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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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Is it possible to enter and edit a melody using the staff / leadsheet notation window?
I COULD record a melody using a MIDI keyboard, but I don't have a keyboard hooked up,
so first, can I just enter a melody on the staff? ( Not talking about having BIAB create
a melody or using step edit). I would like to type in my actual composed melody of the song,
like you can do in Finale or something like that. Is that available?

Background: I have created several tunes (chords only) by entering chords, that is going fine.
I just don't know how to enter a melody yet, other than MIDI recording from
a keyboard. Is there a way to create/edit melody notes on the staff when I'm looking
at the melody/leadsheet notation window?

Thank you.

Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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If you click the "N" button in the upper left you can enter single notes. However it is time consuming, since the note lengths are fixed, and I've found editing in the notation window is a bit tricky.

You could also try to use something like this, if you don't have a MIDI keyboard handy :
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/35212/virtual-midi-piano-keyboard
or this :
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/10294/midikeys
Just set the output of it to input into BIAB. You would still have to play the melody with your computer keyboard though.

It would be nice if someday a piano roll editor was implemented, like the windows version has. I find it much quicker and easier to edit notes on that type of editor.

Hopefully this helps.

- Jay

Last edited by JayO; 11/11/10 06:55 AM.

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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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Exactly the answer - thanks so much JayO !!!!!

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Okay, I don't know if the Mac version does notation the same as the Windows version; however, in the Windows version, the key is understanding how the notation system works. Once you realize that, you find it is much easier to input notes.

When you go into editable notation mode and click on the staff, you will get a whole note tied to a dotted half note (7 beats). Of course, you now probably go, "that's not what I want. I just wanted a quarter note". So your first instinct is to see how to get rid of the the tied notes and bring it down to a quarter note. That's not the way it works at all.

What you want to do is just click on where the next not goes. If the next note is an eighth note after the quarter note, just click on the space for the second quarter note (you should see the 16th note divisions of 4 notes to the bar by default). When you do that, that whole note followed by a dotted half note will change to a quarter note, but now your eighth note is some long combination of notes. Do the same thing for the next note. Just click where it goes and you'll see that second note change. Keep going to enter your song.

If you need an explicit rest, just click on the Rest checkbox, click where you want a rest, then make sure it's unchecked to continue entering notes after the rest. If you want chords (notes stacked on top of each other), make sure that "Mono" is unchecked. Mono only allows one note per slot, so clicking on a different staff line will replace the previous note with the new one. Mono unchecked allows you to click on the different staff lines to build chords.

Give it a try and play with it. Once you get the hang of it, you'll probably find it works pretty quickly.

Of course, if the Mac version works differently, someone please let me know.


John

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