Yes documentation still calls them measures, but it still calls the track that can contain hundreds of different instruments strings and another piano and another guitar. This is because BiaB has expanded from its humble beginnings to what it is today.

I tend to think of each numbered section in the matrix as a cell instead of a measure because it allows me to do things that I cannot do otherwise, like play a 5/4 song or a 6/8 song using a SW style and making each cell 2 measures -- or using an EXPANDED style making each cell a half measure to overcome the 4 chord or associated limitation.

As far as the 8 chords per bar are concerned, very few songs that I have run across have needed them, but many songs have needed:
  • more than 4 chords per bar and
  • a chord on both a beat and the upbeat preceding it (you can't push a chord and still have the cord on the beat that you pushed).


I've done 29 fake disks http://www.nortonmusic.com/contents.html#fake and 28 of them have been transcribed from off-the-shelf, best selling fake books from publishers like Hal Leoanard, Warner Brothers, Alfred and so on. The need for EXPANDED styles are so common, that I don't think I've done a single fake disk that hasn't needed EXPANDED styles - which is the reason I invented them back in the 1990s. And the genres that need EXPANDED styles run across all styles, rock, pop, country, jazz, blues, Latin American, reggae, disco, Broadway and so on.

Band-in-a-Box has its great features, but it also has its limitations. For a few examples:
  • Putting a brass section in the channel labeled 'strings' is one very easy way to get around a limitation.
  • Putting the equivalent of a group of Latin American percussionists (conga, timbale, guiro, cowbell, etc.) into one drum channel in the StyleMaker is another,
  • using one cell as a 3/4 measure and the next as a 2/4 measure to play a 5/4 rhythm is another,
  • exporting to a MIDI sequencer and getting rid of the 3rd in a C5 power chord that BiaB insists on inserting ... or getting rid of the Diminished 7th (also a 6th) in that chord that you wanted to be a diminished triad is another
  • and using creating and using EXPANDED styles to put more than 4 chords in a measure or a chord both on the beat and the upbeat before that very same beat is another.

You can choose to use these 'work-arounds' to "fix" the limitations of BiaB if you like, or you can accept those very same limitations. You can also make your wishes known to PG Music who have been very receptive to many of our past wishes. Our wishes are the main reason why there are more than 3 instruments, user styles, full G-MIDI drum kit, Piano Roll editor, Notation, and many of the other improvements that have come along since those DOS days so long ago. Bravo to PG Music for all of this.

I choose to invent and use these work-arounds and also to put my improvement wishes into the Wish List.

You can either live with the limitations or go with the work-arounds - nobody here seems to be telling anyone what to do, simply offering suggestions as to what you CAN do if you want to.

Insights and incites by Notes

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

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