For anyone that has purchased Norton MIDI Styles sets (I've got 26 sets along with seven Hawkesford style sets, and getting ready to order the newest two sets), they all come with .sgu demo files, but do not come with .wma audio demo files. So in StylePicker, if you click on the audio demo for one of the Norton Styles (they all begin with "#" sign) or Hawkesford Styles (they begin with a tilde "~"), you get a "demo file not found" error message.

So, I just copied all the Norton and Hawkesford .sgu files to a single folder (so as not to mess with the original files) and then from the BIAB top line menu selected "Audio, Export Song As Audio File". I made the settings I wanted for the file (no pause at beginning or end, bit rate, wma file, etc). I then clicked on the "Batch" button, selected the location of the .sgu files, and told it to go.

It then batch rendered the 700 or so demo .sgu files to .wma files. However, the rendering added "_Render" to the end of the file name. So, I just created a batch file to rename them all without the "_Render" designation so now the .wma base filename matches the .sgu filename which matches the .sty (style) filename. Once I had everything rendered, I copied the resulting .wma files to the "c:\BB\RealTracks\Data\Style Demos Audio" folder (or wherever you have the RealTracks stored). Now when I click on one of the Norton or Hawkesford styles to listen to the audio demo, it plays it.

Thought this might help some folks.

Thank you John, that's good info to have.

I have quite a few as well, didn't realise that there was a demo for each as I audition them over the chord sheet.

I access then in stylepicker by going to Type---Midi and Other---user, they all come up no problem.

Will have a think about doing what you have done, do the resulting files that you have created take up much drive space?

Thanks again.

Each file is anywhere from 2-8MB, with the resolution set for 128. Lower resolution should result in smaller files. But I've got plenty of hard drive space.

John
Well done
Thanks.

Excellent idea! Could you show me the interior of your .bat that I will adapt to my case, I have completely forgotten these practices. Thank you.

John, might be a good one for the Tips and Tricks section?

Tips and Tricks, absolutely.

I'll write it up in more detail and put it in Tips and Tricks.

This is also good for people who create their own styles. Just create a .SGU (any chord progression) using that style, convert to .wma, and then copy the resultant .wma over to the "Style Demos Audio" folder.

Regarding the batch file, it's pretty simple:

1. I go to a command prompt and navigate to the folder where I have all the .wma files. For example, I had mine in "m:\Norton\Samples". I then just typed "m:" followed by "cd m:\Norton\Samples".

2. Once there I ran a directory listing command redirected to a batch file. I just typed "dir *.wma /b > go.bat", which says create a bare-bones listing (just the file names) and send the out put to a file called go.bat (rather than to the screen).

3. Edit the resultant go.bat file and you'll see list of filenames like:

#filename1_Render.wma
#filename2_Render.wma
... (additional files)...

Now for me, I use a text editor that has a repeatable macro capability (it's called The Semware Editor). When I see repeatable patterns that I want to change in a text file, it lets me do it once, then repeat for each additional line. But you can also do it manually in something like Notepad with judicious copy/paste. So you'll just change the each line to read (and the quotes are important):

ren "#filename1_Render.wma" "#filename1.wma"
ren "#filename2_Render.wma" "#filename2.wma"
... (additional files)...

Essentially, just removing the "_Render" from the filename.

4. Save the file and exit the editor.
5. Type "go" and the batch file will rename the files.

You could also just go through each file and rename them manually directly from Windows as well if you don't feel comfortable going to the command prompt. But I'm an old DOS-head from way back, so I'm fine with it. And with The SemWare Editor, it makes light work of it.

6. Then just copy the files over to the demo folder.
7. Launch BIAB and test it out.

I'll do a more detailed version later with screen shots.

Can you record a 1-minute operation video?

This will help more people, such as me ^0^

John, What MIDI sound module did you use for the MIDI instrument patches?

Jim, you could use any one, but I just used the TTS-1. The whole point is to get an idea of what the style sounds like in preview mode.

Thanks for the info, John. Really good stuff. I am using Halion Sonic and it only took me a few tens of minutes to create this new library of demos. Well done for this tip.

Thanks, John.

This should work as well.

Put the sgu file in:

bb -> Demos -> MIDI style demos -> MISC

I've done this with all my new styles, ever since Peter Gannon improved the folder organization.

I've also retrofitted all my older style disks to put the demos in the same place.

As PG makes improvements in BiaB, I make the appropriate changes in my aftermarket products, but that doesn't change the old gear that is out in my customers' hands.

If anyone has a problem moving the .sgu demo files into the above folder, let me know and I'll send out a new e-disk.

Notes ♫

I'd recommend against using a batch file. I've done significant unintended damage doing so. For batch renaming, I use the excellent "Advanced Renamer" utility. It can do a LOT of things you can't do with a batch file and it's free to download and use. If you use it regularly like I do, the dev asks that you purchase a license (20 € in France). A license is not necessary to access the full feature set.

https://www.advancedrenamer.com/

Parfait pour renommer, effectivement.