Band in the box мануал

• Home
• Support
• Online Manuals
• Band-in-a-Box 2022 for Windows User’s Guide

Band-in-a-Box^® 2022 for Windows^® User’s Guide

Contact Info

Chapter 1: Welcome to Band-in-a-Box!

Congratulations on your purchase of Band-in-a-Box, the favorite of musicians, students, and songwriters everywhere. Get ready to have fun!

What is Band-in-a-Box?

Band-in-a-Box is an intelligent automatic accompaniment program for your multimedia computer. You can hear and play along to many song ideas and go from “nothing” to “something” in a very short period of time when you have Band-in-a-Box as your “on demand” backup band.

Band-in-a-Box is so easy to use!

Just type in the chords to any song (like C or Fm7b5), pick a musical style from the hundreds available, and click the [Play] button. Band-in-a-Box then automatically generates a full backing arrangement of piano, bass, drums, guitar, and strings.

And that’s not all…

Band-in-a-Box is a powerful and creative music composition tool for exploring and developing musical ideas with near-instantaneous feedback. Over the years many features have been added to Band-in-a-Box — Notation, Piano Roll, Lyrics, Melody Tracks, Harmonization, the StyleMaker, and StylePicker. The Soloist and the Melodist are popular “intelligent” features; the Soloist generates professional quality solos over any chord progression, the Melodist can create songs from scratch with Chords, Melodies, Intros, Solos, and even a Title!

The inclusion of digital audio features makes Band-in-a-Box the perfect tool for creating, playing, and recording your music with MIDI, vocals, and acoustic instruments. Band-in-a-Box for Windows® can also record an acoustic instrument or voice to add to the composition, with processing through DirectX audio effects. Its built-in audio harmonies will turn your audio track into multiple harmony parts or adjust its pitch by tracking the Band-in-a-Box Melody track. Audio harmonies include vibrato and scooping effects for realistic styles.

You can print out your finished creation with repeats and endings, DC markings and codas, or save it as a graphic file for web publication or to e-mail to a friend. And when you’re ready to let others hear your composition, you can burn it directly to an audio CD. Or save your composition as a Windows Media File or in other compressed formats for a file that’s “Internet ready.”

Let’s get started!

This guide will have you making great music with Band-in-a-Box in a matter of minutes. We’ll begin with the easy installation and setup procedure.

Installing Band-in-a-Box for Windows®

Minimum System Requirements

—Windows® 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP.

—At least 16MB of available RAM for MIDI features.

—MIDI features require a 486DX processor or faster.

—Digital Audio features require additional RAM (at least 32MB recommended) and a Pentium-class (or faster) system.

—35MB to135MB available hard drive space. Add-on products and Digital Audio features require additional space and memory.

—PC sound card or external MIDI device (synthesizer, sound module, etc.).

Installing the Program

— Use any of the following three methods to install the program files into the Band-in-a-Box directory. By default this directory is C:bb; you may choose another location.

Method 1 – Auto Run.

1.Insert the program CD-ROM into the CD drive.

2.In a few seconds, a browser window will open with a list of the CD contents.

3.Double click on SETUP.EXE to run the installation program.

Method 2 – My Computer.

1.Insert the program CD-ROM into the CD drive.

2.Access your CD-ROM drive from the Windows desktop by double clicking on the My Computer icon.

3.Then, double-click on the CD-ROM drive icon and double-click again on the SETUP.EXE program found in the root or main folder of the CD-ROM.

Method 3 – Start Menu.

1.Insert the program CD-ROM into the CD drive.

2.From the Windows [Start] button select Run.

3.Type D:SETUP in the “Open:” command line box. If your CD-ROM drive uses another drive letter type the appropriate letter, for example E:SETUP.

4.If you don’t know the drive letter for your CD-ROM you can use the [Browse…] button to find it. SETUP.EXE will copy all of the program files to your Band-in-a-Box subdirectory (usually C:bb) and install icons to a Band-in-a-Box program group. Click on the Band-in-a-Box icon or launch bbw.exe to open the program and configure the setup.

Setup Instructions

Band-in-a-Box uses the multimedia drivers for your MIDI interface and/or sound card that are supported by the Windows operating system. To get sound playback you need to have a MIDI (and audio — for songs with digital audio) driver installed.

To start using the program you will need to make sure that your MIDI interface, audio driver, and Windows sound source is installed and configured.

Run the program by double-clicking the program icon. The first dialog you should encounter is a MIDI Output Driver message similar to this one:

The program sets your initial MIDI output driver automatically. Note which driver has been selected and press [OK] to continue.

The next dialog you encounter is the MIDI Driver Setup.

If the driver that was selected is not the best choice, simply make an alternate selection from the MIDI Driver Setup dialog. Select a MIDI Output Driver to use for MIDI sound playback and optionally a MIDI Input Driver if you are using an external MIDI controller keyboard or guitar. If the setup is panned to mono, the program offers to change it to stereo.

Perhaps the easiest way to configure Band-in-a-Box is to press the [Run Driver Wizard..] button in the Opt. | MIDI driver setup window.

The MIDI Output Driver Wizard dialog will take you step-by-step through the process of auditioning and selecting an appropriate driver. This assumes that the appropriate Windows sound drivers are installed and correctly configured.

Chapter 2: QuickStart

Creating music with Band-in-a-Box is as easy as 1-2-3! In this chapter, you’ll see just how easy it is to get Band-in- a-Box working for you.

Step 1 – Typing in the Chords

There are numerous ways of entering chords into Band-in-a-Box. We’ll discuss five fast ways of entering chords:

1.Using the computer keyboard.

2.Playing directly on a MIDI controller keyboard.

3.Using the Chord Builder feature.

4.Importing chords from a MIDI file.

5.Loading an Existing Band-in-a-Box format song.

On the main screen of the program, you’ll see an area called the chordsheet.

Band-in-a-Box main screen showing chordsheet.

Each of the numbered cells on the chordsheet represents a bar. In this example, we see that there is an E chord in the first bar of this song, an A chord in bar 5, and later in the song, an E7 in bar 12. Notice the box in the first half of bar 1. This is the highlight cell, and it represents the bar you are currently working on. You can move the highlight cell around using the cursor keys, or select a specific bar using the mouse.

Enter Chords Using the Computer Keyboard

To enter a specific chord, move the highlight cell to where you want to place the chord. For example, to add (or change) a chord in bar 10, you would highlight bar 10 on the chordsheet. Next, type in your chords. If you want an E at bar 10, type the [E] key on your keyboard, and press [Enter]. Notice that when you use the enter key, the highlight cell moves to the second half of the bar. You could then enter another chord at beat 3. Chords names are

normally typed using standard chord symbols (like C or Fm7 or Bb7 or Bb13#9/E), but you can enter them in any of the supported chord symbol display formats like Roman Numerals, Nashville Notation, and Solfeggio.

Enter Chords Using a MIDI Controller Keyboard

If you have a MIDI controller keyboard, you can use it to enter chords into Band-in-a-Box. Play a chord on your MIDI keyboard, and then type Ctrl+Enter. The chord will be entered into the chordsheet at the current highlight cell position. Another method allows you to choose alternate chords. From the Window | MIDI Chord Detection menu item, you’ll see this window:

When you play chords, Band-in-a-Box shows you the chord name and suggests alternates that you can choose from. Typing Ctrl+Enter enters the first selection, and advances the highlight cell by ½ bar.

Enter Chords Using the Chord Builder

Press the Chord Builder button. This opens the Chord Builder dialog with a list of chord roots and their extensions.

To enter a chord at the current bar, select the chord root from the left pane, and then the extension on the right pane. Pressing [Enter Chord] or using the arrow keys will enter the chord and advance the highlight cell to the next half bar.

Import Chords from a MIDI File

You can have Band-in-a-Box import chords from an existing MIDI file. Choose Import Chords from MIDI File on the File menu.

When the dialog opens, press the [Open (Change)…] button to choose a MIDI file that you want Band-in-a-Box to interpret the chords from. To help Band-in-a-Box interpret the chords better, you should choose a genre (Preset) for the song. Choose from among such genres as Pop, Rock, or Jazz Standard.

Tip: It helps if you’ve previously listened to the MIDI file, in order that you can choose a genre most appropriate to the song.

Loading an existing Band-in-a-Box format Song

Press the Open Song button. The first time you use this button, Band-in-a-Box will offer to build a Song list for you. We’ve included many demonstration songs; they are listed in the song list.

You could also load a pre-existing song by using the File | Open menu item, or by typing [F3], which will launch the Windows file dialog. Songs usually load a “Style,” which we’ll learn about in the next section.

Step 2 – Choosing a Style

Band-in-a-Box creates backing arrangements based on the chords you type in, applied to a particular Style.

What’s a Style?

A style is a set of rules that determine how Band-in-a-Box creates music using your chords. By adjusting the rules, we have created hundreds of styles for everything from Country to Bebop, such as Jazz Swing, Blues Shuffle, Hip Hop, Country 4/4, Pop Ballad, Waltz, and Medium Rock to name just a few. If you don’t find a pre-made style that suits your tastes, create one from scratch using the StyleMaker. There’s a “how-to” section on custom Styles in this manual.

Four Fast ways to open a Style

Method 1:

To open a user style from disk, you can just type the [F9] key. You will be presented with a Windows file dialog from which you can select a specific Style. Alternately you can select from the Styles menu item at the top of the screen.

Method 3: Styles that you’ve used previously show up in the Favorite Styles dialog. Choose this with the [f] button next to the [Style] button in the song title window, from the Styles menu, or type Shift+F9 on your computer keyboard.

You can choose to save a Favorites set for use later. You can also load a set of favorite styles in this manner.

Method 4:

In the Styles menu, you can choose from among the 24 “built-in” styles. This list provides a quick way to choose from among the most popular music genres.

Step 3 – Play your song!

You’ve entered chords on the chordsheet and chosen a style. Now it’s time to play the song! You’ll need to tell Band-in-a-Box how long your song is, how many times to play it through, in what key, and how fast.

Framing the Song

To tell Band-in-a-Box where to start and end the song, take a look at the middle of the main screen.

Chapter 3: Band-in-a-Box Version 2005

New Features in Band-in-a-Box 2005

New Fully-Featured “Piano Roll” Window!

Now you can edit your tracks using the new “Piano Roll” window, similar to the type found in many sequencer programs. Edit the Melody or Soloist tracks with greater ease and precision. There are 2 panes in the window – one for notes and the other for controllers, velocity, and other data. All notes and controllers are displayed as bars on a grid. You can change note duration and pitch by selecting and dragging with your mouse.

Alternate Guitar Tunings added!

The Guitar window now supports alternate tunings, including DADGAD, Drop D, Double Drop D, Open G, and 11 others! You can also select “Nashville High Strung” tunings, which tune certain strings up an octave. The new tunings are supported in Styles, Chord Diagrams, Guitar Tutor, Notation, Tab, and Printout. Learn how to play these tunings by watching the on-screen Guitar Fretboard or Notation/Tab window. Easily change any style to use the alternate tuning that you want.

New Harmonies added with voicing in 4ths!

Modern Jazz harmonies often voice chords in 4ths. For example, a C chord with C melody might be voiced C, G, D, A, E. Now you can select 4ths voicings easily in Band-in-a-Box to harmonize the Melody, Soloist, or THRU parts using 3, 4, or 5 part voicings in 4ths. We’ve added presets for these harmonies, so you can easily select them. Use these sophisticated 4ths harmonies on your existing melodies to create a new sound.

“Auto Endings” added for Styles without Endings!

If you‘ve made a style, and haven’t included an ending, a 2-bar ending can now be generated automatically, based on the style. This makes it easier to make complete styles using the Style Wizard, which makes a style by analyzing a MIDI file.

Patch List Converter

Make Synthesizer Patch file lists (.PAT files) easily by converting PowerTracks or Cakewalk Patch lists!

Band-in-a-Box can now read a patch file list generated by PowerTracks Pro Audio or Cakewalk, and convert it to a .PAT file for use in Band-in-a-Box. The patch file contains the name and numbers for all patches on a synthesizer, so that you can access your patches easily by name. If you already have a patch list for your synthesizer from one of these other programs, you can now convert it to Band-in-a-Box format easily.

“Jazz Chord Symbol Graphics” (circles, triangles) supported!

Jazz and Pop music often use certain non-alphabetic symbols for chord types. These include a delta (triangle) for major chords, a circle for diminished, and a circle with a slash for half-diminished. Also, tensions like b9 and b13 are stacked vertically and contained in brackets. You can now select this option, and see these symbols for display/printout on the Chord Sheet, Notation, and Lead Sheet windows.

TC-Helicon Audio Harmonies enhanced with Pitch Styles (automatic “Vibrato” and “Scooping”)!

Now, when you generate audio harmonies to your recorded vocal tracks, you can select pitch styles to add vibrato and scooping effects to the vocal harmonies. Choose from presets, including “Ballad,” “Broadway,” “Pop Diva” and more!

StylePicker now Editable!

You can now add your own styles to the StylePicker list by pressing an ADD/EDIT button on the StylePicker. You can see all the information about the style, including memo, genre, feel, tempo, range, etc.

“Vocal Wizard” finds the best song keys for your vocal range!

This feature helps you choose the best song key for your vocal range from your vocal type (baritone, tenor, etc.), or a custom range. The wizard analyzes the song and recommends the best keys for that song. There are options to “include/exclude falsetto range” and “restrict choices to these keys […].”

Non-Destructive Audio Track Editing!

With previous versions of Band-in-a-Box, any changes to the audio track would be permanent, even if you didn’t save the song. Now the changes are non-destructive and only become permanent if you save the file.

Support for Multiple Sound Cards!

For the audio track, you can now choose which sound card to use, if you have more than one.

Multiple lines of Lyrics Supported on Fake Sheet and Printout!

If your song has 1st and 2nd endings or multiple verses of lyrics, multi-line lyrics can be displayed, so you’ll see all verses on the same Fake Sheet.

Full Stereo or Mono support for Audio Track!

You can now choose between mono and stereo for the audio track and the audio plug-ins work for mono or stereo. Tracks can be edited in either format, and converted from stereo to mono or vice versa.

Enhanced Audio Plug-in Effects!

Enhanced audio plug-in effects are included for EQ, Peak-Limit, and Reverb.

Selective Humanize option for the Melody Embellisher!

There is a new option for the Embellisher to only humanize the timing of the music if the timing was “stiff” to begin with. This allows the Embellisher to leave the timing of human input melodies alone, and humanize only the ones that were entered in step-time.

Lead Sheet highlighting is more visible!

During playback, the highlighting of bars on the Lead Sheet and Fake Sheet window is more visible, with red rectangles to highlight the current bar.

Karaoke Files (.KAR) now can be opened, including lyrics!

The popular Karaoke file format (.KAR) can now be opened directly into Band-in-a-Box, just like MIDI files. Chord symbols are displayed (Band-in-a-Box intelligently analyzes the chords of the song), as well as the lyrics from the Karaoke files.

Import .WAV file to Audio Track support!

A mono or stereo .WAV file can now be imported to the audio track, optionally merging or replacing any existing audio track.

Pitch Bends are now displayed on the Guitar Fretboard!

Pitch bends now show up on the Guitar Fretboard. As the pitch bend occurs, a blue line moves along the string in real time to show the height of the pitch bend.

Shift-Click support for Selecting Region of Chordsheet, Notation, or Audio Window!

To select a region of Chordsheet, Notation, or Audio Window, you can now Shift-click on the end point to easily select a large area.

Colors editor for Note Colors in the Notation Window!

Note colors for the Notation window may be edited to create custom color sets, using a new dialog box.

Entire song name displayed in Taskbar hint when Band-in-a-Box is minimized!

This is useful to find the name of a song playing when Band-in-a-Box is playing in the background.

Multi-colors for Event List!

Different colors are used for different event types in the event list, to visually distinguish notes, patch changes etc.

Song Picker Enhanced – Subfolder Support!

The SongPicker has been enhanced and now can optionally display songs from subfolders. For example, if you get a song list of c:bb, it can include songs in subfolders of c:bb like c:bbstyles34. You can also lock the SongPicker to always open in the same folder (EG: C:bb), so that you can use the same list to keep track of all songs on your disk. Other enhancements like “change folder,” and “go up one folder” are included.

Notation supports time signature changes!

Time signature changes are now printed on the Notation/Lead Sheet!

“Favorite Folder-Open Song” button!

By opening a song using “Favorite Folder-Open Song,” you first select the folder from a list of recently used folders, and then you can directly open the song from that folder. This allows you to quickly find a song in another folder.

Lyric breaks hidden in Lead Sheet window!

For lyrics, line break and paragraph marks (‘/’ and ‘’) are no longer shown on the Lead Sheet window.

Auto MIDI and Karaoke lyrics display!

Lyrics window optionally auto-opens for MIDI files with lyrics and Karaoke files!

Guitar TAB visibility is improved!

For the guitar tablature, the numbers are now more visible, as a portion of the black guitar line is “whited out” when a tab fret number is drawn.

Notation display improved!

The first note in every bar is drawn farther away from the bar line.

Big Lyrics Window Enhancements!

Chords can now be displayed on a row above the lyrics on the Big Lyrics Window. Separate chord colors are used for the Chords and Lyrics, allowing these elements to be visually separated.

MIDI file text markers for part markers!

MIDI files are now written with descriptive text markers for part markers! Text markers are also read in from MIDI files, and displayed as section markers on the notation.

Decibel (dB) scale now present in the Audio Edit window! New rest insert key!

In Editable Notation mode, you can now insert a rest by holding the back-quote key (tilde key without pressing Shift) then clicking on the Notation window. This is a way to avoid having to check the “Rest” checkbox first.

Reset to factory settings improved!

Reset to factory settings also offers to nuke the drum kit and MIDI driver choice, making the return to factory settings complete.

“Transpose” Chordsheet option added!

This is useful for non-concert pitch instruments like tenor saxophone. This option is also available on the Notation window.

“Play Selected Area as a Loop” function!

Shift-click on the Play button, or press F10 (Play Selected Area as Loop) and the program will play a selected region as a loop. For example, you can select bars 10 and 11, and then press F10, and bars 10 and 11 will play looped.

StyleMaker Enhancements!

If you don’t save the style, the previous style will load in, instead of reverting to “ZZJAZZ.STY.”

Guitar Tutor Enhancements!

The Guitar Chord Tutor now has an “Anticipate” mode that plays the next chord X beats in advance, allowing time for the user to prepare the chord for playing along. 11 new tutors have been added for the Alternate tunings like DADGAD, Open G, etc.

No more drum crash cymbals on Bar 1 of the song!

The very first bar of the song is (optionally) no longer considered to be following a fill, so a drum crash cymbal won’t be played. Most drummers wouldn’t play a crash cymbal on bar 1 of the song.

New hot keys added for Prefs tab dialog!

This allows navigation of the Preferences tabs by single keystrokes.

Auto “Staves per Page” Option!

Notation | Options now has an option to allow “Staves per Page” setting to be automatic or not!

Print to much larger BMP files!

Notation | Print to Graphics command can now print to high resolution BMP’s like 2400 x 3000! This feature is only limited by available memory.

Guitar TAB lines easier to see!

Guitar TAB lines now print in black, instead of grey, so tab is easier to read.

Larger Harmony display boxes!

Harmony display boxes are wider by 64 pixels on the main screen and Melodist/Soloist dialogs!

VU meters added for Audio!

These show the Record and Playback levels for audio, allowing adjustment of microphone and speaker levels.

Mouse wheel support!

Mouse wheel support added to the Chordsheet screen and other windows.

… and many more!

QuickStart Tutorial for the Version 2005 Upgrade.

The full descriptions of the new features in Version 2005 of Band-in-a-Box are provided elsewhere. This tutorial is a QuickStart tour of the new features in Band-in-a-Box 2005.

Note: It is assumed that you are somewhat familiar with the previous release of Band-in-a-Box.

Explore Band-in-a-Box Version 2005

First, we’ll take a quick tour of the new features in Band-in-a-Box 2005. Then we’ll do an in-depth tutorial for the new Piano Roll window. The other chapters in the manual are also tutorial style presentations of the new features.

Load in any song with a melody…

Now launch the Piano Roll window, by pressing the piano roll button on the toolbar, or choosing Window | Piano Roll Window. You’ll then see the Piano Roll window.

Drag the notes to change pitch, duration, or timing.

Insert notes by mouse click (while holding down Ctrl+Shift). We’ll explore the piano roll in detail later in the tutorial.

Now let’s close the Piano Roll window, and open the Notation window. You can do this by pressing the notation button.

Let’s hear the fourths harmonies…

Load in c:bbTutorial — BB 2005 4 Trumpets in 4ths — Harmony 219 demo. This will play the melody in 4-part harmony, using 4ths harmonies.

Let’s display “Jazz chord symbol graphics” to this song.

Use the Opt. | Preferences menu option and click on “Notation” to open the Notations Options dialogue box. In the Notation Options dialog:

Press the [Jazz Fonts] button to select the Jazz music font.

Select the “Jazz Symbols” checkbox.

Exit the Options dialog, and you’ll now see Jazz chord symbols.

Let’s examine the improvements in the SongPicker.

Open the SongPicker. (The program may rebuild the song list prior to opening the dialog.) Look at the folder name displayed at the bottom of the dialog.

Select the checkboxes “Always open in this folder” and “Include Subfolders.”

If the folder name isn’t already c:bb, press the [Change] button near the bottom of the dialog, to change the folder to c:bb.

If the program doesn’t rebuild the list automatically, then force a rebuild by pressing the [Rebuild List] button.

songs in your c:bb folders and subfolders. demos!

The Song list will then be rebuilt, displaying ALL of the If you have the MegaPAK, this will be over 2,000 songs, riffs, and style

Use the FILTER to manage this list. Set the Filter to “any column.” For example, type the word Bluegrass in the filter, and press [Apply Filter]. You’ll now see a list of 29 songs, all with the word Bluegrass somewhere in the title, filename, genre, or other field.

Let’s explore the new “Vocal Wizard.”

The Vocal Wizard determines the best keys for any song in your vocal range.

Load in the song c:bb Tutorial — BB 2005Old Folks at Home.MGU. This is in the key of F. We’ll assume that you are a male with a baritone range. If so, F is not a good key for this song, it is too high.

Choose Window | Vocal Wizard or press the Vocal Wizard button on the toolbar.

The Vocal Wizard will open. It displays color coded scores for each possible key, and has determined that they key of D is the best key for that song in your vocal range, which you can set in the same dialog.

When you call out to your piano player “We can do this song in D.” he replies, “I don’t play much in D, I’m a Jazz player.”

So you use the “Allowable Keys” preset in this dialog, and set it to “Jazz keys,” and then the Vocal Wizard revises its recommendation to the key of C.

If you select “Auto-transpose to best key when a song is loaded,” every song will automatically be transposed to the best key for your vocal range when loaded. For now, let’s de-select that option, since we don’t want songs to be transposed when loaded.

Note that the Vocal Wizard can also be used for instruments, like tenor sax or trombone, to determine the best keys for playing the melody on those instruments.

Let’s check out the new PLAY LOOP feature.

On the Chordsheet, select the 2 bars from 9 to 10 by dragging the mouse to make the bars black.

Now, press the [Loop] button on the toolbar, or press F10, or choose the Play | Play (loop) Highlighted Section menu item. The 2 bars from 9 to 10 will play in a loop.

We can use the new Favorite Folders feature to quickly OPEN or SAVE a song from/to a different folder than we are in now.

Hold the Shift key as you click the [Open] button. This will launch the Favorite Folder dialog, allowing you to pick the folder to load from, and then the typical dialog will open up. This saves you time.

Similarly, Shift-clicking on the [Save As] button will allow you to choose a favorite folder prior to seeing the Save As dialog.

The TC-Helicon Harmonies are improved. Let’s load in the Tutorial Demo from 2004, called c:bbTutorial – Audio HarmoniesListen.MGU. We’ll now add audio harmonies, and the audio harmonies will now have vibrato!

After loading in Listen, launch the TC-Helicon Harmony dialog. Choose Harmonize to the MIDI Melody, and harmony #172, and click OK.

Now, in the TC-Helicon Harmony dialog, notice the new combo boxes at the bottom of the screen for Pitch Style presets (vibrato and scooping).

Note Editing

Move the mouse cursor over the left side of a note, then click-drag horizontally to edit the note’s start time. To drag a group of selected notes, hold Shift while dragging the head of one of the notes, and all of the selection will follow!

Move the mouse cursor over the right side of a note, then click-drag horizontally to edit the note’s duration. To drag a group of selected notes, hold Shift while dragging the tail of one of the notes.

Move the mouse cursor over the center of a note, and then click-drag vertically to edit the note’s pitch. To transpose a group of selected notes, hold Shift while dragging the center of one of the Notes.

Insert a Note

Hold Shift+Ctrl, and then click where you want a new note.

Delete a Note

Select one or more notes, and then tap the computer’s Delete key. You Can also right-click and choose the “Delete Selected Events” item in the pop-up menu.

Undo Mistakes

You can use Edit | Undo (or Ctrl+Z) to recover from edits gone horribly wrong. You can also right-click and choose the “Undo” item in the pop-up menu.

If you make a mistake when inserting an event, it is often easy to fix by re-editing the event. For instance, if you intended to insert a C note, but accidentally inserted a B note, it is trivial to drag the new B note up to C.

After inserting events, the new events are selected (highlighted red). Therefore, you can also tap the Delete key to remove accidentally inserted events.

Graphic Event Editing

You can edit the value or time of individual graphic data items. To edit the value, move the mouse cursor over the top half of an event, and click-drag vertically. To edit the time of the event, move the cursor over the bottom half of an event, and click-drag horizontally. There are two tools for inserting graphic events, the Line Tool and the Pencil Tool.

Line Tool

Move the mouse cursor over white space in the Graphic Event panel. The cursor becomes a Line Tool. Click and then drag a line. When the mouse button is released, events are inserted or modified to fit the line. This illustrates the effect of the Line Tool for editing the velocity of the first 6 notes.

Pencil Tool

Hold Shift+Ctrl, and move the mouse cursor over white space in the Graphic Event panel. The cursor becomes a Pencil Tool. Click and then drag a free-form shape. When the mouse button is released, events are inserted or modified to fit the free-form shape. This illustrates the effect of the Pencil Tool for free form drawing the velocity of the first 6 notes.

Modulation Controller

Set the View/Edit combo box to “Control” (Controller MIDI Events). Then select “1 Mod Wheel MSB” in the controller type combo box.

The Modulation controller is not firmly defined, but it is usually a Vibrato or Tremolo effect (especially in General MIDI synths).

Play the Demo Song, and watch how Modulation has been added to some notes to add Vibrato. It is usually best to use tasteful amounts of Controllers. With graphic edits, too much is almost always too much!

Pitch Bend

Set the View/Edit combo box to “Pitch Bend.” Play the demo song, and watch how a few pitch bends have been inserted to “scoop” some note attacks, “sting” the middle of a note, or “fall off” some note releases.

More Details

Please see the Piano Roll Window topic for more information about this feature.

________________________________________________________________

This is the end of the tutorial. Thanks for taking the time to read this section. The next sections examine the new features in detail.

Chapter 4: The Main Screen

Main Screen Overview

The main screen gives direct access to the major features and program settings of Band-in-a-Box for ease and convenience during a session. There are five different areas on the main screen.

1→

2→

3→

4→

5→

The main screen of Band-in-a-Box with a new, blank song.

1.The Status Bar is used to show program running status messages and path names of the currently loaded song.

2.The Synth Window is the area between the Menu Bar and the Piano Keyboard where Instruments patches are set and levels are adjusted. It also includes buttons for adding harmonies to the Melody, Thru, or Soloist parts.

3.The Tool Bar area under the Piano Keyboard has buttons for direct access to important program features and menus. Hold the mouse cursor on any button to see a pop-up hint that describes its function.

4.The Title Window shares the Tool Bar area. In addition to the song title, it includes all the other settings for the song such as its Key Signature, Tempo, and Chorus settings. To the right of the Title Window are two floating, dockable toolbars that can be configured by the user.

5.The Chordsheet Area occupies the lower part of the screen. Chord changes for the song are typed into the numbered bars (cells) in the sheet. “a” and “b” part markers are entered here to switch between the “a” and “b” Band-in-a-Box substyles. Repeats and endings are also shown.

Personalizing the Main Screen

Band-in-a-Box gives you many options to personalize the main screen.

Screen Layout

The Chordsheet area (or Notation Screen) can be placed at the top of the screen if desired by selecting the “Put Notation/Chords on Top” from the Window menu or by pressing Ctrl+T. (This is reversed by selecting the same option.)

Display Options

Go to Opt. | Preferences or click on the [Pref] button to open the Preferences dialog. Then click on the [Display] button to open the Display Options dialog where you can select a toolbar mode, show or hide the on-screen piano, pick a song title font and set options for the chordsheet display including the number of rows to display for the main chordsheet, the font to use, and the font size too. This allows you to read the chordsheet window from “across the room.”

If you choose a Custom font, you can choose the size as well. Choose a preset font, and the size will be set automatically to fit into the height of the row. Choose Jazz Symbols to see shorthand Jazz chord symbols in the chordsheet and notation. To revert to the “old look” that used a small System font, and lots of rows, you can choose that as the type of font “Small font (system).”

Color Schemes

You can choose from several color sets using the 256-color palette in Windows. Choose from pre-made color schemes or make your own. To change the color scheme, select Opt. | Preferences from the main screen, and then click on the [Colors] button in the Preferences dialog to launch the Color Selection dialog.

To select a pre-made color scheme, press the [Import..] button and choose from the list of schemes. Select [OK] to make the changes permanent. Use the [Export..] button to save and share your customized color schemes.

To make your own color scheme, click on the name of the element you wish to change (Chord Area, List Box, etc.), then click on the [Choose…] button to bring up the Windows Color palette and click on the color you desire.

Status Bar

The name of the open song is identified in the status bar at the top of the screen. The full file name and path name are shown, as well as the length of the song in minutes and seconds and the current position of the highlight cell. Other “running status” messages such as Soloist Generation and Song Generation display in the status bar.

The status bar changes during playback to show additional information like the current bar and chorus location and the current style.

Status bar during playback.

Taskbar hint

The entire song name displays in the taskbar hint when Band-in-a-Box is minimized. This is useful to find the name of a song playing when Band-in-a- Box is playing in the background.

Synth Window / Piano Keyboard

The Piano Keyboard:

This keyboard displays the notes (in different colors) that are being played by all instruments on various parts of the piano keyboard during playback (except drums). The MIDI Thru/Soloist is also displayed on the piano keyboard.

Instruments and Parts:

Part Settings: The Bass/Drum/Piano/Guitar/Strings/Melody/Soloist and Thru buttons refer to instrument parts. To change a setting for one of the parts you need to do the following:

—Select the part by mouse clicking on the part name, or on the button immediately to the left of the part name.

—Change the desired parameter to affect the new setting.

Instruments — Choosing

The instrument panel allows you to change the instrument for any part:

—Clicking on the drop-down arrow produces an instrument list that you can choose from by highlighting and clicking on the desired instrument name.

—Clicking the [F] button produces a representative list of predefined favorite instruments that you can choose from.

The [GM2] button lets you select patches from a list of both General MIDI and General MIDI 2 patches if your system supports GM2.

Clicking on the [+] button produces a comprehensive list of ALL the patches available for your synthesizer, including ones on higher banks

(if applicable). This list displays your patch names by name, where the patch is located (patch #, bank) and lets you pick them from an easily customizable list.

Harmony

The Harmony area displays the current Melody and Thru Harmony. At the top right, you’ll see the harmony boxes for the Melody and the Thru/Soloist.

The [M] button is for Melody harmony — pressing the [M] button produces a list of harmonies you can choose from.

Here it’s set to SuperSax for a Big Band saxophone section harmony.

Pressing the [F] button produces a list of your favorites; the 50 most recently loaded harmonies.

The keystrokes Shift+F10 allow or disable the Melody harmony.

Tip: You can also search for a harmony by a keyword (i.e. typing in the first few letters of a harmony name) in either the Harmonies or Favorite Harmonies dialog.

The [T] button is for Thru/Soloist harmony. Either your live part or the Soloist will be harmonized in real time — in this case using George

Shearing Quintet type harmony (piano, vibes and guitar). Pressing the [f] button produces a list of your favorites; the 50 most recently loaded harmonies. Pressing the Shift+F11 keys toggles the Thru harmony on and off.

Toolbars

The main toolbar extends the full width of the screen. (It is divided in two here.)

The [New] button clears the Chordsheet to start a new song. Band-in-a-Box reminds you to save your work before it erases the chords.

The [Open] button is used to open (load) songs into the program from a standard Windows Open File dialog.

Use the [Prev.] button to immediately open the previous song in the same folder (in alphabetical order) without going through the usual file opening process.

Use the [Next] button to instantly open the next song in the same folder (in alphabetical order) without going through the usual file opening process.

The [Save] button saves the song to disk with the standard Windows Save As dialog.

This saves the song, allowing you to choose or confirm the name and location for the file save.

The [.MID] button allows you to make a Standard MIDI File and save it to disk as a file with extension

.MID or to the Windows Clipboard with type “Standard MIDI File.” Type 0 and Type 1 MIDI files are supported, or you can also choose to save the song as a Karaoke file with the .KAR extension.

This is the “Render to WAV file” button, which will convert (render) your MIDI arrangement to an audio wave file.

Transport Controls

These buttons are like the transport controls on a CD player or a media player.

[Play] button generates a new arrangement and plays the song.

[Loop] plays the selected (highlighted) section of the chordsheet in a loop. [Replay] plays the song from the beginning without creating a new arrangement. [Stop] button stops the song or the Jukebox from playing.

[Pause] button pauses the song during playback.

[From] button is used to play a song starting anywhere in the song, including tags or endings.

The [Melodist] button opens the Generate Chords and/or Melody dialog, where you can choose the Melodist you wish to have generate chord changes and melody.

The [Soloist] button opens the Select Soloist Dialog, where you can choose the Soloist you wish to have play over any given chord changes.

The [Juke] button is used to start or stop the Jukebox. The [<] and [>] arrow keys are to move to the next or previous song in the Jukebox.

The [Rec.] button is to record a song from the beginning. The music that you play in to the computer will then be stored on the Melody track. The “R” key is the keyboard equivalent.

The [R. Aud] button launches the Record Audio dialog for live audio recording.

You can make yourself sound like a 5 piece vocal group! Record a vocal part, and add a 4 part audio harmony. Press the audio harmony button on screen to do this.

Band-in-a-Box supports DirectX Audio plug-ins – you can apply them directly to the digital audio track. Use the cool PG Music plug-ins provided, or any other DirectX plug-ins that you have.

This allows you to select and configure DXi (DirectX instruments) software synthesizers. The “Use DXi Synth” checkbox must be selected in the MIDI Driver Setup dialog.

Sends out an “all notes off” message to your synthesizer, so it can function as a “panic” button to stop a hung or stuck note .

This button resets General MIDI devices by sending a GM mode On message and then setting up the Band-in-a-Box patches.

Floating Toolbars

These are Copy and Paste buttons for chords or notes. They copy to the Windows clipboard, and paste from the clipboard.

The Folder button allows you to change song and style folders or directories from within the program.

Use the Favorite Folders button to select a folder from previously used folders. Shift-click on this button to choose any folder.

The guitar button launches a guitar fretboard window that displays guitar notes as music is playing.

This button allows you to enter repeats, 1st and 2nd endings, DS al coda, DC al coda and more. The AutoFind feature enters them automatically.

The [Intro] allows you to generate and insert an intro into a song with a “press of the button.”

The Big Piano button launches a Big Piano window. It will display the notes to any track (except drums) as the music is playing.

This launches the Windows Mixer applet. Use the Windows Mixer to make global settings to your sound card’s input and output options.

Press the Guitar Chord button to launch the “Generate Guitar Chord Solo” dialog.

The Ear Training button opens the Ear Training Window that plays chord types and intervals for you to improve your playing-by-ear.

The Vocal Wizard selects and transposes the song to the best key for a singer’s vocal range.

This button launches the Chord Options dialog box, which allows you to add chord pushes, rests, shots, and held chords for any given bar.

The grace note button opens the Melody Embellisher dialog for customizing the Melody Embellisher.

You can convert your composition to an audio CD. Press the CD button to burn a CD with the built-in CD burner program.

This button connects to the www.pgmusic.com web site.

If you have a Sound Blaster card, this button runs the Creative Mixer.

This button opens the Notation window, where you can enter chords and lyrics, edit notation, and view MIDI notation in “note roll” style.

The Lead Sheet notation is a full-screen notation window with optional Fake Sheet mode that shows 1st and 2nd endings, repeats, and codas.

Launches the Piano Roll window for editing the Melody or Soloist tracks in a piano roll format, including graphic controller editing.

The Audio Edit window displays a graphical waveform and allows editing. Hold Shift when pressing to open a moveable window.

Use the Print button to launch the Print Options dialog, which allows you to print Lead Sheet or Fake Sheet style notation.

The Drum button launches an animated Drum Kit window. Press it to launch this fully functional (and fun) GM-MIDI “virtual” drum kit.

The Song Title button generates a song title for the current song. Each time it is pressed a new title is generated.

This button opens the Big Lyrics window for full screen “Karaoke-style” scrolling lyrics.

The Audio VU meters display the input volume for audio recording and the output volume for audio playback.

There’s a Lyric Document window so you can easily copy and paste lyrics to and from your favorite word processor.

This button opens the Windows Recording mixer where you set your recording inputs. Select Microphone or Line-in to record audio.

The [Pref] button will bring up a dialog box where you can set various settings all at once and access most of the program options.

The StyleMaker button opens the current style in the StyleMaker, allowing you to edit the style by editing the patterns.

This button opens the “Hybrid Styles” feature that allows you to create a new style by using instrument parts from up to five different styles.

This opens the Style Creation Wizard dialog, where Band-in-a-Box will automatically convert a MIDI file into a Band-in-a-Box style.

This is the Chord Builder button. Chords may be heard and entered to the chordsheet by clicking in this dialog.

The MIDI Monitor button launches a MIDI Monitor that displays the MIDI Data flowing in and out of your computer/synth.

The tuner button opens the Guitar Tuner so you can tune a guitar or other instrument that is plugged into the sound card.

The SB button opens the Sound Blaster control panel, but only if you use a Sound Blaster card. Sound fonts are loaded in the control panel.

This button toggles the chord display among standard (CMaj7), Roman Numeral (Imaj7), Nashville (1Maj7), and Solfeggio (DoMaj7).

This runs the stand-alone Title Generator program, which will generate and print 50 new song titles at a time.

Title Window

The Title window shows the basic information about the current song at a glance — its title, style, key, tempo, and the length and number of choruses. It also gives quick access to the Song List, the StylePicker, Memos, and Song Settings.

The [Song] button launches the Load Song by Full Titles dialog box.

The [F] favorites button opens a list of the last 150 songs played.

The [Style] button launches the StylePicker window. This window offers detailed information about each style.

The [F] favorites button opens a list of the last 150 styles chosen.

The names of the last five songs are listed at the bottom of the File menu, and are numbered from 0 to 4.

The Song Title window allows you to enter the name of a song.

Click in the box with your mouse to start an insertion cursor and type in the name of your song. The title is automatically included when the song is printed.

Style Display Window

This window displays the current style in use.

Key Signature

The key signature of the song is displayed on the main screen under the title. To change the key, click on the key signature to choose a new key from the dropdown list box. Band-in-a-Box will offer to

transpose the chordsheet to the new key signature.

Tempo Control

The current tempo displays in the Title window, with controls for easy tempo settings and adjustments.

Click the mouse on the spin control arrows to raise or lower the tempo in by 5 bpm (beats per minute) at a time. Use a right mouse click on the tempo arrows to change the tempo by 1 bpm at a time.

Tap the [=] key on the number row of your computer keyboard for 4 beats to set the tempo and start the playback immediately at that tempo. (Or click the [=] button on the screen with your mouse pointer.)

Tap the [-] key on the number row of your computer keyboard (see illustration above) for 4 beats to set the tempo. Or click the [-] button on the screen with your mouse pointer.

Chorus Control

The Chorus Control buttons are used to set the overall format of your song.

Chorus Begin button: Click on the Chorus Begin Button to select the first bar of the chorus. The Bar number that you select is displayed.

Chorus End button: Click on the Chorus End Button to select the last bar of the chorus. The Bar number that you select is displayed.

The number of choruses possible for a tune is 40. Click on the chorus button and choose how many choruses you require.

As the song is playing the current chorus is displayed at in the chorus button. 2/3 shows that the second of three choruses is playing.

If you change the number of choruses, Band-in-a-Box will offer to fill up or remove choruses of the Melody track to match the new number of choruses.

Title window checkboxes

When the loop checkbox in the Title window is checked, the song plays endlessly until stopped by the [Esc] key, the space bar, or the [Stop] button. At the end of the song, it plays again from the start.

Enables fake sheet mode for the chordsheet with 1st and 2nd endings and repeats. Right click to autodetect repeats.

The Wizard is an intelligent play along feature that uses your QWERTY keyboard as a substitute for an external MIDI piano-style keyboard. Toggle this checkbox “on” to play along with Band-in-a-Box.

During playback, the Melody Embellisher changes timing of notes, durations, velocities, legato, as

well as adding grace notes, additional notes, and “turns.” It is turned on and off by the Embellisher checkbox on the main screen. Embellisher settings are accessed from the menu item Melody | Embellisher or the Embellisher button on the toolbar.

Press the [S] button, or choose Edit | Settings (for This Song)… to select additional settings for the current song.

The [Memo] button allows you to put in a memo to a song. You can type in a memo or you can paste text from the Windows clipboard.

Loop Section Settings

The loop button launches the Loop Section Settings dialog, allowing you to set a range of bars to loop in Band-in-a-Box.

The LoopSec/LoopScn checkbox turns the Loop Section on/off. When it shows LoopSec a selected range of bars repeats in an endless loop. LoopScn indicates a screen of notation is looping.

Chordsheet Area

Chords, rests, shots, holds, and part markers are entered in the Chordsheet.

The chordsheet can be viewed in the full linear view showing all bars, or optionally in fake sheet view that shows 1st and 2nd endings and repeat signs. Another option shows bars past the end of the song in gray.

Chord Entry

The basic way of entering a song into Band-in-a-Box is to type in the chords to the song on the chordsheet (worksheet). The arrow keys move the active (highlighted) cell around in the chordsheet. The Enter key advances to the next ½ bar. Chords can be entered from the QWERTY keyboard or an external MIDI keyboard (see Window | MIDI Chord Detection…).

Chords are typed in using any of the supported chord symbol displays:

1.Standard chord symbols (e.g., C or Fm7 or Bb7 or Bb13#9/E).

2.Roman numerals (Imaj7).

3.Nashville Notation (1Maj7).

4.Solfeggio (DoMaj7).

Notes: It is not necessary to type upper or lower case. The program will sort this out for you. Any chord may be entered with an alternate root (“Slash Chord”) e.g.: C7/E = C7 with E bass. Separate chords with commas to enter 2 chords in a 2 beat cell, e.g., Dm, G7

Shortcut Chords:

If you enter a lot of songs, you’ll appreciate these shortcut keys.

—J = Maj7

—H = m7b5 (H stands for Half diminished)

—D = dim

—S = Sus

Example: To type CMaj7, just type CJ (it will be entered as CMaj7)

Add your own chord shortcuts.

You can make your own shortcuts text file and name it bbshortcut.txt. This allows you to add new chord shortcuts. (Note that this file doesn’t ship with Band-in-a-Box or it would overwrite your file.)

If you find a chord that Band-in-a-Box won’t accept like Csus2 (it expects C2), you can enter this on a single line (without the quotes) “Csus2@C2.” Then Band-in-a-Box will enter the chord C2 if you type in Csus 2.

Play Selected Area as a Loop

To use this function, select a region on the Chordsheet

.

Click on the[Loop] button, Shift-click on the [Play] button, or press F10 (Play Selected Area as Loop) and the program will play a selected region, and loop the selection. For example, you can select bars 19 and 20, and then press F10, and bars 19 and 20 will play looped.

Chapter 5: Guided Tour of Band-in-a-Box

With Band-in-a-Box you can arrange, record, save, and print your own song ideas. Just type in the chords to any song; choose a style and press [Play] to hear the “band” play a full arrangement. Then record a Melody — either MIDI or live audio – or have Band-in-a-Box write an original Melody for you. Add Melody embellishments and harmony, an automatically improvised Soloist, an Intro, and print out a multi-part Lead Sheet or a Fake Sheet with repeats and endings in a “handwritten” Jazz font. Edit the notes for the Melody or Soloist track in the Piano Roll window, with precision graphic editing of controllers. Use the Melody Pitch Tracking feature to “tweak” the pitch of your Band-in-a-Box audio track, and then add amazing “stylized” 4-part audio harmonies.

Loading and Playing Songs

Open any song file with the familiar dialog box, just like any other file on your disk.

Start song playback.

The [Loop] button plays the highlighted section of the chordsheet or notation in an endless loop. Click and drag the mouse to highlight a section of bars to loop.

Replays the song without regenerating the tracks, so the current arrangement is preserved. ( Save the song to a MIDI file to permanently save the arrangement.)

Stop song playback.

Pause playback with the [Pause] button; resume by pressing it again.

Jump to any bar in the song. Press the [From] button to choose which chorus and bar number to jump to.

The [Song] button opens the SongPicker window, a resizable window that lists all of the songs in the current directory and, optionally, its subdirectories. For example, if you get a song list of c:bb,

it can include songs in subfolders like c:bbstyles34. You can lock the SongPicker to always open in the same folder and use the same list to keep track of all songs on your disk.

The first time that you select the [Song] button Band-in-a-Box automatically writes the song list. The current folder name is displayed in the title bar, with the total # of songs displayed.

From then on, the SongPicker opens when the button is pressed and songs can be selected by title from the alphabetical list. Songs can be sorted by any of the column headings, like Song Title, File Name, Style, Tempo, etc. Check “Play when chosen” to automatically play the selected song.

you have subfolders to c:songs like c:songscountry and c:songsjazz, you can see/search all of these songs in the same SongPicker dialog.

Tip: If you choose c: as your folder, the SongPicker would find every Band-in-a-Box file on your hard drive and display it in the SongPicker. You might instead find it easier to put all of your songs within a folder like c:songs, and have various subfolders to that. And then set the SongPicker to always open up in the c:songs folder. Then you’ll have access to all of your songs easily.

Use the Favorites folder button to jump to other folders easily.

Once you’ve loaded a song you’ll see the chords on-screen in the chordsheet so you can follow the chord changes and play along with the band.

Chordsheet Options

You can set up the chordsheet with your own preferences. Go to Opt. | Preferences or choose the [Pref] toolbar button to open the Preferences, and click on the [Display] button to open the Display Options.

In the Chordsheet area you can pick a chordsheet font and the number of rows to display, as well as other options for the chordsheet display.

Transpose Chordsheet option

The “Transpose” option is also found in the Display Options dialog. It is useful for non-concert pitch instruments like Tenor Saxophone. This option is also available on the Notation window.

Play along with your MIDI Controller Keyboard

If you have an external MIDI keyboard controller connected to your computer system, you can use the MIDI THRU features to play along with the program, including the Harmony feature.

When playing along on a keyboard to the Band-in-a-Box “band,” if the sound of your keyboard is too quiet and increasing the THRU Volume doesn’t help

enough, use this option to boost the THRU velocity and make your THRU playing louder. (For example, nonvelocity sensitive keyboards are usually set to output a quiet velocity of 64). To set this “THRU velocity boost,” open the MIDI Settings dialog (Opt. | Preferences | Channels). Click on the [Options] button and set “Boost THRU Velocity by” to a value in the range of –127 to +127 in the MIDI Options dialog. (Default is 0.)

Harmonize your play along part by pressing the [T] button in the Synth window to choose a harmony, just as you would for the Melody.

Change the Style

Try different styles by clicking on the [Style] button to choose from a list of the styles available in the StylePicker window. Styles that have the same feel (triplets, eighths, sixteenths) and a

similar tempo range to the current prototype will be indicated with an (*) asterisk. Styles with (^) caret have a similar feel but a different tempo range.

Band-in-a-Box StylePicker window.

You can also change the style at any bar in the song, so you could use a few similar styles to add variety while keeping the same feel.

Change the Sound

You’ll find the Synth window at the top of the screen. Select an instrument part by clicking its name. The black dot beside the name indicates the selected part. Any changes to the Instrument, Volume, Reverb, Chorus, Bank, etc. will apply to that part. Change the instrument patch by scrolling through the 128 General MIDI instrument names in the Instrument box, even while the song is playing.

Enable the Embellisher, and the Melody will be embellished as it plays. You hear a livelier, more realistic Melody, and it’s different every time. The Embellisher is only active while the music is playing; the recorded Melody track isn’t

affected. There is an option for the Embellisher to only humanize the timing of the music if the timing was “stiff” to begin with. This allows the Embellisher to leave the timing of human input melodies alone, and humanize only the ones that were entered in step-time.

You can record an audio track of your live vocal or instrumental performance and save it to an audio wave file along with the Band-in-a- Box accompaniment. Make sure that you have a microphone plugged in to your sound card, or a connection from a mixer, keyboard, or other audio device connected to the Line In jack on your sound card.

A Mono or Stereo WAV file can be imported to the Audio track, optionally merging with or replacing any existing audio track. Choose the menu item Audio | Import WAV File. You then choose a WAV file to import. The Import WAV dialog is then displayed, which allows selection of the point to insert the WAV file, and whether to merge or overwrite existing audio in the range.

Harmonize the MIDI Melody

Press the [M] button in the Synth window to add a MIDI harmony to the

Melody track.

Pressing the [F] favorites button brings up a list of the last 50 harmonies used.

The Select Melody Harmony dialog box allows you to choose from any of the pre-defined harmonies and even allows you to define your own.

Play Along with the Wizard

The Wizard is an intelligent play along feature that is controlled with the bottom two rows of your computer’s QWERTY keyboard. The bottom row of keys plays chord tones; the second row plays passing tones. You play any key in either row and never make a mistake!

In the Play menu, toggle Wizard uses “Smart” notes to “off” (unchecked) to have the Wizard provide you access to the chromatic scale. Toggle it “on” to have access only to the notes based on the chord/key of the song.

This also allows you to record to the Melody or Soloist track without an external MIDI keyboard, and can even be used to trigger the Soloist Wizard. Also, play along using the Wizard works with the harmony feature, so you can play along live from your QWERTY keyboard in 4-part saxophone harmony for example.

Playing the Wizard

The Wizard Keys are active during playback. The active keys are the lower 2 rows of the keyboard.

Changing Instruments / Settings for the Wizard

As a play along instrument, the Wizard uses the Thru instrument part. To change the instrument patch, volume, reverb, etc. for the Wizard select the Thru instrument in the synth window.

Add a Solo — “The Soloist”

That’s right! Band-in-a-Box can “solo like a pro” in over 200 styles.

Use the [Soloist] button on the main screen to open the Select Soloist dialog box and choose from over 200 Soloist profiles.

Use the preset Soloist settings, or choose a Mode and which Choruses to solo.

The Soloist Maker [Edit…] button gives access to the advanced settings in the Soloist Editor where you can edit existing profiles or create new Soloists of your own.

To see the Soloist part play in standard music notation open the Notation window and press the [S] button at the far right of the instrument buttons.

View and Print Notation

Open the Notation window with the Notation button. You will see standard notation on the grand staff.

There are 3 notation modes in Band-in-a-Box, the [N] button in the Notation window toolbar toggles through the three modes;

1.Standard Notation for display of notes, chords, lyrics, and optional guitar tablature as well as entering chords and lyrics.

2.Editable Notation to enter or edit notation with the mouse.

3.Note roll Notation works like the Editable Notation plus note velocities and durations can be viewed and edited with the mouse.

Standard Notation Window

Click on the instrument buttons to see the notation for the different parts: Bass, Drums, Piano, Guitar, Strings, and the Melody [M], or the Soloist [S].

Band-in-a-Box Standard Notation window.

The Standard Notation window can be used for notation display and the entry of chords and lyrics. Just type a chord name and it will be inserted at the current time line location (the black vertical stripe just below the notation tool bar.)

Toggle between Standard, Editable, and Note roll notation modes with the [N] button.

Press the [Opt.] button to set Notation window options such as track type, bar resolution, lyric font size, and position, transpose options, and Regular or Jazz fonts.

This button opens the Lead Sheet window, which provides a full screen of notation either for an individual instrument or for multiple instruments that you choose to view together by clicking the instrument buttons while holding the Ctrl key.

Print out any part with the Print Button. In the Print Preview window save your notation as a graphic file to upload to the Internet or to e-mail.

The [#] button opens the Event List for editing the Melody or Soloist tracks.

This is the button for note-based lyrics, which are automatically aligned with the corresponding note in the Melody track.

Use the plus and minus buttons to zoom the Notation in and out.

The text button lets you enter section text or boxed text into the notation.

When the Scrub button is selected, notes will play as the mouse is dragged over them while holding down the left mouse button.

Editable Notation Mode

Click on the [N] button to go from Standard Notation to Editable Notation mode. Chords, lyrics, and text can be entered as in the Standard Notation window; the Editable Notation mode also permits point-and-click entry of notes and rests as well as drag-and-drop editing.

Band-in-a-Box Editable Notation window.

This is the screen for step-entry of a melody or for editing existing parts. Note that each beat is sub-divided by either 3 or 4 broken vertical lines.

—Swing styles use 3 lines to divide each beat into eighth note swing triplets.

—Straight styles use 4 lines to divide each beat into sixteenth notes.

Tip: The edits you make to Band-in-a-Box accompaniment parts will be overwritten when the [Play] button is pressed and the program generates a new arrangement. To hear the song play as edited, use the [Replay] button found next to the [Play] button. Edited songs can be permanently saved as a MIDI file with the [.MID] button.

Note roll Notation Mode

In addition to the editing features of the Editable Notation mode, in Note roll mode the velocity (vertical line) and duration (horizontal line) of notes can be edited with the mouse.

Piano Roll Window

You can edit your tracks using the “Piano Roll” window, similar to the type found in many sequencer programs. Edit the Melody or Soloist tracks with greater ease and precision. There are 2 panes in the window – one for notes and the other for controllers, velocity, and other data. All notes and controllers are displayed as black/gray bars on a grid. You can change note duration and pitch by selecting and dragging with your mouse.

The Piano Roll window enables precise graphic editing of note timing and duration. You can also graphically edit note velocity, controllers, program changes, channel aftertouch, or pitch bend.