Previous Thread
Index
Next Thread
Print Thread
Go To
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 134
P
Prado Offline OP
Apprentice
OP Offline
Apprentice
P
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 134
I've been using the style wizard to start off a new style with some midi files I have. I'm a little confused about how it selects/ chooses the weights. In the rhythm tracks it seems I'll often get something with a weight of '8' without masking, and all the other sections '1's or '3's.

I realized I can change these weights and add masking if I want ... but why aren't they more 'evenly distributed' in the first place?

I've been searching the website and reading the manual, but so far haven't found much.

Prado

Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,486
Expert
Offline
Expert
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,486
Hi Prado

I have found that most highly weighted ones can fit almost anywhere whereas the closer you get to the lowest scored ones they are really only suitable for more sparing use - hence the higher scored ones get played more

I have spent some time messing around with the scoring and except for a few personal exceptions PG Music seem to have achieved a musically believable balance

jazzman


BIAB - RealBand - 2022
Windows 10 64
Zoo computer with 7i processor- SSD 1TB -2TB HDD
Roland keyboards
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 134
P
Prado Offline OP
Apprentice
OP Offline
Apprentice
P
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 134
Thanks Jazzman ... I'll be less inclined to try to tweak them if that's the case.

If I understand you, you're saying that when the wizard does it's analysis it somehow also includes a relative/ comparative assessment of how musically useful a phrase would be viz. the others available ... as far as fitting into different parts of a song. So, if there is only one 'really useful musical phrase,' then that one will receive a very high weight with others given weighting for infrequent use.

I'll keep watching how it does it. According to what you say, just by chance I should sometimes come up with a midi song that has at least 2 'really useful' musical phrases. In which case I should find 2 phrases with relatively high weightings in the stylemaker window. Or, perhaps one that will have more of the phrases weighted closer to 5. So far, the 3 times I've worked on different midi files, it has always been the case of one '8' and a lot of '2s' and '1s.'

Prado

Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 603
Journeyman
Offline
Journeyman
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 603
Quote:

...when the wizard does it's analysis it somehow also includes a relative/ comparative assessment of how musically useful a phrase would be viz. the others available



Brian always knows what he's talking about, and I'm interested to hear what he says about the weightings that wizard assigns.

At the bottom, it still comes solely from numerical analysis, though. If some drum pattern plays all the time in your sample piece, a wizard can count up those occurrences and assign a large weight. That pattern then should play very often, much like the original.

How else could that be done? It's a figure of speech to say a program "decides" what's "useful" or what might sound good. In fact, it can only count stuff that's fed to it and calculate a lot of averages very quickly.


Larry
______
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 15,589
PG Music Staff
Offline
PG Music Staff
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 15,589
Yes, the weights are assigned based on their use in the file that was input to the program. (actually the range of bars in the input file that you have specified).

For example, if the file was 30 bars long, the program analyzes it, and might find 5 unique patterns (since many would be repeated). It then assigns weights to them, that correspond to how often they were used in the input file.


Have Fun!
Peter Gannon
PG Music Inc.
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 134
P
Prado Offline OP
Apprentice
OP Offline
Apprentice
P
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 134
Thanks Peter ...

That takes my thoughts in a different and potentially more helpful direction. So it is not some meta-analysis of theoretical 'musical usefulness' of the phrase, but rather the number of times the phrase is utilized in the analyzed bars relative to other unique phrases that determines initial weighting. So then if a song, a dance song for example, has a fairly repetitive 'hook' on a rhythm track, the 'hook' phrase will end up with a very high weighting ... even though musically some of the other phrases could just as easily have been used instead for 'hooks' in the original composition.

In this case I see I need to learn how to better discriminate the bars selected for analysis or go back later and even out the cell weighting so that I can have the style generate greater compositional variety.

This suggests the analysis is done in the wizard 'bar by bar.' Is this true? There must be some way to isolate the phrase, and since midi data does identify each note by it's sequential position in a bar (sequence ... hmmm, wonder why that word sounds familiar?), I'm guessing that BIAB uses a 'bar' as the parameter box to analyze phrases.

Prado

Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 15,589
PG Music Staff
Offline
PG Music Staff
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 15,589
>>I'm guessing that BIAB uses a 'bar' as the parameter box to analyze phrases.

Yes.


Have Fun!
Peter Gannon
PG Music Inc.
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 8,333
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 8,333
See Yes can be an elaborate answer.


John Conley
Musica est vita
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 134
P
Prado Offline OP
Apprentice
OP Offline
Apprentice
P
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 134
I'd describe it as 'eloquent' ... but I think we substantially agree.

And I am ecstatic to be on my way to using the stylemaker wizard intelligently!

Prado

Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 484
R
Journeyman
Offline
Journeyman
R
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 484
Wow, this is so far over my head, my noise stared to bleed! Back to the drawing board for me learn yet another feature in this toy box.

Thanks,

Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 38,502
M
Mac Offline
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
M
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 38,502
A noise bleed?

That is typically an audio hardware problem -- crosstalk...



--Mac

Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 134
P
Prado Offline OP
Apprentice
OP Offline
Apprentice
P
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 134
^^Just pick up your computer and tilt it backwards for a minute or so putting a little pressure right in the front, middle upper quarter.

Always works for me.

Prado

Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 134
P
Prado Offline OP
Apprentice
OP Offline
Apprentice
P
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 134
^^^^^^^^ Larry ... somehow I missed your post.

I quite agree that programs can't decide, but only follow mathematical rules written by their creators.

But although my surmising turned out to be incorrect, it is not implausible. After all that 'counting' is done, the particular content of a bar in midi data, i.e., number of notes, length on notes, time on and off of notes, velocity, ad nausea, could still be subjected to some type of probabalistic 'comparison' algorithm informed by music/ melody theory. After which bars with more useful phrases as as dictated by the creator, e.g., two dotted quarters as opposed to one whole note, could have preferential weights assigned.

'Just sayin' ...

Prado

Previous Thread
Next Thread
Go To

Link Copied to Clipboard
ChatPG

Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.

ChatPG's knowledge base includes the full Band-in-a-Box User Manual and sales information from the website.

PG Music News
Happy Victoria Day! (Monday, May 20th)

We are celebrating Victoria Day on Monday, May 20th!

Our availability through this long weekend is:

Saturday, May 18: Closed
Sunday, May 19: Closed
Monday, May 22: 6am-6pm PT

www.pgmusic.com/contact.htm

Henry Clarke: Revolutionize Your Band-in-Box® Tracks with Regenerating Function

One of the new features added with Band-in-Box® 2024 is the Tracks Window, which will look familiar if you've worked with other DAWs.

Henry Clarke explains why he loves the Re-generation function within the Tracks Window in their video Revolutionize Your Band-in-Box® Tracks with Regenerating Function.

Watch video.

Learn even more about what the Tracks Window can do with our video Band-in-a-Box® 2024: The Tracks Window.

User Video: Next-Level AI Music Editing with ACE Studio and Band-in-a-Box®

The Bob Doyle Media YouTube channel is known for demonstrating how you can creatively incorporate AI into your projects - from your song projects to avatar building to face swapping, and more!

His latest video, Next-Level AI Music Editing with ACE Studio and Band-in-a-Box, he explains in detail how you can use the Melodist feature in Band-in-a-Box with ACE Studio. Follow along as he goes from "nothing" to "something" with his Band-in-a-Box MIDI Melodist track, using ACE Studio to turn it into a vocal track (or tracks, you'll see) by adding lyrics for those notes that will trigger some amazing AI vocals!

Watch: Next-Level AI Music Editing with ACE Studio and Band-in-a-Box


Band-in-a-Box® 2024 German for Windows is Here!

Band-in-a-Box® 2024 für Windows Deutsch ist verfügbar!

Wir waren fleißig und haben über 50 neue Funktionen und eine erstaunliche Sammlung neuer Inhalte hinzugefügt, darunter 222 RealTracks, neue RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, "Songs with Vocals" Artist Performance Sets, abspielbare RealTracks Set 3, abspielbare RealDrums Set 2, zwei neue Sets von "RealDrums Stems", XPro Styles PAK 6, Xtra Styles PAK 17 und mehr!

Paket | Was ist Neu

Update Your PowerTracks Pro Audio 2024 Today!

Add updated printing options, enhanced tracks settings, smoother use of MGU and SGU (BB files) within PowerTracks, and more with the latest PowerTracks Pro Audio 2024 update!

Learn more about this free update for PowerTracks Pro Audio & download it at www.pgmusic.com/support_windows_pt.htm#2024_5

The Newest RealBand 2024 Update is Here!

The newest RealBand 2024 Build 5 update is now available!

Download and install this to your RealBand 2024 for updated print options, streamlined loading and saving of .SGU & MGU (BB) files, and to add a number of program adjustments that address user-reported bugs and concerns.

This free update is available to all RealBand 2024 users. To learn more about this update and download it, head to www.pgmusic.com/support.realband.htm#20245

The Band-in-a-Box® Flash Drive Backup Option

Today (April 5) is National Flash Drive Day!

Did you know... not only can you download your Band-in-a-Box® Pro, MegaPAK, or PlusPAK purchase - you can also choose to add a flash drive backup copy with the installation files for only $15? It even comes with a Band-in-a-Box® keychain!

For the larger Band-in-a-Box® packages (UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, Audiophile Edition), the hard drive backup copy is available for only $25. This will include a preinstalled and ready to use program, along with your installation files.

Backup copies are offered during the checkout process on our website.

Already purchased your e-delivery version, and now you wish you had a backup copy? It's not too late! If your purchase was for the current version of Band-in-a-Box®, you can still reach out to our team directly to place your backup copy order!

Note: the Band-in-a-Box® keychain is only included with flash drive backup copies, and cannot be purchased separately.

Handy flash drive tip: Always try plugging in a USB device the wrong way first? If your flash drive (or other USB plug) doesn't have a symbol to indicate which way is up, look for the side with a seam on the metal connector (it only has a line across one side) - that's the side that either faces down or to the left, depending on your port placement.

Forum Statistics
Forums66
Topics81,802
Posts737,473
Members38,588
Most Online2,537
Jan 19th, 2020
Newest Members
xristos69, Eliana Davis, Nao incomodem mais, minimashi, EricQP
38,588 Registered Users
Top Posters(30 Days)
MarioD 169
rsdean 109
dcuny 104
DC Ron 99
Noel96 81
Today's Birthdays
larryfarr, Va Russ, woofer
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5