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Post your own Tips and Tricks here
Joined: Sep 2006
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PG Music Staff
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PG Music Staff
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 2,278
Like what you hear in Band-in-a-Box®? Make sure to Freeze the track(s) or song! Once frozen, it won't be regeneraged or change when you play it again - and your choice isn't final, since you can unfreeze them just as easily:

  • press the blue snowflake button within the track name of the mixer window
  • press the blue snowflake button within the expanded toolbar of the program (Ctrl + T will swap between the two toolbar views), and select the track(s)

Note: If you want to force Band-in-a-Box® to generate tracks without adjusting the Freeze settings, hold down the Shift key as you press the [Generate and Play] button (the fly-by hint will remind you of that) or choose the menu command Play | Play Special | Generate (even if tracks are frozen).

To learn more about freezing your Band-in-a-Box® tracks or songs, visit Chapter 5: Playing Songs | Freezing tracks of our Online Manual.

Reasons to Freeze a RealTracks track (audio):
  • Frozen tracks will play back instantly, not requiring time to generate.
  • They play back the same way each time, so if you like a solo, you can "freeze it."
  • If you send a song to a friend as "frozen," they will hear the same performance.
  • For the Soloist track, if you generate a solo, it can now be saved (by freezing the track).

Reasons to Freeze a MIDI track:
  • You can edit the MIDI data, to customize the performance to match a certain song, and this will be saved. Use the Notation or Piano Roll window to edit the track.

More reasons to freeze any track:
  • Frozen tracks play back instantly, without requiring time to regenerate.
  • They play back the same way each time.
  • You can change the chord progression of the song and have one part playing a different chord progression than the rest of the band. For example, type a “blowing” chord progression, generate a solo, freeze the solo track, then type a normal chord progression and generate the rest of the instruments (bass/guitar etc.) that will play the normal changes.
  • Have different instruments play different styles. For example, the Bass could be generated using Reggae, then Frozen, and then the rest of the instruments generated using a Techno style.


Callie
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PG Music Inc.
Post your own Tips and Tricks here
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Great tip. Never used this feature but will now. Rob

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More reasons - Shots, Rests & Holds:

1. Using holds & shots often will affect the soloist, so that it instead of actually soloing over those bars, it goes along with the rest into shots & holds (which is rarely what you'd want). Solution: Generate the soloist before you enter the Chords Options for the SRH (shots/rests/holds), then freeze Soloist and now adjust SRH for the other tracks (see/hear for instance my "Modern Mozart" in Showcase where I've done precisely this).

2. Rests (generally) work far better artistically when entered via the Chords Options instead of the brute force muting in Bar settings, but there could be cases where you wanted a rest for an instrument at a bar where you also wanted a hold for another instrument. Or in the case of drums, often a hold for drums will sound far more pleasing than the Shot, particularly on slower tempos, even if the Shot is what you wanted for the overall instruments -> Freeze to the rescue!!
First do the 'odd one out' exception, freeze it and deactivate the SRH for that track (once frozen it should still play that way) so that you can then do the SRH that's intended for the majority, and presto!

Last edited by Icelander; 11/21/18 06:01 AM. Reason: Correcting mistakes

Thank goodness words aren't knives.
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Nice tip!! Freezing tracks is a cool feature I use a lot since it was implemented in Band-in-a-Box some years ago.

Here an additional little "service" trick around this tip: in the case when I need go back to the original progression after freeze or have extra or modified chord progressions at hand, I use the 'not played chord area' (the unused chord area after song END ) as a "chord scratch pad". That way I avoid having to re-type enter it again, save and reload again the song or write the chord progression manually out of BIAB.

- Just copy and paste in the unused chord area the chord(s) or chord progression that you want to keep for later recover. You can even include your bar settings: pushes, shot, hold chords, rest, as Icelander point in his excellent Tip. Sometimes I have several saved progressions there.

Of course, this is useful as long as that area have bars available, which is quite likely happens most of time. So, If your song is very long then you can run out of space for this workaround.




NOTE:
I don't know if it has already been posted, but it may be useful to those who have not seen it before. Please, let me know if not, to post it apart.

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Originally Posted By: CarlosEArellano

NOTE:
I don't know if it has already been posted, but it may be useful to those who have not seen it before. Please, let me know if not, to post it apart.
The only comment I have about your post is that it should be in its own thread, if for nothing else than because the tip itself has absolutely nothing to do with freezing.


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PG Music News
Convenient Ways to Listen to Band-in-a-Box® Songs Created by Program Users!

The User Showcase Forum is an excellent place to share your Band-in-a-Box® songs and listen to songs other program users are creating!

There are other places you can listen to these songs too! Visit our User Showcase page to sort by genre, artist (forum name), song title, and date - each listing will direct you to the forum post for that song.

If you'd rather listen to these songs in one place, head to our Band-in-a-Box® Radio, where you'll have the option to select the genre playlist for your listening pleasure. This page has SoundCloud built in, so it won't redirect you. We've also added the link to the Artists SoundCloud page here, and a link to their forum post.

We hope you find some inspiration from this amazing collection of User Showcase Songs!

Congratulations to the 2023 User Showcase Award Winners!

We've just announced the 2023 User Showcase Award Winners!

There are 45 winners, each receiving a Band-in-a-Box 2024 UltraPAK! Read the official announcement to see if you've won.

Our User Showcase Forum receives more than 50 posts per day, with people sharing their Band-in-a-Box songs and providing feedback for other songs posted.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed!

Video: Volume Automation in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows®

We've created a video to help you learn more about the Volume Automation options in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows.

Band-in-a-Box® 2024: Volume Automation

www.pgmusic.com/manuals/bbw2024full/chapter11.htm#volume-automation

Video: Audio Input Monitoring with Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows®

We've created this short video to explain Audio Input Monitoring within Band-in-a-Box® 2024, and included some tips & troubleshooting details too!

Band-in-a-Box® 2024: Audio Input Monitoring

3:17: Tips
5:10: Troubleshooting

www.pgmusic.com/manuals/bbw2024full/chapter11.htm#audio-input-monitoring

Video: Enhanced Melodists in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows®!

We've enhanced the Melodists feature included in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows!

Access the Melodist feature by pressing F7 in the program to open the new MultiPicker Library and locate the [Melodist] tab.

You can now generate a melody on any track in the program - very handy! Plus, you select how much of the melody you want generated - specify a range, or apply it to the whole track.

See the Melodist in action with our video, Band-in-a-Box® 2024: The Melodist Window.

Learn even more about the enhancements to the Melodist feature in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows at www.pgmusic.com/manuals/bbw2024upgrade/chapter3.htm#enhanced-melodist

Band-in-a-Box® 2024 DAW Plugin Version 6: New Features Specifically for Reaper®

New with the DAW Plugin Version 6.0, released with Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows: the Reaper® Panel!

This new panel offers built-in specific support for the Reaper® DAW API allowing direct transfer of Band-in-a-Box® files to/from Reaper® tracks!

When you run the Plugin from Reaper®, there is a panel to set the following options:
-BB Track(s) to send: This allows you to select the Plugin tracks that will be sent Reaper.
-Destination Reaper Track: This lets you select the destination Reaper track to receive media content from the Plugin.
-At Bar: You can select a bar in Reaper where the Plugin tracks should be placed.
-Start Below Selected Track: This allows you to place the Plugin tracks below the destination Reaper track.
-Overwrite Reaper Track: You can overwrite previous content on the destination Reaper track.
-Move to Project Folder: With this option, you can move the Plugin tracks to the Reaper project folder.
-Send Reaper Instructions Enable this option to send the Reaper Instructions instead of rendering audio tracks, which is faster.
-Render Audio & Instructions: Enable this option to generate audio files and the Reaper instructions.
-Send Tracks After Generating: This allows the Plugin to automatically send tracks to Reaper after generating.
-Send Audio for MIDI Track: Enable this option to send rendered audio for MIDI tracks.
-Send RealCharts with Audio: If this option is enabled, Enable this option to send RealCharts with audio.

Check out this video highlighting the new Reaper®-specific features: Band-in-a-Box® DAW Plugin Version 6: New Features Specifically for Reaper®

Band-in-a-Box® 2024 DAW Plugin Version 6: New Features Video

The new Band-in-a-Box VST DAW Plugin Verion 6 adds over 20 new features!

Watch the new features video to learn more: Video: Band-in-a-Box® 2024 - DAW Plugin Version 6 New Features

We also list these new features at www.pgmusic.com/bbwin.plugin.htm.

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