Band in a Box 2013 Upgrade Manual

VVeerrssiioonn 22001133 ffoorr WWiinnddoowwss®

NNeeww FFeeaattuurreess GGuuiiddee

© Copyright PG Music Inc.1989-2013. All rights reserved.

PG Music Inc. License Agreement 2

PG Music Inc. License Agreement CAREFULLY READ THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS BEFORE COMPLETING THE INSTALLATION OF THIS SOFTWARE. USAGE OF THE SOFTWARE INDICATES YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS.

LICENSE A. The program may only be used on a single machine. B. You may transfer the program and license to another party if the other party agrees to accept the terms of this Agreement. If

you transfer the program, you must either transfer all copies, whether in printed or machine readable form, to the same party, or, destroy all copies not transferred. This includes all modifications and/or portions of the program merged into other programs.

C. You may receive the program in more than one media. Regardless of the type or size of media you receive, you may install or use the media on a single machine.

D. The program (including any images, “applets,” photographs, animations, video, audio, music, and text incorporated into the program) is owned by PG Music Inc. or its suppliers, and is protected by international copyright laws and international treaty provisions.

You may not use, copy, or transfer the program, or any copy, modification or merged portion of the program, in whole or in part, except as expressly provided for in this license. If you transfer possession of any copy, modification or merged portion of the program to another party, your license is automatically terminated. Some programs such as Band-in-a-Box have a ‘server” function (including BandInABoxServer.exe program) to connect to a “Client” (mobile client version of Band-in-a-Box on iPhone or other mobile device). You are only licensed to connect the Server function (including BandInABoxServer.exe program) to Clients where you own or have properly licensed both the Client and Server software that is being connected, not to clients or Server software owned/licensed by third parties. The preceding also applies to any other PG Music products (RealBand etc.) with a similar type of connection between a Server program and a Client.

LIMITATION OF REMEDIES PG Music Inc.’s entire liability and your exclusive remedy shall be: A. The replacement of any media not meeting PG Music Inc.’s “Limited Warranty,” which are returned to PG Music Inc., or an

authorized PG Music Inc. dealer, with a copy of your receipt. B. If PG Music Inc. or the authorized dealer is unable to deliver replacement media which is free of defects in materials or

workmanship, you may terminate this agreement, and your money will be refunded. In no event will PG Music Inc. be liable to you for any damages, including but not limited to lost profits, lost savings, or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use or the inability to use such program, even if PG Music Inc. or an authorized PG Music Inc. dealer has been advised of the possibility of such damages, or for any claim by any other party.

TRADEMARKS Band-in-a-Box®, Band-in-a-Box for Bozos®, CloudTracks®, GuitarStar®, JazzU®, PG Music®, PowerTracks Pro®, RealBand®, RealDrums®, RealStyles®, and RealTracks® are either the trademarks or registered trademarks of PG Music Inc. in the United States, Canada, and other countries. Microsoft® and Windows® are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Apple®, the Apple logo, iPad™, iPhone®, iPod touch®, Leopard®, Macintosh®, Mac®, Panther®, Power Mac®, QuickTime®, Snow Leopard®, Tiger®, and TrueType® are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. IBM® is the registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. Roland® and “Roland” Logo, EDIROL® and “EDIROL” Logo, GS® and “GS” Logo, are registered trademarks and “MIDI2” Logo, EDIROL Virtual Sound Canvas Multi Pack, VSC-MP1™ are trademarks of Roland Corporation. Steinberg and ASIO are trademarks of Steinberg Media Technologies AG. VST is a registered trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies AG. Amplitube® and SampleTank® are registered trademarks of IK Multimedia Production srl. Other brands and their products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be noted as such.

PATENTS Band-in-a-Box is protected under US Patent 5990407. The TC-Helicon Harmony feature in Band-in-a-Box and PowerTracks Pro Audio is protected under US Patents 5567901, 5641926, 5986198, 34583, 296.80.173.9, PI9603819.5, 0368046, 0750776, 6,046,395, and patents pending.

Printed in Canada

Table of Contents 3

Table of Contents PG Music Inc. License Agreement ................................................................................................................................2 Table of Contents...........................................................................................................................................................3 Chapter 1: Introduction..................................................................................................................................................4

Band-in-a-Box 2013 is here! .....................................................................................................................................4 101 New RealTracks! ................................................................................................................................................4 New MIDI SuperTracks! ...........................................................................................................................................4

Chapter 2: Summary of New Features..........................................................................................................................5 Band-in-a-Box 2013 Features and Additions ............................................................................................................5 The New Features in Band-in-a-Box 2013 for Windows are... .................................................................................6

Chapter 3: QuickStart Tutorial ...................................................................................................................................17 Selecting Hi-Q MIDI Instruments ...........................................................................................................................17 Artist Performance Tracks.......................................................................................................................................18 Pick “Best” Soloist RealTracks ...............................................................................................................................19 Favorite RealTracks.................................................................................................................................................21 Favorite RealDrums.................................................................................................................................................23

Chapter 4: Song Form Maker .....................................................................................................................................25 PG Music Inc. ..............................................................................................................................................................26 Appendix: New RealTracks and MIDI SuperTracks Sets .........................................................................................27

RealTracks Sets 170 to 187: 101 New RealTracks.................................................................................................27 MIDI SuperTracks Sets 4 to 9: 50 New MIDI SuperTracks...................................................................................27

Chapter 1: Introduction 4

Chapter 1: Introduction Congratulations on your purchase of Band-in-a-Box 2013 for Windows! This documentation covers the new features in Band-in-a-Box 2013. The Help menu has a link to the full manual.

Band-in-a-Box 2013 is here! Band-in-a-Box 2013 for Windows is here with over 50 cool new features. Yes, we’ve been busy and have added some great new features and new RealTracks to Band-in-a-Box! Compared to version 2012.5 (July 2012), this adds 50 new features, 101 new RealTracks, and 50 new MIDI SuperTracks. Compared to version 2012 (December 2011) this adds 65 new features, 202 new RealTracks, and 91 new MIDI SuperTracks!

Band-in-a-Box 2013 Features and additions There are some exciting new features in Band-in-a-Box 2013. We’ve added a new MIDI DXi/VST synth (SampleTank) and have added some great High Quality (“Hi-Q”) MIDI Sounds. These Hi-Q sounds make the MIDI tracks (regular and MIDI SuperTracks), sound much better. We’ve added Performance Tracks - Artists Performances on the Melody track, to showcase the Band-in-a-Box RealTracks demos playing along to an artist performing the melody. These are great for listening or learning-from-the-Pros (since notation/tab shows for the performances). You can “Print to PDF” - save your printouts directly as a PDF file. Pick “best” soloist RealTracks in a new dialog that shows you which soloists best match the genre, tempo, and feel of your song. There is SoundCloud.com integration and DropBox integration added. A new Song Form feature allows you to define sections of a song (A, B, C etc.), and then rearrange the song by simply typing the form you want (e.g. AABABAACA). Leadsheet window can now be resized. When you are choosing a RealTracks or RealDrums, there is now a list of recently used - Favorite RealTracks, RealDrums. The popular “Band Button” is enhanced, with many more styles listed, submenus, and instruments shown. Save Track as Performance. This takes “freezing” a track one step further, and saves the audio itself. So you can send your Band-in-a-Box song to your friend, who will be able to play that track without needing to have the RealTracks installed.

101 New RealTracks! With Band-in-a-Box 2013, we’ve added a huge number of new RealTracks (101), with great new Jazz, Pop, and Country Styles. These include:

- Jazz RealTracks: Classic Jazz Piano (Boogie, Piano-4-to-Bar), Easy Listening Guitar Swing (Oliver Gannon), Smooth Jazz Acoustic Piano, Dixieland - Medium Soloists (Clarinet, Trombone, Trumpet, Ac.Guitar), Guajira & Guaracha (Bass, Percussion, Piano, Tres) and more.

- Country RealTracks: Pedal Steel Soloing (CMA winner Paul Franklin), 5 new guitar accompaniment RealTracks recorded by Nashville guitar legend Brent Mason, Country Sax Soloing with Mark Douthit, 12 John Jarvis Piano tracks, Fiddle, Mandolin soloing. Resonator guitar soloing with Nashville great Rob Ickes (13 time winner International Bluegrass Player of the Year).

- Pop/Rock RealTracks: Texas Blues slow 12/8 soloing and rhythm with guitar masters Sol Philcox and Brent Mason, Rock Piano (CMA winner John Jarvis), Medium Folk, Euro Dance, Celtic (Aire, Waltz, Irish Bouzouki), Pop Mandolin, and Texas Blues-Rock: Smokin” Blues Sax with Nashville Session master Mark Douthit.

New MIDI SuperTracks! With Band-in-a-Box 2013, we’ve added 50 Great MIDI SuperTracks, including Piano (Classic, Traditional Jazz, Modern Jazz, Celtic, New Age), Strings (Pop, Jazz) and more. … and more!

Chapter 2: Summary of New Features 5

Chapter 2: Summary of New Features Band-in-a-Box 2013 Features and Additions There are some exciting new features in Band-in-a-Box 2013. We’ve added a new MIDI DXi/VST synth (SampleTank) and have added some great High Quality (“Hi-Q”) MIDI Sounds. These Hi-Q sounds make the MIDI tracks (regular and MIDI SuperTracks), sound much better. We’ve added Performance Tracks - Artists Performances on the Melody track, to showcase the Band-in-a-Box RealTracks demos playing along to an artist performing the melody. These are great for listening or for learning-from-the-Pros (since notation/tab shows for the performances). You can “Print to PDF” - save your printouts directly as a PDF file. Pick “best” soloist RealTracks is a new dialog that shows you which soloists best match the genre, tempo, and feel of your song. There is SoundCloud.com integration and DropBox integration added. A new Song Form feature allows you to define sections of a song (A, B, C, etc.), and then rearrange the song by simply typing the form you want (e.g. AABABAACA). The Leadsheet window can now be resized. When you are choosing RealTracks or RealDrums there is now a list of recently used Favorite RealTracks and RealDrums. The popular “Band Button” is enhanced, with many more RealStyles listed, submenus for subgenres, and instruments shown. Save Track as Performance takes “freezing” a track one step further, and saves the audio itself. So you can send your Band-in-a-Box song to your friend, who will be able to play that track without needing to have the RealTracks installed. Plus Important Features added in version 2012.5 (released July 2012), including - MIDI SuperTracks. We’ve enhanced the MIDI style generation, by adding a new engine that generates MIDI SuperTracks. Instead of MIDI styles based on C7 chord patterns that get repeated over every chord, the MIDI SuperTracks are based on actual playing by studio musicians. Play the SuperTracks using your MIDI synth, or favorite VST Plug-ins to get a great sound using MIDI. We’ve also added other new MIDI features, such as: selectable PPQ resolution for export of MIDI files (from 120 to 1920 PPQ). We’ve added new chord types, including the diminished triad (Cdim5 has notes C, Eb, Gb), the “add2” chord (Cadd2 = C, D, E, G) and “madd2” (Cmadd2 = C, D, Eb, G) We’ve enhanced the RealTracks. There are 176 more RealTracks that have “simple variations” available now. With 2012 there were 43 RealTracks with simple variations. Now there are 219, covering most of the RealTracks that could benefit from a Simple variation! We’ve enhanced the display of the RealCharts, so that the notation, and guitar tab display is more accurate. We’ve added new RealCharts for existing bass RealTracks, so you’ll see notation and bass display for them. With Band-in-a-Box 2013, we’ve added a huge number of new RealTracks (101), with great new Jazz, Pop, and Country Styles. These include: - Jazz RealTracks: Classic Jazz Piano (Boogie, Piano-4-to-Bar), Easy Listening Guitar Swing (Oliver Gannon),

Smooth Jazz Acoustic Piano, Dixieland - Medium Soloists (Clarinet, Trombone, Trumpet, Ac.Guitar), Cuban Guajira & Guaracha (Bass, Percussion, Piano, Tres) and more.

- Country RealTracks: Pedal Steel Soloing (CMA winner Paul Franklin), 5 new guitar accompaniment RealTracks recorded by Nashville guitar legend Brent Mason, Country Sax Soloing with Mark Douthit, 12 John Jarvis Piano tracks, Fiddle, Mandolin soloing. Resonator guitar soloing with Nashville great Rob Ickes (13-time winner International Bluegrass Player of the Year).

- Pop/Rock RealTracks: Texas Blues slow 12/8 soloing and rhythm with guitar masters Sol Philcox and Brent Mason, Rock Piano (CMA winner John Jarvis), Medium Folk, Euro Dance, Celtic (Aire, Waltz, Irish Bouzouki), Pop Mandolin, and Texas Blues-Rock: Smokin” Blues Sax with Nashville Session master Mark Douthit.

These 101 RealTracks were added in Band-in-a-Box 2012.5: Jazz -31 RealTracks including: Cuban RealTracks made with Rebeca Mauleon including full instrumentation for Son Montuno and Bolero (piano, percussion, baby bass, tres guitar, guitar), Jazz Funk “Movin” styles, Mike LeDonne Jazz Waltz Organ, Dixieland medium tempo rhythm section. Pop – 36 RealTracks including Modern Dance Pop, John Jarvis Piano styles, and more Texas Blues and Rock “n” Roll with Brent Mason and Sol Philcox. Country – 34 RealTracks including John Jarvis Country, Praise and Worship Modern Groove, Country Boogie, Western Swing Soloists, and Killer Soloists,


With Band-in-a-Box 2013, we’ve added 50 Great MIDI SuperTracks, including Piano (Classic, Traditional Jazz, Modern Jazz, Celtic, New Age), Strings (Pop, Jazz) and more Plus, with BB 2012.5 (July 2012) we added these 46 MIDI SuperTracks, for Pop, Jazz and Country – Piano, Bass, Organ, and Synth Pad MIDI SuperTracks Set 1 – Pop Piano and More - 13 MIDI SuperTracks for Pop and Rock MIDI SuperTracks Set 2 – All Jazz - 24 MIDI SuperTracks for Jazz MIDI SuperTracks Set 3 – Sweet Country Piano - 9 MIDI SuperTracks for Country And more…

The New Features in Band-in-a-Box 2013 for Windows are... We’ve added a new MIDI DXi/VST synth (SampleTank) and have added some great High Quality (“Hi-Q”) MIDI Sounds. These Hi-Q sounds make the MIDI tracks (regular and MIDI SuperTracks), sound much better. Artist Performance Tracks. We’ve added Performance Tracks - Artists Performances on the Melody track, to showcase the Band-in-a-Box RealTracks demos playing along to an artist performing the melody. These are great for listening or for learning-from-the-Pros (since notation/tab shows for the performances). These performances play the melody (2 choruses), and 2 choruses of solo (first chorus “simple” solo, 2nd chorus advanced. With Band-in-a-Box 2013, we include 50 Artist Performances: - 20 guitar performances by Oliver Gannon (Jazz songs - melodies and 2 choruses of soloing for each song). - 20 sax, clarinet, flute performances by Jack Stafford (Jazz songs - melodies and 2 choruses of soloing for each

song). - 10 Celtic fiddle tunes - performances by champion fiddler Daniel Lapp. All performance tracks include audio (stretchable to any tempo), notation, on-screen guitar, and guitar tab.

You can “Print to PDF” and save your printouts directly as a PDF file. From the Print dialog, press [Print to PDF] then choose your filename for the PDF.

Pick “best” soloist RealTracks: This new dialog shows you the soloists that best match the genre, tempo, and feel of your song, listed from best to worst. For example, if you have a Jazz Ballad style loaded (tempo 60), the list will show Jazz Soloists that will work well at a tempo of 60 at the top of the list, and something like a fast, Heavy Metal Guitar Soloist at the bottom of the list. There are similar options on the instrument radio button to choose Best “All RealTracks” that will show all RealTracks, sorted by best to worst for the current style, and Best “Comping” RealTracks that show the list for Comping (i.e. Chording, non-Soloist) RealTracks. There is SoundCloud.com integration. This lets you upload your compositions easily to the SoundCloud.com service. SoundCloud.com is a popular web service (unaffiliated with PG Music) that lets users upload their original songs for others to hear. DropBox integration added. If you use the Drop Box service, you can easily drag/drop files from Band-in-a-Box directly to your Drop Box folder, or save audio to Drop Box, without leaving the main Band-in-a-Box screen. To do this, drag a track (or the Combo button for all tracks) to the Drop station, and when it turns green, you can then right-click on the [Drop] button, and choose “Copy files to DropBox Folder.” A new Song Form feature allows you to define sections of a song (A, B, C, etc.), and then rearrange the song by simply typing the form you want (e.g. AABABAACA). You can revisit this dialog to re-order the sections. Or change a chord in the “A” section, and propagate the changes through all of the “A” sections. Please see the Song Form Maker chapter for a full description.


The Leadsheet window can now be resized. As you resize the window, all of the elements resize. Favorite RealTracks and RealDrums. When you are choosing RealTracks or RealDrums, there is now a list of recently used RealTracks and RealDrums. Favorite RealTracks Your recent RealTracks selections are saved, and available in the various dialogs that allow you to choose RealTracks. Since a common selection is a recently chosen RealTracks this speeds up selection of a RealTracks. The 400 most recent selections are shown, with most recent at the top. When you use one of the new “Select Best” commands in the right-click instrument menu, you will see a [Choose from Favorites] button in the dialog.


In the RealTracks Picker, press the [Favs] button to select a recently chosen Favorite. You’ll then see a dialog with a list of your recently chosen RealTracks, most recent on top.

You can filter this dialog by text, e.g. “guitar,” to find a recently used RealTracks with the word “guitar” in it.

Favorite RealDrums

Your recent RealDrums selections are saved, and available in the RealDrums Picker dialog that allows you to choose RealDrums.

Since a common selection is a recently chosen RealDrums this speeds up selection of a RealDrums. The 400 most recent selections are shown, with most recent at the top.

Press the [Choose from Favs] button in the RealDrums Picker dialog.


The popular “Band Button” is enhanced, with many more styles and categories listed, including submenus for subcategories.

Many new RealStyles have been made, and many are displayed on this menu. The instruments used in each style are displayed, giving a “thumbnail” summary (e.g. bass, piano, guitar, brushes, Alto Sax Soloist).


Band Button Submenus Submenus have been added for various genre subcategories. For example, the Jazz Styles list has submenus for subgenres Bossa, Gypsy Jazz, Jazz Swing, Smooth Jazz, and Jazz Styles with Soloists. A “Campfire Guitar” subgenre is added, with many RealStyles of simple strumming guitars.

Save Track as Performance. This takes “freezing” a track one step further, and saves the audio itself. So you can send your Band-in-a-Box song to your friend, who will be able to play that track without needing to have the RealTracks installed. Wave button menu: Now pressing the WAV button shows a menu that allows you to quickly save the song as WAV, WMA, MP3, MP4, or M4A. This has options for saving audio (WAV, WMA, M4A, MP4, MP3) as well as sending to SoundCloud.

URL link for Web Demos

Every style has a Web Demo available. Click on the Web Demo button in the StylePicker to hear the demo.

If you’d like to have the link to the demo for use in your browser etc., you can Shift+click on the [Web Demo] button. This copies the URL link to the clipboard, and you can then paste it into your browser etc.


Copy/Move Tracks command now works for all tracks.

This is accessed from the Edit main menu. Previously it only allowed copying to the Melody or Soloist tracks. Now you can copy any channels from any track to any other track. Examples of uses include: - loading a MIDI file to the Melody track, and copying the bass part to the Bass track, and then freezing the Bass

track. This lets you setup a MIDI file with the same tracks as Band-in-a-Box uses. Note: the command automatically freezes the destination track after the copy.

- Getting the RealChart to play, to double a RealTracks part on another instrument. To do this, generate a RealTracks for piano on the piano track. Then copy the piano track to the strings track, and set a strings patch. You now hear a RealTracks piano, with the strings doubling the piano part.

- Replace a RealChart with a MIDI version. If a RealChart is available, copy the RealChart as in the example above. Then eliminate the RealTracks on the original track. You now have a RealChart MIDI part playing instead of the RealTracks, and you can edit that part etc. as with any MIDI track.

RealCharts and MIDI SuperTracks timing is more accurate. Improvements have been made to the timing for RealCharts and timing/feel MIDI SuperTracks.

The timing can also now be manually adjusted using the “Increase lateness by” setting in the Soloist Editor, allowing you to make a MIDI SuperTracks that is “more laid-back” for example. You can also adjust the “lateness” on any individual track now by using the “Set Track offset” feature (right-click on the instrument radio button).


Better bass fretboard playing for bass styles. For MIDI bass patterns, an intelligent algorithm determines where to play the bass part, and this has been improved. Better Soloing over Double Time feel. Soloists with “double time” feel now have better timing and better feel, so are useful in more circumstances. The Drop Station has been enhanced. The Drop station is the [Drop] button at the top left of the screen, where you drop a track after dragging it to get an audio or MIDI version of the track.

There is now a right-click menu, allowing you to copy the resulting file to a favorite folder, open the favorite folder, start/stop the DAW Plug-in mode, upload to SoundCloud.com and more. Rests, Shots, Holds keyboard Shortcuts. When entering chords on the chordsheet, there are now shortcuts available for entering rests over a range of bars - type h4 for a chord, and this will copy the rest/hold/parameters on the first beat of the cell for 4 bars


- type ,h4 for a chord, and this will copy the rest/hold/parameters on the second beat of the cell for 4 bars - type h for a chord and it will copy the rests/holds/ until the next part marker - type a chord with a rest/shot/hold followed by a number (N), and it will do this for the next N bars

- e.g. C7...4 will enter held chords for 4 bars - Gm7...bd5 will enter held chords (bd=except bass and drums) for 5 bars

The Soloist Dialog and Soloist button are enhanced

- The Soloist button is enhanced, now shows a menu where you can either choose a best real tracks to add to the whole soloist track, or launch the Soloist dialog to customize the type of solo that you want (trade 4’s etc.)

- You can now choose (in the Soloist dialog) from the list of “best RealTracks.” - RealTracks Soloists will always show in the list, when you first visit the dialog

- You can choose Favorite RealTracks from within the dialog. Memos now show for MIDI SuperTracks. Click on (instrument radio button-> Select MIDI SuperTrack to see the dialog) and you can click on the Memo for a big window (RealTracks Picker and MIDI SuperTracks Picker)

RealTracks are found in more cases. If you use a separate folder (or separate drive) for your RealTracks, Band-in-a-Box will now look in the parent folder of the RealTracks folder (as well as the main \bb folder) for the related Soloist databases. This means fewer messages about RealTracks not found. Previously, for RealTracks to be found, the Soloist database files (ST2, XT2) had to be present in the \bb folder. Now they can be present in the parent of the RealTracks folder (which is where they usually are if you are running the program from the c:\ drive, but using RealTracks from a USB hard drive. Better enharmonic display for transposed instruments, like alto sax. In some key signatures, a Db was showing up on an A7 chord for example, and this is improved so that C# would be shown. (Nothing needs to be done to enable this.)


Notifications added if RealTracks folder or RealDrums folder is not set correctly. When the program boots up, if you haven’t set your RealTracks folder correctly, you will see a yellow reminder message in the top right, with instructions on how to fix the issue. A “Bar Settings summary” report is added. This is available from the Song Memo and the F5 / Edit Settings for Current Bar dialog. This report lists all settings in the song that have been made in the song. To access this:

From the Song Memo dialog, press the [Bar Summary] button.

…or the [Print Summary] button in the F5 Bar Settings dialog.

You will then see a text report with the Bar changes in the song.

DragDrop names are more descriptive. When files are dragged from the instrument radio buttons to the Drop Station or Explorer, they used to have cryptic names like this: BBBass_Real_SingleRender_DragDrop_0.WAV Now, they are better… For RealTracks, the names are now in this format: <title> <trackname> “real” <RT#> <RealTrackName> e.g. My Song Title BBGuitar_Real 415 Sax, Tenor, Jazz Sw 140 _SingleRender_DragDrop_0.WAV

e.g. For RealDrums, the names are now in this format: <title> <trackname> “RealDrums” <RealDrums name e.g. My Song Title BBDrums_RealDrums JazzBrushes#1_SingleRender_DragDrop_0.WAV For MIDI SuperTracks (MST) <title> <trackname> “MIDI ST” <MST#> <MIDI SuperTracks Name> My Song Title BBStrings_MIDI ST 1807Synth Pad, PopModernGrooveHigh Ev16 075_SingleRender_DragDrop_0

e.g. For MIDI Tracks <title> <stylname> <patch#,patch name> e.g. My Song Title BBBass_MIDI ZZJAZZ 33 Acoustic String Bass_SingleRender_DragDrop_0

e.g. StyleMaker “delete Instrument” function has been added. This function is handy if you need to remove an instrument from a style. After selecting the instrument that you want to delete, from the StyleMaker, choose the menu option Style- Delete Instrument. “Simpler” Very Simple Bass Jazz RealTracks added. By request, a Jazz Swing RealTracks has been created that plays the simplest bass lines for Jazz Swing, with root

and 5th in the “a” section, and quarter notes only in the “b” section. To hear these, choose the RealTracks named ‘very simple” in the RealTracks dialog (by using ‘very simple” as a text filter).

Or choose the RealTracks named Bass, Jazz RootAnd5th.


Intonation improved on a few RealTracks. With over 1,000 RealTracks available, there were a few ones with some intonation issues on some notes (for example, high notes on a string bass). These have been corrected. Bluegrass 8th note based style added. Our bluegrass styles are typically 16th note based, so that a typical bluegrass tempo would be 130. Some people prefer the bluegrass styles to be 8th note based (typical tempo 260). We have made a _BGBAND8.STY that has 8th note based RealTracks. Press the Band button, Country-Bluegrass menu to choose this style. Many more RealTracks have the “simpler” option available.

When you set the Simpler option, the RealTracks play a simple unembellished arrangement. To see which RealTracks have the simple option available, open the RealTracks picker, and look at the Simple Column (2nd column from the right).

More RealTracks have the “Direct Input” Guitar option for previously released RealTracks. (Direct Input Guitars are guitar RealTracks with no effects added).

To see which RealTracks have the Direct Options available, open the RealTracks Picker, and look at the Direct Option Column (1st column from the right).

Files saved are now not called MGU if there is only a RealTracks on the Melody track (and not a MIDI melody). Custom synth or plug-in names now show on instrument names, mixer, and song memo. If you have added a custom synth or plug-in (i.e. a TGS file), you will now see that name added to the mixer, instrument radio button, and song memo, reminding you of what custom synth or plug-in is in use. - On the Instrument panel at the top of the screen…

- On the Mixer Patches tab…


- Menu items Hi-Q (High Quality Synth Sounds) chosen quickly, and are listed by General MIDI number. Choose <instrument radio button> Select Hi-Q MIDI Synth.

- Menu items are added to choose plug-ins/synths quickly on instrument radio button and mixer menus. Choose ‘select MIDI Synth or Audio Plugin.”

- Memos added for TGS files (these are the files that have presets for synths and sounds). You can view these menus in the dialog that appears listing the Hi-Q or plug-ins.

Performance Tracks - added Artist Performances - function to convert performance track to audio (and vice versa). This allows you to have multiple audio tracks

in a song that you have recorded. Handy buttons added to the toolbars

Non-Concert Transpose - shows a menu to quickly transpose to/from concert to other instruments like Alto, Tenor, Trumpet etc.

Song Form - launches the song form dialog.

Save As Style - Saves a style with the current instruments.

F5 Bar Settings - Launches the F5 Bar Settings dialog.

Woodshed Tempo - Launches the dialog to set woodshed tempo (increase tempo with every loop of playback, for practicing).

Undo - Undo button.

Redo - Redo button.

SoundCloud – Upload song to SoundCloud.com

Play/Replay buttons renamed

The Play button is renamed [GenPlay] to show that it generates a new Band-in-a-Box arrangement and then plays the song.

The Replay button is now the [Play] button. It plays a Band-in-a-Box arrangement without regenerating the parts.

Option added for RealTracks and RealDrums to preserve the original levels of the audio, and not reduce it to match the lower levels of MIDI tracks. This is useful while rendering and transferring files to a DAW.

Choose Prefs-RealTracks Settings and de-select “reduce Volume of RealTracks to match MIDI”

“Flat, Dry and Center” menu option added to the Combo Radio button menu. This sets the song to Flat (all volumes=90), Dry (no Reverb) and Center panning. This is useful when rendering individual tracks and transferring to a DAW. And more… - Note names on notation now show on all tracks, not just Melody and Soloist buttons - Pressing F9 to load a style now opens in the main BB styles folder, not the current folder.

- [Generate Now] button added to the Quick Selection of RealTracks and MIDI SuperTracks dialogs. - If RealTracks or RealDrums are disabled, BB will offer to enable them when the RT/RD dialog opens. - If MIDI SuperTracks are on a track, visiting the RealTracks dialog and choosing a RealTracks will remove the

MIDI SuperTracks, so that the RealTracks are available.

Chapter 3: QuickStart Tutorial 17

Chapter 3: QuickStart Tutorial Selecting Hi-Q MIDI Instruments

To select the Hi-Q instruments, use the instrument radio button (e.g. Piano) and choose the menu option ‘select Hi-Q MIDI Synth Patch.”

That will display a list of available instruments (e.g. Acoustic Grand Piano).

When you choose that, SampleTank will be loaded, with the Hi-Q instrument loaded.

If you want to choose from all the TGS files (files with preset synths and plug-ins), then choose the menu option “Select MIDI Synth or Audio Plugin for Track.” If you want to make custom changes to select a certain synth or plug-in inside SampleTank, choose the menu option


<instrument radio button> Add Synth to track, then select SampleTank as the synth, and make the changes inside SampleTank.

Then save that (TGS file) by pressing “Save Group” and that will be added to the available group presets (TGS).

Artist Performance Tracks We’ve added Performance Tracks - Artists Performances on the Melody track, to showcase the Band-in-a-Box RealTracks demos playing along to an artist performing the melody. These are great for listening or learning-from-the-Pros (since notation/tab shows for the performances). These performances play the melody (2 choruses), and 2 choruses of solo (first chorus “simple” solo, 2nd chorus advanced). With Band-in-a-Box 2013 we include 50 Artist Performances. - 20 guitar performances by Oliver Gannon (Jazz songs - melodies and 2 choruses of soloing for each song). - 20 sax, clarinet, flute performances by Jack Stafford (Jazz songs - melodies and 2 choruses of soloing for each

song). - 10 Celtic fiddle tunes - performances by champion fiddler Daniel Lapp. All performance tracks include audio (stretchable to any tempo), notation, on-screen guitar, and guitar tab. To play the Artist Performance Tracks, open the songs from the c:\bb\Artist Performances folder.


The Artist Performance track will be seen with a purple color on the track name.

Technical Note: A Performance Track can be made by simply making an audio file (WAV, WMA) and naming it the same as the song, but with the track name (Bass, Piano, Drums, Guitar, Strings, Melody, Soloist) added.

For example, if the song is MySong.mgu, you put a file named MySong Melody.wma in the same folder, and that will be a performance track on the Melody track.

Pick “Best” Soloist RealTracks This new dialog shows you the best soloists that match the genre, tempo, and feel of your song. The list is displayed from best to worst. For example, if you have a Jazz Ballad style loaded (tempo 60), the list will show jazz Soloists that will work well at a tempo of 60 at the top of the list, and something like a fast, Heavy Metal Guitar Soloist at the bottom of the list. How to Use This Feature To add a Best Soloist to the Soloist track, press the Soloist button, and choose the menu option “Add Best RealTracks Soloist to Soloist Track.”

You will then be given a list of the best RealTracks for the current style to choose from.

To add a Best Soloist to any track, use the instrument radio button (e.g. Piano) and right-click (or double click) to show the menu. Choose “Select Best Soloist RealTracks.”


You’ll then see a dialog that lists the best soloists for the current style.

It will include Soloists and “Background Soloists.” You can de-select these if you only want to see Soloists (and not background soloists).

There are similar options on the instrument radio button to choose Best “All RealTracks” – that will show all RealTracks, sorted by best to worst for the current style, and Best “Comping” RealTracks that show the list for Comping (i.e. Chording, non-Soloist) RealTracks.


Favorite RealTracks Your recent RealTracks selections are saved, and available in the various dialogs that allow you to choose RealTracks. Since a common selection is a recently chosen RealTracks this speeds up selection of a RealTracks. The 400 most recent selections are shown, with most recent at the top. When you use one of the new “Select Best” commands in the right-click instrument menu, you will see a [Choose from Favorites] button in the dialog.

Press the [Favs] button in the RealTracks picker, or the other RealTracks dialogs to select a recently chosen Favorite.


You then see a dialog with a list of your recently chosen RealTracks, most recent on top. You can filter this dialog by text e.g. “guitar” to find a recently used RealTracks with the word “guitar” in it.


Favorite RealDrums

Your recent RealDrums selections are saved, and available in the RealDrums Picker dialog that allows you to choose RealDrums.

Since a common selection is a recently chosen RealDrums this speeds up selection of a RealDrums. The 400 most recent selections are shown, with most recent at the top.

Press the [Choose From Favs] button in the RealDrums dialog


SoundCloud.com integration lets you upload your compositions easily to the SoundCloud.com service. SoundCloud.com is a popular web service (unaffiliated with PG Music) that lets users upload their original songs for others to hear.

Press the WAV button or the SoundCloud button to see the menu that includes the SoundCloud option to send the whole song to SoundCloud.com. Or choose main menu item File | Send song to SoundCloud.com. If you want to send a single track, drag that track from the instrument radio button to the Drop button and then right-click on the [Drop] button to choose Send To SoundCloud. Your song will get uploaded in the audio format that you choose (M4A, MP4, WMA, WAV, MP3).

Note: You need to have a SoundCloud account, and follow the terms of service of the SoundCloud site.

Thank you for taking the time to read this tutorial for Band-in-a-Box 2013.

Have Fun!

Chapter 4: Song Form Maker 25

Chapter 4: Song Form Maker The new Song Form Maker allows you to define sections of a song (A, B, C etc.), and then rearrange the song by simply typing the form you want (e.g. AABABAACA). You can revisit the dialog to change the form at any time.

Press the Song Form button (far right of the 2nd toolbar). You will then see the Song Form Maker dialog.

Then define your sections (e.g. A = bars 1 for 8 bars, B=start at bar 17, for 8 bars C=start at bar 25, for 4 bars). Then type the form that you want (AABACABA).

Select [OK-Generate Form] then exit the dialog. The form string and sections are saved with the song. You can revisit this dialog to re-order the sections. Or change a chord in the “A” section of the chordsheet, and then use the Song Form Maker to propagate the changes through all of the “A” sections. Uses for the Song Form Maker

- enter a song by simply entering each section once, and then visit the Song Form Maker, typing the form that you want and generating it. Change the form without having to type in new chords, just redo the Form String (“AABACABA etc)

- Change chords in each section by simply changing the chord in the main section, and then regenerate the form.

- Enter a melody once, and copy it throughout the form by regenerating the form.

PG Music Inc. 26

PG Music Inc.

Band-in-a-Box® is protected by copyright and is the property of

PG Music Inc. and its licensors. Copyright © 1989-2013 PG Music Inc.

All rights reserved.

PG MUSIC INC. 29 Cadillac Avenue

Victoria, BC V8Z 1T3 Canada

Contacts:

E-mail: [email protected] Phone: toll free in the United States and Canada 1-800-268-6272, 1-888-PG-MUSIC (746-8742),

Or 1-250-475-2874 (tolls apply) Universal International Freephone Service:

Outside of the United States and Canada (where available). + 800-4PGMUSIC (800-4746-8742)

Fax: toll free in the United States and Canada 1-877-475-1444,

or 1-250-475-2937 (tolls apply)

Technical Support: Phone: toll free in the United States and Canada

1-866-9TECHPG (866-983-2474), Or 1-250-475-2708 (tolls apply) E-mail: [email protected]

Live Internet Chat: www.pgmusic.com

Be sure to visit the FAQ pages at www.pgmusic.com for information about known troubleshooting issues as well as the latest technical support bulletins.

Appendix: New RealTracks and MIDI SuperTracks Sets

27

Appendix: New RealTracks and MIDI SuperTracks Sets

RealTracks Sets 170 to 187: 101 New RealTracks RealTracks Set 170 - Texas Blues-Rock: Slow Groovin' 12:8

RealTracks Set 171 - Medium Folk-Pop 8ths

RealTracks Set 172 - EuroDance

RealTracks Set 173 - Celtic Bouzouki and Guitar

RealTracks Set 174 - Pop Mandolin, Piano, and Guitar

RealTracks Set 175 - Texas Blues-Rock: Smokin' Blues Sax

RealTracks Set 176 - Jazz-Pop Horns

RealTracks Set 177 - Guajira & Guaracha

RealTracks Set 178 - Dixieland - Medium Soloists

RealTracks Set 179 - Guitar - Jazz and More!

RealTracks Set 180 - Classic Jazz Piano

RealTracks Set 181 - Smooth Jazz Piano

RealTracks Set 182 - More Pedal Steel Country with Paul Franklin

RealTracks Set 183 - Country Soloists: Sax and More!

RealTracks Set 184 - More John Jarvis Country Piano

RealTracks Set 185 - More Killer Country Soloing

RealTracks Set 186 - John Jarvis Solo-Accompaniment Piano

RealTracks Set 187 - More Fancy Fingerpicking with Brent Mason

MIDI SuperTracks Sets 4 to 9: 50 New MIDI SuperTracks

MIDI SuperTracks Set 4 - Folk, Pop & New Age

MIDI SuperTracks Set 5 - Jazz Piano - Old and New

MIDI SuperTracks Set 6 - Latin Piano

MIDI SuperTracks Set 7 - Smooth Jazz & Funk Piano

MIDI SuperTracks Set 8 - More Country Piano

MIDI SuperTracks Set 9 - Praise & Worship Piano

Documents

Band in a Box 2013 Upgrade Manual