I'm trying to enter a song into BiaB but have encountered a problem of too many chord change. It is 4:4 time. As far as I know BiaB will let you put 4 different chords in a bar--one for each quarter note. But this song sometimes changes chords with every 8th note. I don't know how to deal with this.
You can adjust the song tempo so two bars are played in the same amount of time one bar currently plays. So for instance if the song tempo is presently 100 bpm then change the tempo to 200 bpm. Now each chord in a bar equals a eighth.
That means an unfolded chorus that was 50 bars will now be 100 bars so you need to watch out and make sure you do not exceed 255 bars.
You will also having to adjust any RealTracks to play at either half time or double time. I get the two terms confused so I just try adjusting one until it plays correctly, then I know how to set all of them.
You can also change the tempo just for the bars you need using the F5 setting but then you have to alter the bar before the change takes place and then use F5 again to return to normal.
Firstly, as you note, BIAB can only put 4 chords in a bar. This is a limitation of the program.
Notes Norton has put together some excellent midi styles that have 8 chords in a bar. To do this, he's combined two BIAB cells to make one bar (just as Jim describes). If you want to investigate Norton's styles they're found at the below link (I have some myself).
The above said, it is possible to use pushes to get a chord to play either an 1/8th note or a 1/16th note earlier. This will not solve the problem for the music you are using, but they are worth knowing about as the knowledge may solve a future problem for you.
As shown below in the image, if one enters the chords
C ^C7 F ^Fm
BIAB push the C7 and Fm so that they are played half a beat sooner. The ^ symbol is SHIFT+6 on my keyboard.
To get the chord to play a 1/16th note sooner, use ^^
Ok, so I suppose I would have to enter each bar in the original music unto 2 bars in BiaB.
Since the timing is a bit complicated, I decided this was too hard for me to figure out. Where it had 3 chord changes over 8ths notes (which it has in many bars) I just skipped the middle chord and went with two changes. It sounds good enough for me, I figure.
I also used the ^ to push the chord in a few cases. That is a good tip, and I'm sure to use it more in future.
Thanks for much for your help , Jim and Noel! This forum is awesome.
Here is the finished product, which probably sounds not so good, but is good enough for my purposes.
Don’t forget, you can enter exactly what you want in a MIDI track. I often do this with either specific bass lines or specific hits of a pattern that BIAB RealTracks can’t do. It works - it’s very hard to tell the difference if you have good quality MIDI sounds.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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