoft Direct X Diagnostic Tool. This is a Microsoft program, which checks for problems with DirectX. [Remove VST Plugin (from list)…] opens a separate list where you can remove VST or VSTi plug-ins. NOTE: The number of real time effects that you can expect to activate at a time without stressing the system depends on the speed of your computer. The more effects you chain together, the more CPU power will be required. For example, only an EQ plug-in will require less CPU power than a chain of four effects such as (Compressor – EQ – Chorus – Reverb). Today, computers are usually fast enough to support full chains of effects on both the Audio Track and the DXi Synthesizer. Reading the Audio and MIDI tracks into other programs If you have a Band-in-a-Box song that has an audio track as well, and want to export that song to a sequencer like PowerTracks Pro Audio, follow these steps: For a 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. Tip: PowerTracks Pro Audio recognizes that this is a Band-in-a-Box file with a wave file associated with it, and will offer to read them both in. In earlier versions of PowerTracks Pro and other sequencers you'll need to follow the steps above. 298 Chapter 11: Working With Audio Rendering Audio Files Rendering WAV Files Audio rendering means converting a MIDI song to audio format, usually to a WAV file. Press the [.WAV] button on the main Band-in-a-Box screen to launch the Render to Audio File dialog. This shows the directory where the rendered wave file will be saved. You can use the [Choose] button to specify any folder on any drive for the rendered wave file. If you have selected a DXi or VSTi synthesizer for your MIDI output in the Opt. | MIDI Driver Setup dialog, one click on [DXi - Direct Render] will quickly convert your song to a .WAV file, normally in a few seconds. It is not necessary to have a DXi or VSTi synthesizer to render RealTracks. You can direct render to audio as separate tracks with “One WAV File per Track.” If this option is chosen, separate WAV files get written (mono or stereo) for each track (names MySong_Bass.WAV, MySong_Drums.WAV, etc.) so you can import tracks to your favorite sequencer as audio files. For direct rendering, you can also choose whether you want the output file to be mono or stereo. Use the “Normalize” option to normalize individual tracks or the complete arrangement. Normalizing boosts the volume to a maximum level without distortion. Most professional music tracks are normalized. For Audio track rendering, you can adjust the volume to match it to the other tracks. Reverb is added to the mix if there is reverb set for the audio track. You can add a dB amount to the whole mix to make it louder or softer. There is automatic “peak-limiting” added, so that the music will not distort if you set it too high. Chapter 11: Working With Audio 299 Batch convert a folder of songs to audio files (MP3, WAV, or WMA). Do you need to convert an entire folder of Band-in-a-Box songs to audio files? This can be done easily by a single command with an option to name the resultant audio files based either on the original file name or the song title name. Press the [Batch] button to Batch create audio files. Select the folder that you want to use (e.g. C:\bb\my songs). Add a suffix for each file name. For example, if the suffix is _Demo, then MySong.MGU will render as MySong_Demo.WAV) Choose whether you want the filenames to be based on the filename or the song title. Select the file type for the output file from the “Audio File Type” group box. When rendering to WMA or MP3 files there is an option to also write WAV files. Note: For rendering MP3 files the program uses whatever MP3 codec and bit rate you already have installed in 300 Chapter 11: Working With Audio Windows. Option added to reset the DXi synth after each render. This insures that no audio (stuck notes etc.) from previous file is retained. Press the “Go” button to render all of the Band-in-a-Box files in the folder to the selected audio format. There is a [Cancel] button in the Batch Rendering screen. Rendering in Other Audio Formats Band-in-a-Box has enhanced audio support for saving in Windows Media Player format. Saving as Windows Media File Before you start, select a destination for the finished file. The destination of the file will be the folder that is shown in the “Save the WAV file with this name” field. Click on the [Choose] button to select a different location for the finished WMA file. Press the [Save in Windows Media format (WMA)…] button to save your Band-in-a-Box song as a Windows Media Audio file. This renders the file to a stereo WAV file, and then prompts for the conversion to WMA. Click [Yes] to render the file. If RealTracks are present, they will be generated for the song and then all tracks will be rendered to a WAV file. Next, a progress screen will appear showing the rendering to WMA, followed by a completion message. Saving in Other Compressed Formats (MP3) Before you start, select a destination for the finished file. The destination of the file will be the folder that is shown in the “Save the WAV file with this name” field. Click on the [Choose] button to select a different location for the finished file. When you choose this option, Band-in-a-Box will present a prompt screen. Chapter 11: Working With Audio 301 Click [Yes] to render the file. If RealTracks are present, they will be generated for the song and then all tracks will be rendered to a WAV file. Next, a dialog will open where you select the audio format for your file. From this dialog, you can choose the type of compression that is appropriate (from the available installed codecs). You can save your settings as named presets by using the [Save As] button. You will see a progress screen during rendering, followed by a completion message. Click [OK] to see a report about the rendered file. 302 Chapter 11: Working With Audio Rendering Options Merge in Audio Track Rendering of songs to .WAV files always includes the MIDI tracks. If this option is checked, the audio track will be merged with the MIDI tracks in the wave file. Use “Adjust Audio Track volume by” a number of dBs to balance the audio track with the level of the rendered MIDI tracks. A setting of 6 dB is double the volume, -6 dB is half the volume. “Boost All Files Ampliturde by” adds a dB amount to the whole mix, so that the mix will be louder or softer. There is automatic peak-limiting added, so that the music will not distort if you set it too high. Include 2 bar lead-in If this is not checked, and there is no Melody track lead-in, the 2 bar lead-in will be skipped in the rendered file. Include Drum Count-in sound If this is set the drum count-in will be included in the rendered WAV file. Delay at start (seconds) will include enough silence at the start of the rendered wave file for a space between tracks when creating audio CDs. Delay at end (seconds) will insert extra time at the end of the song. Burn your own Audio-CD Press the [Burn to Audio CD] button to launch the MiniBurn program and burn your wave file to a CD, which will then play in a standard CD player. Note: Any CD you create won't be playable in an Audio CD player until the disc is finalized. Therefore, if you choose [Burn CD - No Finalize] make sure that when you burn the CD for the last time the disc is finalized. If launched from Band-in-a-Box, the current BIAB song has automatically been added to the Burn List. If MiniBurn is running standalone, you must add Wave files to the Burn List. Burn List Burn list files are displayed in MiniBurn’s central file list region. Column 1- Track Number Column 2- Path and name of Wave files Column 3- Play time of each Track, formatted in minutes:seconds:frames Chapter 11: Working With Audio 303 Burn Time indicates the sum of all the burn list track times. Avail Time indicates the time available on the blank CD-R in the CD Burner. If no disc has been inserted, Avail Time reads “No Disc.” If an unwritable disc has been inserted (CD-ROM disc or already-finalized CD-R, CD-RW), Avail Time reads “UnWritable.” Add Files to the Burn List Wave files can be added three ways: 1. Use the menu item File/Add Track… 2. Right-click on the Burn List and select “Add Track” from the pop-up menu. 3. Drag wave files into the MiniBurn window from an open Windows folder view. Note: Only Wave files are accepted, and Wave files must be 16 bit stereo, 44.1 K sample rate (the standard format for Audio CDs). Remove Files from the Burn List Files can be removed two ways: 1. Left-click to select a track, then use the menu item File | Remove Selected Track. 2. Left-click to select a track, then right-click on the Burn List and pick “Remove Track” from the pop-up menu. Clear All Files from the Burn List The list can be cleared two ways: 1. Use the menu item File | Clear All Tracks From Burn List. 2. Right-click on the Burn List and select “Clear All Tracks” from the pop-up menu. Change the Order of Tracks in the Burn List Left-click on the “Trk” column of the file you wish to move, and drag the file to a new location in the list. Audition Tracks in the Burn List Left-click to select a track in the Burn List, then right-click and pick “Play Selected File” from the pop-up menu. 304 Chapter 11: Working With Audio To stop playback, right-click the Burn List and pick “Stop” from the pop-up menu. It is not necessary to stop a wave file before playing a new wave file. It is not necessary to stop playback before burning. Playback stops automatically before burning begins. Burner Controls Eject: Open the drive tray using the menu item CD Recorder | Eject. Of course you can also press the eject button on the CD drive. Close the Drive Tray: Close the drive tray using the menu item CD Recorder | Close Tray. You can also press the eject button on the CD drive, or gently push the drive tray to close it. Some manufacturers advise against closing the tray with a push. Select a Burner If the computer contains multiple burners, select a drive with the Burner drop-down menu. If a computer doesn’t have any supported drives, the Burner menu will be empty and burning is not possible. Set the Burn Rate MiniBurn automatically selects the fastest rate reported by your drive. It is typical to use the fastest rate, unless you know from previous experience that your computer doesn’t burn well at high speed. In that case, set a slower burn rate to ensure a good burn. Test Mode Checkbox (Simulate Burn) To test the CD Burner without actually writing a CD, turn on the Test Mode checkbox. After your PC has “proven itself” with a couple of good burns, routine testing is not necessary. Cache Files Checkbox If Cache Files is turned ON, MiniBurn writes an encoded temporary file before burning the CD. Unless burn errors are encountered, performance is faster with this option turned OFF. It is not usually necessary to Cache Files, but there are some situations where Caching is helpful: 1. On a very slow PC, the computer may not be fast enough to translate the wave file to CD audio while burning. Caching may be necessary to avoid errors. 2. If Burn List audio files are stored in another PC on your local network, the network transfer delay may cause errors. Caching will pre-fetch the files to your local hard disk before burning the CD. Use Burn Proof Checkbox Burn Proof is a technology available on many newer CD/DVD burners. With Burn Proof, it is less likely to accidentally make a bad CD. If a burner has the Burn Proof feature, the checkbox is automatically enabled and turned ON. If a burner does not have this feature, the checkbox is grayed-out and cannot be adjusted. Unless Burn Proof seems to be causing unlikely strange problems, always use this feature if it is available. Burn CD + Finalize (Make Playable CD) Start CD burning. This button is the preferred way to make CDs for use with standalone Audio CD Players. With the other options, ‘Burn CD – No Finalize’ and ‘Finalize Only’, the tracks will typically be readable by computer CDROM drives, but all of your recorded tracks may not be visible to standalone Audio CD Players, even after the disc is finalized. Note: If you want the disc to be playable in standalone audio CD Players, remember to use CD-R (CD Recordable) discs rather than CD-RW (CD Rewritable) discs. Most stand-alone audio CD players cannot read CD-RW discs. Burn CD – No Finalize (allow tracks to be added later) Audio CDs must be “finalized” before they can be recognized by the majority of stand-alone audio CD players (stereos, boom boxes, portable CD players, automobile CD Players), or television DVD players. However, many computer CD drives can play “Un-Finalized” audio CDs, so you can play them on your computer until all the songs have been added to the CD. Use ‘Burn CD – No Finalize’ if you wish to add tracks to an audio CD over more than one session. Note: Be sure to use ‘Burn CD + Finalize’ or ‘Finalize Only’ when you add the final track(s) to a multi-session Audio CD. When adding tracks to an “Un-Finalized” audio CD, the Available Time field displays the “empty” time remaining on the CDR (the disc currently loaded in your burner). Chapter 11: Working With Audio 305 Example: If you have already recorded 40 minutes to a 74 minute CDR, MiniBurn will display about 34 minutes of Available Time. Take care not to add more tracks than will properly fit on the CD’s remaining empty space. Make sure that the Total Time does not exceed the Available Time! Finalize Only (Make Playable CD without adding new tracks) Audio CDs must be “Finalized” before they can be recognized by the majority of stand-alone audio CD players (stereos, boom boxes, portable CD players, automobile CD Players), or television DVD players. If you have previously added tracks to a disc with the Burn CD – No Finalize function, you can finalize the disc with the Finalize Only button. Stop Burn Stop burning before the disc is finished. Note: If you prematurely Stop, the CD will almost certainly be ruined. Burning Progress While a CD is burning, progress is indicated in the lower-left of the MiniBurn window. Progress messages are also displayed in the Status Bar at the bottom of the window. Read Buffer %- The computer’s disk read buffer usage. If Burn Proof is not available, you may have burn errors if this drops to zero in mid-burn. In this case, try a slower Burn Rate. Drive Buffer %- The CD Burner’s write buffer usage. If Burn Proof is not available, you may have burn errors if this ever drops to zero. In this case, try a slower Burn Rate. If a bona-fide buffer under-run actually occurs, MiniBurn also displays an error dialog at the end of the burn. The two Buffer fields are most useful for diagnosing problems-- If the Read Buffer gets too low, it may mean that the Hard Drive (or network connection) is not fast enough. If the Drive Buffer gets too low but the Read Buffer remains adequate, it may mean that background processes are stealing too much CPU time from MiniBurn. Track Written- Indicate the current track’s progress. Total Written- Indicate the progress of the entire burn. 306 Chapter 11: Working With Audio Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun Audio Chord Wizard (“Chords from MP3”) This amazing wizard automatically figures out the chords from any MP3, WAV, or WMA (Windows Media Audio) file and displays them in Band-in-a-Box. Just load an audio file and you’ll instantly see the chords. Using the Audio Chord Wizard is a great way to learn and practice popular songs as you play along and see the chords. Chordsheet Overview There’s a Chordsheet window in the Audio Chord Wizard that shows the chords for the whole song on a single screen. This allows you to click on a bar on the chordsheet to jump to that area of the song. You can mark sections of the song using part markers, and the sections will begin on a new line with a line space between so they are clearly seen. So you can then also learn the form of the song, as you can see the various sections (intro/verse/chorus/break) at a glance, or quickly jump to the any section simply by double clicking on that part of the chordsheet. For this discussion, open up c:\bb\Tutorial BB2007\Frontier.MP3. You will now see the song, and the Chordsheet window in the Audio Chord Wizard is visible. Play the song. When a new bar starts, hit the Enter key (or F8). This is called “tapping in a bar line.” The first time you do that, the program will consider that point to be “bar 1.” Tap in a few more bar lines. Click on the chordsheet, and the music will jump to that location. Now, let’s define some sections in the song. If a bar begins a new section, click on the bar # on the chordsheet, or press the P key to put in a part marker. Pressing P again will change the part marker, and then turn it off. Now the song is divided into sections, with space between each section, and each section starting on a new line. If we want to renumber the bars, right click on the waveform timeline at the place that you would like to be bar 1, and choose “Set Bar One.” Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun 307 To change the # of bars per row, or rows per screen, right click on the chordsheet. The +/- buttons at the bottom right of the window also change the row height. Chords may be edited in the Audio Chord Wizard with a right mouse click on the chord. When Edit Chord is selected, a highlight cell opens at the chord location. Type in the name of the new chord using standard Band-in-a-Box chord entry characters and press the Enter key to make the edit. The edited chord name is blue in color. Individual edits can be removed with the Remove Chord Edit command, or all edits in the song can be removed with the Remove All Chord Edits command.Part markers, chord symbols, key signature, and tuning setting are saved in Band-in-a-Box, and are passed back and forth to the Chord Wizard. The Audio Chord Wizard is a great way to learn the chords of songs. You can add section markers and divide the song logically into sections, so it is also a great way to learn the “form” of the song, an essential part of learning popular songs. As well as the chords of the song, the Audio Chord Wizard also figures out, - the tempo of the file, - bar lines throughout the song, - fine tuning detection (e.g. 5 cents sharp from A440), Note: Audio Chord Wizard estimates the chord progression of an audio file. It is NOT an Audio-to-MIDI transcriber, which would be a much more elaborate program. Opening Files To open your audio file in the Audio Chord Wizard you can click on its toolbar button or use the File menu command to Open Audio w/Chords. Use the Launch Audio Chord Wizard command if you already have a file with audio loaded in Band-in-a-Box. When you select a file to open you will see a series of Progress messages. The Audio Chord Wizard first opens the audio file and makes initial calculations, finding audio beats and estimating a tempo map, and then displays your audio file. 308 Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun Audio Chord Wizard Window Primary Program Controls Toggle Play/Pause (Space bar or Play/Pause key). Stop play, rewind to start with Esc key. Moves nearest bar line to current play position. F8 or Enter keysalso set bar lines. Song time signature, 2/4 to 12/8 supported. Average tempo, right-click for options. Song key signature. Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun 309 Use to correct pitch of song if necessary. Exit and send chords to Band-in-a-Box. Exit without sending chords to Band-in-a-Box. Chord Detection Chord Detection accuracy depends on the accuracy of the bar lines. If bar lines are not well-aligned then the Chord Detection can be expected to be rather poor. It is quick and easy to align the bar lines on most songs, once you get the hang of it. The first task is to locate the beginning of Bar One. Since an audio file could have an arbitrary amount of silence at the beginning of the song, and many songs begin with a pickup partial bar, ACW cannot easily guess the first bar without a hint from you. The shortcut keys and mouse playback controls make it easy to find Bar One. Tap the space bar to begin play, watch the Location Cursor, and listen for the downbeat. If the Location Cursor passes the downbeat and you were not completely certain of the location, you can tap the W key to rewind to the song beginning and replay the first part of the song, to audition the downbeat as many times as necessary to make sure of its location. You can also single-click in the Chords panel to jump the playback position. If the rhythm is unusually complicated near the downbeat, you could repeatedly click just a little before the suspected Bar One location, to zero-in on the exact downbeat. In the following example song, we have discovered the downbeat of Bar One, so we Right Click on that location to Set Bar One. Now the Bar One bar line is red (shown below). The red Triangle bar indicator indicates that we have edited that bar line. The Red Triangles are called Good Bar Lines (GBL's). The green Triangle bar indicators are bar lines which ACW has automatically inferred from its automatic tempo detection PLUS your edited Good Bar Lines. We call the green automatic bar lines Inferred Bar Lines (IBL's). On this example song, the initial automatic tempo detection did a pretty good job. Simply setting Bar One has caused the first four bars to be properly aligned to the music. On some songs, Set Bar One is the only action necessary to get good bar alignment for the ENTIRE tune. As playback continues in this example (below), we notice that ACW has made its first error approaching Bar 5. Audio Chord Wizard has estimated the tempo of Bar 4 too slow. But that is easy to fix. If you prefer real-time control, just tap F8 or the Enter key where the downbeat should actually be. If you prefer stopped-time editing, you can either mouse-drag Bar 5 to its desired position, or drag the Playback Location Cursor to the desired position and then tap F8 or the Enter key. 310 Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun When satisfied with the Bar lines and Chords, click the [OK] button to return the Chords and Tempo Map to Bandin-a-Box. Chord Edits Chords may be edited in the Audio Chord Wizard with a right mouse click on the chord. When Edit Chord is selected, a highlight cell opens at the chord location. Type in the name of the new chord using standard Band-in-a-Box chord entry characters and press the Enter key to make the edit. Individual edits can be removed with the Remove Chord Edit command, or all edits in the song can be removed with the Remove All Chord Edits command. Part markers, chord symbols, key signature, and tuning setting are saved in Band-in-a-Box, and are passed back and forth to the Chord Wizard. Keyboard Shortcuts Keyboard shortcuts make it easier to navigate the song and tap in barlines without having to work the mouse with start/stop/scroll actions. Play/Pause- SPACE BAR, or MultiMedia keyboard PLAY/PAUSE key or (certain keyboards) PLAY key Stop- ESC key, or PAUSE key, or MultiMedia keyboard STOP key Tap Barline- F8, or ENTER key Jump To Song Start- W key, or HOME key Jump To Song End- END key Jump Forward One Bar- RIGHT ARROW key Jump Back One Bar- LEFT ARROW key Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun 311 Jump Forward Four Bars- PAGE DOWN key, or DOWN ARROW key, or MultiMedia keyboard NEXT TRACK key Jump Back Four Bars- PAGE UP key, or UP ARROW key, or Multimedia keyboard PREVIOUS TRACK key Special Cases Time Signature: If a song is not in the default 4/4 time signature, set the Time Signature very early before you do anything else. Bad Initial Tempo Estimates Double/Half Tempo: Sometimes Audio Chord Wizard will guess double or half of the tempo you might prefer. Slightly Wrong: Sometimes syncopated songs can have musical anticipations which make ACW guess a tempo slightly too fast or slightly too slow. Completely, Horribly Wrong: Some songs have rhythms difficult for a computer to understand. Sometimes a song's rhythmic beats are spaced in such a way that a song with a perfect Tempo of 120, might mathematically BETTER fit the audio beats at some simple (but wrong) related ratio such as 80, 100, 160, or 180 BPM. If the initial Tempo Estimate is pretty good, the Tap Bar line function will be the easiest way to fix such errors, requiring only a few keyboard taps during playback. But if the initial tempo estimate happens to be horribly wrong, it helps to make the initial tempo “in the ballpark” BEFORE you tap a few F8's to make it completely right. Right-click the Avg Tempo control for some easy automatic fixes. Note: If you want to use the Avg Tempo Menu functions, use the menu very soon after you have opened a song, before you have done much bar editing. If you invoke the Avg Tempo Menu functions after you have laboriously edited a lot of bar lines, the automatic nature of these functions can ruin your previous editing. In some cases, there is a good reason to initially set the tempo artificially slow by using the “Find Best Half Tempo” function. For example, if the initial tempo estimate is considerably faster than the tempo that you want to tap in, the Tap Bar line function can mistakenly think that you want a very fast tempo, which fills the remainder of the song with unwanted fast-tempo bars. In that case, if you initially set the tempo very slow, ACW will be unlikely to misinterpret your Tap Bar Lines. Set Key Signature Once the chords look reasonable, for instance if your song looks like it is probably in the key of F, set the Key Signature control to F for better chord spelling. This only affects the cosmetic display of notes and chords (flats and sharps). The Key Signature control does not currently affect the basic accuracy of Chord Detection. Adjust Fine-Tuning If a song is significantly mis-tuned from concert pitch, the notes are “in the cracks,” which makes Chord Detection less accurate. If your Chords look reasonable, there is no need to bother with Tuning. Most songs are recorded pretty close to Concert Pitch. But if you see numerous Chord errors, it may help to adjust the Fine Tuning control. 312 Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun If you are playing along with a song on your keyboard, you might decide to make an ear-estimate of how far out-oftune is the song: For instance, you could adjust the fine-tuning control on your keyboard until your keyboard matches the song's pitch (according to your ear). Then you could look at your keyboard's tuning readout, and adjust ACW's Fine Tune Control to match. Either click-drag ACW's Fine Tune control (like a slider control), or right-click the Fine Tune control then type in a number. The Fine Tune Control currently does not change the pitch of playback (though that would be an excellent future feature). Currently ACW's Fine Tune control only improves Chord Detection on mis-tuned songs. The Fine Tune control is calibrated in cents, 1/100th of a semitone. Therefore, if a song is perfectly in the key of C, but if you set Fine Tune to +100 Cents, ACW would display chords in the key of B. Similarly, if you set Fine Tune to -100 Cents, it would display that song's chords in the key of C#. That simple use of the Fine Tune control is just a backwards way to transpose the Chords. But if you set Fine-Tune somewhere in the middle, ACW looks for notes that are somewhere “in the cracks” between the piano keys. For instance, if your song SHOULD be in the key of C, but it was unfortunately recorded 50 Cents sharp-There could be many reasons that a song was recorded off Concert Pitch. Maybe the recording studio had a broken tape recorder. Perhaps the Piano Tuner was smoking Crack, or the singer couldn't quite hit the highest note. Maybe the vinyl record cutter was off-speed, or some Record Executive decided that the song was 10 seconds too long for airplay, and instructed the Mastering Engineer to speed it up a little bit. In such cases ACW can get confused, misidentifying some pitches too high and other pitches too low, detecting nonsense Chords. So if your favorite song was unfortunately recorded 50 Cents sharp, you can set the Fine-Tune control to +50 Cents so that ACW will properly display in the 'original' key. Auto Estimate Tuning ACW can automatically estimate the tuning, which helps in some cases. Since the estimation is math-intensive, ACW only analyzes one bar of music at a time. Right-click somewhere inside a bar and pick the Estimate Tuning function. After the process is finished, up pops the results dialog. As advised in the dialog, results can be improved by carefully picking the bar. Bars with relatively long notes are easier to analyze, compared to bars containing flashy fast melodies. It can be useful to spot-check a few bars. If several spot-checks give similar answers (within a few cents), you have good confidence that the results are actually meaningful, not being randomly affected by out-of-tune melodies or loud drums. However, if the first estimate reads +43 and the next measurement reads -12, then it probably means that your song is not a good candidate for automatic Tuning Estimation. Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun 313 Odd Length Bars and Drastic Tempo Changes If a 4/4 song contains occasional bars of 3/4, 5/4, or whatever, or if there are sections where the music has an extreme ritard or accelerando, sometimes you can just Tap Bar Lines to adjust it. But it is sometimes more convenient to manually add or delete bar lines. The following example song has an overall Time Signature of 4/4, but Bar 9 should have a time signature of 2/4. If you simply Tap Bar Line on 9:3 to shorten the bar, then ACW will mistakenly decide that you wish to make all the following bar lines double-tempo 4/4. Solution First, Right-Click on the beat 9:3, and Insert a bar line. Now a new barline is added, and three new GBL bar lines are flagged red. Right-Click on the new shortened Bar 9 and set the Time Signature to 2/4. 314 Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun Change Bar 10 to its desired duration. Hover the mouse over the red triangle marker at Bar 11, and the mouse cursor becomes a drag cursor. Click and drag the barline to the location marked 11:3 Now we have edited bar 9 to have its proper 2/4 Time Signature and preserved the song tempo on both sides of the 2/4 bar. Notes Display The Notes Display looks like a MIDI Piano Roll, but it is not exactly the same as a MIDI Piano Roll. Audio Chord wizard detects the strongest frequencies found in each eighth-note time slot, and displays them in the Notes Display. Sometimes the displayed frequencies REALLY ARE instrument notes played in the audio file. But they could be spurious information, such as the accidental loudest frequency of a drum beat. A midrange frequency note-bar might be showing the sum of harmonics from several instruments, each instrument's harmonics contributing to the strength of that frequency. The Notes Display information is real and useful, but try not to assume that every displayed note-bar is a real note in the audio. Display Controls Horizontal Scroll Bar Scroll forward/back in the wave file. Plus/Minus Zoom Buttons Zoom the display to show more or less detail. Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun 315 Audio Chord Wizard Utilities Dialog The Audio Chord Wizard Utilities dialog box can be launched at any time from the menu item (File- Audio Chord Wizard Utilities, or Audio – Audio Chord Wizard Utilities). It is also launched automatically after returning from the Audio Chord Wizard Automatic detection of key signature based on the chords only. This is useful for a song from the Audio Chord Wizard, where you forgot to set the key signature or for any song without the key signature set. If you agree with the analysis, you can accept the chord signature recommended for the song, by pressing the “Set the song key signature to …” button. Make a Tempo Map After an audio song (MP3/WAVV/WMA) has been loaded into the AudioChordWizard, there will be bar lines assigned automatically by ACW, and perhaps modified by you. If you would like Band-in-a-Box song file to follow these bar lines, so that the BB file will play in sync with the audio file, press the “MAKE A TEMPO MAP” button. You will then see red boxes on the BB chordsheet, indicating tempo changes and the presence of a tempo map. Press “Erase Tempo Map” to remove the Tempo map, and the ‘red boxes’ will disappear around the bar lines. Note: You can always get the tempo map back, by pressing “Make a tempo map” at any time. This erases the audio track from BB. If you have loaded in an MP3 file, the audio track isn’t the MP3 file, it is the WAV file copy that BB has made of it. So you wouldn’t be erasing your MP3 file! Note that you also have to SAVE the BB file to have the erasure be complete. 316 Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun If you enable the MIDI style, you’ll be hearing the audio file as well as the BB MIDI style. Otherwise you can mute the BB style by disabling it here. You can revisit the Audio Chord Wizard by pressing this button (this can also be done from the Audio menu). Revisiting the AudioChordWizard is useful to refine the bar lines. Tip: How to preserve chords if you revisit the AudioChordWizard If you do revisit the AudioChordWizard, and want to preserve the chords that you may have edited, first select all of the chords, and choose Edit-Copy, and then, after the AudioChordWizard, choose Edit-Paste. Otherwise the AudioChordWizard might re-interpret your chords! The Help button launched the help file (BBW.CHM file) with a topic describing the dialog, and the AudioChordWizard. The “Manual” button launches a PDF manual of the Audio Chord Wizard with latest features described. This manual is in BB AudioChordWizard folder. MIDI File Chord Interpretation Wizard Many MIDI files lack chord symbols, making them difficult to play along with by ear. Now you can open up any MIDI file in Band-in-a-Box, and Band-in-a-Box will automatically figure out the chords of the song for you. The chords are written onto the Band-in-a-Box chordsheet like any other song. You can also read tracks into the Melody and Soloist tracks. Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun 317 Importing Chords You can import the chords from a MIDI file. To do this, first blank the chordsheet by choosing File | New. Then select the menu item File | Import Chords from MIDI file to launch the Interpret Chords from MIDI file dialog. Press the [Open (Change)…] Button to select the MIDI file that you'd like to import. Once you've selected the file, you can press the [INTERPRET CHORDS NOW] button. When you do that, the chords will be interpreted from the MIDI file, and written onto the chordsheet. Prior to pressing the [INTERPRET CHORDS NOW] button, you might want to make some custom settings. When you load in the MIDI file, Band-in-a-Box interprets many things from the MIDI file for you automatically. Normally you'd want this to happen, but if you'd prefer to make the settings yourself, you can set the Auto Interpret settings from MIDI file to false. Once you have loaded in the MIDI file, and assuming that you have the “Auto Interpret” set to true, you'll see that the dialog displays the settings that the Chord Wizard has found for the key signature, and channels used for the song. Let's work with an example song called Violet Song.MID. This should be included in your c:\bb directory. - Start with a blank worksheet by choosing File | New. - Choose the MIDI File chord Wizard dialog by choosing File | Import Chords from MIDI file. Press the [Open (Change)…] button to select the MIDI file, and then choose the file that you'd like to import. In this case it is “c:\bb\Violet Song.MID.” Once you load in the MIDI file, you'll see that the Chord Wizard has analyzed it and made these determinations. It has automatically determined that the “Violet Song.MID” file 318 Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun - has 2 bars of lead-in. - has 103 bars of chords. - is in the key of F with a 4/4 time signature, and a tempo of 120. - has the Bass Part on channel 2. - has the chording (comping) parts on Channels 3, 6 and 7. - has the Melody on Channel 4. - has no other parts like the Melody to put on the Soloist track. Now, after loading in the MIDI files, you'd normally have a look at these settings above, to see if they seem reasonable for your MIDI file. If not, you can change the settings. For example, if you knew that the Melody channel was on channel 3, you could override the Chord Wizard settings. Once you have done that, you should choose one of the Presets, to quickly put the settings to the type of song that we are trying to interpret. Chord Options When you choose one of these presets, it makes a number of settings in the Chord Options section of the dialog. You can override them in this dialog. Chord Resolution This is the minimum number of beats for a chord. For example, if you set it to “2 beats” then the Chord Wizard will never attempt to come up with different chords that are only a beat apart. If you have a song that has a short section that does include chords every beat, you can redo that section of the song with a “1 beat” resolution. (Default = 2 beats) Include Slash Chords If set, the Chord Wizard will include “slash chords” like F7/A or Cm/G. Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun 319 Bass Part Type You can set this to “Root,” “Root-3-5,” or “Walking Bass.” If you choose “Root,” the chord Wizard will assume that any bass note is the root of the chord. Choosing “Root-3-5” will cause the Chord Wizard to assume that the bass pattern is mainly on the root, 3rd and 5th of the chord. If you choose “Walking bass,” it will assume that the bass notes can be changing and can include many notes beside the root. Setting the Walking bass line will likely result in fewer chords overall than setting the “Root only” option. Allow Suspended (Sus) Chords The setting for “Allow Sus chords” determines if chords like Csus or Bbsus7 will be included. The “Allow 7th chords” specifies if 7th chords like C7 or Bbm7 would be allowed. Simple Rock songs might not have 7th chords or Sus chords. Allowing chords with no thirds should be set in a hard rock song, or similar song with “power chords” that might not contain the 3rd of the chords. Delay Lowest Bass Note Usually a bass player plays the root of the chord at or near the time when the chord changes. But in solo piano playing or some bass styles, the bass doesn't state the root until later on, and this setting should be set to “delayed” in a solo piano style of this type. Primary Style Set the primary style of the song to Jazz or Pop using the Lead Sheet Method combo box. Using the Chord Options Presets to quickly make settings For the song “Violet Song.MID,” we know that this is a Jazz Swing type of song, so we press the Preset Called “Jazz Standard.” By doing this, we see that the chord options have then been set to Chord Resolution of 2 beats, no slash chords, walking bass, sus chords, 7th chords, and Jazz lead sheet. These settings look OK for our Jazz song, if we wanted to customize it (e.g., to allow slash chords) we could do it at this point. So, to recap, using the Chord Wizard is a 3-step process. 1. 2. We've loaded in the song “Violet Song.MID.” Pressing the preset button called [Jazz Standard], we then looked at the Chord Options settings for the various channels and they looked OK, so we didn't make any changes. We then press [INTERPRET CHORDS NOW] – this gets the Chord Wizard to interpret the chords, and write them onto the Chordsheet. Once we've pressed the [Interpret Chords Now] button, we can see the results, by looking at the chordsheet. Here are the chords that were interpreted. 3. 320 Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun So that we can see how well the Chord Wizard did, we can compare it to the “correct chords” of the song, input by a musician listening to the song. As you can see, by comparing the two sets of chords, the Chord Wizard got almost all of the chords correct in this example. The Chord Wizard purposely avoids chords like “C13.” It will put a simpler “C7” instead, since this is more like a typical lead sheet. If you've read in the entire MIDI file, you have 103 bars of chords on the Chordsheet. This actually contains 3 choruses of the song. You might want to reduce that to a single chorus by setting the chorus end of the song to bar 36 and then erasing the excess bars (after bar 36) by choosing Edit | Erase. Examining the song that has been interpreted by the Chord Wizard. You'll notice that the title (Violet Song), key (F), and tempo (120) have been set to the values found in the file. Part markers are not set; the Chord Wizard doesn't try to guess where part markers might be occurring. You need to put the part markers in yourself. You also need to choose the style to use (a Jazz Swing style in this case). If you examine the Melody track (by opening the Notation window and right clicking on some notes or pressing the Event List (#) button), you'll notice that the Melody track contains notes from Channel 4, which is what we specified in the Chord Wizard dialog. Importing Part of a MIDI file or re-doing a section of the Chordsheet) (Normally we'd want to import an entire MIDI file worth of chords. But if you only want to import some bars, you can deselect the “Import Complete song” checkbox, and then specify where to start in the MIDI file (i.e. the number of lead-in bars in MIDI file) and what bar to start at in Band-in-a-Box (Insert to BB starting at bar #) and the number of bars to import (How Many Bars to import?). For example, using the song “Violet Song.MID,” we could redo a section of the song using different settings. (For example, a chord resolution of 1 beat instead of 2 beats.) If we were unhappy with the results at bar 7 and 8, we could redo this by making the settings as follows: Other Settings for the Chord Wizard Band-in-a-Box and PowerTracks Pro Audio songs contain special events that write the exact chord names into the MIDI file. So if the Chord Wizard sees these events, it will use them instead of interpreting the chords, since they are likely to be completely accurate. If you'd prefer to ignore these chord events, set the “OK to use PG Music Chord names from MIDI File” to false. Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun 321 The setting for “Write Chord Summary Notes to Soloist Track” is only used for diagnostic or special purposes. When set, the Soloist track will contain a special track that has a chord written every 2 beats (or whatever the setting for chord resolution is) that contains every note found for the chord. This shows you the type of logic that the Chord Wizard is basing its decisions on. If you encounter a song that gives incorrect results for the chords, you can try this setting and then examine the Soloist track to see the actual notes of the chords. Chord-stepping through the track (using [Ins] and [Del] on the Numpad) allows you to quickly hear the chords. You can optionally include controllers, pitch bend, patch changes, and lyrics from the MIDI file. Practice Window The Practice Window allows convenient “1-click” access to many Band-in-a-Box features that help you with practicing. These include the Ear Training dialog, games (Pitch Invasion etc.), Metronome, CopyMe, Sight Reading, 101 Riffs series, and more. To launch the Practice Window, press the [P] practice button on the toolbar, or choose Window | Practice Window (hot keys Alt+Shift+L). There are several purposes for the Practice Window. Quick access to your favorite/preferred “practice” folders, so that you can setup load in songs without having to navigate dialogs. One-click access to many of the education-related features of Band-in-a-Box (play along soloing, Ear Training, games). 322 Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun Handy buttons for on-screen transposition for non-concert instruments. One button access to many of the Band-in-a-Box add-ons “101 Riffs” series and “Master Solos.” One button access to many other PG Music educational programs and lessons. Most of these items are “add-on” products, available separately, and are not included in the Band-in-a-Box program. If you have these items installed to your hard drive, the Practice Window will find them if they are installed them to the default directories, and if not, you will be able to point the program to the location of the program, which will be remembered in future sessions. For items that you don’t have, you can choose to display or not display them onscreen using the “Show add ons if N/A (not available)” setting. More information about all of the add-on programs can be found at www.pgmusic.com/practice.htm Making and Using Practice Folders If you are preparing for a performance or a jam session with friends, you likely have a list of songs that you are working on. Let’s say they are in a folder called “c:\Bob’s Tunes” Click on the Folder icon. You’ll then see a menu that lists a Manage Folders submenu, allowing you to create/remove Practice Folders. This is list of all Practice Folders defined (there likely won’t be any to start with, so you can add them using the Manage Folders menu command). Add a folder that you use frequently to this list. Note: Practice Folders are limited to 200 songs, because they display on a menu for quick access. So don’t use this feature for folders with hundreds of songs, use the Song List dialog for that. Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun 323 After the list of Practice Folders, you see a list of “Favorite Folders” – these are the folders that you have visited recently. Once you have selected a folder, you then press the [Songs] button, and you’ll see a pop-up menu of the file names for that folder, with the current song having a check mark. Load in a song by choosing the menu item. Ear Training Tutor Ear training is an important exercise for all musicians. Now you can practice your ear training with help from Bandin-a-Box. In addition to the common interval exercises (perfect 4th, minor 2nd, etc.), learning to “play-by-ear” for Jazz and Pop music is further enhanced by ear training exercises to recognize common chord types (e.g., Major, Minor, Dominant, etc.). For example, Band-in-a-Box will play a chord and you will have to identify the correct root and chord type. Your score can be tracked, allowing you to monitor your progress. Clicking on the various chord types lets you instantly hear the differences between various chords. Other options include “types of roots and chords to use,” and “voicing types” (open, closed, etc.) – allowing you to customize the ear training exercises for beginner through to advanced. Interval recognition is also customizable from beginner to advanced, with such options as instrument type, octave range, up/down intervals and more. Click the on-screen ear training button, or press Ctrl+Shift+J, or go to Window | Ear Training Window to launch the Ear Training Window. There are 2 modules in the Ear Training Window: 1. The Interval Tutor plays note intervals for you to identify. 324 Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun 2. The Chord Tutor plays chords (root + extension) for you to identify. Interval Tutor Click on the [Interval Tutor] button to launch the Interval Tutor module. Click on the intervals to hear them. For example, click on “Minor 3” to hear a minor 3rd interval. Set the interval types to guess. Pressing the [Easy] button will set it to the easiest (within one octave, second note is always higher, etc.). Start the game by pressing the [Guess Interval] button. You can control the starting note and the second note in the dialog. Once the game starts, click on the interval that you think is being played. Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun 325 Chord Tutor Click on the [Chord Tutor] button to enter the Chord Tutor module. - Press the [Play Tonic] button to familiarize yourself with the root note of the scale as a reference point. Click on any of the other note names to hear that root. Click on any of the chord extensions to hear that sound. Guessing the root You can test yourself on roots only or root AND extension. Press “Guess a New Root” and you'll hear a root played. Press this button to hear the root-to-guess replayed. If you need help, press [Play Tonic – C] to hear the root again. 326 Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun When you think you know the root, press the root name on the list of note names at the left. If you guess incorrectly, you'll see a message that says “Wrong Root.” You'll then hear the note that you guessed playing, followed by the root-to-guess note again. If you guess correctly, you'll see a confirmation of that, and can play again. Press the [Stop] button to stop the game. Guessing the Root and the Extensions The Guess a New Chord game works in the same way as the Root game, except that here you are guessing chord extensions. The root is always the same, whatever the setting is at the left. Click on the extension to guess, and [Replay Chord] button to hear the chord again. In this mode, you need to guess both the Root and the Extension. You can guess them in any order. Click on the root, and when you get it correct you can move on to the extension. Types of Roots to Include For the Roots, you can choose which types of roots to include. This can be any of the 12 semitones, or just the scale tones, or just the 1-4-5 of the scale. Extension to Include For the extensions, you can include all of the extensions listed in the dialog, or just the subset that are common extensions. Types of Voicings to Include The chord extension will be played using the voicing type that you specify in the voicing types combo box. These can be open, closed, or root position voicings. This setting also applies to the voicing used when you are previewing a chord. Show notes on piano during guessing If you were an advanced musician, seeing the notes on the piano during the guessing game would be “cheating,” since you'd probably quickly recognize the chord. However, a beginner might benefit from seeing the notes played on the piano screen. If this “show notes on piano during guessing” option is selected, these chords will play on the small piano located on the main program screen. The score is displayed on the window. You can reset these results to zero by pressing the [Reset] button. Ear Training Games Learning is best when it’s fun, so we’ve included these exciting games in the Band-in-a-Box Ear Training module for fun times in “the woodshed.” The programs are available via buttons in the ear training dialog, or by dedicated buttons on the toolbar. Pitch Invasion Pitch Invasion helps to develop perfect pitch as you shoot down “alien” notes invading from above. You hear the note sound and click on the on-screen piano/MIDI or QWERTY keyboard to shoot it down. Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun 327 For Pitch Invasion, choose a level that will specify the # of note types that will be invading. The LEVEL determines the speed of the notes. To shoot the aliens, click on the on-screen keyboard, MIDI keyboard or QWERTY keys. The program settings allow you to customize the game. Press the HELP button for more information. Music Replay Music Replay develops your pitch, rhythm, and melody recognition by replaying what the program plays, in note, rhythm, or melodic modes. 328 Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun For Music Replay, choose the MODE of the game. There are three modes: 1. Note Replay 2. Rhythm Replay 3. Melody Replay Set the Level to make the game harder. Press the HELP button for more information. Vocal Wizard The “Vocal Wizard” displays the best song keys for your vocal range! This feature helps you choose the best song key for your vocal range. Open the Vocal Wizard, enter your vocal type (baritone, tenor, etc.), or choose a custom range. Then the wizard analyzes the song and recommends the best keys for that song. Options available to “include/exclude falsetto range,” “restrict choices to these keys […],” and “transpose now.” Before we enter the Vocal Wizard, we’re going to load in the song Old Folks at Home (present in the c:\bb\Tutorial - BB 2005 folder). The song Old Folks at Home is in the key of F, we’ll use the Vocal Wizard to find the best key for a baritone. To enter the Vocal Wizard, choose the menu item Window | Vocal Wizard, or press the Vocal Wizard button on the toolbar. This launches the Vocal Wizard. Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun 329 You can see from the screenshot that the Vocal Wizard has picked the key of D (colored green) as the best key for the song, using the baritone vocal range. Other recommended keys are colored yellow. Un-recommended keys are colored grey, and include the current key of the song (F). Let’s explore the areas of the Vocal Wizard screen. There are 4 areas that require your input. 1. Entering your Vocal Range. Here you enter your “comfortable” vocal range, from lowest note to highest note. If you can sing falsetto, you can also enter the highest falsetto note, and the % of falsetto notes that would be acceptable as falsetto notes. You can also select a preset (like Baritone Male or Contralto Female). Or you can select one of 8 “User Preset slots” to enter and save a custom range (if you press the [Save & Name User Preset] button) 2. Selecting the keys that would be “allowable.” Most musicians have favorite keys, so this area allows selection of keys that would be acceptable for the Vocal Wizard to choose. For example, if we choose “Jazz” keys, we’ll see that the Vocal Wizard now recommends the key of C instead of D. 330 Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun 3. Setting the range of the song to analyze (usually the whole song). Normally you’d want to analyze the whole song, but this allows you to select a partial range. 4. Selecting the track to analyze. You’d usually pick the Melody track, but can also choose the Soloist track. You can then analyze the Melody by pressing the [Analyze] button. Most functions automatically re-analyze the song, but pressing the [Analyze] button forces a re- analysis of the song. This displays the analysis of the song. 1. A purple area describes the current range of the song, low note to high note, and compares it to your vocal range. 2. The radio buttons show each of the 12 semitone keys, and show a score for each key. The lowest score is the best. Keys are also colored – green (best key), yellow (good key), and grey (bad key for the song). In the example Old Folks at Home, you can see that D is the best key (“green”), but any of the keys from G to Db are also good keys in the selected vocal range. The area in black at the bottom gives an analysis of the vocal range if the song was transposed to the chosen key. Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun 331 Now that the Vocal Wizard has told us the best key for this song, we can either close the dialog, or transpose it now to the recommended key (or any other key that we have selected with the radio buttons. The Vocal Wizard can also work in an automatic mode, transposing a song to the best key as soon as it is loaded, without having to visit the Vocal Wizard dialog. This is done by checking the “Auto-transpose” checkbox. By doing this, you can insure that any song you load will be in the best key for your vocalist! And if the key isn’t deemed to be ideal, just visit the Vocal Wizard to see an analysis of the ranges to pick an alternate key. Reharmonist (Chords for a Melody) Generate Chords for a Melody Generate chords for a melody, or an improved chord progression for a melody, with the “Reharmonist” feature. This feature generates a chord progression in the chosen genre, based only on the melody. The idea of the Reharmonist is to generate a completely new chord progression for a melody, in a genre that you choose (Jazz, Country, etc.). This ignores any existing chords in the song. There are 2 separate windows for the Reharmonist feature. 1. Reharmonize entire song with a new chord progression. -or – 2. See a list of possible reharmonizations for a given area of a song. Generate a New Progression To generate an entirely new chord progression for a complete song or a portion of a song: Press the Reharmonist button (or menu option Window | Auto-Generate Chord Reharmonization). You will then see the Select Re-Harmonist dialog. The first thing you should do is set the “Genre” for the reharmonization. For example, if you want “Jazz Swing” genre, choose that in the genre drop down. 332 Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun You’ll then get typical Jazz chords. Verify that the key is correct. Band-in-a-Box analyzes the melody, and gives its best guess as to the best key for the song. If it is different than the current key, Band-in-a-Box will suggest the new key, and you can press the button to set the key to the new key. Set the region of the song that you want reaharmonized. Usually this will be the “Whole Song.” Press [OK-Reharmonize]. You’ll now get a brand new chord progression for the melody. See a List of Possible Reharmonizations Use the feature interactively by displaying a menu of possible chord progressions for a portion of the melody, and audition them to choose the best one using the “Bar Reharmonist.” This allows you to hear some new chord progressions for existing melodies, or brand new progressions for tunes without chords. To do this, choose Window | Chord Reharmonist Dialog (choose your own). This shows you the current bar in the song (for example, bar 7). It shows a list of suggested chord progressions for the current melody, based on the melody and genre that you choose. Choose a chord progression, and press [Do-Reharmonize NOW] and the program will insert that progression. The progressions are sorted in alphabetical order, or from “best to worst” depending on this setting. Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun 333 Chord Substitution Wizard Reharmonizing a song with the Chord Substitution Wizard is a fun and educational way to perform or practice a familiar song in a brand new way. For example, if you had chords such as “Dm7 G7 Cmaj7,” a list of substitutions including the tritone substitution “Dm7 Db7b5 Cmaj7” would be offered to you for use in your song. There are 2 ways to get chord substitutions 1. Let Band-in-a-Box show you a list of possible substitutions to pick from yourself by accessing Window | Chord Substitution Dialog menu item. 2. Let Band-in-a-Box pick them automatically by accessing Window | Auto-Generate Chord Substitutions menu item. Chord Substitution Dialog This dialog depends on what chords were present at the bar that was currently highlighted. This bar number is shown in the dialog and may be changed. In the example shown, the chord was an F7 chord, so the substitutions shown are for an F7 chord. The substitutions shown may work for up to 4 bars, depending on the substitution. In the examples above, the substitutions work for 2 bars. Jazz Substitutions / Pop/ Country You can control what types of substitutions to see by using these checkboxes. Some substitutions include more chords than the original, and some simplify the progression, and these can be viewed using the checkboxes. You can elect to exclude substitutions that have a chord on each beat. 334 Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun Types of Subs. to include This combo box will filter the substitutions to include only the best substitutions or all of them. Recompile The [Recompile] button is only used if you have edited the CHORDSUB.TXT file to add your own substitutions. This recompiles the file and takes about 1 to 2 minutes. Do Substitution NOW Press this button once you see a substitution that you like so that you can enter it onto the worksheet directly. Double clicking on the substitution line will also accomplish the same. You can then move the current bar to the next part of the song that you need a substitution for and repeat the process. Restore / Restore ALL You can UNDO the substitution by pressing the [Restore] button, or the [All] button to UNDO all substitutions. Auto Chord Substitutions You can quickly auto-generate substitutions for an entire song, or portion of a song using the auto-substitution dialog, which is accessed with the menu command Window | Auto Generate Chord Substitutions. For example, we can generate substitutions for the !Freddie.MGU song. Here is the original chord progression. By using the auto-substitution dialog, we can generate substitutions for the whole song, and we get this result: You can see that Band-in-a-Box chose the substitutions for about 70% of the chords in the song (that's what we told it to do in the dialog). It began by replacing the F6 chord with an Fmaj7 Gm7 Abdim Am7 progression. Some of the substitutions chosen are even more advanced than that (replacing two bars of Bbmaj7 with Bb6 Ebmaj7 Dm7 Gm7 | Bbmaj7 Cm7 Dbdim Dm7 for example). Here are the settings in the auto-substitution dialog that produced this result: Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun 335 If you'd like Band-in-a-Box to only generate chords for a certain range of bars, you should highlight that range of bars in the chordsheet first, and then launch the dialog. The Range will then be set to “Part of Song” and the “Bar” and “# bars” settings will also be set. You can override these settings with manual settings, if necessary. Chord Builder You can right-click on any chord to instantly hear how it sounds, or use the Chord Builder feature to audition different chords until you find the one that sounds best to you. In other words, you can enter chords “by ear” without having to know the actual chord names or any music theory. This feature also illustrates the differences between various chord types. Launch the Builder by pressing the Builder button, or right clicking on the chordsheet and pressing the Builder button, or by choosing the User | Chord Builder menu option to open the Chord Builder dialog. The Chord Builder is designed so it fits entirely above the Chorsdheet. This means that it can be left open as you work entering chords into Band-in-a-Box. Remember that you can also play chords in from the MIDI keyboard by pressing Ctrl+Enter after you've played a chord. You can click on the root of the chord in the “Root” group, and the Extension (Maj7 etc.), and also an alternate “slash-note” root. For example, to make the chord F9/A, you would click on the “F” root, the “9” extension, and the Slash Root of /A. As you click on them, you'll hear the bass note played on the Bass part, and the extension played on the Piano track. 336 Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun If you are happy with the sound of the chord, you can press the [Enter Chord] button to enter the chord at the bar and beat specified. If you would like the chord to be inserted automatically when you click on the note/extension names, select the “Enter chord when clicked” option. This will advance the Bar/Beat position. You can change the Bar/Beat settings to move to a different bar. Rhythm Guitar Chord Tutor Use the Guitar Tutor to analyze any song. This feature will show the chords that are playing on the virtual guitar fretboard, in your choice of a Jazz, Pop, or Folk perspective. The Guitar Tutor is a fun way to learn about new guitar chords while playing along with your favorite Band-in-a-Box tune. The Rhythm Guitar Chord Tutor is most useful on styles that aren't guitar styles, because the guitar styles already have a guitar part that you can learn from. Using the tutor, you can see (and optionally hear) guitar chords played on the guitar fretboard. This teaches you how to play the chords on guitar. To turn the Rhythm Guitar Chord Tutor on, launch the Guitar window and press the [Tutor] button. Enable Chord Tutor Display This setting silently displays the chords on the guitar fretboard. The Display Chords EARLY by (120/PPQ) is an “anticipate” mode that plays the next chord X beats in advance, allowing time for the user to prepare. If set to 120, the tutor chords will appear a full beat early. Play Chords through MIDI To hear the chords, select the “Play Chords through MIDI” checkbox. Tip: The Tutor uses the MIDI THRU part to playback on. You can control volume, panning, etc. by using the THRU settings on the main Band-in-a-Box screen. Guitar Patch You can select the patch to use directly from the Tutor dialog. Type of chords to display The tutor will display Jazz, Pop, and Folk voicings in easy, medium, and advanced forms. The advanced forms use inversions, and changing patterns of chords, while the easier ones just stick to the common “campfire” chords. Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun 337 Half Note (sax) chords use the advanced Jazz Guitar “highest-4-strings-comping mode.” This usually plays on the 4 highest strings, and it plays several chords over a single chord. For example, for 2 bars of Cmaj7 it might play Cmaj7-Dm7-Ebdim-Em7 all played as half notes. There are also tutors for the alternate tunings like DADGAD, Open G, etc. They can be selected from this dropdown list. Show muted high note of 3 note comping One of the tutors uses 3 note Jazz voicings to simulate the famous Big Band chord guitar comping styles. If you use this, you'll only see 3 notes in the chords of course. Since it sometimes helps to see the entire 4 chord voicing in this case, there is the option to show the muted note as well. Note: This applies to the guitar tutor. There is also the option to show this for the guitar styles. This option is present in the Guitar Options dialog. Copy to melody track / Copy to Soloist track Pressing either one of these buttons will send the chord to the appropriate track. The Guitar Tutor stays enabled until you change the Guitar track to another track (for example, to change it to the Bass track). You can easily re-enable it by clicking on the [Tutor] button again. Chord “Breaks” This feature is great for practicing tempo control. Select the # of bars, and Band-in-a-Box will play for, say 4 bars (selectable), and then will rest all instruments for the next 4 bars. During the silence, you keep playing (comping, drums, melody, etc.), trying to stay in tempo. Drummers can mute the drum part. When the band comes back in after the 4 bars, you’ll get instant feedback on how well you have maintained the tempo, as indicated by whether the band comes back in time with you or not. Once set, this feature works automatically with all songs until you turn it off. To access the Chord Breaks feature, press the [Chord Breaks] button from the Practice Window and then select “Insert Breaks.” (It can also be launched from [Pref] [Arrange] Arrangement Options). You then choose how many bars the program should play, and how many bars the program should not play. This setting remains in effect for all songs. Turn it off if you want to resume normal playing of songs. MIDI File to Style Wizard Making styles with the Style Wizard is a process involving: − Loading a MIDI file into the Style Wizard. − Listening to the MIDI file by muting channels to identify parts. 338 Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun − Picking the channels to use for the BB Parts. − Picking the snapshot bars for the “a” and “b” substyle. − Pressing the [Generate NEW style…] button. This section will discuss the various items in the Style Wizard dialog and the Style Wizard Additional Settings. The Style Wizard is used to generate a Band-in-a-Box Style from a MIDI file. The Style Wizard does this by analyzing the file and creating patterns emulating the notes and rhythms for the style. First off, you'd need to get a MIDI file to use. Important: You should use a MIDI file that you have composed and arranged – if not, you need to first get permission of the composer and arranger before making a style from the MIDI file. Using the MIDI File to Style Wizard The Style Wizard converts any MIDI file to a Band-in-a-Box style. In this tutorial, we're going to load in the Violet.MID found in the \bb folder and convert it to a style - which we'll call Violet.STY. Start with a new song and press the Style Wizard button or choose Styles | Style Wizard to launch the Style Wizard. The dialog is largely empty because we haven't chosen a MIDI file yet. Press the [Open] button and load in the file c:\bb\violet.MID. The Style Wizard then does the following automatically: The chords for the MIDI file are interpreted and written on the Chordsheet. The “part markers” for the file are displayed on the Chordsheet. For Violet.MID, the Style Wizard has found the correct part markers – by looking for drum fills and other signs of a part change – and has assigned substyle “a” to all of them. We'll change some of them to “b” later. Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun 339 The channels used in the MIDI file are displayed in the dialog, with the patches used and # of notes played on each channel. (For Violet.MID you can see that channels 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, and 10 are used.) The Style Wizard analyzes the parts and guesses at which Bandin-a-Box part - Bass, Piano, Drums, Guitar, or Strings to use for each track. Band-in-a-Box has correctly assigned 5 instruments – not assigning a part to the Melody. The Style Wizard suggests which bars (“snapshots”) to include in the style. The suggested bars are bars with all of the “BB Part” instruments. Usually you'll want to customize these snapshot bars to control which bars get included in the “a” or “b” substyle. In the Violet.MID style, the Style Wizard has offered to include Bars 9-101 (inclusive) and wants to put them all on the “a” substyle. Continuing on, we want to make a great sounding style, so it is important that we have the following two items correct: The “BB Parts” have to be correct. We can audition the MIDI file by playing a loop and listening to the MIDI file and muting channels by clicking on the “Channel” checkboxes. From that, we can hear the individual parts and assign them correctly, as we would like them in the style. By playing the MIDI file inside the Style Wizard we can tell which bars to use for the “a” and “b” substyles. Note: The Style Wizard has entered some of these settings automatically – but you'll have to type in the data as shown. The Snapshot Bars should be correct for the “a” and “b” substyle. You need to tell the program what bars to use for the “a” substyle and for the “b” substyle. The program makes an attempt to guess at this, but since MIDI files can contain many different substyles (and a Band-in-a-Box style allows only 2), you'll likely want control over these snapshots yourself. Tip to help you choosing which bars to use: To listen to the MIDI file, you can either exit the Style Wizard dialog and just play the song like any other Band-in-a-Box file, or play a looped section inside the Style Wizard using the [Play], [Stop], and “Loop at Bar” settings. OK, the Style Wizard has already made the correct settings for the “BB Parts” for us, so we don't need to make any changes there. Let's move to the Snapshots section, and enter the bar numbers that correspond to the substyles that we'd like for the Jazz tune. After listening to the tune, we notice that there is a “2-feel” Jazz section, and a “4-in-thebar” section. We want those as “a” and “b” substyles, so we enter the bar #s that correspond to these settings. 340 Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun In the Snapshots area of the Style Wizard: - Enter “1-20” for the bars for the “A” Substyle. - Enter “21-28, 37-68” for the “B” Substyle. - Enter “12, 20” for the “A” Drum Fills. - Enter “28, 36, 44, 52, 60, and 68” for the “B” Drum Fills. Note: Of course you don't need to enter this much detail. You could just enter a single range like 1-20 for the “a” substyle and make a quickie style. We're illustrating “advanced” style-generation here. Press [Generate NEW style…]; choose a name for your style, and the style will be made. Let's call it Violet.STY. Now to hear your style! You could play the style with any song of course, by loading in a song and then loading in the Violet.STY It is easily available from the Favorite Styles dialog (Shift+F9). For this tutorial, load in the song V_TEST.MGU that we made for you. That's a Jazz Swing song using different chords than Violet, and it uses the Violet.STY (So you need to have made that style before you try to play the song or you'll get a “Violet.STY not found” message.) Save the existing song before loading in the new song. When Band-in-a-Box saves a song that has an entire MIDI file on the Melody or Soloist tracks it gives it a special MGX extension. So you'll be saving the file as Violet.MGX. Alternatively, if you'd prefer to play the Violet.STY style without loading in another song, you can do it as follows. Since the Violet.MGX file currently has the entire MIDI file on the Melody track the first thing we need to do is Mute the Melody (Alt+9 or right-click on the Melody part at the top of the screen). The next thing is the Enable the Style, by choosing Style | Style is Enabled so that this item has a checkbox. Auto Endings for Styles without Endings If you‘ve made a style, and haven’t included an ending, a 2-bar ending can be generated automatically, based on the style. This makes it easier to make complete styles using the Style Wizard. To hear an example, load in the song c:\bb\Tutorial – BB 2005\No Ending.MGU. This song uses NOENDING.STY, a style that doesn’t have an ending. An ending will be generated automatically for this style. So we've made our first style! In summary, making styles with the Style Wizard is a process involving: 1. Loading a MIDI file into the Style Wizard. 2. Listening to the MIDI file by muting channels to identify parts. 3. Picking the channels to use for the BB Parts. 4. Picking the snapshot bars for the “a” and “b” substyle. 5. Pressing the [Generate NEW style…] button. Advanced Settings and Preferences Click on the [More] button to open the Style Wizard Advanced Settings and Preferences. Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun 341 There are 2 sections to this dialog, Advanced Instrument Settings and Preferences. Advanced Instrument Settings The advanced instrument settings allow settings for the instruments (drums / bass / piano / guitar / strings) to be included in the style. The settings are: The “Substyles” determines whether the instrument is included in the “A,” “B,” or both “A&B” substyles. For example, if you want to make a style that only uses the strings on the “B” substyle, set the strings instrument part to “B” only. The Voicings settings determine, for the various instruments: Drums (“voicings”): Whether the patterns will use live or grid style patterns. Default mode is “auto,” which normally uses live patterns, but you can force it to use live or grid style patterns. Live patterns have higher resolution and can use more instruments, so in general are the better choice. Bass (“voicings”) determine if the bass part will use All notes / Scale tones only / Root 3rd, 5th,7th / Root, 3rd, 5th / Root and 5th / or just the Root. The default is “Auto-select” which usually allows all 12 semitones. 342 Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun Piano, Guitar, and Strings Voicings determine how the Piano patterns will be voiced. The choices are Auto, Include Full Voicings, Tritones only (3rd/7ths), Power Chords (Root/5th), Chord Mask Half Octave, and Chord Mask Full Octave. The auto-setting usually uses the “Include full voicings.” If the part uses 2-note chords, you should over-ride this setting to “use tritones” so that the most important notes of the chord (the tritone) will get included. You can also use chord masks so that specific patterns over chords will get added to your style, and they will play exactly as in your MIDI file (just transposed). Set the voicings to use “ChordMask Full Octave” or “ChordMask Half Octave.” You wouldn’t make a Style Wizard style from scratch using chord masks, because there need to be generic patterns in the style. So you do it as a 2-stage process. First time, make the style using generic patterns (e.g. Voicing type “Auto”) and then change voicings to Chord Mask, and add those to the style. As with other Style Wizard features, it is important that the chords and part markers on the chordsheet be very accurate. So if they aren’t, you should fix them before generating a style. The Emb. (embellish) checkbox determines if the patterns for Piano, Guitar, and Strings will be embellished. If embellish is selected on a chord like D7 (in the key of C) 13ths, 9ths, and #11 notes might be added to embellish the chord. A Jazz piano style would likely use this. The “Include Empty patterns Threshold” setting defaults to None. Possible settings are None / 2 beat / 1 bar / 2 bars. If set to none, the instrument will always play in the style, if set to “1 bar” there will be “spaces of silence” up to 1 bar long (perhaps longer if chained together) in the style for that instrument. So if an instrument is used sparsely in a style, set this setting to something higher than none. The Velocity Adjust will make an instrument louder or softer in the style. Preferences Preferences affect the style itself. Save settings with songs The song will be saved as an MGX file, since the Melody track type is Multichannel and contains the MIDI file. If you select this, the Style Wizard settings are all saved with the MGX file. Leave StyleMaker open after creating style If set, after generating the style, the StyleMaker is left open for you to examine/edit the style directly. Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun 343 Auto-interpret MIDI file. (Default = Yes) When set, the Style Creation Wizard will set the channels, BB Parts, and snapshots for you. Normally this setting should be left on. Delete existing patterns (when adding to the style). (Default = No) If this option is set when you create style patterns to add to an existing style, the entire instrument will first be erased in the style for any instrument used in the new style. When you generate a style by adding to an existing style, the StyleMaker is then opened up, allowing you to pick a new name for the style (so you don't overwrite the existing style). # columns to leave unused in the style. (Default = 0) If set to zero (the default), the Style Creation Wizard can create the biggest style possible – filling up the rows completely with patterns. But if you set this to a non-zero value it will limit the # of patterns that can be made. Since there are 30 rows in the StyleMaker, you can set this setting from 0 to 29. Generate new pattern after # duplicates The Style Creation Wizard won't insert patterns unless they are unique compared to the ones already entered. But (with this setting at the default of 8), after 8 duplicates of the same pattern, a 2nd pattern will get entered that is a duplicate of another pattern. Setting this to zero would mean that every pattern would get entered (regardless of whether it was unique); setting it to a high number like 200 would mean that only truly unique patterns are entered. To maintain the correct balance in the style, since the maximum weight of a pattern in the StyleMaker is 8, this setting should be left at 8 in most situations. If your style is “filling up” all of the available columns, then set this to a higher number. Allow Pitch Bend in style If set, pitch bend present on the MIDI file will be included in the style. Make sure that the MIDI file pitch bend range = two semitones. Allow pushes in style If set, the style will allow pushes (playing instruments before the beat). This is done by setting the push values in the individual pattern’s options. Repeats and Endings Wizard Tutorial For this tutorial, we’ll be using demos from the “Tutorial– Repeats and Endings” folder. Load in the Song “Miles1 Tutorial (no repeats yet)” from the Tutorial – Repeats and Endings folder. You’ll notice that this is a 1-32 bar form. There are no repeats and endings entered for this song. We’ll be adding them now. First of all, when you load in a song, you’ll notice some new “Form Marker” features that happen for any Band-in-aBox song. 344 Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun Repeat symbols are drawn at the beginning and end of the entire form (bars 1, 32 in this song) and “end” is written on bar 33, which is the ending. Bars past the end of the song are colored gray. These form markers are present for every song, unless you disable them by Preferences | Display. These are not the type of repeats/endings we’re referring to here however. The repeats/endings we are talking about now occur during the form, and are the 1st/2nd endings, DS al Coda and other repeat types that you see on a typical lead sheet. So, in our song “Miles1 Tutorial (no repeats yet),” we can have a look at it and see if there are any repeats/endings. It appears from looking at the chordsheet that this 32 bar form consists of two 16 bar sections, with a 1st ending at bar 9, and a 2nd ending at bar 25. So now we’d like Band-in-a-Box to display it like that, with the first and second ending markings. Since we want to insert the 1st/2nd ending on bar 9, we right click on the chordsheet on bar 9, and select Repeats/Codas/1st-2nd Endings. We then see the Edit Repeats and Endings dialog. Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun 345 Click on the 1st/2nd endings radio button, and enter the following. - Repeat begins at bar 1. - 1st ending begins at bar 9. - 1st ending lasts for 8 bars. - Type of Repeat/Ending = 1st/2nd endings. By entering this data we’ve defined the complete 1st and 2nd ending. If the 1st ending begins at bar 9 and lasts for 8 bars, the 2nd ending must begin at bar 17+8=25 (there’s an 8 bar repeated section from bar 1 to 8). Now, this was a pre-existing song, and it already has all of the bars laid out. So we make sure that we don’t select the “Generate (insert) new bars” checkbox. Click on [OK-Make Repeat], and the repeat gets made, and the chordsheet redraws with the 1st/2ndrepeat showing. Make sure you have Fake Sheet mode selected on the chordsheet. As you can see there is a 1st ending at bar 9. At bar 16 there is a repeat symbol, indicating that the form goes back to bar 1 for 8 bars, and then will go to the bar after bar 16 for the 2nd ending. The 2nd ending is marked there. The bar # is 25, because the bars are numbered in linear fashion, and it is the 25th bar of the song as it would be played. Then the song goes to the end which is bar 32. Now we can see a LINEAR view of the same song, similar to the way it was before we put the 1st/2nd endings on it. To do this, deselect the Fake Sheet checkbox on the main page. You’ll then see the song like this. 346 Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun This shows all of the 32 bars, including the bars that are part of the repeat – these are highlighted in gray. Exposing these bars shows the linear view of the song, the way the song would be played. It also allows you to enter custom information for any of the bars, including the bars in the “gray area.” For example, if you wanted the chord at bar 21 to be an Em9 instead of an Em7, just type it in, even though it’s in the repeated section leading to the 2nd ending. You can toggle between the 2 views for the traditional lead sheet view with the Fake Sheet mode, and the “normal” (linear) view with Fake Sheet mode OFF. The List of Repeats/Endings allows you to manage the repeats/endings that have been entered. Delete/ Append/ Insert a repeat or ending using this list, which opens with the [Edit List] button in the Edit Repeats and Endings dialog. Chapter 12: Tutors, Wizards, and Fun 347 Chapter 13: Tools and Utilities DAW Plug-In Mode Band-in-a-Box has a “plug-in” mode for your favorite sequencer (RealBand, Sonar, Reaper, ProTools, FLStudio, Nuendo and more). With the plug-in mode, Band-in-a-Box is open as a small always-on-top window, and acts as a plug-in for your favorite DAW/sequencer, so that you can drag-and-drop MIDI and audio (WAV) tracks from Band-in-a-Box to your favorite sequencer. Work in your favorite sequencer, type a progression in Band-in-aBox, and then simply drag the track from Band-in-a-Box to your sequencer’s track at the desired track and bar location. The DAW Plug-in mode is a mode within the regular Band-in-a-Box program. This mode allows you to transfer tracks, or parts of tracks, to other DAW Sequencers easily, by simply dragging the track icons from Band-in-a-Box (BB) to the tracks window of your DAW. You can enter and exit the plug-in mode easily. Press the [Plugin] button on the main toolbar and choose the menu item Start DAW Plug-in mode, or go to the Windows menu and choose Plug-in Mode for DAW. When you do this: 1. The window size of Band-in-a-Box changes to a small size (you can resize it to the size/position that you want, and it will remember that). 2. Band-in-a-Box becomes an always-on-top window, if this is option is set in the Plugin settings dialog. 3. You can now easily drag tracks from BB to your DAW, by mouse clicking on the part at the top (Bass, Piano etc.), and dragging to your DAW’s track. You can also drag files to other programs, besides DAWs, if they accept a drop of audio files (WAV, WMA) or MIDI files. For example, Windows Explorer allows this. For this documentation, we will use Windows Explorer as an example. The [Drop] button is for DAWs that do not accept a direct drop of tracks that are not yet generated. For the Drag and Drop to work, you need to have your MIDI driver set to use a DXi or VSTi driver (like Roland VSC DXi/VSTi or Forte). Dragging Tracks from Band-in-a-Box to Windows Explorer (or a DAW). 1. Run Band-in-a-Box. Enable Plug-in mode as above. 2. Open (or make) a song in Band-in-a-Box. You can then drag all tracks (combo) or single tracks. 3. For a combo (master) track: If you want the entire performance dragged to the DAW, drag the Combo button. It will be dragged as audio, unless you have set it to be dragged as MIDI in Plug-In Options. 4. Normally a single file is dropped with the entire arrangement. But if you want all tracks transferred as separate files, you can enable this option in Plug-in options. Note that your DAW will need to support dropping of multiple files, and will typically put them on consecutive tracks. For a single track: If you want a single track transferred, drag that track name. For example, drag the Bass icon to transfer the bass track. If the track is a RealTrack (green), then it will be transferred as Audio. If it is a MIDI track (yellow), then it will be transferred as MIDI. If you want MIDI tracks transferred as audio, you 348 Chapter 13: Tools and Utilities can set this in Plug-in Options. 5. It is also possible to drag and drop selected regions of a track. If you would like to transfer only a portion of the performance, you can do this by selecting the region in Band-in-a-Box, and then dragging from the instrument part at the top of the screen (don’t drag the selected region). You will then get just the selected region dragged to your DAW. Tip: If you hold the SHIFT key during the drag, then the file will be dropped as MIDI (if it is a MIDI track), regardless of the setting in Plug-in options. Tip: If you hold the CONTROL key during the drag, then the file will be dropped as AUDIO (if it is a MIDI track, it will be rendered to audio using the DXi/VST that you have), regardless of the setting in Plugin settings. Drop Panel The [Drop] button is used to drag and drop tracks from Band-in-a-Box to Digital Audio Workstations that don’t support direct drag and drop. Many DAWs will allow you to do this directly, but, if your sequencer does not support the direct drop of a track that is not yet generated, you can drag from a radio button (Combo, Bass, Piano, etc.) to the Drop panel. When the button turns bright green the track has been generated and is ready to drag from the [Drop] button to you DAW. Plug-In Options To get to the DAW Plugin settings dialog, press the [Plugin] button, and choose the menu item Options for DAW Plug-in, or go to the Preferences dialog and click on the [DAW Plugin] button. Chapter 13: Tools and Utilities 349 You will then see the plug-in options. Many of them have been explained above. Allow Drag n Drop (Default=true). If disabled, the Drag Drop feature will not work. There shouldn’t be a reason to disable this. “Drag Individual MIDI tracks as audio (using VST/DXi)” (default=false). When enabled, the chosen MIDI tracks get converted to audio, using your currently selected VST/DXi (e.g. Roland VSC, or Forte) Drag Combo track as audio (using VST/DXi) (default=true). When enabled, the entire arrangement gets converted to audio using your currently selected VST/DXi (e.g. Roland VSC, or Forte). If not selected, the MIDI tracks in the arrangement get transferred as MIDI, in a single file. Drag Combo as separate tracks (default=false). If set to true, when dragging the Combo radio button, the drop will result in multiple files, one for each track. Drag Audio as WAV/WMA. If set to WAV, the audio gets dropped as WAV. If set to WMA, the audio gets dropped as WMA. Note that most sequencers will want WAV files. Always on Top. If set, the plug-in window will be always-on-top. Note that if you change this in the dialog, it won’t take effect until you exit the dialog. Preserve dragged files permanently in folder. (default=false) When you drag a file, Band-in-a-Box makes a copy of it and puts it in the c:\bb\DragDrop folder. This is a temp folder. Most DAWS (and Windows Explorer) take the dropped file, and make their own copy of it to incorporate into their file structure, but some don’t (e.g. “pure” wav editors like SoundForge). So if you are dropping the files to a DAW that works with dropped files and doesn’t make a local copy of them (like CoolEdit or SoundForge), then you should set the “Preserve dragged files permanently in folder c:\bb\DragDrop” to true. Otherwise, Band-in-a-Box will recycle (trash) the files in the DragDrop folder on boot up. You can retrieve these files from the trash if needed. You can use a Custom Drag n Drop Folder for the temp files if you prefer, inside your DAW’s folder for example. Then the dragged files will also be in Explorer in a folder near your DAW’s audio project. Find File So many files, so little time? This feature is a “Swiss Army Knife” that allows you to find a Band-in-a-Box song (or any file that Band-in-a-Box can open), including filtering by words found in the file name or any text in the file. 350 Chapter 13: Tools and Utilities Example uses: You can: - Get a listing of all BB songs on your PC with the word “Blues” in the title. - Get a listing of all BB songs in the BB folder with the word “Reggae” in them. This produces a list of over 50 songs in the MegaPak. So you can quickly choose from them and know that, if you’re a reggae lover, you haven’t missed out on any BB songs/styles with Reggae. A similar listing for “Blues” reports 454 files. The listing stays between sessions, so you can then take your time to explore all the songs that Band-in-a-Box offers that match your find term. Roland VSC3 Virtual Sound Canvas An important part of Band-in-a-Box is the band that you actually hear. This is determined by the MIDI driver that you use for output. The Roland Virtual Sound Canvas (VSC) is a top-quality software synthesizer. You should install both the Roland VSC and VSC DXi, which are separate installations from the Band-in-a-Box program. When you install the VSC, you'll see a “Roland VSC” MIDI Output driver listed in the Band-in-a-Box MIDI Driver Setup dialog (Opt. | MIDI driver setup...). Use the Roland VSC3 with Band-in-a-Box and any other MIDI program that supports MIDI Drivers (almost all of them do). To use the Roland VSC3 for your output sounds, choose Opt. | MIDI driver setup... and select the “Roland VSC” as the MIDI Output Driver. The VSC3 has a latency of 430ms, which means that it takes 430 milliseconds for the VSC3 to produce the sound after instructed to do so by Band-in-a-Box. Set the latency to 430ms in the MIDI Driver setup dialog. Band-in-a-Box will likely do this for you. To use the superior quality of the Roland VSC DXi synthesizer, check the “Use DXi Synth” box in the MIDI Driver setup dialog and then select the VSC DXi under the Synth tab in the DirectX Plugins window. The latency for the VSC DXi is set automatically by Band-in-a-Box. In addition to using the Roland VSC DXi for output, it is the default choice for direct rendering of Band-in-a-Box songs to audio wave files. TranzPort Support - Wireless Remote Control ® TranzPort Support - Wireless Remote Control support for Band-in-a-Box The Frontier Design TranzPort® is a wireless remote control hardware unit (Electronic Musician Editors’ Choice 2006) that now allows you to control Band-in-a-Box through walls from 30 feet away! The backlit LCD provides a two-line readout, and buttons and a wheel allow control of many Band-in-a-Box features. Select songs and play/stop/pause/loop. Select/mute/solo tracks and volume/tempo changes are all supported. And best of all, when the song is playing, the chords of the song are displayed in time on the backlit LCD screen. You can, for example, put the TranzPort unit on your piano at home (or your music stand on a gig) and load/play/control and view chords for songs, all while far away from your computer – all wirelessly up to 30 feet – even through walls! Selectable transpose lets the TranzPort show chords in a non-concert key (e.g. Eb Alto) while the computer shows concert -great for jam sessions! Or display the scrolling lyrics of the song on the TranzPort for Chapter 13: Tools and Utilities 351 a wireless Karaoke session! The TranzPort also works “right-out-of-the-box” with other popular music software, including Sonar™, Logic®, and many others. Note: the TranzPort is sold separately by PG Music Inc. www.pgmusic.com Using TranzPort with Band-in-a-Box. First, you need to purchase a TranzPort unit, and install it. Now, make sure that the TranzPort is installed and working. You can determine that it is installed and working by running Band-in-a-Box, and looking at the list of MIDI Drivers (Options-MIDI Drivers). If “TranzPort” appears on the list of MIDI-IN and MIDI-OUT drivers, then the TranzPort is installed correctly. Important: DO NOT SELECT the TranzPort drivers, since it is not a sound module. Band-in-a-Box will automatically find the TranzPort unit to send/ receive data. To start using the TranzPort - While Band-in-a-Box is running, “wake up” the TranzPort by pressing a key on the TranzPort (STOP key for example). - The TranzPort display will show “Title of BB song”
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