Previous Thread
Index
Next Thread
Print Thread
Go To
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 71
robvh Offline OP
Enthusiast
OP Offline
Enthusiast
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 71
My experiences to create BIAB files as directly transposable files which includes scores and chords at my iPad are fabulous. Although a directly musicxml export from BIAB were preferrable, the view steps in between which I do now are a very good and fast alternative. The app which is displayïng the results can be found in the App store as "Avid Scorch" ( only a few bucks). The display results are awesome and the direct transpose function to any key also. As well the XML as the .sib files from Sibelius can directly be imported from e.g. Dropbox or whatever cloud. The .sib file is preferred since it produces an almost identical copy of the original, uses the whole iPad screen and can be set to produce larger font-sizes for chords.

Some example results can be found here:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17816826/Compare%20BIABpdf2SIB.pdf
Scrolling down the white page is the original BIAB pdf file followed each time by the "Avid Scorch" iPad (darker background, iPad sized ) results of some abritary examples.

An additional example complexer page showing the difference between XML and .sib in "Avid Scorch" import is here:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17816826/Days%20Of%20Wine%20and%20Roses%2C%20The%20%28all%29.pdf
Scrolling down the first (smaller) file is the original exported BIAB pdf, second the .sib import and thirdly the XML import. (Copy link)

The first step is printing your file to pdf. The settings of your printing are important since the XML conversion process should not be disturbed by chords that are cluttering together excisting of large root fonts and small added suffix fonts and/or more (4) chords in a measure. So using a small font setting of say 18 rather then the default 24 is important.

The pdf files can be converted by PDFtoMusic Pro. The (free trial) PDFtoMusic 1.4.2d Beta 1 version will convert 1 page at the time, which is for many people already sufficiënt. The new beta version which is capable to transfer all available BIAB chords can be found here for downloading ( copy link):
http://www.myriad-online.com/cgi-bin/bbs/YaBB.pl?board=pdftomusic;action=display;num=1389372274

It may be still not perfect but it will become perfect later on. To make it perfect for me (and you) now already I developed a "find and replace" .bat file which is used to correct a few chords, deletes and corrects false interpretations, and sizes the file to exactly fit the iPad. I tried it for the 384 files from Real Book for BIAB which I'm using as a trial. I do it all in a batch process! For printing to pdf, I use "Print multiple songs", for converting to XML I used the Batch-process of PDFtoMusic and ultimately the .bat file does automatically run the whole directory with XML results.

Sibelius 7 can be downloaded and used for free for one month to create your .sib files after you must be a bit more creative. ( http://www.sibelius.com/cgi-bin/download/get.pl?com=sh&prod=sibdemo ).

The .bat file that does implement all changes can be found here (updates possible):
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17816826/P2M-XMLtoSIB-XML.bat.txt
The file runs with fnr.exe see: http://findandreplace.codeplex.com

An example .sib file from Days Of Wine And Roses which directly can be imported in Avid Scorch can be found here (copy link):
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17816826/Days%20Of%20Wine%20and%20Roses%2C%20The%20%28P2M-filtered%29.sib

If you struggle with the process of importing files into Avid Scorch the sequence shown here might help:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17816826/Import%20and%20Transpose.pdf

Have fun.

Last edited by robvh; 02/10/14 12:54 AM. Reason: Some links need to be copied!

Musicians and music publishers are still wasting too much paper...come on men we live in the digitised age...Wake up!
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,352
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,352
Interesting work here. I will look with more depth later.

What's happening in, for example, bar 9 of Family Joy with either doubled enharmonic notes or grace notes - hard to tell what's intended?

And have you experimented with the Music XML produced in BIAB 2014 by Sinsy? It's melody only, no chords either, but perhaps combining this with MuseScore or other might work?


BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 71
robvh Offline OP
Enthusiast
OP Offline
Enthusiast
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 71
Creating a correct XML from a pdf file by analyzing the pdf is a difficult task for any program. Normally a lot of touch-up has to be done afterwards. I'm not familiar with all programs that can do this conversion since it is a hughes task to compare them all. The main issue is that I wanted a program that converts scores and chords as well, and do it without any mistakes of course. I did some work with Fotoscore and MuseScore but I was very quickly convinced they both make such a mess of it and needed so much touch-up afterwards that PDFtoMusic was really heaven compared to that, not to say 10 times better. The only thing is that their chords detection was not complete nor correct but they did listen to me and implemented suggested improvements in the beta version. The goal is to do no touch-up at all because otherwise you soon come to a point that the touch-up work becomes as much work as notating the scores yourself from the beginning. So it is better to use an already very good program, learn what goes wrong and discover why it goes wrong and then try to convince the makers to implement suggested improvements.

So yes you discovered a glitch in Family Joy (I will look into it specificly) and no I don't intend to look to any other program and certainly not if separated tasks are needed for scores and chords. The PDFtoMusic people are willing to implement improvements and the beta version does already a good job. I did specificly test it as batch jobs on a whole list (384) of BIAB files to be able to discover all problems involved. My goal is to end up with nothing else then one reliable conversion from BIAB pdf file into a perfect Avid Scorch copy.
As it is now (with my .bat correction file), I'm so close that I already convert every file I use for Avid Scorch since it is hardly extra work but only a few more clicks on my PC and I'm ready.

Matt I'm looking forward to more comments from you and more people who may start to use it. May be some more explanation is needed around the use of the .bat file. Any help is welcome.

P.S.
I did look into A Family Joy and remembered I was surprised about the complexity of how the song has been written (I am just an amateure musician). The short and bad translation of ties from BIAB mgu to pdf causes ties to be detected as triangles. I did delete those in the .bat file. I also did mess around in the Sibelius result to add ties, but didn't succeed. That's the reason of the odd bar 9. Still not a bad result I think for this file.

(What I really like to know is how can you set a different number of bars for different systems in BIAB as shown in this file?? I like to do that all the time but never succeeded! )

Last edited by robvh; 02/10/14 04:46 AM.

Musicians and music publishers are still wasting too much paper...come on men we live in the digitised age...Wake up!
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 71
robvh Offline OP
Enthusiast
OP Offline
Enthusiast
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 71
Originally Posted By: Matt Finley
Interesting work here. I will look with more depth later.
And have you experimented with the Music XML produced in BIAB 2014 by Sinsy? It's melody only, no chords either, but perhaps combining this with MuseScore or other might work?

Since I'm curious I downloaded BIAB 2014 and looked into Sinsy. But this is some musicXML just generated for a simple single note melody line for singers which has really nothing to do with reproducing an usefull music piece which is an identical copy of the original pdf file printed by BIAB. The files I open in "Avid Scorch" are identical copies created with very little effort, showing all notes including chords better then MuseScore and fully transposable.


Musicians and music publishers are still wasting too much paper...come on men we live in the digitised age...Wake up!
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,352
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,352
Robvh, I just had a chance to experiment with the beta PDF to MusicXML utility.

Wow!

This has a lot of potential and already works great on my own music that was converted to PDF. I'm going to do a lot more experimenting now...


BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 71
robvh Offline OP
Enthusiast
OP Offline
Enthusiast
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 71
Matt,
I just can't wait for your comments. Do you have already done some more experiments?

The new option in BIAB 2014 with slashes into empty bars does completely mess up the results. So make sure it's off when printing to pdf.

Rob


Musicians and music publishers are still wasting too much paper...come on men we live in the digitised age...Wake up!
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Go To

Link Copied to Clipboard
ChatPG

Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.

ChatPG's knowledge base includes the full Band-in-a-Box User Manual and sales information from the website.

PG Music News
Band-in-a-Box 2026 Video: AI Stems & Notes - split polyphonic audio into instruments and transcribe

This video demonstrates how to use the new AI-Notes feature together with the AI-Stems splitter, allowing you to select an audio file and have it separated into individual stems while transcribing each one to its own MIDI track. AI-Notes converts polyphonic audio—either full mixes or individual instruments—into MIDI that you can view in notation or play back instantly.

Watch the video.

You can see all the 2026 videos on our forum!

Bonus PAK and 49-PAK for Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®

With your version 2026 for Windows Pro, MegaPAK, UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, Audiophile Edition or PlusPAK purchase, we'll include a Bonus PAK full of great new Add-ons for FREE! Or upgrade to the 2026 49-PAK for only $49 to receive even more NEW Add-ons including 20 additional RealTracks!

These PAKs are loaded with additional add-ons to supercharge your Band-in-a-Box®!

This Free Bonus PAK includes:

  • The 2026 RealCombos Booster PAK: -For Pro customers, this includes 27 new RealTracks and 23 new RealStyles. -For MegaPAK customers, this includes 25 new RealTracks and 23 new RealStyles. -For UltraPAK customers, this includes 12 new RealStyles.
  • MIDI Styles Set 92: Look Ma! More MIDI 15: Latin Jazz
  • MIDI SuperTracks Set 46: Piano & Organ
  • Instrumental Studies Set 24: Groovin' Blues Soloing
  • Artist Performance Set 19: Songs with Vocals 9
  • Playable RealTracks Set 5
  • RealDrums Stems Set 9: Cool Brushes
  • SynthMaster Sounds Set 1 (with audio demos)
  • Android Band-in-a-Box® App (included)

Looking for more great add-ons, then upgrade to the 2026 49-PAK for just $49 and you'll get:


  • 20 Bonus Unreleased RealTracks and RealDrums with 20 RealStyle.
  • FLAC Files (lossless audio files) for the 20 Bonus Unreleased RealTracks and RealDrums
  • MIDI Styles Set 93: Look Ma! More MIDI 16: SynthMaster
  • MIDI SuperTracks Set 47: More SynthMaster
  • Instrumental Studies 25 - Soul Jazz Guitar Soloing
  • Artist Performance Set 20: Songs with Vocals 10
  • RealDrums Stems Set 10: Groovin' Sticks
  • SynthMaster Sounds & Styles Set 2 (sounds & styles with audio demos)

Learn more about the Bonus PAKs for Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®!

Video: New User Interface (GUI)

Join Tobin as he takes you on a tour of the new user interface in Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®! This modern GUI redesign offers a sleek new look with updated toolbars, refreshed windows, and a smoother workflow. The brand-new side toolbar puts track selection, the MultiPicker Library, and other essential tools right at your fingertips. Plus, our upgraded Multi-View lets you layer multiple windows without overlap, giving you a highly flexible workspace. Many windows—including Tracks, Piano Roll, and more—have been redesigned for improved usability and a cleaner, more intuitive interface, and more!

Watch the video.

You can see all the 2026 videos on our forum!

Introducing XPro Styles PAK 10 – Now Available for Windows Band-in-a-Box 2025 and Higher!

We've just released XPro Styles PAK 10 for Windows & Mac Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher) with 100 brand new RealStyles, plus 28 RealTracks and RealDrums!

Few things are certain in life: death, taxes, and a brand spankin’ new XPro Styles PAK! In this, the 10th edition of our XPro Styles PAK series, we’ve got 100 styles coming your way! We have the classic 25 styles each from the rock & pop, jazz, and country genres, and rounding out this volume's wildcard slot is 25 styles in the Praise & Worship genre! A wide spanning genre, you can find everything from rock, folk, country, and more underneath its umbrella. The included 28 RealTracks and RealDrums can be used with any Band-in-a-Box® 2026 (and higher) package.

Here’s just a small sampling of what you can look forward to in XPro Styles PAK 10: Soft indie folk worship songs, bumpin’ country boogies, gospel praise breaks, hard rockin’ pop, funky disco grooves, smooth Latin jazz pop, bossa nova fusion, western swing, alternative hip-hop, cool country funk, and much more!

Special offers until December 31st, 2025!

All the XPro Styles PAKs 1 - 10 are on sale for only $29 ea (Reg. $49 ea), or get them all in the XPro Styles PAK Bundle for only $149 (reg. $299)! Order now!

Learn more and listen to demos of XPro Styles PAKs.

Video: XPro Styles PAK 10 Overview & Styles Demos: Watch now!

XPro Styles PAKs require Band-in-a-Box® 2025 or higher and are compatible with ANY package, including the Pro, MegaPAK, UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, and Audiophile Edition.

Introducing Xtra Styles PAK 21 – Now Available for Windows Band-in-a-Box 2025 and Higher!

Xtra Styles PAK 21 for Windows & Mac Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher) is here with 200 brand new RealStyles!

We're excited to bring you our latest Xtra Styles PAK installment—the all new Xtra Styles PAK 21 for Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher)!

Rejoice, one and all, for Xtra Styles PAK 21 for Band-in-a-Box® is here! We’re serving up 200 brand spankin’ new styles to delight your musical taste buds! The first three courses are the classics you’ve come to know and love, including offerings from the rock & pop, jazz, and country genres, but, not to be outdone, this year’s fourth course is bro country! A wide ranging genre, you can find everything from hip-hop, uptempo outlaw country, hard hitting rock, funk, and even electronica, all with that familiar bro country flair. The dinner bell has been rung, pickup up Xtra Styles PAK 21 today!

In this PAK you’ll discover: Energetic folk rock, raucous train beats, fast country boogies, acid jazz grooves, laid-back funky jams, a bevy of breezy jazz waltzes, calm electro funk, indie synth pop, industrial synth metal, and more bro country than could possibly fit in the back of a pickup truck!

Special offers until December 31st, 2025!

All the Xtra Styles PAKs 1 - 21 are on special for only $29 each (reg $49), or get all 21 PAKs for $199 (reg $399)! Order now!

Learn more and listen to demos of the Xtra Styles PAK 21.

Video: Xtra Styles PAK 21 Overview & Styles Demos: Watch now!

Note: The Xtra Styles require the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition of Band-in-a-Box®. (Xtra Styles PAK 21 requires the 2025 or higher UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition. They will not work with the Pro or MegaPAK version because they need the RealTracks from the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition.

Introducing XPro Styles PAK 10 – Now Available for Mac Band-in-a-Box 2025 and Higher!

We've just released XPro Styles PAK 10 for Mac & Windows Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher) with 100 brand new RealStyles, plus 28 RealTracks and RealDrums!

Few things are certain in life: death, taxes, and a brand spankin’ new XPro Styles PAK! In this, the 10th edition of our XPro Styles PAK series, we’ve got 100 styles coming your way! We have the classic 25 styles each from the rock & pop, jazz, and country genres, and rounding out this volume's wildcard slot is 25 styles in the Praise & Worship genre! A wide spanning genre, you can find everything from rock, folk, country, and more underneath its umbrella. The included 28 RealTracks and RealDrums can be used with any Band-in-a-Box® 2026 (and higher) package.

Here’s just a small sampling of what you can look forward to in XPro Styles PAK 10: Soft indie folk worship songs, bumpin’ country boogies, gospel praise breaks, hard rockin’ pop, funky disco grooves, smooth Latin jazz pop, bossa nova fusion, western swing, alternative hip-hop, cool country funk, and much more!

Special offers until December 31st, 2025!

All the XPro Styles PAKs 1 - 10 are on sale for only $29 ea (Reg. $49 ea), or get them all in the XPro Styles PAK Bundle for only $149 (reg. $299)! Order now!

Learn more and listen to demos of XPro Styles PAKs.

Video: XPro Styles PAK 10 Overview & Styles Demos: Watch now!

XPro Styles PAKs require Band-in-a-Box® 2025 or higher and are compatible with ANY package, including the Pro, MegaPAK, UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, and Audiophile Edition.

Introducing Xtra Styles PAK 21 – Now Available for Mac Band-in-a-Box 2025 and Higher!

Xtra Styles PAK 21 for Mac & Windows Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher) is here with 200 brand new RealStyles!

We're excited to bring you our latest Xtra Styles PAK installment—the all new Xtra Styles PAK 21 for Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher)!

Rejoice, one and all, for Xtra Styles PAK 21 for Band-in-a-Box® is here! We’re serving up 200 brand spankin’ new styles to delight your musical taste buds! The first three courses are the classics you’ve come to know and love, including offerings from the rock & pop, jazz, and country genres, but, not to be outdone, this year’s fourth course is bro country! A wide ranging genre, you can find everything from hip-hop, uptempo outlaw country, hard hitting rock, funk, and even electronica, all with that familiar bro country flair. The dinner bell has been rung, pickup up Xtra Styles PAK 21 today!

In this PAK you’ll discover: Energetic folk rock, raucous train beats, fast country boogies, acid jazz grooves, laid-back funky jams, a bevy of breezy jazz waltzes, calm electro funk, indie synth pop, industrial synth metal, and more bro country than could possibly fit in the back of a pickup truck!

Special offers until December 31st, 2025!

All the Xtra Styles PAKs 1 - 21 are on special for only $29 each (reg $49), or get all 21 PAKs for $199 (reg $399)! Order now!

Learn more and listen to demos of the Xtra Styles PAK 21.

Video: Xtra Styles PAK 21 Overview & Styles Demos: Watch now!

Note: The Xtra Styles require the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition of Band-in-a-Box®. (Xtra Styles PAK 21 requires the 2025 or higher UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition. They will not work with the Pro or MegaPAK version because they need the RealTracks from the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition.

Forum Statistics
Forums57
Topics85,342
Posts791,130
Members39,858
Most Online25,754
Jan 24th, 2025
Newest Members
Max Gain, BEAN223, Brazilboyz, doccawudi, StratMan1965
39,858 Registered Users
Top Posters(30 Days)
jpettit 330
MarioD 209
DrDan 202
DC Ron 152
Noel96 146
Rob Helms 118
Today's Birthdays
DarleneProctor, Lonestar Uk, MeisterMusic, Tim Anderson
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5