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Post your own Tips and Tricks here
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Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 2,312
PG Music Staff
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OP
PG Music Staff
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 2,312 |
Like what you hear in Band-in-a-Box®? Make sure to Freeze the track(s) or song! Once frozen, it won't be regeneraged or change when you play it again - and your choice isn't final, since you can unfreeze them just as easily: - press the blue snowflake button within the track name of the mixer window
- press the blue snowflake button within the expanded toolbar of the program (Ctrl + T will swap between the two toolbar views), and select the track(s)
Note: If you want to force Band-in-a-Box® to generate tracks without adjusting the Freeze settings, hold down the Shift key as you press the [Generate and Play] button (the fly-by hint will remind you of that) or choose the menu command Play | Play Special | Generate (even if tracks are frozen). To learn more about freezing your Band-in-a-Box® tracks or songs, visit Chapter 5: Playing Songs | Freezing tracks of our Online Manual. Reasons to Freeze a RealTracks track (audio):- Frozen tracks will play back instantly, not requiring time to generate.
- They play back the same way each time, so if you like a solo, you can "freeze it."
- If you send a song to a friend as "frozen," they will hear the same performance.
- For the Soloist track, if you generate a solo, it can now be saved (by freezing the track).
Reasons to Freeze a MIDI track:- You can edit the MIDI data, to customize the performance to match a certain song, and this will be saved. Use the Notation or Piano Roll window to edit the track.
More reasons to freeze any track:- Frozen tracks play back instantly, without requiring time to regenerate.
- They play back the same way each time.
- You can change the chord progression of the song and have one part playing a different chord progression than the rest of the band. For example, type a “blowing” chord progression, generate a solo, freeze the solo track, then type a normal chord progression and generate the rest of the instruments (bass/guitar etc.) that will play the normal changes.
- Have different instruments play different styles. For example, the Bass could be generated using Reggae, then Frozen, and then the rest of the instruments generated using a Techno style.
Callie
Marketing Representative
PG Music Inc.
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Post your own Tips and Tricks here
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Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 3,615
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 3,615 |
Great tip. Never used this feature but will now. Rob
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Post your own Tips and Tricks here
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Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,786
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,786 |
More reasons - Shots, Rests & Holds:
1. Using holds & shots often will affect the soloist, so that it instead of actually soloing over those bars, it goes along with the rest into shots & holds (which is rarely what you'd want). Solution: Generate the soloist before you enter the Chords Options for the SRH (shots/rests/holds), then freeze Soloist and now adjust SRH for the other tracks (see/hear for instance my "Modern Mozart" in Showcase where I've done precisely this).
2. Rests (generally) work far better artistically when entered via the Chords Options instead of the brute force muting in Bar settings, but there could be cases where you wanted a rest for an instrument at a bar where you also wanted a hold for another instrument. Or in the case of drums, often a hold for drums will sound far more pleasing than the Shot, particularly on slower tempos, even if the Shot is what you wanted for the overall instruments -> Freeze to the rescue!!
First do the 'odd one out' exception, freeze it and deactivate the SRH for that track (once frozen it should still play that way) so that you can then do the SRH that's intended for the majority, and presto!
Last edited by Icelander; 11/21/18 06:01 AM. Reason: Correcting mistakes
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should!
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BBox 2022 Audiophile, Mac Pro Intel, OSX 10.6.8, 800x600 (TV VGA)
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Post your own Tips and Tricks here
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Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 1,055
Productor Musical
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Productor Musical
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 1,055 |
Nice tip!! Freezing tracks is a cool feature I use a lot since it was implemented in Band-in-a-Box some years ago. Here an additional little "service" trick around this tip: in the case when I need go back to the original progression after freeze or have extra or modified chord progressions at hand, I use the 'not played chord area' (the unused chord area after song END ) as a "chord scratch pad". That way I avoid having to re-type enter it again, save and reload again the song or write the chord progression manually out of BIAB. - Just copy and paste in the unused chord area the chord(s) or chord progression that you want to keep for later recover. You can even include your bar settings: pushes, shot, hold chords, rest, as Icelander point in his excellent Tip. Sometimes I have several saved progressions there. Of course, this is useful as long as that area have bars available, which is quite likely happens most of time. So, If your song is very long then you can run out of space for this workaround.  NOTE: I don't know if it has already been posted, but it may be useful to those who have not seen it before. Please, let me know if not, to post it apart.
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Post your own Tips and Tricks here
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Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,786
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,786 |
NOTE:
I don't know if it has already been posted, but it may be useful to those who have not seen it before. Please, let me know if not, to post it apart.
The only comment I have about your post is that it should be in its own thread, if for nothing else than because the tip itself has absolutely nothing to do with freezing.
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should!
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BBox 2022 Audiophile, Mac Pro Intel, OSX 10.6.8, 800x600 (TV VGA)
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Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.
ChatPG's knowledge base includes the full Band-in-a-Box User Manual and sales information from the website.
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- MIDI Styles Set 92: Look Ma! More MIDI 15: Latin Jazz
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Band-in-a-Box 2026 for Mac Videos
With the release of Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac, we’re rolling out a collection of brand-new videos on our YouTube channel. We’ll keep this forum post updated so you can easily find all the latest videos in one convenient spot.
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Check out this forum post for "One Stop Shopping" of our Band-in-a-Box® 2026 Mac Videos!
Band-in-a-Box 2026 for Mac is Here!
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Along with version 2026, we've released an incredible lineup of new content! There's 202 new RealTracks, brand-new RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, “Songs with Vocals” Artist Performance Sets, Playable RealTracks Set 5, two new RealDrums Stems sets, XPro Styles PAK 10, Xtra Styles PAK 21, and much more!
Special Offers
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2026 Free Bonus PAK & 49-PAK Add-ons
Our Free Bonus PAK and 49-PAK are loaded with amazing add-ons! The Free Bonus PAK is included with most Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac packages, but you can unlock even more—including 20 unreleased RealTracks—by upgrading to the 2026 49-PAK for just $49.
Holiday Weekend Hours
As we hop into the Easter weekend, here are our holiday hours:
April 3 (Good Friday): 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM PDT
April 4 (Saturday): Closed
April 5 (Easter Sunday): Closed
April 6 (Easter Monday): Open regular hours
Wishing you an egg-cellent weekend!
— Team PG
Update to Build 10 of RealBand® 2026 for Windows®!
If you're already using RealBand 2026 for Windows, download build 10 to get all the latest additions and enhancements.
Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac® users: Build 904 now available!
If you're already using Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac®, make sure to grab the latest update! Build 904 is now available for download and includes the newest additions and enhancements from our team.
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