Hello, I'm very new to BIAB.
I found and put in the chords to my song, and picked a style which I like.
However, I don't want to use all of the sounds in the style all the time.

First off, is it possible to use some parts of a style but not others at certain points in the song. I saw some boxes next to the attributes of the style that I could check, but when I did it didn't change anything. I know there must be something to that, but I don't know what, and I don't really know how to describe it in the search bar.

I haven't really had too much luck with searching the forums for things I am having trouble with, so that is why I generally come here to ask.

Secondly - and I have found a few posts and videos on this but I am still confused about it - if I am trying to modify things like I mentioned above with the styles, is it best to use Realband or can I stick with the main BIAB? Since I am on a Mac, CAN I use Realband as I thought I read somewhere that Macs can't have that, even though I thought I downloaded it when I installed BIAB?

Thirdly, and this will be enough for now, how can I lengthen a chord? Like for instance when I want that elongated musical note just before going into the chorus.

Thank you for any assistance. Some of the buttons and features on BIAB are still foreign to me as to what they do but I am sure as I go along it will get easier to decipher(I hope).

There is no RealBand for MacOS.

Yes, Use F5 to tell what instruments when and when not to play.

You need to let us know what version you are using as later versions have more features and functionality.

If your song has MIDI tracks, you can select different instruments for the style at specific bars by pressing function key <F5> and choosing Patch Changes.

If it has RealTracks, you could generate different instruments on different tracks and then change over the instruments at specific bars by using the Audio Edit window and volume automation nodes to change the volume of those tracks.

- You cannot add further beats the the measure than the time signature allows.

- You can 'Hold' a chord by placing an ellipsis (three period characters) after the chord name (e.g. Fmin...).

- You and insert a following bar and change the number of beats in that bar (e.g. to 2) and then back to the original time signature in the successive bar. This would effectively add 2 beats to the preceding bar.

- Or you could change the tempo at that bar and then set it back at the following bar.

There will be other ways, but this might give you a starting point.

Hope this helps.

A way you may find it easier to change a style at certain points in the song is to search the StylePicker and filter using the plus sign - + -. This limits the search to PG Music developed MultiStyles. MultiStyles increase the number of style changes from the normal 2 that display as blue or green. Most PG Music developed MultiStyles will have 4 or 6 sub-styles so that every bar you place a Bar Marker will also change the style instruments. Some instruments will be silenced and new instruments inserted into your song to replace the silenced instruments. This adds a lot of variety and dynamics to your song.

Bar Markers can be placed at any bar and can be used over and over. A MultiStyle with 4 Part Markers, each Part Marker will have 2 substyles (a and b) providing 8 style variations.

Any song can have as many as 24 Styles giving a total of 48 variations.

Here's some helpful videos:

How to find Styles that include more than two sub-styles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8rN68oTQqs

Band in a Box Part Markers How To

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6ViJ2691vU

Further to AudioTracks comments, if you are using Utility Tracks, these are not available in the Volume Changes section of the Bar Settings. So for RealTracks that are loaded onto a Utility track, you would have to use the new volume automation feature that is in the 2022 version.

Or if you have the 2021 version, you could add silence to sections using the Audio Edit window.

People have touched on some methods already above including F5. If you're not using Utility tracks (which are only available in the newer programs, and these Utility Tracks are not in the F5 or Bar Settings menu), and are just using the legacy tracks, then you can easily go into the bar settings by right clicking on the measure you want to apply your change to -- lets say you want to mute an instrument on bar 5 and it happens to be a guitar -- you can go to the "Volume Changes At This Bar" section which is on the left hand side of the Edit Settings of Current Bar window, roughly in the center of the left hand side. You can change it to mute for that specific instrument, or any instrument you like, then hit okay. If you want to come back in on measure 30 as another example, you'd repeat the process but instead select "back to normal" for the instrument. Make sure your tracks in the mixer are unfrozen and that you regenerate the song after making your changes so that they can be applied.

This video was demonstrated in Windows, but it applies to Mac too and gives a good overview of what you can do in Bar Settings.




If you don't know how to right click on a Mac and don't like using F5 keys, you can right click on a Mac following Apple's instructions here!




RealBand is not available for Mac, but you can easily do what you're looking for in Band-in-a-Box. Volume Automation isn't available for Mac yet (which I believe someone else mentioned here earlier).




Others have already touched on what you can do to get the sustained/held chord, so I won't touch on that, but if you find some of the buttons a bit "foreign" and prefer to see everything on one screen like I do, you can press control and T together when on your main chord sheet to toggle your view to classic mode. The modern view is nice and sleek, but as a low vision user I personally like all my buttons out in the open and nice and big and colourful. You may find this view easier to navigate. You can always use control and T to toggle back any time.

Hope this helps!

Since you are on MAC.... you don't have Real Band.

However, that doesn't preclude you from exporting the individual tracks into a MAC compatible DAW and working on the project in the DAW. This would give you the option to automate the volume faders to bring things in and out as needed.

As I understand it.... these are all MAC compatible DAWs.
Apple Logic Pro.
FL Studio.
GarageBand.
Audacity.
Ableton Live.
Studio One.
Reason.
Cubase.

I do that exact thing in Sonar. I find it's much easier in a DAW than to use the commands in BB to control instruments.

Thanks. It must have been RealTracks that I remembered downloading.

Thanks all for your responses. I haven't had time lately to try the suggestions out yet nor to even get on BIAB unfortunately, but I will be putting these things into practice.
Ah, life. I hate when it gets in the way of making music.

All great things come in time! I'm sure once you get to making music again that you'll have a blast. When you do start using Band-in-a-Box to make some, if you need anything at all, we're always here to help!

When I click F5, I get this, which I can't really make heads or tails out of.
What I am trying to do is(on Bar 10 in the picture, among others) remove a sound for some of the bars, but I don't really know what it is called. The style is _FACTORY.STY. Factory Industrial Rock, and when I look into that I am guessing it might be the "Loop 3 Rapier Pads." It is kind of a vibrating, pulsating sound that I like but I don't want it on every bar.
Is there a way to quickly do this using F5? Because as you can see from the pic, there isn't much information to go on. Least wise, any information that I myself can make out.

I've attached two screen shots. One is your screen shot with two areas highlighted.
The second displays the track settings.

Lets assume the sound you want to mute is the rapier pads (the string track on my view and loop 3 on your view). Lets also assume you want the sound to stop on bar 10 and start again on bar 14.

1. At bar 10, open the rapier pads track settings and select MUTE.
2. Advance the highlighted bar setting to bar 14.
3. Open the rapier pads track settings and select Back To Normal.

+1
The combination of Biab and a DAW definitely ups your game in the quality of the tracks you produce. That approach is one many forum members use.