The BIAB technique for step-entering melody sucks. I with fat prefer to define method in Finale, but it never seems to import correctly. Does anyone have a good workflow for importing midi file melody to be worked with in BIAB and/or Real Band? I find that lead measures and such really screw things up.
If you would like to be part of the solution, you could provide specific examples.
The two-bars BIAB adds are for the default count-in. I’ve never found it difficult to remove the first two bars when importing a BIAB MIDI file into notation software. I often leave then if I’m going to be doing additional tracks in a DAW.
Everyone has preferences for workflow. I step-enter melodies in BIAB Because I think it’s the best method out of dozens of music programs I use. Then I take it into one notation program for editing, then Into another for finished sounds or video. I have yet to find one tool that is best at all functions, so I use about eight on any given song.
Give us more examples. We can either help you overcome them, or we can make reports to the developers.
I use BIAB's notation mode in just about every song I write. I love it's workflow. I also have never had any problem with pickup notes.
There's a video clip on Entering Notation under the "Beginners" section at the below link. There are also a couple of clips in the Archive section.
https://www.pgmusic.com/videos.bbwin.htmThese short clips would be worth watching because notation entry has not changed all that much over the years.
Regards,
Noel
Oh, man. I thought that the step-entry method was just another annoyance that BIAB hasn't gotten around to fixing yet. I feel like singing the notes at the computer screen would yield better results. Clicking lines and spaces with the mouse is hugely imprecise, then the software balks if I'm not clicking quite in the right place, etc. I'd rip my hair out if I did all my notation stuff with this method. At least with Finale, I can use the arrow keys and/or a MIDI keyboard to specify pitches.
I haven't tried to import a MIDI file into BIAB in a while, but I remember it dropping the melody into the two-bar lead-in, so I'd want to move the whole melody two bars ahead, something like that. Would I need to leave a MIDI file with two bars empty to handle this?
Thanks. It's hard to know where to begin here.
I think using the mouse for note entry is extremely precise. Yes, it hasn't changed in decades and I hope they never change it. I've made a ton of money doing arrangements, compositions, and transcriptions using this note entry system and I think it's the best in the industry. But as this thread demonstrates, workflow for note entry is very much a personal preference.
One trick you alluded to is to key in the notes without regard to the pitch, and drag them up or down later. You can even do this with your computer keyboard, skipping the mouse for the initial rhythm entry. Very handy.
For the two-bar intro question, I would need to know what software you use.
Oh, man. That video is painful to watch. I could have done a 2-page tune in the time that he entered 4 measures. With a MIDI keyboard and using the numeric keypad, I can go three times as fast as that in Finale. Trying to get the mouse to select the line vs. space, being off by a couple of pixels, fixing double-notes acccidentally entered, etc. I've never understood why BIAB wouldn't utilize a more keyboard-friendly or MIDI keyboard version of Note Entry.
I'd much rather eneter the notes in Finale, save as a .mid file and import into BIAB, but I haven't found an easy way to do that, either.
When you import MIDI into BIAB on the melody line, there is a setting to compensate for the two bar count in,so it starts right on beat one of the first bar.
I use Noteworthy Composer as my notation program, export from NWC to MIDI, then import in to either the melody or soloist track (note based lyrics come in as well). Once been using that workflow probably for 20 years now.
I can't imagine dragging each note in a multi-page arrangement with a mouse. I guess I'm more of keyboard shortcuts guy. Takes forever to drag [*****] around with a mouse. Overshooting the line or space. How would that work with the keyboard?
Here's a simple example of the MIDI import. Simple, simple melody made into a MIDI file in Finale. BIAB: File-->Import-->Import Melody From MIDI File. Resulte is that the melody starts two measures before chords come in, and the first measure is off the screen in Notation mode, so I can't even fix it.
So, when I import the MIDI file, I have to set "# blank bars at beginning" to 2 always? Isn't something that could be set as default?
How do you step-enter melodies and then take them in to another notation program for editing? And then into another?