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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 892
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Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 892 |
working out a song that i just can't get right.
the song is dolly's "jolene".
i like the _bcjg110.sty at about 110bpm
The groove is nice but I can't get the chords to match them.
i notice the chart for it i have is in cut time.
doubling the speed makes the backing tracks ridiculous.
cutting the chord changes to half their value won't work.
am i missing something here?
seems like i ran into a similar problem on another song.
biab2026(Mac) Latest Build
Mac OS (Latest)
Apple Mac Mini M2 pro 32GB Ram
Logic Pro (latest or pretty close)
Blue and White Sea Star
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Oct 2008
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Hi, Cut common time is meant to mean a time signature of 2/2 if it's used properly - that is, it's a two-beat time. (Many people notate music incorrectly using the cut time time signature and use it as a way of meaning fast 4/4.) I've had a look at Jolene on the internet and found a version that gives the time signature as 2/2. The tempo is 108 half-note beats per minute. This means that your chosen style at 110 bpm will work well. With this internet version of the music, the chords are... - Dm (bar 1)
- F (bar 2)
- C (bar 3)
- Dm (bar 4), etc.
Since each bar in the song only contains two beats, to enter the above chords using _bcjg110.sty there are two possible approaches that I can think of. Approach 1(Using _bcjg110.sty as a 4/4 style)It is necessary to keep in mind that to achieve 2 beats to a bar feel, one bar of the BIAB chord sheet needs to play two bars of the music. The tempo of the chord sheet remains at 110 bpm. With the above in mind, try entering this... - Dm (bar 1, beat 1)
- F (bar 1, beat 3)
- C (bar 2, beat 1)
- Dm (bar 2, beat 3), etc.
In other words think of the 4/4 bar as really two bars in cut time; Beats 1 & 2 are one bar, and beats 3 & 4 are the second bar Approach 2 (my preferred approach) (Using _bcjg110.sty as a two-beat style)After setting the the 4/4 style, right click on bar 1, enter into "Bar Settings" and set the "# Beats this bar" to 2. It's set to '3' on the image below.  When this is done, the chords can be entered exactly as on the sheet music since each bar now only contains two beats. The tempo remains set to 110 bpm. When generated, the style will accommodate this time signature. That is, after changing the number of beats per bar, enter the chords.... - Dm (bar 1)
- F (bar 2)
- C (bar 3)
- Dm (bar 4), etc.
With this second approach and Realtracks and Realdrums, its success will depend on the individual RT/RD files. I anticipate that some RTs and RDs will work better than others. Trial and error will tell. If it turns out that a particular RT/RD does not generate well at 2 beats to the bar, then Approach 1 is the way to go. Hope this helps, Noel Adams
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 179
Apprentice
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Apprentice
Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 179 |
What a great tip! Up till now I thought I didnt have any 2/2 styles.
Thanks Noel and thanks to mrgeeze for asking the question.
Al
BIAB 2017 Everything, RB 2017
Lenovo All-in-One. i5, 8gb Ram, 1 TB SHDD, Windows 10
Presonus AudioBox,Studio One 3, Behringer Xenyx302,
M-Audio Axiom 61, Samson Graphite 49.
Lenove Flex 15, i3,Windows 10
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 6,505
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Noel is right.
The way I think about BiaB is neither measures nor time signatures. That doesn't work.
Each numbered area in the matrix is a cell, not a measure. It either contains 4 or 3 beats but can be forced to 1 or 2 by using the F5 key.
So if you want 2/4 or 2/2 time, each BiaB cell can equal 2 measures.
Use a triplet based sw8 style and one BiaB cell can equal 12/8 time or two measures of 6/8 time.
If you have a quick 6/8 that's taken in 6, sometimes a waltz style or using F5 to make each cell a half measure will work better.
Turn cell #1 to 3 beats (using F5) and cell #2 to 2 beats (F5) and the combination of cells 1&2 become one 5/4 measure.
You could make a 5/4 style where an entire measure fits in one BiaB cell, but all but the first chord would be in the wrong place, as BiaB puts no more than 4 evenly spaced chords in each cell.
7/4? A cell of 4 and another of 3 and you have two cells equaling one 7/4 measure of music.
But that also depends on the style. I wrote some EXPANDED styles that make each cell a half measure and REDUCED styles that do the opposite. These are kludges to bypass limitations of the BiaB app.
The EXPANDED styles allow you to put up to 8 chords in a measure of music, or a chord both on the beat and the up-beat before it.
The REDUCED style allow the opposite, for 2 bars of music in 1 BiaB cell.
So you see, the way to go is forget about BiaB cells equaling a bar of music, but instead, how many beats (or sub beats) it can contain. This can extremely increase the versatility of BiaB and your understanding of how BiaB works.
Insights and incites by Notes
Bob "Notes" Norton  Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com
100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,580
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For more on cut time regarding RealDrums, you might be interested in this thread in the Wishlist: http://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=370173#Post370173
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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Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 824
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I had a similar problem over the weekend when I was trying to do the Bee Gees' "I Started A Joke" as a smooth jazz tune. The Music was shown as common time with the instruction, "Moderately slow, in 2". Each bar had the value of four quarter notes (crotchets). For me it worked very well entering the music and chords exactly as they were shown on the music and then using the menu item 'Edit', 'Song Form', 'Reduce (durations of chords by 1/2)'. I had already worked out the tempo from listening to the Bee Gee's recording and counting it as 72 beats per minute in what I thought was 4/4 time. I used the "Smooth Jazz Poppy Rhythm" style and it is perfect. Obviously I can't play it up in the stratosphere where Robin is with his vocal but I changed the key to 'C' and it makes a great trombone feature. 
Grah Jive Talk
"Don't worry baby, they'll swing their arses off."
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Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac - Special Offers End at 11:59pm PDT on Friday, May 15th, 2026!
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Our new country & Americana RealTracks deliver a rich collection of acoustic, electric, and roots-inspired styles! We have new country pop (9) with legendary guitarist Brent Mason. There is also a potpourri (14) of bouzouki, guitars, banjo, and more, perfect for adding texture and character to contemporary acoustic arrangements. We’ve added funky country guitar (5) with PG favorite Brent Mason, along with classic pedal steel styles (5) featuring steel great Doug Jernigan. There are more country songwriter styles (8) that provide intimate, rootsy foundations for storytelling and modern Americana writing. Finally, we have “background soloing” acoustic guitar (12) with Brent Mason — simpler, but still very tasty acoustic lines designed to sit beautifully behind vocals or act as a subtle standalone solo part.
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- MIDI Styles Set 92: Look Ma! More MIDI 15: Latin Jazz
- MIDI SuperTracks Set 46: Piano & Organ
- Instrumental Studies Set 24: Groovin' Blues Soloing
- Artist Performance Set 19: Songs with Vocals 9
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- Instrumental Studies 25 - Soul Jazz Guitar Soloing
- Artist Performance Set 20: Songs with Vocals 10
- RealDrums Stems Set 10: Groovin' Sticks
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Band-in-a-Box 2026 for Mac Videos
With the release of Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac, we’re rolling out a collection of brand-new videos on our YouTube channel. We’ll keep this forum post updated so you can easily find all the latest videos in one convenient spot.
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Check out this forum post for "One Stop Shopping" of our Band-in-a-Box® 2026 Mac Videos!
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Along with version 2026, we've released an incredible lineup of new content! There's 202 new RealTracks, brand-new RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, “Songs with Vocals” Artist Performance Sets, Playable RealTracks Set 5, two new RealDrums Stems sets, XPro Styles PAK 10, Xtra Styles PAK 21, and much more!
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