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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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I'm sure I'm just overlooking something obvious, but I can't seem to get the chords where I need them to be rhythmically. I'm trying to input a slow song which has an intro with a pickup chord (a-) on beat four, another on the 16th immediately following (G/B), and another chord on the one of the next measure(c-9). I also can't get the bass to follow the slash no matter what I do - it plays A, G, C. What am I missing? Most of my music has a lot of syncopation which absolutely has to be there - I need to learn how to do this ASAP.
Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress, but I repeat myself. Mark Twain
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Hello liquidwindows and welcome to the forum.
Put a caret ("^" which is the symbol above the number 7 on the US keyboard) before a chord to push the chord forward by a 16th note or a double caret, ^^, to push the chord forward by an 8th note. I'm not positive but I believe bass slash chords ignore pushes.
Band-in-a-Box allows input of four chords per bar so the program's resolution is quarter notes. This means you can not put more than one chord in the space of a quarter note so, for instance, you can not push one chord an 8th note then add a second chord on the quarter note beat.
It sounds dumb but remember in the Band-in-a-Box chord chart you're programming chords, not notes. You can use the melody or solo tracks to program notes or you can use the audio track to play an audio file.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Thanks Jim! It sounds as if this can't be done. If I'm limited to four chords per bar, and limited to pushing by an 8th, It won't allow for a chord on 4 and a chord on the next 16th. This is disturbing because everything I write has rhythmic hooks that have often quick, syncopated changes. From a programming standpoint, it is simple math - It's hard to believe it hasn't been written into the program by now.
Last edited by liquidwindows; 08/21/16 07:02 AM.
Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress, but I repeat myself. Mark Twain
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Another choice would be to look at Bob Norton's website ++ link to Norton's Music website ++ for additional styles. Bob has some styles that double the bars so you end up with eight chords per bar.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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You can push by a 16th, but yes, there is the restriction that you cannot have a chord on the next beat. In Bob Norton's site, look at Expanded Styles. They allow you to do in two measures what would be done in one (MIDI only).
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Great! Thanks! It looks like I'll need to learn to write my own styles too since I also change time signatures within songs fairly often. So much to learn. I had hoped I would be able to use this program to very quickly get music into some reasonable demo form. I'll check out Bob Nortons site - there may be something I can use as is.
Last edited by liquidwindows; 08/21/16 07:17 AM.
Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress, but I repeat myself. Mark Twain
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Darn, The midi only thing won't work for me. I can't have demos that sound that bad - the real band stuff is what I bought the program for - I can already do midi only arrangments simply by playing all the parts into any multitrack program from a keyboard controller. That's unfortunate. It doesn't look like this program will help me on any but the most simplistic of tunes.
Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress, but I repeat myself. Mark Twain
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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lw, I believe you can use the RealTracks for your demos. But it does require mixing in a DAW (your choice) - after exporting the tracks out of BIAB. You can use pushes to move some chord hits... though you might need to adjust them in your DAW by clipping/cutting/slicing (whatever you want to call it) a chord or section of chords and sliding them where they need to be. I do this but laying down a separate track myself - playing acoustic guitar, but it could be any recordable instrument - with the syncopation that I want. That gives me a reference. I then match up the RealTrack chords to those of my recorded guitar. Here is an example of a song where I did that (a bunch). http://floydjane.com/Songs/Shadow.htm
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Sometimes with a problem of this sort, I will record the song and take the tracks to my DAW, then freeze all the tracks except one and re-record it with (or without) pushes. Then take that track into the DAW, adjust timings and mix. I often record the drums with pushes but not some of the other tracks, for example. And this is likely easier in RealBand than in BIAB.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Journeyman
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Floyd: That is a "wow" song.
DE
Win 10, 64 bit, love my Lenovo T420, BIAB 2019 (613), RB 2019 (2)
Short term memory is getting shorter.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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lw, After reading through this thread, I get the impression that BIAB will do some of what you need but not all of it... not by simply clicking a button, at least. What BIAB will do for you, though, it to provide you with outstanding audio files (Realtracks). As floyd has mentioned, these files can be taken into a suitable DAW and manipulated in any way your imagination takes you. If you listened to floyd's song, you will have discovered that he's a real master at this... one of this site's most highly regarded songwriters and arrangers. To do what you require regarding chords coming in 1/16ths of a beat is very easy in Reaper (the DAW I use). I'd simply insert a stretch marker in the audio file and pull the chord's start position back (or forward) to where I need. With 'snap to beat/grid' on, this would take no more than 4 or 5 seconds per chord. Reaper makes this very easy. It's worth noting also that Reaper uses the same audio stretching/shrinking software that BIAB uses (zplane's élastique). All of us on the forum who attempt to create demo quality material almost always use a DAW to mix and adjust the audio files. In my case, I will spend around one to two weeks in Reaper after having used BIAB to generate the audio files. The bottom line.... ...if you want to create your own demos, BIAB will certainly provide you with any amount audio files that can be used to give top quality results. How you use those audio files is limited only by your imagination. ...if, on the other hand, you want to create a demo simply by clicking a button and have everything done for you without any additional input, BIAB's ability to accomplish what you need is, most likely, going to be limited. If you are interested... Below are a couple of songs that I wrote with fellow BIAB user, Steve Young, a couple of years ago. Steve is one of the best orchestrators on this site. He has used BIAB and some midi to create the below demo quality arrangements. When I Wake Up In The MorningOne More DayRegards, Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Hi liquidwindows
You may find a different style, although similar, that might give you a better result. Just a suggestion.
Also, welcome to the neighborhood.
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.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Journeyman
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Noel: nice job.
I envy all you singers (and talented people).
I'd give 5 years of my life to be able to sing.
Oh wait... I don't think I have 5 yrs to spare (ha).
DE
Last edited by DEddy; 08/22/16 08:00 AM. Reason: edited
Win 10, 64 bit, love my Lenovo T420, BIAB 2019 (613), RB 2019 (2)
Short term memory is getting shorter.
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Yes... BB is really designed to do the simpler things with music. However, don't let that excuse stop you because you are only limited by your imagination and to a lesser degree the tools you have at your disposal to accomplish the tasks.
If you need something done.... observe what BB can do, and if it can't do that for you, figure out how to get it done in another way. There's always more than one way to do something.
I'm thinking that Melodyne is also a viable option in a nice DAW. Melodyne lets you edit audio data and Melodyne Editor (ME) lets you move entire chords and even change the notes inside of a chord. So sliding it a 1/16th is child's play for ME. And many DAW's also have basic audio editing capabilities as well that will do that.
I guess it all depends on how much work you want to put into a song to get it like you hear it in your head.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Noel: nice job.
I envy all you singers (and talented people).
I'd give 5 years of my life to be able to sing.
Oh wait... I don't think I have 5 yrs to spare (ha).
DE Thanks for having a listen DE. Appreciate it. Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Thank you all! I've listened to everything posted and I can see and hear that you all know a lot about this program. Nice music, I can tell you are outside the box thinkers - I enjoyed it very much. I will look into Reaper. I had hoped that I could do everything in this one program, but I suppose that was too much to hope for. I can see that it would be possible to produce decent demos by writing within the limitations of the program, but that isn't my style, or obviously any of yours. It's good to know there is a place to find answers with knowledgeable people.
Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress, but I repeat myself. Mark Twain
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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liquidwindows,
You mentioned you realize you likely will need to go outside the program to create demos of the type of music you prefer to create. With that thought in mind, here's another suggestion, RealBand.
RealBand is a free program included with all Windows editions of Band-in-a-Box. RealBand is a modified daw (digital audio workstation) that accepts Band-in-a-Box files. RealBand has most daw features but also has additional unique features created to compliment Band-in-a-Box.
The most notable unique features (in my mind) are: capability to regenerate partial tracks, multiriff (regenerates a track section up to 8 times simultainiously and then lets you choose the best on or keep as many as you want) and a different mixer that lets you group tracks into subsections so you can be more selective in how you add and use effects.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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You can also EXPAND the bars in the edit menu - this will give you 8 "slots" for chords/"bar". (a musical bar will now be 2 bars in BB)
The tempo doubles automatically, and could possibly not work with some styles....
But then you could also force a realTrack to Half time....
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Rock & Pop (Sets 476–482):
Our new rock & pop RealTracks bring a powerful mix of requested favorites, fresh genres, and modern chart-inspired styles! We have more of our popular “Producer Layered Acoustic Guitars (15)” featuring Band-in-a-Box favorite Brent Mason. We’ve continued our much-requested disco styles (10), and added new Celtic guitar (5) with a more basic, accessible approach than our previous Drop-D or DADGAD offerings. There are also highly requested yacht rock styles (17), inspired by the smooth, polished soft-rock sound of the late ’70s and early ’80s — laid-back grooves, silky electric pianos, warm textures, elegant harmonic movement, and pristine production aesthetics. Fans of heavier styles will love our new glam metal (13), capturing the flashy, high-energy sound of ’80s arena-ready guitar rock. We also have a set of rootsy modern-folk rock (18), with a warm, organic sound combining contemporary folk textures and driving acoustic strumming. And we’ve added lots of new modern pop styles (16) — the kinds of sounds you’re hearing on the radio today, featuring exciting new drums, synths, and cutting-edge RealTracks arrangements.
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- MIDI Styles Set 92: Look Ma! More MIDI 15: Latin Jazz
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- Artist Performance Set 19: Songs with Vocals 9
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- Instrumental Studies 25 - Soul Jazz Guitar Soloing
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Band-in-a-Box 2026 for Mac Videos
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