I am a little pedantic about producing lead sheets that are easy to read and I have this printing problem that I just don't seem to be able to remedy.

Whenever I am printing lead sheets for my band, I like to have a "New Line each 'part marker'". I do not like it when a Tag starts in the middle of a line. When using the normal print button "Print" to enter Print Options, my preference is easily accomplished by setting the "Opt" (Print Options) appropriately and it prints fine.

Most of the settings in the "Opt" screen seem to carry over into printing when you are using the green buttons to enter lead sheet mode and you get another chance to change them if necessary. The 'new line' instruction also holds good when you go into lead sheet mode but not if you have the "Fake Sheet" box checked. Then it insists on putting the same number of bars (4 in my case) on each line, irrespective of the instruction about part markers.

Now it seems to me that the most useful fake sheets show just one chorus with repeat marks (also with multiple lines of lyrics), and then the Tag STARTING ON A NEW LINE! For that you need to have the "Fake Sheet Mode" ticked. But even if you have the necessary instruction in Lead Sheet Options (by ticking "Fake sheet including ending bars"), I cannot get a print with all part markers starting on a new line.

Is there something I am failing to understand? Or is it just a quirk in the program?

Graham,

I've played around with this and I don't think it's easily possible.

One way that you might be able to accomplish what you are after is to specify how many bars you want in each line. This text could be saved to the Memo file and simply copied and pasted each time you want to print.

To specify bars per line ...

Enter comma separated numerals in the box highlighted with a red rectangle on the below image.



The numerals I've entered in the above example tell BIAB to print 4 bars on the first stave, 3 bars on the second stave, 5 bars on the third stave, 2 bars on the fourth stave and 4 bars on the fifth stave. Staves six and onwards will print with 4 bars since this is the last value entered.

Hope this helps,
Noel

G'day Noel,

I will certainly give that a try and maybe the setting will hold for my mass production techniques when I am printing in different keys and clefs for different instruments. It certainly is one of those functions that I did not know existed in Lead Sheet mode. I had only used part markers and a common setting for bars per line. Which, as I said, works fine in all other print modes except the Lead Sheet, Fake Sheet mode.

It has possibilities. Thanks mate!

I have used this 'bars per line' option on several hundred pieces of sheet music. It can be cumbersome, but once you have your correct settings, it will stick, regardless of the key, lyrics or octave.

It's not easy to edit however, as you have to re-enter all the numbers if you want to change them (maybe this is fixed in 2014). So if you have for instance, 4,5,5,3,4,4,4,2 the option box will show 4,5,3,4,2 and you will have to retype the whole line to make it 4,5,5,3,5,3,2. BIAB only shows the significant digits, not the whole string. It's clumsy but workable.

G'day Dave,

I just wanted to let you know that your method works fine! End of the frustration I was experiencing because nearly all of my prints are for Lead Sheet, Fake Sheet mode.

Thanks so much!

It's good to see that you got it working, Graham.

Regards,
Noel

Great tip Noel. My problem is I don't do this very often and when I do it's always a rushed last minute thing and I forget how it works. What I've figured out is this:

Look at a real correct fake chart and while looking at it visualize it in your mind without any markings at all, see just the chords. That's what you enter in Biab, just the chords in the proper order, forget about creating the actual structure, no 1st/2nd endings, no DS, no tags etc. Just the chords as they should look on the page. Print that out and handwrite in those marks.

I don't like what Biab does for section letters or DS and coda signs for example, I put a wider margin on the left of the page so I can write those in myself. For me that's quick and easy and I don't have to remember all these little quirky things in Biab.

Of course after doing this I have to either scan them or copy them for the other players. It's better if it can all be done correctly in the program and use the automatic pdf function but I'm not seeing that so far.

I will increase the font size but that only goes so far because it increases the staff and melody note size as well. If you know of a way to increase just the chord symbol size without increasing the staff that would be great to know.

We've all talked over the years about how this print function needs to be overhauled but with all the other changes going on including producing new RT's for every version it seems to get continually pushed to the back burner. I know Biab is not marketed as a notation program and those programs cost more than Biab itself but still I think fixing some of these things is warranted.

Bob

I use the print function regularly, and I use all the repeats, endings and DS functions as well. It can be frustrating and I am with you in thinking that the notation needs an overhaul, or perhaps a seamless interface into one of the dedicated notation utilities. A lot has been said about Music XML, and although I know little about it, it has to be better than we have here. I have always found the fact that BIAB insists on equal bar lengths on a staff to be a problem. The size of the bar should be dynamic, based on the number of notes or number of syllables. A carried whole note doesn't need to take up the same space as a 8 eighth notes or 8 syllables.

But back to the Graham's problem. As long as you create the song (piece of music) in linear form, starting with the intro / lead-in and going through to the outro /final ending, creating a workable fake sheet is possible. It's not necessarily pretty, but you generally don't have to annotate it. I do like to have a song start at the beginning of a staff, and for each ending to similarly start at the beginning of a staff. I also usually try for 4 bar endings for consistency.

My only concession is to use small coloured dots (from the $ store). One at the beginning of a return and one of the same colour at the end of the return. I use a different colour at the beginning of each ending to identify where they start. My practice is to use a third colour for the jump out following a DS al coda, and the same colour to start the coda.

Occasionally songs have two or 3 repeats. I use a fourth colour for that. It sounds complicated, but it really isn't. Often just red at the beginning, and at the end, and blue for the start of each ending.

With judicious use of bars per line, lines per page and proper repeats, none of my over 300 songs is more than two pages. And the nice thing is that this is generated from the playable BIAB song, so there's no need to create for a separate fake sheet for band members.

I admit it may seem cumbersome, and I would LOVE a better tool to make professional looking sheet music, but I am not holding my breath. PGMusic seems intent on furthering the REAL functions, than looking at the notation. Compared with the other wonderful features, notation is the poor relative who is best not talked about in public.

Perfect!

As for Music XML I think this goes to the origins of Biab. I'm far from a coder but from what's been posted here over the years by people who are it appears the Biab basic code is very old and to implement stuff like that would require a complete rewrite which would be a huge project.

With all the talk about 64 bit which would also be a complete rewrite, and the fact that there hasn't been a mid year release for two years in a row, maybe that's what's happening right now. Time will tell.

Bob