PG Music Home Forums PG Music Wishlists Band-in-a-Box Wishlist Jazz lovers! Support this: Biab reads chords, but can only play 7 chords, please educate biab

Up to this version, biab only knows 7 chords. Yes, seven.
It displays all kinds of chords, but can’t play them.
If you notate C7b9, biab stubbornly plays a natural 9.
Biab only knows 7 chords
*Maj7
*7
*7sus4
*m7b5
*9/13
*m7
*Dim
Korg, Yamaha, Wersi are quite literate at playing chords. They know b9, mMaj7
You might say...
you, sir, are wrong! Biab knows all the chords. It’s like Guitar George.
Except, it isn’t guitar George. Take a random walking bass style with 9ths and thirteenths and all. Now, open the chord view, enter chords like C7susb9 or CmMaj7 or C7#9. Put the B-part marker. Check if the accompaniment sounds right. Well, it doesn’t. You can enter the chords, but your band won’t play them right.

You might say...
Tweak the settings, ignoramus: Jazz up the chords or turn off natural arrangement.
Well, that won’t work, either. There’ll be some changes, but Biab still ignores b9 or #9 or mMaj7. It’s easy to check. Type in random “interesting” chords and watch Biab ignore all the extensions and alterations.

You might say...
In styles you have the option of playing certain alterations when moving up a fourth to a min chord.
That’s cool, but a lot of more interesting music has alterations on chords not moving up a 4th. Check out Fall or Infant Eyes (Wayne Shorter)
That leaves us with Biab not knowing basic chords. The mMaj7 is a big one, Chelsea Bridge, an Ellington staple by the great Billy Strayhorn
You might say...
Using the right slash chord will give you the right notes. .
A lot of discussion went on, on other parts of the forum. Believe me, it won’t work.
You might say...
It doesn’t really matter. Bass players and pianists are often playing just the stock chords.
For one, this statement is not true at all: check out the aebersold records. Bassists, guitarists and piano players play the right extensions and interprete freely, adding sus chords or dim chords to spice it all up.
You might say...
Biab should have to know all the harmonic rules, that’s impossible
Here, you are right! We shouldn’t let rules or software determine the chord’s extensions. The chords should be properly entered (don’t just put C7 if you want #9, for instance) and that’s our job. And then the software should play what we entered.
It would help us check out different chord alterations to spice up the music.
You might say...
Move to Yamaha if you like it so much...
Well, thing is, Biab is still a great tool. You can make your own styles, there are a lot of good styles to be had (including “factory” made), Biab has an easy way of arranging the music with pushes and holds, with the conductor window, it displays the melody with chords above in reasonably good notation. The loop function is sometimes quirky, but works, the vst support is finally improving. And, let’s face it, we all just love our biab!
You might say...
that would mean changing all those real tracks..
I’m only talking midi here. With the right vst midi sounds killer