Previous Thread
Index
Next Thread
Print Thread
Go To
#756932 03/07/23 09:02 AM
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 1,903
Expert
OP Offline
Expert
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 1,903
I keep seeing this and I'm not sure if it's expected behaviour, something I'm doing wrong or something odd on my setup of BiaB on Wine.

I'm importing a MusicXML file with an anacrucis and coda. (BTW I always have to tweak the anacrusis as the notes are always, illogically, left-justified in the bar).

The MusicXML contains a single chorus song with the coda present. I then set the "Edit"->"Song Form"->"Setting for this song"->Title/Chorus to reflect the layout of the song and exit the dialogs. I then expand the song to multiple choruses, so that I can set up the tag ending.

I set the tag to exit the chorus after, e.g., one bar from the end, to start the tag at it's first bar and to run to the end of the tag. I uncheck the "generate ending".

At this point, I can examine the melody and see the notes in the tag as I expect.

Here's what's puzzling me though ... when I then generate the song, I get a copy of the final bar of the chorus inserted into the start of the tag, pushing the rest one bar further to the right. Undoing the generate does not undo that, so I start over, though I guess I could edit the notation instead.

Is this normal/expected behaviour, or something else, please?
Is there a workaround to avoid it?

Edit: 2023 1004 ... I should try 1006 later.
Edit 2: also 2023 1006 on Win8.1

Last edited by Gordon Scott; 03/07/23 11:59 AM.

Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful.
Kawai MP6, Korg M50, Ui24R, Saffire Pro 40.
AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11; Win8.1: Scarletts
BIAB2022 UltraPAK, Reaper, a bunch of stuff.
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 1,903
Expert
OP Offline
Expert
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 1,903
Whilst on this, I find the lock-out of "tag exists" frustrating, because I'm importing a single chorus song to set up the structure and in that process I will set up the chorus to its number of bars and everything after that is the tag. As I can change the number of choruses on the main screen, from the imported 1 to a practice 4, and in principle BiaB should know how to handle the tag.

As it is at present, I set up in "Settings For This Song" with one chorus, increase the number of choruses, go back into "Settings For This Song" to set up the tag. If I forget myself and reduce the number of choruses to 1, BiaB will drop that tag information. It'll be restored if I notice and do Undo, but will not if I change back to X choruses.

But I fail to see any sensible reason why "once through a chorus" and "last time through the chorus" should be different. Perhaps it's something to do with folding and unfolding or XX al Coda?

Most of the time, what I want is just:

Do I want a turnaround?
If yes: play the rest of the chorus,
If no: exit here and play the tag.


Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful.
Kawai MP6, Korg M50, Ui24R, Saffire Pro 40.
AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11; Win8.1: Scarletts
BIAB2022 UltraPAK, Reaper, a bunch of stuff.
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 1,903
Expert
OP Offline
Expert
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 1,903
I tried this again on build 1010, both on Win8.1 and in Wine.

I've also tried a slightly different sequence of actions, but with the same final outcome.

This time, as before I open-special a one chorus plus tag MusicXML file. I open the "Settings for this Song", set the length of the chorus, but this time I turned off the "Generate ... ending" option and close the dialogs.

I check the tag and it's still OK.

I set the number of choruses to 4 and again check the tag and again it's OK.
I open "Settings for this song" and set the tag options to exit after bar 31 (one from the end of the chorus), start the tag as bar 33 and end at bar 37. OK.

I check the tag and again it has moved one to the right and I have bar 32 inserted into bar 33.

To me this appears wrong.

I can do this with several songs and it seems repeatable across them.

Edit: This way it doesn't seem to need the generate to get the 'insert'.
Maybe it never did and I confused myself.

Last edited by Gordon Scott; 03/09/23 09:32 AM.

Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful.
Kawai MP6, Korg M50, Ui24R, Saffire Pro 40.
AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11; Win8.1: Scarletts
BIAB2022 UltraPAK, Reaper, a bunch of stuff.
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 1,903
Expert
OP Offline
Expert
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 1,903
Trying to work around this, I've just cutting the notes in the extra bar, ready to move note in the bars to the right left by a bar.

What I see for the cut may provide a clue about what's happening under the surface as the bar number for the cut doesn't match the highlighted bar.

I'm not used to note editing in BiaB, so maybe this is operator error/misunderstanding, but whatever I find it confusing/misleading.

It does remove the correct notes, though.

Cut and paste of the following bars also shows what appear to be wrong bar numbers, but after allowing for that does also copy to the correct 'bar 32', which is the bar labelled "33 (4) tag".

Attached Files (Click to download or enlarge) (Only available when you are logged in)
cut-bar-33.jpeg (111.46 KB, 85 downloads)

Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful.
Kawai MP6, Korg M50, Ui24R, Saffire Pro 40.
AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11; Win8.1: Scarletts
BIAB2022 UltraPAK, Reaper, a bunch of stuff.
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 6,974
PG Music Staff
Offline
PG Music Staff
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 6,974
I think I understand what you are doing. So essentially you have a one chorus song in BIAB with a MIDI melody track that is longer than one chorus, so there are notes past the last bar of your chorus. Then you are changing the number of choruses and letting BIAB adjust your melody track automatically.

I tested this and it is working as I expect it to - it copies the melody chorus bars "x" times and retains the ending notes. These are the notes that you want in your tag. However it sounds like you want the song to jump from somewhere in the middle of the last chorus to your tag. BIAB isn't going to adjust your melody notes automatically when you set the tag ending, so that's probably what the issue is here. I suppose that you would like it to ask you if you want it to adjust the melody notes when you set the tag, and I suppose that might be possible in theory, but it doesn't work like that currently.

So what you need to do is cut out that portion of the last chorus melody. If you are copying and pasting in a tag ending, the ending bars display 'linearly' in the copy/paste dialog, so you're right about that internally it is thinking of it as the "33rd" bar of the song, even though it has jumped visually to bar "34".


Andrew
PG Music Inc.
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 1,903
Expert
OP Offline
Expert
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 1,903
Hi Andrew,

I don't entirely follow what you're saying.

Copying the chorus out x times is reasonable, but I set the "Tag exists" section of the dialog to jump after bar 31 to bar 33, but what it appears to do is rename the existing bar 32 to 33 and jump to that, so it says it's jumping to 33, the bar is labeled 33, but it's notes content is as bar 32. More than that, it appears that the chord names are set right, so now the notes and the chords are a bar out of step with each other.

I move the notes, not the chords, to get them right and to get them back in step with the chords. The cut and paste dialogs also name the bars as out of step as in my image. At the very least, that's all very confusing.

Effectively if I ask "Tag exists" to jump after bar 31 to bar 33, BiaB will jump for the chords, but not for the notes ... it just carries on with the notes of what is/was bar 32 in what BiaB seems to think is bar 33.


Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful.
Kawai MP6, Korg M50, Ui24R, Saffire Pro 40.
AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11; Win8.1: Scarletts
BIAB2022 UltraPAK, Reaper, a bunch of stuff.
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 6,974
PG Music Staff
Offline
PG Music Staff
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 6,974
I *think* you just said exactly the same thing I said.

Quote:
I move the notes, not the chords, to get them right and to get them back in step with the chords.


That's right, that's what you need to do. So if you add a tag to an existing song that skips bar 32, you'll need to deal with the melody notes that were previously in bar 32 but are now in bar 33. And I agree the Copy dialog should specify the visual bar 33 number if you open the copy dialog on that bar.


Andrew
PG Music Inc.
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 1,903
Expert
OP Offline
Expert
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 1,903
Hmm, I've just tried this reducing 4 choruses to three choruses. Again the final bars and tag are mangled.

This clearly doesn't work. It appears that I cannot change the number of choruses if there's a melody with a tag, without breaking the song.

I guess I'll go back to omitting tags completely.

Edit: Oh yes ... I'd used Ctrl-X to get that cut/copy dialog, though even using Edit->Copy gives what I believe are the wrong bar numbers. Song says 33, dialog says 31 (different song).

Last edited by Gordon Scott; 03/11/23 02:19 AM.

Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful.
Kawai MP6, Korg M50, Ui24R, Saffire Pro 40.
AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11; Win8.1: Scarletts
BIAB2022 UltraPAK, Reaper, a bunch of stuff.
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 1,903
Expert
OP Offline
Expert
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 1,903
Originally Posted By: Gordon Scott
I guess I'll go back to omitting tags completely.

Another option might be to have two versions of such songs, one plain vanilla chorus and end, and one with a predetermined number of choruses and the tag.

It's rather clumsy, but it mostly would work.


Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful.
Kawai MP6, Korg M50, Ui24R, Saffire Pro 40.
AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11; Win8.1: Scarletts
BIAB2022 UltraPAK, Reaper, a bunch of stuff.
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Go To

Link Copied to Clipboard
ChatPG

Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.

ChatPG's knowledge base includes the full Band-in-a-Box User Manual and sales information from the website.

PG Music News
Update Your PowerTracks Pro Audio 2024 Today!

Add updated printing options, enhanced tracks settings, smoother use of MGU and SGU (BB files) within PowerTracks, and more with the latest PowerTracks Pro Audio 2024 update!

Learn more about this free update for PowerTracks Pro Audio & download it at www.pgmusic.com/support_windows_pt.htm#2024_5

The Newest RealBand 2024 Update is Here!

The newest RealBand 2024 Build 5 update is now available!

Download and install this to your RealBand 2024 for updated print options, streamlined loading and saving of .SGU & MGU (BB) files, and to add a number of program adjustments that address user-reported bugs and concerns.

This free update is available to all RealBand 2024 users. To learn more about this update and download it, head to www.pgmusic.com/support.realband.htm#20245

The Band-in-a-Box® Flash Drive Backup Option

Today (April 5) is National Flash Drive Day!

Did you know... not only can you download your Band-in-a-Box® Pro, MegaPAK, or PlusPAK purchase - you can also choose to add a flash drive backup copy with the installation files for only $15? It even comes with a Band-in-a-Box® keychain!

For the larger Band-in-a-Box® packages (UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, Audiophile Edition), the hard drive backup copy is available for only $25. This will include a preinstalled and ready to use program, along with your installation files.

Backup copies are offered during the checkout process on our website.

Already purchased your e-delivery version, and now you wish you had a backup copy? It's not too late! If your purchase was for the current version of Band-in-a-Box®, you can still reach out to our team directly to place your backup copy order!

Note: the Band-in-a-Box® keychain is only included with flash drive backup copies, and cannot be purchased separately.

Handy flash drive tip: Always try plugging in a USB device the wrong way first? If your flash drive (or other USB plug) doesn't have a symbol to indicate which way is up, look for the side with a seam on the metal connector (it only has a line across one side) - that's the side that either faces down or to the left, depending on your port placement.

Update your Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows® Today!

Update your Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows for free with build 1111!

With this update, there's more control when saving images from the Print Preview window, we've added defaults to the MultiPicker for sorting and font size, updated printing options, updated RealTracks and other content, and addressed user-reported issues with the StylePicker, MIDI Soloists, key signature changes, and more!

Learn more about this free update for Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows at www.pgmusic.com/support_windowsupdates.htm#1111

Band-in-a-Box® 2024 Review: 4.75 out of 5 Stars!

If you're looking for a in-depth review of the newest Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows version, you'll definitely find it with Sound-Guy's latest review, Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows Review: Incredible new capabilities to experiment, compose, arrange and mix songs.

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!

Congratulations to the 2023 User Showcase Award Winners!

We've just announced the 2023 User Showcase Award Winners!

There are 45 winners, each receiving a Band-in-a-Box 2024 UltraPAK! Read the official announcement to see if you've won.

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.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed!

Forum Statistics
Forums66
Topics81,604
Posts735,001
Members38,512
Most Online2,537
Jan 19th, 2020
Newest Members
BroDon, Xtian, michael07716, Ronsei, McYann
38,511 Registered Users
Top Posters(30 Days)
MarioD 186
DC Ron 108
DrDan 77
dcuny 71
Today's Birthdays
DORUMALAIA, Rayblue69
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5