Originally Posted By: jazzmammal
Yes, I understand that but I'm looking a bit deeper. The question is why is someone using XML to import the chords into Biab? There's only two reasons.

One is so they can have good notation in Biab. Why would they need that, they already have good notation in Musescore. If they're using another music program that does not give them good notation and they want Biab for that and that's all they want, fine. Biab can provide good notation even if the written chords play differently. But, pretty much everybody also wants:

Two, the song to also play correctly. That means populating the chord grid to generate the song and have Biab play those exact chords in those exact places. That in turn leads to what I just wrote. Biab may or may not do that by design.

Bob, neither one of your answers is a complete answer that describes my situation. I use XML to import both the chords and the melody into BiaB from a lead sheet that I created in MuseScore, which is the means by which I create a tangible representation of my songs that are in my head. For me, it isn't just about the chords because chords by themselves don't comprise a song. For me, it's primarily about the melody. However, a melody by itself is not sufficient for BiaB to generate an arrangement from because BiaB's arrangements are mostly chord based. I say "mostly" because BiaB has also used my imported melodies to create melodic motifs in the arrangement that are not on my lead sheet. My lead sheet only has the melody that goes with the lyrics---one note per syllable. This is why BiaB has been so beneficial to me in my songwriting endeavors. By importing both the melody and chords into BiaB from an XML file that was created from my lead sheet within MuseScore enables BiaB to create a very intelligent and sensible arrangement of my songs that rivals that of a professional studio---especially when I use the Bar settings function to turn various instruments on and off along with the part markers to switch the drum track from the "a" version to the "b" version and back again. So, whenever BiaB decides to "do it's own thing" with my chord progression per your explanation in a previous post, I usually have to regenerate one or more instruments that end up playing a chord or two that clash with my melody and sometimes with the other instruments as well. This happened to me on my most recent song because an electric guitar that I added to the standard style kept playing a chord other than a C chord in various places in my song. But I was able to get BiaB to make that guitar get the C chord right after about ten re-generations of that one instrument.

Tom Levan (pronounced La-VAN)
BiaB 2024 Win UltraPAK Build 1109, Xtra Style PAKs 1-11, RB 2024, Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, Intel Q9650 3 GHz, 16 GB RAM, 500 GB SSD & 2 TB HDD, Tracktion 6 & 7 (freebies), Cakewalk, Audacity, MuseScore 2.1 & 3.4, Synthesizer V