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Band-in-a-Box Wishlist
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Joined: Mar 2016
Posts: 24
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OP
Enthusiast
Joined: Mar 2016
Posts: 24 |
Hi,
BIAB needs a dedicated sight-reading module to probably fit in the 'Practice' section along with ear-training, etc...
I'm very new to BIAB and I came to it in desperation because astoundingly, in a world with 1000s of music software & apps, there still is no real dedicated music sight reading notation software!? Or at least, none that I've found to really do the job well enough.
And it then struck me...why not use BIAB for that! Great idea except, since it's not conceived with that in mind it of course lacks quite a bit but it's still the best solution I've found to date.
I use the Melodist to generate a melody which I then attempt to read at a ridiculously slow tempo because I'm a real beginner (in reading music that is, been playing music for +20 years).
However, as it is now, it's far from perfect because the only real variables I can play with are tempo and key, that's about it (although, with a bit more fooling around, I've been able to customize it a bit further).
So all that is needed to make it perfect is....
- the ability to set the difficulty in the notes and rhythms. I went to GIT in California some 15 years ago and they already had created the perfect software that ran on a DOS like PC! You set the note range i.e. from C1 to C2, then rhythm difficulty i.e. whole notes + 1/4 notes + 1/8 notes and that's it really!
It would then generate a random melody with those parameters and off you go!! It was PERFECT!! :-)
- RANGE. There's already the possibility to set the total playing range in BIAB. What would be needed is the ability to set the max interval range between notes. So for ex. a diatonic third. So the next note in the melody would never be further away than a third.
This sounds ridiculously simple to create as most features are already there, but what is missing is of course essential!
I imagine a software engineer could implement this on his lunch break!
BIAB, please look into this as I think it could be a HUGE selling point for you guys...and awesome for us musicians! ;-)
Cheers,
Last edited by chumbo; 03/24/16 12:17 AM.
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Band-in-a-Box Wishlist
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Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,786
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Veteran
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,786 |
I can't pretend to have followed all the details in your train of thought there, but I definitely could use help with increasing my sight reading abilities!
So for the core suggestion of making that goal easier to reach within BBox, you have my +1
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
BBox 2022 Audiophile, Mac Pro Intel, OSX 10.6.8, 800x600 (TV VGA)
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Band-in-a-Box Wishlist
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Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 24,551
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Veteran
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 24,551 |
My site reading practice consists of reading the music from a fake book while BiaB is playing the backing tracks. I purchased a fake book, for example The Ultimate Pop Rock Fake Book http://www.amazon.com/The-Ultimate-Rock-Fake-Book/dp/079357000Xthen I purchased the accompanying disc from Norton Music http://nortonmusic.com/contents.html#topSometimes I will input the chords myself into BiaB and the site read from a music book, however Note's fake book disks save me a lot of time. This is just how I do it as I prefer reading from a book over a computer screen but YMMV.
Back in my day the only time we started panic buying was when the bartender shouted "last call"!
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
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Band-in-a-Box Wishlist
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Joined: May 2000
Posts: 15,944
PG Music Staff
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PG Music Staff
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 15,944 |
OK, but there are all kinds of sight reading possibilities already with BIAB.
Do you really want to read random notes instead of a realtracks soloist ?
Have Fun!
Peter Gannon
PG Music Inc.
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Band-in-a-Box Wishlist
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Joined: Mar 2016
Posts: 24
Enthusiast
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OP
Enthusiast
Joined: Mar 2016
Posts: 24 |
Hi Peter! Yes, I don't really care what I'm reading, it's only meant for practice and improving ones reading skills. The point is to have access to a whole range of settings that allows you to customize the generated chart to be exactly at the level you want/need. So, if the melody can on top of that be 'pretty' and musical thanks to some of the BIAB features, great! But it's far less important than being able to set the: (I know a few of these settings are already available, I'm just listing them all. So just pick up the missing ones...) MELODIC- Key - range - max interval between two notes (to avoid having loads of huge wide intervals when randomly generating melodies) - accidentals RHYTHMIC- Set the rhythmic value to work with, i.e. 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/8t. And maybe a percentage value slider which would allow to dictate the more frequent occurrence of one value over another. So far, this is the only 'software' I've found that does it correctly: https://www.sightreadingfactory.com/app (select Guitar/Guitar/Custom and it shows you EXACTLY the settings I described above and more!) On the other hand, a few things that BIAB offers that that app doesn't are the ability to set almost unlimited amounts of bars (although I have to use RealBand for that), and I really like the fact that the current note being played can be highlighted in red in real-time!  It seems to me that BIAB is already so close to having all those features but not quite unfortunately. Just bundling it all up under one sight reading module with all the features would be truly awesome and as I said, I think a huge selling point too! BTW, I instinctively went immediately to the Soloist in hope of getting what I needed but unfortunately, it's missing a lot of the features I list above and oddly, the melody generated doesn't seem to strictly constrain to the settings. Like when I choose an '8th' soloist, it still generates lots of 16th. And the syncopation, rhythmic difficulty is too high for me (remember, I'm just starting out!). Cheers,
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Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.
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