Basics: Enter everything into the StyleMaker as a C7 chord. Use only C7 chord notes (C E G Bb). When the song plays back with the style you created, it will transpose the notes to something appropriate for the chords in your song.

There are ways to do riffs, but get the basics first. Once you understand that you can go on. There are also bass, keyboard and guitar macros that can really enhance a style, but again, get the basics down first. One step at a time. It takes a learning curve to get the most out of the StyleMaker.

Swing style is somewhere between straight 8ths and dotted 8ths/16ths.

My way to do it is to record a lot in a sequencer (or DAW) in the C7 mode in real time. Then I import snippets of what I record into the StyleMaker and set the appropriate masks so that they appear when I want them to appear and how often I want them to appear if there is more than one snippet for the same situation.

There are a lot of masks, and they don't all work in all situations or in certain combinations. It took me a lot of time, experimentation and practice to get them to work the way I want them to work - or at least as close as I want them to work as BiaB, like any program, does have its limitations.

I don't do the drum grid, although I did way back in the early 90s when that was the only option. IMO The drum grid creates a stiff, quantized drum part with the feel of a robot, not a human -- no groove. Record the parts live preferably from a drum controller although with practice it can be done with a MIDI keyboard.

I'm not exactly sure if I'm answering your question correctly, if not, a more detailed question might help.

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Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
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