160. "Cannot load drum style" message when loading a style or demo song.

Symptom: When you try to load in a style or song demo (from the StylePicker or one of the demo folders), you might get a message similar to "Cannot load drum style because this folder does not exist... followed by the path and filename of a RealDrums style you don't have.

This error occurs when a style or song has been "hard-coded" to use a particular RealDrums style, and that RealDrums style does not exist in your Drums folder. (A style can be hard-coded to use a specific RealDrums style in the StyleMaker | Misc style settings dialog, and a song can be hard-coded to use a specific RealDrums style in the RealDrums Settings dialog - "For this song only, use this RealDrums style").

Here are the most common reasons that this would happen:

  • You didn't install your RealDrums, or you installed to a location other than your Band-in-a-Box® folder and didn't specify that location in the RealDrums Settings dialog. Depending on how you installed Band-in-a-Box®, the RealDrums may have been included in the Band-in-a-Box® installer (as with DVD's), or as a separate file (as with electronic delivery).

    To fix this, you could verify if you are supposed to have that particular style (instructions here), and then reinstall or confirm your Drums folder location as necessary.

    One further note - an indication that you have not specified the correct Drums folder location is if you get the flash message when trying to play a "Style with RealDrums" (i.e. -*.STY), since the .STY would have bee installed at the same time as the other RealDrums components.

  • You purchased some RealTracks sets, and you don't have all of the available RealDrums Sets. In this case, you may get a "Cannot load drum style" message when loading some Styles with RealTracks(i.e. =*.STY or _*.STY) from the StylePicker. This is a flash message so it doesn't necessarily require any action from you - it is just for your information. We "hard-coded" some Styles with RealTracks to use specific RealDrums. Band-in-a-Box® users that do in fact have all the RealDrums might prefer to hear a style that has been pre-assembled with many real instruments, including RealDrums.

    If you hard-code the song to use a RealDrums style that you DO have, you'll hear RealDrums and not see the error message. This is done in the RealDrums Preferences dialog ("For this song only, use this RealDrums style") or by right-clicking on the Drums track. If you are working with one of the 'factory' demo songs, we suggest keeping the original demo file by saving the song AS after the changes.

    If you didn't want to hear any RealDrums at all, you could remove the RealDrums assignment in the Style settings (Styles | StyleMaker | Edit Current Style or Ctrl+Shift+F9, MISC button, uncheck 'Style uses RealDrums'). We suggest either saving this new style AS, or keeping a backup of the factory style, so you don't need to reinstall your RealTracks sets if you want it back at some point in the future.

  • You have a user file (i.e. not from PG Music) that was made by someone else with a different set of RealDrums. The solutions are similar to the ones explained above.


Alyssa - PG Music