Visual Examination of Played Chord Notes

Hi,

I would very much like to be able to easily visually examine at my leisure the notes of the chord that BIAB is playing (has just played) at any time. Currently, I can watch them fly by (e.g. on the Big Piano) during playback, but they immediately vanish, like tears in rain, if I stop the playback in the hope of looking, studying, and internalizing the voicings.

There are two specific ways I would suggest for how to accomplish this. Both would have much value, IMO.

1. Implement the ability (as an option, in case some do not wish it) for the last chord played to REMAIN VISIBLE on the Big Piano and/or the Guitar when the user pauses (or stops) playback.

You could, for example, call this "Big Piano Memory Mode" and "Guitar Memory Mode" and have it be on/off via a checkbox on the Big Piano and on the Guitar. There appears to be plenty of space in the UI for this.


2. When the Piano Roll of a part (any part) is visible, allow notes which have been selected (and we would ideally want a quick multi-select for this, like a draggable rectangle) to be visible (not during playback though) on the Big Piano and/or the Guitar.

This could be called, for example, "Link to Piano Roll", and also be a checkbox on the Big Piano and on the Guitar.

I hope that the utility of these displays is self-evident w/o the need to explain and opine prolifically about it. The existence of Big Piano and Guitar shows that PGM already "gets" the educational value of showing musicians the fingerings on these instruments. Letting the player linger over the display would greatly enhance their ability to study and internalize the wealth of musical information that BIAB currently and already provides.

P.S. Being able to "re-sound" the displayed notes at will via a button and/or keystroke completes the concept!

Thanks!

Also, having this "visual chord hold" feature optionally active in the 'Pianos' tab in the upper right corner window would be great too!

Hi SJ1,

Have you looked at the Chord Builder window? You can access the window is by pressing the three pc keyboard keys "Control" + "Shift + "B" at the same time. You can also select Window > Chord Builder on the menu bar or select the Chord Builder button on the Tools bar. The window uses the built-in Windows midi to play every chord Band-in-a-Box can play.

Another thought is to reduce the tempo. If the part is midi, the tempo can be reduced as much as needed.

From your description I'm wondering if you're wanting to study notes (like what is available in the melody and solo tracks) more than study chords. If so, those tracks likely contain midi.

Thanks for the comments, but my goals here are entirely audio-visual as relates to the guitar and/or piano voicing "just played" in the middle of whatever song is current.

In case my words are compromising my meaning more than describing it, here is a picture (Big Piano, in this case) of what I would like to see when I stop the playback.

The point is simply that the chord display remains, rather than disappears, when playback is stopped.

Here's an example with the Guitar and the notes display. I was able to capture this pic as it "flew by".

What would be superb would be to be able to use the L/R arrow keys to step from chord to chord and study pics like this for as long as desired.

It's the same idea as being able to freeze a video of a musician playing in order to study the fingering at any given point.

I find that the inventiveness of BIAB as it implements chords per styles is very worthy of study!

I'm not sure if this does exactly what you require, but there is a "Play Current Chord" option. It is available from the Edit drop-down menu, but also by pressing <Shift><Enter>. It will show the notes on the piano keyboard in the mixer for the selected instrument track:

Hi VideoTrack,

Thanks much for the pointer to "Play Current Chord". That's pretty close to the idea, and it is helpful, allowing the user to navigate to any point in the song and see a chord. However, the visual still goes away!

I *really* need the visual to stay until I replace (or dismiss) it.


Also, I have a strange observation to report - I was able at first to see the chords display both in Big Piano and Guitar. Then I presumably changed something (not sure what) and now I can only see the chords display in the small pianos (like your pic above).

I guess I'll have to check with support about how I can get that back!

Also, FWIW, the Feature Browser is silent on the subject of "Play Current Chord". I think it would be worthy of a mention there!

I agree that there is possible benefit in having an option that allows the user to see a persistent representation of the notes that played.

+1 for the idea.