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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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I am a complete beginner with BIAB. I've used Sibelius for years, but want to be able to create backing tracks for simple songs / hymns sung at my school and thought BIAB sounded just the job. But every style I try jazzes up or alters in some way the melody line. I just want the melody, as it is, with a simple accompaniment. Can any one suggest what style I should use?
On another tack, having been used to the easy input methods of Sibelius, I find BIAB very slow and frustrating. Is it possible to notate something in Sibelius and then import it into BIAB?
Many thanks to whichever kind persons responds.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Welcome to the Forum and to BIAB.
Yes, you can enter your song in another program, save it as a MIDI file, and import that into BIAB. But, having used Sibelius, Finale, Encore and other programs for notation, I always enter melodies in BIAB even if they are headed for another program, including Sibelius. I encourage you to work with the melody input a bit and get to know what it can do before making a final decision. I assume you are referring to mouse entry, not keyboard?
There is a setting in BIAB that affects playback of the melody. I'll be right back with that...
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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About the melody you enter being "jazzed up":
Please go to the Play menu, Slide Tracks. If the boxes in the upper left are checked, uncheck them.
Then go to the Melody menu. If "Embellish melody during playback" is checked, click on it to turn it off.
I'm assuming you have BIAB version 2010 or something else fairly recent, and that the 'jazziness' you are hearing is actually in the melody and not the result of a jazz style playing along with it.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Anyone else have suggestions for good styles for hymns?
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Biab should not mess with a melody, it will play it exactly as recorded. As for jazzing up the backing tracks, that depends on the style and there's a checkbox for "jazz down the chords". I'm at work and can't tell you exactly where that is but it's in the help file. Try some simple rock or country styles, those usually keep things fairly basic. There's also a whole collection of gospel styles but those tend to be complex full band arrangements so that may be not what you're looking for.
Bob
Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Hi,
thanks for responding. I checked the two things mentioned, both were 'unchecked'. I really do want to persevere with this, but I can't work out the best way to input. I have just tried my MIDI keyboard but can't get that to work; it recognises its existance, in that the name is there (and highlighted)in the Midi/Audio drivers dialogue, but no sound is produced from it. I am not a MIDI techy, so don't know where to go from there. As for inputting with a mouse, which I was battling with yesterday, I'm assuming I use the Notation / edit window and it IS working, but it's such a slow method of doing it. Am I missing something?
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Thanks. Things are gradually getting a bit clearer. It's so difficult getting to grips with a new piece of software.
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They tried making it simple at the start, but people got bored with it after a week or two and quit using it. They they started making it better.
I don't know why if one is talking about hymns you'd have to enter anything. Almost every actual tune used in a hymn book is available on line in midi format and you can just download it and use software to import it. There are 4 part harmony things like orchestral and hymn styles, but if your sound card isn't top notch they are not going to sound good.
John Conley
Musica est vita
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John has a point.
Back to the earlier discussion, if those two things I mentioned are OK, then any 'jazzy' feel in your melody must be the way you are entering it. You could take a PG music demo song - any song - and go into Notation Edit mode and look at how the notes line up in the grid, to double-check your work.
As for your keyboard, first, even if you don't hear anything, do you see colored notes on the screen keyboard when you play?
Go into Opt. menu, MIDI/Audio Drivers Setup. In the upper left MIDI Input box, make sure your keyboard is highlighted. Exit out. In the main BIAB screen, look at the Thru instrument button (to the right of Melody and Soloist buttons). Click on the Thru button Go to the instrument pulldown (upper left, above the screen keyboard). Choose a sound like Piano. To the right of that, in the little Volume box, use the tiny arrows and make sure the volume is turned up (even to 127, the max).
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Thank you John for your imput about Hymns. If only it were that simple! Children's hymns aren't usually so easily available, and the accompaniments have to tailored to a particular school's needs - I work in ten different schools. But thanks anyway for taking the trouble to respond.
Bob - I've now managed to input a simple 8 bar melody line with accompanying chords, and I'm happy with that. But I can't get the MIDI up and running. I've done all you suggested, but no coloured notes come up on the screen keyboard so it obviously isn't recognising it. By the way, why are there two virtual keyboards?
Cheers.
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Midi has 16 channels and just like your TV, the channels have to match. I think the Thru channel in Biab is either 4 or 5. Under Options>properties>midi it shows all the different midi channels Biab uses. If it's 5 for example, set your keyboard for 5 then when you pick an instrument using the dropdown under the little Thru window you should hear it. As soon as you hear it, you will probably hear something else too and that's latency as in it takes up to a half second from the time you hit the key to the time you hear it. This is only when you're trying to play something live. It doesn't matter on playback. That's another whole question concerning your midi driver. Try getting some sound first and then we'll tackle the latency.
Bob
Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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err... where is the Options button? Is it "Opt."? If so, there is no Properties heading.
I have to go and cook dinner now (it's 8.15 pm here in the UK!). I'll be back to check for responses later.
Thanks
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Sorry, I'm having a brain lock in my office. Just click on the menu tabs accros the top of the Biab main screen. It's there.
Bob
Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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The default channel for the Thru channel in BIAB is indeed 5.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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As long as we're on the topic of inputting a simple melody, what is the simplest way of doing this from the keyboard?
I'm blind and can't use the usual graphical methods which might be more efficient, I've thought of using the Notation edit window, but this seems excessively cumbersome.
I've generally used some shareware program to create a midi file (which can be done by hand editing a text file) and then importing this into BIAB.
If there is a better or more efficient way of doing this within BIAB from the keyboard I would love to know about it.
Thanks for any suggestions.
--Pete
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Quote:
As long as we're on the topic of inputting a simple melody, what is the simplest way of doing this from the keyboard?
I'm blind and can't use the usual graphical methods which might be more efficient, I've thought of using the Notation edit window, but this seems excessively cumbersome.
I've generally used some shareware program to create a midi file (which can be done by hand editing a text file) and then importing this into BIAB.
If there is a better or more efficient way of doing this within BIAB from the keyboard I would love to know about it.
Thanks for any suggestions.
--Pete
Hi Pete, old buddy,
You can record MIDI on the Thru channel from anything played on a MIDI keyboard that is hooked up to BiaB using the MIDI Record command. This is my favorite way to enter something on the Melody track, because it is just like recording audio, all the subtle things I play are recorded just as I play them.
With a Style file to accompany, it is rather easy to do. Even one-finger melodies recorded in this fashion can sound pretty dressed up when played back with the right style file accompaniment.
Keyboard shortcut for JAWs users, just hit the R key and the MIDI Record window opens. From there, the default is to start at the beginning of the song, so you can just hit enter to start the countin and get ready to record. There are also a few options in that window for doing recording from a certain bar or chorus also.
You only have to record the first chorus Melody, too. After accepting your recording, if you want the typical Melody at the first chorus, then a few open choruses without Melody for soloing, followed by the Melody repeated again in the last chorus, use the Melody Edit menu to "Copy Melody to all Choruse" and then use it again to "Kill Melody in Middle Choruses".
Hope this helps,
--Mac
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Send us the name of a tune. If it's new I won't know it. If it's origin is prior to 1968 I'm probably able to give you directions. Many hymns have a tune name, Hypherdol, St. Anne's, University College, and so on. Then it's a matter of taste. When I was a kid daring was adding 6ths and a guy playing a vibraphone to go with the piano. A SAX was way out of the question.
I have redone many Masonic odes and hymns for lodges, and until I got the Ketron didn't spend much time on them.
The biggest problem with any really good software is the learning curve. It will take 5 or so months to get all the stuff sorted out. Then it just becomes easy.
John Conley
Musica est vita
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A number of folks have said they like to input melodies via biab using the notation window. I have tried it a couple of times but never successfully. My last try was Birth of the Blues. Lots of dotted 8ths followed by 16ths. I could get quarter notes but that was it. I went back to Sibelius. I don't use the mouse in Sibelius except to change the note values. I enter the melody, save it as a midi file, and import it into biab. If you have a single note melody, the chord wizard doesn't work. I think it would work better with a piano part with both treble and bass.
I have found midi songs already done on the net and even edited them some. If I'm playing with the choir, etc. in church though, I enter from the hymnal. Although I have found some nice arrangements, there's lots of poor quality ones to wade through. This can take a lot of time. If you know chord progression, you will be able to move through everything pretty fast even with Sibelius. I agree that life is a lot easier if you can enter via a keyboard. Wish I could.
Stan
Cornet Curmudgeon
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Mac's way is the best. Using a midi keyboard to record along with the song you have written out in BB. However, I do it the long way which produces a very realistic sound for any song I have tried. First I use Music Time Deluxe to write all notes by hand, told you it was the long way, on both G and Bass clefts. I save this arrangement as a midi file. I then open BB and write all the Chords for that song as displayed in the sheet music. NOTE: You need to make sure that the number bars in your BB arrangement matches the number bars in you sheet music. I then import the song as a midi to the melody track of bb. Before you do this you need to go to Settings for this song and adjust for the 2 bar intro. I then assign an instrument to the melody track such as accoustic piano. Go to the piano track in bb and turn it down or assign another instrument to it. Then, I select the style according to the tempo and style from the sheet music I took the song from. Like I said, it's the long way, and it sometimes takes me a couple of hours work on the front end to get what I want, but the results are fantastic. By the way, I use theses files for my own enjoyment, so no royalities are required. Hope this helps. As far as styles go, I use Country, jazz, latin, and some of the gospel series styles. In each case, you turn off what you don't want.
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Thanks for everyone's input re Hymn Tunes, Styles etc.
At the moment, I'm still struggling with getting my keyboard working - for me, that would be the easiest form of note input.
I have set my keyboard to channel to 5, but still nothing happens! What am I doing wrong?
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