PG Music Home Forums PG Music Wishlists Band-in-a-Box Wishlist A 2nd Chord symbols export idea.

I shouldn't laugh, I know it's frustrating, but you can't blame me for having a quiet chuckle

Maybe slightly exaggerated.
I tried it with BB2016 as it has XML export, took about 10secs to get the Audacity Labels.
As well as saving to text file it can be made to write the Chord markers to midi file along with held chords, that can also be saved.

I was born in 1954 :-) Maybe if you try 1,000 time they will listen.

I am afraid to use Reaper because it is probably better than Audacity. My goal is to be as good a market trader and guitarist as can be expected for my age. My weakness is being easily distracted. Reaper will distract me. I also need to use Audacity for the club (free and simple encourages more to participate).

I had to hide from email all day to get one song done by tonight. Six more to go (I just realized I didn't count correctly) :-) Even if I decided to try you idea I would not get to it for probably 2 or 3 weeks.

If you have a program script that can process the BIAB ABC file that would get me interested. If I was determined t o write that script in access I would schedule it for the summer.

I know ! as I typed that in I heard "that is your age", I pick up the vibes.

Ok, I'll have a look a making a script to convert the ABC to Audacity Label.
I did make/modify one in the forum Biab Chords to ImproVisor maybe modify that or make an AutoHotKey one.

Okay, thanks Pipeline :-)

This is working on 4/4.
I need to work out the 3/4 but 3/4 is not importing the chords back to Biab on beat 3 as they go to beat 4 (greyed out) so there is an issue there.
*remove .mp4 and install the latest version of www.autohotkey.com
set the Autohotkey.exe to run as admin.

I already use a program called Macro-express which runs on windows hotkey shortcut triggers. I am heavily invested in this program (can't remove it). Is this autohotkey likely to create issues with it?

I don't understand why you say delete the Mp4. I see no MP4 in the ABC export out of BIAB file. Whatever you are programming my understanding is it will read the ABC file into memory (Just like I would write in access) and create a file that Audacity can read in (just like I would write in access). I have zero doubt I can write such an access program. It isn't easy but it is a lot easier than other stuff I have written.

I have about 10 access programming projects I want to write but I have higher priorities so they keep getting put off. This access script I might write for the Audacity Labels file is pretty low priority compared to those other programming projects. I am not even sure the other musicians will use it (ts a trivial extra that might be useful at times). I would not go too crazy with this project unless you really love to program (a fun puzzle to figure out). I have been programming so long now that it has lost all its novelty for me. It's just a tool I still use a fair bit. Its not a be all and end all in itself.

Here is the compiled exe so you won't have to worry about installing AutoHotKeys. I have AutoIt and Autohotkeys installed.

Again remove the.mp4 from the filename and unzip.

I did that, my virus checker didn't care for it. I moved it to the virus chest. Can't afford any problems. Like I said it isn't that important. If PG-Music decides it has economic value that's great. Otherwise that is fine too. If I get freed up I will write the code in MS-Access.

Hi Pipeline,

I ran your program again after the Avast Labs people got back to me to verify your program was safe (one never knows these days). Thanks for your efforts so far. It crapped. See picture. I tried a few things to get around the error but no cigar. The file data is below. I noticed this file data is a lot simpler than the other one I posted.

John

X:1
T:All Of Me
L:1/8
K:C
Q:1/4=153
R:EZ Listening Acoustic Guitar w/
M:4/4
| "CMaj7" | | "E7" ||
| "A7" | | "Dm" ||
| "E7" | | "Am" ||
| "D7" | | "Dm7" | "G7"|
| "CMaj7" | | "E7" ||
| "A7" | | "Dm" ||
| "F" | "Fm" | "CMaj7" "Em7" | "A7"|
| "Dm7" | "G7" | "C6" "Ebdim7" | "Dm7" "G7"|
| "CMaj7" | | "E7" ||
| "A7" | | "Dm" ||
| "E7" | | "Am" ||
| "D7" | | "Dm7" | "G7"|
| "CMaj7" | | "E7" ||
| "A7" | | "Dm" ||
| "F" | "Fm" | "CMaj7" "Em7" | "A7"|
| "Dm7" | "G7" | "C6" "Ebdim7" | "Dm7" "G7"|
| "CMaj7" | | "E7" ||
| "A7" | | "Dm" ||
| "E7" | | "Am" ||
| "D7" | | "Dm7" | "G7"|
| "CMaj7" | | "E7" ||
| "A7" | | "Dm" ||
| "F" | "Fm" | "CMaj7" "Em7" | "A7"|
| "Dm7" | "G7" | "C6" "Ebdim7" | "Dm7" "G7"|
| "CMaj7" | | "E7" ||
| "A7" | | "Dm" ||
| "E7" | | "Am" ||
| "D7" | | "Dm7" | "G7"|
| "CMaj7" | | "E7" ||
| "A7" | | "Dm" ||
| "F" | "Fm" | "CMaj7" "Em7" | "A7"|
| "Dm7" | "G7" | "C69"|

In your original post you wanted midi markers like the BBPlugin now has.
I showed you how to do this with Reaper.
But then you wanted to import them into Audacity,
so I made a script to do this in Reaper,
but you did not want to use Reaper,
so I made an AutoHotKey script to do it,
but you did not want to install AutoHotKey,
so I compiled it to an exe,
then you got a virus on your computer,
because the exe I made had a virus in it.
You seem to be blocked at every turn,
the only option you are left with is type the labels up manually
or wait and hope that PG will add an Audacity Label export.

For any other users that need this just use Reaper, it will do it all.

Hi Pipeline,

Regarding
My prior post does not suggest your exe has a virus in it. Avast suspected it might have a virus which scared me a bit. Avast suggested I move your exe to the virus vault and wait for their lab to review your exe and get back to me as to whether it is safe to run or not. So I decided to follow the avast recommendation. They got back to me the next day and said your code did not have a virus (I said that in My prior post). So I decided to again go with the Avast recommendation and run it. I then posted that your code appears to have a simple bug where it is adding .txt at the end of its file read command and thus is unable to find the ABC file.

I should add that I had a use for Chord symbol labels in Audacity today. It is the first time actually. I made a mistake and removed the BIAB count in on my current project. Someone joined in and submitted a track without a count-in. I had to manually add a label track and manually add a few chord labels in order to get his track lined up. So it is a good feature for PG-Music to put in and to be honest users having to write the code is not really all that efficient. It makes a lot more sense for PG-Music to have a checkbox which remembers to stay checked as I recommend in my first post of this thread. Clearly it will get used now and then and not just by me.

Hi,

Are there any plans to put in the feature request I mention in the very first post. Once it is in I won't be able to resist an upgrade (assuming I am aware of it) as I am creating chord labels in every Audacity mix now as you can see in the attached picture. What would also be useful would be a second set of labels for the sections of the song which is controlled by the BIAB part markers. Maybe something like this in a standard 32 bar song with 3 choruses.

C1-1A (c1 meaning chorus 1)
C1-9A
C1-17A
C1-25B
C2-1A (c2 meaning chorus 2)
C3-9A
C4-17A
C5-25B
C2-1A (c3 meaning chorus 3)
C3-9A
C4-17A
C5-25B

Thanks,
John

Pipeline just reminded me that I can write a script using the BIAB abc file export. I kind of forgot because I did not have much of a need for this until recently then all of a sudden it became really important.

A attached a picture with the abc file and some ideas for how the MS-access program will process it. I know MS-Access and its VBA language well enough that I will have the script done within about 8 to 16 hours hours. It will be able to handle jazz songs where the melody is outside the chorus as well. It will automatically create both chord labels and section labels (two files for import into Audacity). I am not sure exactly when I will start.

Hi,

The wish-list request that I made in Post #1 of this thread needs an enhancement and I will be creating a 2nd very closely related request here as well.

The enhanced wish is to have a button on the BIAB export screen that opens a special screen to allow export of chord labels and click tracks to various popular DAWs. These export choices would be remembered. I attached a picture of how this might look. For me being able to export these tracks to multiple DAWs all at once would be a big time saver. I would use this feature probably once a week on average. When you study the picture it should become obvious that many new tracks would be exported with (only one button click each week) to a folder containing all tracks for the song and the chord label tracks and click tracks would need to be in the format "DAW-Name_Track-Type-Optional-Sub-Type" (Examples: Audacity_Labels_Chords.txt, Audacity_Labels_Sections.txt, Audacity_Clicks.wav, Reaper_Labels_Chords.mid, Reaper_Labels_Sections.mid). You might notice the 2nd picture shows song section labels and I have section labels in my example here but my first picture does not show a section label column. I missed that. A section label column would be needed to match the BIAB sections. I am not sure if all DAWs can handle this. Audacity certainly can as my 2nd picture shows. This would need to be investigated.

For me this 2nd feature would never be used if the main request above was put in. The 2nd related wish is to copy the feature demonstrated at this BIAB 2021 VST video jump into BIAB itself. Note that the BIAB 2022 VST has a C7 button for dragging items into the DAW. I personaally think this feature set is better in BIAB itself. There are several reason for this. 1/ The BIAB VSP plugin has a lot of bugs. 2/ The BIAB VSP stand alone plugin also has a lot of bugs. 3/ one of the bugs is you can't get the chords to copy properly from BIAB to the Plugin. Okay to be fair I have been emailing with support about these bugs and I believe they will eventually be fixed. However this leads to the final reason. 4/ I highly doubt the Plugin will EVER be as good as BIAB because BIAB is a massively great program. Why make a duplicate that is never likely to be as good?

I attached a few additional pictures that may help make this request clear.

Thanks,
John