Im a bit confused when i watch the song picker video.
I was hoping it had a list of songs such as Billie jean by Michael Jackson or other artists but it doesn't show that sort of thing in the video.
I wanted something that had a list of popular songs so I could practice alone with it or use it for backing tracks but am I right that you have to create your own in BIAB ?
thanks for your help

You're partially correct. What the Stylepicker has is a list of thousands of songs but these songs provide the information you need to filter Band in a Box Styles that may be suitable for that song. Meaning it narrows your search results to the styles that fit your song choice. There are also thousands of Band in a Box songs that others have created so you don't have to create your own if you find a song that is suitable to your taste and need. There is also several ways to import information that makes creating versions of popular songs easier. Notation using XLM files and importing midi files both work to do that. You can also import the actual audio ripped from a CD or downloaded and import that audio into Band in a Box and use a tool called Audio Chord Wizard that will analyze the chords, tempo and key signature and import that information into your Band in a Box project.

Hope that helps. Welcome to the forum.

Ok I think I understand it sounds a little complicated

Hi Shane,

If I'm interpreting your post correctly, you want something that, if you load it into BIAB, gives you a karaoke backing for a particular song.

BIAB does not do this. Using BIAB, it's possible to create excellent backings for any song but these backings will not necessarily replicate the exact arrangement that made the song popular on the radio. (I hope that that makes sense.)

When one selects a song in Songpicker, it doesn't load BIAB with the chords and instruments needed to play that song. Songpicker simply suggests particular instruments and drums that could be used to create an arrangement.

Regards,
Noel

Just to clarify. Songpicker and StylePicker are two different things.

StylePicker has a feature to make recommendations for styles to use for various popular songs, and this list is continuously updated. But you still have to create the song (enter the chords, add any melody or other parts, add lyrics, etc). Selecting the song just gives you suggested styles (sounds similar to), but not he song itself.

The SongPicker however is a list of the songs you have on your hard drive. BIAB comes with some demo songs, but you would not be able to list a popular song in SongPicker to play or play along to unless you already had it on your hard drive. That being said, there are still a lot of songs available on the web for free, or you could get, for example, Bob "Notes" Norton's fakebook disks (which you must buy) and scan the files to display in SongPicker for you to play.

Most of the files you find are simple SGU (accompaniment only, no melody) files, because of copyright restrictions for distributing song melodies. Chord progressions are not copyright protected (otherwise there would be only one blues song), so the files will contain the chord chart only and a style (that may or may not work for you, but easily changed; that being said, Bob Norton's fake disks have carefully selected MIDI only styles to most closely match the feel of the song, but unless you have the style, you would still have to substitute...Bob sells a lot of excellent 3rd party styles also).

Don't know if that helps.

From your OP it does sound like you want complete songs that are karoke style.... pop hits already done and ready to go.

I would suggest looking into some of the midi karoke sites on the internet that will provide you with free or low cost midi versions ready to go.

BB and RB will not do that. There are demos in it, but they are not the pop hits you seem to be asking for.

What it will do, and it does it well, is to provide you a template where you can search for a style by the name of a song and it has a good chance of getting pretty close to that overall style....but you then must enter the chords and "write" the song. Also.... by using this style feature, you can get pretty close to an authentic cover of a song. Obviously, some will be closer and thus better than others depending on the song and the musical style/genre of the original song.

I do a few covers for grins and fun, and the ones I have done are a combination of the real tracks and my live playing to make it sound as close as I can if that was my intent. Some of them are amazingly close to the original. Others.... not so much.

Notes Norton publishes Fakebooks with that intention. He has 46 of them so you could peek through those.

http://www.nortonmusic.com/

Pg Music has created many video's on how to learn to use Biab. Anything worth learning is going to seem complicated at first glance.

But PG has created an eco-system to teach all of us how to use their program.

https://www.pgmusic.com/realtracks.artists.php?os=win
Shouts out for the people who made the realtracks.

Under support video they have produced many videos that not only teach you how to use but share the history of how different evolutions of the program brought in new features. There are plenty of examples with the recorded demo's but the video's make this program easier to learn. For me I like directly being told how to do something that's why I really like Peter Gannon's own video's even though they are quite old. The features are still there and he puts together how to build songs.

You are also buying a history of music program. This program shares such a wide variety of Artist's and their genre's of music that it's like traveling across different musical lines and experiencing differences within a style. I know what to listen for in music because I have this program. It has taught me how to listen to music. There are so many choices in arranging and the variety changes and shifts to give you different ideas why a melodist style or soloist plays and arranges the way they do. Figuring out chords shouldn't be that hard unless the musical piece is faster than you can think. Which some definitely are. But it's still good to be exposed to.