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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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I am trying to put in Take Five into BIAB. It is in 5/4 time. Where can I set this?
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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I tried setting time signature to 5/4 on the Edit menu for 17 bars but it seems to get out of sync.
Last edited by wooliewillie; 01/22/15 12:42 PM.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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BIAB does not a support 5/4 time signature.
To do this song, you would have to write a repeating series of a measure in 3/4 followed by a measure in 2/4. It won't look right when printed, but it can sound right.
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.
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There are a few 5/4 time styles which sound like 5/4, but the notation won't look right (because it compresses the 5 beats into a 4/4 bar, by time slicing the beats appropriately). But you can definitely play along with them in 5/4. I think they are only MIDI styles, thought - not RealTracks.
John Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 12TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 12TB SATA BB2026/UMC204HD&404HD/Casios/Cakewalk/Reaper/Studio One/Notion/Dorico/Noteworthy/NI/Halion/IK http://www.sus4chord.com (under rehosting/construction)
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Hi Willie, Adding on to Matt and John ... ... if you go to Stylepicker and scroll down the "Category" column, you'll find a category called "Odd Time Signatures" (#2 on the image below).  When you click on that, you can access 5/4 time signatures that PG Music have created. Simply load in one of these as the starting place for your arrangement. There are also a couple of 5/4 Realdrums listed under the "Jazz" section of Realdrums. Simply sort the list alphabetically by name by clicking on the column header and then scroll down to "Jazz". Regards, Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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As mentioned; the 5/4 styles available actually use a 4/4 time sig and tempo and then cram 5 beats into the 4 beat measure. It doesn't behave as expected for me .. granted not many other users experiment with odd times, but I like to.
FWIW you can generate realtracks in RB using a true 5/4 time sig (or even 11/8) .. the results will vary but it behaves more as I expect it to than BiaB does.
Notation for odd time will not work in either program.
I have posted a couple 7/4 and 11/X pieces done in RB previously. I think one is in the User Showcase. If I remember it was even shared as a SEQ file and others were able to generate and work with it.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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Good tips and clarifications above.
I think the BIAB styles that are 5/4 are all MIDI as John said. There's nothing wrong with that; it's just that if you are trying to enter a 5/4 time signature and use RealTracks, you can't do it as far as I know (except for some RealDrums).
Also, even with the BIAB 5/4 MIDI styles, adding a MIDI melody presents a challenge. For example, in the editable notation mode, you will see 4 beats per measure (not 5). Four quarter notes will play spaced over 5 beats. [If you like a syncopation challenge, try playing that for awhile]
Doing it as I suggested earlier, with a measure of 3 beats followed by a measure of 2, and repeating that, makes note entry easier (even if it looks funny when printed). Use F5 on each measure to change the number of beats in that measure.
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.
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The couple of times I've played with this, I just recorded the melody from my keyboard. I can't imagine trying to enter it with notation.
John Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 12TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 12TB SATA BB2026/UMC204HD&404HD/Casios/Cakewalk/Reaper/Studio One/Notion/Dorico/Noteworthy/NI/Halion/IK http://www.sus4chord.com (under rehosting/construction)
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The problem with odd time signature styles in BiaB is trying to fit anything other than a multiple of 2 chords into a BiaB cell (I think of them as matrix cells instead of bars).
Cramming 5 beats into a 4 beat measure is not a good idea, unless you have only 1 chord per measure. Why? The other chords will be divided in fourths, not fifths. So the chord changes will not happen at the same time as the notes happen.
That's why a cell of 2 and a cell of 3 will add up to a measure of 5/4.
As far as notation is concerned, BiaB is not a full fledged notation program, but does offer some limited notation features. Unfortunately the limitations show up whenever you try to do something that BiaB wasn't designed to do, like 5/4 time or quarter-note triplets.
The notation feature is a great convenience, but it doesn't take the place of a real notation app.
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Hey that's neat, didn't know that was possible in BIAB. Thanks guys.
Just tried using style 54_SWING.STY for Take Five and it sounds pretty good to me.
I have removed the link as I am not sure whether posting an SGU file of a copyrighted song is a copyright infrigement.
Anyone know?
Rec
Last edited by receder; 01/23/15 05:55 AM.
BIAB 2022 UltraPAK, CbB, Studio One 5 Pro, Fender USA Tele, Harley Benton Fusion & others.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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It maybe too late now, but there are many copies of Take 5 out on the internet that are already to play.
BIAB for Windows Version 2019 (643)
Windows 10 (1909)
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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well Matt I am actually trying to do this in a bossa style ala Trio de Pas. So I am going to try your 3/2 trick, but still keep my style on bossa nova. Is this correct?
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