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Much appreciated Janice & Bud. Not quite the end............. IZZY (Softly, chuckling) Gerda, my love, you won't believe this review... Janice and Bud just posted it. GERDA (Eyes wide, practically lunging for the tablet) Ach du lieber Himmel! Let me see! Is it… is it gut? Veeery gut? Tell me zey liked my blues song! Izzy carefully hands her the tablet. Gerda squints, then her eyes widen, slowly reading the text, mouthing some of the words. GERDA (Reading slowly, with dramatic pauses) "After we put ze monitors back on ze shelf…" (She pauses, confused, looks up at Izzy) Zat is… very efficient! Good for cleanliness, Ja? Zey tidied up for us! Veeery thoughtful! Izzy bites back a smile, shaking his head fondly. GERDA (Beaming, reading on) "We much enjoyed it! Smile!" Oh, zey smiled! Zat is good! (Her voice picks up, growing more excited) "Awesome! Zis could be a bonus track off Ze Rolling Stones’ Blue and Lonesome album!" (She gasps, clutching the tablet to her chest) IZZY! Did you hear zat?! ZEY SAID ROLLING STONES! Like Blue and Lonesome! Zat is MY choosing, Izzy! MY blues brain zat said, "Let's make ze blues, Izzy! Ze real blues!" She pats Izzy’s arm emphatically, nearly knocking his phone. IZZY (Grinning) It was a great choice, Gerdsy. You were right. GERDA (Waving a hand dismissively, focused on the review again) Of course I vas right! But zey… Janice und Bud… zey are not just critics, zey are… prophets of ze blues! Or perhaps… gurus of ze grooooove! She squints back at the tablet, nodding vigorously. GERDA "Ze write up for ze song vas quite enjoyable. Hated to come to 'ze end.'" Ach, zey vanted more of our vords! Next time, I write a book! She dramatically points at the screen. GERDA "Ze solo guitar RT sounded great - never a small feat to choose ze 'right' one for a production." Ja! RT is a genius! And zey know it! (She pats Izzy's arm again) And our friends! "Your friends fit nicely in too." Ja! Vee are a family of blues! And ze bass! "Ze bass nailed ze schuffle!" NAIL! Like a hammer! Pow! So accurate! She makes a hammering motion with her fist. Izzy just watches her, amused. GERDA (Beaming, puffing out her chest) "Vee hear a fine mix all around." Ja, Izzy! Ze mix! All zese tiny buttons you push, and it comes out fine! It is wonderful! She holds up two fingers of one hand, then two fingers of the other, forming a "two thumbs up" gesture. GERDA "Zwei thumbs up from us!" ZWEI! From Janice und Bud! Zat is like getting ze Bundesverdienstkreuz, but for blues! It is ze highest honour! She stands up, full of triumphant energy. GERDA (With immense pride, practically shouting) And ze best part! Ze most important part! "Blues via a schuffle are so good – always." And zen… zen zey say it! Ze vords of truth! (She strikes a pose like a conductor, pointing skyward) "KEEP BLUES ALIVE!" She turns to Izzy, her eyes shining. GERDA Vee vill! Vee vill keep ze blues alive! And zey, Janice und mein lieber Bud, zey are ze keepers of ze flame! I vill send zem a gratitude package! Perhaps some German Bratwurst! Zey deserve it! Izzy smiles fondly, shaking his head slightly. He reaches out and gently takes the tablet from her, giving her hand a squeeze. IZZY (Warmly) They certainly do, Gerdsy. They certainly do. And you, my blues queen, you deserve some rest. GERDA (Still buzzing) Rest? After zat review? Nevair! Ze blues, Izzy, ze blues calls to me! I feel a new song coming! About… about monitors on shelves! It vill be a hit! Izzy just laughs softly, pulling her into a hug. THE REAL END.

Muddy vocals? I'll have a look - thanks.

The Service might be free bit I understand that you still have to purchase the hardware.

Oh Alan, I am so sorry. Di was such a sweet, wonderful woman. God bless and comfort you. I know you are still in shock right now. When the grief gets too bad you can find help and support from others who know what you're going through at a local church or online with a Griefshare.org group. It's once a week group grief counselling for 13 weeks. All you pay for is the workbook. Hugs and prayers.

Thanks Mr MIDI! I can polish the vocals a little more but I don't want them any louder than the already are...they're become, to me, obtrusive - particularly for the template in my scone.

Your vocals have REALLY upped and you now sound like an heir to J.J.Cale. The band is cool, the bass is insane, the guitar tone & licks are fab then CS drops in to sprinkle magic woofle dust bvox. Yeah.

The drums in the chorus took me my surprise and I had to wait a couple of bars to confirm it wasn't an error. They're probably a little to quiet for their unsettling potential. Kinda like a Tom Waits B side with a sketchy beatnik jazz groove...cool.

Biab + AI vocals give a sheen of convention and prefab to the package but that's doesn't disguise a decent melody and narrative nor is a bad thing in the ears of most listeners. Do people still drink whiskey?

Two newer midi possible midi solutions available in Band-in-a-Box are MidiSuperTracks and Microcholds. There is a video Peter Gannon made sometime in the 2010's era where he demonstrates replacing a RealTrack for a bar or two with midi and a virtual instrument. It should be pretty easy to do by creating the virtual instrument on an empty track then using bar settings to mute the RealTrack and play the virtual instrument.

In another conversation someone remarked initiating the "fix sour notes" feature worked on a similar issue.

Thanks, Bob! Barenaked Ladies are WAY cooler than we are, but it feels good anyway. Just listened to them when Brian Wilson passed, for obvious reasons... Thank you, Ray! That's a brilliant suggestion, and I've updated the SoundCloud file to reflect the change. (Actually did that hours ago now) I was going to do it that way originally, but sang it the way I did first and thought, "Hey, that's not bad". But it wasn't as good as your way, either. Appreciate the listen and thoughtful input.

Arri, used to live in downtown New Orleans, and this brings back some fond memories. You've really captured the exuberance of that style of music. I'd agree with Mario that when the band comes in for the middle section they should be more up front in the mix. Once they get to that part of the tune, they're usually quite loud and clamorous. Enjoyed your tune!

Ray, That's very kind and appreciated. Thanks from both of us. Bob

Mario, Absolutely beautiful. An appropriate title - thanks for the inspirational musical experience!

Man, you are a master of all BiaB productions .... have we said that before? Finding the "right" for your production solo RT's is not an easy task. No doubt it takes a lot of auditioning and perhaps some comping. The great build takes the listener nicely through the multiple moods. Great mix too. Well done! J&B

Thank you Mario, glad you could relate lol I will admit that Take This Job And Shove It was a bit of an influence on this one! Pete

Thanks Mario for your super positive review of my song I enjoyed your song Demon very much, a great song but a sad message. Janne

J'utilise Band in a Box depuis la version 2006, donc depuis près de 20 ans ! S'il était relativement facile à maitriser à l'origine, je pense comme toi que c'est devenu une usine à gaz, de plus en plus difficile à utiliser en dehors de son usage primaire (on saisit des accords et Band in a Box génère un arrangement). J'ai par ailleurs l'impression qu'il est de plus en plus "buggé". Je fais en tout cas l'amère expérience de multiples dysfonctionnements avec la version 2025 : voir mes questions récentes sur le forum en anglais : https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=109155&Number=845202#Post845202 https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=109771&Number=851891#Post851891 Mais Band in a Box reste incontournable depuis que PG Music a mis au point les "Real Tracks", ces pistes d'arrangements ou de solos joués par de véritables musiciens qui peuvent s'adapter automatiquement à n'importe quelle grille d'accords et à n'importe quelle tonalité. A ma connaissance c'est le seul logiciel au monde qui propose cette fonction : même Yamaha, qui est en pointe sur le sujet, ne propose que de la batterie pour des arrangements avec instruments réels . Hélas, depuis cette date (2011 sauf erreur), PG Music concentre l'essentiel de ses efforts à créer de nouvelles Realtracks et de nouvelles fonctions, mais néglige beaucoup l'ergonomie du logiciel, qui devient de moins en moins clair et convivial. Bonne musique quand même 🙂 !

I understand this issue. I think I liked your other proposed solution better, to fix the Simpler option. I know you understand music theory so help me understand in your example, what is the scale you would want to limit BIAB to playing in a CSus chord? C Major scale? Is it the Bb you object to? Ok, I can see that, but you would be ok with a Bnatural?

aSom, an outstanding arrangement. Super strings! The synth vocal is very good. Super mix. A really good song.

James, nice backing tracks. I agree with the others about the vocal, i.e. to loud and bassy. Clean that up and you will have a masterpiece.

It's one reason why I use MIDI instead of real tracks. BiaB picks the chord inversion, which might be fine, but not what I want. If I export the MIDI song, I can go to a sequencer or DAW, and make what I think is the very good output of BiaB and turn it into something that is ready for prime time, excellent. Insights and incites by Notes ♫

Just as an FYI, if you have BIAB 2025 version, that feature is now under Edit, Chords, Chord Substitution (Choose Your Own or Auto Generated).

[quote=Brno] Thank you for listening and writing the very positive review that is appreciated by us three. And yep, it is a boomer song. 😀 J&B

Great to hear that you are back up and running man ! Sorry it took so much work for you to get back working again, but thanks for letting us know. - Jay