Hi Dainis,

I watched the video - and my comments/answers are below. In the end, it seems you have just one main question, which is how to align a fixed tempo track to your free time recording (see bold question at the bottom of this message) I actually am not sure how to do that in Logic but I'm almost certain someone here can tell you how.

10:25 - This is the "MIDI chord wizard". If you click Interpret chords now, it will try to figure out the chords in your MIDI file. There is no standard meta event in the MIDI file specification for chords, so Band-in-a-Box does not see the chords that you had written, it is literally trying to figure them out by analyzing the notes on each track. This is not going to work well with a MIDI file that contains only a melody track. It is intended for MIDI files that are complete songs with accompaniment tracks. It will also import specified channels in your MIDI file onto the tracks, as specified in the settings there on the left side of the dialog.

It knows the key is F# likely because that is an event in your MIDI file, as exported from Finale.

Note - Band-in-a-Box itself uses a custom meta event when saving MIDI files, and will recognize those chords if importing that MIDI file.

Newer versions of Band-in-a-Box support musicXML which is a standard for transferring music notation - including chord symbols.


10:36 - You didn't click Interpret Chords, that's why you are only seeing a C chord (existing chord sheet was not changed).

11:41 - Thanks we should allow .midi in addition to .mid in the File-Open dialog.
11:41 - Import Melody from MIDI file. The name of this menu item is a bit confusing. A typical use is in fact exactly that, however is is possible to import your entire MIDI file or any combination of channels as specified in the Import MIDI file dialog. "Import Melody from MIDI file" simply opens the Import MIDI file dialog with the Melody track selected as the destination track. In older versions of Band-in-a-Box, the Melody and Soloist tracks were the only tracks you could import to. In more recent versions, there are several Utility tracks that can be used as well.

12:10 - Track 1 in your MIDI file might have some meta data about the song, like key signature.

13:03 - Channels are "greyed out" if Band-in-a-Box does not detect any events on those channels.

13:22 - Band-in-a-Box has a 2 bar count-in. Your MIDI file does not, which means you should have set "number of blank bars to insert at beginning" to 2.

13:34 - It's just playing whatever style you currently have selected.

14:11 - There is no mystery here. You have RegaeJam.sty selected. When you press Play, BiaB is generating accompaniment tracks for RegaeJam on the Bass, Piano, Guitar, Drums, and Strings tracks, and playing them over a C chord, because that's what you have. The fact that you have notes on your Melody track now (imported from your MIDI file) does not change this.

I would select a style that has a similar feel to your song - sounds like 4/4 even 16th feel. Then set the key signature, and tempo of the song. Next, type in the chord symbols into the chord sheet.

22:39 - I'm guessing that Logic is good at finding downbeats if your tune contains strong beats with drums and bass notes. You just have an acoustic strummed guitar. Band-in-a-Box would likely have difficulty detecting the beats in that file as well. Can you not tap the beats throughout your song an create the tempo map that way? I am not too familiar with Logic specifically, but I'm sure it is possible.

26:46 - Again, there is no mystery. All you have done is import an audio file to the Band-in-a-Box audio track of the curent song, which happens to be a C chord played by a MIDI Reggae style. You can view the audio track by clicking on the Audio Edit window in the Views toolbar panel. Note: FYI when you save a BiaB song, the audio track is saved as a .wav file with the same name as your BiaB song file.

28:35 - There IS a chord analysis tool that attempts to determine the chords in an audio file. This is the "Audio Chord Wizard". You'll find it in the audio edit window. However for your purposes, I think you should just go ahead and type the chords into Band-in-a-Box - it is simple, whereas with the chord wizard you'll need to tap tempo, and it might not get all of the chords right and require manually adjustment anyways. Basically, since you already KNOW exactly what the chords are, just type them in.


32:48 - I agree with AudioTrack, you are spending a lot of time just expecting the software (both Logic and BiaB) to automatically think like a human and start jamming with you, detecting beats, playing the right type of music, detecting chords, playing in the right key and tempo, time-stretching tracks on the fly. And maybe it should(!), but these are all very difficult things for software to do, and there are so many possible interpretations. You need to provide it with some kind of instruction.

34:35 - This is a swing feel - different than your other song. Make sure to choose a style in BiaB with the right feel.

As I mentioned, it seems like you have only one question, which is how do you add some tracks to your existing audio track that was recorded in free time.

(Normally people are asking the opposite, how do you align an audio track that was recorded in free time to a click track - this is something that Band-in-a-Box CAN do, using the Audio Chord Wizard).

It seems like your workflow should be this:

  • 1. Create a tempo map for your audio track in Logic. I think this is easy, just takes a little bit of work to add the tempo markers, or perhaps you can tap the beats throughout the song by tapping your keyboard. <--- perhaps someone with Logic could confirm.
  • 2. Enter your song into Band-in-a-Box. Easy - just set the tempo, key, and type in the chords. Set the begin and end bars, you probably just want one chorus. You might be able to enter chords quickly by exporting xml file from finale, but it will likely be a much more straight forward process to just type them in directly.
  • 3. Find a good accompaniment in Band-in-a-Box. Easy - open the StylePicker, set the appropriate filters for feel / tempo / etc. and start auditioning by double-clicking on various styles. Or, you could think of a popular song that has the same feel as yours and type in that song name into the Song Titles database (on the right side of the StylePicker) - that will set the filters automatically. You will want select a RealStyle (no MIDI), but which ones are available will depend on which Band-in-a-Box version and package you have.
  • 4. Export the Band-in-a-Box generated tracks as an audio file (e.g. WAV / AIFF). This is also easy, and there are several ways to do this, but one way is the "WAV" button in the File toolbar panel, and click export with options. You can include ACID info, which has the tempo. (It is also possible to drag tracks from the top 'radio' buttons directly into a DAW)
  • 5. Align the imported fixed tempo tracks to your tempo map <---- ??? I'm not sure what the best way to do this is - it might be easy. I am almost positive that there is an expert on this forum that can tell you exactly how to do it. Hopefully someone will jump in and let you know, and I will be interested to learn as well. You can't do it in Band-in-a-Box though, which is why instead of importing your audio track into Band-in-a-Box, you will import your Band-in-a-Box track into the DAW.


Essentially though, what needs to happen is that regions of the imported audio track need to be time stretched such that the beats align with your variable tempo. <---- Can someone answer this question, for Logic or for your DAW of choice?

Andrew
PG Music Inc.