Many more new features in Band-in-a-Box 2011!

Change of RealTracks Styles at any Bar. With previous versions of Band-in-a-Box, you were limited to one RealTracks style per song. Now you can change styles with RealTracks at any bar. Just select the style in the Edit | Edit Settings for Current Bar dialog. For example, switch from Jazz Swing to Bossa style at any bar.

MultiStyles (with up to 16 substyles) can now be made with RealTracks.

Change of individual RealTracks instrument can be added to any track at any bar. You can insert a specific RealTracks instrument at any bar to create a customized performance.

Soloist "Medleys," where the RealTracks is made to switch instruments every "N" bars or every chorus. For example, you can add a Bluegrass Medley Soloist that switches between solos from Mandolin, Guitar, Banjo, and Fiddle every 4 bars. Or a Jazz Medley Soloist that switches between Alto Sax, Trumpet, Piano, and Guitar solos every chorus. Or insert "Silence" as one of the instruments, which allows you to play your own instrument. Use the pre-existing Soloist Medleys that we make by simply choosing a RealTracks, or create a custom one yourself on any track.

Multiple RealTracks at the same time on the same track. You can add up to 10 RealTracks to play simultaneously on the same track. This is useful if you want to generate a lot of RealTracks, the theoretical limit would be 7 tracks x 10 per track = 70 RealTracks instruments playing at the same time.

Re-Generate part of a Soloist track, without erasing the existing part. This allows you to customize your Soloist track by regenerating parts of the solo with the same or different RealTracks. For example, generate a 4-bar clarinet solo at bar 9. Then generate an 8-bar flute solo at bar 49. The file plays back with both solos intact.

Options to auto-replace MIDI styles with RealTracks styles. If you have made a lot of songs using older MIDI styles, and would prefer that they play with RealTracks, you can now do this easily by selecting the menu option Styles | Auto Replace MIDI styles with RealTracks. Then, if you have the needed RealTracks installed, your MIDI style will be intelligently replaced with a RealTracks style. There is also a manual option to do this on as-needed basis, disable the feature for a certain song, or to reverse it if you prefer the MIDI style.

"Triple-Time" RealTracks have been added. These allow you to use fast waltz RealTracks as slow 4/4 RealTracks (with a 12/8 feel). We have made some new 12/8 RealStyles that use this feature.

RealTracks can be made as Half-Time/Double-Time/Triple-Time, so it is easier to select them, and they show up in the RealTracks Picker with tempos indicating when they can be used. For example, Alto Sax, tempo 140 will also show up in the RealTracks picker as Alto Sax, tempo 70 [Double-Time] so you can easily choose it.

Any RealTracks can be made as a "Bluesy" RealTracks by selecting this checkbox in the RealTracks Picker. "Bluesy" RealTracks will play more using blues scales (e.g. Bb note on a C chord).

RealTracks sound more "musical" when stretched to extreme tempos. In addition to the major audio improvements when tempo is stretched by élastique Pro V2, the RealTracks soloists sound more musical when stretched to extreme tempos. This is because musicians tend to play more ahead/behind the beat at slower/faster tempos. This is a done automatically.

New "Practicing" Feature: Change tempo of all loaded songs by X. When this is set, song tempo will be increased (or decreased) by the specified amount, allowing you to "bump up" all of your tempos easily when practicing lots of songs, or in a jukebox mode.

Option to change all songs in a folder to your Default Mix. This would insure that all of your songs have the same mix of Volume, Reverb, and Pan settings.

MP4 and M4A files are now supported. MP4 and M4A files are the popular high-quality format used by Apple® in iTunes®. These MP4/M4A features require QuickTime® for Windows® to be installed from www.apple.com.

• You can open MP4/M4A files in Band-in-a-Box using File | Open.
• You can save (render) files as MP4/M4A using Drag-and-drop (DAW) from the Combo button to the Windows desktop (or to the Drop button at the top left of the Band-in-a-Box main screen). You can also save from the SoundTrack window, or the Render to Audio dialog (.WAV button).

Scales Wizard added. When students are practicing Jazz tunes, it is helpful to see the scales that are used for each chord. The Scale Wizard allows you to easily generate these scales, which appear as notation on the Soloist track. Options include Instrument Range, Patch Selection, Jazzy Mode (will use Lydian dominant scales for some 7th chords), and Diatonic Mode (keeps scales relative to the song key). Menu items on the Soloist menu allow you to generate scales for a certain song, or generate them for all loaded songs. View the scales in the notation or the on-screen guitar and piano.

StylePicker Enhancements

New StylePicker Filters show you only the styles that match your search terms. These help you to select the style that you want, by allowing you to specify:

• Even/Swing feel,
• 8ths/16ths,
• tempo range,
• # of instruments,
• specific instruments (e.g. styles with "Banjo"),
• specific RealTracks Artists,
• RealDrums Artists,
• Real styles or MIDI styles.

For example, if you are searching for a Jazz Ballad style that is all RealTracks, has bass, drums, and guitar, works for a tempo of 60, with Swing 8ths you can set this filter and then only see styles that match these criteria, instead of a list of thousands of styles.

New StylePicker Columns added

• # of instruments in style, e.g. 4.
• Whether any required RealTracks, RealDrums are not installed, e.g. NA.
• Whether a RealTracks substitute for a MIDI style is available, e.g. sub.

The StylePicker display is wider on bigger monitors.

Auto-Generated style memo added for each style. This lists names of all instruments, # of instruments, RealTracks/RealDrums used, whether any required RealTracks or RealDrums are missing, and more.

Example Memo:

Other New Features include:

Easier Entry of Guitar Notation on Notation Window. If you hold down the number keys 1-6 as you click on a note, then the note will get inserted on MIDI channels 11 to 16, which are the guitar strings from high E to low E. If you also hold down the Q key, the note gets inserted as a bend. You can also click on notes on the guitar to insert guitar notation when in Editable Notation mode.

RealCharts Notation and the Guitar fretboard are improved for some guitar styles (e.g. Brent Mason). Now you can see bends in blue on the guitar fretboard.

RealDrums pushes are quieter, and RealDrums pushes and shots velocities are now adjustable in the RealDrums Settings dialog.

You can now get a list printed out of current contents of the RealTracks Picker dialog. Hold the Shift key and press the [Update] button.

Playing from a certain bar in a certain chorus is faster, as the right-click menu now shows the chorus options without a submenu.

The Select Soloist dialog has a [Show All] button that removes any filters.

The Soloist Editor dialog now allows editing of many RealTracks parameters.

On the first run of Band-in-a-Box, the program will auto-hook up to Coyote Wavetable, without requiring the user to visit the MIDI Drivers dialog.

Audio-related "BT0" files are no longer generated (which was a time consuming procedure when using the audio track, or Audio Chord Wizard). Now "BT1" files get generated, which are generated very quickly.

Render options for individual wave files. Instead of always making stereo files, there is an option to match the stereo/mono type of the original RealTracks file.