Please post MIDI specific ideas here...

Yep, my thoughts exactly.

I love RealDrums, but folks I share song files with don't necessarily have them. As Tom said, this also opens up a lot of options.

More flexibility in the Stylepicker window. It would be nice, for example, being able toreorganize the styles in the "Stile picker window" at your own way, allowing, for example the creation of user's folders and subfoders (Blues -> My Favourite Blues -> With or without Guitar...) that can be opened and closed with one click, the creation of user's "memos", etc...

People on the Yahoogroups BIAB forum have often mentioned a desire for multiple MIDI ports in BIAB

Peter,

Thank you very much for bringing up the subject. I thought MIDI was a lost cause here. I am extremely grateful to know that you are willing to purse further development.

I am interested in 1980s and forward electronic music Styles. I may not be able to afford the latest version of BIAB, but put out a disk of styles taken from the below and I'm on it.

Fertile grounds here. Artist examples include:

- Peter Gabriel (Us, Up) does some really interesting ambient stuff as intros and interludes that could be developed into complete styles. (This is more R&B, but "Sledgehammer" and "Steam" Styles would be great!)
- Mike Oldfield (Ommadawn, Hergest Ridge, Tubular Bells 1, 2, and 3, Tres Lunas, The Songs of Distant Earth) has some tracks going that would translate well into MIDI. (I am NOT asking you to attempt his guitar work, unless you want to try it as Real Tracks.)
- Jean Michel Jarre (Oxygene [plus sequels], Equinoxe, Les Chants Magnetiques, Zoolook, etc.)
- Vangelis (Blade Runner)
- Tangerine Dream (all, but especially their Hollywood period)
- Klaus Schulze (take your pick--he has a 50-CD set out. I'll have to do some more research to narrow it down.)
- Kraftwerk (Autobahn)
- Mannheim Steamroller (all)
- Yello (Get On)
- Air (La Femme D'Argent)
- William Orbit
- Robert Miles
- Kitaro

There is more, but that's it off the top of my head. I've been thinking about this for a very long time.

If you want to hear exactly what I am drawing from, go to Shoutcast/Winamp and search on "Klasyka Muzyki Elektronycznej." (Polish for "Classic Electronic Music.") Winamp gives you song titles and group names. I listen to this station almost constantly. I draw heavily on this music as inspiration for my sound.

I would like to have the ability for the user to be able to use all 16 midi channels as they see fit. For example if I’m not using harmonies I would like to assign something else to those channels, perhaps another midi generated string part. In other words have the user be able to put whatever they want, be it midi generated or midi recorded parts, on any of the 16 channels.

+1

Increase BIAB's PPQ resolution, perhaps user-adjustable, from 120PPQ to 960PPQ so as to make it comparable to most DAW's/sequencers including PG's PowerTracks.

This would allow:

MIDI files of this resolution can be imported and exported. Currently to import MIDITracks you have to down resolution them to 120PPQ.

Styles with higher resolutions.

This is a long standing request. There are even threads on this topic dating from 2001 on the Yahoo BIAB User group. e.g. http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Band-in-a-Box/message/449

We need the ability to import a midi file to any BIAB track (for ex. import a MIDI file on the bass track).
Very useful when the bass track is very typical of the song and/or when no standard bass from BIAB styles don't fit with the song.

We need the ability to adjust the velocity for each of the 16 channels. Present normalize feature, very useful in some situations is too wide because it applies to all the MIDI tracks.
Adjustment would be also modular, that means 'adjust velocity on a given track from...to...' (for ex. adjust velocity on the bass track from bar 33 to bar 64).

Make 'apply from...to...' feature for following MIDI adjustements (and no longer for the whole song): for example, apply Humanize melody from bar 32 to bar 64 or for chorus#3.
Quantize melody,
Humanize melody,
Humanize with Swing Feel
Humanize with Straighht Feel
Timeshift.
Very useful feature, because a MIDI track need to be tweaked in detail to sound well.
Other advantage : we can make all the the MIDI adjustements inside BIAB, we would not have to export the MIDI track in a DAW to make the MIDI adjustements. So, BIAB would really become a AIO arranger with advanced edition features.

Loosen up start times.
We need to get the ability to select the track or the tracks or all the tracks to be affected.
For example, apply to Bass track, Drums track and the melody track.

We need the ability to make combo sounds. Very great feature for nice arrangements. Combinations are endless.

For example Combo sound#1: Stage1.Made with following patches and settings:
- Electric Piano#1 patch:
Level : 110
Pan : L20
Reverb : 20
Chorus : 0
Transposition : 0
- Electric Piano#2 patch:
Level : 90
Pan : R10
Reverb : 20
Chorus : 20
Transposition : +1 Oct.

It could be done using the Harmony files.
In this case, raise the quantity of 255 to 1024 harmonies. Range 512 - 1024 could be reserved for the user sound combos. The use of several *.har files is not handy at all, and I gave up using them.

Selective Melody/Solist Legato
We need the ability to adjust the legato of a MIDI track :
- selection of the track (bass track, piano track, melody track)
- amount : +N ticks, or -N ticks, or +/- N ticks (randomize duration of notes)
- selection of the zone : the whole track or 'from...to...'.

Selective eliminate Note Overlap.
We need the ability to eliminate notes overlap on a selected zone of a track (from...to...) and not only on the whole track.
For example, you have a song with the piano playing the melody from bar# 1 to bar#16. You need to hold the notes overlap. Then you have a flute playing the melody from bar#17 to bar#32. You need to eliminate notes overlap from bar#17 to bar#32.

Selective Vocal Wizard.
We need the ability to run the vocal wizard on a selective zone of melody (from...to...)and not for only the whole melody. Used with acoustic instruments ranges for example, you could check if a transposition is still realistic for the different instruments used inside a melody track.

What MIDI enhancements would I like? Since you asked:

1) Resolution of at least 240ppq

2) Support for multiple synths, at least 16

3) More than 5 instruments, 7 would be nice, more would be better

4) Variable length endings up to 8 or 12 bars

5) Chord entry dialog box that would include check boxes (not radio buttons) for all the scale tones from root through 13 with another trio of radio buttons to the right of each scale tone to natural, flat or sharp that tone (natural being the default). That way you could do diminished triads, major 9 omit 3, minor 3 add 4, and any chord the user wants. We often run into chords in fake books than cannot be entered in BiaB.

6) Long and short rolls in the StyleMaker and a way to assign either to the playback grid

7) An option to switch sub-styles without adding a roll

8) A way to assign patterns in the style maker so that if one is chosen, complementary patterns would also be chosen. For example, if a drum roll with quarter note triplets was selected, a bass line with quarter note triplets could automatically also be chosen. Another example, if a drum roll with a rest on the 4th beat was chosen, patterns written to complement this drum roll with either a rest or held note on that same beat would be chosen.

9) Have the details that go into the Style Picker Window built into the style itself instead of an ls3 file and include a dialog box to enter the information

10) Long file names for the styles

11) Have the default volumes on all parts return after each song - so if a style changes the volume, it will return to the default when the song is done

12) Have the pitch bend, and continuous controllers return to a user set default after each song so if the previous style left them altered, the next song would return to the default

13) Add riff based patterns to the bass style

14) Fix the 2 and 1 beat styles so that a relative weight of 9 works on them. Right now if I do 4 different beats on the 1 beat row with a "fill" bar mask and a different note pattern for each beat, BiaB will mix them up when playing back (pattern for beat 1 might end up on beat 2, 3 or 4, etc.)

15) Increase the number of columns in the StyleMaker from 30 to 32, after all it is a multiple of 4 and 8 measures of single beat patterns would fit in there perfectly

16) Support for accelerando and ritardando with a resolution of at least one beat per tempo change (preferably more)

17) Native support for uncommon time signatures like 6/8, 5/4, 7/8, etc. without having to kludge a work-around in BiaB's grid.

18) A button that directs the user to Norton Music's Style Demo Page (hey! a guy can dream, can't he? <wink/grin>)

Most of these have already been posted in the wish list.

Peter:

Rather than list midi features that I'd like to see, let me state that it's clear that there are (at least) two different audiences for BIAB: those that want to create backing tracks for accompaniment and those that use the product to explore the inner workings of music. For me, at least, I use it for the latter purpose, and RealBand has been of no use. The so-called "new midi features" that have come with the new releases have been disappointing to say the least and I think that it's safe to say that the underlying algorithms that were used to generate entirely new melodies and solos with midi do not seem to have budged since 2008. When BIAB was a midi-only product, I could use it to learn music theory in a way that no textbook could teach.

With the introduction of RealBand, BIAB became a totally new product and its utility diminished for me. Though it probably doesn't make sense financially, I'd like to see a return to the original midi-based algorithmic compositional focus of the product, and further refinement to that model. Let's be honest - as it existed when a true focus on midi was left in the dust, BIAB was a hard product to beat.

Peace,
MD

Midi is related to notation.

It would be a major step forward, if BB would support compound time signatures in notation ... not just the fudged stuff that's offered now (+1 on Bob Norton's #17 here and indeed showing up zillions of times on the wishlist).

The next best thing would be support of MusicXML. I would instantly buy a full fledged notation program, if I could be sure, the BB chord structure could get transferred to a program like Sibelius.

Speaking of Sibelius - you chaps at PG Music would do the community a favor, if you won't keep sticking with Finale -> do check out business arrangements with those Sibelius honchos ... and, please, support MusicXML.

Thank you for providing the opportunity to indicate the midi-related improvements that we would find most useful.

First of all, I would echo many of Bob Norton's requests but six of them in particular are important to me. They are #4, #7, #8, #12, #14, #15. Taken together they would provide a significant increase in usefulness.

In as much as future style development will be RealTrack styles and since styles with RealCharts (with the capability of saving the midi notes) essentially have an invisible underlying midi style - the capability of pulling the midi style out from the RealTracks style would be very useful (and could decrease the feeling of abandonment among some midi users - they would still be getting new midi styles to play with).

--- And now for something dear to my heart. The use of BiaB as a melody composition tool.

Ideally, in the melodist, I would like to be both able to specify my own patterns (for ex. ABBACA) instead of being stuck with the AABA pattern AND to have support for creating my own Melodist Databases with my own phrases to construct Melodists around.

Failing this, I would like to be able to remap my musical phrases across different chord patterns. It would be adequate if I had two buttons where I could map the melody track to C7 chord over a range of bars with one button AND with the other button treat the melody over a range of bars as mapped to a C7 chord and remap to the chords currently in those bars.

BiaB is annoying close to having this capability already. Currently I am embedding my musical phrases into a succession of dummy styles and substyles to get the remapping and believe me the process is a real pain in the ass.

the ability to hear each note in the event editing list, as you scroll it. More classical styles. World music styles. Punch in/ punch out points in Realband by clicking directly on the midi or waveform, rather than entering numbers, that's too dull.

Good intros and endings in Biab, similar to the ones in the Yamaha workstations. Especially the intros, are too dull and predictable, always starts with I, ends with V , etc

The ability to program, simply and without fuss:

crescendos,
diminuendos,
rallentandos,
accellerandos

I am sure I have more, I even made a list that I have somewhere, but for now these are the ones I thought of

I would like to have the midi option to trigger real drum sounds . You have so many beats available if the user that has no other software to make great drum sounds were able to ,it would be more attractive to new customers . Your Software has been going that way of a 1 software is all you need anyway .

Thank You for Listening and Acting on Ideas of your loyal customers and curmudgeons !

Some kind of facility to add your own chord voicings for supported chords that can override basic 7th chord template in existence. Or even the ability to add your own previously unsupported chords.

To make files transferrable to those who don't yet possess the custom chords you've applied might be a problem; this info would have to written into the file somehow or else the user would have to include a separate file containing the voicing rules table applied.

This custom chord voicing table or mapping function could be applied 'globally' either at the level of the specific midi style in use, or if possible all of the styles; whichever is more achievable technically.

If this global option isn't possible an alternative might be an extension of the stylemaker commands to target specific midi notes in a style to allow the user to copy move delete these notes rather than simply alter their velocity 9which currently exists).

Regards

Alan

A reconfiguration of the pattern editor to include 4 or 8 bar patterns which would do most to make midi comping more true to how musicians actually space out and 'think through' their patterns over larger time frames. Essential for jazz. Along with increased resolution this is the feature that would make people change their minds about midi.

Just now this has to be simulated through use of holds and shots, to get the pianist to 'shut up' or else use blank patterns.

An addition to the number of chord masks applicable to any pattern in the stylemaker.
At the moment Major chord masks get applied to altererd major inappropriately.
In the same way, 7sus masks are currently applied to complex extended dominants like 7susb9#11b13 that sound totally out of place as they're meant for more consonant riff voicings.

m7 masks should also be distinguished from mMaj7.

Regards

Alan

We also need the ability to manage sysex, RPN and NRPN in the midi tracks., at any place in the track and not only in the beginning, for example to control internal audio effects of MIDI expanders like Ketron SD2.

What Bob Norton said...

Ability to set higher bank patches from the mixer.

This is a small thing. Peter you did say after 2011.5 was released this would be done. I haven't upgraded yet, so I'm not sure it hasn't been done, but I didn't see it in the list of new features. Again, a small convenience, but would be appreciated here at least.

Thanks, Ron

Being able to SAVE the POSITION of the fretboard (i.e TABS) on the Melody or SOLOIST tracks for guitar parts that don't have the channels 11 to 16 specified (such as in cases when a MIDI file is imported with only one channel for the guitar part.) Many times I am able to find the best fingering position for the tabs, but then I have to redo it everytime I open the file again next time... and many songs may have different position and I won't be able to remember which position goes with which song... unless the position is saved with the song.

I'd really like to see the midi sync clock, stop, start, tempo, song position, ... all sent down to the VST/VSTi plugins.

There are already some nice utilities for adjusting midi on the melody and soloist tracks. I find the 'loosen start times' feature particularly useful. Ditto for 'eliminate note overlap'. However there are some potential improvements I can think of.

First off, the ability to adjust legato would be nice. It's available when creating a melody or solo but not (that I can see) for existing midi. Secondly, a way to intelligently add bends would be nice.

Now I don't know whether it's even possible but it would be nice if there was a way to optimize a midi track based on what instrument it's supposed to be. For example, there could be choices to optimize for electric guitar, acoustic guitar, keys etc. I can envision a dialog populated with default choices for legato, note overlap, bends, vibrato etc. that change to the best choices for the instrument selected by the user and then modified to taste.

Anyway love the program. Thanks.

And one other thing...

Lots of pieces of music have their own particular individual timings or "groves" if you will. The non-standard timings may even shift repeatedly as you go through the song. If you bring in a midi and isolate the melody, it's not at all uncommon that the timing for any of the existing styles doesn't match the individual song. This can be "fixed" through the use of the quantize feature which then allows selecting an appropriate style, but only at the cost of losing a significant amount of character of the original melody.

What one would then like to do is freeze the accompaniment and go back to the timing of the original melody carrying the relative timing of the accompaniment with you.

It is possible to adjust the timing of the melody and accompaniment outside of BiaB to recover the original grove, with a greater or lesser difficulty depending on the tools one has available.

But... It would be very cool not to have to leave BiaB to do this, and not everyone is going to have the appropriate tools and know-how. BiaB is at it's best when it makes things easy.

I tend to suspect that, since BiaB can adjust melodies from swing to straight to waltz and of course do a variable quantize, that much of the machinery you would need to accomplish this is already there inside BiaB.

If you really wanted to go over the top, you could forget freezing the accompaniment and every time you generated a new accompaniment you could go through the quantitize-generate accompaniment-unquantitize cycle and call it something like intelligent styles (that adjust to your melody) and turn it on or off with a single check box.

Doing this with RealTrack styles would add a whole nother level of difficulty, though with time stretching capabilities and judicious substitution it might be possible. But it's the midi version that would be the most useful.

I wonder if it's possible to store all the embellisher settings with the songs. This would be very useful since different midi tracks require different settings to achieve the best effect.

I don't know if this is midi related or not? When auditioning styles via stylepicker, I'd like the song to start at the beginning of the song vs where the last one left off. If you stop the song and it happens to be on bar X, the next style generates and starts playing from bar X. I'd like to see and hear the next style start with the count-in or bar 1, depending on people's settings.

Trax

Would like to see BB sit down and talk with Jimmy Hotz and Mick Fleetwood to discuss migrating the Hotz Translator into BB.

Hotz Translator

Hotz Box and MIDI Translator Software Demo

Amazing You Rock Guitar™ Hotz Translator Software Demo by Jimmy Hotz

Music Creation using the Hotz Translator - Mick Fleetwood

History of the Hotz Box Part 2 with Mick Fleetwood, Jimmy Hotz

It would
01) Quadruple your market share.
02) Greatly aid melody creation.
03) Satiate the need for BB midi enhancements.
04) Allow complete newbies to play midi instruments (or play a computer keyboard) at a level that would normally take decades to achieve.
05) Spawn the next generation of popular musical instruments.
06) Offer Karaoke fans an opportunity to play along while they sing along.
07) Eventually allow audiences to competently play along at concerts (create an app for that).
08) Nurture a child's natural love for music (enhancing their mind and strengthening self esteem).
09) Make BB a mainstay in our schools.
10) Give our aging newbie population an opportunity to create music and stick around a few years longer.

.
Easy saving and implemetation of upper banks:

When I use outboard VSTs like Coyote, B4 and Philharminik, Biab's ability to save my settings seems pretty random. Please have the values for all of the voicing, effects and upper-bank patches save routinely and reliably every time I save the song.

Say I am playing through the "Swinging Piano Solos" folder (which I do sometimes.) These sound great on my Yamaha keyboard, and even better when the lead piano is set to LSB 113, patch 8. This gives one of Yamaha's premium voices that falls outside the MIDI standard. But it is rather cumbersome to do this, and the setting does not stick. I want to be able to say "Keep this voice as melody instrument" for the next few songs, or until I say otherwise.

Heck, I have a BiaB machine married to this keyboard. Give me the ability to create a short-list of premium upper-bank voices to be my defaults.

.
>>>...Would like to see BB sit down and talk with Jimmy Hotz and Mick Fleetwood to discuss migrating the Hotz Translator into BB...>>

I had never seen the Hotz machine before. Looks very interesting...and expensive. A touch screen of that size is not going to be cheap.

There is, however, a control surface that is so cheap that lots of people have them already: arranger keyboards. There have been lots of requests for the ability to use an arranger board to trigger chords in BiaB in real time. The reason for not doing this has been explained, but I am going to give it another shot.

Perhaps it would be too much to ask to expect the full versatility and spontaneity of BiaB styles be accessible via a real-time keyboard. But what if the keyboard had access to just TWO of the patterns? I am stepping into areas of programming that only the PG guys know about, but might it be possible:

Pick a style in BiaB and set the program to "Real-Time" mode. BiaB then limits the style to just the two 8-beat patterns with the highest frequency number. Under this restriction, BiaB MIGHT be able to respond to requests for chord changes in real time.

I am out of my depth here. I don't know anything about the low-level programming commands in BiaB, and if y'all tell me I am all wet I'll shut up about it. Bear in mind, though, that lots of people have arranger keyboards in their closets. Maybe they would be interested in BiaB if the hookup could be made.

"I had never seen the Hotz machine before. Looks very interesting...and expensive. A touch screen of that size is not going to be cheap."

Luckily with the Hotz Translator Software you can play directly from your computer keyboard (I believe all keys are active) or use your current music keyboard.

The Hotz Translator Software was invented decades ago, but the most recent release may have been upgraded to work on Windows XP (at least I'm hoping so).

Would love to see the Hotz Translator functionality resurrected within BB.

In staff roll notation mode, after I finish adding note based lyrics, if I switch to the chord sheet, then come back to the notation mode I was just on, the lyrics are gone. A work-around is click editable notation mode, then staff roll notation mode again and the lyrics are back. It's a minor bug perhaps, but it's been there for years.

----- Jim

This problem happens with some songs, not others. I can't figure out why. When I copy a chorus section with melody and lyrics in an unfolded song to a later part of the song and insert bars at destination, I get a window with the question: "There are existing melody notes/lyrics in the region that you are copying the melody to. Would you like to delete them?" Whether I answer yes, the "Copy From ...To" copies the melody to the new bars, but leaves the chords and lyrics blank. Also, why would it ask me if I want to delete existing melody notes and lyrics where I'm copying to when I select the option to paste to newly inserted bars?
To make it really complicated, if you answer the question-- "No, don't delete the melody notes or lyrics" then it doubles the words in the from location so you end up with a jumbled up mess for lyrics, but no lyrics in the to location.
If this doesn't happen to you, keep trying other songs. You will stumble on this if you write a lot of lyrics with Band in a Box. I called support about this a couple of versions ago and sent them my song example--- I got no resolution to this.
Please fix this. It will take some time to isolate the problem. I certainly can't figure out what's going on.

--- Jim

I've learned a lot of chords from the Guitar Tutor in the guitar window. I like to practice chords in one position at a time, slowing the tempo down, then increase the tempo as I learn them. Yet BIAB does not let you constrain the chords to one position-- they jump all over the neck. I'd like to hang out in the 5th position or A chord, then move on to the 9th position, or the open position. Better would be to have a slider to let you adjust how many frets the chords move around from the center position you choose. I would usually select 2 frets on either side. Sometimes I would constrain it to stay at that one position where I want to practice.

--- Jim

The miditracks picker is a great new feature. Now I wish PGMusic will go back over their whole library of midi styles and update some parts that are really simplistic. Especially the bass, but also strings and drums. Sorry I don't have any examples right now, but this was one of the reasons for making realtracks. Sure the miditracks picker will save me a lot of time finding midi parts, but the main reason I pass them up and keep looking is because so many sound so quantized and mechanical.
Or how about making an embellisher to humanize the bass, drums, and strings? That would help, but I think a lot of the midi parts need to be re-done.

--- Jim

TBH I've only read about 1/2 of this thread ... and I strongly concur with Norton's inciting insights.

But along with multiport midi and higher resolution, there is one feature that tops them all for me: a multichannel MIDI VSTi version.

Music Devlopments RapdidComposer (google it if you're interested) has just been updated to include a 128 track MIDI VSTi. The developer did it by himself evenings and weekends over a couple of months. This product uses 8 different instantiations of the MIDI VSTi plug ins to get it's 128 tracks ... but all using the same GUI by having tracks 1-16 go to the first instance, named ... you guessed it '1-16' ... and in the GUI tracks 17-32 go to the second GUI, etc.

Surely it wouldn't take the BIAB crew more than a few weeks to accomplish this with the number of tracks in BIAB?

The only reason I can imagine this hasn't been done is because it might be considered to conflict with the development of RealBand, as in 'keep it all in the family.'

In my opinion, this is shortsighted. There are thousands of BIAB users who are dedicated users of Cubase, Logic, ProTools, Sonar, etc., who are never going to go to RealBand as their primary DAW. Even more significantly, there are many times that many dedicated users of these other DAWs who would only be interested in buying BIAB, either as an included feature or separate product, if it were a multichannel MIDI VSTi.

Besides RapidComposer, Cognitone is shortly to release a MIDI VSTi. Simpler midi manipulation MIDI VSTi products like 7Aliens Catanya or SubarBytes TheSys or Consequence are already significant products in the general audio creation/ production market.

BIAB will miss a huge opportunity if they don't target this type of MIDI enhancement.

Prado

1) Ability to globally adjust midi velocity of a midi track - not something that would set all velocities to a uniform level, but a window next to volume and pan in the UI that would add or subtract a certain amount to existing note velocities. Most modern sequencers have a window like this for midi tracks.

2) Access to more midi channels. RealTracks and harmonies now occupy a lot of midi channels and tracks. It would be nice to be able to load 5 or 6 RTs and still have access the full range of midi channels.

3) Thanks for adding the feature allowing the quick addition of a single midi part to a biab song. It would be really helpful if there were some quick way to audition that midi part before you load it into the song.

4) There are a lot of really nice midi parts and styles, but they are highly quantized. The humanize function in "Slide Tracks" is a good start, but I think we need a more powerful and effective way to randomize (humanize) note starts, durations and velocities in a musical way.

5) The ability to regenerate a single midi part like we can now for RealTracks

6) The ability to highlight a certain number of bars and have it regenerate. This would be helpful for midi and RealTracks.

Thanks for contuing to improve BIAB. It's a great program and getting better with each release.

John

I would like the option to add a FX to a midi part when you have loaded a midi file into Band In a Box.

For example - if you load a midi file it usually ends up in the Melody track.
Clicking on the SEQ button then allows you to change an instrument, Volume etc.
I would like to be able to insert a FX on each individual instrument.

Best regards
George

It seems archaic now to save BIAB songs with .sgu and .mgu extensions.
When BIAB was midi only, it clearly indicated a song with a melody track. But now the melody track could just as easily have an RT.

'Freezing' for measures and instruments, i.e. the ability to press Play and regenerate parts and then be able to freeze parts of that 'take' so that it isn't lost on the next Play/regenerate.

For example, I often like how an intro sounds, but would like to regenerate other parts of the song without losing that intro.

Is there a way to set up live auto-accompaniment where playing the base note will play a midi comp in the chosen style? I was sure this was already a feature in the program but I can't figure out how. If it is not a feature I am sure I am not the only one that would like to see it added.

I posted a new wish for a "latin" or more specific a "salsa" style melodyst and soloist.

It would be nice to improve the stylepicker to include All the styles present in BIAB, including the user styles.

Real MIDI styles
For new MIDI styles, it would be nice to get Live MIDI styles, that means styles recorded live with MIDI instruments and with no or very few quantization, mainly for drums, piano, bass and guitar.

Velocity Compressor/Expander
It would be useful to get a velocity compressor/expandor for any MIDI track. Feature could be applied on a selectable part of a track or on the whole track (parameters could be : from…to…, choice of the track#, velocity center value, velocity offset, level 0 to 100%). It would be used to add or reduce dynamics on MIDI tracks of a song. It's the equivalent of audio compressor/expander.

ADVANCED HOLD CHORDS
For hold chords (on last bar of a section, or final hold chord for example), it would be nice to have the possibility to get an arpeggiated chord for an instrument, either piano or guitar, rather than a plain straight chord. This user option could be accessed via F5 key. For that, we can imagine, in the stylemaker, specific arpeggio hold chords for the piano and others for the guitar. It would add professionnal musicality to the BIAB performance.

It would be great to bring back the MIDI chorus control in the main page of BIAB, as for the reverb control. Present way to manage the chorus settings is really not handy.

How about a feature in Powertracks that allows you to adjust timing in individual tracks in real time? This could dial in the feel of the song.

I would like a button, close to the play button, that sends mod wheel information 127 to every track, when the song is playing.

This is only a problem if you, like me, use the Melodist feature.

I like Garritans JABB. JABB uses mod wheel info for volume. (Yes, It's a feature not a bug.) However, BiaB (if you use the Melodist feature) creates mod wheel information on the melody track which are hard to take away. The event edit list does not show all information on channel 4 (which, I believe, is the melody track). Hence, when I listen to a song in BiaB through JABB I must manually adjust mod wheel information, in order to here the JABB notes. And if I pause the song, I have to manually adjust mod wheel information again.

Lennart Christianson

MIDI Harmonies
1 - We need a better way to select a MIDI harmony in the way of the stylepicker (harmonies w/two voices, w/three voices, search by key word,...)
2 - It would be nice also to extend the maximum number of entries to 1024.

Chords entry ideas (partial midi related ?

To accept numeric chord entry : 1 maj, 2 m7, b3 maj7, etc.. in relation to the key, BIAB will translate it into proper alphabetical chord entry.

Also, a preference setting to view chord as alphabet or numeric, so BIAB would also translate existing chords into numeric.

To enable chords to be viewed / printed as Eb / Bb instruments, while sounding in concert C pitch. Good for wind players to practice improvisation along.

Hi, I wish that the Melodyst and the Soloist builder gets updated, meaning maybe to add some more "playing" styles or maybe to add some more artists to them. I've been following the melodyst and the soloist builder since 2007 and have not seen a lot of difference on them, I'm just referring to the midi part of it, nor RT's.I asked once in the past for a in this case a new "latin" or 'salsa" melody style, but maybe there is not much demand for it. Oh well.

Mike B.

I'm glad it's already there! And I do apologize for not finding out first.

Thanks.

First, BIAB is an awesome app. I've used it for WELL over a decade. It has tons of features under the cover. If I've missed an easy way to do what I'm proposing PLEASE let me know.

There are currently keyboard shortcuts for controlling song playback. I.E. Ctrl-NUMPAD 2 to loop the middle chorus. For us that play with two hands it is tough to use a laptop keyboard to control song playback in live situations. I saw a post for someone looking for a foot controller that would allow a guitarist to direct song playback. I want the same thing. But I don't think I'll find a foot controller that sends out custom PS-2 keyboard codes. (Might be a nice hobby project, but really...)

Midi foot controllers are common. If I could loop the intro, head, chorus (improv), and ending by stomping on a midi controller it would really be nice. All I need is for BIAB to support looping a range of bars based on a midi key input.

Devils in the details and making this a musical function would required implementing much of what already is in the Song Navigation Keystrokes built into BIAB. Like jumping to the next loop only after the current one completes.

Thanks for considering...

Printing of the chord sheet of a song.
When there is a time signature change and a chord change, the both interfere : so in this case, the chord name has to be right shifted.

New chord masks
In the StyleMaker, it would be nice to get new chord masks for extended chords. That would enable the realization of the extended chords without all the chord notes with specific notes disposition.
-for Xm9/X9 because most of times, these chords are played Xm7/X7 in BIAB
-for X13 because most of times, this chord is played X7 or X9 in BIAB.

StyleMaker colors
In the Stylemaker, when you want to edit some patterns of a style and when you have 60, 70 or more patterns for each instrument, it becomes a forced labour to do the work because you don't know where are your prefill patterns, where are yourbar1, bar2,... patterns, where are your FillA/FillB patterns,...
My proposal is to use colours to identify the different kinds of patterns:
Bar1, bar2, ..., bar8
Prefill/FillA/fillB/postfill...
That is simple, very ergonomic, and it seems easy to implement.

Styles with Pushes Override:

It would be nice, for the styles with Pushes, to add a feature ‘Disable Pushes for this bar’. This setting would be available in Song Settings.
When this feature is enabled for a post fill bar, that would make the new section of the song to start ON the beat, as would do most of real bands.

Import Melody MIDI partial file to any bar

It would be nice to be able to import a Melody from MIDI file into any bar, and not only the whole file as it is possible at present time. Import Melody file (from bar#...to bar#...) into Melody Track at bar#...
Same request for Soloist track.

Prevent bass octave skips

It would be nice to get the following feature :
For the Bass track, when you have a diatonic or chromatic change in the root changes of the chords, don’t do an octave skip. Example : for following chords |E |F E7 | D |, bass notes should be E4 |F4 E4 |D4 instead of E3 | F4 E3|D4 .
At present time, we have to manually edit the bass track, before freezing it in order to get a professionnal bass line.

Songpicker wrong disk number display

In BIAB help section, it is recommended to use disk#1000 for our user styles (for LS3 files or stylepicker editor). That is what I did. But, when you open the Song Picker, your styles appear with disk#232.
Could that be fixed ?

A collection of predefined slides/slurs both up and down which could be applied to selected midi notes in the event or notation windows(maybe in a drop down menu?)to add a bluesy feeling to midi guitar or other instruments.

Hybrid Styles Editor :

For hybrid styles edition purpose, it should be nice :
1 - under the menu Styles| Make a hybrid style, to have the Edit command, to change a part of an hybrid style, without the need of fully rebuild the hybrid style (for.ex. change only the guitar part from style#1 to another part from style#2)
OR
2 – have the ability to manually enter the required data in a new field of the StyleMaker/Misc page like for Multistyles data.

Example :
Drums : from ZZBOUNCY.STY
Bass : from ZZJAZZ.STY
Guitar : from WILLID.STY.

StyleMaker : Multiple conditions settings

It would be nice to make working the multiple conditions settings in the stylemaker.
For example: For the bass, we have two 2-beat patterns with following settings (plus other 2-beat patterns with different settings):
Pattern#1
Relative weight=9
Playback bar mask = fill
Playback beat mask=beat1

Pattern#2
Relative weight=9
Playback bar mask = fill
Playback beat mask=beat3.
This configuration is required for example to get a given bass line during a fill bar and when there is a chord change during the fill bar.

When you hit play, at the fill bar, the pattern#1 would be played first, and then the pattern#2 starting at beat3. In fact, we could get any combination of patterns, including all other 2-beat patterns present in the style. So, the required bass fill riff is not guaranteed.

Good grief, this thread is a joke. An absolute joke. Almost all of you guys have no idea what midi is. What's the title of this thread? .."Midi specific ideas." Anybody have a clue what that means? It means stuff like editing midi notes in the piano roll, copy/pasting midi parts, midi channels, assigning midi instruments, velocity curves, CC implementation (anybody know what that is?), the midi monitor, the midi drum kit and other "midi specific ideas" I can't think of right now. From what I see there's maybe 3 or 4 posts that are actually midi specific ideas out of 5 pages of crap.

Any one of us who actually knows a bit about midi took one look at the first page of posts in this thread and bailed.

Peter's thread title has nothing to do with styles, style requests, creating hybrid styles, the soloist/melodist, printing notation, generating of harmony parts, transposing, why doesn't Biab work with JABB, (this isn't a questions thread) none of that. Every one of these things are already requested and talked about here in separate threads in the Wishlist forum and questions go in the proper program forum not the Wishlist forum. Why haven't any of you taken the time to read this forum first? That plus a lot of things talked about here are already implemented but nobody has taken the time to research their request either brfore posting.

This thread was supposed to be a "midi ideas thread" supposedly for people who are familiar with midi in the first place.

I'm just another user looking for good discussions and maybe learn something but in attempting to read this thread I feel like a monitor in a kindergarten class.

Jeesh..

Bob

I wish the output chords feature was more like an extra part, completely independant of other parts. Currently in the Mac version, I can't use ouput chords, melody and soloist at the same time.

My view is its time to rewrite the whole applicication in 64 bit, (OK so may will disagree), but since your asking for MIDI ideas here, an idea someone had on this forum was to provide a Sampler to be abvle to map the sounds used in a particular song across a keyboard. This seemed to me to be an intriguing idea.

Thanks Bob. Yes, I did read Peter's thorough explanation about expanding the PPQ, but check the dates of his post and mine. You'll notice Peter's was written five days after I posted the request in this thread that you just quoted.

My request about clarification wasn't for me, but was to forestall some of the posts you have mentioned. Didn't work...

Oops, didn't notice the dates.

Bob

Not a problem!

ps I was really impressed by Peter's answer. Several had seconded my suggestion, and Peter was very thorough in his explanation.

More elaborate and easier insertion of midi strings

I would like to see an easier way to call up, from a ‘midi’ string menu accompaniment for a given tune that would have a more elaborate background generation of both violin and cello midi parts for a particular style. Not all styles would work of course but those with slower tempos such as ballads etc. would be suitable.

With the availability of VST in BIAB and for example the Garritan Instant Orchestra (GIO) this would be big plus for BIAB development. In my case I use EastWest orchestra sample libraries (and GIO) and these BIAB generated midi tracks can then be used directly in Sonar as a first pass for modification or improvement if required. While I have done this already it would be a big plus if this process were made easier than at present with more elaborate generation and selection as indicated above. This would greatly speed up the whole business of adding more realistic strings to a tune.

Dr. Gannon, thanks for asking...Blues all styles. walking bass...more shuffles I use the existing ones but a lot missing...thanks again for offer to work on more midi styles.

nice

There are ongoing discussions on the Yahoo BIAB forum that speak to some issues of the new and improved BIAB, midi wise. I am a old school user of the program, from the Atari platform. Over the years I've upgraded to windows 2009.5, which was the last version I found useful. Unfortunately, the improvements to the basic core (midi wise) have not inspired me to upgrade any further. I basically use BIAB for the scratch pad (notation) and basic midi functionality. If you were to follow some of the suggestions here and on the Yahoo group, you would see there is a genuine interest in a bare bones version of BIAB, especially for those that are just starting out using computer generated or assisted software and those that don’t require all the bells, gongs and whistle audio stuff. For your loyal user base, why not just embellish the basic midi features that the *initial* program was built on, before all the audio enhancements? Less icons or clutter on the menus to do simpler things. Basically, taking what you got, midi wise and upgrading it as you’ve tried to do in the 2012 newer version, but more.

For instance, the style windows could be laid out better. Columns could be wider without having to adjust your display to make everything smaller or more visual. I detest using zoom out to get everything displayed, causing the fonts and options to be smaller. Some of us older users have eye issues now in life...Another thing could be the inability to input more than 4 chords to a measure (better resolutions). Add more chordal options, especially for jazz. As far as the 2000+ BIAB styles, Bob Norton’s products and others that can also be purchased, how about better gui in the grids for making the creation or modifications of styles less complicated or simpler? I know you offer Finale, but what about enhancing the notation aspects of BIAB? Better editing capabilities, in terms of the ability to drag and drop notes and rests a lot smoother. Making ties, articulations, symbols, etc. easier to add and manipulate, much like a scaled down version of Finale, and similar to what BIAB already does, but better.

It was also mentioned about rewrites being more trouble than its worth, but what about all the features for midi that were put on the back burner, to make room for all the audio stuff? For some of us, using dedicated audio software for embellishing sounds is available with some of your other products, and found elsewhere by using either DAWs or other equipment and software.

IMO, BIAB is becoming more top heavy trying to stay relevant, lucrative or competitive with similar products that cater to audio. There a lot of us loyal users that would love to see just *basic* midi improvements to the program that made pgmusic's BIAB and some of your other products as popular as they have become. In short and as a metaphor, do all of us really need Monster truck wheels (audio) on a ten speed (midi) bike?

FWIW, and still loyal,
Wrk-in-it

+1 - biggest gripe I have is playing around to get more than 4 chords in a bar.

Plus I like Bob Norton's list a lot.

Well this seem a bit different but I like the way BiaB will start on the first MIDI key. To continue this thought have it end after 1 mesure of no Midi "IN" activity, or enter in to a 1 mesure ending. OK the reason is I play keyboard and use BiaB to support a live singer. I never know when he will end the song, depends on the mode of the crowd. So I have to follow never being able to progam a song end. So I have to smash the space bar as he reaches compleation, this makes for a abrupt stop. Would be nice to hold the last cord for 1 measure (no midi in change) and have BiaB do a 1 measure ending and stop. I use the drums and bass parts in most songs, but some drums only.
Thanks for a great program
roger

Do not reinvent the wheel. Just give us what you have.

For me, the #1 wish would be to include the StyleWizard functionality on the Mac version, which automatically enables to create a Band-in-a-Box style from a MIDI file. It is a huge time saver – no knowledge of the StyleMaker is required.

It has been available on the Windows version for many years. The only solution so far for a Mac only user, is to buy a Windows computer and buy BIAB Windows version to run it. Not acceptable to me.

Yes please! Bring Hotz technology to Biab, great idea

My wish is simple, though I know that its implementation is not. I would like to be able export to Sibelius, a close approximation of whatever is rendered and heard in BiaB.

Conductor MIDI bindings

I would very much appreciate the possibility to add custom MIDI bindings to the conductor. This would hopefully enable the use of the Behringer FCB1010 foot controller. This device sends C0 xx 00 Program Change messages. It would make perfect sense to map these messages to conductor actions.

While Real band allows a given midi track to be output to an available midi port/channel, BBW does not (allow say, drums, piano, etc, midi)as far as I can tell. An example: Using M-audio 4x4, I can (in real band), select port A, B, C, or D, and then (in Port D, also select a channel. Ports A, B, C appear to be limited to one channel, unless I've overlooked something). This would allow BBW users to send various midi instruments (guitar, piano, drums) to a mulit-port midi interface, then on to a particular sound engine, keyboard, etc.

Thanks,

Richard

You haven't missed anything; this is one of the main advantages for RealBand over BIAB.

+1 though.

How about a quick, easy way to change the octave on a track? Many times I've wished that a strings part was an octave higher throughout an entire song; the only way I know to do it is to edit the style and do a +12 to each component of the instrument I want to raise up an octave. If it has 4 lines of 5-8 elements in each, it takes awhile and is tedious. It would be wonderful if there were a "Change Octave" control that would allow the user to select -2, -1, +1, +2 for example.

Thanks for asking.

How about an Undo Button like in Real Band? Couldn't you use the same code that you already have written? Thanks.

Stan

In Real Band the default for the Metronome is to have it on during the recording process. I seem to always neglect to turn it off before I record audio. I always have to go back and delete the track content and start over after I uncheck the box. I can see the advantage of the metronome WITHOUT the beats being recorded while the recording process is taking place. I think changing the default would be a help.

Stan

It would be great to have MIDI output possible for chords while using DXi inserts.

Regards,

Rockford

When a midi instrument is converted to audio let that audio track be moved to the BIAB display Screen.
There is room in the black portion of the screen. The midi track converted could be deleted and
allow another instrument to be inserted.

It would also let one use the audio features such as reverb to enhance the audio. And it would also allow for more instruments to be used in a selection . Infact this the moving of Realtracts to the locations could also be done to free up the instrument Realtracks to allow for more instruments.

In conclusion, this process would allow for more instruments in an arrangement and make it possible to enhance the audio with various plugin such as tone, revert. etc.

Keep converted midi instruments to audio in BIAB. Display them where they can be combined with the arrangement. This would would free up the midi track another instrument. It would also allow for plug in effects to the audio version such as tone, reverb. You could add them to the right of the main screen in the black area. This would also allow for adding more instruments to an arrangement.

This sure would be helpful. One would not have to move them to Sonar for audio effects with plug ins.

Hi there.
Many users ask for importing MIDI files in BIAB for MAC, INCLUDING LYRICS to be displayed on Lyrics Window.
Moreover, indentation of chords similar to the WIndows version is also much requested, to help reading songs and playalong.
Maurizio

I would like to suggest midi super tracks for acoustic finger picking guitar please.

Oh .... A few more if I may.

Celtic Melodists and Contemporary Folk Melodists. Irish and Celtic. (Not Country).

Originally Posted By: John-Luke

Originally Posted By: Matt Finley

I would like the option to increase the ticks per quarter note above the current 120, to as much as 960. This would allow me to edit note timing in the same numbering system that I use in SONAR and other software. In SONAR, this setting is on a per project basis, which would correspond to a per song basis for BIAB.

Originally Posted By: jford

Unless I've missed a setting, I noticed the other day that when I play/record my keyboard through the "thru" track, I can hear the changes I make with the modulation wheel while I'm playing. However, when I play back what I recorded, it did not capture the mod wheel changes. It would be nice to be able to do this, as the mod wheel can add some nice effects to the sound. If folks don't want this, it could of course be a recording option.

Jim, it's been awhile on this topic, but Peter Gannon commented that he could add options to export the MIDI at higher resolutions. As far as adjusting MIDI within BIAB, I have been able to accomplish the desired timing using the 120 ticks per quarter note.

Originally Posted By: jford

It would be nice to MIDI versions of the RealDrums (if that were available) that match the playing on the RealDrums. That way, styles can play the same rendition in MIDI or Real.

+1 but I would like to have midi versions of both real tracks and real drums.

More midi "clean up" tools that can be used to edit ghost notes, duplicate notes and other random notes recorded during live performances.

Originally Posted By: rich in ca

Originally Posted By: John-Luke

Big +1. I have 2013 BIAB, presently if I find a midi part I want to use in an existing midi file I have to import the file into a midi editor (such as Cakewalk Music Creator), delete the unwanted midi parts, change the remaining part to the midi channel I want to use in BIAB, name and export the new midi file and then import into BIAB. While in the editing program I hope I didn't forget to change the midi file tempo or key signature otherwise I just messed up the song I'm working on in BIAB.

A midi file import filter with checkmark boxes to select what choices you want and user input boxes to input how BIAB should use the imported file would be REALLY nice.

Originally Posted By: John-Luke

Make 'apply from...to...' feature for following MIDI adjustements (and no longer for the whole song): for example, apply Humanize melody from bar 32 to bar 64 or for chorus#3.
Quantize melody,
Humanize melody,
Humanize with Swing Feel
Humanize with Straight Feel
Timeshift.
Very useful feature, because a MIDI track need to be tweaked in detail to sound well.
Other advantage : we can make all the the MIDI adjustements inside BIAB, we would not have to export the MIDI track in a DAW to make the MIDI adjustements. So, BIAB would really become a AIO arranger with advanced edition features.

Originally Posted By: jhg

The most important new midi feature I would like to see is the ability to use a midi surface controller within BIAB, RealBand and PowerTracks.

Many surface controllers are self learning; meaning you touch a control in the software with your mouse then twist a knob, push a button or move a slider on the controller and the controller assigns that control to send or receive midi information from/to the corresponding software control.

This provides for faster and more precise use of the controls inside the software.