I am trying to understand Stylemaker. I have watched an ancient (7 years ago) video on YT about it that says that I can open the Stylemaker, choose bass, click on one of the patterns, hit the Play button in Stylemaker, and I will hear that pattern repeated over and over (along with the other instruments), over two bars. The video demonstrates this and yeah, it's just that one pattern repeating.

That's now what I've gotten. First, if I just start a new song, and then open Stylemaker, choose a pattern and hit Play, I get nothing at all. If I first play the new song (which apparently generates one bar in C), stop it, then click on Stylemaker's Play button...I hear the song. Not a single pattern, but the whole song. Same if I open a song I've been working on. No matter what instrument and pattern I select in the Stylemaker, when I hit the Stylemaker play button (or hit F4), I just hear the song play.

Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

Sorry, I meant "that's NOT what I've gotten."

Welcome to the forums dnuttle! Just to confirm, you are using the Windows 2021 version? Or Mac? Also, are you trying to make a custom Style with MIDI or RealTracks? The StyleMaker is only meant for MIDI.

Hi Chantelle and thanks for responding. I am using 2021 on Windows. I opened a song that uses the style _J410_BD.STY, "Evans Jazz Trio." Then I clicked on the Stylemaker button, and chose Edit Current Style. I see the Stylemaker window open, and I can click on Bass, for example, and see a bunch of cells, that mostly have 5's in them.

So I'm not working on a custom style at this point. I can't use Stylemaker on a style that includes RealTracks? Maybe this is just a fundamental misunderstanding on my part. If this is correct, does that mean that RealTracks have their own, pre-recorded patterns that can't be altered? I was under the (possibly wildly optimistic) apprehension that even RealTracks could be "re-styled."

How do I identify styles that I can use in Stylemaker?

Bingo

You can make a custom Style using RealTracks, but they will not follow a specific entered pattern. RealTracks are always automatically generated and cannot be edited like MIDI can.

First, make sure you have all of the RealTracks that you would like in your custom Style loaded into the mixer. Then in the RealTracks Picker click on the [Save Style] button. Make sure you save your Style to the styles folder - where all of your other Styles are stored. Finally, open the Style Picker, click the Rebuild button, and do a Slow Rebuild.

@dnuttle if you want more info on making midi styles, I can tell you more about it. Realstyles, though, different thing altogether.

In my opinion, making your own styles or tweaking midi styles is certainly worth it, but that’s just my opinion,

Have fun