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#41549 11/03/09 03:49 PM
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I have a simple question but still have not figured out how to do it. I want to play, say, 3 choruses of a tune. On the first chorus, I would like the melody to mute so that I can play lead. On the second chorus, I would like the melody to unmute so that the recorded melody can be heard. On the third chorus, I would like the melody to mute again so I can play lead. I want to do this automatically without having to right click on the melody button to mute it during the choruses when I play lead. How do I do this?

npac #41550 11/03/09 04:08 PM
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You may easily mute and unmute tracks during specific choruses via the Bar Settings dialog (F5).


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MartinB #41551 11/03/09 08:45 PM
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I think MartinB's solution is version specific. Which version are you using?

BarryKJ #41552 11/04/09 02:59 AM
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Bar Settings have been around for quite some time now. <right click> on any bar and change the settings. Don't forget that you have to do it again if you have muted to turn them back on!


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WienSam #41553 11/04/09 04:18 PM
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I have version 2008.5

I tried the F5 Bar Settings dialog that MartinB suggested, and it works, but only for specific bars. What I would like to do is control the mute settings for melody for entire choruses. For example, I'm currently working with a 32 bar piece, with three choruses of the same 32 bars. I woudl like to mute the melody for all 32 bars in chorus 1, play the melody for all 32 bars in chorus 2, and mute the melody again for all 32 bars in chorus 3.

There's a Melody/ Mute Melody during Middle Choruses setting, but what I would like is to Mute Melody during any specified chorus. Is there such a setting?

npac #41554 11/04/09 04:33 PM
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At the top of the F5 screen, there is a dropdown box to apply the mute to a specified chorus. I'm not sure it is in 2008. Choose the chorus, select the instrument and mute/unmute.

If you're using a MIDI keyboard, there are ways you can control muting via the kb.

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Rachael #41555 11/04/09 05:58 PM
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The BB 2008 Bar Settings dialog does provide chorus selections - works here like a charm, even with BB 2008.


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MartinB #41556 11/05/09 08:34 AM
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Rachael, Martin, thanks for the help. I'm sorry if I'm being dense, but I still don't follow. When I do F5 the window that comes up says "Edit Settings for Bar" whatever bar number I'm on. I see the window that says "Settings apply to Chorus #" and I can select whatever chorus number I want. However, I would need to repeat that setting for each bar, by first selecting a bar from 1 through (say) 32, then selecting whether to mute or unmute the melody for that bar for each of the choruses.

I guess that would work, but what I was hoping to do is to first select the chorus, then mute or unmute the melody for all 32 bars for that selected chorus. That way I could do it in 3 steps instead of 32 steps. Am I missing something?

npac #41557 11/05/09 11:09 AM
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Hello

The bar settings "stick", until you F5 on a later bar and set them to something else. If all you do is click at bar 5 of chorus 1 and mute the melody, it will stay like that until the end of your song.


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Thanks, Andrew. If you could bear with me one more time, here's what I did, and the results (didn't work). If you can tell me what I'm doing wrong, that may be the easiest way for me to understand.

I am playing "Ballad for Gloria" Bossa Melodist #136 that came as a demo with my 2008.5 version (beautiful little piece). It has 36 bars with melody arranged as three choruses. If I play it as is, it repeats three times, each time with a melody, as it should.

I now set my curser on bar #1, press F5, and in the upper window I select chorus #1 and in the volume window along the left, I select Mute in the melody window. I hit OK. I press F5 again, verify that chorus #1 is still set to Mute, then select chorus #2 in the upper window, and in the melody window I select Back to Normal. I hit OK, then F5 just to verify that chorus #1 has volume set to mute and chorus #2 has volume set to back to normal. I do nothing with chorus #3. I hit OK again.

If I have this right, this should not play the melody on chorus #1, but should play it on choruses #2 and #3.

I play it but it mutes the melody on all three choruses. What did I do wrong?

npac #41559 11/05/09 01:07 PM
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I could be wrong, but I don't know if you can actually make that setting for all three choruses on the same bar. Andrew may have the answer for that.

In the interim, I would probably do the following: Set bar 1 to mute the melody the first time through (as you did). Then go to the last bar of the chorus (bar 36) and set the melody back back to normal there for chorus 1. Not perfect, but I believe it will work.

Otherwise, you may just have to unfold the song to one big chorus (108 bars) and and make the settings then (turn melody off at bar 1, turn it back on at bar 37.


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npac #41560 11/05/09 02:31 PM
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Quote:

If I have this right, this should not play the melody on chorus #1, but should play it on choruses #2 and #3.

I play it but it mutes the melody on all three choruses. What did I do wrong?



Just double-checked here. Following your otherwise perfect description, I obtain muted melody on chorus #1 and sounding melody on chorus #2 and #3. Not sure what may have gone astray on your side. Maybe you double-check too.


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Have you first copied the Melody to all Choruses (In the Melody Edit Menu)?

Mac #41562 11/05/09 03:11 PM
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Martin, what version did you check it on? I have 2008.5. If it works for you but not for me (I did double check), there might be a version difference.

jford, good thinking, I did what you suggested and your work-around does work. I have to go to the last bar and set the melody back to normal. Not sure if that trick will work on an arbitrary chorus, will have to check.

Mac, no I didn't copy the melody to all choruses. This is one of the canned examples, so I didn't want to change it. Besides, the melody does play on all choruses if I don't do anythingm, what I want to do is to mute the melody on arbitrarily chosen choruses.

npac #41563 11/05/09 03:13 PM
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Are you running the latest Update for your version of the program?

Mac #41564 11/05/09 03:40 PM
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Mac, just checked. I was running Build 263 and the latest was 265 so I upgraded, first to 264 then to 265. Still doesn't work the way that MartinB said it worked for him.

npac #41565 11/05/09 05:20 PM
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Checked on BB 2009.5(287) and on BB 2008.5(263). You haven't by any chance muted the melody track via right clicking on the melody part?


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MartinB #41566 11/06/09 04:45 PM
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I think I just figured it out. The instructions you all gave me are correct, but the songs I was trying this on did not start the chorus at bar 1, it was more like bar 5. They had a lead in before beginning the chorus. When I used bar 1 to mute the chorus with the F5 key, there is no chorus at bar 1 so it did nothing. When I changed it to bar 5 with the F5 key, I could mute or return to normal at will. My bad. I figured this was an easy issue, thanks to everyone who chipped in to help!

npac #41567 11/06/09 05:04 PM
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Thank YOU for taking the time to let us know of the resolution to this one.

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