I'm running the Win 2016 (434) version on Windows 10.

In one particular song, I can't get a G... chord to "hold", it just keeps playing.
I know the function works OK because, if I enter a few chords into a "new" chord grid, and make one of them G... it plays correctly.

However, in the current song, it won't.
The style is C_2STEP.STY, the tempo is 90 and the chords are:

| G - D7 | G - G... | G | D7 | etc.

I thought perhaps there was an Options > Preferences setting whereby this particular song was set to something like: "Ignore shot/rest/hold entries" but I can't find anything like that.

I've tried
- deleting the G... chord and re-entering it
- removing the entire bar and re-entering it
- shutting down BIAB and re-starting
- restarting Windows

Any ideas? Help!

Thanks!
LLOYD S

Is the song frozen?

Is it possible you have rendered an audio file of the song, and that's what you are hearing?

- Checked the tracks, all are MIDI, none are frozen
- Changed a chord in the song from G to A and replayed the song. Still no "hold" on the aforementioned G... chord but it did play the A instead of G. I assume that indicated the song hasn't been rendered.

I also saved the song to a thumb drive, then loaded and played it (same BIAB version) but running Win XP. Same result.

Thanks Matt!
Any other suggestions?

Do any instruments hold?

Are you up to date on RealTracks updates? Among the most recent changes were adding to the Holds. I think almost all instruments have holds now but some may not still.
EDIT never mind that, I just re-read that this is all MIDI. Can you see the notation and does it show notes holding?

Matt:

All the instruments are MIDI in the stated style, C_2STEP.STY and I haven't substituted any RealTracks.

Also, as I mentioned, that style and the G... chord designation works fine in a brand New file. It must be something in this particular song.

Wouldn't it be nice if you could just open 2 instances of BIAB, then copy the Chords from one and paste it into the other!

I would just re-do the the entire song but it also has a melody line, again which can't be copied and pasted to a new song.

Thanks again for your help.
Let me know if you think of anything else I can try.

LLOYD S

>>> Wouldn't it be nice if you could just open 2 instances of BIAB, then copy the Chords from one and paste it into the other!

You can open song 1, copy the chords, and then open song 2, and paste the chords (from song 1 into song 2)

Peter:

I tried that using both the Copy and Paste functions and the Ctrl/C and Ctrl/V functions. I can't get either of those to work between 2 instances of BIAB.

Lloyd S

OK, Peter's method worked fine if you...

- Highlight the chords in the song and then "Copy"
- Use File > New to open a blank grid
- Position cursor in new file and "Paste"

Thanks Peter!

I'll try that for the Melody and report back.

LLOYD S

I don't think Peter meant between two open instances, but in the same instance. Open the song you want to copy from (instance 2, assuming you saved it) in instance 1, then copy the chords you want. Then open a new file or open an existing file in instance 1 (which closes the other file, but don't save it) and paste the chords into the new song. A couple extra steps.

But I agree that it would be much cleaner if the two instances shared the same paste buffer, especially without having to save the file each time, which you may not want to do while figuring things out.

The Copy and Paste function works for the Melody too.
BIAB now honors the G... chord and the song plays as expected.

Thanks again Peter!
(Is there any way to copy/paste between open instances?)

LLOYD S

I'm a little late to the topic since the problem has been solved as described. But, perhaps it has something to do with the 2 places that need to be selected for shots, holds to be activated in the song file as it is saved. So far this solution has only been applied to RealTracks not a MIDI only style but why not try both settings anyhow to see what happens.
Review this thread for potential solution.
http://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=51203&Number=352259#Post352259

There are 2 settings to check in order to get Shots, Holds and Pushes to behave with RealTracks in BIAB 2016. (and perhaps other versions)

A: Preferences | RealTracks | RealTracks Settings dialog ' [_] Allow RealTracks Shots, Holds and Pushes

B: Song Settings (above the tempo box) |
[_] Allow RealTracks Shots, Holds and Pushes.

I could not get my chords to hold (sustain) until I had found and checked both of these.

Tobias:

As you stated, the problem was with a MIDI file and no RealTracks were involved so the settings you describe wouldn't apply to this situation.

As far as I can tell, it was simply a case of that particular song file becoming corrupt. Once I copied and pasted the chords and melody to a new file as per Peter and jford's suggestion, that G... "held" chord played just fine.

I haven't found any other files where a held MIDI chord wouldn't play as instructed and I can't seem to replicate the problem.

Thanks for your reminder about the RealTracks "hold" chords.

LLOYD S

Glad you solved it. Corrupt BIAB files are rare in my experience, plus there are cases like this where we might conclude the file is corrupt, stop looking, and never find the real answer.

It might be interesting for us to look at your song if you can post a link to it (Dropbox etc.). And just for curiosity, did this song start with a MIDI file you downloaded?

Tobias, this is indeed one of those 'gotcha' items that can be hard to find. This would make a nice Tips & Tricks entry.

Matt:

The file I used was not a MIDI download file, although it WAS a file from somewhere else (don't remember the origin) and just modified by me.

I've put it into a "BIAB test" folder in my DropBox account. Send me a PM if you want access to it (I believe all I need is your email address).

Thanks!
LLOYD S

I've seen that "somewhere else" reason before, hence my question. Yes, I'd like to look at it. Sending a PM.

Matt:

I replied to your PM.

Thanks!
LLOYD S

OK, I loaded your song. You're right, it does not obey the held chords in the intro and near the end.

Try running MIDI Monitor (in the Window menu) while playing your song. I see a ton of Control Changes and Sustain Pedals in there. These are not normally in my songs. Just a guess, but I think they came from "somewhere else" and are interfering with BIAB's chord controls to hold a chord.

You might also consider sending a Dropbox link to the song to support@pgmusic.com and reference this thread.

Matt:

I've sent a link and a message to Support as per your suggestion.
Glad you found something amiss. I was beginning to think senility had
finally caught up to me <grin>.

Thanks again for your help!
LLOYD S

After sending the file to Support, I got the following info back from Kent:

"Hi Lloyd,

There's nothing really wrong with this song file, it's doing exactly what it was told to do.

If you open Song Settings, you'll see that all of the checkboxes at the top have been unchecked. In this case, the relevant one is "Allow Rests in First Chorus". Holds are considered a type of rest in Band-in-a-Box, and unchecking that box tells Band-in-a-Box to ignore them.

All of those boxes (except for "Force Song to Simple Arrangement") are checked by default, that's why copying the chords into a new song got the chord to hold."

Mystery solved!
Thanks Kent!

Very interesting. I need to check that out.