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When i am looking for a style i often come up numerous possibilties.
Is there a way that you can create a temporary list of the potential syles as you you explore so you can make a final pick from that group of potentials .

Thanks Jim

1) I’m not aware of a way to do that in BIAB. Others may know.

2) if it isn’t there, this would make a good post in the Wishlist Forum. There are other discussions about improvements to the style picker.

3) What I think I would do as a workaround is take a screen print of those temporary results.

This might work for you. Under the 'Other' button there is an option to show only recently used styles, however, you will receive a larger list of results, not just the styles you explored for your current song:

I have also been looking for this, it would be a very useful feature, it is strange it's not already in there.

If it is not to many I guess that one could use the favourites but that means to erase all current favourites and put them back later (not very useful).

One option might be to add them to the Favorites category. Another might be to create your own "User Category".

Both Favorites and User Category are selections available under the Category filter string button at the top left of the StylePicker window.

Yes, this is a challenge. I think that Jim (OP Jim) is looking for something on the fly, that would not affect Favorites or even creating a new user category, but he can try what Jim (Fogle) suggests and see.

... a shortlist of candidate styles.
... ditto for candidate RealTracks, actually.
Writing them down shortlist is so 70s.

It would be good if 'Recently used styles' included a 'last used' timestamp value that could be sorted by. That would probably resolve the issue that the O/P is experiencing.

In fact, it would be better still if the Style Picker itself had this feature. One could quickly find a style that they had used yesterday, last week, etc. I'm heading over to the Wish List.

The Favorites and Recently as well as the User category will list up to 150 at a time.

You can avoid losing the current favorites by saving the list as Set File and there's no limit to how many set files can be saved.

You can create a temporary list of potential styles for multiple searches as you explore and choose from any group of existing sets.

Recently used styles can be saved using a 'last used' timestamp value as the file title and that will display sorted by beginning letter or number.

Charlie, where is that setting please?

Lately there has been much discussion on the limitations of the Style Picker across a few different threads.
A common theme seems to be that information overload hinders workflow.

Initially, the idea of drinking from a firehose came to mind, but then I realized that when doing so your thirst will actually be quenched.
I find that after 20 or so minutes of scrolling thru and auditioning an overwhelming list of styles, that I simply give up and live with an approximatation of what I really want, thereby, never really end up "quenching my thirst".

I think a temporary list of potential styles (or something like it) is a great step in the right direction, but it must be intuitive, easy to use and not bog down your work flow.
+1 on this idea.

Same here. IMO a good start would be categories that categorise and filters that filter. For example, if I select or search for bluegrass - then I only want to see bluegrass. It really should be a no brainer. Most of the categories and filters just give you a bunch of "almost" related matches buried in a sea of completely non related items.

Here is a response from PG .
.............................................................
Hello,

You can create your own category by right clicking a Style, choosing Select/Create user category, then creating a category. Once created, you can right click a Style and add this Style to the category for easy use in the future.
Thank you,
Nicholas
PG Music Inc.

This works !

Nicholas with PG Music provided pretty much the same answer I provided +++ above +++.

I'm glad the response from PG Music matches my idea. As can be seen by the responses, many times there are multiple ways to approach an issue.

Music Trax states in another thread, "There’s a great documentary about a handful of Nashville musicians that have basically been the same studio musicians on 90% of the songs coming out of Nashville."

The reference here is major label studios and smaller label studios and even the busier independent studios in major music like New York, LA, Atlanta, Detroit, Memphis, and Nashville have a short list of go-to session musicians that are normally first call for recording sessions. In BIAB, this is your 'favorite' band (Style) in the StylePicker.

If a recording session in Nashville, Atlanta or LA calls for a specific, unusual instrument, or musician, In BIAB, this would be your 'Recently Used' band (Style) in the StylePicker as you search from a larger database outside your normal favorites.

Major Labels in these major recording markets get their session and specialists from the musicians union in their market or from the musicians union if they have to go outside their normal market for talent.

For instance, Nashville has " Nashville Musicians AFM Local" In BIAB, this is the full StylePicker.

So if a label in Nashville specializes in Bluegrass, they would likely create a database of bluegrass talent from the Nashville Musicians AFM Local. In BIAB, this is your 'User Category"

No Record Label commercial recording studio starts every recording project by searching through the local union book with 10-20 thousand listings.

For instance, if you're a bluegrass artist using BIAB, over time, go through the entire StylePicker finding and selecting bluegrass styles. Save the list as your personal 'User Category'. Append and save new Styles as you come across them.

Perhaps you have 10,165 styles in StylePicker and over time, you find 5,122 bluegrass styles. You can now start each project with a specific master list of bluegrass bands (Styles). Over time, as you develop more specific bands and favorite go-to bands (styles)
you can reduce your exhaustive searches that are taking longer than 20 minutes for each project and reduce that down to less than 2 minutes.

There's no indication anyone posting has developed any type of style management system and are starting every search "drinking from a firehose" at full pressure and crippling creativity.

I believe PG Music designed these search methods to specifically manage searches that are repetitive so there's one genre or preferred master category and subsequent lists to reduce searches in incremental search totals where users can quickly find the styles best suited for their normal recording needs.

This method is noted by the User Category' is only accessed from the StylePicker. Therefore, a user can transform the StylePicker into a personal master list.

Both the 'Recently Used' and 'Favorite' list are available in StylePicker and the SGU Master Chord sheet. Style selections can be directly from these lists without leaving the Chord Sheet page.