I know this is a pretty fundamental question but I'm pretty new to biab, so bear with me.

I've been trying to make a song so I can jam to the chords in Old Love by Eric Clapton, so I inputted the chords and chose real tracks from the list for piano and bass, but when I hit play the thing was a nightmare. The piano wasn't even close to being in time and the bass player was all over the place. But then when I chose a pre-selected style (slowbal) it was great. I'm not sure what I did wrong.

If I load a style then start selecting real tracks, my real tracks will replace the ones in the style, yes?

I'm going to have to watch the instructional videos again...

It does take some experimenting. That's part of the fun!

Yes, you can replace any track in a style with a RealTrack of your choosing. You can then save the new combination as a new style.

Hi again, Doug.

When I read your post, I found myself wondering if maybe you'd mixed Realtracks that were different time signatures. I haven't tried it but this could potentially create some unusual results.

There's a bit of a learning curve with BIAB/RB but, once you get to the other side (it seems to take about a week or two for most people to start feeling a little bit comfortable), the end result makes the journey very worthwhile.

If you head over to the Users Showcase forum, you'll be able to hear what some users accomplish with BIAB. Here's a link to a song from a couple of experienced users. (The showcase forum can be found here.)

Regards,
Noel

• latest song: Just A Little After Midnight

Hmm. Maybe that's what I did. I'm not entirely sure. I'll keep at it, though, I'm amazed at the depth of this program.

Different time signatures would make a mash-up for sure, but you can still produce plenty of weirdness just by mixing incongruous genres. On the other hand, be alert to the possibility something you think couldn't possibly work, might. You just have to put in the time and audition lots of RealTracks, RealDrums and styles. BIAB now makes that easier to do without having to load them into a song.

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This might help: go to the far upper left of the main screen and then click "choose from 24 built-in" styles."

Here you will see BiaB's most basic list of styles. Explore the list and see what happens when you try different styles.

The '24 styles' go back to when BiaB was first invented, and that was a long time ago. Since then thousands of styles and hundreds of Realtracks have been added. I think if you start by exploring these most basic styles you will be able to get a grip on where the other styles and real tracks come into the picture.

Hi dooglet,

If anyone hasn't said so yet, welcome to the forum and to Band-in-a-Box. BiaB is confusing and part of learning how to use it is to understand the terminology and tools that it offers.

A song is just that, a song. All the information BiaB needs to recreate a song is contained in a song file. Band-in-a-Box song files have the nickname SGU file because song files have the suffix SGU. Most DAWs call their default files, project files because the file may include information about a musical piece, a song or a compact disk project. Band-in-a-Box concentrates on making song accompaniment so the default name for a file is a song file.

A style contains information Band-in-a-Box will use to put chord progressions together. Styles define how to create midi notation that midi instruments can follow, what midi instruments or RealTracks are initially selected, starting tempo, time signature (3/4 or 4/4 time), key signature (typically middle "C") and if the feel is swing (SW) or even (EV). Band-in-a-Box initially opens the ZZJAZZ.STY by default. The ".STY" tells you ZZJAZZ.STY is the name of a style file. The "ZZ" in the name tells you ZZJAZZ.STY is one of the original Band-in-a-Box styles. PG Music has original (midi) styles, midi styles with only midi instrument selections, hybrid styles with both midi and RealTracks instrument selections and RealStyles which have only RealTracks instrument slelections.

RealTracks are audio instrument tracks created by PG Music. In Band-in-a-Box RealTracks replace midi instruments. RealTracks may have midi notation but the notation is for the onscreen piano keyboards, fretboards and printing lead sheets. RealTracks midi has nothing to do with the audio.

Also look in the folder where BiaB is installed. Usually it is C:BB. There is a folder there caled "50 songs. It also goes back to the first version of BiaB.

The files there will make it clear what PG means when they call something a "Song."

In addition to selecting the proper RealTrack (3/4 versus 4/4), it also makes me wonder if you put the chords in the correct position for the song. Each bar in BIAB contains two cells and each cell can contain two chords. To enter the two chords in a cell, just separate them with a comma. Move on to the next cell and do the same thing. The first cell in each bar (in general) represents beats 1 and two; the second cell in each bar represents beats 3 and 4 (for a 4/4 song).

To enter a chord in just the 2nd half of the cell, just type a comma followed by the chord.

Also, there is always a default style loaded when you started BIAB (which you can change), which will play in addition to any instruments you substituted. So if you only substituted the bass and piano, whatever instruments defined in the underlying style for drums, guitar, and strings will also play. If the underlying style is a 4/4 straight feel and the piano and bass you selected were a swing feel, it just isn't going to sound very good.

What BIAB plays is all based on styles, with substitutions allowed. Unless muted, however, all instruments defined in the style will play.

My suggestion is to decide the feel of the song you want to use (4/4, straight or swing, 8th or 16th feel - you usually use 8th feel for faster tempos and 16th feel for slower tempos, but it depends on the song).

Frame out your song using the three numbered boxed on the main screen. The first is the bar number the song starts on (to take into account an intro), the second number is the number of bars in the song, and the third number is the number of times to repeat the song (between the start number and the end based on number of bars). By default, BIAB will add a two-bar ending to the song after the last chorus plays.

Once you have framed out your song, enter the chords in the appropriate bars (I'm not getting into advanced features here, so I'm just assuming each bar starts on a beat).

Set an appropriate tempo, and then go to StylePicker to choose an appropriate style based on everything discussed above.

Now hit play/generate to listen to the song. It won't sound like the original, because of the style you chose, but the chords should line up on the right beats and everything should play in the same feel.

Once you're okay with this, now you can start looking at substituting styles and/or individual tracks. If you substitute tracks, make sure (at least while you are still learning) the style has the same attributes as the underlying style. RealTracks can be soloist tracks (like a guitar lead) or rhythm tracks, and will indicate that in their name. You'll also see if they are 4/4 or 3/4 (waltz styles as well). The RealTrack picker will also show appropriate tempos for the style.

Hopefully this will get you closer to what you want to do. It takes longer to read this post than to actually do everything described.