Band in a Box

[Kurtmon]

I recently picked up Band in a Box, seems a little overwhelming, I have glanced through the manual, Does anyone useing this program have any tips for learning how to use it effectively?

 

[Snarf]

Basically, input chord symbols, use arrow keys to move around, space+direction to delete a chord, select a bunch of styles from the menu. It's very easy once you spend a little time with it.

 

[bass-me-up]

you can search around the internet for band-in-a-box songs. i found almost all songs of the standard jazz real book. just download them and open them with BIAB.

it's great for improvising or walking bass practice 'cause you change the tempo and key randomly.

i will post some BIAB songs for practicing on my website in the near future.

cheers
steffen

http://www.bass-me-up.de

 

[tim99]

Right click on "Bass" at the top to turn bass off and on.

To copy a few chords in a series, highlight with shift-arrowkey and use ctrl-c to copy and ctrl-v to paste. Mousing does not work for me in my setup for highlight, copy or paste.

There is a way to have it not play the melody, I do not remember specifically how, but you can have it play the song with the melody, then repeat without the melody, then play again with the melody, to allow you to solo during the middle repeat. Like kill melody middle, something. Many teachers recommend learning the melody to the songs you intend to solo over, this option in BIAB is good for this.

You can put a group of songs in a folder and then play all the songs in that folder one after the other in juke box mode, either in order or random.

The thing that is overwelming about it is that the screen is full of all kinds of stuff you may never use. I basically change songs, change styles, change keys, and change speed to existing songs, and then I input my own chord progressions. If you input like 32 measures of chords, then click on the last measure, then click on END, the end becomes that last measure. Then you make it repeat a bunch of times and play.

I like to left click on Melody and change that to Vibraphone. I love that sound.

Norton free:

http://www.nortonmusic.com/contents.html#midi

Norton fake books chords only pay:

http://www.nortonmusic.com/contents.html#fake

Norton style discs sound good pay:

http://www.nortonmusic.com/contents.html#styles

Lots of links:

http://www.alisdair.com/gearsoftware/biablinks.html

The most free songs including real book:

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[Kurtmon]

Thanks for the tips.Is it possible to take a song from a CD, and play it through BIB?

 

[Bruce Lindfield]

Thanks for the tips.Is it possible to take a song from a CD, and play it through BIB?

I think you'd need a far more complex (expensive!) combination of hardware/sofware to do that!!

 

[tim99]

Thanks for the tips.Is it possible to take a song from a CD, and play it through BIB?

I don't think so. I do not know what you are trying to do, but, basically I do not think that you can play songs off CDs, or mp3 files, or wav files inside BIAB. I thought I saw software that would TAB or notate or midi songs from the original recording, But I have not seen anything to take a midi to BIAB. I think that people who use BIAB for performance create specific files that they play through software named Cakewalk, but I do not know much about that other than someone told me that Cakewalk was a more reliable program for performance than BIAB because BIAB has to create the song new every time and Cakewalk simply plays the recording created with BIAB.

I see solo guys in clubs with laptops, but have never asked one what software they use for that. I am getting off topic. I am sorry.

I use software named Transcribe!, and others use The Amazing Slow Downer, to play along with and learn real songs. I rip songs off CDs with Windows Media Player, or buy them for 99 cents, then drag and drop them into Transcribe! where I can slow them down, change the pitch, and loop any length part. I often will pick a section of verse/chorus off a song that I just loop and repeat.

I regularly use BIAB and Transcribe! Because they do different things, I need both.

Another thing...you can go the other way. If you have a chord progression or song setup in BIAB, you can make a wav file that you can then burn onto a CD. You may want to do this if your portable practice gear is headphones and a CD player and something like a pandora's box like I have, or if you need to take a chord progression to your lesson to work with your teacher. Once you get a song or chord progression setup, you can record it to wav, change the key, record it again, repeat, and then burn a CD with that chord progression or song in all keys, that you can just play along with. Pretty neat.

I have attached a zip file of my ii-V-I progressions in all keys. Please note that the extension is .txt. You need to rename the file to have a .zip extension, then unzip the files. This gives you an idea of what BIAB without bass sounds like. I just tried it. I right clicked the file, did save target as, changed the extension to .zip, then after the save picked open, and there all the files are.
.

 

[Pruitt]

I thought I saw software that would TAB or notate or midi songs from the original recording, But I have not seen anything to take a midi to BIAB.

BiaB can definitely import MIDI files. It's fairly easy, though if you're using multiple channels, you'll need to map them.

 

[DrGroovenstein]

I'm about to pick up band in a box, should I just get the normal version or do I need the one with all the extra styles?

 

[Silas Martinez]

I don't think so. I do not know what you are trying to do, but, basically I do not think that you can play songs off CDs, or mp3 files, or wav files inside BIAB. I thought I saw software that would TAB or notate or midi songs from the original recording, But I have not seen anything to take a midi to BIAB.

Just a 'FYI' bit, and yes, I'm resurrecting an old topic, but .... Band in a Box now has something called 'Chords from MP3'.

It, with very little help from you, analyzes the file, and tells you the chords played, as well as the predominant bass tone on each 8th note. Is that cheating? Well.... Call it 'using a calculator'.

It appears to be (based on a couple of hours of testing it against songs I've been playing for a while now) pretty accurate, but it does seem to need some help determining the tempo (which is how it is able to guess bass notes per 8th, and chord(s) per measure).

 

[Vandelay]

Thanks for the thread revival. I got Band In A Box as a Christmas gift last year, and I installed it but haven't yet used it. I think the cluttered manual and the cluttered interface scared me away, but the suggestions here seem like they'll help. I'll give it another shot.

 

[Silas Martinez]

The interface is positively horrible. No doubt about that. Best bet is to take your time with it, and learn what each button does, as you need specific functions.

I researched it based on recommendations here, and picked it up based on its previously mentioned abilities, and its new 'chord from mp3') function. I suspect it will become a favorite practice tool - both for the ability to create my own chord structures and 'backing band' and for its ability to transcribe quickly and accurately. Playing along with the chord analyzer is a great way to get a feel for songs.

 

[DocBop]

Thanks for the tips.Is it possible to take a song from a CD, and play it through BIB?

Take the song from the CD and make a MP3 out of it. I used iTunes and it can import a song, just have to configure it to import as MP3. Once in a MP3 iTunes is handy to loop a tune or with a mouse click jump back to any point.

There is also a program called Transcribe that as the name implies is good for transcribing. It can change the tempo without changing pitch and change pitch without changing tempo. It also has filters for cutting things like the bass, or making the bass stand out. It will guess chords and pitches from the MP3. So a read handy practice tool. Better yet you can download free trial version and check it out, just Google for Transcribe.

 

[Bates]

Does anyone know how to make band in a box just play basic chord voicings using piano sounds for the chords inputted? Every style I've heard goes WAY overboard in a really bad way.

Thanks for any help!

 

[DougD]

Can you use BIB for backing tracks? If so, is there a turorial for that?

 

[skaliwag66]

I don't think so. I do not know what you are trying to do, but, basically I do not think that you can play songs off CDs, or mp3 files, or wav files inside BIAB. I thought I saw software that would TAB or notate or midi songs from the original recording, But I have not seen anything to take a midi to BIAB. I think that people who use BIAB for performance create specific files that they play through software named Cakewalk, but I do not know much about that other than someone told me that Cakewalk was a more reliable program for performance than BIAB because BIAB has to create the song new every time and Cakewalk simply plays the recording created with BIAB.

I see solo guys in clubs with laptops, but have never asked one what software they use for that. I am getting off topic. I am sorry.

I use software named Transcribe!, and others use The Amazing Slow Downer, to play along with and learn real songs. I rip songs off CDs with Windows Media Player, or buy them for 99 cents, then drag and drop them into Transcribe! where I can slow them down, change the pitch, and loop any length part. I often will pick a section of verse/chorus off a song that I just loop and repeat.

I regularly use BIAB and Transcribe! Because they do different things, I need both.

Another thing...you can go the other way. If you have a chord progression or song setup in BIAB, you can make a wav file that you can then burn onto a CD. You may want to do this if your portable practice gear is headphones and a CD player and something like a pandora's box like I have, or if you need to take a chord progression to your lesson to work with your teacher. Once you get a song or chord progression setup, you can record it to wav, change the key, record it again, repeat, and then burn a CD with that chord progression or song in all keys, that you can just play along with. Pretty neat.

I have attached a zip file of my ii-V-I progressions in all keys. Please note that the extension is .txt. You need to rename the file to have a .zip extension, then unzip the files. This gives you an idea of what BIAB without bass sounds like. I just tried it. I right clicked the file, did save target as, changed the extension to .zip, then after the save picked open, and there all the files are.
.

these are great for practicing, thanks!

 

[Rune Bivrin]

Can you use BIB for backing tracks? If so, is there a turorial for that?

Well, that's pretty much what it does. Sure, you can input "solo" and "melody", but that's a fair amount of work unless you have a MIDI keyboard.

Select a style, a tempo and a key. Then type in the chords for each bar or beat. Change chorus start and end plus number of repeats. Go!

 

[Lorenzini]

Just try it. Unless BIAB changed immensely, and I can't imagine that, it's a very simple program that you just need to tool around with for 15 minutes.

It was a great tool for me to learn to play tunes in all keys.

 

[needmoney]

Question re BIAB.

Once you input a set of changes, say a 12 bar blues or something. Can you shift keys without having to input it all again? Like type the changes in for an F Blues, and then be able to shift to Bb quickly?

Also if you put in a set of changes, can you make the comp play it in a Latin style? What must you do for the drums?

 

[Rune Bivrin]

Yep. No problem. There's a combo there with the key right beside the tempo input. Change that, and BIAB will ask if you wish to transpose the entire song.