PG Music Band in a Box - 2012 Windows Upgrade Manual

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Band-in-a-Box

Version 12 for Windows

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PG Music Inc. License Agreement

CAREFULLY READ THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS BEFORE COMPLETING

THE INSTALLATION OF THIS SOFTWARE. USAGE OF THE SOFTWARE INDICATES

YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS.

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

B. You may transfer the program and license to another party if the other party agrees to accept

the terms of this Agreement. If you transfer the program, you must either transfer all copies,

whether in printed or machine readable form, to the same party, or, destroy all copies not

transferred. This includes all modifications and/or portions of the program merged into other

programs.

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media you receive, you may install or use the media on a single machine.

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and text incorporated into the program) is owned by PG Music Inc. or its suppliers, and is

protected by international copyright laws and international treaty provisions.

You may not use, copy, or transfer the program, or any copy, modification or merged portion of the

program, in whole or in part, except as expressly provided for in this license. If you transfer

possession of any copy, modification or merged portion of the program to another party, your license

is automatically terminated.

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

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In no event will PG Music Inc. be liable to you for any damages, including but not limited to lost

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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.

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Band-in-a-Box® is the registered trademark of PG Music Inc. in the United States, Canada and other countries. Microsoft® and Windows® are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Apple®, the Apple logo, Macintosh®, Mac®, Power Mac®, QuickTime® and True Type® are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. IBM® is the registered trademark of International

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Printed in Canada

PG Music Inc. License Agreement

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Table of Contents

PG MUSIC INC. LICENSE AGREEMENT 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS 3

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 4

CHAPTER 2: SUMMARY OF NEW FEATURES 6

CHAPTER 3: QUICKSTART TUTORIAL 13

CHAPTER 4: MIDI FILE TO STYLE WIZARD 24

CHAPTER 5: GENERAL MIDI 2 (GM2) SUPPORT 32

CHAPTER 6: LOOPING/SONG NAVIGATION ENHANCEMENTS 34

CHAPTER 7: BASS / GUITAR / FRETBOARDS 36

CHAPTER 8: HARMONY NOTATION DISPLAY ENHANCEMENTS 38

CHAPTER 9: GUI ENHANCEMENTS 41

CHAPTER 10: NOTATION ENHANCEMENTS 43

CHAPTER 11: STYLE ENHANCEMENTS 45

CHAPTER 12: OTHER NEW FEATURES 48

KEYSTROKE COMMANDS - HOT KEYS 53

APPENDIX A: NEW STYLES AND ADD-ONS. 57

PG MUSIC INC. 61

INDEX 62

Table of Contents

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Chapter 1: Introduction

This documentation covers the new features in Band-in-a-Box Version 12.

9 Chapter 2 is a summary of the new features. 9 Chapter 3 is a Quick-Start Tutorial. 9 Chapters 4-12 and Appendix A describe the new features in detail.

The latest version of Band-in-a-Box adds 50 more features.

First off, you'll get the amazing new automatically converts a MIDI file (.MID) to a Band-in-a-Box Style (*.STY). This wizard has plenty of options so you can quickly make your own simple to advanced styles from a MIDI file without any knowledge of the StyleMaker required!

Twice as many instruments! standard (GM2) a-Box styles and songs

GM2 support adds 128 new instruments to Band-in-

. This

, including

many new and improved piano, organ, guitar, brass, and string sounds

We've made many new styles using the new instruments, and include updated versions of previous styles.

You'll be hearing the new instruments with

many of your new and existing styles

Note: The included Roland VSC3 synth supports the new GM2 instruments, as do most newer modules/sound cards. If yours doesn't, a similar instrument from the existing 128 General MIDI sounds will be substituted.

enhanced the Guitar Window by adding fret display support for

We've

other instruments, including mandolin, ukulele, and banjo

authentic chord voicings and melody display on the fretboard for all of these new instruments. The StyleMaker has been enhanced with support for GM2 instruments, so you can make styles that use the new instruments and have correct instrument voicings displayed on the fretboard. We've also added an option for standard

guitar chord diagrams

display, leadsheet, and printout. Choose from

Chord Diagrams.

Bass players will now see bass tablature and

the new

bass fretboard.

The program’s

user interface has been enhanced

program options and song settings, right mouse support, simplified menu,

additional

hot keys

and more.

All of the styles are enhanced!

in-a-Box style that we’ve made with the newest StyleMaker features including guitar and other fretted instrument voicings, consistent volume levels, edited

“MIDI-file to Style Wizard,”

We've added support for

General MIDI 2

ukulele, mandolin, 12-string guitar plus

. You'll see

to be included in the notation

Folk, Pop, or Jazz Guitar

correctly displayed bass parts on

, with a

We've improved and updated

Chapter 1: Introduction

single dialog for all

EVERY

that

Band-

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patterns and more. Many of these styles and new demo songs are included with your Band-in-a-Box version 12 upgrade.

There are many new options for song navigation during playback, including a new “One-More-Time” feature that allows fine control over the song looping during live performance. For example, as the song is playing you can get it to endlessly loop the last or middle choruses with a simple hot key. Now you can control when the song ends. If the “dance floor is full,” you can extend the song for as long as you like, all without skipping a beat! This is also useful for home practice, so that you can play “endless choruses” for soloing practice, and conveniently navigate the song during playback.

You can now load and play an entire MIDI file in Band-in-a-Box, including interpreting the Chords with the Chord Wizard.

Harmony notation display has been enhanced. Harmonies can now be displayed on the leadsheet window (or printed) with separate notation tracks for each harmony voice. View each harmony on a separate track, or view/print a single harmony voice! Print harmony charts for your band, or use for sight reading practice – to read and/or play a harmony voice along with the melody that you're hearing.

And much more…

Important Note:

People familiar with the previous versions of Band-in-a-Box will be pleased to know that we have kept the same functionality of our previous releases. The new features are optional and don't interfere with familiar methods of using the program. All songs, styles etc. are completely compatible with previous versions, so that you can upgrade without losing any of your existing work.

Chapter 1: Introduction

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Chapter 2: Summary of New Features

The New Features in Band-in-a-Box Version 12...

MIDI File to Style Wizard

This automatically converts a MIDI file (.MID) to a Band-in-a-Box Style (.STY). Simply open a MIDI file, select your options, and press “Save-As Style.” With plenty of options, this wizard allows you to quickly make your own simple or advanced styles from a standard MIDI file – without any knowledge of the StyleMaker required! Novice users will appreciate the

automated option

users will appreciate the from the MIDI file are included in the style, how many pattern variations, and more.

“Twice as many instruments” - with General MIDI 2 support!

We've added support for General MIDI 2 standard (GM2). This GM2 support adds 128 new instruments to Band-in-a-Box styles and songs, including ukulele, mandolin, and 12-string guitar, plus many new and improved piano, organ, guitar, brass, and string sounds! We've made many new styles using the new instruments and also include updated versions of previous styles – you'll be hearing the new instruments with many of your new and existing styles.

that “does everything” to make the style while advanced

custom options

to control (for example) which bars

Harmony Notation Display Enhancements

Chapter 2: Summary of New Features

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Harmonies can now be displayed on the leadsheet window (or printed) with separate notation tracks for each harmony voice. View each harmony on a separate track or view/print a single harmony voice! Print harmony charts for your band or use for sight reading practice – to read and play any harmony voice along with the melody that you're hearing.

Guitar Window enhancements

We've enhanced the Guitar Window by adding fret display support for other instruments including mandolin, ukulele, and banjo. You'll see authentic chord voicings and melody display on the fretboard for all of these new instruments. The StyleMaker has been enhanced with support for the GM2 instruments, so you can make styles that use the new instruments and have correct instrument voicings displayed on the fretboard.

Guitar Chord Diagrams on the Notation

We've added an option for standard Guitar Chord diagrams to be included in the notation display. Choose from Folk, Pop, or Jazz Guitar Chord Diagrams on the notation, leadsheet, or printout.

Bass Part Enhancements

Bass players will now see bass tablature and correctly displayed bass parts on the new bass fretboard.

Interface Enhancements

The program’s Graphical User Interface has been enhanced, with a single dialog for all program options (hot key Ctrl+E) and song settings (Ctrl+N), right mouse menu support, simplified menu, additional hot keys, and more. The Main Menu has been simplified, with ½ as many menu items! A new “Window” menu has been added and the “User” menu has been removed. Menu functionality is the same, just easier to navigate. Right Mouse menu support has been added. Right mouse click on the Chordsheet or notation

Chapter 2: Summary of New Features

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(press the right mouse button) and you'll see a menu of items available giving faster access to common editing commands.

Styles Improved

All of the styles are enhanced!

Box style that we’ve made with the newest StyleMaker features including guitar and other fretted instrument voicings, consistent volume levels, edited patterns, and more.

Band-in-a-Box version 12 upgrade

Many of these styles and new demo songs are included with your

We've improved/updated

EVERY

Band-in-a-

Loop any Section of the song

You can now loop any section of the song

playback at the first loop point and play the looped section until stop is pressed or looping is turned off. This feature is handy for looping a full chorus or other section of a song for practice or performance. There's a useful “Play-Looped” command that allows you to quickly play a looped section. (Simply highlight the range of bars to loop, and then choose the “Play from loop” command in the

Loop Section Settings

dialog.)

. The program will then start

Song navigation options during playback

These features allow you to control song looping and navigation during live performance or practice sessions. Options includes hot keys and buttons for enabling/disabling loop, playing with last chorus looped, playing with middle choruses looped, playing with middle and last choruses looped, jumping to last chorus with no loop, and jumping to song ending with no loop. Example uses include a student song practice with the “loop middle choruses” option so that there will be endless choruses. Live performers can loop middle and last choruses so that the music will continue while the dance floor is full, or jump to the last chorus or ending if it's time for the tune to end!

Band-in-a-Box can load and play an entire MIDI file!

Now you can open an entire MIDI file into Band-in-a-Box. The chords will get auto-interpreted by the Chord Wizard and the MIDI file will play and display on the Melody track. A “Silent” style will be loaded so you'll only hear the MIDI file.

Chapter 2: Summary of New Features

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Other Handy New Features include:

Visual Metronome during the whole song.

Change styles at any bar using the convenient StylePicker window.

Bass player plays better “5ths” over some Jazz chords.

Band-in-a-Box’s bass player was playing some natural 5ths over some chords like C7 altered or others. Now, after a discussion with some bass players, we've improved Band-in-a-Box so that the bass part plays the #5 or b5 correctly on these Jazz chords.

Part Markers are now written to the MIDI files.

These Band-in-a-Box part markers can be read by PowerTracks (and Band-in-aBox if re-importing the MIDI file with the Chord Wizard). Save a MIDI file in Band-in-a-Box, and move it over to PowerTracks (version 8 or higher), you'll now see the Part Markers (and chords) written on the Chords Window in PowerTracks. Re-import the MIDI file into Band-in-a-Box with the Chord Wizard and you'll also see the part markers in Band-in-a-Box.

Channel numbers are now displayable on the notation.

When editing notes, it is often helpful to see the channel number of each note.

Load Previous Style, Load Next Style.

This function, analogous to the Load Next Song function, loads in the previous (or next) style. Styles are ordered alphabetically.

Chase Volumes.

Chase Volumes has been added for playback. For a file with Volume change events (Controller 7) written into the Melody (or other tracks) – if the song is played back from somewhere in the middle, the most recent volume control information prior to the start of playback will get sent.

Multi-Track MIDI Drums.

Use this option to write MIDI files with a separate track for each drum instrument.

Unmute Drums for Count-In.

There is now an option to hear the drum count-in even if the drums are muted or disabled. Drummers who play along with Band-in-a-Box by muting the drum track should find this feature useful.

Chapter 2: Summary of New Features

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Boot to Last Directory.

On program boot up, the current directory will get set to the last directory used in the previous session. So if you were working in a previous session in a folder called “c:\My Songs\My Ballads,” when you boot up the program it will be set to load in songs from that folder when you press OPEN. This feature is optional, and set in the item Opt. | Preferences | Prefs2 –“Boot up in directory of the last session.”

StylePicker Enhancements.

- There is

number The limit of number of styles has been increased (to 4,800)

accommodate the large number of third party styles developed for Band-ina-Box.

- The window size has been increased, providing

category descriptions

a new filter to display only the styles of a certain Styles Set

, as well as displaying the full descriptive name of the Styles Set.

more space for the

Notation Enhancements.

Guitar Chord Diagrams

printout for Folk, Pop, and Jazz voicings.

Boxes for Section text

- A Notation

in-red-as-the-song-is-playing

readers who like to read ahead).

Brackets (#) are now drawn around accidentals

courtesy, where no accidental is required.

Printing as Graphics has been enhanced with a “Copy-to-Clipboard”

option so that you can quickly paste into other applications.

For the leadsheet and printout

contains only 1 bar, it is drawn with a narrow width (previously it was stretching the bar across the entire line).

Print Options has a “Style” button

full style name into the Style field.

option has been added to disable the highlighting-of-notes-

are available on the notation, leadsheet, or

are now thicker.

(so it won't be distracting to good sight-

after a bar line as a

, if the last line of the range printed out

– pressing this button will enter the

Descriptive Hints added throughout the program.

We've added much more detail to the yellow window flyby hints that appear when you move over an item. Also added are many new hints for the dialog boxes and various windows. You can set the hints to display none, basic, or detailed information.

Direct Entry of Tempo and other settings.

You can now quickly enter a specific tempo for the song by clicking on the tempo (hot key is dialog will open up allowing you to type in a tempo. Similar

Ctrl+Alt+T

, or menu item Play |Tempo | Set Tempo…), and a

Chapter 2: Summary of New Features

dialogs are

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available to enter a value for Volume, Panning, Reverb, Chorus, and Bank

settings.

Master Volume Hot Keys.

Master Volume settings can now be made more quickly with added hot keys. If you want to “turn it all up or down,” this can be done quickly with hot keys.

THRU Velocity boost.

A velocity boost can be applied to the THRU part.

Song Titles Dialog Editing.

The Song Titles window can now be updated from within the Song Titles dialog.

Scrolling Big Lyrics.

The Big Lyrics Window now scrolls a page at a time for easier reading of lyrics.

Custom File Dialog Enhancements.

Now there are hot keys for the Search Dialog (Alt+S), Favorite Folders (Alt+F), and Font selection (Alt+N). Double clicking in the favorite directories window now exits the dialog.

Quick Song Transpose (1 hot key).

Now you can transpose the entire song during playback (or while stopped) using a single key. Transpose down 1 semitone (Ctrl+Alt+5), up one semitone (Ctrl+Alt+6), or a specified # of semitones (Ctrl+Alt+7). Quick Transpose is useful when accompanying a vocalist who requests a higher key, since you'll instantly hear the song in the new key – even if the song is playing it will continue in the new key. Use it during playback to modulate the song.

Audio Mute.

Now you can mute/un-mute the audio track in Band-in-a-Box. Choose AudioMute Audio to mute/un-mute the audio track.

New Hot Keys Added.

Examples include hot keys for Chord Builder (Ctrl+Shift+B), Song Settings (Ctrl+N), Preferences (Ctrl+E), song transpose by +1/-1 (Ctrl+Alt+5, 6) and many more. The TAB key now advances around the Chordsheet (like the right cursor key), and Shift+TAB functions like the left cursor key. For entering chords like “Cm+” you no longer have to type an uppercase for the “+,” you can type the lowercase “=” and the program will enter a Cm+.

Shot/Held Chords Option Enhanced.

Normally, when a “shot” or a “held” chord is assigned, instruments that are excluded from the shot/held chord play normally. Now there is an additional option for those excluded instruments to stay silent. Velocity boosts for shots and held chords are now settable. In previous versions, a shot or held chord

Chapter 2: Summary of New Features

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produced a (loud) velocity boost of 15-30. Now you can set the amount of velocity boost, for the effect you want. Duration of “shots” is reduced to 60 ticks per beat. Previously the shots lasted as long as the typical 1-beat pattern, which was often longer than 60 ticks.

Soloist “Note-Density” Option.

Now you can control the maximum number of notes per quarter note that the soloist will use. For example, you can set a “Rock Guitar” Soloist to use nothing shorter than 16 with bursts of 32 quarter notes or longer to help with sight-reading or student study. We've already modified many of the soloists using this new setting, so your solos will already sound better without you having to change this setting.

notes. This would produce less “guitar hero” solos

notes etc. Or you could create a Jazz solo that uses only

Local On/Off Menu Commands.

Dedicated menu items added on GM Menu for “Turn Local OFF,” “Turn Local ON,” and “When program quits, turn Local ON.”

Enhanced Screen Looping.

For the loop screen feature; if looping on the first line, Band-in-a-Box now loops from bar 1 and does not include the lead-in.

MIDI Driver Dialog Improvements.

When visiting the MIDI Driver dialog, if the setup is panned to MONO, the program offers to change it to stereo. Selecting a new drum kit from the

MIDI Driver dialog no longer changes your panning settings. Since most people use stereo settings, this makes it easier to ensure that you are using stereo settings. A new Drum kit is only installed if you specifically select a new Drum kit in the MIDI Driver dialog.

Auto-Resume Play.

If playback is occurring when OPEN song is chosen, playback of the new song will resume when the new song is loaded (so you don't have to press PLAY).

This works for other methods of song loading such as load next/previous Song.

Chord Wizard Enhancements.

Chord Wizard enhancements include recognizing more chord types and additional options.

… and more!

Chapter 2: Summary of New Features

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Chapter 3: QuickStart Tutorial

QuickStart Tutorial for the Version 12 Upgrade.

new features in Version 12 of Band-in-a-Box are provided elsewhere. This tutorial is a QuickStart tour of the new features in Version 12.

The full descriptions of the

Band-in-a-Box 12: Overview

Note: It is assumed that you are somewhat familiar with the previous release of Band-in-a-Box.

Explore Band-in-a-Box Version 12

OK, let's begin to explore BB version 12.

the main screen of Version 12. Then we'll use the new “Style Wizard” to convert a MIDI file to a Band-in-a-Box Style (*.STY).

Run the main program and look at the main screen.

program has been simplified.

There is a Window menu that launches the various windows in the program. The User menu (abbreviation for User-Style) has been moved to the Styles menu. The Styles menu now contains the StyleMaker menu items, including the new Style Wizard (see below).

The Opt. | Preferences dialog now contains all of the user preferences, in a tab style dialog. When the tabs are selected, if the options control a certain window, Band-in-a-Box will launch the window if necessary, and then close the window after the settings dialog has been exited.

First we'll take a quick tour around

The main menu of the

Ctrl+E

Press These preferences apply to the whole program (not a single song).

Song Settings

The similar tabs for the various settings that apply to the current song.

to launch the Preferences Dialog, and try out the various tabs.

dialog (Edit | Settings (for This Song)… or

Chapter 3: QuickStart Tutorial

Ctrl+N

) has

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Right click on the Chordsheet screen (or Notation window) and a context menu will appear. This is another way to launch the Preferences dialog or other items.

Look at the top of the main screen.

Up at the top left, there's a GM2 button. This allows you to select General MIDI patches, as well as 128 additional General MIDI 2 patches. Also, the patch number is displayed in the instrument list. In the example above, the instrument displayed is Ukulele. The Ukulele patch is 25/ variation 1. The variation # indicates that it is a GM2 patch.

Note: Not all synths/sound cards support GM2 yet. The Roland VSC3 Soft-synth (included with Band-in-a-Box) does support GM2, as do the Roland Sound Canvas series, and newer Yamaha XG units. Most sound cards don't support GM2 yet. If your unit doesn't support GM2 (and you don't want to use the Roland VSC3), Band-ina-Box will substitute the closest patch. In the case of Ukulele, this would be “Nylon String Guitar.” Set the Options-MIDI Driver-”GM2 Support” to indicate the type of GM2 support that your system supports.

Pressing the [GM2] button allows you to select a patch using a menu that groups the instruments by type (Pianos, Guitars, etc.).

In this example, the Ukulele is selected under the group (Guitars). GM2 patches appear in the list after the regular GM patches.

Chapter 3: QuickStart Tutorial

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Find the new Loop Section Settings dialog and checkbox.

To the right of the song title, you'll see the “Loop Sec” check box, and the Loop Section Settings dialog button beside it.

The loop section checkbox turns the looping on/off.

The loop settings dialog button launches the Loop Section Settings dialog, allowing you to set a range of bars to loop in Band-in-a-Box.

Let's quickly make a loop for bars 5-12, by first selecting bars 5-12 bars by dragging the mouse.

Then press the loop button, and inside the Loop Section Settings dialog press [Play from loop] and then [Close].

Now let's examine the new harmony display features. Load in the song “Night_T.MGU.” This is a Jazz song. (Note: The melody of this song was previously converted to a harmony using the Melody | Edit Melody Track | Convert Harmony to Melody Track menu option.) So this song now contains a harmony on the Melody part.

Open the notation window (Ctrl+W) and you'll see all 4 voices of the harmony on the same treble clef.

Note: If your song has an Intro the opening bars of the Melody track will be empty so you’ll have to scroll ahead to the start of the Melody.

Now open the leadsheet window. Band-in-a-Box now recognizes that this is a harmony generated by Band-in-a-Box and displays each voice on a separate track of the leadsheet.

Chapter 3: QuickStart Tutorial

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Four part Harmony display in Leadsheet Notation window.

For example, you can see the first Bb note has the other harmony voices playing G (drop 2), F, and D.

Now open up the leadsheet options.

Chapter 3: QuickStart Tutorial

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Select Show Harmony Voice Æ“Voice 2,” and press OK. You'll now see just voice 2 of the harmony. Play the song so that you can hear the harmony.

You will hear the “Voice 2” harmony along with the other harmonies. Return to the Leadsheet Options and select Play Volume of Harmony Voice Æ “50% solo.” Now you'll hear “Voice 2” played louder than the other harmony voices. Similarly, you can remove the sound of the harmony by selecting Æ “Muted.” Seeing the harmonies like this is great for sight reading practice, reading a voice under a Melody.

Press the [Print] button to print out “Voice 2.” If needed, press the Notation-Options-Transpose to first visually transpose the instrument to Eb for an “Alto Sax” chart.

Now, let's check out some of the new “Bass Guitar” features. Continuing with the “Night Trip” song, play the song and open up the Notation window (Ctrl+W) and the Guitar window (Ctrl+Shift+G).

As the song is playing, press the [B] bass button on the Guitar window.

You'll see the guitar fretboard has now changed to a bass fretboard. The bass part is correctly displayed, and is fingered as a real bass player would do it! There is also bass tablature displayed on the Notation. This can be printed out.

Chapter 3: QuickStart Tutorial

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You can view the bass fretboard for other tracks (except Guitar) in the Guitar Settings dialog by choosing Bass in the Fretboard list.

Ukulele, Mandolin and Banjo fretboards may also be chosen from this dialog.

Look at the Play | Looping menu. There are several menu commands (and hot keys) that allow you to control the song as it’s playing.

Examples of Song Navigation Hot Keys

- Loop Endless Middle Choruses. To practice a song, start it playing with

Ctrl+NUMPAD 2. The song will play and the Middle Choruses will loop

endlessly until the loop is turned off (NUMPAD 1). Example use: A student practicing a Jazz song can press Ctrl+NUMPAD 2 at any time, and the middle choruses will loop continuously for soloing.

- Loop Endless Last Choruses. Ctrl+NUMPAD 1 will trigger playback

and loop the last choruses. Example use: For live performance, pressing Ctrl+NUMPAD 1 will insure that the song continues until the loop turns off (NUMPAD 1).

- Ctrl+NUMPAD 4 jumps to the last chorus. Example use: For live

performance, if you'd like to end the song early, jump to the last chorus, or directly to the ending.

- Ctrl+NUMPAD 5 jumps to the ending.

These song navigation commands can be done whether the song is stopped or playing.

MIDI File to Style Wizard Tutorial.

Now let's work with the amazing new Style Wizard! This converts any MIDI file to a Band-in-a-Box style. In this tutorial we're going to load in a Jazz Swing MIDI file (Violet.MID) and convert it to a style - which we'll call Violet.STY.

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Note: Violet.MID is a Jazz Swing MIDI file that is included in your c:\bb folder. You can use your own MIDI file in place of this if you'd prefer for this tutorial.

First, start with a new song (File | New) and then choose Styles | Style Wizard (Alt+S W) to launch the Style Wizard. You'll see the following dialog.

The dialog is largely empty because we haven't chosen a MIDI file yet.

Press the [Open] button and load in the file c:\bb\violet.MID. The Style Wizard now swings into action and does the following automatically:

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1. The chords for the MIDI file are figured out and displayed on the

Chordsheet. They aren't perfect, but usually are more than 80% accurate.

2. The “part markers” for the file are interpreted and displayed on the

Chordsheet. For Violet.MID, the Style Wizard has found the correct part markers – by looking for drum fills and other signs of a part change – and has assigned substyle “a” to all of them. We'll be changing some of those part markers to “b” substyle later.

The channels used in the MIDI file are displayed in the dialog, with the patches used and # of notes played on each channel. (For Violet.MID you can see that channels 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, and 10 are used.)

The Style Wizard analyzes the parts and guesses at which Band-in-a-Box part to use for each track. There are 5 possible Band-ina-Box parts in a style; Bass, Piano, Drums, Guitar, and Strings. In Violet.MID, Band-in-a-Box has guessed perfectly and has assigned 5 instruments – not assigning a Band-in-a-Box part to the Melody.

The Style Wizard suggests which bars (“snapshots”) to include in the style. The suggested bars are bars that contain all of the “BB Part” instruments. Usually you'll want to customize these snapshot bars to control which bars get included in the “a” or “b” substyle. In the Violet.MID style, the Style Wizard has offered to include Bars 9-88 (inclusive) and wants to put them all on the “a” substyle.

Note: If you “can't wait” and want to make a “quickie” style right now, just press GENERATE STYLE, pick a name for the style, and that style will be made. You can use it, or revisit the Style-Wizard to tweak it and make it again. By tweaking it (see below) we can turn a good style into a great one and it’s fun too!

Continuing on, we want to make a great sounding style, so it is important that we have the following two items correct:

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The “BB Parts” have to be correct. We can audition the MIDI file by playing a loop and listening to the MIDI file and muting channels by clicking on the “Channel”

checkboxes. From that we can hear the individual parts and

assign them correctly as we would like them in the style. From listening to the style (by playing the MIDI file inside the Style Wizard– see below) we can tell which bars to use for the “a” and “b” substyle. Note: Some of these settings have been entered automatically by the Style Wizard – but you'll have to type in the data as below.

The Snapshot

Bars should be correct for the “a” and “b” substyle. You need to tell the

program which bars to use for the “a” substyle and which for the “b” substyle. The program makes an attempt to guess at this, but since MIDI files can contain many different substyles (and a Band-in-a-Box style allows only 2), you'll likely want control over these snapshots yourself.

Tip to help you choosing which bars to use:

To listen to the MIDI file, you can either exit the Style Wizard dialog and just play the song like any other Band-in-a-Box file, or play a looped section inside the Style Wizard using the [Play], [Stop], and “Loop

at Bar” settings. OK, the Style Wizard has already made the correct settings for the “BB Parts” for us, so we don't need to make any changes there. Let's move to the Snapshots section, and enter the bar numbers that correspond to the substyles that we'd like for the Jazz tune. After listening to the tune, we notice that there is a “2-feel” Jazz section, and a “4-in-the-bar” section. We'd want those as “a” and “b” substyles, so we want to enter the bar #s that correspond to these settings.

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In the Snapshots area of the Style Wizard:

- Enter “1-20” for the bars for the “A” Substyle.

- Enter “21-28, 37-68” for the “B” Substyle.

- Enter “12, 20” for the “A” Drum Fills.

- Enter “28, 36, 44, 52, 60, and 68” for the “B” Drum Fills.

Note: Of course you don't need to enter this much detail. You could just enter a single range like 1-20 for the “a” substyle and make a quickie style. We're illustrating “advanced” style-generation here.

Now we're ready!

Press [Generate NEW style…], choose a name for your style, and the style will get made. Let's call it Violet.STY.

Now to hear your style! You could play the style with any song of course, by loading in a song and then loading in the Violet.STY It is easily available from the favorite styles dialog (Shift+F9).

For this tutorial, load in the song V_TEST.MGU that we made for you. That's a Jazz Swing song using different chords than Violet, and it uses the Violet.STY (So you need to have made that style before you try to play the song or you'll get a “Violet.STY not found” message.)

Before loading in the new song save the existing song. When Band-in-a-Box saves a song that has an entire MIDI file on the Melody (or Soloist) tracks it gives it a special extension… MGX. So you'll be saving the file as Violet.MGX. You can revisit this file at a later date as it remembers all of the settings in the Style Wizard that you've made so that you can resume your work in tweaking your style.

Alternatively, if you'd prefer to play the Violet.STY style without loading in another song, you can do it as follows. Since the Violet.MGX file currently has the entire MIDI file on the Melody track the first thing we need to do is Mute the Melody (Alt+9 or right-click on the Melody part at the top of the screen). The next thing is the Enable the Style, by choosing Style | Style is Enabled so that this item has a checkbox.

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So we've made our first style! In summary, making styles with the Style Wizard is a process involving:

1. Loading a MIDI file into the Style Wizard.

2. Listening to the MIDI file by muting channels to identify parts.

3. Picking the channels to use for the BB Parts.

4. Picking the snapshot bars for the “a” and “b” substyle.

5. Pressing the [Generate NEW style…] button.

This is the end of the tutorial.

Thanks for taking the time to read this section. The next sections examine the new features in detail. _____________________________________________________

New! Styles Set #30: World Fretboards

The new Styles Set #30 comes with your upgrade to Band-in-a-Box Version 12. These “World Fretboards” styles use the new intelligent chord fretboard display in Band-in-a-Box 12.

BEEBROK4.STY Sparse guitar comping variation of BeeBRock.Sty. BEEBROK5.STY Rock Blues var. of BeeBRock less varied guitar rhythm. BIGBAND1.STY Medium Swing big band sound with Brass (fills & bg). BLUGRAS5.STY Bluegrass style with a swing 16ths feel. BO_D.STY Swing 16ths rhythm groove à la Bo. CAMPFIRE.STY Easy “round the campfire” sing-along with strumming. COZY_SW.STY Simple Jazz trio Swing style. CREEDNCE.STY Loose 16ths Rock feel - in between straight and swing. DIXIDUKE.STY Dixieland in the style of the Dukes and similar groups. DREAM.STY Slow 50s Swing Ballad with rhythm section & strings. DRUMSOLJ.STY Jazz Swing DRUMS ONLY. Use for inserting drum solos. GOSSAMER.STY Slow, quiet, & peaceful style with even 8ths arpeggio feel. HAWAISLO.STY Slow, easy, semi-even 8ths Pop Hawaiian strumming style. J~BREEZY.STY Jazz swing, 5-inst. style, including brushes & slow strings. J~GITWLZ.STY Variation of J!GITWLZ.STY, this version uses BRUSHES. JAZFOURA.STY Variation of JazzFours.sty, with “trading” order changes. JAZFOURB.STY Another variation of the “trading fours” order. JAZFOURC.STY At “a” AND “b,” 4 bars DRUM SOLO - 4 bars BAND. JOHNBAL.STY Slow even 8ths Pop-Rock with acoustic piano & strings. JOHNNYH.STY 60s Pop-Country style à la JohnnyH. Almost-swung 8ths. L~BOSA4U.STY Simple Bossa style with smooth syncopation. 3 insts. LOTUS.STY Slow, tranquil, 3/4 time, even 8ths, New Age style. MILITARY.STY Good for 60s Country historic battle-type tunes. P_NEILD1.STY 70s Pop Rock swing with 4 to-the-bar guitar comping. POP_SADE.STY 90s cool Pop-Jazz even 8ths. Vocal background at “b.” ROKTRIO1.STY 80s-90s Rock trio with even 8ths feel. Strat 4-to the bar. SWING~EZ.STY Swing style with 4 instruments and no piano. UKE_FAST.STY Simple Swing 8ths campfire Ukulele.

… and more! (See Appendix A for full list.)

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Chapter 4: MIDI File to Style Wizard

Overview

MIDI file to Style Wizard

This automatically converts a MIDI file (.MID) to a Band-in-a-Box Style (.STY). Simply open a MIDI file, select your options, and press “Save-As Style.” With plenty of options this wizard allows you to quickly make your own simple or advanced styles from a standard MIDI file – without any knowledge of the StyleMaker required! Novice users will appreciate the automated option that “does everything” to make the style while advanced users will appreciate the custom options to control (for example) which bars from the MIDI file are included in the style, how many pattern variations, and more.

First off, you should likely read the “Version 12 Tutorial” on making a style. This tutorial gives a description of the process to make a style.

Also, make sure to watch the “Band-in-a-Box 12 New Features Video” on making a style with the Style Wizard (this may be included with your Band-ina-Box 12 version).

In the tutorial, we saw that making styles with the Style Wizard is a process involving:

1. Loading a MIDI file into the Style Wizard.

2. Listening to the MIDI file by muting channels to identify parts.

3. Picking the channels to use for the

Picking the snapshot bars

5. Pressing the

This section will discuss the various items in the Style Wizard Dialog and the Style Wizard Additional Settings.

The Style Wizard is used to generate a Band-in-a-Box Style from a MIDI file. The Style Wizard does this by analyzing the file and creating patterns emulating the notes and rhythms for the style. First off, you'd need to get a MIDI file to use.

Important: You should use a MIDI file that you have composed and arranged – if not, you need to first get permission of the composer and arranger before making a style from the MIDI file.

[Generate NEW style…] button.

for the “a” and “b” substyle.

BB Parts

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Style Wizard Dialog

Open the Style Creation Wizard dialog from the Styles menu by choosing the Style Wizard menu item. A quicker method is to use the hot keys Alt+S then W.

Once you open the dialog, you should select a MIDI file.

You'll then see the name of the MIDI file in the MIDI file label. Once chosen, the Style Wizard will display the channels, patches, and number of events in the “Tracks Area” of the Style Wizard. It will look like this…

Here's a sample row from the Tracks Area.

This indicates that “Channel 2” is used in the file. The checkbox indicates that it will sound when the [Play] button in the Style Wizard is

pressed. Deselecting this checkbox will mute the channel during playback. Muting/Playing the channels is essential in auditioning the MIDI file to determine which “BB Parts” to use, and what bars to use for “Snapshot bars.”

The “Channel selector” presets help with the selection of the channels as described above.

The [None] button de-selects (mutes) all of the channels.

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The [All] button selects (plays) all of the channels.

The “Solo” button will “solo” the last channel that was pressed before the solo button was pressed. So to solo a channel, press the Channel Checkbox, then the SOLO button.

The “BB” part button selects all of the channels that are currently selected as using the “BB Parts,” i.e., the drums/ bass/ piano/ guitar/ and strings (not the melody or “other”).

The “BB Part” section is the area that you choose which channels to use for the “BB Parts” in your style. There are 5 possible instruments in the style – drums, bass, piano, guitar, and strings. Tracks that are not part of the rhythm section (i.e. melody or soloist parts) or “extra” instruments that you don't want to use in the style should be assigned to a BB Part setting of None (----), “Melody,” or “Other.”

The Style Wizard automatically sets these “BB Parts” for you, but you should over-ride these settings to your choices that you'd like to use in the style. For example, if the program has chosen an instrument for BB Part of strings, and you don't want strings in the style, then change that BB Part setting to “----” (none) or “Other.”

The Patch setting is the Patch (instrument) that is found in the MIDI file, and it is the suggested one to use in the style. You can change the patch if you'd like to use a different patch in the Style.

The #Notes column reports the number of notes that are found on each channel. This is helpful information in deciding which BB Parts to assign. For example, if only 10 notes are used on the channel, it's unlikely that the channel is playing much in the file, and shouldn't be used as a BB Part in the style.

The [Auto-Set…] button instructs the Style Wizard to re-make the settings for the Tracks Area and Snapshots of the Style Wizard. The Auto-settings are already invoked when you load a MIDI file, so you would rarely need to press this button explicitly.

The [+] button beside the [Open] button also allows loading of a MIDI file, but displays the Interpret Chords from MIDI file dialog (the Chord Import Wizard), to allow you to tweak settings controlling the chord interpretation. For example, if the interpretation

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of the chords isn't accurate, you can use this button to use different settings.

The [=] button will re-load a MIDI file that is already on the Melody track. For example, if you've loaded in a MIDI file to the Melody track (outside of the Style Wizard), and would now like to make a style from it, you just need to load in the MIDI file from the Melody track to the style wizard. This won't cause an interpretation of the Chords; it uses the current chords on the Chordsheet.

Play Looped Sections

The [Play] and [Stop] buttons and “Loop at Bar” allows playback of a region of the MIDI file. As you hear the playback, you audition various channels for the style by using the “Channel” checkboxes to mute/un-mute tracks.

The “Loop at Bar” setting is the bar for the loop to begin. The # bars is the number of bars for the loop following the “Loop at bar” setting.

Snapshot Regions

This area is for the “snapshots” for A substyle, B substyle, and A, B drum fills. For the “A” substyle enter the range of bars that you would like to be included in the “A” substyle. You can enter values separated by commas “1, 2, 4,” or ranges “1-7, 9-14,” or combinations “1-4, 9, 11, 12-24.” To determine which bar numbers to enter, you'll need to listen to the MIDI file, either by using the PLAY/STOP buttons to loop a section or exiting the dialog and playing the MIDI file (insuring that the Style is Disabled from the Styles menu so that you only hear the MIDI file on the Melody track).

Pressing the [Auto-Generate Snapshot bars] button will generate a list of bar numbers for the snapshots. This list is based on the part markers in the BB

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Chordsheet, so you should first exit the Style Wizard to insure that the part markers are correct before pressing this button.

This is similar to the “Auto-generate snapshot bars,” except when you select this button; a menu of choices will appear to allow selection of all bars, or only bars that include all of the instruments.

The [Clear] button removes the current snapshots from the snapshot areas.

The “Add looped bars as a snapshot” adds the current looped area as a snapshot. You can of course type the information directly into the snapshot areas.

The Defaults button sets the Style Wizard settings to their default state, including the settings in the “More” Dialog.

The “Resolution” setting is set automatically, and should be confirmed. It is set to Triplets for style with a “shuffle” feel such as Jazz Swing or any style with a triplet feel to the 8 (or a swing feel to the 16 straight 8

notes or straight 16th notes.

notes). The other setting is Straight for styles with

notes

The Jazz checkbox setting is to indicate whether the style is a “Jazz” type style with Jazz chords or a “Pop” type style with Pop chords.

The “Copy Melody to Melody Track” is a utility function that should only be used when the style is “finished.” Prior to executing this command, the Melody track contains the entire MIDI file with all of the parts. This “MIDI-file-on-the-Melody-track” is used to create the style. Once the style is created, you might want to extract the actual Melody track from the MIDI file to put on the Melody track. The channels used are the channels that have the BB Part set to “Melody.” When you do this command, you get a chance to first save the MGX file (i.e. the file with the MIDI file on the Melody track), so that you can revisit the file. This “Copy Melody to Melody Track” is useful to audition your new style, because you can then hear just the Melody along with your style.

“Copy Melody to Soloist track” works in a similar way except that it doesn't erase the MIDI file part on the Melody track.

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“Generate NEW style…” makes a new style. The Style Creation Wizard dialog is exited, and a file dialog allows you to pick a name for the style.

“Add to existing style...” allows you to add the patterns to an existing style.

The [More] button launches the Style Wizard –

Advanced Settings and Preferences dialog.

Style Wizard “More…” Dialog

This dialog is launched from the [More…] button in the Style Wizard.

There are 2 sections to this dialog.

Advanced Instrument Settings

The advanced instrument settings allow settings for the instruments (drums / bass / piano / guitar / strings) to be included in the style. The settings are:

The “Substyles” determines whether the instrument is included in the “A,” “B,” or both “A&B” substyles. For example, if you want to make a style that only uses the strings on the “B” substyle, set the strings instrument part to “B” only.

The Voicings settings determine, for the various instruments:

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Drums (“voicings”): Whether the patterns will use live or grid style patterns. Default mode is “auto,” which normally uses live patterns, but you can force it to use live or grid style patterns. Live patterns have higher

resolution and can use more instruments, so in general are the better choice.

Bass (“voicings”) determine if the bass part will use All notes / Scale tones only / Root 3rd, 5

th,7th

/ Root, 3rd, 5th / Root and 5

/ or just the Root. The default is “Auto-select” which usually allows all 12 semitones.

Piano, Guitar, and Strings Voicings

determine how the Piano patterns will be voiced. The choices are Auto, Include Full Voicings, and Tritones only (3 auto-setting usually uses the “Include full

rd/7ths

). The

voicings.” If the part uses 2-note chords, you should over-ride this setting to “use tritones” so that the most important notes of the chord (the tritone) will get included.

The Embellish checkbox determines if the patterns for piano, guitar, and strings will be embellished. If embellished, on a chord like D7 (in the key of C) 13ths, 9ths, and #11 notes might be added to embellish the chord. A jazz piano style would likely use this.

The “Include Empty patterns Threshold” setting defaults to None. Possible settings are None / 2 beat / 1 bar / 2 bars. If set to none, the instrument will always play in the style, if set to “1 bar” there will be “spaces of silence” up to 1 bar long (perhaps longer if chained together) in the style for that instrument. So if an instrument is used sparsely in a style, set this setting to something higher than none.

The Velocity Adjust will make an instrument louder or softer in the style.

Auto-interpret MIDI file. (DEFAULT = YES) When set, the Style-Wizard will set the channels, BB Parts, and snapshots for you. Normally this setting should be left on.

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Delete existing patterns (when adding to the style). (DEFAULT = NO) If this option is set when you create style patterns to add to an existing style, the entire instrument will first be erased in the style for any instrument used in the new style. When you generate a style by adding to an existing style, the StyleMaker is then opened up, allowing you to pick a new name for the style (so you don't overwrite the existing style).

# of Columns to leave unused in the style. (DEFAULT = 0) If set to zero (the default), the Style Wizard can create the biggest style possible – filling up the rows completely with patterns. But if you set this to a non-zero value it will limit the # of patterns that can be made. Since there are 30 rows in the StyleMaker, you can set this setting from 0 to 29.

The Style Wizard won't insert patterns unless they are unique compared to the ones already entered. But (with this setting at the default of 8), after 8 duplicates of the same pattern, a 2

pattern will get entered that is a duplicate of another pattern. Setting this to zero would mean that every pattern would get entered (regardless of whether it was unique); setting it to a high number like 200 would mean that only truly unique patterns are entered. To maintain the correct balance in the style, since the maximum weight of a pattern in the StyleMaker is 8, this setting should be left at 8 in most situations. If your style is “filling up” all of the available columns, then set this to a higher number.

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Chapter 5: General MIDI 2 (GM2) Support

“Twice as many instruments” with General MIDI 2 support!

We've added support for General MIDI 2 standard (GM2). This GM2 support adds 128 new instruments to Band-in-a-Box styles and songs, including ukulele, mandolin, 12-string guitar plus many new and improved piano, organ, guitar, brass, and string sounds! We've made many new styles using the new instruments and also include updated versions of previous styles – you'll be hearing the new instruments with many of your new and existing styles.

The type of GM2 support is set in the

MIDI Driver Setup

dialog (Opt. | MIDI

driver setup…). The choices are:

General MIDI 2 support:

If you're using the Roland VSC3, or a newer Sound Canvas (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, BB 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:

Most sound cards (Sound Blasters etc.) don't have GM2 support yet, so just support the 128 sounds. BB will use the closest instrument in these cases.

You can select the GM2 patch using the GM2 button at the top left of the screen. This shows a menu organized by instrument types (pianos, guitars etc.).

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Technical note: For a GM patch like Nylon Guitar the patch is 25. For a GM2 patch like Ukulele, the patch is also 25, but it is accompanied by two bank settings; MSB Bank Controller 0 setting of 121 and LSB Bank Controller 32 setting of 1.

When you select the instrument from this menu, it will make the bank settings (Bank0 and LSB) for you. You can also change the bank #s directly, and the patch in the box will change.

GM2 patches can also be selected elsewhere in the program, such as the Change Patch at any bar dialog and the StyleMaker patch selection.

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Chapter 6: Looping / Song Navigation

Enhancements

Loop any Section of the song.

You can now loop any section of the song. The program will then start playback at the first loop point and play the looped section until stop is pressed or looping is turned off. This feature is handy for looping a full chorus or other section of a song for practice or performance.

Looping of a section of the song is enabled by the “LoopSec” checkbox or with the keystroke

Open up the Loop button, or pressing dialog will then display.

There's a useful “Play from loop” command that allows you to quickly play a looped section. Simply highlight the range of bars to loop on the Chordsheet,

NUMPAD 2

press [Play from loop] button.

to open the

Loop Section Settings

NUMPAD 1

dialog by clicking the

NUMPAD 2

dialog, and choose the

. The Loop settings

To enter settings manually in this dialog, you start by choosing either “Loop a Single Screen of Notation” or “Loop Range of Bars.” If you want the custom range of bars, then enter the starting “From Bar” number, the “Chorus #,” and the “# bars” for the length of the looped section. You can then play the song with the [Play from loop] and then [Close] the dialog.

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Presets are available to set the loop points to Intro, First / Middle /Last Choruses, Ending, or All. As the different buttons are selected you will see the “Loop Range of Bars” settings update. Hot keys are also available for these, look in the Play menu under the Looping submenu.

One More Time! (Song navigation during playback!) The loop feature is useful for live performance (to shorten or lengthen the tune), or to provide “endless choruses” of one tune when practicing. Either during playback or when stopped, you can open the Loop dialog to quickly navigate around the tune.

For example, if the song is playing and the “dance floor is humming” and you'd like the last chorus of the song to loop endlessly, open the Loop Section Settings dialog (NUMPAD 2), and click on the [Last] button. The song will now continue playing and will loop the last chorus until you turn off looping with NUMPAD 1. Similarly, to enable the “endless Choruses” for soloing practice, open the dialog (NUMPAD 2) and click on [Middle].

There's a similar new feature called “Jump to” that allows you to jump to any section of the song (intro / first chorus / middle choruses / last chorus / ending) without looping. This is useful if the dance floor is “not humming,” and you want to end the song by, for example, jumping to the ending or last chorus.

For live performers (or people in a hurry), there are even simpler “1 hand” hot key commands to accomplish the entire process. Ctrl+NUMPAD 1 while a song is playing (or stopped) will set the last chorus to loop endlessly and NUMPAD 1 turns the loop off. If you press Ctrl+NUMPAD 1 to start the song, it will start playback and set the looping up for the last chorus. If you forget, you can still press the hot keys Ctrl+NUMPAD 1 as the song is playing and the loop will get set up. Similar hot key commands are available for looping the Middle choruses or Middle & Last chorus, and there are one-hand hot key commands for jumping to the last chorus or ending to end the song early.

The Title bar at the top of the main screen indicates the looping status. If a song has a looped section, this will be listed at the top of the screen (e.g. “Will loop Middle Choruses” or “Currently looping Middle Choruses”). So you can tell what is going to happen with the looping during a live performance.

Tip: If you're at home practicing a tune, start playback with Ctrl+NUMPAD 2, and the song will play with endless middle choruses for soloing, until you press NUMPAD 1 (or Stop) to release the loop.

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Chapter 7: Bass / Guitar / Fretboards

Guitar Window Enhancements

We've enhanced the Guitar Window by adding fret display support for other instruments, including mandolin, ukulele and banjo. You'll see authentic chord voicings and melody display on the fretboard for all of these new instruments. The StyleMaker has been enhanced with support for the GM2 instruments, so you can make styles that use the new instruments and have correct instrument voicings displayed on the fretboard.

The ukulele, mandolin, and banjo display will mainly occur when you are playing styles that have these instruments. Audition Styles Set #30 to listen to these styles. For example, HAWAISLO.STY has a Ukulele. Go to the guitar, piano, or strings track and view the Guitar fretboard – it will change to ukulele when you are viewing a style with Ukulele.

You can force the Guitar Window to always display Ukulele (for Melodies etc.). To do this, choose Window | Guitar Window and click on the [Set…] button to open the Bass, Ukulele, Mandolin, or Banjo. Or set the Melody | Track Type to Ukulele. When this is done, the default fretboard display will become the one that you have chosen, and it will only be overridden by a style containing another fretboard type.

Guitar Settings

dialog. Use the Fretboard combo box to select Guitar,

The Guitar Tutor also works with the new fretboard types. For example, if you want to see Ukulele chording to any song/ any style, choose the Tutor and choose one of the new options for ukulele, mandolin, or banjo.

Guitar Chord Diagrams on the Notation

We've added an option for standard Guitar Chord diagrams to be included in the notation display. Choose from Folk, Pop or Jazz Guitar Chord Diagrams (or ukulele, mandolin or banjo) on the notation, leadsheet, or printout.

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To get the Chord Diagrams displaying, go to the

Notation Window Options

dialog and choose the type of Guitar Chord Diagrams from the list.

You'll then see typical chord diagrams on the notation.

The fret #s are written at the top of the diagram. The chord symbol is written above that (in a size 50% of normal). The fret # of the root of the chord is written at the left of the diagram.

Bass Part Enhancements

Bass players will now see bass tablature and correctly displayed Bass parts on

the new Bass fretboard. This happens automatically. To see the Bass part, open the Guitar Window (Ctrl+Shift+G) and click on the [B] Bass part button. The fretboard will then display the Bass part correctly, using intelligent fingering typical of a real bass player. The notation will similarly show bass tab when the Notation window bass track is selected.

The Melody or Soloist track can also be set to Bass Guitar display, by selecting menu Melody | Track Type | Bass.

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Chapter 8: Harmony Notation Display

Enhancements

Harmony Notation Display Enhancements

Harmonies can now be displayed on the Leadsheet window (or printed) with

separate notation tracks for each harmony voice

separate track, or view/print a single harmony voice!

for your band

harmony voice along with the melody that you're hearing.

Now, let's examine the new harmony display features. Load in the song “Night_T.MGU.” This is a Jazz song. The melody of this song was previously converted to a harmony using the Melody | Edit | Convert Melody to Harmony option, so this song now contains a harmony on the Melody part.

, or use for

Open the Notation window ( the harmony on the same treble clef.

sight reading practice

Ctrl+W

. View each harmony on a

Print harmony charts

– to read and play any

), and you'll see all four voices of

Four part harmony on single staff.

Now open the Leadsheet window. Band-in-a-Box now recognizes that this is a harmony (generated by Band-in-a-Box), and displays each voice on a separate track of the leadsheet.

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Four part harmony on four separate staves.

For example, you can see the first Bb note has the other harmony voices playing G (drop 2), F, and D.

Now open up the Leadsheet Options.

- [Convert Harmony to track] will add a harmony to an existing Melody.

- [Remove] will remove the harmony from the track.

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- Split Harmonies to different tracks enables the splitting of the harmonies

to different tracks on the leadsheet.

- Show Harmony Voice allows you to select ALL tracks, which will cause

each track to display on a different track on the Leadsheet. Or select a specific Voice to display only that voice. For example, if you choose “Voice 2” and press OK, you'll now see just voice 2 of the harmony.

Play the song, so that you can hear the harmony.

You can control the volume of the selected harmony voice relative to the other voices in the harmony.

The Play Volume of harmony voice setting can be set to:

- Normal Harmony plays as normal.

- Solo Only the selected voice will play.

- 50% Solo Selected voice is much louder than other voices.

- Quiet Selected Voice is much quieter than other voices.

- Muted Selected Voice is muted.

These settings are useful to sight-read along on harmonies, and learn to hear inner voices of a harmony.

Press the [Print] button to print out “Voice 2.” If needed, press the notation “Transpose Options” to first visually transpose the instrument to Eb for an “Alto Sax” chart.

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Chapter 9: GUI Enhancements

Interface Enhancements

The program’s Graphical User Interface has been enhanced.

There is a single tab dialog for all program Preferences. Press the Preferences button (new hot key is the type of options that you want to set. These include options for General Preferences / MIDI Driver / Channels / Record Filter / Colors / Patch Map / Favorite Patches / Drum Kit / Notation / Leadsheet / Guitar / Big Piano / Audio / Big Lyrics / Soloist / THRU Transpose.

Ctrl+E

Press These preferences apply to the whole program (not a single song).

Song Settings

The tabs for the various settings that apply to the current song.

to launch the

Ctrl+E

) to launch the dialog, and then choose the tab for

Preferences

dialog (Edit | Settings ( for This Song) or

Right mouse menu support has been added. Right click on the chordsheet, and the right mouse menu appears with options to: Cut/ Copy/ Copy From To/ Paste/ Chord Builder/ Play Current Chord/ Chord Builder/ Bar Settings/ Song Settings/ Preferences.

dialog, and try out the various tabs.

Ctrl+N

) has similar

The main menu of the program has been simplified.

There is a Window menu that launches the various windows in the program.

Chapter 9: GUI Enhancements

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The User menu (abbreviation for User-Style) has been moved to the Styles menu. The Styles menu now contains the StyleMaker menu items, including the new Style Wizard.

Right click on the Chordsheet screen or Notation window and a context menu appears. This is another way to launch the Preferences dialog or other items.

Descriptive Hints added throughout the program. We've added much more detail to the yellow window flyby hints that appear when you move over an item. Also added are many new hints for the dialog boxes and various windows. You can set the hints to display none, basic or detailed information.

On program boot up, the current directory will get set to the last directory used in the previous session. This option is set in the Opt. | Preferences |

Prefs2 dialog.

Custom File Dialog Enhancements. The custom file dialog can be opened by Ctrl+Shift+F3 or by F3 if you choose “Long Filenames – custom” in the

Options | Preferences | Prefs2 “Display Filenames:” selection box. Now there are hot keys for the Search Dialog (Alt+S), Favorite Folders (Alt+F), and Font selection (Alt+N). Double clicking in the favorite directories window now exits the dialog.

Many new hot keys added.

Examples include hot keys for Chord Builder (Ctrl+Shift+B), Song Settings (Ctrl+N), Preferences (Ctrl+E), song transpose by +1/-1 (Ctrl+Alt+ 5 or

Ctrl+Alt+ 6) and many more. The TAB key now advances around the Chordsheet (like the right cursor key), and Shift+TAB functions like the left

cursor key. For entering chords like “Cm+” you no longer have to type an uppercase for the “+” you can type the lowercase “=” and the program will enter a Cm+.

Chapter 9: GUI Enhancements

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Chapter 10: Notation Enhancements

Guitar Chord Diagrams

leadsheet, or printout for Folk, Pop, and Jazz voicings.

red as the song is playing

like to read ahead. The “Highlight Playback notes in red” setting in the

Notation Window Options

Boxes for Section text

They are double thickness.

so it won't be distracting to good sight-readers who

dialog sets this.

Brackets (#) are now drawn around accidentals

where no accidental is required.

are available on the notation,

are now thicker.

A Notation option has been added to

disable the highlighting of notes in

after a bar line as a courtesy,

Printing as Graphics has been enhanced with a “Copy-to-Clipboard”

option, so that you can quickly paste into other applications. To copy-toclipboard, choose Not’n | Print, then Print Preview and Copy-To-Clipboard. You can then paste the bitmap into another application.

For the Leadsheet and printout

contains only 1 bar, it is drawn with a narrow width (previously it was stretching the bar across the entire line).

, if the last line of the range printed out

Print Options has a “Style” button

pressing this button will enter the full style name into the Style field.

Chapter 10: Notation Enhancements

–

Page 44

Channel numbers are now displayable on the notation. When editing notes, it is often helpful to see

the channel number of each note. Now, by setting Note Names to “Channel Numbers” in the Notation Window Options dialog you'll see the channel number for each

note written into the note head of the notes. This is useful (for example) when viewing an entire MIDI file that you've loaded onto the Melody track, and want to examine the channel information, or for editing a guitar track that uses channels 11 to 16.

Chapter 10: Notation Enhancements

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Chapter 11: Style Enhancements

Styles Improved

All of the styles are enhanced!

Box style that we’ve made with the newest StyleMaker features including guitar and other fretted instrument voicings, consistent volume levels, edited patterns and more.

Band-in-a-Box version 12 upgrade

Change styles at any bar using the convenient StylePicker Window

changing styles at any bar using the previously the new style chosen would be chosen using the File | Open dialog box. Now you can choose the style change using the StylePicker, which is much easier. To do this, open the press the [.STY] button, and choose your new style.

Note: You can still use the previous method with the old file-open style dialog. Press the [Open…] button in the bar settings dialog to do this.

Many of these styles and new demo songs are included with your

We've improved/updated

Edit Settings for Current Bar

EVERY

dialog (F5 key),

Band-in-a-

. When

dialog,

Enable/Disable Style

Enable/Disable the style.

When disabled, the name of the style will have an X at the beginning, which indicates a disabled style. The disabled style won't sound or write any data to the MIDI file. The most common use for disabling a style is when a MIDI file is loaded to the Melody track. Then the style won't sound and conflict with the full arrangement on the Melody track.

menu item. (

JazQuint style is disabled, as indicated by the X at the start of the name.

Chapter 11: Style Enhancements

Alt+S E

) The Styles menu has an item to

Page 46

Load Previous Style, Load Next Style. This function, analogous to the Load Next Song function, loads in the previous (or next) style in alphabetical order of the file name. These functions are added to the Styles menu, and accessible with the hot keys Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F8 (or

Alt+Shift+F8).

StylePicker Enhancements

The StylePicker window has been enhanced:

There is a new filter to display only the styles of a certain Styles Set number, as well as displaying the name of the Styles Set. To select this, open the StylePicker, and choose “Only Show Styles Set #.” When you pick Styles Set #, you can then see only that Styles Set listed, regardless of the category you are in.

The limit of number of styles in the StylePicker has been increased to 4,800 to accommodate the large number of third party styles developed for Band-in-a-

Chapter 11: Style Enhancements

Page 47

Box. The window size has been increased, providing more space for the category descriptions.

Technical note: The configuration file saved is now called BBW.LSW instead of BBW.LSV.

In the StyleMaker, deleting patterns no longer requires a confirmation “are you sure” dialog. Just typing a zero or Delete will delete the pattern.

Chapter 11: Style Enhancements

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Chapter 12: Other New Features

Handy Song Transpose Options.

Quick (1 hot key) Song Transpose.

during playback (or while stopped) using a single key. Transpose down 1 semitone ( semitones ( menu. Quick Transpose is useful when accompanying a vocalist who requests a higher key, since you'll instantly hear the song in the new key – even if the song is playing it will continue in the new key. Or you can use it during playback to modulate the song.

Hitting more) transpose. Note that the transpose is not just a simple transposition of the notes, it is a new arrangement based on the transposed chords so that instruments stay within their correct range.

Tip: If the resultant melody isn't in the octave that you'd like transpose it down/up an octave with Ctrl+Alt+1 or Ctrl+Alt+2 (Soloist is Ctrl+Alt+3 or Ctrl+Alt+4).

Band-in-a-Box can load and play an entire MIDI file!

Band-in-a-Box can load and play an entire MIDI file! Now you can open an entire MIDI file into Band-in-a-Box. The chords will get auto-interpreted by the Chord Wizard, and the MIDI file will play and display on the Melody track. A “Silent” style will get loaded, so you'll just hear the MIDI file. To access this feature, choose the Chord Wizard (File-Interpret Chords) and select “Open entire MIDI file to Melody.”

Visual Metronome during the whole song

Ctrl+Alt+5

Ctrl+Alt+7

Ctrl+Alt 6

), up one semitone (

). These are also available from the Edit | Transpose

twice (or more) quickly will have the effect of a full tone (or

Now you can transpose the entire song

Ctrl+Alt+6

. You can display a visual metronome onscreen during the entire song (or just the lead-in). Choose the screen position (topright or center), and the size (up to near full screen size). Also choose the visual metronome pattern (1234, 1-3, 1---, or –2-

4). Seeing a visual metronome on-screen is a great way for a student to learn to keep on the beat, and with a settable size, students can view this from across the room. To set the visual metronome, choose Opt. | Preferences and select the type of Visual Metronome.

), or a specified number of

Chapter 12: Other New Features

Page 49

Option to hear the drum count-in even if the drums are muted or disabled.

Previously, when the drum track was muted (or disabled in a song), the count-in drum click wouldn't play. Now there's an option to play the drum count-in in all circumstances. Drummers who play along with BB by muting the drum track should find this feature useful. To set this option, choose Opt. | Preferences and set “Lead-in drum count if drums muted or disabled” to true (default is true).

Bass player plays better “5ths” over some Jazz chords. Band-in-a-Box’s bass player was playing some natural 5ths over some chords like C7 altered or others. Now, after a discussion with some bass players, we've improved Bandin-a-Box so that the bass part plays the #5 or b5 correctly on these Jazz chords.

Part Markers are now written to the MIDI files. These part markers can be read by PowerTracks (and Band-in-a-Box if re-importing the MIDI file with the Chord Wizard). Save a MIDI file in Band-in-a-Box, and move it over to PowerTracks (version 8 or higher), you'll now see the Part Markers (and chords) written on the Chords Window in PowerTracks. Re-import the MIDI file into Band-in-a-Box with the Chord Wizard and you'll also see the part markers in Band-in-a-Box.

Option to write MIDI file with separate tracks for each drum instrument. To select this, generate the MIDI file (press the .MID button), and then select the combo box “Type 1- separate drum tracks.”

“Chase Volumes” added for playback. For a file with Volume change events (Controller 7) written into the Melody (or other tracks) – if the song is played back from somewhere in the middle, the most recent volume control information prior to the start of playback will get sent.

Direct Entry of Tempo and other settings.

You can now quickly enter a specific tempo for the song by clicking on the tempo (hot key is Ctrl+Alt+T, or menu item Play | Tempo | Set Tempo…), and a dialog will open up allowing you to type in a tempo. Similar dialogs are available for Volume, Panning, Reverb, Chorus, and Bank settings.

Chapter 12: Other New Features

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Master Volume settings can now be made more quickly with hot keys.

If you want to “turn it all up or down,” this can be done quickly with hot keys. Hot keys Ctrl+Alt+A (or Ctrl+Alt+S) will decrease (or increase) the master volume setting by 5 and Ctrl+Alt+D launches a new dialog that allows a number to be set for the master volume. Since Master Volume is a different parameter than Volume, we have also added similar hot keys that control the overall volume by reducing (or increasing) volumes on all parts by 5 to simulate a Master Volume effect (especially useful for sound cards that don't support Master Volume changes). These items are all available on the GM | Master (Combo) Volume Adjust submenu, and also have hot keys as listed on the menu (Ctrl+Alt+Shift Q, W, and E).

A THRU Velocity boost can be applied to the THRU part.

When playing along on a keyboard to the

Band-in-a-Box “band,” if the sound of your keyboard is too quiet, and increasing the THRU Volume doesn't help enough, using this option to boost to the THRU velocity will make your THRU playing louder. (For example, non velocity sensitive keyboards are usually set to output a quiet velocity of 64). To set this “THRU velocity boost,” open the MIDI Channels dialog (Opt. | Preferences | Channels) and set “Boost THRU Velocity by” to a value in the range of –127 to +127. (Default is 0.)

The Song Titles Window can be updated from within the song list dialog.

Press the “Rebuild List” button in the Select Song by Title dialog. Also, if a Song List is rebuilt, the song list dialog will automatically be launched when the list is rebuilt.

The Big Lyrics Window scrolls a page at a time for easier reading of lyrics.

Previously the lyrics would scroll on

every line. Many users pointed out that it would be easier to read if they scrolled a page at a time, so we added this feature. When the lyric cursor reaches the next-to-last line of the lyrics, it will scroll to the top of the page, allowing uninterrupted reading of lyrics. This option is settable in the Big Lyrics window options.

Audio Mute.

Now you can mute/un-mute the audio track in Band-in-a-Box. Choose Audio | Mute Audio to mute and unmute the audio track.

Chapter 12: Other New Features

Page 51

Shot/Held Chords option enhanced.

Normally, when a “shot” or a “held” chord is assigned, the instruments that are excluded from the shot/held chord play normally. Now there is an additional option for those excluded instruments to stay silent. To set this, open the chord options dialog, and select

a shot or held chord, and then select “Excluded instrument(s) should rest.” This new option gives you the ability to rest some instruments while others play the shot or held chord.

Velocity boosts for shots and held chords are now settable.

In previous versions, a shot or held chord produced a (loud) velocity boost of 15-

30. Now you can set the amount of velocity boost, so that the effect won't be so loud. In Option | Preferences use the settings “Boost shots by” and “Boost ‘Holds’ by.” (Note that the style (StyleMaker) can override the velocity for the pushes, and the drum velocity for shots/held chords and pushes is also set in the StyleMaker.)

Duration of “shots” is reduced to 60 ticks per beat. Previously the shots lasted as long as the typical 1-beat pattern, which was often longer than 60 ticks.

Soloist “Note-Density” option.

Now you can control the maximum number of notes

per quarter note that the soloist will use. For example, you can set a “Rock Guitar” Soloist to use nothing shorter than 16 with bursts of 32

notes. This would produce less “guitar hero” solos

notes etc. Or you could create a Jazz solo that uses only quarter notes or longer to help with sight-reading or student study. We've already modified many of the soloists using this new setting, so your solos will already sound better without you having to change this setting.

Chapter 12: Other New Features

Page 52

Dedicated menu items added on GM Menu for “Turn Local ON,” “Turn Local OFF,” and “When program quits, turn Local ON.”

“Local” refers to sounds generated by playing on an external MIDI keyboard, if set to “off,” Band-in-a-Box will play the keyboard via the THRU part, if set to ON, both Band-in-a-Box and the keyboard might be playing the same THRU part.

For the loop screen feature, if looping on the first line Band-in-a-Box now loops from bar 1 and does not include the lead-in.

MIDI Driver dialog improvements.

When visiting the MIDI Driver dialog, if the setup is panned to MONO, the program offers to change it to stereo. Selecting a new drum kit from the MIDI Driver dialog no longer changes your panning settings. Since most people use stereo settings, this makes it easier to ensure that you are using stereo settings. A new Drum kit is only installed

if you specifically select a new Drum kit in the MIDI Driver dialog.

If playback is occurring when OPEN song is chosen, playback of the new song will resume when the new song is loaded (so you don't have to press PLAY). This works for other methods of song loading such as load next/previous Song.

Chord Wizard Enhancements, including recognizing more chord types and additional options.

“MGX” file type added. When a MIDI file is loaded onto the Melody (or Soloist) track, the Track Type for the Melody (or Soloist) gets set to MultiTrack. When the file is saved, the extension will be MGX, allowing you to easily identify the BB songs that you have that contain entire MIDI files.

Chapter 12: Other New Features

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Songs will always be saved with last letter of extension “U,” regardless if they are chosen with a Built-in style or not. For example, if you make a song,

and choose ZZJAZZ.STY as the style (i.e. one of the 24 built-in styles) previous versions of BB would save the song as MySong.MG1 (the '1' indicates Style #1 – ZZJAZZ). Now it will be saved as MySong.MGU. Older songs loaded in with .MG1 will still get re-saved as MG1 to prevent duplicate song files.

Tip: If you'd like Band-in-a-Box to save every song with a 'U' extension, including loaded files already saved with a '1..9','A.. N' extension, then select the Option | Preference | Prefs2 “Always save songs with 'U' extension” option.

“What add-ons do I have?...” dialog links to www.pgmusic.com/addons.htm for a listing of newest add-ons.

… and much more! ________________________________________________________________

Keystroke Commands - Hot Keys

It’s often faster to use keystrokes instead of using the mouse. For example, there are keystroke “hot keys” to mute instruments or to adjust volume, panning, reverb, chorus, or bank of instruments.

Muting Parts

Alt+3 Mutes the Bass Alt+4 Mutes the Piano Alt+5 Mutes the Drums Alt+6 Mutes the Guitar Alt+7 Mutes the Soloist Alt+8 Mutes the Strings Alt+9 Mutes the Melody

Selecting Parts

Ctrl+3 Selects the Bass Ctrl+4 Selects the Piano Ctrl+5 Selects the Drums Ctrl+6 Selects the Guitar Ctrl+7 Selects the Soloist Ctrl+8 Selects the Strings Ctrl+9 Selects the Melody

Instrument Part Settings

Hold down Ctrl+Shift and the letter to change these instrument settings. Q,W Decrease/Increase Volume E,R Decrease/Increase Panning T,Y Decrease/Increase Reverb U,I Decrease/Increase Chorus O,P Decrease/Increase Bank

Keystroke Commands - Hot Keys

Page 54

Use Ctrl+Shift together with the 1-9 and 0 keys on the keyboard to select Favorite Instruments. For example, let’s change the Piano part to Rhodes Piano.

1. Press Ctrl+4 to select the Piano part.

2. Press Ctrl+Shift+2 to select the Favorite #2. That is Rhodes Piano.

Use Ctrl+Shift and the [-] and [=] keys to decrease/increase the patch by 1.

Volume Settings

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+R Set current part’s volume. Ctrl+Alt+A Decrease master volume by 5. Ctrl+Alt+S Increase master volume by 5. Ctrl+Alt+D Set master volume. Ctrl+Alt+Shift Q Reduce all part volumes by 5. Ctrl+Alt+Shift W Increase all part volumes by 5. Ctrl+Alt+Shift E Set all part volumes.

Looping/Song Navigation Keystrokes

NUMPAD 1 Toggle looping on/off. NUMPAD 2 Open Loop Section Settings dialog. Ctrl+NUMPAD 1 Play with last chorus looped. Ctrl+NUMPAD 2 Play with middle choruses looped. Ctrl+NUMPAD 3 Play with middle and last choruses looped. Ctrl+NUMPAD 4 Jump to last chorus. Ctrl+NUMPAD 5 Jump to ending. Ctrl+NUMPAD 7 Loop Notation screen. NUMPAD [DEL] Advances the notation, leadsheet, and guitar

window by one chord (i.e. one group of notes at the same time).

NUMPAD [INS] Backs up the notation, leadsheet, and guitar

window by one chord.

Transpose Settings

Ctrl+Alt+1 Transpose Melody down one octave Ctrl+Alt+2 Transpose Melody up one octave Ctrl+Alt+3 Transpose Soloist down one octave Ctrl+Alt+4 Transpose Soloist up one octave Ctrl+Alt+5 Transpose down 1 semitone. Ctrl+Alt+6 Transpose up 1 semitone. Ctrl+Alt+7 Transpose setting dialog.

Custom File Open Dialog

Ctrl+Shift+F3 Load song with custom file dialog. Alt+F In custom file dialog - Favorite Folders. Alt+N In custom file dialog - Font selection. Alt+S In custom file dialog - Search dialog.

Keystroke Commands - Hot Keys

Page 55

Windows

Ctrl+W Ctrl+O Alt+W Ctrl+T Ctrl+Shift+A Ctrl+Shift+D Ctrl+Shift+G Ctrl+Shift+J Ctrl+Shift+L Ctrl+Shift+N

Drum Kit window. Guitar window.

Toggle Notation and Chordsheet windows. Movable Notation window. Leadsheet window. Put Notation/Chords at top of screen. Audio Edit window.

Ear training window. Big Lyrics window. Big Piano window.

StyleMaker Hot Keys

F1, Shift+F1, Ctrl+F1 F2 Alt+F2 R or F3 <Spacebar> or F4 F8 F10 F6 or Shift+F6 Cursor Keys Alt+F4

Help Save style Save style as ... Record pattern Play pattern Play pattern on chord Edit pattern options Change instrument Move around screen Quit the StyleMaker

StyleMaker Drum Screen Hot Keys

F5 Bottom row (ZXCVBNM,. /) F6 F10 or Alt+F4

Drum alternate notes Drum note entry Time base Exit

Additional Keystrokes

There are additional keystrokes available. These keys are also listed on the pull down menus beside the function. Remember also that hot keys may access any function on the pull-down menu by pressing the Menu followed by the underlined letter of the command. For example,

Alt+F+O

Note: It is necessary to tap the spacebar twice on the main screen to start playback

would access File | Open.

because entering chords can include a single spacebar. In the StyleMaker, you start songs by hitting the spacebar once. In the Opt. | Preferences menus, there are other ways that the SPACEBAR can be set to work.

Playing songs. Stopping songs. Help. Record (melody or pattern).

Keystroke Commands - Hot Keys

Alt

key and the first letter of the

Spacebar

twice or F4

Spacebar or Esc F1, Shift+F1, Ctrl+F1 R

Page 56

Record from any bar. R Jukebox start/stop. F8 Save song. F2 Save song with patches. Alt+F2 Load song. F3 Load song using favorite song list. Shift+F3 Load song using titles window. Ctrl+F3 Load songs with melodies. Alt+F3 Load song with standard long file dialog. Alt+Shift+F3 Load next file (alphabetical by file name). Shift+F8 Load previous (alphabetical by file name). Ctrl+Shift+F8 Load next style. (in alphabetical order). Alt+Shift+F8 Load previous style. (in alphabetical order). Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F8 Enable/disable style. Alt+S then E Launch MIDI File to Style Wizard. Alt+S then W Load songs in current style. F7 Choose a user style. F9 Open StylePicker. Ctrl+F9 Select favorite styles. Shift+F9 Edit user style. Alt+F9 Edit current style. Ctrl+Shift+F9 Turn song Embellisher on/off. Ctrl+Alt+E Import chords from MIDI file. Ctrl+Alt+I Send GM mode on message. Ctrl+Alt+Q Set tempo. Ctrl+Alt+T Open the Preferences dialog. Ctrl+E Open the Song Settings dialog. Ctrl+N Launch Chord Builder. Ctrl+Shift+B Edit current bar options. F5 Save MIDI file. F6 Quit the program. Alt+F4

Keystroke Commands - Hot Keys

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Appendix A: New Styles and Add-Ons.

Please see the on-line documentation for detailed descriptions of the Styles Sets. For example, for Styles Set #30, see the file c:\bb\styles30\StyDsk30.DOC

• Styles Sets #0-29 are documented in the main (full) Band-in-Box manual.

• Styles Set #30 is included with an upgrade package to Version 12 of the

Band-in-a-Box program. It is not included with a first-time purchase of the program.

• Styles Sets 0-3 are included with the Pro version of Band-in-a-Box.

• Other Styles Sets are sold separately as add-ons to Band-in-a-Box.

The StylePicker has full documentation of all Band-in-a-Box Styles Sets, and you can select a filter for the Styles Set # at the bottom of the StylePicker dialog.

New! Styles Set #30: 28 World Fretboards Styles

PG Music answers your wishes with Styles Set 30 – “World Fretboards.” This Styles Set covers a wide variety of genres with over 20 styles including New Age, Hawaiian, Pop, Jazz-Pop, and Ethnic. Many of these styles utilize Bandin-a-Box version 12’s new intelligent chord fretboard display. You’ll see the correct chord voicings for ukulele, banjo, mandolin, and violin for parts like the melody, solo, and piano.

12ST&BAN.STY BANJ&MAN.STY BEEBROK4.STY BEEBROK5.STY BIGBAND1.STY BLUGRAS5.STY BO_D.STY CAMPFIRE.STY COZY_SW.STY CREEDNCE.STY DIXIDUKE.STY DREAM.STY DRUMSOLJ.STY GOSSAMER.STY HAWAISLO.STY J~BREEZY.STY J~GITWLZ.STY JAZFOURA.STY JAZFOURB.STY JAZFOURC.STY JOHNBAL.STY JOHNNYH.STY L~BOSA4U.STY

12 string guitar & banjo Country style. Banjo & mandolin swing 16ths. Bass at "b." Sparse guitar comping variation of BeeBRock.Sty. Rock Blues var. of BeeBRock less varied guitar rhythm Medium Swing big band sound with Brass (fills & bg). Bluegrass style with a swing 16ths feel. Swing 16ths rhythm groove à la Bo. Easy “round the campfire” sing-along with strumming. Simple Jazz trio Swing style. Loose 16ths Rock feel - in between straight and swing. Dixieland in the style of the Dukes and similar groups. Slow 50s Swing Ballad with rhythm section & strings. Jazz Swing DRUMS ONLY. Use for inserting drum solos. Slow, quiet, & peaceful style with even 8ths arpeggio feel. Slow, easy, semi-even 8ths Pop Hawaiian strumming style. Jazz swing, 5-inst. style, including brushes & slow strings. Variation of J!GITWLZ.STY, this version uses BRUSHES. Variation of JazzFours.sty, with “trading” order changes. Another variation of the “trading fours” order. At “a” AND “b,” 4 bars DRUM SOLO - 4 bars BAND. Slow even 8ths Pop-Rock with acoustic piano & strings. 60s Pop-Country style à la JohnnyH. Almost-swing 8ths. Simple Bossa style with smooth syncopation. 3 insts.

Appendix A: New Styles and Add-Ons.

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LOTUS.STY MANDOLIN.STY MILITARY.STY P_NEILD1.STY POP_SADE.STY SOLO_UKE.STY ROKTRIO1.STY SWING~EZ.STY UKE&BASS.STY UKE_FAST.STY

Slow, tranquil, 3/4 time, even 8ths, New Age style. Mandolin & ac. bass in a swing 16ths feel. Good for 60s Country historic battle-type tunes. 70s Pop Rock swing with 4 to-the-bar guitar comping. 90s cool Pop-Jazz even 8ths. Vocal background at “b.” Solo ukulele - good for lots of tunes. 80s-90s Rock trio with even 8ths feel. Strat 4-to the bar. Swing style with 4 instruments and no piano. Simple swing ukulele style with bass at "b." Simple Swing 8ths campfire Ukulele.

New! Styles Set #31: 20 Country Rock Styles

The gap between Country and Rock music styles has been narrowed by the success of artists such as AaronT, B/Dunn, KennyC, MindyM, DixieC, ClayD, SammyK, ClintB and many more. Add this popular genre of Med. Straight 8ths grooves, Ballad tempos, Bluesy, Soulful and Barroom feels and kickin' uptempo rhythms to your collection of Band-in-a-Box Styles with Styles Set 31 Country Rock Styles.

C_AARON.STY C_ANDY.STY C_BILLY.STY C_CLAY.STY C_COLIN.STY C_DARRYL.STY C_ERIC.STY C_HONKIN.STY C_ISLAND.STY C_KEITH.STY C_KENNY.STY C_KENNY2.STY C_LONE.STY C_MINDY.STY C_PATTY.STY C_PHIL.STY C_SAMMY.STY C_TOBY.STY C_TRICK.STY C_WARREN.STY

Med. straight 8ths Country-Rock à la AaronT, B/ Dunn. Even 8ths med. Ballad Country-Rock à la Alabama, TimM. Med. straight 8ths Country-Rock à la Eagles, Brooks/D. Bluesy Country-Rock à la ClayD, SammyK. Med. straight 8ths Country-Rock à la ColinR, Lonestar. Up-tempo Country-Rock à la Eagles, ClintB. Bluesy Country-Rock à la EricH, Tractors. Barroom Country-Rock à la TimM, NealM. Med. tempo Ballad C-Rock à la JimmyB, GeorgeS. Up-tempo Country-Rock à la KeithU, NewGRl. Soulful Country-Rock à la Eagles, Brooks/D. Med. straight 8ths Country-Rock à la KennyC, Brooks/D. Med. straight 8ths Country-Rock à la LittleT, PattyL. Med. tempo Ballad Country à la MindyM, DixieC. Med. straight 8ths Country-Rock à la PattyL, ClintB. Ballad Country-Rock à la PhilV, ColinR. Bluesy Country-Rock à la SammyK, HankW. Med. tempo Country-Rock à la TobyK, GarthB. Up-tempo Country-Rock à la TrickP, DixieC. Med. straight 8ths Country-Rock WarrenBros, DiamondR.

New! Styles Set #32: 20 Alternative/Contemporary Rock Styles

This Styles Set includes a broad spectrum of hip, contemporary Pop/Rock grooves ranging from the commercially successful left-of-center Pop styles of Alternative Rock to the down-tempo, Jazz–inflected Trip Hop. Influenced by the styles of artist like S_Crow, Nelle, Pinc, K_Osbourne, Minem, Mobe, Blink, A_Lavigne, J_Jackson, Crede, A_Keys, Our Lady Piece, and J_Lopez Styles Set 32 is a collective study of recent trends in popular music. Included Styles:

Appendix A: New Styles and Add-Ons.

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TripHop, AltRock, HipHop, RockTronica, PopBallad, Modern Rock, Soul Groove, and Dance.

ALTROCK1.STY ALTROCK2.STY ALTROCK3.STY ALTROCK4.STY DANCE3.STY DANCE4.STY HIPHOP3.STY HIPHOP4.STY HIPHOP5.STY HIPHOP6.STY MODROK1.STY MODROK2.STY POPBALL2.STY POPBALL3.STY ROKTRON1.STY ROKTRON2.ST SOULGRV1.STY SOULGRV2.STY TRIPHOP1.STY TRIPHOP2.STY

Alternative Contemporary Rock – even 8ths. Hard Alt. Rock even 16ths starts with drums & organ. 16th note Alt. Rock style with bass & drums at “a.” Medium even 8ths Alt. Rock style. Bright even 8ths dance feel. Bright Pop-Rock Dance. Contemporary slower Swing 16ths Hip Hop feel. Funky Swing 16th Hip Hop. 5 instruments. Funky Swing 16ths Hip Hop style. Bright Beat even 8ths Hip Hop. Even 8ths modern Rock sound. Modern Rock with 16th feel, pushes on “and of 2.” Pop Ballad style with piano, quiet string pad. Rock-Pop ballad with acoustic guitar strumming. Bright Dance with Electronica aspects. Up beat Electronica with Rock aspects. Slow soulful pop groove. Soulful slow groove. Contemporary Rock (ev.16ths feel) w/Rap TR-808. Contemporary Dance feel à la DestinysC & JanetJ.

Blues Piano Solos Volume 1

30 songs with great Blues piano solos, notation, and on-screen piano display. Includes 30 full tunes with Pop/Rock/Jazz Blues piano solos in the style of the great Blues pianists (Jelly Roll, DrJ, MontyA and more). What a great and fun way to learn Blues piano soloing! Blues piano is at the heart of most popular and Jazz styles, so mastering Blues piano soloing gives you a great foundation for many styles of music. Includes comping examples along with easy, medium, and difficult soloing styles. Let a master show you solos in the styles of the "greats." All tunes are done in standard MIDI and Band-in-a-Box MGU formats with either solo piano or a complete band arrangement (drums, bass, guitar, and piano soloing). Slow the pieces down for in-depth study. Guitarists can also display the solos on the guitar fretboard.

Note: this comes as a separate standalone full featured program, and includes the same files in Band-in-a-Box format.

Blues Piano Utility Styles #33: Chicago Piano Blues Styles

These are Chicago Blues Piano styles that are included in the Blues Piano Solos Volume 1. These styles are not available separately as a stand-alone Styles Set.

BLZTRIO1.STY BLZTRIO2.STY This is a Swing 8ths minor key blues style. BLZTRIO3.STY BLZTRIO4.STY

An Organ-type Blues à la JimmyS, BookerT etc.

Strut-style à la RayCh & WyntonK. Kansas City blues shuffle style.

Appendix A: New Styles and Add-Ons.

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BLZTRIO5.STY Modern Urban Blues shuffle Chicago style. BLZTRIO6.STY Jazzy Blues Piano Swing 8ths feel à la NatC, GeneH. BLZTRIO7.STY Old stride style in '2' à la TeddyW, RayBr. BLZTRIO8.STY Fast 3/4 (like 6/8) Modern “cool” Modal jazz style. BLZTRIO9.STY Fast Bebop Jazz Blues style. BLZTRI10.STY A very slow 12/8 Jazz Blues - Chicago Style. LHBLZ1.STY Slow left-hand piano in the style of CrippleC, CowCowD. LHBOOG1.STY Chicago Blues Boogie style. LHBOOG2.STY 8 to the bar straight 8ths LH boogie piano boogie style. LHBOOG3.STY Chicago-Style Boogie Blues with typical left-hand pattern. LHBOOG4.STY Left hand piano Chicago-Style Boogie. LHBOOG5.STY 8 to the bar, straight 8ths boogie. LHBOOG6.STY Slow 12/8 feel Chicago blues - LH piano boogie. LHBOOG7.STY Classic left hand piano boogie woogie pattern, up tempo. LHBOOG8.STY Hard Rockin' straight 8ths LH Boogie Blues style. LHBOOG9.STY Left hand piano walking bass à la Monty A, DaveMcK. MOJO2.STY Fast Mojo-style 24 bar blues à la OtisS, CharlesB, Muddy. SLOBLZ1.STY Very Slow 12/8 Chicago Blues style. STRIDE2.STY 40's style slow Stride blues à la EarlH, FatsW, TeddyW.

Appendix A: New Styles and Add-Ons.

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PG Music Inc.

Band-in-a-Box® is copyrighted and

is the property of PG Music Inc.

Address for Correspondence:

PG MUSIC INC.

29 Cadillac Avenue

Victoria, BC V8Z 1T3

Canada

Contacts

Phone:

E-mail:

toll free 1-800-268-6272, 1-888-PG-MUSIC

info@pgmusic.com

Or 1-250-475-2874

Fax:

toll free 1-888-475-1444

Or 1-250-475-2937

Visit our Internet web page at www.pgmusic.com

Technical Support:

Phone:

E-mail:

1-250-475-2708

support@pgmusic.com

Live Internet Chat:

www.pgmusic.com

PG Music Inc.

Page 62

Index

add-ons, 53, 57 audible drum count-in, 49 audio mute, 50 Band-in-a-Box

main screen, 13 banjo fretboard, 18, 36 Bass

altered 5ths, 49 bass guitar fretboard, 17, 18, 36 bass tablature, 37 Big Lyrics page scroll, 50 Blues Piano Solos, 59 chase volumes, 49 Chord Wizard, 52 Chordsheet

right mouse click, 42 Compatibility, 5 Copyright, 61 Custom File dialog, 42 Descriptive hints, 42

options, 42 Drums

count-in, 49

separate tracks, 49 filter styles, 46 fretboards, 36 General MIDI 2, 32 GM2, 32

bank settings, 33

patches, 32

Roland VSC3, 32

settings, 32 GM2 button, 14, 32 GM2 patches, 14 Guitar chord diagrams, 36 Guitar tutor, 36 Harmony

print voice, 17

separate tracks, 15

voice volume, 17 harmony tracks, 15 62

Held chords

options, 51

velocity boost, 51 hot keys, 53 hot keys added, 42 Introduction, 4 Jump to, 35 keystroke list, 53 Leadsheet

harmony tracks, 15

Harmony volume, 17

print voice, 17

show Harmony voice, 17 Leadsheet options, 39

convert harmony, 39

Harmony display, 39

Harmony volume, 40

print harmony, 40 License, 2 live looping, 35 load next style, 46 load previous style, 46 Local OFF, 52 Local ON, 52 long file names, 42 Loop button, 34 loop screen, 52 loop section, 15 Loop Section, 34

button, 34

checkbox, 34

enable, 34

jump to, 35

live performance, 35

looping status, 35

Presets, 35

settings, 34 loop section menu, 18 looping status, 35 mandolin fretboard, 18, 36 Master Volume, 50

Index

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Menus

right mouse click, 41 Styles, 42

Window, 41 MGU files, 53 MGX files, 52 MIDI File to Style Wizard, 24 MIDI files, 48 mute audio, 50 New features

Audio Mute, 11

Auto-resume play, 12

Bass 5ths, 8

Bass fretboard, 7

Big lyrics scroll, 11

Boot to…, 10

Change styles, 8

Chase volumes, 9

Chord Wizard, 12

Custom file dialog, 11

Descriptive hints, 10

Direct entry dialogs, 10

Enhanced styles, 8

Fretboards, 7

GM2 support, 6

GUI, 7

Guitar chord diagrams, 7

Harmony notation, 7

Hot Keys, 11

Live navigation, 8

Load styles, 8

Local On/Off, 12

Loop section, 8

Master volume keys, 11

MIDI drivers, 12

MIDI File Style Wizard, 6

MIDI part markers, 8

Multitrack MIDI drums, 9

Notation enhancements, 10

Note channels, 8

Play MIDI files, 8

Quick Transpose, 11

Screen looping, 12

Shot/Hold options, 12

Solo density, 12 StylePicker enhancements, 10 Thru boost, 11 Titles dialog edits, 11 Unmute drum count-in, 9 User interface, 7 Visual metronome, 8

Notation

channel numbers, 44 copy graphics to clipboard, 43 courtesy brackets, 43 guitar chord diagrams, 43 note highlight option, 43 right mouse click, 42 Style button, 43

text boxes, 43 number of styles, 46 Part markers

MIDI files, 49 PG Music Inc.

contacts, 61

mailing address, 61

technical support, 61 Play from loop, 34 play MIDI files, 48 Preferences, 41

boot up, 42 Preferences, 13 Previous versions, 5 print Harmony voice, 17 Print voice, 40 Quick Transpose, 48 QuickStart, 13 resume play, 52 right mouse click, 41, 42 Roland VSC3, 6 Shots

duration, 51

options, 51

velocity boost, 51 Show Harmony voice, 17 Soloist note density, 51 song navigation, 18 song settings, 13

Index

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Song settings, 41 song titles rebuild, 50 song transpose, 48 stereo settings, 52 Style Wizard

advanced settings, 29 Auto-intepret, 30 Auto-Set, 26 BB parts, 20, 26 channels, 20 copy Melody, 28 dialog, 25 hot keys, 25 More… button, 29 part markers, 20 patch, 26 play controls, 21 play loop, 27 snapshot regions, 27 snapshots, 20, 21 Tracks area, 25 tutorial, 18

voicings, 29 Style Wizard, 24 StyleMaker

hot keys, 55 StylePicker, 45

StylePicker limit, 46 Styles

change with StylePicker, 45 disable, 45 enable, 45 filter, 46 limit, 46 load next, 46 load previous, 46

new features, 45 Styles menu, 13 Styles Set #30

World Fretboards, 23 Styles Sets, 57

#30 – World Fretboards, 57

#31 – Country Rock, 58

#32 – Alternative/Contemporary

Rock, 58 tempo entry, 49 third party styles, 47 Thru velocity boost, 50 Trademarks, 2 Tutorial, 13 ukulele fretboard, 18, 36 unmute drum count-in, 49 visual metronome, 48 Window menu, 13

Index