PG Music Band-in-a-Box User Manual

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PG Music Inc. License Agreement

CAREFULLY READ THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS BEFORE COMPLETING THE INSTALLATION OF THIS SOFTWARE. USAGE OF THE SOFTWARE INDICATES YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS.

LICENSE

A. The program may only be used on a single machine.

B. You may transfer the program and license to another party if the other party agrees to accept the terms of this Agreement. If

you transfer the program, you must either transfer all copies, whether in printed or machine readable form, to the same party, or, destroy all copies not transferred. This includes all modifications and/or portions of the program merged into other programs.

C. You may receive the program in more than one media. Regardless of the type or size of media you receive, you may install or

use the media on a single machine.

D. The program (including any images, “applets,” photographs, animations, video, audio, music, and text incorporated into the

program) is owned by PG Music Inc. or its suppliers, and is protected by international copyright laws and international treaty provisions.

You may not use, copy, or transfer the program, or any copy, modification or merged portion of the program, in whole or in part, except as expressly provided for in this license. If you transfer possession of any copy, modification or merged portion of the program to another party, your license is automatically terminated.

Some programs such as Band-in-a-Box® have a “server” function (including BandInABoxServer.exe program) to connect to a “Client” (mobile client version of Band-in-a-Box® on iPhone or other mobile device). You are only licensed to connect the Server function (including BandInABoxServer.exe program) to Clients where you own or have properly licensed both the Client and Server software that is being connected, not to clients or Server software owned/licensed by third parties. The preceding also applies to any other PG Music products (RealBand etc.) with a similar type of connection between a Server program and a Client.

LIMITATION OF REMEDIES

PG Music Inc.’s entire liability and your exclusive remedy shall be:

A. The replacement of any media not meeting PG Music Inc.’s “Limited Warranty,” which are returned to PG Music Inc., or an

authorized PG Music Inc. dealer, with a copy of your receipt.

B. If PG Music Inc. or the authorized dealer is unable to deliver replacement media which is free of defects in materials or

workmanship, you may terminate this agreement, and your money will be refunded.

In no event will PG Music Inc. be liable to you for any damages, including but not limited to lost profits, lost savings, or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use or the inability to use such program, even if PG Music Inc. or an authorized PG Music Inc. dealer has been advised of the possibility of such damages, or for any claim by any other party.

NOTICE TO CUSTOMERS

The following paragraph applies to the video join tool (vjt.exe, vjt_ffmpeg.exe, and other files in the \Data\VJT folder) that may be included with this installation. Notice Required for the License Granted under Articles 2.1 and 2.6 and for Sales to Codec Licensee Customer(s). As a condition of the license granted under Article 2.6 and the license granted to a Codec Licensee to make Sales to Codec Licensee Customer(s), Licensee agrees to provide any party that receives an AVC Product from Licensee exercising such license rights the following notice: THIS PRODUCT IS LICENSED UNDER THE AVC PATENT PORTFOLIO LICENSE. SUCH LICENSE EXTENDS TO THIS PRODUCT ONLY AND ONLY TO THE EXTENT OF OTHER NOTICES WHICH MAY BE INCLUDED HEREIN. THE LICENSE DOES NOT EXTEND TO ANY OTHER PRODUCT REGARDLESS OF WHETHER SUCH PRODUCT IS INCLUDED WITH THIS LICENSED PRODUCT IN A SINGLE ARTICLE. THIS PRODUCT IS LICENSED UNDER THE AVC PATENT PORTFOLIO LICENSE FOR THE PERSONAL USE OF A CONSUMER OR OTHER USES IN WHICH IT DOES NOT RECEIVE REMUNERATION TO (i) ENCODE VIDEO IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE AVC STANDARD (“AVC VIDEO”) AND/OR (ii) DECODE AVC VIDEO THAT WAS ENCODED BY A CONSUMER ENGAGED IN A PERSONAL ACTIVITY AND/OR WAS OBTAINED FROM A VIDEO PROVIDER LICENSED TO PROVIDE AVC VIDEO. NO LICENSE IS GRANTED OR SHALL BE IMPLIED FOR ANY OTHER USE. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM MPEG LA, L.L.C. SEE HTTPS://WWW.MPEGLA.COM.

The following paragraph applies to the video join tool (vjt.exe, vjt_ffmpeg.exe and other files in the \Data\VJT folder ) that may be included with this installation. Video Join Tool "VJT" is hereby licensed to the End-user as a limited, non-exclusive, nontransferable license to run one copy of the object code version of the x264 Software on one machine, device, or instrument solely as integrated into the Integrated Product. If the Integrated Product is licensed for concurrent or network use, the End-User may not allow more than the maximum number of authorized users to access and use the x264 Software concurrently. The End-User may only make copies of the Integrated Product only for backup and archival purposes. The End-User is Prohibited from: (a) copying the Integrated Product and/or x264 Software onto any public or distributed network; (b) using the x264 Software to operate in or as a time-sharing, outsourcing, service bureau, application service provider or managed service provider environment; (c) using the x264 Software as a standalone application or any other purpose than as integrated into the Integrated

PG Music Inc. License Agreement

Product; (d) changing any proprietary rights notices which appear in the x264 Software or the Integrated Product; or (e) modifying the x264 Software. The End-User may transfer the license granted by the EULA only if (a) End-User complies with any transfer terms imposed by Licensee and delivers all copies of the Integrated Product to the transferee along with the EULA; (b) transferee accepts the terms and conditions of the EULA as a condition to any transfer; and (c) the End-User’s license to use the Integrated Product terminates upon transfer. The End-User must comply with all applicable export laws and regulations. If the EULA is ever terminated, the End-User is required to immediately destroy all copies of the Integrated Product and x264 Software upon termination of the EULA.

This program may include video join tool (vjt.exe, vjt_ffmpeg.exe and other files in the \Data\VJT folder). The program uses FFmpeg under the LGPLv2.1, which can be seen here: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/lgpl-2.1.html. FFmpeg software is not owned by PG Music and information on ownership can be found at www.ffmpeg.org.

TRADEMARKS

Band-in-a-Box®, Band-in-a-Box for Bozos®, CloudTracks®, GuitarStar®, JazzU®, PG Music®, PowerTracks Pro®, RealBand®, RealDrums®, RealStyles®, and RealTracks® are either the trademarks or registered trademarks of PG Music Inc. in the United States, Canada, and other countries. Microsoft® and Windows® are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Apple®, the Apple logo, iPad™, iPhone®, iPod touch®, Leopard®, Macintosh®, Mac®, Panther®, Power Mac®, QuickTime®, Snow Leopard®, Tiger®, and TrueType® are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. IBM® is the registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. Roland® and “Roland” Logo, DIROL® and “EDIROL” Logo, GS® and “GS” Logo, are registered trademarks and “MIDI2” Logo, EDIROL Virtual Sound Canvas Multi Pack, VSC-MP1™ are trademarks of Roland Corporation. Steinberg and ASIO are trademarks of Steinberg Media Technologies AG. VST is a registered trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies AG. Amplitube® and SampleTank® are registered trademarks of IK Multimedia Production srl. Fretlight® is a registered trademark of Optek Music Systems, Inc. Other brands and their products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be noted as such.

PATENTS

Band-in-a-Box® is protected under US Patents 5990407, 8097801, 8581085, and 8680387. The TC-Helicon Harmony feature in Band-in-a-Box® and PowerTracks Pro® Audio is protected under US Patents 5567901, 5641926, 5986198, 34583, 296.80.173.9, PI9603819.5, 0368046, 0750776, 6,046,395, and patents pending.

Band-in-a-Box®, RealBand®, and other PG Music software uses “élastique Pro V3 by zplane.development” as a time and pitch stretching engine, “élastique Tune V1 by zplane.development” as a monophonic pitch editing engine, and “Harmony addon V1 by zplane.development” for the élastique Tune Engine.

Some audio conversions use libsndfile. Libsndfile is licensed under LPGL. BeStPlain chord font - © 2016 by Bernhard Steuber CDS Design GmbH http://cdsdesign.de. RealScore and BigBand chord fonts - Copyright © 2014 by Nor Eddine Bahha https://norfonts.ma.

Printed in Canada

PG Music Inc. License Agreement

PG MUSIC INC. LICENSE AGREEMENT ............................................................................................................. 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................................. 4

CHAPTER 1: WELCOME TO BAND-IN-A-BOX®! ............................................................................................... 8

INSTALLING BAND-IN-A-BOX FOR WINDOWS® ........................................................................................................... 9

MIDI SETUP ............................................................................................................................................................... 9

AUDIO SETUP ............................................................................................................................................................ 15

CHAPTER 2: QUICKSTART .................................................................................................................................. 20

STEP 1 – TYPING IN THE CHORDS .............................................................................................................................. 20

STEP 2 – CHOOSING A STYLE .................................................................................................................................... 20

STEP 3 – PLAY YOUR SONG! ...................................................................................................................................... 21

CHAPTER 3: BAND-IN-A-BOX 2020 ..................................................................................................................... 23

BAND-IN-A-BOX 2020 FOR WINDOWS IS HERE! ........................................................................................................ 23

BAND-IN-A-BOX 2020 FEATURES AND ADDITIONS ................................................................................................... 23

SUMMARY OF NEW FEATURES .................................................................................................................................. 23

INTRODUCTION TO BAND-IN-A-BOX 2020 ................................................................................................................ 26

CHAPTER 4: THE MAIN SCREEN ....................................................................................................................... 43

MAIN SCREEN OVERVIEW ......................................................................................................................................... 43

STATUS BAR ............................................................................................................................................................. 44

TRACK BUTTONS ...................................................................................................................................................... 44

[?] BUTTON - FEATURE BROWSER............................................................................................................................. 48

TOOLBARS ................................................................................................................................................................ 49

PROGRESS BAR ......................................................................................................................................................... 56

MIXER ...................................................................................................................................................................... 56

CHORD SHEET AREA ................................................................................................................................................. 60

CHAPTER 5: PLAYING SONGS ............................................................................................................................ 67

OPENING FILES ......................................................................................................................................................... 67

GLOBAL SONG OVERRIDES ....................................................................................................................................... 77

CHANGING THE STYLE .............................................................................................................................................. 78

PLAYING/PAUSING/STOPPING SONGS ....................................................................................................................... 83

CHANGING MIDI INSTRUMENT ................................................................................................................................. 92

ADDING REAL INSTRUMENTS – REALDRUMS AND REALTRACKS ............................................................................. 99

ADDING MIDI SUPERTRACKS ................................................................................................................................ 102

FREEZING TRACKS .................................................................................................................................................. 104

NON-CONCERT VISUAL TRANSPOSE ....................................................................................................................... 105

THE GUITAR WINDOW ............................................................................................................................................ 106

BIG PIANO WINDOW ............................................................................................................................................... 111

THE CONDUCTOR .................................................................................................................................................... 112

THE JUKEBOX ......................................................................................................................................................... 116

CHAPTER 6: MAKING SONGS ........................................................................................................................... 118

MAKE YOUR OWN SONGS ...................................................................................................................................... 118

CHORD ENTRY ........................................................................................................................................................ 122

BREAKS - RESTS, SHOTS, AND HELD CHORDS ........................................................................................................ 128

ADDING REPEATS AND 1ST/2ND ENDINGS .............................................................................................................. 130

PART MARKERS, SUBSTYLES, AND SONG FORM ..................................................................................................... 132

APPLYING STYLES .................................................................................................................................................. 135

ADDING MIDI SUPERTRACKS ................................................................................................................................ 150

USING REALTRACKS IN SONGS ............................................................................................................................... 152

USERTRACKS .......................................................................................................................................................... 158

USING REALDRUMS IN SONGS ................................................................................................................................ 159

ASSIGNING CUSTOM MIDI TRACKS ........................................................................................................................ 163

ADDING LOOPS TO TRACKS .................................................................................................................................... 164

Table of Contents

ADDING BAR-BASED LYRICS .................................................................................................................................. 166

ADDING MELODY – MIDI AND/OR AUDIO .............................................................................................................. 168

IMPORTING A MIDI FILE ......................................................................................................................................... 174

ADDING SOLO - “THE SOLOIST” ............................................................................................................................. 174

AUTOMATIC SONGS - “THE MELODIST”.................................................................................................................. 178

SONG EDITING FEATURES ....................................................................................................................................... 179

VIEW AND PRINT NOTATION ................................................................................................................................... 188

LEAD SHEET NOTATION WINDOW .......................................................................................................................... 192

PRINTING ................................................................................................................................................................ 194

DIGITAL AUDIO FEATURES ..................................................................................................................................... 198

THE MEDLEY MAKER ............................................................................................................................................. 200

SAVING SONGS ....................................................................................................................................................... 201

SAVING YOUR CONFIGURATION .............................................................................................................................. 215

CHAPTER 7: REALTRACKS AND REALDRUMS ........................................................................................... 217

REALTRACKS .......................................................................................................................................................... 217

REALDRUMS ........................................................................................................................................................... 239

USERTRACKS .......................................................................................................................................................... 249

AUDIO CONTROLS FOR REALTRACKS AND REALDRUMS ........................................................................................ 253

CHAPTER 8: NOTATION AND PRINTING ....................................................................................................... 256

EXPLORING THE NOTATION WINDOW ..................................................................................................................... 256

STANDARD NOTATION MODE ................................................................................................................................. 259

EDITABLE NOTATION MODE ................................................................................................................................... 262

STAFF ROLL NOTATION MODE ............................................................................................................................... 270

NOTATION WINDOW OPTIONS ................................................................................................................................ 270

LEAD SHEET WINDOW ............................................................................................................................................ 278

LYRICS .................................................................................................................................................................... 284

PRINTING ................................................................................................................................................................ 289

CHAPTER 9: AUTOMATIC MUSIC FEATURES ............................................................................................. 297

AUTOMATIC MEDLEYS - “THE MEDLEY MAKER”................................................................................................... 297

AUTOMATIC SONGS - “THE MELODIST”.................................................................................................................. 298

AUTOMATIC INTRO - SONG INTROS......................................................................................................................... 301

AUTOMATIC SONG TITLE GENERATION .................................................................................................................. 301

AUTOMATIC SOUND TRACK GENERATOR - “SOUNDTRACK” .................................................................................. 302

AUTOMATIC SOLO GENERATION – “THE SOLOIST” ................................................................................................ 303

AUTO PIANO HAND-SPLITTING ............................................................................................................................... 310

AUTOMATIC GUITAR SOLOS – “THE GUITARIST” ................................................................................................... 311

AUTOMATIC EMBELLISHMENTS – “THE EMBELLISHER” ......................................................................................... 313

CHAPTER 10: WORKING WITH MIDI ............................................................................................................. 317

RECORDING LIVE IN REAL TIME ............................................................................................................................. 317

ENTERING NOTES MANUALLY ................................................................................................................................ 318

RECORDING WITH THE PLAY ALONG WIZARD FEATURE ......................................................................................... 318

MELODY/SOLOIST SEQUENCER ............................................................................................................................... 320

IMPORTING MIDI FILES .......................................................................................................................................... 322

ADDITIONAL OPTIONS FOR MELODY/SOLOIST TRACK ............................................................................................ 324

EDITING THE MELODY TRACK ................................................................................................................................ 325

PIANO ROLL WINDOW ............................................................................................................................................ 327

CHAPTER 11: WORKING WITH AUDIO .......................................................................................................... 338

ABOUT BAND-IN-A-BOX AUDIO FILES ................................................................................................................... 338

AUDIO TRACK ......................................................................................................................................................... 339

RECORDING AUDIO ................................................................................................................................................. 340

PLAYING THE AUDIO .............................................................................................................................................. 343

CONVERTING AUDIO CHANNELS ............................................................................................................................ 343

GENERATING SYNTHETIC VOCAL ........................................................................................................................... 343

EDITING THE AUDIO................................................................................................................................................ 344

Table of Contents

AUDIO HARMONIES (BUILT-IN) .............................................................................................................................. 348

AUDIO HARMONIES (TC-HELICON) ........................................................................................................................ 351

APPLYING AUDIO PLUG-INS ................................................................................................................................... 357

READING THE AUDIO AND MIDI TRACKS INTO OTHER PROGRAMS ........................................................................ 360

CHAPTER 12: WIZARDS, TUTORS, AND FUN ................................................................................................ 361

VIDEO WINDOW...................................................................................................................................................... 361

“WOODSHED” TEMPO FEATURE ............................................................................................................................. 362

AUDIO CHORD WIZARD (STAND-ALONE) ............................................................................................................... 363

AUDIO CHORD WIZARD (BUILT-IN) ........................................................................................................................ 372

MIDI FILE CHORD INTERPRETATION WIZARD ........................................................................................................ 374

PRACTICE WINDOW ................................................................................................................................................ 378

EAR TRAINING TUTOR ............................................................................................................................................ 380

EAR TRAINING GAMES ........................................................................................................................................... 382

VOCAL WIZARD ...................................................................................................................................................... 384

REHARMONIST (CHORDS FOR A MELODY) .............................................................................................................. 386

CHORD SUBSTITUTION WIZARD .............................................................................................................................. 387

CHORD BUILDER ..................................................................................................................................................... 389

RHYTHM GUITAR CHORD TUTOR ........................................................................................................................... 391

CHORD “BREAKS” .................................................................................................................................................. 393

SCALE WIZARD ....................................................................................................................................................... 393

CHAPTER 13: TOOLS, UTILITIES, AND APPS ............................................................................................... 395

DOWNLOAD MANAGER ........................................................................................................................................... 395

BB REMOTE ............................................................................................................................................................ 396

DAW PLUG-IN MODE ............................................................................................................................................. 399

FIND FILE ................................................................................................................................................................ 401

COYOTEWT ............................................................................................................................................................ 402

FRETLIGHT TRANZPORT

SUPPORT ............................................................................................................................................. 405

SUPPORT - WIRELESS REMOTE CONTROL ......................................................................................... 405

GUITAR/BASS TUNER ............................................................................................................................................. 407

MASTER TUNING .................................................................................................................................................... 407

DYNAMIC 3D DRUM KIT WINDOW ......................................................................................................................... 408

MIDI MONITOR ...................................................................................................................................................... 410

EVENT LIST EDITOR ................................................................................................................................................ 412

PG VINYL DIRECTX PLUG-IN ................................................................................................................................. 414

PG RTA DIRECTX PLUG-IN ................................................................................................................................... 418

PG VOCAL REMOVER PLUG-IN ............................................................................................................................... 419

BAND-IN-A-BOX FOR IPHONE ................................................................................................................................. 420

CHAPTER 14: USER PROGRAMMABLE FUNCTIONS ................................................................................. 424

THE STYLEMAKER ................................................................................................................................................. 424

MIDI FILE TO STYLE WIZARD ................................................................................................................................ 451

MAKING REALDRUMS STYLES ............................................................................................................................... 455

THE HARMONY MAKER .......................................................................................................................................... 473

THE SOLOIST MAKER.............................................................................................................................................. 476

THE MELODIST MAKER .......................................................................................................................................... 481

THE GUITARIST MAKER .......................................................................................................................................... 484

CHAPTER 15: REFERENCE ................................................................................................................................ 487

BAND-IN-A-BOX MENU DESCRIPTIONS .................................................................................................................. 487

FILE MENU ............................................................................................................................................................. 487

EDIT MENU ............................................................................................................................................................. 493

OPTIONS MENU ....................................................................................................................................................... 498

PLAY MENU ............................................................................................................................................................ 533

MELODY MENU ...................................................................................................................................................... 535

SOLOIST MENU ....................................................................................................................................................... 541

AUDIO MENU .......................................................................................................................................................... 545

HARMONY MENU .................................................................................................................................................... 547

Table of Contents

WINDOW MENU ...................................................................................................................................................... 549

HELP MENU ............................................................................................................................................................ 552

SHORTCUTS: KEYSTROKE COMMANDS - HOT KEYS ............................................................................................... 556

CHORD LIST ............................................................................................................................................................ 560

BAND-IN-A-BOX FILES AND FOLDERS .................................................................................................................... 561

PG MUSIC INC. ...................................................................................................................................................... 563

APPENDIX A: REALTRACKS SETS .................................................................................................................. 564

APPENDIX B: MIDI SUPERTRACKS SETS ...................................................................................................... 602

INDEX ....................................................................................................................................................................... 607

PG MUSIC REGISTRATION FORM ................................................................................................................... 615

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box®!

Congratulations on your purchase of Band-in-a-Box, the favorite of musicians, students, and songwriters everywhere. Get ready to have fun!

What is Band-in-a-Box?

Band-in-a-Box is an intelligent automatic accompaniment program for your multimedia computer.

You can hear and play along to many song ideas and go from “nothing” to “something” in a very short period of time with Band-in-a-Box as your “on demand” backup band.

Band-in-a-Box is so easy to use!

Just type in the chords for any song using standard chord symbols (like C, Fm7, or C13b9), choose the style you’d like, and Band-in-a-Box does the rest, automatically generating a complete professional-quality arrangement of piano, bass, drums, guitar, and strings or horns in a wide variety of popular styles plus live audio tracks with RealDrums and RealTracks.

And that’s not all...

Band-in-a-Box is a powerful and creative music composition tool for exploring and developing musical ideas with near-instantaneous feedback. Over the years many features have been added to Band-in-a-Box – Notation and Lyrics, Piano Roll, 16-channel MIDI multi-tracks, harmonization, the StyleMaker and StylePicker, a live performance Conductor window, Medley Maker, and 24 –substyle Multistyles. The Soloist and the Melodist are popular “intelligent” features that generate professional solos or even create whole new songs from scratch. RealDrums add the human element of a live drummer while RealTracks add even more live session musicians, bringing the entire Band-in-a-Box arrangement to life. You can even record your own UserTracks and Band-in-aBox will play them just like RealTracks! Or use the MIDI SuperTracks for MIDI tracks with a “real feel” that you can edit and arrange. The Audio Chord Wizard has the amazing ability to analyze, extract, and show the chords from audio recordings on-screen and then write them to the Band-in-a-Box Chord Sheet.

The inclusion of digital audio features makes Band-in-a-Box the perfect tool for creating, playing, and recording your music with MIDI, vocals, and acoustic instruments. Band-in-a-Box for Windows® can also record an acoustic instrument or voice to add to the composition, with processing through its own DirectX audio effects. Its built-in TC Helicon audio harmonies will turn your audio track into multiple harmony parts or adjust its pitch, with vibrato and scooping effects for up to sixteen realistic choral parts. Use the Mixer window to select parts, set levels, and create a polished final mix.

You can print out your finished creation with lyrics, chords, repeats and endings, DC markings, and codas, or save it as a graphics file for web publication or to e-mail to a friend. And when you are ready to let others hear your composition, you can burn it directly to an audio CD. Or save your composition as a Windows® Media File (or in any other compressed formats you have) for a file that’s “Internet ready.”

You will have even more fun making automatic medleys, playing your favorite song lists in the Band-in-a-Box Jukebox, and singing along to your Karaoke files with CDG graphics.

Let’s get started!

This is a comprehensive guide to the program, including information not included in the printed manual. We will begin with the easy installation and setup procedure.

Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box!

Installing Band-in-a-Box for Windows®

Minimum System Requirements

Windows® XP / Vista / 7 / 8 / 8.1 / 10 (32 or 64-bit)

Minimum 1 GB RAM (2 GB+ recommended)

Minimum 1.0 GHz processor (2 GHz+ multicore recommended)

1 GB free Hard Disk space for a minimal install. More space is required for RealTracks, depending on which package you buy.

- RealTracks & RealDrums: ~100-400 MB per set

- Pro RealCombos: ~18 GB

- MegaPAK RealCombos: ~28 GB

- Full UltraPAK/UltraPAK+ when installed to internal hard drive: ~120 GB (another ~100 GB is required for the

installation files when downloading the UltraPAK or UltraPAK+)

- Hard Drive versions of the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition do not require any hard disk space when

run directly from the external hard drive they are shipped on.

1024x768 screen resolution (1360x768+ recommended)

DVD drive for the DVD version of the MegaPAK or Pro.

USB port for the USB flash drive version of the MegaPAK or Pro.

USB port for the USB hard drive version of the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition.

A MIDI sound source is required. This could be a sound card, a MIDI keyboard, MIDI sound module, or software synthesizer.

Internet connection recommended for activation and updates.

Installing the Program

Use one of the following methods to install the program files into the Band-in-a-Box directory. By default, this directory is C:\bb, but you may choose another location. If you have a previous version of Band-in-a-Box installed on your computer, you should install the files to your existing Band-in-a-Box directory.

Installing from the Downloaded Installer Files

If you ordered the e-delivery, download all installer files from the link provided. Double-click on each file to run the installation program.

Installing from the DVD

Insert the DVD into the DVD drive. In a few seconds, a browser window will open with a list of the DVD contents. If it does not open, access your DVD drive from the Windows installation program.

Installing from the USB Flash Drive

Connect the USB flash drive to the USB port. The Windows contents. If the drive does not automatically open, find the drive in the Windows flash drive icon to open it. Double-click on a setup file to run the installation program.

Installing from the USB Hard Drive

Larger versions of Band-in-a-Box ship on portable USB hard drives. You can run Band-in-a-Box and RealBand directly from the hard drive by using the program shortcuts. Before you use the programs, you should double-click on Setup.exe. This will set up any files that need to be installed/registered on your computer.

Note: Before unplugging the hard drive from your computer, make sure it is not in use, then click on the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon in your taskbar. When you plug the drive in, Windows® may prompt you to select an appropriate action - if so, select “Open folder to view files.”

® Explorer. Double-click on SETUP.EXE to run the

® AutoPlay should open the drive and show you the

® Explorer and double-click on the

MIDI Setup

Band-in-a-Box uses the multimedia drivers for your MIDI interface and/or sound card that are supported by the Windows audio, RealDrums, and RealTracks) driver installed.

® operating system. To get sound playback you need to have a MIDI (and audio - for songs with digital

Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box!

To start using the program you will need to make sure that your MIDI interface, audio driver, and Windows® sound

MIDI/Audio Driver Setup to open this dialog.

button in the MIDI/Audio Drivers Setup dialog.

source are installed and configured.

Run the program by double-clicking the program icon.

To check your MIDI driver setup, press the [MIDI] toolbar icon and select the menu item MIDI/Audio Drivers Setup. This will open the MIDI/Audio Drivers Setup dialog. You can also go to Options |

Select a MIDI Output Driver to use for MIDI sound playback and optionally a MIDI Input Driver if you are using an external MIDI controller keyboard or guitar. If the setup is panned to mono, the program offers to change it to stereo.

Perhaps the easiest way to configure Band-in-a-Box is to press the [Run Driver Wizard]

The MIDI Output Driver Wizard dialog will take you step-by-step through the process of auditioning and selecting an appropriate driver. This assumes that the appropriate Windows

® sound drivers are installed and correctly

configured.

Output to Software Synthesizers (DXi and VSTi)

Software synthesizers allow Band-in-a-Box to play high quality sounds directly through your computer sound card, without requiring any external MIDI hardware. Most new software synthesizers are released as “plug-ins,” so they will work in a standard way with many programs. Connecting Band-in-a-Box to the software synth as a plug-in

Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box!

provides several advantages over the previous method of connecting as a MIDI driver. The plug-in allows Band-in-

the VST/DXi settings.

option to route the Thru track from your MIDI keyboard to the DXi/VSTi synth.

permanently added to the list. You only have to add each plug-in one time.

a-Box to merge/sync in any existing audio file (vocals etc.) with the synth output. You can also directly render your performance to a .WAV file using the plug-in. Sampler-based synths allow you to assemble a huge, customized library of instrument samples to use with Band-in-a-Box.

The current DXi or VSTi synth name is displayed in the button that launches

DirectX Instrument Synthesizer (DXi plug-in) Support

To use DXi with Band-in-a-Box, you should think of the DXi as a type of “MIDI Output Driver.” As such, you either go to the menu Options | MIDI/Audio Driver Setup or click on [Prefs] [MIDI Driver] and select the “Use DXi Synth” checkbox. When you do this, you can select the type of DXi to use (from a list of installed DXi, if any), and also will see a panel display of the DXi that allows you to make settings directly for your DXi synth.

The DXi will convert the MIDI information to audio, which Band-in-a-Box will playback through your sound card to audio speakers.

You can select DirectX DXi Software Synthesizers as the MIDI destination, and also apply DirectX Audio plug-ins to the Band-in-a-Box audio track.

Check the Use VST/DXi Synth checkbox to enable DXi playback. While using DXi or VSTi, all playback information is routed to the DXi/VSTi, including the

Note: To use this option, you must have a polyphonic DXi synthesizer installed on your computer, such as the CoyoteWT. It will also be most convenient if your DXi synthesizer can use General MIDI or GM2 patches.

To select the DXi synthesizer, click on the [VST/DXi Synth Settings] button, which will open the VST/DX Synths/Plugins window.

Select your desired DXi synth in the top plug-in Insert Slot 1.

To apply DirectX audio plug-ins to the synth, insert DX audio plug-ins to Insert Slots 2, 3, or 4. This can be useful to add EQ, Reverb, Compression, or Peak Limiting plug-ins, if the “raw sound” of the synthesizer needs sweetening.

VSTi Instrument Synthesizer (VST plug-in)

To add VSTi synthesizer plug-ins use the plug-in menu on the top synthesizer slot.

VST plug-ins appear at the bottom of the plug-in list below the DirectX plug-ins. VST plug-ins and synthesizers have the text <VST> prefixed to the name of the plug-in or synthesizer.

To select a VST plug-in for the first time, select the “Add VST plug-in...” item at the bottom of the plug-in Menu. Select a VST plug-in .dll file in the following Select a VST plug-in dialog, and it is added to the plug-in list. After you add each VST, the plug-in is

Note: Some VST host programs scan for all available plug-ins every time they start up. We decided not to use that method, because the scanning can take a long time if there are many plug-ins on your system. Additionally, a badly written or corrupt plug-in could cause program malfunctions. Therefore, we feel the method of selecting only the plug-ins you wish to use is both safer and faster.

VST/VSTi Additional Panel Controls

VST is necessarily different from DirectX/DXi, and some extra controls are available for VST plug-ins. DirectX/DXi plug-ins save their presets to the Windows

® Registry and only one setting is “alive” at a time.

VST/VSTi plug-ins save their presets to disk files. VST/VSTi plug-ins contain a bank of presets in memory. You can switch between presets while editing, and each edited preset is remembered in the current bank. If you save the

Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box!

bank, it will save all the presets you have edited. You can save individual presets, or you can build a custom group by loading individual preset files into different preset slots, and then save the new group file.

Note: Some very nice plug-ins, including some advanced synthesizer plug-ins, may only have one preset, but that single preset can be a doozy containing many settings. Even with single-preset plug-ins, you can Save/Load Presets or Banks.

Presets and Groups

Load Preset: A preset contains settings to a single slot. VST presets are stored in .fxp files; DirectX presets are

stored in the registry.

Save Preset: Save the currently selected Preset. VST/VSTi preset files use the “.fxp” extension.

Delete Preset: Delete a saved preset from the selection list.

Load Group: A group is a .tgs (Trans Group Settings) file from the C:\bb\DX Settings folder. Load an entire group

of presets for all slots.

Save Group: This saves all plugin settings for all slots of a track to a .tgs (Trans Group Settings) file in the C:\bb\DX Settings folder.

VST Generic User Interface

VST/VSTi plug-ins are not required to have a fancy graphic control panel. There are many “faceless” VST plug-ins which have many adjustable parameters, but no fancy control panel. When you open such a plug-in, the control panel will look like this example. Band-in-a-Box presents one “generic” slider for each adjustable parameter in the plug-in.

Parameter Name: Simply the name of each adjustable parameter.

Value Slider: Move the slider to adjust the parameter value

Value Indication Text: Displays the value of the slider, as interpreted by the plug-in. In this example, Parameter 0:

Bright is interpreted as an ON/OFF switch, but Parameter 1: Volume is interpreted as a value from 0 to 10.

Options: Remove VST Plug-In (from list)

Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box!

This feature allows the removal of unwanted plug-ins from the Band-in-a-Box VST/VSTi plug-in lists.

Support for 64-bit VST Plugins using jBridge

You can use your 64-bit VST plugins and VSTi instruments with Band-in-a-Box, using jBridge. Since Band-in-aBox has built-in support for jBridge, you just use your plugins as you normally would, by selecting 32- or 64-bit plugins within Band-in-a-Box. (JBridge is a third-party product. You can purchase jBridge from PG Music.)

To use 64-bit plugins with Band-in-a-Box, you:

1. Get and install jBridge,

2. Select and use your 64- or 32-bit plugins within Band-in-a-Box, without any further setup or configuration!

VSTSynthFont64

The 64-bit version of Band-in-a-Box allows you to use the VSTSynthFont64 as the General MIDI (GM) synth.

To use it, go to the menu Options | MIDI/Audio Driver Setup to open the MIDI/Audio Drivers Setup dialog and press the [VSTi/DXi Synth Settings] button.

Then, in the VST/DX Synths/Plugin window choose the “VSTSynthFont64” from the list of available plugins.

Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box!

Settings] button.

display (notation, chords, virtual piano etc.) with the sound you hear.

manually adjust the latency.

With the VSTSynthFont64, you can use any GM soundfont or DLS files, including larger ones over 2 GB.

When the VSTSynthFont64ynth is selected, its name shows in the [VSTi/DXi Synth

Driver Latency

Software synthesizers have some inherent latency, which is the delay between the time a note is played and it is processed by the computer. Older soft synths had noticeable latency, whereas a VSTi/DXi synth using ASIO drivers has very little. This setting is used to synchronize the visual

Band-in-a-Box automatically sets the latency for VSTi/DXi and some other soft synths.

The [Latency Adjust…] button opens the Soft Synth Latency Adjust dialog where you can

Alternate Patch Maps

You can choose the patch map (instrument list) that matches your synthesizer keyboard or sound module. Original equipment sound cards or integrated sound chips are General MIDI (GM) compatible.

Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box!

We have made preset drum/patch files for many synthesizers and

driver and status (WAS/MME/ASIO).

sound cards. If your synth is not listed, you should use the General MIDI Instrument Misc. patch kit (default).

You can probably omit this step unless you are using an old synth that is not General MIDI compatible. If your non-GM synthesizer or sound card is not listed, you can easily make your own patch map with the [Patch Map] button in Options | Preferences.

General MIDI 2 (GM2) Support

General MIDI 2 patches are supported for 128 additional instruments. The type of GM2 support is set in this dialog.

The GM2 support choices are:

- General MIDI 2 support: If you’re using a newer Sound Canvas (i.e. newer than 1999, or newer than the Roland

SC88), then choose this GM2 support.

- Roland GS (older Modules): “Older” Sound Canvases (SC55/SC88) support GS, but not GM2. The good news

is that they have the same patches available, just at different locations. So, if you choose this option, Band-in-aBox will find the patches at the “GS” locations instead of the “GM2” locations. If you have a newer GS module like the SC8820, it supports both GM2 and GS - you should likely choose GM2.

- No GM2 support: Some sound cards don’t have GM2 support but they do support the original 128 General MIDI

sounds. Band-in-a-Box will use the closest instrument in these cases.

Audio Setup

The [Audio Settings] button in the MIDI/Audio Drivers Setup displays the current audio

Band-in-a-Box performs the audio setup automatically using the installed system audio components.

To restore or modify this setup, click on the [Prefs] button and then click on the [Audio] tab to launch the Audio Settings dialog.

Audio Driver Type

Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box!

MME is the default audio driver type that is used in Windows®. MME is good, but

ordinary MME drivers do.

there is latency (delay) associated with MME drivers.

ASIO is a faster audio driver developed by Steinberg. It has much lower latency than

WAS (Windows® Audio Session) is an alternative driver to MME and ASIO and has ultra-low latency.

Windows® Audio Session (WAS)

Band-in-a-Box supports Windows® Audio Session (WAS) driver, an alternative to ASIO (a driver with low latency, but usually can be used by one program at a time) or MME (an older driver with worse latency). The WAS driver has ultra-low latency (< 25 ms on a typical Windows information via MIDI happen with no noticeable delay.

When you boot up Band-in-a-Box, it will be already set to use the WAS driver. If you want to change the settings, open the Windows Audio Devices dialog.

The dialog will open if you press the [Audio Drivers] button in the Audio Settings dialog when the “WAS” is selected for the audio driver type.

® PC), so audio operations like playing or sending out

Input Device

This is the audio input device that will be used for recording a voice or an instrument. If you have multiple devices installed in your system, you can choose a device from the list.

Output Device

This is the audio output device that will be used for playing sound. If you have multiple devices installed in your system, you can choose a device from the list.

Use Default Device

If this option is enabled, the playback or recording device selected as the default device in your Windows Control Panel will be used.

Resampling Quality

You can choose a quality level for resampling. “Low” will improve performance if necessary, but “High” will sound best.

Exclusive mode

Use the exclusive mode if you want Band-in-a-Box to take full control over the audio device(s). In this mode, other applications might not be able to use the audio devices, so we recommend you do not use this mode.

Output always on

If this is enabled, sound will always be sent to the device. If this is disabled, sound will be sent to the device only when the song is playing. Enable this option if you want MIDI plugins to work when the song is not playing.

® Sound

Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box!

Latency in MS

This is the delay between when sound is sent from Band-in-a-Box and when you actually hear it by the audio device. Increase this setting if you are hearing sound glitches during playback.

[Open Windows Sound Control Panel]

This button will open the Windows

® Sound Control Panel. You can change your device settings by clicking on

[Properties] > [Advanced]. For the “Default Format,” a setting of 16 bit, 44100 Hz is best for Band-in-a-Box.

ASIO Audio/Software Synth Drivers

ASIO drivers allows for much lower latency than ordinary MME drivers do.

Note: Most low-end sound cards do not include an ASIO driver, so you may not have an ASIO driver yet. In this case, you need to get an ASIO driver from the Internet.

This ASIO Audio Drivers dialog lets you choose an ASIO driver. You can arrive at this dialog in 3 different ways:

1. If you haven’t used ASIO drivers, but Band-in-a-Box detected them, and you answered “Yes” when Band-in-a-

Box asked if you want to use an ASIO driver.

2. If, within the Audio Settings, you change the “Audio Driver Type” from MME to ASIO.

3. If the “Audio Driver Type” is already set to ASIO, but you later press the [Audio Drivers…] button in the Audio

Settings.

The Select one ASIO Driver list box lets you select an ASIO driver to use. You can only select one ASIO driver at a time.

Once you have selected an ASIO driver, you will see the Input Port and Output Port list boxes filled with your driver’s input and output ports. By default, the first of each will be selected. You are allowed to select different ports (but only one input and one output port at a time can be selected). The ports you selected will be available for output within Band-in-a-Box. If you do not hear input or output, then you may need to try different ports than the defaults. You may need to read your sound card’s instructions to determine the correct ports to use.

Tip: The ASIO4All driver sometimes cannot connect if the Microsoft GS Wavetable synth is being used as a driver. So, if this happens, you will get a message that ASIO will be silent, and the solution is to de-select the ASIO4All driver.

The [ASIO Driver’s Control Panel] button launches the Control Panel for your driver. This usually lets you adjust the latency by letting you choose different buffer sizes in milliseconds. Some drivers might let you choose the buffer size in samples, which is less convenient than milliseconds. The smaller the buffer size, the lower the latency, and the faster the response. Smaller buffers require more CPU power and if you hear dropouts or artifacts, you may need to increase the buffer size. See the Understanding Latency section that follows.

Since many ASIO drivers do not support multiple sample rates, Band-in-a-Box has a built-in resampler which lets you play and record songs that have a different sampling rate than the rate(s) directly supported by your ASIO driver. For example, if the driver does not support 44.1K sampling rate, but supports 48K, then Band-in-a-Box will use the resampler to convert to 48K when playing back, and to convert FROM 48K when recording. The Resampler

Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box!

Quality combo lets you choose Fast, Good, Better, or Best. Fast is the quickest but is the lowest of the four levels of quality. Best is the slowest (uses more CPU time), but the most transparent and accurate quality.

The [ASIO Driver’s Control Panel] button launches a settings dialog specifically provided by your driver manufacturer. This usually lets you adjust the latency, and usually you will have a choice between buffer sizes in milliseconds. See the following section on Understanding Latency.

Show Warning for Untested Soundcard Formats is an optional setting that shows a warning if your ASIO driver format has not been tested in Band-in-a-Box. It does not necessarily mean your driver will not work.

The Driver Info field shows various characteristics of your driver.

The Name is the driver’s name.

The Version is the version number of your driver.

Input Channels is the total number of mono input channels that your sound card has.

Note: Band-in-a-Box groups each Input and Output channel into a stereo pair.

Output Channels is the total number of mono output channels that your sound card has.

The Allowed Sample Rates field shows the sample rates are allowed by your sound card’s ASIO driver. Band-in-a- Box has a built-in resampler which lets you play and record files that aren’t directly supported by your ASIO driver.

The Buffer Sizes In Samples shows the range of allowed buffer sizes. The “Pref” is the preferred size, and this is the size that Band-in-a-Box uses. Your driver may alter the preferred size if you’ve launched the ASIO Driver Control Panel and have selected a new buffer size from within the driver’s Control Panel. If your driver changes the preferred size, then Band-in-a-Box will be aware of the new preferred size.

Understanding Latency

Latency is based on the buffer sizes. The smaller the buffer sizes the lower the latency. Lower latency allows you to hear mixer volume changes very quickly, as well as hear MIDI thru echoed out via a DXi soft synth practically in real time. The latency, in MS is determined by the buffer size in samples, as well as the driver’s sampling rate.

Note: If your ASIO driver’s control panel lets you select the buffer size in MS, then you don’t have to pay much attention to the part of discussion below about converting samples to MS.

Converting Samples to MS: For example, suppose the driver’s sample rate is 48K. A 48K sampling rate means that it is playing at 48,000 samples per second. If the buffer size were 48000 samples, then the latency would be 1 second, or 1000ms (which is very large and slow, and usually not allowed in ASIO). If the buffer size were 4800 samples, which is 1/10 second, the latency would be 50 ms. If the buffer size were 240 samples, which is 1/200

second, then the latency would be 100ms. If the buffer size were 2400 samples, which is 1/20

second, the latency would

be a mere 5ms which is incredibly low and very fast.

Normally, you can change your driver’s latency by pressing the Launch ASIO Driver’s Control Panel button. Normally, the driver specifies the buffer sizes in milliseconds which is equal to the latency.

Low latency is faster and more responsive but uses more CPU power.

Depending on the speed of your computer, you may find that the playback has dropouts, clicks/pops, or other artifacts if you set the buffer sizes too small. This is because smaller buffers use more CPU power and if your computer can’t handle the low latency you will hear artifacts. If this happens, you would need to use larger buffer sizes. You may need to experiment to find what works well. You may be able to use smaller buffers with songs that don’t have a lot of tracks and effects but may find that you need to use larger buffers with songs that have more tracks and use more effects. This is because more tracks and more effects use more CPU power, which leaves less CPU power available for the audio routines to keep up with lower latencies.

Sample Rate Detection Warning

Windows 7 has a peculiar issue where if you choose Windows® Start button - Control Panel - “Sound,” right-click on your output device, choose “Properties” and then “Advanced,” you can see the default format. It should be 16 bit

44100. Unfortunately, some apps change this setting without your knowledge. When it is set like this, all of your audio gets “resampled” and this can create obvious audible artifacts and make some things sound “bad.”

Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box!

Band-in-a-Box detects this setting when you exit the MIDI/Audio Drivers Setup dialog, and will give you a notification about it, and that’s a clue for you to visit this dialog and set it back to 44100.

Have fun!

Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box!

Chapter 2: QuickStart

Creating music with Band-in-a-Box is as easy as 1-2-3! Here’s how.

Step 1 – Typing in the Chords

There are numerous ways of entering chords into Band-in-a-Box; we will discuss the two most common methods.

1. Using the Computer Keyboard

2. Playing directly on a MIDI Controller Keyboard

On the main screen of the program, you will see an area called the Chord Sheet.

Each of the numbered cells on the Chord Sheet represents a bar. In this example, we see that there is an E chord in the first bar of this song, an A chord in bar 5, and later in the song, an E7 in bar 12. Notice the box in the first half of bar 1. This is the highlight cell, and it represents the bar you are currently working on. You can move the highlight cell around using the cursor keys or click on any bar with the mouse.

Enter Chords Using the Computer Keyboard

To enter a specific chord, move the highlight cell to where you want to place the chord. For example, to add (or change) a chord in bar 10, you would highlight bar 10 on the Chord Sheet. Next, type in your chords. If you want an A chord at bar 10, type the A key on your keyboard, and press Enter. Notice that when you use the Enter key, the highlight cell moves to the second half of the bar. You could then enter another chord at beat 3. Chords names are normally typed using standard chord symbols (like C or Fm7 or Bb7 or Bb13#9/E), but you can enter them in other chord formats like Roman Numerals, Nashville Notation, Solfeggio, and Fixed Do (popular in Italy and Europe).

Enter Chords Using a MIDI Controller Keyboard

If you have a MIDI controller keyboard, you can use it to enter chords into Band-in-a-Box. Play a chord on your MIDI keyboard, and then type Ctrl+Enter. The chord will be entered into the Chord Sheet at the current highlight cell position. Another method allows you to choose alternate chords. From the Window | MIDI Chord Detection menu item, you will see this window:

When you play chords, Band-in-a-Box shows you the chord name and suggests alternates that you can choose from. Typing Ctrl+Enter enters the first selection and advances the highlight cell by ½ bar. To place an alternate chord in the Chord Sheet, click on the [Enter] button beside the chord you want.

Step 2 – Choosing a Style

Band-in-a-Box creates backing arrangements based on the chords you type in, playing them in a particular style.

What’s a Style?

A style is a set of rules that determine how Band-in-a-Box creates music using your chords. There is a huge collection of styles in all musical genres, with both RealTracks audio and MIDI.

Chapter 2: QuickStart

Opening a Style

You can open a style using the [Style] button. This is a split button, with the top half being the default function, and the bottom half listing different methods to load a style and allows you to set the default.

Selecting a Style using the StylePicker

The StylePicker window lists all styles with full information. It has a great filter feature for finding a perfect style for your song by selecting elements such as time signature, feel, or tempo, or by simply typing in a familiar song title.

You can browse styles by sorting columns or hear an “instant” preview by double-clicking on the list. If style has both MIDI and RealDrums available, you can hear both, and choose which one you want. This makes it much faster to find the style that fits your song.

Tip: You can quickly launch the StylePicker by S+return or control+F9 keys.

Step 3 – Play your song!

To play your song you will need to tell Band-in-a-Box how long the song is, how many times to play it through, in what key, and how fast.

Chapter 2: QuickStart

Framing the Song

play 3 times.

signature.

speed and Ctrl = for normal speed.

have typed.

begin<Enter>

sets the beginning of the chorus to the current bar

chorusend<Enter>

sets the end of the song to the current bar

end<Enter>

sets the end of the chorus to the current bar

tkc<Enter>

sets key signature to C, tkbb would set it to Bb

trc<Enter>

transposes song to key of C

t125<Enter>

sets tempo to 125

Setting the Chorus

To tell Band-in-a-Box where to start and end the song, locate the framing buttons. There are three of them, one each for Beginning of Chorus, End of Chorus, and Number of Choruses. In the example shown, the chorus starts at bar 1, ends on bar 32, and is going to

Setting the Key

The Key button is used to set the key or to change it and transpose the song. When you press it, you see 2 columns of keys. The first column will set the key AND transpose the song; the second will just set the key

Setting the Tempo

The Tempo Control shows the current song tempo. Left-click on the up/down arrows to change the tempo by +/- 5 beats per minute. Right-click to change it by +/- 1 bpm. Tempos can also be typed in directly.

This button allows you to quickly set the relative tempo. Click on the button and choose a percentage or use the Custom Tempo % menu item to set any value between 1% and 800%. 1% would be 1/100 of the original tempo and 800% would be 8 times the original tempo. Hot keys are available: Ctrl - (minus key) for half

Use the Tap tempo buttons to count and set a tempo. Tap the [-] button in tempo four times to set the tempo. It will appear in the tempo box. Tap the [=] button to count-in the song and start playback at the tapped tempo. As you tap more than 4 times, the accuracy will improve (through averaging) and you can continue to tap until the target tempo has been reached. For example, in a 4/4/ style, once you tap 4 times a tempo will be set. But you can keep tapping and the tempo will change every beat, based on the average tempo that you

Shortcuts for song formatting

Typing special words, instead of chord names, will make the following settings:

Press Play

When you’re ready, just press the [Play] button or the F4 function key and Band-in-a-Box will immediately generate and play a professional arrangement of your song using the settings and the style you selected. You can double-click on any bar in the Chord Sheet, including the tag or ending, to start playback from that bar.

More fun with Band-in-a-Box…

That’s how easy it is to start creating music with Band-in-a-Box, but it’s just the beginning. Band-in-a-Box is jampacked with features, helpers, and user options, so read on and keep having fun!

Chapter 2: QuickStart

Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2020

Band-in-a-Box 2020 for Windows is here!

Band-in-a-Box 2020 for Windows® is here!

We’ve been busy and added 50 new features and an amazing collection of new content, including 202 RealTracks (double the 101 that we’ve often released in the past), new RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, RealDrums transcriptions, Xtra Styles PAK 8, and more!

We have Bonus PAKs with 40 RealTracks in addition to the 202 new RealTracks, so in total an amazing 242 new RealTracks are available! The Bonus PAKs also include 5 new Instrumental Studies sets with 3 sets featuring Nashville guitar legend Johnny Hiland, and two sets focusing on soloing studies for rhythm changes and jazz blues. There are also 15 new MIDI SuperTracks, 280 new RealDrums transcriptions, and new “Look Ma! More MIDI!” sets with 30 new MIDI styles.

In addition, there are over 250 new RealStyles that use the new RealTracks. These include great Americana, Gospel Vocals, new Blues with Johnny Hiland and Sol Philcox, Country Pollwinners, Bossa Flute/Horn sections, Jazz Blues and Rhythm Changes, British and Hazy 60s guitars, Modern Funk, Island Grooves with steel drum and marimba, Singer-Songwriter, and more! Plus, we’ve made a new Xtra Styles PAK 8 with 162 Xtra styles. (Xtra styles are styles based on previously released RealTracks.)

Band-in-a-Box 2020 Features and Additions

There are over 50 new features in Band-in-a-Box 2020! There are enhancements to RealTracks (Smoother Sounding Vocal RealTracks, RealTracks Thickening, “Find-a-Sub” RealTracks and MultiRiffs). Most RealDrums now have RealCharts (with accurate Drum Notation). There’s a new RealTracks Artist Browser to

find info/bios/links/lists of RealTracks on all the artists. A new Feature Browser allows the new or “forgetful” user to easily find and use most features/hotkeys/docs from a single window. Equalize Temp recorded rubato song to a fixed tempo. Enhanced audio time/pitch stretching (Elastique included. There are SongPicker enhancements, Bass/Drums or Drums only Auto-Intros, 3,400 titles added, MusicXML enhancements, “Left-Handed” and “Student View” guitar, Drag and Drop enhancements, Audio Chord Wizard

Multi-Window Display and more!

Band-in-a-Box 2020 DAW Plugin

There are over 40 enhancements to the Band-in-a-Box DAW Plugin, including Audio Harmonies (apply to any DAW audio track, 1-4 voices, using intelligent BIAB harmonies with passing tones). New features allow Customizing Tracks, Bar and Song settings. RealTracks, RealDrums sound improvements (gap filling, thickening), enhancements or reading/writing more data types to/from BIAB song files and much more!

RealBand 2020

There are over 20 additions to RealBand, including intelligent Audio-Harmonies (1-4 voice), Scrub Mode, mixer enhancements, open MusicXML .musicxml and .xml, easier transpose, RealTracks, RealDrums sound improvements and more!

And of course, the Band-in-a-Box program, DAW Plugin, and RealBand can all use the new RealTracks, RealDrums, MIDI and style content.

o allows changing a

Summary of New Features

We’ve added over 50 new features to Band-in-a-Box 2020, including...

Feature Browser

Clicking on the small [?] button at the top of the screen or the [?] button on the toolbar opens the Feature Browser. This dialog lists many features in Band-in-a-Box and allows you to browse them, find the feature by text filter, read descriptions about the feature, find how to launch the feature, access to the online information or video about the feature, and do more. The dialog also opens by pressing the / Enter keys on the Chord Sheet.

This dialog helps in the following situations.

- You know about a feature but don’t know how to find it. Just type a part of the feature name and you’ll see the

hotkeys, menu, and toolbar info on how to launch it. For example, if you want to launch the Chord Builder but don’t know how to do it, type “builder” in the text filter, and you will quickly find the Chord Builder.

Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2020

- You are exploring available features for Band-in-a-Box. For example, if you are a guitar player, type the word

“guitar” and you’ll see what’s available.

- You prefer “one-stop-shopping” and would like to launch features from the same dialog.

- You are learning the program and like to browse or watch videos about topics you’re interested in.

- You can’t remember hotkeys and want to review them.

“Find-a-Sub” RealTracks

Musicians with bands are familiar with the need to “find a sub” when you’re looking for a replacement. In Band-ina-Box, “Find-a-Sub” means to find a different RealTracks that is the most similar in sound (genre, feel, tempo, and time signature). This helps to “freshen up” or vary the sound of an arrangement and allows you to explore different sounds for the band.

MultiRiffs

RealTracks Thickening and Panning

When you select multiple RealTracks on the same track and have them play simultaneously, the followings are possible.

- The RealTracks can be the same but will play differently on each sub-track.

- You can set the stereo panning (-64 to +64) for each sub-track.

Left-Handed and Student View Guitar Window

The Guitar window has been remade and now supports the left-handed (in addition to right-handed) guitar and student view. The student view is the view a student (or YouTube video watcher) would have of the (right-handed) guitar facing him with the head at the right and low notes at the top. There’s also a left-handed student view, so all 4 possible views are supported.

Equalize Audio Tempo

If you have an audio file that wasn’t recorded at a fixed tempo, you can change so that the tempos in the audio are all at the same. We call this an “equalization” of the tempos.

Built-in Audio Chord Wizard Enhancements

- The built-in Audio Chord Wizard is now accessible from the [Audio Chord Wizard] button.

- The Audio Edit window now displays chords and tempos for each bar. They are shown when the Audio Chord

Wizard mode is active so that you can see the tempo for each bar as you set the bar lines.

- Multi-window display. This gives the Audio Chord Wizard a multi-window view so that you can see and edit both

the Audio Edit window and the Chords Sheet at the same time. This display is best viewed with a small toolbar mode. This allows you to see the chords as they are being interpreted by the wizard.

- The Audio Chord Wizard can send the transcribed MIDI notes to the Soloist track for further analysis by the user

(via Piano Roll or Notation window). Note that this is a “snapshot” view every 8th note of the pitches present, not an attempt at polyphonic transcription. To use this feature, enable the “MIDI to Soloist” check box.

Selectable Render Bit Depth and Sample Rate

- The Render to Audio File dialog now has settings for bit depth (16, 24, 32 bit) and sample rate (44.1, 48, 96 kHz).

- The settings are also accessible from the Drop Station via dragging and dropping to the [+] button.

Drag and Drop from Mixer

You can now drag track labels from the Mixer and drop them to the Drop Station to render audio or MIDI files.

Drag & Drop Files to Band-in-a-Box

You can drop many file types onto the Band-in-a-Box screen and they will be loaded into the program, either as a new file or added to the current song. File types include Band-in-a-Box songs (.SGU/.MGU), MIDI (.MID), and audio (.WAV/.M4A/.MP3). Simply drag the file and drop it anywhere on the Band-in-a-Box screen, including various windows.

SongPicker Enhancements

The SongPicker now builds faster for large song lists (>30K and up to 60,000 songs).

Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2020

The [Song] button (or the [Open] button) now has 3 additional menu items to launch the SongPicker.

- Open SongPicker in Current Folder: This opens the SongPicker in the current folder of the last loaded song.

- Open SongPicker in Home Folder: This opens the SongPicker in the home folder, which is C:\bb\My Songs or as

set in the SongPicker.

- Open SongPicker in Favorite Folder: This launches the Favorite Folder dialog which allows you to choose any

previously used folder where a song was loaded from, and then open the SongPicker in that folder.

In the SongPicker, there is a new “Open in Home” option. If this is enabled, the SongPicker will always open in the home folder instead of the current folder when you press the default [Song] button to open the SongPicker.

Searching for songs matching a chord progression or melody has been enhanced. There are three new checkboxes: “Key must match exactly,” “Chord Extension must match exactly”, and “Time Signature must match.”

Bass/Drums or Drums only Auto-Intros

When you automatically generate an intro for a song, you can now specify if you want the “whole band” or “drums only” or “bass and drums only” to play.

Custom style settings don’t interfere with song settings

If you have customized track settings of a song (e.g. by overriding the settings in a style and putting a different RealTracks), the program will now ignore the settings in the style that might affect the sound (such as custom panning, reverb, double-time, etc.).

Tracks that have been customized are indicated by an ‘=’ in the track name.

Select “Best” RealTracks Dialog Enhancements

- The dialog can now change its list based on the type without leaving the dialog.

- RealTracks “subs” filter is available.

- Three filters have been added for Instrument, Instrument Family, and Custom Instrument Range. (These are

present in all RealTracks selection dialogs.)

- There is a new [Artist Bio] button. Pressing this button will open the Artist Browser, which shows more info for

RealTracks artists.

Drums Quicklist Dialog Enhancements

- The dialog is now resizable. You can change the size by dragging the dialog border.

- An [Artist Bio] button has been added. Pressing this button will open the Artist Browser, which shows more info

for RealDrums artists.

Artist Browser

Clicking on the artist bio in the RealTracks/RealDrums Picker or the [Artist Bio] button in other RealTracks/RealDrums selection dialogs will open the new Artist Browser dialog.

- It lists all artists and the instruments they play.

- It shows the total number of artists.

- You can read the biography of the artist.

- A text filter if available.

- The [More Info] button will launch the PG Music web page.

- The [OK - Show Artist RealTracks] button will go back to the RealTracks/RealDrums selection dialog and list all

the RealTracks/RealDrums that the selected artist plays.

Auto-updating for new content at bootup

When new contents (styles, RealTracks, or RealDrums) have been added to your Band-in-a-Box, it will detect this at bootup and display a message. If you respond YES, the StylePicker will open and rebuild the list of the styles, RealTracks, and RealDrums.

Enhanced stretching and Audio Harmonies

The latest version 3.3.0 of Elastique and 1.04 of Harmony from zplane.de are included.

Song Titles Browser has 3,400 more titles

We’ve added 3,400 more song titles including requests from users, so there are now 14,000 titles.

Auto-set key signature option and reminder

Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2020

New songs start out in the key of C. If you have typed chords in Ab, for example, but forget to set the key signature

about the feature, and do more. This dialog also opens by pressing the / Enter keys on the Chord Sheet.

when you try to save the song, a green message will appear on the bottom right of the screen, offering to correct the time signature to Ab. If you click on it, the time signature will be set. This feature is also available with the key signature button on the toolbar.

Notation Enhancements

- The “N” mode (keystroke notation entry) now has “M” to enter an additional note a third above and “R” to enter a

rest.

- The Section Text and Bar Lyrics layer display on the Lead Sheet and printout when the Fake Sheet mode is on.

MusicXML Enhancements

- Additional file types are supported, such as .mxl (a compressed format) and .musicxml, in addition to the existing

.xml support.

- When you load a MusicXML file, if the source track is drums, the track type of the destination track (Melody or

Soloist) will be automatically set to Drums.

- Hammer-on/pull-off are now saved to MusicXML.

Improved note overlap removal, with option to specify channel match

This feature is accessed from main menu Melody | Edit Melody Track | Quantize, Time Adjust | Eliminate Note Overlap. In the dialog that appears, you’ll see a new option to treat each channel as a separate track for purposes of

eliminating note overlap. So, for example, a MIDI guitar file with 6 different channels will have note overlapped on a string by string basis.

…and more!

Introduction to Band-in-a-Box 2020

Let’s take a closer look at the great new features in Band-in-a-Box 2020!

Feature Browser

The small [?] button at the top of the screen (or the [?] toolbar button) opens the Feature Browser. This dialog lists many features in Band-in-a-Box and allows you to browse them, find the feature by text filter, read descriptions about the feature, find how to launch the feature, access to the online information or video

In this dialog, you will see:

- Text filter.

- Info on how to launch the feature from the toolbar, menu, hotkeys and/or other means.

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- Memo with description about the feature.

- [Manual] button that links to online information about the feature.

- [Video] button to launch a video. (Tip: over 80 topics have videos, and you can type the word “video” in the filter

to find them.)

- A graphic showing the feature.

- [Do It] button that will launch the feature.

This dialog helps in the following situations.

- You know about a feature but don’t know how to find it. Just type a part of the feature name and you’ll see the

- You are exploring available features for Band-in-a-Box. For example, if you are a guitar player, type the word

“guitar” and you’ll see what’s available.

- You prefer “one-stop-shopping” and would like to launch features from the same dialog.

- You are learning the program and like to browse or watch videos about topics you’re interested in.

- You can’t remember hotkeys and want to review them.

“Find-a-Sub” RealTracks

To find a sub for a RealTracks, if the RealTracks to be subbed is on a track, right-click (or double-click) on the track radio button, and then go to Select RealTracks | Find Best Sub.

You will then see the Find a Sub dialog, which lists the RealTracks that would work best as a sub, sorted from best to worst. You can double-click on the list to audition, and when you find one you like, press OK.

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If you don’t have a RealTracks already on the track, go to Select RealTracks | Select Best “All” RealTracks.

In the dialog that opens, select a RealTracks that you want to sub, and enable the “List best subs for the current RealTracks” checkbox.

This will sort the list showing you the best subs. Select a RealTrack from the list and press OK.

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MultiRiffs

MultiRiffs is a popular feature that has been available in RealBand and the Band-in-a-Box DAW Plugin. Now it is available in Band-in-a-Box. It allows you to quickly generate 7 variations of riffs from the same RealTracks for either a portion of the song or the whole song. Once the tracks are generated, the 7 files are saved as .WAV files and can be accessed from the Drop Station (noted by the g

To use the feature, click on a track radio button at the top of the screen, either one with the instrument you want to use for the MultiRiffs or a blank track. Then right-click (or double-click) on it and go to Select RealTracks | Generate MultiRiffs (for whole/part of song).

Tip: The Add extra bar before and after the MultiRiff menu item adds an extra bar before the riff begins to ensure that the riffs with “pickup” (early) notes will be heard. It does not add an extra bar at the end of the riff unless there are trailing notes.

You will then see a dialog with a list of available RealTracks. Select a RealTrack and press OK. If there is one already on the track, it will be the default option in the dialog and you can just press OK.

reen highlight of the [WAV] box).

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Then choose the range of the song or the whole song, and press OK.

Tip: If you highlight the region in the Chord Sheet before using this feature, that region will be automatically set.

The MultiRiffs will then be generated.

They show up as 7 different tracks, numbered from 1 to 7.

They are rendered as WAV files and are ready to be dragged from the Dropbox to the Explorer or dropped into your DAW program.

Or you can just find them in your C:\bb\DragDrop folder.

Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2020

You can audition them individually by enabling the [S] button on the Mixer. Playing them all at once will result in a “cacophony” of 7 instruments at once, which might be OK for strumming guitars, but not so good for 7 solo saxophones playing different phrases.

If you’ve generated a region of the song, pressing the F10 key will play the song looped with the current highlighted region so that you can just hear the riffs.

RealTracks Thickening and Panning

When you select multiple RealTracks on the same track and have them play simultaneously, the followings are possible.

- The RealTracks can be the same but will play differently on each sub-track.

- You can set the stereo panning (-64 to +64) for each sub-track.

Suppose you have a style like _GOSPEL that uses “Vocal Oohs.” Right-click on the track radio button and to go to Select RealTracks | Select RealTracks.

In the RealTracks Picker, press the [Medley] button.

Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2020

When the Create a Medley of different RealTracks dialog opens, enable the “Play all simultaneously” option, press the [Duplicate] button, and enter 4 in the number entry dialog.

This will create 4 duplicate tracks of vocal oohs (representing 4 choirs x 4 people = 16 voices). Set the stereo panning for each to create a “thickened” sound.

Press OK to exit the dialog and then close the RealTracks Picker. When you play the song, you will hear a fuller vocal sound with smooth transitions from chord to chord.

Left-Handed and Student View Guitar Window

Press the [Guitar] toolbar button to open the Guitar window and then the [Settings] button to

change the view.

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[Right-Handed view]

[Left-Handed view]

[Right-Handed & Student view]

[Left-Handed & Student view]

Equalize Audio Tempo

If you have an audio file that wasn’t recorded at a fixed tempo, you can change so that the tempos in the audio are all at the same. We call this an “equalization” of the tempos.

To do this:

1. Open an audio file (WAV, M4A, MP3, etc.).

2. Open the Audio Edit window, press the [Marker Mode] button, and select Audio Chord Wizard.

Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2020

to Audio Chord Wizard.

3. Set bar lines for the whole audio. (Tip: Press the video button on the Audio Edit window toolbar to see how it works.)

Once you have the bar lines in the correct place, you can choose to equalize (smooth) the tempo. This is done by pressing the [Equalize Tempos] button.

Built-in Audio Chord Wizard Enhancements

The built-in Audio Chord Wizard is now accessible from the [Audio Chord Wizard] button. When you press this button, the Audio Edit window will open and the “Marker Mode” will be automatically set

The Audio Edit window now displays chords and tempos for each bar. They are shown when the Audio Chord Wizard mode is active so that you can see the tempo for each bar as you set the bar lines.

Multi-window display. This gives the Audio Chord Wizard a multi-window view so that you can see and edit both the Audio Edit window and the Chords Sheet at the same time. This display is best viewed with a small toolbar mode. This allows you to see the chords as they are being interpreted by the wizard.

Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2020

The Audio Chord Wizard can send the transcribed MIDI notes to the Soloist track for further analysis by the user (via Piano Roll or Notation window). Note that this is a “snapshot” view every 8th note of the pitches present, not an attempt at polyphonic transcription. To use this feature, enable the “MIDI to Soloist” check box.

Selectable Render Bit Depth and Sample Rate

The Render to Audio File dialog now has settings for bit depth (16, 24, 32 bit) and sample rate (44.1, 48, 96 kHz).

The settings are also accessible from the Drop Station via dragging and dropping to the [+] button.

Drag and Drop from Mixer

You can now drag track labels from the Mixer and drop them to the Drop Station to render audio or MIDI files.

Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2020

folder.

Drag & Drop Files to Band-in-a-Box

SongPicker Enhancements

The SongPicker now builds faster for large song lists (>30K and up to 60,000 songs).

The [Song] button (or the [Open] button) now has 3 additional menu items to launch the SongPicker.

Open SongPicker in Current Folder - This opens the SongPicker in the current folder of the last loaded song.

Open SongPicker in Home Folder - This opens the SongPicker in the home folder, which is C:\bb\My Songs or as set in the SongPicker.

Open SongPicker in Favorite Folder - This launches the Favorite Folder dialog which allows you to choose any previously used folder

where a song was loaded from, and then open the SongPicker in that

Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2020

Bass/Drums or Drums only Auto-Intros

When you automatically generate an intro for a song, you can now specify if you want the “whole band” or “drums only” or “bass and drums only” to play.

To do this, open the Generate Chords for Intro dialog by choosing the main menu Edit | Song Form | Generate Intro, or clicking on the [Song Form] toolbar button and selecting Generate Intros menu item. (Tip: Alternatively, press / <Enter> keys to open the Features Browser and type “Intro” in the filter. You can then press the [Do It] button to launch the Intro dialog.)

In the dialog, select the instruments to play the intro from all, drums only, or bass & drums only.

When you press [(Re)-Generate Intro Chords] button, the intro chords will be generated that will be played by the instruments you have chosen!

Custom style settings don’t interfere with song settings

Tracks that have been customized are indicated by an ‘=’ in the track name.

Select “Best” RealTracks Dialog Enhancements

The dialog can now change its list based on the type without leaving the dialog.

Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2020

RealTracks “subs” filter is available.

Three filters have been added for Instrument (e.g. acoustic guitar), Instrument Family (e.g. any guitar), and Custom Instrument Range. (These are present in all RealTracks selection dialogs.)

There is a new [Artist Bio] button. Pressing this button will open the Artist Browser, which shows more info for RealTracks artists.

Drums Quicklist Dialog Enhancements

The dialog is now resizable. You can change the size by dragging the dialog border.

An [Artist Bio] button has been added. Pressing this button will open the Artist Browser, which shows more info for RealDrums artists.

Artist Browser

Clicking on the artist bio in the RealTracks/RealDrums Picker or the [Artist Bio] button in other RealTracks/RealDrums selection dialogs will open the new Artist Browser dialog.

- It lists all artists and the instruments they play.

- It shows the total number of artists.

- You can read the biography of the artist.

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- A text filter if available.

- The [More Info] button will launch the PG Music web page.

- The [OK - Show Artist RealTracks] button will go back to the RealTracks/RealDrums selection dialog and list all

the RealTracks/RealDrums that the selected artist plays.

Auto-updating for new content at bootup

When new contents (styles, RealTracks, or RealDrums) have been added to your Band-in-a-Box, it will detect this at bootup and display a message.

If you respond YES, the StylePicker will open and rebuild the list of the styles, RealTracks, and RealDrums.

Bar Settings (F5) dialog can change bars within the dialog

Previously, you had to exit the dialog to change settings for other bars. Now, a new pulldown allows you to change bars without exiting the dialog.

Enhanced Stretching and Audio Harmony

The latest version 3.3.0 of Elastique and 1.04 of Harmony from zplane.de are included.

Song Titles Brower has 3,400 more titles

We’ve added 3,400 more song titles including requests from users, so there are now 14,000 titles.

Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2020

Auto-set key signature option and reminder

New songs start out in the key of C. If you have typed chords in Ab, for example, but forget to set the key signature when you try to save the song, a green message will appear on the bottom right of the screen, offering to correct the time signature to Ab. If you click on it, the time signature will be set.

This feature is also available with the key signature button on the toolbar.

Notation Enhancements

The “N” mode (keystroke notation entry) now has “M” to enter an additional note a third above and “R” to enter a rest.

Hit the M key to enter an additional note a third above the existing note on the current time line.

Hit the R key to enter a rest at the current time line.

The Section Text and Bar Lyrics layer display on the Lead Sheet and printout when the Fake Sheet mode is on.

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MusicXML Enhancements

Additional file types are supported, such as .mxl (a compressed format) and .musicxml, in addition to the existing .xml support.

When you load a MusicXML file, if the source track is drums, the track type of the destination track (Melody or Soloist) will be automatically set to Drums.

Hammer-on, pull-off, and slide are now saved to MusicXML.

Improved note overlap removal, with option to specify channel match

eliminating note overlap. So, for example, a MIDI guitar file with 6 different channels will have note overlapped on a string by string basis.

Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2020

Thank you for taking time to read this introduction to Band-in-a-Box 2020!

Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2020

Chapter 4: The Main Screen

1 →

←

Band-in-a-Box will remember the position and size of the window between sessions.

Main Screen Overview

Band-in-a-Box supports Windows® themes. It will use the current theme that you have selected in the Windows® Control Panel to use for windows and dialogs.

The main screen gives direct access to the major features and program settings of Band-in-a-Box for ease and convenience during a session.

There are seven different areas on the main screen.

2 → 3 →

4 →

5 →

7 →

1. The Status Bar is used to show program running status messages and path names of the currently loaded song.

This area also includes the Menu Bar, with typical Windows below it are the Track buttons, where instruments are assigned and sounds are chosen. Right-click on the instrument names to open a menu of settings for that instrument.

2. The Main Tool Bar has buttons for direct access to important program features and menus. Hold the mouse

cursor on any button to see a pop-up hint that describes its function.

3. The Song Panel includes the song title and all the other settings for the song such as its Key Signature, Tempo,

and Chorus settings. The [Song] and [Style] buttons offer various ways of selecting songs and styles, including the SongPicker and StylePicker dialogs.

4. The Function Tool Bars are organized into groups of buttons for related features such as Transport, Tools,

Views, and Tracks.

5. The Progress Bar displays a timeline for the current song.

6. The Mixer is always open in the top right corner. It provides live control of parts with Volume, Pan, Reverb, and

Tone settings. It also supports the assignment of plug-ins and patches to individual parts and has a piano keyboard display.

7. The Chord Sheet Area occupies the lower part of the screen. Chord changes for the song are typed into the

numbered bars (cells) in the sheet. Part markers (a, b, through x) are entered here to switch between up to 24 Band-in-a-Box substyles. Repeats and endings are also shown.

The Band-in-a-Box window is resizable.

When the window size changes, the Chord Sheet, Notation, and other windows redraw in proportion to the new size. This allows you to have Band-in-a-Box open as a small window on screen with other programs, and you still see a full Chord Sheet. The screen size is remembered between sessions.

To resize the window, first unmaximize it.

Then use the sizing control at the bottom right. The various Band-in-a-Box windows will scale as you do this.

Yellow Alert messages and green Action messages

You will see that many Band-in-a-Box messages appear as “yellow alerts” at the bottom right of the screen. That way you don’t have to respond to the message, interrupting work flow. If the message box is green instead of yellow, it’s an “action” message and you can click on it to perform the action described, such as loading a substitute

menus for the program settings. Immediately

Chapter 4: The Main Screen

style. The green action messages have a close button, which is useful for closing them without performing the action.

Descriptive Hints

The pop-up hints are comprehensive fly-by hints that appear when you move over an item, including hints for the dialog boxes and various windows.

Go to Options | Preferences or click on the [Prefs] toolbar button to open the Preferences dialog and then set the type of hints to display, the time delay, and duration.

Set a longer delay if you find that the hints are popping up too often and getting in your way. Clicking on Flash Tips will perform the suggested action.

Status Bar

The name of the open song is identified in the status bar at the top of the screen. The full file name and path name are shown, as well as audio track information if present, the length of the song in minutes and seconds, and the current position of the highlight cell. Other “running status” messages such as Soloist Generation and Song Generation display in the status bar.

The status bar changes during playback to show additional information like the current bar and chorus location and the current style. The on-screen file name includes “*” when a file has been changed.

Status bar during playback.

Track Buttons

This bar shows all of the available tracks in Band-in-a-Box, including:

- The Melody track, where you can record your own MIDI melody. Or just use it as a sequencer track to record any

MIDI track.

- The Soloist track, for solos generated by the Band-in-a-Box Soloist. This track can also be used as a MIDI

sequencer track if not needed for a solo.

- The Thru track for play-along on an outboard MIDI device or with the Band-in-a-Box Wizard feature.

- The Audio track for your recorded vocal or instrumental part, or an imported audio file.

The color of the track name indicates its type or state.

- White indicates that the track is empty and is not in use.

- Yellow indicates a MIDI track playing a Band-in-a-Box MIDI part.

- Green indicates a RealTrack instrument. If the track name is underlined, it also has RealChart notation. If [V] is

shown, the track has a video RealTracks.

- Blue indicates a MIDI SuperTracks.

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- Orange is an Audio Performance track.

the Master button to open a menu of commands.

- Red means that the track has been muted. When one of the tracks is being soloed, all other tracks will change

color to red.

- For the Audio track, orange shows that an audio recording is present on the track.

If you have customized the track settings of a song (e.g. by overriding the settings in a style and putting a different RealTracks), it will be indicated by an equal sign in the track name by an (e.g. =Piano).

Automatic track labels with numbers. With previous versions of Band-in-a-Box, the tracks were always called the same names “Bass, Piano, Drums, Guitar, and Strings.” Now the names match the styles, and if the 2 tracks have the same name, numbers will follow. For example, if you load in the Slow Bluegrass Waltz style, you will see these names:

Note: If you prefer the “default” track labels (Bass/Piano/Drums/Guitar/Strings/Melody/Soloist), uncheck the “Auto-Generate Track Labels” option in the Preferences dialog.

RealDrums can be added to any track, not just the Drums track, so you can have more than one drums track. To do this, right-click on the track button and select Choose RealDrums from the menu. When there are multiple drums tracks, they will be automatically called Drums 1, Drums 2 etc.

Master Button Menu

When the Master button is selected, changes to volume, reverb, etc. will apply to all tracks. Right-click on

Mute and Un-Mute All will mute or unmute all parts.

Export Song as Audio File will render the tracks together into one audio file or render them as individual audio files.

Song has changed, needs regeneration will regenerate a new arrangement for all parts.

You can Render Song to Audio Track, which mutes the individual tracks and plays the rendered audio wave, or you can Un-Render Song from Audio Track, which will erase the audio track and play the individual tracks again.

The Freeze and Un-freeze commands apply to all tracks.

If you like the current mix (of volumes, panning, reverb), and you want this applied as a default for all songs, choose Save Current Mix as Default. Load Default Mix restores the default mix you have saved, and Reset Mix sets the mix back to “factory defaults.”

Set Mix to Flat, Dry and Center sets the song to Flat (all volumes=90), Dry (no Reverb) and Center panning. This is useful when rendering individual tracks and transferring to a DAW.

Chapter 4: The Main Screen

The Set Song to Simple Arrangement checkbox makes the RealTracks play a simpler (less busy or embellished) arrangement.

This Song Volume Boost (range -36 to +36dB) opens a dialog where a dB value can be entered that will affect only the current song. For reference, 6dB is generally considered to be double the volume; -6dB would be half the volume.

All Songs Volume Boost (range -36 to +36dB) opens a dialog where a dB value can be entered to adjust the overall volume of all songs. A setting of 6dB is twice as loud, -6dB half as loud.

Render Video(s) allows you to make a video of RealTracks that are selected for your song, optionally with the chord sheet or the corresponding notation.

Track Buttons Menu

Right-click or double-click on a track button for a menu of settings and actions for the selected track. The menu is organized into groups allowing easier selection of track types: audio (RealTracks, UserTracks, Loops) or MIDI (MIDI SuperTracks, classic MIDI tracks) and track settings/actions.

Select RealTracks

Find Best Sub will allow you to find a replacement that is similar to the currently selected RealTracks.

Select RealTracks generates the track as a RealTrack using any available RealTracks instrument.

Select Best “All” RealTracks will show all RealTracks, sorted by best to worst for the current style, and Select Best “Chording” RealTracks shows the list for comping (i.e. Chording, non-Soloist) RealTracks.

Select Best “Soloist” RealTracks to add a best Soloist to any track.

Choose RealTracks from Recently Chosen Favorites opens a list of recently used RealTracks.

Choose No RealTracks for this track will remove the current selection from the track.

Generate MultiRiffs will generate 7 variations of riffs from the same RealTracks for either a portion of the song or

the whole song. Once the tracks are generated, the 7 files are saved as WAV files and can be accessed from the Drop Station.

Chapter 4: The Main Screen

Add extra bar before and after the MultiRiff adds an extra bar before the riff begins to ensure that the riffs with

each play. Tracks can be unfrozen.

“pickup” (early) notes will be heard. It does not add an extra bar at the end of the riff unless there are trailing notes.

Select a UserTracks for this track lets you assign a track from the list in your UserTracks folder. UserTracks work like RealTracks but are created from the user’s own audio recordings.

You can play an audio loop (your own or 3

party) on any track with the Select a Loop for this track command.

Choose RealDrums allows you to add RealDrums to any track, not just the Drums Track.

Select Guitar/Bass Amp Plugin will list all available TGS files for guitar/bass amp plugins. (Note: This menu item

will be shown on an audio track.)

Select MIDI Instrument (Patch) is used to assign an instrument to a MIDI track from the Hi-Q patch list, the General MIDI patch list, the General MIDI 2 patch list, the higher bank patches on your particular synthesizer, or from a preselected list of favorite patches.

Use the Select Hi-Q MIDI Patch Plugin command to select a preset of a Hi-Q instrument and a VST plugin (e.g. sforzando). (Note: This menu item will be shown on a MIDI track only.)

Select MIDI SuperTrack for this track opens a list of available MIDI SuperTracks. They can be used in the same way as RealTracks.

Select Custom MIDI Style for this track lets you play your favorite MIDI track from any style on any track of your current style, including the Melody and Soloist tracks. The track you assign doesn’t have to be the same instrument, i.e., you could assign a Guitar to the Strings track.

Track Settings

XXX track is enabled. This command is the easy way to

disable/enable a track, even during song playback. To disable a track, right-click on the track name (at top of the screen or on the mixer) and select enable/disable the track. When a track is disabled, the color is dark gray on the main screen and on the mixer.

You can Mute or Solo the individual part. Solo mutes all but the soloed part.

Un-Mute All is useful to restore all other parts after a track has been soloed.

Freeze the track if you do not want the track regenerated on

Force Track to simple arrangement makes the RealTracks play a simpler (less busy or embellished) arrangement.

Set Track offset allows the track to moved ahead or behind by +/- 1000 ticks (at a resolution of 120 PPQ).

Track Timebase allows you to select a timebase (normal/half/double/triple).

Set Natural Arrangement allows re-interpretation of chords for the selected track of the current song.

Rename track title allows you to change the track label for the selected track.

Change track description allows you to change the track description.

Track Actions

(re)Generate this RealTrack will (re)generate the track with the selected RealTrack.

Chapter 4: The Main Screen

Erase Track removes either the MIDI data or RealTracks audio from the track.

Save MIDI/Real Track as WAV File allows you to save RealTracks or MIDI tracks to any drive or folder you

choose as WAV files, e.g., “Untitled Song BBGuitar_MIDI_SingleRender.WAV”

Save track as Performance File (wav/wma) renders the track to your choice of a WAV file or a WMA file. When you choose, the track will be rendered to C:\bb\<Song Title><track name>(e.g. Bass).WAV or .WMA.

Render Video(s) allows you to make a video of RealTracks that are selected for your song, optionally with the chord sheet or the corresponding notation.

Audio Track Button

Right-click on the Audio label to quickly mute, solo, or delete the Audio track.

[?] Button - Feature Browser

The small [?] button at the top of the screen (or the [?] button on the toolbar) opens the Feature Browser. This dialog lists many features in Band-in-a-Box and allows you to browse them, find the feature by text filter, read descriptions about the feature, find how to launch the feature, access to the online information or video about the feature, and do more. This dialog also opens by pressing the / Enter keys on the Chord Sheet.

In the dialog, you will see:

- Text filter.

- Info on how to launch the feature from the toolbar, menu, hotkeys and/or other means.

- Memo with description about the feature.

- [Manual] button that links to online information about the feature.

- [Video] button to launch a video. (Tip: over 80 topics have videos, and you can type the word “video” in the filter

to find them.)

- A graphic showing the feature.

- [Do It] button that will launch the feature.

This dialog helps in the following situations.

Chapter 4: The Main Screen

- You know about a feature but don’t know how to find it. Just type a part of the feature name and you’ll see the

palette of buttons.

hotkeys, menu, and toolbar info on how to launch it. For example, if you want to launch the Chord Builder but

don’t know how to do it, type “builder” in the text filter, and you will quickly find the Chord Builder.

- You are exploring available features for Band-in-a-Box. For example, if you are a guitar player, type the word

“guitar” and you’ll see what’s available.

- You prefer “one-stop-shopping” and would like to launch features from the same dialog.

- You are learning the program and like to browse or watch videos about topics you’re interested in.

- You can’t remember hotkeys and want to review them.

This dialog helps in the following situations.

- You know about a feature but don’t know how to find it. Just type a part of the feature name and you’ll see the

hotkeys, menu, and toolbar info on how to launch it. For example, if you want to launch the Chord Builder but

don’t know how to do it, type “builder” in the filter box, and you will quickly find the Chord Builder.

- You are exploring available features for Band-in-a-Box. For example, if you are a guitar player, type the word

“guitar” and you’ll see what’s available.

- You prefer “one-stop-shopping” and would like to launch features from the same dialog.

- You are learning the program and like to browse or watch videos about topics you’re interested in.

- You can’t remember hotkeys and want to review them.

Toolbars

The toolbar buttons give quick access to program features. They are grouped according to function.

Toolbar Modes

There are three modes for the toolbar.

You can switch the toolbar modes using the Mode Selector buttons at the top left of the screen.

1. Smaller, configurable toolbar with tabbed interface.

Tip: If you want to see the buttons in color, open the Display Options dialog by clicking on the Chord Sheet and press the [Choose Skin] button.

In this mode, the [CUSTOM] tab lets you select and add buttons in the order that you want.

First, click on the [+] button on the right to open a

Then, while holding down the Ctrl key, drag buttons around to add, remove, or set the order.

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2. Taller toolbar, with fixed on-screen Mixer, useful for people with hi-res screens.

generated, you can drag from a radio button (Master, Bass, Piano, etc.) to the Drop Station.

zone to your DAW.

settings dialog.

3. DAW mode. This makes a small screen, always on top, useful for drag and drop of files to your favorite

DAW.

Drop Station

The Drop Station is used to drag and drop tracks from Band-in-a-Box to Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) that don’t support direct drag and drop. Many DAWs will allow you to do this directly, but, if your sequencer does not support the direct drop of a track that is not yet

The Drop Station shows six different file types. Your file will be rendered to the file type you drop it in and the button will change color to orange, indicating that the file is accepted and being prepared.

When you drop the track to the [+], you are presented with a dialog, where you can choose a file format and other render options. (See Chapter 13

When the button turns bright green, the track has been generated and is ready to drag from the Drop

The Drop panel has a right-click menu, allowing you to copy the resulting file to a favorite folder, open the favorite folder, start/stop the DAW Plug-in mode, upload to SoundCloud.com or Dropbox, and more.

for details.)

The DAW Plugin button has two menu items. One starts or ends the plug-in mode, which lets you drag and drop MIDI or audio files from Band-in-a-Box to your DAW or Explorer. The other opens a Plugin

This dialog controls drag ‘n’ drop operations. The [Help] button shows detailed instructions.

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File

without going through the usual file opening process.

going through the usual file opening process.

supported, or you can also choose to save the song as a Karaoke file with the .KAR extension.

ins, to select and configure DXi (DirectX

of audio reverb.

For File functions like Open, Save etc.

The [New] button clears the Chord Sheet to start a new song. Band-in-a-Box reminds you to save your work before it erases the chords.

The [Open] button shows a menu to open (load) songs into the program using various methods.

Use the [Prev] button to immediately open the previous song in the same folder (in alphabetical order)

Use the [Next] button to instantly open the next song in the same folder (in alphabetical order) without

The [Save] button saves the song to disk with the standard Windows® Save As dialog.

This will show a menu to save a song using various methods.

The [.MID] button allows you to make a Standard MIDI File and save it to disk as a file with extension

.MID or to the Windows

clipboard with type “Standard MIDI File.” Type 0 and Type 1 MIDI files are

This will show a menu with options to save the song as an audio as well as to send the song to SoundCloud.com.

Use the Print button to launch the Print Options dialog, which allows you to print Lead Sheet or Fake Sheet style notation.

The [Prefs] button will open a dialog where you can set various settings all at once and access most of the program options.

This menu button launches either the Windows® Play control for sound output or the Windows® Record control for the recording input.

This button has a menu to assign DirectX and VST audio pluginstruments) or VSTi software synthesizers, and to open the PG Music Reverb dialog to select the type

Use this menu to launch various MIDI options and also to enable the MIDI keyboard Wizard for playing along on the lower two rows of the QWERTY keyboard during playback.

This button will show menu options to edit or make styles.

This button will show menu options for various practice features.

The tuner button opens the Guitar Tuner so you can tune a guitar or other instrument that is plugged into the sound card.

Click here for a link to video demonstrations and tutorials.

This will launch an internet browser and open the new feature tutorial page.

This will open the Feature Browser, which lists many features in Band-in-a-Box.

Chapter 4: The Main Screen

Song

a song and allows you to set the default action for the top.

For information related to the current song, such as current style, tempo, key, form, etc.

The [Song] button lets you load a song. This is a split button. The top half of the button uses the default method to load a song. The bottom half shows a menu of different methods to load

The [Style] button is also a split button, with the top half being the default function, and the bottom half listing different methods to load a style and allows you to set the default.

The song title is displayed, and you can type in the name in this box. Directly below the song title, the style display shows the style name and more information about the style.

- Style file name (Short)

- Style Name (Long)

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- Style Memo

features.

select the first bar of the chorus. The Bar number that you select is displayed.

last bar of the chorus. The Bar number that you select is displayed.

choruses you require.

key signature.

key) for half speed and Ctrl = for normal speed.

tempo that you have typed.

[Play from Bar] button is used to play a song starting anywhere in the song, including tags or

[Stop] button stops the song or the Jukebox from playing.

- List of instruments (and indication if they are MIDI or Real)

This button opens a full menu of settings to use for a polished song arrangement, including a tag (coda), automatic endings, style variations and more. The [Help] button has full descriptions of these

You can type any information about your song in the Memo window.

Chorus Begin button: Click on the button and then click on a bar number or type a number in the dialog to

Chorus End button: Click on the button and then click on a bar number or type in the dialog to select the

The number of choruses possible for a tune is 40. Click on the chorus button and choose how many

This is the feel (swing or even, and 8th of 16th) of the song. The feel is determined by the selected style.

This is the time signature of the song. You can click on it to change the time signature.

The Key box is used to set the key or to change it and transpose the song. When you press it, you see 2 columns of keys. The first column will set the key AND transpose the song; the second will just set the

Transport

Standard play controls, recording controls, Jukebox, and Conductor.

[Play] plays the song from the beginning without creating a new arrangement, unless regenerating is required.

[Generate and Play] generates a new Band-in-a-Box arrangement and then plays the song.

[Loop] plays the selected (highlighted) section of the Chord Sheet in a loop. The dropdown

menu has settings for looping the entire song.

endings. This feature is also available from the right-click menu in the Chord Sheet.

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[Pause/Continue] button pauses the song during playback. Press again to continue from the

paused location.

The [Record MIDI] button is to record a song from the beginning. The music that you play in to the computer will then be stored on the Melody track. The hot key is Ctrl+R.

The [Record Audio] button launches the Record Audio dialog for live audio recording.

The [Play Jukebox] button is used to start or stop the Jukebox. The [] and [] arrow keys are used to move to either the previous or next song in the Jukebox.

The Conductor window allows live, real time QWERTY keyboard or MIDI control of the song as it is playing.

Tools

Miscellaneous Band-in-a-Box tools.

Press the [Chord Solo] button to launch the Generate Guitar Chord Solo dialog.

This will automatically generate a song title for you. The menu also includes a command to generate multiple titles.

Runs the Sequencer for control of multi-channel Melody or Soloist track. Each track can record up to 16 separate channels.

This button launches the Chord Options dialog, which allows you to add chord pushes, rests, shots, and held chords for any given bar.

This is the Chord Builder button. Chords may be heard and entered to the Chord Sheet by clicking in this dialog.

This launches the Edit Settings for Current Bar dialog. This allows you to enter changes to the arrangement at any bar or chorus. The hot key is F5.

This launches the Song Form Maker dialog and other tools to control the form of your song.

The grace note button enables the embellisher and opens the Melody Embellisher dialog for customizing the Melody Embellisher.

Views

Chords, Notation, Guitar, Piano, Lyrics windows and more.

This button toggles between the Notation window, where you can enter chords and lyrics, edit notation, and view MIDI notation, and the Chord Sheet, where you enter chords for your song.

Displays the Chord Sheet window. This is the default window in Band-in-a-Box, where you enter chords.

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Launches the Piano Roll window for editing the Melody or Soloist tracks in a piano roll format,

repeats, coda, and ending.

numeral, Nashville, etc.) and a list for visually transposing the notation for non-concert instruments.

Add your own loops to the Loops folder in the RealTracks folder.

you want to add.

or just freeze individual tracks.

to simple arrangements.

including graphic controller editing.

The Audio Edit window displays a graphical waveform and allows editing. Hold Shift when pressing to open a moveable window.

The Lead Sheet notation is a full-screen notation window with optional Fake Sheet mode that shows 1st and 2nd endings, repeats, and codas.

The [Guitar] button launches a guitar fretboard window that displays guitar notes as music is playing.

The [Big Piano] button launches a Big Piano window. It will display the notes to any track (except drums) as the music is playing.

The [Drums] button launches an animated Drum Kit window. Press it to launch this fully functional (and fun) GM-MIDI “virtual” drum kit.

The [Video] button opens a menu with selections to open the Video window and the Generate Video dialog

This button opens the Big Lyrics window for full screen “Karaoke-style” scrolling lyrics. The menu also includes the lyric document, karaoke window, and vocal synth for generating vocal audio from the lyrics and melody.

Select for Fakesheet mode chord display with 1st/2nd endings and repeats. Use the menu to set

This will show a menu to select the chord font, chord color, type of chord display (standard, Roman

Tracks

Methods of adding tracks to Band-in-a-Box (RealTracks, Loops, UserTracks, etc.)

This opens a menu with selections for the RealTracks Picker, RealTracks Preferences (settings), and a command to “Select better RealTracks” for the song tempo.

This opens a menu with selections for the RealDrums Picker and RealDrums Preferences (settings).

Displays a dialog of available UserTracks, which are like RealTracks but are made by you or third parties.

The Loops button is for the Loops Picker, where you can choose an audio loop (WAV, WMA, MP3, MP4, M4A) to add to a track (e.g., nature sound, drum loop, etc.). Choose the track and then the loop.

Choose a MIDI SuperTrack or use the MIDI Track Picker to add a MIDI track from a different style to the current song. Open the dialog and choose a track. Then choose the style and source track that

This opens a list of tracks with the option to freeze or unfreeze all tracks Frozen tracks play without regenerating for faster playback. This button also allows you to force tracks

Chapter 4: The Main Screen

This button allows you to force any tracks or all tracks to play with simple arrangements. You can set

QWERTY wizard.

well as an improvised solo and an original song title.

chord changes.

this for the current song or all songs.

Band-in-a-Box can automatically add audio harmonies to the audio track and MIDI harmonies to the

Melody or the Thru/Soloist track, giving you harmonies for your live playing on the Thru channel or

The [Melodist] button opens the Generate Chords and/or Melody dialog, where you can choose the type (or genre) of Melodist you wish to have generate a new song with chord changes and melody as

This menu is for either selecting a RealTracks soloist from a list of best soloists, or to open the Select

Soloist Dialog, where you can choose a custom soloist (MIDI or RealTracks) to play over any given

Progress Bar

This bar displays a timeline for the current song. The current time is marked with a gray vertical line. You can click on the bar to move the current time to that point. Part markers are marked with colored (blue, green, etc.) vertical lines and the beginning of each chorus is marked with outlines. You can double-click on the bar to start playback from that point.

Mixer

The Mixer window shows the current state of instruments and parts and allows easy changes or adjustments. In the tall fixed toolbar mode, the window is always open in the upper right section of the main screen. If you want to see the floating Mixer, which can be resized and “parked” anywhere on the screen, then go to Window | Floating Mixer Window or use the hot key Ctrl+Shift+M. In the small configurable toolbar mode, the [MIXER] tab will open the floating Mixer.

The small button at the top right corner will switch to the floating mode, which allows you to resize or move the

window to anywhere on the screen.

In the floating mode, you can change the window’s opacity. Left-click on these buttons to change the opacity

by a significant amount, or right-click on them to change it by a small amount.

Chapter 4: The Main Screen

The window has four different screens for Mixer, Plugins, Piano, and Patches. The default screen is Mixer, where you see the currently assigned instruments for the song.

With previous versions of Band-in-a-Box, the tracks were always called the same names “Bass, Piano, Drums, Guitar, and Strings.” Now the names match the styles, and if the 2 tracks have the same name, numbers will follow. For example, if you load in the Slow Bluegrass Waltz style, you will see these names: Bass, Guitar_1, Mandolin, Guitar_2, and Banjo.

Note: If you prefer the “default” track labels (Bass/Piano/Drums/Guitar/Strings/Melody/Soloist), uncheck the “Auto-Generate Track Labels” option in the Preferences dialog.

You can drag track labels from the Mixer and drop them to the Drop Station to render audio or MIDI files.

If you click on the track description on the Mixer, you will see a menu that has two new items.

You could, for example, change the track label from Banjo to “5-String” and the track description to “Hot Pickin Banjo Riffs.”

In the Mixer screen, each individual track has settings for Volume, Pan, Reverb, and Tone that can

be adjusted as the song is playing. Volume, Pan, and Reverb are controlled by horizontal sliders. Tone is controlled

Chapter 4: The Main Screen

by typing in a number from -18 (full bass) to 18 (full treble), or by clicking on a number and dragging the mouse

track.

(stereo):

contains an Audio track, then the Audio panel will automatically open.

The [Plugins] tab opens a window where you can assign up to four DX or VST plugins to each track.

cursor vertically.

Hold the Ctrl key down as you click on the track slider or drag the thumb of the slider. This will force all tracks to move to the same absolute location as the original track. Hold the Shift key and it will move all tracks relative to the move of the original track.

Double-clicking on the slider sets the value to a default value.

Each track in the Mixer screen shows the name of the instrument assigned to it.

Yellow text indicates a MIDI instrument.

Green text indicates RealTracks or RealDrums.

Right-click or double-click on a track name for a menu of settings and actions for the selected track. The menu is organized into groups allowing easier selection of track types: audio (RealTracks, UserTracks, Loops) or MIDI (MIDI SuperTracks, classic MIDI tracks) and track settings/actions.

Each track has its own VU meter to show the sound level, and buttons to Mute, Solo and Freeze the

There is also a Master section with a Mute button, VU meters, and Master Volume controls.

Master Mute:

VU Meters

There are Master Volume faders for “This Song” and “All Songs.”

The Master Volume is a true Master Volume, in that it applies a decibel (dB) boost to the master signal, independent of the tracks volumes. So, for example, if you want all Band-in-a-Box songs to be louder, you can simply set the “All Songs” Master volume slider (e.g. to +6 dB) and this boost will apply to audio output from all instruments (MIDI and audio) for all songs.

Since most people don’t need to have the THRU and Audio tracks visible on the main screen at all times, there are THRU and AUDIO buttons on the mixer that show/hide these tracks. If you open a song that

Chapter 4: The Main Screen

MIDI tracks have 4 slots. The first slot can take a synthesizer (e.g. Sforzando, Coyote GM, Garritan Aria, and HyperCanvas) and the other 3 can take audio effects (e.g. reverb, compression etc.).

Audio tracks have 4 slots. There is no synthesizer slot, so they have 4 for audio effects (e.g. reverb, compression, AmpliTube amp simulation).

Click in any slot to launch the VST/DX Synths/Plugins dialog, where you can select VSTi or DXi synthesizers and/or VST and DirectX audio effects for each track.

You can add new VST plug-ins by using the drop-down list, and selecting the last item, which is “Add VST Plugin.” From this, select the VST plug-in, which is a DLL, usually found in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steinberg\VSTPlugins or C:\Program

Files\Steinberg\VSTPlugins. (Note: On Windows

XP, the

folder name doesn’t contain (x86).)

Chapter 4: The Main Screen

The [Piano] tab shows the notes that are playing on each track on a piano keyboard.

larger type.

begin<Enter>

sets the beginning of the chorus to the current bar

chorusend<Enter>

sets the end of the song to the current bar

end<Enter>

sets the end of the chorus to the current bar

tkc<Enter>

sets key signature to C, tkbb would set it to Bb

trc<Enter>

transposes song to key of C

t125<Enter>

sets tempo to 125

s<Enter>

launches the StylePicker.

Clicking on the [Patches] tab opens a window that lists all of the assigned instruments for the song in

Clicking on any instrument name opens the menu for selecting or changing the instrument.

Chord Sheet Area

Chords, rests, shots, holds, and part markers are entered in the Chord Sheet.

The Chord Sheet can be viewed in the full linear view showing all bars, or optionally in fake sheet view that shows

and 2nd endings and repeat signs. Another option shows bars past the end of the song in gray.

You can use Tab and Shift+Tab keys to navigate through the Chord Sheet.

In the Chord Sheet, typing special words, instead of chord names, will make the following settings.

You can quick-load a song by typing only. Type the word “Song” followed by a file name or partial file name, and the song will get loaded in. For example, type C:\a\MySong.sgu to load in that exact song name. Type “bossa” to load in the first song with bossa in the name AFTER the current song name, in the current folder.

Quick-load a style by typing only “style” followed by a style name, e.g., stylezzbossa<Enter> will load in zzbossa.sty.

Fake Sheet Mode

Open the demo song “Repeats Tutorial example 2 with 1st-2nd and DC al Fine” from the C:\bb\Documentation\Tutorials\Tutorial - Repeats and Endings folder.

To view the Chord Sheet in the Fake Sheet mode, press the [Fake Sheet] button on the toolbar and

Chapter 4: The Main Screen

enable the Display Chord Sheet in Fakesheet Mode menu item.

mode.

and selecting Layers.

When you disable the Fake Sheet mode by pressing the [Fake Sheet] button and deselecting the Display Chord Sheet in Fakesheet Mode menu item, the Chord Sheet will display in the full linear

In this mode, you see all the bars in the order that they will be played.

Chord Entry

The basic way of entering a song into Band-in-a-Box is to type in the chords to the song on the Chord Sheet (worksheet). The arrow keys move the active (highlighted) cell around in the Chord Sheet. The Enter key advances to the next ½ bar. Chords can be entered from the QWERTY keyboard or an external MIDI keyboard (see Window | MIDI Chord Detection…).

Chords are typed in using any of the supported chord symbol displays:

1. Standard chord symbols (C, Fm7, Bb7, Bb13#9/E).

2. Roman numerals (I

3. Nashville Notation (1

4. Solfeggio (Do

5. Fixed Do. In Italy and other parts of Europe, chords like C7 are always referred to by the Solfeggio name (Do7

for C7) regardless of the key signature.

Notes: It is not necessary to type upper or lower case. The program will sort this out for you. Any chord may be entered with an alternate root (“Slash Chord”) e.g. C7/E = C7 with E bass. Separate chords with commas to enter 2 chords in a 2-beat cell, e.g., Dm, G7

Maj7

maj7

Maj7

Chord Sheet Options

“Layers”

Layers are optional rows of information shown above each bar. When there is no additional information within a row, that row will not show to maximize space on the Chord Sheet.

You can choose what to display for layers by clicking on the [Chord Display] button on the toolbar

Chapter 4: The Main Screen

- “Section Text” layer is for editable text (up to 255 characters per bar) that is loaded and saved with the song.

- “Bar Lyrics” layer is for editable bar-based lyrics (up to 255 characters per bar) that are loaded and saved with the

song.

- “Section Text” and “Bar Lyrics” layers will attempt to intelligently separate your lyrics into different bars. For

example, if you have a whole song of lyrics in Notepad and the lyrics for every bar are on separate lines, you can

simply highlight the entire block of text and paste it into Band-in-a-Box using CTRL+V. Every line of text will

occupy a separate bar. If the lyrics have not been distributed into the correct bars, you can move your text cursor

to the beginning of a bar and press BACKSPACE to move the lyrics to the previous bar. This will shuffle the text

in the following bars one bar backward as well. Hitting ENTER will move all of the text after the text cursor to

the next bar and shuffle the text in the following bars one bar forward. If you wish to see more than one line

within a bar, you can hold down CTRL while using the ENTER key, which forces a line break (second line) within

the bar.

- “Bar Settings” layer shows information about any changes that occur for that bar, as set in the Bar Settings dialog

(e.g. tempo changes, key changes, etc.).

- “Additional Chord Display” layer shows the chords using the normal display or an alternative mode of showing

root notes. There are 4 alternative modes: Roman Numeral, Nashville Notation, Solfeggio Notation, and Fixed Do

(Italy/Europe).

The height of this layer can be set as a percentage of the main chord using the “Height % of Additional Chord Display layer” setting in the Display Options dialog. For example, you might want to see Nashville Notation as big as the main chord display below it.

- The “Concert Key” option allows you to display an additional chord display of the same chords transposed to a

different key. So, for example, you can see two layers, one with concert chords, and the other for Bb instruments.

- All the layers can be customized with font and color in the Display Options dialog.

Chapter 4: The Main Screen

- Right-clicking in a layer has a menu with options to change height of the layer, close layer(s), copy/cut/paste, etc.

on the Chord Sheet and select Display Options from the menu to open this dialog.

Display Options Dialog

You can set up the Chord Sheet with your own preferences.

Go to Options | Preferences or click on the [Prefs] toolbar button to open the Preferences, and then click on the [Display] button to open the Display Options dialog. You can also right-click

Chapter 4: The Main Screen

Chord Sheet Color

change, or to insert drum fills.

You can choose any color for each element on the Chord Sheet. For example, you can choose color for substyle A & B part markers. Previously, the color of the chords was always black, so you were limited to brighter colors for the background since darker backgrounds would make the chord text hard to see. Now, all the colors can be picked from the color palette, and any changes you make can be seen on the Chord Sheet in real time.

Superscript Option

Superscript shows the chord extensions with smaller raised font, making the root of the chord more distinguishable, and also helping maximize space on the Chord Sheet. The Display Options dialog has separate settings for the main chords and additional chords.

In this example, extensions of the main chords will always show with small raised font, but extensions of the additional chords will not show with superscript.

Number of Columns

You can set the number of bars to show on a row with the “Number of Columns” option.

Space between Columns

You can set the border thickness between columns with the “Extra space between columns (pixels)” option.

Chord Sheet Font and Colors

Chord Sheet font and color can be also changed easily from the on-screen button, with visual menu.

Transpose Chord Sheet option

This button also allows you to quickly transpose your song.

If the Chord Sheet or Notation window transpose setting is in effect, a yellow hint message opens on boot up as a reminder.

When the Chord Sheet is transposed, you can type in chords in the transposed key, and they will show up as you have entered them, instead of requiring you to enter the chords in the concert key.

Part Markers

Part Markers are placed on the Chord Sheet to indicate a new part of the song, to insert a substyle

They typically occur every 8 bars or so but may be placed at the beginning of any bar.

Chapter 4: The Main Screen

number of bars at the current bar.

and then press F10, and bars 19 and 20 will play looped.

Section Paragraphs

When you’re reading a book, a new section begins on a new line, with space between. Band-in-a-Box does that for chords too. Whenever a new section occurs (a part marker), we start the new section on a new line and draw a grey line above to clearly mark the new section. A section can be as short as 2 bars. You will see each section on a new line so that the form of the song is easier to see. The feature is configurable and optional.

Chord Sheet Editing Features

The Chord Sheet has a contextual menu that opens with a right-click in the Chord Sheet area. This menu is a very convenient way to access the features for editing song arrangements.

Chords can be copied, pasted, cut, or erased and new chords can be entered from the Chord Builder.

Chord Settings allow pushes, rests, and pedal bass to be applied.

Bar Settings let you refine your arrangement with changes in

tempo, meter, key signature, styles, RealDrums, volume levels, patches, and harmonies.

Song Settings allow rests and pushes, and also control tags, endings, and fadeouts.

Display Options allow full customization of the Chord Sheet.

Global system settings are accessed in the Preferences.

You can also right-click on a bar in the Chord Sheet to set it as the beginning or end of the chorus or the end of the song from the settings in the context menu. For example, these settings are available with a right-click on bar 16.

This menu can be used to start playback from the highlighted bar in any chorus of the song.

Bar-Based Section Letters lets you add a letter or number, which will display just above the bar number on the Chord Sheet.

Print Chords will open the Print Options dialog. You can then press the [OK Print Chords] button in the dialog to print the chord sheet.

Insert Bars or Delete Bars lets you insert or delete a specific

Play Selected Area as a Loop

To use this function, select a region on the Chord Sheet. To select a region, click a bar and drag the mouse. To select a large region, click a bar and SHIFT-click on the end point.

Tip: You can select a region of bars just by using the keyboard. Hold down the SHIFT key and use the cursor keys.

Click on the [Loop] button and select Play and loop highlighted region from the menu, or press F10, and the program will play a selected region and loop the selection. For example, you can select bars 19 and 20,

Chapter 4: The Main Screen

Looping submenu.

The Loop menu includes the Loop Section Settings.

To enter settings manually in this dialog, you start by choosing either “Loop a Single Screen of Notation” or “Loop Range of Bars.”

“Loop a Single Screen of Notation” (Ctrl+NUMPAD 7) loops a single screen of notation at the current song location. The length of the loop is determined by the number of “Bars/Screen” specified in the Notation Window

Options.

Select “Loop Range of Bars” if you want a custom range of bars, then enter the starting “From Bar” number, the “Chorus #,” and the “# bars” for the length of the looped section. You can then play the song with the [Play within loop] button and then [Close] the dialog.

Presets are available to set the loop points to Introduction, First / Middle /Last Choruses or First & Middle, Middle & Last combinations, Ending, or All.

As the different buttons are selected you will see the “Loop Range of Bars” settings update.

Hot keys are also available for these, look in the Play menu under the

Chapter 4: The Main Screen

options for opening songs.

The default method for the top half of the button is assigned

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

Opening Files

Band-in-a-Box supports most popular song formats in addition to its own native song files. It will open most audio file formats, and its powerful Audio Chord Wizard feature will interpret the chords from an audio file and write them to a Band-in-a-Box song file. You can also play karaoke files, including Karaoke MP3/CDG files with scrolling graphical lyrics, in Band-in-a-Box.

You can quick-load a song by typing only. In chord entry mode type the word “Song” followed by a file name, or partial file name, and the song will get loaded in. For example, type C:\a\MySong.sgu to load in that exact song name. Type “bossa” to load in the first song with bossa in the name AFTER the current song name, in the current folder.

You can load a song from the [Open] or [Song] button on the toolbar.

The [Open] button opens a menu of commands for opening files by various methods.

The [Song] button is a split button. Clicking on the top half opens a song selection dialog using the default method assigned to the button. Clicking on the bottom half of the button opens a menu of the

Open File

The BB File Open File dialog is opened with the menu command Open File or the F3 function key.

from this menu. For example, if there is a check mark beside “SongPicker,”clicking on the top half of the button will launch the SongPicker dialog. If “Recently loaded songs” is checked, clicking the button will go directly to the Recently Played Songs list, and so on.

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

Tip: You can also press the s s 4 Enter keys to open this dialog file.

It shows and opens all available file types.

If MySong.MGU is loaded, and a same named audio file (MySong.WMA, MySong.MP3, MySong.WAV, etc.) is present, Band-in-a-Box will open the audio file to the audio track. This allows third parties to make audio files with chords in them, by making a MySong.MGU and MySong.MP3 pair of files, which will load into Band-in-a-Box, yet will have the audio compressed to take up little disk space. For example, make a teaching set of trombone files for Band-in-a-Box, with audio trombone track, and Band-in-a-Box file with chords, all fitting in a small file size.

Drag & Drop Files to Band-in-a-Box

You can drop many file types onto the Band-in-a-Box screen and they will be loaded into the program, either as a new file or added to an existing song. File types include Band-in-a-Box songs (.SGU/.MGU), MIDI (.MID), and audio (.WAV/.M4A/.MP3). Simply drag the file and drop it anywhere on the Band-in-a-Box screen, including various windows.

Open Song by Titles (SongPicker)

The SongPicker shows information for up to 50,000 songs. It has many filter features for finding songs. You can also search songs that have similar chord progressions or melody fragments.

Tip: Pressing the s s Enter keys quickly opens the SongPicker.

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

The first time you open the SongPicker, Band-in-a-Box will ask you to build the song list for C:\bb\Song, which is your “home” folder. This is an empty folder but is used for you to put any songs.

Press the [Rebuild] button to build the song list for this folder.

If the song list build is taking more than 3 seconds, the progress bar will appear.

If you want to see the song list in other folders, press the [Change] button. You will see some menu options to choose folders. There is also an option to always open the home folder.

If the “Open in Home” option is enabled, the SongPicker will always open in the home folder instead of the current folder when you press the default [Song] button to open the SongPicker.

You can change the width of any column in the song list by dragging the boundary. This customization will be remembered between sessions.

Title - This is the title of the song.

SubFolder - If the folder has subfolders, they will show here.

File - This is the file name of the song.

Melody - A letter “M” indicates that the song has the Melody track. A blank column means that the Melody track is empty.

Soloist - A letter “S” tells you that the Soloist track is present. If the column is blank, the Soloist track is empty.

Lyrics - If the song has note-based lyrics, a letter “L” will show in this column.

Key - This is the key of the song.

TimeSig - The number shown is the numerator of the time signature, so “4” means the song is in 4/4 time and “3” means it is in 3/4 time.

Tempo - The tempo of the song displays.

Genre - This tells you the genre of the song.

Feel - The feel (even/swing, 8th/16th) will show in this column.

Form - This shows you the song form. For example, if 1-32*3 is shown, the chorus starts at the bar 1 and ends at the bar 32, and there are 3 choruses in the song.

Date - The file was last modified in this year/month.

In the area below the song list, you can see the chord progression of the currently highlighted song.

You can copy and paste it into a text file.

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

The song list can be filtered in many ways.

Type in any text, and the filtered list will show songs that contains the text in any field.

The “Subfolders” button allows you to filter the list by a certain subfolder of the current folder.

You can use “Genre/Feel” button to filter the list by genre, feel (even/swing, 8th/16th), or time signature.

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

The “Chords/Melody” button allows you to filter the list by a chord progression and/or a melody fragment.

The “Other” button is to filter the list by a certain style, songs with melody/soloist/lyrics, certain keys, tempo range, or file dates from certain years.

The Songs with Custom Chord Progression item in the “Chords/Melody” filter menu helps you find songs that contain a chord progression that you specify.

When the Custom Chord Progression Match dialog opens, type in a chord progression using a vertical line for a bar line. (e.g. Dm7 | G7 | C |)

This function will always find the progressions in every key; for example, it will find | Am7 | D7 | G.

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

Note: The search will find variations of the chords. For example, when searching for a C, it will find CMaj7, C/E.

Tip: If you want to find songs in a certain key, then press the “Other” filter button, go to Songs in this key, and select a key.

If you want to find the progression that is relative to the key of C (i.e. Dm7 is IIm7), then you should enable the “Only match if relative to this key” checkbox and set the key to C.

Enable “Key must match exactly” if you want to find the songs of the same key.

If “Chord Extension must match exactly” is enabled, the SongPicker will list songs that match the chord extension. (e.g. C7 would not match C9 or C7b5.) If this option is disabled, the chord extension will be ignored. (e.g. C7 would match C9 or C7b5.)

Enable “Time Sig must match” if you want to find the songs of the same time signature.

The Songs with Chord progression matching current song item in the “Chords/Melody” filter menu will help you find songs that has a similar chord progression in the selected range of the current song.

In the Song Chord Match dialog, specify the range by entering the start bar number and the number of bars. When you press the [Update] button, the chord progression in that range will display.

With the Songs matching melody bar range item in the “Chords/Melody” filter menu, you can find songs with a similar melody fragment in the selected range of the current song.

When the Song Melody Match dialog opens, select the source track (Melody or Soloist), and specify the range.

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

If you want to find songs with a similar chord progression and a melody fragment in the selected range of the current song, select the Songs matching Chords and melody bar range menu item.

In the Song Chords and Melody Match dialogs, select the source track (Melody or Soloist) and specify the range.

There are more buttons in the SongPicker for opening and finding songs.

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

your recently played songs and your favorite songs.

list. [Delete] removes the selected item.

number of favorites.

The [Open] button allows you to open files of any available format from any folder.

Press the [Recent] button if you want to open recently played songs.

The [Fav] button is for opening your favorite songs.

Use the [Fav Folder] button to open files from your favorite folders.

The [Find] button opens the Find song files dialog, which helps you find files by using a keyword, file date, size, etc.

The [Search] button allows you to find a song that contains a certain text in any field. You can continue the same search with the [G] button.

Press the [Rebuild] button to rebuild the song list for the current folder. The song list build very fast; approximately 150 songs will be processed per second.

The [Action Menu] button allows you to select additional options.

You can reset the dialog with the [Defaults] button.

Open Recently Chosen Songs / Open Favorite Songs

There’s a dialog for these favorites with separate lists of Recently Played and Favorite songs. There are 2 radio buttons in this dialog, showing both recently used songs and a list of “favorites” that you select. Use the menu commands or the keystrokes Shift+F3 to open the lists.

Tip: You can also use the following hot keys: s s 2 Enter for the recently played songs and s s 3 Enter for the favorite songs.

When “Save As” is used to save a song with a different name, the new name will be added to the Recently Played Songs dialog.

Use these buttons to navigate up and down the list or to jump to the top of the list.

[Insert] adds a song at the current list location. [Append] adds a song to the end of the

This button allows you to search a file by a keyword.

The lists can be edited, sorted, saved/loaded, and used with the jukebox. You can add an unlimited

The “Favorites” and “Recently Played” Radio buttons toggle between a list of

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

Fav] button (this button is also found in the StylePicker).

The list will start off as an empty one. But you can add songs as your favorites, by clicking the [Add

The [Sort] button sorts the list alphabetically.

You can save and load sets of favorites or recently played songs (or styles). Once you have the set, you can press the [Juke...] button. This will play the set file in order, not randomly. It will start from the currently selected song.

You can make a new list of songs for a set by using the [Clear] button to clear the Favorites list, followed by the [Append], [Insert], and [Delete] buttons to add songs.

If this is enabled, when you press the [OK] button the song will play automatically.

If this is enabled, every song you load will be added to the top of the Favorites list.

Technical Note: The list of songs/style favorites is stored in a text file called SongFavorites.txt (or StyleFavorites.txt) in the

C:\bb\Preferences folder.

Open Previous Song

This command opens the previous song in alphabetical order in the current folder.

Tip: Pressing the Ctrl+Shift+F8 or s s 7 Enter keys opens the previous song.

Open Next Song

This command opens the next song in alphabetical order in the currently active folder.

Tip: Pressing the Shift+F8 or s s 8 Enter keys opens the next song.

Open Entire MIDI File (mid) to Melody Track

This command launches the Open File dialog showing a list of available MIDI files in the current folder and opens the selected file to the Melody track.

Tip: You can also press the s s 9 Enter keys to open a MIDI file.

Open Entire Karaoke File (kar) to Melody Track

This launches the Open File dialog showing a list of available Karaoke files in the current folder and opens the selected file to the Melody track.

Tip: You can also press the s s 1 3 Enter keys to open a MIDI file.

Open MusicXML File

Band-in-a-Box supports MusicXML so you can easily import MusicXML files including notes, chords, lyrics, guitar tab, bends, hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides, from your notation programs such as Finale, Sibelius, and Guitar Pro to Band-in-a-Box.

When you select this menu command and select a MusicXML file (.musicxml/.XML/.MXL), the Load XML File dialog will open.

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

beat resolution will be automatically set to 3 in the Notation window.

First, select a track that you want to load. To select multiple tracks, hold down the CTRL key and click a track.

If you want to change the destination track, right-click on a track and select Destination Track.

Select items that you want to load from the MusicXML file.

If you do not want all the tracks to be merged into the Melody track, disable the “Load all XML tracks to Melody” option.

This setting allows you to load the MusicXML file from a

certain bar. For example, a setting of “4” will load the MusicXML file from bar 5.

Press [OK], and the MusicXML file will be loaded to Band-in-a-Box.

Note: When loading a MusicXML file, if more than 20% of notes are triplet notes, then the overall

Tip: If the source track is drums, the track type of the destination track (Melody or Soloist) will be automatically set to Drums.

Open ABC Notation File

ABC notation is the simple text-based notation system used by musicians worldwide to store chords, melody, and lyrics of songs. You can find out more information about the songs and ABC notation at abcnotation.com.

Open Audio File

This command launches the Open File dialog with a list of audio files of all supported types (.WAV, .WMA, .MP3, .MP4, .M4A, .WMV audio, and audio CD) found in the current folder.

Tip: You can also press the s s 10 Enter keys to open an audio file.

Open from Favorite Folders

The menu command File | Open Special | Favorite Folders launches the Favorite Folders dialog with a list of recently used folders. To open a song using this dialog you first select the folder from the list, and then you can directly open the song from that folder. This allows you to quickly find a song in another folder.

Tip: This dialog also opens with the s s 6 Enter keys.

Song Finder

This launches the Find song files dialog that allows you to find a Band-in-a-Box song (or any file that Band-in-aBox can open). This dialog also opens from the menu File | Open Special | Find File.

Tip: This dialog also opens with the s s 11 Enter keys.

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

available to see which other information gets loaded from a file, such as patches, harmonies,

You can define your search by the name and location of the file, or by the date and size.

Name & Location

This includes filtering by words found in the file name or any text in the file. For example, you can

- get a listing of all Band-in-a-Box songs on your PC with the word “Blues” in the title.

- get a listing of all Band-in-a-Box songs in the BB folder with the word “Reggae” in them.

Date & Size

Use this window to search in a particular range of dates or times. This can be useful if you have multiple versions of a file from different dates and sessions.

File Associations

Go to the menu item File | File Utilities to associate the file types for Band-in-a-Box songs and styles in Windows®. Once set, this means that you can double-click on a song or style and Band-in-a-Box will open with that song or style.

Choose the menu items File | File Utilities | Associate File types (songs, styles) with Windows… to associate the Band-in-a-Box file types, and Remove File Associations (songs, styles) with Windows… to remove the associations.

Global Song Overrides

These overrides let you ignore settings that were saved in song files.

The global overrides are found in Preferences [Overrides], and they allow you to set the

volume, reverb, chorus, panning, and bank changes. For example, you can set every song to load with looping ON, and don’t load any reverb settings from songs.

Overall Looping of song

For example, if you want every song loaded to have looping set to on, then set the Overall Looping of song option to “Always set loop to ON.” But if you are going out on a playing job, and don’t want any songs to loop, then set it to “Always set loop to OFF.” If you want the settings to work the same way they did in previous versions, choose “As set in the song” or press the [Defaults] button.

overall song looping (always OFF, always ON, or as set in the song). Similar overrides are

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

crescendos) will not be loaded from the song.

For example, if there is a check mark beside “StylePicker,” clicking on the top half of the button

Allow Songs to load settings for

If set, these items will be allowed to be loaded from songs. If not, the settings will be ignored when loading songs.

Convert line-based lyrics to bar-based lyrics

In the previous versions, there were line-based lyrics, which could be entered for each line on the Notation window. You can no longer enter this type of lyrics, but if your existing song has line-based lyrics, Band-in-aBox can convert them to bar-based-lyrics. This option allows you to choose how the conversion should occur when the song with line-based lyrics opens. The default is “Always (auto-split),” which will convert line-based lyrics to bar-based lyrics and splitting them into 4 bars. If you choose “Always (don’t split),” line-based lyrics will be converted but they won’t be split into 4 bars. You can also choose not to convert line-based lyrics automatically. If the current song has line-based lyrics, you can press the [Convert now] button to convert them to bar-based lyrics.

OK to Load Notation Symbols with songs

If this is not selected, notation symbols (slurs, staccato,

The options under Defaults for new songs are settings from the Song Settings dialog.

When Vary Style in Middle Choruses is selected (default), the song will play in substyle B throughout the middle choruses, playing substyle A for the first and last choruses only. If this setting is not selected, then the substyle changes will follow the part markers entered on the Chord Sheet.

When Force to Simple Arrangement is selected, the song plays a simpler (less busy or embellished) arrangement.

The [Pop/Country] preset button turns both of these settings off for a typical Pop or County arrangement that follows part markers and does not embellish chords.

The [Jazz] preset button turns both of these settings on for a typical Jazz arrangement to support soloing over the middle choruses and allow Jazz chord embellishments.

Use the options under Force Tracks to Simple Arrangements for All Songs to set individual tracks or all tracks to simple arrangements for all songs. If you want to force simple arrangements on a song-by-song basis, use the

[Simple] button on the toolbar.

Changing the Style

The [Style] button is a split button. Clicking on the top half opens a style selection dialog using the default method assigned to the button. Clicking on the bottom half of the button opens a menu of the options for selecting styles. The default method for the top half of the button is assigned from this menu.

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

will launch the StylePicker dialog. “Band Styles” opens a list

of style categories. If “Recently Used Styles” is checked, clicking the button will go directly to the Recently Played

Styles list, and so on.

The StylePicker

You can browse styles by sorting columns or hear an “instant” preview of the style by double-clicking on the list. If style has both MIDI and RealDrums available, you can hear both, and choose which one you want. This makes it much faster to find the style that fits your song.

Tip: You can quickly launch the StylePicker by the s Enter or Ctrl+F9 keys.

Quick Filter

Type a text and/or press the arrow button to select a category, time signature, feel, etc., and you will immediately see the filtered list. If “Include Similar” is unchecked, then the filtered list will show the exact match only, but if this option is checked, then the list will show the exact match and the similar styles.

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

Style suggestion

Just type in a familiar song title, artist name, or genre of music, and the StylePicker will filter the list by the genre, feel, tempo, and time signature of that song title.

Type in a text, click on a song to select it, and press [Enter]. Then, the list will be filtered to show styles that match the elements of the song. You can see what filters are in place when you look at the “Style Filter by:” area. If you enable the “Include Similar” option, the filtered list will include similar styles, but if you want to see only the exact match, then uncheck this option.

Song Titles Browser

The Song Titles Browser window allows you to browse and filter the huge list of 14,000 popular song titles. You can, for example, filter by a certain artist, and then sort all the songs by tempo, key, feel, time signature, and more.

You can open this window with the [Find Titles] button.

Note: You can also open the Song Titles Browser window by clicking on the [Style] button on the toolbar and selecting the

Choose style from Song Title menu item.

Tip: Pressing the s 3 Enter keys quickly opens the Song Titles Browser window.

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

Once you have found a song, press the [OK - Find Matching Styles] button. This will take

you to the StylePicker window with styles that best match the tempo, feel, and genre of the selected song title.

Instant Preview of Styles

You can audition a style without changing your existing arrangement, by using the preview control.

It has Play and Stop buttons, a progress bar, a Loop button and a file button.

Also, when the control is playing, if there are 2 files that can be played, there is a toggle button displayed. This appears for previewing MIDI styles, because there are MIDI drums and RealDrums available for most MIDI styles, and now you can easily hear both.

To hear a preview, simply double-click on a style name in the list. Or highlight a style and press the Play button.

The demos are pre-made, so they play instantly. And they are a good idea of what the style is supposed to sound like.

The style demos are found in 2 possible places:

1. On your hard drive, in the Data\Style Demos Audio folder of your RealTracks folder, usually

C:\bb\RealTracks\Data\Style Demos Audio (some of the demos are included on disk, but to save space not all of them are included).

2. On the Internet, at www.pgmusic.com

(all of the demos are there).

When you demo a style, the program will play the version on disk if available; otherwise will play from the Internet.

The style demos sometimes play files from the internet. You can download a file that is being played from the internet by clicking this button. If the file is being played on your hard drive, this button will show the file in a folder.

This button allows you to control the volume of demos.

Play Your Song with the Styles

You can also audition a style by actually playing it over the current chord progression of your song.

Pressing the [Play] button will generate arrangement for your song with the currently highlighted style. You can speed up the generation if you enable the “4 bar Preview” option, which will play only for the first 4 bars.

RealStyles and Styles with RealTracks

RealStyles are Band-in-a-Box styles that use RealTracks only. The style names for RealStyles are prefaced by an underscore, _.

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

Styles with RealTracks are a blend of MIDI tracks and RealTracks. Style names for Styles with RealTracks are prefaced by an equals sign, =.

Styles with RealDrums use RealDrums for the Drums track and MIDI tracks for other tracks. Style names for Styles with RealDrums are prefaced by a hyphen -.

Band Styles

When you select this menu item, you will see a directory of style types, with submenus sorted into the listed categories.

Tip: Pressing the s 2 Enter keys quickly shows you the submenus.

For example, in the Jazz section you will see styles for Jazz Swing, Bossa/Latin, Cuban/Bolero, Smooth Jazz, and Gypsy Jazz/Dixieland. Each heading opens a list of selected RealStyles, sorted by tempo and type.

You can also load in a song demo by choosing the menu item.

This list of styles can be customized by the user. You can create a text file of styles to add to the top and/or bottom of the list (i.e. above or below the list of styles provided by PG Music). To customize this list at the top, create a file

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

the checkbox is selected, the entire song will loop.

item.

to start playback at that location.

called C:\bb\Data\RealCombos_User_Top.txt, to customize this list at the bottom create a file called C:\bb\Data\RealCombos_User_Bottom.txt.

The format of the file is identical to the one that PG Music includes, which is called C:\bb\Data\RealCombos.txt. You can list a line of text (for a heading) e.g.

---- My Favorite Country Styles ----

or a line with a style on it e.g.

_JAZFRED$ Jazz Style with 4 in the bar Guitar

On this line, the $ character is a delimiter between the style name and the description.

Press the [Video Help] toolbar button for a tutorial on editing the Band styles list.

Playing/Pausing/Stopping Songs

This will replay the song without regenerating the tracks, unless regeneration is required. The current arrangement is preserved. (Freeze the song or save to a MIDI file to permanently save the arrangement.)

This will create a new arrangement and plays the song. If you don’t want your tracks regenerated use [Play].

Click this button for a menu of looping selections. You can play the highlighted section of the Chord Sheet or Notation window in an endless loop. Click and drag the mouse to highlight a section of bars to loop. If

This will play the song starting at the selected chorus and bar number. Use it to jump to any bar in the song You can also start playback from any bar by right-clicking on the bar and selecting the Play from Bar menu

This will stop song playback.

This will pause playback with the [Pause/Continue] button; resume from the same location by pressing it again.

You can also use the Play menu commands or keystrokes.

You can double-click on any bar on the Chord Sheet or Notation window

There is also an option in the Preferences dialog to start and stop playback with the spacebar. The spacebar or double-click can be used on an ending bar (or a bar in the tag), and it will play from the ending (or tag).

You can also right-click on the Chord Sheet or the Notation window to start playing.

Options for Simpler Arrangements

The [Simple] button on the toolbar allows you to set individual tracks or all tracks to unembellished arrangements. The simple arrangement option can be set on a song-by-song basis or for all songs.

If you set the Drums track to be simple, then the Drum track will avoid fills or post fills (cymbal crashes). You can also set a Drums track to be simple in a style. UserTracks will also follow this setting for Drums and play a simpler arrangement without fills if you set the Drums track to Simple.

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

from across the room.

Lead-In Counts and Metronome

These settings are made in the Preferences dialog. Click on the [Count-in/Met.] button to open the Count-in and Metronome Options dialog.

The default count-in is two bars, but there is an option to shorten it to a 1 bar lead-in.

You can select any drum instrument for the count-in and choose different count-in rhythms (e.g. Tap on 2 and 4 instead of 1-2-3-4).

The Smart Lead-in feature avoids playing the count-in drum sound during a Melody pickup.

There’s an option to play the drum count-in in all circumstances, useful when the style doesn’t have drums or for drummers who play along with Band-in-a-Box by muting the drum track.

The Audible Metronome can be set to sound “During record,” during “Record and Play,” or “None” - turned off entirely.

You can display the Visible Metronome on-screen during the entire song (or just the lead-in). Choose the screen position, the size (up to near full screen size), and the visual metronome pattern. The on-screen metronome is a great way for a student to learn to keep on the beat, and with a settable size, students can view this

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

Part Settings for Playback

The individual instrument parts are controlled with the Mixer.

Each track in the Mixer shows the name of the instrument assigned to it.

Yellow text indicates a MIDI instrument.

Green text indicates RealTracks or RealDrums.

Right-click or double-click on a track name for a menu of settings and actions for the selected part. The menu is organized into groups allowing easier selection of track types: audio (RealTracks, UserTracks, Loops) or MIDI (MIDI SuperTracks, classic MIDI tracks) and track settings/actions.

Mute, Solo, and Freeze Tracks

Each track has its own VU meter as well as buttons to [M]ute, [S]olo, and [*] Freeze the track.

Muting a Track

Click on the Mute button to silence the selected track. The button will turn red to show it is active.

To mute/unmute all parts as the song is playing, simply press Alt+ 2 or right-click on the “Master” radio button at the top of the screen and select Mute in the menu.

Solo a Track

While listening to Band-in-a-Box, you can solo (isolate) a certain track by clicking on the Solo button.

Or you could hold the Ctrl key and mouse click (left or right) on the track button at the top of the screen. For example, if you want to hear only the Piano track, Ctrl+click on the Piano track button. If you want to use hot keys for this, you can press Alt+2 (Mute-All) and then Alt+4 (Unmute Piano).

You can change the solo and the mute status of other tracks by right-clicking on a blue mute button.

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

(treble)

Master Mute:

→

Freeze a Track

Any track can be frozen (MIDI or RealTracks). When frozen, it won’t get changed or re- generated. This saves time when replaying previous songs, and lets you freeze an arrangement that you like. The [*] buttons on the Mixer freeze the individual tracks.

Use the snowflake button on the toolbar for additional options, which include freezing the whole song.

For example, if the Guitar track is in the solo status, when you rightclick on the blue mute button on the Drums track, the Drums track will be un-muted AND the Guitar track will be un-soloed.

Changing Volume, Panning, Reverb, Tone

Each track in the Mixer has its own set of controls including volume, pan, reverb, and tone. Use them to make your own mix for the arrangement.

Volume slider and value:

Pan slider and value:

Reverb slider and value:

Tone settings: -18 (bass) to +18

Double-clicking on the slider sets the value to a default value.

There is also a Master section with a Mute button, VU meters, and Master Volume controls.

VU Meters (stereo):

Master Volume (this song) and Master Volume (all songs):

The Master Volume is a new type of volume setting for Band-in-a-Box, and is a true Master Volume, in that it applies a decibel (dB) boost to the master signal, independent of the tracks volumes. So for example, if you want all Band-in-a-Box songs to be louder, you can simply set the “All Songs” Master volume slider (e.g. +6 dB) and this boost will apply to audio output from all instruments (MIDI and audio) for all songs.

Slide Tracks

This is a menu command (Edit | Slide Tracks…) that allows you to move any of the Bass, Drums, Piano, Guitar, Strings, Melody, or Soloist tracks ahead or behind by a definable amount. For example, slide the Bass track a little ahead of the rest of the band to make the bass player “drive the band.”

To slide tracks, select the Slide Tracks option from the Edit menu. The values are measured in “ticks-per-beat” with 120 ticks being the equivalent of a quarter note. The musically useful range is from -10 to 10.

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

Allow Any Slides

If you want the slides to occur, then set this to YES.

Humanize Slides

If set to YES, the slides will be humanized to slide the track a different amount for each note. The amount varies from 0 ticks (none) to the slide setting for the instrument.

Press the [Default] button to fill the tracks with default slide values.

Press the [Zeros] button to “zero-out” the slide values for all tracks.

Press the [Update] button to affect your changes and hear the result instantly.

Tip: A track that always plays notes early by a certain amount tends to sound out of time, whereas humanizing the slide makes the track sounds more alive.

Play Selected Area as a Loop

Shift-click on the [Play] button or press F10 (Play Selected Area as Loop), and the program will play a selected region and loop the selection. For example, you can select bars 10 and 11 and then press F10, and bars 10 and 11 will play looped.

To use this function, select a region on the Chord Sheet.

Choose Play | Play & Loop Highlighted Section (or press F10). The selected region will then play and continues looping until STOP is pressed.

Loop Button Menu

The [Loop] toolbar button opens a menu with the full list of looping options.

Click on the looping option you want, either the entire song or just a section that you select. Selecting the checkbox on the button enables looping for the entire song. The Loop Section Settings dialog lets you choose exactly what to loop.

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

the keystroke [NUMPAD 1].

Section Settings dialog, or press [NUMPAD 2].

Looping submenu.

Loop any Section of the song

You can loop any section of the song. The program will then start playback at the first loop point and play the looped section until stopped.

Looping of a section of the song is enabled in the Loop button menu or with

Select Loop Section Dialog from the Loop menu button to open the Loop

The Loop Section Settings dialog will then display.

The “Play within loop” command allows you to quickly play a looped section. Highlight the range of bars to loop on the Chord Sheet, press NUMPAD 2 to open the Loop Section Settings dialog, and click on the [Play within loop] button.

To enter settings manually in this dialog, you start by choosing either “Loop a Single Screen of Notation” or “Loop Range of Bars.”

Presets are available to set the loop points to Introduction, First / Middle /Last Choruses or First & Middle, Middle & Last combinations, Ending, or All.

As the different buttons are selected you will see the “Loop Range of Bars” settings update.

Hot keys are also available for these, look in the Play menu under the

Loop Practicing Feature

Getting the mute to loop every Nth time is helpful to learn a certain phrase. For the loops, you play along with the phrase, and then “you’re on your own” when the phrase gets muted every Nth loop. You can choose the track to mute and how often the track mutes.

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

NUMPAD 1

Toggle looping on/off.

NUMPAD 2

Open Loop Section Settings dialog.

Ctrl+NUMPAD 1

Play with last chorus looped.

Ctrl+NUMPAD 2

Play with middle choruses looped.

Ctrl+NUMPAD 3

Play with middle and last choruses looped.

Ctrl+NUMPAD 4

Jump to last chorus.

Ctrl+NUMPAD 5

Jump to ending.

Ctrl+NUMPAD 7

Loop Notation screen.

NUMPAD [DEL]

Advances the Notation, Lead Sheet, and Guitar windows by one chord (group of notes).

NUMPAD [INS]

Backs up the Notation, Lead Sheet, and Guitar windows by one chord.

The “Advance to next loop every Nth loop” option

allows you to practice and learn a whole song, by getting each section repeated a certain number of bars.

Once you have these settings made, you can just start a loop the usual way. For example, highlight a region, press the [Loop] button, and select Play and loop highlighted region (or press [F10]). Or you can type L4 <enter> to start a 4-bar loop.

Loop Keystroke Commands (useful for live performance)

Notebook users should set “Simulate NUMPAD Keys” to “ON” in the Preferences dialog, then use the regular number keys to trigger looping.

The Title bar at the top of the main screen indicates the looping status. If a song has a looped section, this will be listed at the top of the screen (e.g. “Will loop Middle Choruses” or “Currently looping Middle Choruses”). So you can tell what is going to happen with the looping during a live performance.

Quick command for Looping

Looping has been enhanced with an “L” command for quickly setting a loop.

For example:

- L Enter will loop at the current point for 4 bars. (The “4” is a selectable value. See below.)

- L 8 Enter will loop for 8 bars.

- L 8, 12 Enter will loop for 8 bars starting at bar 12.

- L 8, 12, 2 Enter will loop for 8 bars starting at bar 12 of chorus 2.

The “Default Length” option in the Loop Section Settings dialog determines the number of bars looped when you hit L [Enter] keys. For example, if this is set to 4 bars, then L [Enter] will loop 4 bars.

“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.

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

Harmonize your play alo button

Play along with your MIDI Controller Keyboard

If you have an external MIDI keyboard controller connected to your computer system, you can use the MIDI THRU features to play along with the program.

When playing along on a keyboard to the Band-in-a-Box “band,” if the sound of your keyboard is too quiet and increasing the THRU Volume doesn’t help enough, use this option to boost the THRU velocity and make your playing on the THRU channel louder. To set this “THRU velocity boost,” open the MIDI Settings dialog (Options | Preferences | Channels). Click on the [Options] button and set “Boost THRU Velocity by” to a value in the range of –127 to +127 in the MIDI Options dialog. (Default is 0.)

ng track by choosing MIDI Thru Harmony (Alt+F11) from the [Harmony] menu

to choose a harmony, just as you would for the Melody.

Play Along Wizard

The Play Along Wizard is controlled with the bottom two rows of your computer’s QWERTY keyboard or your connected MIDI keyboard. The bottom row of keys plays chord tones; the second row plays passing tones. You play any key in either row and never make a mistake! The Wizard keys are active during playback.

To use this feature, press the [MIDI] toolbar button and enter a check for MIDI Keyboard Wizard Enabled.

You can also select the Wizard Playalong feature option from the Play menu.

In the Play menu, toggle Wizard uses “Smart” notes to “off” (unchecked) to have the Wizard provide you access to the chromatic scale. Toggle it “on” to have access only to the notes based on the chord/key of the song.

Also, the Wizard works with the harmony feature, so you can play along live in 4-part saxophone harmony for example.

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

*.MGU

Then, choose a song that has a Melody track.

Mute the Melody track by right-clicking on the Melody track (Alt+8).

to play Melody notes.

W,E,R,T

These will be approach notes up to the melody. You can start on any note.

Q,E,R,T

Starting on a Q instead of W will use wider voicings for approach notes.

I,U,Y,T

These will be approach notes down to the melody. Start on any note.

O,U,Y,T

Starting on an O instead of I will use wider voicings for approach notes.

volume, reverb, etc. for the Wizard select the Thru instrument in the Mixer.

Melody Wizard

For songs with melodies, there are QWERTY keys (Enter, \ , T, 6) that trigger notes from the melody as the song is being played. Other keys trigger 1-4 approach notes from below or above. The notes can be recorded, to humanize a stiff melody with better timing, and approach notes also useful for sight reading, rhythm practice or to perform. Works with harmonies

- Melody notes: T, 6, Enter, \

- Same Melody note: 5

- Approach notes: QWER YUIO

- Octave set: 1, 2, 3

MIDI notes also work (if Preferences [Transpose] is set to “Allow Melody Wizard on THRU part”).

- Octave set: E(40), F(41), G(43)

- Melody notes: F(53), G(55)

- Approach notes: B(47), C, D, E A, B, C, D(62)

To use the Melody Wizard, make sure the MIDI Keyboard Wizard is enabled on the [MIDI] menu button.

This will also enable the MIDI Wizard on the QWERTY keys.

If you also want to use the Melody Wizard on MIDI notes, go to Preferences [Transpose] and enable “Allow Melody Wizard on THRU part” in the Settings for transposing songs when loaded or “Do it Now” dialog.

Play the song.

ENTER or \

MIDI Keyboard Wizard

played on a Thru channel MIDI keyboard will be played through the Wizard. C, E, G, and Bb will be mapped to chord tones while D, F, A, and B will be passing tones.

Changing Instruments / Settings for the Wizard

As you play the song, you can use the Enter key or the \ key (or T or 6 above the T)

By turning on this Wizard setting in the Options | Preferences Transpose dialog, notes

As a play along instrument, the Wizard uses the Thru instrument part. To change the instrument patch,

MIDI Normalize

If performing a live set, or at a jam session, it helps to have the volume of all of the songs be similar. Now, with a MIDI Normalize feature, you can level the volumes to a setting in the program options. For example, you can set all volumes to be 70 and the program will make each song play within those levels. This is done in the Preferences [Arrange] tab.

When you have set the normalize to “on” the title window at the top of the screen reports that Normalization is set to 70, and that the velocity of the currently playing song has been increased from 65 to 70.

The normalization will affect bass, drums, piano, guitar, and strings. If you select the “Including melody and Soloist” option, the normalization will also affect the Melody and Soloist parts.

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

Outputting MIDI to an External Device

Some external music hardware devices require chords played in root position to drive them in real time.

An example of this is the Vocalist. It will let you sing into a microphone and harmonize your voice according to the chords that are input to the device. Band-in-a-Box has the capability of outputting a separate channel with the chords in root position to support such external devices automatically.

There are also settings such as complexity of chords, output channel, velocity, and note range. It will also drive “Real time Arrangers” like the Roland RA series. The best way to accomplish this is to access the Options | Preferences and select the [OutputCh.] button. You will then be given a window like this:

Click on the [Vocalist] button if you have such a device connected to your MIDI system. Band-in-a-Box will then send it the appropriate chord information automatically as your song is playing (e.g., root position triads).

Changing MIDI Instrument

To select a MIDI Instrument for any MIDI track, right-click on the track radio button at the top of the screen and go to Select MIDI Instrument (Patch) and choose one of the menu commands.

Select Hi-Q Patch Plugin Use this menu command if you want to select a preset of a Hi-Q MIDI instrument and a VST plugin (e.g. sforzando).

Select no MIDI Patch

This will remove the current selection of the MIDI Instrument.

Select General MIDI Patch

This will allow you to select an instrument from the list of GM patches.

Select GM 2 Patch

This will allow you to select an instrument from General MIDI 2 patches.

Select Higher Bank Patch (from .Pat file)

This will allow you to select a higher bank instrument on your particular synthesizer.

About Patch Changes

Patch changes are embedded in the Band-in-a-Box styles and these patches are loaded with songs by default. They can be disabled in the MIDI Options dialog found in the Preferences. Alternate patches can be saved with a song (Alt+F2).

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

General MIDI 2 support

General MIDI 2 standard (GM2) adds 128 more MIDI instruments to Band-in-a-Box styles and songs, including ukulele, mandolin, 12-string guitar plus many new and improved piano, organ, guitar, brass, and string sounds.

Note: The included Coyote synth supports GM2 instruments, as do most newer modules/sound chips. If yours doesn’t, a similar instrument from the existing 128 General MIDI sounds will be substituted.

The type of GM2 support is set in the MIDI Driver Setup dialog (Options | MIDI/Audio Driver Setup). The choices are:

- General MIDI 2 support: If you’re using a newer Sound Canvas then choose this GM2 support.

- Roland GS (older Modules): “Older” Sound Canvases (SC55/SC88) support GS, but not GM2. The good news is

that they have the same patches available, just at different locations. So if you choose this option, Band-in-a-Box will find the patches at the “GS” locations instead of the “GM2” locations. If you have a newer GS module like the SC8820 that supports both GM2 and GS you should likely choose GM2.

- No GM2 support: Most sound cards don’t have GM2 support yet, so just support the original 128 General MIDI

sounds. Band-in-a-Box will use the closest instrument in these cases.

You can select a GM2 patch in the Select MIDI Patch submenu of the Track (right-click) menu. This shows a menu grouped by instrument types.

Additional Patches

A “patch” is a MIDI instrument name. Examples of patches are Acoustic Bass, Electric Piano, and Violin. Patches are used to emulate real instruments through MIDI playback. Band-in-a-Box defaults to using the standard bank of General MIDI patches used by all MIDI manufacturers, but many MIDI synthesizers and sound cards have additional patches available as alternatives to the basic GM list. These sounds are typically found on higher banks in memory.

Patches on Higher Banks Dialog

You can select a higher bank patch in the Select MIDI Patch submenu of the Track (right-click) menu. This opens the Patches on Higher Banks dialog for easy access to patches on all other banks as well as General MIDI.

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

submenu of the right-click tracks menu.

To narrow your sound search you can do one or all of the following:

- Open the patch list and select an instrument (i.e. Electric Bass, Acoustic Piano, etc.)

- Click on the “Include Family” checkbox to have other offerings of similar type shown. (i.e., all bass family

patches, all keyboard family patches, etc.)

- Find a patch by keyword by clicking the [Search…] button and typing some letters that you know are in the name

(e.g., “mando” will find your mandolin patch and any others containing “mando”).

Click on this button to go to the PG Music web page where you can download

more patch files from https://www.pgmusic.com/support_miscellaneous.htm

Converting Synthesizer Patch Lists in Band-in-a-Box

Band-in-a-Box can read a patch file list generated by PowerTracks Pro Audio or Cakewalk and convert it to a .PAT file for use in Band-in-a-Box.

Converting PowerTracks patch list to Band-in-a-Box .Pat files.

PowerTracks stores its patch lists in a single file, called PATCHES.INI. This file contains all of the patch lists for the synths supported by PowerTracks. Band-in-a-Box stores the patch list for each synth in a separate file, with an extension of .PAT.

To convert a PowerTracks patch file to a Band-in-a-Box Patch file, you will be choosing the C:\pt\patches.ini, and then choosing the synth that you want to convert to a .PAT file.

Open the Patches on Higher Banks dialog from the Select MIDI Patch

Note: If a .PAT file has not been previously selected, a File Open dialog will appear. Select a .PAT file from the C:\bb\Data\Util\Synth Kits\ directory to launch the Patches on Higher Banks dialog.

Press the [Open INI/INS…] button to launch the Open File dialog.

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

Choose the file C:\pt\patches.ini.

You will then see a menu of synths stored in the patches.INI file.

Select one to convert.

Create a name for the .PAT file (e.g. My Patch List.PAT) and save it to C:\bb\Data\Util\Synth Kits.

Converting a Cakewalk .Ins file to a Band-in-a-Box .Pat file.

This is done using the same process described above for PowerTracks, except that you open the individual .INS file instead of a PATCHES.INI file. For example, if you have a Cakewalk file called “My Synth.INS” you would select this file name. You would then save that converted list to C:\bb\Data\Util\Synth Kits\My Synth.PAT.

Hi-Q MIDI Instruments for sforzando

We have added a new VST synthesizer, with support for popular .SFZ sound format, as well as PG Music’s Hi-Q sounds. Many sounds that have been developed with the .SFZ format are available on the internet and are ready to play with Band-in-a-Box using this synth. Your existing Band-in-a-Box Hi-Q sounds will play using this synthesizer, so previous songs or styles you made will play with this new synth. This synth is installed with Bandin-a-Box and is ready to play and does not require configuration.

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

Most of the interaction between Band-in-a-Box and the sforzando synth will be behind-the-scenes, so you don’t need to do anything. Just “pick a style and press play” as usual. This is because the styles that need to use the synth are coded to do so in the style, using the Hi-Q patch.

If you want to add a specific Hi-Q sound, right-click on the track button and go to Select MIDI Instrument (Patch) | Select Hi-Q MIDI Patch Plugin.

This will display a list of available Hi-Q sounds.

When you choose a Hi-Q sound from the list, sforzando will be loaded, with the Hi-Q instrument.

If you want to use a custom sound, such as a .SFZ sound that you have acquired, then you can launch the sforzando synth on the track that you want, by clicking on the Mixer’s [Plugin] tab and then selecting sforzando.

Note: You need to pick a MIDI track for this, not a “green” audio track.

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

VST Plugin Selection Dialog

This is where you select VSTi or DXi synthesizers and/or VST and DirectX audio effects to assign to a track. This dialog opens by clicking on a slot in the Mixer window’s Plugins panel.

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

your Mixer settings.

XP, the folder name doesn’t contain (x86).)

Examples: VST Synths to add to MIDI Track

- Add a Garritan Jazz Big Band VST to the Melody track, to get a great sounding MIDI Saxophone sound.

- Add a dedicated piano VST to the MIDI piano track.

- Add a dedicated Drum VST to the Drums Track.

- Add your favorite B3 Organ VST synth to the Organ (Piano) track.

Examples: Audio F/X to add to Audio Tracks

- Add “AmpliTube 3 CS” (Guitar Amp Simulator) to a “Clean Signal” Guitar RealTracks. Then you can tweak the

guitar sound, by choosing the amp type, stomp box effects etc.

- Add your favorite Reverb to certain tracks.

- Add an “Exciter” Plugin to improve the sound.

- Add an Auto-Tune type of Plugin to improve intonation on your recorded audio track.

Save Your Mixer Settings

Save your song with the [Save As] button, choosing the menu item Save Song with Patches Harmony, or with the menu command File | Save Special | Save Song with Patches & Harmony, to save all of

Direct Input (DI) Guitars and AmpliTube®

A Guitar Amp Simulator (AmpliTube CS) is included in Band-in-a-Box along with over 150 “Direct Input” guitar-based RealTracks. You can customize the DI guitar RealTracks using the new Guitar Amp Simulator that is included (AmpliTube CS). With “Direct Input” guitar RealTracks, all of the added effects come from the Guitar Amp Simulator.

There are a few ways that you can use the AmpliTube 3 CS Plug-in in Band-in-a-Box.

1. Load a Band-in-a-Box song that is set to use it. These will be found in the

C:\bb\Documentation\Tutorials\Tutorial - BB2012 folder. Just load a demo song with “AmpliTube” in the name, and press play.

2. Load a Band-in-a-Box Style that is set to use AmpliTube. To find these, open the StylePicker, and type the word

“AmpliTube” in the search filter to find these styles.

3. Add it yourself to any song. First select a Guitar RealTracks that has Direct Input Guitar available (see the last

column of the RealTracks Picker for indication if Direct Input is available).

Tutorial Demo Songs – Direct Input Guitars and Amplitude

To see AmpliTube and the DI Guitars in action, open the C:\bb\Documentation\Tutorials\Tutorial - BB2012 folder.

This file automatically loads the DI version of the “PopShining” guitar soloist, and automatically applies the “Pop Rock Lead” AmpliTube preset:

_SHINAMP Demo (AmpliTube Demo using DI Guitar Soloist with Pop.SGU

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

name of the RealDrum style.

These files have 3 different DI instruments using AmpliTube, and show you the progression from the instruments as the used to sound, then with just the DI instruments swapped out, and then with AmpliTube presets applied to the different DI instruments:

_ELECROK Demo (Uses same styles as _ELECAMP, but with original amp sounds).SGU

_ELECAMP Demo (Uses ONLY DI guitars with no AmpliTube, for comparison).SGU

_ELECAMP Demo (AmpliTube demo using ElecRock RealTracks DI Guitars).SGU

When you play these songs, press the [Memo] button to read about the feature and the demo song.

To add a Direct Input Guitar to a song:

First select a Guitar RealTracks that has Direct Input Guitar available.

The last column of the RealTracks Picker indicates whether a “Direct Input” Clean Guitar option is available for that RealTracks. If it is, there is a “Y” in the Column. You can then select the “Use Direct Input” checkbox to make that RealTracks use a Direct Signal (clean, without processing).

Then, for that track select the Plugins tab on the mixer, and select AmpliTube as a plugin for that track. You can then play the song and tweak the settings in AmpliTube by clicking on the AmpliTube name on the Mixer.

When you save your Band-in-a-Box song, the settings will be saved with AmpliTube 3.

Technical Note on Direct Input RealTracks: The audio for the Direct Input files is located in the RealTracks folder, in a folder called “Direct Input.” If you look in this folder, you can see which Direct Input guitars that you have (as well as looking in the RealTracks Picker as described above).

Adding Real Instruments – RealDrums and RealTracks

Your songs, styles, and solos can use live audio tracks recorded by studio musicians. These live recordings can be assigned to the Band-in-a-Box tracks in the RealDrums Settings or RealTracks Settings dialogs.

RealDrums

There are several ways to hear RealDrums with new or existing Band-in-a-Box songs.

We provide many styles that already have RealDrums. These styles can be identified by the style name beginning with a minus sign. For example, “-ZZJAZZ.STY” is a version of the ZZJAZZ.STY that uses RealDrums.

Styles (.STY) can have RealDrums (e.g. “–ZZJAZZ.STY”). This setting is found in the StyleMaker’s Misc. Style Settings dialog.

You can set the RealDrum style inside the StyleMaker, by pressing the [Misc] button, and then typing the

RealDrums can be substituted for MIDI drums on existing styles in the RealDrums Settings dialog, which opens with Ctrl+click on the RealDrums toolbar button or with the [RealDrums] button in the Preferences dialog.

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100

like to assign to your song.

to choose RealDrums. In the RealDrums Picker, click on the [Choose from Favs] button to

With “Enable RealDrums” checked, RealDrums may be used rather than MIDI. There is also a

hot key combination to turn RealDrums on/off (Ctrl+Shift+F6). The hot keys also work while the song is playing.

This will substitute RealDrums for MIDI styles. You can change the setting from 1 to 5. If set to 1, almost all MIDI drums will get substituted by RealDrums. If set to 5, only RealDrum styles that match the style perfectly will get substituted.

Technical note: The text file a_pgmusic.ds provided by PG Music controls this, and users can make other files MySubs.ds if they make their own RealDrums styles.

Individual songs can have RealDrums assigned to them. You can set the desired style in the RealDrums Settings dialog with the “For this song only, use this RealDrum style” setting. This will let the current song use the specific RealDrums style.

The [RD] button opens the RealDrums Picker where you select the specific RealDrums style that you would

You can also open the RealDrums Picker directly from the toolbar with the RealDrums button.

Your recent RealDrums selections are saved, and available in the various dialogs that allow you

open a list of up to 400 most recent selections. Use the Filter String to narrow the selection by entering a term like “bossa” or “swing” to see only RealDrums with those words in the name.

Chapter 5: Playing Songs

PG Music Band-in-a-Box User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

PG Music Inc. License Agreement

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box®!

Installing Band-in-a-Box for Windows®

Minimum System Requirements

Installing the Program

Installing from the Downloaded Installer Files

Installing from the DVD

Installing from the USB Flash Drive

Installing from the USB Hard Drive

MIDI Setup

Output to Software Synthesizers (DXi and VSTi)

DirectX Instrument Synthesizer (DXi plug-in) Support

VSTi Instrument Synthesizer (VST plug-in)

Support for 64-bit VST Plugins using jBridge

VSTSynthFont64

Driver Latency

Alternate Patch Maps

General MIDI 2 (GM2) Support

Audio Setup

Windows® Audio Session (WAS)

ASIO Audio/Software Synth Drivers

Understanding Latency

Sample Rate Detection Warning

Chapter 2: QuickStart

Step 1 – Typing in the Chords

Enter Chords Using the Computer Keyboard

Enter Chords Using a MIDI Controller Keyboard

Step 2 – Choosing a Style

What’s a Style?

Opening a Style

Selecting a Style using the StylePicker

Step 3 – Play your song!

Framing the Song

Setting the Chorus

Setting the Key

Setting the Tempo

Shortcuts for song formatting

Press Play

More fun with Band-in-a-Box…

Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2020

Band-in-a-Box 2020 for Windows is here!

Band-in-a-Box 2020 Features and Additions

Summary of New Features

Introduction to Band-in-a-Box 2020

Feature Browser

“Find-a-Sub” RealTracks

MultiRiffs

RealTracks Thickening and Panning

Left-Handed and Student View Guitar Window

Equalize Audio Tempo

Built-in Audio Chord Wizard Enhancements

Selectable Render Bit Depth and Sample Rate

Drag and Drop from Mixer

Drag & Drop Files to Band-in-a-Box

SongPicker Enhancements

Bass/Drums or Drums only Auto-Intros

Custom style settings don’t interfere with song settings

Select “Best” RealTracks Dialog Enhancements

Drums Quicklist Dialog Enhancements

Artist Browser

Auto-updating for new content at bootup

Bar Settings (F5) dialog can change bars within the dialog

Enhanced Stretching and Audio Harmony

Song Titles Brower has 3,400 more titles

Auto-set key signature option and reminder

Notation Enhancements

MusicXML Enhancements

Improved note overlap removal, with option to specify channel match

Chapter 4: The Main Screen

Main Screen Overview

Status Bar

Track Buttons

Master Button Menu

Track Buttons Menu

Audio Track Button