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I've searched the PG Website and the forum, but I couldn't find any information about which specific songs are contained in the BiaB Midi Fakebooks. Do such lists exist somewhere?


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I would imagine someone may have compiled a list. I just use the song picker and have the songs sorted by folder so they are easy to find, you can then look at all the songs in these folders and see what is there.

Probably not the answer you were looking for?


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Hi etcjoe,

I don't have these packs, and therefore they will not appear in my song picker. I'd just like to know if they are worth considering to buy them - don't want to buy a black-box.


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Self-serving plug:

I have 45 fake e-disks for Band-in-a-Box here http://www.nortonmusic.com/contents.html#fake

Each fake e-disk page has a complete song list on it, and one or more free samples.

They don't compete with or duplicate PG's products, but compliment them and extend the usefulness of Band-in-a-Box.

Notes ♫


Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com

100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks
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Hey Notes,

thanks for the link! I've already read somewhere about these books, but didn't have a link yet resp. haven't managed to search for it yet. What I've also read before is that they are without melodies and lyrics and therefore don't violate copyrights. Can you confirm that?


BiaB UltraPak+ 2026; Windows 10
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I know that Norton Music states all their FakeDisks do not have Melody nor lyrics.


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Thanks Matt!

Legal midis with chords but no melodies and no lyrics are definately better than illegal midis with chords and melodies and lyrics, and therefore I'm looking forward to check out that stuff.

However, even better would still be legal midis with chords and melodies and lyrics, for sure! I think that many people would pay the appropriate price for that, but it seems like sheet music publishers unfortunately don't agree on my estimate yet.


BiaB UltraPak+ 2026; Windows 10
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Originally Posted By: MoveToGroove
Hey Notes,

thanks for the link! I've already read somewhere about these books, but didn't have a link yet resp. haven't managed to search for it yet. What I've also read before is that they are without melodies and lyrics and therefore don't violate copyrights. Can you confirm that?

You are correct. No melodies or lyrics. Some of the copyright holders refused, others wanted to charge up to $2.50 per song.

So the compromise I made was to make fake disks with off-the-shelf music books. That way you can open the BiaB file, open the page in the book with the melody, click "play" and play along with the track by reading the melody line in the book.

I put a link to the book in the same page as my fake e-disk. The link is to Amazon, but you can also get the book elsewhere.

Notes ♫


Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com

100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks
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Notes,

I just bought a Fakebook-Disk and a Style-Disk at your shop. Looking forward to check them out in action.

Anyway, I would even be happy to pay 2.50 more per song, if I then (legally) wouldn't have to sightread the melody or to type the melody into a music app in order to learn it much better and much quicker (since I could then also hear the sound and could visualize the melody in Synthesia and the like).

So I'm just hoping that someone will offer legal complete (chords & melody & lyrics) Midi Editions of Fakebooks as well as of Easy Fakebooks resp. Books in the Style of HL's E-Z Play Today Series one day not too far in the future.

I own a couple of printed Fakebooks btw, but I have decided that I don't want to buy any more of them, since I simply use them too seldomly as print editions.

Last edited by MoveToGroove; 10/04/21 04:23 AM.

BiaB UltraPak+ 2026; Windows 10
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I don't see that you ever get your original question answered.


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haha - you're right. I think that means that such lists don't exist :-)

Last edited by MoveToGroove; 10/04/21 05:46 AM.

BiaB UltraPak+ 2026; Windows 10
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Hi, I found some lists on my PC. Classical 1 and 3. Try to append it. No warranty. Is this the kind of List you are looking for?
Regards Wolfgang

Attached Files (Click to download or enlarge) (Only available when you are logged in)
Classical Fake Book Vol3.pdf (9.45 KB, 21 downloads)
SONGLIST Folk British.pdf (49.87 KB, 9 downloads)
SONGLIST Classical 1.pdf (72.44 KB, 8 downloads)
SONGLIST Folk Children.pdf (51 KB, 7 downloads)
SONGLIST Folk Irish.pdf (49.87 KB, 6 downloads)

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Here's the Scots part....

Attached Files (Click to download or enlarge) (Only available when you are logged in)
SONGLIST Folk Scotish.pdf (49.13 KB, 7 downloads)

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Hey Wolfgang,

oh great, I think that's indeed what I was looking for!

This is the URL with the PG-Fakebooks listed, but unfortunately no Songlists included there:
https://www.pgmusic.com/addons.fakebooks.php?os=win

Thanks a lot, Wolfgang!!


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You can buy midi tracks, that are legal on the web. midi-hits.com, and others exist with very professional arrangements, most sounding just like the original song they reference the artists with the songs so you know what version you are getting if there are more than one. Typically $7.99 and $8.99 USD each with discounts for quantities, instantly downloadable. I have a few of these and they are quite good.


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Hi etcjoe,

yeah, I have a lot of them, all legally bought from those shops over the years, and most of them are definately of a great quality. I usually display them with Synthesia (and sometimes I also import them into BiaB), and that works very well.
It's simply another approach to songs than with Fakebooks, so I'd just like to have the choice between both approaches, as far as possible.
Also that would make a musician more flexible in regard to band setlists (sometimes bands choose from Fakebooks, sometimes from recordings).


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At $2.50 per song,
  • the Broadway Disk (#29) would cost $2,050.00 in royalties alone, before charging for our work.
  • The Country Disk (#13) would cost $1,750.00,
  • my best-selling Jazz disk (#5) would cost $1,562.50,
  • and the disk that goes with The Real Book (#37) would be $1,000.00
  • plus the charge for our work, our overhead and the silent partners (shopping cart, Visa/MC merchant's account, authorization company, bank, etc.)


I don't think I'd sell many e-disks at that price.

Insights and incites by Notes ♫


Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com

100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks
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Notes,

people pay 5$ per song (or even up to 10$ per song) - ok, that's for fully transcribed midis - at shops like Hit Trax, Geerdes or Midi-Hits. Sure, nobody would then buy a big package of 800 songs, but I don't think that they would buy only 3 songs and then never come back, and they would probably still buy your no-melody-bigpack-books, too.

So why not getting the license for just a couple of Realbook songs, just to try out how the customers would adopt that offer.
And what about songs at all, where the copyright protection period is already exceeded? That must be the case for be a couple of Vaudeville songs, for example.

You could offer a Fakebook and an Easy-Fakebook (= quantity and quality of chords reduced/simplified as much as possible) version of those in BiaB format, and already attached to a BiaB style.

Well, these are just suggestions for sure - but however, that's at least what I'm mainly looking for at the moment :-)


Last edited by MoveToGroove; 10/05/21 09:50 PM.

BiaB UltraPak+ 2026; Windows 10
Bass: Intermediate; Piano: Beginner
I came to this forum in order to suggest feature improvements for non-professional musicians like myself that use BiaB mainly as a playalong tool and as a learning tool
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Unfortunately, you can find any number of illegal midi files on the internet. Thousands of them in fact. I don't condone it. If I need a midi file that sounds like the original artist with all the bells and whistles, and since I can't play most of those instruments, I purchase a legal midi from one of the afore mentioned vendors. I also own a great number of Mr. Notes Norton's styles, fakebooks, as well as the books they are based on. they usually do the job or at least get you close enough for a great start.


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Originally Posted By: Notes Norton
At $2.50 per song,
  • the Broadway Disk (#29) would cost $2,050.00 in royalties alone, before charging for our work.
  • The Country Disk (#13) would cost $1,750.00,
  • my best-selling Jazz disk (#5) would cost $1,562.50,
  • and the disk that goes with The Real Book (#37) would be $1,000.00
  • plus the charge for our work, our overhead and the silent partners (shopping cart, Visa/MC merchant's account, authorization company, bank, etc.)


I don't think I'd sell many e-disks at that price.

Insights and incites by Notes ♫


Yes at quantity those are quite expensive. Most of the midi shops charge from 5.99 to 8.99 and even more for a single song. midi-hits will make a custom track for you for $99!!! So it is expensive way to go. I don't think anyone would want you to do these whole books and really the individual tracks are all already covered by these other vendors so you would be competing with them and they are already entrenched.


My wife asked if I had seen the dog bowl. I told her I didn't even know he could.
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