Is there a way to force BIAB to show, for example, this chord? Amaj7/Eb
Maybe I'm missing something, but no matter which key signature I use, the program insist in displaying this: Amaj7/D#
I know that the program uses an intelligent enharmonics algorithm, but I'm wondering if there's a way of forcing the program to show exactly the chord I want.
I think there is only a way to perform this with notation and not with chords.
It's somewhat frustrating, because even the chord builder suggests it is possible. Others may know more.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
Is there a way to force BIAB to show, for example, this chord? Amaj7/Eb
Maybe I'm missing something, but no matter which key signature I use, the program insist in displaying this: Amaj7/D#
I know that the program uses an intelligent enharmonics algorithm, but I'm wondering if there's a way of forcing the program to show exactly the chord I want.
Thanks.
I think that the ability to choose how to display enharmonically equivalent bass notes in slash chords is a Wishlist request. I do not know of any way to display Amaj7/Eb.
I think the premise of the question is incorrect. The underlying chord is A and A is a sharp chord, not a flat chord. Therefore displaying that as a D# is correct.
Or, the sub for that chord is a Dbm so try it that way Dbm/Eb.
I understand the desire to do this. Nothing screams "flat 5" for the bass like Eb in an A chord. D# doesn't quite have the same visual impact, regardless of theory.
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Completely agree Matt. Even changing the key signature of the song to Ab doesn't allow the enharmonic to display the same way it is presented to the user in the chord builder (/Eb). Might be time to raise this again in the Wishlist? Consider it done.
Last edited by VideoTrack; 10/22/1702:40 PM. Reason: suggest wishlist item.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
I can see the validity of putting an A/Eb instead of an A/D# in certain situations.
Related:
I do a lot of fake 'disks' for Band-in-a-Box. And there are key signatures where a Cb chord is appropriate, and BiaB will change it to a B. There are other examples like this.
I've been reading music for almost as long as I've been reading English, so this doesn't bother the performance, but it does put a little tic in my brain for a fraction of a second. After a while the tic gets smaller, but it's never totally ignored.
It's just a quirk of the program. So I just deal with it. There are so many wonderful things BiaB does, and I prefer to focus on the assets and not get into the liabilities unless they affect the music.
I've been reading music for almost as long as I've been reading English, so this doesn't bother the performance, but it does put a little tic in my brain for a fraction of a second. After a while the tic gets smaller, but it's never totally ignored.
Reading music early: Me too, and I also agree the program delivers amazing things. But wouldn't it be better if that tic wasn't there?
I have to think it wouldn't actually be too difficult to deliver. Even the program shows an available display of AMaj7/Eb, it just doesn't deliver it.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
Just to comment from a pure harmony point of view. By itself a lonely Abmaj7/Eb has no sense. It take full sense here in Naima theme, because we have a Eb pedal played by the bass over several chords. Later in the song, we have a Bb pedal.
I had a look to the piano chords. See attached picture. The 'Abmaj7/Eb' is realized with 4 notes, that are, from the bottom to the top : F#, G#, A, C#. Some scores feature this schord as a B13, with no root as the 1st bar (Bbm9/no root). It can seen also as a F#m(add2). The difficulty with BIAB, it to get only these notes, so try different chord namings until to get the right notes.
And, don't forget these fake charts are only meant to be a guide anyway, they're not supposed to be set in stone because it's jazz. The day after Coltrane made this recording he probably had a gig and his pianist voiced that completely differently. Why? Because he's a monster player and he'll do it however he feels like doing it.
I think especially jazz doesn't need to be 'like the record' - re-harmonization, change of style, even slight changes to the melody are what it's all about.
That doesn't mean you can't do it 'like the record' if you want to, if I were to do "Blue Rondo Ala Turk" I would do it as close to the original Brubeck record as possible, with the exception of the improvisations. I wouldn't want to copy Desmon's great lines, I want to play mine (for better or worse).
And yes, if the little tic wasn't there it would make things easier, and it's on the wish list, but I'd much rather up the resolution to 240ppm, allow my choice of dim or dim7 chords on the fly, and have better endings. These are still on my wish list. I'm not complaining though, quite a few other things on my previous wish lists have already happened.
I think BIAB should be able to enter any chord found in a legit fakebook.
Definitely not unreasonable.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
But, first, in the case in question, we do have a way to realize Amaj7/Eb by Amaj7/D# which sounds the same. Second, we must admit that the occurence of Amaj7/Eb chord is very low. So, I understand some people saying there are other more 'useful' things to implement before. The wishlist has hundreds and hundreds of requests waiting for an implementation.
But, first, in the case in question, we do have a way to realize Amaj7/Eb by Amaj7/D# which sounds the same. Second, we must admit that the occurence of Amaj7/Eb chord is very low. So, I understand some people saying there are other more 'useful' things to implement before. The wishlist has hundreds and hundreds of requests waiting for an implementation.
Just to balance the pro and con.
Right, BUT if the chord builder shows an AMaj7/Eb then the chord and notation sheets should also show AMaj7/Eb.
Just my opinion.
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Right, BUT if the chord builder shows an AMaj7/Eb then the chord and notation sheets should also show AMaj7/Eb.
Just to clarify...
With my version of BIAB, Chord Builder only shows flats for accidentals with the slash-chord bass choices. There are no choices that use sharps. I imagine that this is to give less visual congestion. It is when the chord is entered that BIAB determines whether the accidental is flat or sharp given the musical context of the chord.
There are only 21 possibilities for 12 notes, which I would assume get translated into a number anyway, so it's not like there are hundreds of possibilities. So maybe something like:
01: C = B# 02: C# = Db 03: D 04: D# = Eb 05: E = Fb 06: F = E# 07: F# = Gb 08: G 09: G# = Ab 10: A 11: A# = Bb 12: B = Cb
And since you have to actually type in the chords, it seems to me that if I explicitly type in "Amaj7/Eb", that's what should be displayed and in the background, I imagine the Eb gets interpreted as a number (which is the same number had I entered D#), and then it just processes the chord sound based on that. If it doesn't recognize what I type, that's a different story, but the fact that I can enter AMaj7/Eb and it converts the display to Amaj7/D# tells me it fully understood what I entered, so it ought to be able to display that both in the chord grid and on notation printouts.
John
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I don't disagree but we all know that there's a whole lot more going on with chord display and notation than simply typing them in. They are controlled or altered by the program using a very mysterious secret sauce and you need the special handshake blessing to access it.
If you had to pick one thing that has been asked about the most I think the theory behind this would be it and we've never gotten a good answer from anybody yet.
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