Ok, I'm Bob Norton again.

What I have done with my fake disks you can definitely do yourself. It takes many hundreds of hours to compile a fake disk, so all I'm offering is the time saver of me doing the work for you. That way instead of entering millions of chords, you can just start playing the music.

Here is how we do it.
  1. Buy an off-the shelf fake book
  2. Enter the chord changes exactly like they are in the book so you can follow along (the book is optional and I offer an Amazon link to purchase it if you want). My first disk was done without a book, and a couple of others have the books discontinued, but you may still be able to find used ones
  3. Change any chords that don't seem to work with the way BiaB thinks - these are few and far between and it usually means simplifying the chord a bit, perhaps removing an extension
  4. For chords which BiaB doesn't support, deciding which is the best way to go - for example: if it is a minor chord with a sus 4, deciding which is more important, the minor third or the fourth by playing the melody along with both choices
  5. Double checking
  6. Sending the song to sub-contractors to choose the most appropriate style for the song. I tell the subcontractors not to favor my style but to let the music decide - be true to the music (If I did this myself, I'd probably favor my own styles)
  7. Get the files back from the subcontractors, listen to them all (we call it office Karaoke) wink triple-check to make sure everything is working right and in very rare cases, override a contractor choice
  8. zip, upload, and offer for sale


The songs are in MIDI format, and depending on how your BiaB is set up, many will either suggest an appropriate Real Style, or automatically substitute one.

I suggest that you listen to both the Real and the MIDI because sometimes the MIDI style is perfect while the RT style is not so close. That of course depends on the availability of styles.

Also, you may want to change the style, and you are free to do so. Who says "The Christmas Song" can't be done as a Funk, Salsa, Reggae or whatever.

As noted, the melody and lyrics are not included in the Fake Disks. The copyright people wanted to charge me from $1 to $2.50 PER SONG to include that. Some of the disks have over 700 songs in them, so with melodies the wouldn't be affordable.

I asked Harry Fox agency (who represents many of the publishers) how come they want so much when I can get the melodies and lyrics in the books for a few cents per per song? They said that I should buy the book. So that's why I offer the books for that.

You can open the book, load the fake disk file, and play along. I try to do everything without repeats on the BiaB matrix, so if you want to repeat a section for soloing or whatever, it's easy to do in BiaB.

I hope my customers feel they are good value for the money, and I sincerely hope they give you years of enjoyment and add value to your Band-in-a-Box experience.

Insights and incites by Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton smile 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