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Joined: Apr 2004
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Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 161 |
Hi,
Just recently got a few of the Norton styledisks and I have to say its been a real eye opener for me they sound so good, very favourably in my humble opinion compared to any realtracks, and much better than most of the inbuilt midi styles in band in a box.
As I know Mr Norton is on the forum very often I would like to say a big thank you for your fabulous sounding styles.
Regards
Jan
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Thank you for the kind words Jan.
I am happy that you are enjoying my work.
Take care,
Bob
Bob "Notes" Norton  Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com
100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks
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Journeyman
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Joined: Dec 2007
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Thanks Bob,
Your style were always killer, for The Jammer as well.
Wayne,
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Thanks for the kind words Wayne. I'm happy that you are enjoying my styles.
Bob
Bob "Notes" Norton Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com
100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks
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+1
I have all of the Norton styles disks and they are all fantastic. I agree that they compete very well with real tracks. While I love real tracks, you simply cannot beat the editing available with midi files so I often prefer using Norton's styles to any real tracks.
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And thank you too Ric for the support.
Bob
Bob "Notes" Norton Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com
100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks
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I have 4 of Norton fake disks as well. I use them all the time in my songwriting attempts.
thanks
martin
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And thank you for your support Martin. I'm glad you are getting good use of them.
Bob
Bob "Notes" Norton Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com
100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks
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Expert
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Expert
Joined: Jun 2003
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Bob,
Quick question while you are checked into the forum. I bought a number of your BIAB style sets back when I was still using Windows XP and ealrier versions of BIAB and they all installed fine, but when I bumped up to 64 bit Windows 7 Ultimate and attempted to run the installation for the Norton styles, I got a Windows error that says the program is incompatible with the current version of Windows. Is there a way to get these old installation files to run and install the styles into BIAB on the Win 7 machine OR alternatively is there a way that I can identify the old Norton folders/files in the old XP BIAB installation and copy them over to the WIN 7 BB folder?
Keith
2026 Audiophile Windows 11 RYZEN THREADRIPPER 3960X 4.5GHZ 128 GB RAM 2 Nvidia RTX 3090s, Vegas,Acid,SoundForge,Izotope Production,Melodyne Studio,SONAR,3 Raven Mtis
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One of my older installation programs that I wrote with an app called PC Install doesn't work on 64 bit W7.
You can do one of two things.
1) Copy the Norton Music files and folders from your old XP to your new W7
2) Send me a private e-mail and I'll send you links to download them with a newer installation program (Winzip self-extracting file).
If there is anyone else out there with the same problem, let me know. There is no charge for this service.
Notes ♫
Bob "Notes" Norton Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com
100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks
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Quote:
I have 4 of Norton fake disks as well. I use them all the time in my songwriting attempts.
thanks
martin
Yes, his Fake Disks are great. I have a few here and they also sound great with an appropriate Real Style. You get the chords and song layout already completed with his Fake Disks. Load a song, press play and you are set to play or sing the melody. His Disks do NOT contain songs with melodies, due to copyright etc . . .
I believe he has covered almost every fakebook with his disks. Worth the $, IMO.
Trax
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Quote:
Quote:
I have 4 of Norton fake disks as well. I use them all the time in my songwriting attempts.
thanks
martin
Yes, his Fake Disks are great. I have a few here and they also sound great with an appropriate Real Style. You get the chords and song layout already completed with his Fake Disks. Load a song, press play and you are set to play or sing the melody. His Disks do NOT contain songs with melodies, due to copyright etc . . .
I believe he has covered almost every fakebook with his disks. Worth the $, IMO.
Trax
A BIG +1
OK, a random thought;
Why does toilet paper need a commercial? Who's not buying it?
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
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Mega gazillion dittos! I have a number of Bob's fake disks and can hardly wait for the one for the Gospel Fakebook.
Stan
Cornet Curmudgeon
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Thanks all for the kind words. This is the online equivalent of the applause that we performers all appreciate after playing music for a live audience.
I'm so glad that so many people enjoy my work.
Stan, we are still working on the Gospel Fake Book/Disk and it should be ready by the end of the summer.
Trax, you are correct about the melodies. The copyright wanted to charge me up to $2.50 per song to include the melodies/lyrics on the disk. I told them I could buy a fake book for around 10 cents per song, and they said, "Then buy the fake book". So for most of my fake disks, I have an Amazon link to a corresponding fake book. You can load the song, open the fake book, and have an instant party!
I used to sell the Fake Books myself, but Amazon sells them for less than I was getting them wholesale, so instead of selling them myself, I just link to Amazon to save my customers money.
I'm also working on a couple of style disks - and hopefully another fake disk. It all comes down to available time.
I'll try to release them all at once. That simplifies everything and puts fewer promotional e-mails into my customers' in boxes.
Notes ♫
Last edited by Notes Norton; 08/07/11 06:08 AM.
Bob "Notes" Norton Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com
100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks
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Notes, another fake book/disk I would be interested in is “This is the Ultimate Fake Book”, with over 1200 songs, fourth edition by Hal Leonard.
Your fake book/disks have saved me a ton of time as I used to type in the chords then search for a style. Your books have eliminated those two steps.
Keep up the great work - MarioD
OK, a random thought;
Why does toilet paper need a commercial? Who's not buying it?
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
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Thanks Mario,
That's one giant fake book!!!
We'll add it to our list.
Notes ♫
Bob "Notes" Norton Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com
100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks
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I wonder if there is a Guinness Book of World Records category for Most Songs Played? With all the fakebook versions he has prepared, Bob would have to be in the running.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Quote:
I wonder if there is a Guinness Book of World Records category for Most Songs Played?
Don't know about played, but I think Steve Allen has the record for most composed. Wikipedia lists it as some-14,000 sounds
Quote:
Allen was an accomplished composer who wrote over 10,000 songs. He began his recording career in 1953 by signing with Decca Records's Brunswick Records sublabel.[8] In one famous stunt, he made a bet with singer-songwriter Frankie Laine that he could write 50 songs a day for a week. Composing on public display in the window of a Hollywood music store, Allen met the quota, winning $1,000 from Laine. One of the songs, Let's Go to Church Next Sunday, was recorded by both Perry Como and Margaret Whiting. Allen's best-known songs are "This Could Be the Start of Something Big" and "The Gravy Waltz," the latter having won a Grammy award in 1963 for Best Jazz Composition. He also wrote lyrics for the standards "Picnic" and "South Rampart Street Parade." Allen composed the score to the Paul Mantee imitation James Bond film A Man Called Dagger (1967), with the score orchestrated by Ronald Stein. --from Steve Allen's Wikipedia page
John Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 12TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 12TB SATA BB2026/UMC204HD&404HD/Casios/Cakewalk/Reaper/Studio One/Notion/Dorico/Noteworthy/NI/Halion/IK http://www.sus4chord.com (under rehosting/construction)
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Quote:
I wonder if there is a Guinness Book of World Records category for Most Songs Played? With all the fakebook versions he has prepared, Bob would have to be in the running.
Leilani and I have played all the songs in all of our fakebooks, and many of them more than once!
Here is how I make a fake book:
- Leilani enters all the chords in all the songs - on the songs we do not know, she has to go to YouTube or another source to listen to the song in order to know how to put in the chords and choose the preliminary style
- Final style choices are contracted out to professional musicians with instructions to pick the most appropriate style for the song, and NOT to favor Norton Music styles (if I chose the styles myself, I'd pick mine more often, I'm biased, and that's why I contract this part of the process out to impartial musicians)
- When the disk comes back from the sub-contractor, Leilani and I play and listen to every song in real time to <1> double check <2> in rare cases modify (usually simplify) any chord that simply doesn't work due to the limitations of BiaB <3> in rare cases take the pushed chords that sound bad (again due to BiaB's limitations) and put them on the beat <4> in rare cases override the style choice chosen by the contractor <5> listen again to make sure the song plays smoothly and sounds good <6> if it does not, make more modifications until the song works
- Create table of contents and read_me.txt file
- Create installation routine
- Create web page with shopping cart info and modify all other pages with links to Fakebooks to show a link to this one as well
So with listening to all these songs, many of them multiple times, we just might take that world record. But we love listening to music, and listening to music that we ordinarily wouldn't be exposed to makes us better musicians in the long run.
It is very time consuming, but it is a labor of love. What we provide is something any one of you can do yourself, but it usually takes many hundreds of hours to complete an entire fake book so what we are 'selling' is a huge savings in time so you can start playing the music hundreds of hours sooner.
Since the thread was about styles ... style writing is just as time consuming. Again a labor of love. But writing a style depends on the style. There is no one single approach -- no "one size fits all" way of doing it. But all styles are played into a sequencer in real time before importing the snippets into BiaB. This makes the Norton styles sound like they are being played by live musicians -- because all the patterns were played by a live musician.
I am so happy and thankful that so many musicians express their appreciation for my work. Your kind comments warm my heart and keep the fire going for me to write more style and fake disks.
Thanks!!!
Notes ♫
Bob "Notes" Norton Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com
100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks
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Notes, I love the stuff and have 4 fake books/disks of yours, but I'd really love intros and endings and it would be way more fun. Charge me more.
The early Rock and Roll book has been a great joy. I barely made it through last July, but when I could I sat and played for hours and perhaps that was one of the best purchases I ever made, for I know almost all the songs in it by heart (as for lyrics, geez, me memorize music?)
If I wasn't so 'wait there's another nice one' and off to the next song type of guy I'd learn more than Mack the Knife and Bobby Mcgee by heart. Well not to mention drilled into me gospel stuff.
John Conley
Musica est vita
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Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.
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XPro & Xtra Styles PAK Sets On Sale Now - Until May 15, 2026!
All of our XPro Styles PAKs and Xtra Styles PAKs are on sale until May 15th, 2026!
It's the perfect time to expand your Band-in-a-Box® style library with XPro and Xtra Styles PAKs. These additional styles for Band-in-a-Box® offer a wide range of genres designed to fit seamlessly into your projects. Each style is professionally arranged and mixed, helping enhance your songs while saving you time.
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