Hello

I have tried to import mp3 and wav fil into Audio Chord Wizard but I get this


I cannot select the Key Signature and the other optio only the "Erase the Audio File in BB" the other are in grey

Am I doing something wrong ? as BB cannot process the Chord recognition

Thanks for your help
Fred

Hello Fred,

I just responded on your French Band-in-a-Box forum post as well.

Perhaps a step was missed in the previous Audio Chord Wizard window.

After you selected the audio file to open in the ACW you have to "Set Bar 1" and then click "OK - Send to BIAB" when you are happy with the analysis. Is that what you tried?

If you press "Close" in the dialog you pictured above, do you not see the imported chords on the Band-in-a-Box chord sheet?

Alyssa

I have done it 2 different ways
By clicking on the Audio Chord Wizard icon in the tool Section it open the browser to select an audio file click Ok and after processing the file I got this


I do not have any other intermediate step where I can sse the chords

If I do the same using the Audio Menu I got the same


I also get the following message sometimes "This style is unable for this song do you want to able it (something like that)


I never get to this step

Fred

Fred,

Go to the below link.

http://www.pgmusic.com/videos.bbwin.htm

Under the "Advanced" section, there's a link to a video clip on how to use the ACW. The clip is produced by PG Music and provides a comprehensive insight into the ACW feature.



Have a look through this video. It will give a much greater understanding of this area of BIAB.

Regards,
Noel

• my latest song (a co-write with J&B): I Won Life's Lotto

Hi Noel

This is what I did before posting
It use to work but I don't know why it is not working anymore
After the Audio file get processed I do ne get this step



But got direct to this

so I might be doing something wrong but I do not see what.

Fred

PS even if I am a newbe in this forum I have been using BIAB since version 7 for ATARI.

Fred,

When BIAB stops doing what it used to do, I've found that resetting to factory settings often fixes the problem. (This is under the Options menu.)

There are two settings...



...the upper one is a partial factory reset. The lower one is a full factory reset.

Seeing you BIAB 2016, I would first save your present settings (also under the Options menu). Then I would use the full factory reset and then restart my computer.

See if that helps.

Regards,
Noel

Hello Noel

It do not change anything I have made a full factory reset restart the computer and still get the same

I got the this in the Style info
X ZZJAZZ.STY Jazz Swing Style
Looks like the style was disable I have click on the Style name and make it enable

Still the same
Fred

Fred,

Do you have update 437 for BIAB 2016 installed?

http://www.pgmusic.com/support_windowsupdates.htm

I have BIAB 2016 (437) and the ACW is working fine. When I load an audio file to work with, I use "File | Open Special | Open Audio w/chords"




Sitting here thinking about your problem, I find myself wondering if maybe there is a key stuck on your keyboard that is cause the exit from screen that you are not getting (the one below). Is this a possibility?



Lastly, based on my experience, having the style disabled usually means that BIAB has travelled through the ACW process and the chords have been transferred to BIAB. Something strange is definitely happening.

Do you use dual monitors by any chance? (I know nothing about a dual monitor set up only that somethings unusual things can happen with BIAB.)

Lastly, try the chord wizard in Realband and see if the problem persists. This might give some additional clues. To open an audio file with ACW in Realband, you'll need to use "File | Open Special | Open Audio w/chords".

Regards,
Noel

Yes Noel I have the 437 update installed

I have also tried to open it as you suggested "File > Open Special > Open Audio w/chords" but still the same

I have the BIAB 2016 437 installed on a 500Go SSD external drive
in order to use it at home and with my laptop and it does the same on both so I don't think it is a key stuck on my keyboard

I will try with RealBand even if I do not use it at all as I have Cubase 8.5 running on both Computers but I will try anyway

Thanks for your great help
Fred

PS: I will let you know about ACW in RealBand

Fred,

There's one other thing to try, too. Sometimes, the "Options | Reset to factory settings" does not solve the problem and it's necessary to do the ultimate reset to factory settings.

To do this...

1. Go the the \bb folder.

2. Rename the file "intrface.bbw' to something like "intrface.bbw.old" (note the spelling of "intrface")

3. Rename "mysetup.dk" to something like "mysetup.dk.old"

The above two files are the set up files for BIAB. By renaming them, BIAB no longer sees them and it forces the program to create new ones from scratch. (Renaming also allows you to get them back easily if you want them.)

I've only ever used the above a couple of times. Normally the "Options | Reset..." does the job but not always.

Regards,
Noel

I have done what you say but there is no improvement
I still got the same.
This is very strange. I would not like to re-install the complete thing (takes ages) but if I cannot sort it another way this is probably what I will have to do?

Regards
Fred

Fred,

This is indeed unusual behaviour.

If you decide to try a reinstall, keep in mind that you don't need to reinstall all the Realtracks and Realdrums. Only the BIAB/RB file.... that's the one that contains the programs' software.


Do you run BIAB/RB in administrator mode? If might be that if the programs are writing temp files, they need to have administrator privileges.

You can set the admin privileges by right-clicking on the program's shortcut and then selecting "Properties". Admin privileges is under the "Compatibility" tab.


Also, when you installed BIAB 2016, what option did you use?


Lastly, have you changed anything to do with your computer recently?

Regards,
Noel

Thanks a lot Noel for your appreciated support I will contact support to have it sorted before I try to re-install

Kind regards
Fred

Fred,

Good luck. Support are very helpful. Send an email to them, too, with this thread's URL. That way they will see all the different things that you have tried.

When you find out the solution, please let us all know. I have never come across this problem before and the information to fix it would be helpful.

Regards,
Noel

It appears the ACW is not doing the analysis of chord detection nor the tempo map. That is why you have no choices when the import window comes up.

The key signature option is also not available if you set the key signature from the main ACW screen.

I noted in looking at the pictures you've provided that the song you've selected is "Frontier" which is a BB demo song and is several years old and could have somehow gotten corrupted. That is one explanation why you get the same occurrence across two computers that resetting to default doesn't fix.

Is your problem with any song imported to the ACW or just "Frontier"?

You can change this by selecting the Enable Midi Style Button from the ACW import window. This enables the current style loaded into the style window of BIAB whether it is midi or RealTracks when the file is imported from the ACW.

GREAT pickup Charlie! It didn't occur to me to ask Fred to test a couple of different songs and song types (mp3, wav, wma) just to double-check that it's not the audio file that's causing the problem.

Thanks Noel. I hope that's it and it works out for him.

Charlie

Thank You guys

I did try with different audio files and format also trying to convert them into .wav before trying to import in ACW but still the same.
I have also tried to change the Style before importing the audio same (I do not thing this has an impact on the Chord analysis anyway.

I will get to PGM Support thanks again for you great help
Fred

Hi Guys

Do you know how long it takes for the Support to show up after sending a request ?
regards
Fred

Sometimes when I've contacted them there's a response in about 24-48 hours. Other times I've contacted them to report an issue, and there's a response in a week or so. There is a chat / Online Help support link on this page that might get a faster response.
The company has received accolades for the excellent support they provide. So maybe try a different support approach.

They are in British Columbia, Canada so they aren't even open yet today, after a weekend.

I have the exact same problem.
I contacted PG Music about it a few months ago.
They were unable to solve the problem.
if anybody find a solution , Please let me know

They responded to me within a week, I am having the same problem you are having.Their response did not solve the problem.

See their response below:

"PG Music Technical Support <support@pgmusic.com>
Jun 16
Hello Errol,

Are you only having this problem with MP3 files? In the past we've noticed that there are sometimes issues importing MP3 files that occur when the program converts them to WAV for use in the Audio Chord Wizard. Can you try importing a WAV file into the wizard? You could use a free program like Fre:ac to convert an MP3 to a WAV file if you don't happen to have one handy to test.

Thank you,
Kallum
PG Music Inc.
Important Reminder: Please include all previous correspondence when replying to this message."

Thanks ejrene

So far I did not have any contact with the support (after one week)

I have tried already importing different files, different format mp3 wav but no improvement I have also impoted from different part of the software from the file Menu the Audio Menu and from the Icon same thing

Wait & see !!!!

Good to know I am not the only one to have such problem

Regards
Fred

Hi Fred,

Sorry, I can't find any sign of your email (we would have replied by now). If you send it again to support@pgmusic.com we'll reply as soon as possible.

From the screenshots you posted, it looks like you may have had a project open already that had been generated by the Audio Chord Wizard, but it's a bit hard to tell. That would explain why the Audio track is visible on the mixer, and the style is turned off.

Does the same thing happen if you start a new project (File - New), and then launch the ACW?

Thanks
Kent
PG Music

*edit*

I've found your emails, and have replied to them. The first one was sent Friday evening after we were closed, and Monday was a holiday. That's why there was a bit of a wait.

I have the same problem and did not have another project already open.

It's probably not this, but since the comment was made that some MP3's don't work (but others obviously do), it makes me wonder if it's something like the difference between VBR (Variable Bit Rate) versus CBR (Constant Bit Rate) encoding, or maybe a result of the CODEC (Fraunhofer, LAME, MP3Pro, etc) used to create the MP3 in the first place. And of course, is the DEC part of the CODEC on your machine up to the task of decoding the MP3 file?

I would experiment with a variety of files to see what the problem might be.

Just a thought.

That's a good guess, John. I've stopped using variable bit rate MP3 encoding because of lack of full compatibility.

Hi Errol,

We'll be more than happy to continue to troubleshoot your issue as well, but it doesn't look like you ever replied to Kallum's email.

Feel free to reply to it now, and I'm sure we'll figure out what's going on.

Thanks
Kent
PG Music

I also found that even the file is a little bigger with CBR, sometimes the VBR introduced artifacts when it misinterpreted the source material.

The problem exists even if it's a wave file not an MP3.
Thank You John.

It was just a thought. Interesting that the problem exists for WAV also, since that's a native, uncompressed format.

I did not receive any answer yet I have checked my mail box even the spam folder !!! and I have checked in my profile the mail address is OK

To answer your other question regarding the use of different bit rates or VRB encoding all my mp3 are in 320 fix and the same mp3 was working in the bast is no longer working ???

I don't think it is because of an existing project already loaded as it does the same when firt openning BIAB ...

Hi Fred,

I can't imagine why you didn't get my email. I'll send another email to the address you used to register in the forums as well as to the one you emailed us from.

Thanks
Kent
PG Music

Just to let you all know you are not alone - I have the same issue won't work for MP3 or WAV files does not work in Real Band either.
Not sure when it stopped working but it used to work.
My solution was to use CAPO on my IPAD which is obviously isn't too helpful.

Peter

Fred, ejrene and Peter

I wonder if it's possible to do get into the ACW in a couple of steps instead of all at once? To this end, try the following and see what happens.

Also, the results from the below test might give Kent some added insight since it works through individual steps.

1. Follow 1, 2, 3 on the image below and import an audio to the Audio track. I suggest using a WAV file rather than any other audio format.



Simply select the default values.



2. Once the audio is imported, open the Audio Chord Wizard Utilities (as shown on the image below).



3. When the ACW utilites dialogue box come up as shown below, there should be an "Open Audio Chord Wizard" option as shown below. Click on this and see what happens.




If doing the above still does not get you into the ACW window...

4. Repeat the above and load an audio on to the Audio track.

5. Open the ACW utilities (step #2 above).

6. This time, rather than open the Audio Chord Wizard (step 3), choose "Erase the audio wav file in BB".



This might give the ACW a 'kick' that could be self-correcting.

7. Now repeat steps 1, 2, 3 above and see what happens.

Regards,
Noel

I've posted your screen grab where it appears you are saying that when you are at that screen and hit the 'Play' Button (Highlighted by you in your post) that rather than the song playing, the program goes directly to the ACW Utilities screen which is the second screenshot you posted earlier.

If that is what's happening, the Utility Screen is responding correctly because if the song doesn't play, there is no chord detection nor tempo map created to import into Biab.

That result indicates there may be an issue in the creation or corruption of the Tempmain.wav file that is created by the ACW.

A Tempmain.wav issue could also be involved with a PGMusic support observation in an earlier post that; "From the screenshots you posted, it looks like you may have had a project open already that had been generated by the Audio Chord Wizard, but it's a bit hard to tell. That would explain why the Audio track is visible on the mixer, and the style is turned off."

Charlie,

Just a quick observation... the above screen grab above does not show the full ACW utilities selection.

If the above post is compared with my post immediately before it, it can be seen that the "Open audio chord wizard" button that sits below "Erase the audio WAV..." is not present. (I suspect that this is significant.)

My thoughts are that my above, previous suggestion might better help isolate where the problem is occurring.

Regards,
Noel

Noel,

I noted that difference between your screeshot and Saxfred's screenshot.

You have the Open ACW button because of the way you are attempting to open the project. You are importing the audio prior to opening the ACW so Opening the ACW button is the next step.

Saxfred was attempting to open the file by opening the ACW first and importing the audio into the ACW. This method creates a TEMPMAIN.WAV file that is used by the ACW to analyze rather than the original file.

What appears to be happening with Saxfred is the ACW is not picking up the TEMPMAIN.WAV file to analyze.

I suspect that the file is either corrupted or maybe more likely, since it happens with all imports, the ACW has lost the path to where the TEMPMAIN.WAV file should be found. I think the ACW is looking in the wrong directory for the TEMPMAIN.WAV file.

If you analyze audio through the ACW and select 'Cancel' rather than 'OK to Send to Biab' - It creates the exact window/message that Saxfred is getting, which occurs because the ACW is cancelling out of analyzing the TEMPMAIN.WAV file for some reason.

Note the differences in the save locations in the screenshots below.

One is the screenshot for Saxfred's 'Frontier'

The next is from PGMusic help file demo of 'Frontier'

The last is where my TEMPMAIN.WAV files is located.

This leads me to believe the problem is where the ACW is saving and the searching for the TEMPMAIN.WAV file.

Charlie,

That's a great observation!

My experience is that TEMPMAIN.WAV is created in whatever directory the audio file comes from and not the x:\bb\ directory.

With this in mind, I wonder if any of the people experiencing this problem have tried loading a file in from other directories?

Regards,
Noel

more information...

Charlie,

From your above images, I noted that the song being opened was Frontier.mp3 found in \bb\Tutorials - 2007. (Fred took this screen shot from the PG Music tutorial.)

When I tried opening that particular file, or the Frontier.wma file, I got the below error. This error seems to suggest that there is a file called INPUT.TXT that is also required for ACW.



The good news is that when I navigated to another directory and opened a different WAV, the ACW opened fine.

I've reported this error to Support.

Regards,
Noel

P.S. It seems that I can now no longer open any mp3s in ACW

even more information...

It seems that the reason that I could no longer open mp3s (as noted above) was because BIAB or ACW created a file called INPUT.TXT in the \bb directory.

When I located that file and effectively deleted it by renaming it, I could once again open mp3s. Interesting!

With this in mind, Fred et al, have a look in your \bb folder and see if there is a file called INPUT.TXT and, if there is, rename it to INPUT.TXT.OLD. Now exit and restart BIAB and see if the ACW works. (Forcing a new INPUT.TXT to be created would seem to be the equivalent of a factory reset for ACW.)

Frontier.mp3 (in \bb\Tutorials - 2007) now opens fine for me also.



P.S. Thanks Charlie for giving me a new direction to work in

Troubleshooting... still no luck.

After loading the audio file with ACW within BIAB. The audio can be played within BIAB with great quality.
The problem is ACW would not launched automatically to generate Chords to be sent to BIAB.
I located "ACW.exe" in my hard drive and manually launched it. I finally can get access to ACW after all these times.
ACW is now active and generate chords.
The problem now is ACW cannot Send the generated chords TO BIAB NOW.
After I "set to bar 1" .
click "OK-SEND TO BIAB".
ACW is off and BIAB has not received the generated chords.

Still experimenting.

Sounds kinda like a permissions issue. Maybe try running BB as an administrator (?)

I have just discovered that Audio Chord Wizard (ACW) creates both an INPUT.TXT (as mentioned above) and an OUTPUT.TXT.

I tried renaming these to INPUT.TXT.OLD and OUTPUT.TXT.OLD. Then I exited and restarted BIAB. When I reopened ACW, all worked well and new INPUT.TXT and OUTPUT.TXT files were created.

Also...

When an audio file is loaded into ACW, there are two temporary files created in in the directory containing the audio file. These are...

• TEMPMAIN.WAV
• TEMPMAIN.BT1

In relation to rhav's post above, it seems possible that if there are problems associated with overwriting the WAV file and/or the BT1 file due to permission barriers, running BIAB as administrator may overcome this.

It seems to me that if the audio file being loaded is from one of Window's protected directories, there could also be permission issues.



Given all the preceding posts and combining them with what I've learnt along the way, how I would now set about solving the ACW issue is as follows...


1. Close BIAB. Now restart it in administrator mode by right-clicking on BIAB's shortcut and selecting "Run as administrator".

2. Copy one or two audio files into a folder that's directly off the root drive (e.g. C:\Songs).

I suggest only using WAV files at this point in time because working with compressed audio files such as mp3s adds another layer of complexity to using ACW and during the problem-solving process, it's better to work on one step at a time.

If a couple of WAV files are needed, simply put a few chords into BIAB or RB (say, 8 bars), generate the backing and save it as a WAV. Copy or move the generated WAV to the C:\Songs folder.

3. Try loading a WAV from C:\Songs into ACW.

4. If #2 above doesn't work, locate INPUT.TXT and OUTPUT.TXT in the \bb directory and rename them to INPUT.TXT.OLD and OUTPUT.TXT.OLD - this will force ACW to create new versions of these files.

5. Check C:\Songs and if TEMPMAIN.WAV and/or TEMPMAIN.BT1 are present, rename them to TEMPMAIN.WAV.OLD and TEMPMAIN.BT1.OLD. My experience is that it's always better to rename files rather than to delete them. By keeping the new name similar to the original name, it makes finding the files easier if they need restoring or deleting.

6. Try loading a WAV file from C:\Songs into ACW.

Does the above solve the problem?

NOTE: Whenever starting BIAB during this problem solving investigation, always right-click on the shortcut and select "Run as administrator".

Regards,
Noel

Hi Noel

I have tried what you said but it is still the same

I have had the chance to get the PG Music Support who ask me to install BIAN 2016 on an internal drive and at the root of the drive (e.g. D:/bb) instead of H:/PG Music/dd perviously)
I did the installation (only run the installer the RT remaining on the former drive H)and it finally worked but ... after restarting the Laptotp it behave the same as before

I have uninstall the program from D:/bb and remove (delete) all the files and restart the laptop

I am now trying to install the complete thing from scratch to a new Drive (Samsung SSD 500Go) in a INATECK enclosure (USB3.0) to see if there is any improvement

By Chance I did not touch the original HD I have received from PG Music whne I did purchase the BIAB 2016 UltraplusPak last December so I am moving all the files to the new drive and I will rn the installer whe done.

I want to keep the program on the External drive in order to use it with the Laptop and my Desktop to have axactly the same thing on both

Thanks
Fred

Hi Fred,

Thank you for the update. This is a most perplexing problem. It would be easy to conclude that \bb needs to be off the root directory for ACW to work properly but such a conclusion doesn't explain why ACW worked for you when you had the program in \PGMusic\bb.

I have to say that this issue leaves me baffled.

I'm glad you got it working again, though.

Regards,
Noel

Thanks Noel for your effort trying to sort my problem
I am in relation with the PG support I think I will have no other choice than starting a new install on a new drive.
I will let you know

I do not really like to do this as my insallation folder as been updated all along the year and the Install program is missing a huge amount of Styles I got all these years in the Bonus Pack therefore it is a big job to get them back to the new drive as they are all ion the root folder of BB

anyway I don't think I have the choice.
Thanks Again
Fred

PROBLEMS SOLVED
if you used an external drive you must installed BIAB AND RB in the root directory .
For example D:\bb

Thanks for adding that extra information ejrene.

Glad you got it solved.

• my latest song : That's What I Believe

Hey Everyone,

Just a quick correction on that post from ejrene. On his system Band-in-a-Box was installed on an external drive with multiple volumes in the directory J:\PG Music\BB. I tried all the methods suggested by Noel (great posts by the way) to no avail, so I then tried installing just the Band-in-a-Box program to his C drive. On the C drive the Audio Chord Wizard was able to run correctly. This seems to suggest a permissions issue on the external hard drive that running as administrator can't fix. My guess would be something to do with drive ownership but that's a bit beyond my expertise. I suggested that as a solution he could either look into the permissions over that drive or just go ahead and run Band-in-a-Box from the C drive as there was more than adequate drive space to support a full install.

If anyone else runs into the same issue a fresh installation of just the Band-in-a-Box program would be a great thing to try as it would essentially cover all the other steps at once.

Thanks for clarifying, may be handy to know in the future..

Kallum,

Thanks for the update..... very useful.

So for both Saxfred and ejrene, the set-up was very similar in that \bb was one step further removed from the root directory (than the default BIAB installation), both lost ACW functionality and re-installing the program to x:\bb solved the problem.

That's bound to come in useful one day.

A thought that just occurred to me for the development team is to check to see whether the temporary files are being written and read to/from the same folder. For example: what if the programming writes the temp files to the correct path (e.g. h:\PGMusic\bb) but reads from an anticipated, and incorrect, path of h:\bb?

Thanks again for taking time to update the thread.

Regards,
Noel

Hi Noel,

I just dragged my BB folder into another folder on an external drive, and the Audio Chord Wizard still works fine. In Errol's case, the issue appears to have to do with permissions issues on the drive itself, and installing to the C drive fixed it.

Lots of customers install Band-in-a-Box to subfolders on external drives, and haven't run into this problem, so at this point the folder issue could simply be a coincidence. I'll keep an eye out for this in the future though.

Thanks
Kent
PG Music

Thanks for testing it, Kent.

Mine was install as follow
H:/PG Music/bb
so not exactly the root but this as been like this for years without any issue (I think Since 2014 version) so why is it not working anymore this way?

Many thanks to all

Hi Fred,

We're really not sure what went wrong with your installation, but deleting the BB folder and reinstalling will likely fix it right away. You won't have to reinstall your old versions, just the 2016 UltraPlusPAK, 49-PAK, and Xtra Styles PAK. This should take about an hour.

If there are any songs in the BB folder, be sure to move them to a different location first.

Thanks
Kent
PG Music

Mine was fine also.
I am guessing, it stopped working after I upgraded to windows 10.
Did you upgrade your operating system?
Try the re-installation as suggested in this forum.