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In the Song Settings dialog, there is an option to avoid transposition of Real Tracks. The ToolTip says, "...since the guitar isn't transposed..."

90% of everything I do is drums, bass and guitar in various incarnations. My only two complaints with BiaB are the triplet issue and few chords in guitar shots and holds.

Is this related? Piano has lots of choices,but guitars (mostly jazz,some pop or country) not so much. I presume you are trying to avoid 'unplayable' fingerings, can we get more samples and choices to compensate?

I guess what I am asking is: How does this affect my workflow? Is there something O could be doing that would give me more options?

Thx.

Last edited by The Soundsmith; 12/30/18 09:39 AM.

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Hi,

Good question.

If you make this avoid transposition settings, here are the pros and cons.

Pros :
- better audio quality
- guitar display and tab more learnable, no impossible playing

Cons:
- less variation in the playing.


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Another option that may help is to go to the Arrangement window in Preferences and change "Natural Arrangements" from the default setting to never.

Press Ctrl + E to open Preferences and select the Arrangement button to open the Arrangement window.

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When someone kind has a moment,can you explain what transposition is please?I dont think you mean change keys.Is it a way of stopping them RTs from playing chords in positions where they wouldnt go normally?Like a guitar playing ,say,E chord in first position and then going to the following B7 way up on the 7th fret-or worse?
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If I understand your intention correctly Wendy, Transposing is essentially changing a song by moving all of the notes up or down from their original positions by a relative amount. This could change the key signature, or the notes could be moved by exact octaves, which would maintain the same key signature. That is the musical definition of transposing.

The method you described is not transposing, but using different inversions to play a chord in the same key, but using a variation in the sequence of notes. Yes, some inversions that could be written on manuscript could not (easily/practically) be played.





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Changing keys. With regard to RealTracks, because they're audio and not MIDI, transposing can produce annoying little imperfections in the sound ("artifacts"). I almost always select the option to avoid transposing them, at least on slow songs where they seem more noticeable, especially on piano.

Last edited by 1manband; 12/31/18 03:54 AM.

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In this context, transposition does not refer to changing keys, per se, but the process of moving the pitch of the audio (RealTrack) up or down to match the key of the song.

For example, if you recorded the RealTrack using only D, G, and A chords (and their corresponding variations - minor, sus, 7th, aug, dim, etc), but your song needs to play an E chord, BIAB (after finding out that it doesn't have an E chord) will instead take the D chord and raise the pitch (transpose it) one full step (two semitones) to get the sound of an E chord. Fingering-wise for a guitar, it would be as if the guitarist quickly put on a capo on the 2nd fret and then played the chord as a D (which would sound as an E chord). Clearly a guitarist can't do this in real time, so in reality, the E chord would be played with different fingerings. But in this case, there is no recorded E chord, so the program has to transpose the D chord up to get the right chord sound.

Now, the PGMusic RealTracks actually record a whole bunch more chords than that, but not every variation of every chord. So while maybe a RealTrack has an E7, but not an E9 (but does have a D9), then if you did not turn off transpositions, if your arrangement called for an E9, it would transpose the D9 to an E9 and that's what you would hear. If you turned off transpositions (where it wouldn't use transpositions), then BIAB would instead play the E7 instead of the E9.

Don't know if this helps or muddies the description.


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What John is describing uses the Elastique algorithm, introduced several years ago to BIAB. It allows pitch shifting without artifacts if the shift is only a step or two.

What Trevor is describing, inversions, cannot be directly controlled in BIAB. The best you can do is continue to regenerate until you hear an inversion you like. RealBand can do this on specific phrases.


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Spot on John.Nice explanation.


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Thanks everyone for weighing in. John and Matt have the definitive explanations, and my take on it is that looking for the maximum options most of the time, I should leave Natural Arrangement defaulted to Always. But it also tells me I STILL need to ask/beg Oliver to kick out a slew of alternate voicings for shots and hots.

Again, thanks for the help.


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I may be able to make up some shots n holds for that guitar if you could give me the voicing and chords you need.

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Originally Posted By: The Soundsmith
... and my take on it is that looking for the maximum options most of the time, I should leave Natural Arrangement defaulted to Always...

I personally don't have any confidence at all in Natural Arrangements.
Try this experiment for yourself:
1: Create a new song, key of C Major, 32 bars.
2: Choose _B140_GB as the style. You should have 32 bars of C (and a 4 bar ending in C)
3: Click on generate.

Do you get this result?

I don't see any complex 9th or 13th chords in the song.

Knowing (and admiring) your playing style and established skill level Soundsmith, I'm not sure that Natural Arrangements really always helps. YYMV of course.


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