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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 143
Apprentice
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OP
Apprentice
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 143 |
I like to practice piano rhythm accompaniment. It would be great to have jazz standards with recorded real instrument melody line, real styles included. I am curious if more BiaB users have the same wish. I posted this to the wish list forum too.
Thanks,
Jan R.
piano: Hammond Skx Pro
guitar: Ibanez LGB30
guitar amp: Boss Katana 50 MKII
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 8,333
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 8,333 |
I think I already have every jazz standard in 3 or 4 versions.
You just need to get creative on the net and find some of the 10,000 or so available tunes in Band in a Box format.
Another way is if you can play from a fake book with chords look for the Montooth books of Standards. I have all of those.
And the backing tracks from Notes Norton without the melodies. The books are cheapest at Amazon, order like 3 and get free next day delivery, and you can order the songs with both sets of chords, the regular and the substitute chords in red by Frank Montooth, and download them.
More than one way to skin thi s c a t.
John Conley
Musica est vita
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 143
Apprentice
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OP
Apprentice
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 143 |
I have all those tunes but they are MIDI. I like to hear real instruments playing the melody. I know they are not in Biab, so my wish is to have those melodies recorded and offered together with the used realstyles/realtracks.
Thanks,
Jan R.
piano: Hammond Skx Pro
guitar: Ibanez LGB30
guitar amp: Boss Katana 50 MKII
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 676
Journeyman
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Journeyman
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 676 |
Obviously, BIAB doesn't have real instruments for the melody. BIAB will import MIDI, so that's worth a try. And if you use MIDI recordings, a good synth will play them back in a close-to-original sound. The better the synth, the better the sound. There are some great instruments in the Kontakt format (Samplemodeling, Chris Hein, etc.), but I don't think they are a good option at all for BIAB. They are a better good option for DAWs, provided you know a little about MIDI techniques, like CC, keyswitches, and aftertouch. Usually, a simple GM module is preferred for BIAB. A lot of people swear by the Ketron sound module (for sale at PG Music), which is very easy to use and doesn't require tweaking to get a good sound.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 19
Enthusiast
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Enthusiast
Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 19 |
Hi Jan,
I use in BiaB VSTi plugins. My favorite is Edirol SuperQuartet, which has pretty good bass sounds (acou bass, upright bass and some other little rock/pop bass sound), piano sounds (mainly rhodes pianos), some proper guitar sounds. And Acoustic Drums Set is good for jazz purpose also. If I need some other acou piano sound I use Pianissimo VSTi plugin.
Exists some other better VSTi plugins for these instruments (bass, guitar, piano, drums) but SuperQuartet is relative small and it has not a huge requirements (for memory, speed of CPU, ...)
Fred.
Last edited by Fred Flinstone; 02/01/10 07:02 AM.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 8,333
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 8,333 |
That's why I have a Ketron SD2. But if you want to hear someone doing real jazz stuff, some guys will play a verse, then a jazz improv thing for 2 verses and then a solo.
If you want to mimic someone you gotta buy the recordings. Some stuff can be done at 80 bpm, and some other cat does it at 200. All good.
I just mute melodies anyway, and play the horn, the piano, or the keyboard or sing. To be honest the last thing I need is the melody, unless I'm transposing it to sing and want to 'hear' it on paper in 5 sharps.
It's taken me 9 years to get over the fact that a horn playing a melody line is not what is on the paper. I used to see a C and hear a C. Drove me right nuts which explains the walnut trees growing around my house. The band director handed me an Eflat horn and I gave it back after a half hour. I play a G horn and a Bflat horn and another one in another key was more confusion.
John Conley
Musica est vita
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 7,697
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 7,697 |
Quote:
I like to practice piano rhythm accompaniment. It would be great to have jazz standards with recorded real instrument melody line, real styles included. I am curious if more BiaB users have the same wish. I posted this to the wish list forum too.
The problem is copywrite. The main thing that is copywrite protected are the melodies. If PG were to record those, they would have to pay royalties and so would you. All the different websites that have thousands of Biab and midi files are in violation if they include the melodies but like anything else, if an interested party never notices, not a problem but if they do, then the site owner has to remove them. That's what happened with the Yahoo Biab users group, they had a great collection of files but had to remove them last year.
Bob
Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 8,333
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 8,333 |
Many of the jazz midi and quite a few of the jazz piano realtracks were done by Miles Black. Use google to find him.
If you load up a song, say Fly me to the Moon, and pick a jazz style, and click on P for the Piano track you can see how the piano follows the piece. On the RealTracks if the button is green and there is a line under it, the notation for the RealTrack is there, it is usually pretty close in transcription, because someone played the phrases and someone else manually transcribed them. I have used this approach to spruce up a piece, in fact I've used it and printed it out and put it beside the fake book for inspiration while the singer has at the thing with me on just piano, no backing tracks.
On that note, there are note for note transcriptons you might note for sale here, Oscar Peterson's works. That makes for good study material. The Frank Mantooth series is also a good work, he puts in the optional chords he suggests, and you simply learn to be the drummer and background player for the
'band'. I practice this by muting the piano part, and the melody, and playing piano along with the bass and drums, often singing the lead once I'm good enough to do both at once. Lots of ways to skin this cat.
John Conley
Musica est vita
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 143
Apprentice
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OP
Apprentice
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 143 |
It is nice to see all your replies. Thank you for that. The reason I asked for real instrument melodies is this: I discovered the training "Pattern Piano and Keyboard" on playpianotoday.com. I like to experiment with basic patterns and chord progressions. You learn to play any song on the piano by ear. You don't learn to play melodies or solos.
Of course I can sing the melody, but I am a worse singer. So I thought, if I can use a nice recorded melody with real instruments and use a nice style with bass and drums in Biab and play the piano patterns, that would be very nice. I am not a professional musician. It is a hobby.
Thanks,
Jan R.
piano: Hammond Skx Pro
guitar: Ibanez LGB30
guitar amp: Boss Katana 50 MKII
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 88
Enthusiast
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Enthusiast
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 88 |
Quote:
Another way is if you can play from a fake book with chords look for the Montooth books of Standards. I have all of those.
Hey, John, did you know that if you google "Montooth book of standards," your post is second from the top of the results?!
-Schnaz
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 8,333
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 8,333 |
No doubt. Odd and cool at the same time. He needs, as Mac would attest, more recognition for a job well done. I have 2 sitting on the acoustic piano 3 feet from me now, and the others downstairs beside me on the the keyboard stand. Frayed, played, and loved. If you can read and play chords it's a must.
John Conley
Musica est vita
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XPro & Xtra Styles PAK Sets On Sale Now - Until May 15, 2026!
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Band-in-a-Box 2026 for Mac Videos
With the release of Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac, we’re rolling out a collection of brand-new videos on our YouTube channel. We’ll keep this forum post updated so you can easily find all the latest videos in one convenient spot.
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