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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Lots to think about with this project. I sent much of this information to BIAB support but have not gotten any response. SMP support is following this to see if they can help.
I can tell you my manual entry of the chords from SMP text file to BIAB Chord Chart is progressing. I am just wrapping up my vocals (Ya, Key of Cm for me) on this song project. I am integrating sections of BIAB RT guitar as I rearrange the song. Results are tedious but so far appear to be feasible. I will share my final effort with this project in a week or so. Perhaps next time this may go a bit smoother if the powers to be can get in step.
Clarify one point for me. When you say, " double the tempo in SMP and then half it in BIAB" do you mean using the Midi File to move the chords between apps?
Oh, and regarding, "I did load it into SMP and got similar to your chords but not exactly the same which was interesting.." I trimed the beginning of this tune in Audacity where I did the transpose to Cm. I have a very complicated process...
Thanks again
Dan
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Clarify one point for me. When you say, " double the tempo in SMP and then half it in BIAB" do you mean using the Midi File to move the chords between apps?
Oh, and regarding, "I did load it into SMP and got similar to your chords but not exactly the same which was interesting.." I trimed the beginning of this tune in Audacity where I did the transpose to Cm. I have a very complicated process... Ok that's interesting and might be why we are getting different results. My guess is if you edited in Audacity and then imported back to SMP then it may have changed things with the tempo? I have just loaded the video into SMP and it shows the tempo as 161bpm, which mostly imports fine into BIAB with the SMP XML exported file. I'll take a guess and say that your SMP version is showing around 80bpm? I'll assume that is the case so I'll set mine there and this is what that looks like. ![[Linked Image - Only viewable when logged in]](https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=download&Number=32391&filename=SMP 80bpm.png) Notice the Bdim is taking up half a beat. Now just for clarity, I'll add a few more 8th length chords, Am, Bm, Cm, Dm and export the XML. ![[Linked Image - Only viewable when logged in]](https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=download&Number=32392&filename=SMP eighth chords.png) Here is the result imported to BIAB. ![[Linked Image - Only viewable when logged in]](https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=download&Number=32393&filename=biab xml 1.png) These short duration chords are causing the problem. Now I'll double the tempo in SMP by clicking on the bar line or right clicking the in the timeline. This hast has doubled the length of the chords as you can see now lined up with the beats in the time line ![[Linked Image - Only viewable when logged in]](https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=download&Number=32394&filename=Smp double.png) Export the XML and load into Biab. I'll repost in a moment, I've hit an image limit 
Last edited by Lee N; 03/03/26 06:32 PM.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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With this XML now imported to BIAB, we get this ![[Linked Image - Only viewable when logged in]](https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=download&Number=32396&filename=biab xml 2.png) Now in BIAB go to Edit\Song form\reduce duration by half and we get this ![[Linked Image - Only viewable when logged in]](https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=download&Number=32397&filename=biab xml 3.png) Everything is correct now except for the start time pushing things along into incorrect bars. This can be fixed by changing the offset in the import XML window.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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It's a bit of a nuisance that you end up with all of those unnecessary chord entries but if they cause a problem then I guess still quicker to delete them inside BIAB than manual entry for each chord.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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... and with that, I've just spotted another problem in Biab.The Bdim is missing. Think I need sleep!
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Ok, just found another problem. Biab reduce tempo ignores chords on beats 2 and 4 if 1 or 3 is empty. ![[Linked Image - Only viewable when logged in]](https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=download&Number=32398&filename=empty beats.png) I guess they are fairly easy to spot visually so you'd need to fix those before reducing the tempo.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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A very good effort here Lee.  Thanks for doing some of the heavy lifting on this. We would all benefit greatly having a smooth transfer path between SMB and BIAB. Image being able to bring over the accurate chords and beats (even if only 1/4 note chord resolution - we really can't expect more at this time from BIAB), along with the wonderful SMP tempo map!! I have now had some more conversations with PGM support asking them to provide a text file conversion to put ChordMark (chords with beat placement) into BIAB. I have not given up on that. I will send the BIAB file for this song when I upload the final product. I continue to tweek and fix as I go along. Dan
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Btw, I can do the text conversion with a macro in Notepad++ , that's quite easy now I've figured out the format. All but the short duration, <1/4 note chords which I just remove them via the macro and they can be filled back manually after import. Because the txt output from SMP is not consistent with short chords, I doubt PG could implement the conversion. XML output from SMP, on the other hand, seems all fine. So the easy fix here is for BIAB to fix the XML import and export for what they call microchords. I can give a lot more detail with my findings if it helps any but I won't bother posting that unless you ask because it will be a long boring reply
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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I'll take us off line with a PM shortly. Your input was very helpful in this process, thanks for sharing with us all. Dan
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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For those following - here is the first full cut - these performances are never done, we just stop working on them at some point  ! This was a serious effort to synchronize the chords and beats between two very popular music making applications (SMP and BIAB). Matching tempo and groove between varied apps including live and recorded music, has been very difficult for me in the past. Fact is, I have not used BIAB in any of my music for a long time due specifically to the issue of matching tempo and beat and groove. I consider this effort a bit of a hightlight for me . https://soundcloud.com/dan-hoch-784636941/a-long-way-home-030526
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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I've been messing about with this using Notepad++ and creating a macro to automate it. Think I'm getting there . Lee, you are a genius.  I hope you get paid a lot of money for the coding skills you have honed, you deserve it. Your NotePad script run perfect first try. Cut and Paste from SMB ChordMark text formated song sheet directly into BIAB. You the man! How very genrous and kind of you to help me with this. I know that are some of you who think this idea of using a text file as a backdoor into BIAB to move chords and beats seems a bit bizarre , but in my experience all other avenues (short of manual entry) have failed me. SMP creates the charts from recorded music as good as anything I have see. Putting these directly into BIAB worked for me in A Long Road Home. I look forward to working on my next project with it. Dan
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Thanks Dan, no problem.
I took a listen to your version. Sounding good. Is that a mix of the original with the BIAB guitar solo or the whole thing done in BiaB?
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