Hi, I was mainly looking at using BIAB for sight reading training purposes but less than a few minutes in using the program, I notice that the notation generated for the Melodist is frequently inaccurate!? It just simply is not what is being played. Is this a known bug or is there a setting I have wrong or...am I the only one to have the problem??
This could be such an awesome feature of BIAB, and a very good selling point too because there are surprisingly few dedicated programs for sight-reading but as it is now, BIAB is unusable because that's one vital point when sight reading, you HAVE to be able to rely on the accuracy or else you're just learning wrong!? Chumbo
Welcome to the forum, you'll find this place one of the most helpful on the internet.
You need to tell us EXACTLY what you did. You mentioned the Melodist. I don't use that much but I believe you load in some chords, pick a style and Biab creates a melody, correct? If so then yes, that created melody should be exact between what is displayed as notation and what is heard.
The next thing is to make sure you're looking at the correct notation for whatever track you want to see. Without explaining all that it's easier to just ask you to tell is exactly what you did by menu and mouse click.
you'll find this place one of the most helpful on the internet.
Glad to hear that!
As I wrote in the subject, it's generated by the Melodist so not a MIDI file. I'm using BIAB 2015 and it's not the Realtracks (at least I'm quite sure it isn't...sounds too cheesy! )
Really simple actually. I just clicked the Melodist button and had it generate a whole arrangement (chords+melody) and then changed to the notation view for the melody...that's it really.
Before troubleshooting any further, since you say you don't use the Melodist, I think it might be worth it that you give it a try and read along for a dozen or so bars and see if it's all accurate for you?
Another problem I'm finding now is that despite the fact that I've set EVERYTHING to 'Even 8Th' where ever a setting permitted it in the Melodist Maker, it still plays the melody with a very heavy swing feel!?
Now I know what happened to the old Soundtrack! It's the Melodist.
Anyway, the melody displays perfectly for me. I used the Pop16th Ballad and kept at the defaults. Then I used the Jazz Quint Fast one and set up the key of F and the form and other things and the notation was perfect there too. I know this because I sat at my piano and played along with the display on the screen. I use a 60" big screen set up in my living room for this kind of thing so my piano is sitting just to the side of it.
Describe exactly what you're hearing and seeing. Maybe take a screenshot and post it. If you're not sure how to do that when you reply don't just start writing in the window below this post, hit the Reply button first then click the blue File Manager button and follow the instructions.
I'm really busy at work right now and I'm tired so I'll have to leave this until tomorrow evening but we'll figure out what's going on.
I'm a big Melodist fan and have used it regularly over the years. It's been very useful for me when I'm looking for ideas for melodies and chord progressions with my songwriting. I've not had any problems with it.
After reading your post, I've just given it another run through. What I did was simply open it up, select a style/genre (I used #10, Pop 16ths Vibes), leave everything as is, and then generate the melody and chord progression.
Here is a link to a video & audio clip of what it produced for me. The file is 5.8 MB. While I haven't got the audio and video completely in synch, I think it's close enough to show you what my outcome was.
Within the boundaries of performance variations, the notation is fine.
I've made progress. It seems in fact that by using an even style, it fixes the swing feel on the melody despite all my settings in the Melodist being set on even!?
This makes me question what is the point of having those settings in the Melodist if not only they don't do what they say they do, but they actually screw up the notation!? Because that seems to be the problem actually. Just as an experiment, I now did the opposite of the situation I had before and used swing 8th settings in a style which is an even 8th. I then played along with the notation and errors popped up here and there!
HERE'S a capture of 4 bars repeated twice. Spot the error! (it's excruciatingly slow because remember...I'm just learning to read music! )
I cannot recall BIAB 2015, but in the Melodist window of BIAB 2016, there does not appear to be an option for swing, even, 8th beat, etc. These are found in the Melodist Editor. See below...
The Editor window, accessed via the "Melodist Maker | Edit" button on the main window, is for modifying existing Melodist styles and for creating original styles.
If I am interpreting your post correctly and it is the Editor part of the Melodist that's causing grief, I suggest having a read in the pdf manual about how to use it effectively. It's a fairly advanced part of BIAB. For what you want, it sounds like the main Melodist window is what will do the best job at this point in time rather than the Editor window.
Regards, Noel
Last edited by Noel96; 03/23/1601:21 AM. Reason: updating information
Hi Noel, Thanks for your reply. Yes, you are correct, I was in fact talking about 'Melodist Maker' accessed through the Melodist button.
And right again, I had set everything in that window to Even 8th expecting the behavior I've described previously...but you're saying that they are maybe not meant for that purpose then? Ok, I'll have a read at manual and try to understand it better. Still, I find the results obtained by making the changes I did a bit on the odd side...why can't the notation still reflect what the melodist is playing?!
If you just want to create a melody, then you should use the main Melodist Screen and select one of the preset melodists (and then set your options accordingly).
The Melodist Maker is for when you want to change the behavior of an existing melody (and if you aren't careful to save it off to a different file, I believe you may lose your changes with the next upgrade to BIAB, as the DEFAULT.MEL file may get overwritten).
This is also used to create your own Melodist definitions. You have to be careful when you do so, because it asks you to specify a style to use, but then you have to tell the Maker what kind of style it is (Even-8ths, Swing-8ths, Even-16ths, etc). Also, the ST2 database you use as a basis for you Melodist determines the feel (for example MEL1.ST2=Jazz Swing (8th notes), MELPOP1.ST2 (Pop Ballads, 16th notes), MELWLZ1.ST2 (Waltzes, 8th notes), and MELROK1.ST2 (Rock, 8th notes)).
If you have an existing preset highlighted, when you click OK, that preset is now changed based on the updates you made. If you want to create your own new melodist, you need to choose one of the unused slots.
Melodist Maker supports only up to 256 different melodists. You can Save As to a different melodist file (the default file is DEFAULT.MEL), and you can import and export individual Melodists).
Check out page 485 in the BIAB2015 PDF manual for more information about using the Melodist Maker. Check out pages 177 and 296 for more information on using just the Melodist feature.
Hope that helped.
John
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Thanks John. As I explained in my original post, my intended use for BIAB is right now, rather basic so I don't want to venture too much in having to read lots of the manual and further trial and error. For now, I'll just stick to all the suggestions to keep it simple so that it works as I hoped it would...creating a simple and accurate melody & notation so I can practice my sight reading.
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