Hello,
I use BIAB 2007.I know, it is old, but it is enough for me.
When I use the user style 54_swing (5/4 meter swing - About time)
I hear a nice 5/4 Count-in (two bars 12345-12345).
When I edit the current style and save it, then immediately the count-in is gone and is replaced by the normal BIAB Count-in (1 3, 1234).
But I want to keep the 5/4 Count-in.
What have I to do?
I look forward to your answers.

BIABDEX,

Welcome to the forums.

I used to have 2007 but I'm afraid that it's too long ago for me to remember anything about it. The program has changed significantly since then. Version 2007 was before PG Music released Realtracks.

I may be wrong here but I was under the impression that BIAB only counts-in with 4 beat or 3 beats. I have BIAB 2017 and I just tried '54_Swing.sty'. It counted in with 4 beats for me.

Regards,
Noel

• my latest song : This Road

I don't remember anything about 2007 except 5/4 count ins are not possible using the usual count in. What I do is to make the first two measures the count in by muting everything except the drums using the 5/4/ style. The song would start on measure #3. If you can't mute everything but the drums just make a 4 or 8 bar intro and then start your song.

Good luck.

It plays the 5/4 Count-in in 7.
I will look more into it, but for now can you copy the count-in in the Piano Roll D

DropBox BB-7-Countin.mp4

Thanks for your answers.
The solution is: you have to load the whole song "Jive at five-54swing.sty demo", then you can edit the style (then rename and save the song)and the 5/4 count-in is preserved. If you load only the style 54_swing.sty, the 5/4 count-in is lost, when you edit it.
I don't know why that is so, but for me the problem is solved.

Thanks for working that out, as I forgot to look more into it
But there is a problem with count-ins in the newer version.

On odd time styles, BB seems to load the '5/4' time into the 4/4 tempo; in other words 5 beats happen in the time span (in ms) that 4 beats would occur normally. It's a faux (fake) 5/4 time to me. You can only generate new tracks using a matching 5/4 style.

This is a big reason why I prefer Realband; it seems to use the real time signature and tempo much more accurately.
5/4 actually generates in 5/4 .. however then your BB '5/4' styles may become weird. You need to let RB handle the time sig change.

I prefer to generate a 5/4 time sig and have it line up with the tempo map. RB does this much better than BiaB.

I can generate a '4/4 style in RB' while using a 5/4 time sig (or 7/4 for that matter) and it makes sense. There are 5/7 beats per measure, and I can edit as expected, etc.

On odd time styles, BB seems to load the '5/4' time into the 4/4 tempo; in other words 5 beats happen in the time span (in ms) that 4 beats would occur normally. It's a faux (fake) 5/4 time to me. You can only generate new tracks using a matching 5/4 style. [/quote]

I agree. I wish they would incorporate more time signatures than 3/4 and 4/4.



A question for you my friend is does RB export a 5/4, well actually any non 3/4, 4/4, song in 5/4 or whatever time signature you are using?

I am not a user of RB but IIRC it use to export everything in 3/4 or 4/4 time.

Export to where?

In my experience yes, but you may have a specific example that shows otherwise (?).

TommyC and I have traded RB files in 7/4 multiple times with no issue.
One of my favorite things about RB is it's odd-time abilities.
Are you remembering BB or RB?
Come to think of it, 11/4 and other time sigs have worked also.
I don't attempt this in BiaB, as RB handles it so much better to me, so that be a huge difference in the results.

Good point. I meant to export to any other DAW. In my case that would be Sonar.

Yes, you should be able to. Just make sure Sonar is set to the same odd time and tempo.

Bob, I think my problem is that the 5/4 MIDI styles that I was working with only are available as 4/4. In RB I set the tempo to the style tempo and the time signature to 5/4 but the 5/4 MIDI style still comes up in at 4/4. Even the shown time signature changes from 5/4 to 4/4 and changing it back to 5/4 only moves the measure markers and does nothing to the style.

Yes, I thought I mentioned that; PGMusic 5/4 styles are actually done in 4/4 and simply fit 5 beats in the span of 4 .. not really done in 5/4 time sig. I think this is because BiaB can't handle odd times like RB can.

However if you DO create a song in real 5/4 time it should work fine. You just can't use those faux 5/4 styles.
What impressed me most was how RB can take 4/4 RT's and generate them as 5/4, 7/4 etc.

Mario: Bob, I think my problem is that the 5/4 MIDI styles that I was working with only are available as 4/4. In RB I set the tempo to the style tempo and the time signature to 5/4 but the 5/4 MIDI style still comes up in at 4/4

Hi Mario,
You've come to the right place. We have exactly that, a set of MIDI styles in odd time signatures that fill up a bar of 4/4 as the odd time singnature. This includes time signs like 5/4 7/4 but also esoteric ones like 11/8 etc. use the time sig filter in the stylepicker to find them.

Or just filter for style disk 38: About Time
http://www.pgmusic.com/addons.styles.sets.php?set=38&os=mac

Yes Peter I have that style set and in fact that was the one that I was testing. I just misunderstood Bob. I thought he said that those 5/4 time signatures would come up as 5/4 in RB but as I discovered just like in BiaB those 5 beats are within a 4/4 measure.

Thanx for looking in to this for me. I appreciate it.

I remember when the "About Time" style set came out. Even though it was emulating those time signatures within a 4/4 or 3/4 structure, it sounded pretty great (didn't display properly, so don't look for proper notation). Soundwise, however, it was spot-on.

I remember several people posted some songs using those styles to show how it worked.

John, I have also used BiaB's 5/4 as well as other non 3/4-4/4 time signatures. I have to play by ear to match everything up. It just makes it a little tougher to correct subtle timing problems when what you see doesn't match what you hear if you know what I mean.

I really like that 38 MIDI style set and I use them quite often. I just wish that it had true notation and MIDI time matching in DAWs.