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Yep I'm still around. I'm kinda feeling like I was looking into the ocean and realized it was WAY deeper than I had thought. I've been very impressed (and I am picky)by the music I've heard different people's web pages and that has encouraged me to keep going with this!

So. I have purchased the "At the Hop" from Norton music (sorry, may have the name wrong). Put it on the laptop, good so far.

Now, for more questions.

1. The style: when I put this on a cd (in a very roundabout way) and listened to it, I thought that it didn't sound very 50's rock n roll. More like a jazz trio. Then I realized that I had been playing with style the other day and used the Jazz trio style. Is there a way to NOT use a style and if not (which I think is the case) how do you make it like the one I heard and bought?



As John said, Bob 'Notes' Norton sells primarily styles, and those styles can be loaded into the BIAB directory. He has very good instructions on how to do it. Once you select the song you want, you must select the style. Depending on what styles you've bought, or what version of BIAB that you've bought (Mega and Ultra Paks have all the styles available), you could have literally thousands of styles to choose from. Bob also offers some styles that are particular to a specific song, instead of being a generic style. Often, those are under the Hawksford styles he has.

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2. I will need to cut and paste-is that kind of easy in biab? I am used to taking music, dumping it in garageband on my mac (biab is on my pc laptop) and messing with it there. Seems silly to make extra steps. And does it matter what I use to burn the cd that I will be making?



You can export any BIAB file as a MIDI, or .mid file, which you should be able to open in Garageband. BIAB has an editor for the melody part. However, the backing tracks will differ each time you press Play, since they are generated new each time you play the song. That way, you don't get the same sound every time. Exporting to a sequencer is the only way to 'lock' the song in one form or another.

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3. Can I record my playing the melody on my keyboard or little midi keyboard? Now, will I need to download (and buy) one of the "soft synth" that you talked about above to make it so I can record without time delays? (I spent a really nutty hour listening to all the samples-I had 3 favorites at the end-they all had something that made me crazy).



Yes, you can play your MIDI keyboard into Band In A Box, and using 'ASIO' drivers for your sound card, can play the software synths in real time. These would be the DXi or VSTi software synths. However, this is also why I suggested the Ketron SD2, since the sound is much better than most of the inexpensive Soft Synths.

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4. Is there somewhere that can help me figure out the hierarchy of soft synth, arrangers and everything else. I'm feeling overwhelmed.



Not really. You find what you like best, for your purposes, and use that. Lot of trial and error. A lot of it depends on what you want to do, and what kind of music you want to make. Since you already have a keyboard, you can skip all the hardware synths with keyboards, and go to something like a module, or a software synth. That should save you quite a bit of time looking, at least for now. One of the biggest recommendations I can make, however, is that you find something that is General MIDI capable. Most of the Soft Synths you've listened to are. But, you can also get soft synths like the Garritan Personal Orchestra or Garritan Jazz and Big Band, which are not. However, those are still very useful and fabulous sounding software synths. If you try to play a standard SMF file, i.e. a midi file based on a General MIDI sound set, it's going to sound like...well, just wrong. It's a trade off on what you want, what you need, and how much you want to spend.

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5. To change key, do you just change all the chords, or is it possible to change the whole thing at once?



You can change the key from a drop down menu on the tool bar.

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Thank you, thank you,



You're welcome, you're welcome

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Sue (not runaround-although I do teach in 6 schools....)


I'm blessed watching God do what He does best. I've had a few rough years, and I'm still not back to where I want to be, but I'm on the way and things are looking far better now than what they were!