I would really like to see a one-click method, where you could select a harmony, distribute them to say, Trumpet, Tenor, Baritone and Trombone (bass or treble clef choice)and have BIAB spit out the parts pre-transposed. Most of the logic is in there, but requires a lot of manual steps that could be orchestrated. Also nice would be a setting to choose to harmonize, for example only melody notes >= a quarter, half or whole. While I'm at it, it would be nice if the lower parts could optionally continue "drop notes" to match the harmony while the top part holds the melody.

Oh, and by the way, by the next release is a perfect timeframe ..

You could always go to Sibelius 7. I heard it did that much and more. Auto arrangements, print outs in the right keys, as in print out parts for a brass ensemble, full band etc.

That's what I heard.

I have not yet taken the plunge, but am on the diving board so to speak.

Both Sibelius and Finale have that kind of functionality. There is a steep learning curve though. If I wrote brass ensembles, I would absolutely go there, but the kind of music I play means lead sheets for all the horns (with chords) and I can get this output perfectly from BIAB already. Finale already uses BIAB harmonies as a plugin. I am thinking this is so common (even without the harmonization) that since the code already exists in the product, it is more or less wrapping a GUI around a script.

You can download demos of Sibelius and Finale. I think Sibelius is more intuitive. For all the users who think BIAB has "feature bloat" they should try one of these. I suppose if I were arranging movie scores or large ensembles, I would NEED one.

So am I right in thinking that the existing melody harmony options in BIAB (including the one click presets) are not giving you what you want?. If memory serves I'm pretty certain that you can export each line of the harmonies to separate channels in a midi file. And the option of only harmonizing melody notes of a certain duration is already under the 'more ' tab in the melody harmony editor. It's just that its expressed in units of milliseconds rather than note values.

Regards

Alan

Actually, you don't need to save them out as MIDI files. When you swap the harmony to the melody track permanently, you can view the parts individually and transpose them before printing. I am thinking because it is a common function, and the code exists, that it could be reduced to a "one-click" procedure where your favorite instrumentation is maintained. I will check in to the duration option in harmonies. I guess the millisecond conversion will work after getting used to it.