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How to enter a 5/4 melody? #826566 Yesterday at 01:33 AM Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2014 Posts: 51 Paris (France) Lazy Bird OP Enthusiast
OP Lazy Bird Enthusiast Joined: Dec 2014 Posts: 51 Paris (France)	Hello, I've got Band-in-a-Box 2020 for Windows. I want to enter a 5-beat melody, but, as everyone knows, Band-in-a-Box only offers 2, 3 or 4-beat bars. On the other hand, Band in a Box offers a 5-beat style: -J54E8+ Even 5/4 Meter. When I listen to this style for a few bars, I can clearly hear the 5 beats played in the 4/4 bar. But I don't see how to easily enter the melody on 5 beats: in the bar each beat is divided into 4, and, for a melody in eighth notes, I don't have the 20 divisions I need. Do I have to manually divide each beat into 5? But, unless I'm mistaken, it is not possible to do this automatically for the entire song, and if I have to do it bar by bar, I'll be there for hours...! And the display of the melody in the notation sheet will be terrible! What other solutions have you found? Lazy Bird

Re: How to enter a 5/4 melody? Lazy Bird #826570 Yesterday at 03:44 AM Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Jun 2012 Posts: 19,234 Melbourne, Australia AudioTrack Veteran
AudioTrack Veteran Joined: Jun 2012 Posts: 19,234 Melbourne, Australia	I'm afraid I don't really know the answer. I've looked at the way BIAB handles 5/4 and it definitely shows exactly 4 beats to the bar, but played as 5 beats to the bar, so this is somewhat of a conundrum as to how to actually correctly enter 5 beat notation. Others may know more, but I think you are exactly right in saying that the maximum number of beats to a bar is 4 in the BIAB product. BIAB appears to divide 4 beats into 5 intervals (or something like that). Bottom line, it doesn't follow any defined music rules, it's some sort of awkward workaround. This is with the demo song 54_EVEN.STY loaded (Gimmie Five): It won't allow 5 to be entered for the number of beats. BIAB & RB2024 Win.(Audiophile), Sonar Platinum, Cakewalk by Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M Monitors, Pioneer Active Monitors, AKG K271 Studio H'phones

Re: How to enter a 5/4 melody? AudioTrack #826573 Yesterday at 05:00 AM Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Jan 2020 Posts: 3,020 J justanoldmuso Veteran
justanoldmuso Veteran J Joined: Jan 2020 Posts: 3,020	LB. (note odd time sigs eg 5/4 = OTS.) re OTS. ive done quite a lot of testing of ots in various music apps. there was a thread awhile back about such but sorry ive forgotten the link . it might be of some interest if you can locate it and would save me retyping. but as to pg products i found for me rb very usefull for various reasons rather than bb. one aspect re rb i liked was in rb tracks view i could see the divisions in the bar graphically. i found generally doing ots's was easier in rb. just make sure and this is important obviously to set rb time sig to 5/4 and your desired tempo there are many ways you could enter the melody in rb. (see the manual to save me typing oodles.) how do you want to enter the melody ? via piano roll ? via midi keyboard ? via genning a midi rt or a audio rt and doing editing to get it the way you want ? via notation ? there are many methods in rb. (note...i'm useless at notation so probably i would gen a midi in rb as a starting point or several midi's in rb then comp/edit to get a final melody i was happy with and then midi to audio via a plug inand do the same with audio tracks till i got things the way i wanted. i would do this comping/final assembly in rb as rb has tons of tracks.) please post back your preferred work method re creating the melody. i dont know how much the above helps you but bottom line when it comes to ots i found rb easier re creating a ots song. but maybe you dont want to go through learning a new app. at the very least i would read the rb manual on this pg site (also included with the shipped software) and run tests with your work methods and see if rb will make things easier.(note rb has also a very usefull 'tips of the day feature'.) happiness. om Last edited by justanoldmuso; Yesterday at 05:01 AM. my songs....mixed for good earbuds...(fyi..my vocs on all songs..) https://soundcloud.com/alfsongs (90 songs created useing bb/rb.)

Re: How to enter a 5/4 melody? Lazy Bird #826577 Yesterday at 05:49 AM Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Oct 2008 Posts: 19,204 Australia Noel96 Veteran
Noel96 Veteran Joined: Oct 2008 Posts: 19,204 Australia	Hi Lazy Bird. BIAB does make it easy enough to create a 5/4 song, but the melody and accompaniment need to be split over two bars: one 3/4 bar and one 2/4 bar. If you click on "Edit" (#1 on the image) and then select "Set Time Signature (#2)", the option to set 5/4 (#3) will appear. When this 5/4 option is selected and OK is pressed, the chord sheet of 3/4 and 2/4 alternating time signatures will be created. The downside of this is that it's necessary to think of two bars on the chordsheet creating a single bar of 5/4. I hear the rhythmic stresses in 5/4 as "strong-weak weak, medium-weak". For this reason, when I select a style to go with this time signature, I use a 3/4 one since that gives me the rhythmic feel that works for me. That said, 4/4 Realtracks and Realdrums can also be used, and these create a different feel. The SGU file below with give you an indication of how a 3/4 style sounds. SGU file in 5/4 using a waltz style (link) I hope this helps with ideas. --Noel P.S. OM is right about Realband. That program has a proper 5/4 time signature, and it is worth investigating. MY SONGS... Audiophile BIAB 2024 audios on Soundcloud

Re: How to enter a 5/4 melody? Noel96 #826600 Yesterday at 09:19 AM Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Jan 2020 Posts: 3,020 J justanoldmuso Veteran
justanoldmuso Veteran J Joined: Jan 2020 Posts: 3,020	LB. (LB...note 5/4 ruff demo deleted as no reply...if you want 5/4 examples just ask and i'll upload in what ever 5/4 style you want with one shot vocs.). heres your 5/4 style plus some ruff one shot vocals which prolly suck...lol...done in realband to prove rb will do the job. took 10 mins . (deleted) RB piano roll...tracks view...work with 5/4. not notation it seems.... i'll leave the soundcloud 5/4 demo up for one day or so. hth/happiness. @noel...nice detail. om Last edited by justanoldmuso; 16 hours ago. my songs....mixed for good earbuds...(fyi..my vocs on all songs..) https://soundcloud.com/alfsongs (90 songs created useing bb/rb.)

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