I treated myself to the band in a box everything pack,just after install last year my world demanded me and I was away from music for half a year,I finally have some time now and want to play with the program. I am usually able to figure things out (eventually) but would really appreciate if someone could point me in the right direction.
My instrument is flute and at this point all I want to do is have pre made songs play that I could play along with. like I said I think its all installed and the sound works but I dont know where to begin. thanks in advance for any help.and you can count on me in the future to contribute

kaylen,

Your choice was excellent for the Everything Pak.
As you know some number of videos do come with that.

In addition PG folks have put together a great library of
additional videos.

Does take some time, but well worth the effort.
Pick and choose a bit to see what direction you want to go.
http://www.pgmusic.com/videos.bbwin.htm

Also welcome to great set of forums and helpful members.

thank you . I will start there, I am not in a rush ,and actually do play my flute almost every day but I am looking forward to playing with some accompaniment

Welcome to the forum.

The way I started with BIAB (more than two decades ago) was to take a song I know very well and enter it into BIAB, then play around with it learning what each change does. Frank's tip about the videos is good and probably makes learning a lot easier now.

By the way, I play flute, and you are fortunate that you play a non-transposing instrument. BIAB handles instruments in other keys very well, but it does add another step to learn that you don't need.

Have fun!

Hi Kaylen,

I remember when I first started with BIAB (version 2006). From that experience, I can say that there is definitely a learning curve associated with the program but it is well worth persevering. It's a great program. I couldn't be without the program these days.

All the best,
Noel

thanks all, I got it going, played along with a few.thats all I wanted to do for now ,,I plan to explore and try to figure out as much as I can, I feel very lucky that there are people willing to help, I will not abuse that and try my best to figure things out before asking of your time,,,

kaylen,

We neglected to give you this.
It allows a person to zero in on specific subjects nicely.
http://www.pgmusic.com/techfaq.htm

And..... you an always come to this forum to ask specific questions.

.
Perhaps, to get started, you may just want to have lots of songs to play along with. They are easy to get.

A number of users have built websites with lots of songs ready to go. One of them is posted below. Just found it myself a few days ago when I was looking for a particular song for a gig.

Should keep you busy for a while...

http://www.igidigi.nl/biab/index.html

The Beauty about Band in A Box (BIAB) is that you don't need to know the program in any depth. I use it every day for years and I simply either 1] select a song using the song select button, or, 2] enter a few chords into a blank screen, define tempo, key, number of bars and choruses (all done just above the chord sheet; choose a style, and off I go. its great for scale practice too, turn solo the drums and you have a great metronome.

If your unsure about the difference between Audio and MIDI, learn this first, before you go deeper.

Welcome

Thanks Flatfoot. Finally a list where someone shares their creations. I love this program, but often I m ask to perform songs for a special event that I just don't have the time to create. I was always hoping for a site where people post songs that we all know, but just needed the structure created as a shortcut. I do use the ACW but it still takes time to correct, get the tempo right, etc... Thanks a ton for sharing. Got any more?

That does look like a large collection. In past years it was very easy to find 1000's of BIAB Tunes on the internet. Today not so much due to, well you know...

Quite often, when I need to input a song into BB to use RB to render tracks, I find that it's just easier and faster to input the chords manually. Depends greatly on the chords used in the song as to whether ACW can figure it out accurately or not.

Inputting a song manually is generally a matter of only a few minutes. Since all verses and all choruses (respectively) are the same.... it's just the time to figure them out and then copy and paste. 10 to 15 minutes and I'm done. I have spent way more time than that trying to get ACW to give me something useful on several songs. Switched to manual and was done a few minutes later.

My advice for these situations is download a MIDI version of the request and import it into your DAW. If you don't have a favorite DAW already then use the DAW that comes with BiaB, RealBand. Then delete the lead part and record your flute.

Another option is to buy a fake book that Notes Norton has a fake disc: http://nortonmusic.com/

Norton fake discs are BiaB backing tracks for all of the songs in the corresponding fake book. The backing tracks are in the same key and use the identical chord structure that is in the fake book. I find these extremely valuable. These save me a ton of time!

I hope this helps.

Thanks guys. Don't see all the fuss in not allowing us to share - not sell - stuff we build in BIAB. Even cover songs. We all play these songs out - often for pay. That seems more illegal than sharing a BIAB file.

.
>>>....download a MIDI version of the request and import it into your DAW...>>>

If you open up the MIDI in Real Band, it will figure out the chords in a way that BiaB will understand. You can then delete all the tracks from the MIDI that are not the melody, and the chords will be remembered. Save in Realband, then open in BiaB. You will get melody and chords. Pick a BiaB style and you are about done.

.

Oh - and, Kaylen - make sure you understand how BiaB handles transposing.

On any song, find where it gives the name of the key. Click on the letter of the key and you will get TWO lists of keys that you can change to. One transposes and changes the notation. The other just changes the notation - the sound does not change.

Make sure you understand the two ways of transposing before you go much further...

Don't confuse what you may do with what is legal or illegal. In these instances I follow the rules of fight club and we all know the first rule of fight club.

.
>>>...Don't see all the fuss in not allowing us to share...>>>

Fuss? I did not notice any fuss ... what am I missing?

wow,,I started this thread and didn't know it was still going...I;m impressed with the amount, and quality of the responses,,,I did manage to get started and am looking forward to learning this program in more depth.I have some experience with DAWS, I will take it slow and enjoy as much as I can on the way....thank you all sincerely

Kaylen,

The link Flatfoot provided is excellent, had not seen it before and there are a goodly number of song files there.

Another good source is the Band-In-A-Box user group on Yahoo. The group has two additional groups just for storing files. You must join the main group and request to join the archive groups to gain access to the files. Here are the links:

Main Group

First File Storage Group

Second File Storage Group

Hi Flatfoot,
By fuss, I meant that I had seen some controversy in other posts over sharing things like cover songs. Maybe I misunderstood.

.
Hi Marty!

I am a long timer on this forum (and in real life, I suppose). One of the topics that keeps coming up is the copyright issues that do or do not apply when someone uses BiaB to create a song of their own. The topic is discussed a lot, but I do not see the discussion as being particularly contentious or argumentative.


Maybe I am not really paying attention...

thanks again, that list will keep me busy a while , I did figure out about the transposing key,but is there a way to transpose say an octave up or down?

Yes, if what you want to change an octave (either direction) is MIDI, which you normally have on the Melody and/or Soloist tracks, and may have on others. For the Melody, you can do it in Melody, Edit Melody, Transpose. Similar for the Soloist. Or, for a global change, go to Opt., Preferences, Channels. Change the second column, Octave.

The website mentioned by Flatfoot is great. It is really a good learning tool to download a song and see how someone else uses the program to build a song. I downloaded a few and was amazed at what was done. I had to dig to find out "how did they do that". When I listen to some do the creations posted on the User Showcase, I never imagined what went into these creations. This is getting additive!