Search Manual

Chapter 6: Making Songs

Now that you know how much fun it is to play music with Band-in-a-Box, you’ll be pleased to see how easy it is to make songs of your own.  This chapter shows you how to make a new song, with step-by-step instructions from start to finish.

Starting a New Song

Clear the Chord Sheet

Click on the [New] button or use the keystrokes command+N to blank the Chord Sheet.

Name the song

Enter the title of the song by clicking in the title area and typing in the name.

Select a Key

The key signature of the song is displayed in the Song area.

You can quickly type in a key in either the Chord Sheet or Notation window.  Type tkc and press return key to set the key signature to C.  Typing tkbb would set it to Bb.  To transpose from another key to Bb you would type trbb.

Another way to set a key signature is to click on the [Key] button and choose the key of your song from the lists of all major and minor keys.  If you select from the “Transpose and Set Key Signature” column the song will be transposed to the new key signature you choose. If you select from the “Just Set Key Signature (no transpose)” column, the key signature will be changed but the song will not be transposed.

You can have multiple keys in a song by changing the key signature in the Edit Settings for Current Bar dialog (F5 function key). 

Set the Tempo

The tempo is displayed next to the key signature.  An easy way to set the tempo is to type it in the Chord Sheet or Notation window.  Type t125 and press Return key to set the tempo to 125, type t80 to set to 80, etc.  You may use the [ and keys to change the tempo by 5.

Another way to set the tempo is to click on the [Tempo] button and type in a tempo in a dialog.

You can also click on the arrow buttons to adjust the tempo.

• LEFT-click to change by 5 beats per minute at a time.
• RIGHT-click to change by 1 beat per minute at a time.

Setting the Relative Tempo

 This button allows you to quickly set the relative tempo.  Click the button and choose a percentage or use the Custom Tempo % menu item to set any value between 1% and 800%.  1% would be 1/100 of the original tempo and 800% would be 8 times the original tempo.  Hotkeys are available: control - (minus key) for half speed and control = for normal speed.

Tap the Tempo

Not sure of the tempo for your song?  Tap it in real time on either the [-] key or the [=] key on your computer keyboard.  Four taps on the minus key sets the tempo, four taps on the equal key sets the tempo and starts the song playing. 

Not sure of the tempo for your song?  Tap it in real time on either the [-] key or the [=] key on your computer keyboard.  Four taps on the minus key sets the tempo, four taps on the equal key sets the tempo and starts the song playing.  As you tap more than 4 times, the accuracy will improve (through averaging) and you can continue to tap until the target tempo has been reached.  For example, in a 4/4/ style, once you tap 4 times a tempo will be set.  But you can keep tapping and the tempo will change every beat, based on the average tempo that you have typed. You can also click on the [-] and [=] buttons to the right of the tempo box.

You can change the tempo at any bar in the song with the Edit Settings for Current Bar dialog.  Press F5 or the keystroke combination option+B or go to Bar Settings in the Edit menu to open the dialog.  The tempo change you enter takes effect at the beginning of the bar and remains until a new tempo change at another bar is inserted.

The tempo can also be typed into the Main Settings dialog, which opens from the menu Edit | Song Form | Title/Key/Tempo/Embellish, or with the keystrokes command+K.  You can click 4 times on the metronome in this dialog to set your tempo.

Frame the song (Intro, Choruses and Endings)

Framing a song designates the first and last bars of each chorus and the number of choruses Band-in-a-Box will play before playing the standard 2-bar ending.

A typical song has the following elements:

• Introduction (Intro).  If present, typically 4 bars long.
• Chorus(es). Typically, 3 or 4 choruses in a 3-minute song.
• Ending.  Typically, a 2-bar ending following all the choruses.

For this song, bar 1 is the first bar of the chorus and bar 32 is the last bar of the chorus.  The chorus will play three times, jumping to the two-bar ending the third time through.  You can click these buttons to change the setting.

You can also type special words to set the beginning and end of the chorus, and the end of the song.
B E G I N return sets the beginning of the chorus to the current bar
C H O R U S E N D return sets the end of the chorus to the current bar
E N D return sets the end of the song to the current bar

Another way is to right-click a bar in the Chord Sheet to set it as the beginning or end of the chorus or the end of the song from the settings in the context menu.

Adding an Intro

You select the beginning and end bars of the chorus.  If you select a bar greater than 1 for the first bar of the chorus, then Band-in-a-Box knows that you want the previous bars for an intro.

Entering Chords

Entering Chords from MIDI Keyboard

You can enter chords from an external MIDI. Play the chord on the keyboard, then press command+return to insert the chord into the Chord Sheet on the first beat of the current chord cell, i.e., beat 1 or beat 3 of the bar. Use shift+command+return to insert the chord on the next beat, i.e., beat 2 or beat 4 of the bar.

Another method allows you to choose alternate chords. Select the Window | MIDI Chord Detection | MIDI Chord Detection menu item to open the dialog.

When you play chords, Band-in-a-Box shows you the chord name and suggests alternates that you can choose from. Typing command+return enters the first selection and advances the highlight cell by ½ bar. To place an alternate chord in the Chord Sheet, click on the [return] button beside the chord you want.

Enter Chords from Audio File (Audio Chord Wizard)

The Audio Chord Wizard automatically figures out the chords from any MP4, M4A, AIFF or other audio file and imports it to your song.  It works out the tempo, bar lines, and chord changes so you can easily make your favorite files into Band-in-a-Box songs.

Enter Chords from MIDI file (MIDI Chord Wizard)

This allows you to read in the chords from any MIDI file and write them onto the Band-in-a-Box Chord Sheet. First, blank the song by choosing File | New.  Then, choose File | Import | Import Chords, Tracks and Lyrics from MIDI File (or press control+option+I).  You will then see the Chord Wizard dialog. Press the [Open (Change)] button and select the MIDI file to import. Choose a preset, and the Chord Wizard will interpret the chords in that style.  Press the [OK - Interpret Chords] button to see the chords written into the Chord Sheet. 

Enter Chords with Computer Keyboard

The basic way of entering a song in Band-in-a-Box is by typing its chords into the Chord Sheet. 

The location of the highlight cell determines where chords will be entered.  Use either the mouse or the cursor arrow keys on the computer keyboard to move the chord highlight cell around the Chord Sheet.

Click on any bar to select a cell, and then type in the chords for that bar.

The highlight cell covers two beats, or half a bar in 4/4 time.  Two chord names can be typed into the highlight cell (separated by a comma e.g. C, C#dim) so up to four chords per bar may be entered.

To enter a chord, type its name using standard chord symbols (like C, or Fm7, or Bb7, or Bb13#9/E) and press the return key.  The chord name(s) you have typed will be entered in the Chord Sheet at the current location of the highlight cell.  Each time the return key is pressed the highlight cell advances 2 beats, or ½ a measure.

To start typing in chords:

• Go to the top (bar 1) of the Chord Sheet by clicking on measure 1.
• Blank the Chord Sheet by clicking the [New] button, or with the keystrokes command+n.
• The highlight cell will be at the start of bar 1, reposition it if desired.
• When you have the highlight cell positioned where you want to enter a chord, type the name of the chord you would like.  For example, type c6 to get the C6 chord. 

You should never have to use the shift key, as Band-in-a-Box will sort this out for you.  Here are some other tips for easy chord entry:

• Use b for a flat, e.g. Bb7.  It is not necessary to type upper or lower case; the program will sort this out for you.
• Use # or 3 for a sharp, e.g. F#7.  (# is the uppercase symbol of 3, so you can type F37 to get F#7.  Band-in-a-Box will sort out the case, saving you the effort of using <SHIFT>3 to type the # symbol).
• Use / for slash chords with alternate Roots such as C7/E (C7 with E bass).
• Use a comma (,) to enter 2 chords in a cell.  In the example below, we would type Ab9,G9 to get the 2 chords in the cell (on beat 3 and 4 of bar 2).

The sequence of keystrokes to enter all these chords above would be c6>am7>dm7>ab9,g9>c6/e>>a739. 

The > indicates cursor key to the right.

(We are able to type A7#9 as a739 because Band-in-a-Box knows to use the uppercase of the 3, which is #.)

Shortcut Chords

If you enter a lot of songs, you will appreciate these shortcut keys:

• J = Maj7
• H=m7b5 (H stands for Half diminished.)
• D=dim
• S=Sus

Example: To type CMaj7, just type CJ (it will be entered as CMaj7).

MicroChords (Multiple Chords per Beat)

The MicroChords feature allows you to enter up to 4 chords per beat. Previously, Band-in-a-Box was limited to one chord per beat, but now you can have chords on 8th notes, triplets, or 16ths notes. This is especially useful on slow songs. You can select which tracks will play the MicroChords, allowing some tracks to play fast moving chord progressions and others to play the main chords.

MicroChords are stacked vertically on the Chord Sheet. If there is also a main chord at the same beat, it will display in gray.


You can enter MicroChords on the Chord Sheet with parentheses and commas. Start with an open parenthesis, type chords separated by commas, and end with a close parenthesis.

For example, typing (C,F) enters two chords for 8th notes, (C,F,G) enters three chords for triplets, and (C,F,G,Am) enters four chords for 16th notes. If you do not type a chord between commas, it will enter a blank chord. For example, typing (C,F,G,,) would enter the first and the second chords for 16th notes and the third chord for an 8th note.

You can have both MicroChords and a main chord at the same beat. For example, type D7(A,Fm) to enter D7 as a main chord and A and Fm as MicroChords.

You can erase all chords (main and/or MicroChords) from the highlighted cell with the Delete key.

Pressing the () and return keys will erase just the MicroChords and advance the cell.

You can change the current main chord and keep the current MicroChords at the beat by typing another main chord. For example, if you type Gm and press the return key, the main chord will be replaced with Gm and the MicroChords will remain.

If you want to change the main chord and erase the MicroChords, type a chord followed by parentheses. For example, type Gm() to replace the current main chord with Gm and erase the MicroChords.

You can also use a dialog to enter MicroChords. Press F6 or M return keys to open the Set MicroChords dialog. This dialog has more features including the option to exclude some tracks from playing the MicroChords.

Current Bar: The bar number will display with * if there are some MicroChord data in the bar, and “t” if there is a new “Excluded Tracks: setting.
Disabled for this bar: If this option is checked, none of the MicroChord settings will be played for this bar.
[Update] will update the settings in the dialog. Press this if chords have changed.
Chords: Enter MicroChords on this row. Each beat is divided into four for an even style and three for a swing style.
Rest: A rest will cause the previous chord duration to stop playing, turning the previous chord into a “shot.”
Motif: The Motifs feature allows selected tracks to play specific rhythms without changing the chords. For example, you might want the guitar and bass to play a specific 16th rhythm in a funk song, while the piano and sax stick with the normal feel. Enter a checkmark if you want to create a specific rhythmic pattern. You do not need to enter chords as the motif will use whatever current chord is in the song. Suppose you have loaded a funk style and you want a horn section to play a specific rhythm (16th-rest-rest-16th) in Beat 1 and 3 and just to rest in Beat 2 and 4. So, you check the “Motif” checkbox in the first and fourth slots, and the “Rest” checkbox in the second and third slots for Beat 1, and then you check the “Rest” checkbox for all slots in Beat 2. You repeat this patten for Beat 3 and 4. Enable the “Change Excluded Tracks at this bar” option and press the [Set] button to exclude tracks other than a horn section. If you want to use this rhythm pattern in other bars, use the “Copy Chords” area. Now, when you play the song, you will hear horns to play hits interspersed with the cool lines that are part of the style itself.
[Set All] applies the divisions of the first beat to all other beats.
Triplets/16ths/Auto: This sets the number of divisions per beat.  “Triplet” divides the beat into 3, and 16th divides the beat into 4. If “Auto” is selected, the division is automatically selected by the style loaded.
Force Enabled: This is useful if you do not enter any MicroChords in the current beat but still want a beat of silence instead of the main chord.
[Clear Beat #] clears the data for the corresponding beat.
Set Excluded Tracks: This area allows you to select tracks to be excluded from playing the MicroChords. Enabling the Change Excluded Tracks at this bar option allows you to select tracks that should be excluded from playing the MicroChords. Press the [Set] button to select tracks that should be excluded. The excluded tracks will play main chords, instead. The [Clear Bar (Excluded Tracks)] button clears any excluded-track setting for the current bar, and the [Clear All Bars (Excluded Tracks)] clears any track-excluded settings for all bars in the song.
Copy MicroChords Now: This area allows you to copy MicroChords and settings to other bars. Enter the destination bar in Copy to Bar and the total number of bars to be copied in Number of Bars. Set the Pattern Length option to 1 if you want the current bar to be copied. If you want a longer section to be copied, enter the number of bars to copied. For example, enter 2 to copy the current and the next bars. The [Set to Whole Track] button sets the destination to the whole song. The [Copy MicroChords] button copies the MicroChords and settings in the current bar (or more bars if the Pattern Length is more than 1) and paste them to the selected bar.
[The [Clear Current Bar] button clears all settings from the current bar, and the [Clear All Bars] button clears all settings from all bars in the song.
[MicroChords to Lyrics] displays the MicroChords, including the Motifs (x) and Rests (r), as Bar Lyrics, which are viewable on the Chord Sheet when the Bar Lyrics layer is selected with the [Chord Display] toolbar button menu.
[Chord Options] opens the Chord Options dialog.

Chord Options

Chord options include rests, shots, holds, pushes, and pedal bass. The Chord Options dialog opens with the C7 toolbar button, the option+Z keys, or the right-click contextual menu on the Chord Sheet. .

Beat: You can choose the beat location for the chord you are entering.

Chord: If a chord has been entered for this beat, it will appear here.  If no chord has been entered, you can type it here.

MicroChords: You can enter up to 4 chords on a beat by typing chords separated by a comma.  For example, you could type C,F for 8th notes, C,F,D or C,,D for triplets, or C,F,G,Am or C,F,,Am for 16th notes. The [MicroChords] button opens the Set MicroChords dialog, which allows you to exclude some tracks from playing the MicroChords and select other options.

Push: “Pushes” (sometimes called anticipations) are chords that are played before the beat.  For example, in Jazz Swing the piano player often pushes a chord change by playing the chord an eighth note before the beat. Depending on the feel for the style in use, chords can be entered on either 16th or 8th note resolution.  You can specify a chord to occur a 16th note before the beat for example, and all instruments will play this, including drums.

Pedal Bass: You can enter pedal bass with any chord.  For example, if you are in the key of F and would like to pedal on a C note for 2 bars (on an Fm7 chord), then type in the settings as above.  This will play the rhythm specified – in this case, the pattern will play on beat 2 and 4.  Other options are <No Pedal Bass>, Beat 2 and 4 Octaves, Beat 1 and 3 (Slow Tempos), Whole Note, and Eighth Notes.

Rest, Shot, Hold:

• Rest: A rest can specify any, some, or all tracks to rest at any bar. For example, you could rest all tracks except the bass for the first 4 bars, then add in the piano for 4 bars, and then add in the entire band for the rest of the song. You may optionally disable the rests in the middle or final choruses (where people are likely taking solos, and rests are not appropriate).
• Shot: You can specify that certain tracks play a shot, where the chord is played and then a rest follows. For example, the song Rock Around the Clock has a shot on beat 1 followed by a rest for seven beats.
• Hold: You can specify that certain tracks hold a chord. For example, you can have the bass and piano hold a chord while the drums continue to play a pattern.

When a “shot” or a “held” chord is assigned, the instruments that are excluded from the shot/held chord play normally. There is an additional option for those excluded instruments to stay silent. To set this, select a shot or held chord and enable the Excluded track(s) should rest option. This option gives you the ability to rest some trackss while others play the shot or held chord.

Normally, you don’t need to press the [Apply] button because the chord you enter will immediately update on the Chord Sheet.

Support for Non-Standard Chord Display Types

In addition to the Standard Notation window, you can also enter or display chords in Roman Numeral notation, Nashville notation, Solfeggio notation, or Fixed Do notation.

For example, the chord Gm7 in the key of F would be displayed as IIm7 (in Roman Numeral Notation), 2m7 (in Nashville Notation), and Rem7 in Solfeggio.  In Italy and other parts of Europe, chords like C7 are always referred to by the Solfeggio name (“Do 7” for C7) regardless of the key signature.

These systems are very useful for learning or analyzing tunes, because they are independent of the key signature.  You can take an existing song and print it out in Roman Numeral Notation, so you can study the chord progression.  You can also just type a chord in any of these systems, like “4” which will enter the 4 chord in the current key, and switch between systems without having to retype the chords.

To change the chord display type, click on the [Chord Display] toolbar button, go to Choose type of Chord Display and choose from the list of five options.

The Roman numeral and other non-standard displays use superscript for the chord display when in the Notation window (or print out), so they look best in the Notation window.

There is an option to display the non-standard chord above the standard chord on the Chord Sheet.

Press the [Chord Display] button, go to Layers | Additional Chord Display, and choose from the list of four options.

Previewing Chords

This feature allows you to hear chords as you type them in.  When you are entering chords onto the Chord Sheet (or notation window), after you type a chord name, press shift+return.  This enters the chord onto the Chord Sheet and then plays the chord for you, using the patches on the Piano part and Bass part.  You can also listen to a chord that has already been entered, by just pressing shift+return after moving to that bar with the chord.  If there is no chord entered at that bar, you will hear the last chord that was entered.

You can also preview chords from the Chord Options dialog.  Press option+Z to launch the dialog, and then press the [Preview] button to hear the current chord.

Chord Builder

This feature allows you to hear and build chords up by clicking on the root, extension (and alternate root if applicable).  You can launch the Chord Builder by choosing the Edit | Chord Builder menu option or with the keystrokes control+shift+H.

There are 2 modules in the Chord Builder window. They can be switched with the tabs at the top of the window.

In the [Chord Progression] tab, the Builder displays and suggests chords that are most popular in the current key, in pop or jazz, allowing you to interactively create your own progression.

The current chord is highlighted in black and the suggested good chords to come after it are highlighted in colors. These occur if the Highlight Current Chord and Highlight Suggest Next Chords options are enabled. The blue color indicates common chords and the orange color indicates less common but more interesting chords. Normally, you will see just one or two interesting chords but you can cycle through the interesting chords by pressing the [Var.] button. If the Show All Possible option is enabled, you will see all the interesting chords.

The top Diatonic row shows diatonic chords made up only of notes in the key. They are the most common chords used in the key, with the 1, 4, and 5 chords being the most common. Other rows add additional chords that are part of the key. The chords on the Dominant 7 row are considered to be in the key when they resolve up a 4th to a scale tone. For example, A7 resolves to D, which is a scale tone in the key of C. The diatonic chords are also commonly used with different chord tones as the bass note. They are called slash chords, like C/E, are listed on the Slash Chords row. For a major key like C, the chords from the Cm key are also commonly used and are shown on the Parallel Minor row. The most common Diminished chord used is the 1 diminished family [Cdim7, Ebdim7, F#dim7] in the key of C. Half-Diminished chords (e.g., #4m7b5 [F#m7b5] and 7m7b5 [Bm7b5]) are used as 2-5-1 leading to minor diatonic chords. The All (Common) row lists all commonly used chords with the root in the key. Clicking on the small button on each row will list more suggestions.

Shift+clicking on one of the suggested chords lets you preview. Clicking on it enters it to the current cell on the Chord Sheet and then the Builder will suggest the best chords for the next. You can repeat this process until you get a great chord progression for your song.

The [Clear Chord] button erases the chord already entered on the current cell.

In the [Chord Picker] tab, the Builder lets you pick a root and extension to build a chord.

Click on the root of the chord in the “Root” group, the “Extension” (Maj7 etc.), and an alternate “Slash-Note” root. For example, to make the chord F9/A, you would click on the “F” root, the “9” extension, and the Slash Root of /A. As you click on them, you will hear the bass note played by the MIDI instrument on the Bass track, and the extension played by the MIDI instrument on the Piano track. You can change these MIDI patches using Select MIDI Instrument (Patch) in the right-click menu on the Mixer or the track radio buttons at the top of the screen.

You can shift+click on a root or an extension to preview. If you are happy with the sound of the chord, you can press the [Enter Chord] button to enter the chord at the bar and beat specified. If you want the chord to be inserted automatically when you click on the note/extension names, select the Enter chord when clicked option. This will advance the Bar/Beat position. You can change the Bar/Beat settings to move to a different bar. The [<] and [ >] buttons move 1 beat on a right-click, and 2 beats on a left-click.

Delete Chords

The chords at the current location of the highlight cell are cleared by the delete key, the standard “Cut” command, or by typing a comma and pressing return.
Deletion of chords over a range of bars can be done by selecting the range and pressing the delete key on your computer keyboard.  No confirmation dialog is required.

Enter Breaks (Rests, Shots, and Held Chords) and Pushes

Breaks

Breaks are points in a song when one or more of the instruments rests, plays a shot, or holds a chord.

Rests specify any, some, or all instruments to rest at any bar. For example, you could rest all instruments except the bass for the first 4 bars, and then add the piano for 4 bars, and then add the entire band for the rest of the song. You may optionally disable the rests in the middle or final choruses (e.g., where you would likely have a solo, and rests may not be appropriate).

Shots specify certain instruments play a “shot,” where the chord is played and then a rest follows. For example, the song “Rock Around the Clock” has a shot on beat 1 followed by a rest for 2 bars. The duration of “shots” is 60 ticks per beat.

Held chords specify that certain instruments hold a chord sustained for a certain number of bars. For example, you can have the bass and piano hold a chord sustained while the drums continue to play a pattern.

A chord can be specified as a by adding a period after the chord.
C. indicates a C chord that is a REST.
C..indicates a C chord that is a SHOT.
C...indicates a C chord that is a HELD.

You can specify that some tracks not be affected by the break. The coded names for the tracks are B for Bass, D for Drums, P for Piano, G for Guitar, S for Strings, M for Melody, L for Soloist, A for Audio, and U1 to U16 for Utility 1 to Utility 16. To exempt tracks, add their letters following the break. For example, C.bd will put a rest on all instruments except the bass and drums. To indicate a held chord for all instruments except the piano, type C...p

Shots, Holds and Pushes in RealTracks

Simply type in the chords as you normally would, adding periods (…) for shots and holds, and the RealTracks will play them.  Note that for this, you need the LibraryM/Holds folder in your RealTracks folder.

Not all RealTracks styles have shots, holds, and pushes available, so check the “H” column in the RealTracks Picker to see if the style has them.

• If the column is blank, they are available and installed.
• If the column shows the letter “n,” the Holds files are available but not installed.  Check the support pages of the PG Music web site, www.pgmusic.com, for RealTracks updates.
• If the column shows a dash “–” no holds are available for the style.

Assuming that you have the Holds files for the RealTracks that you are generating, then you just use Band-in-a-Box as you would normally, and type chords with shots (e.g. C..), holds (C…) or pushes (^C or ^^C for 8th or 16th note push), or combinations of push and hold (^C…).

Copy Break (Rest/Shot/Hold)

The Copy Break dialog is opened with the Edit | Copy Special | Copy Bresk (Rest/Shot/Hold) menu command. 

With this feature, you can copy the attributes (rests/shots/holds) of a chord over a range of other chords.  The settings allow you to specify the bar and beat to copy from, the number of bars to copy, and the location to copy to.

Copy Breaks by Shortcuts

Shortcuts are available for entering breaks (rests/shots/holds) over a range of bar.

Type h4 on a chord, and this will copy the break on the first beat of the cell for 4 bars.
Type ,h4 on a chord, and this will copy the break on the second beat of the cell for 4 bars.
Type h on a chord, and this will copy the break until the next part marker.
Type a chord with a break followed by a number (N), and this will do this for the next N bars.
    e.g.  C7...4  will enter held chords for 4 bars     Gm7...bd5 will enter held chords (bd=except bass and drums) for 5 bars.

Pushes

Pushes in Styles

“Pushes” (also called anticipations) are chords that are played before the beat.  For example, in Jazz Swing, the piano player often “pushes” a chord change by playing the chord an eighth note before the beat.  Styles can push any instrument so that the instrument plays before the chord begins.  This is very common in Jazz and other Pop music and gives the music a more natural sound.

You need not be concerned with pushes that are in the styles as they happen automatically.  You need only to be aware that the styles can push the instruments.  This makes styles sound much better, and more syncopated.

Pushes in Songs.

Chords can be pushed by an 8th or 16th note.  For example, you can specify a chord to occur a 16th note before the beat and all instruments, including drums, will play this.

You can also specify that a chord change should happen before the beat.  To do this, you can use either keystrokes, or the chord options dialog box.  To use keystrokes:

Type the caret symbol (^) before the chord.  (The caret symbol is located above the 6 on the keyboard).

Type a single caret to get a chord an eighth note before the beat.
  e.g.      ^C7

Type a double caret to get a chord a sixteenth note before the beat.
  e.g.      ^^C7

In Jazz styles (and other triplet feels), the chord will be pushed by a triplet, regardless if there is a single or double caret (^^).

Erase Chords

To erase chords, place the highlight cell over top of the chords you would like to erase and press the [delete] key.

Erase Chords and/or Melody

To erase chords with additional control for erasing the melody and/or soloist choose Edit | Erase From.. To.. or press option+K to launch the Erase Chords and/or Melody dialog box.

As you can see, you can erase several bars of chords and/or melody and/or soloist.  If you are erasing the melody and/or soloist, you need to specify which chorus you are erasing.

Insert/Delete Bars

Inserting or deleting measures in the Chord Sheet saves a lot of copying or re-typing of chords when changes are made to an arrangement.  The commands to insert or delete bars from the Chord Sheet are:

To insert bars choose Edit | Insert Measure(s) or command+i and you can insert a given # of bars. You can also use hotkeys to insert N bars at the current location. For example, in4<Enter> would insert 4 bars at the current location, and in8<Enter> would insert 8 bars.

To delete bars choose Edit | Delete Measure(s) or command+d and you can delete a given # of bars.

Copying and Pasting a Section of Chords

Since many songs repeat the same sequence of chords throughout, a faster method to enter a song into Band-in-a-Box is to COPY and PASTE the repeating chords.

Copying a section of chords is done in a manner similar to copying text in a word processor.  Highlight a section of chords by dragging the mouse over them while holding the left mouse button.  The area will be blackened/highlighted.

Press command+C or select the Edit | Copy menu item.  The highlighted area will be copied to the clipboard.  It can then be pasted back into the Chord Sheet at any location and reused as many times as you like.

Move the highlight cell to the bar that you want to paste the chords into, using the arrow keys or the mouse.

Paste the copied section with command+V or select the Edit | Paste menu item.  The chords will then appear at the new location.  These features are also available from the control+click (or right-click) context menu.

Copy Chords and/or Melody

Copy and paste the chords, melody, and solo for a range of bars in the Copy Chords and/or Melody dialog.

Select Edit | Copy Special | Copy From..  To, or press option+C to launch this dialog.

The settings allow you to specify the location to copy from, the number of bars to copy, the location to copy to, and the option to copy any or all the chords, melody, and/or soloist.
Insert Bars at destination: If you enable this, prior to the copy, bars will be inserted at the destination.
# of times to repeat copy: If you set this to more than one, multiple copies will be made, optionally with transpositions on each copy. These are all applied to the first chorus only.
With each copy, transpose __ semitones: If more than one copy is selected, this will transpose the song with each copy. This is most useful when wanting to learn a short phrase (“riff”) in different keys or modulating a section of a song.
Random number of semitones: This will transpose the copy a random transposition and would be useful for advanced students who are trying to master a riff or phrase in all keys.
Copy 1st chorus to whole song: If you enable this, this will apply any of the copying commands in this dialog to all choruses of the song, not just chorus #1.
The [Close] button does not copy chords and/or melody but preserves the current settings in the dialog.

“K” Quick Copy Method

By simply typing K at a bar followed by the return key, you can instantly copy the last 8 bars to the current position.  By adding additional keys in the K command, you can customize this shortcut (e.g. typing K 12, 3 would copy from bar 3 for 12 bars to current position.)  The current position is advanced to the bar beyond the copy.  This speeds up song entry!

For example, if you’re entering a song that has a repeating section of chords for 8 bars, type in the first 8 bars of chords, and then move to bar 9 and then type: k, retturn.

The last 8 bars will be copied to bar 9-16, and the cursor will be moved to bar 17, so you’re ready to continue with the tune.  If you get to bar 25 and would like the chords from 1-8 to be copied to 25-32, type k,1 and this will copy 8 bars from bar 1 to bar 25.

The chords always get copied.  The Melody, Soloist, and Lyrics also get copied if these items are set in the Copy Chords and/or Melody dialog.

Copy/Paste Chords as Simple Text

Copy from a Band-in-a-Box song

Chords can be copied as a simple text format and be pasted into another song in Band-in-a-Box or a text file in a program like TextEdit.

Select the chords on the Chord Sheet, and press the standard command+C keys to copy them.  You can then press command+V in another song or a text file to paste them.

By default, part markers as well as rests, shots, holds, and pushes are included in text, but you can change this with the options in the Song(s) to Text (clipboard or .txt file) dialog.  This dialog also allows you to select the items that will be included when you copy the whole song.  Using this dialog, you can also copy all songs in a specific folder to the clipboard or save them as text file(s).  The dialog can be accessed with the Edit | Copy Special | Copy Song(s) to Text on clipboard or file(s) menu item.

Copy text to the clipboard with the regular Edit Copy (cmd-C) command: This has to be enabled in order to copy chords with the standard command+C keys.
Include Song MetaData: This option applies when you copy the whole song.  If this is checked, the song metadata (title, key, tempo, form, style, etc.) will be included.
Include Memo: This option also applies when you copy the whole song.
Part Markers: By default, part markers are copied, but you choose not to copy them.
Holds, Pushes, Shots: By default, rests, shots, holds, and pushes entered in chords are copied, but if you don't want them, uncheck this option.
Use % for repeated chords bar: If this is enabled, a % sign will be used for a blank bar.
Space character to begin each bar: If this is enabled, a space will be added at the beginning of each bar.
New Line for new section (part marker): If this is enabled, every section (part marker) will start a new line.
Bars per line: You can set the number of bars of chords to write per line.
Use Tab instead of | for bar line: With this option, text can be pasted into a spreadsheet with columns for each bar.
Use / for every empty beat: This will write a slash for an empty beat. For example, you will see | C / / / | instead of | C |.
Show bar numbers each bar: If this is enabled, a bar number will be included.
Include lyrics: This allows you to include the lyrics as a [Lyrics] section.
Whole Song: If you select this mode, you can press [OK - Copy to Clipboard] to copy the whole song (chords and additional information selected) or [Save as .txt file] to save it as a text file.
Range of Song: If you select this mode, you can press [OK - Copy to Clipboard] to copy the chords in the selected range or [Save as .txt file] to save them as a text file.
Batch save all songs in this folder: With this mode, you can copy or save all songs in a specific folder.  Press the folder icon to select the folder, and choose the option to include subfolders of that folder.  Also select the destination with the Batch Save As option.  You can copy all songs to the clipboard, save them as individual text files in the same folder, save them as individual text files in another folder, or save them as a single text file.  Then, press [OK -Batch Save TXT] to copy or save the songs.
The [Defaults] button resets all options to default settings. 
The [Close] button closes the dialog, saving the settings but not copying anything.

Copy from a text file

You can copy chords in a text file and paste them into a Band-in-a-Box song. Type chords in a text file using a vertical line for a bar line. If you want a blank bar, leave a space or type a % sign between vertical lines. For example, you can type | D | G7 |  | F | or | D | G7 | % | F |. ou can use shortcuts and non-standard chord display (e.g., | 1j | 2h | 53 |). To add breaks (rests/shots/holds), type period(s) after the chord. To add pushes, enter caret(s) before the chord. If you want a part marker, type a or b and a parenthesis after a vertical line. You can type as many bars as you like on each line.

You can even enter a whole song in a text file.  The easiest way is to use the text file that you pasted the whole song into.  Some of the information pasted into that text file cannot be pasted back into Band-in-a-Box because they are not applicable for a new song.  For example, “Song Summary” is no applicable because this is automatically generated in the song and cannot be edited by a user.  However, it will not cause problems if you leave them in the text file.  You can include a title, a key, a tempo, a form, a style file name, and a memo.

When you are ready, press command+A to select all and command+C to copy.  Then, in Band-in-a-Box, press command+shift+V or go to menu Edit | Paste Special - from Clipboard text to Song(s).  This will open the Paste text to Song(s) dialog.

Song(s) Found in Paste: If you created multiple songs in the text file, you can select the song to paste.
Items to include in the paste: Check the items you want to include in the paste.
Paste as New Song: This mode will paste all the chords in the selected song into a new song.
Paste into current Song: This mode will paste into the selected bar in the current song.  You can select either the Whole song option to paste all chords in the song or the Range option to paste the chords in the selected range of the song.
Save as SGU song(s): This mode will save the selected song or all songs on the clipboard as new song(s).  To save the selected song as a new song, select the Selected song option.  Then, press OK, select a folder, and type a file name.  To save all songs as new songs, select the All songs in clipboard option, press OK, and select a folder.

Shrink/Expand

The Edit - Song Form - Shrink command will reduce durations of chords by ½ (e.g., 4beats>>2beats, 2beats>>1beat).  Expand doubles the durations of chords (e.g., 1beat>>2beats, 2beats>>4beats).

Auto-Generate Chords for Intro

Press the [Song Form] toolbar button and select the menu command Generate Chords for Intro to open the Generate Chords for Intro dialog.  You can also choose Edit | Intro Bars Auto-Generate menu option or use the keystroke control+shift+B to open this dialog

.This will create a chord progression for an intro of the song, based on the optional settings you choose.

With a single press of a button, you can auto-generate a 2-, 4-, or 8-bar intro for any song. The chords will be different each time, and you can keep trying as often as you like until you get the progression that you want. The intro generated will be an intelligent chord progression (i.e., appropriate for an intro) in the chosen style of music (Jazz/Pop). It can have optional pedal bass and will “lead” correctly to the first chord of the song. There is also an option to have the intro be played by the whole band, a specific track, or any combination of tracks.

The duration of the intro can be set to 2, 4, or 8 bars. You can also get a pedal bass figure inserted throughout the intro. Press the [Remove Intro] button to delete any intro present in your song.

“Jazz Up”/“Jazz Down” the Chords

When switching genres (from Pop to Jazz, or Jazz to Pop), it’s often necessary to change the chords from “Pop/Rock” chords (C) to Jazz type chords (Like CMaj7).  Now you can quickly do this, by new menu options called “Jazz Up,” “Jazz Down.”  Choose the menu item Edit | Chords | “Jazz Up” or Edit | Chords | “Jazz Down” to do this.

“Jazz Up” - This function simply converts triads to 7th chords, producing a lead sheet more suitable for Jazz.  If you have a song with triad chords like C or Dm, you can choose to “Jazz Up” the chords.  When you do this, you get an option of whether you’d like to see Maj7, Maj6 or Dominant 7th for the major triads.

“Jazz Down” - This function converts 7th chords to triads, for a lead sheet more suited to Pop music.

Chord Substitution

Reharmonizing a song with the Chord Substitution Wizard is a fun and educational way to perform or practice a familiar song in a brand-new way.  This feature is very easy to use; simply highlight an area of chords and select “Chord Substitution.” The possible chord substitutions are instantly displayed for you.

For example, if you had chords such as “Dm7 G7 Cmaj7,” a list of substitutions including the tritone substitution “Dm7 Db7b5 Cmaj7” would be offered to you for use in your song.  There are also helpful comments associated with each substitution, showing you why a given substitution might work in each case (e.g., is the melody compatible with the substitution, etc.).  Alternatively, you can enable the “Auto-Substitution feature and the substitutions will be selected according to the general preset preferences.

There are two ways to get chord substitutions, you can let Band-in-a-Box show you a list of possible substitutions to pick from yourself (Edit | Chords | Chord Substitution Dialog), or you can let Band-in-a-Box pick them automatically (Edit | Chords | Chord Substitution (Auto-Generate)).

Manual Chord Substitutions

The appearance of this dialog depends on what chords are present at the highlighted bar.  This bar number is shown in the dialog and may be changed.  In the example above, the chord is an F7 chord, so the substitutions shown are for an F7 chord.  The substitutions shown may work for up to 4 bars, depending on the substitution.  In the examples above, the substitutions work for 2 bars.

You can control what types of substitutions to see by using the Jazz/Pop checkbox.  Some substitutions include more chords than the original, some simplify the progression, and these can be viewed using the checkboxes.  You can elect to exclude substitutions that have a chord on each beat.

The Types of substitution scombo box will filter the substitutions to include only the best substitutions or all of them.

The [Recompile] button is only used if you have edited the chordsub.txt file to add your own substitutions. 

Once you see a substitution that you like, you can enter it onto the worksheet by pressing the [OK - Do Substitutions] button or double-clicking on the substitution line.  You can then move the current bar to the next part of the song that you need a substitution for and repeat the process.

You can undo the substitution by pressing the [Restore] or [Restore All] button.

Auto-Chord Substitution

You can quickly auto-generate substitutions for an entire song or portion of a song using the auto-substitution dialog.  For example, we can generate substitutions for the !Freddie.MGU song.  Here is the original chord progression.

By using the auto-substitution dialog, we can generate substitutions for the whole song, and we get this result:

You can see that Band-in-a-Box chose the substitutions for about 70% of the chords in the song (that’s what we told it to do in the dialog).  Some of the substitutions chosen are more advanced than that (replacing an F7 with a B13 for example)

Here are the settings in the auto-substitution dialog that produced this result:

If you’d like Band-in-a-Box to only generate for a certain range of bars, you should first highlight that range of bars in the Chord Sheet, then launch the dialog.  The Range will then be set to Part of the song and the bar # and # of bars settings will also be set.  You can override these settings with manual settings, if necessary.

Generate Chords for a Melody (The Reharmonist)

Generate chords for a melody, or an improved chord progression for a melody, with the “Reharmonist” feature.  This feature generates a chord progression in the chosen genre, based only on the melody.

The idea of the Reharmonist is to generate a completely new chord progression for a melody, in a genre that you choose (Jazz, Country, etc.).  This ignores any existing chords in the song.

There are 2 separate windows for the Reharmonist feature.

• Reharmonize entire song with a new chord progression.
• See a list of possible reharmonizations for a given area of a song.

Chords for a Whole Song

This example uses the melody of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto #1 in F, 1st movement, but you could use the melody of any song you choose.

Go to the menu Edit | Chords | Chord Reharmonization (Auto-Generate). You will then see the Select Re-Harmonist dialog.

The first thing you should do is set the “Genre” for the reharmonization.  For example, if you want “Jazz Swing” genre, choose that in the genre drop down. You will then get typical Jazz chords.

Verify that the key is correct.  Band-in-a-Box analyzes the melody and gives its best guess as to the best key for the song.  If it is different from the current key, Band-in-a-Box will suggest the new key, and you can press the button to set the key to the new key.

Set the region of the song that you want reharmonized.  Usually this will be the “Whole Song.”

See a List of Possible Reharmonizations

Go to the menu Edit | Chords | Chord Reharmonist (Choose Your Own). 

In the Reharmonize Melody – Generate New Chords for 2 Bars of the Melody dialog you can choose from a list of reharmonizations for any 2-bar segment of the song. The reharmonization starts at the Bar # indicated.  Use the [-2] and [+2] buttons to navigate to the segment to be recompiled.

Use the feature interactively by displaying a menu of possible chord progressions for a portion of the melody and audition them to choose the best one using the “Bar Reharmonist.”  This allows you to hear some new chord progressions for existing melodies, or brand-new progressions for tunes without chords.

Choose a chord progression, and press [OK - Reharmonize] and the program will insert that progression.

The progressions are sorted in alphabetical order, or from “best to worst” depending on this setting.

Rearrange Chords - Song Form Maker

The Song Form Maker allows you to define sections of a song (A, B, C etc.), and then rearrange the song by simply typing the form you want (e.g. AABABAACA).  You can revisit the dialog to change the form at any time.

Go to Edit | Song Form | Song Form Dialog, or press the [Song Form] toolbar button and choose Song Form Dialog from the dropdown menu.  You will then see the Song Form Maker dialog.

Then define your sections (e.g. A = bars 1 for 8 bars, B=start at bar 17, for 8 bars C=start at bar 25, for 4 bars).  Then type the form that you want (AABACABA).

Select [OK-Generate Form] then exit the dialog.  The form string and sections are saved with the song. 

You can revisit this dialog to re-order the sections.  Or change a chord in the “A” section of the Chord Sheet, and then use the Song Form Maker to propagate the changes through all of the “A” sections.

Use the [Undo] button to reverse your changes.

Uses for the Song Form Maker

• Enter a song by simply entering each section once, and then visit the Song Form Maker, typing the form that you want and generating it.  Change the form without having to type in new chords, just redo the Form String (AABACABA, etc.).
• Change chords in each section by simply changing the chord in the main section, and then regenerate the form.
• Enter a melody once and copy it throughout the form by regenerating the form.

Part Markers and Substyles

Part Markers are placed on the Chord Sheet to indicate a new part of the song.  They are used to change substyles or insert drum fills. They typically occur every 8 bars or so but may be placed at the beginning of any bar.

There is always a part marker at bar 1 so that Band-in-a-Box knows which substyle to begin with. The song continues to play in one substyle until it encounters a new part marker. The substyle will change automatically on second choruses when the “Vary Style in Middle Choruses” setting is selected in the Song Settings dialog.

You can customize the display of the part markers in the Display Options dialog.  For example, you can pick a color for each part marker, draw part marker borders, show each part marker on the new line, etc.

MultiStyles

Band-in-a-Box MultiStyles are styles that can have up to 24 substyles; original Band-in-a-Box styles had two substyles, “a” and “b.” Band-in-a-Box MultiStyles typically have four substyles, but may have up to twenty-four, selected by using part markers “a” through “x.”

• Substyle “a” is usually used for the verse of a song.
• Substyle “b” is usually used for the “b-section” or the chorus, and for soloing in the middle choruses.
• Substyle “c” is usually used for the intro or for an opening verse or pre-verse.
• Substyle “d” is usually used for a break or interlude.

Placing Part Markers

Move the highlight cell to the bar where you want to place the part marker. Then press the P key on the computer keyboard. Repeatedly pressing P scrolls through all available part markers.
Position the mouse cursor directly over the bar line (or an existing part marker). Then, click the left mouse button. Repeat this procedure to scroll through the available options.
To remove a part marker, keep pressing P or clicking the mouse until you reach the end of the available part markers and there is no marker on the bar number.

Copying Part Markers

You can drag a part marker to copy it to other bars.

Changing Substyles

The part markers also represent the available substyles (variations) for each style.  Most styles have “a” and “b” substyles.  Multistyles also have “c” and “d” substyles and could have from “a” to “x” for a total of up to twenty-four.

The song continues to play in one substyle until it encounters a new part marker.  There will always be a part marker at bar 1 so that Band-in-a-Box knows what substyle to begin with.

Substyle“a” is usually used for the Verses of the song.

Substyle“b” is usually used for the Bridge of the song, and for soloing in the Middle Choruses.  All the middle choruses of the song will automatically play in the “b” substyle.  This is great for Jazz songs, allowing you to play swing throughout the middle (soloing) choruses and revert to the “a” substyle for the last chorus.

Substyle “c” is usually used for the intro or for an opening verse or pre-verse.

Substyle “d” is usually used for a break or interlude.

Adding More Substyles

You can add more substyles to an individual song with a right-click on any bar number.  This opens the Substyle Change Menu where you can define up to 24 substyles, from “a” to “x.”

Placing Drum Fills

A one bar drum fill will play in the bar preceding (leading into) a part marker, just as a live drummer will play a fill to accent the transition between sections of a song.  If you want a drum fill to play in bar 7 of a song, insert a part marker at bar 8.  You can either retain the current substyle or change the substyle (“a” or “b”) when you place the part marker.

You can get no drum fill on the bar before a part marker, or you can get a drum fill at any bar without needing a part marker. This is controlled in theEdit Settings for Current Bar dialog (F5). When the “Allow Drum Fill” option is checked, you’ll get a drum fill at the current bar. If you are at a bar before a part marker and you don’t want a drum fill, then disable this option.

Section Paragraphs

When you are reading a book, a new section begins on a new line, with space between.  Band-in-a-Box does that for chords too.  Whenever a new section occurs (a part marker), we start the new section on a new line and draw a grey line above to clearly mark the new section.  You will see each section on a new line so that the form of the song is easier to see.

For example, if you have a song with a 7-bar section, followed by 8-bar sections, earlier versions of Band-in-a-Box wouldn’t start the other sections on a new line.  The result was that it was hard to delineate the sections, as if an entire story was told within one paragraph.

With the Section Paragraphs feature, you will see each section on a new line so that the form of the lead sheet is easier to see.  Sections can be as short as 2 bars.

The feature is configurable and optional with the “New line for every section” setting in the Display Options dialog.  You can also set the minimum number of bars that is required to start a new line with the “minimum section” setting.  For example, if this is set to 8, then there won’t be a new line for the next part marker if that section has only 4 bars.

Generating Accompaniments

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

Selecting Styles

The chords, tempo, number of repeats and other information that you enter in the Chord Sheet tell Band-in-a-Box what to play.  The style you choose tells the program how to play it.  When a style is loaded, the song will be played play back in that style.

There are many styles available for use with the Band-in-a-Box program.  For the purposes of this program, styles refer to styles of music, i.e. Jazz Swing, Tango, Blues, Pop Ballad, etc.  Either before or after you have entered the chords to a song, you will have to pick one of these styles.  Once a style is loaded, the song will be played back in that style.

Help for “Style Not Found“

If a style is not found when loading it, you will be given an option to open the StylePicker showing compatible styles that you do have. Also, it shows information about the missing style like instrumentation, genre, and audio demo so you get an idea of what replacement you need. For example, you have a song that needs the style _OMENS+.STY but you don’t have that style. If Band-in-a-Box knows about that style, you will get a message telling you that the style is not found but you can browse similar styles in the StylePicker. If you answer “Yes,” the StylePicker will launch.

It shows you a lot of information about the style that you don’t have, such as genre (Hip Hop), time signature (4/4), feel (even 16), tempo (70), and the Styles Disk that it comes from (MultiStyles 1).

Double-clicking on the style will play a pre-made demo so you can hear what the style should sound like if you have it.
The StylePicker shows you styles that you do have that would be good substitutes. For example, the first one is “+Spit It Trap Beat with Piano,” which is a Hip Hop style with the same tempo, feel and time signature. So, you can try out these other hip hop styles to find the best substitute for the missing style.

If you highlight the missing style “_OMENS+,” in the mixer area you will see a list of the RealTracks and RealDrums used. This is useful as you may have many of the RealTracks and can use this to add them to the style that you do choose.

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 found in the Styles menu or use the hot keys shift+control+command+F8 for the previous style and control+command+F8 for the next style.

Current Style

The name of the current style displays in the window below the song title.

Opening Style with the [Style] Button

You can open a style using the [Style] button.  This is a split button, with the top half being the default function, and the bottom half-listing different methods to load a style and allows you to set the default.

Band Styles

The menu item Band Styles (Best RealStyles) for the [Style] button allows you to quickly choose the most commonly used RealCombo styles for Jazz, Pop, and Country.  The useable tempo range and instruments used for each style are displayed, giving a “thumbnail” summary (e.g. bass, piano, guitar, brushes, Alto Sax Soloist).

For example, in the Jazz section you will see styles for Jazz Swing, Jazz Waltz, Bossa, Gypsy, and Smooth Jazz.  Each heading opens a list of selected RealStyles, sorted by tempo and type.

You can also load in a song demo by choosing the menu item to load a song demo.

Note that the Jazz Swing style works for a wide tempo range, from slow ballads (tempo=50) to fast bebop (tempo=300).  This is because of the tempo swap feature that automatically chooses the best RealTracks, so that you hear ballads playing at the slow tempo, and bebop playing at 300.

Customizing the List
You can customize the list of styles with your own favorites.
To add new entries at the top of the list make a file called /Applications/Band-in-a-Box /Data/RealCombos_User_Top.txt.  To add entries at the bottom of the list, create a file called /Applications/Band-in-a-Box /Data/RealCombos_User_Bottom.txt.  Follow the example of /Applications/Band-in-a-Box /Data/RealCombos.txt but don’t edit the main file because it gets updated by PG Music.

Save as Plain Text
Create your text files in the TextEdit program found in /Applications/TextEdit.app.  It is important that you go to the Format menu and select Make Plain Text.  Otherwise, the file will be saved in Rich Text format (.rtf) and your list will include formatting code.
Enter your styles in the format shown.
----- My Favorite Styles -----
Style name$Style description

Then restart the program.

You can click the [Video Help] toolbar button for a video tutorial on how to edit the list.  This button takes you directly to the Band-in-a-Box Video Demos page at www.pgmusic.com.  Video demos and tutorials are continually updated, so it’s a good idea to check this page from time to time.

StylePicker Window

The StylePicker lists all the styles that are present in the Band-in-a-Box folder. The StylePicker window has a great filter feature for finding a perfect style for your song by selecting elements such as time signature, feel, or tempo or by simply typing in a familiar song title.

Rebuild StylePicker and Confirm RealTracks and RealDrums Folder Locations

If the style list needs rebuild when you open this window, a dialog will open to confirm and set the correct locations of your RealTracks and RealDrums folders. In the dialog, you can see the current locations (e.g.,Applications/Band-in-a-Box/RealTracks and Applications/Band-in-a-Box/Drums) and the number of RealTracks and RealDrums present in these locations. This allows you to confirm that you are using the correct locations as you see the expected numbers of RealTracks and RealDrums found in the folders.

A progress bar will show at the top of the StylePicker during style rebuild.

After you have rebuilt the style list, you can browse styles by sorting columns or hear an “instant” preview of the style by double-clicking on the list. If style has both MIDI and RealDrums available, you can hear both, and choose which one you want. This makes it much faster to find the style that fits your song.

Style List
The styles list can be easily sorted by clicking on a column name. Clicking again will reverse the order. You can also resize the column width by dragging a column border.
(Note: To toggle the sort between the forward and reverse order, you need to enable “Sort columns in forward and reverse order” in the StylePicker Options dialog.)
Each column provides following information for the style.
Name : This column shows the file name of the style.
Type : This column tells you whether the style has RealTracks only (“R”), MIDI only (“M”), or a combination of RealTracks & MIDI (“RM”)
TSig : This column shows a time signature (4/4, 3/4, etc.) of the style.
EvSw : The “ev” or “sw” indicates whether the style plays in an even feel or a swing feel.
Tempo : The tempo shown here is the tempo set in the style.
Long Name : This column shows the full name of the style.
Genre : This column shows the genre of the style.
Grou p: The styles are grouped into three groups: Pop, Jazz, and Country. The styles are grouped into three groups: Pop, Jazz, and Country. This column also shows a "genre score," which describes a style by a simple number from 1 to 100. This works as follows: quiet, classical, acoustic, jazz, or folk would have low genre scores (1 to 30); loud, aggressive, or heavy rock would have high genre scores (80-100); and light-medium pop would have mid-range genre scores. You can filter the style list by the genre score with the "Other" filter button either by choosing a pre-defined range or setting your own custom range. For example, if you're looking for a quiet "living room" type style, use the filter to only show styles with a genre score less than 40. This might show jazz, classical, folk or other quiet-acoustic styles.
Date : This column shows the date when the style was made.
Set # : In this column, you can see which set includes the style.
# Instr : This column shows the number of instruments that are present in the style.
# Substyles : A style can contain as many as 24 substyles.
Other Genres : This column suggests additional genres of the style.

Filter

You can easily find a style using the text filter. For example, if you want to find punk styles, simply type “punk” and the list will be filtered to show punk styles. If there is a RealTracks musician that you want to check out, just type in his name, and the list will show styles with that musician in them.
You can also use the arrow button to select a category, time signature, feel, etc., and you will immediately see the filtered list.
Category - This lets you filter styles by a genre or category.
TimeSig - This allows you to filter styles by the time signature.
Feel - This sorts the list by feel (even 8th, swing 8th, even 16th or swing 16th).
Tempo - This sorts the list by the tempo.
Type - With this button, you can choose to display Real and/or MIDI styles.  The default is to display Real styles first and MIDI styles at the bottom, but you can change the default selection with the last menu item.
Other - This is a miscellaneous filter.  For example, the list can be filtered to show only your favorite styles, styles of a specific RealTracks set, or styles with soloists, or styles in a specific Xtra Styles set
If Include Similar is unchecked, then the filtered list will show the exact match only, but if this option is checked, then the list will show the exact match and the similar styles.  The [Clear] button will clear any filter, so all styles will display.

Style Suggestion

In the Type in a familiar song title field, type in a familiar song title, artist name, or genre of music, and the StylePicker will filter the list by the genre, feel, tempo, and time signature of that song title.
You can also press the [Find Titles] button to open the Song Titles Browser, which allows you to browse and filter the huge list of over 21,000 popular song titles. You can, for example, filter by a certain artist, and then sort all the songs by tempo, key, feel, time signature, and more.

Instant Preview of Styles - Audio Demos
The [Demo] button plays a pre-made audio demo of the selected style. The audio demos are found on your hard drive or on the Internet (www.pgmusic.com). The program will play the hard drive version if available; otherwise, it will play
from the Internet.
The [+] button shows a menu with options to allow use of the Internet to play audio demos, adjust the volume of the audio demos, loop playback of audio demos, load demo songs for the selected style, open the folder of audio demos if the file is being played on your hard drive, etc

Instant Preview of Styles - Play Your Song
You can also audition a style by actually playing it over the current chord progression of your song.
The green arrow button plays your song with the currently highlighted style. The black square button stops playback of the song or the audio demo.
You can also double-click on a style or press the spacebar to play the song if the Double-Click (or Spacebar) plays Chord Sheet (not pre-made demo) option in the [+] button is unchecked.
The number of bars for song preview is settable. Press the [Options] button, select Set Dialog Option from the menu, and select a number for the “# of preview” option.
The ideal tempo for the style is shown here but you can change it to any tempo by typing in the number or clicking on the [+] and [-] buttons. You can even change it during playback.

[Apply] [Generate]
You can press the [Apply] button to load the selected style to the song. Pressing the [Generate] button loads the style to the song and plays the song with the style.

Rebuild of Styles List

Press the [Rebuild] button and select [Fast] Rebuild of PG Music styles only after you install new styles from PG Music.  It takes about 30 seconds to rebuild the list.  The [Slow] Rebuild of PG Music and 3rd party styles menu item will find not only PG Music styles but also new or changed user or third-party styles.  It takes longer to rebuild the list.

Customization
The new mixer-like control shows what tracks and instruments are used in the currently selected style in the list and color-codes them according to the track types (MIDI, MIDI SuperTracks, or RealTracks).

For each track, there is a menu button, which allows you to change the instrument, disable/enable the track, or perform other track actions.  Previously, you had to close to the StylePicker window to do these.
When the track is customized, an asterisk will be added to the name.
When the Custom option is checked, the tracks of the currently selected style will be overridden with the choices you have made.
The [Clear] button will clear any customized settings.
Press the [Save as .STY] button to save the style that you have customized.  For example, you might add/remove a RealTracks and save that as a new style.  When you save the style, it will be added to the StylePicker list.

Memo
This area shows additional information about the style.  You can see instruments, artists, a brief description, and song examples currently selected style. If the style has Loops or UserTracks, you will see the names of the Loops or UserTracks.

Options
Clicking on the [Options] button shows you a menu with various useful functions. These include loading song demos, setting the selected or loaded style as a remembered style so that you can easily revert to it, assigning the selected style as a favorite, opening the StylePicker Options dialog, etc. These functions are also accessible if you right-click on the style list.
Load Style: This loads the selected style to the current song.
Play current chords with style: This plays the current song with the selected style.
Load Demo .SGU Song:  This opens a demo song of the selected style.
Play pre-made demo .m4a file: You can hear a pre-made audio demo of the selected style.
Revert to Remembered StyleName: This quickly reverts to the remembered style after loading other styles.
Set Remembered StyleName to highlighted: This sets the selected style as a remembered style. You can easily revert to this style after loading other styles.
Set Remembered StyleName to current loaded: This sets the currently loaded style as a remembered style.
Set Dialog Options: This menu item opens the StylePicker Options dialog with additional options for the StylePicker.
Reset Dialog to Defaults: This menu item resets the dialog to default settings.
Mark as Prototype, and sort by Similar Styles to: This menu item will sort and filer the list by best to worst match of the prototype’s tempo, feel, genre, time signature, and more. Once you do this, the sort status indicator will tell you that the sort is by prototype. For example, if you choose _BUBLPOP as the prototype style, the list will be sorted with styles most similar to _BUBLPOP. These are the styles with a similar genre, feel, tempo, and time signature. Here is an example of the results of setting _BUBLPOP as the prototype.
Select/Create User Category: Unlimited User Categories can be created by users or third parties, to list their styles in the StylePicker. To select an existing User Category, choose Select/Create User Category.  When the dialog opens, select a category and press the [OK] button. To make your own User Category, right-click on the list, choose Select/Create User Category, and when the Choose User Category to display in StylePicker dialog opens, press the [Create New Category] button. Then, type a name for your category and click on the [Save] button. You can also enter a memo for your category.  (Technical notes: User Categories are stored as .txt files, which just contain the list of style names.  The User Categories must reside in Band-in-a-Box/Data/StylePicker/User Categories folder. You can re-arrange this folder by creating subfolders and moving the categories around to organize them.  You can also directly edit the .txt file in this folder. If you have made any changes to this folder, remember to press the [Refresh] button.) User Categories are analogous to playlists in a song player.  You can create/edit them and choose to display only the styles from the category or all styles with the category styles highlighted with a * asterisk.)
Add Style to Current User Category: This menu item adds the currently selected style to the current User Category.
Save Current Style list as a User Category: This menu item allows you to create a new User Category and add all the styles currently displaying in the list to the new category.
To display only the styles from the current User Category, click on the [Category] button above the list and select Show this User Category.  If you want to see only the styles from other User Category, select Choose and Show User Category and choose a User Category from the list.You will then see styles from the selected User Category.
Set Style as Favorite: This menu command will set the selected style as a favorite.  If the style is already a favorite, you can select the Remove style as a Favorite menu item.
Copy List to Clipboard: This menu command saves the current list with all information to a tab-delimited .txt file and opens it in TextEdit.  In TextEdit copy all and paste it into a spreadsheet such as an Excel file.  You can then apply a hierarchical sorting of the list.

Set Dialog Options
Preferred listing of styles: This controls the default type of listing of styles (Real and/or MIDI).
Default display should include all styles (available and N/A not available): If this option is enabled, you will see all styles including N/A ones even when all filters are cleared.
Show current style in list even if it doesn’t match the filter: This setting lets you choose to always show the current style even if it doesn’t match the filter.
Sort Columns in forward and reverse order: If this option is enabled, clicking on a column name again will sort the list in reverse order.
Always Change Tempo to best tempo for style whenever a style is loaded: If this option is checked, pressing the [OK] button in the StylePicker will always change the current tempo to the ideal tempo for the selected style.  Note: If the song is “blank” (no chords past bar 5), then the tempo will change, but if the song has chords in more than 5 bars, then the tempo will not change unless this option is enabled.
Change 4-bar Preview tempo to best tempo for style : If this is enabled, the tempo for the preview will be played at the best tempo for the style.
Use Internet to Audition Demos: If this is checked, then when a demo file isn’t found in the Band-in-a-Box/ RealTracks/Data/Style Demos Audio folder, a demo from the internet will be played instead.
Double click on style plays Chord Sheet chords (instead of pre-made demo): If this is checked, double-clicking on a style on the list or pressing the spacebar plays your song, but if this is unchecked, it plays a pre-made audio demo.
Play a preview (portion) when auditioning: This limits audition of your song to the first few bars.
# of bars for preview: You can select the number of bars to play for a preview.
[Defaults]: Press this button to set all options to default settings.

Remix Full Vocal Songs

Band-in-a-Box has over 150 original songs (Pop, R&B, and Modern Country) with high-quality, great sounding vocals, harmonies and Band-in-a-Box arrangements. They are included in new Artist Performance sets 11 and 16. Use these to remix new arrangements, starting from these high-quality, great sounding tracks!

To hear the audio demos, press the [Other] filter button in the StylePicker, and select Styles that have .m4a full song demos, with vocals from the drop-down menu. Or, press the [Category] filter button, select Choose and Show User Category from the drop-down menu, and select “PGMusic\Style Demos with Vocals\All Style Demos with Vocals” from the list. This will list styles that have full vocal audio songs. You can then click on a style in the list to listen to a demo.

Song Titles Browser

This window allows you to browse and filter the huge list of over 21,000 popular song titles.  You can, for example, filter the list by a certain artist, and then sort by tempo, key, feel, time signature, and more.

You can open this window by several ways.
- Press the [Find Titles] button in the StylePicker window.
- Click on the [Style] button and select the Choose style from Song Title menu item.
- Press the S 3 return keys.

There are Title/Artist/Genre/Key/Tempo/Feel/TimeSig/Decade/Vocals columns.  You can sort the list by any column.
Title: This shows you the song title.
Artist: These are the artist or artists most commonly associated with the song.
Genre: This is the musical genre that the song it typical played in.
Key: This is the song key that is usually associated with the song.
Tempo: This is a typical tempo for the song.
Feel: This shows you if the song is Even or Swing, and 8th or 16th cut-time.
Decade: This tells you the decade that the song is from.
Vocals: Typical vocals are shown: (M)ale/(F)emale, (H)igh/(L)ow voice.

You can filter the list by genres, time signature, feel, tempo, decades, and more.
The chord density filter is available.  Press the [Other] filter button and select one of the menu items below Filter by Chord Density.  For example, you can search titles that have chord changes in every 1-4 beats.  You can also filter the list by chord complexity.  This is scaled by 1 to 10; 1 means simple with few chord changes and 10 means complex with many chord changes.  Press the [Other] filter button and select one of the menu items below Filter by Chord Changes.

You can see song titles that will only work with the current style.
Pressing the [style: ] button will filter the list by the genre, time signature, feel, and tempo of the current style. If the checkbox to the left of this button is enabled, then when you open the dialog, the list will be automatically filtered to show song titles that are similar to the current style.

If you do not see a song title you are looking for, press the [Request] button.  This will launch your internet browser and open the PG Music forum page where you can request to add the song to the database.

The buttons in the Browse for more info area will launch the internet browser and let you browse for more info for the selected song or listen to the song.

Once you have found a song, press the [OK - Find Matching Styles] button.  This will take you to the StylePicker window with styles that best match the tempo, feel, and genre of the selected song title.

Favorite Styles / Recently Used Styles

Other options in the Style button menu include Recently Used Styles and Favorite Styles.  They open a dialog with separate lists of Recently Played and Favorite styles.

The Favorites and Recently Played radio buttons toggle between a list of your recently played styles and your Favorite songs styles.  This lets you quickly load in styles that have been used your last few sessions with Band-in-a-Box.
The favorites list will start off as an empty one, but you can add songs/styles as your favorites by clicking the [Add Favorite] button.  (This button is also found in the StylePicker.)
Enable the Play When Chosen option to have Band-in-a-Box play your song immediately upon selecting a style.
When OK to add recent files is checked, Band-in-a-Box automatically adds styles to the list. 
Use the [Search] button to save time scrolling up and down the list.
When you have made your selection, press [OK] to load the chosen style.
Click on [Cancel] to return to the main screen without changing the style.

Style Aliases

Let’s say you have a new style for Jazz called “Dizzy.”  You can create an alias so that when Band-in-a-Box looks for a Jazz Swing style, it will load in “Dizzy” instead, so you don’t have to change all your songs that were made with the old style.  And when you find a new favorite style, just change the alias.

Aliases are accessed by the File | Load Style Special | Style Aliases or Options | MIDI Patch Maps, etc. | Style Aliases menu item.

To make an alias, click on the [Choose] button under the “Original Style” heading to select the original style in the Styles folder.  Then click on the [Choose] button under “Substitution” to select the style you would like to substitute in its place.
The [Clear] button will clear the styles chosen for the style alias that is currently selected in the List of Style Aliases.
You can temporarily disable the Style Aliases feature by unchecking the Allow Any Style Aliases checkbox.
You can also have confirmation of substitutions by checking the Confirm Substitutions” checkbox.
When you are using an alias, you will notice that there will be a small arrowhead in the Title window on the main screen indicating that you have an alias loaded.  Aliases are stored in files called *.ALI.
  The alias for ZZJAZZ.STY is indicated by the > symbol.

Enable/Disable Style menu item

The Styles button menu has an item to enable/disable the style.  When a style is 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.

Forced Styles option

This allows you to keep a style in memory.  This way, subsequent songs that are loaded will not change the style (even if they have a different associated style), so you can easily play songs in the same style.  If you’ve found a new favorite style, you can try it out in all kinds of songs without having to reload the style each time.

For example, let’s say we’ve discovered the “GARNER” style, and want to try it out on all kinds of songs.  Select File | Style Load Special | OK to load styles with songs so that the item is NOT checked.  Now when you load a song, the new style doesn’t load and you can play the song in GARNER.STY. 

You can temporarily override this setting by loading in another style using the [Style] button or the File menu, and the new style loaded will stay in until you choose another one.

MultiStyles

Band-in-a-Box MultiStyles are styles that can have up to 24 substyles; original Band-in-a-Box styles had two substyles, “a” and “b.”  Band-in-a-Box MultiStyles typically have four substyles, but may have up to twenty-four, selected by using part markers “a” through “x.”

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

There are 2 types of MultiStyles

• MultiStyles in styles, working for every song (e.g. NR_CURR+.STY Nashville Rock Current MultiStyle).
• MultiStyles for a specific song only.

MultiStyles in Styles (“+” Styles)

Styles can be made that have multiple substyles, and you can choose the various substyles using the letters a, b, c, d, etc. up to “x” for 24 substyles.
Our naming convention for MultiStyles is to use a + sign at the end of the style name.  For example, MyStyle+.STY would be a MultiStyle.

You can use these substyles easily; just enter the StylePicker and filter the styles list by “+.sty.”

After you load a MultiStyle, right-click on a part marker and you will see that there are multiple substyles available. For example, NR_CURR+ has 4 substyles.

Standard Pop Song form with 4 substyle MultiStyle
In NR_CURR+ (and as a general rule for styles with 4 substyles):

• “a” substyle is for the verse.
• “b” substyle is for the chorus.
• “c” substyle is for the intro (or first verse).
• “d” substyle is for the break (or interlude).

Choose your substyle by clicking on the part marker, or right clicking to select and define substyles.  Here we have chosen “c” substyle, appropriate for the intro or first verse of the song (because the playing is sparse and sustained).

Making your own MultiStyles in Styles

You can make a style that is a MultiStyle in the StyleMaker.

  Open the StyleMaker and press the [Settings] button to open the Miscellaneous Style Settings dialog.

In the MultiStyles group box, type the name of a style that you would like to use for the c/d section.

If you’d like more substyles, add more styles separated by semicolons (e.g. “zzjazz;z5bossa;c_george”).  Then you would have 8 substyles from “a” to “h.”

Note that each of these styles can have a specific RealDrums style, either stored in the style itself (Miscellaneous Style Settings “RealDrums Settings”) or substituted via MIDI substitutions in RealDrums settings.

MultiStyles in Songs

If you have a song, you can also use more than 2 substyles for that song.  For example, let’s say we have a song that is a Bossa Nova and you want to have a Jazz Swing section.  Rather than finding a MultiStyle that has this exact combination, we can make one, in the song, for this song only as follows:

Load a song like Band-in-a-Box/Style Demos/#00 Style Demos/ZZBOSSA.MG4.

	Right-click on a bar number, and choose “Define c/d.”  Then choose ZZJAZZ.STY from the .
	You will then see that there are 4 substyles now, a, b, c, d.  You can use the “d” substyle for Jazz Swing walking bass, since it is the same as the “b” substyle from ZZJAZZ.

MultiPicker Library Window

This is a one-stop-shopping floating window to pick a style and/or any of the 8 track types (RealTracks, RealDrums, Loops, UserTracks, MIDI SuperTracks, Custom MIDI Tracks, MIDI Soloists, and Melodists). All pickers show a common interface with a similar look and functions for filters, searching, selection. It allows selection and generation of the whole or partial track. Demos, memos, and multi-column information are available for all. You can filter by genre, popular song titles, feel, instruments, and more.

You can open this window with the [MultiPicker Library] toolbar button or the Edit | MultiPicker Library menu item. The hotkeys are F7 or M Enter..

Use the tab buttons at the top of the window to switch the type of tracks.

RealTracks: RealTracks are recordings of top studio musicians and recording artists. RealTracks are not “samples” but full recordings, lasting several bars at a time, and can generate tracks that will play along in perfect sync with the other Band-in-a-Box tracks. Best of all, they follow the chord progression that you have entered, so that you hear an authentic audio accompaniment to your song!
RealDrums: RealDrums are recordings of top studio drummers, playing multi-bar patterns. MIDI drums are patterns based on single drum hits, being programmed, typically on a quantized grid, of what people assume drummers are typically playing. We record drummers at multiple tempos, so the playing you hear at various tempos is also musically different, not just “sped up.” Drummers play different types of fills etc. at slower/faster tempos, and these are captured with RealDrums.
Loops: Loops are audio files (wav, wma, m4a, mp4, mp3) that reside in the RealTracks\Loops folder. You can add your own or third-party loops to this folder. Loops support many types of ACIDized Loops (for wav and mp3 files), an, if you add an Acid loop that is on a certain root (e.g., F), Band-in-a-Box will instantly allow you to use that as a complete style, by transposing that loop to the current chord of the song in Band-in-a-Box, so that the loop follows your chord progression.
UserTracks: UserTracks allow anyone to create their own audio styles for use in Band-in-a-Box. With a UserTracks style, you can type in any chords into Band-in-a-Box, and the UserTracks style you made will play that chord progression! For example, if you’ve made a UserTracks style by recording yourself playing a guitar groove, you can then type any chords into Band-in-a-Box, and the result will be that it will play your guitar groove over these completely new, original chord changes! You can even change the tempo, or enter songs in any key, and it will still be able to play it!
MIDI SuperTracks: MIDI SuperTracks are called “SuperTracks” because they are generated using a different engine than typical MIDI tracks. Typical MIDI tracks are generated from C7 patterns in a style and repeat these patterns over any chord. MIDI SuperTracks use actual MIDI playing from musicians (similar to RealTracks in that regard), so are not based on patterns.
MIDITracks: You can add a MIDITrack from a MIDI style to any track of your song. There are over 800 custom MIDITracks to choose from.
MIDI Soloists: That’s right! Band-in-a-Box can “solo like a pro.”  Pick one of the many MIDI Soloists available, and the Soloist will generate a great solo for your song!
Melodists: The Melodists can compose a new song in the style of your choice, complete with intro, chords, melody, etc. It even auto-generates a unique title for you! You can go from nothing to a completed song in less than 1 second! All you have to do is pick from a great variety of the Melodists. The Melodists can also generate just a melody over an existing chord progression.
Styles: Styles refer to styles of music like Jazz, Latin, Blues, Pop, Rock, Country, etc. You can pick a musical style either before or after you have entered the chords to a song. Once a style is loaded, the song will be played back using your chosen style. All style files have the .STY extension. RealStyles are Band-in-a-Box styles that use RealTracks only. The style names for RealStyles are prefaced by an underscore, _. (e.g., _J140_GB) The names for styles with RealTracks and MIDI tracks are prefaced by an equal sign, =. Styles with RealDrums use RealDrums for the Drums track and MIDI tracks for other tracks. Style names for Styles with RealDrums are prefaced by a hyphen -. (e.g., -ZZBLUST) The names for styles with RealDrums that use RealDrums for the Drums track and MIDI tracks for other tracks are prefaced by a hyphen -. (e.g., -ZZBLUST)

The track selector allows you to select a track that the selected item on the list will be applied to.

[ Note: For the Melodist, when selecting a track other than the Melody track, uncheck the “Use Melody track for Melodist” option below the track selector so that the Melodist will be generated on the selected track, not the Melody track. Similarly, uncheck the “Use Soloist track for Soloist” option when selecting a track other than the Soloist track.]
Clicking on the [+] button beside the track selector will display a small panel, where you can solo, mute, freeze, set volume/reverb/panning/tone, change the track label, write the track description, and do more for the current track.

The list can be sorted by clicking on the column headings.

• For RealTracks and MIDI SuperTracks, the "Type" column shows the types of playing (Rhythm, Background, and Soloists). For styles, this column tells you whether the style has RealTracks only ('R'), MIDI only ('M'), or a combination of RealTracks and MIDI ('RM').
• For styles, the Type column tells you whether the style has RealTracks only (‘R’), MIDI only (‘M’), or a combination of RealTracks and MIDI (‘RM’).
• The Feel column tells you whether the playing is in an even 8th feel, an even 16th feel, a swing 8th feel, or a swing 16th feel.
• The Tempo column shows the base (or typical) tempo.
• For the RealDrums, the /4 column indicates the time signature. If this column is empty, the time signature is 4/4; if there is a 3 in this column, the time signature is 3/4. There are also Lo and Hi columns that shows the recommended tempo range, and the x column tells if the tempo of the RealDrums that is out of range for the song.
• The Genre shows the types of music such as Jazz, Rock, Country, etc.
• There is a Group column for the styles list. The styles are grouped into three groups: Pop, Jazz, and Country. This column also shows a ‘genre score,’ which describes a style by a simple number from 1 to 100. This works as follows: quiet, classical, acoustic, jazz, or folk would have low genre scores (1 to 30); loud, aggressive, or heavy rock would have high genre scores (80-100); and light-medium pop would have mid-range genre scores. You can filter the style list by the genre score with the "Other" filter button either by choosing a pre-defined range or setting your own custom range. For example, if you're looking for a quiet "living room" type style, use the filter to only show styles with a genre score less than 40. This might show jazz, classical, folk or other quiet-acoustic styles.
• The N/A column shows “N/A” for the items that you have not installed yet or haven’t purchased.
• In the Set column the number of the RealTracks set that includes the instrument. This column also tells you whether a video is available for the RealTracks/RealDrums.
• The Stereo column shows whether the playback is stereo or mono.
• The Chart column shows “N” if notation is available. This column shows “Gt” for RealTracks or MIDI SuperTracks that have notation with accurate guitar tab and on-screen guitar fretboard display.
• The Artist column shows the name of the player. You can see the “Artist Bio” box for information about the player.
• The letter “Y” in the TS column means that Tempo Swapping is supported. If you have similar RealTracks available at different tempos, Band-in-a-Box automatically chooses the best one to use.
• If a number shows in the Holds column, the RealTrack supports shots, holds, and pushes.
• The Simpler Available column shows he letter “s” if there are simpler options available. These are parts with less busy, less embellished playing for generating simpler arrangements.
• The Direct Input Available column has the letter “y” if there is an option of clean recordings without effects. This allows you to start with a clean track and add your own effects.
• For RealTracks and RealDrums, there is a Stems column. For RealTracks, it shows number of individual instruments/voices available. For RealDrums, it shows the number of microphones used for stems during the actual recording sessions. When you select a RealTrack/RealDrum that has stems, you will see what they are just below the list. Using the checkboxes, you can load all stems, the selected stems, or the mix of all stems for your song. If you select all or individual stems, each stem will be loaded to separate tracks, so you can control volume, pan, etc. for each stem using the Mixer.
• The styles list has extra columns. The Date column shows the date when the style was made. The Set # column shows the set number that includes the style. The # Instr column shows the number of instruments that are present in the style, The # Substyles column shows the number of substyles contained in a style.

You can use the filter function to search items on the list.

For example, type a text (e.g., bossa) in the Filter String field, and the list will be filtered to show only the items that have the word “bossa” somewhere in the name, genre, memo, etc. The [#] button allows you to filter the list by many elements including feel, time signature, set numbers, artists, etc. You can also use the arrow buttons to quickly filter the list by a genre, instrument, time signature, feel, etc. Press the [Clear] button to clear the filter and show all available items on the list.
For the StylePicker, there is also an Include Similar checkbox. If this is unchecked, Then the filtered list will show the exact match only, but if this option is checked, then the list will show the exact match and the similar styles. The [Clear] button will clear any filter so all styles will display.

You can read memos and artist bios (if available).

Audio demos are available.
To hear them, press the [Demo] button. You can also double-click on the list or press the spacebar if you have disabled the Double-Click (or Spacebar) plays Chord Sheet (not pre-made demo) menu item in the [+] button. For RealTracks, RealDrums and MIDI SuperTracks, each demo has a “band” version with all instruments and a “solo” version with just one instrument. The demos play the band version first if the Demo button Plays “Band” (not “Solo”) menu item in the [+] button is enabled. If this is disabled, then the solo version will be played first. You can also press the [Band] button for the band version or the [Solo] button for the solo version. The [+] button shows a menu with options to adjust the volume of the audio demos, loop playback of audio demos, load song/style demos of the selected item on the list, etc.

The [Apply] button applies the selected item on the list to the current track. This won’t generate a track but if you press the [Generate] button, a whole track will be generated and the song will play from the current position. Shift+clicking on this button generates a whole track and plays the song from the start.
The green arrow button plays the song from the current position. Shift+clicking on it plays the song from the start. The black square button stops the song or the audio demo.
If you want to generate just for a portion of the track, press the [Part.Gen] button to open a small panel. You then specify the range based on either the full bar boundaries or precise regions in bars/beat/ticks and then press the [Re-Gen this Range] button.

For some types of tracks, there is a [Settings] button that opens a small panel for additional settings.

RealTracks Settings and MIDI SuperTracks Settings Panels
The Timebase option is to play the selected RealTracks/MIDI SuperTracks at normal, half time, double time or triple time.
The [Medley] button allows you to create a medley of RealTracks on the same track.
If Bluesy is checked, the selected RealTracks/MIDI SuperTracks will play in a bluesy style, where major triads are treated like 7th chords.
If Simpler is checked, the selected RealTracks/MIDI SuperTracks will play a simpler arrangement (less busy, less embellished). See the “Simple Available” column for availability of simpler RealTracks/MIDI SuperTracks.
If Direct Input is checked, the selected RealTracks/MIDI SuperTracks will use a “clean signal” guitar so that you can add your own effects. See the “Direct Input Available” column for availability of clean recordings.
If you check the Held option, the selected RealTracks/MIDI SuperTracks will play held chords.
Select Disable RealTracks for this track (Force this track to MIDI) if you don’t want RealTracks for this track, even if the current style specifies a RealTrack.

RealDrums Settings Panel
Check For this song only, force MIDI drums if you don’t want the RealDrums set in the current style.
If Simple Drums for this song (no fills) is checked, RealDrums will play a simpler arrangement without fills.
You can select a Timebase (normal, half-time, double-time, or triple-time) for any RealDrums.
Check Show RealDrums that are N/A if you want to see RealDrums that are not installed in the Drums folder.
Show if Feel does not match will show a song where the drums are in even feel and the style is swing (or vice versa).
Check Show if Tempo is out of range to see RealDrums that wouldn’t work well at the current song tempo.
Uncheck the Show RealDrums that are not Favorites (*) to see only RealDrums that you have assigned as favorites.
If Show RealDrums with stems is checked, only RealDrums that include stems will be listed.

Melodist Settings Panel
In this panel, you can select the elements (melody, chords, song title, etc.) that the Melodist will generate. If the Chords checkbox is enabled, the Melodist will generate chords, but if you want to keep the current chord progression already entered on the Chord Sheet, then uncheck this option. By default, the Melodist will use the associated style, but if you don’t want the current style changed, then uncheck the Style Change option. You can also use the preset buttons to quickly select the elements; for example, the [Chords Only] button checks the “Chord” option and unchecks all other elements. The [Chords (from Existing Melody)] generates chords based on the existing melody using the Reharmonist feature. The [More Melodist] button opens the Melodist dialog to select additional settings and option.

MIDI Soloists Settings Menu
The Allow Style Changes with MIDI Soloists menu item lets you enable or disable style changes.
Select More MIDI Soloist Settings to open the Select Soloist dialog for more settings.

Defaults Panel
The [Defaults] button opens a panel where you can reset to defaults separately for the column width and the window size.

Style Options
For styles, there is an [Options] button that shows you a menu with various useful functions. These include loading song demos, setting the selected or loaded style as a remembered style so that you can easily revert to it, assigning the selected style as a favorite, opening the StylePicker Options dialog, etc. These functions are also accessible if you right-click on the style list.
Load Style: This loads the selected style to the current song.
Play current chords with style: This plays the current song with the selected style.
Load Demo .SGU Song:  This opens a demo song of the selected style.
Play pre-made demo .m4a file: You can hear a pre-made audio demo of the selected style.
Revert to Remembered StyleName: This quickly reverts to the remembered style after loading other styles.
Set Remembered StyleName to highlighted: This sets the selected style as a remembered style. You can easily revert to this style after loading other styles.
Set Remembered StyleName to current loaded: This sets the currently loaded style as a remembered style.
Reset Dialog to Defaults: This resets the StylePicker window and StylePicker Options dialog to default settings.
Mark as Prototype, and sort by Similar Styles to: This will sort and filter the list by best to worst match of the prototype’s tempo, feel, genre, time signature, and more.  Once you do this, the sort status indicator will tell you that the sort is by prototype. For example, if you choose _BUBLPOP as the prototype style, the list will be sorted with styles most similar to _BUBLPOP.  These are the styles with a similar genre, feel, tempo, and time signature. The prototype always shows in the list, even with a filter applied.
Select/Create User Category: Unlimited User Categories can be created by users or third parties, to list their styles in the StylePicker. To select an existing User Category, choose Select/Create User Category.  When the dialog opens, select a category and press the [OK] button. To make your own User Category, right-click on the list, choose Select/Create User Category, and when the Choose User Category to display in StylePicker dialog opens, press the [Create New Category] button. Then, type a name for your category and click on the [Save] button. You can also enter a memo for your category.  (Technical notes: User Categories are stored as .txt files, which just contain the list of style names.  The User Categories must reside in Band-in-a-Box/Data/StylePicker/User Categories folder. You can re-arrange this folder by creating subfolders and moving the categories around to organize them.  You can also directly edit the .txt file in this folder. If you have made any changes to this folder, remember to press the [Refresh] button.) User Categories are analogous to playlists in a song player.  You can create/edit them and choose to display only the styles from the category or all styles with the category styles highlighted with a * asterisk.
Add Style to Current User Category: This adds the currently selected style to the current User Category.
Save Current Style list as a User Category: This allows you to create a new User Category and add all the styles currently displaying in the list to the new category. To display only the styles from the current User Category, click on the [Category] button above the list and select Show this User Category.  If you want to see only the styles from another User Category, select Choose and Show User Category and choose a User Category from the list. You will then see styles from the selected User Category.
Set Style as Favorite: This will set the selected style as a favorite.  If the style is already a favorite, you can select the Remove style as a Favorite menu item.
Copy List to Clipboard: This saves the current list with all information to a tab-delimited .txt file and opens it in Notepad.  In Notepad copy all and paste it into a spreadsheet such as an Excel file.  You can then apply a hierarchical sorting of the list.
Set Dialog Options:
Preferred listing of styles: This controls the default type of listing of styles (Real and/or MIDI).
Default display should include all styles (available and N/A not available): If this option is enabled, you will see all styles including N/A ones even when all filters are cleared.
Show current style in list even if it doesn’t match the filter: This setting lets you choose to always show the current style even if it doesn’t match the filter.
Sort columns in forward and reverse order: If this option is enabled, clicking on a column name again will sort the list in reverse order.
Always change tempo to best tempo for style whenever a style is loaded: If this option is checked, pressing the [OK] button in the StylePicker will always change the current tempo to the ideal tempo for the selected style.  Note: If the song is “blank” (no chords past bar 5), then the tempo will change, but if the song has chords in more than 5 bars, then the tempo will not change unless this option is enabled.
Change 4-bar preview tempo to best tempo for style: If this is checked, then when you preview the song, it will be played at the ideal tempo for the style.
Use Internet for style audition demos (if not found on disk): Enable this option so demos will play files from pgmusic.com using the Internet if demos are not found on disk.
Double click on style plays Chord Sheet chords (instead of pre-made demo): If this is checked, double-clicking on a style on the list or pressing the spacebar plays your song, but if this is unchecked, it plays a pre-made audio demo.
Play a preview (portion) when auditioning: This limits audition of your song to the first few bars.
# of bars for preview: You can select the number of bars to play for a preview.
Font Size: This allows you to change the font size of the styles list.

Selecting RealTracks - RealTracks Picker Window

Your songs, styles, and solos can use live audio tracks recorded by studio musicians. Many Band-in-a-Box styles already use these tracks, and you can substitute these live recordings for the Band-in-a-Box MIDI tracks in any song/

The RealTracks Picker allows you to assign a specific RealTracks instruments to a track in a song. It also displays any RealTracks that are currently assigned to each track.

The RealTracks Picker window opens by shift+clicking on the [RealTracks] toolbar button. The hotkeys are R T returnr or R T 1 return.

To use the dialog, first select the track at the top left corner. Then, select the RealTracks for that track from the list.

You can instantly hear an audio demo of RealTracks by double clicking a RealTrack on the list.  Since this doesn’t affect your song, you can quickly audition many different RealTracks, and find the best ones for your song. You can choose which of band or solo plays first when you double click on the list, by the “Band (on Double Click)” checkbox.  The demos play from the Internet (www.pgmusic.com) or your hard drive (/Applications/Band-in-a-Box/RealTracks-Demos folder).

Selecting RealDrums - RealDrums Picker Window

The RealDrums Picker is used to assign a particular RealDrums style for just the one song you are working on. RealDrums made by you (or others) that are added by you to the Drums folder also appear in the RealDrums Picker dialog.

The RealDrums Picker window opens by shift+clicking on the [RealDrums] toolbar button. The hotkeys are R D return or R D 1 return.

The track selector at the top of the window lets you chose a track for RealDrums. RealDrums can be generated on any of the 24 tracks, not just the Drums track, and you can have multiple RealDrums in your song. You then choose RealDrums for the selected track from the list.

You can double-click on the RealDrums list to instantly hear demos. You can also double-click on the Variation field to the right of the list to audition each variation of the RealDrums. For example, if you’ve found CountryWaltz^, you can hear demos of the variations (CountryWaltz^1-HiHat,Ride, CountryWaltz^2-Brushes etc.).

Selecting Loops - Pick a Loops Dialog

You can add your own or 3rd party loops to any track.  Loops are audio files (WAV/AIFF/CAF/MP3/MP4/WMA) that reside in Loops folder (/Applications/Band-in-a-Box/RealTracks/Loops).  You can add your own files to this folder.

A file with metadata is supported.  This happens automatically, and more fields (tempo, # of beats, and root note) are recognized from certain audio files (Acidized WAV or AIFF with Apple^® Loop).

Select a track and click on the [Loops] button.  This will open the Pick a Loop dialog.  You can also right-click (or control+click) on a track name and choose the menu command Select a Loop for this track to open this dialog.

When the dialog opens, select a loop from the list.

Double-click on the list or use a transport control button to preview the loop. The instant preview sometimes plays demos from the internet. You can save any file that is being played from the internet by clicking the folder icon.

You can control the volume of the demos with the speaker icon in the transport control.

Normally, the loop will retrigger when it ends, but it can be retriggered at certain points using the Also retrigger WAV every option.

For a nature sound, there is no tempo, so you don't want to select Stretch Tempo. For a Drums or Guitar loop, you want to stretch the tempo. Once you select "Stretch Tempo," enter the tempo of the .m4a file (if known), and if not known, enter the # of beats in the .m4a file (e.g. 2 bars would be 8 beats). For WAV files with Acidized information or AIFF files with Apple® Loop, tempo, # of beats, and root note fields will be automatically entered.

For a nature sound, you don't want any transposition. For a melodic sound, you might want to transpose to the root of the chord in the Band-in-a-Box song. If so, enter the root of the WAV file, and set the Transpose type to "chord root."

The Timebase option allows you to select a timebase (normal, half-time, double-time, or triple-time) for any Loop.
If you want a different sound for the "b" substyle, enter that WAV file name in the 'b' substyle loop setting.

The [Open Folder] button opens your Loops folder and allows you to add audio files (loops) to it. If you add files, you need to press the [Refresh] button, or exit the dialog and re-enter it to refresh the list.

There are many good sources for loops and sounds on the Internet. One is freesound.org, which has many sound effects. The [Get Sounds] button launches your internet browser to search for free loops.

Pressing the [No Loop] button is a quick way to clear a loop on a track, as opposed to scrolling up to "No Loop chosen for this Track."

The [Rename] button allows you to rename a loop.

The [Clone] button will duplicate a loop, allowing you to use it with different parameters.

Selecting UserTracks - Pick a UserTrack Dialog

UserTracks allow anyone to create their own audio styles for use in Band-in-a-Box.  With a UserTracks style, you can type in any chords into Band-in-a-Box, and the UserTracks style you made will play that chord progression!  For example, if you’ve made a UserTracks style by recording yourself playing a guitar groove, you can then type any chords into Band-in-a-Box, and the result will be that it will play your guitar groove over these completely new, original chord changes!  You can even change the tempo, or enter songs in ANY key, and it will still be able to play it!

You can use the UserTracks in a similar manner to using RealTracks.

Right click (or double click) on the track button at the top of the screen and choose the Select a UserTrack for this track command from the menu. An alternative to the menu would be to select the track and then press the [UserTracks] button on the main screen.

or

Now you will see the Pick a UserTracks dialog.

You can preview the selected UserTracks by double clicking on the list or using the transport control buttons.

You can select a timebase (normal, half-time, double-time, or triple-time) for any UserTracks.

Select a UserTrack and press [OK]. You will then see the selected UserTrack listed on the Mixer. Simply press the [Generate and Play] button to hear it.

Selecting MIDI SuperTracks - MIDI SuperTracks Dialog

MIDI SuperTracks are MIDI tracks that can be added to a track or a style and play like other MIDI tracks in a style.  They are called “SuperTracks” because they are generated using a different engine than typical MIDI style tracks.  Typical MIDI style tracks are generated from C7 patterns in the style and repeat these patterns over any chord.  MIDI SuperTracks use actual MIDI playing from musicians (similar to RealTracks in that regard), so are not based on patterns.

To use MIDI SuperTracks, either:
1. Choose a style or song that has MIDI SuperTracks, and press [Play].  (Look in the MIDI SuperTracks Demos folder for these songs.)
2. Add a MIDI SuperTrack to a certain track.

For example, let’s add a MIDI SuperTrack to the Piano track. Right-click on the Piano track label at the top of the screen and choose Select MIDI SuperTrack for this track. Alternatively, you can right-click on the Piano part in the Mixer and choose Select MIDI SuperTrack for this track.

You will now see the Select MIDI SuperTracks dialog. 

You can type a text or press the filter button [#] to narrow down your search.

There are memos describing the individual MIDI SuperTracks, and you can click on the memo for a big window.

You can audition MIDI SuperTracks by double clicking on the list or using the transport control in the dialog.

Pressing the [Artist Bios] button opens the Artist Broswer, which lists all RealTracks artists and allows you to see more info.

Choose a MIDI SuperTrack from the list and click [OK].

 You will then see that the Piano label has turned blue to indicate that it is a MIDI SuperTrack.

In the Mixer, you will see that a VST plugin has been selected to the Piano track.

If you want to customize the sound, right-click on the VST plugin name in the Mixer to open the plugin’s window.

Selecting MIDITracks - MIDI Track Picker Dialog

You can add MIDI Tracks individually to tracks in your song (from any style) as easily as adding RealTracks. 

This can be done with a right-click on the desired part name on the main screen and selecting the menu command Select Custom MIDI Style for this track.

Alternatively, select the track and then click on the [MIDI Tracks] button on the toolbar and select menu command MIDITracks (from .STY). 

You can select MIDI parts a few different ways:

• [Choose Style with this instrument]  This launches the StylePicker, filtered to only display styles that contain the instrument specified.  For example, if you select “49 Strings,” it will then only show MIDI styles with strings.
• [Choose from Presets]  This launches a dialog with preset “popular” choices for MIDITracks to add.  You can type a filter like “49” to only see entries for “49 Strings,” or type “Strings.”  This dialog shows you if the instrument is available in “a” or “b” substyle or both (“ab”).
• The [Favorites] button will remember your last few hundred choices, so you can re-use them.

The Substyles to use option lets you select a substyle from the selected style.

Once chosen, the MIDI track will play on the track chosen.  Note that you can use the Strings part from a style and play it on any Band-in-a-Box track including Bass, Piano, Guitar, and even the Melody or Soloist track.

When you assign an instrument to a different track Band-in-a-Box will open a yellow message box to confirm your choice.

Press [OK] to continue or [Clear] to redo your choice.

Selectings Soloists

That’s right!  Band-in-a-Box can “solo like a pro” in hundreds of styles.  You can either use the dedicated Soloist track or assign a soloist RealTrack to any track.

Select “Best” Soloist RealTracks Dialog

This dialog shows you the best soloists that match the genre, tempo, and feel of your song.  The list is displayed from best to worst.  For example, if you have a Jazz Ballad style loaded (tempo 60), the list will show jazz Soloists that will work well at a tempo of 60 at the top of the list, and something like a fast, Heavy Metal Guitar Soloist at the bottom of the list.

To add a Best Soloist to the Soloist track, press the Soloist button, and choose the menu option “Add Best RealTracks Soloist to Soloist Track.”

To add a best Soloist to any track, right-click (or double-click) on the instrument radio button (e.g. Piano) and choose the Select RealTracks | Select Best Soloist RealTracks menu command.

You will then see the dialog that lists the best soloists for the current style.

It will include “Soloists” and “Background (Melodic).” You can de-select these if you want to see only “Soloists” (and not “Background”).
You can audition the RealTracks by double clicking on the list or using the transport control in the dialog.
Enabling the List best subs for the current RealTrack option will list RealTracks that are similar to the currently selected RealTracks.
Pressing the [Artist Bios] button opens the Artist Browser, which lists all RealTracks artists and allows you to see more info.
The [OK and Generate Now] button closes the dialog, entering the currently selected item, and generating the track.
You can also make your choice and press [OK] to return to the main screen. When you press [Generate and Play] the song will be generated with the new RealTrack instrument.

Select Soloist Dialog

In the Select Soloist dialog, you can choose from hundreds of soloist profiles, including RealTracks and MIDI SuperTracks, for authentic live solos.  The RealTracks soloists start at #361 in the list and there are well over 1,000 RealTracks soloists to choose from.

To select a pre-made MIDI or RealTrack Soloist, press shift+F4, or choose Soloist | Generate and Play a Solo. The Select Soloistdialog will open. You can also Ctrl+click on the [Soloist] button, or select Open Soloist Dialog to choose MIDI or RealTracks Soloist from the [Soloist] button drop-down menu.

Selecting Melodists - Generate Chords and/or Melody Dialog

Feel like composing a brand-new song?  With Band-in-a-Box you can compose a new song, in the style of your choice complete with intro, chords, melody, arrangement, and improvisations, all created by the program!  All you have to do is pick from one of the “Melodists” and press [OK] - the program then automatically generates the intro, chords, melody, and arrangement in the chosen style.  It even auto-generates a title!  You can go from nothing to a completed song in less than 1 second! You can also auto-regenerate any part of a song and modify it to suit you.  The Melodist will also generate a melody over an existing chord progression.  A “Melodist Juke Box” mode creates and performs new compositions in succession.

To launch the Melodist, press the [Melodist] button on the main screen, or use the shift+F5 hot keys.

Track Settings and Actions

There is a convenient “one-stop-shopping” dialog where you can select RealTracks, Loops, MIDI SuperTracks, etc., set volume/ reverb/panning/tone, mute, solo, freeze, save as Performance Tracks, and do many other things for all 24 tracks.

You can open this dialog in several ways.
- Press control+F7 or T return keys.
- Use the Edit | Track Settings and Actions menu item.
- Right-click on the Chord Sheet and select Track Settings and Actions from the contextual menu.
- Right-click on the track radio button at the top of the screen and select Track Settings and Actions Dialog from the contextual menu.

In the list at the top of the dialog, you can see which instruments are currently selected for each track. It also shows the type of the track (RT/RD/MST), the mute or frozen status, and MIDI patches. Select a track in the list and select settings for that track at the bottom half of the dialog.

Enabled: If you uncheck this, the track will not be generated.
[Defaults]: This sets the track settings to defaults. Note that any settings from the underlying style will remain. To prevent style tracks from playing, disable the track.
[Erase Track]: This erases both audio and MIDI data from the track.
[Edit MIDI]: This has various MIDI editing commands like transpose, generate chord track, transpose octave to note range, etc.
[Copy/Move]: This allows you to copy or move the current track to another track.
[Set RT/RD Folders]: This lets you confirm or set the RealTracks and RealDrums folders to use. After changing them, visit the StylePicker and Press the [Rebuild] button to rebuild the style list.
Frozen: If this is checked, no new data will be auto-generated.
Editable Audio: This changes the track to an editable audio track, which will be saved as a WAV. This is usually done for vocals or other recordings.
Audio Base Tempo: If the track type is an editable audio track, this is the tempo that the audio was recorded or created at.
Audio Transpose: You can transpose the track if it’s an editable audio track.
[Re-Generate Whole Track]: For a RealTrack, this will re-generate the whole track.
[MultiRiff (Re-Generate Part of Track)]: This allows you to interactively create sections of RealTracks by choosing from multiple candidates (up to 20).
Generation Type - None: If this is set, no auto- generation will occur except for an underlying style. To prevent generation from an underlying style, disable the track.
Generation Type - RealTracks: Click on the radio button to open the RealTracks Picker, or click on the [+] button to select a RealTrack using other dialogs.
Generation Type - Loop: Click on this radio button to select a Loop.
Generation Type - UserTracks: Click on this radio button to select a UserTrack.
Generation Type - RealDrums (Drums Track): To select RealDrums on the Drums track, select this radio button to open the RealDrums Picker or the click on the [+] button to select RealDrums using other dialogs.
Generation Type - RealDrums (Other Tracks): This can be used for a second drum track or Drum Stems.
Generation Type - MIDI SuperTracks: Click on this radio button to select a MIDI SuperTrack. MIDI SuperTracks are high-quality MIDI tracks, based on performances by studio musicians.
Generation Type - MIDI from current style: This is a MIDI track from the current style.
Generation Type - Custom MIDI from specific style: You can select a MIDI track from another style.
Summary: You can copy this summary and paste it into a custom description.
Label: This allows you to customize the short track label.
Description: This allows you to customize the long track description.
[Update]: Press this button if you have entered a label and/or description.
Volume/Reverb/Panning/Tone: You can control mixer for the track.
[Un-Mute]: This will un-mute all tracks.
Muted: This will mute the track.
MIDI Channel: This allows you to re-route the MIDI events on the current track to another channel.
MIDI Patch: You can select a MIDI patch for the MIDI track by pressing the [+] button and using the menu. If you know the General MIDI patch number, Bank 0, and Bank 32, enter the numbers and press the [Update] button.
Timebase: With this option, you can hear an audio-type track (RealTracks, RealDrums, etc.) at normal, half time, double time, or triple time. If the style tempo is 80, a 160 tempo should be set to double time.
Medley: This allows a RealTracks medley (multiple consecutive or simultaneous RealTracks on the same track).
Bluesy: This option will play major triad like C as if they were C7, so the track sounds bluesy.
Simpler: This makes the arrangement use “simpler” playing, with less notes and embellishments.
Direct Input: This option is for electric guitar RealTracks that were recorded any effects so that you can add your own effects by amp simulators.
Held: If you check this, the track will make a simple arrangement, mostly playing held chords.
[Play]: This plays the song, using the current track settings and re-generating the tracks.
[Re-Play]: This replays the song without regenerating the tracks.
[Stop]: This stops playback.
[Save as .STY]: This allows you to create a new style with a new name. The style will contain the current auto-generated tracks in the song.

Tracks Window

This is similar to tracks window seen in most DAWs, allowing lossless data manipulation of tracks in a familiar environment for DAW users. It includes specific support for making loops and phrases from the RealTracks and RealDrums, so for example, you can select a RealTracks phrase and turn it into a loop.

To open the Tracks window, press the [Tracks] toolbar button or go to the Window menu and select Tracks Window.

You can horizontally zoom in/out with the mouse wheel. Moving the mouse wheel while holding down the command key changes the height of each track panel.

The numbered scale at the top of the window indicates bars and beats, with a full height vertical division for each bar and a short vertical line for each beat or quarter note. Bars with part markers also include the A or B part marker letter with the bar number (1a, 9b).

On the left of the window, there are mixer settings for each track that can be adjusted as the song is playing.

To adjust volume, pan, reverb and tone, click on a slider and move it horizontally. They can also be controlled by right-clicking on a number dial and typing in a new number. You can also adjust them with the mouse wheel while the mouse cursor is over the sliders or number dials. Hold the Ctrl key down as you click on the slider or drag the thumb of the slider. This will force all tracks to move to the same absolute location as the original track. Hold the Shift key and it will move all tracks relative to the move of the original track. Double-clicking on the slider sets the value to a default value.
Each track has its own VU meter to show the sound level, and buttons to mute, solo and freeze the track.
You can double-click on the track label to rename it.
Right-clicking on a track label or a down arrow open as menu of settings and actions for the selected track. The menu is organized into groups allowing easier selection of track types: audio (RealTracks, UserTracks, Loops) or MIDI (MIDI SuperTracks, classic MIDI tracks) and track settings/actions.
You can drag a track label and drop it to the Drop Station at the top of the screen to render an audio or MIDI file.

There are toolbar buttons to control the display of the Tracks window.

Use the [-] and [+] buttons to zoom horizontally. You can also zoom with the mouse wheel..
The [Whole Track] button zooms out as far as possible, showing the entire track.
The small [+] and [-] buttons change the height of the track panel. You can also move the mouse wheel while holding down the Ctrl key.
When the Snap mode in enabled, selecting a region of data will snap to the closest beat.
The [Loop Selected Area] button plays and loops the selected region.
The [Select Whole] button selects the whole track.
The wheel button will open the settings dialog, which allows you to customize the appearance of the waveform.

You can select a phrase by clicking on the starting point and dragging it. To select a large phrase, click on the starting point and Shift+click on the ending point.
Following hotkeys are available.

• home moves the cursor to the beginning of a track.
• end moves the cursor to the end of a track.
• shift+home moves the left cursor of the selected phrases to the beginning of a track. If no phrase is selected, this will select phrases from the cursor to the beginning of a track.
• shift+end moves the right cursor to the end of a track. If no phrase is selected, this will select phrases from the cursor to the end of a track.
• command+A selects the whole track.
• command+C copies the selected phrases to the clipboard.
• command+X cuts the selected phrases.
• command+V pastes the copied phrases to the current location and overwrites the existing phrases.
• command+shift+V pastes the copied phrases and merges then with the existing phrases instead of overwriting them.
• delete erases the selected phrases.
• shift+delete deletes the selected phrases.

When the Edit Phrases and Loops Mode is on, the boxes will be drawn for phrase segments that are put together by Band-in-a-Box, and these phrases can be easily edited.

In this mode, you can select a phrase by clicking on a box. shift+clicking on multiple boxes selects multiple phrases.

You can press the command+C to copy the selected phrase, place the cursor at a different location, then press the command+V to paste it to that location.

If you want to erase a phrase, click on the box and press the delete key.

You can shorten a phrase so that you will hear just the first note on the downbeat at a certain bar on a track. Click on the box, hover the mouse cursor over the right of the box, and when the left-right curser appears, drag it to left to shorten the phrase.

If you want to start a phrase earlier, click on the box, hover the mouse cursor over the left of the box, and when the left-right curser appears, drag it to left.

You can also turn a whole or a portion of a phrase into a loop. For example, if you want to use just a 2-bar segment of a 6-bar phrase as a loop, drag the right of the phrase box to left until you will have 2-bar segment of the phrase.

Now, if you hover the mouse cursor over the top right corner of the phrase box, a loop icon appears, and you can drag it as long as you want. You will then see dotted lines within the segment. This means that the 2-bar segment was turned into a loop with the dotted lines indicating the loop starting points.

Adding Bar-Based Lyrics

You can enter lyrics in each bar on the Chord Sheet.

To enter lyrics, you first need to display the Bar Lyrics layer by clicking on the [Chord Display] toolbar button and selecting Layers | Bar Lyrics.

If the song does not have any lyrics, the Bar Lyrics layer does not appear on most lines, but it appears on the row where the bar is highlighted.  If you click on a bar on another row, the layer will appear on that row.

Double click on the Bar Lyrics layer on a bar where you want to enter lyrics.  This will change the color of the layer, which indicates that you can type in that location.

You can use keys to navigate through the layer: TAB to go forward, SHIFT+TAB to go backward.

Type a lyric and press the TAB key.  This will enter the lyric and move the editing bar forward.

To edit lyrics, go back there by clicking on that bar or using the SHIFT+TAB keys, and then retype.

If you have entered lyrics that were supposed to be spaced out over some bars, go back to the bar, and use the arrow key to move the cursor to the beginning of the lyric that should be in the next bar.  Then press RETURN.  This will push that lyric to the next bar and shuffle the lyrics in the following bars forward as well.
Example: You realize that “once was lost” in bar 13 should have been “once was,” and lyrics in bar 14 should have been spread over some bars.

Press SHIFT+TAB to go back to bar 13.

Use the left arrow key to move the cursor to the beginning of “lost.”

And press RETURN.  This pushes “lost” to bar 14 and “but now am found” to bar 15.

Use TAB or SHIFT+TAB to move through the bars, the left/right arrow keys to move the cursor within the bar, and ENTER or BACKSPACE to push lyrics, until the lyrics are in the correct bars.

The Bar Lyrics layer is designed so that you can even edit lyrics during playback.
Another way to enter lyrics is to copy lyrics from a text file and paste them directly to the Bar Lyrics layer.

First, prepare lyrics in the text file, and copy them to the clipboard.  Then, go back to Band-in-a-Box, double click on the bar where the lyrics should be inserted and press command+V keys.

Now all the lyrics are entered in the layer.

However, the lyrics are not quite in the correct bars, so you need to fix using the TAB, RETURN, or arrow keys.

There is an easier way for this copying and pasting method.  If the lyrics in the text file are arranged so that each line represents a bar, you need very little to fix after pasting.

First, edit the lyrics in the text file so that every line corresponds to a bar.  Then, copy them all to the clipboard. Next, go back to Band-in-a-Box, double click on the bar where the lyrics should be inserted and press command+V keys.

The lyrics will be lined up perfectly!

Adding a Melody – MIDI and/or Audio

Recording a MIDI Melody

You can record and edit your own melodies or solos with a MIDI keyboard (or other MIDI controllers) connected to Band-in-a-Box by your MIDI driver.

Press the [Record MIDI] button to begin recording. This launches the Record MIDI dialog. You can punch in/out, overdub, and record directly to the ending or the tag, and use the filter to choose which MIDI events are recorded. You can also select the destination track.

Pressing the [Record] button will start Band-in-a-Box recording what you play on the Thru track.  An audible count is played in prior to recording.

Once you have completed recording your melody Band-in-a-Box will ask you if you would like to keep the take and if you would like to copy the recorded chorus to the whole song.

Embellishing the MIDI Melody

When musicians see a Lead Sheet that has a melody written out, they almost never play it exactly as written.  They change the timing to add syncopation, change durations to achieve staccato or legato playing, add grace notes, slurs, extra notes, vibrato, and other effects.  You can have Band-in-a-Box do these automatically using the Embellisher.

 
You can enable the Embellisher from the [Embellish Melody] button menu.  Any Melody will be embellished as it is played so that you hear a livelier and more realistic Melody - and it’s different every time.

Embellisher dialog opens the Melody Embellisher dialog with many user options to control the embellishment settings.  The Embellisher Presets allow you to choose a combination of common settings for the Embellisher quickly.

Harmonizing the MIDI Melody

The Select Melody Harmony dialog box allows you to choose from any of the pre-defined harmonies and even allows you to define your own.

Press the [Harmony] button on the toolbar and select the menu command MIDI Melody Harmony.

 This dialog also opens with the Harmony | Melody Harmony menu item or with the keystrokes control+option+H.

Select a harmony from the list and press [OK].

The [Favorites] button shows your favorite 50 Harmony styles (based on recent usage) and allows you to choose one to use on the Melody track.  It also opens from the Harmony | Favorite Melody Harmonies menu item.

Enter the number of the harmony you want to go to and press [Go To #].

The [Note Off] button is to turn off any notes that are stuck on.  (There shouldn’t be any.)

The [Edit] button opens the Harmony Maker, where you can customize Harmonists.

Recording a Live Audio

You can record an audio track of your live vocal or instrumental performance and save it to an audio wave file along with the Band-in-a- Box accompaniment.  Make sure that you have a microphone plugged in to your sound card, or a connection from a mixer, keyboard, or other audio device connected to the Line In jack on your sound card.

Press the [Record Audio] button to open the Record Audio dialog.

The meters show the average strength of the signal, with a dB scale, and a clip indicator. Clipping indicates that the signal has overloaded and will sound distorted (clipped). The green area represents normal levels, while red indicates an overload. Ideally, the sounds should remain in the green and avoid the red altogether. Unlike analog recording, where it is good to get a “hot” high signal, digital recordings need to absolutely avoid high levels since any overload of the signal will result in clipping and a ruined recording.

The [Set Recording Levels] will launch System Preferences > Sound where you can select a recording device and recording levels for that device.

Pressing the [Test Recording Level] will open the VU Meters.

The [Audio Options] button will open the Audio Devices dialog where you can select a recording device.

You can record audio from the start of the song, somewhere in the middle, or punch in by choosing a bar and chorus # to start recording.

Select the destination track with the Record Audio to option. Audio can be recorded to any track.

If you also want to record MIDI at the same time, choose the destination track with the Record MIDI to option.

Punch-In Recording: This option allows you to punch-in record or overdub a section of audio.  For example, if you messed up in bars 2 and 3, then set these bars as your range.  Recording will take place only for this range.

Overdub underlying Audio: If there is already data in the Audio track and you want to overdub it (to add a harmony, for example), then you should enable this option.  It is not essential to select it at this point, since you will get another chance at the end of the recording.

Press the [Record] button to start recording. If you have chosen to start recording from the beginning of the song, the song will start with a lead-in count. If you are starting from elsewhere in the song, recording will start instantly.

Pressing the [Stop] button on the toolbar or [esc]key will stop the recording and open the Audio Recorded - Keep Take? dialog.

Copy 1st chorus to whole song - If you have recorded only the first chorus, you can choose the option to copy that to the whole song.  This will fill up the whole song with the audio by repeating it as many times as necessary. Overdub underlying Audio - If this is enabled, any existing data in the track will be merged with the new recording. Retain audio past last recorded - If this is unchecked, any audio that follows the end of the current take (i.e. recorded from a previous recording) will be erased.

Press the [OK - Keep Take] button if you are happy with the recording.  Then the audio will be added to the Audio track.  You can listen to the result by pressing the [Play] button on the toolbar.  If you are not happy with the results, you can go to the menu Edit | Undo Record Audio, and you will be back to where you were prior to the recording.  You can also reopen the Record Audio dialog and press the [Take Again] button to cancel the recording.

Importing Audio Files

A mono or stereo WAV file can be imported to your song, optionally merging with or replacing any existing audio. Choose the menu item File | Import Audio or Audio | Import Audio. You then choose an audio file to import. This will open the Import Audio File dialog, which allows selection of the destination track, the point to insert the audio file, and the option to merge or overwrite existing audio in the destination.

Song Editing Feature

Copy/Move Tracks

The Copy/Move Tracks command in the Edit | Copy Special submenu allows copying or moving data (audio and/or MIDI) from one track to another.

Select the ce Track that you want to copy or move data from and the Destination Track that will receive the copied or moved data.  The ce and destination tracks can be any track - Bass, Drums, Piano, Guitar, Strings, Melody, Soloist, Audio, or Utility.

You should also select the action (Do nothing, Copy, or Move) for each of MIDI and Audio.

When copying or moving MIDI data, if you enable the Merge with existing data on tack option, the MIDI data in the destination track will be preserved and merged with the incoming MIDI data from the ce track. If this option is disabled, the MIDI data in the destination track will be replaced with the incoming MIDI data.

There are also options to include continuous controllers, pitch bend, patch changes, and lyrics when copying or moving MIDI data.

Examples of uses include:

• Loading a MIDI file to the Melody track, and copying the bass part to the Bass track, and then freezing the Bass track.  This lets you setup a MIDI file with the same tracks as Band-in-a-Box uses.  Note: the command automatically freezes the destination track after the copy.
• Getting the RealChart to play, to double a RealTracks part on another instrument.  To do this, generate a RealTracks for piano on the piano track.  Then copy the piano track to the strings track and set a strings patch.  You now hear a RealTracks piano, with the strings doubling the piano part.
• Replace a RealChart with a MIDI version.  If a RealChart is available, copy the RealChart as in the example above.  Then eliminate the RealTracks on the original track.  You now have a RealChart MIDI part playing instead of the RealTracks, and you can edit that part etc. as with any MIDI track.

Unfold (convert to 1 big chorus)

If you have a song with 3 choruses and want to convert it to a single large chorus, this command “unfolds” the song into just that; one BIG chorus.  This is useful for customizing a song.
When Edit | Song Form | Unfold is selected, Band-in-a-Box will display all choruses and verses of a song without loops or repeats.  This is a useful command if you wish to make use of the Patch/Harmony change at any bar feature, or if you are going to generate a MIDI file for use with a sequencer or sequencing program.

Add Repeats and 1st/2nd Endings

Let’s add repeats and endings to a demo song “Miles1 Tutorial (no repeats yet)” in the Band-in-a-Box/Tutorials/Tutorial - Repeats and Endings folder.

From looking at the Chord Sheet, we can see that this 32-bar form consists of two 16 bar sections.  The first 8 bars of each section (bars 1-8 and 17-24) are the same.  The 8 bars from bar 9 to bar 16 are the 1st ending, and the 8 bars from 25 to 32 are the 2nd ending.

Right-click on bar 9 and select the Repeats/Codas/1st-2nd Endings menu item. This will open the Edit Repeats and Endings dialog.

Select “1st/2nd Endings” as a type of repeat and ending.

Enter the following data.
- Repeat begins at bar # 1.
- 1st ending begins at bar 9.
- 1st ending lasts for 8 bars.
- Endings type 1st/2nd endings.

Note that by entering this data we have defined the complete 1st and 2nd endings: if the 1st ending begins at bar 9 and lasts for 8 bars, the 2nd ending must begin at bar 25 (17+8) (because there is an 8-bar repeated section from bar 1 to 8).

Since this is an existing song and it already has all the bars laid out, do not select the Generate (insert) new bars option.

Press the [OK-Make Repeat] button.

Repeat will be made, and the Chord Sheet redraws with the 1st/2nd repeat showing.

 Make sure you have the Fake Sheet mode enabled.

As you can see, there is a 1st ending at bar 9.  At bar 16 there is a repeat symbol, indicating that the form goes back to bar 1 for 8 bars, and then will go to the bar after bar 16 for the 2nd ending.  The 2nd ending is marked there (note that the bar number is 25, because the bars are numbered in linear fashion, and it is the 25th bar of the song as it would be played).  Then the song goes to the end, which is bar 32.

 Let’s disable the Fake Sheet mode.  We will then see a linear view, which is similar to the way it was before we enter the 1st/2nd endings.

This shows all the 32 bars, including the bars that are part of the repeat and are highlighted in gray.  Exposing these bars shows the linear view of the song, the way the song would be played.  It also allows you to enter custom information for any of the bars, including the bars in the “gray area.”  For example, if you want the chord at bar 21 to be an Em9 instead of an Em7, just type it in, even though it represents the repeated section leading to the 2nd ending.

Buttons in the Edit Repeats and Endings dialog

The [Options] button opens s the Display Options dialog, which includes an option to globally enable/disable the display of repeats and endings.

The [Show form] button displays a summary of the form of the song as examined by Band-in-a-Box. This is useful for analyzing the form of the song, in case you want to add your own repeats and endings manually, and want a quick summary of the form. Band-in-a-Box shows you the form in 2-bar sections. A typical AABA song might display a form like this.
0, 1, 2, 3
0, 1, 2, 4
5, 6, 7, 8
0, 1, 2, 4
Each of these numbers represents a unique 2 bar section of the song. You can see the first section (0, 1, 2, 3) is similar to the second section (0, 1, 2, 4) in fact they differ only in the last 2 bars. So, this would be a good candidate for a 1st/2nd ending. Also, the last A section of 0, 1, 2, 4 is identical to the 2nd A section, so would be a good candidate for a DC al Coda symbol.

When you press the [Auto-Find] button, Band-in-a-Box will examine the song and try to detect any repeats in the song.

The [Edit List] button shows you a list of repeats or endings that have been entered in the song and allows you to edit them.

The [Tag Ending] button opens the Song Setting dialog where you can set a tag ending.

The [Delete All] button will delete all the repeats that have been entered in the current song.

Auto-detect repeats for the song

There is also an auto-detect feature that analyzes the song and adds repeats and endings for you.

Don’t save the song because we want to use the original “Miles Tutorial (no repeats yet).MGU” song.  Just reopen the song so that no repeats are set in the song.

Click on the [Fake Sheet] button and select Auto-Detect Repeats now for this song.

In this case, Band-in-a-Box has figured out that 1st/2nd endings exist.  If you answer “Yes,” it will enter the same 1st/2nd endings that we entered manually.

Note that this “auto-detect” does not find every 1st/2nd ending, especially if the chords are different in the repeated sections, but it can be a time saver when it does find them!

Set Time Signature for Range of Bars

Under the Edit | Song Form | Set Time Signature for a Range of Bars menu item, you can assign a specific time signature at any bar and apply it to a range of bars, as often as you want.

Transpose

The Edit | Transpose submenu lets you transpose the entire song by a number of semitones, or specify a range to transpose with the Transpose From.. To.. command.

To transpose part of a song, simply highlight the area you wish to transpose and select Transpose From.. To..  in the submenu.When you have confirmed the starting bar and the number of bars you wish to transpose, click on the “Transpose to Key” area and select the destination key.

Settings for Current Bar

Bar settings let you change meter, tempo, styles, key, volume levels, patches, and harmonies at any bar.  They are a powerful tool for adding variety and dynamics to create a highly professional finished arrangement in Band-in-a-Box.
After you have selected a bar,press the F5 function key or the keystrokes option+B, or select Bar Settingsfrom the Edit menu, to open the Edit SBar dialog.  Settings such as number of beats per bar, tempo changes, style changes, patch changes, and harmony changes can be made in this dialog.

Chorus # is a setting that lets you apply the changes at the specified bar in all choruses or just in the chorus you choose.

Bar #: You can change the bar to edit without existing the dialog.

Number of beats sets the number of beats in a bar. The initial time signature of the song is determined by the style (e.g. Jazz =4/4, Waltz =3/4).  In certain songs, you will want to insert time signature changes at a certain bar.  For example, you might want a single bar of 2/4, or 8 bars of 3/4 time etc. This option allows a change of time signature during a song.  The change takes place at the beginning of the bar and continues until a new time signature change is specified.  You can select # beats per bar from 1 to 4 beats per bar.  A setting of 0 beat/bar is used for no change of time signature.
Examples:
- A song in 4/4 time with a single bar of 6/4 time.  Since the maximum # beats per bar is = 4 we will split the 6/4 bars into 2 bars, a 4/4 bar and a 2/4 bar.  Insert a # beats per bar = 2 at the beginning of the 2/4 bar and then restore the time signature to 4/4 by assigning # beats per bar = 4 for the next bar.
- A song in 5/4 time throughout: To do this we will alternately create a 3/4 bar + 2/4 bars.  On odd numbered bars insert a # beats per bar = 3, and on even bars insert # of beats per bar = 2.  This needs to be done for every bar.

Tempo Change: Most songs will have a single tempo throughout, but if you want to change the tempo at a certain bar of the song, then use this dialog box to type in the new tempo in beats per minute.  Alternatively, type in a relative tempo change in a range of –90 to +100.  A setting of –50 halves the tempo, a setting of 100 doubles it. Tempo can also be set by clicking on the metronome button.  Clicking on this button 4 times will set the tempo to your tapped-in value.  The tempo change takes effect at the beginning of the bar and remains until a new tempo change at another bar is inserted.

Style Changes at This Bar: You can specify a new style at any bar of the song, so that you can use many styles within the same song. Use the [.STY] button to select a style using the StylePicker dialog. Use the [Open] button to select a style from a folder on your hard drive.  You should select a style that is present in the Styles folder in Band-in-a-Box (or the same folder where the song resides). To remove the style change at this bar, press the [Clear STY] button. (Note: If you want to mix styles with 3/4 and 4/4 time signatures you should make the main style used in the song a 4/4 style.  You could then change back to 3/4 at bar 1 if you want.)

Send Patch changes with style change: There is an option to send the embedded patches in the style with the style change.  Disable this checkbox if you want to keep the patches that you have already selected.

RealDrums Changes: RealDrums can be changed at any bar, either for the whole song or just for the selected chorus. To select the new RealDrums style, press the [RealDrums] button.  This will open the RealDrums Picker where you can choose from a full list of RealDrums or filter the list to narrow your selection. To remove the change, click on [Clear RD].

RealTracks Changes You can insert a specific RealTracks instrument at any bar to create a customized performance. You can change specific RealTracks without changing the style. For example, if you want to change an Acoustic Bass comping part to an Acoustic Bass Solo at Chorus 4, Bar 1, you can do this. Press the [RealTracks] button and you will see the RealTracks Changes dialog where you can choose which tracks you want to have RealTracks changes on. Select a track, press the down arrow button, and select a RealTracks from the list of available RealTracksT

Volume Changes: Volume levels can be changed at any bar, either for all parts or for each part individually. Changes can be entered manually or selected from presets. The presets include settings to Mute a part, to reset the volume Back to Normal, and to automatically fade levels.

Patch: This setting allows you to insert a patch change at the beginning of any bar.  Type the General MIDI number of the patch change in the appropriate box (i.e. Bass, Soloist, etc.) that you want to affect.

Notation - Start a New Line: You can set the notation to start a new line at any bar. This allows you to customize the number of bars on each line and is used in conjunction with the Notation Options settings of bars-per-line on the notation. This feature works for chord sections.

Allow Drum Fill: When this is enabled, you’ll get a drum fill at the current bar even if the following bar does not have a part marker. If you are at a bar before a part marker and you don’t want a drum fill, then disable this option.

Red Line on Chord Sheet: Any changes made in this dialog will be recorded on the Chord Sheet indicated by a line below the bar number, but you can hide the line using this option. The “All” checkbox applies to all songs and it’s enabled by default. The “Auto/No/Yes” dropdown applies to the current song only and overrides the global setting. If you select “No” when “All” is checked, you won’t see the red lines in the current song. If you select “Yes” when “All” is unchecked, you will see the red lines in the current song. If “Auto” is selected, the global setting will apply to the current song.

Harmony Changes at this Bar: You can insert harmony changes into the song at any bar and beat.  For example, start the song with “no harmony” then have “SuperSax” come in on the bridge, then “Shearing” on the next chorus, etc.  This is also effective when used with the Soloist on the Thru part.  With this setting, you can have multiple types of horn section solos (i.e. Brass, Sax, etc.) or harmonized distortion guitar effects for guitar solos.

[UserTracks Development] opens a dialog for advanced settings when making UserTracks.

[Print Summary] opens a text report of all settings in the song that have been made in the Edit Settings for Current Bar dialog.

[Reset Bar] removes any settings you have changed for the current bar.

[Reset All Bars] removes any settings you have changed for all bars.

Normally, you don’t need to press the [Apply] button because any setting will automatically update as you change.

 When you have made any changes to a measure using this dialog, Band-in-a-Box will underline the bar number of the edited measure.

Song Memo

A song memo of up to 2000 characters may be added with your own notes about the song and the Band-in-a-Box song summary. 

 The [Memo] button located to the right of the song title launches the Song Memo dialog where you can type in a short memo about the song, style, etc. 
The keystrokes option+M will also launch the Song Memo dialog.

The dialog has an option to close automatically during playback. When the Close w/ play option is set, the dialog will close when the song starts to play and not reopen when it stops. This setting, in combination with the Auto-open setting, ensures that the memo opens when the song opens, but closes during playback. The font for the song memo is size selectable.

Type your memo in the right side of the dialog and press the [Update] button.

If the Summary checkbox is selected, the dialog displays a full summary of the song (title/tempo/patches used in the song), as well as other special features such as substyle patch changes or harmonies.

You can press the [Bar Summary] button to see a report of any changes to settings that are programmed in theEdit Settings for Current Bar dialog (F5).

If the song contains a video or audio memo, you can play it with the [Video Memo] or [Audio Memo] button. You can add a video memo to your song by creating a video file (mov, mp4, m4v) with the same name as your song file followed by _VideoMemo. For example, for mysong.mgu, save a video memo as mysong_VideoMemo.wov. Similarly, you can add an audio memo to your song by creating an audio file (m4a, mp3, wav, aiff) with the same name as your song file followed by _AudioMemo.

View and Print Notation

The notation feature in Band-in-a-Box makes it possible to follow the music onscreen as it plays, but it also does much more.

Notation Window

Open the Notation window with the [Notation] toolbar button. You will see standard notation on the grand staff. There are 3 notation modes in Band-in-a-Box, selected with the buttons in the Notation window toolbar

 The Standard Notation mode can be used for notation display and the entry of chords and lyrics. Just type a chord name and it will be inserted at the current time line location (the black vertical stripe just under the tool bar.)

 Click on this button to go to Editable Notation mode. Chords, lyrics, and text can be entered as in the Standard Notation mode; the Editable Notation mode also permits point-and-click entry of notes and rests as well as drag-and-drop editing.

 Click on this button to switch to the Staff Roll Notation mode. In addition to the editing features of the Editable Notation mode, in Staff Roll mode the velocity (vertical line) and duration (horizontal line) of notes can be edited with the mouse.

Lead Sheet Window

The Lead Sheet window displays a full screen of notation with one or more parts.  Other options include a selectable number of staffs per page, clefs to show, font size, margin, scroll-ahead notation, and lyrics.  If you like to sight-read along with Band-in-a-Box, this is the window for you.

Launch the Lead Sheet window from the main screen by pressing the [Lead Sheet] button or with the Window | Lead Sheet Window menu option.

To view multiple tracks, first select the track that you want to show at the top, and then click on the [+] button and select the tracks in the order that they should appear from top to bottom. To remove an extra track from the display, click on that track name and select remove from the menu. To remove all extra tracks, click on the [+] button and select remove extras from the menu,

Printing

  Press the [Print] button on the Notation window to launch the Print Options dialog.

It is very likely that Band-in-a-Box has made all the correct settings for you.  You should make sure to select the print range of first chorus, to print only the first chorus of the song.

Saving Your Work

Now that you have produced a great sounding song, it is time to save it as a Band-in-a-Box file, as a MIDI file, or as an audio wave file.

Saving a Song

	Once you have made a song (or have made changes to a song), you will probably want to save the song by clicking on the [Save] button.  Alternatively, choose Save from the File menu, or press F2, or command+S.
	This button shows you a menu to save songs using various methods.

Save Song as… saves the current song with a different name or in a different location.  (Songs that are “Saved As” with a different name have the new name added to the Recently Played Song dialog.)

Save Song as MIDI File saves the current song as a standard MIDI file or make a MIDI file and copy it to the clipboard.

Save as MusicXML File allows you to export your song into notation programs such as Finale, Sibelius, and Guitar Pro, while still retaining the chords from the Band-in-a-Box song.

Save as ABC Notation File allows you to save the song in a simple text-based format.

Save Song(s) to Text on clipboard of file(s) allows you to save the song, including the chords and other information (title, key, tempo, form, style, etc.), as a text file.

Save Song as Audio File will open the Render to Audio File dialog, which allows you to save the song as an audio file.

Save Song as AIFF Audio File or Save Song as M4A Audio File will immediately render the current song and save it to the current folder.

Save Song to Favorite Folder allows you to save the current song in one of your favorite folders.

Email Song file(s) as attachment(s) will open the Email Song dialog, which allows you to choose what files to email.

Save as Video (upload to YouTube etc.) is a great feature to make a video that you can upload to YouTube or work with in video programs.

Email Song as Attachments

You can email a song, style or rendered audio file as attachments.

To use this feature, press the [Save As] button and choose Email song file(s) attachment(s) from the menu.

The Email Song dialog allows you to choose files you want to email:
- the song (.MGU or .SGU)
- the style (.STY)
- the extended style (.STX) (if any)
- a rendered audio file (choice of AIFF, M4A, WAV)
- Audio track (if any)
- Performance track (if any)

Pressing the [Send Email] button will launch your default mail application and prepare a new message with files attached.
You can also email a Drop station file.  After you drag a track button to the Drop station, right-click on the Drop station and select the Email the drop station file menu item.

Saving as Video and Upload to YouTube

You can save your song as a video that you can upload to YouTube or work with in video programs.  You can make a video for the Chord Sheet or the Notation window that shows the highlighted chords or notes moving as the song plays.

To use this feature, press the [Save As] button and choose Save as Video from the pulldown menu.

At the top left corner, choose the item (Chord Sheet or Notation track) to include in a video.

Enable Custom dimensions if you want to choose the width and height of the video.  If this is disabled, the video dimensions will match the Chord Sheet as it appears.

A higher number you set for Frames Per Second will result in a large file and the rendering process will take longer.

You can select a specific Codec to encode the video.  If Auto is selected, Band-in-a-Box will choose a compatible codec.

If Include Title is enabled, the video of the Chord Sheet will have a black bar at the top containing the title and information shown below.

The Scroll Ahead option makes the video of the Chord Sheet scroll so the bar that is currently playing will always be at the top of the video (i.e., more bars ahead will be visible).

Press the [OK - Render Video] button to start rendering the video.  The video will continue to render unless you press the [Cancel Rendering] button.  When the rendering is done, a message will show and you will be able to press the [Upload to YouTube] or [Show Video File].

Saving Song as MusicXML

Band-in-a-Box supports MusicXML so you can easily export your Band-in-a-Box songs into notation programs such as Finale, Sibelius, and Guitar Pro, while still retaining the chords from the Band-in-a-Box song.

To save the current song as a MusicXML file, press the [Save As] button and select Save Song as MusicXML file or go to menu File | Save Special | Save Song as MusicXML file.  When the Finder’s Save as XML dialog opens, specify a file name and the location, and press the [Save] button.

This will open the Save XML File dialog.

First, select a track that you want to save in the XML file.  To select multiple tracks, hold down the command key and click the track.

Then, select the elements that you want to save in the XML file.

The Track-specific settings area lets you choose which clef to include for each track.

There is also an option to include a tablature.

The Save tab as 2 separate parts (tracks) option will save two parts: one for a notation track and the other for a tablature.

If you enable the Save in Fake Sheet Mode option, repeated sections will be hidden.

The Save exact chord text option allows you to save the exact chord text, rather than relying mainly on saving the chord type and degrees.

Press [OK], and the file will be ready to be opened in your notation program.

Saving Song as ABC Notation File

ABC notation is the simple text-based notation system used by musicians worldwide to store chords, melody, and lyrics of songs.  You can find out more information about the songs and ABC notation at abcnotation.com.

To save the song as an ABC Notation file, press the [Save As] button and select Save as ABC Notation File or go to the menu File | Save Special | Save Song as ABC Notation File.

Select a track to save: Click on the track that you want to save in the file.  This applies if “Include Notes” is enabled.

Include Chords: Check this to save chords in the file.

Include Notes: When this option is checked, notes on the selected track will be saved.

Simplified Chord Names : When this is enabled, complicated chords will be written as simplified names.  For example, D7#5#9 will be written as D7.

Save in Fake Sheet mode: Enable this if you want to save repeats and endings in the file.

Pressing [Copy to clipboard] button will copy the file to the clipboard.  You can then paste it into other programs.

Press the [Save as File] button, and then you type a name and select the destination in your hard drive.

Saving Song(s) as Simple Text

You can save the song, including the chords and other information (title, key, tempo, form, style, etc.), as a text file

Press the [Save As] button and select Save Song(s) to Text on clipboard or file(s), or go to menu File | Save Special | Save Song(s) to Text on clipboard or file(s). This will open the Song(s) to Text dialog..

In the dialog, check the items you want to include in text. By default, the song metadata (title, key, tempo, form, style, etc.) and memo will be included, but if you don’t want them, you can exclude them. Select the Whole Song mode, and press the [Save as .txt file] button. If you want to copy the song to the clipboard instead of saving it as a text file, press the [OK - Copy to Clipboard] button instead.

The dialog also has an option to copy or save all songs in a specific folder. Select the Batch save all songs in this folder mode, press the folder icon to select the folder, and choose the option to include subfolders of that folder. Also select the destination with the Batch Save As option. You can copy all songs to the clipboard, save them as individual text files in the same folder, save them as individual text files in another folder, or save them as a single text file. Then, press [OK -Batch Save TXT] to copy or save the songs.

Saving a MIDI File

Your song can be saved as a Standard MIDI file with the [.MID] button in the toolbar, or with the menu command File | Save Special | Save Song as MIDI File, or with the keystrokes control+S.

Select the type of MIDI file you want to save with the MIDI File type option.

• By default, Band-in-a-Box writes Type 1 multiple track Standard MIDI Files.
• You can also save Type 0 MIDI files. They have all of the parts on a single track and are used by many hardware modules and other devices that play MIDI files because they are simpler to play (since they only have 1 track).
• Karaoke files (.KAR) are a special type of sing-along MIDI file with text events for the lyrics and a specific order for the tracks.
• There is an option to write the MIDI file with separate tracks for each drum instrument.

By muting tracks with option+click on the track name at the top of the screen, you can decide which tracks get written to the MIDI file.  Any track that is muted is excluded from the MIDI file. 

The [File on Disk] button saves a MIDI file to the folder you select. You can then load the MIDI file into your sequencer for further editing.

The [Clipboard] button copies the MIDI file to the clipboard as a standard MIDI file. This feature allows clipboard enabled programs to Edit | Paste the Band-in-a-Box MIDI file directly into the program.

When making a MIDI file, you can select a range of bars to be included. Highlight any range of bars on the Chord Sheet, and the MIDI file will be made for just that range. Alternatively, you can make a MIDI file for a partial range by pressing the [Set Range] button.

The [Batch mode] button allows you to convert an entire folder of songs to MIDI files with a single command and choose the resultant file names to be based on either the file name or the song title name.

Click on the [Options] button to open the MIDI File Options dialog.  This is where you set MIDI file options.

Include patch changess will include the patch (instrument) changes. Include chord text markers writes the chords as text marker MIDI events if selected. Include part marker text markers writes descriptive text part markers to the MIDI file if selected. If this option is selected, the resulting MIDI file will have text markers. For example, at bar 3, there is an “A, Chorus 1” marker, to indicate a part marker “a” substyle and chorus 1. Text markers are also read in from MIDI files and displayed as Section Markers on the Notation. Include 2 bar lead-in: If you don’t want to create a MIDI file containing the first 2 bars of the 1—2—1-2-3-4 count-in you can select this option. If there is a Melody pickup, then the 2-bar lead-in will remain in the file. Write lyrics in: The GM specification has agreed upon specific requirements for writing lyrics in MIDI files, which are supported, so that lyrics that you save in Band-in-a-Box should show up identically in other MIDI programs. We recommend the GM format. Write Section Text as Text Events: Your section text can be included in the MIDI file as text events.

Include forced channel meta event: This will include the forced channel META event. (Note: It is recognized by PG Music Inc. programs only.)

Include guitar position controller: This will insert a controller 84 which PG Music uses to indicate the fret position. Since some synths also use this for Portamento Control, you should use this setting with caution.

Write Soloist track on channel 5: Normally the program writes the Soloist part on channel 8. Since that could also mean the left hand of a piano track using the convention of channel 8/9 for piano, this option allows you to write it on channel 5 instead.

Write harmony: If set to YES, the harmony will be written to the MIDI file. If not, just the melody will be written to the MIDI file.

Write harmony on separate tracks: If set to YES, the harmony will be written to the MIDI file on separate tracks for each voice. You could use this to print out individual parts to your printer for example.

Write Guitar part on 6 channels: If set to YES, the styles that are Intelligent Guitar Styles will result in a MIDI file that has the Guitar part written on 6 channels (11-16). Then, when you read it in PowerTracks, or another sequencer that uses the convention of 11-16 for guitar strings, the guitar part will display correctly.

For partial range MIDI files, chop off sustaining notes at end turns off notes that would be “hung” because their associated Note Off event does not fall within the range of bars saved to the MIDI file.

Also generate MIDI Drums in the MIDI file can be unchecked if your song uses RealDrums and you don’t want MIDI drums included in the MIDI file.

Save RealCharts in MIDI files: Enable this to save RealChrarts MIDI data in MIDI files so you can study the performance in other programs.

Resolution for MIDI file: By default, Band-in-a-Box saves MIDI files with 120 PPQ resolution. This is about 4 millisecond resolution, which is very good resolution. In our listening tests, people couldn’t tell the difference between files at 120 PPQ and files at higher PPQ (like 960 etc.). But if you prefer to work in a DAW at a higher PPQ, you can have Band-in-a-Box output at the resolution that you want.

Save Track as Performance

This takes “freezing” a track one step further and saves the audio itself.  So, you can send your Band-in-a-Box song to your friend, who will be able to play that track without needing to have the RealTracks installed.

To save the track, right-click on the track radio button and select Save Track as Performance File from the menu.  You have a choice of an aiff or m4a file.  When you choose, the track will be rendered to <Song Title><track name (e.g. Bass).aiff or .m4a.

You can use the Erase Performance Track command to remove the Performance Track.

Artist Performance Tracks

Artist Performance tracks use the Melody track to showcase Band-in-a-Box RealTracks demos accompanying a live recording of a top artist performing the melody.  These are great for listening or learning-from-the-Pros (since notation/tab shows for the performances).

These performances play the melody (2 choruses), and 2 choruses of solo (first chorus “simple” solo, 2nd chorus advanced).  All performance tracks include audio (stretchable to any tempo), notation, on-screen guitar, and guitar tab.

To play the Artist Performance Tracks, open the songs from the /Applications/Band-in-a-Box/Artist Performances folder.

  Artist Performance tracks display the track name in orange.

Saving as Audio Files

Press the [.WAV] button and Band-in-a-Box will render the song arrangement to an audio file (AIFF, M4A, or WAV).

Selecting Render Tracks to Audio with Options opens Render to Audio File dialog, which allows you to choose options for saving the song as an audio file.

Format: Select the format of the audio file: WAV, AIF, or M4A.

Channels: When “Auto” is selected, individual tracks will be rendered as either mono or stereo, depending on the original ce.  You can also force to render all tracks as stereo or mono.

Bit Depth: Select 16, 24, or 32 bit.

Sample Rate: Select 44.1, 48.0, or .96.0 kHz.

Normalize mix: Enable this option if you want the audio file normalized.  Normalizing boosts the volume to a maximum level without distortion, but it takes longer to render.

One file per track: If this option is enabled, you will get separate audio files, one for each track.

Include Mix: If this is enabled, a mix of all tracks will be rendered to a separate file.

Normalize individual tracks: Enable this option if you want each track normalized individually.  This applies if the “One file per track” option is enabled or when you drag and drop an individual track out of Band-in-a-Box.

Individual tracks flat, dry, and center: If this option is enabled, each track will render ignoring its Mixer settings (Volume, Pan, Reverb, and Tone), and the default settings will be used instead. The default settings are Volume=0 db, Pan = 0, Reverb= 0, Tone = 0). If this option is disabled and there is no lead-in in the Melody track, the lead-in will be skipped in the rendered file.

Include 2 bar lead-in: If this option is disabled and there is no lead-in in the Melody track, the lead-in will be skipped in the rendered file.

Include ACID info: If you are rendering to a WAV audio file, you can include ACID information such as tempo, key, and time signature.  The ACID information can be read by many DAW programs.

Include Apple Loop Info: If this is enabled, Applesup>® Loop information (tempo, key, and time signature) will be added to the AIFF audio file.

Render using highest quality tempo stretching: If this option is enabled, the highest quality tempo stretching setting for élastique will be used when rendering.  You may be using a lower quality setting for playback in order to increase performance, but this is not necessary when rendering to an audio file.

Delay at start (seconds): This allows you to add silence in seconds at the start of the audio file.

Delay at end (seconds): You can also add silence in seconds at the end of the audio file.

Save in current song directory: If the option is enabled, the Save dialog will default to the current song file’s directory. Otherwise, it will default to the previously used directory.

[Render]: To render the song, press this button and select the name and destination for the audio file.

Batch Render Audio Files

Selecting Batch Save .m4a for ALL SONGS in current folder for use on iPhone/iPad, Android Biab app renders a complete folder of song all at once.  You can also use the menu command File | Save Special | Batch Save all songs in current folder to .m4a or aiff to render.

Save Individual Track as M4A or AIFF Audio File

Any track can be saved as an M4A or AIFF audio file from its contextual menu.  The menu opens with a right-click, control+click, or a double-click on the part name. 

The file can then be imported into another audio program, such as GarageBand or Cubase.

File Menu Rendering Commands

You can also use the File | Save Song Special menu commands Save Song as M4A Audio or Save Song as AIFF Audio to render the Band-in-a-Box song to an audio file.  Use the commandBatch Save All Songs in Current Folder as M4A or AIFF to render a batch of songs to audio.

Send to Dropbox

You ou can easily drag/drop files from Band-in-a-Box directly to your Dropbox folder, or save an audio to Dropbox, without leaving the main Band-in-a-Box screen.  To do this, drag a track (or the Master button for all tracks) to the Drop station, and when it turns green, you can then right-click on the [Drop] button, and choose “Copy files to Dropbox Folder.”

 

Congratulations!

Now you know how to produce a complete song arrangement in Band-in-a-Box with RealDrums and RealTracks, a Melody, Solo, Harmonies, and Lyrics; either from scratch or from an imported MIDI file.  You can print out clean lead sheet notation, complete with chord symbols.  And you can save your song in MIDI form or as lossless PCM audio or compressed m4a audio for playback from your computer or over the Internet, to send as an e-mail attachment, or to upload to services such as Dropbox.  You are on your way to making lots of great music with Band-in-a-Box.

Have Fun!