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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 181
Apprentice
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OP
Apprentice
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 181 |
Having seen the link at PGMusic.com to the new Microsoft Songsmith program, and having downloaded the demo etc., I see that PGMusic has apparently provided the basic Songsmith Styles and is offering add-on Songsmith Styles. Is there a relation between Songsmith Styles and BIAB Styles such that BIAB Styles (all of which I have) could be used -- possibly following some kind of convwersion -- in Songsmith?
www.LawTunes.com: The LawTunes - The Musical Scales of Justice - Original Lawyer Rock & Roll www.SurfChords.com: The SurfChords - The Endless Summer Continues and The Wave Never Ends
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 181
Apprentice
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OP
Apprentice
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 181 |
And a follow-up question: Is there a list of what Songsmith Style corresponds to what BIAB Style, so if I create a tune with the former I can load it into BIAB and do further work with the latter? Thanks.
www.LawTunes.com: The LawTunes - The Musical Scales of Justice - Original Lawyer Rock & Roll www.SurfChords.com: The SurfChords - The Endless Summer Continues and The Wave Never Ends
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 69
Enthusiast
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Enthusiast
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 69 |
i am anxious to find out about these questions myself!
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 404
Journeyman
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Journeyman
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 404 |
I guess that Songsmith creates a "monolithic" audio file that can't be modified with BIAB.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 5,278
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 5,278 |
The input to Songsmith is your voice or some instrumental lead. The output is some chord progression and an arrangement. It should be easily possible to transfer the suggested chord progression to BiaB and identify a pertinent style for the arrangement. From there you might tweak the result with modifications of this style, with RealTracks, RealDrums, Soloist stuff and whatnot.
Martin
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 181
Apprentice
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OP
Apprentice
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 181 |
Songsmith output options include MIDI, for loading into BIAB or a sequencer. Alternatively, one could just manually enter the chords created in Songsmith into BIAB. Sone of the neat features of this simple but powerful program are suggestions of alternatives to a particular chord.
www.LawTunes.com: The LawTunes - The Musical Scales of Justice - Original Lawyer Rock & Roll www.SurfChords.com: The SurfChords - The Endless Summer Continues and The Wave Never Ends
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 404
Journeyman
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Journeyman
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 404 |
Thanks for clarifying. I'm really impressed by this program resulting from 'joint venture' of Microsoft Research, Garritan, Plogue and PG Music.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 177
Apprentice
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Apprentice
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 177 |
I downloaded the demo and best way I can describe it is that it's for folks who like to sing in the shower. Personally, I wouldn't bother. Just my opinion though. I'm sure there will be a market for it.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 181
Apprentice
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OP
Apprentice
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 181 |
I would recommend making sure that the water is not on. Seriously, for me (other than that my kids are getting a kick out of it), I see it as an additional way (for only $29.95) to generate the preliminary chord sequences which are one of the first steps in my creation of a new project. I particularly like the way it provides alternatives for each of the individual chords generated, including suggested chords that I would very rarely come up with on my own, if at all. I guess what I'm saying is it is a fun program that is an additional tool in the songwriter's belt. And its simple yet appealing user interface and tweaking controls may presage what future iterations of BIAB could possibly look like. How fortunate we are to have innovative and creative minds like the PG team and the Microsoft development team (I have been following the research genesis of Songsmith for some time), and devices such as the Ketron SD2, to allow at least those whose abilities and training are as limited as mine to do so much and have so much enjoyment and pleasure in the process.
www.LawTunes.com: The LawTunes - The Musical Scales of Justice - Original Lawyer Rock & Roll www.SurfChords.com: The SurfChords - The Endless Summer Continues and The Wave Never Ends
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 12,844
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 12,844 |
I kind of got the impression from reading the web site and looking at the videos that it basically uses it's own algorithm to create a chord progression to match your melody, and then uses the basic BIAB engine (which of course can understand BIAB styles) to generate the audio accompaniment for that particular chord progression. So rather than putting the chord progression into BIAB first as we do, you can just sing the melody and come up with a chord progression to match it (which may or may not be what you are looking for). Once the chord progression is in place, the BIAB engine can take over and render an accompaniment.
What would be nice would be to see this technology incorporated directly into BIAB in the future. That would give those folks asking how to get an accompaniment from their melody something better to work with (and then once on the BIAB grid, you could manipulate it accordingly). I guess time will tell.
John Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 12TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 12TB SATA BB2026/UMC204HD&404HD/Casios/Cakewalk/Reaper/Studio One/Notion/Dorico/Noteworthy/NI/Halion/IK http://www.sus4chord.com (under rehosting/construction)
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: May 2000
Posts: 15,975
PG Music Staff
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PG Music Staff
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 15,975 |
Yes, the style format is the same, so you should be able to use your existing BB styles in SongSmith, and vice versa.
Have Fun!
Peter Gannon
PG Music Inc.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 1,122
Expert
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Expert
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 1,122 |
my interest level would be pertaining to the Garritan gm set that is included with it. If that could be used by biab, rb, ptpa as a vsc type of synth. If so, is it better than vsc, or forte? Might be worth buying just for that.
toucher
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: May 2000
Posts: 15,975
PG Music Staff
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PG Music Staff
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 15,975 |
Good point. I don't the answer to that, you could contact garritan.com for that question.
Have Fun!
Peter Gannon
PG Music Inc.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 1,122
Expert
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Expert
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 1,122 |
Hi Peter,
I took your advice and contacted Garritan re: Aria and the GM soundset that they package with Songsmith. I inquired as to whether it would be applicable with BIAB/RB etc.
Their answer:
Hi
The singine is integrated into Songsmith. We are currently working with Band-in-a-box to product soundsets but right now there are only Songsmith packs. Please check back in the weeks ahead.
Are we looking at having another dxi synth or GM sound engine available to complimtne VSC-Dxi and Forte?
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 1
Newbie
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Newbie
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 1 |
What a great addition to the song creation community. I see a lot of users having fun with Songsmith, and with the addtion of thousands of BIAB styles, there's a ton of possibilities.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 226
Apprentice
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Apprentice
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 226 |
Is song smith an off shoot of Bars and Pipes? There we go. Re invent new icons in biab that look like the tool icons on Bars & Pipes. That would be as much fun as when I put a hack workbench on my friends Amiga computer called scat. As soon as the pointer reach the program icon it ran off the screen. That was a fun computer the Amiga. Does this come out of those days at all. Is there anything missing that hasn't made it on the pc in terms of midi tricks?
What seems to be missing is the visual making languages set up to be easy to learn. Amos CanDo Hypeprcard where it was really easy to synchronize graphics and make demos to midi and music files.
Will Songsmith do this
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 1
Newbie
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Newbie
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 1 |
I know that this is a late response to your original post but I didn't see if your query was answered so I'll post my experience..
I've been buying updates to BB since the mid 90's and have accumulated hundreds of styles.
I've been able to import these into Songsmith successfully by copying the .sty files from my BB folder into the "styles" folder under the Songsmith installation folder. I now have access to all my Band-in-a-Box styles in Songsmith.
Hope this is useful.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 4,900
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 4,900 |
I missed this! Have any of you found this to really be useful for song-writing, as oppposed to, say, Melodyne?
Follow That Dream Sam Karaoke King -------------------- Turning that corner again - I have to keep following that dream, no matter what
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 4,900
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 4,900 |
Is it really that useful? I know PG have been involved in the development but does it really deliver? Dying to know...
Follow That Dream Sam Karaoke King -------------------- Turning that corner again - I have to keep following that dream, no matter what
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: May 2000
Posts: 38,502
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 38,502 |
Download the free demo and find out, Sam.
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ChatPG's knowledge base includes the full Band-in-a-Box User Manual and sales information from the website.
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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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Check out this forum post for "One Stop Shopping" of our Band-in-a-Box® 2026 Mac Videos!
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Along with version 2026, we've released an incredible lineup of new content! There's 202 new RealTracks, brand-new RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, “Songs with Vocals” Artist Performance Sets, Playable RealTracks Set 5, two new RealDrums Stems sets, XPro Styles PAK 10, Xtra Styles PAK 21, and much more!
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