All of those are already in BIAB. The list below is from the manual
Major Chords
C, Cmaj, C6, Cmaj7, Cmaj9, Cmaj13, C69, Cmaj7#5, C5b, Caug, C+, Cmaj9#11, Cmaj13#11
Minor Chords
Cm, Cm6, Cm7, Cm9, Cm11, Cm13, Cmaug, Cm#5, CmMaj7
Half diminished
Cm7b5,
Diminished
Cdim, Cdim5, Cdim7 (Note: see setting in Display Optionsfor Cdim treatment.)
Dominant 7th Chords
C7, 7+, C9+, C13+, C13, C7b13, C7#11, C13#11, C7#11b13, C9,
C9b13, C9#11, C13#11, C9#11b13, C7b9, C13b9, C7b9b13, C7b9#11,
C13b9#11, C7b9#11b13, C7#9, C13#9, C7#9b13, C9#11, C13#9#11, C7#9#11b13
C7b5, C13b5, C7b5b13, C9b5, C9b5b13, C7b5b9, C13b5b9, C7b5b9b13,
C7b5#9, C13b5#9, C7b5#9b13, C7#5, C13#5, C7#5#11, C13#5#11, C9#5,
C9#5#11, C7#5b9, C13#5b9, C7#5b9#11, C13#5b9#11, C7#5#9, C13#5#9#11,
C7#5#9#11, C13#5#9#11
Suspended 4 Chords
Csus, C7sus, C9sus,
C13sus, C7susb13, C7sus#11, C13sus#11, C7sus#11b13, C9susb13, C9sus#11, C13sus#11, C9sus#11b13, C7susb9, C13susb9, C7susb9b13, C7susb9#11,
C13susb9#11, C7susb9#11b13, C7sus#9, C13sus#9, C7sus#9b13, C9sus#11, C13sus#9#11, C7sus#9#11b13,
C7susb5, C13susb5, C7susb5b13, C9susb5, C9susb5b13, C7susb5b9,
C13susb5b9, C7susb5b9b13, C7susb5#9, C13susb5#9, C7susb5#9b13,
C7sus#5, C13sus#5, C7sus#5#11, C13sus#5#11, C9sus#5, C9sus#5#11, C7sus#5b9, C13sus#5b9, C7sus#5b9#11, C13sus#5b9#11, C7sus#5#9, C13sus#5#9#11, C7sus#5#9#11, C13sus#5#9#11,
Add 2 Chords
Cadd2, Cmadd2
Notes:
- It is not necessary to type upper or lower case. 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.
- Any chord may be entered with an alternate root ("Slash Chord") e.g.: C7/E = C7 with E bass.
- Separate chords with commas to enter 2 chords in a 2 beat cell, e.g., Dm, G7.
- Use the letter B for a flat; e.g., Bb7
- Use # or 3 for a sharp; e.g., F#7. The pound sign (#) is the uppercase symbol of 3, so you can actually 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 "+"; the program automatically converts "=" to "+" so that chords like C+7 can be entered without using the shift key.
- You can type C-7 for Cm7 (i.e. use the minus sign) or C7-9 for C7b9.
Tricky Chords:
C5b This is "C flat 5." It is spelled this way to avoid confusion.
C2, C5, C4, C69, C7alt, Cm7#5
Shortcut Chords:
If you enter a lot of songs, you'll 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).
Add your own chord shortcuts.
Have you found a chord that Band-in-a-Box doesn't recognize? If so, add it to the chord shortcuts file, and Band-in-a-Box will allow you to type in that chord in the future. This also lets you define chord "shortcuts," one-letter abbreviations for longer chord names ("J" for "Maj7" etc.). If you find a chord that Band-in-a-Box won't accept like Csus2, when it expects C2 instead you can enter this on a single line (without the quotes) "Csus2@C2." Then Band-in-a-Box will enter the chord C2 if you type in Csus 2.
The text file c:\bb\Shortcut.txt allows you to add new chord shortcuts. Note that this file doesn't ship with Band-in-a-Box (or it would overwrite your file!). The file \bb\pgshortc.txt for shortcuts is supplied by PG Music. You can add your own shortcuts in a text file you make yourself and name \bb\shortcut.txt.
good answer but still you can't do Minor sus other than cheating by doing Am/d or other oddball quartal chords, and you can't identify a parent scale like melodic minor, some times you can cheat to get the desired results like ab minor maj7/G for 7th mode of melodic minor for g7 chord but in other cases you can't, also there are rootless chords (bill evans, allan holdsworth) if you want to do them you have delete the biab tracks and create your own.
I had to come up with my own algorithms
Islansoul, there are two entries in your list that bear special attention.
The last one, chord/chord, is called a polychord. It is not supported in BIAB and makes a good Wishlist request.
There is also your entry, maj7b3. That is supported in BIAB in this form: mMaj7.
yeah good point, I guess i lived in the Mick Goodrick world of harmony too long, he uses lots of chords with just 4th and not the 7th and 9th, but yes this is not standard usage, so not a big deal for most people
but if you trying to do very good voice leading it is major problem
and yes hexatonic harmony (triad over triad) would be awesome
i would think this would be simple
but again U would need to change interface (to pick base note)
and also i think the restriction to only allow triad/triad with no over lapping notes would be in order
Also one more point, lets say biab supported triad/triad you type in am/bm
This is ambiguous, it could imply key of Gmaj or key of C melodic minor
So this why I support the idea of allowing the assignment of parent scale
How will the soloist know what to play?
Yes but which one is melodic or harmonic minor the maj7 minor chord that is in harmonic major scale (sorry i for get which chord maybe the 4th)
biab sort sucks at some things, yeah in terms of the chord it doesn't matter much what the parent scale is.
But for solo or melody it matters.
Islansoul,
Just in case you don't already know this....
You find all the different chords that PG Music supports if you have a look at Chord Builder.
Regards,
Noel
One of the ways you can customise chord voicings quickly is to output a chord track to the melody or soloist channel and then use the melody menu convert all the patterns to C7. Make sure your chord track covers all the chord types to bring out any special voicings for sus, alt 7th or min7b5 chords etc.
Converting all of them to C7 in the melody channel will get rid of embellishments or added notes embedded in the patterns in one go. It will also render any macro patterns that used to reside on a single note available for editing.
Then you can then do one of three things.
1 Reimport all the patterns to a copy of the style from the melody channel. From the stylemaker select the velocity command and get it to target specific midi notes..say Bb on midi notes 46 58 and 70 for example if you want to get rid of 7ths. Turn down the velocity on each of these to kill the 7ths from playback. Then make sure that embellishments are turned off for the whole instrument by setting them to 0.
2 Or you can output the track to a sequencer or DAW with a Mapper function. There you can select all occurrences of say a 3rd (E) by its midi note number. ( most likely 52 64 76 etc)and map it to another note of your choice.
Save then reimport the patterns directly from the midi track back to the BIAB style without using the style wizard.
3 Or once you've converted all the patterns to C7 select a low root melody harmony. Adjust the octave range. Then to add a note to each of the patterns in one go simply type in the name of the note you want to add in a new chord sheet (with the piano chords still there in the melody channel). On playback that one note will be added in the range of your choice.
Save and reimport as before making sure you turn off embellishments to zero in the stylemaker.
These methods should go a long way to giving you any voicing you desire.
One thing I like to do is strip all voicings down to a root and a 7th plus with a doubled root on octave C3. You can then get a row of three seconds in a chord by typing C7/A or Cmaj7/Bb for a dissonant sound. You can then use the procedure in 3 mentioned above to add another note to that.
Alan
On the subject of chords that BB doesn't recognize I have noticed I can't input a Maj7b5. e.g. Cmaj7b5 is not recognized which means I have to input Cmaj7/gb which, technically, has the same notes but I don't want the b5 at the bottom. Any suggestions ???
Perhaps the update to version 2016 for Mac will fix this. To ensure PG Music knows, I suggest you start a new thread requesting support for this chord, mention Mac in the title, and point out that the Windows version supports it.
Just so everyone understands, shortcut.txt does not give you the ability to make BIAB recognize new chords that it currently doesn't support, it only lets you create a shortcut to an existing chord it does support.
So, for example, BIAB doesn't recognize Csus2 (because it expects it to be C2). So in the file, you can enter "Csus2@C2". Now when you type Csus2, it doesn't give you an error entering it, but what it will show on the screen is C2.
It's also handy for every long chords. For example one of the already existing shortcuts in BIAB is "H" to represent m7b5 (or half diminished).
So if you want to have a to "C13sus#5#9#11" without having to type all that, you could enter "CY@C13sus#5#9#11" - then when you type CY in the chord grid, it will enter C13sus#5#9#11 in the chord grid.
Another one you might want (if you don't remember that a C(no3) is a C5 in BIAB) is to enter "Cno3@C5". That way, when you enter Cno3, it will enter the C5 chord.
What you can't do is use it to create a chord BIAB doesn't already know about.