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#443883 12/09/17 03:54 PM
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I just read this on the forum:

49 of your Problems solved? List of 49 Requests fulfilled in Band-in-a-Box 2018.

Q. There are over 600,000 abc song files on the internet. These are mainly folk songs from around the world, but are all genres including jazz and pop songs. It is described on abcnotation.com. This is a simple text format that can be put in an email or on a web page, so is easy to copy and paste. I’d like to be able to import and export abc notation chords and melody from Band-in-a-Box, but this isn’t possible.

A. We’ve added abc notation support in BiaB 2018. You can open them directly, and see the chords and melody. And the of course, choose a BiaB style, and play them. You can also save your BiaB Song compositions in abc format to share with others, as simply as pasting some text into an email or forum message etc.

OK so I went over to www.abcnotation.com and got their tutorial file "Speed the Plough" and saved it as an ascii ABC file. It is such a simple song, here is what the ASCII text looks like.

X:1
T:Speed the Plough
M:4/4
C:Trad.
K:G
|:GABc dedB|dedB dedB|c2ec B2dB|c2A2 A2BA|
GABc dedB|dedB dedB|c2ec B2dB|A2F2 G4:|
|:g2gf gdBd|g2f2 e2d2|c2ec B2dB|c2A2 A2df|
g2gf g2Bd|g2f2 e2d2|c2ec B2dB|A2F2 G4:|


It is just a simple melody line.

Open up BIAB and clicked on Open and chose the text file. I then see a yellow error message box pop up at the lower right hand corner that says "Unable to correctly parse .abc file. These errors will be fixed soon in a free upgrade patch.

Currently using BIAB 2018 with Update 505 installed.

The melody line appears to play OK in the song but was wonder why I am getting this message.

I made another ABC song file up myself using just the notes in the C Major scale and I still get the error message. Here is the ABC text file. using Notepad, for the C Major Scale playing 16 times.

X:1
T:C Major Scale
M:4/4
C:Trad.
K:C
|:CDEF GABc|CDEF GABc|CDEF GABc|CDEF GABc|
CDEF GABc|CDEF GABc|CDEF GABc|CDEF GABc:|


The C Major Scale plays just fine in the melody line but the error message still pops up when opening up the file in BIAB. The format is correct for ABC notation in the text file.

I also notice the following using the C Major Scale text file in BIAB for this experiment.

1. The NEW song in BIAB is 3 choruses, the default setting.
2. When BIAB opens up the ABC Text file, it will not automatically expand the resulting melody line to play the 2nd and 3rd choruses, it only plays the melody for the 1st chorus. The 2nd and 3rd are silent.

Last edited by jcland; 12/10/17 04:25 AM. Reason: Edited to add C Major Scale - ABC Text File.

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Quote:
2. When BIAB opens up the ABC Text file, it will not automatically expand the resulting melody line to play the 2nd and 3rd choruses, it only plays the melody for the 1st chorus. The 2nd and 3rd are silent.


This should probably be a wish list item. In the meantime, there is a command to copy the 1st chorus melody to the remaining choruses (Melody, Edit Melody Track, Form, Copy 1st Chorus to Whole Song).


John

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Thanks... that message is spurious - ABC notation importing is working correctly. We'll remove that message in the next update.

Last edited by Andrew - PG Music; 12/11/17 09:26 AM.

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Thanks Andrew and jford to the replies back on the question.


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Originally Posted By: jcland
Thanks Andrew and jford to the replies back on the question.


And thanks to you jcland for the quick tutorial you did for us.


BIAB Ultra Pak+ 2024:RB 2024, Latest builds: Dell Optiplex 7040 Desktop; Windows-10-64 bit, Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz CPU and 16 GB Ram Memory.
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Band-in-a-Box® 2024 Review: 4.75 out of 5 Stars!

If you're looking for a in-depth review of the newest Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows version, you'll definitely find it with Sound-Guy's latest review, Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows Review: Incredible new capabilities to experiment, compose, arrange and mix songs.

A few excerpts:
"The Tracks view is possibly the single most powerful addition in 2024 and opens up a new way to edit and generate accompaniments. Combined with the new MultiPicker Library Window, it makes BIAB nearly perfect as an 'intelligent' composer/arranger program."

"MIDI SuperTracks partial generation showing six variations – each time the section is generated it can be instantly auditioned, re-generated or backed out to a previous generation – and you can do this with any track type. This is MAJOR! This takes musical experimentation and honing an arrangement to a new level, and faster than ever."

"Band in a Box continues to be an expansive musical tool-set for both novice and experienced musicians to experiment, compose, arrange and mix songs, as well as an extensive educational resource. It is huge, with hundreds of functions, more than any one person is likely to ever use. Yet, so is any DAW that I have used. BIAB can do some things that no DAW does, and this year BIAB has more DAW-like functions than ever."

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The User Showcase Forum is an excellent place to share your Band-in-a-Box® songs and listen to songs other program users are creating!

There are other places you can listen to these songs too! Visit our User Showcase page to sort by genre, artist (forum name), song title, and date - each listing will direct you to the forum post for that song.

If you'd rather listen to these songs in one place, head to our Band-in-a-Box® Radio, where you'll have the option to select the genre playlist for your listening pleasure. This page has SoundCloud built in, so it won't redirect you. We've also added the link to the Artists SoundCloud page here, and a link to their forum post.

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