Just lately I have been asking a few questions in this forum with regard to styles. Mainly these were about selecting ordinary midi instruments to replace a RealTrack instruments. As usual there were many very helpful replies on from the members. I'm always amazed at just how much detail these, I would say experts, put into their replies. For this topic it would appear to come down to an understanding of BiaB styles, an understanding that I had at only a superficial level. So, I decided to bite the bullet and try to understand the style system by looking at the StyleMaker topic in the manual. Unfortunately the more I got in to the more impressed I became with what goes on behind the scenes with styles that it led to even more questions that I could not answer from the details given in the manual.

I learned how to create drum patterns and that these patterns are selected by BiaB during song playback with some guidance from the style parameters and most of this was pretty clear from the manuals.

I then went on to look at the patterns for instruments and, by this time, I was feeling I was getting to understand it. This was especially so when I felt that I now understood what was meant by a C7 pattern! This idea of a C7 pattern I had come across before in the manual and I didn't understand what it meant. I had asked on this forum in the past but never got any reply. But now it began to dawn on me that all I was doing with the instrument was using the notes of C7 to construct each instrument patttern; it might be an arpeggio or a riff etc, but the important thing is that the notes were drawn from C7. I understand, at least I think I do, that by choosing the notes in this way, BiaB can then use music theory to change these notes based on the chord being played on the chordsheet. I examined a few styles and, sure enough, they all had notes drawn for C7 - C, E, G, Bb in various octaves.

Then, horror of horrors, I opened a swing style to discover that the notes did NOT come from the C7, that is, not diatonic to the C7 chord! That made me fed up, especially after the length of time working with this topic.

I did notice though that for this particular style that the borders on the patterns in Style Editor were red. I knew this indicated that some extra parameters existed for this style that might be causing this change of notes. Also I could not find anything that might have explained it.

I thought it might have to do with me choosing a swing style, but then I discovered other swing styles that DID conform the the C7 notes.

So my questions, that I really hope somebody can help me with, are:

1. Am I correct in my understanding of the C7 chord pattern. If I am then why do some styles not conform to the pattern?

2. What makes a style a swing style. The patterns in the Style Editor are simply straight notation leading to a even style. What actually makes BiaB alter the 8th notes or 16th notes timing to give the sw8 and sw16 swing respectively. I thought that might be a parameter in the style options, but I can't find it.


Thanks