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Joined: Jul 2016
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Does BIAB support "non-standard" time signatures? I'm composing a piece in 7/8 and would like to use the software to help.
Thanks Dwight
Dwight Shumate
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Dwight, Welcome to the forums. With BIAB, it's necessary to load a style that is the time signature you want to use, and depending on what package you bought (ProPak, MegaPak, etc), you may or may not have a 7/8 style. In the UltraPlusPak (this is the cheapest package that contains all styles), there are a few 7/8 styles. If you have BIAB 2016, simply enter Stylepicker and filter by "Time Sig | Other" and you'll see them. Most of them seem to be midi styles. You could try different Realtracks with them and the results may or may not be ok. This will depend on the Realtrack. Regards, Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Dwight, also be aware that the program can sound OK in time signatures other than 3/4 and 4/4, but the notation will not appear correct.
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Thanks, I've actually not purchased the software yet. I'm trying to make that decision now. So far it looks like a good composition tool but does have some limitations.
Dwight
Dwight Shumate
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I suppose I could change time signature between each measure... ugh, not something I would care to do.
thanks
Dwight
Dwight Shumate
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Dwight, What do you want BIAB to be able to do for you? If you can make a list of half a dozen dot points, we'll tell you if the program is a good fit. Regards, Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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I think you can load a midi file and convert it to a style. But, I've never done it and not sure if it seamlessly converts a 7/8 midi file to a 7/8 BIAB style. Perhaps someone here, familiar with making styles is willing to try it. I think I heard this was done with a popular Pink Floyd song but can't remember who.
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I could be wrong, but I think you're only going to find the odd-time signature styles for MIDI only. I don't recall any odd-time RealTracks.
Anyway, the odd-time signature styles basically just takes a bar and slices it into the appropriate time signature from a playback only perspective. BIAB can't show, for example 7/8 time (it will display as 4/4), but if you used a 7/8 style, it sounds fine.
It works because BIAB uses a quarter note resolution of 120 ticks. Across 4 beats that gives you 480 ticks. So each 8th note will get either 68 or 69 ticks (it's not exact, because it's actually 68.5 ticks); however, no one's going to hear the difference between one tick. So the first 8th note will fall on tick 0, the 2nd 8th note falls on tick 68, the 3rd on tick 137, the 4th on tick 205, the 5th on tick 274, the 6th on tick 342, and the 7th on tick 411.
So you can get the sound (again MIDI only, unless you create your own UserTracks and record them exact in 7/8 per BIAB bar), but you won't get the proper notation display, because it's going to show it as 4/4.
MIDI Style Set #38 (called About Time) contains three 7/8 styles:
78_CTRY.STY 7/8 Country/Pop style – About Time
Memo : Country/Pop style in 7/8 (Swing) meter. There are 7 beats (8th notes) per bar. The 8th notes have a Swing
feel. 5 instruments: Acoustic Piano, Acoustic Guitar, Acoustic Bass and Drums. Strings at “b.” Light drum sound
with sticks at “a”. Hand claps and ride cymbal at “b”. Tempo = 130 (based on 4/4)
Examples: Any tune in 7/8 meter
78_POP.STY 7/8 Pop style – About Time
Memo : Each bar has 7 even 8th notes in groups of 2, 2 and 3. 5 instruments: Electric Piano, Nylon Guitar,
Acoustic Bass, Drums and Strings. Tempo = 140 (based on 4/4)
Examples: Any tune in 7/8 met
78_ROCK.STY 7/8 Rock style – About Time
Memo : There are 7 even 8th notes per bar in this style, with a back-beat. 5 instruments: Electric Piano, Clean
Electric Guitar, Bass, Drums and Pad Synth. Tempo = 135.
Examples: Any tune in 7/8 meter
That style set has more than just 7/8, but I just showed those as an example.
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However BiaB also comes with RB (included free). RB will take true odd times and slice the Realtracks up to fit. I don't think it is any more intelligent than BiaB in selecting which parts to use, but it does slice up the tracks and fit them to the real time signature. I have a couple odd time pieces full of realtracks that work well as seq files (RB format files). I have shared with others and they generated new tracks in the odd time signature easily, and they stay with the click. One of the mentioned songs mentioned above is called CountMeOut.. in 7/4 http://masteringmatters.com/stuff/Count_Me_Out.mp3 (this seq file was also posted and shared) The only tracks not generated by RB were the guitar and horns. We played those tracks, but the rest of the song is generated. Another is 'Wild' .. while we (Oren and I) did play most of the parts in this one, I'm pretty sure the drums were generated by RB (or PT, which was its predecessor) after the 50 second mark .. and it's in 5/4. http://masteringmatters.com/stuff/wild.wma I guess my point is that RB does what you want better than BiaB
Last edited by rharv; 07/07/16 02:12 PM.
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