PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Windows no Fadd9

I can input any chord Nadd9 (it will come up as Nadd2, the same notes but not really the same chord) EXCEPT Fadd9. Nothing comes up if I type Fadd9. I can type Fadd2 and it is fine. Is this a very minor bug or is it inherent to my system? Thanx in advance for checking it out.

Confirmed.

When I type Fadd9 it immediately gives me Fadd2. But only in Bar 1. In Bar 2 I get nothing.

I had not tried it in bar 1.

Now that I did try bar 1, it immediately flipped to a C chord. In any other bar, it results in a blank cell.

??

Just checking, this is Build 1128, yes?

Yes.

It doesn't matter what measure or on what beat I always get a blank cell.

I've used add2 for years when I want an add9.

Since we have no control over the inversion BiaB will use on any chord, they are essentially the same.

I almost exclusively use MIDI, and export to a sequencer or DAW. That way, I can move that 2 to the top if it isn't there already, or change any other inversion so that it suits the song better.

I have good hardware sound modules, so they sound 95% as good as Real Tracks. IMHO, with the ability to extensively edit the MIDI tracks, a little tweaking can make the MIDI song much better than the RT song. YMMV

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

It would be interesting to get your thoughts on editing RealTracks with Playable RealTracks. The midi editing is the same, so the comparison will be audio versus midi patches. My thought is some instruments will improve from the 95% level you're at now. With the Playable RealTracks option, you get the SFZ sample assigned by PGM staff and also access to any third party midi sound engine you have including VST3.

There’s another recent thread here about the hierarchy of what BIAB plays if the chord you want wasn’t recorded (or perhaps just wasn’t indexed) in a particular RealTrack. But I always expected that BIAB would play the correct chord when using MIDI until I found (early on) that BIAB apparently treats these chords the same: 2, add2, add9, and sus2. They are all a 2 chord.

In that other thread, Simon implied there could be a difference but so far no one has demonstrated that I am wrong.

I like the RTs when they are just right, but I'm a tweaker, and you can only tweak audio so much. You can edit MIDI thousands of times more than audio. Here are a few of the most basic and easiest examples:

Perhaps that guitar sound would be better for my song if it sounded more like a Strat, or a distorted Les Paul, a Tele, or a Santana type compression sound? I have, for clean guitars, over 20 different voices.

How about changing that acoustic piano sound to a Rhodes or Clav? Or a Wurli?

Change the ride cymbal to a ride bell? Change the snare sound? That drum roll might sound better on a high tom. The congas in many Salsa songs need to be a tad behind the beat. (This could go on with for paragraphs drums alone)

What if I want to inject a song specific figure in the song on an instrument already playing? Playing a lot of cover tunes, that comping bass, piano or guitar might need to play one of those figures at any time during a progression or phrase, and if the instrument sound doesn't match, it will bug me (and serious listeners).

Song specific, or one from my imagination longer intros and endings?

Rhythmic kicks that are more complex than a shot? Think "Oye Como Va", "I Got You (I Feel Good)", "Day Tripper", "Smoke On The Water" and thousands of others.

How about exaggerating the groove? Moving the backbeat ahead or behind the beat a bit? Drummers do this by feel, and it's song specific.

And who says the bass on the Real Track has a better tone for a particular song than another, or guitar, or sax.

I could go on and on. The above just scratches the surface. There are so many things you can do to "personalize" a song and add to the expressiveness of music.

IMO, expression is much more important than tone. If tone was king, Dr. John, Stevie Nicks, Leon Russell, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, and so many other singers would never have made it. They expressed themselves in a way the public appreciated.

And what is perfect tone? On guitar, is it Hendricks? Slash? Kath? Page? Clapton? Gale? Blackmore? Kessell? Gilmour? BB KIng? Albert King? Freddie King? Christian? Pass? Harrison? Duane Eddy? Scotty Moore? Raitt? Tharpe? Tedeschi? Orianthi? Bachman? Benson? Caiola? Pizzarelli? Chuck Berry? And on which guitar? Amp? FX loops?

On sax Getz? Turrentine? Walker? Brecker? Coltrane?

IMO tone is second to expression. Using MIDI can take a BiaB output that is very good, and turn it into something even better. I play music for a living, and even better is essential to surpass my competition. Just good enough, isn't good enough.


Insights and incites by Notes ♫

Notes, for all the reasons you listed is why I prefer MIDI over RTs and RDs.
On occasion if an RT or RD fits I use it but 99.99% of the time I use MIDI.

Mario, I passed this thread along to the developers.

Thanx Matt.

Confirmed, added bug report id# 5012.

This happens because there was already a C in that cell. If you type Fadd9 over an existing chord, it'll revert to whatever was there first.

Yes, agreed. But how do we explain what Dan got? "When I type Fadd9 it immediately gives me Fadd2. But only in Bar 1. In Bar 2 I get nothing." Why did Fadd9 work at all for him?

There is more than one way to use BiaB, and I'm thankful we can all use what we like the best.

Here is an afterthought on my previous post.

I've done over 50 fake book companions with hundreds of songs each. Quite often, a song will need 2 or more different styles, as the A, B, and/or C (or more) parts might have very different rhythm changes.

Searching through the styles, I often used 2 or more different styles, but they have different instruments. Might be a picked bass on one and an acoustic on another, or a string section or vocal aahs on another.

With RTs the instrument changes can be so drastic that they don't fit the song. With MIDI, you can change the instruments, so the same instruments are played on all the different sections.

There are literally thousands of things you can do with MIDI that you cannot do with pre-recorded audio samples. At least for now. With advances in technology, I reserve the right to change my mind if the situation changes.

Insights and incites by Notes

It's agreed that MIDI can make it happen, but I understand that the problem here is not really related to RealTracks or MIDI, but that specifically the "Fadd9" chord can't be properly applied at all.

That is correct AT.

Thanks Mario. I understand that it's been reported to the powers that be, and no doubt / hopefully it will get immediate attention ( )

My assumption is there was already an Fadd2 in the first bar, but until he responds I can't be sure.

Yep, hopefully it's an easy fix!