I wish selected bars could be frozen and unfrozen ... including obviously the parts of the tracks contained within those bars, while permitting regeneration of unfrozen bars entirely, or tracks therein not otherwise frozen.
This and the opposite ability to regenerate 'en masse' selected bars and their constituent tracks ... other than any frozen, would be a tremendous step forward for BIAB's workflow.
I was encouraged to post this in the Wishlist following a post in another forum here on Bar Freezing. It contains a fuller description of how this might work.
I thought when you Alt+F8 a section the track state is then set to frozen but you can still Alt+F8 other sections on that track still but it won't destroy everything if you hit Gen/Play ?
If you had freeze individual sections you would need to keep track of them all, maybe in the Audio Edit view highlight that section of track on that instrument (bars or beats) then right click Freeze Section then it will have a blue overlay color maybe ? and right click Un-Freeze Section or Un-Freeze All Sections ? It would have to work with midi also for when they add that multiriff for midi function, so maybe that could use the Audio Edit window of the midi track ?
Sorry, but I don't think it's a good idea. You can already do that with partial regeneration, just need to think differently (regenerate what you don't like instead of keeping what you like). Adding a new way to do something that you can already do with the program would not add any extra value, it could be potentially confusing for other users, and it would require extra development resources that could be employed in GUI redesign / simplification or bug fixing.
Sorry, but I don't think it's a good idea. You can already do that with partial regeneration, just need to think differently (regenerate what you don't like instead of keeping what you like). Adding a new way to do something that you can already do with the program would not add any extra value, it could be potentially confusing for other users, and it would require extra development resources that could be employed in GUI redesign / simplification or bug fixing.
No need to be sorry. There's room for many opinions here.
You may already understand this, but just to be sure it's clear, what I propose is actually more than what 'ALT+F8' can do. The current iteration of 'ALT + F8' only permits regeneration of a single track in a static arrangement. A 'Bar Freeze' approach would permit regeneration of all tracks for a specified section of the Chord Sheet or selected bars.
This accomplishes at least three important things. One would be to add or remove pushes, holds, shots and rests or simply change a chord to the entire arrangement without having to regenerate track by track. Another would be to make a style change, either changing the selection of the A, B, etc. patterns or adding a whole new style to part of a song. And finally, it would take less time than having to regenerate tracks one at a time.
I would be equally satisfied if I could make a similar selection of bars and regenerate all in a single pass, keeping the rest temporarily frozen.
As I said in the other thread, this is a different way of looking at it and I can see more efficiency in doing it this way. Less regeneration time; not limited to one area.
+1
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.
If you had freeze individual sections you would need to keep track of them all, maybe in the Audio Edit view highlight that section of track on that instrument (bars or beats) then right click Freeze Section then it will have a blue overlay color maybe ? and right click Un-Freeze Section or Un-Freeze All Sections ?
Why not simply on the Chord Sheet? Have the bars colored or a colored or heavy frame around the bar?
You have 24 tracks with different sections frozen I don't know how you would display that all on the chord sheet ? you will have to post a pic. Someone said about a multitrack audio display like a DAW ? Biab does seem to be moving into a DAW.
I don't want or expect it to move into a DAW. I've got a couple that work just fine.
The idea of a frozen section is that all tracks in that section are frozen. So, what else is to keep track of?
If you wanted to Alt+8 one of those frozen tracks in the section, well while you were doing so that track would revert to unfrozen and when you were done it would reconfirm to its brethren.
Even so, that's not the idea. The idea is one section or more of bars is at the moment foresee-ably finished/ done/ perfect/ etc. and you don't want to mess further with it ... but later if you change your mind you still can.
Like this so it freezes the Master of that section ? so it applies to the song section rather than individual tracks ? I think it's already becoming a DAW with all those extra tracks instead of standard BB 7, so you have a 24 track workstation with digital audio, that horse has bolted.
I wish selected bars could be frozen and unfrozen ... including obviously the parts of the tracks contained within those bars, while permitting regeneration of unfrozen bars entirely, or tracks therein not otherwise frozen.
This and the opposite ability to regenerate 'en masse' selected bars and their constituent tracks ... other than any frozen, would be a tremendous step forward for BIAB's workflow.
I was encouraged to post this in the Wishlist following a post in another forum here on Bar Freezing. It contains a fuller description of how this might work.
<The idea is one section or more of bars is at the moment foresee-ably finished/ done/ perfect/ etc. and you don't want to mess further with it ... but later if you change your mind you still can. >
In this particular situation a good solution is to use BIAB's Artist Performance File feature to freeze and save bars, because it meets all of these qualifications.
An Artist Performance File can include all of the tracks of a section of bars or any combination of using some instruments and excluding others. It's an appropriate solution regardless of a track or bar's media type content. It works with midi, supermidi, loops, RealTracks, audio or any combination of these.
Using the Artist Performance File feature allows continued editing and regeneration of the entire Chord Sheet and then include the saved APF or APF's to replace the desired bars in the final render.
Like this so it freezes the Master of that section ? so it applies to the song section rather than individual tracks ?
Yes, that is exactly the idea. I'm not sure about what you mean about "Master of that section?"
I conceive of it as a selection of bars, which could of course be an entire chorus. It would be obvious if the Chord Sheet was unfolded, but otherwise it would be illustrated as the choruses played through.
Something like, 'freeze bars 1-16 chorus two.'
F5 window would be the logical place to work from.
This also suggests that there is already coding that should make a like function not that much of a reach to incorporate into the normal Chord Sheet workflow.
This is a good idea. It is the way I thought it should have been at the very beginning. But please don't call it "Inverse Regeneration" , I get confused enough with the operation of these new features to have to deal with reverse thinking !
This is a good idea. It is the way I thought it should have been at the very beginning. But please don't call it "Inverse Regeneration" , I get confused enough with the operation of these new features to have to deal with reverse thinking !
Sometimes the newer users see things as they could have been, rather than as our experience has taught us to work with them, and I think this is one such case. What do you want to call it, Dan? "Generate where you want" has a nice ring to 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.
This is a good idea. It is the way I thought it should have been at the very beginning. But please don't call it "Inverse Regeneration" , I get confused enough with the operation of these new features to have to deal with reverse thinking !
I don't really have a dog ... or even a cat in that fight.
Honestly, I used that title for the Wishlist post as I thought it could draw attention to reading it. As in, 'what the hell is this about?'
How about 'Composition Lock?' Oops! I'm afraid that's the inverse of Matt's suggestion.
.. I'm not sure about what you mean about "Master of that section?"...
It's like if you had a Freeze button on the Master track it would freeze All tracks same as if you press the Mute button on the Master track it mutes all tracks. At the moment you have to go to menu Play > Freeze All Tracks So any section you freeze on the Master will freeze on All tracks.
OK, but I don't want to freeze all tracks. I only want to freeze the parts of all tracks contained within specified bars or sections which I select.
If you think about a spread sheet, I don't want to just freeze a row, which is what is similar to current track freeze. I want to freeze all rows in sections of columns. Columns being similar to the bars in the Chord Sheet.
I would need the master bus for the unfrozen sections I still want to work on.
That is just an example that it needs also if you want to freeze All tracks when done. The bar freeze will be a separate freeze for just the section/s of track but on the Master. If that's what you all want.
How might this happen? You click on the Master Bus somewhere and a smaller Chord Sheet opens where you select the bars you want frozen?
I can see that having a function on the Master Bus where you freeze everything so you don't inadvertently regenerate would be handy, but I'm flummoxed as to how this would work with bar/ section freezing.
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