I'm a new user that just jumped on board a few months ago. I got the 2020 Audiophile version on sale from Sweetwater back in November. I've been getting my feet wet by trying to do a simple Christmas song Silver Bells in a country style.
I don't want any 7th's or anything like that in the song. I'm simply trying to form a song with straight A - D - E chords. No matter what style I choose (currently using "Swabbie autoharp folk waltz") BIAB is adding in what sounds like a 7th on some parts especially toward the end of the song and it doesn't work with a song like that. It's like it's forcing a blues feel on the song so to speak?
I've searched but found almost no info on this. I read an old post and someone suggested adjusting the natural settings. I did but it made no difference.
I mainly do acoustic country music so I'm kind of panicking that I can't get BIAB to simply play straight chords. Hopefully I'm overlooking something? Any input would be appreciated.
Hi Noel. Thanks for getting back to me so quickly.
I just tried the changes you suggested and I tried different styles and it didn't help.
I'm doing this in the key of A and I have the key signature set to A. The last verse does a key change to B although the actual key change begins with F# (The 5 in the progression). The transition looks like this (E for 2 bars at end of verse) then (F#... for a rest on the F# chord then the verse starts on B). I went in to bar settings and set the key signature change to F# and then tried B and that didn't help either.
I noticed it's only adding the erroneous notes after the key change. Everything before that while in the key of A is correct.
Then I transposed the song so it started in B and the key change was G# and it did the same thing. The first part of the song was ok until it got to the key change later. I did that thinking maybe the samples in the key of B were just that way but it's not the case because it plays correctly at the beginning when set to B.
Can you try changing to a straight MIDI style like ZZWALTZ and see what happens? Otherwise perhaps you can post your file here and someone can take a look at it.
When you did the key change, did you set the new key?
Just in case you haven't discovered this yet...
To set the new key, click on the bar where the new key starts, press F5 and then set the new key. (You can also access this by right-clicking on the chordsheet and selecting "Bar Settings".)
By doing this you are telling BIAB to select chords that are friendly to the key.
After you've made the above change, you'll need to unfreeze any tracks and regenerate the song for the change to take effect.
Also, if you have any tracks on the Utility Tracks, these will need to be regenerated individually by right-clicking on each track and selecting "Track Actions".
Yes, I set the key change in Bar settings (F5) and when I transposed the entire song I double checked the bar where the key change occurs. I always use F4 to regenerate whenever I make a change.
I don't see Utility Tracks anywhere. I'm running the 2020 version. When I search online the only info I can find regarding Utility Tracks is for the 2021 version.
Sorry, Shane. My mistake. I forgot that you had 2020 even though you mention it clearly in your original post.
Given that the song plays ok when set to key B at the start, and not ok when you have a section set to B, this might be a bug if the behaviour is consistent and reproducible.
Can you please let me know what style you are using and I'll set a chord sheet and see if I can get the problem to occur.
It would also be handy to know what chords you are using.
Can you try changing to a straight MIDI style like ZZWALTZ and see what happens? Otherwise perhaps you can post your file here and someone can take a look at it.
Good luck! LLOYD S
Hi Lloyd.
Loading the ZZWALTZ style worked. It sounds exactly like I want it to, except it's not the audiophile realtracks.
It's possible it's a chord mapping inconsistency. They arise from time to time. That doesn't fully explain why everything plays OK when you set the main key to B, though.
If you want, you can upload your SGU file to this thread and we can all give it a run through a few times to test it.
I got the same results as you and I have BIAB 2021.
Working with the file [Swabbie]...
If I generated it, in the key change region, B7 was nearly always played rather than B (despite all above song-based settings to disable Natural Arrangement and Force Simple Chords).
However, if I transposed the song to B, and the key sig. was set to B, the B chord was generated.
This is strange.
I have alerted the Development Team to this thread. They will read what's written and will test the files. So please let me know if my solution below works.
In the meantime, I have a potential solution for you that hopefully works on BIAB 2020...
If you go into "Options | Preferences" and select "Arrange", you'll see an option to set "Natural Arrangement" to "Never".
When I set that, and set Song Settings to "Force Simple Arrangement", the generation was ok. This option in "Arrange" is a Global Option and doing the above globally disables it.
I see what you mean about the 7ths. You might try this and see how it sounds. (using the SWABBIE file) - Copy only the chords from bar 53 at the key change to the end - Open a "new" instance of BIAB - Set the key to B - Paste those chords to the new grid
See if that sounds the way you want for the last part of the song. That might help figure out where BIAB is going wrong. (I think you can use Copy/Paste in BIAB 2020, I forget!)
I got the same results as you and I have BIAB 2021.
Working with the file [Swabbie]...
If I generated it, in the key change region, B7 was nearly always played rather than B (despite all above song-based settings to disable Natural Arrangement and Force Simple Chords).
However, if I transposed the song to B, and the key sig. was set to B, the B chord was generated.
This is strange.
I have alerted the Development Team to this thread. They will read what's written and will test the files. So please let me know if my solution below works.
In the meantime, I have a potential solution for you that hopefully works on BIAB 2020...
If you go into "Options | Preferences" and select "Arrange", you'll see an option to set "Natural Arrangement" to "Never".
When I set that, and set Song Settings to "Force Simple Arrangement", the generation was ok. This option in "Arrange" is a Global Option and doing the above globally disables it.
Regards, Noel
Thank you Noel. Glad the problem could be repeated. I thought for a moment I was going insane. I've been trying to figure this out since late October.
The only thing I'm concerned about now is, will they put out a bug fix for the 2020 version. I just paid over $500 for this and I see the upgrade to 2021 is $200. I didn't even get 1 song out of it. LOL!
The only thing I'm concerned about now is, will they put out a bug fix for the 2020 version. I just paid over $500 for this and I see the upgrade to 2021 is $200. I didn't even get 1 song out of it. LOL!
If you purchased 2020 in November, and PG Music released 2021 on November 28th, you may be eligible for a complimentary 2021 upgrade. No guarantees, but you might consider contacting PG Music and seeking their advice. They have a reputation as being an excellent customer-focused company.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
If you purchased 2020 in November, and PG Music released 2021 on November 28th, you may be eligible for a complimentary 2021 upgrade. No guarantees, but you might consider contacting PG Music and seeking their advice. They have a reputation as being an excellent customer-focused company.
Thanks. I just double checked my receipt and I bought it in the beginning of October so I doubt they'll do anything. But I'll give it a try.
I ran in to this with iZotope last year. They put Ozone 8 Advanced on sale at a ridiculously low price. Normally I wouldn't even consider such an expensive program. I even emailed them and asked if Ozone 9 Advanced was coming out soon and if so I'd pass because I didn't want to buy a product at the end of it's update/bug fix cycle. They said no so I bought O8A and 45 days later O9A came out. I was furious. I use it with Studio One Professional. I emailed them and they apologized and upgraded me for free to O9A so it's worth a shot but I doubt it. This is different because there is a physical cost involved in the HDD the Audiophile version comes on. Maybe I can offer to mail it to them so they can install the 2021 version and mail it back to me.
@Lloyd ... I have some time this afternoon. I'll try the copy/paste idea and let you know.
Did you try my suggestions about disabling the global setting for Natural Arrangements under "Options | Preferences | Arrange"? As mentioned, that worked for me.
Did you try my suggestions about disabling the global setting for Natural Arrangements under "Options | Preferences | Arrange"? As mentioned, that worked for me.
Regards, Noel
Hi Noel.
Yep, I tried that and it didn't work.
You can even go in and manually set each track to force it to Natural Arrangement and that didn't work either.
Thanks.
Edit: BTW, I contacted tech support and gave them a link to this thread. Hopefully they can work with me on getting me in to 2021 so they can put out a patch for this. *Fingers Crossed*.
I see what you mean about the 7ths. You might try this and see how it sounds. (using the SWABBIE file) - Copy only the chords from bar 53 at the key change to the end - Open a "new" instance of BIAB - Set the key to B - Paste those chords to the new grid
See if that sounds the way you want for the last part of the song. That might help figure out where BIAB is going wrong. (I think you can use Copy/Paste in BIAB 2020, I forget!)
LLOYD S
Hi Lloyd. Sorry it took so long to reply. Been preoccupied with other things.
I tried that and it didn't work. No matter what combination I try of copying and pasting it always forces me to regenerate and then it overrides where I pasted. At this point I'm done. I'm not going to touch it again until they either put out a fix for the 2020 version, upgrade me for free to the 2021 version and fix that, or I get my money back from Sweetwater. All 3 of which I doubt at this point so I'm probably stuck with the worlds most expensive USB backup drive.
I'm not getting a response from support except 20 questions about where I bought it, providing serial, then providing receipt with all of my personal information on it. Once I did that, then silence. Getting a bit frustrated and having buyers remorse because as you know the Audiophile version is very expensive. I have terrible internet service where I live so I was sort of forced to go with a version that comes on HDD. Sorry, just venting a little. I'll try to remain positive going forward.
All the help here has been greatly appreciated. You guys have a great community here.
Sorry to hear of your woes. I know how frustrating technology can be, especially when you're trying to do something fun like music.
I tried a bunch of different things with your 2 files, like trying a few different styles, changing the key of the song to something like C and then changing it back to the original to see if that helped. I also tried changing the last chord before the key change to see if that made a difference. Nothing seemed to help the SWABBIE file.
You might try to find a similar style you like and see if that helps. Good luck and let us know if you make any progress.
An off the wall idea - Change style to a BLANK Style and repopulate it track by track with those from SWABBIE. Audition each track as you add it - maybe its one RT thats the problem and is affecting others. Does it still do it once you got it all done? Ian
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Hopefully I'm overlooking something? Any input would be appreciated.
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