Okay, so I customized a style by adding the Real Tracks that I want, went to File->Stylemaker->Save Current Song(except for muted instruments) as a Style.
Is there any way to save a Demo Song to go with it?
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I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about what the Stylepicker plays when "Quick Play Using Premade Demo (Not Chords of Song)" is selected
Band-in-a-Box® for Windows Version 2026 (1237) 64 bit application RealBand 2026 (4) Windows 11 Home Intel(R) Core(TM) 5 120U (1.40 GHz) 12.0 GB (11.7 GB usable)
This is how this works in the program and this is what I did to make it work.
BIAB WILL play a demo song if you follow this procedure.
I made a customized style that I called _BG-FULL.STY, which is a bluegrass style where I added some more RT's just like you did in your custom made style.
Now if I go to style picker and pick that User Made style called _BG-FULL.STY and click on Quick Play Using Demo Song, just like you did, BIAB will look in the directory C:\bb\RealTracks\Data\Style Demos Audio\ and will try to find a WMA file called _BG-FULL.wma
Not finding that, it will try to find one online. Not finding that it will give you nothing but an error message. In my case it says:
"There are no demos available for this style, on disk or on Internet. [2023.1006.0, 12/29/2022 9:08:18 AM] http://demos.pgmusic.com/audio/allstyledemos2/_BG-FULL.wma . No demo for this style is available on the Internet. [2023.1006.0, 12/29/2022 9:08:17 AM]"
Any demo song you want BIAB play has to have the same name as the style you have loaded that you created.
That being said, I just made my own demo song in WMA format and made sure it was in the necessary directory so BIAB can find it. In my case it was C:\bb\RealTracks\Data\Style Demos Audio\_BG-FULL.wma
It plays my demo song that I made up each time I click on Quick Play.
You have to supply your own demo song if the style was NOT provided by PGMusic. User made styles are not.
BIAB2026 Windows 10 Pro (Never Windows 11!) WA6NCB
I'm confused. When I click on the play button or double-click the style,vit loads chords and melody into BIAB as a demo, which can be altered to make one's own tune. I believe Henry Clarke "composes" his own tunes this way.
Band-in-a-Box® for Windows Version 2026 (1237) 64 bit application RealBand 2026 (4) Windows 11 Home Intel(R) Core(TM) 5 120U (1.40 GHz) 12.0 GB (11.7 GB usable)
I follow Henry's approach from time to time and to bring in the song demo for the style you've chosen, click the "Load Song Demo" button. This replaces whatever you have in the chord sheet with the style's demo song. Save it under a new name and you can 'compose' your own song (like Henry) from there.
Your confusion may be from the "Load Song Demo" button being located in the section of the interface that is called "Play Using Current Chord Sheet for Song." Whenever one presses Load Song Demo button, your existing chord sheet is replaced instantly. The "Quick Play Using Premade Demo" section is for only that: a quick playback of the demo song for the style WITHOUT loading it into BIAB as the song.
I'm sure others will jump in if I'm wrong about any of this.
My confustion is how to load my own BIAB song as this demo. This is not a soundfile, it's a BIAB file that demos the Style as intended.
Band-in-a-Box® for Windows Version 2026 (1237) 64 bit application RealBand 2026 (4) Windows 11 Home Intel(R) Core(TM) 5 120U (1.40 GHz) 12.0 GB (11.7 GB usable)
Watch this and see if it helps. Make sure you have the demo wma on the RealTracks drive and the SGU demo on the C: drive or other if you're running BB from another drive.
I follow Henry's approach from time to time and to bring in the song demo for the style you've chosen, click the "Load Song Demo" button. This replaces whatever you have in the chord sheet with the style's demo song. Save it under a new name and you can 'compose' your own song (like Henry) from there.
Your confusion may be from the "Load Song Demo" button being located in the section of the interface that is called "Play Using Current Chord Sheet for Song." Whenever one presses Load Song Demo button, your existing chord sheet is replaced instantly. The "Quick Play Using Premade Demo" section is for only that: a quick playback of the demo song for the style WITHOUT loading it into BIAB as the song.
I'm sure others will jump in if I'm wrong about any of this.
You are correct on this.
BIAB2026 Windows 10 Pro (Never Windows 11!) WA6NCB
I tried the above as well and can't get it to work after saving the SGU in \bb\Demos\RealTracks - Demos after creating my custom STY file.
EDIT: the custom STY shows up in the style picker, but double clicking on that style results in the aforementioned not found message.
Odd one. The help function doesn't help with this that I can see.
Mike: Saving an SGU file in the Demo directory will not do anything for the problem. It has to be a WMA sound file that the Style will be looking for and that sound file the style is looking for to play as a demo, has to be in demo directory. I just did it again using another style I created and it works perfectly for me every time.
The Style is in the Style Directory and the Demo song, with the same name as the style that BIAB will look for, is in the Demo directory. It works every time for me.
BIAB2026 Windows 10 Pro (Never Windows 11!) WA6NCB
But does it being the chords in? I don't understand how a .wma file could work for this.
It's also a thing when I do the down-arrow on the Style button, and choose "Load Song Demo for This Style".
Band-in-a-Box® for Windows Version 2026 (1237) 64 bit application RealBand 2026 (4) Windows 11 Home Intel(R) Core(TM) 5 120U (1.40 GHz) 12.0 GB (11.7 GB usable)
Mike: Saving an SGU file in the Demo directory will not do anything for the problem. It has to be a WMA sound file that the Style will be looking for and that sound file the style is looking for to play as a demo, has to be in demo directory. I just did it again using another style I created and it works perfectly for me every time.
The Style is in the Style Directory and the Demo song, with the same name as the style that BIAB will look for, is in the Demo directory. It works every time for me.
Hey jcland, would you mind doing some step by step instructions? I have the wma in the demo folder. No luck. Thanks so much.
Cheers, Mike
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So, the .sgu file has to be in BB > Demos > RealTracks - Demos? Interesting, because one could really put any .WMA file in the Audio folder, which would muck up the whole feature.
Band-in-a-Box® for Windows Version 2026 (1237) 64 bit application RealBand 2026 (4) Windows 11 Home Intel(R) Core(TM) 5 120U (1.40 GHz) 12.0 GB (11.7 GB usable)
OK as you requested, here is the step by step instructions on how to make a Demo song that will play for your custom made style. I have been using this method for years so trust me on this, if you follow these instructions, it will work.
1. Create and save your style. In this case and for these instructions I will use the name Mystyle. The style will have the name Mystyle.sty and will be located in the default directory of C:\bb\styles. It will show up when you rebuild ALL styles. It has to be ALL styles because you created it and you gave it a name that is not in the default BIAB style listing from PGMUSIC.
2. Make a song in BIAB using your new custom style called Mystyle
3. Generate the song and make sure it plays OK to your satisfaction
4. Perform this: File-Save Special-Export as Mystyle.wma (Remember that this name is for my instructions I am typing up)
5. Make sure you save the wma file in c:\bb\Realtracks\Data\Style Demos Audio. It must have the same name as the name of your custom style.
6. At this point you should have your customized style located in C:\bb\Styles and you have rebuilt the style list using ALL styles. You should also have the WMA file located in c:\bb\Realtracks\Data\Style Demos Audio and it MUST have the same name as your customized style. In this case the style was named Mystyle.sty and the wma file was named Mystyle.wma
7. At this point the demo song you made up should play when you click on Quick Play Using Premade Demo
All we care about is the STY and the WMA file.
I just did this as I was typing out the instructions and it works perfectly for me.
I don't know what else to tell you.
BIAB2026 Windows 10 Pro (Never Windows 11!) WA6NCB
So, the .sgu file has to be in BB > Demos > RealTracks - Demos? Interesting, because one could really put any .WMA file in the Audio folder, which would muck up the whole feature.
No, the sgu file does not have to be in that directory. We don't care about the SGU or MGU file. All we care about is the STY and WMA files for playing a quick demo of the style.
Follow the instructions I just posted in the thread and it would work for you. It works for me. I just made one up as I typed out the instructions.
Please Let me know if you were successful in making a demo song to play.
BIAB2026 Windows 10 Pro (Never Windows 11!) WA6NCB
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