We all have our own ways of using Band-in-a-Box.

When I bought it in the late 1980s or early 1990s it was nothing more than a practice tool for me. I would enter the chords and practice improvisation with my saxophone on unfamiliar songs to try out different ways of analyzing the chords and progressions. After all, the art of improv is to create and release tensions with the band, and without a band that's not easy to do.

Then BiaB came with the ability to write styles and since I thought BiaB's original 24 were missing a lot of styles, I wrote some of my own, shared them with friends, who encouraged me to take out an ad in Electronics Musician Magazine.

As BiaB grew in it's capabilities and as I grew in my style writing skills, I found it a great tool to practice and improve the arranging skills that I learned in school.

I still write styles, along with fake disks, but I also use it or at least parts of it to help me write backing tracks for my duo http://www.nortonmusic.com/backing_tracks.html

I love the MIDI harmony feature, so when making backing tracks, I can play in the top note of a horn or string line and let BiaB do the 'mule work' of adding the harmony parts. It almost always does that the way I learned it in school.

But I never-ever use it for melody (that doesn't mean it's wrong to do that). I want to play the melody myself. And I never-ever use those RealStyles where one instrument is overplaying (IMHO) and ends up stepping on the melody.

I never use the notation as anything but an aid in making styles, as I have a full-featured notation app that is more flexible.

There are plenty of other features I never use, but that doesn't mean others don't enjoy and get use out of them.

I'd love to be able to put the melodies in my fake disks. I'd play them in real-time with my wind controller and end up with a product that the melody seekers would like. Plus it would be fun to do. But the law says I can't do that without permission and permission is too costly for the customer base I have or think I could cultivate with this niche product, so I abide by the law.

And I have mixed feelings about the law. I feel that there should be a standard low charge for putting it in there (say $0.05 or so per song), and send the royalties to the publisher of each song to be shared with the composer. Of course, that would involve a lot of paperwork but in this day and age a computer could do all this with minimal effort on the part of the seller.

But that probably won't happen. It seems the industry would rather fight digital users than work with them. But then, I'm on the outside looking in.

There used to be a site that sold MIDI files of the Real Book with melodies, but it was shut down, I suspect by ASCAP or BMI and the owner probably got in big trouble.

BTW, I'm doing a fake disk for "The Real Book Sixth Edition" that should be out in my next release. I've been working on it for well over a year, trying to get the right styles and choosing which extensions to use when BiaB doesn't support an particular chord (and there are many in the Real Book). I'm on what I think is the final revision. It's been a labor of love but more time consuming than I figured to do it right. There will be no melodies or lyrics in it though.

My business has been audited by BMI twice and in the end they did not accuse me of doing anything wrong, so the lawyer fee I paid when I started my business was worth every penny when BMI came knocking at my door.

While I don't agree with the copyright laws, as a legitimate business owner, I have no ethical choice but to abide by them. In the two BMI audits since the early 1990s obeying the law proved to be the right thing to do.

Since BiaB is a niche of a niche product (musicians -> musicians who use computers -> musicians who use computers and use auto-accompaniment programs -> musicians who use computers who use auto-accompaniment programs and own Band-in-a-Box -> musicians who use computers who use auto-accompaniment programs and own Band-in-a-Box and want songs with melodies and lyrics included) perhaps the copyright people might do something standard like mechanical royalties, but I suspect there are so many niche of a niche apps out here that they don't feel it's worth their time and money to set that up. Of course that's just opinion as I said, I'm on the outside looking in.

So anyway if you find what you are looking for, it's probably not legal to sell it and not legal to buy the stolen merchandise. I wish it was not that way.

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