I haven't been using the favorite songs folders as described in BiaB, but thought I should investigate and probably set some up. I appear to be able to set any folder up as a favorites location and open files from it. So far so good.
However, if I try to open files via, e.g., Files->"Open Special"->"Open Favorite Songs", the dialog is empty unless I use either the [append] or [Add Fav] buttons to add them to a set list, so I'm really rather puzzled by what is, or is not, a "favorites folder". It appears to me that the above dialog is "set list(s)", not Favorite Songs.
I tried numerous question of ChatPG, which seemed rather to circumvent my questions, but eventually, in andswer to the following question: If the songs in the "Favorite Songs Folder" do not appear in the "Favorite Songs" dialog, why is the dialog called "Favorite Songs"?" came up with:
Quote
..... ### Conclusion
The "Favorite Songs" dialog serves as a quick access point for songs users have marked as favorites or frequently played, which does not necessarily correlate with all songs in the "Favorite Songs Folder." Users are encouraged to manage their favorites actively and utilize the dialog's features, such as rebuilding the song list, to ensure their selections are up to date.
OK, I think I may now understand how it works, by why so perverse?
Hmm ... I guess that's rhetorical.
Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful. AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11 BIAB2025 Audiophile, a bunch of other software. Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts .
I originally thought that rhetoric confused me because it was Western thinking. I am an Easterner, so sometimes I really don’t understand it, which makes me even more confused. Today I understand that Westerners can’t understand it either. ^_^
I originally thought that rhetoric confused me because it was Western thinking. I am an Easterner, so sometimes I really don’t understand it, which makes me even more confused. Today I understand that Westerners can’t understand it either. ^_^
Ah, yes, that may well confuse.
We use the same basic word two ways: Rhetoric and Rhetorical.
Rhetoric is generally a well-planned speech to state a specific view. It's what you will often hear from politicians and they usually reject or ignore any questioning of the meaning or intent of their speech.
Rhetorical can be used to refer to Rhetoric, but is (in the UK at least) is more often used to mean that a question does not really need an answer. I guess that use comes because questioning or doubting the "well-planned speech" will just be ignored.
I think there are words and sentence structures in most or all languages that will confuse people from other cultures with other languages.
Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful. AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11 BIAB2025 Audiophile, a bunch of other software. Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts .
You're correct, they are lists. Management lists to be exact.
Songs will be an auto-saved list of the last 150 Songs (SGU files) loaded into the program. Super easy way to recover that song you worked on two weeks ago. Unless, since it was last saved, you moved it or removed from that saved folder. See attachment one.
Favorites and Recently are not only for management but also powerful search tools for controlling the massive quantity of Styles in the StylePicker by breaking down the StylePicker into user designated and smaller search parameters of a maximum number of 150 styles. This functions to match releases of Tutorials, RealTrack sets, Midi sets, Bonus Styles, XPro sets, XStyles Sets, etc. which translates into manageable search segments that are often also focused on a particular artist, genre, or instrument.
Search segments can easily and quickly be found by using the "What add-ons do I have" selection and determine specific set or Pak titles. I usually use XPro Style sets. They seem to be more varied and universally applicable to many different genres. Restricting a search to 100 universal styles that will definitely have all of the RealTrack instruments is very useful to a search. For instance, to search using the latest Xpro8 2025 release, in the StylePicker, Type xpro8 in the filter search bar and the 100 new xpro8 styles will populate the StylePicker list.
As you double click to audition styles on the list, each style you audition will automatically populate the Recently Played list. Any Style you find that may make into your project, marking it as a Favorite will populate that style into the Favorites folder. Assume you auditioned 50 Styles, marked 7 as favorites, now from the Main Chord Sheet, typing s4 or s5 in any bar on the Chord Sheet will open the recently played or favorites list and instant access for loading one of styles from either list.
The lists can then be saved with the song project name or any name you choose so the list can be retrieved in the future if you open the SGU file again to work on. Using the 'S' shortcuts from the Chord Sheet is well worth learning and using on your projects. Users can save and load as many different Recently Played and Favorite lists as desired. Saving these lists on a per project basis or per search basis brilliantly harnesses searches into manageable bites for future reference. Also, the 'S' shortcuts can be typed into any measure regardless if that measure contains chords or is empty. The shortcuts do not overwrite any entries of a measure.
Saving a list and clearing the Favorites and Recent Play starts each new project with a clean slate to populate for that particular project.
Hmm, right ... "Favorite Songs" != "Favorites Folder". "Favorites Folders" seems to remember some list of folders recently opened and their parents.
I simplified part of the process by using a Linux tool to generate a list of all the files in the folder of repertoire for the band, massaged it into Windows path style and merged it into bb/Preferences/SongFavorites.txt. That saved a lot of time and seems to have worked well.
I see I'm going to spend a little while working out how the set-lists work. My experiments so far have been rather inconsistent.
Recently auditioned demos appearing in the recently played list might be useful. I'd doubt I'd ever have thought of looking there for them.
I shall investigate those S shortcuts ... maybe they're less clunky than the "Favorite Songs" dialog.
Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful. AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11 BIAB2025 Audiophile, a bunch of other software. Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts .
Hmmm ... unless I'm missing something, which is quite possible, it appears that once I've opened a set-list I can no longer get back to the "Favorite Songs" list in the "Favorite Songs" dialog. [Clear] just empties the content, [Load Set] won't offer SongFavorites.txt for load, even restarting BiaB does not load the list. I tried loading a non-existant .FSO ... no joy, but it did then offer all file-types instead of just *.FSO, so I navigated to the bb/Preferences folder and ... no SongFavorites.txt file! I opened a backup copy that my editor had left behind and got a (possibly corrupt) list of files all marked --- (N/A) ---. I tried another backup (SongFavorutes.txt.un~ and got a quite obviously corrupt list. The SongFavorites.txt file and .FSO files are different structures, so that's no surprise to me. Sigh!
Edit: I'm also a bit puzzled why SongFavorites.txt and the .FSO files use different structures as they seem to contain essentially equivalent information.
Edit: SongFavorites.txt seems to contain only the contents of the last .FSO file I opened, not my 'favorite' songs. What is the point of apparently two different features in the same space overwiting each other? Rhetorical again.
Edit: The favorites folder also seems to be the last folder from which one loaded a song, so the whole set-list concept seems toi be built on quicksand. I guess thay work if one has only one folder, but they appear to fail fairly catastropically if one has any kind of heirarchical filing system.
Last edited by Gordon Scott; 12/21/2408:55 AM.
Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful. AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11 BIAB2025 Audiophile, a bunch of other software. Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts .
Does anyone use this feature for set lists and can give some hints on how to make it work nicely?
Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful. AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11 BIAB2025 Audiophile, a bunch of other software. Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts .
I now think the only way to make this work is to set up a folder of songs for a set, then set up a .FSO file in that folder to define the play order ... assuming the play-order part of Juke actually works as it appears to be suggested.
Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful. AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11 BIAB2025 Audiophile, a bunch of other software. Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts .
For a set list, I suggest using the Open Special>Open Favorite Songs. There are two views. Recently Played is a list of the 75 most recently played songs (SGU) files.
The second view, Favorites are songs selected from the recently played songs to be added as specific songs for a Set List. As you create an SGU file for a song you want to play live, it is automatically added to the recently played list. The recently played list constantly changes and is updated with each SGU file you create. In order to preserve it as a song for a set list, you must save it as a favorite.
The Favorite View becomes the Song List you will save.
Assuming your recently played list is populated with the last 75 songs you've loaded into the program, review the list for active songs (NA means that file has been moved or deleted- so only select songs that are not NA)
As you review the active songs and find a song to add to your Set List, mark it as a FAV. This will copy that song to the Favorite's list. Assume you create a list of 30 favorites from the recently played list. - Save the Favorites in this list using the Save Set Button. A folder window will open, give the set a unique name and save it. That Set, is now named and saved permanently in a folder on your pc.
You can now clear this unique set list, and create and open existing songs (SGU files) in order they will be added automatically to the recently played list or for every song you create or open that you intend to add to a new or existing set, open the favorite songs window and add that song from the recently played list as a FAV, to the favorites folder. Clearing the Favorites allows you to begin a new set list. The current set list you just saved can be retrieved at any time. The Favorites Folder can be saved, opened and appended then resaved to create a set over a period of days, weeks or months.
Holding the Shift key down as you open a set list allows you to open multiple saved lists appended to the first and create sets with duplicate songs in both lists.
ss2 typed into any bar of the Chord Sheet instantly opens the recently played songs and ss3 opens the favorites list. Using the shortcut does not overwrite any chord or chords that populates a bar. This allows you to add a song to a set list directly from the Chord Sheet without a series of key strokes and opening different windows.
I note that your .FSO files are stored in the same places as the songs, which was also the only way I concluded it would work reasonably sensibly. Unfortunately the --- [N/A] --- doesn't just mean the songs have been moved or deleted, it alternatively means the favourites folder has been changed and it appears the favourites folder changes as one moves File->Open to a different folder, so I think it's really fundamentally broken.
I put a suggestion in the Wish list that I believe should fix the behaviour I see, without breaking the behaviour you used above.
Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful. AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11 BIAB2025 Audiophile, a bunch of other software. Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts .
Good morning Gordon. I agree. Because the recently played files are changing locations, it also changes the location for the favorites. I had not used this function for songs before, but I do use the Styles recently played and favorites daily. I didn't notice the saving location difference until you pointed it out because I hadn't tested enough songs and also avoided the obvious NA's. This is not a problem with Styles since they are in a static folder location. Conversely, songs are stored in multiple folders both designated and user optional all over the pc and external storage.
Using this for more than a single use set list, I see where there are some song saving parameters would need to be updated. It's a great single use set list option where the user creates a current and active set list in the favorites window from the current recently played list but making sure no other SGU files are opened and updated to the Recently Played list. I'll give your wish list suggestion support as this could be useful to many to have a static favorites folder.
I'll use this function some more because it's possible something is being overlooked so far. It doesn't seem reasonable to me that a user created list doesn't remain static
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Few things are certain in life: death, taxes, and a brand spankin’ new XPro Styles PAK! In this, the 10th edition of our XPro Styles PAK series, we’ve got 100 styles coming your way! We have the classic 25 styles each from the rock & pop, jazz, and country genres, and rounding out this volume's wildcard slot is 25 styles in the Praise & Worship genre! A wide spanning genre, you can find everything from rock, folk, country, and more underneath its umbrella. The included 28 RealTracks and RealDrums can be used with any Band-in-a-Box® 2026 (and higher) package.
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