Song is in 4/4. Every once in a while I need a 6/4 bar for only one bar.
I follow the manual - select (shift-click) the bar to become 6/4, then Edit, Song form, Set time signature for a range of bars. The dialog box comes up and I choose 6/4 and click OK. A short, red, horizontal line appears at the beginning of the selected bar, chord symbol unchanged.
But upon playback the bar I tried to make into 6/4 now leaves out 2 beats of the chords. i.e. i get 4 C chords out of 6 beats... The subsequent bars all have empty beats even though they are in 4/4...at least i think they are...
If I only specify one measure to be 6/4 must I specify the next measure to go back to 4/4?
Here is what I'm trying to achieve: dot = beat
|4/4 C . . . |6/4 C . . . G .|4/4 F . . . | etc.
Is there a more precise and foolproof way to do this?
What about inserting a 2/4 bar. Like,
|4/4 C . . .|2/4 C .|4/4 C . G .|F . . .| the musical result is the same....I'm in Country swing style...
Confused, me. Why is the chart basically destroyed by changing the time sig in just one bar?
Thanks in advance,
Dave
Taylor T5, Epiphone Masterbilt Frontier, iMac, MacBook Pro.
I think you'll find that you cannot add more beats to a bar, however, you can take some away.
The way I do this is to use two bars: one with 2 beats and the other with 4 beats. Set either the first or second bar to only play two beats by highlighting the bar and pressing Function key <F5> and setting that bar to two beats, as shown. Do let us know if this helps.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
I do the same as Trevor... that is, use two bars: 1 x 4 beats and 1 x 2 beats. I generally put the 2-beat bar after the 4-beat bar (but that depends on the song and where the 2-beat feel feels best).
If you go to the link below, you'll see the chordsheet play for a song that I wrote.
This song has that 6/4 combination Trevor and I are talking about. Bar 12 is 4-beats and bar 13 is 2-beats. It happens again at bars 21/22, 39/40 (and a couple of other places).
Also, notice the red square around the bars that have 2-beats. This red square is saying that there are bar changes at the location.
Dave, go to the wish list forum and ask for time signatures other than 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4 be added. I have been screaming for time signatures for 6/8, 5/4, 12/8, etc for years.
Dad, how will I know when I've become an adult.
When your day is ruined because they rearranged the grocery store.
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
thanks fellows. But nothing works. I set up a song and just typed in a whole bunch of C chords for 8 bars. Then I highlighted the second bar and did the "2-beats" as shown above. Press 'play'....That 2nd bar did have 2 beats but the subsequent bars also all had two beats and the chords missing entirely from alternate bars. If I highlight the third bar and tell it 4 beats the song reverts to 4/4 but then there are two empty beats in bar 3 and then the 4/4 feel is 2 beats out of synch with the bar lines...
It occurs to me I could solve my problem by having the song be in 2/4 time to begin with and then entering an extra bar of 2/4 where I want it.
But the software doesnt seem to allow me to create a song in 2/4...
Wish list here I come...
Thanks for the help...
Dave
Taylor T5, Epiphone Masterbilt Frontier, iMac, MacBook Pro.
Dave indicated in that post he is using BiaB for Mac. Dave also said he can not access F5 Bar Settings. I posted multiple ways in that thread that Dave can use to access the F5 Bar Settings.
I have also phoned the 1-800 number for help. they have asked me to send an SGU file showing what happens when i try to a) change from 4/4 to 2/4 and back to 4/4 and b) set up a song in 2/4 that has no time signature changes at all. I sent it.
Noel 96 (thanks for posting your song) seems to have conquered the problem of the inserted 2/4 bar but he's on a PC platform. It may be that my MAC version of BIB is the problem....
Frustrating.... thanks to all for trying to help.
Dave
Taylor T5, Epiphone Masterbilt Frontier, iMac, MacBook Pro.
After you set the 2-beat bar, it's necessary to move to the next bar and use Bar Settings to set it to 4-beats.
For example, if you want only bar 10 to be 2 beats...
1. click on bar 10
2. right click on the chordsheet and choose Bar Settings
3. set the number of beats to 2
4. now click on bar 11 and enter into Bar Settings
5. set the number of beats to 4
BIAB is designed like sheet music in that when a new time signature is added on the music, that time signature stays in effect until it encounters another time signature.
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With Band-in-a-Box® 2026, we've released 202 incredible new RealTracks (in sets 468-488) in a variety of genres—featuring your most requested styles!
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MIDI Styles Set 92: Look Ma! More MIDI 15: Latin Jazz
MIDI SuperTracks Set 46: Piano & Organ
Instrumental Studies Set 24: Groovin' Blues Soloing
Artist Performance Set 19: Songs with Vocals 9
Playable RealTracks Set 5
RealDrums Stems Set 9: Cool Brushes
SynthMaster Sounds Set 1 (with audio demos)
iOS Android Band-in-a-Box® App
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MIDI Styles Set 93: Look Ma! More MIDI 16: SynthMaster
MIDI SuperTracks Set 47: More SynthMaster
Instrumental Studies 25 - Soul Jazz Guitar Soloing
Artist Performance Set 20: Songs with Vocals 10
RealDrums Stems Set 10: Groovin' Sticks
SynthMaster Sounds & Styles Set 2 (sounds & styles with audio demos)
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With the release of Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac, we’re rolling out a collection of brand-new videos on our YouTube channel. We’ll keep this forum post updated so you can easily find all the latest videos in one convenient spot.
Whether you're exploring new features, checking out the latest RealTracks or Style PAKs, this is your go-to guide for Band-in-a-Box® 2026.
Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac is here and it is packed with major new features! There’s a new modern look, a GUI redesign to all areas of the program including toolbars, windows, workflow and more. There’s a Multi-view layout for organizing multiple windows. A standout addition is the powerful AI-Notes feature, which uses AI neural-net technology to transcribe polyphonic audio into MIDI—entire mixes or individual instruments—making it easy to study, view, and play parts from any song. And that’s just the beginning—there are over 100 new features in this exciting release.
Along with version 2026, we've released an incredible lineup of new content! There's 202 new RealTracks, brand-new RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, “Songs with Vocals” Artist Performance Sets, Playable RealTracks Set 5, two new RealDrums Stems sets, XPro Styles PAK 10, Xtra Styles PAK 21, and much more!
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