When BIAB plays chords that are not quite what you wrote
Matt Finley December 2021; edited October 2022 to include some great tips by other users; edited February 2024 for a comment on Natural Arrangement; edited February 2025 to move the tip about Key Signature to the top of the list based on feedback; edited June 2025 to clarify about Jazz Up/Down and Simpler.

Does BIAB play exactly the chords you wrote? If it does not, and plays tones you don't like, what can you do about it?

BIAB is designed to be an accompaniment program. If you used real in-person musicians instead of this computer software, they would introduce some variety to the playing no matter what the genre. They might play a GMaj7 instead of the G Major triad you wrote. Or a G69. A jazz player seeing G7 might well play G7(b9), G9 or G13. A folk guitarist might introduce some finger-picking that suggested other passing chords. Musicians are creative and will often do the unexpected to make the music more interesting. BIAB has ways of using artificial intelligence and/or the actual performances of their RealTrack artists to simulate this. However, what if you do not want this to happen?

Here are a few settings in BIAB that you can experiment with if BIAB is not playing what you wanted and what you think you wrote. There may be more, and I have intentionally NOT included any solutions that involve editing audio. These settings are not listed in any particular order since you may have to try several to give you the sound you want. Also, to my knowledge there is no description of the hierarchy of these commands, so I don't know what combining some of them will do.

  • Set the correct key signature. There are several reasons why you should set the correct key signature of a song when you begin, and this particular reason fits in this thread as one important step you can try. EDIT: User Dominatoruke discovered a case where the chord consistently played a note he did not want, but when he changed the BIAB song to the correct key signature, the problem went away. User BIABman recently verified that this tip solved problems.

  • Simpler RealTrack(s) There is often (but not always) a 'Simpler' checkbox when selecting RealTracks in the RealTracks picker (Assign RealTracks to Track dialog window). Even for my jazz songs, I often select this for the bass or piano when it sounds too 'busy', or as PG Music describes it, the playing will be 'less embellished'. Less embellished may mean that you will hear fewer non-chord tones.

  • Jazz down the chords. In Options, Preferences, RealTracks, find 'On Jazz RealTracks, JazzUp Triads to Sevenths. Uncheck this box if your genre isn't jazz.

  • Set a global 'simple' option. There are several global options at the bottom to make individual instruments simpler in Options, Preferences, Overrides. Also make sure neither button for Pop/Country or Jazz is clicked On (yes, both can be Off).

  • Force simple. In Edit, Song Form, Settings (or press Ctrl+N) there is a checkbox for Force Song to Simple Arrangement. Check the box.

  • Jazz Up, Jazz Down. Try Edit, Chords, Jazz Down the chords.

  • Change the RealTrack artist / change the Style. Some artists tend to play the same upper extensions of a chord, so try another.

  • Turn off Natural Arrangement. This might be one of the first things to try because it's easy and it may work. Consider turning off Natural Arrangement for the song in Options, Preferences, Arrange. You can also instruct BIAB here never to use Natural Arrangement even if an individual song has the instruction to use it. As a jazz composer, I use this adjustment perhaps more than the others, because I need to hear exactly the chord progression that I wrote. But, why? What does Natural Arrangement do? As I understand it, since we users do not know how it works, the program will take a more complex chord progression and simplify it to allow the RealTrack artist to play longer recorded phrases that are more 'standard' sounding. In my experience, the comping from a piano is less 'choppy' and has better voice leading when using Natural Arrangement, and this is often more pleasing. It may not be playing the precise upper extension the composer wanted to hear, however. So, it's a trade-off. Note that this setting does not apply to MIDI-only instruments. EDIT: PG Music weighed in on this with advice for a forum user who was not hearing mMaj7 chords. They advised trying it with Natural Arrangement turned off.

  • Use a more precise chord. Let's say you write G7 and hear G7(b9). You do not like the sound of the flatted ninth, so you can write G9 instead. Yes, you will hear the ninth, but almost certainly not a flatted or sharped nine. Or let's say you write a G chord but hear GMaj7 when that major seven conflicts with the melody. You could write G7 forcing the program to never play the major seventh, only the dominant seventh. Or write G6 or G69. The common attribute of these examples is that the more precise you are in specifying your chord, the less likely BIAB will choose a random color tone that you don't like.



  • Wrapping up. If you've made any of these changes to Settings and you like the effect, consider going to Options, Save Preferences. Then you can retrieve your preferred settings if you have to do Options, Return to Factory Settings to resolve a problem.

    I hope this helps address some of the questions I've seen recently on the forums. I welcome corrections and additions.

Last edited by Matt Finley; 06/26/25 10:54 AM. Reason: In this forum, I can only edit the first post, so I continue to do that.
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; Roland Integra-7, Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.