Originally Posted by Matt Finley
You are welcome. I am happy to assist in your refining your wish.

Improving the style search process is a frequent request, for all styles including MIDI-based ones. +1

I also agree with your assessment of the existing MultiStyles effort. I'm glad you acknowledge it is a tool they have already given us, that had not yet been mentioned here. So I would like to explore your request further, if that's OK. I am as interested as you are in improving this area of BIAB.

Given so many existing styles, 12,000+, how many permutations of those would make enough combinations that would please more than a few people? Curating lots of these would be a massive effort. You say that you are reluctant to make even one, and you would like PG Music to create them. You might never use yours again, you said. How widely do you think theirs would they be used? I'm also curious, how does someone define a style as complementary to another? How much contrast is required? How much difference is allowed? To help PG Music in this effort, how many substyles are desired to meet your needs?

Yes, making music can be fun and relaxing, but it does take effort to do it well.
As a realist, I understand my request should be filed under "wishful thinking" rather than as a serious wishlist item! laugh

But seriously, I think the way to handle this would be to start from the end. So, start with the newest styles and try and identify a few complementary styles. And maybe limit this effort, at least initially, to the more modern music styles and/or the most popular ones. I certainly agree this would be massive but maybe it never goes beyond the most recent couple of releases?

And as to how widely these would be used I honestly have no idea. But how many people are using VideoTracks or UserTracks? Both features sounded very interesting in marketing materials but I don't think anyone would claim they have become hugely popular.

And to the question of how to define a complementary style, well, that is an excellent question! And I have no idea. And it could well be that it is not possible or at least not practical. I don't mean to continue to gripe about the search but I'm afraid if the search cannot be significantly improved beyond its current state then there is probably little hope for complementary styles being identified in an effective manner.

Maybe the best we can hope for is that PGM will improve the search so that we can find styles more quickly on our own.

To elaborate on my point about me making my own MultiStyles, I bought BIAB (over and over) to help me make music. When I search and search and finally find a couple of complementary styles I'm ready to use those styles to do the thing I use BIAB for! Make music. Not create a MultiStyle I will almost certainly never use again. It would be an extra step without purpose and drag me further away from making music. Now, if someone loves playing with creating MultiStyles or UserTracks or VideoTracks, then all the more power to them! I just wanna make some music using these awesome RealTracks and I'd love an easier way for me to mine this pile of 12,000+ styles!