Hi, I'm guessing this question has been asked before, but I rarely have success with searches. I have BIAB 2007, am I right in assuming I cannot repeat a verse before a chorus? That is, do I have to create an unnecessarily long document with all the verses spelled out the same way? And further, how would one put in a key shift after say 3 verses and a chorus?
Hi Limau,
Before I answer your questions, I'd like to clarify PG Music's interpretation of "Chorus". In the PG Music sense (and in the most general of senses), "chorus" means "once through the entire song". When one opens BIAB, the default setting is 3 x Choruses. Given that you have been using BIAB for sometime, I imagine that you are well aware of this. Should a new person be reading this thread, though, they will probably not be aware of this subtly with the word "chorus".
With the above in mind, if your song consists of Verse 1, Chorus, Verse 2, Chorus, Verse 3, Chorus, Ending then you could simply input this as one verse followed by a chorus and then set BIAB to play three "choruses" where a BIAB-chorus is what you have input as a verse followed by a chorus.
If however, you wanted to input a song that was something like Verse 1, Chorus, Verse 2, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus then I would suggest that you do it as a single PG Music "Chorus". This is easy enough to do because you only have to enter a single verse and chorus and then you can copy and paste the chords for the other verses and choruses (highlight the required range of bars, press CNTRL+C, relocate the cursor to the first bar of the required section and press CNTRL+V). BIAB calls this the "unfolded" format. Personally, I always write my songs as unfolded works as I feel it gives me easier control over all components.
Lastly, if you want to transpose the last section of music, you will need to highlight that section and then go to Edit | Transpose | Transpose from .. to.
Hope this helps,
Noel
Just trying to recall whether the BIAB version of four years ago supported Edit / Transpose / From .. To (I think it did) and key signature change (I think it did not).
Ah yes the transpose feature, thanks guys for pointing that out. Sorry about my use of the word chorus. Let me put it another way. If I want multiple verses followed by a "refrain" is there a way to repeat the verse instead of producing an unnecesarily long document; just like sheet music? My question is not about convenience of entry, its about keeping everything in one screen.
Intro
Verse + Chorus = 1 Pg Chorus x 3
Tag Ending (can be very long)
Fade
There are usually 2 versions a year so 2007 so for me that is 9 versions ago, a lot of water under the bridge and I don't know about the key change and when that was put in.
Thanks John, but thats rather cryptic. 2007 does not appear to allow the insertion of repeats other than at the final end. Therefore a complex arrangement would have to be written bar for bar or be a serious of repeated identical sections. I would have thought advanced musicians would want something more versatile in later versions. I'm not buying anything on the off-chance until I can get a straight answer.
Limau,
In my original post I mentioned that if you wanted Verse/refrain repeated 3 times, this is simply set in BIAB as 3 choruses. John has pointed out also that this would do the job for you. A tag ending could then be added to finish the song off if needed although it's likely that the BIAB ending will suffice.
The fact that our solutions do work for you means that we are not fully understanding your question. Can you please provide more detail about what you want BIAB to do for you. For example, did you want "Verse 1, Refrain, Verse 2, Refrain, Verse 3, Refrain, Ending"? Or maybe something like "Verse 1, Refrain, Verse 2, Refrain, Bridge, Refrain"?
Regards,
Noel
Somewhere between 2007 and 2011, repeats were improved, but it appears to me as if John and Noel gave you the correct (straight) answer. You just use the Bar for Beginning of Chorus and Bar for End of Chorus numbers to specify the section that repeats. Repeats do not have to be at the "final end". Use the two numbers to the right of the tempo box.
Don't forget, you have a 30-day money back guarantee if you purchase the upgrade to 2011.
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2007 does not appear to allow the insertion of repeats other than at the final end.
Repeats, 1st and 2nd endings, codas etc. were introduced with BB 2004. You might want to check out the tutorials on repeats.
I guess I don't frame questions well. What I would like to do is this: verse,verse,verse,refrain - without writing the verse three times. I know I can repeat the whole thing, and verse,refrain,verse,refrain etc is easy. Ultimately, it would be nice to be able to do something AAABABA and still have the option for endings or tags. But I think you can see if I repeat the first A three times, thats it, end of song. Or is it?
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Ultimately, it would be nice to be able to do something AAABABA and still have the option for endings or tags.
That's supported by the BB repeat feature. Did you really make yourself familiar with its syntax? Maybe it would be good if you describe the exact steps you took. In addition peruse the section 'Repeats Edit Dialog' in the help file and manual.
If you don't want to explain it, why bother telling me you know how to do it?
The first of the boxes is the starting bar.
The missing bars is the intro.
The next box is the ending bar.
The one on the far right is the number of repeats.
The tag ending goes after the 2nd number and plays until the actual ending.
If the 3 boxes read 8 40 and 3 the song starts at 1 for the intro, the verse starts at 8 and plays to 40 3 times, then it goes to the tag and thus to the end.
Hi Limau,
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If you don't want to explain it, why bother telling me you know how to do it?
I think you'll find that Martin is: (a) saying that it can be done; (b) indicating where to find information about what you want to do; (c) asking if you have read through this information, tried it out and, if so, whereabouts you got stuck; (d) asking that if it didn't work for you, could you please outline what you did so that he can approach a solution with a clear idea in mind of what you've tried.
In just about every instance I can think of, the Help manual, with all it's pictures and explanations, explains processes far better than it's possible to do in a text-based forum. My experience is that it often saves a great deal of time for everyone by using the Help manual as a reference.
The people in these forums are very supportive and offer help left, right and center to anyone who asks. I take my hat off to Martin. He's one of the best there is. Often a great deal of time goes into giving solutions that turn out to be useless. (Just like my earlier posts in this thread have ultimately not provided you with any help but they took me a reasonable amount of time to type.) When I read Martin's post, I read someone who was, in the most efficient way possible, seeking information and offering steps to take towards a solution.
Kind regards,
Noel
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If you don't want to explain it, why bother telling me you know how to do it?
By now, Limau develops quite some troll attitude here.
You don't really expect that someone reads the manual to you, do you? You got pointers where exactly you may start getting your butt off the ground. Now, do your homework. Anything else would amount to wasting impudently everybody's time here on the forum.