hi ,sorry if this has been covered before .
can you load a song /chords directly from the web into BB ?
or would i need to type in the chords ect my self.
i dont do cover,s but have a mate who would like to do a few for her set list,
1940,s/50,s styles.
thank,s for your time

<<< can you load a song /chords directly from the web into BB ? >>>

Welcome to the forum.

Yes. I can name at least three ways to import songs into BIAB.

1. Current versions of BIAB (Band in a Box) from 2016 forward feature XML compatibility that allows importing and decoding sheet music.

2. Import an audio file of the song, analyze it using the Audio Chord Wizard feature and it will analyze and import the song chords, tempo and key signature.

3. Import or open a MIDI file of the song and it analyzes and imports chords, lyrics and the song tempo, key the same as using an audio file as stated above.

Using MIDI is the easiest and quickest method of the three.

thank,s charlie
on the subject of midi ,do i need a midi device/hardwear to play songs/track,s in bb.
im only using real band and real track,s at the moment ,but there seems to be a lot of track,s /styles that are midi ,they sound a bit bad when i click on them rather robotic ,im thinking im missing the point of them ?
im not a key board player or drummer so will not be getting into that section of bb.
thank,s for your time fella .
carl.

As you may know MIDI has no sound. It is just data like what note to play and for how long that is sent to a sound source. There are many different sound sources but the rule of thumb is the more expensive that better the sound. Thus the sound source that comes with BiaB is at the lower end of sound sources.

There are two main sound sources. One is hard synths. These are external synthesizers like Roland, Yamaha and other make. The other is soft synths. These are software synthesizers that reside in your computer. Both versions have pluses and minuses. Soft synths prices range from free to very expensive while external synthesizers tend to be on the expensive side although some dated but good sounding ones can be found relatively inexpensive on ebay.

So yes BiaB MIDI tracks can sound bad on the free sound source that comes with BiaB. But the free Sforzando that comes with BiaB can sound very good with some of the free and purchased patches (sounds) that you can get. There are some really good free Sforzando and Soundfont patches (you can use them in Sforzando). Since you are getting into MIDI I suggest that you use these first, then move on to the more expensive but much better sounding sound sources like Kontakt, SampleTank, UVI etc.

But if you take a regular BiaB MIDI track and play it using a good sound source it still can sound robotic, especially the older styles. This is where MIDI commands called CCs and pitch bend come into play. These commands control virtually everything thus you can add vibrato, volume swells, slurs/slides (call portamento) etc to add realism to the sound.

It isn't that hard to get MIDI tracks to sound good. If you wish listen to some of my songs in the showcase as I use almost exclusively MIDI.

Good luck and I hope this helped. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

Note and after thought, the BiaB Super MIDI tracks eliminate all of the robotic tracks. These are MIDI tracks that are played live with MIDI controllers, thus they are in real time. Also some of the RTs also come in MIDI, but they don't have all of the articulations that you hear in them. You may need to add some articulations via CCs and pitch bend.

And some of this can be done automatically using the Melody embellisher (which only works on the melody track, but you can move a track to the Melody track, embellish it, move it back, and then freeze that track).

thank,s mario,
well that,s a fair bit to chew on ,you got me on the cost ,saying that i will have a go and see if it,s for me .ive checked out a few of your track,s so far and i can hear the diffrence allright ,man you do have a few to listen too.
so that might take a while ,some sweet guitar .
thank,s on behalf of Georgie .
carlton.

thank,s jford
i will give that a go and see how i get on with it .
thank,s on behalf of Georgie
carlton

You can also load songs that were made with Band In a Box that are found on various websites. They are usually complete with the appropriate style/chords etc. Just type in songs made with Biab.

Trax

What format are the chords from web in, can you give some examples ? as there is an ABC Import that is just text and a script can be made maybe to convert the text chord from the web to ABC to import into BB.
Also look at the Chord Picker in the link below, you just enter chords with the buttons:

Here's some ABC Chord Import info to allow text chord import:

ABC Notation Header Info

So G=1bar Em=1bar F=1/2bar G=1/2bar F=1/4bar Em=1/4bar G=1/bar F=1/4bar....
So if you save that in Notepad to Pop Song.abc it will import into BB > Open Special ABC Notation..
(BB2019 has an ABC Import bug at the moment and should be fixed soon but earlier versions work)

See also OpenSong and OpenSong Import v1.3

If you have text chords you can copy & paste bar, half bar, quarter bar, start or end in the space between the text chords
eg.
G Em F G F Em G F
G
G Em F C
......

4/4
1bar >" z8 | "
1/2bar >" z4 | "
1/4bar >" z2 | "
empty bar > z8 |
start >|: "
End > :|


3/4
1bar >" z6 | "
2/3bar >" z4 | "
1/3bar >" z2 | "
empty bar > z6 |
start >|: "
End > :|

You could even create an AutoHotKey script to paste them in with shortcut keys on your keyboard or create a AutoHotKey GUI like the Chord Picker Tool to add them with the click of a button.