I think it is the design of the function. From a novices point of view it has booby traps and is obscure and counter-intuitive, It works in strange ways.

Firstly there are actaully two repeat dailogue boxes, in completely different places. One is found via the right click menu, whi=en hovering on a bar, which is fair enough, but the other could not be better hidden if you deliberately tried. Firstly, you have to discover that you need to click "Fake Sheet". This term Fake sheet has nothing to do with repeat functions as far as I can see. Although an experienced jazz player might know of it, I would say most learners (and BIAB is for learners) do not know what this term means and even when they do discover it, the menue is about repeats! Not only this, but the fake sheet option does not even appear on my screen. ypou have to click the black chevrons, next to which is a big space whichcoiuld have been used..... but I digress...
Then the learner has to get used to teh idea of having a "dark grey" verse, which is hard to read, being the second "repeat" verse and having not one, but tow cursors to visually follow.

Really? Is this the best way to convey a second repeat - visually? On my screen it leads to a lot of jumping about as the screen resizes.


By default it is open at two different ending repeats with the hairpins, It should open IMO at the Simple repeat above. I have got the the "first and second endings" function working here but it was a challenge. If I click my way through repeat defaults i would expect a simple repeat and no dumping of copied bars.

I work in the Chord Sheet window, and I spend all my time looping the phrases i want to focus on. The looping function jumps about at teh best of times, one lcick away and you have lost it and have to re-loop. so often it displays a loop visually but marches on past it. Never touch teh spacebar is teh motto for learners. (which could have been set up to either obey or disobey loops in preferences).

It's like this all over BIAB. a labrinth with false doors IMO. I think the interface needs to have all its sub menues redesigned. Some have spin buttons but many do not even where it is required. Some menus. like the "Key menu" use far too much space and could be accomplished with simple tick boxes "Major?", Just set key options and a spin box for keys. The Start and End buttons (in the blackboard bit) should be spin buttons but are not, the "Choruses" button however is a table of numbers you have to click on, why not a spin button?

Menu items are odd. If i click on "Open Preferences" for example, elsewhere I expect a Preferences panel, not a folder. This should be called load preferences. By custom preferences is found in the Edit menu elsewhere, but in Band in a Box, it's in the Options menu - learners need to remember this too. These kind of rabbit holes and lack of consistency of design, throw cyclists of bicycles. This, coupled with the Windows 95 look, which millenials associate with toys, do the product no good and (IMO) drastically reduce its base.
Having said all this, Band in Bpx is truly a fantastic product. I use it every day, much more than my Sequencer, CUbase 14. I do ha e ot confine myself to typing in chords for practice and simple use of songs.I never record in it. I don't use VSTs in it, after waiting many years for BIAB to join the 64 bit world, it simply crashed my VSTs and i have never been back. Still for day to day learning, of an instrument, it is the very best thing one can have. I feel sad

I think BIAB needs ot make much morenoise about real tracks - this should be via pictures of real humans, not "sillouttes" but rela gus and girls playing, all over the website and every tuition video should have 3=5 seconds of actual studio sessions where the sounds are recorded. This would bring home the live feel which is so important to this product.

Z

Win 11 64, Asus Rog Strix z390 mobo, 64 gig RAM, 8700k