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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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The BIAB 2026 Manual (PDF) says this on page 74 (per the StylePicker):
"You can also audition a style by actually playing it over the current chord progression of your song.
The green arrow button plays your song with the currently highlighted style."
But this is not working. I select a style and it is highlighted but BIAB doesn't play the style that is highlighted when I press the green play button in StylePicker.
BIAB 2026 Audiophile for Windows (it sets the foundation for all my songs)
REAPER (latest version)
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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This should be an easy fix. You need to configure it with the + button which is in the DEMO menu of the Style picker. Hit that + sign, then click "play your chords not the online demo" when you dbl click a style"./
by the say, this should have always been the default. So many folks are not even aware of this feature...
Last edited by DrDan; 04/01/26 02:27 PM.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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OP
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What I'm seeing when I do what you say is this:
Allow Internet to play demos
Double-click (or Spacebar) plays Chord Sheet (not premade demo)
The latter is checked.
So, I can double-click or press the Spacebar, but this loads the style I want to preview into my song. But I just want to preview and not load the highlighted style. This always loads the style into my song. How can I just play and preview?
BIAB 2026 Audiophile for Windows (it sets the foundation for all my songs)
REAPER (latest version)
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Yeah, you’re not the first to point this out. This is just the way they did it. I will tell you the developers got some pretty hard push back on this when it was introduced, but in the end it stayed as it is today.
Last edited by DrDan; 04/01/26 03:21 PM.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Okay, thanks again for your response. But I want PG Music to fix this as it is not doing what the manual says it should do.
Therefore a bug - again it is not doing what the manual says it is supposed to do.
BIAB 2026 Audiophile for Windows (it sets the foundation for all my songs)
REAPER (latest version)
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On page 74, the instruction manual says: "The green arrow button plays your song with the currently highlighted style."
This does not seem to be happening at the moment. That said, it could be me who is at fault, though. Just to be certain that the green arrow is working correctly, I'll pass the information on to the development team and reference this thread.
--Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Thanks much Noel!
Because I often preview many styles but wish not to have all of them get loaded into my songs when I select them.
BIAB 2026 Audiophile for Windows (it sets the foundation for all my songs)
REAPER (latest version)
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I have no objection at all regarding stirring the pot on this item and putting this back to the developers. Just want to confirm, I feel the green play button is behaving exactly as it has always since its last launch. I think the OP is pointing out that having to change the styles to audition a new style over his chords is poor design. That, I agree with. So this is more a quesion about defining what "currently highlighted style" means. When you use the green Play button it does play the style which is "identified/highlighted" in the header of the StylePicker.
But having said all that, carry on guys and good luck.
Dan
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AurealiusB
1) Demo playing - is like playing your pre recorded MP3 song - that is essentially what BIAB is doing
2) to play chord sheet, BIAB has to load that style. There is no way "around" that. Period.
Technically, it could render or ghost load style in the background, but that would take a lot of time + extra steps and be limited to only a segment of composition. Imagine having 120 bar tune, but you want to audition last 5 bars. It would be impossible.
The only 2 things that need "fixing" concerning playing chord sheet in my humble view, is to:
A) explain in manual what exactly play chord sheet means to avoid confusion.
B) Have a solid Undo history function, so you can revert to whatever style you had initially.
Current method is a power feature, I would hate if PGM dumbs it down or make it more complex inviting extra steps. If you are not ready for it, use premade demos to audition.
Last edited by Rustyspoon#; 04/02/26 01:50 AM.
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Sure it plays the style in the song header. However, when I press the green Play button, I want it to just play the style that is highlighted in the StylePicker. The 2026 manual says it does that, but in BIAB 2026 it doesn't do that. And that is the whole point of the StylePicker, to play styles that are highlighted when the Green Play button is clicked.
I disagree that the Green Play button has always done this because it didn't. It worked just fine in BIAB 2024 (plus ALL the other versions of BIAB going back ten years). I miss this capability. I never use the demo, why would I? I put the all the chords into the bars in my song and want them to be played. I want to test/preview 20 to 30 different styles and not load any into my song unless I really like that particular style. Can't see why development doesn't consider this a problem. I can work around this issue, but having to quickly test styles in just the StylePicker with my song's chords is so, so much more helpful.
Last edited by AurealiusB; 04/01/26 10:55 PM.
BIAB 2026 Audiophile for Windows (it sets the foundation for all my songs)
REAPER (latest version)
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I was under impression that you did want the styles to play Chord Sheet, but not loading / replacing tracks in the project.
"Double-click (or Spacebar) plays Chord Sheet (not premade demo)
The latter is checked."
If I was wrong about that, please ignore my post.
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I disagree that the Green Play button has always done this because it didn't. It worked just fine in BIAB 2024 (plus ALL the other versions of BIAB going back ten years). I miss this capability. AurealiusB - That is fair, I am afraid I may have misspoke. I did think my claim was true but I have no evidance. Over the years we have had so many deep discussions about workflow in BIAB that I tend to be a bit confused at times.  If you are correct that makes me agree with you even more that the current feature needs to be adjusted. I was under impression that you did want the styles to play Chord Sheet, but not loading / replacing tracks in the project. Rusty, I think that is exactly the issue here. The OP says we could do this in v2024 and prior, but we lost this feature in current v2026. If that is truely the case we need to open up this can of worms again! 
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There was some convoluted method requiring opening non modal window with spaceship dials that would let you audition certain bars. I believe essentially what it did was it rendered or ghost loaded piece of chord sheet and sort of auditioned segment. I hope we never go that ancient route again.
The one and only true solution, without loading "ghost" project and retaining original would be a clean Undo + history, so you could potentially go back 20 steps or more without risking of losing anything.
Less flexible solution would be a button in MTP to save snapshot of the project before browsing styles with "Audition Chord Sheet" and not demo checked. In this scenario, user would press that button before browsing styles, it would still place tracks and other data in the project, but if nothing better is found, user would be able to revert to original snapshot with single click.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Thanks Rustyspoon# for responding.
The Undo (under Edit) is a brilliant idea, but it didn't work for Style change. It only undoes Tracks Generation, not the style change.
Will have to create a ghost project where I don't have to worry about any inadvertent changes to my song when I'm previewing/auditioning styles.
BIAB 2026 Audiophile for Windows (it sets the foundation for all my songs)
REAPER (latest version)
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Yeah, "Undo" in current iteration sucks. Not only with style undoing. Solid Undo and properly presented/displayed Undo history would solve quite a bit of issues in BIAB
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Thanks Rustyspoon# for responding.
The Undo (under Edit) is a brilliant idea, but it didn't work for Style change. It only undoes Tracks Generation, not the style change.
Will have to create a ghost project where I don't have to worry about any inadvertent changes to my song when I'm previewing/auditioning styles. Aurealius, I audition alternative styles quite frequently. When I wish to audition non-destructively, I first save the file with the style I wish to preserve. Then after destructively auditioning as many styles as I like with the same open file, I just click the topline File menu and click song #1 (the one I just saved) WITHOUT saving the changes to the open version that has been changed by the audition process. It's a bit of a workaround but it is fast and effective (so long as you don't inadvertently save the audition version).
DC Ron
BiaB Audiophile
Presonus Studio One
ASUS I9-12900K DAW, 32 GB RAM
Presonus Faderport 16
Too many guitars (is that a thing?)
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Here is another workaround. Save project duplicate. Open second instance of BIAB > open your project copy>browse styles - "destructively". Listen side by side: First instance of BIAB (original) VS second instance (dupe). But....as DCRon said: "It's a bit of a workaround" - That phrase should be illegal or at least considered to be a curse word  I don't want to bore anybody, but there was a veerryyy lengthy discussion some time ago on "UNDO". Most of participants agreed that UNDO should undo whole single action, even if it involves 100 automated steps. Bottom line, without proper undo process unfortunately is destructive. Best solution is to have both: Proper Undo and Save Snapshot of the project, so you can revert back to original (last snap) from any rabbit hole.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Here is another workaround. Save project duplicate. Open second instance of BIAB > open your project copy>browse styles - "destructively". Listen side by side: First instance of BIAB (original) VS second instance (dupe). But....as DCRon said: "It's a bit of a workaround" - That phrase should be illegal or at least considered to be a curse word I don't want to bore anybody, but there was a veerryyy lengthy discussion some time ago on "UNDO". Most of participants agreed that UNDO should undo whole single action, even if it involves 100 automated steps. Bottom line, without proper undo process unfortunately is destructive. Best solution is to have both: Proper Undo and Save Snapshot of the project, so you can revert back to original (last snap) from any rabbit hole. Truth. But a functional workaround is sometimes necessary when software development lags user needs...
DC Ron
BiaB Audiophile
Presonus Studio One
ASUS I9-12900K DAW, 32 GB RAM
Presonus Faderport 16
Too many guitars (is that a thing?)
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There are first tier items which are core functions, secondary, extras and wishes.
"Undo" is a first tier item and it should do exactly what is expected. There should not be any workarounds for Undo, it definitely should not be a wish item. Undo that doesn't undo is a bug in my book.
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The BIAB 2026 Manual (PDF) says this on page 74 (per the StylePicker):
"You can also audition a style by actually playing it over the current chord progression of your song.
The green arrow button plays your song with the currently highlighted style."
But this is not working. I select a style and it is highlighted but BIAB doesn't play the style that is highlighted when I press the green play button in StylePicker. It still works in 2026. In recent design upgrades, developers have improved the StylePicker giving users multiple ways to customize searches and auditions to personalize the StylePicker to their preferences. To audition a style to play over the current highlighted style, do the following steps. Highlight a style Press the Apply button Press the green play button To continue auditioning styles over the chord progression of your song, highlight another style and press the Apply button The Apply, Generate, and Demo buttons are active buttons and the selections made in the (+) sub menu affect how these buttons react to auditioning styles, move between playing style demos or current chord progression, saving search lists, and many other user settings to customize and personalize StylePicker searches.
BIAB 2026:RB 2026, Latest builds: Dell Optiplex 7040 Desktop; Windows-10-64 bit, Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz CPU and 16 GB Ram Memory.
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