I'm having trouble with song endings. I'll enter let's say, C... and instead a long chord ending, it cuts short fast. I tried several real tracks and it keeps cutting short. It used to do the last chord nice and long and fade to silence. Any Ideas?

Did you try setting the chord as a held chord?

Try typing in C... instead of just C and see if that helps (there are all sorts of fantastic and complex ways you generate endings, but it sounds like you just want the chord to resonate to the end of the measure, am I right about that?)

Right click within the chord sheet and bring up the "song settings" dialogue.

You can also get to song settings via "Edit->Song Form->Settings (for this song)", or you can press "Ctrl N"

Under "ending options" make sure you have "generate two bar ending for this song" and "use 4 bar ending for realtracks" enabled.

The simplest way is to enter C... followed by ANY OTHER chord with one dot e.g. A. at the point you want to held chord to finish. This way you regulate the length of the hold. You also may want to mute some instruments, especially drums, at the same point as C... to get a smooth sound. Make sure there are enough bars in the song to reach the A. bar.

Tony

He is talking about the last chord for the ending of the song.

Unless he has the endings option set correctly in "song options" no matter what option he uses on that chord the song will end abruptly at the last bar of the song.

I am also talking about the last chord in a song and you don't need the song set for a 2/4 bar ending in song options.
If you have the C... to A. one bar apart the chord holds and fades for one bar, if two bars apart it holds and fades for two bars, if three bars apart it holds and fades for three bars etc. The song never ends abruptly. You can even hold for half bars.

Tony

Hi, often the chord will be better with say C... followed by a chord in the next bar. Eg. The song ends on bar 64 with a C... followed by a C entered in bar 65 which is not played. Also ensure you have held chords allowed in your preferences.

That is what I do and it works.

Tony

A little more detail on the rested chord (C.) after the held chord, which is what I recommend on a regular basis:

A held chord will sustain until the next chord you've entered, so if you put one on the last chord in the song, results will be unpredictable (BIAB hasn't been clearly told what you want). That's why we need to enter a rested chord after the held one. You'll sometimes need to make the song a bar longer so there's room for the rested chord before the end bar.

As long as this is done, your ending settings in Song Settings won't really matter, as playback will already be silent by the end of the song.

Cheers
Kent

A fine point on what Tony wrote: the "any other chord" means, I always choose a chord different from the chord being held. This has been a long-time unwritten rule with BIAB.

Example:

If you are holding a C7... then put C. to silence the hold. Or D.

The point is, don't put C7.

Hi Matt,

That really shouldn't matter. I just tested it with C... to C., A... to A., and C7... to C7., and it worked fine in all cases. If this causes any issues with one of your songs, please send it to support@pgmusic.com for testing, and I'll be happy to investigate.

This may have been a bug in an earlier version, though I've been here since 2008 and don't remember it myself (though my memory isn't perfect).

By the way, it looks like I was mistaken in my previous reply. If you use this trick on the end of the song, you should turn off the automatic ending in Song Settings, or you'll get a hold, followed by a rest and then the band kicking in again for the ending bars.

Thanks
Kent
PG Music

Kent, thanks, I'm glad if this has been fixed.

The practice goes back well into the 1990s. I think you would find all of us from then just do it this way. Tony referred to it above.

I suspect we old timers still use Matt's method, because there was a time it was previously reported as being fixed, but wasn't, and then no update after that. So if truly fixed now, then yay, and I'll start using the same chord as the rest chord, as it makes for a cleaner looking leadsheet.

If I could have another wish, I would want to have NC ( no chord) implemented, with the ability to hide it on the printed page. Then I could use that.

Off to the wish-list Matt? I'll endorse that for sure.

Done.

Sorry for coming to this party late however reading thru these posts i am somewhat lost as to how this should be done. Reading the built in programme manual made it worse for me.

Could you gurus please summarize for this old guy how to do this chord ending a song .

Thanks.

W,

Reread Blue Attitude's post (with screenshot) that is thirteen prior to yours, Tony Wright's post that is ten prior to yours and Kent with PG Music post that is eight prior to yours.

When you're using RealTracks end the song with a held chord (three periods after a chord name) and the RealTrack instruments will fade naturally.

Also you can force the RealTracks to end a song by fading over a set number of beats by entering a held chord then enter a rest (one period after a chord name) X number of beats after the held chord. So, for instance the RealTrack instruments could be forced to fade for 2 1/2 bars by entering a held chord then a rest chord 2 1/2 bars later.

You seem to be expert status here, so hopefully you can help. Ok, I dint know what changed. Before I used to end a song with let's say, C... and if would end with a long held chord no matter what style. I've tried every trick everyone's suggested here, from adding a chord with one period a bar or even two bars later. That didn't work. I've checked and uncheck Generate 2 Bar ending and enable 4 bar endings in different combos to see if that mattered. I've tried tried multiple real tracks, with both A & B settings. and no matter what I do every chord ending with ... always cuts short, no lingering chord. Any thoughts as to why I can't get it working like I used to?

Still no luck with getting a chord to end with a long lingering note. I don't know what changed. Before I used to end a song with let's say, C... and if would end with a long held chord no matter what style. I've tried every trick everyone's suggested here, from adding a chord with one period a bar or even two bars later. That didn't work. I've checked and uncheck Generate 2 Bar ending and enable 4 bar endings in different combos to see if that mattered. I've tried tried multiple real tracks, with both A & B settings. and no matter what I do every chord ending with ... always cuts short, no lingering chord. Any thoughts as to why I can't get it working like I used to?

Painterroy, are you using a Mac OS or Windows? What version? What build?

Hi Painterroy,

Which style are you using? Some RealTracks don't support shots and holds at all. Also, did you insert the rested chord before or after the ending of the song?

If your chorus is 32 bars long, for example, the rested chord should be on bar 32, it won't work if you put it on bar 33.

Thanks
Kent
PG Music

Good question.

May i also request Painterroy to provide us with a reference to the song he is having such difficulty with .

Also the advice by Kent ( PG ) is important here



However, the information provided by Kent bring up a question for me as to how do we figure out which RealTracks do not support shots and holds at all.

The easiest way to know if a RealTracks supports holds is to look it up in the RealTracks Picker.

The RealTracks Picker has a column that provides the folder number for any RealTracks that supports holds. If no number is given then a RealTracks doesn't support holds.

In the screenshot below the red highlights indicate some accordion and acoustic guitar RealTracks that do not support holds.

You can open the RealTracks Picker by clicking on the RealTracks button located in the Tracks section, pressing F% and then the RealTracks button near the top of the F5 window or right clicking on an instrument name in the mixer then selecting "Select RealTracks" > "Select RealTracks" from the right click sub menu.

Jim Fogle,

thanks kindly Sir.

Poor Mister Magoo here really had to squint to find that information in his Mac Band-in-a-Box® RealTracks picker and it only tells you via those pop-up windows when you hoover the mouse over it (screen shot ).

Actually to be honest i or Mister Magoo never worked with those columns.

Phew! And at first I thought you didn't like the screenshot I posted.

The RealTracks Picker column widths are adjustable. However there is not a way to "lock" the column widths. The column widths revert back to their default widths the next time you open the RealTracks Picker window.

Notice the "Copy List" button at the bottom of the RealTracks Picker window? Press that button and a RealTracks tab delimited list is created. The list can be transferred to a spreadsheet program for easier management.