Posts for BIAB in Linux go back over more than a decade.
We can understand that porting might be difficult. They likely tied themselves to some windows API and microsoft C++, and now they feel stuck.
Even so, PGmusic could at least include a Wine environment in their test suite.
Long term, I would suggest migrating to a Qt based API and standard C++. You can easily abstract and isolate the few os specific things in a small number of conditionals.
It is not as big a job as it might seem at first take and the benefits are obvious.
Python would take about 1/5 the time of doing it even that way. But I don't expect you do that for something you want to keep proprietary,
I would suggest migrating to a Qt based API and standard C++. You can easily abstract and isolate the few os specific things in a small number of conditionals.
It is not as big a job as it might seem at first take and the benefits are obvious.
Definitely appreciate your ambition and don't wish to jump on that, but given your statement, I wasn't so sure that this would be so straightforward. Do you have some inside information? Can you give some insights as to how this could be so easily achieved?
It's running good natively on Linux in wine after first trying in VirtualBox, it's near as quick as on Windows.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3y2wjiuxn8t0tov/Biab-Ubuntu-Crossover.mp4?dl=0The 2 issues are still unresolved,
1. Windows Media Player to play demos (this has been a nightmare trying to get it integrated)
2. CoyoteDXi needed to render in the BBPlugin
I don't know if the Coyote uses the gm.dls but if I load windows\system32\drivers\gm.dls into VstSynthFont it works.
They are the 2 issues that need resolving for Linux users.
The wmp can be fixed by adding an internal Delphi player into bbw/bbw4 like
http://www.geocities.ws/jovi9200/The Coyote issue preventing bbw4 to render can be fixed by getting bbw4 to use a soundfont without the DXi.
Copying the wmpXXXX.dll's from windows\system32 to wine windows\system32 and registering them gives the wmp demo buttons in the picker windows, it don't play but it prevents errors when opening the picker windows.
The sync playback is in-sync with the track in the DAW.
If anyone has a solution for these issues please post.
Full Screen 
Got the current version Plugin running now, in Reaper it's using
LinVst .
Pipeline,
To clarify, do you mean the main Band-in-a-Box for Windows program or the Band-in-a-Box for Windows VST plugin works in Linux in Wine? Your screen shots appear to be using the Band-in-a-Box for Windows VST plugin.
I've been meaning to try this for some time, but other stuff has been getting in the way.
I've just installed my go-to music Linux(AVL-MXE) on my home-office PC, swapped out LinVst for yabridge, set up wine, installed qsynth and the sound fonts from JJazzLab and installed BIAB. I've also installed the trial versions of EZBass, EZDrums and EZKeys from Toontrack.
I installed BIAB (presently the build-838 download copy, not yet activated), with a couple of complaints from it, but a mostly successful install AFAICS.
Started jack and qsynth.
Started BIAB(64). It complains "can't find sound font file GM.DLS" (I've see something somewhere about that)
Tried a few MIDI output options until one worked. Set up a simple 12-bar blues with the default style and hit play.
It plays! Sounds good, CPU load about 16% on this rather old i7.
So far, so good.
At the moment it baulks (unhandled exception) when I try to "browse styles with info", so I have a problem there. That may be an install fail, or related to the Windows Media Player issues pipeline mentions as I haven't yet installed WMP. VCL media player plays the demo .wma files just fine, but that may not help BIAB demoing. I'll start with the update to 842 and see where I go from there.
Yes the yabridge is better as it has the drag n drop working now so it will drag wav mid out of the BBPlugin into the DAW.
When you go to Generate in the BBPlugin it stops as bbw4 gets an error can't find CoyoteDXi
BBOutput.txt (to get the trace in SavedTracks you need to have a txt file "PreserveAllFiles.txt" in \bb\BBPlugin)
;Error #-29, CoyoteWT Wavetable synth not installed. Cannot render file. Please install it, by running menu Help-Install CoyoteWT inside Band-in-a-Box.
Hopefully PG will add an internal wma demo player and fix the bbw4 so it's not looking for CoyoteDXi.
At least part of my BiaB on Wine not working properly is a missing GM.DLL on my system, which winetricks presently fails to install due to a checksum mismatch. Maybe that's a temporary issue. I'm not so sure that the whole problem as when trying to open the "styles with info" I get a different type of error report.
I'm running the 64-bit Wine, which may be a contributory factor. All the Toontrack stuff I've tried so far seems to work very well, though it's still early yet and there are several areas I've yet to try.
Edit: Scaler2 also seems to work just fine.
In the Biab wine folder put these in the Windows\System32
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qx9k87ybh4dyudl/wmp-dll.zip?dl=1these will give the play demo buttons that won't work but will allow the Style Picker to open.
In the Biab wine folder put these in the Windows\System32
Ah, OK. I actually did a Biab-64 install, so I guess I may have either to revert to 32-bit or find the equivalent 64-bit versions.
I'll simply try as you say first, but expect to be disappointed.
I have the list of files, so I'll try a few things.
Thanks pipeline.
Edit: Ah ... actually they may be 64-bit-compatible versions and I believe I may just copy wmp.dll (or maybe all files) to syswow64.
With just the above, StylePicker opens OK, uses MIDI styles OK but doesn't presently use RealStyles. I'll play around some more.
I was using Crossover but the demo has ended so I open the wine 64bit install and it got the same error so I copied the wmp dll's from crossover and the Style picker opened, this is the same for the other picker windows, anything with the integrated window media player.
I am using the Audiophile wav version, I don't think the wma worked as again it needs the window media decoder to decode the wma to wav for Biab to use.
There is a decompress.exe or decompress.zip in one of the bb folders, though there should be a button in the pickers to decompress the wma RT RD to wav.
I've read elsewhere that converting the .wma files to .wav files solves some propblem like that. I may just try a few and see what happens.
The 32-bit version does pick RealStyles, though didn't actually play them. The latter may be simply that it didn't offer wineasio, so maybe I don't have that installed.
If I get back to this tomorrow, I'll check for a wineasio and I'll try installing the rest of the wmp.dll file set into syswow64.
I still have that GM.DLS checksum mismatch. I'll just try that periodically for now to see if it gets fixed, otherwise I'll get more proactive with it.
Do one RealTrack folder and one RealDrum folder then just generate those two tracks.
I think I set VstSynthFont as the default midi device.
I tried converting one RealTrack folder, using ffmpeg in a script and copying the wma file to .wma.bk. BiaB then complained that it couldn't find the .wma files, so perhaps the ability to use .wav is special to the audiophile edition. I restored the .wma files, it found them again, but of course still can't/won't play them. I may have hit a dead end with that for now.
I've done only a minimal installation at the moment. I may install more and see how the MIDI SuperTracks behave.
Ordinary MIDI playing through qsynth with the JJazzLab sound font sounds quite good, though I haven't yet tried any brass and brass is usually a disappointment via MIDI.
in the RealTracks folder root create an empty txt file "AudiophileVersion.txt"
I think you can run Decompress.exe in the instrument folder and it should just decompress that folder.
I don't have a compress.exe or a decompress.exe in my bb paths.
It does occur to me that the reason my use of ffmpeg to decompress didn't work out is because I imagine all the files ending .bt0 contain index data into the related .wma files. I suspect decompress.exe also generates the matching .bt0 files, or their equivalents.
It seems also that when trying to demo some RealTracks, BiaB is going to the pgmusic website and using a .wma from there, which again, of course, doesn't play.
I seem to be having some general issue with winetricks and checksums, which may well be complicating the whole thing, so I'll ask on the MX-Linux site for advice.
I think that does exactly the same as ffmpeg did. I did the decompress, tried it, then renamed the .wma files as .wma.bk and tried again. At present, still the same.
I wondered for a while if the problem was with audio output, not BiaB's handling of the RealTrack files, but opening one of the .wav file into an audio track demonstrated that those are playable.
Whenever I try to run even a solo track with one of the .wav instruments, I get a bunch of those Yellow pop-up windows in the bottom-right corner. Too many to read and and I can't presently find a log of what they say, not get rem reliably, nor copy and paste the content ... frustrating. One of them says something like RAcG.ST2 file couldn't be found, and/or the .wma file couldn't be found either on this machine, or on the pgmusic demos server.
.ST2 files seem to be in bb/Soloists and it's correct that that file doesn't exist there. As they seem to contain data about the soloists, maybe the file missing is of no consequence.
If I right-click a musician in the mixer window and click Select Real Tracks, I'm offered a list, but the one I've chosen says "N/A" and the next time is not displayed (If have the show-NA checkbox unchecked). Trying a "Rebuild and Fix" tries to do something but complains that the .ST2 and .XT2 files are missing. It says to either find them and copy them into bb/Soloists, or reinstall BiaB.
I haven't yet registered this copy as I'd like to get it reasonably working before I do that. AFAIAA there's nothing from the Pro version that's disabled prior to registration, so I think that is not the problem.
So you have the "AudiophileVersion.txt", you don't need to rename the .wma just leave them and it should choose .wav
Did you run the installer or copy the bb folder from win drive ?
You can try and copy the bb folder directly from the Windows machine.
You can hit the printscreen button to read the yellow flash popups or
C:\bb\Data\bbw4_64exe_FlashMessageLog.txt
So you have the "AudiophileVersion.txt", you don't need to rename the .wma just leave them and it should choose .wav
I have. I had put it just into the RealTracks folder, but I've now also copied it first to the bb folder and then to the Drums folder. The first of those looked like it changes something as the yellow pop-up appeared different.
EDIT: as adding this/these file did not solve the problem, after getting things working I tried removing all AudiophileEdition.txt files and the .wav tracks still play as expected.
Did you run the installer or copy the bb folder from win drive ?
You can try and copy the bb folder directly from the Windows machine.
I installed it. I'll try copying (I'm not sure there's enough space at present, but most will likely copy OK. I'm considering rebuilding this whole machine with an SSD, so if this works out OK, I'll ensure the AVL:MXE partition has enough space. The copying takes a while ... at least a couple of hours as I write.
You can hit the printscreen button to read the yellow flash popups or
C:\bb\Data\bbw4_64exe_FlashMessageLog.txt
Ah ... found that. It may appear both there and/or
bb/Data/Logs/bbw4_64exe_FlashMessageLog.txt
though as I'm part way ythrough the copy, I may have replaced them with older files.
There are also a few other *og.txt files that may be useful, though some are from 2020, so presumably obsolete. I'd previously been searching only for files ending .log .Log or .LOG
-----------------------8<--------------------------
OK, copy complete.
Oh, wow, the RealTrack is playing!
A quick check of a non-.wav file does not play, so presumably I will have to decompress all the .wma files. I've just used ffmpeg to decompress the drum track and that now also plays.
This copy is still not activated ... presumably PG do some kind of validation against hardware (or its simulation).
I wonder if I can prove which changes were needed and which were not. I shall try some tests.
Thank you so much for your help and patience, pipeline.
I'll report further finding here.
That's great you got it playing.
It seems to be still quick under wine, I didn't go through it testing everything but the only issue I found so far was the wma files so when they add an internal decoder and stop bbw4 with the BBPlugin looking for Coyote it should be all good.
I start qjackctl & jack at login, then at present start qsynth/fluidsymth manually ... that already has the JJazzLab sound font loaded ... I have yet to try others. Then I start wine->bbw64 from the Linux menu. Thus far I've usually(?) had to set MIDI to connect to fluidsynth and audio to the pulseaudio jack-sink. Whether these are the best settings is another matter. RealTracks sound better than the synth, of course.
I tried Timbres of Heaven, but on the few instruments I've tried so far, the JJazzLab font sounds better to me.
It's annoying that I don't know what, exactly, made it spring into life :-(
I just set VstSynthFont as default and that will load the JJazzLab font. I think I had to type the name in the soundfont browser in VstSynthFont as is was not showing the directories properly.
I just set VstSynthFont as default and that will load the JJazzLab font. I think I had to type the name in the soundfont browser in VstSynthFont as is was not showing the directories properly.
That threw me for a short while. I had presumed that VSTSynthFont (and SynthFont1/2) were sound-fonts, like it kind-of says on the tin, but it isn't ... it's a sound-font player.
I found the same when I looked at TinySoundFont for something in which I wanted a very compact sound-font. It's not a sound-font.
"How absolute the knave is." :-D
I downloaded VSTSynthFont.
VSTSynthFont64.dll installed into bb/Data/lib64. I scanned for new VSTs, which found it but initially I failed to offer a default sound font and it failed to appear in BiaB, and would no longer be found. I opened it again via "scan in a specific directory" and selected the linux path /usr/local/lib/vst/VSTSynthFont/ where it found both the .dll and the default soundfont. I'm unsure whether the vst I see as a plugin is VSTSynthFont or a BiaB shim as it has the BiaB logo, but it does have VSTSynthFont in the top-right corner. I selected Options->Files & Folders->Add Folder and added the Linux /usr/share/sounds/ and its sf? subfolders. I was then able to select soundfonts from there. If found sf2 fonts, not sf3 fonts. I think it should find sfz fonts, but I've just added one and it has yet to find it.
I tried playing around in the mixer with BiaB's own plugins, but those plugins don't seem to work (no issue, I'll more likely use plugins in Reaper or those in my Ui24R. They appear to not match the .dll files above, so I guess they're handled elsewhere. I just thought I'd mention it in case you already know any suitable magic, to try to collect it all together in this thread.
Now I think about it, this should probably all go into the tips and tricks area.
It normally uses C:\Windows\System32\drivers\gm.dls
It normally uses C:\Windows\System32\drivers\gm.dls
That may be an issue, then, as I'm still unable to install gm.dls
That said, I
am now getting the other soundfonts in VSTSynthFont and my pop-up looks pretty much like yours.
I've just flagged the winetricks GM.DLS fail on the MX-Respins forum.
Incidentally, I note that winetricks on my Linux offers wmp9, wmp10 and wmp11.
I'm wondering if any of those would/should install an appropriate wmp.dll suite.
IIRC, when I tried, I had that sha256sum mismatch, which looks like a problem on my installation. AVL-MXE holds back wine-staging to 6.2 to avoid some later new bugs, and I wonder if winetricks and wine-staging are out of step. Exploring.
sha256sum mismatch error when trying to install GM.DLS...
I have yet to get an opportunity to try this, but, for information...
It does appear that there's some mix-up with winetricks and checksums and/or URLs.
This behaviour seems to be known about, but may not yet be fixed.
https://github.com/Winetricks/winetricks/issues/1752There are also _example_ patches to the winetricks script:
https://github.com/Winetricks/winetrick ... 1b032cb631
https://github.com/Winetricks/winetrick ... 3086bbd8a1Edit: Oh, that's helpful, the formatting has cropped the URLs to invalid :-(
These are complete, but need copt-and-pasting:
"https://github.com/Winetricks/winetricks/commit/b90e0c4e7cea9acc2c9e89bc4afe873086bbd8a1"
"https://github.com/Winetricks/winetricks/commit/9699aeafc12e0a928f6fd57f4d72f61b032cb631"
Hmm, here's an oddity and I can't yet tell if it's something I hadn't previously noticed (I _think_ I'd have noticed), or if it's happened as a consequence of putting folder bb onto a USB drive and symbolically linking that to ~/.wine/drive_c/bb or if it's related to applying the 844 update.
My Browse styles with info opens normally with styles listed as I expect, but if I click the style-filter [clear] button or the style-filter [Refresh] button, whilst the [Name] column remains as it was, all the other columns get set to the same values as the line currently selected. If I click on one to select it, the other columns for that line get filled in (I presume correctly).
Also it appears that sometimes wen I go away from the window, e.g., when I'm writing this and cross-checking, the data for all columns gets restored. That appears to happen after I've stepped through a few selections.
Edit: When I say "go away", I mean that I'm switching workspaces in Linux. I use workspaces quite a lot, so I can separate, e.g., A music workspace from a software development workspace from a mail/web workspace.
Edit: Actually it
is very quick to work around. Click an entry, click a different workspace, click back to the first workspace.
Edit: Build 844 on Windows8.1 does
not seem to do that.
Description: StylePicker oddity
I remember having the issue at one time.
I had the RT RD Styles Soloists folders all symlinked to the external drive.
Maybe it's related to symlinks. They had crossed my mind as a risk, before I did it.
I did wonder whether to mount the drive there, rather than symlinking to it.
It's easy enough to try ... Tomorrow :-)
The other possibility is mounting it like a Windows drive, on X: or something. I still find it bizarre that Windows uses drive letter like MS-DOS did ... it's archaic :-D
The database for the list would be in the \bb\Data in the wine install folder, so I don't think it's the symlinks, seems more like video, refresh issue ?
The whole of bb is via the symlink.
I decided to put the whole of bb on an ntfs filesystem of its own, so that I could, in principle at least, use the same drive/partition (presently USB3) under Windows10, without having to have and maintain two complete copies.
Mounting the filesystem on /home/gordon/.wine/drive_c/bb makes no discernible difference.
Something else I noticed before and again in this set-up is that the BB splash takes quite a long time to appear. It's about five seconds before the outline appears, then the colour, then BB itself. That may be due to that still missing GM.DLS, but it may be that too many layers or OS activity via the USB drive is just too slow and something is timing out.
I think for the present I'll just shrug and do the workaround. At some stage, I'll likely get a new, larger, internal drive and put the whole lot onto that.
This is the error that stops the BiabVST working, I don't know if it's been fixed yet ?
Hmm, I'm seeing different from that.
I added BiabVST as an instrument in Reaper, accepting the multiple-track suggestion.
I set up a standard 12-bar Blues, and using the default ZZJAZZ.STY, clicked the play button and it did.
But that's MIDI, of course, not RealTracks.
When I try to set a RealTrack via StylePicker, I first, again, get the error about the missing GM.DLS (it seems likely I'll have to jam a checksum and get that installed). I then get the "BiaB is not activated" and for the present I'm still saying No, whilst I'm experimenting. I then see the StylePicker and can select the _ELECTAM style you used, but at present that style does not get set into the VST.
I tried double-clicking that style in the StylePicker and, of course, it doesn't play, then after a short while I get the error as shown in my screenshot.
It's quite likely that the missing GM.DLS and/or the lack of activation are responsible for this. I'm quite tempted to get that new hard drive, set up again, fiddle-install GM.DLS and activate. I'm not sure how PG count activations ... this is actually only my second machine with BiaB, but it's already activated on it under Win10. Well, either way, I don't yet try to exceed three, but I may have to delete some and/or get PG to do so. I'll think about it. I can get a new drive by Saturday.
Edit: It occurs to me that the difference may be only how the particular host/applications handles the problem.
Incidentally, for anyone following this thread and trying similar things, I wrote a minimal python3 script to expand all .wma files below it to .wav files.
I'm sure it could be more efficient in execution, but it worked OK for me. It takes some time to expand an UltraPAK. Named expand-wma.py3, made executable, run by ./expand-wma.py3 I've added a .txt to enable upload.
Caveat Emptor.
To get the BBInput.txt and BBoutput.txt message above
put PreserveAllFiles.txt in the BBPlugin folder
This is the error that stops the BiabVST working, I don't know if it's been fixed yet ?
I wasn't aware of the Plugin Standalone and just tried that, too.
It fails similarly to my Reaper attempt.
I seem not to get a similar log file from either
Is there something one has to do to get it, please?
I note that you ran it from a Windows "Run Command" dialog, which I have yet to find.
Edit: I missed your previous post. Trying that now.
I think that was a run for windows exe in Crossover.
To get the BBInput.txt and BBoutput.txt message above
put PreserveAllFiles.txt in the BBPlugin folder
A found close version GM.DLS redistribution file here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20141213092844/http://download.microsoft.com/download/a/9/d/a9d1c07d-541c-4b69-b136-f2a0d35e6fd6/directx_jun2006_redist.exe
I extracted it into a tmp directory, then extracted DirectX.cab friom there into a further directory, then copied gm16.dls to ~/.wine/drive_c/windows/system32/drivers/ where I renamed it gm.dls
That appears to have made the error about GM.DLS go away.
I still have to find if it fixes anything else.
Edit: It fixes neither the StylePicker Clear/Refresh problem, nor the style preview problem. No surprise there, though.
Edit: Also cannot yet select a style from StylePicker in the plugin standalone; also no surprise.
The style demos files are in "bb/RealTracks/Data/Style Demos Audio" by style name, e.g. "_BOTTLE.wma".
There are also: "bb/RealTracks/Data/RealDrums Demos Audio" and "bb/RealTracks/Data/HiQ Demos Audio"
BiaB doesn't play the .wma under wine, but vlc will.
My script has made .wav versions, but BiaB doesn't play those.
Again vlc will, but as the .wav versions just waste disc space I'll likely delete them.
alternatively, e.g.,
mplayer -nogui _BOTTLE.wma
... will play from the command line with no GUI. <space> will stop/start, "q" will terminate.
I think that was a run for windows exe in Crossover.
To get the BBInput.txt and BBoutput.txt message above
put PreserveAllFiles.txt in the BBPlugin folder
I hadn't responded to that as even with the file PreserveAllFiles.txt in every likely place, the BBoutput.txt file didn't seem to appear.
I've just found it as bb/Outputs/BBoutputs.txt and my content
appears, to me, to be sensible, though those "** N/A **" bits are suspicious. I searched for "518" and found demo files to match, but not RealTrack wma/wav files. As BiaB looks online for demos if it can't find them locally, this is doubly puzzling. Not playing them seems reasonable(ish) in the absence of a working wmp; listing them as N/A seems a bit less reasonable. :-/
Error=0
BBHandle=263148
MIDIStyleName=_ACCNTRY.STY
MIDILongStyleName=Acoustic Country w/ Pedal Steel
StylePickerFilterString=0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1,0,0
StylePicker2FilterString=
StyleNameTimeSig=4
StyleTypicalTempo=85
StyleExists=true
;BBBass
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBBass,TrackType,16
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBBass,TrackLabel,Bass
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBBass,TrackTitle,** N/A ** ~518:Bass, Electric, Pop HalfNotes Ev 085 [Dow Tomlin]
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBBass,PatchNum,518
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBBass,LoopUsertracksNameMulti,
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBBass,Muted,0
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBBass,TrackColor,2154016
;
;BBDrums
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBDrums,TrackType,32
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBDrums,TrackLabel,Drums
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBDrums,TrackTitle,RealDrums=NashvilleEven8^6-HiHat,HHatO [Brian Fullen]
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBDrums,PatchNum,0
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBDrums,LoopUsertracksNameMulti,
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBDrums,Muted,0
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBDrums,TrackColor,2154016
;
;BBPiano
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBPiano,TrackType,16
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBPiano,TrackLabel,Guitar 1
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBPiano,TrackTitle,** N/A ** ~365:Guitar, Acoustic, Fingerpicking Ev 085 [Jason Roller]
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBPiano,PatchNum,365
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBPiano,LoopUsertracksNameMulti,
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBPiano,Muted,0
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBPiano,TrackColor,2154016
;
;BBGuitar
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBGuitar,TrackType,16
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBGuitar,TrackLabel,Guitar 2
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBGuitar,TrackTitle,** N/A ** ~362:Guitar, Acoustic, Strumming Ev 085 [Tony King]
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBGuitar,PatchNum,362
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBGuitar,LoopUsertracksNameMulti,
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBGuitar,Muted,0
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBGuitar,TrackColor,2154016
;
;BBStrings
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBStrings,TrackType,16
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBStrings,TrackLabel,Pedal Steel
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBStrings,TrackTitle,** N/A ** ~363:Pedal Steel, Background Ev 085 [Steve Hinson]
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBStrings,PatchNum,363
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBStrings,LoopUsertracksNameMulti,
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBStrings,Muted,0
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBStrings,TrackColor,2154016
;
;BBMelody
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBMelody,TrackType,1
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBMelody,TrackLabel,Melody
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBMelody,TrackTitle,
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBMelody,PatchNum,0
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBMelody,LoopUsertracksNameMulti,
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBMelody,Muted,0
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBMelody,TrackColor,14540253
;
;BBSoloist
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBSoloist,TrackType,1
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBSoloist,TrackLabel,Soloist
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBSoloist,TrackTitle,
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBSoloist,PatchNum,0
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBSoloist,LoopUsertracksNameMulti,
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBSoloist,Muted,0
Stylz_TrackInfo=BBSoloist,TrackColor,14540253
;
;Successful Tracks generation. Look in .TRK files for the Data
StyleTimeSig=4
CompileTimeSeconds=12
Just a placeholder while I explore.
I have a bunch of Notes Norton's styles, but they don't show up in the SylePicker.
This seems simply to be that the drag-and-drop copy failed for some reason.
I expanded the zip files, then used a sudo cp -r to copy the files into the bb folder. Now they work fine.
Resolved, I think.
Hmm, well, that's a shame. I've just tried to activate my BiaB64 as above, and it crashed immediately after I clicked the button after entering the license number. It now crashes every start with few clues.
I can run the win32 versions, though I may have to add some more winetricks options and will presumably have to make 32-bit versions of plug-ins. At the moment I get MIDI playing, but not RealTrack audio, but I think I had that for a while with the 64 version, so I'll check through notes.
Software over for a while ... time to actually play a piano!
Maybe try a reinstall in existing wine box, if you install in a new wine box it should give you 30days again but you will have to do all the tweaks again.
It's getting late here, but...
I tried reinstalling the update_845 with no success.
I tried doing the main install over again ... Hmm Program error RestorePlugin... something; it's gone. It thinks it finished the install; no success. I'm just repeating that to get a snapshot of the error. Actually it does that error twice.
Presuming it again doesn't work, I'll try tomorrow putting a whole new empty bb folder onto drive_c (easy as it's a separate partition) and try a new install onto that. I'll see where I am after that.
I went back an installed from a newly-downloaded full installer, no change.
Running the 32-bit version still works, though for some reason part of the Jazz chord font was missing. I changed to another font (BeStPlain) and that font seems OK.
I'd recently checked the 32-bit version and seen it was activated, which initially I took to mean that the activation from the 64-bit version had worked. I looked at the files in bb/Data/TicketsActivated and the probable activation is 11 December 2020 and suggests that the 32-bit version is happy with that activation on this same PC as the Win10 installation.
So rather rashly I deleted the bb/bbw*64.exe files and tried the 845 update again. Still no change.
There are some other x64 executables lower down the file tree, including in bb/Data/Backups/Builds, but the relevant .exe is identical to bbw64.exe.
I tried deleting:
Data/libx64/\$drums\^.exe
Data/libx64/\$midimon\^.exe
and reinstalling, but still no joy.
Time first for coffee.
Maybe try an older bbw_64.exe if you can extract it from the installer exe or look in C:\bb\Data\Backup\Builds on Linux or Win and try one of the older versions you can try copying to bb\ without renaming to bbw_64.exe
Or de register then re register with the 32bit ?
I tried all of those, all failed similarly (no surprise I think), one (build 835) did give a crash snapshot showing:
"Unhandled exception: page fault on read access to 0x7bf7f6ba in 64-bit code (0x000000000131739a)."
and a bunch of other stuff including stack dump and traceback.
The exception triggered from that code address from within bbw64_2021.0.0.835, but beyond that I wouldn't know where to look. I could put the snapshot here, but I doubt PG would want to get involved.
The 32-bit version works, at least at present, and it's activated, so for the present I may just stick with that, though that may mean some plug-ins don't work.
My Windows 10 has finally died after many(!) cycles of "We couldn't complete the updates" and that has to be a priority in case I have to support a client.
After downloading 2022(905) I tried the new version on AVL:MXE Linux again.
The download managers doesn't run, but as I have the same drive mounted on both Linux and Win10, 2022(905) was already installed under Windows, so was there to run.
I ran both 64-bit and 32-bit successful, though they were again un-activated. This time I tried activation the 32-bit version and did so successfully. I'd hoped activating that version instead of the 64-bit version might have allowed the latter to work properly, but it did not, again getting a Wine program error. There are no details withing the pop-up "Details" tab.
I tried running from a command line and saw the following, which may give a clue:
wine: Unhandled page fault on read access to 000000007BF7F6BA at address 000000000118896A (thread 0244), starting debugger...
It didn't actually successfully use a debugger (I may not have one ... maybe I should install something.) It's possible this fail may indicate a page issue in the Windows application, though whether it's findable from the above I know not. It's very likely there are no symbols in the shipped binary, so me trying to debug is probably a lost cause.
The subsequent message were all of the form:
0254:fixme:dbghelp:elf_search_auxv can't find symbol in module
which may also indicate no symbols.
The 32-bit version seems to run OK and at present most VSTs still have 32-bit versions, so it's likely usable for some time yet.
I noticed recently that Peter Gannon mentioned said
"I watched a video to day of someone running our windows programming language (delphi) on a Mac, silicon (non intell) arm, chip."
I'd though Delphi had become obsolete, but clearly I was wrong ... it's been taken over by Embarcadero who have continued to develop it.
Looking at their website they claim that applications built with Delphi can
Easily deploy files directly to Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and Linux from the Delphi IDE
It's clear that this isn't quite as simple as Embarcadero would like us to think, if only because things like wmp and time-stretching may not be quite so open to other platforms, but I think PGM's use of Delphi should offer a reasonable chance that they may eventually roll out a native Linux version.
My company develops software using Delphi. Don't underestimate it. The exact same code can be compiled to run on Windows, Android, iOS and more without changing a line of code. Try doing that with Visual C Studio ++
As for a native Linux version, I can't say. But I can testify to Embarcadero's Delphi as being an extremely powerful Rapid Application Development environment.
My company develops software using Delphi. Don't underestimate it. The exact same code can be compiled to run on Windows, Android, iOS and more without changing a line of code. Try doing that with Visual C Studio ++
As for a native Linux version, I can't say. But I can testify to Embarcadero's Delphi as being an extremely powerful Rapid Application Development environment.
I certainly wasn't intending to underestimate Delphi, I was just observing that possibly not everything within BiaB was Delphi and that things that are not Delphi may not be quite as easy as one might like to move to other platforms.
FWIW, I personally have used various RAD methods for many years as I normally aim to be cross-platform, though never Delphi. Most of my PC-ish stuff, though, is fairly modest and undemanding, as may main target has long been real-time embedded.
I suppose I'm trying to help manage expectations.
Hmm ... wrt the GM.DLS issue, I've just learned that "in the old days we would swap other files in place of it to get Windows default to sound better". That may be an alternative and better fix to the one I used.
I've recently installed the new AVL:MXE MX-21, licensed (via the 32-bit bbw.exe) and have both 32-bit and 64-bit versions running. There are still a few quirks and things to check, but that's a nice progress. The most obvious at the moment is that my installation does not have the application icons in the Wine menu. That may well be an error on my part. I can run the applications by double-clicking in the D: drive under Wine.
AVLinux is well sorted for audio-visual stuff and things like wine-staging are carefully selected for fewest misbehaviours across maximum applications. The version based on MX-19 (AVL:MXE-2021-04) has wine-staging held back further to avoid instabilities. The newer version has a later wine-staging, which likely accounts for the improvement.
Oh, well that's a bit odd.
After reboot of Linux, bbw.exe and bbw64.exe report a file missing and request a re-install. Re-install doesn't fix it. Unfortunately it gives no clue
what file is missing, nor from where.
wine install reported an issue, but closed when I tried to view details ... I saw that on the install on the earlier Linux.
EDIT: Correction ... I inadvertently ran the 2021 installer ... 2022 needs download_manager, which presently seems to not run on AVL:MXE-MX21
EDIT: 2022 installer has the same issues. Exploring.
I managed to get both 32-bit and 64-bit versions running again.
I'm not 100% sure what made the difference, but I guessed that it might be related to the application being on drive F: on Windows10 and drive D: on Wine, so I remapped the Wine drive to F:. That alone didn't seem to fix things, so I reinstalled and put the /bb and /RealBand folders on Wine's C: drive and kept the /bb/Drums and /bb/RealTracks on F:
That seemed to get things running. I checked that both 32 and 64 versions were still activated and they were.
The first run after the reinstall started the Style rebuilder, though I managed to upset that ... I think I managed to get the dialog box in the background, behind the BiaB main window, resulting in the usual lockout. I killed BiaB and ran it again. I did a manual Styles rebuild, but it wasn't needed.
Again I used QSynth/FluidSynth as an external MIDI engine. Initially, although BiaB appeared to be OK, it was never actually playing. Not just no sound, but also no highlight-advance through the chords display. That appeared to be due to an audio-driver mismatch of some kind. I ended up with "MIDI Output Driver" set to "Wine midi mapper" and "Audio Settings" set to MME and "Audio Drivers" set to "Wine Sound Mapper", though Pulseaudio seemed also to work.
So far, even through some system reboots, things have seemed OK. I did have to set the MIDI driver again at one point, but that may be operator error.
Windows Media Player still does not work, so still the .wma files all need expanding to .wav files, and the demo-song auditioning still does not work. "Play using current chordsheet" works.
I haven't yet tried, but I imagine using the external fluidsynth may preclude rendering songs. Confirmed, it doesn't render the MIDI to audio.
Definitely encouraging.
Hmm, OK, not so encouraging.
Despite things working consistently over several BiaB restarts yesterday, today I'm unable to get it to successfully connect to any audio and, more puzzling still, it consistently says there is no drum style loaded, it's finding only 667 styles out of 9k or so, though I'm unsure how drum styles relates to styles.
The BiaB VST also now stalls in Reaper, apparently with a failed modal dialog locking the VST. OK, enough for now.
