I'm having a number of problems with old MGU files (created by 2012 or earlier versions).

1. Text added in the lead sheet print screen (Composer, Tempo, Copyright etc) is truncated (missing first character) and sometimes duplicated.

2. Printouts of the lead sheet lack the copyright notice, although this is visible on the screen

3. Crashes with one particular file when I click on the Mute button for any instrument.


I still await a response from Support for 1. and 2., and I've recently sent the Apple crash logs and the offending MGU file for 3.

I have a large number of MGU files created with earlier versions, and it's going to be a long and laborious process to load them up in BIAB 2017 and edit the text fields (as in 1.) let alone the inconvenience of dealing with crashes.

If I had information about the file format and the way it has changed between versions, it would be worth my while to develop a conversion utility.

^

You wrote:

I'm having a number of problems with old MGU files (created by 2012 or earlier versions).

Could you upload a couple of those files ?


Incidentally sending the Apple crash logs and offending MGU files goes to some dark room in Apple land never gets a response or answer. However there is an Apple forum/discussion group that may be able to figure out your crash log.

https://discussions.apple.com/welcome

you have to sign in : look in the upper left hand corner for sign in and if this is the first time joining the group you have to provide an email contact ( i forget the details now since it has been a while since i first joined that group however i do use them frequently ).

I think he's saying he sent PG Support the Apple crash logs and files.

Bob

Yes, if you upload one I will try and re-save it with WinBB and see if it works then on the MacBB.

Also, try opening the MGU in https://musescore.org/en/download

Yes, that's what I meant - I've never had any sort of acknowledgement of crash reports from Apple, even when they involve Apple software.

The crashes are all caused by segmentation errors.

Thanks for the offer.

Here is a link to a copy of Nuages, which crashes (my copy of) BIAB 2017 Audiophile for Mac every time:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/aljt6pbxfbnmnyc/Nuages%20%28Django%20Reinhardt%29.Mgu?dl=0

All I have to do is start up BIAB 2017, open the file, and click the Mute button on any one of the instruments.

And here is a link to a copy of "Two Sleepy People", which was put together recently by a friend using an earlier version of BIAB for Windows (2012, if I remember correctly).

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6i8qpkwzt1o5ghs/Two%20Sleepy%20People.MGU?dl=0

As written, it has a tempo of 80 stored in the Tempo field of the Print dialogue, but when I view it in this dialogue with BIAB 2017 the "8" is missing, leaving a tempo of "0"!

I've tried opening and re-saving in a Windows 2014 version, which doesn't resolve this problem, although when I compare hex-dumps of the two files there are very substantial differences.

I have dozens, perhaps more than a hundred, files which have a similar problem affecting the composer etc fields, but I think this one should demonstrate the principle.

There's are saved in Win, but in MacBB it still misses the 8 and just shows 0 in Tempo=80.
They both play & mute in Mac & Win.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/b4gqdxd3j9847c3/Nuages%20%28Django%20Reinhardt%29%20Win.MGU?dl=1

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dywbnzikfjfiwe6/Two%20Sleepy%20People%20Win.MGU?dl=1

Thanks for your prompt response.

The loss of the leading characters in the Print Options dialogue is confirmed.

I wonder why my iMac (27" late 2012 with MacOS Sierra 10.12.6) running BIAB 2017 Audiophile for Mac on USB drive is so consistently crashing on the Nuages file?

PS I had forgotten that I have a copy of BIAB 2016 Pro for Mac.

This doesn't crash when I press Mute after opening the Nuages file, but it has the same problem as the 2017 version with the tempo setting of "0" in the Print Options dialogue.

Re: Muting Crashing, have you got the latest.
Band-in-a-Box® 2017 Mac Update Build 180 (40 MB) (July 19, 2017)

With the missing 8 in Tempo that will be a PG fix, in the next release I hope.

PPS Opening the Nuages file with BIAB2016 and saving it doesn't fix the problem with BIAB2017

Yes, I have Build 180.

As to the missing 8 in the tempo field (and, presumably, the content of the other fields), will that be a Mac update build, or will I have to wait for the next major release (2018?)?

Not sure, I know from 2018 Mac OS X will only run 64bit apps, so they could be flat out working on that ???



Have you tried some of the previous 2017 builds for muting or are they all crashing ?

Have you tried some of the previous 2017 builds for muting or are they all crashing ? [/quote]

No - how would I go about getting earlier builds?

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

Hi foxlady,

The problem with "Nuages" freezing (when you hit the Mute or Solo buttons on the Soloist or Thru track) has been fixed in build 182. This is not available yet as a public patch, but you can download the installer with this link:

http://nn.pgmusic.com/pgfiles/support/patches/bb2017_update_build182.zip

Note that Band-in-a-Box 2012 did not have a the Lead Sheet feature, so the extra lead sheet info stored in songs should be blank. I am not sure why your song has "0" in the tempo field. You can put whatever you like in that field by clicking on the [Print] button in the Lead Sheet window, and typing into the "Tempo" field.

Sorry, late to the party here.
I did just download the "Two Sleepy People.MGU" file and didn't get a crash here on v.182 when muting tracks.

I did notice though that the tempo when I opened it was 90 bpm, and not 80bpm, but it does display both digits here.
I am running 10.11.6 though, not sure if that makes a difference.

- Jay

So in the box below you get 90 on 10.11.6 (yes the set tempo is 90)
I'm running 10.9.2

BBox for Mac has always been a bit 'problematic' on Sierra, so since I'm not using that I'll grab your files and check how much of a difference it makes....

Ah ha !
Thanks for the picture Pipeline, obviously I read it too quickly , I was looking at the main tempo displayed in the toolbar.

I didn't realize it was in the Print options you were talking about, until I saw your screenshot and re-read the thread.
Yes I can confirm the same thing is happening here too.
Doh, sorry, gotta slow down a bit !

- Jay

Just copy your post to the Beta so they know.

Thanks.

...and my findings:

Nuages - This one did not crash, no matter how much I messed with it (and in the beta tests I'm usually "the guy who breaks stuff"!), but I also did not get any sounds from the Soloist channel, nor did it show the correct instrument label in Mixer compared to Pipeline's screenshot (I got Voice Oo's!), so obviously there is a flaw in there still of some sort.

Two Sleepy People - This one plays just fine and all, but does have that same "printer values" issue as noted above:

182 Lyric Editor still doesn't work (produces out of range numbers then can't edit) Adding Lyrics in Notation TAB key works every second Lyric, can't time adjust melody more than for beats with "out of range" message, menus don't function when lyric edit is still enabled....... Not to mention the essentials the OSX version doesn't have compared to the Windows version.
As for....

I hope not. Please fix 32 bit 2017 before asking people to purchase 2018 and maybe find it still doesn't fully function, because there doesn't seem to be much action on existing, reported issues.
My tip, Parallels and the Windows version.

Thanks, Blake. I've downloaded and installed the build 182 update, and can confirm that the segmentation error triggered by clicking on the mute button for any instrument after loading the copy of Nuages I've referred to.


I puzzled when you say 2012 didn't have the Lead Sheet feature, as I've been creating and exchanging BIAB leadsheets since 2007.

Here is a link to a file I put together in 2012, which includes the Style and Tempo information in the Print Options dialogue:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/i0usm2a7xo52ze6/Manhattan%20%5BRT%5D%20MDH.MGU?dl=0

If you open this file in BIAB 2016 or earlier, you should see these fields correctly filed in, but if you open them in 2017 for Mac the initial characters of these fields are missing.

Thanks, Icelander.

I see you're using OSX 10.6.8 - perhaps my crashes were caused by 10.12 (Sierra) - but the crashes have stopped now that I have build 182 of BIAB.

I still have the fault with Two Sleepy People.

Thanks Jay.

It was the Nuages file that triggered the crashes, and that's now solved with 182.

Two Sleepy People was sent to me by a friend, who sets the target tempo for performance on the lead sheet (80 bpm), but may use BIAB for practice at a different tempo (90 bpm in this case).

This fault may be OSX version-related, too. Icelander reports no crashes on muting instruments with Nuages loaded with an earlier-than-Sierra version.

What version 2016 are you using, I tried the oldest and newest with the same problem, and 2015.

My mistake, apologies for relying on memory!

The Print Option text comes up correctly when viewed in BIAB 2014 for Windows (running in a Virtual Machine on my Mac), but loses the first characters of the text when viewed on 2016 Pro for Mac, and 2017 Audiophile for Mac.

I have a feeling that it was OK with BIAB 2016 when I was running an earlier version of MacOS (I'm currently on Sierra 10.12.16), but can't swear to that.

Perhaps you are talking about the Windows versions? Band-in-a-Box 2012 for Macintosh did not had the Lead Sheet window yet, although it did have the Print Options window that contains the field for typing in the tempo.

I cannot reproduce the bug by saving a song in the 2012 Mac version, and then opening it in the 2017 Mac version. However I can reproduce the bug if the song was saved in the 2017 Windows version. Both of your example songs were saved in Windows versions of Band-in-a-Box:

Two Sleepy People - was last saved in build 466 (Windows)
Manhatten - was last saved in build 357 (Windows)

In Manhatten, I noticed that there is the same bug with the Style field in Print Options (the first character is missing).

Since these files open fine in the Windows version, that means the data was not lost while saving, so this should be fixable in the Mac version.

Ah, I didn't realise that this feature didn't exist in the earlier Mac versions - as you say, I was using Windows in 2007, and (until I bought the 2016Pro version for Mac) had continued to use a Windows version in a Virtual machine on my Mac from 2013 onwards.

Although the Mac 2017 version will store and print out the Tempo, Style etc fields from the Print Options dialogue, it doesn't show the Copyright notice on the lead sheet.

This may be part of the same bug as affected Manhattan and Two Sleepy People.

So iff you wanna talk "lack of compatibility", then perhaps between platforms is the bigger issue here, then... just saying

Point taken!

But I didn't know that when I started this thread, and it turns out that the problem wasn't one of a lack of compatibility, but a bug in the Mac implementation of BIAB which was revealed by an update to MacOS Sierra.

I still believe that backward compatibility is a desirable goal, and also that it should be possible to "Save As" an earlier version, albeit with loss of some features.

I'm thinking here of sharing files with other musical friends for rehearsal purposes where the friends might not wish to shell out the cash for RealTracks etc, but would want to be able to transpose for their instruments, play with a MIDI backing track, and create a PDF lead sheet.

foxylady,

^




I fully agree with your comments foxylady.

In fact i have some Apple midi/audio/video software that allows backward compatibility. Which as you note makes it much easier for project sharing especially important with the Mac Operating System upgrades with all the inevitable bugs.

Ok, perhaps I should clarify that my "just saying" quip wasn't so much aimed at the OP as the PG staff that I now know are 'listening in' on this conversation.

My "Platform Differences" tune is one I do tend to chime out at pretty much any chance I get whenever I see an opening for it - and you just gave me one

No offence taken - I could hear the characteristic sound of a hobby-horse being saddled up for some regular exercise...

Very good, you clearly 'get' me then - and what a picture you paint there as well, I might add

Right, some further elaboration on these two symptoms after more testing (and more patches):

1. The 'no sound' issue is only occurring if I press the "Solo" button but not if I use the "Mute" button to manually isolate the Soloist track. And this odd behaviour is limited to just the Soloist track.
2. The 'wrong label' is something I've seen/reported before and is really baffling for its inconsistent behaviour, but occurs a great deal more often with pre-existing older files so I think it's relevant to this thread. I for example now know with further tests that it doesn't always give me the 'Voice Doo's' label like I thought, but rather each time I've opened this same song I get a different label (but not the correct one!), regardless of the method of how I opened the file.