PG Music Band in a Box - 2008.5 Windows Instruction Manual

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Version 2008.5 for Windows®

PG Music Inc. License Agreement

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

LICENSE

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

B.You may transfer the program and license to another party if the other party agrees to accept the terms of this Agreement. If you transfer the program, you must either transfer all copies, whether in printed or machine readable form, to the same party, or, destroy all copies not transferred. This includes all modifications and/or portions of the program merged into other programs.

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

D.The program (including any images, “applets,” photographs, animations, video, audio, music, and text incorporated into the program) is owned by PG Music Inc. or its suppliers, and is protected by international copyright laws and international treaty provisions.

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

LIMITATION OF REMEDIES

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

A.The replacement of any media not meeting PG Music Inc.'s “Limited Warranty,” which are returned to PG Music Inc., or an authorized PG Music Inc. dealer, with a copy of your receipt.

B.If PG Music Inc. or the authorized dealer is unable to deliver replacement media which is free of defects in materials or workmanship, you may terminate this agreement, and your money will be refunded.

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

TRADEMARKS

Band-in-a-Box®, CopyMe®, GuitarStar®, JazzU®, PG Music®, PowerTracks Pro®, and RealDrums® are the 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, Macintosh®, Mac®, Panther®, Power Mac®, QuickTime®, Tiger™, and TrueType® are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. IBM® is the registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. Roland® and “Roland” Logo, EDIROL® and “EDIROL” Logo, GS® and “GS” Logo, are registered trademarks and “MIDI2” Logo, EDIROL Virtual Sound Canvas Multi Pack, VSC-MP1™ are trademarks of Roland Corporation. ASIO is a trademark and software of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. VST is a trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. Other brands and their products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be noted as such.

PATENTS

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

Printed in Canada

2	PG Music Inc. License Agreement

Table of Contents
PG MUSIC INC. LICENSE AGREEMENT.............................................................................................................	2
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................................	3
CHAPTER 1: WELCOME TO BAND-IN-A-BOX!.................................................................................................	7
WHAT IS BAND-IN-A-BOX? ........................................................................................................................................	7
INSTALLING BAND-IN-A-BOX FOR WINDOWS ............................................................................................................	8
MIDI SETUP ...............................................................................................................................................................	8
AUDIO SETUP ...........................................................................................................................................................	14
CHAPTER 2: QUICKSTART..................................................................................................................................	17
STEP 1 – TYPING IN THE CHORDS .............................................................................................................................	17
STEP 2 – CHOOSING A STYLE....................................................................................................................................	20
STEP 3 – PLAY YOUR SONG!......................................................................................................................................	22
CHAPTER 3: BAND-IN-A-BOX 2008.5 .................................................................................................................	23
WELCOME TO BAND-IN-A-BOX 2008.5!...................................................................................................................	23
SUMMARY OF NEW FEATURES IN BAND-IN-A-BOX 2008 .........................................................................................	23
SUMMARY OF NEW FEATURES ADDED IN BAND-IN-A-BOX 2008.5..........................................................................	29
CHAPTER 4: THE MAIN SCREEN.......................................................................................................................	39
MAIN SCREEN OVERVIEW ........................................................................................................................................	39
STATUS BAR.............................................................................................................................................................	41
SYNTH WINDOW / PIANO KEYBOARD.......................................................................................................................	42
TITLE WINDOW ........................................................................................................................................................	48
CHORD SHEET AREA ................................................................................................................................................	50
CHAPTER 5: GUIDED TOUR OF BAND-IN-A-BOX .........................................................................................	53
LOADING AND PLAYING BAND-IN-A-BOX SONGS ....................................................................................................	53
THE CONDUCTOR WINDOW......................................................................................................................................	61
ADD REAL INSTRUMENTS – REALDRUMS AND REALTRACKS ..................................................................................	62
ADD A MELODY – MIDI AND/OR AUDIO ..................................................................................................................	64
ADD A SOLO - “THE SOLOIST”..................................................................................................................................	68
VIEW AND PRINT NOTATION ....................................................................................................................................	70
PIANO ROLL WINDOW..............................................................................................................................................	73
LEAD SHEET NOTATION WINDOW............................................................................................................................	81
THE GUITAR WINDOW .............................................................................................................................................	86
BIG PIANO WINDOW.................................................................................................................................................	90
PLAY THE JUKEBOX..................................................................................................................................................	91
IMPORT A MIDI FILE................................................................................................................................................	93
AUTOMATIC SONGS - “THE MELODIST” ...................................................................................................................	94
MAKE YOUR OWN SONGS ........................................................................................................................................	95
SAVING YOUR WORK .............................................................................................................................................	106
BURN YOUR OWN AUDIO-CD................................................................................................................................	108
CHAPTER 6: BAND-IN-A-BOX POWERGUIDE ..............................................................................................	110
OPENING FILES.......................................................................................................................................................	110
GLOBAL SONG OVERRIDES ....................................................................................................................................	113
CHORD ENTRY .......................................................................................................................................................	113
PART MARKERS AND SUBSTYLES...........................................................................................................................	119
REPEATS AND ENDINGS..........................................................................................................................................	119

Table of Contents

	PLAYING/PAUSING/STOPPING SONGS .....................................................................................................................	119
	ADDITIONAL PATCHES ...........................................................................................................................................	123
	CHANGING VOLUME, PANNING, REVERB, CHORUS, BANK.....................................................................................	126
	EDIT FUNCTIONS ....................................................................................................................................................	127
	APPLYING STYLES..................................................................................................................................................	138
	MULTISTYLES IN STYLES (“+” STYLES) .................................................................................................................	139
	MULTISTYLES IN SONGS ........................................................................................................................................	140
	REALDRUMS STYLES .............................................................................................................................................	147
	BREAKS - RESTS, SHOTS, AND HELD CHORDS ........................................................................................................	151
	SONG SETTINGS DIALOG ........................................................................................................................................	154
	SAVING SONGS .......................................................................................................................................................	157
	THE MEDLEY MAKER.............................................................................................................................................	164
	THE JUKEBOX.........................................................................................................................................................	165
	THE CONDUCTOR ...................................................................................................................................................	167
CHAPTER 7: NOTATION AND PRINTING ......................................................................................................		173
	STANDARD NOTATION WINDOW ............................................................................................................................	174
	EDITABLE NOTATION MODE ..................................................................................................................................	175
	STAFF ROLL NOTATION MODE...............................................................................................................................	181
	NOTATION WINDOW OPTIONS................................................................................................................................	182
	LEAD SHEET WINDOW ...........................................................................................................................................	191
	LYRICS ...................................................................................................................................................................	198
	PRINTING................................................................................................................................................................	204
CHAPTER 8: AUTOMATIC MUSIC FEATURES.............................................................................................		214
	AUTOMATIC MEDLEYS - “THE MEDLEY MAKER” ..................................................................................................	214
	AUTOMATIC SONGS – “THE MELODIST” ................................................................................................................	215
	AUTOMATIC SOUND TRACK GENERATOR - “SOUNDTRACK” .................................................................................	219
	AUTOMATIC SOLO GENERATION – “THE SOLOIST” ................................................................................................	221
	AUTO PIANO HAND-SPLITTING...............................................................................................................................	230
	AUTOMATIC GUITAR SOLOS – “THE GUITARIST”...................................................................................................	231
	AUTOMATIC EMBELLISHMENTS – “THE EMBELLISHER”.........................................................................................	234
CHAPTER 9: WORKING WITH MIDI...............................................................................................................		238
	RECORDING LIVE IN REAL TIME.............................................................................................................................	238
	ENTERING NOTES MANUALLY ...............................................................................................................................	239
	RECORDING WITH THE WIZARD FEATURE ..............................................................................................................	240
	MELODY/SOLOIST SEQUENCER ..............................................................................................................................	241
	IMPORT A BAND-IN-A-BOX SONG...........................................................................................................................	244
	IMPORTING MIDI FILES..........................................................................................................................................	244
	EDITING THE MELODY TRACK................................................................................................................................	246
CHAPTER 10: WORKING WITH AUDIO .........................................................................................................		252
	ABOUT BAND-IN-A-BOX AUDIO FILES ...................................................................................................................	252
	AUDIO TRACK ........................................................................................................................................................	252
	RECORD AUDIO ......................................................................................................................................................	254
	PLAYING THE AUDIO FILE ......................................................................................................................................	257
	EDIT THE AUDIO FILE.............................................................................................................................................	258
	AUDIO HARMONIES ................................................................................................................................................	259
	PITCH STYLES PRESET DETAILS (ONE PER VOICE) ..................................................................................................	264
	APPLYING AUDIO PLUG-INS ...................................................................................................................................	265
	REALTRACKS .........................................................................................................................................................	269
	WHAT ARE REALTRACKS? .....................................................................................................................................	269
	USING REALTRACKS IN SONGS ..............................................................................................................................	270
	RENDERING AUDIO FILES.......................................................................................................................................	274
	BURN YOUR OWN AUDIO-CD .................................................................................................................................	281
4	Table of Contents

CHAPTER 11: USER PROGRAMMABLE FUNCTIONS.................................................................................	285
THE STYLEMAKER .................................................................................................................................................	285
MAKING REALDRUMS STYLES...............................................................................................................................	322
THE HARMONY MAKER..........................................................................................................................................	342
THE SOLOIST MAKER .............................................................................................................................................	345
THE MELODIST MAKER..........................................................................................................................................	349
THE GUITARIST MAKER .........................................................................................................................................	351
CHAPTER 12: TUTORS, WIZARDS, AND PRACTICE AIDS ........................................................................	355
AUDIO CHORD WIZARD (“CHORDS FROM MP3”)...................................................................................................	355
MIDI FILE CHORD INTERPRETATION WIZARD .......................................................................................................	365
PRACTICE WINDOW................................................................................................................................................	371
EAR TRAINING TUTOR............................................................................................................................................	372
EAR TRAINING GAMES ...........................................................................................................................................	376
VOCAL WIZARD .....................................................................................................................................................	377
REHARMONIST (CHORDS FOR A MELODY)..............................................................................................................	380
CHORD SUBSTITUTION WIZARD .............................................................................................................................	382
CHORD BUILDER ....................................................................................................................................................	385
RHYTHM GUITAR CHORD TUTOR ...........................................................................................................................	385
CHORD “BREAKS”..................................................................................................................................................	387
MIDI FILE TO STYLE WIZARD................................................................................................................................	387
REPEATS AND ENDINGS WIZARD............................................................................................................................	392
CHAPTER 13: TOOLS AND UTILITIES............................................................................................................	396
FIND FILE ...............................................................................................................................................................	396
ROLAND VSC3 VIRTUAL SOUND CANVAS .............................................................................................................	397
TRANZPORT SUPPORT - WIRELESS REMOTE CONTROL ..........................................................................................	397
GUITAR TUNER.......................................................................................................................................................	399
DYNAMIC 3D DRUM KIT WINDOW.........................................................................................................................	400
MIDI MONITOR......................................................................................................................................................	403
SOUND BLASTER SUPPORT .....................................................................................................................................	406
EVENT LIST EDITOR ...............................................................................................................................................	406
PG VINYL DIRECTX PLUG-IN.................................................................................................................................	408
PG RTA DIRECTX PLUG-IN ...................................................................................................................................	412
PG VOCAL REMOVER PLUG-IN ..............................................................................................................................	413
CHAPTER 14: REFERENCE................................................................................................................................	415
BAND-IN-A-BOX MENU DESCRIPTIONS ..................................................................................................................	415
FILE MENU .............................................................................................................................................................	415
EDIT MENU ............................................................................................................................................................	419
STYLES MENU ........................................................................................................................................................	425
OPT. MENU.............................................................................................................................................................	427
PLAY MENU ...........................................................................................................................................................	465
LYRICS MENU ........................................................................................................................................................	467
MELODY MENU......................................................................................................................................................	469
SOLOIST MENU.......................................................................................................................................................	475
AUDIO MENU .........................................................................................................................................................	479
GM MENU..............................................................................................................................................................	482
HARMONY MENU ...................................................................................................................................................	485
NOTATION MENU ...................................................................................................................................................	487
WINDOW MENU .....................................................................................................................................................	488
HELP MENU............................................................................................................................................................	491
KEYSTROKE COMMANDS - HOT KEYS....................................................................................................................	494
CHORD LIST ...........................................................................................................................................................	497
BAND-IN-A-BOX FILES ...........................................................................................................................................	498
Table of Contents	5

PG MUSIC INC.......................................................................................................................................................	500
INDEX ......................................................................................................................................................................	501
PG MUSIC REGISTRATION FORM ..................................................................................................................	511
HOW TO REGISTER.................................................................................................................................................	511

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.

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 in a wide variety of popular styles.

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

Just type in the chords to any song (like C or Fm7b5), pick a musical style from the hundreds available, and click the [Play] button. Band-in-a-Box then automatically generates a full backing arrangement of piano, bass, drums, guitar, and strings plus optional live audio tracks with RealDrums and RealTracks.

And that’s not all...

Band-in-a-Box is a powerful and creative music composition tool for exploring and developing musical ideas with near-instantaneous feedback. Over the years many features have been added to Band-in-a-Box – Notation and Lyrics, Piano Roll, 16-channel MIDI Multitracks, Harmonization, the StyleMaker and StylePicker, a live performance Conductor window, Medley Maker, and 24 –substyle Multistyles. The Soloist and the Melodist are popular “intelligent” features that generate professional solos or even create whole new songs from scratch. RealDrums adds the human element of a live drummer while RealTracks add even more live session musicians, bringing the entire Band-in-a-Box arrangement to life. The Audio Chord Wizard has the amazing ability to analyze, extract, and show the chords from audio recordings 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 realistic vocal styles and up to sixteen choral parts.

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

You’ll have even more fun making automatic medleys, playing your favorite song lists in the Band-in-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. It includes information not found in the printed manual. To start, it describes the basic steps to get you making great music with Band-in-a-Box in a matter of minutes. We’ll 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® 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista.

-256 MB of available RAM.

-Digital audio features require a Pentium-class system.

-Minimum 400 MB available hard drive space. More space is required for RealDrums, about 1 GB per set.

-RealTracks (included with Band-in-a-Box) requires 2.5 GB of free hard disk space.

-Band-in-a-Box is fully functional with or without RealTracks and RealDrums.

-A MIDI sound source is required. This could be a sound card, a MIDI keyboard, MIDI sound module, or software synthesizer. The high quality Roland VSC-DXi software synthesizer is included with Band-in-a-Box.

Installing the Program

Use any of the following three methods to install the program files into the Band-in-a-Box directory. By default this directory is C:\bb; you may choose another location.

Method 1 – Auto Run.

1.Insert the program CD-ROM into the CD drive.

2.In a few seconds, a browser window will open with a list of the CD contents.

3.Double click on SETUP.EXE to run the installation program.

Method 2 – My Computer.

1.Insert the program CD-ROM into the CD drive.

2.Access your CD-ROM drive from the Windows desktop by double clicking on the My Computer icon.

3.Then, double-click on the CD-ROM drive icon and double-click again on the SETUP.EXE program found in the root or main folder of the CD-ROM.

Method 3 – Start Menu.

1.Insert the program CD-ROM into the CD drive.

2.From the Windows [Start] button select Run.

3.Type D:\SETUP in the “Open:” command line box. If your CD-ROM drive uses another drive letter type the appropriate letter, for example E:\SETUP.

4.If you don’t know the drive letter for your CD-ROM you can use the [Browse…] button to find it. SETUP.EXE will copy all of the program files to your Band-in-a-Box subdirectory (usually C:\bb) and install icons to a Band-in-a-Box program group. Click on the Band-in-a-Box icon or launch bbw.exe to open the program and configure the setup.

MIDI Setup

Band-in-a-Box uses the multimedia drivers for your MIDI interface and/or sound card that are supported by the Windows operating system. To get sound playback you need to have a MIDI (and audio - for songs with digital audio) driver installed.

To start using the program you will need to make sure that your MIDI interface, audio driver, and Windows sound source is installed and configured.

Run the program by double-clicking the program icon. The first dialog you should encounter is a MIDI Output Driver message similar to this one:

The program sets your initial MIDI output driver automatically. Note which driver has been selected and press [OK] to continue.

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

The next dialog you encounter is the MIDI Driver Setup.

If the driver that was selected is not the best choice, simply make an alternate selection from the MIDI Driver Setup dialog. Select a MIDI Output Driver to use for MIDI sound playback and optionally a MIDI Input Driver if you are using an external MIDI controller keyboard or guitar. If the setup is panned to mono, the program offers to change it to stereo.

Perhaps the easiest way to configure Band-in-a-Box is to press the [Run Driver Wizard..] button in the Opt. | MIDI driver setup window.

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.

DirectX Instrument Synthesizer (DXi plug-in) Support

Software synthesizers allow Band-in-a-Box to play high quality sounds directly through your computer sound card,

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

without requiring any external MIDI hardware. Most new software synthesizers are released as “DXi plug-ins,” so they will work in a standard way with many programs. Connecting Band-in-a-Box to the software synth as a plug-in provides several advantages over the previous method of connecting as a MIDI driver. The plug-in allows Band-in- a-Box to merge/synch in any existing audio file (vocals etc.) with the synth output. You can also directly render your performance to a .WAV file using the DXi plug-in. Sampler-based synths allow you to assemble a huge, customized library of instrument samples to use with Band-in-a-Box. Examples of popular DXi synths include the RolandED VSC-DXi and Coyote’s ForteDXi.

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

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

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

Check the Use DXi Synth checkbox to enable DXi playback. While using DXi or VSTi, all playback information is routed to the DXi/VSTi, including the option to route the THRU part from your MIDI keyboard to the DXi/VSTi synth.

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

To select the DXi synthesizer, click the [DXi Synth Settings] button, which will open the DirectX Plugins window.

The Synth Track tab edits Synthesizer settings, and the Audio Track tab edits Band- in-a-Box audio track DirectX plug-ins. Select your desired DXi synth in the top plug-in Insert Slot 1.

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

VST Instrument Synthesizer (VST plug-in)

To add VSTi synthesizer plug-ins, please make sure the Synth Track tab is selected, and use the plug-in menu on the top synthesizer slot.

VST plug-ins appear at the bottom of the plug-in list below the DirectX plug-ins. VST plug-ins and synthesizers have the text “<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 permanently added to the list. You only have to add each plug-in one time.

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

VST/VSTi Additional Panel Controls

VST is necessarily different from DirectX/DXi, and some extra controls are available for VST plug-ins. DirectX/DXi plug-ins save their presets to the Windows Registry and only one setting is “alive” at a time.

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

VST/VSTi plug-ins save their presets to disk files. VST/VSTi plug-ins contain a bank of presets in memory. You can switch between presets while editing, and each edited preset is remembered in the current bank. If you save the bank, it will save all the presets you have edited. You can save individual presets, or you can build a custom bank by loading individual preset files into different preset slots, and then save the new bank file.

Select Preset Menu

Select a preset. You can also use the small Right/Left arrow buttons to step forward/backwards through the presets one at a time, to audition each preset.

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

Rename Pst: Rename the currently selected Preset (in the plug-in's memory).

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

Load Preset: A Select Preset To Replace dialog appears where you should pick which preset in memory to replace. Then select the desired Preset file in the following File dialog.

Save Bank: Save a Bank file of all the current presets in the plug-in. VST/VSTi bank files use the “.fxb” extension.

Load Bank: Load an entire bank of presets. Different plug-ins have different bank sizes. One plug-in might contain 10 presets in a bank, but another plug-in might have 128 presets in a bank.

VST Generic User Interface

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

Parameter Name: Simply the name of each adjustable parameter. Value Slider: Move the slider to adjust the parameter value

Value Indication Text: Displays the value of the slider, as interpreted by the plug-in. In the above example, Parameter 0: Bright is interpreted as an ON/OFF switch, but Parameter 1: Volume is interpreted as a value from 0 to 10.

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

Options: Remove VST Plug-In (from list)

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

Driver Latency

Software synthesizers have some inherent latency, which is the delay between the time a note is played and it is processed by the computer. Older softsynths had noticeable latency, whereas a DXi synth using ASIO drivers has very little. This setting is used to synchronize the visual display (notation, chords, virtual piano etc.) with the sound you hear. Band-in-a-Box automatically sets the latency for DXi and some other softsynths.

The [Latency Adjust…] button opens the SoftSynth Latency Adjust dialog where you can manually adjust the latency.

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

Alternate Patch Maps

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

We have made preset drum/patch files for many synthesizers and sound cards including the Roland VSC and VSC DXi.

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

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

General MIDI 2 (GM2) Support

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

The choices are:

-General MIDI 2 support: If you're using the Roland VSC3, or a newer Sound Canvas (i.e. newer than 1999, or newer than the Roland SC88), then choose this GM2 support.

-Roland GS (older Modules): “Older” Sound Canvases (SC55/SC88) support GS, but not GM2. The good news is that they have the same patches available, just at different locations. So if you choose this option, Band-in-a-Box will find the patches at the “GS” locations instead of the “GM2” locations. If you have a newer GS module like the SC8820, it supports both GM2 and GS - you should likely choose GM2.

-No GM2 support: Some sound cards don't have GM2 support but they do support the original 128 General MIDI sounds. Band-in-a-Box will use the closest instrument in these cases.

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

Audio Setup

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

To restore or modify this set up click on the Preferences button and then select the [Audio] button to launch the Audio Settings dialog.

To reset the default MME driver settings click on [Get from soundcard…] and Band-in-a-Box will analyze the sound card and enter the correct audio settings.

If your computer has ASIO capability you can use these drivers instead of the default MME drivers.

ASIO Audio/Software Synth Drivers

By using an ASIO audio driver, software synths like the Roland VSC (DXi or VSC) will play with almost no latency (delay is only 5-10ms). So you’ll hear the sounds instantly, and be able to play along using MIDI Thru with the same ultra-low latency.

On the Preferences [Audio] tab, you’ll see the following options for “Audio Driver Type,” MME or ASIO.

MME is the default Windows audio driver type. MME is good, but there is latency (delay) associated with MME drivers.

For this reason, Steinberg developed a faster type of audio driver system, called ASIO. It allows for much lower latency than ordinary MME drivers do.

Note: Many OEM or value sound cards do not include an ASIO driver, so you may not have an ASIO driver yet. In this case, you’ll need to get an ASIO driver from the Internet.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Show Warning for Untested Soundcard Formats is an optional setting that shows a warning if your ASIO driver format has not been tested in Band-in-a-Box. This message does not necessarily mean your driver will not work, and it can be disabled if you want.

The Driver Info field shows various characteristics of your driver. The Name is the driver’s name.

The Version is the version number of your driver.

Input Channels is the total number of mono input channels that your sound card has. (Note: Band-in-a-Box groups each into a stereo pair.)

Output Channels is the total number of mono output channels that your sound card has. (Note: Band-in-a-Box groups each port into a stereo pair.)

The Allowed Sample Rates field shows the sample rates are allowed by your sound card’s ASIO driver. Band-in-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, then the latency would be 100ms. If the buffer size were 2400 samples, which is 1/20 second, the latency would be 50 ms. If the buffer size were 240 samples, which is 1/200 second, the latency would be a mere 5ms which is incredibly low and very fast.

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

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

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

Now you’re ready to have fun with Band-in-a-Box!

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

Chapter 2: QuickStart

Creating music with Band-in-a-Box is as easy as 1-2-3! In this chapter, you’ll see how easy it is to get started with Band-in-a-Box.

Step 1 – Typing in the Chords

There are numerous ways of entering chords into Band-in-a-Box, we’ll discuss six of them:

1.Using the computer keyboard.

2.Playing directly on a MIDI controller keyboard.

3.Using the Chord Builder feature.

4.Importing chords from a MIDI file.

5.Importing chords from an audio file (WAV, MP3, WMA, WMV) with the Audio Chord Wizard.

6.Loading an Existing Band-in-a-Box format song.

On the main screen of the program, you’ll see an area called the chord sheet.

Band-in-a-Box main screen showing 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 select a specific bar using 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 any of

Chapter 2: QuickStart

the supported chord symbol display formats like Roman Numerals, Nashville Notation, Solfeggio, and Fixed Do (popular in Italy and other parts of 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’ll see this window:

When you play chords, Band-in-a-Box shows you the chord name and suggests alternates that you can choose from. Typing Ctrl+Enter enters the first selection, and advances the highlight cell by ½ bar.

Enter Chords Using the Chord Builder

Press the Chord Builder button. This opens the Chord Builder dialog with a list of chord roots and their extensions.

To enter a chord at the current bar, select the chord root from the left pane, and then the extension on the right pane. Pressing [Enter Chord] or using the arrow keys will enter the chord and advance the highlight cell to the next half bar.

Import Chords from a MIDI File

You can have Band-in-a-Box import chords from an existing MIDI file. Choose Import Chords from MIDI File on the File menu.

When the dialog opens, press the [Open (Change)…] button to choose a MIDI file that you want Band-in-a-Box to interpret the chords from. To help Band-in-a-Box interpret the chords better, you should choose a genre (Preset) for the song. Choose from among such genres as Pop, Rock, or Jazz Standard.

Tip: It helps if you’ve previously listened to the MIDI file, in order that you can choose a genre most appropriate to the song.

18	Chapter 2: QuickStart

PG Music Band in a Box - 2008.5 Windows Instruction Manual

Import Chords from the Audio Chord Wizard

The Audio Chord Wizard is the amazing feature that automatically figures out the chords from MP3 files (or other audio files like WAV, WMA, and audio CD etc.).

Chapter 2: QuickStart

You can make adjustments for the start of bar 1 and individual bar lines and also mark sections of the song using part markers, and the sections will begin on a new line with a line space between so they are clearly seen. Then send the chords

to Band-in-a-Box where you can make your own arrangement, tranpose it to your key, and print out your own lead sheet for the song with chords, melody, and lyrics.

Loading an existing Band-in-a-Box format Song

Press the [Song] button to launch the SongPicker, which lists up to 10,000 songs in any folder. Songs can be sorted and filtered by various criteria such as alphabetically, by title or by style.

The first time you use this button, Band-in-a-Box will offer to build a song list for you. We’ve included many demonstration songs; they are listed in the song list.

You could also load a pre-existing song by using the File | Open menu item, or by typing [F3], which will launch the BB File open dialog. Songs usually load a Style, which we’ll learn about in the next section.

Step 2 – Choosing a Style

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

What’s a Style?

A style is a set of rules that determine how Band-in-a-Box creates music using your chords. By adjusting the rules, we have created hundreds of styles for everything from Country to Bebop, such as Jazz Swing, Blues Shuffle, Hip Hop, Country 4/4, Pop Ballad, Waltz, and Medium Rock to name just a few. If you don’t find a pre-made style that suits your tastes, create one from scratch using the StyleMaker. There’s a “how-to” section on custom Styles in this manual.

Four Fast Ways To Pick A Style Method 1:

The StylePicker window assists your selection with its categorized list, detailed descriptions, preview, search, and filter features. Select the [Style] button or type Ctrl+F9 on your computer.

20	Chapter 2: QuickStart

Select a Set or genre from the left pane, and choose the specific style on the right pane. There are Memos and examples for each of the Styles.

In addition to the selection categories, styles can be filtered by “feel” and “tempo.” They can also be selected by the number of the styles set.

Method 2:

To make a quick selection, go to the Styles menu and choose from among the 24 “built-in” generic styles. This list provides a convenient way to choose from among the most popular music genres.

Method 3: Styles that you’ve used previously show up in the Favorite Styles dialog. Choose this with the [F] button next to the [Style] button in the song title window, from the Styles menu, or type Shift+F9 on your computer keyboard.

You can choose to save a Favorites set for use later. You can also load a set of favorite styles in this manner.

Method 4:

To open a user style from disk, you can just type the F9 key. You will be presented with an Open File dialog from which you can select a specific style. Alternately you can select the Styles menu item Open a User Style from disk.

Chapter 2: QuickStart

Step 3 – Play your song!

You’ve entered chords on the chord sheet and chosen a style. Now it’s time to play the song! You’ll need to tell Band-in-a-Box how long your song is, how many times to play it through, in what key, and how fast.

Framing the Song

To tell Band-in-a-Box where to start and end the song, take a look at the middle of the main screen.

Locate the framing buttons. There are three of them, one each for Beginning of Chorus, End of Chorus, and Number of Choruses. In the example above, the chorus starts at bar 1, ends on bar 32, and is going to play 3 times.

Setting the Key

In the example above the key is set to C. However, you can set this to any key. In our first view of the chord sheet the Blues song was in the key of E. If you do change the key, Band-in-a-Box will offer to transpose the chord sheet for you.

Setting the Tempo

If you know the tempo value of your song, you can enter it in the tempo box. The song example above has a tempo of 120. There is an even faster way to enter a tempo. Locate the minus sign key [-] and the equal sign key [=] in the number row of your computer keyboard, they are usually next to each other. If you tap the minus sign key 4 times at your tempo, Band-in-a-Box will set the tempo automatically for you. If you tap the equal sign key four times, Band- in-a-Box will set the tempo and begin song playback at the tempo you tapped.

More fun with Band-in-a-Box…

That’s how easy it is to start creating music with Band-in-a-Box. Band-in-a-Box has many more features and user options, which are discussed in later chapters. Have fun making music with Band-in-a-Box!

22	Chapter 2: QuickStart

Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2008.5

Welcome to Band-in-a-Box 2008.5!

Over 80 new features!

Band-in-a-Box 2008 introduced 50 cool new features, and now we’ve added 30 more with Band-in-a-Box 2008.5! Read on to discover the exciting new developments in Band-in-a-Box 2008, and then please keep on reading to see what’s been added in the free update to version 2008.5.

There are some exciting new features in Band-in-a-Box. We've added RealTracks - these are audio instruments that replace the MIDI track with actual recordings of top studio Jazz/Rock/Country musicians! These are not “samples” of single instrument hits; they are full recordings, lasting from 1 to 8 bars at a time, playing along in perfect sync with the other Band-in-a-Box tracks. We’ve made the following RealTracks – RealPedalSteel, RealSax, and RealAcousticGuitar – with more on the way. For example, choose a Country MIDI style that includes RealPedalSteel, and you will now hear a studio pedal steel player, exactly as you'd hear if he was in the room with you. The results are dramatically better than MIDI. They sound like real musicians, because they are recordings of real musicians. And we’ve added MultiStyles to Band-in-a-Box. No longer are you limited to 2 substyles, styles can now have up to 24 substyles in a song, easily selectable using letters A to ‘x’. Our newest styles sets are now MultiStyles, typically with 4 substyles per song (First Verse, Verse, Chorus, and Break) or easily make your own. And we've made big improvements to the amazing “Chords from MP3” feature (Audio Chord Wizard). This feature automatically figures out the chords from any MP3, WAV, or WMA audio file, and displays them in Band-in-a-Box. We’ve added a Chord Sheet window to the Audio Chord Wizard, so you can see the whole song at a glance, and jump around to where you want by clicking on the chord sheet. Other Audio Chord Wizard improvements include part markers, section paragraphs (to align new sections to a new line), chord editing and more. Change key signatures at any bar. GUI has been enhanced - support for Windows themes, section paragraphs, drag- and-drop copying of sections or selected regions. Load Karaoke MP3/CDG files to see scrolling Karaoke lyrics in the CDG Window. Use the Medley Maker to quickly make a medley of your favorite songs, including automatically generated transition chords/bars between the medleys to smooth out transition between styles, tempos, and keys. RealDrums have been enhanced, with RealDrums style changes at any bar, RealDrums intelligent menu in StylePicker, support for multiple Artists playing same-named style, “Cycling” through new drum grooves every part marker. StylePicker is enhanced, and auto-scans your BB folder to find any styles that you have made or added. And many more!

Summary of New Features in Band-in-a-Box 2008

The new features in Band-in-a-Box 2008 for Windows are...

RealTracks

With the previous release of Band-in-a-Box, we added RealDrums. Now we’ve added three additional “Real” instruments, including Real Pedal Steel, Real Acoustic Guitar, and Tenor Sax soloing (RealSax). These tracks replace the MIDI track for that instrument, and can be controlled just like the MIDI instrument (volume changes, muting etc.). Best of all, they follow the chord progression that you have entered, so that you hear an authentic audio accompaniment to your song. These are not “samples,” but are full recordings, lasting from 1 to 8 bars at a time, playing along in perfect sync with the other Band-in-a-Box tracks. RealTracks can be built in to the style, replacing the Bass, Guitar, Piano, or Strings part, or they can be generated to the Soloist (or Melody) track using the Soloist feature.

MultiStyles

We’ve added MultiStyles to Band-in-a-Box. These are styles that can have up to 24 substyles! Previous Band-in-a-Box styles had 2 substyles (A and B). Now, for example, a MultiStyle with 4 substyles (First Verse, Verse, Chorus, Break) can be used, and you can select the various sections using a/b/c/d part markers. Our newest styles sets are MultiStyles, typically with 4 substyles, but some Techno styles have 24 substyles. You can easily

Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2008.5

make your own MultiStyles from scratch or by combining parts from existing styles into a MultiStyle. For example, if you have 10 favorite Country styles, you can quickly make them into a single MultiStyle that has 20 substyles available within the same song.

Medley Maker

Would you like to make a medley of various Band-in-a-Box songs (MGU) using Band-in- a-Box? This is easily done with the new Medley Maker. Inside the Medley Maker, simply select the songs that you want, and Band-in-a-Box will make the medley for you. A medley is not simply joining songs together. A good medley uses a “transition” area between songs, to introduce the new style, key, and tempo. The Medley Maker automatically creates a nice transition area for you, writing in chords that would smoothly modulate to the next song, style, key, and tempo!

Audio Chord Wizard Enhancements

The Audio Chord Wizard is the amazing feature that automatically figures out the chords from MP3 files (or other audio files like WAV, WMA, and audio CD etc.). Using the Audio Chord Wizard is a great way to learn and practice popular songs as you play along and see the chords.

We’ve added a Chord Sheet window in the Audio Chord Wizard that shows the chords for the whole song on a single screen. This allows you to click on a bar on the chord sheet to jump to that area of the song.

You can mark sections of the song using part markers, and the sections will begin on a new line with a line space between so they are clearly seen. So you can then also learn the form of the song, as you can see the various sections (intro/verse/chorus/break) at a glance, or quickly jump to the any section simply by double clicking on that part of the chord sheet.

RealDrums Enhancements

The RealDrums feature replaces MIDI drums with audio drums.

- You can now have style changes--multiple RealDrums styles within a song-- either using the RealDrums from a Band-in-a-Box style or specifying a specific RealDrums style to use at a bar.

24	Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2008.5

- We have “artist” support. This allows you to choose among different drummers playing the same style. For example, we have multiple artists playing the “JazzBrushes” style. You can set Band-in-a-Box to choose a different artist with each play, or always choose a specific artist.

- You can now select RealDrums styles within the StylePicker. Highlight a MIDI style that you like, and press the RealDrums [Best] button, to see a list of the most compatible RealDrums styles for that style, or the [RealDrums] button to select from all available RealDrums.

- There is also a hot key combination to turn RealDrums on/off (Ctrl+Shift+F6). This also works while the song is playing.

StyleMaker Enhancements.

- Long Style Name can be stored in the style (up to 32 characters), and this will appear on screen and in StylePicker.

-Style Log options. For people making styles, this text files shows exactly which pattern was used in the song generation for every instrument and bar/beat. Useful in fixing errant patterns.

Styles can now contain RealTracks.

Styles can now use MIDI soloists. For example, make a style with a banjo part that has the same quality as the Band-in-a-Box Banjo soloist.

-Feature added to turn embellishment on/off for entire style.

-Style Flipping; convert “a” section to “b” and vice versa.

StylePicker enhancements

-StylePicker categories/subcategories redesigned, with new categories for Blues, Country (6 types), Jazz (9 types), and many more.

-Do you have styles that don’t appear in the StylePicker (because you’ve just made them, or got them from a 3rd party)? Now the StylePicker will automatically find those styles and add them to your list in an “Other Styles” category. The information regarding style name, Even/Swing, 8ths/16ths, and time signature are filled in for you.

Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2008.5

- Long style names appear on the main chord sheet screen beside the short style name

- You can also specify a long style name (up to 32 characters) when saving a style from the StyleMaker or Hybrid style, and the 32 character name will appear in the StylePicker and on screen.

-RealDrums selection can now be made from the StylePicker.

-Support for up to 20,000 entries in the StylePicker.

Notation Window Enhancements

-New feature (confirmation dialog) to prevent accidental entry of a duplicate note (same pitch near same time).

-New feature (confirmation dialog) to prevent accidental entry of a very high or very low note (large # of ledger lines).

Bar Number options

-Setting for bar # size on notation, lead sheet, and printout.

-Bar # options to include bar # on lead sheet and printout (e.g., every bar, every part marker, every row, every page).

-Option to include substyle name when printing out - a, b, c, d, etc.

-Bar # offset for printout and lead sheet.

Other improvements

Other improvements include chord editing, and much more.

Chord Editing (in-place entry/editing)

26	Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2008.5

Press Ctrl+F2 or right click on a chord, and an Edit control allows you to see and edit the current chords.

Change of Key Signature at any Bar. Previous versions of Band-in-a-Box were limited to one key, now you can have multiple keys in a song. The new key signature is shown on notation.

The GUI has been enhanced. There is support for Windows “Themes.” Band-in-a-Box will use the current them that you have selected in Windows Control Panel to use for windows and dialogs.

Copying of sections or selections can be done using drag-and-drop, simply drag regions around the chord sheet to quickly rearrange your song. Hold down the Ctrl key for finer control about insert/overwrite options etc.

Section Paragraphs. When you’re reading a book, a new section begins on a new line, with space between. Now we’ve done 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. For example, if you have a song with a 7-bar section, followed by 8-bar sections, the previous version of Band-in-a-Box wouldn’t start the other sections on a new line. The result was that it was hard to delineate the sections, as if an entire story was told within one paragraph. With the Section Paragraphs feature you’ll see each section on a new line so that the form of the lead sheet is easier to see. The feature is configurable and optional.

Import Song. Easily import part or all of an existing Band-in-a-Box song to your current song, with options to specify source and destination range, type of information to import (chords, melody, lyrics, etc.), and more.

Karaoke MP3/CDG Files. Audio Karaoke files are popular using several formats. The most common is CDG format, which includes the lyrics in graphical format on audio CDs. Since the computer user doesn’t typically use audio CDs, there is now a format that combines MP3 (containing the music) and CDG (the graphical lyrics). Now you can open up MP3/CDG files inside Band-in-a-Box and see the scrolling lyrics from your Karaoke files. Best of all, you can use the Audio Chord Wizard to figure out the chords as well, making Band-in-a-Box a great choice to play your Karaoke files!

File-Open now shows and opens all available file types (MGU, WAV, WMA, MP3, MID, KAR, CDG, and CDA). And it remembers your preference, so you can restrict it to a certain file type. For example, 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.

Style Wizard enhanced. The Style Wizard converts a MIDI file to a style. Now you can also use Chord masks so that specific patterns over chords will get added to your style, and they will play exactly as in your MIDI file (just transposed).

“Fixed Do” Chord Entry and Display. In Italy and other parts of Europe, chords like C7 are always referred to by the Solfeggio name (“Do 7” for C7) regardless of the key signature.

Band-in-a-Box now supports chord entry and display using “Fixed Do” (in addition to the Normal, Solfeggio, Nashville, and Roman numeral types.

Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2008.5

Changes at any Bar (F5) can now specify a chorus.

Previously, any changes at a bar would apply for every chorus. Now you can specify the change to happen for every chorus and/or a specific chorus. This applies to bar settings like tempo changes, style changes, RealDrums changes, patch changes, volume changes, and harmony changes.

Other Features

Find File. So many files, so little time? This feature is a “Swiss Army Knife” that allows you to find a Band-in-a- Box song (or any file that Band-in-a-Box can open), including filtering by words found in file name or any text in the file.

Example Find File uses: You can

-get a listing of all Band-in-a-Box songs on your PC with the word “Blues” in the title.

-get a listing of all Band-in-a-Box songs in the BB folder with the word “Reggae” in them. This produces a list of over 50 songs in the MegaPAK so you can quickly choose from them and know that, if you’re a reggae lover, you haven’t missed out on any Band-in-a-Box songs/styles with Reggae. A similar listing for “Blues” reports 454 files.

The listing stays between sessions, so you can then take your time to explore all the files that Band-in-a-Box offers matching your find term.

Fade Out Song.

You can now quickly choose a fadeout ending, just press the [Fade] button in Song Settings, and Band-in-a-Box will

fadeout the last “x” bars of the song (you can specify how many bars). Or customize the fadeout with precise values for each bar.

Tempo is set based on Style when choosing File | New. Instead of always resetting to tempo=140, the tempo is now the best tempo for the current style.

Improved Enharmonics on slash chords. For example, a chord like Gm7b5/Db will display correctly using a Db instead of a Gm7b5/C#, since Band-in-a-Box now bases it on a Gm scale.

MIDI files now read in Section Markers and show them as part markers.

Audition Styles. In the Edit Settings for Bar dialog (F5) and others you can now audition the style that you are considering.

SongPicker dialog – new options added for

-Find File.

-File Open (all types).

-And Favorite song dialog.

-“BB” button that changes the current folder to the BB folder.

Audio Batch render.

-Option added to reset the DXi synth after each render. This insures that no audio (stuck notes etc.) from previous file is retained.

-Cancel button for the Audio Batch added.

On-screen display of file name includes “*” when file has been changed.

Double Lines || drawn on chord sheet at bar before a part marker.

…and many more!

28	Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2008.5

Summary of New Features Added in Band-in-a-Box 2008.5

This version has over thirty-five improvements, primarily to the area of RealTracks. And we have forty-four new RealTracks available to add to the previous three released with Band-in-a-Box 2008.

The new RealTracks include Acoustic and Electric Bass (8), Fiddle (1), Guitar Fingerpicking (5), Guitar Strumming (9), Metal Guitar comping (3), Electric Guitar (11), Resonator Guitar (2), Slide Guitar (2), Pedal Steel (4), and Sax

(3). These RealTracks are usable for background accompaniment or soloing.

These include diverse RealTracks for Country, Jazz, Pop, and Hard Rock. Examples are Jazz Acoustic Bass, Country Guitar Soloing, Motown Sax, Metal Guitar comping and soloing, plus great Country sounds including Resonator Guitar, pedal steel, slide guitar, fiddle and more!

In addition to the new RealTracks, there are thirty-five new features in Band-in-a-Box 2008.5, that will make your existing RealDrums and Realtracks work faster, better, and use much less hard drive space!

Here are the new features:

Faster Generation of RealTracks. The time it takes to generate RealTracks is now three times as fast.

“Waveless” and much smaller in size, version 2008.5 uses 1/8 of the hard drive space compared to2008!

RealTracks and RealDrums no longer need WAV files – they can use WMA natively. This frees up huge amounts of your hard drive, so that the RealDrums and RealTracks take up only 1 /8 of the space that they used to take! The handy “Archive” function will remove the no-longer-needed WAV files with a single-click. This means that the new version uses up much less hard drive space than previous versions.

Tempo stretching quality enhancements. Now the RealTracks sound great over a much wider tempo range, typically -15 and +40 beats per minute from their original tempo.

Stereo panning is now available for the RealTracks.

Automatic prevention of audio clipping. (New Float mixing and Peak Limiter added.)

RealStyles™ available - these are styles that include all “Real Instruments,” with no MIDI. Up to 7 Real Instruments all at once in a single style!

Improved transitions for RealTracks eliminating Pops/Clicks.

Right click menu is available for each part in Band-in-a-Box (bass, drums, piano, guitar, strings), allowing you to quickly assign RealTracks, (or RealDrums) to that part along with other functions like mute, solo, save single track, etc.

RealTracks browser dialog shows comprehensive information about the RealTracks, including name, genre, feel, tempo, type, demos, and preview. Lists can be sorted or filtered by any column.

Easily save a style (.STY) with RealTracks, directly from the main screen (“save what you hear” as a style). RealTracks Rests and Shots. RealTracks work for rests and shots.

Endings are now present in RealTracks.

Name of RealTracks or RealDrums display at the top of the screen for each part.

Save Single Track. Right click on a part to save that single track to disk as a WAV file.

RealTracks demos now present in RealTracks – demos folder, and can be opened from the StylePicker. RealTracks Preview function to hear how a RealTracks will sound, without losing your current song.

Time Shift RealTracks. Ability to time shift a RealTracks by certain amount, to achieve more laid-back playing for example.

Variations of RealTracks can be made, for things like a simpler type of soloing, or certain variations.

RealTracks can have multiple substyles. For example, the Jazz Acoustic Bass plays “2”’ feel in “a” substyle, and “4” in “b” section.

Soloists can solo over different chords than the chords of the song. For example, the Metal Guitar Soloist can have a tonal center controlled by the user, different than the song chords. So that the Metal Guitar can be soloing over a G chord, while the chords of the song are G F G Bb, for example.

Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2008.5

“Crescendo” Soloing can be generated for some RealTracks that have the intensity of the solo building up with the flashiest part of the solos played as the solo builds.

Musicality of the solo phrasing improved, phrasing much closer to human.

RealTracks button added to Soloist dialog, with color coding to allow quick access to RealTracks.

RealTracks folders now have descriptive names. Instead of cryptic names like RacG001, they have names like “Guitar, Electric, Soloist Cowboy Ev 165”

Bass track can now play RealTracks.

StyleMaker lists RealTracks names on the main screen.

Non English versions will work with the newest RealTracks without a new translation of the Soloist list (Default.SOL file).

Archive and Install WAV buttons to control the use of the WAV files for RealDrums and RealTracks. WAV files are no longer needed as the program can use the much smaller WMA files. If you prefer to use WAV files (slightly higher fidelity and slightly faster operation), these commands provide the option to install or archive the WAV files on a global or folder by folder basis.

…and more!

Nine Sets of RealTracks

The Band-in-a-Box 2008 release included three RealTracks. Now there are forty-four more RealTracks instruments in nine different sets.

RealTracks Set 1: The Originals, New and Improved

Improved versions of the three original RealTracks – RealSax, Pedal Steel, and Acoustic Guitar.

RealTracks Set 2: Country Ballad

Acoustic guitar, both strumming and fingerpicking, a beautiful "spacey" electric guitar with delay effects, as well as a sweet pedal steel part and a RealBass.

RealTracks Set 3: Swingin' Country

Two Swing RealPedalSteel styles and five Swing 8ths acoustic guitar RealTracks, including both strumming and fingerpicking.

RealTracks Set 4: Modern Country

Rock, Pop, Folk and Country with RealResonatorGuitar, RealAcousticGuitar & RealBass plus a modern syncopated groove that includes both acoustic & electric guitars.

RealTracks Set 5: Rockin Guitar

Smokin' Rock & Country Rock rhythm guitar grooves, as well as slide guitar soloists and R&B RealBass.

RealTracks Set 6: All Metal

Three different tempos of killer Metal rhythm guitar parts and totally tight bass parts plus the RockHardEven8 RealDrums style.

RealTracks Set 7: Acoustic Jazz Bass and Rock Sax

RealDoubleBass with either the straight-ahead, fluid approach of our PaulC bass style, or the aggressive approach of our RayB style. Also in this set is the "Motown Rock" sax soloist.

RealTracks Set 8: Country Folk

Resonator Guitar, sweet RealFiddle, and basic acoustic guitar strumming patterns.

RealTracks Set 9: Country Electric Guitar

Great Country guitar grooves and soloists played by top Nashville session musicians. Included are two rhythm guitar parts, "Cowboy," which is a true classic country groove, and "Train," which is a fast train-beat groove.

30	Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2008.5

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