sj1,

Welcome to the forum and to Band-in-a-Box. You bring up good points. As you wander throughout the forum sections you will find many forum members have mentioned the program interface can be improved.

Something to think about. Melodies are note driven however as primarily an accompaniment program Band-in-a-Box, or BiaB for short, is chord driven. Band-in-a-Box is the band playing behind someone playing or singing. Bands play chords, riffs and melodic phrases.

You can import a midi melody into Band-in-a-Box but you have to explain the song to the band; they have no clue. You tell the program, "Okay fellas we're going to play this in the key of "C", at a tempo of 150 beats per minute (bpm), with a four count and a swing feel. The style selects the time signature, instrumentation, tempo range and feel. You provide the root chord or key signature and chords.

Band-in-a-Box can import a standard midi file, or SMF, containing both the melody and song arrangement onto the melody or soloist track. When you import a SMF into one of those tracks the program will break out each instrument onto a midi channel if you desire.

Jim Fogle - 2024 BiaB (1111) RB (5) Ultra+ PAK
DAWs: Cakewalk by BandLab (CbB) - Standalone: Zoom MRS-8
Laptop: i3 Win 10, 8GB ram 500GB HDD
Desktop: i7 Win 11, 12GB ram 256GB SSD, 4 TB HDD
Music at: https://fogle622.wix.com/fogle622-audio-home