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Band-in-a-Box Wishlist
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Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 733
Journeyman
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OP
Journeyman
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 733 |
I know the 2016 Stylepicker has been discussed ad infinitum and there may be changes in the works but I thought I would summarize my own opinions.
The song title, filter and category features work well and are an improvement over the previous version and I understand there is a change coming WRT user style listing. The problems start when you have narrowed your candidate list down to a few thousand to a few hundred.
The 4 bar preview should NOT change the tempo of the song already loaded into the chord sheet. I suspect most people will already have decided the tempo for their song so it's a nuisance to keep remembering to alter the tempo of the style being auditioned to match the chord sheet.
The biggest problem comes when you work through the list of candidates by applying them, in turn, to the chord sheet. When you re-open the Stylepicker it should ALWAYS highlight the previously auditioned style and return to the exact same place in the list of filtered styles. This doesn't always happen and then you have to scroll up and down to find your place - if you can remember! It's very irritating. The previous Stylepicker version did it better.
Finally wouldn't it be great if you could create a shortlist of promising styles as you work through the filtered list. With thousands of styles to choose from and more every year, this kind of refinement has become essential. I suspect many people actually resort to pencil and paper to create a shortlist!
Keep up the good work
Tony
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Band-in-a-Box Wishlist
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Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 11,075
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 11,075 |
Tony,
Well thought out comments. Obviously you frequently use the Stylepicker a great amount.
As with you, I believe the four bar preview change song tempo action frustrating and should not happen. While I also agree the last selection should remain highlighted, I personally don't find it as frustrating as the tempo change.
I agree wholeheartedly it would be wonderful to be able to narrow the list of styles to five or ten per song. That would be a wonderful improvement.
The new Stylepicker is a giant step in the right direction. I look forward to continued progress.
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Band-in-a-Box Wishlist
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Joined: May 2000
Posts: 15,976
PG Music Staff
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PG Music Staff
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 15,976 |
Hi Tony
There are options for both the points you mention.
You can have the tempo not change.
You can always have the current style highlited.
Press the options button in the stylepicker to set these.
Peter
Have Fun!
Peter Gannon
PG Music Inc.
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Band-in-a-Box Wishlist
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Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 733
Journeyman
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OP
Journeyman
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 733 |
Hi Tony
There are options for both the points you mention.
You can have the tempo not change.
You can always have the current style highlited.
Press the options button in the stylepicker to set these.
Peter Hi Peter Let me be a bit more precise about my issues. The option you refer to states "Always change tempo to best tempo for a style whenever a style is loaded" the operative word being LOADED. I am talking about using the four bar preview which always changes the tempo to the "ideal". When this happens the chord sheet is now set to a new tempo until you manually change it back, unless you have manually set it to the chord sheet tempo using the +/- control. If you don't notice the change you can end up saving the song with the wrong tempo. Having said that, I have seen the very occasional song that retains the chord sheet tempo when using the four bar preview. So far I cannot find a pattern to explain this. Why should BIAB ever attempt to change the tempo that I have already decided is correct for my song and force me to keep checking the tempo? Even when loading a style using the OK button the tempo should never change. You have provided the "Quick Play" option to audition the style at it's ideal tempo, but loading or auditioning a style should always be at the tempo of the chord sheet as designed. The option is not really necessary and just adds to BIAB's complexity and leads to threads like this one. Yes there is an option to show or not show the the current style highlighted however when you return to Stylepicker after auditioning a style why is the highlighted style not always immediatley visible in the style list and why do you usually have to scroll down to find where you were in the filtered list? This never happened with the old Stylepicker. In any case, why would anyone need an option to NOT have the current style highlighted in Stylepicker? Another complication - scrap this option also. All this is a good example of PG going over the top in building features and options into BIAB perhaps to satisfy a couple of comments from users who happen to use the program in a certain way. This design philosophy contributes to the frequent negative comments about the BIAB interface. With more styles every year, the Stylepicker becomes a very important part of BIAB. I'm sure I'm not the only one who spends hours trying to find the best style. My life would be very dull without BIAB. Keep up the good work. Regards Tony
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Band-in-a-Box Wishlist
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Joined: May 2000
Posts: 15,976
PG Music Staff
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PG Music Staff
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 15,976 |
if your current style is a disco style, and then you filter the stylepicker to show only Celtic styles, not everyone agrees that disco should show up in that list. And they complained about it, which is why we made it an option. You want it, and there is an option for that. Others don't so they don't select that option.
We can make the tempo not change for the 4 bar preview if that option has been set. Then things should work exactly as you described above. Note that if your song has no chords in it, it isn't considered a song, so the tempo does get set to whatever the styles best tempo is.
Have Fun!
Peter Gannon
PG Music Inc.
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