In other words, a bulk process to add 2 dots to the end of each chord in an ENTIRE SONG ....to turn that tune instantly into stop time? Seems like a worthy feature, but i can't find it. Anyone have a clue?

If not, i'll submit it to the wishlist.

As far as I know, it can't be done in a single step but it could be done in a few steps using 'Search and Replace'.

For example... most songs only have half a dozen or so chords at most so it's just a matter of bulk replacing each chord X with X. since the period following a chord indicates a shot. (i.e. Am with Am., G7b9 with G7b9.)

A clever workaround Noel....but I want to use this "stop time chorus effect"...like the Count Basie/Neil Hefti song "Cute" ...and there are just too many chords for your idea to be practical. Also, one dot is a rest...2 is a shot!

Another possibility would be.... for a STYLE ....to include built-in shots.
In fact one would think there is a New Orleans "Hot 5" jazz style in which a variation includes an "All chords to be played as shots" check box...... or just inherently built into the "B" style.

Not a bad idea actually.
And it would also let guitarists solo over Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love"!

I think what you want does not exist, and you could put it in the Wishlist. For blocks of chords, you could alter them individually and then Copy Special a range to duplicate them.

Matt-
The coding is so easy, it surprises me that's is not already built in.
All it would take would be a checkbox "Add two dots to every chord"
And a "Click here to buy one of Matt old cornets..... at a 25% discount"

I actually have an old cornet I would sell, that I bought from another forum member. Warning: don’t run over this cornet with your car. The car will be severely damaged.

That's funny. And I like the idea of the forum swap shop.
"How do you spell a C chord? And does anyone have any 1959 Les Pauls for sale?"

You can do this. Just enter the two dots in the first bar of the chords in that bar. Then use the "Edit, Copy Special, Copy Rests" command. This will use your first bar as a template and copy any rests/shots/holds to the destination bars you specify.

Wow, this is a great feature that I never knew about. Just tested it out and it works exactly as you describe. THANKS!

Nice thinking, John! I've never played with this option.

My 2nd Thank You to John! It works flawlessly!
How you knew this amazes me.

Stop time choruses are inspiring.....and you just saved me a ton of work.
Thanks again, man.
Dan Axelrod

Glad I could help! I use this feature a lot and it saves a lot of time.

Hey John,

Maybe you could post something in the Tips & Tricks. This is a nice feature that needs some promotion!

Ok....both methods work like a champ when there's a single chord on beat one.
But when beat one has no chord and the chord is on beat 2......whether I try to copy throughout using John's Edit Copy Special method or Icelander's H method....it seems to be a no go. If i'm doing something wrong, please hip me to the secret sauce.
Thanks-
Dan

I haven't tried it in 2018, but it has always previously worked in previous versions for me.

I could have:

| C..,F.. | G..,C.. |

and when I copy to other bars, it gets picked up in the destination bars. I'm not at my music machine right now, so can't test, but perhaps this got broken somehow in the new version. Maybe some other folks could try it (Videotrack?).

But I know I've done this many times before.

John-
I want just a shot on beat 2 which should also give silence on 1, 3 and 4
it reads Db.. on the 2nd beat

But it's not copying the shot nicely like it did on beat 1
regardless of the beat # (1 or 2) that I enter in the dialog window
Here's how the dialog appears
Copy rests from bar # 1
Num bars to copy 1
Copy to bar 5
Best # 1

I'll give it a try this evening and report back.

OK, this is what I tried and the results.

As an aside: BiaB won't allow me to have no chord on beat 1 of bar 1, when I generate it adds the chord from the key signature on bar 1 beat 1. So I just add a period to make it a rest, and it doesn't play. OK.

1: My chart looks like the first image and plays correctly.

2: If I try Edit > Copy Special > Copy Rests... to copy the rest from beat 2 of bar 1 to bar 5, it doesn't perform anything, as there is no note on bar 5 (see second image)

3: I add a note to beat 2 of bar 5 (see image 3)

4: and perform the copy again, and beat 2 of bar 5 now has the Shot rest. (see 4th image)

Note that it is important to select the Beat as well as the Bar number from the source

My bad; now that I think about it, you need the chord in the destination for the copy rests to work.

But that lets you enter the chord progression without having to worry about dots.

Also, it will copy the exceptions as well; so if you enter C7..pb (play a C7 shot on all instruments except piano and bass), the "..pb" gets copies to the destination as well.

Videotrack and John....

Defining 1 chord of harmony per bar should be enough for BIAB to to able to copy shots, rests and pushes in a song. If this is not a "Copy Special' bug, it's a feature that wasn't well implemented.

A practical example of usage would be making a Charleston background— with a shot on 1.... and the AND of 2. And should've been coded to "Use the beat 1 chord harmony for all subsequent shots in the bar." As it works now, i believe you have to even manually define the 8th note pushes into each bar..... PLUS the chords ...before the shots will copy correctly. This is indeed an issue that needs to be tweaked to become practical.

Okay, now I'm confused. Are you saying you want shots to play on certain beats when there are no chords shown?

Shots/rests/holds only work with a specified chord. You can't just enter ".." where you want it to play.

Otherwise, yes, you have to enter your chord progression, and that means putting the chords where you want them (even those that are off the beat, or pushed). Then the shots/rests/holds command tells those chords what to do on that beat.

And as has been shown, the copy rests command applies that embellishment to the chords that are there.

I'm happy to help, but I'm just confused now.

Yes...my desires changed mid-stream, John. I initially wanted just a shot on the downbeat for stop time choruses. But your method (and the "H" method suggested...no dialogue needed) both worked so well, I realized that having shots at different parts of the beats could open possibilities of playing along with various accented "shot-beats" through a song.

Then came the realization ( with your 'my bad' post) ....that this is not a piece of cake—for there must be existing designated chords ALREADY on those beats in EVERY measure... in order to copy the initial special measure with the desired shots....or they simply won't copy.

But a simple additional checkbox in the Copy Special dialogue could tell the program to "Copy special" all desired shots and rests...and
1. USE THE FIRST BEAT CHORD....of the "bars being copied to" for ALL the chord-shots being duplicated into that bar.

Some will say "This sounds more like a STYLE you're creating.... than a shot/rest/push function." And I see the validity of that argument. But the coding is so close already, that checkbox would open rhythmic possibilities without having to create a new style from scratch.

Once you get your song to sound right, you could take your song with all the shots in it, save it out to a MIDI file, then bring that MIDI file back in to a new BIAB project, then use the Style Wizard to create a new style that does what you are wanting in about a minute. That style could then be used for future projects that need it, and you wouldn't have to enter any double dots at all, because the riffs defined in the style already include the shots.

Just beautiful, John...though with that checkbox, Real Tracks would work as well as MIDI.
Thanks for all your input-