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Add-ons and UserTracks for Band-in-a-Box
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Hi Folks.
Got myself 2 WAVs for User Tracks. Both following same Pop chart template. They are slightly different, but work well together. In the video on the top of this forum section, Tobin talks about "adding new material" to the same User Track folder. But since the chords (progression) is the same... My guess, the better way would be to either mix those 2 WAVs into single audio file and have it as a single User Track or create two separate user tracks for each variation rather than create a single user track with both variations in separate files? More control with 2 UT's... right?
---
And another question please.
If I need to add more "chords" to same User track, the additional SGU(+wav) can be a random chord progression, not in any specific order or number bars correct?

Thank you!

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I would lust leave them separate as Biab will read all the SGU in one go. Yes you can add more anytime as long as they are recorded the same. They can be random chord progression unless you have it playing over into another chord. The more material the better, like endings.

I made a usertrack with just a voice or you can do a voice over saying the current bar chord name, you can do that to see what chord is being transposed and say the SGU number to see what SGU is being used for testing purposes.

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Pipeline,
Thank you for reply.

I do not believe I was clear enough when I asked first question.
Got two tracks with identical chord progressions. They are played octave apart. If I have 2 waves + corresponding SGUs in one folder = single User trk, will it randomize chords from both waves (on regeneration) or BIAB will stick to one Wav file in a project?

---
Interesting concept with voice smile
Most of transposition works well in previous User Tracks I tried. Hiccups usually happen on Dim, Sus chords, which is somewhat expected.

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RustySpoon#,

UserTracks expect one SGU file per audio file. That way the program knows which song file matches each audio file.

Audio and SGU files are paired by sharing the same name; for example "Low_Octave.wav" and "Low_Octave.sgu" for one pair and "High_Octave.wav" and "High_Octave.SGU" for the second pair. The program doesn't care about the file names at all except to pair song and audio files together. You could just call one file pair names like "1.wav" and "1.SGU" if you want to.

The name for the UserTracks is picked up from the name of the UserTracks folder that stores the files.

If you decide to expand the UserTracks later on you can add additional audio and song file pairs to the UserTracks folder and they will be picked up by the program the next time you use the UserTracks.

The shortest length an audio and song file pair can be is two bars of recorded audio. Band-in-a-Box automatically adds two bars of silence for the count-in. If the audio is recorded outside of Band-in-a-Box the first two bars of the audio file should be silence.

There is nothing magical about the templates. You can create your own template if you want to or expand an existing template to include as much audio as you want. However, it is important for the chord sheet to accurately reflect the audio content.

For example if you play a "C" chord over eight bars and the song chord sheet shows those eight bars are "C" by you placing a "C" in each bar then the program can pick any of the eight so it has a selection to choose from. On the other hand if you just enter "C" in the first bar and leave the other seven blank, the program still knows all eight bars involve "C" but it doesn't know if it is eight progressions or one long progression. That might make a difference if you're playing a riff instead of chords.

Last edited by Jim Fogle; 06/27/20 03:06 PM. Reason: added content

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If you want another instrument played in another octave just create another folder with it.
If you want to play over 2 octaves put the 2 wav's and 2 SGUs in the one folder, this way it should get some bars from one SGU and some from the other.
It's like if you are playing more than 255 bars you need to create another SGU/wav.

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Jim, Pipeline,
Got it.
Thank you for extensive explanation!


P.S. BTW that is another reason why I want to have more mixer tracks in BIAB, to have more control over "generations". If it happens, I would rather have 2 separate UserTracks Octave Up / Down and be able to chose which ones I want to play at certain bars or double them up if fits nicely without sacrificing limited tracks as it is now.

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