A(blue part marker) and B(green part marker) are called "substyles" and yes, A is typically the verse and B the chorus, because the B substyle is generally 'busier' or more intense.
While the change to a different substyle results in a drum fill, that can now be turned off if you have a recent version of BIAB. Also, the intensity of fills depends greatly on the style selected.
In jazz, a form of Intro, AABA, Tag might be done as B,A,A,B,A,B
There is a possibility of using a style with more than two substyles, called a Multistyle. BIAB introduced some of these quite a few years ago, but if I recall correctly, they were MIDI-oriented. It was possible to click through more than A and B; you could get C, D and more and they used different colors.
I believe if you wish to build and save your own style, it should be possible to combine RealTracks in a way to construct a user style that would allow you to do this. Often just changing the drums used makes a major difference in the feel of a song.
You can read more about this by going to Help, Help Index, Substyles. They discuss pre-verse, interlude, drum fills and more.
Also note, you do not have to change the feel of the song by using substyles. You can press F5 (Bar Settings menu) and change the style at any measure. I suspect this technique is used more often than multistyles.
Let me know if this helped you, and ask your questions.
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Band In A Box is not designed to follow a pop style song form as in Verse - Prechorus - Chorus - verse - prechorus -chorus - bridge - chorus - etc... It follows a traditional jazz and blues form where a chorus means one time through the entire main section of the song. Then it allows you to add repeats of the chorus, intro, tag, ending and such. Best to expand to one big chorus and ignore BIABs use of the term "chorus". 100 bars is usually enough for a moderate tempo song. But, as you build the song you might find it helpful to keep the bars to a minimum for faster regeneration up to the section you are working on. Set your final last bar when you approach completion. Most of my songs are done this way.
You can use Bar Based Lyrics to designate your form.
Many styles allow you to change the drum pattern and rolls used by right clicking on the A or B part marker.
The A Blue and B Green part change markers are used to change the A - B style for verse and chorus and to force a drum roll just before the part marker.
To create a blank bar or blank beat's in a bar insert a chord with a period and make it a rest. "C." It will rest until your next chord.
Right click on the bar for more on bar settings. right click on the blue or green substyle part marker for more on drum pattern and other choices.
Do most people work with BIAB without using the "a" and "b" markers?
I would really like the option of being able to name and tag a section chorus, or bridge or Intro with a different letter and have BIAB react to that labeled section.
Here's how I look at it. It's simple, but I try to keep things organized in my head at a basic level before expanding.
Any time you put a marker (an A or B change) in the song, the preceding measure will get a drum fill at the end of it (or a 'lead in').
Whether it is two A's in a row or A/B changes or two (or three) B's in a row. In my simple mind, this is how I can force/control a fill. Whether I call them chorus or prechorus or George, I control the drums/fills for a given section with this one simple rule.
There are also actual literal 'Markers' where you can label a section whatever you want, but the above is how I control the drums, which is what I think you were asking.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome Make your sound your own!
I'm not using MAC so I don't want to how to label a bar. And, I don't normally label the bars in BIAB. I label them in my DAW, Reaper.
rharv said; "Any time you put a marker (an A or B change) in the song, the preceding measure will get a drum fill at the end of it (or a 'lead in')."
But in BIAB2016 for Windows I can right click on the style change marker or blank space where the style change/part marker would be and in the dialog I can remove the check mark for "Allow Drum fill before this part marker (normal)" and no drum roll/fill when I don't want one. I'm not sure if this is true for all styles but so far so good.
Can someone tell me how to label a bar? I'm using the Mac 2016 version
Not sure about the Mac, in the PC version you can add a letter to a Bar (with or without a part marker). Right-click where the part marker displays, and choose Bar-base Section Letters:
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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.
Whether you're exploring new features, checking out the latest RealTracks or Style PAKs, this is your go-to guide for Band-in-a-Box® 2026.
Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac is here and it is packed with major new features! There’s a new modern look, a GUI redesign to all areas of the program including toolbars, windows, workflow and more. There’s a Multi-view layout for organizing multiple windows. A standout addition is the powerful AI-Notes feature, which uses AI neural-net technology to transcribe polyphonic audio into MIDI—entire mixes or individual instruments—making it easy to study, view, and play parts from any song. And that’s just the beginning—there are over 100 new features in this exciting release.
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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