The four BLANK utility styles need some attention and updates.

There are three (3) blank swing styles versus one (1)blank even style.
Two (2) blank styles have a tempo of 100 and two (2) blank styles have a tempo of 120.
Two (2) blank styles are assigned to the Jazz genre and two (2) blank styles are assigned to the Pop genre.
The 'Long Name" of the four blank styles do not follow a consistent pattern.
The "BLANK34" long name does not describe if the feel is even 8, even 16, swing 8 or swing 16.
The "Other Genre" labels differ with two (2) Jazz and two (2) Pop.



May I suggest the following changes and additions:

Change "BLANK 34" feel from "sw8" to "ev8".
Change the tempo of all BLANK styles to either 100 or 120. My preference is 120.
Change the Genre of all BLANK styles to "Utility" or leave the field empty.
Change the Group of all BLANK styles to "Utility" or leave the field empty.
Change the "Other Genres" to "Utility" or leave the field empty.
Add BLANK utility styles with 16th feel to compliment the existing 8th feel BLANK utility styles.
Add BLANK 2/4 utility styles with even, swing feel and both 8th and 16 note resolution. Note this request was originally made by forum member Islansoul.

The suggested changes and additions will make it easier for user to create custom MIDI, MIDI Supertrack and RealTrack styles while starting from a clean slate.

I would like it noted that when this subject was previously mentioned Peter Gannon made this response:

I will go ahead and pass this suggestion and feedback along! Thanks so much.

+1

Hi Jim,

The blank utility styles have been fixed and additional blank utility styles have been added. The updated files will be available soon to users. Thank you as usual for your input, it helps us very much.

Jim’s analysis is very thorough. Thanks for making these improvements.

Welcome back to the BLANK styles wishlist discussion!

As noted above Ember and Jareth of PG Music responded to my original request and two new BLANK styles were included in the 2021 release.

Thank you Ember and Jareth for adding two BLANK styles as part of the 2021 release! Also a BIG thank you for making all the BLANK style long names consistent. It's a small change that makes a BIG difference when using the StylePicker and when the style name is displayed.

However, there continues to be a need for additional BLANK styles. There are no BLANK styles for 3/4 time Even 16, 3/4 time Swing 16 and the present BLANK style set does not include any BLANK 2/4 time styles.

As mentioned in my initial post, and as can be seen in the second screen shot below, existing BLANK styles need updating to be consistent with each other when displayed in the StylePicker.

All BLANK styles should have the same default tempo. Presently BLANK style tempos are split between 90, 100 & 120 BPM. This action will consolidate all BLANK style listings when the StylePicker is sorted by Tempo.

The StylePicker "Genre", "Group" and "Other Genre" columns should indicate BLANK styles are Utility styles. Presently BLANK styles are labeled Pop or Jazz in the "Genre" and "Other Genre" columns while the "Group" column displays either Jazz 30 or POP 70. Listing all BLANK styles as Utility styles in the "Genre", "Group" and "Other Genre" columns will consolidate the BLANK style listings while also making them easier to find during a search.

All BLANK styles should reside in the same MIDI Set. Presently they are split between MIDI Sets 24 & 43. This will consolidate all the BLANK styles when the StylePicker is sorted by MIDI Set.

New gripe for 2023: Make the Memo for each BLANK style display consistent information in the StylePicker. Here is the Memo for BLANK: while here is a listing from BLANKE16:

PG Music, thanks for your continual product improvement. I hope other forum members will continue to show their support for this request.

Hi JIm,

I'm curious, IF a feature were added to let you easily change the feel for notation purposes, as well as the time signature, for ANY style on a song-by-song basis, would that be preferable to having new "blank" styles? I'm not saying this is something that would necessarily be added, as there MAY be complications with doing that, but if it WERE added, would that make things simpler?

I would guess that the main reason for using the "blank" styles is that you would want to start a new song with a "clean slate" and then start adding tracks. I can certainly relate to that. If you could just pick a SINGLE blank style to start your song, but then, for example, set the SONG to treat that blank style as 3:4, sw16, would that be preferable?

Hi Tobin,

You've asked an interesting question. I know other users use BLANK styles so I hesitate to assume my answer is the same that another user might give. Your question presents some interesting possibilities. Hopefully others will share their response to your question.

Band-in-a-Box is a wonderful tool to use for experimentation and self education. One way I experiment and self teach is to create a chord chart, use comparable instruments while I try styles with different feels and time signatures and then listen at the differences. Sometimes I know in my head what I'm searching for but mentally don't know if a swing 8 or swing 16 works better until I hear it. I don't read music so for me it's not as much about notation as it is how the feel of the song changes. For example musicians might play the same music with 2/4 and 4/4 time signatures differently because the different time signatures naturally give different emphasis to different beats.

Having the capability to change the time signature and feel without having to swap styles would be nice when that's what I'm doing. However I believe the capability would have to at least include 2/4, 3/4, 4/4 and 6/8 time signatures to be a notable difference to having multiple BLANK styles.

Thanks for your interest and asking the question, it made me think!