Thanks for having me here and for reading my first post. I've returned to BIAB 2021 after a long hiatus but would have described myself as a power user of v6.0 (I still have the floppy disks).
One of the important selling points for me was the ability to export a BIAB song to MIDI or to MusicXML format so that I can edit the notation in a scoring program. Today I've tried unsuccessfully to do that, experiencing the following:
MusicXML only seems to export TABs. I need proper musical notation.
MIDI files do not play correctly. They do not resemble the BIAB tracks audibly, while the notation is not really human-readable.
For BIAB to work for me I need to be able to rely on at least one of these options to export notation that resembles the BIAB song.
Can someone please let me know how I can achieve this?
I wonder if you are exporting songs that use Realtracks backings?
Realtracks are audio rather than MIDI. While all the MIDI backings that you were familiar with back in v6.0 are still there (and more, most likely), BIAB now also creates backing tracks with audio.
So that I can doublecheck your issue, can you please give me the name of the style you are using?
You'll find it listed in the MEMO and it can be copied there and pasted into this thread.
I just loaded the song demo, generated it and saved it in XML. I then opened the XML in MuseScore. The PDF below is what the music looked like (the first page is a cover page; music starts on page 2).
A couple of things to try.
1. Make sure that you've got the latest update of BIAB installed. They at the below link. #813 is the latest.
2. When you use "Save Special | Save as XML", there's a dropdown list in the middle of the left column that sets the "Tabulature". Make sure that this is set to "None".
I’m not at a computer but I wanted to reassure you that saving special to Music XML does work to take your song into notation programs. It may have been a setting choice as Noel mentioned.
And, welcome to the forum.
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.
I've followed your direction and so far no joy, but your replies give me confidence that this can be solved somehow. The PDF sample that you embedded is exactly what I'm wanting to achieve, but as of yet, I've not been able to.
I've recorded the following screen video for you, demonstrating the steps that I'm taking to save to both MusicXML and MIDI and the sub-par results when the files are opened in MuseScore.
I just loaded the song demo, generated it and saved it in XML. I then opened the XML in MuseScore. The PDF below is what the music looked like (the first page is a cover page; music starts on page 2).
A couple of things to try.
1. Make sure that you've got the latest update of BIAB installed. They at the below link. #813 is the latest.
2. When you use "Save Special | Save as XML", there's a dropdown list in the middle of the left column that sets the "Tabulature". Make sure that this is set to "None".
Hopes this helps, Noel
Hi Noel.
I posted a reply earlier.
I'm wondering if you might be able to help me with this, please?
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