BIAB 9 Features
New Features in Band-in-a-Box Version 9 are ...
• Audio Track! – Feel like adding vocals to your Band-in-a-Box song? Or a live guitar part. No problem with version 9. You can easily record a track of CD quality audio using the new audio features. Plug in your guitar or a microphone to your soundcard, press the Microphone record button in Band-in-a-Box, and Band-in-a-Box will add your track to the song. You can overdub the audio parts to add in harmonies etc. The MIDI and audio tracks are compatible with other sequencers and sound programs (like PowerTracks Pro Audio, SoundForge, Cubase or Cakewalk), so your full MIDI and Audio performance can be used in these other programs.
• Save Song as wave file (.WAV) Band-in-a-Box normally exports it songs as MIDI files. Now you can directly export the song as a .WAV file as well. This is referred to as 'rendering' the file from MIDI to audio. Once you have it as a .WAV file, you can send it to others, or put it on the Internet, and they will hear it exactly as you did. Or use "CD- burning" software to save the .WAV file onto a conventional audio CD, so your Band-in- a-Box creations will play in standard audio CD players.
• Save song in Internet formats. There are many new formats for saving audio files that take up less space than a wave file. Band-in-a-Box can save files directly in these 'compressed audio' formats, using the drivers that come with Windows. (Note: you must have already have these drivers with your Windows system, they are not included with Band-in-a-Box.)
• Note-based lyrics. Previous versions of Band-in-a-Box had lyrics based on a "line at a time". We've added note-based lyrics. This allows more accurate placement of lyrics as you can place a word under each note. As you enter the lyrics, the note is highlighted, and pressing the TAB or Enter key moves to the next word. Note-based lyrics are saved with the MIDI file, so you can use them in your other MIDI programs.
• Big Lyrics (Karaoke) Window. We've added a 'Big Lyrics Window' to Band-in-a-Box. Selectable font, font size, and Window size. This is great for singalongs or 'Karaoke' .
• Style Selection Enhancements . Selecting a style to use for your song has been made much easier, and more fun! When you open the new StylePicker Window, it shows you which styles would work best in your song, highlighting all styles that have a similar tempo, genre, and feel to your 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.
1 • Big Piano Window . We've added a new Big Piano Window, showing you the notes of any track on a piano keyboard. You can set the size of the Window, range of the piano, and number of octaves to display. You can also display notes names, or guide notes showing the scale notes of the current key. Notes can be displayed using a different color for each note. There's an "Auto-Octave" setting that will scan the track to be displayed, and auto-size the piano to the largest size that would display all of the notes. This 'Big Piano' makes it easier to learn piano parts from within Band-in-a-Box.
• Guitar Tablature. The notation screen now has an option for Guitar Tablature, that displays any track in standard Guitar TAB. This can be seen on the notation screen, leadsheet window or printed out.
• Automatic Guitar Chord Solos to any Song! Now you can easily make and learn a professional quality guitar chord solo to your favorite song! Load in any song with a Melody into Band-in-a-Box (or generate a song with a melody). Then open the Guitar Window and Press the 'Auto-Generate Chord Solo' button . Band-in-a-Box then generates a chord solo on guitar for that song, using the same guitar chords that the pros use. Chord types can be selected to use standard, advanced, or embellished chords. The chord solo plays on the correct positions on the guitar window, so you can see the performance played on guitar. Or view it in notation, or TAB , and print it out!
• 'Jazz Up' the Chords, 'Jazz Down' the Chords. When switching genres (from Pop to Jazz, or Jazz to Pop) , its often necessary to change the chords from 'Pop/Rock' chords (C) to Jazz Type chords (Like CMaj7) . Now you can quickly do this, by new menu options called 'Jazz Up', 'Jazz Down'.
• Convert Harmony Part to Notation track. Previously if you added a harmony, the harmony parts wouldn't be seen on the notation, you would only see the lead part. Now you can write the harmony part directly to the notation track, so you can see it and print it out, just like any other part.
Notation Enhancements
• Keystroke Note Editing. You can easily edit notes using only keystrokes now. By stepping through the notes one-by-one, when a note is highlighted you can change the pitch using the cursor keys, and other values (timing, duration, channel) with other hot keys. This speeds up editing of notes. For example, you can record a song using the Melody Wizard, which will have the correct timing and durations but incorrect pitches. Then you can quickly step through the notes of the song, using the cursor up/down keys to fix the notes, and you'll end up with a Melody as good as if you had played it on a MIDI keyboard.
• Notation range. You can specify an upper limit of a note range so that high notes won't result in an excessive number of ledger lines.
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• Enhanced Event List Editing. You can edit events including all MIDI events and lyric events using the new Event List.
• Harmony enhancements. You can specify a harmony to only occur for notes longer than a certain duration. There are new options for how the program 'fixes' the harmony when chord changes occur during a sustained note harmony. And there's a 'use guitar voicings' harmony type that uses real guitar chord voicings that display correctly on the guitar fretboard. We've enhanced the existing harmonies file to take advantage of these new features, so your harmonies will sound better.
• Solo Around The Melody option. There's a new option for the Soloist part to create a solo around the melody, that is solo at times when the Melody is silent.
• Add your own chord shortcuts. Have you found a chord that BB doesn't recognize? If so, add it to the your chord shortcuts file, and BB will allow you to type in that chord in the future. This also lets you define chord "shortcuts", one letter abbreviations for longer chord names ('J" for "Maj7" etc.).
• Read in Chords from a PowerTracks or Band-in-a-Box MIDI file. Many of PG Music's programs have MIDI files with the chords in them. You can open these files in Band-in-a-Box, and the chords will be imported onto the chord sheet.
StyleMaker Enhancements
• Larger style limit. Previous limit was 40K for styles. This is now 65K, allowing for bigger styles.
• Copy all 'a' substyle patterns to 'b' slots. This feature is handy when only a volume increase tweaking is required for the 'b' substyle.
• Delete all patterns in this row option added.
• Pattern trim routine that deletes notes past the end of a pattern, or (optionally) a specified distance from the end of a pattern.
• Event list for Editing Notes in patterns using a list.
• Enhanced Song List Window. The Song List Window (accessed by pressing the SONG button) used to have a limit of 800 songs. This has been enhanced to 5,000 songs, and full information shows for each song (title, filename, stylename , Melody/ Lyric / style present status). The window auto-sizes to fill the screen.
3 • Song Endings option. The usual Band-in-a-Box ending is 2 bars appended to the end of the song. This new option gives you an alternative to end the song on the last bar of the song. Band-in-a-Box will still play an ending on the chord that you specify, and the ending will occur as a 2 bar phrase beginning 2 bars before the end of the form. This results in more natural endings for many songs.
• New Lyric Functions . Since there are now 2 types of lyrics (line-based lyrics and the new note-based lyrics), we've added functions to convert note-based lyrics to line lyrics. This will update your old songs that might have line-based lyrics to note-based. The copy-lyrics-to-clipboard feature has been enhanced, you can select which elements should be copied, margin size, etc.
• Enhanced Volume Control. When adjusting the volume of a part (say to increase the volume) , if you hold down the Alt key while clicking on the volume change, it will also decrease the volume of the other parts. This is especially useful when you've reached the maximum volume of a part, but still 'want it to be louder'. By holding down the alt key, the other volumes get reduced, which has the desired effect. This is most useful for Melody parts, or the THRU part that you are playing along.
• Easy STEREO/MONO panning menu items . These allow you to quickly set the instruments to a stereo panning or mono panning.
• Total time for song in Minutes and seconds are now displayed at the top of the screen (e.g. 4:58).
• Polyphonic adjust of Melody tracks . This function will convert a polyphonic track to a monophonic track by eliminating note overlap, optionally preserving the double stops (chords) in the track.
• If a song has an intro, its usually not necessary to play the 2 bar lead-in count. There's a new option to always OMIT the lead-in if an intro is present.
• "K"- Quick-Copy-Option. By simply typing K at a bar (followed by ENTER key), you can instantly copy the last 8 bars to the current position. By adding additional keys in the K command, you can customize this (e.g. Typing K12,3 would copy from bar 3 for 12 bars to the current position. The current position is advanced to the bar beyond the copy. This speeds up song entry!
4 BIAB 10 Features
The New Features in Band-in-a-Box Version 10 are ...
• Guitar Styles – Would you like to hear some realistic, accurate MIDI guitar from Band- in-a-Box styles, with strumming, picking, and accurate fret fingering? You'll get them with Version 10 : 'Guitar Styles' are styles that show strummed and picked guitar parts accurately on the guitar fretboard (and they sound great.) These styles also play accurate guitar voicings in your choice of pop, jazz, country or folk guitar chording. There's even a "walking guitar comping" style that plays guitar which emulates the famous "Basie Big Band" jazz style. The "Guitar Styles" play like any regular style, and when you view them on the virtual guitar fretboard you can see exactly which strings and frets are used – so it is a great learning tool as well. You can also make your very own Guitar Styles using the StyleMaker feature, with options such as guitar style (Jazz/Pop etc.), strumming speed, picking patterns and more!
• Guitar Tutor - Use the new "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.
• Chord Substitution Wizards - Reharmonizing a song with the new "Chord Substitution Wizard" is a fun and educational way to perform or practice a familiar song in a brand new way. This feature is very easy to use; simply highlight an area of chords and select 'Chord Substitution', and the possible chord substitutions are instantly displayed for you. 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 also helpful comments associated with each substitution, showing you why a given substitution might work in each case (e.g., is the melody compatible with the substitution, etc.). Or you can enable the "Auto-Substitution" feature, and the substitutions will be selected according to the general pre-set preferences.
• Live Harmony Enhancements - Playing along to a song on a MIDI keyboard using harmonies has just got better. Version 10 offers passing harmonies (chromatic, diatonic and dominant 7), so that the harmonized voices will smoothly lead to the next note. You can even control exactly which notes to harmonize: if you hold down a predetermined MIDI note with your left hand a harmony will play, otherwise it will just be a single note. There's also a new mode for "Live Harmonies" even if there is no song playing . In this mode you play chords with your left hand and single notes with your right hand. Then, the right hand notes are harmonized according to the chord that is held down with your left hand. This feature allows you to play along not only with the program, but with anyone in a live music situation, perhaps to enhance a live vocal performance or when you're having a jam session.
5 • Chord Preview/Builder - Now 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.
• Ear Training Window - Ear training is an important exercise for all musicians. Now you can practice your ear training with help from Version 10. 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.
• Audio Feature Enhancements - The new Audio Edit Window allows you to visually see a Digital Waveform, and select, preview, and edit pieces of audio with simple cut and paste commands. There is also support for DirectX Audio plugins – so you can apply your favorite DirectX plugin to the digital audio track. There are many shareware and freeware DirectX plugins available on the Internet in addition to the hundreds of commercially available DirectX plugins offered by top DSP companies. Rendered audio files now have the option to include a 'count-in', and the size of a rendered file is displayed onscreen.
• Save as Windows Media for Internet Streaming . You can now convert your Band-in- a-Box composition to a Microsoft Windows Media Audio file (.WMA). These files can be highly compressed which allows you to make streaming files (e.g., for Internet use) with good fidelity; with higher bitrates achieving CD-quality.
• Burn your own Audio-CD - Now you can convert ("burn") your Band-in-a- Box composition directly to an Audio-CD. The resulting CD will play in any standard Audio- CD player. Note: this feature requires that you have a CDR or CDRW drive.
• Printing Enhancements - The new Print-Preview feature allows you to preview what printed pages will look like by displaying them onscreen. You can also Print the pages to a graphics file , saving them in the popular JPG, TIF or BMP file types. Printing your composition to a graphics file allows you to embed your notation in a document (e.g. PDF), or an HTML file for use on your Website. You can select the pixel resolution for the bitmap for complete control over the size and quality of the graphic. Each notation page will be automatically saved to its own graphics file.
6 • Chords Only Leadsheet Display and Printout - Need a simple fakebookstyle chord chart? You can now display (on the Leadsheet Window) or print out a leadsheet with chords only (i.e. no staff lines or notes).
• Notation Enhancements - When a note is dragged up or down using the mouse, the notes sound chromatically (every semitone). This feature allows you to hear the note as you move it, and makes it easy to find the note you're looking for. There's also an on- screen ZOOM button to easily increase or decrease the font size of the notation. Other enhancements include copying and pasting of the melody notation with simple mouse highlighting procedures.
StyleMaker Enhancements
• Guitar Styles with incredible authenticity are now possible in the StyleMaker. You can use new macro notes to be played back as a jazz, folk or pop guitar chord --using correct fret positions for accurate guitarfriendly chords. You can also specify what type of guitar patterns (walking guitar - bass lines) and chord complexities (inversions etc.) to use, as well as picking patterns and strumming speed. This level of control offers you the ability to make a wide variety of very authentic guitar styles.
• When importing instruments from other styles into a new style, you can now choose which elements to import, such as 'a' or 'b', substyles, fills, endings, etc.
• There's a new option to trim all of the patterns on any given row or instrument.
• There's another new option which helps avoid playing a bunch of notes near the end of a pattern, thus avoiding a "too-busy" sounding pattern.
Additional Guitar Enhancements
• There's new Chord Soloing types - For the guitar chord-melody soloing, new types of voicings have been added which emulate the great Canadian Jazz Guitarists Lenny Breau and Ed Bickert, as well as the famous 'open' voicings often employed by the legendary Johnny Smith.
• Six Channel Guitar files - MIDI guitar performances for Rock or Country involving bends and slides sound best when output on 6 MIDI channels at once (i.e. a separate channel for each string). This mode is fully supported in Version 10 so that these types of files can be played back perfectly. The "Master Country Guitar Solos" files are good examples of the need for this feature. Furthermore, "bent notes" can be displayed in blue, and there's even an option to convert the pitch bend range of any guitar tracks and to Insert Visual Bent Notes as a controller event option.
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Other Handy New Features include:
• Pressing the SPACEBAR now starts and stops the song from the current position. This is optional, the program defaults to working "the old way". You can set this in Options- Prefs 2
• Hotkeys have been added to play at Half-Speed, Quarter, Eighth, or normal speed . Press "Ctrl –" to get to half speed, "Ctrl =" to get back to normal speed.
• Copy and Paste now works for a single chord cell.
• The Song Memo Window can now remain open on the screen throughout the session.
• When importing a MIDI file to the Melody track, there is now an option to merge the data with the existing track.
• The StylePicker window now has a " Play Style Demo " option that plays the demo song for any given PG Music style.
• The Song List Window now has QWERTY keyboard support for scrolling.
• Many Band-in-a-Box styles employ drum 'brushes-kit' sounds. If your soundcard doesn't support brushes, there is now an option that will correctly play the brush-kit styles on a regular drum kit instead (by remapping the notes).
• There is now the option to 'turn local back on' when you leave the program , so that your MIDI keyboard can be heard.
• There is a Master Tuning function which allows you to tune your soundcard or module to another instrument, and a testing function to see if your soundcard supports Master Tuning.
8 BIAB 11 Features
Band-in-a-Box 11 adds 50 new features and enhancements to make your music look and sound better, to make it easier, and to make it more fun! “Thank you” to all of the Band-in-a-Box users who have made suggestions in the PG Music forums and/or posted to the Band-in-a-Box wish list on our web page at www.pgmusic.com. It’s great to hear from you!
The New Features in Band-in-a-Box Version 11 are ...
MIDI File Chord Interpretation Wizard
Many people who play music by ear think of songs in terms of “Chords and Melody.” However many MIDI files lack chord symbols, so they become difficult to learn without the user figuring out the chords in a time consuming process. 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. It automatically analyzes the MIDI file, figures out where the bass, piano, melody and other tracks are, and then works out the chord changes for the song. The chords are written onto the Band-in-a-Box chordsheet like any other song. This allows you to quickly learn how to play a song from a MIDI file – just read it into Band- in-a-Box and you'll see the chord symbols, and then learn the Melody! You can also read tracks into the Melody and Soloist tracks.
Jazz Music Fonts for Notes, Symbols, Chords and Titles
Rich Siegler's Jazz Music fonts have become popular notation fonts, especially for displaying and printing Jazz and Pop music. Rich has designed customized “Band-in-a- Box” versions of his Jazz Music, Chords and Title Fonts, and they are included in Version 11. You can easily switch back and forth between the Regular fonts and the Jazz fonts. The Jazz fonts have the “handwritten manuscript” look. It's a great alternative to music fonts that look too “computerized.”
9 Multiple Tracks of Notation
Previous versions of Band-in-a-Box only allowed you to view one track of notation at a time. Now you can view multiple tracks. Just click on the tracks that you want, in the order that they should appear from top to bottom, and they appear on a single staff system. Display the tracks on the Leadsheet Window, or print them out. All of the tracks highlight with the notes in red.
Section Text and Boxed Text
You can now add custom text messages at any position in the notation track, with optional box to appear around the text.
“Direct-to-Disk” Audio Rendering
“Audio Rendering” means converting a song to audio format, usually to a WAV file. In previous versions this was done by recording the song as it played, which took several minutes (i.e., the length of the song). Now you can render directly to disk, choose the “Save As WAV” (Audio Conversion) option, and your Band-in-a-Box file will save to disk in WAV format in 5-10 seconds! The file is saved using the high quality Sound Canvas sounds (powered by the included Roland VSC3).
Enhanced Audio Support for Windows Media Player 8
Once you've saved a WAV file, you can compress the file for Internet use, using the Windows Media Player format (.WMA). This is now done using the latest compression routines from Microsoft for Windows Media Player version 8. The files are up to 50%
10 smaller at the same great audio quality. The files still play on Windows Media Player version 6 and higher. You can now compress any WAV file this way from a new option in the WAV Render dialog.
Melody Embellisher
When a musician sees a lead sheet that has a melody written out, he/she would almost never play it exactly as written. They would 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 more lively and 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. This is especially useful to spice up songs that have been entered in step time with “robot-like” velocities and durations of notes. Using the Embellisher makes it sound like a person was playing instead of a computer!
Roland VSC3 Sound Synthesizer Included
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. Most people use either an FM or wavetable sound card or a software synthesizer. Roland has been making, in our opinion, the best quality software synthesizer – the Roland Virtual Sound Canvas (VSC). The latest version of the VSC – dubbed the “VSC3 - sounds so good that we put it to the test in a “blindfold” listening test on our web site (www.pgmusic.com/blindfold_compare.htm). We made recordings of the VSC3, various popular MIDI sound cards, sound cards with enhanced sound fonts and hardware modules. They were all playing the identical files (Classical, Jazz and Funk). The winner as voted by the visitors to the site was the Roland VSC3 - beating out hardware modules and sound cards, including those with enhanced sound fonts! Now you can hear all of your MIDI music with the new VSC3, since it works with Band-in-a-Box and most any other MIDI program that you have.
StyleMaker Enhancements
• Style Checker - Analogous to a “Spell Checker”, this function analyzes your style-in- progress and identifies possible problems. The results are output to a text window, allowing you to examine the patterns and fix them if required. It identifies patterns that might be “too busy” or incorrect macro notes etc.
• Style Summary - This displays a text window summary of the style, including lots of information about the style such as number of patterns, number of patterns for each substyle, patches, pushes, volume changes, guitar patterns, and more.
11 • Pattern Velocity Adjust - This function adds or reduces the velocity of a single pattern, row of patterns, or all patterns in an instrument. It is useful for reducing or increasing the volume of an entire instrument, or fine tuning the velocities in a style.
• The Pattern “Trim” function has been enhanced.
• The windows for the StyleMaker now open up so that the Notation and the main StyleMaker window don't overlap.
• The Column and Row number for the current pattern is now displayed onscreen.
• The Guitar Styles have an option to keep the same chord for the whole pattern (when using databases that have changing chords within the pattern).
MIDI File enhancements
• “Save as Type 0 MIDI” file is now supported. You can save in Type 1 or Type 0 MIDI files. Type 0 MIDI files are a single track MIDI file (containing all of the parts), 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).
• “Save as Karaoke MIDI file” is now supported. Karaoke files (.KAR) are a special type of MIDI file that contain Text events for the lyrics and a specific order for the tracks.
• “Save Lyrics in GM format” is now an option. The GM specification has agreed upon specific requirements for writing lyrics in MIDI files, which are now supported, so that lyrics that you save in Band-in-a-Box should show up identically in other MIDI programs.
• Choose which tracks get written to the MIDI File. By muting tracks - right mouse clicking on the track name at the top of the screen – you can decide which tracks get written to the MIDI file. Any track that is muted is excluded from the MIDI file.
• Option to eliminate 2 bar count-in from the 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, and the MIDI file will begin directly at bar 1 without the count-in.
Audio Rendering Enhancements
In addition to the “Direct-to-Disk” Audio Rendering, there are other enhancements to the Rendering function. You can specify a number of seconds of silence at the beginning of the file and specify a number of seconds to wait at the end to accommodate the decay of the final sound. You can also choose to exclude the 2 bar count-in from the file.
12 File Associations
New menu items have been added to Associate (or remove Associations for) the file types for Band-in-a-Box songs and styles in Explorer. Once set, this means that you can double click on a song or style in Explorer and Band-in-a-Box will open up with that song or style.
File Selection Dialog Enhancements
The custom file selection dialog has been enhanced. There is a Search button allowing you to find a file in the directory. The dialog box now opens with the current file highlighted in the list. There is a favorite directories feature that lets you quickly return to a directory that you've used recently. There is a Desktop button that quickly changes the current directory to the desktop. You can now open a song without typing the extension . For example, to open the song MySong.MGU you just have to type MySong, without having to type .MGU. Long file names are now better supported for NT/2000 and XP.
Animated Drum Window Enhancements
The popular drum window has been enhanced. The drums that you play now show up in green (the computer played drums are red). There is an option to display all the QWERTY names on the drums at the same time, so that you can see what keys to hit without having to mouse over the instrument. The drums can be moved off-screen without snapping back to the middle.
Guitar Styles Enhanced
We've added a new database for the Guitar Styles. This allows styles to be made using the Jazz Guitar “highest-4-strings-comping mode”. This plays chords usually 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. This database plays with some new styles on Styles Set 27, and can also be played with any song using the Guitar Tutor. Studying the patterns that are played helps guitar players build up their chord vocabulary, especially by learning the moving chord lines that this chord database plays over the same chord.
Melodist Enhancements
The Melodist feature creates songs with chords and melodies. We've enhanced it so that it can now create Bebop tunes and Jazz Ballads. You can also specify the note range for a created Melody.
13 Main Chordsheet Enhancements
You can now select the number (#) of rows to display for the main chordsheet. You can now select any font to use , and select the font size too. This allows you to read the chordsheet window from “across the room.”
Notation Window Enhancements
There is a SCRUB mode allowing you to move the mouse over a group of notes and hear them playing. You can select any font for the chords, lyrics, text and titles , and choose the music font (Jazz or regular) chords. Beamed notes will now auto-display with slanted beams . Groups of 5 notes will automatically display as groups of 3+2 or 2+3 , and can be set this way manually as well. If notes are displayed high above the treble clef, the chords will move higher so as not to overwrite the notes . When a note is highlighted in red due to step advance, clicking an on-screen piano note fixes the note.
Big Lyrics Window Enhancements
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. When the lyrics resume, the chords are interleaved with the words as before. The song plays from the point clicked on in the Big Lyrics window.
Lead-in Enhancements
The familiar 1—2—1-2-3-4 count-in has been enhanced. You can now select any drum instrument for the count in. You can choose different count-in rhythms (e.g. Tap on 2 and 4 instead of 1-2-3-4). There's a new “smart lead-in” option to silence the drum count-in if a melody lead-in has begun.
Other Handy New Features include:
• For the Chord Builder , pressing the “Enter Chord when pressed” advances the bar, beat position. There are other small enhancements to the Chord Builder that reduce the number of keystrokes required to enter a song using only the Chord Builder.
• The JukeBox now has a Song Preview mode . This will optionally play just one chorus of each song, or will play a settable number of bars of each song (e.g. 16 bars).
• The “Patch File” (.PAT) file limit has been expanded to include 2,000 patches, and we include a .PAT file for the SC-8850 with 1,800 patches!
14 • The Style Aliases now work if the style is not found, also can set up aliases for styles that you don't have.
• There is a Replay Button (and hot key Ctrl A). This replays the song without regenerating the arrangements.
• There are handy hot keys for transposing the Melody or Soloist up or down one octave (Ctrl-Alt-1, 2, 3, 4).
• The Insert MIDI Chord command works for beat 2 and 4 (by pressing Ctrl-Shift-Enter).
• The Send GM/GS/XG Mode On messages now all send the Current BB Patches (unless the shift key is held down). The reset of the Roland modules is now much faster.
• The StylePicker is now enhanced with a Style Filter – this shows only partially/fully compatible styles.
• Colored notes will appear in color for printout on color printers or in the “Save as graphics” command.
15 BIAB 12 Features
The New Features in Band-in-a-Box Version 12...
MIDI File to Style Wizard
This automatically converts a MIDI file (.MID) to a Band-in-a-Box Style (.STY). Simply open a MIDI file, select your options, and press “Save-As Style.” With plenty of options, this wizard allows you to quickly make your own simple or advanced styles from a standard MIDI file – without any knowledge of the StyleMaker required! Novice users will appreciate the automated option that “does everything” to make the style while advanced users will appreciate the custom options to control (for example) which bars from the MIDI file are included in the style, how many pattern variations, and more.
“Twice as many instruments” - with General MIDI 2 support!
We've added support for General MIDI 2 standard (GM2). This GM2 support adds 128 new instruments to Band-in-a-Box styles and songs, including ukulele, mandolin, and 12- string guitar, plus many new and improved piano, organ, guitar, brass, and string sounds! We've made many new styles using the new instruments and also include updated versions of previous styles – you'll be hearing the new instruments with many of your new and existing styles.
Note : The included Roland VSC3 synth supports the new GM2 instruments, as do most newer modules/sound cards. If yours doesn't, a similar instrument from the existing 128 General MIDI sounds will be substituted.
16 Harmony Notation Display Enhancements
Harmonies can now be displayed on the leadsheet 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! Print harmony charts for your band or use for sight reading practice – to read and play any harmony voice along with the melody that you're hearing.
Guitar Window enhancements
We've enhanced the Guitar Window by adding fret display support for other instruments including mandolin, ukulele, and banjo. You'll see authentic chord voicings and melody display on the fretboard for all of these new instruments. The StyleMaker has been enhanced with support for the GM2 instruments, so you can make styles that use the new instruments and have correct instrument voicings displayed on the fretboard.
Guitar Chord Diagrams on the Notation
We've added an option for standard Guitar Chord diagrams to be included in the notation display. Choose from Folk, Pop, or Jazz Guitar Chord Diagrams on the notation, leadsheet, or printout.
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Bass Part Enhancements
Bass players will now see bass tablature and correctly displayed bass parts on the new bass fretboard.
Interface Enhancements
The program’s Graphical User Interface has been enhanced, with a single dialog for all program options (hot key Ctrl+E ) and song settings (Ctrl+N ), right mouse menu support , simplified menu , additional hot keys, and more. The Main Menu has been simplified, with ½ as many menu items! A new “Window” menu has been added and the “User” menu has been removed. Menu functionality is the same, just easier to navigate. Right Mouse menu support has been added. Right mouse click on the Chordsheet or notation (press the right mouse button) and you'll see a menu of items available giving faster access to common editing commands.
Styles Improved
All of the styles are enhanced! We've improved/updated EVERY Band-in-a-Box style that we’ve made with the newest StyleMaker features including guitar and other fretted instrument voicings, consistent volume levels, edited patterns, and more. Many of these styles and new demo songs are included with your Band-in-a-Box version 12 upgrade .
Loop any Section of the song
You can now loop any section of the song . The program will then start playback at the first loop point and play the looped section until stop is pressed or looping is turned off. This feature is handy for looping a full chorus or other section of a song for practice or performance. There's a useful “Play-Looped” command that allows you to quickly play a looped section. (Simply highlight the range of bars to loop, and then choose the “Play from loop” command in the Loop Section Settings dialog.)
Song navigation options during playback
These features allow you to control song looping and navigation during live performance or practice sessions. Options includes hot keys and buttons for enabling/disabling loop, playing with last chorus looped, playing with middle choruses looped, playing with middle and last choruses looped, jumping to last chorus with no loop, and jumping to song ending with no loop. Example uses include a student song practice with the “loop
18 middle choruses” option so that there will be endless choruses. Live performers can loop middle and last choruses so that the music will continue while the dance floor is full, or jump to the last chorus or ending if it's time for the tune to end!
Band-in-a-Box can load and play an entire MIDI file!
Now you can open an entire MIDI file into Band-in-a-Box. The chords will get auto- 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.
Other Handy New Features include:
Visual Metronome during the whole song.
Change styles at any bar using the convenient StylePicker window.
Bass player plays better “5ths” over some Jazz chords.
Band-in-a-Box’s bass player was playing some natural 5ths over some chords like C7 altered or others. Now, after a discussion with some bass players, we've improved Band- in-a-Box so that the bass part plays the #5 or b5 correctly on these Jazz chords.
Part Markers are now written to the MIDI files.
These Band-in-a-Box part markers can be read by PowerTracks (and Band-in-a-Box if re- importing the MIDI file with the Chord Wizard). Save a MIDI file in Band-in-a-Box, and move it over to PowerTracks (version 8 or higher), you'll now see the Part Markers (and chords) written on the Chords Window in PowerTracks. Re-import the MIDI file into Band-in-a-Box with the Chord Wizard and you'll also see the part markers in Band-in-a- Box.
Channel numbers are now displayable on the notation.
When editing notes, it is often helpful to see the channel number of each note.
Load Previous Style, Load Next Style.
This function, analogous to the Load Next Song function, loads in the previous (or next) style. Styles are ordered alphabetically.
19 Chase Volumes.
Chase Volumes has been added for playback. 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 control information prior to the start of playback will get sent.
Multi-Track MIDI Drums.
Use this option to write MIDI files with a separate track for each drum instrument.
Unmute Drums for Count-In.
There is now an option to hear the drum count-in even if the drums are muted or disabled. Drummers who play along with Band-in-a-Box by muting the drum track should find this feature useful.
Boot to Last Directory.
On program boot up, the current directory will get set to the last directory used in the previous session. So if you were working in a previous session in a folder called “c:\My Songs\My Ballads,” when you boot up the program it will be set to load in songs from that folder when you press OPEN. This feature is optional, and set in the item Opt. | Preferences | Prefs2 –“Boot up in directory of the last session.”
StylePicker Enhancements.
• There is a new filter to display only the styles of a certain Styles Set number , as well as displaying the full descriptive name of the Styles Set.
• The limit of number of styles has been increased (to 4,800) to accommodate the large number of third party styles developed for Band-in-a-Box.
• The window size has been increased, providing more space for the category descriptions .
Notation Enhancements.
• Guitar Chord Diagrams are available on the notation, leadsheet, or printout for Folk, Pop, and Jazz voicings.
• Boxes for Section text are now thicker.
20 • A Notation option has been added to disable the highlighting-of-notesin-red-as-the- song-is-playing (so it won't be distracting to good sightreaders who like to read ahead).
• Brackets (#) are now drawn around accidentals after a bar line as a courtesy, where no accidental is required.
• Printing as Graphics has been enhanced with a “Copy-to-Clipboard” option so that you can quickly paste into other applications.
• For the leadsheet and printout , if the last line of the range printed out contains only 1 bar, it is drawn with a narrow width (previously it was stretching the bar across the entire line).
• Print Options has a “Style” button – pressing this button will enter the full style name into the Style field.
Descriptive Hints added throughout the program.
We've added much more detail to the yellow window flyby hints that appear when you move over an item. Also added are many new hints for the dialog boxes and various windows. You can set the hints to display none, basic, or detailed information.
Direct Entry of Tempo and other settings.
You can now 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. Similar dialogs are available to enter a value for Volume, Panning, Reverb, Chorus, and Bank settings.
Master Volume Hot Keys.
Master Volume settings can now be made more quickly with added hot keys. If you want to “turn it all up or down,” this can be done quickly with hot keys.
THRU Velocity boost.
A velocity boost can be applied to the THRU part.
Song Titles Dialog Editing.
The Song Titles window can now be updated from within the Song Titles dialog.
Scrolling Big Lyrics.
The Big Lyrics Window now scrolls a page at a time for easier reading of lyrics.
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Custom File Dialog Enhancements.
Now there are hot keys for the Search Dialog ( Alt+S ), Favorite Folders (Alt+F ), and Font selection ( Alt+N ). Double clicking in the favorite directories window now exits the dialog.
Quick Song Transpose (1 hot key).
Now you can transpose the entire song during playback (or while stopped) using a single key. Transpose down 1 semitone ( Ctrl+Alt+5 ), up one semitone (Ctrl+Alt+6 ), or a specified # of semitones ( Ctrl+Alt+7 ). Quick Transpose is useful when accompanying a vocalist who requests a higher key, since you'll instantly hear the song in the new key – even if the song is playing it will continue in the new key. Use it during playback to modulate the song.
Audio Mute.
Now you can mute/un-mute the audio track in Band-in-a-Box. Choose Audio-Mute Audio to mute/un-mute the audio track.
New Hot Keys Added.
Examples include hot keys for Chord Builder ( Ctrl+Shift+B ), Song Settings (Ctrl+N ), Preferences ( Ctrl+E ), song transpose by +1/-1 ( Ctrl+Alt+5, 6 ) and many more. The TAB key now advances around the Chordsheet (like the right cursor key), and Shift+TAB functions like the left cursor key. For entering chords like “Cm+” you no longer have to type an uppercase for the “+,” you can type the lowercase “=” and the program will enter a Cm+.
Shot/Held Chords Option Enhanced.
Normally, when a “shot” or a “held” chord is assigned, instruments that are excluded from the shot/held chord play normally. Now there is an additional option for those excluded instruments to stay silent. Velocity boosts for shots and held chords are now settable . In previous versions, a shot or held chord produced a (loud) velocity boost of 15-30. Now you can set the amount of velocity boost, for the effect you want. Duration of “shots” is reduced to 60 ticks per beat. Previously the shots lasted as long as the typical 1-beat pattern, which was often longer than 60 ticks.
Soloist “Note-Density” Option.
Now 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
22 or student study. We've already modified many of the soloists using this new setting, so your solos will already sound better without you having to change this setting.
Local On/Off Menu Commands.
Dedicated menu items added on GM Menu for “Turn Local OFF,” “Turn Local ON,” and “When program quits, turn Local ON.”
Enhanced Screen Looping.
For the loop screen feature ; if looping on the first line, Band-in-a-Box now loops from bar 1 and does not include the lead-in.
MIDI Driver Dialog Improvements.
When visiting the MIDI Driver dialog, if the setup is panned to MONO, the program offers to change it to stereo . Selecting a new drum kit from the MIDI Driver dialog no longer changes your panning settings. Since most people use stereo settings, this makes it easier to ensure that you are using stereo settings. A new Drum kit is only installed if you specifically select a new Drum kit in the MIDI Driver dialog.
Auto-Resume Play.
If playback is occurring when OPEN song is chosen, playback of the new song will resume when the new song is loaded (so you don't have to press PLAY). This works for other methods of song loading such as load next/previous Song.
Chord Wizard Enhancements.
Chord Wizard enhancements include recognizing more chord types and additional options.
23 BIAB 2004 Features
The New Features in Band-in-a-Box Version 2004...
All New 32-bit Program Engine
Previous versions of Band-in-a-Box were a combination of 16-bit and 32-bit code. The new program is rebuilt with a 32-bit-clean engine. Program operations are much faster, including up to 3 times faster notation redraws, song and soloing generation. Playback timing is improved and rock-solid with all versions of windows, including the newest XP and Media Center operating systems. The GUI is enhanced with floating/dockable toolbars.
DirectX Instrument Synthesizer (DXi plug-in) Support
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 “DXi 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-in-a- 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 DXi plug-in. Sampler-based synths allow you to assemble a huge, customized library of instrument samples to use with Band-in-a-Box. Examples of popular DXi synths include the RolandED VSC-MP1 or HyperCanvas.
Amazing Audio Vocal Harmony routines!
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! Simply record your vocal part, choose a harmony, and Band-in-a-Box will generate the vocal harmony part for you! Band-in-a-Box generates the harmonies 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:
24 • 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-of-tune” singing is easy, by instructing the program to correct the pitches to the Melody track.
Load a MIDI file into Band-in-a-Box using a single keystroke.
You can now load a MIDI file into Band-in-a-Box by pressing a single keystroke (F7 or File | Open MIDI file ), and the MIDI file will play with the chords intelligently interpreted on-screen. Band-in-a-Box may become your preferred MIDI file player as you can see the chord symbols to any MIDI file that you load! The on-screen piano shows channel numbers for all of the notes played so you can see which channels each instrument is playing on. By erasing all channels except the melody you can change the style and hear it played in any Band-in-a-Box style!
Repeats, first and second endings, DS/DC al Coda symbols and more.
You can now add these repeats and endings so that the Lead Sheet window will display and printout using 1st /2nd endings. There’s a NEW Wizard that will intelligently add 1st/2ndendings automatically for you. Now you can view and convert your current song collection to include 1st/2nd endings in lead sheet format! To view a lead sheet in 1st/2nd endings format, simply select the “Fake Sheet” checkbox on the Lead Sheet window, and Band-in-a-Box will display the Fake Sheet using 1st and 2nd endings. You can add your own repeats and endings by right mouse clicking on the chordsheet and selecting the Repeats/Codas/1st-2nd Endings option.
Lyric Document Window
There’s a new Lyric Document window, displaying a full screen of fully formatted lyrics so you can easily copy and paste lyrics to and from your favorite word processor. If you
25 have the lyrics available you can quickly paste them into Band-in-a-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 you can simply Copy/Paste them to/from your word processor. This allows you to quickly add lyrics to any Band-in-a-Box song.
Hybrid Styles
There’s a new “Hybrid Styles” feature that allows you to play and create a style that has instruments from up to 5 different styles! You can, for example, play a song with a Reggae bass, Rock drums, Salsa piano, or any combination of up to 5 styles that you want. Create a name for your “Hybrid Style” and you can save it with the song so that it will play that way in the future.
Odd-Time Signature Support
Previous versions of Band-in-a-Box supported only X/4 time signatures, but now we’ve added support for odd-time signatures like 9/8, 11/8, 13/16, 19/16 etc. The count-in and the style plays in the odd-time signature feel, and you can change time signatures during the song. (Note: The notation window still displays/edits these odd-time signatures in 4/4, but the styles all play/sound correctly.)
Improved Song List Dialog
The song list dialog displays information about all of the songs in a given folder, including song title etc. We’ve made major enhancements to this dialog, by adding new fields like song key, form, file size, and more. You can now sort your songs by any field!
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).
26 Mute All Parts
To mute/unmute all parts as the song is playing, simply press Alt+2 or rightclick on the “Combo” radio buttons at the top of the screen.
Transpose Each Chorus
When learning a new song, you might want to play it in different keys for each chorus. There’s a new function designed for this purpose. The Thru-Transpose dialog now has a “transpose a certain # of semitones each chorus” field. For example, if you set it to “5 semitones,” Band-in-a-Box will transpose the song up 5 semitones (a perfect 4th) after each chorus. You can use this in combination with the “endless loop middle choruses feature” to endlessly play the song as it transposes keys each chorus. This is a great way to practice a tune. When Band-in-a-Box transposes, it’s not simply moving the notes higher/lower, it is intelligently re-arranging the performance to keep the instruments in correct ranges and the Melody within one octave of the original. For the “adventurous” user, there is also a “transpose RANDOM # of semitones each chorus” option.
Copy, Repeat X times, with Transpose.
The Edit | Copy dialog now 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!
Copy Dialog has additional functions.
In addition to the above, the Edit | Copy dialog has “ insert bars at destination option ” which allows a copy to also insert bars at the destination point. This is handy to create a repeat, for example, by copying 8 bars and then inserting the 8 bars at the destination copy point.
Additional enhancements to the Edit-Copy dialog include:
27 • a “copy 1st chorus to whole song option.” • copy to specific chorus option. • option to include part-markers/bar settings. • show less/show more options button.
Songs with multi-channel MIDI information on the Melody or Soloist will be displayed.
Any song with track type set to Multi-Channel will show the channel numbers on the on- screen piano. These show with different colors for each channel, and the channel number written on the piano key. This makes it easy to identify parts and which channel is playing the melody. You can also display these channel numbers on the Notation window.
Maximum Number of Soloists increased to 1,024 (from 256), and new Soloists added.
The previous limit of Soloists was 256, and we had already defined 253 of them! We’ve now increased this limit to 1,024, and have added new Soloists.
Bar Settings Dialog – Status Display at top of the Band-in-a- Box window.
Previously, to see bar setting information (style changes, patch changes at any bar etc.) for a bar with a red box drawn around it, you’d need to open up the Bar Settings dialog. Now the status bar at the top of the screen will display the information for any bar with a “red box” around it. Simply click on the bar and the information will be displayed at the top of the screen. For example, the status bar will say “Style Change to ZZBossa” or tempo change by 20%. There are also “Clear” and “Clear ALL” buttons in the Bar Settings dialog, allowing you to clear settings for the current bar or the whole song.
“Count-in” can be Drum Patterns instead of “1-2-1234.”
There is an option in Preferences added for count-in type. You can specify to play 2 bars of drum patterns instead of the count-in. You may prefer hearing the drum beat to a simple count-in, since it provides more information about the upcoming groove. If you’re playing with Band-in-a-Box live on a dance floor, this setting will avoid “dead air” between songs, and keep the drumbeat going. Includes options to have “a” or “b” drum fills or patterns play for the 2 bars.
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Harmony – Low Root Feature
The Harmony Edit dialog now has settings for “low root harmony” which adds a voice that plays the root of the chord. This is useful for a cappella harmonies where the lowest voice is playing the bass roots. You can set the low-high range. The root played will always be at least one octave from the melody note (assuming it can still be inside the set low-high range).
Transform 4/4 Melody to a Waltz 3 /4 (“Strauss-in-a-Box”).
You can now automatically transform any 4/4 song/melody to a Waltz 3/4 feel. Simply load in any 4/4 song and change the style to a Waltz style. The program will offer to transform the melody so that it works as a Waltz (or choose the added menu item Melody |Edit Melody Track | Utilities |Transform 4/4 Melody & Soloist to Waltz . This function is referred to as “Strauss” in honor of Johann Strauss – the famous Waltz composer. It’s fun and educational to hear and play familiar songs in a Waltz feel. Band- in-a-Box uses intelligent algorithms to transform the melody to the new time signature.
Transform “Waltz” Melody to 4/4 (“De-Strauss” the Melody).
If you have a song with a 3/4 time signature, you can now instantly hear it as a 4/4 feel. Simply load the Waltz song and then change the style to a 4/4 style. Band-in-a-Box will prompt you to transform the melody to a 4/4 feel and will then change the melody. There’s also a dedicated menu item for this, Melody |Edit Melody Track | Utilities |Transform Waltz Melody & Soloist to 4/4 . Band-in-a-Box uses intelligent algorithms to transform the melody to the new time signature.
Customize the Relative Volumes of the Drum Kit Instruments.
Perhaps when you listen to Band-in-a-Box you feel that crash cymbal is too loud or the kick drum is too quiet. This new feature allows you to set relative volume for each drum instrument individually. You can set the volumes of each drum instrument by the Opt. | Preferences | Drum Kit Set Relative Drum Volumes dialog. This dialog allows you to make the crash cymbal 10% quieter, boost the kick-drum by 15%, and turn off the “tambourine” entirely. Changes apply to any song when this feature is enabled, and playback and written MIDI files will reflect the changes.
Additional Options for changing Volumes of Parts.
You normally change the volume of a part (Bass/Drums etc.) by clicking on the part name and then clicking on the volume up or down arrow. There are additional options for this that instead control the volumes of all parts except the one that you click on.
• Alt (or Ctrl ) clicking down on volume control increases other volumes. • Alt (or Ctrl ) clicking up on volume control decrease other volumes.
29 • Clicking up past 127 on volume control decreases others.
For example, if you find the bass is too quiet, Alt+Click on the up arrow for the Bass part, and this will increase the bass volume AND decrease the volume of all the other instruments.
Improved Rendering to MP3.
If your windows installation includes an MP3 rendering codec, Band-in-a-Box will be able to access it to convert a rendered WAV file to an MP3. Also, the function now reports the correct size of MP3s and can preview the MP3 used in the Render dialog.
Improved MIDI Driver Wizard to auto-suggest which MIDI-Driver you should be using.
This wizard is improved and recognizes software synths and hardware wavetable drivers. It now recommends Wavetable first, then VSC, and then other softsynths.
Descriptive Harmony Tracks Names.
The Harmony track names written to the MIDI file are now more descriptive, including an 8va/8vb setting.
Improved Chord Wizard Pop Ballad Preset.
Now sets to 1-beat to easily detect songs with slow tempos.
Auto-Open Big Lyrics or Lyric Document Window.
Option to Auto-Open Big Lyrics or Lyric Document window if song has lyrics, and close it if no lyrics present.
Option to Auto-Open Song Memo window.
Opens Memo window if song has a memo.
Playback Metronome Option
This option is for metronome during playback. Useful if the drums are muted or for students learning to count beats.
Track Copy with Channel Filter option.
This Edit | Copy/Move Tracks dialog allows:
30 • Copying from one track to another. An example would be to copy the Bass track to the Melody track (to double it an octave above). • For a multi-channel melody (e.g., a MIDI file on the melody track), you can copy or move selected channels to another track. • Or delete selected channels from the track, useful for isolating the Melody track on a MIDI file. • There is an optional merge with destination track option.
Simulate NUMPAD keypad for Notebook users.
Notebook users often don't have a number pad, so they can't use the Band-in-a-Box looping features ( Ctrl+NUMPAD 1-6 keys). If this new option is set the regular #s can be used to trigger the looping feature. For example, pressing Ctrl+2 will start playback of looped choruses.
StylePicker and SongPicker “Search again” button.
Search again with new button or with Alt+G hot keys. Search is enhanced so that it includes all items when searching, even if a filter is selected.
StylePicker Dialog “show all” button.
New button removes any filter set in the StylePicker dialog. Automatically converts the “=” symbol to the [+] key Chords like C7+ can be typed without using the shift key.
StyleMaker “mute a pattern” option added
Press M to mute a pattern or select Pattern | Mute/Unmute from the menu.
StyleMaker import instrument has been enhanced.
Will import additional information such as the patch number, push amounts, and time signature if “ Replace Existing Patterns ” is set to true. For songs in 16th feel converted to 8th note feel (and vice versa), algorithm is improved to make the resultant melody more natural sounding.
31 BIAB 2005 Features
New Features in Band-in-a-Box Version 2005...
New Fully-Featured “Piano Roll” Window!
Now you can edit your tracks using the new “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 bars on a grid. You can change note duration and pitch by selecting and dragging with your mouse.
Alternate Guitar Tunings added!
The Guitar window now 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. The new 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.
32
New Harmonies added with voicing in 4ths!
Modern Jazz harmonies often voice chords in 4ths. For example, a C chord with C melody might be voiced C, G, D, A, E. Now you can select 4ths voicings easily in Band- in-a-Box to harmonize the Melody, Soloist, or THRU parts using 3, 4, or 5 part voicings in 4ths. We’ve added presets for these harmonies, so you can easily select them. Use these sophisticated 4ths harmonies on your existing melodies to create a new sound.
“Auto Endings” added for Styles without Endings!
If you‘ve made a style, and haven’t included an ending, a 2-bar ending can now be generated automatically, based on the style. This makes it easier to make complete styles using the Style Wizard, which makes a style by analyzing a MIDI file.
Patch List Converter
Make Synthesizer Patch file lists (.PAT files) easily by converting PowerTracks or Cakewalk Patch lists!
33 Band-in-a-Box can now read a patch file list generated by PowerTracks or Cakewalk, and convert it to a .PAT file for use in Band-in-a-Box. The patch file contains the name and numbers for all patches on a synthesizer, so that you can access your patches easily by name. If you already have a patch list for your synthesizer from one of these other programs, you can now convert it to Band-in-a-Box format easily.
“Jazz Chord Symbol Graphics” (circles, triangles) supported!
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 Chord Sheet, Notation, and Lead Sheet windows.
TC-Helicon Audio Harmonies enhanced with Pitch Styles (automatic “Vibrato” and “Scooping”)!
Now, 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. Choose from presets, including “Ballad,” “Broadway,” “Pop Diva” and more!
StylePicker now Editable!
You can now add your own styles to the StylePicker list by pressing an ADD/EDIT button on the StylePicker. You can see all the information about the style, including memo, genre, feel, tempo, range, etc.
“Vocal Wizard” finds the best song keys for your vocal range!
This feature helps you choose the best song key for your vocal range from your vocal type (baritone, tenor, etc.), or a custom range. The wizard analyzes the song and recommends the best keys for that song. There are options to “include/exclude falsetto range”and “restrict choices to these keys […].”
Non-Destructive Audio Track Editing!
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With previous versions of Band-in-a-Box, any changes to the audio track would be permanent, even if you didn’t save the song. Now the changes are non-destructive and only become permanent if you save the file.
Support for Multiple Sound Cards!
For the audio track, you can now choose which sound card to use, if you have more than one.
Multiple lines of Lyrics Supported on Fake Sheet and Printout!
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.
Full Stereo or Mono support for Audio Track!
You can now choose between mono or stereo for the audio track and the audio plug-ins work for mono or stereo. Tracks can be edited in either format, and converted from stereo to mono or vice versa.
Enhanced Audio Plug-in Effects!
Enhanced audio plug-in effects are included for EQ, Peak-Limit, and Reverb.
Selective Humanize option for the Melody Embellisher!
There is a new 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.
Lead Sheet highlighting is more visible!
During playback, the highlighting of bars on the Lead Sheet and Fake Sheet window is more visible, with red rectangles to highlight the current bar.
Karaoke Files (.KAR) now can be opened, including lyrics!
The Popular Karaoke file format (.KAR) can now 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.
Import WAV file to Audio Track support!
A Mono or Stereo WAV file can now be imported to the Audio track, optionally merging or replacing any existing audio track.
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Pitch Bends are now displayed on the Guitar Fretboard!
Pitch bends now show up on the Guitar Fretboard. As the pitch bend occurs, a blue line moves along the string in real time to show the height of the pitch bend.
Shift-Click support for Selecting Region of Chordsheet, Notation, or Audio Window!
To select a region of Chordsheet, Notation, or Audio Window, you can now Shift-click on the end point to easily select a large area.
Colors editor for Note Colors in the Notation Window!
Note colors for the notation window may be edited to create custom color sets, using a new dialog box.
Entire Song name displayed in Taskbar Hint when Band-in-a-Box is minimized!
This is useful to find the name of a song playing when Band-in-a-Box is playing in the background.
Multi-colors for Event List!
Different colors are used for different event types in the event list, to visually distinguish notes, patch changes etc.
Song Picker Enhanced – subfolder support!
The SongPicker has been enhanced and now can optionally display songs from sub- folders. For example, if you get a song list of c:\bb, it can include songs in subfolders of c:\bb like c:\bb\styles34. You can also lock the SongPicker to always open in the same folder (EG: C:\bb), so that you can use the same list to keep track of all songs on your disk. Other enhancements like “change folder,” and “go up one folder” are included.
Notation supports time signature changes!
Time signature changes are now printed on the Notation/Lead Sheet!
“Favorite Folder-Open Song” button!
By opening a song using the “Favorite Folder-Open Song,” you first select the folder from a list of recently used folders, and then you can directly open the song from that folder. This allows you to quickly find a song in another folder.
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Lyric breaks hidden in Lead Sheet window!
For Lyrics, line break and paragraph marks (‘/’ and ‘\’) are no longer shown on the Lead Sheet window.
Auto MIDI and Karaoke lyrics display!
Lyric Window now auto-opens for MIDI files and Karaoke files!
Guitar TAB visibility is improved!
For the guitar tab, the numbers are now more visible, as a portion of the black guitar line is “whited out” when a tab fret number is drawn.
Notation display improved!
The first note in every bar is drawn farther away from the bar line.
Big Lyrics Window Enhancements!
Chords can now be displayed on a row above the lyrics on the Big Lyrics Window. Separate chord colors are used for the Chords and Lyrics, allowing these elements to be visually separated.
MIDI file text markers for part markers!
MIDI files are now written with descriptive Text Markers for part markers! Text markers are also read in from MIDI files, and displayed as Section Markers on the Notation.
Decibel (dB) scale now present in the Audio Edit Window!
New rest insert key!
In editable notation mode, you can now insert a rest by holding the back-quote key (tilde key without pressing shift) then clicking on the notation window. This is a way to avoid having to check the Rest checkbox first.
Reset to factory settings improved!
Reset to factory settings also offers to nuke the drum kit and MIDI Driver choice, making the return to factory settings complete.
“Transpose” Chordsheet option added!
37 This is useful for non-concert pitch instruments like Tenor Saxophone. This option is also available on the Notation window.
“Play Selected Area as a Loop” function!
Shift-click on the Play button, or press F10 (Play Selected Area as Loop) and the program will play a selected region as a loop. For example, you can select bars 10 and 11, and then press F10, and bars 10 and 11 will play looped.
StyleMaker Enhancements!
If you don’t save the style, the previous style will load in, instead of reverting to “ZZJAZZ.STY.”
Guitar Tutor Enhancements!
The Guitar Chord Tutor now has an “Anticipate” mode which plays the next chord X beats in advance, allowing time for the user to prepare the chord for playing along. 11 new tutors have been added for the Alternate tunings like DADGAD, Open G, etc.
No more drum crash cymbals on Bar 1 of the song!
The very first bar of the song is (optionally) no longer considered to be following a fill, so a drum crash cymbal won’t be played. Most drummers wouldn’t play a crash cymbal on bar 1 of the song.
New Hot keys added for Prefs tab dialog!
This allows navigation of the Preferences tabs by single keystrokes.
Auto “Staves per Page” Option!
Notation | Options now has an option to allow “Staves per Page” setting to be automatic or not!
Print to much larger BMP files!
Notation | Print to Graphics command can now print to high resolution BMP’s like 2400 x 3000! This feature is only limited by available memory.
Guitar TAB lines easier to see!
Guitar TAB lines now print in black, instead of grey, so tab is easier to read.
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Larger Harmony display boxes!
Harmony display boxes are wider by 64 pixels on the main screen and Melodist/Soloist dialogs!
VU meters added for Audio!
These show the Record and Playback levels for audio, allowing adjustment of microphone and speaker levels.
Mouse wheel support!
Mouse wheel support added to the Chordsheet screen and other windows.
39 BIAB 2006 Features
The New Features in Band-in-a-Box 2006 for Windows are...
“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. 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!
Over 80 functions in all.
Press the Conductor button to launch the Conductor window with settings and further descriptions.
40 TC-Helicon Audio Harmonies are enhanced with Unison Harmonies and a Choir Feature.
Now, when you’ve recorded your singing voice, in addition to harmony voices, you can add unison voices that “fatten” your sound. Each unison can have different vibrato and pitch characteristics. And 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. Also, the GUI of the harmony feature has been enhanced.
New symbols in notation.
The notation now supports many new expression and articulation marks including section letters (A, B etc.), slurs, legato, accent, staccato, crescendo, decrescendo, staccatissmo
41 and more. Right-click on the notation or on a note to insert these symbols. Symbols are available in normal and “Jazz” looks.
ASIO Audio/Software synth driver support has been added .
Now there’s almost no latency (delay) for audio or software synths like the Roland VSC! 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.
VST support added .
Now you can use VST software synths and plug-ins, just as you use DirectX. Many software synths are available in VST format, so this expands the number of available synths and plug-ins for Band-in-a-Box.
Half-speed (and slower) Audio playback without affecting pitch !
Open a 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. To open an audio file, choose the new menu option File | Open Audio (WAV, WMA, MP3, WMV) .
This will open an audio file in WAV, MP3, Windows Media Player (WMA, WMV) or CD Audio (CDA) format. To play it at a slower speed, choose the desired speed on the Play | Tempo menu.
New Audio Plug-Ins added!
Three new DirectX plug-ins have been added to Band-in-a-Box 2006. The PG Vinyl Tool can remove clicks and pops from your old vinyl record collection, the PG RTA (Real Time Analyzer) plug-in assists audio equalization and can measure the frequency response of audio equipment, and the new PG Vocal Remover plug-in can reduce the level of lead vocals on many recordings.
42 Styles can now have different instruments (patches) for the “a” and “b” substyle.
For example, you can have drum brushes on the “a” substyle, and sticks on the “b” substyle, or acoustic piano for the “a” and electric piano for the bridge. Many of the new styles included with the upgrade use multiple patches in this manner!
These patches are set in the StyleMaker, in the Patches dialog. In addition, we have many new styles with these multi-patches, and you can see a list of them in the StylePicker, by looking at the “Styles with Instrument Changes” category. You can see a list of styles that have instrument changes
Multi-channel lead sheet display and record to specific channel.
You can now record up to 16 separate tracks on the Melody part. Or simply load any MIDI file to the melody part, and edit the channels. This allows for counter-melodies or additional instrument parts. Simply set the track to “Multi- Channel” then record the part, and specify the channel number. Each channel displays separately on the notation window. You can easily choose which channels will sound or display, so if you’ve loaded a MIDI file, you can, for example, easily mute channels to leave only the melody, allowing Band-in-a-Box to be the rhythm section.
A Melody Sequencer dialog allows for easy editing of the channels and patches with new commands for deleting and rechanneling.
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The Melody Embellisher has been enhanced .
You can now save/load your own presets for the Embellisher.
MIDI Normalize option.
If performing live, 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 range set in the program options. For example, you can set all volumes to be between 65 and 75, and the program will make each song play within those levels. This is done in the Preferences-Arrangement tab.
Great new games for ear training fun!
Learning is best when it’s fun, and two new games have been added to the Band-in-a-Box 2006 Ear Training module for great times in “the woodshed.”
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 them down).
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Music Replay develops your pitch, rhythm, and melody recognition by replaying what the program plays, in note, rhythm or melodic modes.
Clearer piano display. The instruments displayed on the on-screen piano now make use of higher resolutions , so that each instrument display is clearer.
Range of bars for MIDI files. When making a MIDI file, you can now select a range of bars to be included. Highlight any range of bars, and the MIDI file will be made for just that range.
Support for 11th chords. A new option (in Prefs-Display) for “11th chords” allows display of “9sus” chords as “11” (e.g., Bb11 instead of Bb9sus).
Direct open or import of WMA, MP3, and CD-Audio files. You can open or import a Windows Media Audio file (WMA) to add to the BB song, or an MP3 file (including variable- bit-rate files). This allows you to open or import the most commonly used audio formats into Band-in-a-Box. Once opened, you can play the audio track along with a Band-in-a-Box song, or slow down the playback without affecting the pitch.
Export of audio as WMA file has been enhanced , using Microsoft's newest Windows Media compression codecs, which are rendered directly rather than with a command-line utility.
45 The MIDI Monitor has been enhanced, with options for 1-based patch numbering and patch name display. Quick View Filter presets such as “Notes Only,” “Controllers Only,” “Program Changes Only,” and “Programs including Bank Changes.” Improved stability when using softsynths.
The Piano Roll has been improved, with
• Overlapping note indicator. Overlapping notes are displayed in bold, making them easier to identify. • Trim overlapping notes command. • Adjustable Max control density to control the time-granularity when graphically inserting Controller and Pitch Bend events. • Eraser tool for quickly deleting individual notes or controllers. • Two graphic event mouse editing modes (for scaling gestures). Add mode will add/subtract the mousedrag amount to all selected events. Multiply mode will scale selected events by a mouse-drag percentage. • Un-Zoom to return to previous view range after zooming in on a region. • Zoom All to zoom the window so all events are visible at a glance. • Ghost display . When viewing a single channel, notes on other channels can be ghost- displayed in light gray.
You can now direct render to audio as separate tracks . 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.
Loosen note start times. 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 Melody-Edit-Utilities-”Loosen Start Times.”
46 Convert to Harmony feature enhanced . Now when adding a harmony to the Melody (or Soloist), there are options to remove duplicate notes and to spread (shift) the start times of the 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.
The Chord Builder dialog has been redesigned so that it fits entirely above the Chordsheet, so that you don’t have to move it out of the way while you use it on the Chordsheet.
47 The Jukebox has been enhanced with a selectable time delay (in seconds) between songs. Also, the pause ‘til MIDI/keyboard feature has been enhanced (spacebar can be used, and the setting is saved as a preference).
Also, in the Jukebox you can type a folder name directly, instead of waiting for the folder dialog.
There’s an easier way to “Play From Bar __, Chorus ___. ” Simply right-click on the bar and choose this menu item.
Auto-set # of rows of Chordsheet . In order to try to display most songs on a single page of the Chordsheet, there is an “auto” option in Preferences [Display] that lets you set a range for the number of rows to display on one screen. The program will use more rows for songs with bigger choruses, so that most songs will display on one Chordsheet in the largest font possible.
Fakesheet mode display has been improved. You can now set a custom number of bars to display on each row of the Fakesheet, instead of rigidly using 4 bars per line. 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. This makes the Fakesheets more readable.
“Global overrides ” have been added.
New options are added in Preferences [Overides], 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 not to load any reverb settings from songs.
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The Full (Long) Style Name is displayed in a hint beside the style name and also at the top of the screen.
For example, for ZZJAZZ.STY, you will see “Jazz Swing Style” written at the top of the screen and available as a hint when mousing over the style box.
No more “Style not found ” messages!
Now, when a requested style is not found, BB will intelligently substitute the next best style. 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.
Batch convert a folder of songs to MIDI files . Do you need to convert an entire folder of BB songs to MIDI files? This can now be done with a single command. You can choose the resultant file names to be based either on the original file name or song title name. Press the “Batch mode” button in the MIDI file dialog to access this feature.
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Many StyleMaker enhancements . When importing a Piano, Guitar, or Strings instrument from another style, you can now choose the destination part for the imported instrument to be any one of Piano, Guitar, or Strings. GUI enhancements include a “red” record button, spin buttons to change values, double-click to play pattern, and Ctrl -click to play pattern with previous settings for chord. A right-mouse menu has been added with options to play/play chord/record/mute. The StyleMaker now shows summary information about any non-default settings in a pattern at the top title bar, so that they are easy to spot.
The Quantize feature now has a “Strength ” of quantization option . Previously it was “all or nothing,” now you can apply a percentage setting.
1-Bar Lead-In Option.
There’s now an option for a 1-bar lead-in, instead of 2 bars.
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Song List Cancel button.
The Song List generation now has a CANCEL button so that it can be interrupted.
Auto-Close Memo.
The Song memo now has an option to close automatically during playback.
Melodist Editor has all-soloist access.
There’s now access to all Soloists from the Melodist Editor, previously only the first 256 were accessible.
Current bar = inserted bar.
When inserting bars, the program now moves the current bar highlight to the inserted bar.
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Musical key sort for SongPicker.
In the SongPicker dialog, the Key column is now sorted musically (Ab-A-Am-Bb-B) instead of alphabetically (A-Ab-Abm-Am).
Event Editor improved .
There is now hot key support for Delete, Insert, and Enter, and the editor keeps its place in the list after these commands. For multi-channel tracks, the event list is color coded by channel.
More Notation improvements
There’s a 3-state button to easily change between Standard, Editable, and Note Roll notation modes without toggling. There’s a selectable width for bar lines, and ties. User can put a % setting in the notation options to affect the bar width.
For dotted notes, the dots are now drawn a little farther from the note.
There are spin buttons in the note attributes window. Holding the spin arrow increments continuously, while shift-clicking (or right-clicking) increments by a higher amount. For example, to change the octave of a note, Shift -click (or right-click) on the spin arrows.
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There’s a new option for a custom height for an individual chord symbol.
Chord height adjustment…
53 Printout improved.
There are print templates in the print dialog to achieve various printout styles - normal/lyrics only/chords and lyrics/chords only/blank paper.
Print Range.
A specific range of bars can now be printed, either by highlighting a region or entering a range of bars. There’s a better routine and more options when saving as a JPG file. There are also new print options for “# of copies to print” and “print specific page #.”
Font and dialog size have been increased in many dialogs, making them easier to read.
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BIAB 2007 Features
Band-in-a-Box 2007 Plus!
We’ve got a great new release of Band-in-a-Box, with many new features and enhancements since 2007. We now have Band-in-a-Box 2007 Plus (version # 2007.5)
We’ve improved the Real Drums, AudioChordWizard, added Remix features to allow you to add BB styles to existing MP3 files, and much more! We’ve also made 5 new RealDrums sets for Band-in-a-Box, with authentic Nashville, Rock and Jazz styles. There are now 10 RealDrums sets available! And we’ve got 2 new styles disks, and 2 Soloist disks.
These are the new features added since version 2007:
AudioChordWizard enhanced . The AudioChordWizard is the feature that automatically figures out the chords, tempos and bar lines present in audio files (MP3, WAV, and WMA). The improved features are present in version 2.1 of the AudioChordWizard:
• Better detection of chords, bar lines, and tempos (compared to 2.0) • 2 chords per bar detected (previously was one) • Easy setting of tempo and bar lines by tapping F8 (or Enter key) when song is playing. On many songs, you can now tap “F8” just once or twice, and bar lines will be lined up for the song! • Faster chord interpretation and scrolling • Hotkeys (and remote control support) added to navigate around the song • No requirement to “Set Bar 1” as the first bar line. Can renumber bars at any time. • .. and many more AudioChordWizard enhancments.
‘Remix’ Features – After using the Audio Chord Wizard for an MP3 (or auther audio) file, an automatic tempo map is created, so that the MIDI styles in Band-in-a-Box sync to the Audio File for the whole song. This allows you to remix an existing MP3, by adding a BB style to the MP3. For example, add strings or congas to an existing song, (or a trumpet solo, or chord reharmonization etc.) and they stay in sync for the whole song, and can be all played or rendered to a WAV file. The tempo map can be added, removed, re-added etc. from the song at any time.
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.
Audio Chord Wizard Utilities dialog added, with handy options to 1. Make/Remove tempo map in Band-in-a-Box 2. Remove audio file from song 3.Auto-set Key signature, with button present in the Audio Chord Wizard (4) enable/disable the BB MIDI style
55 RealDrums improved
• Faster. Smaller. Now take up much less space, using WMA files instead of WAV files, still with great quality! Uses 1/10 of the space! When you install, you can either install as WMA or WAV files. Either can be used. This allows your downloads and installations of RealDrums to be much faster! • RealDrums Variations of 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 Prefs-Real Drum Settings – 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. • “Favor Brushes”, “Favor Sticks” settings. 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). • 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. • RealDrums “Compatible song/style finder.” 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. • Tempo checking for chosen RealDrums styles. If you choose a RealDrums style, and the tempo is out-of- recommended-range for the style, BB 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 styles can now have 2 separate feels , with different push amounts, and custom fills for transitioning between substyles (see above). We made a great new style that starts out in Bossa, and changes to ‘swing’ at ‘b’ substyle, with custom drum fills for the transition fills. This “BossaThenSwing” style is on RealDrums 10, and is very effective for Latin/swing tunes. • Drum Fills can now be customized to include fills specifically used when changing from ‘a’ to ‘b’ substyle (and vice versa).
RealDrums “Developer Mode”.
• People making their own styles benefit from the “Developer Mode”, that outputs TXT files with information about their style-in-progress. Now they can render a batch of songs, which will all save separate TXT files, useful for analyzing their styles. • Bars Blocked limit increased to 2,000 bars
Other improvements, including….
56 • Improved: The Erase-Audio option now provides a message reminder that you should Save the song for the erasure to become permanent. • In the Style picker, when choosing “Song Demo”, the melody patch used will be the one from the demo, even if you’ve set “Change Melody Patches” in the dialog. This insures that you’ll always hear the correct melody instrument for the demo. • Improved Vista support – Recording panel button opens up the Vista Sound Control Panel, with tips on enabling/disabling microphone/line-in recordings.
Summary of Band-in-a-Box 2007 Features
Version 2007 adds more than fifty new features to Band-in-a-Box.
• We've added RealDrums - these are audio drum styles that replace the MIDI Drum track with actual recordings of top studio Jazz/Rock/Country drummers! These are not “samples” of single drum hits; they 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. They sound like a real drummer, because they are recordings of a real drummer. And adding a real instrument to the mix makes all of the Band-in-a-Box parts sound more authentic. As well as improved drum sounds, you are hearing the exact rhythms played by the drummer, including features not seen in MIDI (subtle drum rolls, variations in ride cymbal taps, complex fills, etc.).
• And we've added an amazing “Chords from MP3” feature (Audio Chord Wizard). This amazing feature automatically figures out the chords from any MP3, WAV, or WMA audio file, and displays them in Band-in-a-Box. The Audio Wizard also figures out tempo, bar lines, and fine-tuning from the MP3 file.
• There’s also a new “SoundTrack” feature that allows you to generate new royalty-free music of a specified length for use in home or corporate videos, soundtracks, etc.
• A “Reharmonist” feature figures out a chord progression for any melody. This allows you to create a new chord progression or enhance an existing one. Solos are enhanced with features that allow the solo to be influenced by the melody, just as a musician does.
• Other great new features: Save as MP3, batch MP3/WAV/WMA generation, TranzPort® wireless controller support, Auto-memo generation, Chord Breaks, Practicing Window, Melodist/Soloist/Notation enhancements…and much more. Please read on for the details.
RealDrums
We’ve added real audio drums to Band-in-a-Box!
This replaces the MIDI Drum track with real recordings of top studio Jazz/Rock/Country drummers. These are not “samples,” but are full recordings, lasting from 1 to 8 bars at a
57 time, playing along in perfect sync with the other Band-in-a-Box tracks. For example, choose a brushes style, and you will now hear lush Jazz brushes. The results are dramatically better than MIDI. They sound like a real drummer, because they are recordings of a real drummer. Adding a real instrument to the mix makes all of the Band- in-a-Box parts sound more authentic. You’ll wonder, “Why does the guitar sound more real?” It’s because the realism of the drum part has the effect of improving the overall sound.
As well as improved drum sounds, you are hearing the exact rhythms played by the drummer, including features not seen in MIDI (subtle drum rolls, variations in ride cymbal taps, complex fills etc.). And the tracks intelligently play differently at faster/slower tempos, so you hear appropriate playing for the current tempo (not seen in MIDI drums). Change tempos or volumes during playback, using the same tempo/volume controls as MIDI. And best of all, we’ve seamlessly integrated the RealDrums into Band-in-a-Box, so you just use the program as you normally do, and you will hear RealDrums instead of MIDI drums, according to your preferences.
You can fully control which styles you will hear MIDI vs. RealDrums. New RealDrums styles can be made by the user or third parties, using standard WAV files. User created styles can control fills/post-fills/pattern lengths/substyles etc. We include a huge library of RealDrums styles to get you started, and all of the RealDrums styles are available in the MegaPAK Upgrade or MegaPAK First-Time purchase package.
Chords from MP3 (“Audio Chord Wizard”)
This is one of the all-time most requested features for Band-in-a-Box!
Now 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 in Band-in-a-Box. And there’s more! In addition to the chords of the song, the PG Audio Wizard also figures out:
• the tempo of the file, • bar lines throughout the song, • fine tuning detection (e.g. 5 cents sharp from A440),
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An included Audio Piano Roll displays many of the notes found in the file. This serves as a helpful guide to transcription.
Once you have the chords-from-MP3 inside Band-in-a-Box, you can auto-sync the file with Band-in-a-Box, so you can hear the original MP3 playing in sync with the bar lines in Band-in-a-Box. You can then add your own Band-in-a-Box parts to it, for example, add a Strings part, or a RealDrums part to an old audio recording that didn’t have drums! Or have the Band-in-a-Box Soloist generate a Bluegrass Banjo solo for one of your Country MP3 files!
SoundTrack Generator
Need to generate some original, royalty-free music for backgrounds, home videos, slide shows, voiceovers, jingles, themes, underscoring scenes, entr’acte, dance routines, ceremonies or any occasion that calls for musical accompaniment?
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,
59 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), 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). In seconds, you can generate a 30 second audio music clip in the genre of your choice, for example!
Melody Influenced Solos
Solos are enhanced with the new “Melody Influenced” Soloist. When musicians solo for a song, the solo is typically influenced by the melody as well as the chords. Now Band- in-a-Box 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. 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.).
The Reharmonist
Generate Chords for a melody, or an improved chord progression for a melody with the new “Reharmonist” feature.
60 This feature generates a chord progression in the genre that you choose, based only on the melody. Generate a new chord progression for a complete song or a portion of a song.
Or 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 new progressions for tunes without chords.
TranzPort ® Support
Wireless Remote Control support for Band-in-a-Box!
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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 a wireless Karaoke session! The TranzPort also works “right-out-of-the-box” with other popular music software, including Pro Tools®, Sonar™, Logic®, Cubase®, Digital Performer®and others.
Note: The TranzPort is sold separately.
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, if the band comes in time with you or not. Once set, this feature works automatically with all songs until you turn it off.
Auto-Set Key Signature
There is a function to auto-determine the correct key of a song, given only the melody.
62 Audio Settings Dialog
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. Simply click on the “Audio” label onscreen, and choose these options.
Other Audio enhancements
Punch-In Recording
There is now punch-in audio recording, allowing you to punch-in record or overdub a section of audio. You can also now hear the existing audio part when you are overdubbing.
Audio Offset
A new Audio Offset feature allows you to synchronize any point of the audio file with bar 1 of the Band-in-a-Box song. This is useful after importing an audio file into Band-in- a-Box that you want to sync with a song – just ightclick on the Audio window to set Bar
63 1. The Audio Settings dialog is now also accessible from the MIDI Driver Setup dialog or Audio menu.
Batch Convert to Audio Files
In the Render to Audio File dialog you can batch convert a folder of Band-in-a-Box songs to audio files (MP3, WAV, or WMA).
Press the [Batch] button 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.
MIDI Keyboard Wizard
The “QWERTY” Keyboard Wizard now works with MIDI keyboard input.
64 Now you can also use a MIDI keyboard to play the Keyboard Wizard. The Keyboard Wizard always plays correct notes (chord tones or passing tones on the current chord), and is a fun way to play along with Band-in-a-Box (as well as a useful way to enter melodies, by playing notes in correct rhythm and fixing the pitches afterwards). By turning on this wizard, (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.
Note that you also need to have the Wizard checkbox selected on the main Band-in-a- Box screen.
The MIDI keyboard also sends volume information (unlike the QWERTY keyboard), so is a better choice if you have a MIDI keyboard connected.
Automatic Memo-Generation
The Song Memo has been enhanced, with 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, such as substyle patch changes or harmonies. This saves much of the work previously required to manually type in this information to the memo.
65 Practice Window
A new 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.
Soloist Enhancements
Melody Influenced Solos
When musicians solo for a song, the solo is typically influenced by the melody as well as the chords. Now Band-in-a-Box 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. 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.). You can now select “Genres” of soloists (e.g. Modern Jazz) and see only soloists matching the genre.
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And you can also filter to show/not show soloists from Soloist sets that you don’t have.
Expanding on the “trade 4’s” feature, you can now “Trade 2’s” or “Trade 8’s.” Soloist suggestions have been enhanced.
Melodist Enhancements
The Melodist has been enhanced. Melodists can be filtered by “Genre” (e.g. Dixieland) to show only Melodists in that genre.
And you can also filter to show/not show Melodists from Melodists sets that you don’t have.
67 StyleMaker Enhancements
The StyleMaker now displays current patch numbers for the parts on the main window. Moving notes in notation on the StyleMaker notation now plays the note on the current instrument. StylePicker now auto-rebuilds when new styles have been added.
Notation Enhancements
Lyric entry now has convenient buttons to enter line breaks or paragraph breaks.
Guitar chord diagrams are improved. Polyphonic (chord) notation spacing is improved. There is now a filter for the Event List Editor, allowing you to, for example, quickly spot all patch changes. Hot key support is added to delete or insert notes directly in the Event List.
Note Properties Summary
When mousing over notes, summary information about the note is displayed (pitch, channel, velocity, duration).
Lead Sheet Enhancements
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 .
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Select font type and size, copy/paste text from other programs.
Fakesheet Endings
Fakesheets can now optionally include the 2-bar song ending.
Auto Piano Hand-Splitting
The Piano part now displays on both clefs, using intelligent hand-splitting routines that dynamically change the split point. This happens automatically. You can also manually
69 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!
Enhanced DXi Features
Lower latency settings for VSC DXi are now possible, and they are typically auto-set to approximately 100ms on newer PC’s. Looping during playback is now seamless while using DXi/VSTi softsynths. Recorded melodies now automatically adjust for any latency.
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. The “Panic” button feature is enhanced to reset a “hung” DXi/VSTi driver. Latency selection has been simplified, with informative messages added. ASIO4All support has been enhanced, with messages added to detect/correct silent output.
A patch list (.PAT) is now provided for the Roland VSC DXi synth. The list of available synth DK/PAT files is enhanced to support newer sound cards.
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MIDI Latency Calibration.
For software synths with latency, there is now a [Latency Adjust] button to open a Soft Synth Latency Adjust dialog that allows you to accurately set your softsynth’s latency by listening to 2 tones a fifth apart. The MS GS Wavetable synth (included in Windows XP) is now auto-set to correct latency (about 120ms).
New Chord Entry and Editing Features
The Edit menu Nudge Chords/Melody feature allows moving a range of chords by any number of bars and beats.
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The Edit | Fold routine converts a song with a single large chorus to multiple smaller choruses, with optional tag ending.
Edit | Search/Replace Chords will search and replace chords, including support for asterisks (*) as wildcards.
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Also a “simplify Jazz chords” option will simplify chords like C13#11#5 to simply C9. Deletion of chords over a range of bars can be done by selecting the range and pressing DELETE, and no confirmation dialog is required for chord delete. Direct Render to MP3 button is added to the Render to Audio File dialog (this uses the existing MP3 audio codec that you have in your Windows installation). This renders the Band-in-a-Box song to MP3 in a single step, using your Roland VSC DXi (or other DXi/VSTi synth). Feature on program boot-up added to detect and prevent conflicts with the THRU channel and other Band-in-a-Box instruments.
Convenient buttons added for setting “no-harmony” in harmony dialogs.
Jukebox option added to stop the Jukebox when set is completed. Yellow “Fly-By Help Hints” have been expanded throughout the program to provide more information and tips. Loading “song demo” on Style menu, or 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.
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