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Hi!

As far as I know, BiaB doesn't include song sections in the MusicXML export. I'd appreciate if that feature could be added.


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Can you clarify what you call a section in BIAB?

Music XML is a standard that is not fully standardized. It’s also two-way. The receiving program wouldn’t know what a BIAB section was even if BIAB added and exported it. There are section letters (better known outside BIAB as rehearsal letters). Would that do?


BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Hey Matt,

I mean what you toggle in BiaB by clicking on the bar numbers of a chord sheet. I know that there are different tags which might be used/affected in a MusicXML file, but for me personally it would already be a big help if some kind of markers would be exported to XML, so that a python script could find them at the right places. However, as always: the more precise/complete the exported infos, the better it is.


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Ok, is that the A and B (and maybe more) substyles, shown by blue or green respectively?

I’ll run a test to see if BIAB includes any info for that when exporting Music XML. Of course, MIDI will appear ‘busier’ for B substyles.


BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Exactly, A and B and (potentially more) substyles, shown blue and green (and maybe more colours).
I haven't found any checkbox for including that in the export window, and I asked Gemini to search for any kind of section markers throughout the whole exportet XML-file, but Gemini couldn't find any.


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I examined the resulting Music XML code and I do not see anything that I think could be the sub styles.


BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Originally Posted by Matt Finley
I examined the resulting Music XML code and I do not see anything that I think could be the sub styles.

I agree.

Last edited by MoveToGroove; 01/08/26 04:38 PM.

BiaB UltraPak+ 2026; Windows 10
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You can follow the code? Very good. I’m curious then: did you try importing BIAB’s exported XML file into another program? Which one(s) would you want it to work with?

I think the eventual answer here would be for PG Music to find a company such as a notation program where the two companies could experiment with developing a new feature in Music XML. Or maybe the concept already exists? My point is it would seem futile to add this feature for export unless there is a destination for the info.

I hope someone has thought of this and there are programs that could read such code. Then I would give your suggestion a huge +1

From what I have observed, the pace of development of Music XML, which holds so much progress, has slowed.


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Hey Matt,

as much as I know, either the "rehearsal" or the "words" tag, both inside the "direction" tag, is already a standard for song sections.

However: I'd mainly put the XMLs into Guitar Pro, currently.
And, well, I can follow XML code roughly, but I use Gemini to help me with that.


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Then this Wishlist item could be to convert then export the substyles as consecutive rehearsal letters. It’s your wish, so add a comment and I’ll support it.

In my songs I make rather frequent A/B changes of substyles but I would be ok if each were a new consecutive rehearsal letter (or a number) since the blue/green/maybe-more colors are also there. Perhaps it could be a command or option in BIAB to add section letters (or numbers) automatically at each substyle change, and export them as rehearsal letters/numbers?


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It is possible to put in "Bar based section letters" in BIAB.
Right click at the beginning of a bar (blue green or nothig) and select a letter or number for the bar.
The bar now displays a section letter.

But it seems that it does not come out correctly in the XML They all come out as "@" ( <rehearsal font-weight="bold">@</rehearsal>).


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Hi shlind,

although an "@" would be enough at least for a python script to discover a new section, I wouldn't want to "activate" each section marker manually for the export, since there is already the blue or green (or other) color that marks the new section. I also don't care too much about section letters, personally.
What I'd need in the XML is just the info "Here begins a new section", derived from the bar number colours (since those are already there in the BiaB song - or in other words: whenever those are already there in the BiaB song), without any additional manual export preparation of the song. Anything on top (kind of the section, name of the section etc.) would be nice to have, but not absolutely necessary for me.


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Originally Posted by shlind
It is possible to put in "Bar based section letters" in BIAB.
Right click at the beginning of a bar (blue green or nothig) and select a letter or number for the bar.
The bar now displays a section letter.

But it seems that it does not come out correctly in the XML They all come out as "@" ( <rehearsal font-weight="bold">@</rehearsal>).
Correct. That’s what I asked about in my first reply, above. I think that’s half of the Wish here: to export bar-based section letters. The second half is to find out what it does in other programs. The OP mentioned Guitar Pro.


BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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I got the section letters to be included in the XML at the right places (but not always, in the example below I have added a dummy section marker on the bar that follws after the bar I want the marker on, otherwise it will not be included in the file)

However it seems that the section markers are exported to XML but there are probably some bugs.(hard to see what is going on).
The XML seems to be loaded ok into MuseScore and GP8 with all the section markers correctly placed.
So it might be possible to manually mark up the blue/green changes, who knows.

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BIAB 2026, Studio Pro 8, Song Master Pro, Win11 Home. i7-9700K CPU, 32GB, ESI MAYA44eX, ZOOM UAC-2, Guitar Pro 8, Transcribe, (EZKeys2, EZD3, SD3, EZBass, EZMix3)
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I've called this request to the attention of the developers.


BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Thanks Matt! And also thanks shling for investigating.


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