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Folks,
As I "write" a chord sequences out and add repeats etc, how can I see the actual duration of the song in minutes and seconds?
Am I being really stupid here?
Thanks.
JL

Last edited by John Lancelotte; 12/31/23 12:42 PM. Reason: Incorrect spelling.
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Here you go.

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Thank you BT.
Lazy me wanted a timer. Ah well. Too much use of DAWS has spoilt me.

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If you unfold the song in BiaB you can see the time, see attached image. Since you didn't indicate if this was for BiaB or RB I included both:

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I added 4 repeats to a 32 bar song and borrowed Mario's image to show his timer of 1:41 changes to 4:54 when repeats are added. This indicates to me the timer works with repeats, codas, etc so it's unnecessary to unfold the song to use the BIAB timer.

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I think I get it, thank you both. What, though, is "unfolding?" (I've only had BIAB for 8 days).

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Originally Posted by Charlie Fogle
I added 4 repeats to a 32 bar song and borrowed Mario's image to show his timer of 1:41 changes to 4:54 when repeats are added. This indicates to me the timer works with repeats, codas, etc so it's unnecessary to unfold the song to use the BIAB timer.

That is interesting as it didn't change when I did a demo using one repeat. However I always do my songs unfolded so I obviously made a mistake.


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Originally Posted by John Lancelotte
I think I get it, thank you both. What, though, is "unfolding?" (I've only had BIAB for 8 days).

Hi John,

Unfolding is taking a song with repeats and converting it to a linear form. Say you have a song with 32 measures with a repeat of 10 measures in it. When that song is unfolded it will be 42 measures with no repeats. FWIW I always use the unfolded method from the start, that is no repeats, codas, etc, but that is my workflow and yours may be different.


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Thank you. So how do I fold and unfold? Sorry about the basic nature of the questions, but I'm in overwhelmed mode!!!

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Originally Posted by John Lancelotte
Thank you. So how do I fold and unfold? Sorry about the basic nature of the questions, but I'm in overwhelmed mode!!!

We all have been there and many times I still get in the overwhelmed zone!

One usually starts in one or the other mode. If you have repeats, codas, and such you are in folded mode. If you don't have them and your song is linear, that is one measure after another with no repeats, etc, you are in unfolded mode. Also you chorus repeats are set to one for the unfolded mode. You can go from one to another mode in edit, see attached images.

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AHA!!! Many thank again!! Much appreciated.
Happy new year, BTW.... It's 23:09 here, so nearly there!!

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John, there's a lot to learn about this program so don't hesitate to reach out. We're more that happy to help you with questions.

So on the UNFOLD thing.... It's something I do at the start of every song. Top menu....EDIT>SONG FORM>UNFOLD

This puts it into a linear form.... start to finish with no repeats. I was classically trained so reading the musical sign posts was second nature to me. However, I soon discovered that there were issues with the folded version. Setting up DC al coda and other things just didn't seem to work properly for me. In addition, I had no clue how to start it somewhere in the middle or near the end. So I unfolded it. That gives me a linear form and if I need to start at the beginning of the 3rd verse or the bridge, I simply click on that measure and hit GO. Any tags, repeats, whatever, even custom endings are all entered on the timeline where I want them to happen.

And yeah... the total length of the song is up top where they showed you. I use that a lot when I write something that has to be a certain running length.... either has to be a certain length or even how to know up front if I'm too long.


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Great! Thank you!

I really appreciate all the input, it's helping me dramatically.
Maybe I should say what I'm actually doing?
I'm a poor quality acoustic guitarist who has been "Open Mic nighting" for 8 years. Mostly I write my own songs, but you know how audiences are..... They want something popular, so I do some covers, but omit all the cliched stuff. Ok, this can make my "covers" a little odd, but that's ok.
My weapon of recording choice is Mixcarft 10 pro, which is versatile and fairly simple with no particular style bias.
I only started with BIAB Ultra on Christmas day, (2023), thanks to my wife.
Oh, ps..... I'm NOT young at all!
Again, thank you!
John.

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