Hi,

#1. If you are opening MIDI files (*.mid) into Band-in-a-Box, then the entire MIDI file will be imported to the Melody track, and so like you say all the instruments/channels will be clumped together onto the one track. There are two tracks in Band-in-a-Box that are user editable. These are the Melody and Soloist track, so technically you could import some channels to the Melody track and some to the Soloist track (e.g. Melody menu | Edit melody | Import melody from MIDI file). If you do want to have multiple channels on the Melody and/or Soloist track, make sure that the track types are set to Multi-channel, otherwise you'll be hearing everything played as a single instrument. The point is that Band-in-a-Box isn't intended to be a multitrack MIDI file editor. The remaining Band-in-a-Box tracks - Bass, Piano, etc. are used by Band-in-a-Box to generate parts based on the Style that you selected. This may be MIDI tracks, or RealTracks (audio) in the case of RealStyles.

My question would be, the previous MIDI files that you are opening into Band-in-a-Box - what are you wanting to accomplish with these files, and where did they come from? Typically if you had used Band-in-a-Box in the past you would have saved Band-in-a-Box song files - these have files extensions like .mgu and .sgu. Perhaps you exported your songs as MIDI files, but even so you should still have the .MGU's kicking around.

#2 I'm not sure what you mean when you say you couldn't get the barlines out. Use the Notation window and switch to the Melody track. Start by entering your melody using editable notation mode, assuming you are entering it manually rather than recording it. My favorite way to enter notation is to use the keyboard (no mouse), left and right cursor keys, then press N to enter the note, and cursor up/down to adjust the pitch. Once you've entering the melody, go back to the start, press the L button to toggle into Lyrics mode. This is how to enter "Note-based lyrics", since the words you type are positioned according to the currently highlighted note. You can press enter to advance to the next note, and you can use Tab and Shift-Tab to go back and forth.

#3 I don't know why setting the key signature wouldn't have any effect. Perhaps you are going to File | Save, and expecting this to affect your original MIDI file. It won't, it will be saving your song as a Band-in-a-Box song file. If you want to export your song as a MIDI file you can do that as well, but you won't be editing your original MIDI file directly.

Andrew
PG Music Inc.