Ok, so I'm sure most if not all of us have used different features within the program to aid in completing a song beyond it just being the "Band behind you", whether it be suggestions of chords here & there, contribute a solo, intro or even a middle. But what about the whole thing, the entire song from start to finish?! Is that even feasible?? Well, today was my first time in doing precisely that; not just because I seem to have rather "misplaced my musical mojo" about 18 months ago or so, but also I was always aware of this as something the program was supposedly being able to do but I never really looked at as any sort of seriously viable thing, and quite frankly always suspected the demos of this had to have been 'fiddled' with by humans at some stage. But now the curiosity has finally got the better of me, so I give you: Band-in-a-Box, the artist - and it, to my astonishment, in return gave me this absolute beauty of a piece:
All I did was randomly pick the genre parameters (see screenshot) & sound sources where needed, and the program did the rest*, even the intro isn't mine
p.s. I was told this one might do well with lyrics so if any of you 'wordsmiths' out there see this one as a viable candidate, feel free to experiment.
* Note: The newer versions of the program now prefer to use RT styles for this task, but since there were elements of the midi style it would otherwise would've used in this case that I quite liked, I subtly 'merged' portions of it onto the other. And that's the only input I had in this little experiment.
Last edited by Icelander; 01/25/2203:42 PM. Reason: Afterthought
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BBox 2022 Audiophile, Mac Pro Intel, OSX 10.6.8, 800x600 (TV VGA)
Well, that didn't take long, the song has barely been up an hour!
Much obliged, I'm sure, much obliged
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BBox 2022 Audiophile, Mac Pro Intel, OSX 10.6.8, 800x600 (TV VGA)
This particular one is very impressive! Is this the "melodist" feature? I need to read in the manual more about this. Didn't realize it makes the entire song not just the melody.
Very cool. I've used that feature a lot many years ago to practice songs I didn't know because at the time I was in a house band kinda thing where travelling musicians would sit in and just play. BiaB made one for me recently that I changed very little called One Night Away.
Enough about me... Yeah, Icelander. it's a really cool feature. They even give the songs a title. It doesn't seem to write simple songs, but it is a fun feature. Thanks for sharing.
Enjoy whatever happens! marty
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@babumusic51 SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/marty-straub Band in a Box, Reaper, Cakewalk, Ozone 12, EZDrummer
Way back in the early days of using BB, I did quite a few such experiments. I found that often BB didn't provide a "good" song structure when I used the Melodist function. It did however, quite often, provide something that I could easily edit into something resembling a slightly more structured song.
I found that this worked well for jazz styles and have a few songs on my page to prove it. On my music page..... numbers 43, 46, 48, 65, & 66 to mention a few.
They've all been generated using the Melodist and then edited to better suit what I was hearing. Some are totally BB while others have some live instruments in them. I was using a fair amount of BB trumpet and trombone in some of them.
It's a very cool thing to use when you want to create something and just need a little bit of help to get the juices flowing.
Regarding your song..... I liked it.
Last edited by Guitarhacker; 01/26/2205:50 AM.
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.
I've occasionally used it when I couldn't think of anything, but then typically editing the heck out of it after that.
Yeah, that's what I was getting at with my sceptic remark on the existing demos, they seemed just a bit 'too good' to believe, you know. But I very intentionally resisted this here because that would've defied the point of the experiment... well, that and the fact that the result actually was pretty darn decent!
Last edited by Icelander; 01/26/2209:44 AM. Reason: Correcting mistakes
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BBox 2022 Audiophile, Mac Pro Intel, OSX 10.6.8, 800x600 (TV VGA)
This particular one is very impressive! Is this the "melodist" feature? I need to read in the manual more about this. Didn't realize it makes the entire song not just the melody.
Yup... or rather, that's one of the things it can do. Whether or not one then likes the outcome, that's another question - which this example here is somewhat all about, really.
Last edited by Icelander; 01/26/2209:49 AM. Reason: Correcting mistakes
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BBox 2022 Audiophile, Mac Pro Intel, OSX 10.6.8, 800x600 (TV VGA)
Very cool.====It doesn't seem to write simple songs===
Now, there's an understatement! I mean, even this seemingly simple piece here is deceptively complex - just take a look at the chords, you'l soon see there's actually a lot going on there:
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BBox 2022 Audiophile, Mac Pro Intel, OSX 10.6.8, 800x600 (TV VGA)
Very nice Janne. Incredible piece of software. Well done
Erm... "Janne"?
Last edited by Icelander; 01/29/2207:44 AM. Reason: Afterthought
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BBox 2022 Audiophile, Mac Pro Intel, OSX 10.6.8, 800x600 (TV VGA)
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BBox 2022 Audiophile, Mac Pro Intel, OSX 10.6.8, 800x600 (TV VGA)
Thanks, though I'm not sure how much credit I can take there, if any. I mean, while I did indeed manually do the panning & volume and (obviously) pick sound sources for the melody/solo, that's the extent of my input, really. It's even rendered to audio "straight out of the box", bad pun intended, so this genuinely is as much the application at work as can be, I'd say.
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BBox 2022 Audiophile, Mac Pro Intel, OSX 10.6.8, 800x600 (TV VGA)
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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.
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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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Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac® users: Build 904 now available!
If you're already using Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac®, make sure to grab the latest update! Build 904 is now available for download and includes the newest additions and enhancements from our team.
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