https://www.jjazzlab.com/en/
https://www.jjazzlab.com/en/resources/
https://musical-artifacts.com/artifacts/1036

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v80Wm6joYxs


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEP02JZexEU
Click CC button for English captions

Very interesting.

Don't let the French narration scare you; there are English captions.

It will give more then 4 chords per bar.

And you can place the chords on various push points.

I tried it. Be aware, it's all MIDI. Users of Yamaha equipment will have the easiest time using the styles.

Pipeline.... Are you spying on me?
I was just about to post this here

This developer took an aggressive swing to deliver! It is still very young and a bit clunky, compared to vArranger. But still, nothing but respect for this guy. Especially for the price - FREE!

Just finished writing a support email to developer with some suggestions. Looking back, I was actually surprised that BIAB does not have support for styles of arranger keyboards. Maybe one day...

I'm just still playing around with it.
Yeah to be able to use keyboard styles is great and you could then import to BB.
I made a few suggestions in the How to make JJazzLab better ? Share your thoughts here

There is ReaStyler https://forums.cockos.com/showthread.php?p=2207169#post2207169
but JJazzLab maybe better and easier.

It's an impressive introduction. I think it is very smart to use the Yamaha arranger styles as there is a huge collection of styles available for download over the internet. That takes a lot of pressure off the developer.

Seems promising

But... (haven’t spent enough time to be totally sure of anything, nevertheless)

[*]The harmony parts (guitar, piano, keys) don’t know the right voicings for the interesting chords (susb9 for instance, but also lydian...)
[*]There seem to be some chords missing, like the beautiful Cmaj7#5
[*]Most yamaha styles are no less cheesy than the old biab ones and biab has some nice ones, too
[*]No score or sheet yet.
[*]No xml or mgu import yet
[*]Holds, pushes... don’t seem to apply to the drums

On the other hand, there seems to be some promise here
[*]Odd meters!
[*]Simple GUI
[*]Song structure is simple and allows a lot of options
[*]Great, easy soundfont (not High Quality, but decent and GM compatible)

Looks promising, sure does.

You can give feedback here https://jjazzlab.freeforums.net/thread/27/make-jjazzlab-share-thoughts

CM7#5, have a look Tools > Options > Chord Symbols add Alias CMaj7#5 it takes Cmaj7#5
"The existing list was taken from a New Real Book"

I played with this for a couple of hours last night and here are some of my first thoughts and how they compare to yours.



I did not notice this but again I was only using this for a couple of hours



Yes a couple were cheesy but most of what I tried were very useable. They are not as good as EZKeys' MIDI styles but in some cases better than or equal to BiaB MIDI styles. YMMV

You don't need a score or notation sheet as you can save the song as a mid file and load it into a notation program like the free Musecore.

You are right about the lacking file structures.
I didn't mess with holds or pushes.





I will add that adding chords at 16th notes and the fact that you can have more then 4 notes per chord are added pluses.

The bottom line for me is that if you are working mostly in MIDI this is something to look at and to keep an eye on. IMHO if this keeps on improving this software will be a big threat to the MIDI side of BiaB.

I will once I have more experience with this under my belt.

Nice find! Super easy install since I've been using the CoolSoft VirtualMIDISynth for years.

Will this run an external module if I input the chords, would it run the modules style and change chords etc.

Have a look Tools > Options > Midi

Thanks Pipeline

I really appreciate your posts and Help.

How do you add the styles to the programme ?.

On my system, they were installed here:

C:\Users\Primary\JJazzLab\Rhythms

Where 'Primary' is your Windows User name.

There are different folders under Rhythms for different song types. The 'styles' files (.STY) are included in the Rhythms subfolders.

Thanks ill have a look. I have a file realbook is that for the styles ?.

Sounds interesting.. Just 2 questions before I download and install it for testing; Does it support VSTi ? AND, can import Midi files?

It will import Impro-visor songs and Impro-visor will import midi tracks.
You can use SaviHost with VSTSynthFont64 D.dll send midi from JJazzLab to SaviHost with LoopMidi.

Ok, sounds good..Thank's Pipeline ! Will give it a try...

Sounds like a ton of work to me. If you have to tie in two maybe three programs to do one process, it hey it’s another tool in the box.

Another thing you can do is http://www.jososoft.dk/yamaha/software/midi2style/index.htm and put it in the C:\Users\xxx\JJazzLab\Rhythms

Just a note to say, the developer, Jerome, asked for help to add the function of reading in BIAB files. I assisted a bit, and it's getting close.

Update. I've been working with Jerome supplying some of my BIAB files for testing. His program can read BIAB SGU files directly! He even has support for holds, rests, and shots. Watch for a new version soon with these features.

Yes I sent him some code to read them.

Great, thanks! I sent material explaining all the song extensions and style types. He's got it working!

Thanks for that, let us know when there is a release for it.

Matt, Pipeline
good to see progress on this!

Matt, can you please explain: "read BIAB SGU files directly"?
Are we talking about chord sheet and tempo...or something else?

I am just trying to wrap my head around this. How can shots and holds work with Yamaha styles? They usually have "fills" or "breaks" but I do not believe these styles have specific items for shots or such. Are they "place holders" in Jerome JJazzlab?

Thank you.
Misha.

We will find out together.

I am wondering...
because of style variation segments it will be challenging to just superimpose Jjazzlab arrangement to the one in BIAB.

I imagine, an intuitive "third party" (BIAB+Jjazlab) integration can look like this:
Jjazlab as a VST in BIAB, duplicating whole chord grid from BIAB, following all changes being made and tempo map. Outputting sound of whole arrangement from BIAB+Jjazlab simultaneously.

I am not sure about the part where VST can sync (duplicate) chord changes as they being written in BIAB, but if it is possible....

Maybe it worth the shot of asking Jerome to develop such VST while he is full of energy? (packing what he has in VST shell and making proper connections?) As I imagine, if it is possible, this VST could be used in such manner in any DAW that has chord track or similar.

Pipeline, if you are reading this, do you think such workflow is possible? If it is not realistic for technical reasons, maybe it is better to leave it as imaginary concept and not bother Jerome?

Thanks.

Yes while they are young and enthusiastic !
With chords changes you would need to Save SGU in BB then reopen SGU in JJazzLab.

You can ask him again here
https://jjazzlab.freeforums.net/thread/27/make-jjazzlab-share-thoughts

This does look interesting because Yamaha does have a ton of styles for their various keyboards. I'm curious to see where this goes because I'm another one who has commented over the years how cool would it be for Biab to use some arranger keyboard styles.

Bob

Pipeline,
Well... Yes, saving file, opening file, syncing midi. That is a kind of workaround... Sure. I personally think VST is the way to go. That way, even if the chord chart can't be synced automatically to BIAB, it can follow chords typed in BIAB. You will just manually enter the number of bars in Jjazlab and define positions of parts (yamaha style parts, fills etc.) that you want it to hit on certain bars. With the VST, if done right, you would not have to route audio card / midi specifically for this setup, it would be more streamlined and it will be possible to hear Yamaha style with other RT's from BIAB together. I am actually surprised Jerome chose stand alone format. You can easily make the VST standalone, but not vise versa. I will think it over a bit and give Jerome a shout.
---
Bob,
That was one of my first "wishes". I do not see why PG would change BIAB to accept arranger styles (Yamaha, Roland)... I think the only way to do this without jumping all kind of hoops is to have third party style module in a form of VST to be loaded to BIAB channel. Or, to have more dedicated midi channels in BIAB to import the MIDI file from arranger and so it clearly displays/plays on all 16 channels without interfering with RT channels.

I didn't want to get into detail unless somebody asked...

My suggestion was to take the arranger style elements which are nothing more than short midi files, and import them into the Stylemaker. The problem with that is as we all found out last year the Stylemaker has serious limitations so it would need to be reworked in order to do that. That makes it another one of those "Is it really possible to even do that or would it require a rewrite of the Biab base code"?

This can be done now with one huge gotcha. You midi your computer to an arranger keyboard and use the Export Chords function. As Biab is playing it exports the chords to the keyboard in real time. Of course that means you already own a good arranger which ain't cheap. My Korg Pa3x cost about $4,000 new. I got it used for way less but that's how much the new Pa5X is. The new Yamaha PSR970 is about $2,000 but the flagship Genos? Don't ask. (Around 6K)

Bob

Version 2.1 is out.

https://www.jjazzlab.com/en/

It does read BIAB SGU and MGU files. And it reads Music XML files.

Be aware, there are a few problems reading BIAB song files so there is a disclaimer that your BIAB song might not work. However, I gave the developer a ton of files with all kinds of features in the songs to test, and they did quite well.

RustySpoon asked if it handles shots and holds. Yes.

The main problem I see is that songs import in 4/4 time, so if your BIAB song is 3/4 you will have to make an edit of the time signature once in JJazzlab. The developer says he can't (yet) find how to read the time signature from the BIAB file.

Yes that's what I found with the SGU there is no time signature in it as it gets the time signature from the Style that is being used.
So they can put a prompt on import to ask for time signature.

JJazzLab 2.1.2 will prompt now to ask for time signature of the imported SGU/MGU and be able to change all time signatures by double clicking the first time signature.

Thanks for this notice.

Ah. So this is the 2.1.2a update from June 30. This is update also contains a couple of bug fixes.

2.1.2a Details
[enhancement] BIAB import : notify user about time signature limitation #86
[enhancement] Add a Song Memo editor #11

[bug-fix] Mac/Linux: Shot option checkbox is hidden in the Chord Symbol Edit dialog #96 *(2.1.2a)*
[bug-fix] Mac: typing a chord symbol from the chord lead sheet preselects first char in the bar edit dialog #97 *(2.1.2a)*

I'm truly amazed at the number of PG Music forum members that have posted on the +++ JJazzLab forum +++.