I have yet to actually buy Band in a Box and wanted to find out first if it would fit my needs best.

Top the point, I am an amateur singer. I am interested in creating my own cover versions of popular songs. For the sake of example, I might want to sing the song "Hello" by Adel.

The LAW says that a cover version needs to be music created by me. But, the original music must be used.

To the point, I don't play an instrument and I really don't want to spend hours and hours getting the music all set up. What I want to do is find a way to quickly take the sheet music (Which honestly I don't really know how to read) and get into into my DAW so I can sing to it and I am exploring if Band in a Box is the answer?

Once again, getting the music set up is the part I want to spend the least amount of time on!

What can I do?

Buy midi backing tracks. BIAB will create backing tracks but not the sheet music arrangement. Backing tracks will recreate the song you want to sing and your DAW will allow you to change key if necessary.

As far as I can understand, the chords used in a song are not copyrightable.

I understand that you could use BiaB to enter the desired chords of your song, and choose an appropriate existing BiaB style to generate the song - without creating any copyright issues.

BiaB can certainly do this. It does not guarantee to replicate an existing song, including the melody, but will provide you with a usable backing track, and often the results can be quite astounding.

Also, Welcome to the forums.

BiaB does an excellent job of making a backing track from a chord progression. Getting a good chord progression can sometimes be a bit of a problem as, whilst they're often online, not all are authentic. The official sheet music may or not have the chords stated ... often not.

BiaB has a tool, Auto Chord Wizard (ACW) that will try to extract chords from a recording.

Once you have a chord progression in BiaB, try out different styles with them, to find a backing that works for you. Find a sound and feel that suits you, probably regenerate a few times, freezing tracks as you like them.

This almost certainly won't make a backing track that's the same as the original song's, but it can make an excellent backing track for a cover.

There's a "Melody track" that BiaB won't change, so you could import MIDI or XML into it, it can be a single-line melody or a full piano piece. It, indeed any track, can be muted completely or by bars or by choruses/verses.

There's no demo version, but I believe PGMusic are as good as their word on the 30 days unconditional money back guarantee, though I suspect they're not that often asked to do so.

The bad news is that the "Pro" version is the entry version and has very a limited selection of styles. Just about everyone advises getting the best/biggest version you're prepared to afford. Most of us have the UltraPAK. You may find that it's cheaper to buy the Pro version and then upgrade than to buy a bigger pack at the start.

PGMusic's videos are good but can be a bit overwhelming and hard to navigate. I rather like the versions done on YouTube by Henry Clarke.

There are differences between the Windows and Mac versions, the Mac vewrsion tending to be somewhat behind.

It depends on exactly what you want to do.

BiaB will not give you an exact replication of a cover song. It will generate its own parts based on the chord structure. It will read a MIDI file of a cover song and extract the chords from it so you do not have to input all of the chords yourself.

If you want an exact replica of a cover song the best way to achieve that is to input a MIDI file into your DAW and sing to that. There are a lot of MIDI files on the web, some free and some for purchase. Some free ones are not very good but many are excellent. The purchased ones are the best for exactly transcribed cover songs.

BiaB is great for generating different versions of a cover song but it will not exactly duplicate a cover song.

BiaB excels at creating your own music.

Also note that you can not post cover songs on the showcase forum or on many web sites.

With all due respect, I think you guys missed this. The OP is not a musician, only wants to sing to a backing. My advice is Karaoke. Therefore, not a candidate for BIAB.

I agree, there are karaoke tracks available on the Internet, and for someone who is not a musician, it's the easiest way to go.

The only problem I see is that the karaoke tracks are probably in the same key as the recording. I have very little experience with them (although some of our competitors use them) and I assume that you cannot transpose them very far from the original key without generating those telltale artifacts.

I base this on listening to my competition. Perhaps they don't know how to transpose without the distortions. Singing out of their range and hearing artifacts.

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

I agree Notes.

MIDI songs can be easily transposed to any key without any artifacts, but of course you already know that. That is the reason I suggested downloading MIDI songs.

However the OP still hasn't answered the question I posed as to whether he wants to do exact cover copies or his own version of covers.

I got the impressions that the O/P wanted to actually explore creating his/her own music. This was mentioned in the O/P's post:

If the user can choose a style and type the chords of a song, to me it sounds like BiaB is actually a perfect candidate.

sjs94704,

Have a look at this video, which may assist in your decision making:

A singer can be a musician even if they don't play an instrument.

Our voice is an instrument, it isn't so easy to use, we automatically harmonise to music out of our vocal range.

There are plenty of musicians who can't read music.

I agree. And I'll bet that there are plenty of BiaB users who can't read music too. That's one of the main reasons this product can be so valuable to so many people.

+++ Karaoke-Version.com +++ Pick out your song. +++ Hello by Adele +++, customize as desired and pay $2.99 per song.

I actually have an account over here . But I don't tell anyone.

1000% agree! Thats why BB is so useful to me personally. Whilst it has levels way ahove my pay grade for those musically trained and/or technically minded, at my Base Level I can just input chords to a Style (or even have ACW guess them) and take it or tinker from there.
Bests
Ian

I'm assuming that the O/P is familiar with other forms of existing backing tracks, but wants to also explore the potential of BiaB to provide a suitable solution.

sjs94704 is already using reaper

Keith

I think BIAB is a great way to go. Generating backing tracks is not all that difficult. If you don’t understand or know chords you could use Ultimate Guitar or a similar type site and download the chords for whatever song. Put them into BIAB then arrange away. That way you can make fairly simple arrangements of cover songs.

Once you have the chords in BIAB it is very simple to adjust the key or tempo to suit your voice or taste. In a DAW such as Reaper it is equally simple to fine tune a key, the tempo or the balance of tracks.

My thoughts on BIAB go for it, buy the best version you can afford (get as many styles as you can), play with it, relax and enjoy it. Don’t skimp, you’ll regret that.

Tony

My sentiments, exactly.

Band-in-a-Box is primarily used to make backing tracks for your own original songs. You may find something similar to Adel's music and "Hello" is included in the familiar Song Titles database in order to use it to filter the Styles list. However, it will not sound exactly like the existing song. Also, you will still need to know the chord names of the song you want to make. You would not need to know every single note in the chord, just the letter names to enter into the Chords view.

I don't know what this means. You can do a cover version of a song with your own arrangement as far as I know, but I could be wrong. Not being a musician and not being able to use sheet music to put the arrangement into BIAB would be quite a problem. Best bet is MIDI backing tracks available for purchase all over the place on the web or Karaoke tracks.

For your own personal use yes that is true but it is not true if you post or sell your version. Then melody line and lyrics are covered by copyright, but backing tracks or arrangement usually are not: if the backing track or arrangement are a unique part of the song then they could also be copyright covered.

For instance say you take the melody and lyrics of Misty and put them in front of a metal band doing a samba backing track and post it you are breaking copyright laws.

PS - that is why PGM does not allow cover songs to be posted if you do not have a license that allows you to use said cover song.

Note that I am not a lawyer nor have I played one on TV but that is what I have read.

I understand that completely. I was questioning the part of the OP statement that the law says to play a cover song "the original music must be used".

I was not referring to illegal playing and posting a cover song. Let's say you are playing in a band in an establishment, that pays the licensing fees required to have live music playing copyrighted songs. You song does not have to match the original for you to play it. You can do a bluegrass version of stairway to heaven if you want.

OK I get it now.And by the way where is the OP?



Yes I agree. I was talking about posting a cover song on the Internet without the proper licenses.

First off.... I think you will enjoy BB when you get it.

Second... If you create a cover, you are under no obligation or LAW to use the original music. You can copy it note for note or make any arrangement of it that you wish. The only thing the law says is that in order to post it for the public to hear, you would have to purchase the license to do that legally.

I rarely do covers for this reason but I have a few that are well hidden from prying eyes. One is a Creedence Clearwater Revival Song.... Have you ever seen the rain, Another is Neil Young Rockin in the free world, and the last one is Mott the Hoople's All the young dudes.

As far as setting up the chords in BB, I think that not one of those took more than a couple of minutes..... about ten minutes or so at most. If you know the song, and the chords, you simply enter them and ..... well, I play along as I enter the chords to be sure I'm getting it right. Once you have the first verse.... it's a simple copy and paste for the rest of the verses and a few minutes to do the same with the chorus. Essentially, you enter one verse and one chorus, copy and paste and add any bridges, solos, and endings. Total time per song.... 15 to 20 minutes average.

I don't read sheet music either. I simply enter the chords and let it roll. If you know a little about music and chords, this is doable. The more you know obviously, the easier it is but it's also a learning process and as you learn it gets easier.

Hope this helps.

Yes, I've been wondering the exact same thing. A lot of effort has been expended by the team here to try and assist.

ghosted again....

Hit and Run!

Find out more of sjs94704 by seaching sjs94704 on google - you might be suprised!

Keith

I have Biab 2022 when I play a song it works fine great sound. When I save the song I lose sound but I see th song playing. What could be the issue - I have even froze the piano part to keep it from regen but the song still has no sound

Welcome to the forum. Could you please start a new thread so your question isn’t lost in this one? I’m sure we can help.

We will need to ask you some questions, including whether your song uses MIDI or RealTracks, and what your audio drivers are. Do you have BIAB 2022, which build #, and are you running BIAB on a PC or a Mac?

Yes, this site is pretty good and you can customize the version you want, take out tracks etc. I have used it for some Christmas songs before. Came out quite nice.

Looks like a serial poster.

Whoever suggested you look into BIAB was on the money. Outside the approach of downloading karaoke tracks, there is no faster, more flexible, and in my opinion better choice for backup tracks for cover. Karaoke is karaoke. What you see is what you get. BB permits style, mix, instrument changes & the rhythm sections are awesome.
If I see a problem, in your approach, it is in music theory hesitancy, a lack of committment to learning the basics that will, in the long run, I fear cause you some regret and slow you down, ultimately, short of the goal. This could be the reason users here are suggesting commercial backing tracks.
I suggest getting familiar with Chordie.com, which is a vocalists' and rhythm guitarists' lead sheet site -- lyrics and chords.
With any software, user friendly as it may be, there is no getting away from time spent learning the program. If you're not willing to take that time, then the karaoke may fill your need.