PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Windows How to erase a track

I have ONE user style which I created. However in my understanding, that should not have any impact on my q. i.e. it should work for any style.
The sty has (B-RT/P-midi/RD/G-RT/S-midi)
Try as I might, I can't Erase the Piano track. I have tried "Right click on P and chosen erase track.". regened the sty, unfrozen all, made it to 'no patch" etc etc. but the piano just won't go away . And it stays yellow. I expect it to turn white. Am I right?
(What I want to do is to load a diff instrument to the P track,..... later. First I want to know how to erase what's there and make it a blank track.)

I can't remember how I got to this point. Just history from memory is...
I started with a new age sty and made some changes to the B and G. I liked what I heard, so created a User sty out of it.

The Style is regenerating the track every time you hit Gen/Play button (called just play in versions older than the current one).

This is by design and will happen on all the autoaccompaniment tracks that any style addresses. Typically, the Melody and Soloist tracks are the only two that remain static and don't get overwritten by the Style file.

If you don't want the Piano part to load at all, try using the "Save Song with Patches and Harmony" window, found under the File menu in BB, then only check the tracks you want it to generate on the LH side of that window (UNcheck Piano in this case) and Save the song from there.

Another method would be to use the F5 Bar Settings command and choose to MUTE that piano track for the entire song. This method might mean a slightly slower loading time if the muted track is a realtrack, because it will still load every time, but won't be heard at Playback.


--Mac

You can try muting the track, then freezing it.

A more elegant solution is to use stylemaker to import the piano instrument from one of the four BLANK styles dependening on if your style is based on 3/4 or 4/4 time and has even or swing feel. The BLANK styles are listed in the "Utility / Miscellaneous" style category. The 4/4 BLANK style memo states, "In the Stylemaker, you can easily delete an entire instrument from a 4/4 style by importing that instrument from BLANK.STY. Also use when importing an entire tune into BB."

The "Utility / Miscellaneous" category has 77 styles that you may not need often but it's nice to know they're there when you need them.

Another quick method is to save the track with a volume of 0.

This is a workaround for the Mute status not being saved with the song (which is a current Wishlist item). This method also has the disadvantage mentioned by Mac that the part will still take time to regenerate.

If there is a Hi-Q or Super midi on the track.
You must go to that track setup and set the instrument selection to NONE.

Also sometimes Thru and Audio in the mixer can carry stuff with it.
Simply mute them...

Thank u all. I will use those suggested solutions.
But......May I know what the "Erase Track" command is used for? Can u provide a "...for e.g. if you want to...." type of statement please?

In the case of my posting above.
After you perform mentioned suggestions,
Then you use the erase track.

Guys,
Thanks for the workarounds. And yes I can use them.
BUT....
Here's my dilemma.
I get a song ready. Have RT/RDs in Base Piano and Drums.
Strings and Guitar are in yellow but supposedly have nothing in them because I have used a workaround to somehow 'mute' them. So now I have to mute all tracks and play the P and G all thru the song to confirm that there are no sounds in those tracks! And there is still no guarantee of that the next time I play it because they are still yellow.
Bottom line question is...Is there no way, having used workarounds, to make the "empty" tracks turn white?

There may be a way to turn them white, like maybe editing the Style file such that they are completely deleted and remembering to save that style file under a new custom name so that you don't overwrite the original style and thus lose it. In other words, I think that the Style file is what is turning on the Yellow color. To me, that is not a huge issue, but I can see how someone may be wanting to see the track color indicate here.

You don't have to listen to a track from end to end in order to find out if there are any MIDI notes on it. Just hit the big 8th note icon to the right of the songtitle window in the toolbar and take a look at the Notation Window, making sure that you have selected the track in question using the letter marker blocks for each track at the top of the Notation Window (B for Bass, P for Piano, etc.).

If you don't see any notes on the staff, then there aren't any MIDI notes being generated.

However, using the various MUTE commands for a track is not the same thing as Erase or Delete track. Muting simply turns the audio output of a track off, but leaves the MIDI notes intact. This command is often handy if, say, you yourself wish to play a particular instrument instead of allowing BB's autoaccompaniment to play that line. Thus the Yellow indicator is correct here, there ARE MIDI notes on that track, they are just not being heard at the time of Muting invocation.

These are not really workarounds, BTW, that is a matter of how you may be viewing things at the time. It does take a bit of experience with this program and there is a bit of a learning curve in order to understand the reasoning behind many of the commands. I do know the feeling, believe me. *grin* But this program would not be the great program it is if things were as simplified as we'd like them to be or assume things to be when first starting out trying to figure things out. We often make assumptions about the way things should be in our own way of thinking, rather than give pgmusic and BB the benefit of the doubt as to the reasoning behind many of the features and implementation. Everything is there by design and for a specific reason, though. At first it is a bit perplexing if you haven't been acclimated to such. Patience, experimentation, Help Files, the BB FAQ page, this forum, and the pgmusic Support Team are all there to assist, though.

Have Fun,


--Mac

Hey Mac,
Thanks for the long reply.
Your tip on "Just hit the big 8th note icon" was great. And you have helped me a lot. Thanks.

Re your reply "These are not really workarounds, BTW, that is a matter of how you may be viewing things at the time. It does take a bit of experience with this program and there is a bit of a learning curve in order to understand the reasoning behind many of the commands. I do know the feeling, believe me. *grin* But this program would not be the great program it is if things were as simplified as we'd like them to be or assume things to be when first starting out trying to figure things out. We often make assumptions about the way things should be in our own way of thinking, rather than give pgmusic and BB the benefit of the doubt as to the reasoning behind many of the features and implementation. Everything is there by design and for a specific reason, though. At first it is a bit perplexing if you haven't been acclimated to such. Patience, experimentation, Help Files, the BB FAQ page, this forum, and the pgmusic Support Team are all there to assist, though. "

Completely agree with you sir. And I am discovering more and more via the various forums as you may see from my posts etc. Re. BIAB 2012.5...It is undoubtedly the best thing that happened to my life. At the appropriate time, I will send a glowing note of appreciation to PG and his staff with much appreciation. That really includes people like you vets.

But to things at hand...I have not seen any reply yet to my question in a previous post...
"May I know what the "Erase Track" command is used for? Can u provide a "...for e.g. if you want to...." type of statement please?" .

I am trying to avoid holes in my learning... you know what I mean.
Cheers,
Chris

If you are trying to ERASE TRACK on one of the Autoaccompaniment Tracks and are also using a Style File that is et to write an autoaccompaniment for that Track, then the Style will regenerate notes on that track when you hit the Gen/Play (or Play in versions older than the current, does the same thing).

Maybe that's what's going on?

Remember, only the Melody and Soloist tracks won't get rewritten by Style files.


--Mac