I am new to BIAB. I am used to thinking in terms of Intros, Verses, Choruses, Bridges and Outros. How come this only seems to want to support intro, outro and chorus? No versus, no bridges, I must be missing something.
I tend to use 'A' for verses and 'B' for choruses.
You can also have instruments muted and come in at later bars to add contrast.
If you are looking for more variations, you could look at MultiStyles PAK 1
"MultiStyles for Band-in-a-Box® Have you ever wished that you could create more elaborate arrangements in Band-in-a-Box® with more than two distinct-sounding substyles? MultiStyles can fulfill that desire with the ability to incorporate up to 24 substyles in one style! And, now we have special add-on PAKs that give you a huge collection of these advanced styles. Each MultiStyle in these PAKs comes with a demo song that shows off the sound of all of the substyles. But that's not all, you can also access the component styles of these MultiStyles in order to view the full instrument lists from the StylePicker and access more great demo songs! Each MultiStyles PAK offers Country, Rock-Pop, and Jazz styles, and some of the styles transcend these genres completely! Don't limit yourself to two substyles per style, light your creative fire with MultiStyles PAKs!"
Besides the MultiStyles add-on packages, some multistyles are included in the various versions of BIAB and can be selected from the StylePicker and are marked by the + sign at the end of the name. In the search bar, enter + for a list of included MultiStyles. Most of the styles are from 4-6 part markers.
It's also quite easy to construct your own custom MultiStyles just like PG Music has done with the MultiStyles PAK 1.
I am new to BIAB. I am used to thinking in terms of Intros, Verses, Choruses, Bridges and Outros. How come this only seems to want to support intro, outro and chorus? No versus, no bridges, I must be missing something.
First off, welcome to the family.
To your question. BB uses slightly different terminology from what you are used too. BB refers exclusively to choruses..... or if you unfold the song form.... to one chorus.
Ignore that totally for all intents and purposes. BB will provide you with a typical intro and outtro. It also has styles that generally have 2 different grooves. Some have 4, but most have 2. The blue part markers are generally identifiable as verses and tend to be more laid back, and the Green ones are more like choruses in the way they feel. The green tend to be more aggressive and it's certainly noticeable in the drums as well as the guitars.
Many of us, write our own intros, verses, choruses, bridges and endings using the long form of ONE CHORUS in the vernacular of PG Music. We differentiate the verses and the choruses by using different part maker colors.
Hopefully this helps
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.com Add nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.
The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
thanks for the welcome and the tips to date folks. I am still working to wrap my head around how this works. Seems to be a lot of tribal knowledge, but I would say the ramping curve is steep. Maybe once I have consumed more, I can help with some newbie materials to help lower the bar for adoption.
As mentioned, ignore the term chorus and think of it as the body of the song. I had the same brain freeze as you.
After playing and looking at a few templates and demos of songs I learnt about the markers, the changes to style etc. and began to employ them.
It does take time to get used to the user interface and there are squillions of things within the program that reveal themselves as you progress. I've been using Reaper for more than a decade and think I know about 15% of that program at best.
We simply set the key/tempo, enter our chords on the chord sheet to correspond to our arrangement, enter our RT/RD/MST selections (or per a style) and generate. We then enter blue/green part markers as appropriate.
Afterwards we move all the tracks to our DAW (Logic Pro X) as we are Mac folks and do not have access to Window’s RealBand. We will frequently regenerate select RT’s until they play what we like and if that doesn’t happen we bring multiple regens of that RT into the DAW and cut/paste them into what we hope sounds good.
This may not be applicable to your planned work flow as there are so many ways to use this great program. Welcome to the community!
Bud
Our albums and singles are on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora and more. If interested search on Janice Merritt. Thanks! Our Videos are here on our website.
On a related note, I'd like to mention to the OP that there are numerous, outstanding YouTube videos on how to use BIAB. IMO, it's a great kickstarter towards getting up & running. It's an incredibly deep program, and I haven't scratched the surface of everything it can do, but I have been able to identify & master the features that are most applicable and useful in my personal workflow.
You might want to quiet some RT instruments during your verse and then let it all come to life during the part you normally refer to as a chorus.
Another way to bend BIAB into your workflow is to make multiple versions of the same song, and import everything into your DAW (same as Janice & Bud...and same methods). The you might end up with a lot of tracks playing the same chord progressions - then it's all up to you to decide what goes in the verse...ect
But please do reach out - everyone of us is still climbing up this brilliant BIAB mountain.
MacMini M1 - BIAB2021 - Logic Pro X - iZotope Music Production Suite - Scaler 2 - far too many Waves plugins and Line 6 Guitars and boards + a fantastic Yamaha THR10ll mini Amp - Avid MBOX Studio
Peters' Garage is available on all major streaming services
Hinted at above, BIAB originated as a way to play jazz fakebook tunes. In jazz, we call a chorus once through the whole tune. A typical form for a song might be AABA, where B is the bridge, and that’s one chorus. If we say, ‘take a chorus’ it means to solo over the whole tune once.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
duselton re Why No Verses or Bridges etc. ive been tilting at this particular windmill for a long time, even though i'm an avid biab user and song creator. you might be interested in the following threads of my wishes.
my songs....mixed for good earbuds...(fyi..my vocs on all songs..) https://soundcloud.com/alfsongs (90 songs created useing bb/rb) (lots of tips of mine in pg tips forum.)
As a long time US based gigging player I'm also used to intro, verse, bridge, solos, outro but Matt is also correct, in jazz the whole song is commonly called the chorus. To help with this Biab has the song structure function where you can at least use A, B, C, D etc to identify the various sections.
The song structure function does the job very well - maybe a few improvements regarding max amount of parts + max amount of bars (especially when you write songs in +140 BPM).
....after 7 years of being daily BIAB user, you somehow learn your way to make things work...but out of the box BIAB is not the easiest tool to work with
MacMini M1 - BIAB2021 - Logic Pro X - iZotope Music Production Suite - Scaler 2 - far too many Waves plugins and Line 6 Guitars and boards + a fantastic Yamaha THR10ll mini Amp - Avid MBOX Studio
Peters' Garage is available on all major streaming services
We simply set the key/tempo, enter our chords on the chord sheet to correspond to our arrangement, enter our RT/RD/MST selections (or per a style) and generate. We then enter blue/green part markers as appropriate.
Afterwards we move all the tracks to our DAW...
That's basically my process too. Are you guys downloading prearranged songs?
We simply set the key/tempo, enter our chords on the chord sheet to correspond to our arrangement, enter our RT/RD/MST selections (or per a style) and generate. We then enter blue/green part markers as appropriate.
Afterwards we move all the tracks to our DAW...
That's basically my process too. Are you guys downloading prearranged songs?
No. We enter our chord progressions based on our arrangement and select our choice of RTs and RDs. We rarely ever use a style as we prefer to roll our own
Bud
Our albums and singles are on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora and more. If interested search on Janice Merritt. Thanks! Our Videos are here on our website.
A core feature of BIAB allows you to create a chorus feel, and the tracks are produced with this in mind (so your choruses can sound different than verses in intensity). You can also change the feel of the drums in verse and chorus inside the real track picker dialog if you have it open, using selections from the menu. (I.e., you can change aspects of the drums in each section, see screenshot below.)
The use of "Green" or "b" sections on the chart, whether entered manually (or using the song form dialog (which I love) renders a "busier" and more "up" chorus feature. The drums get more emphatic, and the instruments a little more charged, as you want in a chorus.
Just click on a box until it changes colors. In multi-styles, colors beside green and blue give different feels. You have to experiment.
So, basically, I use "blue" for intros, verses and bridges, and "Green" for choruses. I think everyone does this.
But experiment--and click on the drum tracks you are using to see the range of options for the sections.
Here is a screenshot of a recent song I posted and a link to it.
Tell me if this makes sense. This may have been said here in different ways already, but it is pretty straightforward.
My approach is similar to David’s just above. In my jazz songs, I generally use a green part marker for the intro and the tag, and the bridge. BIAB defaults to using green for the middle choruses (soloing) but you can turn that off.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
This is my first post on the forum here, but I've been using (and loving) Band-in-a-Box for years.
The issue of "substyles" is one I've grappled with for a while. There are two issues here, first of all what the instruments are PLAYING when it comes to intro, verse, chorus, bridge, etc., but second is just simply the VISUAL aspect of it. If you're writing a song, you want to be able to, at a glance, look at your Band-in-a-Box song, and say to yourself "right, there is clearly the bridge section that I wrote".
The first issue, what the instruments are playing, is tricky. But, it's the second thing I'm going to talk about here, the VISUAL thing. There's a feature where, when you have a style loaded, you can right-click on a bar and "define c/d". The feature is there so you can actually CHANGE styles using c/d, but for myself, I've always used that feature but selected the SAME style. The reason for this is that now I can toggle through FOUR different substyles, clearly indicating a bridge, intro, or other section on my chart.
And, they've actually added a cool new feature at Xmas where it removes a step, and you can just select "Define c/d using the same style" right in that menu, which eliminates that step, and I use that all the time.
It's likely not in the mac version yet, but of course you can still do it the way I initially indicated.
As far as the issue with what the instruments are PLAYING, I find that often the most important instrument to delineate the difference between sections is the drums. With THAT, you can also right-click on the bar numbers and select MORE than just the two options for drums. So for example, you can pick "sidestick" for intros, snare/closed-hat for verses, snare/open-hat for choruses, and ride for bridge, or something like that (different RealDrums have different options for substyles). So I frequently make use of that feature to separate song sections. That one is tricky though, because there's a bit of a weird connection between that feature and the actual part markers, which really confuses things. That's a small beef though as I do love being able to switch those drum parts, though there's certainly room for improvement. And for other instruments, there is also of course the F5 dialog to change RealTracks.
Introducing XPro Styles PAK 10 – Now Available for Windows Band-in-a-Box 2025 and Higher!
We've just released XPro Styles PAK 10 for Windows & Mac Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher) with 100 brand new RealStyles, plus 28 RealTracks and RealDrums!
Few things are certain in life: death, taxes, and a brand spankin’ new XPro Styles PAK! In this, the 10th edition of our XPro Styles PAK series, we’ve got 100 styles coming your way! We have the classic 25 styles each from the rock & pop, jazz, and country genres, and rounding out this volume's wildcard slot is 25 styles in the Praise & Worship genre! A wide spanning genre, you can find everything from rock, folk, country, and more underneath its umbrella. The included 28 RealTracks and RealDrums can be used with any Band-in-a-Box® 2026 (and higher) package.
Here’s just a small sampling of what you can look forward to in XPro Styles PAK 10: Soft indie folk worship songs, bumpin’ country boogies, gospel praise breaks, hard rockin’ pop, funky disco grooves, smooth Latin jazz pop, bossa nova fusion, western swing, alternative hip-hop, cool country funk, and much more!
Special offers until December 31st, 2025!
All the XPro Styles PAKs 1 - 10 are on sale for only $29 ea (Reg. $49 ea), or get them all in the XPro Styles PAK Bundle for only $149 (reg. $299)! Order now!
XPro Styles PAKs require Band-in-a-Box® 2025 or higher and are compatible with ANY package, including the Pro, MegaPAK, UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, and Audiophile Edition.
Introducing Xtra Styles PAK 21 – Now Available for Windows Band-in-a-Box 2025 and Higher!
Xtra Styles PAK 21 for Windows & Mac Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher) is here with 200 brand new RealStyles!
We're excited to bring you our latest Xtra Styles PAK installment—the all new Xtra Styles PAK 21 for Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher)!
Rejoice, one and all, for Xtra Styles PAK 21 for Band-in-a-Box® is here! We’re serving up 200 brand spankin’ new styles to delight your musical taste buds! The first three courses are the classics you’ve come to know and love, including offerings from the rock & pop, jazz, and country genres, but, not to be outdone, this year’s fourth course is bro country! A wide ranging genre, you can find everything from hip-hop, uptempo outlaw country, hard hitting rock, funk, and even electronica, all with that familiar bro country flair. The dinner bell has been rung, pickup up Xtra Styles PAK 21 today!
In this PAK you’ll discover: Energetic folk rock, raucous train beats, fast country boogies, acid jazz grooves, laid-back funky jams, a bevy of breezy jazz waltzes, calm electro funk, indie synth pop, industrial synth metal, and more bro country than could possibly fit in the back of a pickup truck!
Special offers until December 31st, 2025!
All the Xtra Styles PAKs 1 - 21 are on special for only $29 each (reg $49), or get all 21 PAKs for $199 (reg $399)! Order now!
Note: The Xtra Styles require the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition of Band-in-a-Box®. (Xtra Styles PAK 21 requires the 2025 or higher UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition. They will not work with the Pro or MegaPAK version because they need the RealTracks from the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition.
Introducing XPro Styles PAK 10 – Now Available for Mac Band-in-a-Box 2025 and Higher!
We've just released XPro Styles PAK 10 for Mac & Windows Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher) with 100 brand new RealStyles, plus 28 RealTracks and RealDrums!
Few things are certain in life: death, taxes, and a brand spankin’ new XPro Styles PAK! In this, the 10th edition of our XPro Styles PAK series, we’ve got 100 styles coming your way! We have the classic 25 styles each from the rock & pop, jazz, and country genres, and rounding out this volume's wildcard slot is 25 styles in the Praise & Worship genre! A wide spanning genre, you can find everything from rock, folk, country, and more underneath its umbrella. The included 28 RealTracks and RealDrums can be used with any Band-in-a-Box® 2026 (and higher) package.
Here’s just a small sampling of what you can look forward to in XPro Styles PAK 10: Soft indie folk worship songs, bumpin’ country boogies, gospel praise breaks, hard rockin’ pop, funky disco grooves, smooth Latin jazz pop, bossa nova fusion, western swing, alternative hip-hop, cool country funk, and much more!
Special offers until December 31st, 2025!
All the XPro Styles PAKs 1 - 10 are on sale for only $29 ea (Reg. $49 ea), or get them all in the XPro Styles PAK Bundle for only $149 (reg. $299)! Order now!
XPro Styles PAKs require Band-in-a-Box® 2025 or higher and are compatible with ANY package, including the Pro, MegaPAK, UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, and Audiophile Edition.
Introducing Xtra Styles PAK 21 – Now Available for Mac Band-in-a-Box 2025 and Higher!
Xtra Styles PAK 21 for Mac & Windows Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher) is here with 200 brand new RealStyles!
We're excited to bring you our latest Xtra Styles PAK installment—the all new Xtra Styles PAK 21 for Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher)!
Rejoice, one and all, for Xtra Styles PAK 21 for Band-in-a-Box® is here! We’re serving up 200 brand spankin’ new styles to delight your musical taste buds! The first three courses are the classics you’ve come to know and love, including offerings from the rock & pop, jazz, and country genres, but, not to be outdone, this year’s fourth course is bro country! A wide ranging genre, you can find everything from hip-hop, uptempo outlaw country, hard hitting rock, funk, and even electronica, all with that familiar bro country flair. The dinner bell has been rung, pickup up Xtra Styles PAK 21 today!
In this PAK you’ll discover: Energetic folk rock, raucous train beats, fast country boogies, acid jazz grooves, laid-back funky jams, a bevy of breezy jazz waltzes, calm electro funk, indie synth pop, industrial synth metal, and more bro country than could possibly fit in the back of a pickup truck!
Special offers until December 31st, 2025!
All the Xtra Styles PAKs 1 - 21 are on special for only $29 each (reg $49), or get all 21 PAKs for $199 (reg $399)! Order now!
Note: The Xtra Styles require the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition of Band-in-a-Box®. (Xtra Styles PAK 21 requires the 2025 or higher UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition. They will not work with the Pro or MegaPAK version because they need the RealTracks from the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition.
Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows 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 60 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!
Special Offers
Upgrade to Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows and save up to 50% on most upgrade packages during our special offer—available until December 31, 2025. Visit our Band-in-a-Box® packages page to explore all available upgrade options.
2026 Free Bonus PAK & 49-PAK Add-ons
Our Free Bonus PAK and 49-PAK are loaded with amazing add-ons! The Free Bonus PAK is included with most Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows packages, but you can unlock even more—including 20 unreleased RealTracks—by upgrading to the 2026 49-PAK for just $49. Browse the full contents of each package and listen to demos here.
XPro and Xtra Styles PAKs Special Extended Until August 31st!
XPro & Xtra Styles PAKs Special Extended Until August 31st!
The XPro Styles PAKs and Xtra Styles PAKs special offers are now available until August 31st at 11:59pm PDT!
Ready to take your Band-in-a-Box® 2025 experience to the next level? Now’s the perfect time! Expand your style library with XPro and Xtra Styles PAKs—packed with a wide variety of genres to inspire your next musical creation.
What are XPro Styles and Xtra Styles PAKs?
XPro Styles PAKs are styles that work with any version (Pro, MegaPAK, UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition) of Band-in-a-Box® 2025 (or higher). XPro Styles PAKS 1-9 includes 900 styles!
Xtra Styles PAKs are styles that work with the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition of Band-in-a-Box® 2025 (or higher). With over 3,500 styles (and 35 MIDI styles) included in Xtra Styles PAKs 1-20, the possibilities are endless!
Get the XPro Styles PAKs 1 - 9 for only $29 ea (Reg. $49 ea), or get them all in the XPro Styles PAK Bundle for only $149 (reg. $299)! Listen to demos and order now! For Windows or for Mac.
Note: XPro Styles PAKs require Band-in-a-Box® 2025 or higher and are compatible with ANY package, including the Pro, MegaPAK, UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, and Audiophile Edition.
Get Xtra Styles PAKs 1 - 20 are on special for only $29 each (reg $49), or get all 19 PAKs for $199 (reg $399)! Listen to demos and order now! For Windows or for Mac.
Note: The Xtra Styles require the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition of Band-in-a-Box®. (Xtra Styles PAK 19 requires the 2025 or higher UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition. They will not work with the Pro or MegaPAK version because they need the RealTracks from the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition.
Don’t miss this chance to supercharge your Band-in-a-Box setup—at a great price!
Mac 2025 Special Upgrade Offers Extended Until August 15th!
It's not too late to upgrade to Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac® and save! We've extended our special until August 15, 2025!
We've added many major new features to Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac®, including advanced AI tools like the amazing BB Stem Splitter and AI Lyrics Generator, as well as VST3 plugin support, and Equalize Temp. Plus, there’s a new one-stop MIDI Patches Picker with over 1,100 MIDI patches to choose from, all neatly categorized by GM numbers. The MultiPicker Library is enhanced with tabs for the SongPicker, MIDI Patch Picker, Chord Builder, AI Lyrics Generator, and Song Titles Browser, and the tabs are organized into logical groups. The Audiophile Edition is enhanced with FLAC files , which are 60% smaller than AIFF files while maintaining identical audio quality, and now ships on a fast 1TB SSD, and much more!
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Learn more about the Bonus PAKs!
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and if that doesn’t happen we bring multiple regens of that RT into the DAW and cut/paste them into what we hope sounds good. 
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