I would like to see an option to include a 'count-in' when playing from a point somewhere within the song (Play from), the same as the way a count-in is provided when playing from the beginning of the song.

E.g. if practicing a section with a real band (one with humans), you would always perform a count-in to the bar you want the band to start playing from.

I believe that such a feature would be a very useful addition when using Band In A Box to practice specific sections of a song, especially when working with several musicians, or trying different styles, part markers etc. It would be really nice if there was a checkbox in Options that states: Include Count-In when 'Playing From'.

Seems like a reasonable request.

+1. I remember requesting this several years ago. It would be a great help when practicing sections of a tune with a combo.

+1
I have the same question and found this post. I really hope they will include this simple option in the next version.

Rodin

This will be very useful!
Curly

I know that the lead in option is only available when playing the song from bar 1. However, suppose I wanted to create a series of 4 bar chord progressions to use as teaching examples. Is it possible to create the effect of an audible lead in anywhere within the song? Basically, I want to instruct BIAB to play 4 beats of stick only in specific measures.

So instead of having 4 bars, I'd have 5 bars. The first one being the work around lead in, with the following 4 the actual chord progression.

For example:

Progression 1: bars 1-5
Progression 2: bars 6-10
Progression 3: bars 11-15

So I would have my work around lead in bars be bars 1, 6 and 11. In those bars, I'd only want the drum stick to play for 4 beats. Can BIAB accomplish this? If so, how? Thanks!

Hmmm. You may be able to use F5 to mute all instruments except for drums on bars 1, 6, 11, and choose a drum pattern for only those bars that simulates a count-in.

You could also do it with MIDI on the melody track, playing a 4 beat side-stick on those bars only, and muting everything else.

Probably a few other ways also.

Thank you for the reply, however, treat me like a beginner. Can these topics be found in the manual, if so, under what?

+1 for the original suggestion, as an option of course. Could be very helpful.

In skimming the manual, it appears I can change the style at any particular bar in the bar settings dialog. With that in mind, would it be possible to create a dedicated style that emulates the lead in side stick (just 1-2-3-4) and apply it only to the bars that I need? Would something like that work? And if so, can you direct me to some resource on how to create such a style?

+1 for the count-in command idea as originally requested by VideoTrack

OK, I'll try here with one method that might work. In this case I'll choose just bar 6 for a location to put your count-in:

A: Layout your song as normal, however many bars you need.
B: Open the Notation Window and select the Melody Track - 6th from left(1), Edit(2), and drop 4 notes on the stave(3)
C: In the mixer select MIDI Instrument Patch > Select General MIDI patch > a MIDI bank such as Agogo-114 or Wood Block-116 (4)
D: On the Chord sheet, click on bar 6, and press F5 (or right-click and select Chord Settings)
E: Mute all tracks except for the track with the Agogo (or Woodblock) on it (5)
F: Click on Bar 7, press F5 and return all tracks to normal (6)

If you have multiple choruses, you may have to repeat the MIDI trick on other bars as I don't know if those notes play during the chorus repeats.

If you get brave, you could reserve 2 bars for the count-in and use a 1 - 2 - , 1-2-3-4 technique.

BUMP for this excellent idea

VideoTrack,
I just saw your reply with the step by step instructions. Going to give them a try now. Yesterday after I got off of here, I tried doing what I thought would work but I must be doing something wrong. I created a style called count-in.sty that plays four quarter notes on the side stick (attached, but take off the .jpg extension) and I Went to the bar settings and did a style change. The style does indeed change, but no side stick plays... I'm going to give your method a shot.

mc3997,
Thanks for the response. I'm sure that there may be other ways, but that was perhaps the easiest to articulate.

Let us know if this works for you (at least sort of, anyway)

It's working! The notation editing was quite a pain! I don't know how the manual claims it dramatically speeds up the entry of notation. But once I was able to get 4 quarter notes in properly, it worked That feature, along with being able to display 5 bars on a line will make this much easier now. Thanks again!!

The only thing, and it's just a minor annoyance, is when I double click to play from say bar 6, sometimes, BIAB will play the piano for just a split second as it starts to play the wood block. It's almost like it was left in memory from the previous play. I say this because if I play the wood block bar, and then stop it and then play again, the piano isn't heard. Any idea what causes that, and if it can be fixed? If not it's ok, it's minor.

Try doing a complete song generate, rather than just play from, and see if that assists. If it does, maybe then freeze the tracks.

That seemed to help a little bit actually. I want to freeze the tracks for faster playback, because the examples are going to be used while filming a video. What I have is perfectly workable though. Many thanks.

Still can't figure out how to fully get rid of that slop that plays at the beginning of my stick count bar. Is this just a software bug? Regenerating the song doesn't quite fix it. Any ideas?

Back to the original request, here’s a bump.

+1

And another...

+1

Wouldn't it be easier to add a fill a measuer before you wanted to start playing from?

Yes, that would be another (possibly even better) way.
+1