Dan,

It seems to me that the answer is fairly simple.

1. Go to Preferences>Display, and in the lower right section where you can choose what the Spacebar key does, choose "Play from start." (This step may not actually be required but I find it to be very convenient.)

2. Here's the important part: also in Preferences>Display, put a check mark in the box labeled "Pause Play Until MIDI or Key received."

Now when you select a song and click on "Play" (or on the spacebar key), the song will load but it won't begin playing until you click on "Play" (or the spacebar key) a second time, but there will be no delay then. It will begin immediately after the second click since the song is already loaded. So you would open the song, then click on Play or Spacebar once to load it before you start playing your intro, and then click on Play or Spacebar again to actually begin the accompaniment after your intro.

And to be able to do this clicking with a footswitch requires a programmable USB footswitch that you can get from Delcom: https://www.delcomproducts.com/ I have been using their footswitches for years and they work great.

Good luck!
Jim

Jim
Psalm 33:3 Sing unto him a new song; play skillfully with a loud noise.

BIAB 2018 build 519; Dell Inspiron N4110, Windows 10 64 bit, Intel Core i3-2350m running at 2.29 GHz, Memory: 6 GB DDR3, SDRAM 1MHz