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I am trying to do a backing track for a song that is in 12/8 time. In several bars there are chords on the 11th and 12th beat.
How does one enter these chords?
Last edited by KapunaKane; 10/22/19 06:26 PM.
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Hi KapunaKane,
In 12/8 tme, it's only possible to add chords on beats 1, 4, 7, 10 (if counting the 12 beats in the bar) -- these are the compound time signature's equivalent beats of 1, 2, 3, 4.
Regards,
Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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My first song on BIAB and it seems completely unable to do what I want. I heard this was a great program. Is there no way to make this work?
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If you can give me a little more information, I'll see if I can think of something. What's the name of the style you're using? What tempo are you playing it at? BIAB is definitely terrific software. While you are getting the hang of how it drives, there's a lot to be said for working in 3/4 or 4/4. That's my experience, at least. It's very unusual have chord changes on 11 and 12 in 12/8 because 12/8 is really a 4-beat time signature where each beat is subdivided into 3 notes. Please let me know the answer to the above questions and I'll see if I can workout anything. Regards, Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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I am really starting to HATE BIAB and here are the reasons:
1. As I indicated, the song was written in 12/8 time. There are chords that are on the 11th and 12th beats that are written into the sone so I can't avoid them. I have been asked to sing a song at my aunt's memorial service. The family selected the song so I can't choose another song.
2. I used the suggested workaround and did the song in 3/4 time as NOEL96 suggested. That would require me to quadruple the number of bars but it's pretty simple to do. I chose _CAPSIZE.STY and it sounded decent at 150 BPM.
Problem solved I thought. WRONG! There is a 255 bar limit for songs??? Who puts limits like that in a program?
The reason the song is so long is because I am in 3/4 time and the song has 4 verses and choruses. I used the "Song Form" to repeat the first 3 verse/chorus sections as they are the same. The last verse is in a minor mode and slows down a bit before it goes back to the chorus.
First project with BIAB...
I am COMPLETELY frustrated with this program. I am not used to dealing with a software program that seems to have arbitrary limitations everywhere I turn.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Last edited by KapunaKane; 10/22/19 06:25 PM.
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There was quite a long discussion not too long ago with a member having a similar issue with the 255 bar limit. The solution is to simply render audio by smaller sections and compile the audio into one continuous song.
In Band in a Box:
Create a verse and chorus and export the audio. Repeat this three more times. Give each exported section a unique name and save them in a single location.
If you have the Windows Version, you can use RealBand. Open RealBand, import each section, one after the other to compile your song into 4 verse/chorus sequence. If you have a MAC version, you can compile your song in any DAW or even Audacity or similar program. RealBand also has the 255 bar limit if you attempt to render the entire song as a single piece of audio but that is no issue when working with audio. As long as you render sections of audio less than 255 bars, you won't have any issues.
Hope this helps.
BIAB 2026:RB 2026, Latest builds: Dell Optiplex 7040 Desktop; Windows-10-64 bit, Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz CPU and 16 GB Ram Memory.
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Hi again, KapunaKane, What's the song that you are trying to assemble? Is it one that I'm likely to know? If so, let me know the name and I'll see if I can come up with some specific help tailored for the song. Regards, Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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There may also be a midi version available that will help a lot.
BIAB 2026:RB 2026, Latest builds: Dell Optiplex 7040 Desktop; Windows-10-64 bit, Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz CPU and 16 GB Ram Memory.
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I don’t use RealBand but I thought it does not have the 255-measure limit.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Hi again, KapunaKane,
What's the song that you are trying to assemble? Is it one that I'm likely to know? If so, let me know the name and I'll see if I can come up with some specific help tailored for the song. KapunaKane, you have jumped into the deep end of the pool.  If you want to do this all in biab without going to your DAW, Send the file to Noel.
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I don’t use RealBand but I thought it does not have the 255-measure limit. It does for generating Biab tracks. But only generating Biab tracks.
BIAB 2026:RB 2026, Latest builds: Dell Optiplex 7040 Desktop; Windows-10-64 bit, Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz CPU and 16 GB Ram Memory.
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KapunaKane,
I have just sent you a private message with my email address if you want to send the song file to me.
To access the message, scroll to the top of the web page and look under "My Stuff"
Regards,
Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Noel96,
Thank you very much for your kind offer.
I did message you but for the benefit of any others that are interested, I am going to create an audio file for the intro and the 3 repeated verse/choruses as well as the last verse/chorus and then paste them together in Audition.
It's a reasonable workaround which I should have thought of. However, I am still surprised at the significant limitations of the software to seemingly straightforward tasks.
Thanks again for your help! It is greatly appreciated.
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I am going to create an audio file for the intro and the 3 repeated verse/choruses as well as the last verse/chorus and then paste them together in Audition. Common solution. Good luck with the performance.
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I don’t use RealBand but I thought it does not have the 255-measure limit. It does for generating Biab tracks. But only generating Biab tracks. Oh! Thank you for this info, Charlie.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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It's very unusual have chord changes on 11 and 12 in 12/8 because 12/8 is really a 4-beat time signature where each beat is subdivided into 3 notes. AFAIK there are no real rules on how to interpret time signature beyond the common 4/4 and 3/4 (and possibly 6/8). I once played a tune with friends who claimed it to be medieval in 12/8 which turned out to have a feel like 6/8 + 3/4. On of the flamenco rhythms also sounds like this - with the odd difference that always the last beat on a group is accented (not the first as usual). See http://www.oscarherrero.info/MFOH/Flamenco%20Rhythms%20by%20Oscar%20Herrero.pdfMasi
Band-in-a-Box, BiaB-plugin, Reaper, Win10 64bit, i7-8565U, 24GB RAM (always latest versions)
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