Is holding/resting one of multiple guitars only possible via the F5 dialogue?
Say you have guitar 1 and guitar 2 in your style, and you want to mute everything but the bass, drums, and guitar 2 over several bars. What would you have following [X]...bd(*?)

Thanks in advance!

You don't have to use Alt-F5 to do that, you can also just enter the chord like you have shown above, so if you just want the bass, drums, and guitar to play, instead of using Alt-F5 you could just enter the chord as: Em.bdg (for an Em chord)

That will hold until the next chord change, so if you have a few bars of Em you are good. Next chord change, if you still want only those three instruments to play you need to enter it in the same manner, Am.bdg for an Am chord for example.

A little faster than using Alt-F5 once you have memorized the shorthand.

I think the question relates to having Two guitar tracks, and muting only One Guitar track by entering data in the Chord. Is that correct?

It depends on which track the guitar is one.

if it in the second slot (which was originally the Piano slot), then add a "p".

[X]...bdp

4th slot (originally Guitar) add a "g"

[X]...bdg

5th slot (Soloist) add an "s"

[X]...bps


Also, note... 3 dots will do a held chord on the other instruments (slots). 2 dots will do a shot. If you want a true Rest from other instruments (slots) use one dot.

These can all be changed using the Chord Settings menu option (Alt-F5). As you check boxes and change the "Rest Type" dropdown, you can see the changes appear on your chord screen.

Yes, that is correct.

Thanks VT!

Thanks Floyd Jane for such a fantastically comprehensive reply!

The other takeaway from this conversation is you need to remember the default track names because neither ALT-F5 or chord entry abbreviations recognize RealTracks names. For example, say you place a banjo RealTracks into the piano track. By default Band-in-a-Box changes the displayed name of the piano track to Banjo but you can't use the letter "b" in chord entry abbreviations and the track will still be called piano in the ALT-F5 screen.

To eliminate this potential issue I prefer to have the instrument tracks keep their default names. Open Options or press Cntrl-E to open the option window and remove the checkmarks highlighted below.

You, good sir, are a true scholar and a gentleman! Thanks!

BTW, any relation to that other mentor-of-the-forums, Charlie Fogle?

As a relative BIAB novice, I'm not entirely sure what you're saying here, but it seems to be addressing precisely the subject I'm trying to understand more about. If you would be so kind to expand on this, I would be eternally grateful!

That is, is it correct or incorrect that each of the three options can be either applied to or excluded from being affected by a push, shot, or hold in the same manner as a rest? So, for instance, I can have only the drums and bass play a shot? How about a push? Is it possible to apply a push only to a certain instrument or instruments?

Thanks in advance!

The tracks that are noted after the dots - b (bass) - d (Drums) - p (Piano) - g (guitar) will CONTINUE TO PLAY - meaning WILL NOT do the shot or hold or rest.

They do not work for pushes.

Again, note that these are the track names (as they have been called for many years), NOT the name of the RealTrack.

Those options can all be set using the Alt-F5 key stroke.

If you want some instruments MUTED, you will need to use the F5 key (dialog) - or the menu option - Edit > Settings for current bar

Charlie and I are brothers. He's the smart one and I'm the handsome one!

Sounds like a win-win situation