Hey,
For my wish list the first thing I want is a better User Interface.
More simplified menu without all the repeated links.
Nicer icons.
Ability to remove or add icons and items from the main screen.
I have been learning an instrument and using BIAB for 2 years now, I don’t know all the musical terms and im not some musical wiz. Yes I find entering a few chords and choosing a style then click play is easy, but I would like to liven it up a bit or to get it sounding a bit more like the song im learning. I end up sifting through menu's and screens and never really get that far.
A more simplified version would be nice without the more technical stuff as im sure I would only use about 5% of what is there.
What you asked for to configure icons, remove keyboard etc, that's there.
Dumbing down a music education, not so much.
You can hide the on-screen piano through Opt.->Preferences->Display->Show on-screen piano.
You can rearrange and remove icons on the main screen, but, unfortunately you can't actually remove the whole icon area, wich would free some space on the main screen.
BIAB is a musical gem and a true gift for musicians, but I also think that the program would benefit a lot with a much simpler, customizable and cleaner interface. That would not only improve the workflow for existing users, but possibly attract a lot of new and potential users as well.
Some ideas: implement a Right Button -> Options system for every element on the screen (I'm thinking on how Reaper works), implement a proper zoom and resize system for every on-screen element, add visual markers, rewrite the actual Stylepicker window (wich still is, in my opinion, one of the weakest areas of the interface)...
Oh thanks for that. I had looked at removing it earlier but couldn't find it.
Im not wanting to dumb down a music education software. Just have an entry level for beginner musicians.
I play bluegrass and it plays everything in 16th. It took me ages to find out how to set it to half time after searching on the net i finally found it, hidden away in one of the menu's.
Im Guessing you are using BIAB for windows as I cant find that menu in BIAB for Mac.
There is no Display menu under preferences.
Labern, first thing to learn about music forums is to post complete info about your setup. Mac or PC is first on that list. Second is which version of Biab are you using. Is it the new 2012 Mac version or what?
Yes, this is the Biab Wishlist Forum and I can see why you posted here but since the ratio of PC to Mac users is probably 100 to 1 or more, I would try posting your questions in the Mac forum, you will get faster Mac specific answers there.
As to the general question about music education yes, the more you know about music theory, song structure and chords the better. Peter Gannon as in PG Music, is from a well educated musical family so Biab follows traditional music concepts and is a great learning tool. Music schools all over the world use Biab as part of their teaching. You don't have to be a player though, just understand chord names. You can know nothing about music but if you can take a piece of music that has the chords written on it you can just count the bars and enter the chords into Biab from that music and Biab will still create a whole song for you based on those chords. It won't however create the actual original song itself that's represented on that sheet of music. That gets a bit more complex like you having to know enough about music to play and record the melody part for example so the Biab song now has the melody in it.
Bob
Yeah I have realised I should have stated that im using BIAB for mac. Im still on 2011.5 as I couldn't see any improvements that i would benefit form by upgrading.
I have been looking and finding it hard to find a school or tutor that can teach or show me around BIAB in my country. I can see in an environment where you have some one to point you in the right direction it will make things alot easier. I have emailed pg music to see if they have tutorial videos for mac users and they said that they only have them for windows and they would differ as some of the features are different.
From time to time i search on the mac forum for how to do things ( yes I haven't actually asked yet) and after hours and don't get far. That's why I was saying i wish it was a little easier or intuitive to use.
I will take your advice and start asking alot of questions on the mac forum .
Hi guys ! I am a PC and Mac user and I'd like to continue about the
main screen interface. I often use BIAB (11.5) in a live condition
and a wish of mine should be to have the field for the countdown much
bigger. I mean VERY much bigger, because it is the main thing we need to
know while playing. Thanks to have read this.
"Use Command Shift +" in Mac
OK but I only need to have the lap number bigger.
I add a wish for Mac: Be able to see the boundaries of the
loop with a double bar (like on PC) and the Coda symbol too...
Labern makes some good points. I recall them making a video, "Band In A Box For Bozos." I was still very inexperienced then and I thought that video was pretty technical on setting up MME and asio. Latency? What the H__l is that? I thought this was a music program. Well, you get my drift. I do think it would take a lot of design time and work to come up with a beginner/learner program though. Just deciding what features to include/leave out would be daunting.
Stan