Part one:
A lingering problem I've had for years with the midi soloist involves it not doing what I tell it to do. The majority of Biab songs I download from various sources have the melody playing on all choruses. If I click on the midi Soloist button the window opens. In the middle of that window is the area about when to solo. Under the heading "solo which choruses?" are three combo boxes. To the left of the first box is "First", I have it set as "No Solo", the second is "middle", it's set "Yes Solo" and the last is "No Solo". Below that is a line with a checkbox that says "mute melody in middle". Why does that never do anything? I can click those boxes all I want and the melody still plays. The only way to not have it play is to go back to the main screen, hit the melody button>edit melody>kill melody in middle choruses. That's the only way to get rid of the melody for the solos unless you manually mute it. Also, at least half the time when I open another song and create a midi soloist in spite of clicking the box - First "no solo" it plays anyway over the melody so either the melody is playing in the middle choruses or the solo is playing over the melody during the first chorus most of the time. What's the point of those boxes in the Solo window? I've "returned to factory settings" plenty of times and I'm using the latest build 2009.5. I don't use the soloists all that much and I've learned over the years different workarounds for this but it's been bugging me for a long time and thought I would finally ask about it. I've been going through some big directories I downloaded and experimenting with the soloists and this is happening pretty much with every song. Another thing is with the solo instruments. Quite often if the solo is playing in the wrong place or just doing something weird, clicking on the instrument or changing to a different one will fix it. There's been glitches in that solo window for a long time imho.
Part two:
The RT styles with soloists. Why do all the RT styles that have soloists as part of the style have the solo playing on the first chorus? When's the last time anybody starts soloing on the downbeat at a gig?? Most songs have melodies and the solo starts playing over it. I don't get this at all. Peter, Oliver, Miles and the rest are total pros. Nobody solos right from the start with very rare exceptions. Songs have heads and everybody plays the head first, right? I can see it for a demo song maybe but not embedded in the style. All it does is force me to immediately mute it when I'm auditioning styles. I have a few more lingering comments but this is enough for now.
Bob
Quote:
Why does that never do anything?
Works somehow here without a hitch 
Are you talking about the checkbox next to the line "mute melody in the middle?" Martin? If so, then this is a real mystery to me because that has done nothing in I don't know, 30-50 tunes maybe that I have with melodies.
Bob
Just checked here for you and it works here also.
Quote:
Are you talking about the checkbox next to the line "mute melody in the middle?"
Yes. Be sure to specify the 1st, Middle and Last chorus parameters in the three dropdowns above it, though.
*Maybe you could try manually deleting those files that reset to factory, check the FAQs to find their names.
*As for the RealTracks Soloists, I think they know about this at development, but it is related to the reason we have to currently use the "Mute at Bar" command workaround for RealTracks rather than the automatic chorus selection routine that works with MIDI.
--Mac
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Are you talking about the checkbox next to the line "mute melody in the middle?" Martin?
Yes, Bob, just checked on all aspects within the area 'Solo Which Choruses?' in the 'Select Soloist' dialog, viz. First -> No solo, Middle -> Yes solo, Last -> No solo, activated checkbox 'Mute melody in middle'. Loading the demo file of ZZJAZZ.STY the song plays as expected. Checked even on a RealTracks soloist, which works as expected, too.
There are 2 settings for Mute Melody in Middle Choruses.
1. The one in the soloist dialog will mute it for that generation only, and will stop muting it the next time you generate the song (by pressing PLAY).
So if you generate a solo, it plays automatically, and the melody is muted. But if you press play again, the melody is not muted. That is intentional (because of availability of #2)
2. The other one is on the Melody menu. That will mute melody on all songs, until you turn it off.
There's also a dedicated menu item to ERASE the melody in middle choruses.
Thank you, Peter. This explains it. I never caught on to the difference between the first play and the solo doing what I checked off in the soloist window and the second play. I jump around so much trying different things that I simply thought this was a random glitch. I just tried it with a few tunes and of course, you're correct. I admit I don't understand the thinking here because the soloist window is song specific while the "melody menu>mute melody during middle choruses" is global. If I have that box checked in the soloist window why doesn't it just do it every time? When I'm experimenting with the soloists, I'm opening and closing that soloist window multiple times and that checkbox is looking me right in the face. See the confusion here? It says "mute the melody in the middle chorus", yet it plays from the second time on. What does the melody menu have to do with it? Still, as long as I know what's happening, it's cool.
Bob
Well, it makes sense as a convention to me.
What happens in the Soloist generation window stays there and is only for that one generation. Hitting Play button forces a regeneration. Makes sense.
I like the Melody Edit item, "Kill Melody in middle choruses" and also first the "Copy Melody to all choruses" because then I only have to record the head one time and thus place it on all choruses to get it on the last chorus, then kill the middle choruses for the soloing and then I save the song that way. From there one, it doesn't matter about the Soloist muting, so I prefer to work that way.
--Mac
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Well, it makes sense as a convention to me.
What happens in the Soloist generation window stays there and is only for that one generation. Hitting Play button forces a regeneration. Makes sense.
I like the Melody Edit item, "Kill Melody in middle choruses" and also first the "Copy Melody to all choruses" because then I only have to record the head one time and thus place it on all choruses to get it on the last chorus, then kill the middle choruses for the soloing and then I save the song that way. From there one, it doesn't matter about the Soloist muting, so I prefer to work that way.
--Mac
How does forcing a regeneration make sense when for that regeneration, the melody now starts playing over the solo when the first time it didn't?
Good tip about only entering the melody one time then using the "copy melody to all choruses".
Anyway, here's another one. I used the melody menu>mute melody in middle choruses. Works fine. The tune has 5 choruses, I changed it to 4. The window opens up saying "adjust melody to fit # of choruses?" I said yes, then the other window opens asking the same thing for the soloist. I said yes, play the tune. The soloist keeps playing on the 4th chorus. ???? The soloist window is still set to "no solo on the last chorus". Fwiw, I'm using the tune Oleo with the Monte trio style with the Monte piano midi soloist and the Clarke RD and bebop bass RT. That soloist is really good btw. I should solo that well.
It's easy to ignore this kind of thing because I normally use Real Band anyway and this is not an issue with all the cutting and pasting I like to do. It's very hot and muggy here in So Cal because of the hurricane off Mexico and I'm not going anywhere this weekend. I'm kinda bored and I don't have A/C (usually not needed) and I'm dyin' here. Yeah, I know poor baby.....please bear with with me, the weather is usually almost perfect around here and I'm a bit cranky 
Where's that beer...
Bob
Quote:
How does forcing a regeneration make sense when for that regeneration, the melody now starts playing over the solo when the first time it didn't?
Well, the Soloist dialog is for generating solos. So opening it again or even regenerating the song again is a new instance. I guess the stuff in the Soloist dialog was meant for trying out soloists until you got something usable?
At any rate, there are other things that regenerate when you hit Play without doing a Save or Save with Patches and Harmony first, too. Without doing the Save routine properly, the songfile has no way of knowing what to reload on regeneration. It therefore reverts back to whatever is in the file in the first place.
--Mac
Mac - I am late in getting in on this-but I cannot get my soloist file to display in the lead sheet window. will show up in th notation window. this has just happened in a month or so since I have used the file. suggestions please
Might it not be easier to use one chorus and then use CUSTOM to select the bars for your solo and then use REPLAY or FROM to hear what you just did - if you don't like it then go to EDIT|UNDO (in this case) SOLOIST, or EDIT ERASE from...To and knock out the Soloist Part you just generated. That would avoid hitting PLAY and regenerating the whole shebang.
Ian
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Mac - I am late in getting in on this-but I cannot get my soloist file to display in the lead sheet window. will show up in th notation window. this has just happened in a month or so since I have used the file. suggestions please
Whenever BIAB stops doing something that it was doing before, I first reboot the machine and if it still isn't doing it then I try Opts -> Return to Factory Settings.
--Mac
Mac I did what you said to no avail-I am not getting the soloist lead sheet, only the notation window. I followed the displays for the entries into the soloist file. there is a custom item I can mark and get that one to work as it has a small menu to complete. I am somewhat confused.
**I this a RealTrack?
**If it is a RealTrack, is its green trackname underscored at the top?
**Can you see notation on the Notation Window at bottom but it does not appear in LeadSheet view? if that is the case, have you clicked on the right letter at the top to display Soloist and not Strings or some other track?
--Mac
I am using styles 66 Alan, though I did try with real tracks, liked the steel, but still only in the notation window. I have had biab for several years, no problem til I updated to 2009 .5, was wondering if something changed I didn't catch? I give up. I also checked with office
to no avail. maybe I should re-download program. do get some funny things.
You should see the notation in the notation and the leadsheet window. I just tried it with 2009.5, and it appears to be working fine. Make sure that you have clicked the "S" button at the top of the notation window, which is the for the Soloist track.
If still not showing, press the OPTIONS button the leadsheet window, and click return to Default, maybe you've got a strange setting like only show bass clef.
Looking at this again in an attempt to help maxbear solve the problem, I just discovered that the Lead Sheet Soloist view won't show notation for Soloist here if I have "Fake Sheet Mode" checked.
MIDI soloist, can view the notation in Notation View, I switch to Lead Sheet View and no notes on staff.
I unchecked "Fake Sheet Mode" and the notes appear.
This is reproducible here, and it must be a BUG.
--Mac
Max, you are brilliant- you are correct-unchecking fake sheet mode does the trick. I bet I spent the better part of 3 days on sthis stupid thing-thanks again. I can get my trumpet out again.
It's amazing, isn't it? Sometimes people complain that the program is too complex but all of these options really do have a purpose, it just takes time to learn them.
Bob
Max is telling himself how amazing he is. <G>
--Mac *with a c at the end*
my error-I'm sorry-I meant Mac -my left shakes a little -got a whole lot of shakin' goin' on. Thanks again Mac.
Just funnin' ya, I knew it was a typo.