Every time I install a new BIAB build I have to load an earlier backup version of bbw.lst to prevent the dreaded "index exceeded" message and freeze when I rebuild Stylepicker. I know this happens because I have lots of third party styles and the current limit is 20,000 entries (not actual styles)
It also means I cannot use my custom ls3 file that organizes the Stylepicker entries the way I want them.
Please increase the limit, it sounds like one line of code.
Every time I install a new BIAB build I have to load an earlier backup version of bbw.lst to prevent the dreaded "index exceeded" message and freeze when I rebuild Stylepicker. I know this happens because I have lots of third party styles and the current limit is 20,000 entries (not actual styles)
It also means I cannot use my custom ls3 file that organizes the Stylepicker entries the way I want them.
Please increase the limit, it sounds like one line of code.
Tony
Tony, you sure have collected some styles there boy! I thought I had lots, but only have a quarter of that amount. Where did you collect so many?
Best Trevor
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
I don't have 20,000 styles, it's just the way Stylepicker is programmed. If you list a style twice because it can go in two different categories then Stylepicker counts this as two styles towards the 20,000. The basic BIAB listing from PG does this many times via the bbw.lst file. It is surprisingly easy to reach 20,000 once you add extra styles and start writing your own ls3 files.
Yep, I have the same problem. I had to remove a lot my third party styles from StylePicker, because I kept hitting the limit. Like Tony said, it's not a matter of having 20,000 styles; it's that one style might be found in multiple categories, and each entry counts against the limit.
So, yes, please increase the number of styles allowed by StylePicker.
Better yet, recode StylePicker to make it easier to use and quicker to update when you add new styles. Other than adding new buttons and search/filtering features (which I also believe could be improved), it hasn't change a whole lot over the years, and the limit has been previously increased several times, so it is doable.
+44,000 (at least)
John
Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 12TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 12TB SATA
The stylepicker window, being a central element of the GUI, needs a complete and urgent redesign, IMO. Finding the right style should be a much easier and flexible task, but the ancient stylepicker window and the cryptic 8.3 style names don't help at all.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
Yep, it has certainly come the time for a clean-out and redesign
The product itself is great, it just has too much legacy baggage. Fresh user start needed, desperately
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
I often wonder how many styles there actually are, beyond the sales hype, which does not impress here.
Stylepicker only picks up style files located in one of two places: C:\BB and C:\BB\Styles (where C:\BB is the location you actually installed BIAB - for example, on my machine it is D:\Apps\PGMusic\BIAB).
So, just take a look with Windows Explorer and filter on *.sty in both of those locations to see how many style files you have.
What I do on my machine is to keep all PGMusic provided styles in the C:\BB folder (which is how they come with each new version), and then keep 3rd party and my own home-created styles in the C:\BB\Styles folder.
Also, if you have them all intermingled and have purchased Norton Styles, they all begin with a "#" sign in the file name, so it's easy to distinguish which are Norton styles and which are not.
John
Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 12TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 12TB SATA
what I mean John is that I think that many styles actually sound similar to my ears, except for an addition or subtraction of an instrument. So one "style" is considered to be more than one "style". I think there are fewer styles than the hype states, but I dont know how to ascertain how many styles there are.
Yep, it has certainly come the time for a clean-out and redesign
The product itself is great, it just has too much legacy baggage. Fresh user start needed, desperately
Yes VT, the fear is that PG will 'improve' the style picker, whilst leaving the interface spaghetti type design the same cluttered and unintuitive and cranky, with a few world class features - this is my opinion.
Well, there is a huge difference in RealStyles versus MIDI styles. For RealStyles, all you can do is select a "Real" instrument for a slot in the style, and it's going to play pretty much the same thing in every style that contains it. That's because it's pre-recorded. Yes, there are variations, depending upon where in the style BIAB picks up the riff, but mostly will sound the same. So you can have another style with the same guitar and a different bass, and it's going to sound like the same guitar, but a different bass.
For MIDI styles, however, there is a lot of variation, depending upon the number of patterns contained and defined for that style. MIDI styles are generally created with the whole "band" playing in a certain way, with the riffs complementing each other (although they don't have to, but usually they do). RealStyles, however, are just a matter of choosing a RealTrack that "probably" sounds good with one or more other RealTracks. The riffs of each instrument are not "synched" up to play together as a band.
Those are some of the trade-offs you get between Real and MIDI.
And of course, StylePicker displays RealStyles (all RealTracks), MIDI styles (all MIDI instruments and defined riffs), and mixed (some RealTracks/some MIDI in the same style).
I suspect though, once you get past the first few thousand styles anyway, they're going to start sounding similar, because you only have so many instruments to choose from and only so many patterns to play in a bar or two.
John
Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 12TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 12TB SATA
Yes, the stylepicker need a fresh redesign. And by the way, it is time now - not in 3 or 5 or 10 years - to get rid of archaic DOS 8.3 filenames. The new stylepicker would also take in account the user styles. At present time, when you apply filters in the stylepicker, the user styles are not seen. Thread not really new, but it becomes urgent to go ahead.
>>> I think there are fewer styles than the hype states, but I dont know how to ascertain how many styles there are.
What 'hype' are referring to that leads you to think that there are fewer styles. Count the number of .STY files in c:\bb - that is the # of styles. I count 4,849 of them - does the 'hype' state that there are more than that?
I get 5590 styles on disk (C:\bb\ and below), but 4456 in the Style Picker (I did select the Find New Styles button first)
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
))) I get 5590 styles on disk (C:\bb\ and below), but 4456 in the Style Picker (I did select the Find New Styles button first)
Correct, because you're including sub folders of BB. Some styles are special cases and intended only for certain songs, and don't get put in the BB folder.
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