The last bar in a great majority of the 4/4 country songs from the 1950s through the 1980's contained only 3-beats. But when I posted a question about how to do this with BIAB back quite a few years ago there didn't seem to be a satisfactory way to do it.
Users' suggestions included disabling the automatic ending and changing the final chord settings to "Hold Chord" or "Shot", but I found the results to be unsatisfactory in that they do not produce the same clean natural sounding decay as the default automatic ending on the 1st beat does.
I finally devised a rather complex way of doing it by importing the BIAB song into RealBand and manually creating an appropriate final bar there, but that's definitely a desperation way of obtaining something that should be selectable in BIAB itself.
I was hoping that with all the enhancements that have been made to BIAB in the last ten years, that simple feature might be among them. If anyone knows if there is now such a feature I would very much appreciate knowing about it. If there is not such a feature yet, I will be glad to share my step-by-step way of doing via RealBand with anyone who is interested.
Two bar ending, two chords in the penultimate and one with hold in the final PLUS fade? Your requirement is very specific but, as it pertains to a genre & era, you may have success placing this on the Wish List.
Cheers rayc "What's so funny about peace, love & understanding?" - N.Lowe
The last bar in a great majority of the 4/4 country songs from the 1950s through the 1980's contained only 3-beats. But when I posted a question about how to do this with BIAB back quite a few years ago there didn't seem to be a satisfactory way to do it.
I like rayc's suggestion. Am not familiar with this style of ending but if you can link an example or two I'd be happy to look at it as well.
DC Ron BiaB Audiophile Presonus Studio One StudioCat DAW dual screen Presonus Faderport 16 Too many guitars (is that a thing?)
DC Ron: Here are three Youtube links that demonstrate the three-beat ending that was ubiquitous in country music of the 1960s and 1970s. In those endings neither the drummer, the bass player, nor any other member of the band ever did anything fancier than was done throughout the entire song but merely let the last beat decay normally.
DC Ron: Here are three Youtube links that demonstrate the three-beat ending that was ubiquitous in country music of the 1960s and 1970s. In those endings neither the drummer, the bass player, nor any other member of the band ever did anything fancier than was done throughout the entire song but merely let the last beat decay normally.
Got it. Those are all really nice, and I know this ending more than I remembered when you first posted. (Thanks, Porter)
Following rayc's lead, I was able to get an I've Got a Tiger style ending as shown below. Bar 3 is 3 beats (F5) and uses microchords to place the B chord before the final sustained E. Bar 4 is back to 4 beats (F5 again). The E decays over 3+ bars but could perhaps use a fade.
Last edited by DC Ron; 06/07/2302:42 AM.
DC Ron BiaB Audiophile Presonus Studio One StudioCat DAW dual screen Presonus Faderport 16 Too many guitars (is that a thing?)
Thanks for the quick reply. I just purchased BIAB 2023 Pro today so I could try out the microchords, which I'm not familiar with. Is it possible for you to provide me with your project file for the example you've shown?
Last edited by Benevolent Deity; 06/09/2310:41 PM.
Thanks for the quick reply. I just purchased BIAB 2023 Pro today so I could try out the microchords, which I'm not familiar with. Is it possible for you to provide me with your project file for the example you've shown?
Sure. Here's I've Got a Tiger and one of your other examples, Each Time. The 2nd one didn't need microchords since it is SW8 and not SW16. Use F5 on the next to the last bar to see beat and tempo changes for each.
Ron, I messed around with it a bit to try to get a clean 3-beat ending for a 4/4 shuffle but ended up resorting to modifying the BIAB tracks in RealBand. I used the following four steps. A link to the result is provided below those steps. There might be a way to achieve the same result directly in BIAB but that's something for another day :-)
1. Set BIAB for a standard 2-bar ending with a 4-bar ending for RealTracks.
2. Create a BIAB song, but include 1 extra bar just before the ending bar with the same chord as the ending.
3. Import the BIAB song into RealBand.
4. In RealBand, delete the first two beats of the 1st automatic ending bar for all tracks. NOTE: If any of the tracks play something that is unwanted during the ending, delete two leading beats from them in some bar prior to the ending bar.
Hey, that sounds nice! I try out RealBand every other year or so just to see what's new, but have never gotten it into my workflow. Know there are power users on this forum who are true believers.
Should have been able to get about as close by shortening the bar length in BiaB, but there are no doubt many ways to get to that ending type. Glad you found one that works for you!
DC Ron BiaB Audiophile Presonus Studio One StudioCat DAW dual screen Presonus Faderport 16 Too many guitars (is that a thing?)
Mac 2025 Special Upgrade Offers Extended Until August 15th!
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Look Ma! More MIDI 13: Country & Americana
Instrumental Studies Set 22: 2-Hand Piano Soloing - Rhythm Changes
MIDI SuperTracks Set 44: Jazz Piano
Artist Performance Set 17: Songs with Vocals 7
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Artist Performance Set 18: Songs with Vocals 8
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New! Xtra Styles PAK 20 for Band-in-a-Box 2025 and Higher for Mac!
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New! XPro Styles PAK 9 for Band-in-a-Box 2025 and higher for Windows!
We've just released XPro Styles PAK 9 for Windows & Mac Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher) with 100 brand new RealStyles, plus 29 RealTracks/RealDrums!
We've been hard at it to bring you the latest and greatest in this 9th installment of our popular XPro Styles PAK series! Included are 75 styles spanning the rock & pop, jazz, and country genres (25 styles each) that fans have come to expect, as well as 25 styles in this volume's wildcard genre: funk & R&B!
If you're itching to get a sneak peek at what's included in XPro Styles PAK 9, here is a small helping of what you can look forward to: Funky R&B Horns, Upbeat Celtic Rock, Jazz Fusion Salsa, Gentle Indie Folk, Cool '60s Soul, Funky '70s R&B, Smooth Jazz Hip Hop, Acoustic Rockabilly Swing, Funky Reggae Dub, Dreamy Retro Latin Jazz, Retro Soul-Rock Fusion, and much more!
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XPro Styles PAKs require Band-in-a-Box® 2025 or higher and are compatible with ANY package, including the Pro, MegaPAK, UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, and Audiophile Edition.
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