PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Songwriting Groove3 - Songwriting with Band-in-a-Box

Just released and a nice tutorial for newcomers to BIAB.

Synopsis:

Studio wiz Eli Krantzberg presents a comprehensive set of Band-in-the-Box video tutorials! If you're looking for a one-stop shop to turn your raw song ideas into complete, fleshed out arrangements, this is the video series for you. Eli takes you through the software's extensive feature set, concentrating on the key elements geared toward songwriters, and demonstrates how to build a finished song from even the humblest beginnings. These videos are for new Band-in-a-Box users.

Videos
Videos
Creating a Melody (07:25) - In this first video, use the Band-in-a-Box Melodist function to create a melodic idea for a chord progression and arrangement in a DAW.
Exploring the Melodist Maker (10:26) - Learn to use the Melodist Maker to create a custom Melodist and hear how it interacts with different styles. Three separate melodies are generated and brought into the DAW, where they're edited together to create a single, unified melody that matches the chords and arrangement.
Using the Chord Wizard (07:31) - Next, discover the Band-in-a-Box Audio Chord Wizard and hear how it's used to generate chords and tracks supporting a melodic vocal idea for a song chorus.
Creating Harmonies (07:15) - Explore Band-in-a-Box's ability to generate doubling and harmony parts from existing audio. Hear examples on vocals and guitar!
Creating a Guitar Part (07:27) - Learn how the Band-in-a-Box MultiRiff feature is used to create multiple variations of a guitar part - based on your chord progression and rhythms - with custom shots and pushes.
Creating Better Harmonies (07:40) - In this video, discover Band-in-a-Box's advanced harmonizing options, including the ability to export MIDI conversions alongside the generated audio.
Creating a Piano Part (08:19) - Learn how to have Band-in-a-Box create a fully fleshed out piano part based on your original simple chords, in your choice of musical styles, using RealTracks.
Creating an Arrangement (10:36) - See how the Auto Generate Chord Substitutions and Auto Generate Chord Reharmonization functions can be used to reinvigorate a simple melody, with examples in various styles.
Creating a Solo (11:24) - Next, explore the Band-in-a-Box Soloist Maker and its ability to custom design solos and fill lines.
Creating an Intro (08:50) - Hear the Band-in-a-Box's intro generating feature in action as it's used to create inspiring intros to match specific styles and chord progressions.
Creating a Chorus (06:31) - In this video, see the Band-in-a-Box automatic generation feature in action, creating a chorus that harmonically and stylistically matches the preceding verses.
Generating Random Ideas (05:47) - Finally, learn how Band-in-a-Box is used to generate random ideas based on your user input. Individual parts from multiple ideas can be used either independently or in combination as the basis for songwriting inspiration!

I like Eli's style and he certainly shows every aspect of each process. I had a gentle moan to Groove3 a few months ago that they were not updating the videos about BIAB and they certainly seem to have taken it onboard!

Sounds great, is there a link?

https://www.groove3.com/tutorials/Songwriting-with-Band-in-a-Box

I have not yet watched any of the video

I've been a Groove3 annual subscriber for about 3 years now.
$100/year +-.
Pretty good value for me.
A world of musical subjects available for one price.
Lots of stuff on my DAW of preference (Logic Pro).

A fair amount of other stuff related to my instrument (guitar).

Eli Krantzberg is a good instructor. He does a bunch of Logic Videos.
He also has a keyboard based Jazz Harmony video that is exceptional for understanding the subject.
All of them available through Groove3.

I have benefited from Groove 3 video tutorials and I like Eli Krantzberg's teaching style. Doing a quick search I found the following,

Band-in-a-Box: Getting Started
https://www.groove3.com/tutorials/Band-in-a-Box-Getting-Started
Appears to be Mac version
Has updates for 2021 version

Songwriting with Band-in-a-Box
https://www.groove3.com/tutorials/Songwriting-with-Band-in-a-Box
Appears to be Mac version
Does not seem to be the latest version

BIAB 2015 for Windows Explained
https://www.groove3.com/tutorials/BIAB-2015-for-Windows-Explained

BIAB 2014 for Mac Explained
https://www.groove3.com/tutorials/BIAB-2014-for-Mac-Explained

I watched a couple of the videos from the series this morning.
Video 1 Creating a Melody and Video 10 Creating an intro.

My initial reactions
Eli moves quickly through the material. Pay attention.
He teaches with both BIAB and his DAW (Logic). If you use Logic you will likely pick up some extra info from this.

The project is what you would expect from Eli Krantzberg. Professionally done and comprehensive. Good work

Admittedly I watched about 10% of the material.
Someone else may do a more exhaustive review. Truth is, these features are not part of BIAB that I use (at least not yet). I may use the Intro feature in the future.
Likely I'll watch all of them and see what Logic tricks I come up with.

There are a couple of reasons I prefer to purchase and download videos from Groove3 versus using Groove3's subscription service. Having said that, it's great that Groove3 offers both options.

Reason 1 is I prefer to purchase versus rent videos. I've purchased four video tutorial series from Groove3.

Reason 2 is I can view my videos on offline smart devices. I have a smart phone and an e-reader that are video capable but do not have online capability. The videos are loaded on each device and I watch the videos whenever I want to.

I realize everyone's experience is different so it's nice that Groove3 offers both payment options.

I went through the Song Writing tutorial by Eli and reckon I’ve learnt more about BIAB than in many other tutorials I’ve watched. Going through this also got me to go back to the PG Videos and try stuff I did not know was available really. Methods to achieve additional bits in songs that are needed.

I recommend this video series. There are many ways to access Groove 3 including purchasing a video as Jim says. There is also a $15 for a months access to all the site and a yearly access. From my perspective a $15 look for a month then make up your mind on what you need is a good way to go.

Tony

FYI: I've purchased the Band-in-a-Box Explained video tutorial in the past and purchased the Songwriting with Band-in-a-Box a few days ago.

For those that like to watch their money, Groove3 is having a sale until the end of the month.

The Songwriting tutorial has exposed me to numerous tools I've not explored. I believe learning to use some of the tools and adding them to my workflow will add some variety and complexity to my music.

The Songwriting tutorial is based on the Mac program so Windows users will need to determine how to access the tools in the Windows version of Band-in-a-Box. Also, support files are available but, for the most part, they are of no use to Windows users so I deleted the support files.

Once again PatrickS, thank you for alerting us to the new Groove3 BiaB video tutorial.

I want to thank everyone on this thread -- and PatrickS, in particular -- for bringing Groove3 to my attention.

All I can say is: Wow. I learned so much from the Getting Started series, and now I'm about to begin the Songwriting course.

I had never heard of Groove3 before, but thank goodness I found it. What a tremendous resource!

I can second that. Never heard of Groove 3 before, I will certainly be making the most of their video series.