PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Windows Your favorite way of making decent printed scores from BIAB?

Bob, let me summarize the way you do it.
If you need 10 charts at the gig friday, that you did find in your fake books somewhere, but not yet in the correct key (otherwise you could have printed it right away) for all different instruments, so you want to notate them all in BIAB and print them out in the transposed key's which you need for the different instruments you plan to play with.
So after notating the stuff in BIAB, which is most work I guess, you make n x 10 different print outs by using the transposed settings in BIAB when printing for different instruments. Then add by pencil 1st/2nd endings and coda's on each sheet when needed.

I just don't agree. This is not the order in which things should be done. Making a print out on paper or a print to pdf is the same action,saving to pdf is quicker then printing. The next step could be running the pdf with PDFtoMusic Pro to create your musicXML which only takes a few seconds more, then import it into a notation program with your favourite template (e.g. large visible chords). Their you can add your missing 1st/2nd endings and coda's in the way you like it. Then print your paper or PDF's again. Your tablet is still not involved. Once you are familiar with the different steps it is very quick. If you need to do it for 10 songs you can batch-process several steps in one directory.

I realize that not beïng familiar with the procedures some barriers need to be taken, but once you know the steps it doesn't take really so much time as you suggest. And in case you have a tablet, or rather everybody used a tablet, you should never hand out paper print outs anymore but just could print it directly to PDF and send it by email to your friend musicians. Any tablet can display PDF's. If you use the correct programs everybody can add its own notations.

Then at the gig a singer might come along who wants it all in a different key. Or you didn't make a copy for an instrument that wants to join the gig! You have to say sorry. I'm just tryïng to suggest some practice I experience many times at a gig or worse so at most jams.
Also when rehearsing with my combo's, if music is present in one of the fake books, it is almost never in the correct key available. So yes you might need to notate it first in BIAB then hand it out next rehearsel unless the song directly can be found in the growing data base for "Avid Scorch" or "MuseScore Songbook" then we play it right away since you can transpose it on the spot on your tablet.

I realize that not all guys you play with might have a tablet yet, but the number grows fast. And once they have it you can transpose it directly, and if they don't have the correct program you can transpose it for them at your own tablet and make a "screen photo to pdf" and send it by email or bluetooth to their tablet. So within seconds they have the song in the correct key available! I'm very in favour of using a tablet instead of paper and since "MuseScore Songbook" can run also on all Androïd systems many more people can make use of the transpose option.

(Btw I've got a (growing) data-base of over 160 real/fake pdf books all indexed/bookmarked for searching, which might interest you, free for everybody who joins it. Can be used in iGigBook, ForScore and any other PDF reader, send a personal email ).

Rob