Hi everyone! I'm brand new to band-in-a-box (as of yesterday evening). However, I've been on many forums so here's the obligatory apology if this is a common question, though I couldn't find it when searching.
I'd like to have different instruments take solos over the middle choruses in my chart. In the soloist dialog box there's a drop-down option that says "change instrument" and one of the options is "every chorus". So far, so good.
But what do I do next? I'm not sure how I define the other instruments to take solos in the other choruses and at the moment the same instrument is playing through all the middle choruses.
I feel like I've missed something quite basic but I can't figure out what and the online manual - which has been enormously helpful so far - didn't give me that piece of info.
The "Change instruments" drop-down that you were using relates to the MIDI soloist generator. This is where BIAB creates a MIDI solo based on a style chosen.
If you have a look at page 322 in the pdf user manual that comes with BIAB, it explains this feature more fully. It's very powerful. While the soloist dialogue does have uses with Reatlracks, much of what happens within this window is related to MIDI. Have a look at PG Music's below video clip on Youtube. It explains how the Soloist and Melodist are used from the perspective of MIDI.
To change Realtracks each chorus, there are a couple of ways...
ONE Use the "Bar Settings" dialogue. This is accessed by right-clicking on the chord sheet and selecting "Bar Settings" from the menu that appears.
In this dialogue window, you'll can set the Realtrack (#2 on the below image) you want to change to and which chorus (#1 on the image) you want the change to happen with.
NOTE: Since Realtracks are fixed audio recordings, when a Realtrack is changed, the melody will also change. It's not possible to have, for example, a saxophone Realtrack play the melody that a trumpet Realtrack plays.
Once the bar settings have been made, generate and play the song.
TWO It's also possible to use the Realtrack medley maker to change Realtracks each chorus.
More can be found out about Realtrack Soloist Medleys on page 254 of the pdf manual. This information can also be accessed under Help if you look under the "Index" tab and scroll down to "Realtracks - medley".
The song will need to be generated after the settings have been made.
Both the Bar Settings method and RealTracks Medley function allow instruments to change either by Chorus or assorted bar counts such as every 2, 4 or 8 bars. Silence can also be selected if you either want a pause between the soloist instruments or if you want to play your own instrument solo live during portions of your song.
If none of the preset medley choices are correct for your song, each mixer track can have up to 10 instrument changes per track, so using the Bar Settings method, you can program instrument changes manually at any bar for any length of bars. The instrument can by any RealTrack or any combination of RealTracks so you can program a track using only two different instruments and having them alternate back in forth in any pattern you choose. It can be three instruments, five or each of the ten different. You have lots of choices.
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