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OP
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Let's talk complex chords.
Today I encountered a song, Renata Maria. It was written by Ivan Lins, whom I consider Brazil's greatest living composer, and it has chords I could not enter as-is into BIAB. In some cases, I found a substitute, but others are just not supported. So this is a "would be nice to have" list.
Chord in the song leadsheet: Am(b6)
Chord I typed into BIAB: Am#5
Result: just fine; enharmonically the same, and I was surprised BIAB supported this
Chord in the song leadsheet: BmMaj9
Chord I typed into BIAB: BmMaj7
Result: OK, not quite right but plays the important notes (minor third & major seven); it would be nice to support mMaj9
Chord in the song leadsheet: Em9(b6)
Chord I typed into BIAB: not possible; I gave up and typed Em9, but I could have used Em#5 or Em7#5
Result: I think no combination of b6 or #5 or b13 will work in BIAB with a minor nine chord. You have to decide which is more important: the nine or the sharp five.
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; Roland Integra-7, Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Band-in-a-Box Wishlist
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Certainly it would be a great improvement if all known chords were supported.
Definitely +1
BIAB & RB2025 Win.(Audiophile), Sonar Platinum, Cakewalk by Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M Monitors, Pioneer Active Monitors, AKG K271 Studio H'phones
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Band-in-a-Box Wishlist
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Joined: Dec 2003
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Certainly it would be a great improvement if all known chords were supported.
Definitely +1
Yes +1
Whenever I get something stuck in the back of my throat, I dislodge it by drinking a beer.
It's called the Heineken Maneuver.
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
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Band-in-a-Box Wishlist
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Joined: Sep 2011
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In my estimation, it is difficult to support all known/possible/thinkable chords in Band in a Box - this would fail due to the concept of RealTracks. For this, real musicians would have to play all chords and even more so chord changes in advance – what would be countless. This would simply not make sense - even if a clever program logic would find chord substitutions. The second problem: Band in a Box still uses (at least currently and to be backward compatible with older song files) a character addressing with an address space for a maximum of 256 displayable combinations of a chord letter plus extensions. This space is already pretty much exhausted.
Biab/RB latest build, German Language Pak, Win 10/64 Pro, 1 TB SSD, 32 GB RAM. Notation SW Finale, StaffPad, SmartsScore – Playing Double Bass, Guitar, Piano
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I previously wasn't aware of the second problem that you mentioned, but this can easily be worked around. If the version is less than 'x' then use the 256 algorithm. If it is >= 'x' then treat it as having a broader range capability.
BIAB & RB2025 Win.(Audiophile), Sonar Platinum, Cakewalk by Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M Monitors, Pioneer Active Monitors, AKG K271 Studio H'phones
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Band-in-a-Box Wishlist
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Thanks, everyone.
I fully realize this discussion appears to affect very few, but I think it has some broader implications.
I posted in the User Tracks Forum a few years ago, asking for a template with the more complex chords I need for my Brazilian jazz compositions. The question was never answered.
BIAB should be able to be programmed to play in MIDI any chord imaginable. The problem arises with RealTracks, as Brille mentioned.
Of course, even with MIDI, some common chords are supported only by equivalencies. For example, an add2 and add9 are treated as a 2 chord. This is not right, but it gets by.
In the case of the chords I mentioned, I could create shortcuts for the first two, so at least I could type them and get something reasonable. The third example, though, just doesn’t give me a workable solution.
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; Roland Integra-7, Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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+1
If complex chords were supported in MIDI that would be a start at least.
Jim Fogle - 2025 BiaB (Build 1128) RB (Build 5) - Ultra+ PAK DAWs: Cakewalk Sonar - Standalone: Zoom MRS-8 Laptop: i3 Win 10, 8GB ram 500GB HDD Desktop: i7 Win 11, 12GB ram 256GB SSD, 4 TB HDD Music at: https://fogle622.wix.com/fogle622-audio-home
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I agree with Brille, this could be infinite for a "Real" guitarist.
On a piano just about any chord can be laid out nice and pretty, as long as it has less than 11 notes in it.
One can often push a variety of inversions of the chord without making fingering difficult.
The piano can be wonderful in that way.
Chords on the guitar seem an exercise in compromise, especially more complex chords.
Aside from certain musical genres, 6 notes are rarely played when voicing complex chords.
I believe most Guitarist rely on 3 or 4 note chords when comping. Sometimes 5 and sometimes 2.
Example: Consider a b9b13 chord, you need 1,3,5,b7,b9,b13 (i believe) to construct on a piano.
It may be physically impossible for most (any) players to play that in root position on a guitar. I don't know.
I'm guessing it would sound like mud if you could play it.
So which ones do you leave out on a guitar. Typically the 5th goes first, then probably the 1.
So you end up with a playable 4 note chord of 3,b7,b9,b13.
It may sound great played that way or you may have to move it around (invert)to make it playable
Add the 1 if you like (or can) for 5 notes. A lot of guitar players might just leave it out.
Likewise the b7 may disappear and be replaced by the 1 in the 4 note construction.
Put the b9 in the bass? Sure, if it sounds ok.
Imagine all the enharmonic names for those little gems.
How would you ask for them in BIAB?
I could go on an on. The more I think about it (melody, bass lines, voice leading, cadences,next chords,other comping players in the band) the more I realize the requirements and solutions on the guitar are large, possibly infinite.
Back to the shed. I need to work on my comping skills
biab2024(Mac) Latest Build
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OP
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Yes, I was taught much the same by Romero Lubambo when he played on my record. It’s challenging to decide which notes to play. He definitely had fun playing my compositions.
But when you write a complex chord in BIAB and both a guitar and piano track are present, the program should (at least in MIDI) be able to sound every chord tone (except the root, if there is also a bass track).
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; Roland Integra-7, Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Cheers, Mike My Music * Asus ROG Strix G15CF 32 GB DDR4 4TB HDD + 1 TB SSD NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 8GB Win 11 AKAI EIE PRO Sound Interface. BIAB/RB 2024 UltraPak Build - Latest
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Band-in-a-Box Wishlist
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+1
Sure thing.
The Jjazzlab guy “solved” the problem by using the Cm11 chord as a base for the midi and has underlying scales. That means you would not need hundreds of chords, only about 20, be it with different chord tones as specified by the way you notate the chord (Amb6 or Am9b6).
There’s only the major scales (7 chords), melodic minor (7 chords), harmonic minor (7 chords), diminished, wholetone and augmented.
With those 6 scales and their modes you can play anything from Ellington to Dewey Redman… and back.
If you listen to how Jjazzlab works, really sounds good, even with complex harmony. Lydian, phrygian and sus13b9 (II-chord from melodic minor)? No prob.
Biab should step up their game, definitely, to accomodate complex harmony.
Biab, Kontakt, Sampletank and lots of nice libraries, from Fluffy audio to Abbey Road drums. Check out these great contemporary Jazz Styles: www.jazzstylezz.com
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Video: Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac®: VST3 Plugin Support
Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac® now includes support for VST3 plugins, alongside VST and AU. Use them with MIDI or audio tracks for even more creative possibilities in your music production.
Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Macs®: VST3 Plugin Support
Video: Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac®: Using VST3 Plugins
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Band-in-a-Box 2025 for Mac Videos
With the release of Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac, we’re rolling out a collection of brand-new videos on our YouTube channel. We’ll also keep this forum post updated so you can easily find all the latest videos in one convenient spot.
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Reference this forum post for One-Stop Shopping of our Band-in-a-Box® 2025 Mac Videos — we’ll be adding more videos as they’re released!
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Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac is here, packed with major new features and an incredible collection of available new content! This includes 202 RealTracks (in Sets 449-467), plus 20 bonus Unreleased RealTracks in the 2025 49-PAK. There are new RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, “Songs with Vocals” Artist Performance Sets, Playable RealTracks Set 4, two new sets of “RealDrums Stems,” XPro Styles PAK 8, Xtra Styles PAK 19, and more!
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Band-in-a-Box 2025 Italian Version is Here!
Cari amici
È stata aggerate la versione in Italiano del programma più amato dagli appassionati di musica, il nostro Band-in-a-Box.
Questo è il link alla nuova versione 2025.
Di seguito i link per scaricare il pacchetti di lingua italiana aggiornati per Band-in-a-Box e RealBand, anche per chi avesse già comprato la nuova versione in inglese.
Band-in-a-Box 2025 - Italiano
RealBand 2025 - Italiano
Band-in-a-Box 2025 French Version is Here!
Bonjour à tous,
Band-in-a-Box® 2025 pour Windows est disponible en Français.
Le téléchargement se fait à partir du site PG Music
Pour ceux qui auraient déjà acheté la version 2025 de Band-in-a-Box (et qui donc ont une version anglaise), il est possible de "franciser" cette version avec les patchs suivants:
BIAB 2025 - francisation
RealBand 2025 - francisation
Voilà, enjoy!
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Already using Band-in-a-Box 2025 for Windows®? Download Build 1128 now from our Support Page to enjoy the latest enhancements and improvements from our team.
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