Peter Gannon has always allowed me to put a one-time new product announcement here. This is it. Thank you Peter for your kindness.

Check out these NEW, FUN add-ons for Band-in-a-Box by Norton Music

Two years in the making, Norton Music is proud to present 6 new fake disks based on the following top-rated music books:

1) The Real Book, 6th edition. The real thing. This has been the most requested title by my customers for the past few years. It's the jazz player's bible. Bonus: I assigned Real Styles for almost every song on the disk. Check out the song list and download the free samples at http://www.nortonmusic.com/fake37.html today.

2) The Real R&B Book. From roots R&B to Motown to contemporary R&B - every pop musician should have this book. Packed with songs both you and your audience know by heart. Check out the song list and download the free samples at http://www.nortonmusic.com/fake38.html today.

3) The Real Blues Book. From T-Bone Walker to Robert Johnson to Muddy Waters to the three Kings of the blues to Kenny Wayne Shepherd - this is the history of the blues from the roots to the 21st century. Check out the song list and download the free samples at http://www.nortonmusic.com/fake39.html today.

4) The Real Christmas Book. It's a Christmas Party in a Box. From the classics to the contemporary you can definitely gig with this one. Check out the song list and download the free samples at http://www.nortonmusic.com/fake40.html today.

5) The European Jazz Book. Tired of playing the same old songs? Sher publications has collected some of the very best Jazz titles from Europe and put them in one place. We put them in the Box. The thrills are waiting. Check out the song list and download the free samples at http://www.nortonmusic.com/fake41.html today.

6) The Real Country Book. No, we haven't forgotten y'all. Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys are there, Johnny Cash is there, Alan Jackson is there, Zac Brown is there - almost everybody who is anybody from Texas Swing through modern Nashville music joins the party, and you're invited. Check out the song list and download the free samples at http://www.nortonmusic.com/fake42.html today.

They are all at http://www.nortonmusic.com/fake.html - just look for the NEW arrows.

And don't forget, Norton Music's shopping cart will automatically apply a discount starting with your second disk in the same order.


-- Bob "Notes" Norton norton@nortonmusic.com Norton Music - http://www.nortonmusic.com The Sophisticats® - http://www.s-cats.com

Wow. I can use this in an upcoming project.

I do have a question: Is the Mac version going to be affected by the 32/64 bit issue that is brewing? In other words, when the next 64 bit only OS rolls out, will these still work?

Right now, it looks like BIAB 2017 will not as it’s still 32 bit (there’s no point to a 2018 version that isn’t 64 bit but we don’t know when that’s coming).

If no one knows the answer, I might buy just one disk and wait till next year to see what happens. If, however, it’s not going to be an issue, I know what my family members need to get me for Christmas.

sgu mgu sty should just work the same in the 64bit version otherwise all would be lost.

PG Music has always been very good about backwards compatibility. The song files I wrote on pre-Windows 8bit MS-DOS PCs, Motorola CPU Macs, and even Atari/1040ST computers still work today.

Unless PG Music changes the file format (and I doubt that the will) these files should work on all future versions of BiaB.

If they don't, I'll be working to update them as fast as I can and offer replacements.

Happy Christmas!

Notes

And my guess is that if they did change the file format to support some new wonderful feature, or to allow for future growth, or whatever, that they would also include some sort of conversion utility (which may do it on the fly when you open songs). You would lose the ability to open the new files in the older versions of the programs (unless they also provided a reverse conversion utility, stripping out the new features), but in theory, you would still be able to use all the old files.

I definitely agree with that.

I've been writing styles for PC, Mac, and even Atari since the very early 1990s (although I don't write for Atari anymore).

I vaguely remember an upgrade to the Mac format where there was a file conversion utility for either style files or song files - I don't remember which. That was back when I had a Motorola CPU Mac.

PG Music has always been very good with back-compatibility. I think it's their philosophy and I commend them for that.

Insights and incites by Notes

I was watching a story on the new Xbox 4K and the MS guy said, yes, we wanted it to be backward compatible with with older versions.
So hopefully the new MacBB 64bit 4K 48khz/24bit will be the same

Just wondering, has anyone seen any evidence (any word from PG Music) that a 64 bit version is (ever) coming?

It doesn't matter to me. Some apps work just fine at 32. I think BiaB is one of them.

YMMV

Insights and incites by Notes

There was a long discussion on this subject some time ago. Dr. Gannon asked for reasons in support of the request. The "best" response seems to be everyone else is moving to 64 bit so PG Music should too.

The main limitation with 32 bit versus 64 bit is how much memory space each program can access. BiaB and RealBand typically are not resource hogs so the programs have little trouble working with 1, 2, 4 or 8 gigabytes of data.

Well it might matter to plenty of MAC users because Apple developers have said that the latest macOS High Sierra will be the "last macOS release to support 32-bit apps without compromises." (In January 2018)

I can just imagine how the already "underdeveloped" MAC version of BIAB will fare when it is hit by the "compromises" coming from the new 64 Bit OS.

People really need to know what to upgrade to in 2018, for my part without an undertaking from PG Music I'll only upgrade my Windows version and continue using in Parallels.

Thanks for the info Beachboy, I didn't know that.

However, I'm sure BiaB will read old files, since files don't seem to be dependent on the bit register, but instead by the app.

Song and style files I wrote on the Motorola CPU Macs still work, and the ones I wrote on 8 bit MSDOS still work on modern BiaB/Windows versions.

Personally, I can't see PG Music writing a 64 bit version of BiaB that makes their entire huge catalog of song and style files obsolete.

And since I write my style and song files using BiaB, if my songs and styles won't work on the 64bit version of BiaB, neither will PG Music's.

Insights and incites by Notes

What Notes Norton said. Styles and songs are just content created by the application. It won't matter whether the app is 32- or 64-bit. Just like you can still load your old Microsoft Word (.doc) files into either 32- or 64-bit Word.

Hi John,
I probably shouldn't have continued in this thread as I was not interested in songs, styles or content but functionality. I just continued on as the thread seemed to turn 64 bitish.

I might bring my issue up in another thread, my concern is that PG Music might not ever roll out a 64 bit version of BIAB for OS. that means there will be not much point upgrading to BIAB 2018 for Mac if you plan on moving to future upgrades of Apple OS, supposedly starting in Jan 2018, because from then it will have "compromised" compatibility with 32 bit applications.

Regardless of if you use 3rd party styles and content or not, there may be bigger issues ahead if BIAB for Mac remains 32 bit (unless your going to stay with an older Mac OS.

Col

I suppose 64 bit was put on hold as long as possible due to the massive programming task that would be asked of the programmers, but now it looks like they will be forced into doing it.
But I'm sure they will come through or have already done so behind the scenes. It will be good if they used the same programming for both Win/Mac with cross-platform development, same Win/Mac release date same features.

I remember when they went from 16-bit to 32-bit on the Windows side, which had a few bumps, but were ironed out pretty quickly. So I have faith they can do the same going from 32-bit to 64-bit.

My (totally unsubstantiated) guess is they are looking into it, but must maintain the current program at 32-bit until they are ready to move forward. Don't know when that will be, but I doubt they are ignoring it.

Notes Norton,

taking you up on your offer to download your free examples from Norton Music's Fake Disk #37 the " memo " for African Flower and Have you Met Miss Jones show that they come from another Fake Disk and not #37. Why is that ? Where are the melodies for these Norton arrangements ?

They indeed come from Fake Disk 37. ... ... Sorry the disk was originally intended to be #38, but the book that was scheduled to be #37 was scrapped because too many songs exceeded the 255 measure limit in BiaB.

Thanks for letting me know, I'll change the memos.

Sorry, there are no melodies in the fake disks. The copyright holders wanted from $1 to $2.50 PER SONG to include the melodies. That would make the 'disks' cost a few hundred dollars each. So I asked the Harry Fox Agency why so much when I can buy a book for much less, and they said "Then buy the book." So I put an Amazon link to purchase the book under the disk order button. Of course you don't have to buy the book there, you can get it from your local music store.

The best way to use these disks are to

1. Load the BiaB file
2. Open the physical book to the same song
3. Read the melody in the physical book and play along while BiaB plays the background

To be truthful, this is something you can do yourself. Buy the book, then for each song; (1)enter the chord progressions, (2)do the research for the memos, (3)choose the best style, (4)listen each song to see if the style works with the chords, (5)decide if it is the styles fault or a BiaB limitation and fix the problem (6) triple check each song.

It takes thousands of hours to compile, check, fix, double check, adjust and triple check one of these 'disks'. All I'm offering to you is the saving of a few thousand hours of time.

Thanks for the tip on the memos. I'll fix that today.

Notes

^

thanks for the clarification/explanation and plus your El pronto fix up to the " memo " files ( it was somewhat disconcerting to me )

Thanks for the heads up.

Notes

Mr Norton,

tried another " Norton freebe " Sweet Home Chicago.MGU that as i discovered uses styles not found in PG's 2017 Audiophile collection of styles. This is huge pain in the studio ( as i refer to these problems ) because each track in the song tells me that the style is not available and i have to clear each track with " OK " . Also there is a rather funny name of song error. The song is called Sweet Hime Chicago.

It would appear that i would have to buy those styles in addition to purchasing the book.

Sometimes free comes at a cost.

When I wrote my first fake disk, I used only the built-in styles that came with Band-in-a-Box Pro (the entry level Band-in-a-Box edition). I immediately got requests from many customers to choose the best style from all the styles available for Band-in-a-Box.

I asked them, "What if you don't have that particular style?"

They answered, "We will just substitute one of our own. We have nothing to lose and something to gain if you tell us which style you like best."

Here is how I did it.

When I compiled my fake disks, I asked experienced, professional musicians to assign the styles to the songs. I asked them choose (suggest) the best style for the song from all the PG and Norton music styles available. I also asked them not to play favorites to either my styles or PG Music's.

When they were done, Leilani and I sat down, listened to all the songs, triple checked for any errors, made adjustments to chords that we thought didn't sound right due to the limitations of Band-in-a-Box, and in rare cases overruled the style choice of the person who assigned the styles for the disk.

Some songs have been done in so many ways over the years, that many different styles fit equally well. In those cases, only one style had to be picked. You might find others that work better for your taste in music.

Since the styles were chosen from the available styles at the time we compiled the disk, a more appropriate style may have been written since then -- also, you may not agree with our choice. In either case, you can simply change the style.

So in the case of "Sweet Home Chicago", simply choose another style from your collection. It's not necessary to buy the style my subcontractors chose to enjoy the song. A couple of mouse clicks, then save and you won't be bothered by the non-existent style again.

Insights and incites by Notes

Mr Norton,

Thanks for the explanation.

Where do i find those on your web site. It is not readily apparent to poor old Mister Magoo.

Go to my website and in the blue javascript menu near the top of the page click on "Band-in-a-Box" and a drop down menu will appear with choices, choose one of the Style Disk items.

Or for a full explanation and a clickable list of all of them go directly here: http://www.nortonmusic.com/style.html#user

Thanks for asking.

Notes