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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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gaelyn Offline OP
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I am a brand new BIAB 2014 user and and very novice music software user. I know this is a naive question, but here goes. I am making the chord sheet for a simple song with both an A and a B part. I am having difficulty inserting the repeat signs and end signs in the correct places in the song. The format that I want to end up with is as follows: A,A,B,A,A,B,A,A,B,A. I have the chord progressions typed in for the A and the B parts on the chord sheet. How and where do I insert the respective repeat and end of song signs? How can I change which instruments play during each of the A and B part repetitions? I would like to have some variety in each section. Thanks.

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Hi and welcome to the forum. There are many possible answers to your question; I'll get started.

Since you have no intro and mostly a repeating pattern of A,A,B, I suggest you set the Bar at Beginning of Chorus to 1, and the Bar at End of Chorus to the last bar of the (first) B section. Then make sure 3 is in the Repeats box (3 is the default anyway). Then you can go into Song Settings and say that there IS a tag. It begins at the first bar after the B section and ends after the A section that you have copied from the beginning and placed at the end of the song after the B section.

As far as sounding a little different each time it plays through one chorus, this will happen by default. Assuming you have one or more Blue part markers in the song, and maybe a Green one to start the B section, then upon the second chorus, BIAB will play the A section as if it were a B, giving you a "busier" sound in that middle chorus.

There are many more ways to do more things. I've just given you one of the basics.

One tip: repeat signs are more of a print function. Don't worry about that until you get the song form correct, as I've indicated.





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; Presonus Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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I kinda wandered around for a while trying to figure that out when I first started. It is totally possible so I'm not saying don't try to figure it out....

I'm simply saying that the way I solved it is to use the function to UNFOLD the song into one big chorus as BB calls it. Then I simply use copy and paste to insert the number of measures I need and drop the verses and choruses in as needed.....along with intro's, bridges, solo parts, and outro/endings.

By working in this manner, the song and the location indicator in the song moves in a linear manner from the start completely through the song, never jumping around to follow the repeat signs and there is no guessing where, exactly, one is located in the song.....

The amount of work involved is minimal..... It works for me, and that's why I use the UNFOLD into one big chorus in every song I work on.


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Yes, doing it as one long song (no repeats) gives you perhaps the most control over what you hear. Just be aware that the entire song cannot exceed 255 measures in BIAB.

Also, tell us if you are mostly interested in how the song sounds, or if printing a leadsheet of the song is important to you,.


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; Presonus Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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