I have got to say that I agree with Bob. With BIAB, the time and effort you have to put into notation, instruction notes and producing different instrument parts makes it too big a job to be practical. It is far quicker to adopt the exact method described by Bob and add that stuff manually. A simple lead sheet for any instrument is where BIAB is tops but anything more complex is not even worth considering. Believe me, I keep trying but it never gets any easier/faster.

I have always thought that this is a great shame because the actual entering of notes, not to mention adding harmony parts and having a great rhythm section, is perhaps 5x faster than with any of the 'proper' notation programs I have used (and still do) - Sibelius 7.5, Overture 4, MuseScore. I also agree with what Bob says about those programs being very difficult to use. crazy The overall fault with them is that they have allowed computer programmers a free hand in the designing of various functions, rather than doing the proper marketing and asking the musicians/arrangers how they would like the program to operate. Unfortunately, that is a problem in many types of computer programs.

But, you know, unlike Bob I have not given up on convincing 'the powers that be' at PG Music that it would be worthwhile putting some programming effort into the notation, so that it is fully competitive with the notation/score programs. It would be a world-beater of a program because BIAB has got such a head-start on speed of entry of notes and being able to hear what your arrangement sounds like with a full rhythm section.

I guess there is a belief at PG Music that the real future for BIAB is to keep producing RealTracks for the use of the single acts and deadly duos that play all the clubs these days. But I can tell you there is still a much bigger customer base of people who use BIAB to produce lead sheets for proper sized bands and orchestras and would love to do the whole arranging thing in BIAB. It is so frustrating to produce a great sounding arrangement in BIAB and then have to transfer a midi file (with accompanying bugs - more than a few, BTW) into one of the so-called proper notation programs so that you can produce the parts.

I have just produced a few arrangements for one of my bands (three-piece frontline plus rhythm section) in which I tried hard to create all the parts properly marked using BIAB. I got some very presentable parts with all the proper markings and notes and I only was beaten by a couple of sets of repeat marks, which were easy to add manually. However, the process just took far, far too long. tired

Don't get me wrong. I am a huge fan of BIAB and I use it every day for practice, producing lead sheets and preliminary arrangements (even for big bands). I just want it to do even more! There is a huge worldwide market for this! Pretty please!

Grah Jive Talk
"Don't worry baby, they'll swing their arses off."