PG Music Band in a Box - 2010.5 Windows User Guide
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© Copyright PG Music Inc.1989-2010. All rights reserved.
PG Music Inc. License Agreement
CAREFULLY READ THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS BEFORE COMPLETING THE
INSTALLATION OF THIS SOFTWARE. USAGE OF THE SOFTWARE INDICATES YOUR ACCEPTANCE
OF THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS.
LICENSE
A. The program may only be used on a single machine.
B. You may transfer the program and license to another party if the other party agrees to accept the terms of this
Agreement. If you transfer the program, you must either transfer all copies, whether in printed or machine
readable form, to the same party, or, destroy all copies not transferred. This includes all modifications and/or
portions of the program merged into othe r pr og rams.
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 portio n of the program, in
whole or in part, except as expressly provided for in this license. If you transfer possession of any copy,
modification or merged portion of the program to another party, your license is automatically terminated.
LIMITATION OF REMEDIES
PG Music Inc.'s entire liability and your exclusive remedy shall be:
A. The replacement of any media not meeting PG Music Inc.'s “Limited Warranty,” which are returned to PG
Music Inc., or an authorized PG Music Inc. dealer, with a copy of your receipt.
B. If PG Music Inc. or the authorized dealer is unable to deliver replacement media which is free of defects in
materials or workmanship, you may terminate this agreement, and your money will be refunded.
In no event will PG Music Inc. be liable to you for any damages, including but not limited to lost profits, lost
savings, or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use or the inability to use such program,
even if PG Music Inc. or an authorized PG Music Inc. dealer has been advised of the possibility of such damages, or
for any claim by any other party.
TRADEMARKS
Band-in-a-Box®, Band-in-a-Box for Bozos®, CloudTracks™, CopyMe®, GuitarStar®, JazzU®, PG Music®,
PowerTracks Pro®, RealBand®, RealDrums®, RealSolos
registered trademarks of PG Music Inc. in the United States, Canada, and other countries. Microsoft® and
Windows® are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or
other countries. Apple®, the Apple logo, Leopard®, Macintosh®, Mac®, Panther®, Power Mac®, QuickTime®,
Tiger™, and TrueType® are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. IBM®
is the registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. Roland® and “Roland”
Logo, EDIROL® and “EDIROL” Logo, GS® and “GS” Logo, are registered trademarks and “MIDI2” Logo,
EDIROL Virtual Sound Canvas Multi Pack, VSC-MP1™ are trademarks of Roland Corporation. ASIO is a
trademark and software of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. VST is a trademark of Steinberg Media
Technologies GmbH. Other brands and their products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective
holders and should be noted as such.
Band-in-a-Box is protected under US Patent 5990407. The TC-Helicon Harmony feature in Ban d-in-a-Box and
PowerTracks Pro Audio is protected under US Patents 5567901, 564 1926, 5986198, 34583, 296.80.173.9,
PI9603819.5, 0368046, 0750776, 6,046,395, and patents pending.
Printed in Canada
®, and RealTracks® are either the trademarks or
PATENTS
2
PG Music Inc. License Agreement
Table of Contents
PG MUSIC INC. LICENSE AGREEMENT.............................................................................................................2
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................................3
CHAPTER 1: WELCOME TO BAND-IN-A-BOX!...............................................................................................12
WHAT IS BAND-IN-A-BOX?......................................................................................................................................12
INSTALLING BAND-IN-A-BOX FOR WINDOWS ..........................................................................................................13
Minimum System Requirements...........................................................................................................................13
Installing the Program.........................................................................................................................................13
Band-in-a-Box External Hard Drives..................................................................................................................13
MIDI SETUP.............................................................................................................................................................14
Output to Software Synthesizers (DXi and VSTi).................................................................................................15
AUDIO SETUP ...........................................................................................................................................................19
ASIO Audio/Software Synth Drivers....................................................................................................................19
Understanding Latency........................................................................................................................................21
CHAPTER 2: QUICKSTART..................................................................................................................................23
STEP 1 – TYPING IN THE CHORDS .............................................................................................................................23
STEP 2 – CHOOSING A STYLE....................................................................................................................................26
STEP 3 – PLAY YOUR SONG!......................................................................................................................................28
CHAPTER 3: BAND-IN-A-BOX 2010.5 .................................................................................................................29
WELCOME TO BAND-IN-A-BOX 2010.5 ....................................................................................................................29
40 New Features!.................................................................................................................................................29
NEW FEATURES INCLUDED IN BAND-IN-A-BOX 2010...............................................................................................30
Band-in-a-Box 2010 added over 50 cool new features!.......................................................................................30
THE DETAILS............................................................................................................................................................31
MORE NEW REALTRACKS........................................................................................................................................32
RealTracks Sets 83 - 101 .....................................................................................................................................32
QUICKSTART TUTORIAL FOR THE VERSION 2010 AND 2010.5 NEW FEATURES........................................................36
Quick Song Settings............................................................................................................................................. 36
Quick-Load Songs and Styles .............................................................................................................................. 36
Easy Big Lyrics Display.......................................................................................................................................36
Improved Audio Rendering..................................................................................................................................36
DAW Plug-in Mode..............................................................................................................................................36
Freeze Tracks ......................................................................................................................................................37
RealTracks Enhancements...................................................................................................................................38
Audio Reverb .......................................................................................................................................................39
Rendering Tracks.................................................................................................................................................40
New Favorite Songs/Styles Dialog ......................................................................................................................41
StylePicker Enhancements...................................................................................................................................42
Lyrics Enhancements...........................................................................................................................................43
CHAPTER 4: THE MAIN SCREEN.......................................................................................................................45
MAIN SCREEN OVERVIEW ........................................................................................................................................45
Personalizing the Main Screen............................................................................................................................46
Descriptive Hints.................................................................................................................................................47
Options and Utilities............................................................................................................................................48
STATUS BAR.............................................................................................................................................................48
SYNTH WINDOW / PIANO KEYBOARD.......................................................................................................................48
Toolbars...............................................................................................................................................................52
Table of Contents
3
Floating Toolbars................................................................................................................................................54
TITLE WINDOW ........................................................................................................................................................56
CHORDSHEET AREA .................................................................................................................................................58
Chord Entry.........................................................................................................................................................59
Chordsheet Options.............................................................................................................................................60
Part Markers........................................................................................................................................................61
MultiStyles...........................................................................................................................................................61
Play Selected Area as a Loop..............................................................................................................................61
CHAPTER 5: PLAYING SONGS IN BAND-IN-A-BOX ......................................................................................63
OPENING FILES.........................................................................................................................................................63
Find File..............................................................................................................................................................63
File Associations..................................................................................................................................................64
Open File Dialog.................................................................................................................................................64
Custom File Selection Dialog..............................................................................................................................64
Favorite Songs (and Styles).................................................................................................................................65
GLOBAL SONG OVERRIDES ......................................................................................................................................66
LOADING AND PLAYING BAND-IN-A-BOX SONGS ....................................................................................................67
The SongPicker....................................................................................................................................................68
Change the Style..................................................................................................................................................71
Make a MultiStyle Song.......................................................................................................................................72
SETTINGS FOR PLAYBACK ........................................................................................................................................72
Patch Changes.....................................................................................................................................................73
General MIDI 2 support......................................................................................................................................73
Additional Patches...............................................................................................................................................74
CHANGING VOLUME, PANNING, REVERB, CHORUS, BANK.......................................................................................76
PLAYING/PAUSING/STOPPING SONGS .......................................................................................................................76
Lead-In Counts and Metronome.......................................................................................................................... 77
Slide Tracks.........................................................................................................................................................77
Play Selected Area as a Loop..............................................................................................................................78
Loop any Section of the song...............................................................................................................................78
“Conductor”- Live Looping/Playback control....................................................................................................80
Play along with your MIDI Controller Keyboard...............................................................................................80
Play Along with the Wizard.................................................................................................................................80
MIDI Normalize...................................................................................................................................................81
Outputting MIDI to an External Device..............................................................................................................81
ADD REAL INSTRUMENTS – REALDRUMS AND REALTRACKS ..................................................................................81
RealDrums...........................................................................................................................................................81
RealTracks...........................................................................................................................................................83
FREEZE TRACKS .......................................................................................................................................................85
THE GUITAR WINDOW .............................................................................................................................................86
Launching the Guitar Window.............................................................................................................................86
Guitar Window Toolbar.......................................................................................................................................90
BIG PIANO WINDOW.................................................................................................................................................90
THE CONDUCTOR .....................................................................................................................................................91
THE JUKEBOX...........................................................................................................................................................95
Jukebox Options ..................................................................................................................................................96
MEDLEY MAKER ......................................................................................................................................................98
CHAPTER 6: MAKING SONGS IN BAND-IN-A-BOX .......................................................................................99
MAKE YOUR OWN SONGS........................................................................................................................................99
Getting Started.....................................................................................................................................................99
Setting the tempo .................................................................................................................................................99
“Framing” the Song............................................................................................................................................99
CHORD ENTRY .......................................................................................................................................................100
Computer Keyboard Entry.................................................................................................................................100
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Table of Contents
Audio Chord Wizard (Chords from MP3) .........................................................................................................101
Copy and Pasting Section of Chords.................................................................................................................101
Deleting Chords.................................................................................................................................................103
Previewing Chords............................................................................................................................................103
Support for other chord display types................................................................................................................103
Advanced Chord Entry and Editing Features....................................................................................................104
BREAKS - RESTS, SHOTS, AND HELD CHORDS........................................................................................................105
Chord Options ...................................................................................................................................................106
PART MARKERS AND SUBSTYLES...........................................................................................................................106
Part Markers......................................................................................................................................................106
MultiStyles.........................................................................................................................................................107
APPLYING STYLES..................................................................................................................................................109
The StylePicker Window....................................................................................................................................110
RealStyles, Classic RealStyles and Styles with RealTracks...............................................................................111
StylePicker Editor..............................................................................................................................................113
Favorite Styles Button........................................................................................................................................117
Style Aliases Dialog...........................................................................................................................................117
Using MultiStyles...............................................................................................................................................119
USING REALTRACKS AND REALDRUMS IN SONGS .................................................................................................120
Using RealTracks in Songs - Assign RealTracks to Track Dialog.....................................................................120
Using RealDrums in Songs................................................................................................................................122
ARRANGING YOUR SONG .......................................................................................................................................125
Setting the tempo ...............................................................................................................................................125
“Framing” the Song..........................................................................................................................................125
Song Settings Dialog..........................................................................................................................................125
Repeats and Endings..........................................................................................................................................128
ADD A MELODY – MIDI AND/OR AUDIO................................................................................................................129
Record a MIDI Melody......................................................................................................................................129
Sequencer Mode ................................................................................................................................................129
Record a Live Audio Track................................................................................................................................130
Opening and Importing Audio Files..................................................................................................................132
Harmonize the MIDI Melody.............................................................................................................................133
Play Along with the Wizard...............................................................................................................................136
IMPORT A MIDI FILE..............................................................................................................................................137
MIDI File Chord Interpretation Wizard............................................................................................................137
ADD A SOLO - “THE SOLOIST”................................................................................................................................138
AUTOMATIC SONGS - “THE MELODIST”.................................................................................................................140
Launching the Melodist.....................................................................................................................................141
EDIT FUNCTIONS ....................................................................................................................................................141
Edit Dialogs.......................................................................................................................................................146
PIANO ROLL WINDOW............................................................................................................................................150
Track Selection..................................................................................................................................................150
Keyboard Pitch Panel........................................................................................................................................151
Note Panel.........................................................................................................................................................151
Graphic Event Panel..........................................................................................................................................151
Chord Ruler and Note Time Ruler Panel...........................................................................................................153
Note Editing.......................................................................................................................................................154
Right-Click Contextual Menu............................................................................................................................155
Horizontal Scroll Bar, [+] and [-] Buttons.......................................................................................................157
Vertical Scroll Bar, [+] and [-] Buttons............................................................................................................157
Zoom Buttons.....................................................................................................................................................157
VIEW AND PRINT NOTATION ..................................................................................................................................157
Standard Notation Window................................................................................................................................158
Editable Notation Mode.....................................................................................................................................158
Staff Roll Notation Mode...................................................................................................................................160
Adding Note-Based Lyrics to Your Song ...........................................................................................................160
Table of Contents
5
LEAD SHEET NOTATION WINDOW..........................................................................................................................161
Launching the Lead Sheet Window....................................................................................................................161
Multiple Tracks of Notation...............................................................................................................................162
Multiple lines of Lyrics on Fake Sheet...............................................................................................................162
Lead Sheet “Lyric Text Block”..........................................................................................................................163
Lead Sheet Printing...........................................................................................................................................164
Multi-Channel Notation (Sequencer Mode).......................................................................................................165
DIGITAL AUDIO FEATURES.....................................................................................................................................167
Audio Chord Wizard (Chords from MP3) .........................................................................................................167
Add Audio Harmonies........................................................................................................................................170
Audio Reverb .....................................................................................................................................................171
More Audio Effects............................................................................................................................................172
THE MEDLEY MAKER.............................................................................................................................................172
SAVING SONGS.......................................................................................................................................................173
Saving MIDI and Karaoke Files........................................................................................................................175
SAVING AUDIO FILES .............................................................................................................................................179
SAVE YOUR CONFIGURATION .................................................................................................................................180
BURN YOUR OWN AUDIO-CD................................................................................................................................181
Congratulations!................................................................................................................................................181
CHAPTER 7: REALTRACKS AND REALDRUMS...........................................................................................182
REALTRACKS .........................................................................................................................................................182
What are RealTracks?.......................................................................................................................................182
REALTRACKS SETTINGS.........................................................................................................................................182
USING REALTRACKS..............................................................................................................................................186
Freeze Tracks ....................................................................................................................................................190
Using RealTracks in Styles................................................................................................................................191
Using RealTracks in Solos.................................................................................................................................192
Saving Your RealTracks ....................................................................................................................................192
REALDRUMS .......................................................................................................................................................... 193
How Do RealDrums Work?...............................................................................................................................193
RealDrums Settings ........................................................................................................................................... 193
RealDrums Picker – Assign RealDrums to Songs .............................................................................................195
AUDIO CONTROLS FOR REALTRACKS AND REALDRUMS .......................................................................................199
Tone Control......................................................................................................................................................199
Audio Reverb Control........................................................................................................................................199
REVERB SETTINGS..................................................................................................................................................200
Reverb Parameters............................................................................................................................................200
Saving Settings to Presets..................................................................................................................................201
Auto Reverb .......................................................................................................................................................201
CHAPTER 8: NOTATION AND PRINTING......................................................................................................202
Exploring the Notation Window ........................................................................................................................202
STANDARD NOTATION WINDOW ............................................................................................................................203
Right-click menu for Standard Notation............................................................................................................204
Keystroke Commands ........................................................................................................................................204
EDITABLE NOTATION MODE ..................................................................................................................................205
Right-click Editable Notation menu...................................................................................................................207
Editing Note Values...........................................................................................................................................209
STAFF ROLL NOTATION MODE...............................................................................................................................210
NOTATION WINDOW OPTIONS................................................................................................................................211
Notation Settings................................................................................................................................................216
Display Patch Names on Notation.....................................................................................................................217
Keystroke Note Editing......................................................................................................................................219
Section Text for Notation...................................................................................................................................220
Scrub Mode on Notation....................................................................................................................................220
6
Table of Contents
LEAD SHEET WINDOW ...........................................................................................................................................221
Lead Sheet Options Dialog................................................................................................................................222
Fake Sheet Mode ...............................................................................................................................................225
Multiple lines of Lyrics on Fake Sheet...............................................................................................................225
Lead Sheet Memo...............................................................................................................................................226
Harmony Notation Display................................................................................................................................227
Multi-Channel Notation (Sequencer Mode).......................................................................................................228
LYRICS ...................................................................................................................................................................228
Note-based Lyrics..............................................................................................................................................229
Lyric Document Window ...................................................................................................................................231
Big Lyrics (Karaoke) Window...........................................................................................................................232
PRINTING................................................................................................................................................................234
Print Options ..................................................................................................................................................... 234
Print Preview.....................................................................................................................................................237
Print Multiple Songs..........................................................................................................................................240
CHAPTER 9: AUTOMATIC MUSIC FEATURES.............................................................................................243
AUTOMATIC MEDLEYS - “THE MEDLEY MAKER”..................................................................................................243
AUTOMATIC SONGS – “THE MELODIST” ................................................................................................................244
Automatic Intro – Song Intros ...........................................................................................................................247
Automatic Song Title Generation ......................................................................................................................248
AUTOMATIC SOUND TRACK GENERATOR - “SOUNDTRACK” .................................................................................248
AUTOMATIC SOLO GENERATION – “THE SOLOIST”................................................................................................250
RealTracks.........................................................................................................................................................251
Melody Influenced Solos....................................................................................................................................253
Using the Soloist Feature..................................................................................................................................255
Soloist Maker.....................................................................................................................................................256
AUTO PIANO HAND-SPLITTING...............................................................................................................................258
Piano Track (Notation Options)........................................................................................................................258
Melody and Soloist Tracks.................................................................................................................................258
AUTOMATIC GUITAR SOLOS – “THE GUITARIST”...................................................................................................259
AUTOMATIC EMBELLISHMENTS – “THE EMBELLISHER”.........................................................................................262
Overview............................................................................................................................................................262
Using The Embellisher ......................................................................................................................................262
Embellisher Settings..........................................................................................................................................263
CHAPTER 10: WORKING WITH MIDI.............................................................................................................266
RECORDING LIVE IN REAL TIME.............................................................................................................................266
Count-In and Metronome Options.....................................................................................................................267
Recording to an external sequencer ..................................................................................................................267
ENTERING NOTES MANUALLY ...............................................................................................................................267
RECORDING WITH THE WIZARD FEATURE ..............................................................................................................268
Melody Wizard...................................................................................................................................................268
MELODY/SOLOIST SEQUENCER ..............................................................................................................................269
IMPORT A BAND-IN-A-BOX SONG...........................................................................................................................272
IMPORTING MIDI FILES..........................................................................................................................................273
Importing MIDI Files to the Melody or Soloist Tracks .....................................................................................273
Import to the Melody with the MIDI Chord Wizard..........................................................................................274
Additional Options for Melody/Soloist Track....................................................................................................274
EDITING THE MELODY TRACK................................................................................................................................275
Event List Editor................................................................................................................................................275
Event List Filter.................................................................................................................................................276
Notation Window Editing ..................................................................................................................................277
Piano Roll Window Editing...............................................................................................................................278
CHAPTER 11: WORKING WITH AUDIO .........................................................................................................281
Table of Contents
7
ABOUT BAND-IN-A-BOX AUDIO FILES...................................................................................................................281
AUDIO TRACK ........................................................................................................................................................281
Audio Playback Settings....................................................................................................................................281
PG Music Reverb...............................................................................................................................................282
Import Audio File to Audio Track......................................................................................................................283
Audio Offset.......................................................................................................................................................284
RECORD AUDIO......................................................................................................................................................285
Audio VU meters................................................................................................................................................286
Punch-In Recording...........................................................................................................................................287
PLAYING THE AUDIO FILE......................................................................................................................................288
EDIT THE AUDIO FILE.............................................................................................................................................288
Audio Edit Window Toolbar..............................................................................................................................289
Non-Destructive Audio Track Editing ...............................................................................................................289
AUDIO HARMONIES................................................................................................................................................289
Audio Harmonies Tutorial.................................................................................................................................290
Choir Effect........................................................................................................................................................293
Audio Harmonies Pitch Styles (automatic “Vibrato” and “Scooping”)...........................................................294
Pitch Styles Preset Details (one per voice)........................................................................................................294
APPLYING AUDIO PLUG-INS...................................................................................................................................295
Direct-X or VST Plug-ins...................................................................................................................................295
Reading the Audio and MIDI tracks into other programs.................................................................................298
RENDERING AUDIO FILES.......................................................................................................................................299
Rendering WAV Files ........................................................................................................................................299
Rendering in Other Audio Formats...................................................................................................................301
BURN YOUR OWN AUDIO-CD.................................................................................................................................303
CHAPTER 12: TUTORS, WIZARDS, AND FUN ...............................................................................................307
AUDIO CHORD WIZARD (“CHORDS FROM MP3”)...................................................................................................307
Chordsheet Overview.........................................................................................................................................307
Opening Files ....................................................................................................................................................308
Audio Chord Wizard Window............................................................................................................................309
Primary Program Controls................................................................................................................................309
Chord Detection ................................................................................................................................................310
Keyboard Shortcuts ........................................................................................................................................... 311
Special Cases.....................................................................................................................................................312
Bad Initial Tempo Estimates..............................................................................................................................312
Odd Length Bars and Drastic Tempo Changes.................................................................................................314
Notes Display.....................................................................................................................................................315
Display Controls................................................................................................................................................315
MIDI FILE CHORD INTERPRETATION WIZARD .......................................................................................................317
Importing Chords ..............................................................................................................................................318
Importing Part of a MIDI file or re-doing a section of the Chordsheet)...........................................................321
Other Settings for the Chord Wizard.................................................................................................................321
PRACTICE WINDOW................................................................................................................................................322
EAR TRAINING TUTOR............................................................................................................................................324
Interval Tutor.....................................................................................................................................................325
Chord Tutor.......................................................................................................................................................326
EAR TRAINING GAMES ...........................................................................................................................................327
Pitch Invasion....................................................................................................................................................327
Music Replay.....................................................................................................................................................328
VOCAL WIZARD .....................................................................................................................................................329
REHARMONIST (CHORDS FOR A MELODY)..............................................................................................................332
Generate Chords for a Melody..........................................................................................................................332
CHORD SUBSTITUTION WIZARD .............................................................................................................................334
Chord Substitution Dialog.................................................................................................................................334
CHORD BUILDER ....................................................................................................................................................336
8
Table of Contents
RHYTHM GUITAR CHORD TUTOR ...........................................................................................................................337
CHORD “BREAKS”..................................................................................................................................................338
MIDI FILE TO STYLE WIZARD................................................................................................................................338
Using the MIDI File to Style Wizard.................................................................................................................339
Advanced Settings and Preferences...................................................................................................................341
REPEATS AND ENDINGS WIZARD............................................................................................................................ 344
Tutorial..............................................................................................................................................................344
CHAPTER 13: TOOLS AND UTILITIES............................................................................................................348
DAW PLUG-IN MODE ............................................................................................................................................348
Plug-In Options .................................................................................................................................................349
FIND FILE ...............................................................................................................................................................350
ROLAND VSC3 VIRTUAL SOUND CANVAS.............................................................................................................351
TRANZPORT SUPPORT - WIRELESS REMOTE CONTROL ..........................................................................................351
Using TranzPort with Band-in-a-Box................................................................................................................352
GUITAR/BASS TUNER.............................................................................................................................................353
Master Tuning....................................................................................................................................................354
DYNAMIC 3D DRUM KIT WINDOW.........................................................................................................................354
Drum Display ....................................................................................................................................................354
Control Buttons:................................................................................................................................................355
Computer “QWERTY” Keys..............................................................................................................................356
Numeric keypad.................................................................................................................................................356
Multi - Note Instruments....................................................................................................................................356
Settings Dialog ..................................................................................................................................................356
MIDI MONITOR......................................................................................................................................................357
MIDI Monitor- Main Window............................................................................................................................358
Display Filter.....................................................................................................................................................359
SOUND BLASTER SUPPORT.....................................................................................................................................360
AWE 32/64 editor ..............................................................................................................................................360
EVENT LIST EDITOR ...............................................................................................................................................360
Event List Filter.................................................................................................................................................361
PG VINYL DIRECTX PLUG-IN.................................................................................................................................362
PG Vinyl Tool Features.....................................................................................................................................362
PG RTA DIRECTX PLUG-IN...................................................................................................................................366
Control Descriptions .........................................................................................................................................366
PG VOCAL REMOVER PLUG-IN ..............................................................................................................................367
Operation........................................................................................................................................................... 367
CHAPTER 14: USER PROGRAMMABLE FUNCTIONS.................................................................................369
THE STYLEMAKER.................................................................................................................................................369
StyleMaker Toolbar Buttons..............................................................................................................................372
Exploring the StyleMaker..................................................................................................................................373
Drum Patterns ...................................................................................................................................................373
RealDrums Styles...............................................................................................................................................376
Bass Patterns.....................................................................................................................................................377
Piano, Guitar, and String Patterns....................................................................................................................383
Guitar Styles with the StyleMaker .....................................................................................................................385
Miscellaneous Style Settings..............................................................................................................................389
More Settings (for Rests, Pushes, RealTracks)..................................................................................................391
Assign Instruments to Style Dialog Box.............................................................................................................393
Advanced Editing Of Patterns...........................................................................................................................394
Style Log Options...............................................................................................................................................395
Alternatives to Recording Patterns....................................................................................................................396
Editing Patterns.................................................................................................................................................399
Using the MIDI File to Style Wizard.................................................................................................................399
Advanced Settings and Preferences...................................................................................................................401
Table of Contents
9
MAKING REALDRUMS STYLES...............................................................................................................................404
Introduction to RealDrums................................................................................................................................404
Making A RealDrums Style Using An Existing Template..................................................................................405
Elements of RealDrums Styles...........................................................................................................................408
Elements of the Text File ...................................................................................................................................409
Pattern Definition..............................................................................................................................................412
Shots Definition .................................................................................................................................................417
Additional Entries in the Text File.....................................................................................................................418
Alternate Styles & Expanded/Reduced Styles....................................................................................................419
Testing Your RealDrums Style...........................................................................................................................420
Using your RealDrums style in Band-in-a-Box.................................................................................................422
THE HARMONY MAKER..........................................................................................................................................422
THE SOLOIST MAKER .............................................................................................................................................426
THE MELODIST MAKER..........................................................................................................................................430
THE GUITARIST MAKER .........................................................................................................................................432
CHAPTER 15: REFERENCE................................................................................................................................436
BAND-IN-A-BOX MENU DESCRIPTIONS..................................................................................................................436
FILE MENU.............................................................................................................................................................436
EDIT MENU ............................................................................................................................................................440
STYLES MENU........................................................................................................................................................446
OPT. MENU.............................................................................................................................................................448
Preferences….....................................................................................................................................................451
Preferences Buttons...........................................................................................................................................453
Display Options.................................................................................................................................................453
Arrangement Options.........................................................................................................................................455
Count-in and Metronome Options.....................................................................................................................457
MIDI File Options.............................................................................................................................................459
MIDI Driver Setup.............................................................................................................................................460
MIDI Options.....................................................................................................................................................462
MIDI Settings.....................................................................................................................................................463
Harmony............................................................................................................................................................464
Soloist................................................................................................................................................................464
Colors................................................................................................................................................................465
Patch Map .........................................................................................................................................................466
Drum Kit............................................................................................................................................................467
Favorite Instruments..........................................................................................................................................468
Output Chords on Channel................................................................................................................................469
Transpose ..........................................................................................................................................................470
Record Filter......................................................................................................................................................470
Notation.............................................................................................................................................................471
Lead Sheet Options............................................................................................................................................471
Audio Settings....................................................................................................................................................472
Guitar Settings...................................................................................................................................................475
Big Piano Settings ............................................................................................................. ................................476
Lyric Window Options.......................................................................................................................................477
Overrides...........................................................................................................................................................478
RealDrums.........................................................................................................................................................479
RealTracks.........................................................................................................................................................481
Tranzport...........................................................................................................................................................484
Practice..............................................................................................................................................................485
Reverb................................................................................................................................................................486
DAW Plugin.......................................................................................................................................................487
PLAY MENU ...........................................................................................................................................................489
LYRICS MENU ........................................................................................................................................................491
MELODY MENU......................................................................................................................................................493
10
Table of Contents
SOLOIST MENU.......................................................................................................................................................499
Utilities ..............................................................................................................................................................502
AUDIO MENU .........................................................................................................................................................504
GM MENU..............................................................................................................................................................507
HARMONY MENU ...................................................................................................................................................510
NOTATION MENU ...................................................................................................................................................512
WINDOW MENU .....................................................................................................................................................513
HELP MENU............................................................................................................................................................517
SHORTCUTS: KEYSTROKE COMMANDS - HOT KEYS ...............................................................................................519
Quick Song Settings...........................................................................................................................................519
Quick-Load Songs and Styles ............................................................................................................................519
Keystroke Commands ........................................................................................................................................519
Muting Parts......................................................................................................................................................519
Selecting Parts...................................................................................................................................................519
Instrument Part Settings....................................................................................................................................519
Volume Settings .................................................................................................................................................520
Looping / Song Navigation Keystrokes..............................................................................................................520
Transpose Settings.............................................................................................................................................520
Custom File Open Dialog..................................................................................................................................520
Windows ............................................................................................................................................................520
StyleMaker Hot Keys .........................................................................................................................................521
StyleMaker Drum Screen Hot Keys...................................................................................................................521
Additional Keystrokes........................................................................................................................................521
CHORD LIST ...........................................................................................................................................................522
BAND-IN-A-BOX FILES ...........................................................................................................................................523
Essential Program Files....................................................................................................................................523
PG MUSIC INC.......................................................................................................................................................525
APPENDIX: REALTRACKS SETS.....................................................................................................................526
INDEX ......................................................................................................................................................................536
PG MUSIC REGISTRATION FORM ..................................................................................................................546
How To Register................................................................................................................................................546
Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box!
11
Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box!
Congratulations on your purchase of Band-in-a-Box, the favorite of musicians, students, and songwriters
everywhere. Get ready to have fun!
What is Band-in-a-Box?
Band-in-a-Box is an intelligent automatic accompaniment program for
your multimedia computer.
You can hear and play along to many song ideas and go from
“nothing” to “something” in a very short period of time with Band-ina-Box as your “on demand” backup band.
Band-in-a-Box is so easy to use!
Just type in the chords for any song using standard chord symbols (like C, Fm7, or C13b9), choose the
style you’d like, and Band-in-a-Box does the rest, automatically generating a complete professionalquality arrangement of piano, bass, drums, guitar, and strings or horns in a wide variety of popular styles
plus optional live audio tracks with RealDrums and RealTracks.
And that’s not all...
Band-in-a-Box is a powerful and creative music composition tool for exploring and developing musical
ideas with near-instantaneous feedback. Over the years many features have been added to Band-in-a-Box
– Notation and Lyrics, Piano Roll, 16-channel MIDI Multitracks, Harmonization, the StyleMaker and
StylePicker, a live performance Conductor window, Medley Maker, and 24 –substyle Multistyles. The
Soloist and the Melodist are popular “intelligent” features that generate professional solos or even create
whole new songs from scratch. RealDrums adds the human element of a live drummer while RealTracks
add even more live session musicians, bringing the entire Band-in-a-Box arrangement to life. The Audio
Chord Wizard has the amazing ability to analyze, extract, and show the chords from audio recordings onscreen and then write them to the Band-in-a-Box chordsheet.
The inclusion of digital audio features makes Band-in-a-Box the perfect tool for creating, playing, and
recording your music with MIDI, vocals, and acoustic instruments. Band-in-a-Box for Windows
also record an acoustic instrument or voice to add to the composition, with processing through its own
DirectX audio effects. Its built-in TC Helicon audio harmonies will turn your audio track into multiple
harmony parts or adjust its pitch, with vibrato and scooping effects for realistic vocal styles and up to
sixteen choral parts.
You can print out your finished creation with lyrics, chords, repeats and endings, DC markings and codas,
or save it as a graphics file for web publication or to e-mail to a friend. And when you're ready to let
others hear your composition, you can burn it directly to an audio CD. Or save your composition as a
Windows Media File (or in any other compressed formats you have) for a file that’s “Internet ready.”
You’ll have even more fun making automatic medleys, playing your favorite song lists in the Band-in-aBox Jukebox, and singing along to your Karaoke files with CDG graphics.
Let’s get started!
This is a comprehensive guide to the program, including information not included the printed manual.
We’ll begin with the easy installation and setup procedure.
®
can
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Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box!
Installing Band-in-a-Box for Windows®
Minimum System Requirements
- Windows® 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista/7.
- 256 MB of available RAM.
- Digital audio features require a Pentium-class system.
- Minimum 400 MB available hard drive space. More space is require d fo r Real Drums, about 1 GB per set.
- RealTracks (included with Band-in-a-Box) requires 2.5 GB of free hard disk space.
- Band-in-a-Box is fully functional with or without RealTracks and RealDrums.
- A MIDI sound source is required. This could be a sound card, a MIDI keyboard, MIDI sound module, or
software synthesizer. Band-in-a-Box comes with both the DXi and VST versions of the high quality Roland
VSC (Virtual Sound Canvas) software synthesizer.
Installing the Program
Use any of the following three methods to install the program files into the Band-in-a-Box directory. By default this
directory is C:\bb; you may choose another location.
Method 1 – Auto Run.
1. Insert the program CD-ROM into the CD drive.
2. In a few seconds, a browser window will open with a list of the CD contents.
3. Double click on SETUP.EXE to run the installation program.
Method 2 – My Computer.
1. Insert the program CD-ROM into the CD drive.
Access your CD-ROM drive from the Windows desktop by double clicking on the My Computer icon.
2.
Then, double-click on the CD-ROM drive icon and double-click again on the SETUP.EXE program found in
3.
the root or main folder of the CD-ROM.
Method 3 – Start Menu.
1. Insert the program CD-ROM into the CD drive.
2. From the Windows [Start] button select Run.
3. Type D:\SETUP in the “Open:” command line box. If your CD-ROM drive uses another drive letter type the
appropriate letter, for example E:\SETUP.
4. If you don’t know the drive letter for your CD-ROM you can use the [Browse…] button to find it.
SETUP.EXE will copy all of the program files to your Band-in-a-Box subdirectory (usually C:\bb) and install icons
to a Band-in-a-Box program group. Click on the Band-in-a-Box icon or launch bbw.exe to open the program and
configure the setup.
Band-in-a-Box External Hard Drives
Larger versions of Band-in-a-Box ship on portable USB hard drives. They in clude the entire Band-in-a-Box and
RealBand programs plus all RealTracks and RealDrums sets.
Hard Drive Setup
You can run Band-in-a-Box and RealBand directly from the hard drive by using the program shortcuts in the PG
Music folder. Before you use the programs, you should double-click on UltraPAK Setup.exe. This will set up any
files that need to be installed/registered on your computer. You only need to do this once.
Alternatively, you could copy the entire PG Music folder to another hard disk, and run Band-in-a-Box from there.
This is useful if you don't want to run the program directly from this hard disk, or if you want to make a backup.
Installing From the External Drive
You can also find the Band-in-a-Box installer in the Installers folder, however most people wouldn't use this file.
We have included it in case you would like to install Band-in-a-Box on your computer's hard drive the “traditional”
way. It is also useful if you want to upgrade a previous version of Band-in-a-Box that you already have installed.
We haven't included the large installer files for RealTracks and RealDrums. These files are all in the bb folder and
can be copied over manually if need be. Please see the “readme” files on the hard drive for more detailed
information.
Note: Before unplugging the hard drive from your computer, make sure it is not in use, then click the ‘Safely Remove
Hardware’ icon in your taskbar. When you plug the drive in, Windows may prompt you to select an appropriate action - if
so, select 'Open folder to view files'.
Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box!
13
MIDI Setup
Band-in-a-Box uses the multimedia drivers for your MIDI interface and/or sound card that are supported by the
Windows operating system. To get sound playback you need to have a MIDI (and audio - for songs with digital
audio, RealDrums, and RealTracks) driver installed.
To start using the program you will need to make sure that your MIDI interface, audio driver, and Windows sound
source is installed and configured.
Run the program by double-clicking the
program icon. The first dialog you should
encounter is a MIDI Output Driver
message similar to this one:
The program sets your initial MIDI output
driver automatically. Note which driver
has been selected and press [OK] to
continue.
The next dialog you encounter is the MIDI/Audio Drivers Setup.
If the driver that was selected is not the best choice, simply make an alternate selection from the MIDI Driver
Setup dialog. Select a MIDI Output Driver to use for MIDI sound playback and optionally a MIDI Input Driver if
you are using an external MIDI controller keyboard or guitar. If the setup is panned to mono, the program offers to
change it to stereo.
Perhaps the easiest way to configure Band-in-a-Box is to pre ss the [Run Driver
Wizard..] button in the Opt. | MIDI driver setup window.
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Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box!
The MIDI Output Driver
Wizard dialog will take
you step-by-step through
the process of auditioning
and selecting an
appropriate driver. This
assumes that the
appropriate Windows
sound drivers are installed
and correctly configured.
Output to Software Synthesizers (DXi and VSTi)
Software synthesizers allow Band-in-a-Box to play high quality sounds directly through your computer sound card,
without requiring any external MIDI hardware. Most new software synthesizers are released as “plug-ins,” so they
will work in a standard way with many programs. Connecting Band-in-a-Box to the software synth as a plug-in
provides several advantages over the previous method of connecting as a MIDI driver. The plug-in allows Band-ina-Box to merge/synch in any existing audio file (vocals etc.) with the synth output. You can also directly render
your performance to a .WAV file using the plug-in. Sampler-based synths allow you to assemble a huge,
customized library of instrument samples to use with Band-in-a-Box.
The current DXi or VSTi synth name is displayed in the button that
launches the VST/DXi settings.
DirectX Instrument Synthesizer (DXi plug-in) Support
To use DXi with Band-in-a-Box, you should think of the DXi as a type of “MIDI Out Driver.” As such, you visit
either the Opt. | MIDI driver setup or click on [Pref] [MIDI Driver] and select the “Use DXi Synth” checkbox.
When you do this, you can select the type of DXi to use (from a list of installed DXi, if any), and also will see a
panel display of the DXi that allows you to make settings directly for your DXi synth.
The DXi will convert the MIDI information to audio, which Band-in-a-Box will playback through your sound card
to audio speakers.
You can select DirectX DXi Software Synthesizers as the MIDI destination, and also apply DirectX Audio plug-ins
to the Band-in-a-Box audio track.
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.
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.
Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box!
15
The Synth Track tab edits
Synthesizer settings, and the
Audio Track tab edits Band-in-aBox audio track DirectX plug-ins.
Select your desired DXi synth in
the top plug-in Insert Slot 1.
To apply DirectX audio plug-ins to
the synth, insert DX audio plug-ins
to Insert Slots 2, 3, or 4. This can
be useful to add EQ, Reverb,
Compression, or Peak Limiting
plug-ins, if the “raw sound” of the
synthesizer needs sweetening.
VSTi Instrument Synthesizer (VST plug-in)
To add VSTi synthesizer plug-ins, please make sure the Synth Track tab is selected, and use the plug-in menu on the
top synthesizer slot.
VST plug-ins appear at the bottom of the plug-in list below the DirectX plug-ins. VST plug-ins and synthesizers
have the text “<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.
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 custo m ban k
by loading individual preset files into different preset slots, and then save the new bank file.
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Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box!
Select Preset Menu
Select a preset. You can also use the small Right/Left arrow buttons to step forward/backwards through the presets
one at a time, to audition each preset.
Note: Some very nice plug-ins, including some advanced synthesizer plug-ins, may only have one preset, but that single
preset can be a doozy containing many settings. Even with single-preset plug-ins, you can Save/Load Presets or Banks.
Rename Pst: Rename the currently selected Preset (in the plug-in's memory).
Save Preset: Save the currently selected Preset. VST/VSTi preset files use the “.fxp” extension.
Load Preset: A Select Preset To Replace dialog appears where you should pick which preset in memory to
replace. Then select the desired Preset file in the following File dialog.
Save Bank: Save a Bank file of all the current presets in the plug-in. VST/VSTi bank files us e the “.fxb” extension.
Load Bank: Load an entire bank of presets. Different plug-ins have different bank sizes. One plug-in might
contain 10 presets in a bank, but another plug-in might have 128 presets in a bank.
VST Generic User Interface
VST/VSTi plug-ins are not required to have a fancy graphic control panel. There are many “faceless” VST plug-ins
which have many adjustable parameters, but no fancy control panel. When you open such a plug-in, the control
panel will look like this example. Band-in-a-Box presents one “generic” slider for each adjustable parameter in the
plug-in.
Parameter Name: Simply the name of each adjustable parameter.
Value Slider: Move the slider to adjust the parameter value
Value Indication Text: Displays the value of the slider, as interpreted by the plug-in. In the above example,
Parameter 0: Bright is interpreted as an ON/OFF switch, but Parameter 1: Volume is interpreted as a value from 0 to
10.
Options: Remove VST Plug-In (from list)
This feature allows the removal of unwanted plug-ins from the Band-in-a-Box VST/VSTi plug-in lists.
Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box!
17
Driver Latency
Software synthesizers have some inherent latency, which is
the delay between the time a note is played and it is
processed by the computer. Older softsynt hs had noticeable
latency, whereas a DXi synth using ASIO drivers has very
little. This setting is used to synchronize the visual disp lay
(notation, chords, virtual piano etc.) with the sound you hear.
Band-in-a-Box automatically sets the latency for DXi and some other softsynths.
The [Latency Adjust…] button opens the SoftSynth Latency Adjust dialog where you
can manually adjust the latency.
Alternate Patch Maps
You can choose the patch map (instrument list) that matches your synthesizer keyboard or sound module. Original
equipment sound cards or integrated sound chips are General MIDI (GM) compatible.
We have made preset drum/patch files for many
synthesizers and sound cards including the Roland VSC
and VSC DXi.
If your synth is not listed you should use the General
MIDI Instrument Misc. patch kit (default).
You can probably omit this step unless you're using an
old synth that is not General MIDI compatible. If your
non-GM synthesizer or sound card is not listed you can
easily make your own patch map with the [Patch Map]
button in Opt. | Preferences.
General MIDI 2 (GM2) Support
General MIDI 2 patches are supported for 128 additional
instruments. The type of GM2 support is set in this dialog.
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Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box!
The choices are:
- General MIDI 2 support: If you're using the Roland VSC3, or a newer Sound Canvas (i.e. newer than
1999, or newer than the Roland SC88), then choose this GM2 support.
- Roland GS (older Modules): “Older” Sound Canvases (SC55/SC88) support GS, but not GM2. The good
news is that they have the same patches available, just at different locations. So if you choose this option,
Band-in-a-Box will find the patches at the “GS” locations instead of the “GM2” locations. If you have a
newer GS module like the SC8820, it supports both GM2 and GS - you should likely choose GM2.
- No GM2 support: Some sound cards don't have GM2 support but they do support the original 128
General MIDI sounds. Band-in-a-Box will use the closest instrument in these cases.
Audio Setup
The [Audio Settings] button in the MIDI/Audio Drivers Setup displays the
current audio driver and status, MME/ASIO/ASIO Always On. Band-in-a-Box performs the audio setup
automatically using the installed system audio components
To restore or modify this set up click on the Preferences button and then select the
[Audio] button to launch the Audio Settings dialog.
To reset the default MME driver settings click on [Get from soundcard…] and
Band-in-a-Box will analyze the sound card and enter the correct audio settings.
If your computer has ASIO capability you can use these drivers instead of the default MME drivers.
ASIO Audio/Software Synth Drivers
By using an ASIO audio driver, software synths like the Roland VSC (DXi or VSC) will play with almost no
latency (delay is only 5-10ms). So you’ll hear the sounds instantly, and be able to play along using MIDI Thru with
the same ultra-low latency.
Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box!
19
On the Preferences [Audio] tab, you’ll see the following options for “Audio Driver
Type,” MME or ASIO.
MME is the default Windows audio driver type. MME is good, but there is latency
(delay) associated with MME drivers.
For this reason, Steinberg developed a faster type of audio driver system, called
ASIO. It allows for much lower latency than ordinary MME drivers do.
Note: Many OEM or value sound cards do not include an ASIO driver, so you may not have an ASIO driver yet. In this
case, you’ll need to get an ASIO driver from the Internet.
This ASIO Audio Drivers dialog lets you choose an ASIO driver. You can arrive at this dialog in 3 different ways:
1) If you haven’t used ASIO drivers, but Band-in-a-Box detected them, and you answered “Yes” when 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
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Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box!
output within Band-in-a-Box. If you do not hear input or output, th en you may need to try different ports than the
defaults. You may need to read your sound card’s instructions to determine the correct ports to use.
Tip: The ASIO4All driver sometimes cannot connect if the Microsoft GS Wavetable synth is being used as a driver. So if
this happens, you will get a message that ASIO will be silent, and the solution is to de-select the ASIO4All driver.
The ASIO Driver’s Control Panel button launches the Control Panel for your driver. This usually lets you adjust the
latency by letting you choose different buffer sizes in milliseconds. Some drivers might let you choose the buffer
size in samples, which is less convenient than milliseconds. The smaller the buffer size, the lower the latency, and
the faster the response. Smaller buffers require more CPU power and if you hear dropouts or artifacts, you may
need to increase the buffer size. See the Understanding Latency section that follows.
Since many ASIO drivers do not support multiple sample rates, Band-in-a-Box has a built-in resampler which lets
you play and record songs that have a different sampling rate than the rate(s) directly supported by your ASIO
driver. For example, if the driver does not support 44.1K sampling rate, but supports 48K, then Band-in-a-Box will
use the resampler to convert to 48K when playing back, and to convert FROM 48K when recording. The
Resampler Quality combo lets you choose Fast, Good, Better, or Best. Fast is the quickest, but is the lowest of the
four levels of quality. Best is the slowest (uses more CPU time), but the most transparent and accurate quality.
The ASIO Driver’s Control Panel button launches a settings dialog specifically provided by your driver
manufacturer. This usually lets you adjust the latency, and usually you will have a choice between buffer sizes in
milliseconds. See the following section on Understanding Latency.
Show Warning for Untested Soundcard Formats is an optional setting that shows a warning if your ASIO driver
format has not been tested in Band-in-a-Box. This message does not necessarily mean your driver will not work,
and it can be disabled if you want.
The Driver Info field shows various characteristics of your driver.
The Name is the driver’s name.
The Version is the version number of your driver.
Input Channels is the total number of mono input channels that your sound card has. (Note: Band-in-a-Box groups
each into a stereo pair.)
Output Channels is the total number of mono output channels that your sound card has. (Note: Band-in-a-Box
groups each port into a stereo pair.)
The Allowed Sample Rates field shows the sample rates are allowed by your sound card’s ASIO driver. Band-in-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
1/20 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
second, the latency
would be a mere 5ms which is incredibly low and very fast.
Normally, you can change your driver’s latency by pressing the Launch ASIO Driver’s Control Panel button.
Normally, the driver specifies the buffer sizes in milliseconds which is equal to the latency.
Low latency is faster and more responsive, but uses more CPU power.
Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box!
21
Depending on the speed of your computer, you may find that the playback has dropouts, clicks/pops, or other
artifacts if you set the buffer sizes too small. This is because smaller buffers use more CPU power and if your
computer can’t handle the low latency you will hear artifacts. If this happens, you would need to use larger buffer
sizes. You may need to experiment to find what works well. You may be able to use smaller buffers with songs that
don’t have a lot of tracks and effects, but may find that you need to use larger buffers with songs that have more
tracks and use more effects. This is because more tracks and more effects use more CPU power, which leaves less
CPU power available for the audio routines to keep up with lower latencies.
Now you’re ready to have fun with Band-in-a-Box!
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Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box!
Chapter 2: QuickStart
Creating music with Band-in-a-Box is as easy as 1-2-3! In this chapter, you’ll see how easy it is to get started with
Band-in-a-Box.
Step 1 – Typing in the Chords
There are numerous ways of entering chords into Band-in-a-Box, we’ll discuss six of them:
1. Using the computer keyboard.
2. Playing directly on a MIDI controller keyboard.
3. Using the Chord Builder feature.
4. Importing chords from a MIDI file.
5. Importing chords from an audio file (WAV, MP3, WMA, WMV) with the Audio Chord Wizard.
6. Loading an Existing Band-in-a-Box format song.
On the main screen of the program, you’ll see an area called the chordsheet.
Band-in-a-Box main screen showing chordsheet.
Each of the numbered cells on the chordsheet represents a bar. In this example, we see that there is an E chord in
the first bar of this song, an A chord in bar 5, and later in the song, an E7 in bar 12. Notice the box in the first half
of bar 1. This is the highlight cell, and it represents the bar you are currently working on. You can move the
highlight cell around using the cursor keys, or click on any bar with the mouse.
Enter Chords Using the Computer Keyboard
To enter a specific chord, move the highlight cell to where you want to place the chord. For example, to add (or
change) a chord in bar 10, you would highlight bar 10 on the chordsheet. Next, type in your chords. If you want an
A chord at bar 10, type the A key on your keyboard, and press [Enter]. Notice that when you use the enter key, the
highlight cell moves to the second half of the bar. You could then enter another chord at beat 3. Chords names are
normally typed using standard chord symbols (like C or Fm7 or Bb7 or Bb13#9/E), but you can enter them in any of
the supported chord symbol display formats like Roman Numerals, Nashville Notation, Solfeggio, and Fixed Do
(popular in Italy and other parts of Europe).
Chapter 2: QuickStart
23
Enter Chords Using a MIDI Controller Keyboard
If you have a MIDI controller keyboard, you can use it to enter chords into Band-in-a-Box. Play a chord on your
MIDI keyboard, and then type Ctrl+Enter. The chord will be entered into the chordsheet at the current highlight
cell position. Another method allows you to choose alternate chords. From the Window | MIDI Chord Detection
menu item, you’ll see this window:
When you play chords, Band-in-a-Box shows you the chord name and suggests alternates that you can choose from.
Typing Ctrl+Enter enters the first selection, and advances the highlight cell by ½ bar. To place an alternate chord
in the chordsheet click on the [Enter] button beside the chord you want.
Enter Chords Using the Chord Builder
Press the Chord Builder button. This opens the Chord Builder dialog with a list of chord roots and their
extensions.
To enter a chord at the current bar, select the chord root from the left pane, and then the extension on the right pane.
Pressing [Enter Chord] or using the arrow keys will enter the chord and advance the highlight cell to the next half
bar.
Import Chords from a MIDI File
You can have Band-in-a-Box import chords from an existing MIDI file. Choose Import Chords from MIDI File on
the File menu.
When the dialog opens, press the [Open (Change)…] button to choose a MIDI file that you want Band-in-a-Box to
interpret the chords from. To help Band-in-a-Box interpret the chords better, you should choose a genre (Preset) for
the song. Choose from among such genres as Pop, Rock, or Jazz Standard.
Tip: It helps if you’ve previously listened to the MIDI file, in order that you can choose a genre most appropriate to the
song.
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Chapter 2: QuickStart
Import Chords from the Audio Chord Wizard
The Audio Chord Wizard is the amazing feature that automatically figures out the chords from
MP3 files (or other audio files like WAV, WMA, and audio CD etc.).
Chapter 2: QuickStart
25
You can make adjustments for the start of bar 1 and individual bar lines and also mark sections of the song using
part markers, and the sections will begin on a new line with a line space between so they are clearly seen. Chords
can be edited with a right-mouse click on the chord symbol. Edited chords are colored blue.
Send the chords to Band-in-a-Box to make your own arrangement, tranpose to your
key, and print your own lead sheet for the song with chords, melody, and lyrics.
Loading an existing Band-in-a-Box format Song
Press the [Song] button to launch the SongPicker, which lists up to 10,000 songs in any folder. Songs
can be sorted and filtered by various criteria such as alphabetically, by title or by style.
The first time you use this button, Band-in-a-Box will offer to build a song list for you. We’ve included many
demonstration songs; they are listed in the song list.
You could also load a pre-existing song by using the File | Open menu item, or by typing [F3], which will launch
the BB File open dialog. Songs usually load a Style, which we’ll learn about in the next section.
Step 2 – Choosing a Style
Band-in-a-Box creates backing arrangements based on the chords you type in, playing them in a particular style.
What’s a Style?
A style is a set of rules that determine how Band-in-a-Box creates music using your chords. By adjusting the rules,
we have created hundreds of styles for everything from Country to Bebop, such as Jazz Swing, Blues Shuffle, Hip
Hop, Country 4/4, Pop Ballad, Waltz, and Medium Rock to name just a few. If you don’t find a pre-made style that
suits your tastes, create one from scratch using the StyleMaker. There’s a “how-to” section on custom Styles in this
manual.
Four Fast Ways To Pick A Style
Method 1:
The StylePicker window assists your selection with its categorized list, detailed descriptions, preview,
search, and filter features. Select the [Style] button or type Ctrl+F9 on your computer.
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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
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Step 3 – Play your song!
You’ve entered chords on the chordsheet and chosen a style. Now it’s time to play the song! You’ll need to tell
Band-in-a-Box how long your song is, how many times to play it through, in what key, and how fast.
Framing the Song
To tell Band-in-a-Box where to start and end the song, take a look at the middle of the main screen.
Locate the framing buttons. There are three of them, one each for Beginning of Chorus, End of Chorus, and
Number of Choruses. In the example above, the chorus starts at bar 1, ends on bar 32, and is going to play 3 times.
Setting the Key
In the example above the key is set to C. However, you can set this to any key. In our first view of the chordsheet
the Blues song was in the key of E. If you do change the key, Band-in-a-Box will offer to transpose the chordsheet
for you.
Setting the Tempo
If you know the tempo value of your song, you can enter it in the tempo box. The song example above has a tempo
of 120. There is an even faster way to enter a tempo. Locate the minus sign key [-] and the equal sign key [=] in the
number row of your computer keyboard, they are usually next to each other. If you tap the minus sign key 4 times at
your tempo, Band-in-a-Box will set the tempo automatically for you. If you tap the equal sign key four times, Bandin-a-Box will set the tempo and begin song playback at the tempo you tapped.
Shortcuts for song formatting
Typing special words, instead of chord names, will make the following settings:
begin + Enter sets the beginning of the chorus to the current bar
chorusend + Enter sets the end of the chorus to the current bar
end + Enter sets the end of the song to the current bar
tkc + Enter sets key signature to c, tkbb would set it to bb
trc + Enter transposes song to key of C
t125 + Enter sets tempo to 125
More fun with Band-in-a-Box…
That’s how easy it is to start creating music with Band-in-a-Box. Band-in-a-Box has many more features and user
options, which are discussed in later chapters. Have fun making music with Band-in-a-Box!
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Chapter 2: QuickStart
Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2010.5
Welcome to Band-in-a-Box 2010.5
There were over 50 cool new features added in Band-in-a-Box 2010, and now version 2010.5 adds 40 more! These
include user wish list requests and enhancements to existing features, plus some wish list requests of our own.
40 New Features!
The amazing RealTracks features in Band-in-a-Box keep growing more powerful. Many of the new features in
Band-in-a-Box 2010.5 let you make even better use of these exciting live studio tracks - features like enhanced
pushes, the option to have Jazz chords play as triads or 7ths, half-time and double-time timebase settings, and
StylePicker filtering. Plus we’ve released 101 new RealTracks in Sets 83 to 101 featuring more Jazz bass and
guitar, Bluegrass fiddles and mandolins, Jazz B3 organ, Smooth Jazz guitar, bass, and saxophone, and much more.
There have also been enhancements to audio rendering, entering song settings, and notation.
These are the new features in Band-in-a-Box 2010.5
- The StylePicker now has a filter to show show/hide RealTracks styles or MIDI styles. So you can set this if you
only want to see MIDI styles, or if you only want to see styles that use some or all RealTracks.
- If you like the current mix (of volumes, panning, reverb), and you want this applied as a default for all songs, you
can now set this by Right clicking on the Combo radio control. Choose “Make Current Mix the Default,” “Load
Default Mix,” or “Reset Mix (to factory defaults).”
- RealTracks’ naturally occurring pushes are enhanced in many styles. This requires updating the ST2/XT2 files,
and these are included in the 2010.5 update.
- When rendering, you can now add a dB amount to the whole mix, so that the mix will be louder or softer. There is
automatic “peak-limiting” added, so that the music will not distort if you set it too high.
- For Audio Track rendering, Reverb is now added to the mix if there is Reverb set for the audio track.
- Improved timing and performance on MIDI DXi/VST Softsynths. Files now render about 20 percent faster.
- Styles can now be made that are set to use Half-Time and Double-Time RealTracks. We include some of these
styles. For example, you can make a Jazz Ballad style (tempo 65) that uses a Sax Soloist at tempo 140 (playing
double time). The StyleMaker- Misc-More dialog now has setting called TimeBase:
Normal/HalfTime/DoubleTime for RealTracks.
- MIDI Styles can now be expanded or reduced. For example, if you have a Bluegrass style at a typical tempo of
130 that is 16ths note based, and you would prefer it as a style that is 8th note based at a typical tempo of 260, you
can do this in the StyleMaker by selecting the menu item Style-Expand. Style-Reduce is available also for styles
that you want to reduce from 8th notes to 16th notes.
- If Band-in-a-Box cannot find your RealTracks folder or your Drums folder, a yellow hint message appears at boot
up to alert you to that, and tells you how to fix it: “Note: You have RealTracks installed, but none are found in
your RealTracks folder. You should point to your correct RealTracks folder in Prefs-RealTracks Settings.”
- RealTracks Pushes are now played a little quieter (2 dB quieter), so that they don't stand out as much.
- For HyperCanvas or TTS-1 users only. The Roland HyperCanvas and Cakewalk TTS-1 sound better in Band-in-a-
Box if you use note 36 for bass drum, instead of note 35 (36 is more velocity sensitive). Now you will get a
message to that effect when you exit the MIDI Driver dialog, and if you answer yes, it will set this for you,
improving the sound of the drums with your HyperCanvas/TTS-1.
- For RealTracks, many Jazz comping styles now play triads (instead of 7ths) when simple triads are entered,
instead of “jazzing them up” to 7ths chords (e.g. Guitar: Freddie, Wes Piano: Some Jazz. All Stride, Rehearsal).
If you prefer this “the old way,” where triads are automatically “jazzed up” when comping using Jazz RealTracks,
then you can set the Prefs-Realtracks settings option to force 7ths for triads.
- Enhancements for entering songs quickly: Typing special words, instead of chord names, will make the following
settings:
begin <Enter> - sets the beginning of the chorus to the current bar
end <Enter> chorusend <Enter> - sets the end of the chorus to the current bar
sets the end of the song to the current bar
Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2010.5
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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
- Quick-load a song by typing only. In chord entry mode (chordsheet or notation) type the word “song” followed by
a file name or partial file name + Enter and the song will get loaded if it is in the current folder. Type “bossa” to
load in the first song with bossa in the name AFTER the current song name in the current folder.
- To change to another folder, type “song” followed by the full path and file name. For example, type song and then
c:\bb\zzjazz.mg1+Enter to load in that exact song file.
- Quick-load a style by typing “style” followed by a style name, e.g., stylezzbossa+Enter will load in zzbossa.sty.
- Enhancements for playing songs from the chordsheet
- <Spacebar> or double click on ending bar (or a bar in the tag), and it will play from the ending (or tag).
This only applies to the chordsheet, since notation windows always play from the ending or tag already.
- Right click on Chordsheet (or Notation) window to quickly set Chorus Begin, Chorus End, or Song Ending
- Utility function added to “Change all songs in current folder to a specific tempo.”
- Utility function added to “Change all songs in current folder to the current style name.”
- Utility command added to change channels by N on melody or soloist.
- Real Drums button now has a menu (like the RealTracks button) to choose RealDrums Preferences or the
RealDrums Picker. Use Ctrl+click or Shift+click to choose the Preferences or the Picker directly.
- The auto-generated song memo now says if Real Drums come from the song or style.
- A message now appears if a frozen track is loaded, but the required RealTracks or RealDrums folders do not exist.
- Frozen tracks now start playing faster if played again.
- In the RealTracks Picker, the columns for Set # and Holds # sort are improved.
- Important change: The default for the tempo swapping feature for RealTracks is now true. It used to be false.
Tempo-swapping is a nice feature that will automatically substitute a similar RealTracks that is recorded at a
tempo closer to the current tempo. For example, if you load a ballad style, with a RealTracks piano at a tempo of
60, and then speed the song up to 200, BB’s tempo-swapping feature will choose a RealTracks piano that is closer
to 200, likely one that is 190. Go to Prefs | RealTracks to disable this feature.
- Improved: Will keep on generating RealTracks even if some wav files are missing.
- Improved: Will not show this message if using ASIO and MS GS Wavetable is selected: “MIDI driver installed
properly but in use.”
Notation Enhancements:
- Notes like Fb, Cb, E#, B# can now be entered. To do this, right click on a note (like F), and set the forced
accidental to #, and the note will appear as E#.
Right Click menu item added “edit section text”
-
- Option added for the Leadsheet Lyric memo start on new page on printout.
- If a song has lyrics (or other text) in the Lyric Memo or Lyric Document, these lyrics will now show up on the Big
Lyrics window, so that they can be seen during playback. Note: if you have lyrics in text format, it is easy to paste
them in as a Leadsheet Memo, and now you will see them on the Big Lyrics Window as well.
- When entering lyrics, additional buttons are available “Close lyrics” “Edit Lyrics” and “Enter as Section Text”
(instead of Lyrics).
New Features included in Band-in-a-Box 2010
Band-in-a-Box 2010 added over 50 cool new features!
These exciting new features were added in Band-in-a-Box 2010. There’s a “Plug-in” mode, allowing you to simply
Drag-and-drop tracks between Band-in-a-Box and your favorite sequencer (RealBand, Sonar, Reaper, ProTools, FLStudio, Nuendo and more). RealTracks generate much fa ster now, typically 3X faster. RealTracks now support
Shots, Holds, and Pushes. Endings are improved, and RealTracks endings are now 4 bars long, giving time for the
natural decay of the instruments. Individual MIDI or RealTracks can be frozen now, so the arrangements can be
saved and fixed, and will replay quickly without need for regeneration. Soloist RealTracks are now saved with the
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Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box 2010.5
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