I don't know of any superfast shortcuts to finding an appropriate Style for a given song due to the large number of available styles as well as the fact that there are many times when even genre identification can cross over from one to another, ofen yielding a surprisingly good result.

But here is how I handle the situation:

Inside the Stylepicker window is a checkbox towards the bottom that allows us to load and play a style with a doubleclick, let us hear that style play without leaving the Stylepicker window.

There is also the Filter that will indicate any styles that share the same Tempo and Feel as the file already loaded into a song. There will be an asterisk (*) displayed in front of each suitable filename. That narrows the choices down quite a bit in most cases, although the other styles still appear in the listings, they can be ignored.

I first lay out the songfile chords on the main Chordgrid and then choose one of the simple MIDI styles that has near the right Feel and Tempo desired. These are easy to find as they are mostly the ones that begin with ZZ, but not always.

Then, before leaving the main view to go to Stylepicker, I make sure that the "Loop" box to the right of the Songtitle window slot is also checked.

Hit Play to start the song.

Now open the Stylepicker window, make sure that the above mentioned PLAY ON DOUBLECLICK is invoked and that all important filter as well.

Then, AS THE SONG IS PLAYING, I start at the top of the Styles list and doubleclick on the first asterisk preceded file and let it load and listen to what it sounds like.

I don't typically stop on the first Style that works or sounds okay, I just jot the filename down using Notepad and keep on doubleclicking Styles and AUDITIONING them in realtime like that.

*The MIDI styles will load and play in this "Audition" mode much faster than the Realtracks files, although with a modern pc, fast processor with lots of ram, etc. I've noticed that the time to generate playback with realtracks files is greatly reduced.

So I will generally use the all MIDI styles at first to narrow things down, simply because of that faster loading time. Once I have found a MIDI style that seems to really fit the desired result, I leave that style file loaded into the actual songfile -- and then revisit the Realtracks with the Filter in place as to Tempo and Feel and star auditioning Realtracks styles in the same fashion.

Yes, it is time consuming. But in my case I have found it to be time well spent. And for more than one reason: As I've gone through this procedure so many times in making up my songfiles, I find that I do indeed get a little better grip on all those stylenames, Feels, Tempos, genre and the fact that some crossover between the identified genre and the target.

By "crossover" I mean that sometimes a style that is identified as a "country" genre may work well in a rock, pop or even some jazz instances. Or some of the contemporary gospel styles may do so.

Many times, I've been pleasantly surprised by the audition of a Style that I wouldn't think should work in a particular song, only to find a new direction to take the project or a really good match for one genre that is labeled as being for another.

I guess the main thing is to set aside the time to go through this process with the goal of "having fun" doing it rather than viewing this necessary step as a drudge or something.


--Mac

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