Hi all,

I'm still feeling my way around BIAB, and in so doing I ran into an issue.

I input one of my originals which happens to be a bossa nova. I'm using the _BOSAMEP.STY style, which of those available seems to be the most appropriate in terms of feel and tempo. My tune starts with a AmMaj7 chord. When it's rendered it plays back just as a regular Am7 chord. I then tried using a MIDI style with all midi sounds instead of realtracks thinking maybe it was a realtrack limitation, but I ended up having the same result.

I know BIAB uses the closest sounding chord available if it can't render the written chord. My question is what (if possible) can I do to get BIAB to actually play the minor-major-7 chord I want it to?

Thanks

AmMaj7 works here with no problems. Note that I use MIDI tracks and not RTs so I do not know if RTs will play properly.

Note that I input it AmMaj7. How are you inputting it? What style(s) are you using? Are you on a Mac or PC? Any additional information would be useful.

Hi, I'm on a PC. I just tried it again using MIDI only, using the M_BOSSAM.STY style (for the realtracks I did mention the style in my first post). Once again it just plays an Am7 chord, not the AmMaj7 chord I want to hear.

I forgot to mention I typed it directly into the chord sheet exactly as AmMaj7

Hi
Using just the style you first tried : _BOSAMEP.STY style : with no other work on the song
I can enter AmMaj7 no problem .
When I use it over a number of bars the style plays notes based on that chord depending what it is doing it may or may not play the MaJ 7 or any other particular note from that chord ,
As you can see if you look at the notation for the Piano, (as this is the only track that we need look at as the other two are bass and drums.)
If it adds the Maj 7th above or below or at all, depends on where it is going next . So it not like a held chord that you will always hear all the notes,
Hope this helps
Mike

Hi Mike.

The major 7th would be a G# (AmMaj7 = A C E G#). I don't see a G# in that graphic you just included (I see several G naturals, but those are minor 7ths). Entering the chord was easy, but using that same style, even after hearing it played over 20 times I never did hear the G#. I don't think it's being included.

Thanks.
Zac

Hi zac,

There are a couple of settings in BIAB that, by default, give BIAB the power to interpret chords and change them if the software thinks it's a smoother a progression. It sounds like you need to deactivate these settings.

The image below shows these two settings. They are accessed by right-clicking on the chordsheet and then selecting "Song Settings".

Brief explanation of settings...

1. Force Simple Arrangement = tells BIAB to play the chords entered.

2. Natural Arrangement = tells BIAB to consider the chords around a given chord and modify them if a better progression exists.

Hope this helps,
Noel

I write Brazilian jazz and use this chord all the time.

I think Noel has the right approach, particularly turning off Natural Arrangement.

Footnote: in the earliest days of RealTracks, sometime the piano or guitar would just lay out if I wrote a mMaj7 chord, perhaps because the performer had not recorded one for that RealTrack session. However, I haven't had this happen in many years.

But the MIDI style should always work. I'm puzzled if it doesn't. Perhaps do an Options, Return to Factory Settings, Most.

EDIT: there is another setting called Jazz Down the Chords. I'll find it later. Is it possible you turned this on for that song?

HI

I take your point.
Strangely i have just generated this again and the the only time i get G#
is in the auto generated 2 bar ending .
The whole song is only 12 bars long, and as you say no G# in those bars.

PS disable simple arrangement allows G# throughout the song .
thanks Noel.
Mike

Now that's even stranger, Mike. The BIAB ending holds don't play many extensions on chords, just major, minor, dominant sevenths and major sevenths I think. Time for some experiments.

I just tried _BOSAMEP and it played mMaj7 as m7. I then disabled Natural Arrangement for the song (Song Settings) and it played fine.

To Zacworld, one thing you could do for now is turn this feature off by default. Go to Options, Preferences, Arrange. In Natural Arrangement (lower left) select Disabled Unless Set for The Song. This makes it exactly the reverse of the default setting. You will hear what you write.

If it helps, you're new and you could not reasonably have known this. The Natural Arrangement feature is fairly new and even the experienced users aren't positive what it does all the time. It's something you can turn on and try once your song is finished, and see if you like it. In this case, WITH THIS STYLE, you probably would not.

Also read what the Help, Natural Arrangement for Current Song has to say. It's about half-way down. You'll see you can even turn the feature on or off for individual tracks.

That did it. After disabling Natural Arrangement it plays the chord now.

Thanks Noel!

Thanks Matt, it's nice to know I can disable that globally & I just did so. I mostly write in a jazz idiom and want to hear the chords exactly as I put them in. I'm sure this natural arrangement feature must be useful for other purposes (I'll check out the Help), but I'm going to leave it off for now. Good to know how to switch it on and off in both places.

I didn't even know about the Jazz Down The Chords setting...I have much reading to do

I always have Natural Arrangement disabled. It generally provides very weird results.

See this post:

LOL saw your other post about it...that is ODD!

Some of us have requested to see behind the curtain.

ps Jazz Down the Chords is for non-jazz folks who don't want any upper chord extensions played even as enhancements.

What might be kind of cool is if BIAB could use the Natural Arrangement feature on *part* of a song while being able to disable it on other parts of the same song. I can picture wanting to hear some of the tamer parts smoothed out while wanting it to leave some of the other parts alone.

Just a thought...

Try using Real Band instead. I don't think it it has those jazz down or natural arrangement features it's chord grid should do what you tell it to do period. RB is also very cool for many other reasons.

Bob

Zacworld, you are correct. We have already suggested it would be nice to 1) know what’s being done by the feature and 2) be able to control it on an individual chord basis.