I was trying to get a chord to hold (everything except the piano) when I experienced a crash.
I have BiaB 2023 Build 1006. I don't know if this is the latest because Mario indicated that the "Check for new updates" does not work in the program and I may have missed a notice on the forum.

Another detail about the crash: Although the Preview in the Chord Options window plays the held chord exactly how I envisioned it and want, the held chord back in the main edit window played a distasteful "chord" that sounded like a tuba. I have no tubas in my song.

Also I wasn't able to get the error log because I chose to "end program" after waiting 10 minutes while it tried to gracefully continue. So the shutdown was not graceful and I rebooted my machine.

After rebooting I tried to get the held chord to work and I get identical behaivor as above (minus the crash).

Any help would be appreciated.

--Steve

Hi Bass Thumper,

You can navigate to X:\bb\Data\Logs (where X = band-in-a-box storage drive) and find the BBWERROR.LOG file. Copy the latest entries and you can paste them in a post.

There's not much additional info in the BBWERROR file, but here you go.

(2023.1006.0) 1/5/2023,12:41:46 PM - Access violation at address 0000000000407780 in module 'bbw64.exe'. Write of address 000074B5F8C80000 at: 0000000000407780

Any suggestions for the held chord issue?

Check for updates works and the latest build is 1006
https://www.pgmusic.com/support_windowsupdates.htm#1006

For the held chord, which style (.STY) is it, and what chord are you holding?

Hi Andrew, sorry for the mis-information. I understood the check for updates was inoperative. I'll try to double-check my info in the future.

The chord is a G7 and the style is _CBOLGTS.STY
See below for screen shot.

Hi Andrew,

It used to be that the updates first came on the web site then later on to the BiaB update. Has that changed? I know in the past when an update was announced on the site and I clicked on the BiaB update it would say that I am up to date even though the web site update was newer.

Hmm, the holds sound fine to me for that style.
I notice you are omitting the piano track, but the style doesn't have a piano track. Have you added something to the piano track yourself? I would play that section while soloing each of the tracks in turn to see if each individual hold is working correctly. If you were only hearing the bass play a hold for example (and not the guitars) that could sound like a tuba. In that case you might have some missing holds files...

Thanks Andrew but I'm not following everything you are saying. Let me add a bit more clarity.

1. Regarding the "tuba". This may have been a bit of embellishment. It could actually be a strong bass note combined with a kick drum. But it most definately is not piano which is what I'm striving for and what I get when hitting the Preview button.

2. Regarding the piano. I am not trying to omit the piano as you say but I am trying to do the opposite. I want only the piano to hold/sustain and then fade. Could I be misinterpreting what is meant by "hold" in the Chord Options window? It seems no matter what options I set in the Chord Options window, that the Preview always gives me the desired outcome of a held/sustained piano G7 chord. Likewise, no matter what I do I can't get that held G7 piano chord to happen in my song. Also, I don't recall if I added the piano or if it came in with the style but the piano is 4062 Acoustic. I think I added it. This is the 1st time I'm trying to use a held chord so I'm not yet familiar with what to expect from the program.

3. In playing around with this I got the same exception error to happen a 2nd time.

4. I'm noticing that from time to time I'm getting a "256 error" that shows up in the lower right corner in a yellow box but it flashes so fast I'm unable to capture a screen shot or even fully read it.

Does it make sense for me to email you the .SGU file?

No need to email the SGU I don't think.



The Preview button in the chord settings dialog is only meant to let you hear the chord played by a MIDI piano patch, in root position. It doesn't play the chord as it sounds in your song with RT instruments (although that is not an unreasonable assumption)

So you want to hold ONLY the piano and let the other instruments play? The way you have it (G7...p) means that it will hold all instruments EXCEPT piano. What you actually want to do is (G7...bdgs) You can type this directly in the chord sheet, you don't need to use the chord settings window. (see screenshot)

The RT 4062 (Piano, Acoustic, Soloist Bossa Ev 140) is not in the style, so you must have added it. If you are playing this style close to the ideal tempo of 90, then a much better choice would be RT 4328 (Piano, Acoustic, Soloist Bossa Ev 85) which is also Miles Black. There is a slight complication - for some reason this instrument doesn't have holds assigned. I'll look into this. At the moment though if you hold either RT 4062 or 4328, nothing will play at all. Even with the correct holds assigned, it might not play the chord like you hear in the Chord Settings dialog (for example, maybe it will play one or two notes rather than a full chord).

I think a better way to achieve what you want is to use Playable RT:

1. In the notation window, choose the Piano track, and toggle editable notation mode.
2. Click the PRT button and enable Playable Track.
3. Enter the notes of a G7 chord on the first peg of the bar.
4. Click the PRT button and create a mute region for just that bar, so that the generated piano track doesn't play there. (see screenshot).







Let us know if there is a consistent way to get the crash to happen. I was unable to duplicate that so far.



I don't know what this is. However if it is a yellow flash message, you can see a log by going to Help | Utilities | Display Log of flash messages. Then search for '256' and see what it says on that line.

[quote=Andrew - PG Music]No need to email the SGU I don't think.[quote]

OK, thanks for the help. I think there is a confluence of issues happening here including error messages/crashes, bad assumptions on my part and me not fully understanding what "hold" means in this context.

Error Messages. Here is the log of flash messages for yesterday and (so far) today. Maybe 1 or more of these is relevant?
The default audio device has changed. [2023.1006.0, 1/6/2023 10:51:32 AM]
The default audio device has changed. [2023.1006.0, 1/6/2023 10:51:32 AM]
The default audio device has changed. [2023.1006.0, 1/6/2023 10:51:32 AM]
The default audio device has changed. [2023.1006.0, 1/6/2023 10:51:31 AM]
The default audio device has changed. [2023.1006.0, 1/6/2023 10:51:31 AM]
The default audio device has changed. [2023.1006.0, 1/6/2023 10:51:31 AM]
The default audio device has changed. [2023.1006.0, 1/5/2023 9:43:48 PM]
Windows Audio Session error: Could not select the default output device. The error number is -9985 [2023.1006.0, 1/5/2023 9:43:48 PM]
Windows Audio Session error: Could not select the default input device. The error number is -9985 [2023.1006.0, 1/5/2023 9:43:48 PM]
30% of the chords have been re-interpreted using Natural Arrangement feature to common chords, improving the arrangement. (You can turn this feature off globally in Arrangement Options, or for song in Song Settings.) This message shows once per session. [2023.1006.0, 1/5/2023 7:58:25 PM]
Bootup was optimal, set to fast [2023.1006.0, 1/5/2023 7:57:53 PM]
Bootup time in milliseconds =1,958 [2023.1006.0, 1/5/2023 7:57:53 PM]
Time to scan unknown VST plugins = 0 ms [2023.1006.0, 1/5/2023 7:57:52 PM]
Time to scan known VST plugins = 15 ms [2023.1006.0, 1/5/2023 7:57:52 PM]
Time to scan AU plugins = 0 ms [2023.1006.0, 1/5/2023 7:57:52 PM]
Time to scan ALL plugins = 15 ms [2023.1006.0, 1/5/2023 7:57:52 PM]
Time to Count Plugins in ms =110. Plugins counted=21 [2023.1006.0, 1/5/2023 7:57:52 PM]
Scanning for plugins... [2023.1006.0, 1/5/2023 7:57:52 PM]
**** New Session started at : 1/5/2023 7:57:52 PM
Windows Audio Session error: Could not select the default output device. The error number is -9985 [2023.1006.0, 1/5/2023 12:23:15 PM]
The default audio device has changed. [2023.1006.0, 1/5/2023 9:45:40 AM]

Bad Assumptions. Thanks for correcting my bad assumption about the "Preview". I wrongly assumed that hitting Preview would play the held chord in my song. One would assume this because after making changes to the options one would want to test it to confirm that what you think you have is actually what you have. FWIW, and not having used this feature before, it wasn't even clear whether I'd need to regenerate or save or regenerate and save for the changes to take effect in the song. Hence the Preview would instantly tell you what you have. And there is more confusion. If you hover your mouse on "Preview" it tells you "Plays the current chord using the patch that is currently selected for the piano part." This tells me that it will preview the current chord of RT 4062 in my song. I'm not entirely sure what the value of previewing/playing a generic G7 piano chord is in this dialog box; there very well may be value I just don't know what it is. But could I request that this button be relabeled to say something like "Play Generic Chord"? AND a new button be added labelled "Preview" and this button would truly give a preview of what will be played in your song per the options specified in that dialog window?

Held chords. "Rests, Shots, Holds: When a “shot” or a “held” chord is assigned, the instruments that are excluded from the shot/held chord play normally. There is an additional option for those excluded instruments to stay silent. To set this, select a shot or held chord and enable the “Excluded instrument(s) should rest” option. This option gives you the ability to rest some instruments while others play the shot or held chord."

What I am trying to achieve in a few specific bars (that contain the G7) is to kill the drums and guitars but let the 4062 or the 4328 piano ring out/play/hold the G7 chord untill the next bar in the song is played. Are the Bar Settings a better way to accomplish this or should I try the Notation Window as you suggest? I'm understanding from you that Chord Settings is not what I need?

Edit:
Andrew, the "256 error" happened again. This time it showed up in the utilities log.
Error generating RealTracks, Type 1, Error Code=256 . Make sure that your Prefs-RealTracks settings have the correct folder name for the location of your RealTracks, and that you have installed the RealTracks [2023.1006.0, 1/6/2023 12:16:58 PM]

Also FWIW, Last year, 2022 BiaB was installed on my C: drive. Because of space limitation I installed 2023 BiaB on my E: drive. I'm running Windows 11.

Thanks for the suggestions.
Okay there are a variety of ways that you could accomplish this. Here is what I suggest:

1. Enter a rest (all instruments). This is G7 followed by a single dot.
2. Enter the G7 chord in the notation window as I described before using PRT notes. Make sure that the notes in the chord last the whole bar. The way I did it was in Staff edit mode and right-click drag to lengthen the notes - see screenshots below.







For the 256 error - I take it back. Please do send an SGU. Ideally if you see the error, immediately freeze the song (Play menu | Free All Tracks), and then send us the frozen SGU. You can send to beta@pgmusic.com. Also, the applicable lines of text copied directly from the log would be helpful.

OK, I will freeze and send the SGU file the next time it happens.

I notice the 256 error mentioned RealTracks, so as a troubleshooting step I typed-in the location of the RealTracks folder (in case it somehow didn't fully know). Then I did a "Verify" and after about a minute Notepad came up with info. . . no errors were reported. Apparently this did no harm because my song was able to play afterward.