The automatic Arranger function inside the Sibelius Music Notation program can instantly turn a single note entered Melody line with the fake chords entered also, into a full 17-piece bigband arrangement in any one of several wellknown bigband arranging styles. Instantly.

Some of the choices are, "Basie" - "Nestico" - "Duke" etc.

It is amazing and can be done with a single mouseclick once the Melody and Chords are there.

The resulting arrangement can be exported as a MIDI file and opened up in any good DAW sequencing program, Patches change to suit a good quality MIDI synth, a bit of editing here and there in the way of Note values sometimes, or Velocities, and the resulting performance saved as an mp3 file for use onstage.

While I am a lover of Band in a Box, its Bigband capabilities are limited by the available Style files and the lack of interest in same is likely the reason that there hasn't been a push to develop any more of those styles. For example, the "Baaie" BB style is now and older MIDI style that is limited in what it can do. Couldn't use that same style all night long from song to song...

There is another big advantage to using Sibelius for Bigband work: If you ever get the chance to perform your work with a live bigband, a simple revisit to the project in Sibelius and you can print out each part as charts, including full score if desired. Pass it out and get on with the show. It will be identical to the arrangement you have already been playing along with.


--Mac

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