Download https://www.autohotkey.com/ If you have Biab running As Administrator go to the install folder C:\Program Files\AutoHotkey and set AutoHotkey.exe to Run As Administrator. Remove the .mp4 from Random Style Picker.ahk.mp4 unzip and run. Demo GIF
Had nothing better to do this morning so I installed this and was amazed how well it worked.
Now what would really make this a 5-star addition would be to have the ability to not only pick the type of track, time signature and feeling but if we could choose the Genre of the track as shown in the Category pull-down menu in style picker. For example, if I had a jazz song, we could narrow down the choice to Jazz, Rock song could be narrowed down to Rock and so on.
So do you just want a dropdown list with all the names in the Genre column, so the random choice will be from the particular genre ?
Code:
Name Type TSig EvSw Tempo Long Name Genre Group Date* Set# #Instr #substyles Other Genres ->Debug Order GenScore Priority RDsub RTsub Fav Rec nr NA Pack 8/16 Instruments
These are the Genre in the list, * only 1 or 2 styles
*Acoustic Guitar Ballad Ballad Bluegrass Blues Celtic Classical Country Folk Funk *Gospel Heavy Rock Hip Hop Jazz Latin Lite Pop Medium Rock *New Age Pop *Power Ballad R&B Reggae *Ska Soul Synth Pop World *Worship
I the everything BIAB package so I have all existing styles and my style count is 9,451
I ported those over into Excel and sorted by Genre and Group.
Of these, there are only 3 groups listed, Country, Jazz and Pop but those also contain many multiple sub-styles, Groups would not be a good choice to randomly choose from as that would not take into consideration the many sub-styles available.
After sorting the list by Genre, I see the following choices:
Ballads, Bluegrass, Blues, Celtic, Classical, Country, Disco, Doo Wop, Folk, Funk, Heavy Rock, Hip Hop, Jazz, Latin, Lite Pop, Medium Rock, Modern Pop, Pop, R&B, Reggae, Soul, Synth Pop and World.
Those have multiple choices thus there is a large grouping of random styles to choose from.
There are a few other Genre's but the choices are very low and I would not consider them worth doing a random choosing.
My opinion would be to use the following as random choice groups in the Random Style Picker. And those choices would be in a drop down list.
Ballads Bluegrass Blues Celtic Classical Country Disco Doo Wop Folk Funk Heavy Rock Hip Hop Jazz Latin Lite Pop Medium Rock Modern Pop Pop R&B Reggae Soul Synth Pop World
Tried it the 1st thing in the morning while having coffee and I am amazed how well it worked.
Since it is looking for styles in the generated BIAB text file, for those few odd-ball genres that were not included so I just modified the existing text file to make them more aligned to the existing parameters.
For example, I took my 4 existing styles that had the Genre listing of Acoustic Guitar Ballad and just renamed them to Ballad in the text file to match the other 262 Ballad Genre styles I had.
Did the same for the 4 Country Ballad genre styles and renamed them to Country.
I guess I could take my 3 Folk Rock genre styles and rename them to either Folk or one of the Rock genres. I could even duplicate the 4 styles in the text file and name the other 4 styles to Folk so either genre would be randomly picked for those Folk Rock styles.
The possibilities are endless if someone wants to do the editing.
That way the odd-ball genre styles will be included in the lotto drawing.
The only thing you would have to be aware of is if you regenerated the style list, BIAB will over-write your edited list so I made a directory called AHK Data File in the BB directory and modified the pointer in Random_Style_Picker.ahk to that location. That way the original will not be overwritten.
You can add them to the dropdown but if you only have a few it will take a lot longer to find one randomly. If it's working good for you post it in the main forum as others might find it helpful.
Install www.autohotkey.com V1 then set C:\Program Files\AutoHotkey\AutoHotkey.exe to Run As Administrator by right click if you are running Biab As Administrator.
*Before first use, go into The Style Picker, "Clear Filter", then Actions > "Copy List to clipboard" this may take some time. You will then have StyleListTabDelimited.Txt in C:\bb\Data.
Also Actions > Set Dialog Options > Show current style in list even... > "never"
Open the ahk script with NotePad or text editor, set it to your paths then save:
txt := "C:\bb\Data\StyleListTabDelimited.txt"
You can run the script from anywhere or create a folder C:\bb\Scripts
Updated with Play Stop Inject buttons. Shortcuts Alt+R Alt+P Alt+S Alt+I. Auto Play option added. Added Long Name. Biab-Random-Style-Picker.zip (contains script and ReadMe)
Install www.autohotkey.com V1 then set C:\Program Files\AutoHotkey\AutoHotkey.exe to Run As Administrator by right click if you are running Biab As Administrator.
*Before first use, go into The Style Picker, "Clear Filter", then Actions > "Copy List to clipboard" this may take some time. You will then have StyleListTabDelimited.Txt in C:\bb\Data.
Also Actions > Set Dialog Options > Show current style in list even... > "never"
Open the ahk script with NotePad or text editor, set it to your paths then save:
A few excerpts:
"The Tracks view is possibly the single most powerful addition in 2024 and opens up a new way to edit and generate accompaniments. Combined with the new MultiPicker Library Window, it makes BIAB nearly perfect as an 'intelligent' composer/arranger program."
"MIDI SuperTracks partial generation showing six variations – each time the section is generated it can be instantly auditioned, re-generated or backed out to a previous generation – and you can do this with any track type. This is MAJOR! This takes musical experimentation and honing an arrangement to a new level, and faster than ever."
"Band in a Box continues to be an expansive musical tool-set for both novice and experienced musicians to experiment, compose, arrange and mix songs, as well as an extensive educational resource. It is huge, with hundreds of functions, more than any one person is likely to ever use. Yet, so is any DAW that I have used. BIAB can do some things that no DAW does, and this year BIAB has more DAW-like functions than ever."
Convenient Ways to Listen to Band-in-a-Box® Songs Created by Program Users!
The User Showcase Forum is an excellent place to share your Band-in-a-Box® songs and listen to songs other program users are creating!
There are other places you can listen to these songs too! Visit our User Showcase page to sort by genre, artist (forum name), song title, and date - each listing will direct you to the forum post for that song.
If you'd rather listen to these songs in one place, head to our Band-in-a-Box® Radio, where you'll have the option to select the genre playlist for your listening pleasure. This page has SoundCloud built in, so it won't redirect you. We've also added the link to the Artists SoundCloud page here, and a link to their forum post.
We hope you find some inspiration from this amazing collection of User Showcase Songs!
Our User Showcase Forum receives more than 50 posts per day, with people sharing their Band-in-a-Box songs and providing feedback for other songs posted.
Video: Enhanced Melodists in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows®!
We've enhanced the Melodists feature included in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows!
Access the Melodist feature by pressing F7 in the program to open the new MultiPicker Library and locate the [Melodist] tab.
You can now generate a melody on any track in the program - very handy! Plus, you select how much of the melody you want generated - specify a range, or apply it to the whole track.
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