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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 62
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OP
Enthusiast
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 62 |
hello again...(been awhile)...
traditionally...(with me, that is)...the way in which I use B-i-a-B to compose, is to enter chord changes & a tempo...& pick a style. pretty mundane, I know.
but...what if I were to plug in a MIDI file of just one instrument...say, for example...a Bass line.
can B-i-a-B create a composition from a single instrument MIDI source, such as that ???
if so...how would one go about such a task ?
thanks,
doxology
Moon.Wav MusicMedia
ADK Quad Pro, w/ Intel Core i7 2600 CPU | 16 GB DDR3-1600 RAM | Win 7 Pro 64-Bit | Lynx Aurora8 ~ AES16 | PG Music Band-In-A-Box 2022 Audiophile [< 2012.5]
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: May 2000
Posts: 38,502
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Veteran
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 38,502 |
While BIAB can make chord changes to notes on the Melody track using the Chord Sub Wizard, I don't think it would do what you want.
Microsoft Songsmith can make entire chord progressions from your singing a melody, or whistling, you may want to look into that, it uses the BIAB engine and if you already own BIAB Songsmith can use any of the MIDI styles you already own as well as the handful of styles it comes with.
--Mac
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,161
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Veteran
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,161 |
If you enter a Midi melody line from whatever source you can use the Reharmonist (see Icon consisting of 4, 8th notes and G7) feature to develop chord progressions and then you can add the appropriate style etc.
Lyn
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 235
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Apprentice
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 235 |
Citaat:
Microsoft Songsmith can make entire chord progressions from your singing a melody, or whistling, you may want to look into that, it uses the BIAB engine and if you already own BIAB Songsmith can use any of the MIDI styles you already own as well as the handful of styles it comes with.
--Mac
Haha, I bet you didn't try it Mac. I saw this and got curious. I checked it and downloaded it. Start to play with it and wow!!! 
Really superwow even! So amazing! Amazingly bad! 
It is about the crappiest thing I have seen in music world, the battery charged electric piano's (small sized ones) they make for children from about 4 years sound even better, and not so much over the music it makes on its own, but more what it creates over vocals or guitar. Hahaha, it was so bad.  It almost inspires to create the worst song ever. I wonder if microsoft had in mind to find as much wrong chords to a tune as they could. In that case they certainly succeeded! 
But I guess every downside has a good sight too. They could give it and install it for all computerjunkies! They will run away screaming never to come back to their computers again! They might end up with a trauma or a phobic though... 
I'll be back...
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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 |
Quote:
Haha, I bet you didn't try it Mac. I saw this and got curious. I checked it and downloaded it. Start to play with it and wow!!!
But I HAVE tried it.
It might take you more than one or two tries to get the thing to work well for you...
--Mac
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 62
Enthusiast
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OP
Enthusiast
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 62 |
thanks all...
I think I'll stick w B-i-a-B, tho...I watched the songsmith video on utube & was horified at it's simplicity.
So...in B-i-a-B...it has to be a melody line, eh ???
I'll go to the help files & see what the steps/methods are. I think I'm going to try my MIDI Bass lines anyway & see what I can come up with (& then I'll report back).
thanks again,
dox
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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 |
Pays not to view a single music making program as the only one at your disposal, dox.
For example, you might use the Songsmith program to generate chords to a sung melody, then export that as a MIDI file to be opened up in BIAB, type in the same chords there and continue working.
Of course, nothing can beat the study and learning of music theory and harmonization for this purpose, simply because of the fact that a single note line is not enough information in the first place. One can come up with many different chord changes that can work with a single note line, each set may have a completely different feel, taste or whatnot, plus each can be theoretically correct. That's where YOU come in...
--Mac
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,828
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,828 |
I played around with MS songsmith, and found it interesting, not great but interesting. I can see where one could get some basic ideas out of it with some practice. Sometimes we laugh this stuff off because it does not write a grammy winner for us with one pass, but i thing it could be a part of the tool box. Heck BiaB with all it's features is still only a starting point at times.
HP Win 11 12 gig ram, Mac mini Sonoma with 16 gig of ram, BiaB/RB 2026, Reaper 7, Harrison Mixbus 11 , Presonus Audiobox USB96
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 235
Apprentice
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Apprentice
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 235 |
Citaat:
Citaat:
Haha, I bet you didn't try it Mac. I saw this and got curious. I checked it and downloaded it. Start to play with it and wow!!!
But I HAVE tried it.
It might take you more than one or two tries to get the thing to work well for you...
--Mac
Whoops! Sorry about that then. 
Well maybe I need to do that Mac, I don't know, but the weird thing was: I even tried to make it very simple by singing one long note after the other and the result was all badly out of tune. Maybe I had to do something else with the few settings it has, something I missed? At first I doubted if maybe my voice was not constant enough or out of tune, so I tried the same with guitar, same result. Then I thought well, it cannot go wrong with the perfectly tuned keyboard, but alas again. If playing a melody as well as a single note per bar, it all ended up with a horrible out of tune structure and with very limited variation too. I did not expect a ready-to-be-a-millionseller-song of course, but I did not expect it to be that bad either. So yeah maybe you are right that I needed to give some time or explore the thing's settings, but well as sceptic as i was about it, i did not want to put that much time in it. Who knows, I might one time install it again, if I read more positive reactions about this tool from other users. I googled it and found quite some bad reactions too, so I did not really have that faith in it yet...
I'll be back...
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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 |
I tried Songsmith for a few days, it worked okay, considering what it is meant to do. I didn't really see many errors, although the chord structure is very simple, but for a scratchpad device, export to midi, then open in BIB then work your magic with styles, real styles, the melodist, the soloist, etc. Even the roughest pebble can be polished with enough effort. It will never be a diamond, but smooth polished rock is prettier than a rough raw diamond.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 181
Apprentice
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Apprentice
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 181 |
I agree with your "part of the tool box" view. Songsmith is a piece we (or at least I) did not have before, and it becomes one more thing that can help in certain initial aspects of the ultimate process we all undertake in our own ways. Even when viewed properly narrowly, it's a great deal for the money and a lot of fun. And my kids love it, and anything that increases their interest in and encourages them along the road of creating music is wonderful.
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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