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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
Joined: Apr 2011
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I cannot seem to input and edit melody with BIAB 2011, no matter what I do. I have tried with the computer keyboard and wizard, I have tried with external keyboard controller, NOTHING works.

1. The only way I can even hear the external keyboard as I play it is to have Garage Band running at the same time.
2. Once notes are entered, either way, they can be dragged up but not down, and not forward or backward. If I drag them any way but up, nothing happens.
3. I can change the pitch of a note by opt-clicking on the note and entering the pitch manually, but can only change the time by beat, not by tick, and doing every note this way is too time consuming anyway.

All I want is to be able to enter and edit a melody -- that's not asking too much, is it?

I have BIAB 2011, build 26, with a MacBook Pro with 2.4 gb intel core 2 duo and 6 gb ram, and an M-Audio Oxygen 8 with the latest driver. My midi settings are midi-in: Port 1, and all the out settings are Apple DLS Synth. Driver is set to OSX Core Midi.

If anyone can help before I pitch the whole thing out the window, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,

Matt

BTW: I have had multiple contacts with Support over all this, to no avail so far. What I really need is for them to screen share with me and stay on until it works, as sending emails back and forth can stretch out for weeks, but they say they can't do that.

Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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Hello,

Here is what my setup looks like. Does yours look similar? (I have a MIDI controller connected to my computer via a UM1 MIDI interface).







When you play your controller, you should hear what you are playing and see the notes as you are playing them on the Band-in-a-Box on-screen keyboard - even if you aren't recording.

If you don't see/hear the notes, recheck your CoreMIDI setup dialog and make sure it is similar to the first screenshot above, with a MIDI interface connected to a controller - then restart Band-in-a-Box.

If it still isn't working, and everything seems to be set up correctly, try resetting the Band-in-a-Box preferences. To do this, you can quit Band-in-a-Box, and open the \Applications\Band-in-a-Box folder. Make a duplicate of the preferences folder (to save as a backup), then delete all the files from the Preferences folder. Re-open Band-in-a-Box, set up the MIDI drivers and see if it works now.

Also, in GarageBand, are you sure that it is MIDI (i.e. Software Instrument) being recorded? e.g.:



Andrew
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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You have to link the devices like above, then you can select the right port for entry

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Thanks so much for taking the time to try to help. I finally got it (more or less) sorted out with Support (the amazing Kent, who was extremely helpful and frank), and am posting the results here in case anyone else has similar problems.

1. Entering notes via both computer and external keyboards not working properly. I was running it off the external hard drive from PG, and did have it all set up properly, as Support confirmed. So he had me install it on my computer's hard drive, then copy it back to the external hard drive (being sure to take out the real drums and tracks folders first, then put them back afterwards), and that seemed to fix it. Some sort of corruption problem, I assume.

2. Editing notes spotty and problematic. Support confirmed that note editing is cranky. For example, you can't drag a note down into the space below the treble clef and above the bass clef, say to an A or B below middle-C. There are many other little quirks as well. So, it seems my editing is working about as well as it is going to, which is not very well at all. I hope PG pays some attention to cleaning that up in the next release.

So, that seems to be it for now.

Thanks to everyone who responded.

--Matt

Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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<Editing notes spotty and problematic. Support confirmed that note editing is cranky.>

I agree. I am having problem too especially when using the magic mouse when scrolling the notation window. You can scroll the notation window sideways (from left to right or right to left of notations) by scrolling the magic mouse up and down. It is kind of weird. It does not take advantage of the magic mouse which is capable of scrolling sideways and up and down. I hope the next updates address this issue too.

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