1) when I load a style that has a MIDI track where does that MIDI data come from?
2) is the MIDI data loaded from presets/files or generated somewhat randomly?
3) is different MIDI data loaded depending on what MIDI patch is chosen? so, a violin would (hopefully) load different data than a piano, right?
4) when you press the Generate and Play button is the MIDI data regenerated?

For 1 and 2 the style controls everything, just open up the Stylemaker and check it out. You can write a style that is a dead on copy one specific song if you wanted, the problem is you couldn't use it for anything else. If you want a style for Satisfaction, no problem write that guitar part into the style. PG gives us generic styles due to copyright issues but don't be fooled into thinking that's the way all styles are.

3, no. See above. If it's a piano track the style would be written to play a piano part not a violin part like my Satisfaction example would put the guitar part in the guitar track. If you changed the instrument to vibes you would hear the same guitar part played as vibes.

4, yes.

Bob

John,

MIDI styles are created by the user using the "STYLE" menu found next to the "EDIT" menu.

The MIDI information is not patch-dependent but is dependent on the patterns and rhythms of notes played by the user when creating the style. It is also possible to create styles using existing MIDI files.

If you have a look at the video tutorials, PG Music have put together a couple of excellent videos on how to go about doing this.

The best place to start getting a handle on this is to watch the PG Music videos.

Regards,
Noel

thanks guys!! but my questions at this point are strictly about the default factory package without me doing anything to create or modify styles. for now all I am interested in is how to load and use them and what to expect when I do that!

so, if I load a style that has several tracks of MIDI, are those tracks' MIDI data fixed in that style? or is that data recreated each time I load that style? and, is it recreated when I press Generate and Play?

and, assuming PG is providing the MIDI styles with BIAB and they wrote those MIDI data sections, am I safe in assuming any MIDI style marked "violin" has MIDI data that was designed to be reasonable on a violin?

So, I guess my questions are not so much about general MIDI but, rather, about what is BIAB doing to create MIDI data for me!

John,

Before Realtracks came along, BIAB was entirely a MIDI-based program. It's behaviour was identical to how it works with Realtracks in that each time a song is generated, a new variation of the track is created. This is still the case with the MIDI styles.

PG Music have developed the styles so that they reflect the instruments identified in the style information.

For example ... click on the style "Rainin" ...



Over in the information box on the right side of the Stylepicker screen, we get the information ...



This means that the MIDI data for the Bass track will be programed to reflect a Fretless Bass; the data for for the Strings track will be suitable to play synth strings, etc.

Regards,
Noel

OK, so I loaded NUGRASS.STY which is all MIDI. Then I soloed the guitar track and watched it on the Piano Roll. and I noticed what you guys told me...that the instrument data is regenerated every time I click the Generate and Play button! so that is cool!!

then I also noticed that each instrument is confined to a certain area of the scale, banjo a little higher than guitar and bass lower than everything else. so that is cool too!

so I guess BIAB is generating MIDI data for each track (assuming the track is MIDI) and it is confining it to the approximate range of that instrument.

do you know if BIAB is creating each track of MIDI data with some "awareness", other than scale, of the instrument identified in the style? for example, does BIAB know to create a banjo roll with the high note (5th string) in its proper position? another example would be a ukulele (4 strings) vs. a guitar (6 strings); would BIAB always generate its chords and arpegs to match the instrument in the style?

so, if I wanted to use BIAB as a starting point for creating MIDI data for the various VSTs I now have in KOMPLETE would it be a good idea to first choose a BIAB MIDI style with the instrument I want in the style I like and then save that MIDI data to bring into my DAW and match that up with the virtual instrument?


THANK YOU VERY MUCH for all of the help!! I feel I am only now beginning to understand the power of these tools, BIAB, MIDI, DAW and VSTs!!!

The more I explore here the more I am learning (I think!)

After reviewing the StyleMaker, as you guys suggested, I can see that, for each MIDI style, there is a set of patterns of MIDI data that is assembled "on-the-fly" by BIAB. And, unless I am mistaken, these data sets were probably created to approximate the target instrument within reasonable constraints.

And, obviously I can create my own sets of data to match my own playing if I wanted and then these would be assembled "on-the-fly" by BIAB.

What a brilliant, Brilliant, BRILLIANT tool this is!!!

I stand to be corrected on this....
Original BIAB midi styles have to be generated once.
Then notes are fixed. I just checked this out in the notation mode.

Midi supertracks also need to be generated once.
BUT.....supertracks on play/generate do setup new notes

Just checked both of these out..

+1 on the great set of tools.