Quote:

Notes,

That's quite an impressive workflow, How about a video of the entire process...



Thanks.

No time nor the software for a video. Too busy writing new styles, sequencing new songs for my duo http://www.s-cats.com and running the day-to-day operations of Norton Music http://www.nortonmusic.com

I've been using BiaB since the Atari/DOS/Motorola Mac days, and I find it a very useful program. The output is better than a lot of bands I've heard, but not quite as good as the best bands (yet).

The output by it's nature is also a bit generic. And it has to be. I wrote a style specifically for the song "Don't Be Cruel" and what I found out was that if you put song specific licks into a style, the style is good only for that song. Generic styles are more versatile.

That's why I export the data from Band-in-a-Box as a MIDI file, import the MIDI file into a sequencer (Master Tracks Pro, Sonar, Cubase, etc.) and put the finishing touches on the song there. This turns the very good output of BiaB into something that rivals the most excellent bands.

You mentioned using BiaB as a tool to practice jazz. Having the BiaB band is an excellent way to practice. You can mute any of the instruments you want, you can change the key and tempo independently of each other, change the style, and even change the arrangement.

While the 'music minus one' disks (like the Jamey Aebersold products) may have better, more song-specific arrangements, with Band-in-a-Box you get the flexibility of not only what I mentioned in the above paragraph, but the ability to practice to almost any song, as long as you can find the chord progression. The "M.M.O." disks are limited to the availability of titles published and the keys and tempos of the songs.

Of course both have their pros and cons, but for me BiaB is the ultimate practice tool.

If you want auto-accompaniment software, I don't believe you can do better than Band-in-a-Box.

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com

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