Can someone help me get to grips with why BIAB won't play the right chord extensions sometimes?
I've just spent a while going through a bunch of great jazz bossa styles and none of them would play the a #5 extension on a dominant 7 that I wanted. I've had to make do with a motown style.
I can't make sense of the chord settings window, does that control some of this stuff?
Could someone point me in the right direction please?
Just to elaborate, are the chords you are wanting to play displaying on the chord sheet? This may be related to how you are entering the chords in the chord sheet. A list of compatible chords and how they are inputted in the chord sheet can be found here:
It is possible that the Artist playing that specific RealTrack did not record this specific chord. Are you using RealTracks (Green) or MIDI Tracks (Yellow)?
Alternatively, you can send the song you are working on to support@pgmusic.com so we can review the file and see if we can get those chords working for you.
C-sharp when you cross the street… or you’re going to B-flat.
Yes they are displaying correctly on the sheet. And I'm using real tracks, it just seems odd that it won't play the extensions sometimes in the jazzier styles. I'll keep playing around and if I have no luck I'll email over the track.
I have a lot to get through though so I really just need to know how to control it for myself, I'm writing backing tracks for teaching guitar improv and I'm on backing track No. 412... it's a rather large project I'm working on.
You have to also be careful with #5 chords as to how it is interpreted.
If you look at about page 573 in the BIAB user manual, you will see the supported chords list.
C7#5 should work (if it was in fact recorded by the RealTrack artist - not sure what gets substituted if it wasn't). But C#5 is not a "C chord with the 5th sharped", it is instead a C# power chord (1st and 5th); in that case, I enter Caug to sharp the 5th.
While not what you are asking about, similarly, you would enter a C5b (to flat the 5th), as Cb5 would get interpreted as a Cb power chord (1st and 5th) which would be enharmonically equivalent to B5 (and that's also the way it would probably show up on the chord sheet).
BIAB does have its quirks. RealTracks do not have every combination of chords played, so I have found that you either get a less embellished chord played (so instead of a C13, you might instead hear a C11 or C9 chord), or sometimes nothing gets played.
I'm sure my explanation have muddied the waters even more.
John
Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 12TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 12TB SATA
And in the original post, I think a critical fact stated is that BIAB “sometimes” plays it correctly. It’s an essential chord in Bossa Nova music and likely was recorded.
I’ve had some success second-guessing BIAB by supplying more chord info than requested. For example, I might do D9 instead of D7 to make sure BIAB doesn’t add a b9 or #9 to a D7 chord. Using my trick above, the b13, might work. Note that Dr. Gannon in general does NOT recommend this.
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.
Also, just in case this hasn't already been mentioned...
Under "Song Settings" -- right-click on the chord sheet and choose "Song Settings" -- make sure that "Natural Arrangements" is deactivated. when selected, this option can cause chord modification.
When something is not working the first thing I do is create a short song file. That way I'm not wasting time waiting on track regenerations while testing. Sixteen bars with eight "A" bars and eight "B" bars with one chorus works really good.
Two options you may want to try, one is in the RealTracks Preferences window and the second is in the Arrangements preferences window.
Press Ctrl + E to open Preferences.
1. Select the RealTracks button. Place a checkmark on the option to "On Jazz RealTracks, JazzUp Triads to Sevenths".
2. Select the Arrangements button. Natural Arrangements has three settings. Try each setting.
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