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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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I am looking for a solution to replace a live band in a church setting as best as possible. It needs to be able to flow with the service such as, repeat chourus, verse, bridge, etc. as many times as needed. this would need to be controlled by either a simple midi controller or from the laptop. say for instance that you decided that you wanted to repeat the chorus but did not want to have to issue that command at an exact time but rather after the command is issued the program would run up to an appropriate point and then go to the chorus. does that make sense? so that a non musician could simply hit a key or midi controller button and the event would take place at the proer time automatically. would BIAB be appropriate for that ?
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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What you are describing is called the "Conductor" feature. Search around in the forum for this key word and you will get a good idea of its capabilities. I believe there will also be video tutorials which describe it.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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searches that and the only thing that comes up is your reply. I am new. am I doing someting wrong?
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: May 2000
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The Conductor feature allows you to jump to various points in the song, first chorus, second chorus, etc. Remember that in Band in a Box a chorus is the entire verse and chorus as we know it in church music. But I think it would do what you are describing. It also has custom settings which you could modify to repeat points. It'll take a little learning curve time, but it's a great feature. It was designed for live performances.
Bob Coy
HP Desktop
Windows 10 Home, AMD A6-7310, 6GB Ram 1TB Hard drive. Radeon Graphics & Sound
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Hi oragndoc,
BiaB contains "Conductor" feature in the program, that, while a song you have put together in BiaB is playing back, allows you to use the keyboard of your laptop or a few selected bottom end keys on a MIDI keyboard to direct the flow of the song, such as "repeat chorus" or "jump to last chorus" and the like. This can be used in live performance with a little practice and understanding of what it can and can't do.
I suggest that you purchase the program on the USB drive, which is great for the purpose intended, you can take the USB drive and the program home to work on new songs and then take it to church with the new songs on it for practice and performance. There is a 30-day no questions asked return policy on all pgmusic products, which is like getting a full featured demo for 30 days. Use that time to check out what this marvelous autoaccompaniment program can do for you without fear of loss.
And welcome to the forum and the fun!
--Mac
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Quote:
I am looking for a solution to replace a live band in a church setting as best as possible. It needs to be able to flow with the service such as, repeat chourus, verse, bridge, etc. as many times as needed. this would need to be controlled by either a simple midi controller or from the laptop. say for instance that you decided that you wanted to repeat the chorus but did not want to have to issue that command at an exact time but rather after the command is issued the program would run up to an appropriate point and then go to the chorus. does that make sense? so that a non musician could simply hit a key or midi controller button and the event would take place at the proer time automatically. would BIAB be appropriate for that ?
The Conductor provides live looping and playback control. As the song is playing, there are options to allow
control the flow of playback by one of three methods:
1. Conductor window
2. QWERTY hot keys
3. MIDI keyboard
This should be your ticket to do what you have asked.
BIAB 2026 Ultrapack- Fender Studio Pro 8, Windows 11, Mac Mini M4 with Logic Pro 11, Melodyne Studio, Luna Pro
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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can basic midi files that are available on the web be imported into BIAB successfully or do you have to play everything into the program. IT would take a hugh library of songs to pull off what I am suggesting.
I am thinking of a small midi controller that would have a few buttons mapped out and a fader for volume. the songs would be selected ahead of time on the computer and the pastor or whomever would know the order. the controller would have buttons labled repeat chorus, repeat verse, end , etc.
something real simple to enable a start up church or small church to have music available without musicians or in some cases where a live band creates more strife than one can stand to get away from all that. I uses to play in a praise band and ended up leaving because of the the bad problems and bad sound from lack of practice. in many cases it is just too hard to get a consistant sound. people don't show up. thing like that. ever tried doing P&W without a drummer or a bass player, yuck..
CD tracks don't give any hand to flow of the worship. you have to be able to keep it going if people are worshiping. something has got to give in this area and I would like to ring a technology solution to the table. maybe somebody is already doing this. I have not seen it out there.
I repaired a BAldwin keyboard the otehr day that a particular music store had programed with midi tracks and I gotta tell you, it sounded real good. I know some great players that could lay down some killer tracks but this would have to be available to many customers if it would pan out. way too much work to do on a onesy twosy basis. comments always welcome.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jun 2009
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I believe I saw the import MIDI fuction in the File menu. But, as a person who plays in a church and feels your pain as we must have met the same musicians, I would like to encourage you to simply to build a library using the BIAB as the autoaccompany tool. The reason is if you pull down MIDI files from the web they are often sterile and somewhat lifeless in their perfection. BIAB does provide the live feel.
As for setting up the songs, it is as easy as copying the chords into the chord window. Being you already have the charts, it just comes down to data entry from there. Next, after the chords are written for that song, select a style you would like to play the chords and that is it. And if you so desire after a few listens to tweak it further you can go back in and do so.
My point is that it really is that process is not as time consuming as one would think. And the results actually will sound more lifelike that you will happy you tried. Start with one and see how it goes.
Let us know how you do!
RickeG
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Somewhere I got a folder of what is called Religious band in a box files. The only 'religious' songs I know, would be those out of a standard 50 year old Baptist Hymnal, and that would be 48 or so years ago.
Those types of tunes, some of which are still used by myself in Masonic Lodges, are fairly generic. They existed in Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist hymnals of the past, and all of the tunes like St. Anne's (O God our help in ages past) are all available and can be imported as midi files, and drums and stuff added.
What's in the hundreds of Religious Songs in that folder, well i didn't see anything I knew. I guess things have changed. I know that I play horn in a Brass Band and we play in a church and I see they have drums, guitars etc., plus some vastly expensive Rogers organ with a gizmillion stops.
I know lots of guys here are going to jump in, somewhere you'd think people would be sharing that stuff.
I'm going to church two more times, my parents are both over 80 and well...it's inevitable.
I left instructions to cook me up and scatter the rest over the south end of the lake I love. The great manitou is there, he must have made that place, it's too nice to have been made by muck. But that rock I sit on for 40 or so hours a year overlooking the loons and white pines is a good enough spot for me....
Prepare yourself for the deluge of help, it's like that around here...
John Conley
Musica est vita
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Dec 2009
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OP
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hi....Mac....what package is that you are talking about. I looked at he BIAB with real tracks but did not see the USB drive. my laptop is not that big so an ext drive is not a bad idea. maybe it is a lager more $$ package you are talking about.
now as far a capturing some great musicians' performances on midi... that would be another story.
are there that many styles in BIAB that you can find something for most any song?
it sure would be easier if there were good midi files out there. to do it totally with BIAB you would have to get all those songs in their original recording and listen ad figure them out. I don't know if I am going to live that long. ;-)
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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now as far as doing what we are talking about with audio...you would have to slice everything at exactly the right spot and create regions or sections of audio I guess.
would you still use BIAB to handle the playback or would you use another program?
how about if you wanted to combine midi stuff and live audio tracks ?
I used to have a home studio but that was another time. I have forgotten a lot of what I used to know. At one time I subscribed to all the major recording publications and tried to stay on top of the technology but not lately.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Quote:
hi....Mac....what package is that you are talking about. I looked at he BIAB with real tracks but did not see the USB drive. my laptop is not that big so an ext drive is not a bad idea. maybe it is a lager more $$ package you are talking about.
http://www.pgmusic.com/bandbox.htm
To do what it sounds like you want to do, you will need to have as many Styles as you can get. That is going to cost a bit if you are just starting out, but not as much as trying to do it piecemeal and then having to buy the styles one pak at a time. There are recent posts on this forum from a few lamenting that poor decision. Get the largest pak you can afford at the time.
Quote:
now as far a capturing some great musicians' performances on midi... that would be another story.
are there that many styles in BIAB that you can find something for most any song?
Yes. If you get the large enough pak. Everything Pak or Ultra Pak, that sort of thing. Sometimes you can't nail exactly a song's style due to the song maybe having exact riffs as part of the bed tracks, not to sweat, you can still generally find a style that will work with the song and you can go ahead and record your own MIDI keyboard to the Melody and Soloist tracks if need be to supply any key riffs.
Quote:
it sure would be easier if there were good midi files out there. to do it totally with BIAB you would have to get all those songs in their original recording and listen ad figure them out. I don't know if I am going to live that long. ;-)
You can try websearch for MIDI files. Not all are created equal, some are good.
Be advised that copyright laws do indeed apply to MIDI files as well as they do to printed page, though. Churches get targeted by the music writing attorneys without bias. There are also legal MIDI sellers who put out good product and pay the royalty fees for same. A lot depends upon the target songs you are after, the artists/songwriters, etc.
There ain't no easy street.
But BiaB certainly streamlines the available options. BiaB can even load and play those MIDI files as well as the songs you enter "from scratch". And there's a Wizard for changing MIDI files into BiaB autoaccompaniment styles.
One must spend some time learning BiaB, it is not an instant gratification tool, although there are certainly many things one can do right away with this wonderful program. I often tell people that they shoyld approach BiaB exactly the same way that they should approach acquiring the skill to play a second or third instrument. Study, Practice, Practice some more.
--Mac
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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so who is responsible for the royalty fees. the end user or the provider of the material. in this case putting a packag together and selling it as a complete package. either the software on the computer or just the software and the controller?
what about adding live audio to the song?
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Quote:
so who is responsible for the royalty fees. the end user or the provider of the material. in this case putting a packag together and selling it as a complete package. either the software on the computer or just the software and the controller?
The responsibilty can lie on both or either, depending. The seller is responsible to pay royalties and also obtain clearance from the copyright owners. But you as a performer must also see to it that wherever you perform or publish that material is legally covered, too. Churches are not exempt from it. Occasionally I hear of a church getting the Cease and Desist letter for infringements, most are due to the copy machihe and sheet musics, but that is changing as more and more worship services are basically doing the coverband thing these days.
Quote:
what about adding live audio to the song?
Changing the mechanical means of reproduction does not change the ownership of the copyright or whether or not you are using someone else's copyrighted work.
All copyright issues are easier to decipher than ever before for US citizens anyway, the copyright office website is now fully functional and there is a great FAQ system in place.
http://www.copyright.gov/
It is a source of constant amazement that people who are inbolbed with worship services don't seem to understand the concept of stealing someone else's hard work and livelyhood, but there it is...
That said, I think that you should look into all aspects of performance rights matters before your congregation gets to a large size. Likely there is at least one lawyer in the congregation...
--Mac
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Hi oragndoc, I have been looking at the same thing however as a guitar player I am trying to figure out if a foot pedal like the Behringer FBC1010 would work with the Conductor feature to do what you are talking about. I have just started reading up on this and would consider myself a Newbie in this area. I presently play in a full worship team at church so we do everything live but have a friend that is at a smaller church that is looking for an upgrade in the music department. The great thing about Midi or Audio files is that with some practice and using a click track you can add and subtract the musicians you need. i.e. you select the musicians you need. A couple of things based on your questions. 1. Using midi files - I have to agree with others here in that you rarely find well programmed midi files unless you are going to buy commercial files which I have found to be fairly expensive if you want to build a fairly large library. You can however import the files, detect the chords and then arrange the song using the BIAB styles. As Mac says you cannot always get it dead on but you can get close enough that the congregation probably won't appreciably notice the difference. One of the great things about BIAB is that I can do a song at it's original tempo which may fast and upbeat but then turn around and with a few clicks change it into a slower more meditative song. 2. Music you compose with BIAB is not a problem from a copyright perspective if it is original music. It is a concern if you are using others songs, like hymns which are not public domain and the newer worship songs. Most churches that are concerned with working within the law (hopefully all of them) use a service like CCLI to report the songs they play and use so that royalties can be appropriately collected and paid. Their link has quite a bit of information on it at http://www.ccli.com.3. I would agree it would be nice if we could get a folder started with various worship songs that had been programmed in and share the wealth. 4. BIAB and Real Band both offer ways for you to combine audio. I am guessing the Conductor feature would still work even in that case, but as I said I am just starting to read up on this so their are others here more educated than I. Real Tracks are already real audio files. For the price Band in a Box is going to get you closest to what you want from my research. There are things like Ableton live but you are going to spend more $$ and the learning curve appears to be higher to me though I do not have first hand experience. Their is a company called Interactive Worship which is using Ableton live as its base and selling current audio worship tracks to use with their software if you want to check that out. Again it is going to be more expensive and somewhat limited to the songs they produce. Anyway probably more than you wanted to know but hopefully this is helpful. Best to you! TerryB
TerryB
Windows 10, Dell 8700 XPS i7, 12MB Ram.
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Very comprehensive, TerryB, that's the spirit, Thanks!
As for any MIDI pedal like that Berry working on the BiaB conductor, download the .pdf manual for the beast if you don't have it already and make certain that it can be programmed to send MIDI note-on messages, for that is what the Conductor recognizes (other than qwerty keyboard commands).
--Mac
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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I spent about an hour looking at the interactive worship. this is a great tool for the start up church that wants to get into some quality sound fast. could be good for any church that wants that sound really. if they had some older stuff like southern pentecostal and other style that would be great. cost is high too. learning curve looks pretty steep for non computer music users. there just ain't no easy or cheap solution. you get only what you either work for or pay for. somebody has to do the work!
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Quote:
...there just ain't no easy or cheap solution. you get only what you either work for or pay for.
...work for, pay for, or pray for!  Just keeping in the spirit of the thread. 
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