Hi all:

I understand that we as users of BIAB can load the demo songs from RealTracks and they form a great starting point for creating a song. It is also clear to me that one is not supposed to use the "melody" from that song "as is" since that would not be legal. Lastly, I understand that chords and chord progressions can't be copyrighted (correct me if I'm wrong). So my question is as follows...

1) If I Regenerate the song I hear a slightly different melody from the original one that came from the demo. Is that sufficient to be different so that we can use it somehow? Not that I would do only this, but I want to understand what the actual "limit" of what the legal terms mean.

2) What actually "is" the melody? Is that always a single particular instrument like the guitar or the piano? Sometimes the melody seems to be formed by two different guitars, or a guitar and a piano working together. If I remove that identifiable melody I'm left with drums, base, and perhaps something else, but the melody is generally gone. Is that what is required so that we can use that song as a base?

3) What if I only remove the One guitar which seems like it plays the main melody and leave the second guitar and the rest of the song alone? Is that sufficient to be considered different?

I'm not trying to write commercial songs, just songs to share with my friends. But, I do want to understand what exactly constitutes what I can and can't do with this software.

I guess what I'm really asking is "What can I create using RealTracks so that I don't publish or distribute anything that PGMusic doesn't like?"

Any clarifications will be extremely helpful.
[i][/i]

The Band-in-a-Box Demo Songs are under PG Music Inc. copyright. They are meant to be used as creative examples of how to use various add-ons that come with the software. So for making your own music you can load a Style or RealTrack into your song and consider it your song. But you cannot load a Demo then call it your song.

a great question... and a great answer...

Sometimes a PG demo(SGU) can imply a melody... I listen, and automatically hear a melody in my head...

my advice... Just make up a different progression/arrangement, and do YOUR OWN thing...

"I'm not trying to write commercial songs, just songs to share with my friends."
If you send them the link to the demo song of the PG website.
https://www.pgmusic.com/xtrastyles.php?pak=all&os=win#rock-pop-10

I'm not interested in using or sharing BIAB demo songs without modification. I just want to understand HOW MUCH they need to be modified and what that really means.

For example the .STY named _CMPFBHS.STY (Campfire, Hank Strummed) has only one track with no melody. If I like that set of chords and want to leave them as is, would that be illegal? Even if I press Regenerate, it sounds the same. I obviously would not want to use that style "as is" because I could easily (and would) add a melody using another instrument in my DAW. But, there are other styles that apparently have no melody, just a bunch of chords being played and it is difficult to determine which one is the actual melody (if there is one).

So my question is more about understanding the situation, more from an academic point of view, just for the sake of clarifying, not figuring out how to cheat or be lazy.

"I understand that chords and chord progressions can't be copyrighted "
I think you have answered you own question. I send songs all the time using the demo chords.