PG Music Home Forums PG Music Wishlists Band-in-a-Box Wishlist Chord Options/Chord Settings Dialog Improvements...

I was playing around with putting holds on chords in a song the other day, and I tried to get help with the Chord Settings dialog and ran into some limitations that I would love to see addressed.

1. INCONSISTENT NAMES FOR CHORD SETTINGS WINDOW.
The same dialog box is called "Chords Settings" in the menu...




...and then "Chord Options" on the GUI icon.



Settings and Options are the same thing, but it would be good to make the name consistent.


2. ABILITY TO MODIFY MULTIPLE SELECTED BARS IN CHORD SETTINGS
What I really wanted to be able to do was to select multiple bars and apply Holds to one of the instruments in the song in all of those bars, to limit that guitar instrument to a very basic strum in each bar.



And then be able to use the Chords Settings dialog to create exactly what I want to happen in those selected bars, including being able to put holds on chords in the second half of each bar, like this:



It's a really cool way to add variety to the song and to take more control of the performance, but it is tedious to do it manually one bar at a time.


3. AN EXTRA OPTION NEEDED IN RESTS, SHOTS AND HOLDS SECTION
In the current version of the Rests, Shots and Holds section, you can choose to select All Instruments or All Except.



But there should also be a third option which is Only or Only These because if your objective is only apply your holds, shots or rests to only a single instrument or 2 instruments, it is much easier to just select those instruments rather than choosing All Except and having to select all of the instruments you don't want to apply the holds or rests to (as pictured in the figure above).

Selecting all the instruments we don't want to have affected becomes a lot more work when you are doing every bar manually. I wanted to do a thing with one song where I put holds on every bar of the song, and that took a fair bit of time having to click so many things for every bar of the song.


4. A TRANSPOSE OPTION COULD BE ADDED TO THE CHORD SETTINGS DIALOG
As was being discussed in another thread, it would be nice to be able to select the bars of a song and then transpose only those selected bars. It seems that this Chord Settings/Chord Options window would be a great place to add that if you can add the multiple bar functionality.

I hope this isn't too complicated to add because these things would really speed things up and allow for more quicker experimentation.

Anyone have any other ideas?

Thanks in advance,

Zedd

You can't do what Chord Options does in Chord Settings and vice-versa.

How do you mean? They both open up the exact same window. (Option-Z, Alt-Z)

Zedd

All good ideas. Menu consistency has often been an issue.

The inverted logic option to apply rests etc is a good move also.

This gets my vote.

+1

(Incidentally, on my Windows version, Chord Settings and Chord Options launch the same dialog)

Good suggestions and extremely well presented! = Easy +1

Sorry Zed. I was thinking of the difference between F5 and Chord Options.

Good points

Yes, good points.

Hello to anyone,
I have a problem with chord settings. I use already BinB for many years with problems. But this time I don't understand why when I select cord settings an I hold or shot a chord the program doesn't react. I can see that the chord selected is in red color but the programs seems to ignore it even if I start from the beginning.
I'm on Vista and the version I have is the AP 366
Many thanks for your help

blisco,

This post is better in the Window forum found at the link below.

http://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=1&page=1

In the meantime, it sounds like you might have accidentally recorded a version of the song. If that's the case then the recording will play along at the same time as BIAB.

To check this, right-click on "Audio" on the very top menu and then select "Mute". See if that makes a difference.

Regards,
Noel

Regards,
Noel

Good ideas, well presented.

#3, selecting the instrument(s) you want for an effect, rather than the ones you don't, is actually an old request. It has not been vigorously carried forward over the last decade or more, so this is good to see.

Now I'm going to put on my programming professor hat. If implemented, there would have to be a way to enter and display the instruction such that all existing files would still work. You would need an option that toggles the display scheme. I assume the code would then have to be able to show the inverse of the current string of letters; i.e. D7...d (hold all except for drums) becomes D7...bpgs (hold the bass, hold the piano, hold the guitar, and hold the strings, but don't hold the drums) under that system. Not so elegant. But the inverse could sometimes be very nice: D7...bpgs becomes D7...d In other words, whichever system you pick, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose as far as brevity/clarity.

For an option to be able to enter the instruction the way you prefer, +1

Another possible variation on the 'holds' may be to precede with + or -

D7...+g holds the guitar, while D7...-g holds everything except the guitar (don't hold the guitar).

I could like that idea.

Glad you think it has merit.

Well, it kind of gives one the best of both worlds, and certainly reduces verbosity.

If you want more things held, you can ask for them with far less instructions.

+1

+1 Zedd, well thought out presentation.

+1 Also think the modifier idea discussed by VideoTrack and Matt Finley has merit.