Greetings. I am taking a jazz course and there are provided BIAB .sgu files. When I open them I get the notice about the natural arrangement feature. I am not sure if I should care about this or whether I should NOT allow the program to monkey around with the file that was provided to me. Thoughts?
I would check with the course operators if you can, as they may expect with or without natural arrangement. If in doubt, I would say not, because natural arrangement will give you things like voice-leading, e.g., convenient-to-play inversions and possibly omitted notes or substitute notes.
I'll briefly explain voice-leading in case it's new ... it's the act of keeping changes of the notes within a progression close to each other, rather than jumping around, so I-IV-V7 in C might be played as C-E-G C-F-A D-F-G.
Edit: The chords are largely as expected, but the inversions of those chords will affect the sound quality. In my example I've also dropped the B from the V7 (G7) chord.
Last edited by Gordon Scott; 01/28/2208:05 AM.
Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful. AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11 BIAB2026 Audiophile, a bunch of other software. Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts .
NO. I think the course leader's advice is incorrect.
Keep in mind, we users do not know what is happening, and we do not have a definitive statement from PG Music, only a hint in Help, Natural Arrangement (Current Song) so I'm just giving an opinion.
So, my opinion is that the reverse is true: chord progressions that use complex chords will sometimes be simplified. This makes it more likely that longer phrases with better voice leading will be played. Also, in my experience, this only affects RealTracks. MIDI tracks will be played as-is. My advice is that, to get closer to the same results that the course leader expects, you should set Natural Arrangement to the same setting that the course leader is using.
I'll be interested to see what happens next.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
Thanks Matt, that seemed like the likely scenario as well to me. The track does use RealTracks exclusively. Sounds like I should turn the feature off then to preserve the chords as closely to what was written and intended as possible. Would you agree with this?
Also should I turn this off in the system wide options as well to just not have it engaged ever?
I am a composer of Brazilian jazz and I want the complex chords chords played exactly as I wrote them, so I have Natural Arrangement turned off. For the average BIAB user I would guess the opposite would be better; let the program enhance the smoothness of the sound by simplifying progressions and making better voice leading.
In your case, I think you need to ask the course leader and set yours the same way that person has his or hers set.
I addressed this a bit in my article in the Tips and Tricks Forum: When BIAB Plays Chords That Are Not Quite What You Wrote. I know you saw it.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
He replied that his feature IS turned on just like my screen shots provided to him, so I will stay with that too. Such interesting stuff and Matt, I so value your teaching and replies. You are wonderful!
What I do for many things where I gave an original supplied to me, is I first make a copy that I usually name, e.g., Exercise-Song-1.sgu.orig and then write protect it.
That I can play with the Exercise-Song.sgo to my hearts content and, if things dont work out, I just copy that .orig version to the working copy and start over again.
I do also have a second string, in that I also an automated backup system that duplicates all the data on my fileserver to a PC in an outbuilding and keeps it for many months. Handy if I make an othereise uninsured mistake.
Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful. AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11 BIAB2026 Audiophile, a bunch of other software. Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts .
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