If I have a song with a specific style and I know of a style I want to substitute How do I do it? Can't I just type in _SWOON somewhere and have it pop up instead of having to scroll thru a hundred styles to find it

Yes. I think you can.

I entered _SWOON into the BIAB StylePicker filter string box after clearing the list and it found the _SWOON Style with the only other entry being the current selection that I have set to -on- in my preferences. Make sure the Include Similar box is unchecked.

Charlie, I tried what you said. I made a list of about 10 styles I thought promising when I inputed the song over the weekend. Now I want to change the style. If I put a style in as you say it works if the style has an = sign before the style. If the style has an _ it doesn't work. Inputting _SWOON as you did doesn't work. I only upgraded last week and I have been having problems with it seems the upgrade. Do you think it would help to reinstall the software. I am unsure of doing this because of the problems I have corrected already. BIll

Hi Bill,

Entering _SWOON works here OK.

Two things to try:

1: Try pressing the Clear button first

2: Perform a rebuild of the Styles and RealTracks (Rebuild button at the bottom of the StylePicker form)

Hello bmolle,

Welcome to Band-in-a-Box (BiaB) and to the forum!

Are you using a non English language keyboard setting? I believe the BiaB program expects keyboard input code from a standard 104 key keyboard. I suspect your keyboard does not have the underline character "_" in a standard keyboard location so the two digit code sent from your keyboard to the program is not the two digit code transmitted by a standard 104 key keyboard. This sometimes happens with laptops that don't have a full set of keys.

Doesn't do it. Still the same as before. I cant find any styles that I previously wrote down that begin with _. I got all the Biab CDs yesterday and I am going to try overwriting the program. You guys are great. Thanks. PGMusic tech support sucks and always has.

Bill,
What happens if you omit the leading underscore and just type the letters 'SWO' ?
Do you see the style in the list (as shown in the attachment below)?

What package did you purchase (Pro, MegaPak, UltraPak etc)?

IF I omit the underscore it finds nothing.

I have 8 styles on my list of possibilities. The style picker window cant find any of them. I have 3 = styles on my list. The style picker window finds all three.

I searched for SWOON and two other _ styles in the program folder bb. The search found nothing. I searched for the three = styles and found only one =BGPOP.STY in the styles folder but not the other two. All three of the = styles can be found when scrolling down the list of styles in the styles window but the _ styles are not found when scrolling.

This is about the end of my knowledge of computer software so now I think I will reinstall the program unless you have other advice. My original install was from download but I bought the discs so I will reinstall from them.

The upgrade has made changes to the program that I don't think it should have. If the reinstall doesn't fix it I will wipe it out and start with a 2014 install and see if I can install only the styles from 2019.

I bought the MegaPak upgrade.

Hope this gives you some ideas for me to try.

THanks Bill

Jim Fogle,

I live in NJ and bought the laptop an HP from Staples The underline is on the top row next to the 0 on the right of the keyboard. I cant imagine it is a non standard keyboard The thing is everything worked till I upgraded

Bill

It seems that I can pick a style from the list of styles window, move up to the top of the list and type in that style
in the filter window. It comes up with maybe one or two others. IF I type in DREAMER it come up at the top and the other style is the one that is currently in the song. No others appear in the style window. I am beginning to think that all these styles that I have on my list of possibilities with a _ have vanished from the program.

Does anyone know where the styles reside in BIAB and can I just find them on the disc and copy them in?

Bill

Bill,

I appreciate you providing the additional information about your computer keyboard. I'm sorry my solution wasn't appropriate to your situation.


The StylePicker lists styles present in the X:\bb\Styles folder where X is the drive letter Band-in-a-Box resides on. Is it possible the _SWOON style maybe stored elsewhere on your computer?

I see we both were typing at the same time.

If you navigate to the root drive where Band-in-a-Box resides you can initiate a search for _SWOON by entering the term in the search text box located at the top of the window or press Ctrl + F to open a search bar at the bottom of the screen.

Bill,

I performed a search of the RealCombo styles listed for the Mega PAK on +++ THIS +++ PG Music webpage and _SWOON is not listed so it maybe a N/A (not included) style

It worked for me to find _SWOON, but the above screens do not show the whole entry: it is RealTrack #289 from Country Group #43.

Perhaps that's not in the MegaPak. It might have been a Bonus Pak style?

Hi
The style _SWOON uses tracks from the realtracks 289 set do you have this?

I use BIAB 2019 ultra build.

Mike

Thanks all. Let me work thru all you have put up. I also want to say that _SWOON was on a list I made after I inputted the song chords and I had listened to all the styles on the list I made so the style _SWOON was in the MegaPack that I got for the PGMusic upgrade. As were the other 8 _ styles I cant find and the 3 = styles I can find. I believe there was a Bonus Pak included but I will have to check on that.

Thanks Bill

I guess a further question to ask is how did you perform the upgrade? Did you install it over the top of the existing 2014 install or did you choose a different location to install 2019 to? Or possibly another method, e.g. deleted 2014 and installed 2019?

Another thought: Select the Help drop-down menu and select Utilities > Run Cleanup Routine.
After that, Rebuild the StylePicker and see what you have available.

In addition to all above...

Have you opened Stylepicker and rebuilt the list of styles? This needs to be done after upgrades and also after updates. (Apologies if this has already been mentioned.)

Hope I have all the questions answered.

_SWOON is not stored in bb or on C

Style disc lists STYLE 43. In fact I have all of them to 77 I think

Under Real Track sets I have RealTrack 289 and Real Track 43

There is no Bonus Pak that I can see in the download but I did get a Registration Bonus as part of the package. It was the MegaPak upgrade for prior to 2017.

For the upgrade install I just followed the prompts and made no changes. I did the BIAB cleanup routine and rebuild and there has been no change.

Thanks all, Bill

Hi Bill,

When you installed the software, did you direct the installation to your existing \bb folder?

Alternatively, did you create a new folder for it or are you running it from a USB drive?

From reading what is written, it sounds like something might have gone awry in the installation process.

Regards,
Noel

Noel96

No USB install I down loaded the upgrade from the PGMusic website. I just followed the prompts and wherever they sent it. I didn't change anything if I had an option. I had all 8 _ Styles originally because I was trying out different styles for a song I was working on. The style _SWOON was the one I marked as the most promising one. Later when I came back to finish the song I couldn't find the _SWOON style and subsequent tries looking for 7 other styles on my list found they were gone too. Yet 3 styles on my list beginning with = were there and I was able to find them by putting them into the filter window, They are not in \bb or C:\ and I looked in the RECYCLE BIN and they are not there. Now I want to know where in \bb do STYLES reside so I can go into the CD and put those styles back in the program.

Thanks Bill

On my system, _SWOON.STY (and _SWOON.stx) are in the C:\bb\Styles\ folder

Like Videotrack, my _SWOON.STY and _SWOON.STX files are in \bb\styles, too.

When you say,


It's possible that this could have resulted in files going elsewhere.

To rule out this possibility, open File Explorer, locate your \bb folder (but do not open it), right-click on the folder and select "Properties". In the window that will appear, it will have a date that the folder was created. This should be 2013 or 2014 depending on whether or not you purchased BIAB 2014 in December 2013 or sometime in 2014.

Regards,
Noel

I looked in the STYLES folder and _SWOON or the others are not there. I looked on the 7 CDs that I got from the upgrade but you cant break down the folders far enough to see where the STYLES folder is. It just lists realtracks_pro_1 etc. and it looks like you have to run the setup file or something to find out what is in it. I just want to know what CD the missing STYLES are on and pick off the styles and put them in the program. I suspect PGMusic is not going to tell me that and make me install/overwrite the whole 7 CDs. I just haven't felt up to doing that yet.

Noel96,

When I do what you say it comes up Oct 23,2017. I am not sure where that comes from

I bought styles on Mar.8 2017 and Apr.5 2017. I had trouble with a few things and never figured it out till at least 3 months later and I remember I overwrote the program several times so that Oct date could be the last date I overwrote it I remember I had to call for more permissions because I used them upd trying to figure it out . This was before I knew about this forum

I cant find a date for the original 2014 purchase because it doesn't appear on my PGMusic account page.

Thanks BIll

Bill, At this stage here should be no issue with you running the entire installation again. If necessary, it will just replace any styles you already have, and install any styles that are missing.
I'm still thinking that the 2019 installation is installed in a different location than your previous install.

VideoTrack

OK I overwrote BIAB. All 7 discs. I opened up BIAB and clicked on the STYLES button. The style window opens and I put in at the top on the filter line _SWOON It pops up. I tried another style that had gone missing _SKYLAKE. It pops up. Great problem solved.

I do a rebuild as the header said I should. When rebuild is finished I look for _SWOON and _ SKYLAKE by putting each in the filter window. They are not there.

So where do I go now. PGMusic has been no help. Early on before I came to this forum they told me to look at a video on styles and then they disappeared.

BIll

Which rebuild did you use?

Did you try the other rebuild, usually the slow rebuild?

Yours is an interesting problem. I have the 64 bit BiaB 2019 on two computers. One I use the fast rebuild as it has no third party styles and the other I use a slow rebuild as it does have third party styles on it. In both cases I can find _SWOON and _SKYLAKE.

As you know both are Realtracks so they will not appear when searching for MIDI only.

Mario D

I used the slow rebuild. I also have 8 third party styles. and I believe they are there. They were in my computer when I had the 2014 version before I got the 2019 upgrade

Bill

Bill,
This is indeed unusual.

I've written to the PG Music development people separately and referenced this thread. Hopefully it will get the attention it needs.

Maybe in the meantime, do the re-install and don't press the rebuild button. Not ideal, I know, but a possible temporary workaround.

Video TRack

That is what I was thinking of doing tomorrow. Just not looking forward to repeating another couple of hours to it. PGMusic would save me a lot of time if they would just tell me what CD has those lost STYLES on it.

In looking at the information as the CD starts thru the install it is impossible to know what is in each. It seems like each has a collection of everything in it. I am sure they have the information somewhere because they made the CDs

Thanks Bill

Have you tried this:
1-Do a Windows search for _SWOON
2-If it finds nothing then click on the documents icon, the middle icon in the upper left hand corner of the search window and search again
3-If it finds nothing then in that window click on local Disk (C:), click on bb, and search again. Note you must type _SWOON in the upper right hand window, the one with the x, then click on the search icon, the one just left of that window.

I had to go through all three steps to find _SWOON. This will tell you if it is on your computer and where it is. If it is not in the C:\bb\Styles then move it there and all should be OK.

I hope this works for you.

Bill, I'm certainly not taking sides, but nominating the specific CD may not be a practical solution. The installer probably has compressed the files on each disk, and extracting the exact file may not be straightforward.

I didn't see which version of BIAB you are running. Have you tried running the BIAB Cleanup routine (since you mentioned content from 2014 and 2017)? Since 2018, the folder structure was re-organized from what it used to be. I would try running the cleanup routine and then rebuilding the RealTracks picker and the StylePicker (using the slow rebuild) and see if that works.

Just a thought.

Video Track,

No no I never thought you were taking sides. You and everyone else on this forum has be very helpful and I wouldn't have gotten as far as I have without all of you. I just think PGMusic has poor customer tech service. If they don't know the answer just say so and "I'll get back to you."

At this point I am wondering if anyone else has had this problem. I would never know I lost STYLES except I wrote them down on my song sheet and is it only the 8 styles or have others gone missing too.

They are compressed files on the CD but wouldn't each file be identified in some way? but that is past my knowledge.

Bill

I think John jford is on to something. Run the Cleanup routine. It's in Help, Utilities.

jford and Matt Finley

I ran the cleanup routine and then the STYLE Picker then the REALTRACKS picker. Then searched for _SWOON. It is still not there.

When I ran the REALTRACKS picker a window opened that said "There are no missing RealTracks XT2/ST2 Nothing to do!"

I have the 2019 Megapak upgrade

BILL

What if I ran OPTIONS-Return to factory settings? and would I include MiDI drivers or exclude MIDI drivers? I think I only have one change and that is the font size of the chords.

Bill

Save your preferences anyway. And you can safely exclude the MIDI drivers; that's not been a problem for you.

Have you verified whether or not you actually have that style file on your hard drive. And since you said you have the Mega Pak, it's possible that style doesn't come with that Pak. I would try turningring off the filtering of N/A styles and see if it's listed as an N/A style. However, if you can see the file in your styles folder, it's also possible you have the style file, but not the underlying RealTracks that the style file references. Styles don't actually contain the RealTracks, they just load RealTracks already present on your computer. That's the second level of N/A you need to look at (styles without all the required RealTracks).

jford,


Here is what I posted a couple of days ago. Does this answer your question about me having it or not. I will look at what have said about turning off the filtering.

__________________________________________________________________

VideoTrack

OK I overwrote BIAB. All 7 discs. I opened up BIAB and clicked on the STYLES button. The style window opens and I put in at the top on the filter line _SWOON It pops up. I tried another style that had gone missing _SKYLAKE. It pops up. Great problem solved.

I do a rebuild as the header said I should. When rebuild is finished I look for _SWOON and _ SKYLAKE by putting each in the filter window. They are not there.

__________________________________________________________________

QUESTION

When I put into the computer the discs for the 2019 upgrade, does the upgrade consist of only the stuff that has been added since 2014 or does the upgrade consist of a total 2019 BIAB package and they are overwriting the 2014 stuff?

Bill

Did you try my search suggestions?

Mario D

I had done a slow rebuild

Yes I did your suggestions. I searched for M and R and also third party styles of which I have some. It found all 3 kinds but not _SWOON or any of the other missing ones

I search C: for _SWOON and another _SKYLAKE but found nothing

If I open bb\STYLES, I cant find _SWOON there either so I dont think it is in the computer. I am about ready to reinstall all 7 CDs again just to get back the missing .STY s back.

QUESTION
When you do a slow rebuild does BIAB look for .STY just in BIAB or the whole computer?

Bill

jford

So what your are saying is that BIAB will list all kinds of .STYs whether or not they gave it to you in a Pak. They will just put N/A in front of the style. [N/A] [R/T n/a] _SWOON 12-8 country

Bill

That's exactly what I'm saying.

When you say you initially saw it in the StylePicker list, did you actually try to load and use it?

jford,

So I just played the demo for SWOON but when I click OK it doesn't put it in to the song style window, I will have to say I probably didn't actually put them into the song and play them. So just because there is a demo doesn't mean there is a RT. Doesn't make sense to me but I am not a software developer.

Just to satisfy myself I am going to overwrite the 7 dics again to see what happens.

Thanks for hanging in there and for everyone's time that I used up.

I'll be back with the results.

Then I can post a new question with my next problem!!!

Bill

jford and others,

Ok I overwrote the 2019 upgrade program and it works as you said and so for sure I didn't run the style in the song. I went thru various searches before and after I did a slow rebuild and now I understand how this works

Also I figured out my other problem.

Thanks to everyone who took their time to work on this

Bill

Glad you got it sorted.

The demos are just already recorded audio files that are either loaded from your hard drive (if present) or streamed from the internet (if not present).

If you like the program, I would think about upgrading to the UltraPak, but I would wait until this December when the new version generally comes out with everything on sale. If you buy all the XTRA style paks to it also (usually sold separately), you will have almost everything available BIAB-wise (minus a few minor things that have been made available separately over the years).

lford

Thanks for the info on the ULTRAPak. I was already thinking and looking into an upgrade.

Bill