Hi guys,

I have a simple song and in a part of it, I'm going from F to C and I don't want F7 only want F. I know that most of the time you add a 7th when going to a IV chords but sometimes you don't want that. How can I force BB to not add a 7th unless I add it myself?
Thanks,
Robert

RobSerry,

Welcome to the forum and to Band-in-a-Box. If you type a "F" in the chord sheet the instruments playback a "F". If you type a "F7" in the chord sheet the instruments playback a "F7". If you want some of the instruments to playback a "F" and other instruments to playback a "F7" then you will need to type in both chords and use the freeze button.

Lets say you want the piano to play "F" and the strings to play "F7" at the same time. Type "F in the chord sheet, regenerate the tracks so the piano and strings play "F".

Press the snowflake button on the piano track and the piano track snowflake color changes from gray to blue to indicate the button is engaged and the piano track is frozen. When a track is frozen the track quits responding to the chord sheet and plays back audio from memory. So now the piano will always play "F" at that bar and beat unless the snowflake button is disabled. Then the snowflake turns to gray and the track is unfrozen and returns to normal.

Change the chord sheet to "F7" and regenerate. The frozen piano track continues to play "F" but the unfrozen strings track plays "F7". Press the strings track snowflake and the strings track is frozen.

Now one track plays "F" while the other plays "F7".

Freezing tracks and reworking the chord sheet are two good tools you can use together to help arrange your song.

Jim, I don't think that is what the OP is asking.

He is asking BIAB to play a simple triad (F) and instead he is hearing a dominate chord (F7).

Simply put, BIAB plays what the style directs (if midi) or what real tracks are available. I assume you are talking about midi, since the real tracks would not generally do that substitution.

Please confirm if I have this right, and then we can talk about some of the limited controls you have over midi voicings and chord selection. (By the way this is a hot topic right now over in the wish list forum).

dan

Dan,

Good chance you're right as there is more than one way to interpret RobSerry's post.

Hopefully he will return and provide additional information.

I think what he may be looking for is Options, Preferences, Overrides, Force Tracks to Simple Arrangement. Also, just above that, Force to Simple Arrangement.

Or, for just one song, Song Settings (Ctrl+N). Force Song to Simple Arrangement.

Or, Edit, Chords, Jazz Down the Chords.

As you can see, there are several things to try if this is what the OP is requesting.

Consider turning Natural Arrangements Off also (from the preferences menu):

Hi Rob,

This might help. Here's a graphic to summarise what people have said.

1. right-click on the chordsheet and choose "Song Settings"

2. once in Song Settings, set options #2 and #3 as shown below -- that should fix things for you

If "Simple Arrangement" is inactive, BIAB takes poetic license and uses the occasional 7th chord. With "Natural Arrangements" enabled, BIAB also changes chords.

When these options are set in "Song Settings", they are only for the song involved and are not global.

Regards,
Noel

Hi guys,
Thank you so much for all your responses. I'm sorry that my post was not clear and I will be more careful next time I post something. I'm back from my hollidays and I will try your suggestions and update my post soon.
Thanks again!
Robert

Welcome back! We're all looking forward to your update.