I don't think any auto-accompaniment software product can ever make polished arrangements ready for mastering. At least with foreseeable technology.

Why?

It is auto-accompaniment's nature to be generic. Each style should fit a large number of songs or else why write the style? For example: By request of one of my customers I wrote a style for the Elvis Presley song, "Don't Be Cruel". It came out well for the state of the StyleMaker at the time I did it, but there was one problem. It was basically only good for "Don't Be Cruel". Using the style on anything else made it sound like "Don't Be Cruel" because of that signature guitar motif.

So why write a song-specific style when you can use Sonar, Cubase, PTPro or any other sequencer to create the song much easier than you can make it work in an auto-accompaniment program like BiaB?

This is one reason why I prefer MIDI styles. I can export the good BiaB output as a MIDI file, import it into a sequencer and then massage it by adding song specific motifs, re-arranging parts, exaggerating the groove (or inserting it in the styles that use the drum grid), and adding a great number of musical enhancements that I am not able to do with the Real Tracks. With a half hour or so of tweaking, I can turn the good output from BiaB and turn it into something truly excellent in a MIDI sequencer. And after all, I did buy BiaB to play with it. If I wanted something per-recorded that I couldn't play with, I'd buy a karaoke file.

Still, there are parts of BiaB that are antiquated, and I suppose stay that way because PG is very interested in keeping backwards compatibility with previous versions. The styles I wrote in 1992 still work on BiaB today - and that's a good thing.

But I would really like to see things like:
  • Resolution of at least 240 ppq
  • The ability to build any chord at all via a custom dialog box that lets you pick or omit the root, third, fifth and any/all extensions
  • Real crescendos, dimuendos, accerandos, ritardandos, and fermatas
  • Native ability for other time signatures so that 6/8, 5/4, and other meters don't have to be forced into the BiaB grid
  • More tracks (instruments) so that I could make a 7 voice band
  • The ability to tie certain parts together in the StyleMaker so that if one pattern is chosen, other patterns could be tied to it (for example in a straight 8 style, if the drum pattern was set for a triplet roll, other instruments would also play triplet patterns for that bar
  • Support for triplets of 2 beat duration (like quarter note triplets in 4/4 time)
  • variable length endings that could actually follow chords entered for that ending
  • Both long and short (or major and minor) drum rolls and the ability to enter them when desired
  • an option to go from the A substyle to the B substyle without a drum roll
  • a requirement that all BiaB users buy Norton Music disks <HUGE GRIN>
  • and many, many more - which I have entered into the wish list in the past.

Some of the above can be accomplished with my EXPANDED styles, but having them native in BiaB would be a good thing.

Personally, I think Band-in-a-Box plus a good MIDI sequencer plus a good MIDI synthesizer or sound module is an unbeatable combination. I find all 3 tools essential to making good music.

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

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

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