Index
Table of Contents for Band-in-a-Box Help

     Getting Started
Basics
Setting Up Midi Or Sound Card
Matching Drums,Patches & Midi Channels
ReadMe for Lastest information not in Manual

     Tutorials for Using the Band-in-a-Box Program
Tutorial #1 -Interface/Driver Setup
Tutorial #2 -Loading/Playing Songs
Tutorial #3 -Inputting New Songs
Tutorial #4 -Creating Custom Drum Kit/Patch Map
Tutorial #5: StyleMaker: Editing Existing Styles
Tutorial #6: Making a New Style

How to ...

How to ...
USING KEYSTROKES INSTEAD OF MOUSE
Keystroke List
MAKING A SONG
Typing  in chords
List of Chords
Using Part Markers to change Substyles or insert drum fills
Copy/Paste sections of chords
Intros/Endings/Begin/End/# of choruses
Song Embellishment
Vary Middle Style of Song
Tags
Lyrics Entry
Selecting/Changing Styles
Recording Melodies
Saving Songs to Disk
Making MIDI files  ( Clipboard or Disk)
LOADING AND PLAYING SONGS
Opening Songs from disk
Playing/Pausing/Stopping Songs
Muting Instruments
Changing Tempo
Changing Key ( Transpose)
 	Watching Piano Keyboard Display
JukeBox Playback
Wizard Playalong feature
Recording  to External Hardware sequencers
CHANGING SETTINGS
Changing Patches (instruments)
Using Favorite Patches
Changing Volume
Changing Reverb/Chorus/Bank
Changing Combos/Master Volume/Reverb/Chorus
GS functions
FILES ASSOCIATED WITH BAND-IN-A-BOX
All Band-in-a-Box song/style/patch files are directly compatible between Windows/DOS/Mac And Atari systems.
This section describes these files and how to transfer between systems.
Essential Program files (BBW.EXE,*.DLL,ZZ*.STY)
Config files (MYSETUP.DK,INTRFACE.BBW)
Song files (*.?G?)
Style files (*.STY)
Transferring IBM/Mac/Atari

Troubleshooting

PG Music Info :Tech Support/Upgrades
ReadMe for Lastest information not in Manual

     Functions On Screen

Keyboard Area

 Tool Bar Area

Title...Tempo Area

Chord Entry Area

Pull Down Menu Functions

File Menu
Edit Menu
Styles Menu
Midi Menu
Play Menu
GS Menu
User Menu

Dialog Boxes
Save Patches With Songs Dialog Box
Edit Current Bar settings Dialog Box
Midi Driver Setup Dialog Box
Midi Settings Dialog Box
Drum Note Assignment Dialog Box
Favorite Patches Dialog Box
Favorite Combos Dialog Box
Patch Map Dialog Box
Midi File Dialog Box
Step Edit Melody Dialog Box
Melody Quantize Dialog Box
GS Part Settings Dialog Box
GS Reverb Type Dialog Box

Stylemaker:  Making Styles Or Editing Styles

StyleMaker Table of Contents
StyleMaker How To Section
StyleMaker Overview
Tutorial #5: Editing an Existing Style
Tutorial #6: Making a New Style
StyleMaker: Making Drum Patterns
StyleMaker: Making Bass Patterns
StyleMaker: Making Piano,Guitar,Strings Patterns

StyleMaker Dialog Boxes
Drum Pattern Options
Bass Pattern Options
Piano/Guitar/Strings Pattern Options
Chord Playback
Miscellaneous Settings
Assign Patches to Style
Import Instrument to Style
Drum Screen Alternate Notes
StyleMaker Pull Down Menus
StyleMaker Pull Down Menu functions
StyleMaker Buttons
StyleMaker Buttons

These options are also available from the buttons on the StyleMaker screen

For Help on Help, Press F1


Basics

Band-in-a-Box is an automatic Musical Accompaniment program. Type in the chords to any songs, pick a style and press play. Band-in-a-Box then generates an accompaniment of bass ,drums, piano, guitar and strings to be played back through sound card or MIDI.

To use the program you require:

Windows 3.1 ,2mb memory, 286/386 (or better)

MIDI System (MIDI Interface/MIDI Synthesizer)  or PC Sound Card

Headphones or stereo speakers.

To get Band-in-a-Box working you need to :

1. Make sure that your Midi Interface or Sound Card is installed

2. Setup and install Midi Driver inside the Windows Control Panel.

3. Run Band-in-a-Box Windows program.

4. Configure the drums and Patches (instruments) to match your synth or sound card.

You may omit this step if you are using a General Midi compatible instrument ( such as Roland Sound Canvas, SCC1, SoundBlaster FM , or ASC Audio Master). This is because Band-in-a-Box defaults to General Midi drum notes and Patches.

We have made preset drum/patch files for over 30 popular synthesizers (such as MT32 , Korg M1 etc.). If you are using one of these you will just choose this file from the MIDI Driver setup screen.

If your synth is not listed you will have to make a custom setup by typing in the drum notes that your drum machine uses and (optionally) type in the patch #s corresponding to the General Midi instrument numbers.

These topics are described in detail elsewhere -
Setting Up Midi or Sound Card
Midi Driver Setup
Drum Note Assignment
Patch Map Assignment

Once you have done this, you can begin using the program.

Load and Play Songs
Type in chords to any song, choose style and press PLAY to hear arrangement.
Type in Lyrics to songs
Make Standard MIDI files as files on disk or clipboard , to be later loaded into sequencers (like CakeWalk or Musicator) for further editing.

These topics are described in the Tutorials-

1. Driver/Interface Tutorial

2. Loading/Playing Song Tutorial ,

3.Inputting New Song Tutorial

4.Customizing Drum Kit and Patch Map Tutorial


Setting up Midi or Sound Card

Band-in-a-Box uses the MultiMedia drivers for your MIDI interface or sound card that are supported by. Windows 3.1. To get Band-in-a-Box playback working properly you need to have a Driver installed for output . If you plan on recording in melodies you will need a driver for input as well. There is also a tutorial for setting up your interface/driver and drum kit .

CONNECTING BAND-IN-A-BOX TO YOUR MIDI SYSTEM

example of connection for MIDI system with Roland MPU401 & Synthesizer

   1                  2                      3                       4

1. BBW.EXE is Program run under Windows 3.1

2. The Windows Driver for your MIDI interface either comes with Windows 3.1 or is included or available from the interface manufacturer. It is installed into the Windows Control Panel outside of Band-in-a-Box. You then choose the driver inside Band-in-a-Box from the MIDI DRIVER menu. There is usually a separate driver for input (from your synth keyboard) and output (to your synthesizer).

3. The MIDI interface transmits information between the computer and your synthesizer(s).

4. The Synthesizer produces the Sounds. Band-in-a-Box tells it what notes to play.

5. Stereo Speakers or Headphones are connected to your synthesizer so that you may hear the music.

- OR -

CONNECTING BAND-IN-A-BOX TO YOUR PC SOUND CARD

example of connection of Band-in-a-Box to your FM Sounds on SoundBlaster Pro

1.....................2.......................3.......................................4

The SoundBlaster may be used in 2 ways. You may use the MIDI outputs to connect to your MIDI synthesizer (see above) or you may use the internal FM sounds of the SoundBlaster.

INSTALLING A DRIVER INTO WINDOWS 3.1

This is done outside of Band-in-a-Box. It is done in the Program Manager | Main | Control Panel | Drivers program. Boot up the Drivers program by double clicking on the drivers icon. You will then see a list of any drivers that are installed.

example #1: Installing a MPU401 driver setup

If you are using a MPU401 Midi interface you will need to install the "Roland MPU 401 MIDI driver" supplied with Windows 3.1 From the Control Panel | Drivers program , choose ADD to add a driver. Then choose Roland MPU 401 from the list of standard drivers. You will then be asked to insert your  Windows disk that contains the MPU401.DRV file . To complete installation you will be asked for the port address and interrupt # for the MPU401. The port address usually = 330 and the interrupt is usually = 2 . If you have set the interrupt incorrectly, you will find that MIDI thru won't work properly,- see "testing the Midi driver below"

example #2 : Installing SoundBlaster driver for MIDI use

SoundBlaster PRO: Use SoundBlaster 1.5 Driver or higher

SoundBlaster :Use SoundBlaster 1.0 if your SoundBlaster is an old one or 1.5 if its a newer one (July 91).

    Older SoundBlaster cards (pre July 91) are not capable of simultaneous Input and Output If you have an older SoundBlaster you will use the 1.0 driver and will be able to play Band-in-a-Box but not be able to record melodies at the same time. Install the SoundBlaster driver in a manner similar to the MPU401 driver as above. (The usual settings for the SoundBlaster  are port = 220 and Interrupt = 5).

Example #3 : Installing the SoundBlaster for use with FM sounds

The SoundBlaster has a built in FM synthesizer  (11 voices / 22 on the SB Pro ). These sounds are also Adlib compatible . If you want to use the FM sounds as your output driver then install either the Adlib driver (11 voices) or the "Creative Labs SoundBlaster PRO MIDI synthesizer driver".

SETTING UP YOUR DRIVER INSIDE BAND-IN-A-BOX

Choose Midi Driver Setup from the MIDI pull down menu. You will then see 3 lists:

1. MIDI input drivers available

2. MIDI or Sound Card  output drivers available

3. Band-in-a-Box Drum Note /Patch Map files for various synthesizers

Choose the MIDI input/output  driver that you want to use.

The Band-in-a-Box Drum note/Patch map files refer to files that have been setup for popular synthesizers. Most synthesizers use different drum notes, and different patches. These files tell Band-in-a-Box what drum notes to send out , and what patches to send out for various instruments. If you don't see your synthesizer on the list , or you need to customize the file, see the topic - Tutorial #4 - Creating a custom Drum Kit/Patch File.


Setting Up Drum Notes , Patches and Midi Channels

Drum Notes

Most synthesizers use different drum notes. For example the snare drum is = 38 on a Roland synthesizer, but might be =40 on a Yamaha. Band-in-a-Box needs to know what drum notes your synthesizer is using.

We include presets for over 30 drum machines - if your machine is on the list you should install the file. For example if you use a Proteus XR  , you can load in the ProtusXR.DK file from the MIDI pull down menu | Load alternate drum kits.

If you are using a drum machine that we don't have a preset for -you will need to make a custom drum kit. This is covered in the drum kit dialog section

Patch Numbers

In 1991 all major synthesizer Manufacturers agreed on a standard set of drum notes to use and standard set of instrument numbers (Patch numbers). For example Snare Drum is note #38 and Acoustic Bass is instrument #33. This is called the General Midi Standard.

Making a Patch Map
Band-in-a-Box will be using General Midi Numbers for instruments throughout the program -regardless of what type of synthesizer you are using.
For example: Acoustic Bass - will always be referred to as Patch 33, because it is Patch 33 in the General Midi standard. If your synth uses Patch 26 for Acoustic Bass, you will type #26 in the Patch map beside the Acoustic Bass. Then Band-in-a-Box knows to always send out Patch 26 to your synthesizer when you want Acoustic Bass. You will still refer to Acoustic Bass by the General Midi Patch Number (Acoustic Bass =33) throughout Band-in-a-Box.
See further documention for installing a Patch map in the
Make a Patch Map Dialog section .

Midi Channels

You may assign Midi Channels/Volume/Panning/Chorus settings for each of the parts (bass/drum/piano/guitar/strings/melody/thru). This is done on the MIDI | Midi Settings Dialog Box


Tutorial #1: Loading and Playing Songs
Tutorial #1: Driver/Interface/Drum Kit Setup

This tutorial will cover
Installing your Midi or Sound Card driver into the Windows Control Panel.
Choosing a Driver from Within Band-in-a-Box
Installing a Patch map from Preset Patch Map Files (*.DK)

Installing your Midi or Sound Card driver into the Windows Control Panel.

Run the Control Panel Program

The Driver is setup in the Windows Control Panel Program. This is found in the Program Manager Main Window.
Then run the Drivers program

You will see a list of all drivers currently installed.

Adlib is the Adlib driver for FM sounds. The Adlib chip has an 11 voice synthesizer (6 instruments + 5 drum sounds). An unusual feature of this driver is that it requires a Drum Channel of 16, whereas other drivers (and the General Midi Standard) use Drum Channel =10. Many sound cards that are SoundBlaster or Adlib compatible (e.g. Aztech, MediaVision) should use this driver.

Roland MPU 401 is the driver for MPU401 compatible cards (Roland, Music Quest, CMS)

Once you install this driver you will be asked for the PORT address and the IRQ #. The Port address is usually 330 and the IRQ# is usually 2. If you have set the Port incorrectly, you will get an error message. If you have set the IRQ incorrectly, you will notice a considerable delay in MIDI thru, and won't see a display of your Midi Thru on the Band-in-a-Box piano keyboard at the top of the screen.

Creative Labs Soundblaster 1.5 is the MIDI driver for the SoundBlaster Pro or newer SoundBlasters that support simultaneous OUT and IN. The usual Port address is 220 and the IRQ# =5.

Creative Labs Soundblaster 1.0 is the MIDI driver for the older SoundBlaster cards.  (DSP version less than 2.0) These cards are incapable of  simultaneous IN and OUT. If using with Band-in-a-Box, you would be unable to Record melodies or use Midi Thru, but will be able to play.

Creative SoundBlaster Pro MIDI synthesizer is the SoundBlaster Pro FM sounds driver (not involving MIDI)

MIDI mapper is a driver connecting your output to the Midi Mapper program. You must setup the MIDI driver to use your MIDI driver or Sound Card for output. The Midi Mapper allows you to remap drum notes and patches. Since Band-in-a-Box remaps these patches for you anyway, we do not suggest that you use the Midi Mapper unless you understand how to make a drum and patch map. If you do use the Midi Mapper, you will tell Band-in-a-Box that your synthesizer is a General Midi Synthesizer.

Yamaha TG100 driver is an example of a 3rd party driver that was added by choosing [image] to Add a driver.

Choosing a Driver from Within Band-in-a-Box

Band-in-a-Box displays the list of drivers that you have previously set up in the Control Panel above.

Band-in-a-Box Midi Midi Driver Settings Dialog Box

Once you have Selected the Midi Input and Output Driver that you want to use, you need to select the name of your Sound Card or Synthesizer that you will be using. Once you tell Band-in-a-Box which synth you are using, the program will be able to load in a DK file (drum and patch map). This file converts General Midi notes (used throughout Band-in-a-Box) to the Drum notes and Patch numbers that your synth uses. Hopefully you will see your synthesizer listed (and you haven't changed the factory settings of your synth! ).

If you don't see your synth listed , you will need to :
1. Tell Band-in-a-Box what drum notes to use for your synth.
    See Make a Drum Kit
2. Disable Patch changes from the Midi Settings Dialog Box  until you have made a Patch map


Tutorial #2: Inputting a new song
Tutorial #2: Loading and Playing Songs

Many of the topics referred to are covered in the "How to" Section as well :

See the related topics
Typing in chords
Using Part Markers
Copy/Paste, Intros Endings/Begin/End
Lyrics Entry
Song Embellishment
Vary Middle Style of Song
Selecting/Changing Styles
Transposing Key
Changing Tempo.

This assumes that you've already

setup your Midi Driver, Midi Channels, Drum Notes and Patch Maps.

Now Let's explore Band-in-a-Box:

The [image] cursor keys move the chord highlight cell around the chordsheet.
 click on any Bar to move around the chordsheet.
You can then type in the chords to any song.
This is covered in detail in the Tutorial #3-Inputting your own song

Let's load in a new song by [image] on the [image] button.

Note: Band-in-a-Box uses the common dialog boxes for loading and saving files. These are the same boxes that all Windows programs use. If you require extra help with use of these boxes- see Windows 3.1 manual.

Then pick a song to load in. Let's load in "La Bamba".

Type the first letter of the song ( '"'L"  in this example ) and the list will jump to songs beginning with "L".

 click on the song labamba.mgb then click on the  [image] button to load in the song..

Explanation of the Extension that Band-in-a-Box adds for you
It is not essential that you understand this
If the song has a melody the extension will begin with M (otherwise S)
The second letter of the song name is G
The third letter is the style of the song (1-9 and A-N for built in styles and U for a 	User style)
Example: Labamba.MGB The 'M' tells us that a  Melody is recorded. The 'G' is always present in song names telling us that it is a song .The 'B' indicates styles #11 (styles are #d 1-9 and A-N ) which is Light Rock.

Example: LevlFunk.SGU . The 'S' indicates that no melody is recorded. The 'U' tells us that the style is a user style.

:The song La Bamba will now load in for you.

Let's play the Song  by [image] click on the  [image] button.

There is a few second delay as the arrangement is created. The Progress Indicator Bar [image] lets you know how much is left to prepare.

The song begins with a 2 bar Click in on the drums " 1-2  1-2-3-4 "

Tip: This click in is always played on drums (rim shot). If you hear it played on a non-drum instrument, then the drum channel has been assigned incorrectly (drum channel is usually 10 but some sound cards want drum channel =16). If the click in is played on a different instrument than rim shot, your drum kit setup has not been done properly.

Then the music begins to play.

You can look at the very top of the screen - this is the instrument line

Now let's change some settings as the song is playing.(You can also change any of these settings if the song is stopped.

First select the part to work on  by clicking on the desired part.
You can see which part is selected by looking for the Blue dot beside the part name.
Any further action to change patch, volume reverb, chorus, bank will apply to the part that you have selected.

For example let's change the Piano Part settings

Select the Piano part by clicking on the [image] Piano part button

Now let's change the instrument on the piano part.

Note: Even though the parts (bass/piano/guitar etc.) have names, ANY instrument can be assigned to them. For example you could set the piano part to HARP if you wanted.

PATCH CHANGES
Favorite Patches: Every part has 10 favorite instruments assigned to it. For example the Piano part has 10 favorite instruments like Acoustic Piano, Electric Piano, Harpsichord etc. You can customize the favorite settings. Click on the [image] Favorites button to select an instrument for the piano part.
 General Midi Patch List: If you want to change to a specific instrument , then click on the instrument box
You can then scroll through the 128 instrument General Midi Patches.

VOLUME/PANNING /REVERB OR CHORUS CHANGES

Most synths respond to Volume changes. Only newer sound cards or General Midi Compatible synthesizers will respond to MIDI panning/reverb/chorus messages . If yours does, then click on  the  Panning setting to change the Panning (Stereo placement Right to left), Reverb, or Chorus setting

BANK CHANGES

If you have a General Midi instrument that has sounds available on higher Banks (like Roland GS instruments) you can click on the BANK  button [image] to select a higher bank. For example on the Roland Sound Canvas "Detuned Rhodes Piano" is Bank 8  of the Rhodes Piano (5).
Technical Note: A Bank Change consists of sending Control Change 0 followed by the Bank Number from 0 to 127.

PAUSE THE SONG - by pressing the [image] HOLD button .Resume by pressing it again. This is the best way to learn a piano voicing that Band-in-a-Box is playing, because the notes remain visible on screen when paused.

JUMP TO A DIFFERENT AREA OF THE SONG.  As the song is playing you can jump to any part of the song. Just press the [image] button, choose the chorus #, then click on the desired bar to jump to. Band-in-a-Box always starts any Playback or Record 2 bars prior to what you have selected (to provide you time to listen to the tempo, move to your synth etc.).If you wanted to start right away at a certain bar you could select the bar 2 bars ahead.

PLAY THE WIZARD . The Wizard is the Intelligent playalong feature from the QWERTY keyboard bottom 2 rows. It is described in the How to Use the Wizard Section . The Wizard is treated as the [image] instrument - so you can change volume/patches etc. on the Wizard.

PLAYALONG FROM  YOUR MIDI KEYBOARD. If you have installed a MIDI input driver, you can use the MIDI THRU features inside Band-in-a-Box. Band-in-a-Box treats the MIDI THRU as any other part - it is called the THRU part
. You can change patches/volume, reverb etc. for the THRU channel, just like any other part.
If you notice a long delay in the THRU getting to your keyboard, this indicates that you have installed the MIDI in driver, but have selected the incorrect IRQ#. You would need to re-install your MIDI driver (remove it then add it from the Control Panel) and then Select the correct IRQ#.

STOP THE SONG by clicking the stop button [image].

PLAY THE JUKEBOX . Use of the jukebox options are described in greater detail in the .  Lets play the JukeBox now. Click the juke button [image], then Set any of the options that you would like. The JukeBox will continue to PLAY until you Click the STOP  button, or press the ESCAPE key.
Now lets Switch to Another program while the JukeBox continues to Play. Press ALT TAB to switch to the Program Manager for example. Experiment with changing the Size of the Band-in-a-Box Window so you can continue to see the Piano display while working in another program.

Now we've ended the tutorial for loading and playing Songs. The next tutorial is
Inputting Your Own Song


Tutorial #3 : Lyrics/MidiFiles
Tutorial #3 : Inputting New Songs

Tutorial #3 -Inputting a new song.

In Tutorial #1 we setup our program. Tutorial #2 covered playing songs. This tutorial covers Inputting a Song of Your Own.

These topics are also covered in greater detail in the How to sections:
Typing in Chords
Using Part Markers/Drum Fills
Copy/Pasting Chords
Intros/Endings/Chorus Settings
Tag Endings
Entering Lyrics
Song Embellishment
Vary Middle Style of Song
Selecting Styles
Recording Melodies
Saving Songs to Disk
Making Midi Files to Clipboard or Disk

Lets Put in the Song : La Bamba .

Click on the NEW button [image] to blank the chordsheet.

Enter the Title of the Song:
Click in the Title area .(It will currently be called Untitled Song). Once you have clicked in it you can type the Title of The Song- " La Bamba"

Choose a Tempo of 160 beats per minute

Click on the Tempo Arrow keys [image] to increase the tempo by 5 at a time. Use the Right mouse button to change by 1 at a time.

Now lets the type the chords of the song !

Press the HOME key , or click on the HOME button [image] to insure that the chordsheet is at the top (Bar 1)

This song has a 4 bar intro, and the chorus is 32 bars long. Therefore the Intro is bars 1-4, and the chorus is bars 5-36.

| F	Bb	| C7	| F	Bb	| C7

| F	Bb	| C7	| F	Bb	| C7

Look above for the chords we want to enter. These are the exact keystrokes to enter the first 8 bars of chords

(The > key refers to the Right Cursor Key- you can click to where you want to go instead.)

Type in these keys exactly, and you'll be entering the song. Use the right cursor in place of the >
f>bb>c7>>f>bb>c7>>pf>bb>c7>>f>bb>c7>>

 So you can see that:
1. the method of entering chords is like typing into a spreadsheet.
2. You type the chord name, then press a movement key like a cursor key or mouse click to enter the chord into the cell.
 3 the P key (used in bar 5) places a part marker of 'a' If we repeatedly type p  (or clicked on the | bar line ) we could change to a 'b' substyle, or no substyle change. Part markers and substyles are discussed elsewhere. In general 'a' substyles are used for the verses and 'b' substyles for the bridge of the song.

Now lets copy and paste a section of chords

1. Highlight a section of chords. Start with the mouse arrow on a chord name (not on the bar line). Holding down the left mouse button, then drag the mouse over an area to copy. The area will be Blackened.

2. With the  area still blackened, click on the COPY button [image] .
 The area that is black is now copied into the Clipboard. It can be pasted back into Band-in-a-Box at a different location.
3. Move the [image] highlight cell to the bar that you  want to paste the chords to.
4. Then click on the [image] button.
The chords will then appear at the new location
Note: If they don't , it means that you haven't first copied an area of chords into the clipboard.

The rest of the chords are on disk in the file labamba.mgb. Load in this file to see the chords for the entire song.

Now lets "Frame" the song. Framing the song refers to selecting the bar for the chorus to begin and end, and how many choruses to play before playing the 2 bar ending.

Click on each of these 3 buttons to select the bar for chorus to begin, end and the # of choruses.

The Ending will occur at the end of all the choruses. It will be a 2 bar ending based on whatever chord is placed in the bar following the last bar of the chorus.

Set Additional Song Settings by pressing the S button [image].
These include: Allow Embellishment: This embellishment  refers to adding embellished notes to the chords in Jazz styles. Usually leave it on
Vary Middle Style: If set, all the Middle choruses will be played in 'b' substyle regardless of the settings of the part markers(substyle markers).For example, in Jazz Swing this means that all of the Middle Choruses will play in Swing and the First and last choruses will play in a mix of substyle 'a' and 'b' as you have set. Usually leave this on..

IF You Would Like To Type In Lyrics, press the Lyric button [image] and (see the Lyric Entry section for further details).

Lets Save The Song To Disk, by pressing the SAVE button. Give the song a name like 'Test'. Don't add the extension. Band-in-a-Box will do that for you.

Make A Midi File by pressing the MIDI button [image].
If you have another program capable of Pasting in "Standard Midi File" information, then you can choose Clipboard destination, otherwise make a file onto disk.

Now we've ended the tutorial for Inputting Your Own Song.
The other tutorials are :
Setting up your Midi Driver
Loading and playing Songs
Customizing  your drums and Patches


Tutorial #4 :Customizing Drum Kit/Patch Map

Do I need to configure my own drum/patch drum kit ?
Probably not. If your synth is one if the 40 synths listed below, you don't have to configure a patch drum kit (.DK file). Instead you can just load in the preset kit from the MIDI menu (Load Alternate Drum Kit or the Midi Driver Dialog Box

Where in Band-in-a-Box do I set up these Drums/Patch settings ?
Drums are setup in the Drum Setup Dialog Box
Patch maps are made in the Make a Patch Map Dialog Box
(If you haven't made a patch map then Patches can be disabled in the Midi Settings Dialog Box )
Midi Channels,and other Midi settings are setup in the Midi Settings Dialog Box

Choosing a Preset kit from the list below is done in the Midi Driver Dialog Box

What is a Patch map/Drum kit ?
Band-in-a-Box uses General Midi Drum Note Numbers and Patch Numbers
Your synth may not use General Midi settings.
The purpose of a Patch Map is to remap (translate) the General Midi drum note numbers and Patches (Instrument numbers) to the Drum/Patch numbers that your synth uses.
We have made over 40 preset kits for you. If you synth is not on the list, you can make up a custom kit.
Synths or Sound Cards that are General Midi compatible usually do not require a patch/drum kit, but we have made them anyway (they still assign channels,volumes to use )

Below is a list of all synth/sound cards that  we have preset .DK files for.
 If you don't see your synth on the list, try a kit for a similar instrument. If that doesn't work, you'll have to customize the drum kit, and patch map. described at the end of this document.
(General Midi Compatible) beside the name indicates the sound card or synthesizer is General Midi compatible.

Synthesizer /Sound Card     Drum/Patch File Name

Adlib compatible FM synth	ADLIB.DK	(General Midi)
(* Adlib driver is GM except uses drum channel=16, not 10)
ASC/OMNI/ Audio Master	ASC_CARD.DK	(General Midi Compatible)
Casio CT470	CT470.DK	(General Midi Compatible)
Casio CT670	CT670.DK
Casio CT680	CT680.DK
Ensoniq SQ1 1 	SQ1.DK
Ensoniq SQ2 1 	SQ2.DK
General Midi Instrument Misc. GENMIDI.DK	(General Midi Compatible)
Kawaii K4	KAWAI_K4.DK
KawaiiK4R	KAWAIK4R.DK
Korg M1	KORGM1.DK
KORG M3R	KORGM3R.DK
KORG O1/W	KORG_O1W.DK
Kurzweil K1200	K1200.DK
Kurzweil K1200 Pro I	K1200PRI.DK
MidiLand PCD401	PCD401.DK
MidiLand PCD GM	PCDGM.DK
MIDI MAPPER - Windows	GENMIDI.DK	(General Midi Compatible)
( The Midi mapper itself remaps General Midi to your synths #s, so is GM compatible as far as Band-in-a-Box is concerned)
Proteus 1	PROTEUS1.DK
Proteus 1XR	PROTEUS1.DK
Roland CM32	CM32.DK
Roland CM64	CM64.DK
Roland D10	D10.DK
Roland D110	D110.DK
Roland D5	D5.DK
Roland D20	D20.DK
Roland JV80	JV80.DK
Roland JV30	JV30.DK
Roland LAPC card	LAPC.DK
Roland MT32	MT32.DK
Roland Sound Canvas 	CANVAS.DK	(General Midi Compatible)
Roland SC55	SC55.DK	(General Midi Compatible)
Roland SC155 	SC55.DK	(General Midi Compatible)
Roland SCC1 card 	SCC1.DK	(General Midi Compatible)
Roland U20 	U20.DK
Roland U220 	U220.DK
Soundblaster FM Synth	SB_FM.DK	(General Midi Compatible)
(6 voices + 5 drum sounds ,either uses drum channel =10 or 16)
Soundblaster Pro FM Synth	SBPRO_FM.DK	(General Midi Compatible)
(22 sounds, drum channel =10)
Turtle Beach MultiSound GM mode Multisnd.DK	(General Midi Compatible)
Turtle Beach MultiSound-Proteus Mode Proteus1.DK
(note: Multisound can be set to Proteus mode (non-GM) or GM mode. We
recommend the GM mode)
Yamaha PSR 400	PSR400.DK
Yamaha PSR 500	PSR500.DK
Yamaha QY10	QY10.DK
Yamaha SY22	SY22.DK
Yamaha SY55	SY55.DK
Yamaha SY77	SY77.DK
Yamaha TG33	TG33.DK
Yamaha TG55	TG55.DK
Yamaha TG100	TG100.DK	(General Midi Compatible)

 If you have found your synthesizer on this list, you can load in the file. This is done from the Midi Pull Down menu -Install Midi Driver or Load Alternate Drum Kits. Then you don't need to bother with any further setup of drum notes etc.

Otherwise you have to Create a custom setup file for
1.Drum notes: This is essential for the Drums so that the drum notes that BB sends out will match your synthesizer. The Drum Setup is described in the Drum Setup Dialog Box

2.Patch Map:
This is done in the Midi | Make a Patch Map Dialog Box
If you want to get started with Band-in-a-Box prior to making the patch map, make sure that you disable patch changes from the  Midi | Midi Settings Dialog Box .

Do Favorite Patches and Combos need to be set up ?
No. We have chosen popular favorite instruments for all the favorite instruments. Since the favorite instruments are using General Midi numbers, they will work on your synth as they will be translated by the patch map you have installed or made. If you want to customize these favorites to your favorites, then see
Favorite Settings
Combo settings


Piano Area - Top of Screen
Keyboard Area - Top of Screen

The area at the top of the screen is referred to as the Keyboard Area, because it has a piano keyboard drawn on it.

Part Settings: The Bass/Drum/Piano/Guitar/Horn/Strings/Melody and Thru are referred to as Parts.
To change a setting for one of the parts you need to :
1. Select the Part (by mouse clicking on the part name)
2. Changing the setting on the settings (displayed above the piano keyboard)

Clicking the Right Mouse button over a Part name Mutes/UnMutes the part

Changing settings like patch/volume for a part is covered in
Tutorial #1
How to Change Patches
Favorite Patches
Changing Volume
Changing Reverb/Chorus/Bank
Changing Combos/Master Volume/Reverb/Chorus
GS functions

The Keyboard: This keyboard displays the notes that are being played by all instruments (except drums). The Midi Thru is also diszplayed on the Keyboard.

See related topics:

Muting Instruments
Watching Piano Keyboard Display
Wizard Playalong feature
Changing Patches
Favorite Patches
Changing Volume
Changing Reverb/Chorus/Bank
Changing Combos/Master Volume/Reverb/Chorus
GS functions


Tool Bar Buttons

 . NEW button is for clearing the chordsheet and starting a new song. Band-in-a-Box will ask you if you want to save your work before it erases the chords.

 OPEN button is for Opening songs that are on disk.
 See Opening Songs from disk

 SAVE button is to save a song to disk.
See Saving Songs to Disk

 .MID button is for Making Standard Midi Files. You can save a Standard Midi File to disk as a file with extension .MID or to the Windows Clipboard with type "Standard Midi File" .These files are able to be read into most other music programs.
See Making MIDI files  ( Clipboard or Disk)

PLAY button plays the song (or stops it if it is playing already )
STOP button stops the song or JukeBox playing.
H (Hold) button is to Pause the Song during Playback. It also sends out all notes off
messages, so could function as a "Panic button" to stop a hung note.
FROM button is to Play a song starting anywhere in the song
GO button - combines the OPEN and PLAY buttons , will OPEN a song and PLAY it .

See Playing/Pausing/Stopping Songs

 JUKE button is to start or Stop the JukeBox.
The < and > arrow keys are to move to the next or previous song in the JukeBox.
See JukeBox Playback

 RECORD button is to Record a song from the Beginning. The 'R' key is the Keyboard equivalent. See Recording Melodies


Title/Key/Tempo Area

See the following topics:

Copy/Paste sections of chords
Lyrics Entry
Song Embellishment
Vary Middle Style of Song
Selecting/Changing Styles
Changing Tempo
Changing Key ( Transpose)
Intros/Endings/Begin/End/# of choruses

New ! The # button on the screen allows you to choose to turn on/off the displaying of  bar #s.


Chord Entry Area
Chord Sheet Area

Chords are typed in using standard chord symbols onto the Chord Sheet Area. The screen is pre-divided into bars. The highlight cell moves 2 notes at a time. 4 chords per bar may be entered.

See :

List Of Chords

Typing in chords  ,

Using Part Markers


File Menu

File | New is to load a New song (See tutorial #3-Inputting a new Song)
File | Open is to Open an Existing song (See Opening Songs From Disk)
File | Open with Melodies shows list of only song files that have Melodies (*.MG?)
File | Open Filtered by Style loads only song in current style
File | Save Song (As) is to Save Songs (*.?G?) (See Saving Songs to Disk)
File | Make Standard Midi File makes a Standard Midi File (see Making MIDI files)
File | Load User Style allows you to choose a User style (see Selecting Styles)


Edit Menu

Edit | Cut is not implemented yet.
Edit | Copy and Paste are to copy chords (see Copy/Paste section of chords

Edit | Reduce or Expand

The chords in row two are the same as Row 1 except there duration is half. Reducing or Expanding the chordsheet changes the durations. This is useful when changing styles.

Edit | Edit Current Bar Settings ( see Edit Current Bar Settings Dialog)
Edit | Additional Song Settings ( discussed in tutorial #3)
Enter Lyrics (see Lyrics Entry )
Erase all Lyrics erases the entire lyrics. You can also disable Lyrics from the
Midi | Midi Settings Dialog Box.


Styles Menu

This is the menu of the 24 Built in Styles. All of the other styles are User styles and may be loaded in by the File | Load User Style  F9  command. (See Selecting Styles)


Midi Menu

Midi | Midi Driver Setup ( see Midi Driver Dialog Box)
Midi | Channels, options is to setup Midi channels etc. ( see Midi Channels Dialog Box)

Midi | Save Configuration (MySetup.DK file) . This saves your setup to disk on a file called MySetup.DK . This file is saved whenever you quit Band-in-a-Box as well. If you want to restore Band-in-a-Box to defaults, then erase or rename this file.

Midi | Save alternate Drum / Patch.DK allows you to save different custom drum kits.
Midi | Load alternate Drum/ Patch.DK allows you to load in preset or custom drum kits
Midi | Make a Drum Kit (see Drum Kit Dialog Box)
Midi | Make a Patch Map (see Make a Patch Map)
Midi | Choose Favorite Instruments ( see Favorite Instruments setup)
Midi | Display General Midi Patch Numbers displays the list of 128 GM Patch Numbers

.


Play Menu

See Playing/Pausing/Stopping Songs
See JukeBox Playback


GS Menu

These GS functions only work on instruments that support the Roland GS Standard. This includes the Roland Sound Canvas,SCC1,JV-30.

Reset Roland GS Module . Resets the module to Factory settings.
Reset Roland GS Module and Send BB. Resets the module to factory settings and then sends the bootup Band-in-a-Box current patches/volumes etc.

Set Reverb or Chorus Type ( see GS Reverb Type Dialog Box)
Assign Part/Channel etc. (see GS Part Settings Dialog Box)

Tip :Roland GS instruments won't respond to any sysex commands unless the module # is set to 17 . The Sound Canvas allows you to set this # by pressing the ALL button and setting the Midi Channel to =17. Default is 17 .


User Menu

The 'User' Menu refers to User Defined Styles. These are styles that are on disk as files ending with extension .STY . Most of the styles used by Band-in-a-Box are User Defined Styles. These styles can be edited and new ones can be created using the StyleMaker section of the program.

The StyleMaker is disussed elsewhere.
See the following topics for the StyleMaker.

StyleMaker Table of Contents
StyleMaker Overview
Tutorial #6: Making a New Style
Tutorial #5: Edit an Existing Style

SELECT A USER STYLE
This option allows you to choose a style with ( extension .STY ) from disk. This style will then be loaded in to the program and any song will then play in that style. This function can also be accessed by the [image] clicking on the lower of the 2 buttons beside the name of the current style.
NEW-MAKE A NEW STYLE
This function allows you to begin to create a new style, using the StyleMaker section of the program.
see Tutorial #6: Making a New Style.

EDIT A STYLE
This allows you to edit an existing style (*.STY) from disk. The resulting style can then be saved with the same name or a different name. This function uses the StyleMaker.
see Tutorial #5: Edit an Existing Style.

EDIT CURRENT STYLE
This allows you to quickly get into the StyleMaker to Edit the Current Style. The current style is the style that is displayed in the Style Box on the main screen.
e.g.  . Usually you would use Ctrl F9 to do this quickly.
see Tutorial #5: Edit an Existing Style.


Save Patches With Songs Dialog Box

.

If you would like to save certain patches with a song , then type in the # of the patch (instrument) that you would like. Leave the other instruments at =0 for No Patch change. Remember that - as with all other Band-in-a-Box functions- you use the General Midi # for the instrument, regardless of the synth you are using.

EXAMPLE : If you want to save Clarinet Polka with a Melody Patch of Clarinet, then type 72 for the Melody Patch . To look up the numbers of the various instruments, click on the "Show Patch List". Leave the rest of the instruments at Patch = 0 for no patch change, unless you want to specify a particular instrument.

TIP: This dialog box is usually used in combination with saving a song. To save a song with patches, you therefore :

        1. Choose the Save with Patches Option  (or press ALT F2)

        2. Choose the Patch(es) that you want

        3. Press SAVE to then save the song


Edit Current Bar settings Dialog Box

# BEATS THIS BAR :

The initial time signature of the song is determined by the style (e.g. Jazz =4/4, Waltz =3/4). In certain songs you will want to insert time signature changes at a certain bar. For example you might want a single bar of 2/4 , or 8 bars of 3/4 time etc.

This option allows a change of time signature during a song .The change takes place at the beginning of the bar and continues until a new time signature change is specified . You can select # beats per bar from 1 to 4 beats per bar .  A setting of 0 beats/bar is used for no change of time signature.

Examples:

       A song in 4/4 time with a single bar of 6/4 time. Since the maximum # beats per bar is =4 , we will split the 6/4 bars into 2 bars , a 4/4 bar and a 2/4 bar . Insert a # beats per bar =2 at the beginning of the 2/4 bar and then restore the time signature to 4/4 by assigning # beats per bar =4 for the next bar.

       A song in 5/4 time throughout: To do this we will alternately create a 3/4 bar + 2/4 bars . On odd numbered bars insert a # beats per bar =3 , and on even bars insert # of beats per bar =2 . This needs to be done for every bar.

TEMPO CHANGE AT THIS BAR

    Most songs will have a single tempo throughout. This tempo should be set on the main screen in the Title/Tempo area .

    If you want to change the tempo at a certain bar of the song , then use this dialog box to type in the new tempo in beats per minute. The tempo change takes effect at the beginning of the bar and remains until a new tempo change at another bar is inserted.

PATCH CHANGES AT CERTAIN BAR

To save a song with Patch Changes  at the beginning of the song you should use the Save Song with Patch Changes Dialog Box instead of this one.

This setting allows you to insert a Bass or Piano patch change at the beginning of any bar. Type the number of the patch change that you want.


Midi Driver Setup Dialog Box

MIDI INPUT DRIVER : Select the Driver that you would like to use for input from a MIDI keyboard. If you don't have a MIDI keyboard, you can select <No Midi/Sound Input>

MIDI OUTPUT DRIVER : Select a Driver For Midi Output. This also includes Sound Card output (like SoundBlaster).

SYNTHESIZER/SOUND CARD Selecting the type of Synth or Using allows Band-in-a-Box to automatically load in the appropriate Drum/Patch kit file (*.DK ). It is not essential to set this - if you don't then leave it as <synth card not listed >.

see  Tutorial #1- Setting up Driver
 & Setting up Midi Driver


Midi Settings Dialog Box
Midi Settings Dialog Box Dialog Box

This Dialog Box allows you to setup settings for each part (bass/drums/piano etc.)

MIDI CHANNELS : range 0-16 . (If set to 0 , part will be OFF ).
 Some synths (MT32, Soundblaster FM)), give higher priority to lower channel # , so if you are "running out of notes" you should assign important parts (e.g. melody) a lower channel than other parts (e.g. .guitar)

OCTAVE This adjusts the octave of the part. Range (-2 to +2). Usually set to 0 .( Bass is usually set to -1 in General Midi instruments though )

PATCH: Range 0 to 128 . THESE ARE GENERAL MIDI PATCH NUMBERS. YOU DON'T TYPE IN THE PATCH NUMBERS OF YOUR SYNTHESIZER.(The patch map handles mapping of the General Midi Patch numbers to your synths Patch numbers)

VOLUME : Range 0 to 127 .Typical volume setting is =90. It Can also be set from the main screen

PANNING: Panning refers to the Stereo placement (Left to Right) - range (-63,+63).Setting of 0 is "in the middle"

Only General Midi instruments respond to reverb/chorus and Bank.

REVERB: Range 0 to 127. typical setting =40.

CHORUS: Range of 0 to 127. typical setting =0.

Bank: See GS Patches on Higher Banks for a list of Available Patches on the Roland Sound Canvas and other GS instruments. General Midi instruments have extra instruments available on higher banks. Range 0 to 128. Usually set to 0. Other settings are multiples of 8 (0,8,16 etc.).

List of settings on Midi Channels Dialog. Default setting (YES/NO) listed as well.

ALLOW ANY PATCH CHANGES : YES.
Set to NO if you want to disable All Patch changes. If you haven't made a patch map you should disable this.

SONG PATCH CHANGES : YES
Songs can be saved with patch changes . If you want to prevent these type of patch changes, set to no.

STYLE PATCH CHANGES: YES
Styles frequently come with patch changes. If you want to disable these, set to no.

ALLOW VOLUME CHANGES: YES
To prevent any changes of volume inside Band-in-a-Box , set to NO

STYLE VOLUME CHANGES: YES
Styles occasionally come with volume changes. To prevent these, set to NO.

MIDI THRU: YES
Set this to NO if you don't want the information played on your MID keyboard to be sent through Band-in-a-Box to the output driver.

Tip: If Midi Thru is not working while the program is not playing- then you have set the IRQ # incorrectly when installing your MIDI driver into Windows (remove the driver, and then add it again to reset the IRQ #)

CONTROLLERS THRU: YES
Guitar Synthesizers and Wind Controllers send huge amounts of MIDI data which can slow Windows down a lot. If you want to prevent this information from being sent thru, then set to NO.

USE THRU CHANNEL: YES
Band-in-a-Box uses the THRU as a Part just like Bass/Drums/Piano. The Thru is rechannelized to the Thru Channel you have set. if you would prefer to set the Thru channel yourself from your Midi controller, set to NO.

KB LOCAL: NO
If you are hearing the information played on your Keyboard played twice (an echo effect) then set KB LOCAL to NO. If you can't hear what you are playing at all, set KB LOCAL to Yes.

OUTPUT SYNC/START INFO: NO
If you want to SYNC Band-in-a-Box with an external sequencer, set SYNC info to Yes.
see Recording to External Hardware Sequencers
SEND EXTRA NOTE OFFS: NO
Leave this at NO unless you are having trouble with Stuck notes when you press STOP.
If you set it to YES Band-in-a-Box will send a sweep of all notes off, in addition to the selected notes off that were playing when you press stop.

ALLOW LYRIC DISPLAY: YES
If you have lots of songs with lyrics, and are doing a session that you don't want to see the lyrics set this to NO , and no lyrics will be displayed.


GS Patches on Higher Banks

Roland GS Synthesizers have Patches available on higher Banks.
 Here is a list of  them

Patch Name	Patch #	Bank #

Detuned Rhodes	5	8

Detuned Elec. Piano	6	8

Coupled Harpsichord	7	8

Church Bell	15	8

Detuned Organ 1	17	8

Detuned Organ 2	18	8

Church Organ 2  	20	8

Italian Accordion	22	8

Ukulele	25	8

12 String Guitar      	26	8

Mandolin	26	16

Hawaiian Guitar   	27	8

Chorus Guitar	28	8

Funk Guitar	29	8

Feedback Guitar	31	8

Guitar Feedback	32	8

Synth Bass 3	39	8

Synth Bass 4	40	8

Orchestra	49	8

Synth Strings 3  	51	8

Brass 2	62	8

Synth Brass 3	63	8

Synth Brass 4	64	8

Tasiho Koto	81	8

Castanets	108	8

Concert Bass Drum	116	8

Melodic Tom 2	117	8

TR-808 Tom	119	8


Drum Note Assignment Dialog Box

If you have been unable to find a preset drum map (tutorial #4) that matches your synth's drum notes, then you'll need to type in the drum notes that your machine uses.

To do this , you need to

Hook your Midi controller up to play the Drum sounds from the Keyboard.
Play up and down the keyboard to hear all the drum sounds. Locate note 36 as a starting point (see below)

Type the Midi note numbers for the various instruments as you find them on your drum machine

Then press the SAVE button to save the kit as MYSETUP.DK. If you are making a kit to save under a different name, then save the kit under Midi | Save Alternate Patch/Drum Kit..

Tip: Here's how to find out where Midi note Numbers are on your synth and drum machine.
We took this screen shot while playing Midi note 36 on a Midi controller. If you have Midi In hooked up, you can play various C notes till it matches the location below.(Below the word 'Bass')  Then you can mark that note on your controller as note 36. The notes are then numbered (chromatically) 36, 37(C#),38(D) etc. (Some people call note 36 C3 , others call it C2.)


Favorite Patches Dialog Box

For each of the 8 parts (bass/piano/drums/guitar/horns/strings/melody/thru) you can assign 10 favorite instruments. Once assigned, these instruments are easily set

 see Using Favorite Patches

THESE ARE GENERAL MIDI INSTRUMENT NUMBERS. THEY ARE NOT THE PATCH NUMBERS ON YOUR SYNTHESIZER.(unless your synth is General Midi)
For example the 33 for Bass refers definitely to Acoustic Bass, because Acoustic Bass is Instrument #33 in General Midi Patch Map. The Patch Map you have installed or made handles the conversion to your synths patch numbers.


Favorite Combos Dialog Box

A "Favorite Combo" is a group of patch changes ( 1 for each part ) that are sent out as a Batch when you send one of the combos (see below).

For example , you could setup Combo #1 to be an Acoustic Jazz Combo which would send out patches like Acoustic Bass, Acoustic Piano, Acoustic Guitar, Flute etc.

To send one of the combo group of Patch changes
1. Select the "Combo" part
2. Then click on the Favorites button

THESE ARE GENERAL MIDI INSTRUMENT NUMBERS. THEY ARE NOT THE PATCH NUMBERS ON YOUR SYNTHESIZER.(unless your synth is General Midi)
For example the 33 for Bass refers definitely to Acoustic Bass, because Acoustic Bass is Instrument #33 in General Midi Patch Map. The Patch Map you have installed or made handles the conversion to your synths patch numbers.


Patch Map Dialog Box

This dialog box allows you to "Make a Patch Map"

Type in the Patch number that your synth uses for each instrument listed below

If your synth doesn't have an exact match, use a nice sounding patch that it does have.

For example: Suppose that your Synth has Acoustic Piano at Patch 41.
On the Midi Patch Map Dialog Box screen: Move the cursor to the Acoustic Piano, and type 41.
Once you have done this (made a patch map) , whenever Band-in-a-Box encounters Acoustic Piano (which is General Midi instrument #1) , it will look up this Patch Map, and then send out Patch 41 to your synth.
After you have done this, you never refer to instruments in Band-in-a-Box by your synth's number, instead you'll use the General Midi instrument number( i.e. Acoustic Piano =1) . So if you are Saving a Song with Patches  or Assigning favorite instruments or combos you will type #1 to tell Band-in-a-Box that it is Acoustic Piano to use.
The # list of the General Midi Patch Numbers is available inside Band-in-a-Box by the Midi | Display General Midi Patch List , and is available also in most dialog boxes.

We use Roland Numbering Which is Numbering from 1-128 . Some other manufacturer's use numbering from 0 to 127 . So to get patch 0 on a Korg M1 for example, you type a 1 on the Band-in-a-Box Patch Map. The beauty of setting up the Patch Map, is that , once you have set up the patch map ,you can then forget about all these numbering issues and just use General Midi numbers. But it is important to recognize this when you are making the map.

What are the advantages of doing this :
Patch changes can be built into styles which will work on any synthesizer..
Songs can be saved with patches which can play on any synthesizer. (For example if you save Clarinet Polka with Melody instrument =72= Clarinet, and then give it to a friend with a different synth, he/she will still hear Clarinet, because the Patch map will translate Instrument 72 to the Clarinet Patch in his/her Patch map.)


Midi File Dialog Box

Band-in-a-Box  writes type 1 Standard Midi Files (multiple tracks)

File to Disk : This saves a Midi File to Disk. You can then load the Midi File into your sequencer for further editing.

Clipboard : This copies the Midi File to the Windows Clipboard . The type of the file on the Clipboard is called "Standard Midi File" (without the "" mark.). Some other Music programs will then allow you to just Edit | Paste the Midi File on Clipboard into their program. For example CakeWalk for Windows, Musicator and WinJammer allow this. Word processors are adding MultiMedia support which will allow you to paste Midi Files into a letter you're sending !


Step Edit Melody
Step Edit Melody Dialog Box

NOTE NUMBER
The note is played out through the Midi driver so you can hear it .
The note is also drawn on the Keyboard at the top of the screen so you can see it.
Input the Midi Note Number . ( Every 'C' note is a multiple of 12 (12,24,36,48). Notes are numbered as C =12, C#=13,D =14 etc. ). In the example above therefore the note =69 would be 9 semitones above the C at 60 so would be an 'A'.

VELOCITY
Type in a velocity to control the volume that the note is played at. Change the velocity to zero to stop a note from being played. Note that you can globally change the volume of a melody track, from the melody pull down menu

BAR # , BEAT NUMBER  ,TICK
The Bar, Beat and Tick is the time that the note is played.
Ticks are the smallest unit 120 ticks per note.

DURATION is the length of time that the note is played. 120 ticks of duration = 1 beat.

NEXT, PREVIOUS
This allows step editing of a melody that has been recorded already. Use the NEXT AND PREVIOUS button to move through the Melody one note at a time.


Melody Quantize Dialog Box

RESOLUTION

Choose the division you would like the track quantized to. Choosing 16 will quantize to 16th notes.

STARTING BAR AND CHORUS #,  # BARS

The Quantization will begin at the values you select and will be quantized for the #BARS you select

% STRENGTH

Choose 100% if you want the notes quantized exactly to the division. Otherwise the notes will be moved the % toward the target quantization.

QUANTIZE START TIMES

Usually you set this to Yes. If you don't want the beginnings of the notes quantized, set to no

QUANTIZE DURATIONS

This quantizes the END of the notes. Usually leave off.


GS Part Settings
GS Part Settings Dialog Box

The GS Part settings are for Roland GS compatible synthesizers only.
These include the Sound Canvas, SCC1 card, JV-30 and others.
These synthesizers have 16 parts. The default is for part 1 to be channel 1, part 2 channel 2 etc.
But you can change a part to another channel .
This allows you to use the same channel for 2 parts , so that you hear a layer of 2 instruments playing the same part.

For example, let's say you want the piano part in Band-in-a-Box to have strings doubling it, with the strings part up an octave .
You can use this dialog box to do this . Here's how to do this
- use an unused part - PART 11
- set Channel = 3  ( The same as the Piano Channel)
- set Patch = 49 ( The General Midi Number for Strings)
The other settings are optional :

BANK NUMBER =0
VOLUME = 60  ( Quieter than the piano part )
KEY SHIFT = 12 ( So it will play an octave higher )
Allow Patch Changes NO
Allow Volume Changes NO
( Setting Patch Changes/Volume Changes prevents any future patch/volume changes on the Piano channel from changing patches on the strings (Channel 11). You can use this dialog Box to change patches on the Channel 11 Strings channel )

Other examples of  instrument doublings:
Double (or triple) Melody instrument (Trumpet + Sax + Trombone Octave below) etc.
Double Fretless Bass with Fretless Bass One octave below + Lots of Chorus

To stop the instrument doubling you can either restore the Channel number of the Part to the previous setting, or Reset the GS instrument (From the GS Menu )


GS Reverb Type Dialog Box
GS Reverb and Chorus Type Dialog Box

GS Reverb Type or Chorus Type

Roland GS instruments (Sound Canvas , SCC1 et al ) allow different type of reverb and chorus settings. This dialog box allows you to select them.


Song Settings Dialog Box

These settings are accessed by pressing the [image]. Settings button (on the main screen under the song title.)

These are additional song settings that are saved with the song

VARY MIDDLE STYLE 	Default = YES
If set to Yes, the song will play in substyle B throughout the Middle Choruses. The Middle Choruses include all choruses except the first and last.
For example in Jazz Swing, since the B substyle is Swing, all of the middle choruses will have swing bass. ( The A substyle is playing half notes on the bass )
If set to no the middle choruses will play a and b substyles as you have set in the song using part markers

ALLOW EMBELLISHMENT  	DEFAULT = YES

The Jazz styles include embellishment of chords. This means that if you type a C7 chord, the piano player may play a C13 or a C7b9 . This makes the arrangement sound more authentic.

Tip: If you are hearing b9 and b13 embellishments on a C7 chord that is clashing with the melody , you should rename the chord C9 or C13 , which will insure natural 9 and 13 embellishments.

If you want to disable the embellishment for a certain song, set this to no.
There are very few situations that you wouldn't want it on , especially if you name some chords as C9 instead of C7 (in situations where the melody clashes with the embellishment  as discussed in the tip above.)
You would need to set it to no for any song that you don't want it on.

TAG SETTINGS

A tag (also called a coda) is a group of bars that are played in the last chorus of a song.
If you set the TAG EXISTS field to YES, then the TAG will play during the last chorus of the song. The TAG begins after the bar you specify as TAG JUMP AFTER BAR # . The song then jumps to the SONG TAG BEGIN BAR # and plays till SONG TAG END. At the end of the tag the song then plays a 2 bar ending as usual.


Patches

A "Patch " is an instrument name. Examples of patches are Acoustic Bass, Electric Piano or Violin.


How To (Index of topics)

How to ...

How to ...
Troubleshooting
MAKING A SONG
Typing  in chords
List of Chords
Using Part Markers to change Substyles or insert drum fills
Copy/Paste sections of chords
Intros/Endings/Begin/End/# of choruses
Lyrics Entry
Song Embellishment
Vary Middle Style of Song
Selecting/Changing Styles
Recording Melodies
Saving Songs to Disk
Making MIDI files  ( Clipboard or Disk)
LOADING AND PLAYING SONGS
Opening Songs from disk
Playing/Pausing/Stopping Songs
Muting Instruments
Changing Tempo
Changing Key ( Transpose)
 	Watching Piano Keyboard Display
JukeBox Playback
Wizard Playalong feature
Recording  to External Hardware sequencers
CHANGING SETTINGS
Changing Patches (instruments)
Using Favorite Patches
Changing Volume
Changing Reverb/Chorus/Bank
Changing Combos/Master Volume/Reverb/Chorus
GS functions

STYLEMAKER:  MAKING STYLES OR EDITING STYLES
StyleMaker Table of Contents
StyleMaker How To Section
StyleMaker Overview
Tutorial #5: Editing an Existing Style
Tutorial #6: Making a New Style
StyleMaker: Making Drum Patterns
StyleMaker: Making Bass Patterns
StyleMaker: Making Piano,Guitar,Strings Patterns

FILES ASSOCIATED WITH BAND-IN-A-BOX
All Band-in-a-Box song/style/patch files are directly compatible between Windows/DOS/Mac And Atari systems.
This section describes these files and how to transfer between systems.
Essential Program files (BBW.EXE,*.DLL,ZZ*.STY)
Config files (MYSETUP.DK,INTRFACE.BBW)
Song files (*.?G?)
Style files (*.STY)
Transferring IBM/Mac/Atari

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Typing in Chords

The basic way of entering a song in Band-in-a-Box is by typing in the Chords to the song.

This is done from the QWERTY keyboard [image].

Chords are typed in using standard chord symbols (Like C or Fm7 or Bb7 or Bb13#9/E)

To start typing in chords:

Go to the top (Bar 1 ) of the chord sheet. The HOME key will get you there as will the  small button at the top of the chords sheet.

Blank the Chordsheet by [image] click  on the [image] button

 This is the Chord Highlight cell. Chords will be entered wherever this is placed.

You may move this around by Cursor Keys, Enter Key, Or Mouse Pointer Click [image].

The chord highlight bar moves 2 beats at a time.

. When you have the [image] (chord highlight cell) over the area that you want to enter a chord, you then type the name of the chord you would like.

For example type c6 to get the C6 chord. Note that you should never have to use the SHIFT key, as Band-in-a-Box will sort this out for you.

Use b for  'flat '  e.g. Bb7

Use # or 3  for Sharp  e.g. F#7 .  ( # is the uppercase symbol of  3, so you can actually type F37 to get F#7 - Band-in-a-Box will sort out the case, saving you the effort of using <SHIFT>3 to type the # symbol.

Use / for Slash Chords with alternate Roots such as C7/E  ( C7 with E bass)

Use a comma to enter 2 chords in a [image] cell. In the example below, we would type Ab9,G9 to get the 2 chords in the cell (on beat 3 and 4 of bar 2)

The sequence of keystrokes  to enter all these chords above would be

HOME c6>am7>dm7>ab9,g9>c6/e>>a739

(the > indicates cursor key to the right)

( we're able to type A7#9 as a739 because BB knows to use the uppercase of the 3 which is # )

Hint: The fastest way to type in chords is to use your left hand to type in the chords. Your right hand stays on the cursor keys (or mouse [image]) to advance the [image] highlight cell

to the next bar/beat after you've typed in the chords


Chord List

( Commonly used chords are displayed here in bold type )

(major chords)

  C,CMAJ,C6, CMAJ7, CMAJ9,CMAJ13,C69,CMAJ7#5,

  C5b, Caug,C+,

  CMAJ9#11, CMAJ13#11,

(minor chords)

   Cm,Cm6,Cm7,Cm9,Cm11,Cm13,

   Cmaug,Cm#5,

   CmMAJ7,

(half diminished)

   Cm7b5,

(diminished)

   Cdim,

( dominant 7th chords )

   C7,7+, C9+, C13+,  C13, C7b13, C7#11, C13#11, C7#11b13, C9,

   C9b13, C9#11, C13#11, C9#11b13, C7b9, C13b9, C7b9b13, C7b9#11,

   C13b9#11, C7b9#11b13, C7#9, C13#9, C7#9b13, C9#11, C13#9#11, C7#9#11b13,

   C7b5, C13b5, C7b5b13, C9b5, C9b5b13, C7b5b9, C13b5b9, C7b5b9b13,

   C7b5#9, C13b5#9, C7b5#9b13, C7#5, C13#5, C7#5#11, C13#5#11, C9#5,

   C9#5#11, C7#5b9, C13#5b9, C7#5b9#11, C13#5b9#11, C7#5#9, C13#5#9#11,

   C7#5#9#11, C13#5#9#11

( sustained 4 chords )

   Csus ,C7sus,C9sus,

   C13sus, C7susb13, C7sus#11, C13sus#11, C7sus#11b13,

   C9susb13, C9sus#11, C13sus#11, C9sus#11b13, C7susb9, C13susb9,

   C7susb9b13, C7susb9#11,

   C13susb9#11, C7susb9#11b13, C7sus#9, C13sus#9, C7sus#9b13, C9sus#11,

   C13sus#9#11, C7sus#9#11b13,

   C7susb5, C13susb5, C7susb5b13, C9susb5, C9susb5b13, C7susb5b9,

   C13susb5b9, C7susb5b9b13,   C7susb5#9, C13susb5#9, C7susb5#9b13,

   C7sus#5, C13sus#5,

   C7sus#5#11, C13sus#5#11, C9sus#5,

   C9sus#5#11, C7sus#5b9, C13sus#5b9,

   C7sus#5b9#11, C13sus#5b9#11, C7sus#5#9, C13sus#5#9#11, C7sus#5#9#11,

   C13sus#5#9#11,

Note 1: it is not necessary to type upper or lower case.
       the program will sort this out for you.
Note 2: Any chord may be entered with an alternate root ("Slash Chord")
       e.g.: C7/E    = C7 with E bass
Note 3: Separate chords with commas to enter 2 chords in a 2 beat cell
       e.g.: Dm7,G7

new chords added
C5b   : This is C flat 5. It is spelled this way to avoid confusion
C2 C5 C4 C69 C7alt Cm7#5

You can now type C-7 for Cm7  (i.e. use the minus sign)
or C7-9 for C7b9

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)


Using Part Markers to Change Substyles or Intert Drum Fills
Using Part Markers to Change Substyles or Insert Drum Fills

These are Part Markers -->

Part Markers are placed on the chordsheet  to indicate a new part of the song. They typically occur every 8 bars or so, but may be placed at the beginning of any bar.

HOW TO PLACE A PART MARKER

by  [image] :	 Move the  [image] cell to the bar that you want the part marker at. Then press the P key. Repeatedly pressing the P key will toggle between Part markers [image] [image] or NO PART MARKER .

by [image] Position the Mouse Arrow directly over the [image] Bar line (or existing Part Marker). Then Click the left mouse button. Repeatedly click to toggle between A, B and NO PART MARKER.

SUBSTYLES

Each style has 2 available substyles [image] and [image]. The song continues to play in one substyle until it encounters a new part marker. There will always be a part marker at bar 1 so that Band-in-a-Box knows what substyle to begin with.

Substyle [image] is usually used for the used for the verses of the song.

Substyle [image] is usually used for the Bridge of the song, and for soloing in the Middle Choruses. The entire Middle choruses of the song will be automatically played in [image] substyle. This is great for Jazz Songs that you want to play swing throughout the middle (soloing) choruses and revert to the A substyle for the first and last.

( If you want to retain the [image] parts in the Middle Choruses you would need to set  the Vary Substyle in Middle Choruses to no )

DRUM FILLS

A one bar drum fill will occur in the bar preceding a part marker.

Example: If you want a drum fill at bar 7 of a song, you insert a [image] or [image] part marker  at the bar after the bar with the drum fill.(Bar 8). You can either retain the current substyle or change the substyle (A or B) when you place the part marker .


Copy and Pasting Section of Chords

Copying a section of chords is done in a manner similar to copying text in a Windows word processor. This method is different than the DOS version of Band-in-a-Box, but is easier.

COPYING CHORDS TO THE CLIPBOARD

Select the region to copy

Place the mouse [image] cursor at the bar to begin the selection. Then, holding down the left mouse button, drag the mouse over the region . As you do this you will see the region will be inverted (Look mainly Black). When you have selected the proper region of chords to copy , then  :

Copy the selected (blackened) region to the clipboard

click  on the  [image] Copy button or Choose Copy from the Edit Menu

PASTING CHORDS TO ANOTHER SECTION OF THE CHORDSHEET

Assuming you have already copied some chords to the Clipboard (described above) you then paste into you chordsheet by :

 	Move the [image] highlight cell to the bar to begin the paste of chords.

click  on the [image] Paste button or Choose Paste from the Edit Menu

Tip: Remember that the Copied section remains in the Clipboard and can be repeatedly used. Example: If you're inputting a song with verse, verse, bridge, verse , you can just copy the first verse to the Clipboard, and then repeatedly paste in the other verses. The clipboard remains even if you load in a new song, so you can copy and paste between songs .


Intros/Endings/Begin/End of Choruses/#choruses
Intros/Endings/Begin/End of Choruses/# of choruses

A typical song has the following elements:

Intro ( if present is typically 4 bars long)

Chorus(es) (typically 3 or 4 choruses in a 3 minute song )

    Note:(we use the term "chorus" as it is used in jazz music. A chorus therefore means once through the entire form of the song. A typical length of a chorus is 32 bars. A song may have the form AABA where the A sections are verses and the B section is the Bridge. This entire form AABA is considered one chorus.

Ending  (Band-Box always plays a 2 bar ending following all of the choruses)

Putting in an INTRO

You select the beginning and end bars of the chorus. (see below). If you select a bar greater than 1 for the first bar of the chorus, then Band-in-a-Box knows that you want the previous bars for an INTRO

Example:  4 bar intro to a song. Type in the 4 bars of intro chords, starting at bar 1 of the chordsheet. Then at bar 5 you will begin typing in the chords of the chorus. Set the beginning of the chorus to bar 5 , by clicking on the chorus begin button (see below)

SELECTING BARS TO BEGIN AND END THE CHORUS

CHORUS BEGIN BUTTON :Bar for chorus to begin

click on the Chorus Begin Button. Then [image] click on the Bar that you want to select as the first bar of the chorus. The Bar number that you select will then be displayed.

CHORUS END BUTTON :Bar for chorus to End

click on the Chorus End Button. Then [image] click on the Bar that you want to select as the last bar of the chorus. The Bar number that you select will then be displayed.

# CHORUSES BUTTON # choruses to play

click on the # Choruses Button. Then  choose the number of choruses that you want. Typical 3 minute song has about 3 choruses.

LOOPING CHECK BOX. I

If checked, the song will play endlessly (until stopped by the Escape Key or STOP button). It loops at the end of the ending , back to the beginning of the song. If you're practicing a song, you probably want to have the looping ON. Otherwise the song will stop at the end.

Tip: Looping can be changed as the song is playing. This is not available in the DOS version.

 Additional Settings button


Lyrics Entry

You may enter lyrics (words) into the Band-in-a-Box program.

To begin or end entry of the lyrics

click on the [image] button.

or Choose Enter Lyrics at Current Bar from the EDIT Pull Down Menu .

Type in the lyrics to the song. The lyrics consist of 64 lines of text. There is one line (78 characters) for each set of 4 bars( 1 row of chords).  Type in the lyrics using typical editing keys. The Up/Down cursor keys will get you to the previous/next line of lyrics.

COORDINATING THE LYRICS WITH THE CHORDS

The [image] highlight cell controls what section of lyrics you are entering. When you have finished a line of lyrics, you should [image] click  on the chordsheet on to the bar of lyrics that you want to edit. You may quickly read all of the lyrics by clicking on every row of chords when the lyric window is open.


Selecting /Changing Styles

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There are 2 types of styles in Band-in-a-Box.

CHOOSING A BUILT IN STYLE

The first 24 styles that we made were made our BUILT IN to the program, and are thus referred to as "Built in Styles. "The Built in Styles may be selected from the Styles Pull Down Menu as well as [image] click on the choose built in style button

CHOOSING A USER STYLE

The other styles that we make are called USER STYLES. They are on disk as files ending in .STY. To choose a user style , [image] click on the Choose a USER Style button. Then select a file name ending in .STY .


Recording Melodies

Band-in-a-Box has a built in sequencer allowing you to record and edit a melody track.

Melodies are recorded from a MIDI keyboard connected to Band-in-a-Box by your MIDI driver.

Recording From the Beginning of the song

If you want to record from the beginning of the song,

click on the [image] button

or Type R

 or Choose Record Melody from the Melody pull down menu.

The song will begin at the 2 bar click in. You can record in notes during this period (pick up notes) and continue to record as far as you want.

Recording from any Bar

To record from any Bar and Chorus

 Press ALT R

or Choose Record Melody From Any Bar from the Melody Pull Down Menu

You should then :

Select the chorus # to start record

                  (from the dialog box that has popped up)

then	click on the Bar that you want to record from

You will then hear playback starting from 2 bars prior to the bar you have selected. This is to give you time to get ready to record, and to listen to the style, tempo etc. You may begin playing the melody before the end of the 2 bar lead in. Pre-existing recorded notes in the lead in will not be erased.

To record to the Ending of the Song

Choose Record from any bar (as described above)

Select Chorus # = to the # choruses in the song

Then [image] click on the ending bar of the song. This is the bar following the last bar of the song. For example: If the song chorus is from bar # 1- 32 for 3 choruses, the ending bar is Chorus #3, Bar #33.

Hint: Here's the fastest way to Record an Entire Song

Press R to Record from the beginning. Record an entire first chorus.

( If you make a mistake, Press ALT R to Record from the bar that you made a mistake )

Then Choose Copy 1st chorus to Whole Song from the Melody Pull Down menu. You now have a melody recorded over all the choruses.

Now record the 2 bar ending. See above for recording the ending.

Related Topics
Step Edit Melody Dialog Box


Saving Songs to Disk

Once you have made a song , or have made changes to a song , you can easily save the song by [image] click on the [image] button. (or choose Save from the File Menu).

You can then type an 8 character name for the song.

Don't add the extension, Band-in-a-Box adds it for you.

Explanation of the Extension that Band-in-a-Box adds for you

It is not essential that you understand this
If the song has a melody the extension will begin with M (otherwise S)
The second letter of the song name is G
The third letter is the style of the song (1-9 and A-N for built in styles and U for a User style)
Example: IPANEMA.MGU The 'M' tells us that a  Melody is recorded. The 'G' is always present in song names telling us that it is a song .The 'U' tells us that the style is a user style.
Example: Georgia.SG1 . The 'S' indicates that no melody is recorded. The '1' indicates styles #1 which is Jazz Swing.

Important : Make sure you remember to save your songs as Song files ( Not as MIDI files). The song files contain the names of the chords etc. and are much smaller than MIDI files. MIDI files can't be reloaded into Band-in-a-Box !!

See related Topics : Saving a song with Patches, Making Midi Files


Making MIDI files

Band-in-a-Box makes Standard Midi Files. This is the way to export a Band-in-a-Box performance to other Music programs (such as sequencers like CakeWalk or Musicator).You can then read in the Midi File into the other music program.

Remember that MIDI files can't be read back into Band-in-a-Box, so that if you want to save a song to be read back into Band-in-a-Box it must be saved as a song in the usual manner (see Saving Songs).

HOW TO MAKE A MIDI FILE

click on the [image] button.

( or press F6  or choose  Make a Standard Midi File from the File Menu)

You will then see the Midi File Dialog Box. This will let you choose either the Clipboard or a file on Disk as the destination for your Midi File.

If you choose Midi File to Disk-

the Midi File will be save as a file with extension .MID. It will be saved to the directory that you specify in the Save Dialog Box.

If you choose Midi File to Clipboard-

the Midi File will be copied to the clipboard. You can then Switch to another Music Program (Such as CakeWalk for Windows or WinJammer ) and choose the Paste option. This will paste in the Midi File to the program without any file being written to disk !

Technical Notes :
The name of the Clipboard Format for Midi Files is "Standard Midi File" (without the "" marks). Not all music programs support the pasting of Files to the Clipboard. To confirm that your file is indeed in the Clipboard - run the Clipboard program that comes with Windows. The Midi Files are Type 1 - Multiple Tracks .


Opening Songs from Disk

To OPEN or load Band-in-a-Box songs from disk.

The easiest way is to [image] click on the [image] button. If you don't use a mouse you can either press the F3 key or Choose Open Song from the File menu

You may then choose a song to load in

This box displays the name of the song.  If you know the exact name of the song (including drive/path name and extension)  then it will be loaded directly Example : C:\music\bb\mysong.mg4.

I

You can restrict the  type of songs you're looking for  to songs with melodies, jazz songs etc.

If you type the first letter of the song name, the selection list will jump to that letter. You may repeatedly press different letters to scan the song list.

To open only songs with melodies choose this option from the File Menu (or ALT F3)

To open songs only in current style, Press F7 key or Choose Open Filtered by Style from the File Menu


Playing/Pausing/Stopping Songs

Using the [image] mouse . Click on ...

Using Keystrokes instead
Tap <SPACEBAR >TWICE  to start play or press F4
<SPACEBAR> to STOP  or ESCAPE key to STOP playback
Play From any bar (from Play Menu)


Muting Instruments

To turn instruments off (mute instruments)

Click on the desired part  with the RIGHT mouse button to mute or unmute it.

When the part is muted, the instrument name turns to red


Tempo Changes

To change the tempo of a song.

The tempo is displayed on the main screen under the title

Click the mouse on the [image] Arrows to change the tempos.

LEFT mouse Click to change by 5 at a time

RIGHT mouse click to change by 1 at a time


Key Changes (Transposition)

The Key Signature of the song is displayed on the main screen under the title.

To change the Key , [image] click on the Key signature  This displays a list box . Choose the new key that you would like.

Band-in-a-Box then asks you if you would like to transpose the song or not.


Piano Keyboard Display

The different instruments appear displayed on various parts of the piano keyboard during playback.

Hint: Here's a simple way to test if your Midi In Driver is receiving notes from your Midi In Controller and that you have installed the correct IRQ # in the Control Panel. While the program is not playing, play some notes on the controller. If you see the notes on the Piano, then the IRQ matches and Midi Thru will be working.


Juke Box Playback

Press the [image] button to Start or Stop the Juke Box.

The Juke Box will Load and Play an entire subdirectory (folder) of songs. Songs play continuously, one after the other. The JukeBox will continue to play while you move to other Windows programs or to a DOS Session !.You can therefore use the JukeBox to provide background music for Windows.

JUKE BOX OPTIONS

They are :

Only Play song with melodies: If YES , the program plays only songs with melodies- that is songs with a .MG? extension. If NO , the JukeBox will include ALL songs in the subdirectory.

Change Melody instrument: Hearing song after song played with the same melody instrument would get a little monotonous. If you set this option to YES , the program will randomly change the melody instrument between your favorite 10 Melody instruments.

Random order Playback: If YES the songs will be played in Random order (though not repeating a song). If NO the songs will be played in the order in the subdirectory.

Hide Titles (till title clicked)

This feature is used to play the "Guess the Song" game. When set to YES , the titles are hidden till you click the title. When someone guesses the Song Title, you can click in the Title box to verify if he/she is correct. You'll probably want to restrict the JukeBox to Only Play song with melodies unless you can guess songs without melodies !!

Audible Count-In Click

While listening to the JukeBox, you might not want to hear the Count In Click. If set to NO, you won't hear the Count In Click.


Wizard Playalong Feature

The Wizard is a Playalong feature that allows you to use the

 QWERTY Keyboard to Playalong with Band-in-a-Box. The neat part about the Wizard is that it insures that whatever you play sounds good !

HOW TO TURN THE WIZARD ON/OFF

click on [image] checkbox at top right of screen to turn Wizard feature on/off.

Or Choose Wizard Playalong Feature from Play Menu

( The Wizard is only active During Playback .)

HOW TO PLAY THE WIZARD

The Wizard Keys are active during Playback. The Active keys are the lower 2 rows of the

 keyboard.

There are 2 common ways to play the Wizard

"Vertical" Playing (Arpeggios) This type of playing just uses chord tones, and therefore only uses the bottom row of the keyboard.

"Linear" Playing (Scales) This type of Playing uses scale tones, which include the chord tones and passing tones. The scale is played using both rows therefore, usually alternating between top and bottom rows as shown in the diagram below.

CHANGING INSTRUMENTS -SETTINGS FOR THE WIZARD

The Wizard is a playalong instrument , so is treated just like the THRU instrument. Changing Instruments/Volume/Reverb etc. for the Wizard is therefore the same as for the THRU instrument. (i.e. click on the THRU button , then select instrument etc.)

You cannot record the Wizard at this time.


Recording to External Hardware Sequencers

Many people use Band-in-a-Box in live situations. If you are unable to bring your computer with you, a good alternative is a hardware sequencer.

The newest hardware sequencers read Standard Midi Files. An example of this is the
Roland Sound Brush .To transfer songs to the Sound Brush, do the following:
Make a MIDI file of the song by pressing the [image] button.
Either save the file directly to a 3.5" 720K floppy disk or copy it to the floppy
The Sound Brush is then able to read the IBM formatted disk with MIDI files on 	it.

Older sequencers (like the MC500) are unable to read Standard Midi files. It is much harder to transfer files to these Sequencers.
To do this you must:
Set the sequencer to External Sync
Set Band-in-a-Box to Output Sync from the Midi Settings Screen
Then press record on the sequencer and play on Band-in-a-Box. Hopefully you sequencer can record multiple tracks at once - otherwise you'll have to repeat the process several times.


Changing Patches (Instruments)

There are several ways to change patches  in Band-in-a-Box.

Band-in-a-Box has several parts (Bass/Piano/Drums/Guitar/Horns/Strings/Thru). You can change Patches on any Part.

Booting up with Certain patches:

Band-in-a-Box saves your patch ,volume, reverb, chorus and bank settings in a file called MYSETUP.DK. This file is saved whenever you exit Band-in-a-Box. When you restart the Band-in-a-Box program these patch changes get sent to your synthesizer.

Changing patches during use of the program

The easiest way to change patches on a part is to

1. Select the part by [image] click on the desired part to change

2. Then press the [image] Favorites button to select an instrument from a menu of 10 favorite instruments that you have assigned from the Choose Favorite Settings Screen

If the patch that you want is not one of the 10 Favorite patches, then click on the

 Instrument Combo Box. You will then see a menu of 128 instrument names. This list is the General MIDI patch list .Scroll down the list to find the Patch that you want.

Saving Patches with Songs

Patches may be saved with songs. This is covered in the topic -

Saving Patches with songs Dialog


Combo functions

The [image] button at the top left of the screen allows you to change settings on all instruments at once.

Combo Patch Changes:
First :Click on the [image] button.
Then to change favorite combo patches  click on the : Favorites button.
You will then see a menu of 10 combo settings . A combo consists of a group of patch changes - 1 for each part. You can setup and customize your own combos in the
Choose Favorite Instruments Dialog Box (combo button)

Master volume/reverb/chorus changes- GS instruments only !
First :Click on the [image] button.
then Change the Volume/Reverb or Chorus setting . This is described in the
Changing Patches section


Using Favorite Patches

Each part (bass/piano/drums/guitar/horns/strings/thru) can have 10 Favorite Patches assigned. Assigning the Favorite Patches makes it easy to change Patches quickly - by clicking on the [image] Favorites button.

To assign the Favorite patches, visit the Favorite Patches Dialog Box.

 Remember that you will be typing in General Midi Patch Numbers (not the Patch numbers on your synth-unless your synth is General Midi compatible)


Changing Volume
Changing Volume, Panning, Reverb, Chorus, or Bank

To change volume ,panning, reverb, chorus, or bank of a part

1. Select the part by [image] click on the desired part to change

2. Then [image] Click on the [image] arrow keys to increase or decrease the setting.

The LEFT mouse button increases/decreases by 5 at a time

The Right Mouse button increase/decrease by 1 at a time


GS Functions

Roland developed the GS standard prior to the General Midi Standard. The GS standard has extra features not yet supported by General Midi  There are a few features supported by Band-in-a-Box that are GS features but not yet part of the General Midi standard. Roland GS synths like Roland Sound Canvas, SCC1 card, JV-30 will respond to these GS functions but other General Midi instruments may or may not.

These features are described elsewhere in the dialog box documentation.:

Master control of Volume /Panning/Reverb/Chorus
Part settings
Choose type of Reverb or Chorus


Essential Program Files

Band-in-a-Box for Windows requires the following files to operate.

BBW.EXE	Executable file
CPALETTE.DLL	required DLL
BBWDLL.DLL	DLL handling playback
(future versions of this DLL will be named BBWDLL2.DLL etc.)
ZZ*.STY	Band-in-a-Box needs Style Files for the built in Styles. These
styles are named starting with ZZ


Configuration files

Band-in-a-Box uses the following files for configuration. If you want to restore Band-in-a-Box to the "factory settings", you may erase these files (or rename them)

MYSETUP.DK
This file contains :

Midi Channels/Patches/Volumes/Reverb/Chorus/Bank
Patch Map
Favorite Patches, Favorite Combos settings
Drum Kit

( Each of the other .DK files also contains this information)

INTRFACE.BBW
This file contains info specific to Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Name of current Midi Drivers, Wizard status etc.


Song Files

Song files end in ?G? extension

If the song has a melody the extension will begin with M (otherwise S)
The second letter of the song name is G
The third letter is the style of the song (1-9 and A-N for built in styles and U for a User style)
Example: IPANEMA.MGU The 'M' tells us that a  Melody is recorded. The 'G' is always present in song names telling us that it is a song .The 'U' tells us that the style is a user style.
Example:Georgia.SG1 . The 'S' indicates that no melody is recorded. The '1' indicates styles #1 which is Jazz Swing.

The song files are quite small. (about 2K average). This means that you can store hundreds or thousands of songs without eating up too much of your hard drive space.


Style Files

User created styles end in extension of .STY . They reside on disk and may be loaded in to Band-in-a-Box.

See related topic Selecting/Changing Styles


Transferring IBM/Mac/Atari

All of the Band-in-a-Box song/style and Patch Map files are directly compatible.

IBM to Atari

Song/Style/Patch Map Files are identical. Transfer by modem or IBM formatted 3.5" 720K disk which is read by IBM and ATARI. A good compression program is LHARC because there is a version for IBM and Atari. (unlike PKZIP)

IBM to MAC

Any MAC file automatically gets a 128 byte header added on to it by the Mac system.

If transferring the files by modem, make sure the Mac Modem software strips off the header off the files. Other than that, the files are identical.

If using a floppy drive on the Mac that can read IBM disks- use Apple File Exchange


Troubleshooting

Technical Support :PG Music Inc. 111-266 Elmwood Avenue BUFFALO NY 14222
Phone 416-528-2368 Fax 416-628-2541

MIDI/DRIVER PROBLEMS

Can't hear output
Causes: Midi Output Driver not installed properly, cabling, synthesizer setup, Using more than 1 MIDI program at a time (some drivers don't support this).
Recommend: Cold Reboot of Computer to insure reset of interface etc. Check cabling. Try other software to insure that things are working

Output doesn't sound right
Make sure your channels are set correctly with drums set to the drum channel. The count in is always played on the Drum channel Rim Shot. If you hear the lead in played on a melodic instrument , then the drum channel is not set correctly.

Try disabling Patch changes from the
Midi | Midi Settings Dialog Box .
This will resolve problems caused by incorrect Patch Maps.

Delay in Midi Thru
If Input is working, you should be seeing the piano notes drawn on your screen as you play notes on Midi controller when the song is NOT playing .If you don't see the notes, it means either your interface/driver is not hooked up , or you have installed the Windows MIDI driver with an incorrect IRQ Number. If so , reinstall the Midi driver ( by removing it, and adding it in again ).

OPERATIONAL PROBLEMS

Lockups/Crashes/Incompatibilities etc.
If running in Standard Mode try running in Enhanced Mode ( Win /3 )
( or vice versa ).
Windows runs much faster and smoother when you have over 2mb of memory in your machine.


PG Music Inc. info: Upgrades Tech Support

To contact PG Music for upgrade info or Technical support

PG Music Inc. 111-266 Elmwood Avenue BUFFALO NY 14222 USA
Phone 1-800-268-6272  or 416-528-2368 . Fax 416-628-2541

ADD-ON PRODUCTS
We have Song and Style Disks available. Registered customers will receive information about ordering these products. Contact us for further information.


ReadMe - Latest information not in manual

To contact PG Music for upgrade info or Technical support

PG Music Inc. 111-266 Elmwood Avenue BUFFALO NY 14222 USA
Phone 1-800-268-6272  or 416-528-2368 . Fax 416-628-2541

The following features are implemented in the program but didn't make it into the manual.

Song Tags implemented
Option to display bar #s

(this is accessed from the Edit menu or from the # button on the title area of the screen. Pressing the # button turns on/off the display of bar #s. The best way is to leave the display of bar #s off, and Band-in-a-Box will then turn on the bar # display whenever you are being prompted for a # , and then turn it off.

Melody Quantize Dialog Box


StyleMaker Contents

Overview of StyleMaker
How to Section
Tutorial #5 Editing existing Styles
Tutorial #6 Making a new style
Making Drum Patterns
Making Bass Patterns
Making Piano, Guitar and Strings Patterns

Dialog Boxes

Drum Options
Bass  Options
Piano  Options
Chord Selection Playback
Misc. Settings for Style
Patch Settings saved with style
Importing instruments into a Style
Drum Screen Alternate notes

Pull Down Menu Items


StyleMaker How to Section

How To ...

Edit an Existing Style
Import an Instrument into a Style
Make a New Style
Make Drum Patterns
Make Bass Patterns
Make Piano/Guitar/Strings Patterns
Use Drum Options
Use Bass Options
Use Piano/Guitar/Strings Options


Overview of StyleMaker

The StyleMaker is the section of the program that allows you to create brand new styles or edit existing styles. This is done by recording patterns for each of the drums, bass, piano, guitar and strings parts. If you don't want an instrument in a style you don't need to record any patterns for it.

There are 2 tutorials that explain the process of edit existing styles or making new styles.
Tutorial #5: StyleMaker: Editing Existing Styles
Tutorial #6: Making a New Style

Other topics describe entering the patterns for each instrument

Drum patterns are entered in step time from a Drum Pattern grid.

Bass Patterns,
Piano, Guitar and Strings patterns are recorded in real time as 2 bar patterns in the key of C.

The simplest style consists of 1 pattern each for the instruments that you want in the style. If you like, you can use options available to you called "masks". Masks are options that you set for a pattern to specify when you want the pattern to be played. There is a list of masks in the box below.

MASKS AVAILABLE FOR PATTERNS
Complex Styles can also be made allowing patterns to be recorded that are played only at certain times:

These are referred to as MASKS

Substyle masks        	Substyle A or Substyle B
Chord duration masks	On chords lasting 1,2,4 or 8 beats
Bar masks 	On certain bar #s
Beat masks	On certain beat numbers
Chord masks	On certain types of chords
Roman Numeral masks	On certain Roman numerals (e.g. II chord )
Next interval masks	only when next chord of song is certain interval (e.g. up a fourth)

But StyleMaker™ is loaded with options and features that allow your styles to grow in complexity and number of patterns. For example, it is possible to input up to 600 patterns in a given style. In addition, patterns can be classified by many ways allowing them to be played only at appropriate times. For example, patterns can be given varying lengths or can be assigned to certain types of chords or only to be played on even or odd # bars and many others. We believe that the StyleMaker™ satisfies both the need to create simple styles with repetitive patterns and the ability to intelligently create complex styles.

To create a style you will be creating bass /piano/guitar/strings patterns (in the key of C ) and drum patterns. Once made, the styles are saved to disk and are then ready to be used by the program for playing any song in the selected User style. Styles end up as small files (e.g. 5K ) so 50-60 styles can be stored per 360K floppy disk). Note that styles (with .STY extension) are distinct from song files (.SG? extension). Also, the user created styles are distinct from the built in styles and you cant edit the built in styles.

The StyleMaker™ has been designed to be as flexible as possible.

A simple style would consist of three patterns (one each bass, drums and piano) but more complex and varying styles are created by using more patterns (up to 600 may be entered!).

The styles are made by entering drum, bass and/or piano patterns in the desired style.

Drum patterns:

Are entered in step time from a typical drum programming screen (grid).

Are always entered as 1 bar patterns (longer patterns may be chained together using BAR MASKS  described below). The drum patterns are entered from the drum screen on 4 rows

(these 4 rows appear when you click on the drum button.

.

A patterns             	This row is for 1 bar drum patterns for the 'A' substyle

B patterns	This row is for 1 bar drum patterns for the 'B' substyle

Drum Fills	This row is for 1 bar drum patterns for the 'A' substyle

Endings	This row is for endings. Endings are 2 bars ( 2 patterns of 1 bar each )

If you are making a simple style, you only need to use the top row ('A' patterns).

Bass and piano/Guitar/Strings patterns:

Are played in real time from a Midi Keyboard.

Are played in based  on a C7 chord (C E G Bb) though all 12 notes may be used

You get to the instrument screen by mouse click on the instrument name (or the F6 key).

For example when you click on the bass button, you will see similar to the following .

*A 8 beat   5  5   6      This row is for substyle A patterns that last 8 notes
  A 4 beat    5  5   5     This row is 'A' substyle lasting 4 notes.
  A 2 beat    5  4  4   5  This row has 4 patterns recorded on it ,(weights = 5,4,4 and 5)
  A 1 beat    5  5   5

  B 8 beat     5	     This row is for substyle B patterns that last 8 notes
  B 4 beat     5
  B 2 beat     5
  B 1 beat     5

  ending       5 	     The ending is recorded on this row.

I have indicated with an * the important rows, meaning that if you are making a simple style you'll only have to use these rows. the A and B refer to the A and B substyles found in Band-in-a-Box. The numbers 1, 2, 4, 8 refer to the length of the recorded patterns in terms of # of beats. For example, a 2 bar pattern would be = 8 beats.

Explanation of the numbers on the screen . The numbers like 5,5,6 on the top row represent patterns that have already been recorded. (If you are looking at a new style, you won't see any of these #s since there are no patterns recorded. The numbers are from 1 to 9 ,and are called Weights. The higher numbers will be played more often relative to the other patterns. For example a weight of 4 would be played twice as often as a pattern with a weight of 2.

Explanation of the Pattern lengths 8,4,2 and 1 beat
You may ask: Why would I need to have different pattern lengths in a style? Whenever Band-in-a-Box encounters a chord change in a song it will begin to playback a NEW pattern, starting at the beginning of the pattern. It firsts scans the chord to see how long that chord is going to last without a chord change. For example, lets look at these chords:
| 1a  Dm7          | 2 G7    C6   | 3 FMAJ7     | 4
(these chords are in substyle a)
When Band-in-a-Box is playing back your style, it starts by looking at the Dm7 chord, and counts that it lasts four beats before the next chord change to a G7 chord. It then looks to the style that you have created and sees if you have any patterns created in the A 4 beat line  if so, you will get an appropriate pattern that you have recorded for chords lasting four beats.
Note:
If you dont want to classify patterns according to this method (dont worry), you can just record all of your patterns on the A 8 beat line. When Band-in-a-Box sees that you havent any 4 beat patterns it will choose an eight beat pattern and then only use the first four beats of it.
Then when Band-in-a-Box encounters the G7 chord, it sees that it lasts two notes before the next chord change. So Band-in-a-Box will look for any A 2 beat  patterns. There is tremendous advantage to being able to record different length patterns. Eight beat patterns might be blank for the first four beats for example, a situation that could not apply for four beat patterns or the entire pattern would be blank!
Here is another example of chords with the durations of the chords displayed for you underneath:
4 bar e.g.      	| F	| Bb	C7   	| F6    	|   	|
chord duration	4           	2	2      	8
Patterns may be entered for chord durations of 1, 2, 4 and 8 notes. The Band-in-a-Box program sorts out everything else about determining the length of the chord durations in the song and combining lengths for unusual lengths (3= 2+ 1 etc.).

So now we know what the rows are for: they are for patterns of different lengths and different substyles (A and B). The columns across the screen are used to contain multiple variations of similar sounding patterns. The program will randomly pick between the similar type of patterns on playback. The # that is recorded and displayed on the screen refers to the WEIGHT assigned to that pattern. Normally if you have three similar patterns with equal weight they will be picked equally, but if you assign lower or higher weights (in the range 0-8), you can fine tune how often patterns are played.

Note:
Normally weights are in the range 0-8. A weight of 9 may also be assigned, but it is given a much higher value. Weights of 9 are used when you have a pattern which only occurs under certain conditions, but you want to insure that whenever that condition occurs that the pattern will always be picked.

THE BASS AND PIANO/GUITAR/STRINGS PATTERNS ARE ALWAYS RECORDED IN TWO BAR CHUNKS regardless of the chord duration. If a shorter chord duration is entered, the remainder of the pattern is ignored. Patterns are also entered for the A and B substyles.

DRUM PATTERNS are not of variable duration like the bass and piano patterns. The drum patterns are always one bar long. Longer patterns than one bar may be chained together using BAR MASKS (see below).When you record a new pattern (bass / piano or drums), a dialog box will be displayed with several options (all set to defaults of 0). If you are making a simple style, or if you dont understand all the options, just leave them at their default settings. When you record a pattern with all the default settings it is called a GENERIC PATTERN. Generic patterns may be picked at any time by the program.

PLAYBACK OF PATTERNS IN THE STYLEMAKER is done from the main StyleMaker™ screen:
button ( or <F4> key ) plays pattern back exactly as played.
button (or <F8> key  ) plays pattern back as Band-in-a-Box would(e.g. on a specific chord set by the user from a menu).
button (or Escape key ) stops playback of the pattern.

PATTERNS ARE ERASED BY ASSIGNING A WEIGHT OF ZERO TO THE PATTERN

Type a 0 at the pattern , or press the DELete key.

Numbers on the StyleMaker screen
The StyleMaker™ screen is full of patterns, mostly empty indicated by an empty box.  .
When a pattern has been recorded there is a number in the box.- for example
These numbers indicate whether or not a pattern has been recorded at the location. An empty box indicates no pattern and a number from 1-9 indicates that a pattern has been recorded with the actual value corresponding to the desired weight the pattern is to be given relative to other similar patterns. Patterns that you dont want to hear very often in the style are given low weights. Usually you will use weights in the range of 0-8. e.g.
0 = no pattern recorded
1-8=  pattern recorded
9 = special weight that is really given a much higher weight internally by the program. A pattern with a weight of 9 will always be played ( if not masked out by other options).
'A' and 'B' refer to the 2 substyles available in the Band-in-a-Box program.

NOTE: ALL USER STYLES ARE ENTERED IN 4/4 TIME.

The Band-in-a-Box Program is capable of playing back in any time signature (via the F5 Key setting) so user defined waltz styles would be made as 4/4 but played as 3/4.


Tutorial #5 Editing existing Styles

The easiest way to become familiar with the StyleMaker is to start with an existing style and modify it. Several examples will be discussed in this tutorial.

In this tutorial, we will introduce you to the StyleMaker and have describe several ways to Edit an existing Style : These include

-changing patches saved with style

-adding/editing drum patterns to a style.

-copying and pasting drum patterns
-recording additional bass patterns
-adding strings to a style by importing strings from another style.

Let's Edit the Light Rock Style which is called ZZLITROK.STY

1. To select a style for editing.(from the main screen)

The style box on the main screen [image] indicates the style (if any) that is currently in memory.
If you want to edit the current style (in this example it is ZZLITROK.STY) then choose User | Edit Current Style or press Ctrl F9 .
If you want to edit a different style then choose User | Edit a Style or press Alt F9 .

2. The StyleMaker Window is then opened and you will see the display of the style prepared for editing. The StyleMaker Window Caption should be "StyleMaker - ZZLITROK.STY" if you have successfully chosen the Lite Rock Style.

The StyleMaker shows you one instrument at a time. The instrument is selected from the series of buttons on the top of the StyleMaker Window screen.

The currently selected instrument is indicated by the Blue dot beside the instrument name. In the diagram above you'll notice that the Drums are the current instrument. Clicking the mouse  on a different instrument (or pressing the F6 or Shift F6 key) will change the instruments.

The StyleMaker begins by displaying the DRUMS. The ZZLITROK.STY Drums screen will look similar to this:

You will notice that there are 4 rows of drum patterns.

" A Pattern" is the row to record drum patterns for the A substyle .

" B pattern" is the row to record for the 'B' substyle.

" Drum fills" are recorded on the drum fills row

ending patterns are recorded on the drum endings row ( 2 consecutive patterns of 1 bar)

Let's have a closer look at the "A Pattern row"

Each of the boxes that has a number in it represents a drum pattern that has been already recorded. There are 8 patterns that have been recorded on this line. The #s themselves are called weights. The Weights can be a # from 1 to 8 ( a weight of 9 is a special case explained below) Most of the patterns have weights of 5 (which is the default). Assigning a higher/lower weight will cause that pattern to be played more/less often relative to the other patterns. The 2 patterns with a weight of 2 will be played less often than the patterns with weights of 5.

Use of a weight of 9 on one of the patterns is a special case. Patterns with a weight of 9 will always be played instead of any other patterns on the same row. These patterns usually have other options associated with them to insure they are played under certain circumstances only. For example the pattern on this row has an option set of "Bar Mask = post fill" which means it will be the bar after a drum fill. In this case the pattern has a Crash cymbal on beat 1. You can examine the options for any pattern by selecting the pattern by mouse clicking on it, and then clicking on the OPTions button (or pressing F10 ). This pattern will always be played when the song is at the first bar of a new part (which is the bar after a drum fill ) .

Move around the screen to different patterns
by either using the Cursor Keys  or mouse clicking on the desired pattern to move to.

Let's Examine the Drum Pattern
by pressing the RECord button (F3 key)

This opens the Drum Editor Window. This screen allows you to create or Edit drum patterns in step time. There are 16 columns, representing 1 bar of 16th notes. The #s on this screen represent velocities from 0 to 127. Using the bottom row of the computer keyboard i.e. the ZXCVBNM,./ keys is the fastest way to put in commonly used velocities. You can also just type in the # that you want.
See Making Drum Patterns section for further details.
Try typing in some new drum notes, pressing the F4 key to Play. Press F10 to Exit this Window and return to the StyleMaker. Any changes you have made will be saved as you exit.

Play the patterns by pressing the PLAY button or F4 key.

Examine the options for the pattern by pressing the OPTions button (F10 key)

Let's create a new drum fill.

Move to an empty location on the "Drum Fills" line.
Press F3 to RECord the pattern (Step record for drums)
Then type in a drum pattern on the Drum Editor.
See Making a Drum pattern
Save the pattern by pressing F10 to exit the Drum Editor.
You will see your new pattern on the Drum Fills line as represented by a # (Weight)

Let's use Copy/Paste to simplify creating a new drum pattern

To make another fill, move to an existing fill
Choose Edit | Copy to copy that drum fill to the clipboard
Move to an empty pattern
Choose Edit | Paste to paste in the Previous drum fill.
Now press F3 to Step Edit the drum fill. You will only need to change a few notes of the fill to make a variation of the one you have copied.

Let's SAVE the Style by pressing the SAVEAS button

SaveAs allows you to rename the style so you don't affect the original ZZLITROK.STY.
SAVE button will save the style with the existing name.

Change the Patches that are assigned to the Style

Each style can have patches assigned to it. For example if you want the style's piano part to use a Rhodes piano, you can select the piano patch of 5 which is the General Midi # for the Rhodes Electric Piano.
Press the PATCH button (or press ALT F10, or choose Style | Patch Assignments.)
You will then see a dialog box allowing you to type in patches you would like for the style.
If you don't need a specific patch, use 0 for no change of patch number.

Let's add Strings to the Style.

There are 2 ways to do this.

1. You could move to the strings part (by clicking on the strings button ) and then record the strings patterns.
See Recording String patterns

- or -

2. The easiest way is to import strings from another style that already has strings. This allows you to use existing string patterns. For example the Miami Pop style has a nice strings part. Let's import the "Miami Pop" strings into our style.

1. Choose Style | Import Instrument or Press Alt F3 to import instrument.
2. From the Dialog box that appears

- select STRINGS
- select Replace Existing patterns
- press OK to exit the dialog box

3. Then choose the ZZMiami.STY. You will then see the strings patterns appear on your Lite Rock style.
4. Press the SAVE button to Save the Lite Rock style With strings.
5. The strings will play in the 'B' substyle only, because that's how they were made in the Miami Pop style.
6. You could now import the Guitar from the ZZCONTRY.STY for example, using the steps 1-6 as above. It is quite easy to quickly add instruments to styles by using this import feature.

Let's Record some new bass patterns

Note: If you are not able to play patterns in real time ("live"), then you shouldn't record these bass, piano, guitar or strings patterns. You cannot enter them in Step Time. Only Drum patterns may be entered in STEP time. If you can't enter them in real time, I would suggest that you import an instrument from existing styles as described above

Recording a Bass Pattern

-Choose the Bass instrument, by mouse click on the [image] button.
-Move the highlighted cell to an unused pattern. If you're recording a pattern lasting 8 beats, record this on the top line "A  8 beat". This pattern will be used when the song has chords lasting 8 beats or more without a chord change.
-Press RECord button or F3 key to record the bass pattern

-You will need to wait during a 2 bar lead in.
-Then you record the 2 bar pattern.
-Play the pattern on a C7 chord. You can use all 12 notes, just play a pattern that you would have normally played in the song if the song was on a C7 chord (C E G Bb)

-When you're finished recording the pattern, you'll see a dialog box listing all of the options available. Just accept all of the defaults by pressing the OK key.

Play a Song in your New Style

You can play a song without closing the StyleMaker Window. Just move the Window to allow access to the PLAY button on the main screen, or Choosing Play | Play song from the main Pull Down Menu.

Exit the StyleMaker

Close the StyleMaker Window to Exit. You will be asked to save the style if you have changed it. You should save it, otherwise edits will be lost

Summary of Tutorial

In this tutorial, we have introduced you to the StyleMaker and have described several ways to Edit an existing Style :

- changing patches saved with style

- adding drum patterns

- copying and pasting drum patterns
- recording bass patterns
- adding strings to a style by importing strings from another style.

In the Next tutorial, we will show you how to make a style from scratch. You will be recording bass, piano, guitar, and string patterns in real time, so if you don't have a MIDI keyboard,(or are unable to play in real time), you should use the "import instrument" techniques discussed in this tutorial instead.


Tutorial #6 Making a new style

Before reading this tutorial, make sure you have read the previous tutorial "Edit An Existing Style". Many of the techniques mentioned here have been described earlier in this tutorial.

Let's make a New Style !
We'll call it BlueTest.STY .

( I've already made this style and have saved it as BluHill.STY. You can load in the song bluHill.SGU to hear what the style will sound like. You will be making a similar style.)

This is going to be a style for old rock songs like "Blueberry Hill."

The first thing you should do when making a style is come up with a plan of :

1. The instruments you are planning to use.
2. Strategy for interaction between piano and guitar and strings.
( I usually use the piano for playing non-busy, non-percussive chording. I let the guitar do the percussive chording. I usually leave strings for the 'b' substyle only

1. Instruments we plan to use in Blueberry Hill style
Drums
Fender Electric Bass	(patch 34)
Rhodes Electric Piano 	(patch 5 )
Muted Electric Guitar	(patch 29)
Strings 	(patch 49)
2. Strategy for the Instruments

DRUMS

This style is in a triplet feel, so Drums will be playing in a timebase of 12 (not 16).We will be using patterns utilizing the highats in the ''a' substyle and switch to ride cymbals in the 'b' substyle.

PIANO
The piano will be playing simple patterns, either holding chords or small arpeggios.
The piano part will be the same in the 'a' and 'b' substyle, so we will only record an 'a' substyle. We will be using Rhodes Electric Piano so we will be assigning a patch of  5 .
GUITAR

The guitar part will be played percussively, establishing the characteristic triplet rhythm. The guitar part will change from chording on 2 and 4 in the 'a' substyle, to triplets in the 'b' substyle.

The strings will only play in the 'b' substyle , and will be usually 2 or 3 notes.
STRINGS

Strings will only play in the 'b' substyle. To do this we will record a single blank pattern in the 'a' substyle and then move to the 'b' substyle.

To begin, make sure that the StyleMaker Window is not already open, since you can only work on one style at a time.
From the main menu of the program, choose User | Make a New Style from the pull down menu.

You'll then be prompted to choose a name for your style.

The default is NoName.STY

type in the Name BlueTest

You don't need to add the .STY extension, Band-in-a-Box will do that for you.

Let's assign the patches to the style.

Press the  PATCHES button , or press ALT F10 .

Type in the #s for the patches as shown above. These are General Midi numbers, not the patch numbers on your synth (unless it is a General Midi synth).
You can see a list of the #s to use by pressing the [image] button.
Once you have done this, Band-in-a-Box will automatically change your THRU channel to the correct instrument, so that as you are recording new patterns you will hear the correct instrument as you play .

Let's Make the Drums

The StyleMaker boots up to be ready for Drums, as indicated by the Blue dot on the Instrument selection area

If Drums are not chosen, click on the Drums button to get to the Drums area.

The screen will look like this. The solid box indicates the currently selected pattern. The empty boxes indicate empty patterns, i.e. patterns that have not been recorded yet. If a pattern has been recorded there will be a # in the box (the # is the weight of the pattern).

The 4 rows are for the different types of patterns. 'a' substyle , 'b' substyle , Drum fills and 2 bar endings.

We will be using a high hat based pattern in the 'a' substyle, and  a ride cymbal based pattern in the 'b' substyle.

In case you don't fully understand how to make the drum patterns, you can examine the drums in another style- like BluHill.STY . Or if you're in a hurry, you could just Import the Drums from the BluHill.STY into your BlueTest.STY. Importing an instrument has been described in the previous tutorial.

Now let's make our first drum pattern in 'a' substyle.

With the highlight bar on the first pattern on the 'a' substyle row (as above), press the RECord button, or press the F3 Key to record the pattern in Step Time.

You'll now be in the Drum Editor. There are 16 rows across, indicating 4 beats with 4 divisions per beat. Change the TIMEBASE to 12 by clicking the mouse on the TIMEBASE button. You will then see 4 beats with 3 divisions per beat.(TIMEBASE =12) will then be displayed in the TIMEBASE button.

Change the TEMPO to about 75 by the TEMPO setting on the top right

You will then be putting in the 1 bar pattern for the ''a' substyle. The pattern will look like this

Move around the Drum Pattern screen and type in the #s as above. These are velocities and should range between 0 and 127. The fastest way to put the #s onto the screen are to use the hot keys on the bottom row of the typewriter keyboard. ZXCVBNM,./ These keys will type in typical values from 0 to 127 .

On Beat 4, on the last triplet, we will put an "alternate note". This will tell the pattern to use a high hat 50% of the time, and the other 50% should use an open high hat at velocity 100. This allows one pattern to sound like many, because it will be played differently each time.

To do this - move to the note to add an alternate.
Press the [image] button or press the F5 key to get to the Alternate note dialog box.

Type in the #s as you see here. The Alternate note #4 is open high hat (you will see the list of note #s at the side of the screen. When you exit the box you will see that the box has a red border indicating that an alternate note is located there.

PLAY THE DRUM PATTERN by pressing the F4 key.

STOP PLAYBACK by pressing the ESCAPE KEY or the STOP button.

Press the PLAY button again to hear the pattern again if you have made changes.

When the pattern is sounding like you want, press the EXIT button (F10 Key).

You will then see the Drum Pattern Options screen.

Press the OK button to accept these defaults. A number of 0 or a * indicates that the option is currently at the default setting. With any of the instrument option boxes , it is important to realize that you don't need to understand the options, just accept the defaults.

PRESS OK to save/exit the pattern. You'll now see a #5 on the main StyleMaker screen indicating that we have made a pattern already. You can re-edit the pattern by pressing RECORD again. Let's make a new pattern that is similar to the first. Rather than re-doing the whole pattern , let's copy the pattern to the clipboard (choose EDIT | COPY ) from the pull down menu, and then move to an unused pattern and choose EDIT | PASTE to paste it to. Then edit this pattern (F3 key) to add a crash cymbal at beat 1 . When you exit this pattern, set the following options:

This is a special pattern that will be played only in the first bar of a new part in the song (which is the bar after a fill "post-fill") . The Weight =9 indicates that this drum pattern will ALWAYS be played when this condition occurs. This pattern only differs from the others in that there is a crash cymbal on beat 1, which is a nice effect for the first bar of a new part.

At this point the StyleMaker drum area should look like this .

Now let's make a pattern for the 'b' substyle. It will be very similar, except we will use ride cymbals instead of high hats. Go to the 'b' pattern row, and press RECord (F3 key).

Here is part of the drum screen showing you the first 2 beats of this pattern.

Now lets make a drum fill. We'll make it like the 'a' substyle pattern. let's first copy that pattern to the clipboard (move to the 'a' substyle row, choose EDIT | Copy). Then move to the fills row and choose EDIT | PASTE . Then re-edit the fill (press RECORD over the drum fill). Once in the pattern add a few snare hits to create a drum fill.

Now lets do the ending drum pattern. Endings are 2 bars long. In the case of the drums, this is done by 2 consecutive 1 bar patterns on the ending row. Move to the Endings row. Input a 1 bar pattern in the first column and then another 1 bar pattern in the 2nd. These 2 patterns are the ending patterns so you'll should make the 2nd pattern an ending drum pattern , typically with a crash cymbal on beat 3 for example ).

We are now finished the drums. At this point the StyleMaker drums screen looks like this.

Lets make the Bass part now .

The rest of the instruments are recorded differently to the drums. The bass, piano, guitar and strings patterns are recorded in real time from a MIDI keyboard. If you can't play in real time,( or if you don't have a MIDI keyboard) you'll have to import these instruments from other styles (as we'll be doing with the strings).

Move to the bass area by clicking the mouse on the bass button ( or pressing the F6 key)

A 8 beat	This row is for 'a' substyle patterns that last 8 beats

A 4 beat	This row is for 'a' substyle patterns that last 4 beats

A 2 beat	This row is for 'a' substyle patterns that last 2 beats

A 1 beat	This row is for 'a' substyle patterns that last 1 beat

B 8 beat	These 4 rows are similar to above but are for the 'b' substyle

B 4 beat

B 2 beat

B 1 beat

ending	The 2 bar ending is recorded on this row.

If you're making a real simple bass pattern you'll only need to record pattern(s) on the A 8 beat row (the top row). These patterns will get chosen for every chord ,regardless of the length.
But if you want the style to play different patterns when the song is encountering chords that last 1,2 or 4 notes, you should record separate patterns on these rows.

Let's record a bass pattern.

Move to the top row of the bass area, in column 1. Press RECord. This will begin the recording of the bass pattern. You will hear a 2 bar "lead in", and then you record a 2 bar bass pattern. For your bass pattern, you will play a pattern based on a C7 chord. You can use all 12 notes, but should just play the pattern as you would if the chord was a C7.

tip:: If you are uncertain what to play, exit the StyleMaker and edit the BluHill.STY that comes with the program - you can then PLAY the bass patterns by the F4 key to see what patterns we used to make it, and imitate them in your style.

After you have recorded the bass pattern , a dialog box with options will appear. This allows you to specify the conditions that must occur for this pattern to be played back in the song. These are called masks. Usually you can just accept all the defaults, which allow the pattern to be played at any time.

Since we are using the same bass patterns for the 'a' and 'b' substyle, we will only need to record the 'a' substyle , and will leave the 'b' substyle blank.

Record a few variations of the bass pattern on the same row- this will add variation to the bass part which makes it sound better.
Try recording a pattern with some of the options (masks) set.

For example record a pattern that will be going up a 4th to the next pattern. This would usually have a distinctive bass line walking up a fourth. Record the pattern and then set the option Interval to Next Chord to be Up 4th. This insures that this pattern will only be selected if the next chord in the song is a fourth higher.

Now let's do the Piano part

Here's our plan for the piano part. We're going to let the guitar player do the percussive chording and have the piano part playing pretty simple chords - with slow arpeggios and such. We'll use the same substyle for 'a' and 'b' so will just need to record the 'a' substyle.

Move to the A 8 beat row and record the first piano pattern.
Play a closed position voicing of a C7 chord  ( Bb C E G ) and hold it for most or all of the pattern. You could add some arpeggiated notes in the pattern if you like. When the options box comes up at the end, accept all of the defaults - except set the Voice leading to = Smooth . This insures that if the chord changes to a F7 , the piano part will not move very much and the voice leading  will sound smooth.

Now lets record a piano pattern using a MACRO NOTE .

Macro Notes are an important feature which allow your patterns to access intelligence within the Band-in-a-Box program. A pattern recorded with Macro notes will sound a little strange when youre recording it, or playing it back as played with the F4 key, but will sound correct when played back with the F8 key, and sound correct in the song. Macro notes are single notes that get replaced by a specific function when played back in the song (or by F8 CHORD button)

Here are the list of Macro notes for the Piano/Guitar/Strings Macros :
Midi Note # 83 B 	Pop Chord Diatonic Below
Midi Note # 84 C 	Pop Chord
Midi Note # 85 C# 	Pop Chord Diatonic Above
Midi Note # 88 E 	Jazz Chord Chromatic Below
Midi Note # 89 F 	Jazz Chord
Midi Note # 90 F# 	Jazz Chord Chromatic Above

In this pattern we'll make use of the Midi note #84 (C) which is a macro note for a Pop chord. You just need to record a pattern , playing this single note in the rhythm that you want the pop chord to be played. After the pattern is recorded , set the OK to use Macro Notes option to YES. Confirm that you have recorded it successfully by playing it back with the F8 key ( or press the CHORD button). This plays back the pattern like it will sound in the song , and you will see the effect of the macro note.

Now let's move to the Guitar Part .

For this Blueberry Hill style , we're going to record different guitar parts for the 'a' and 'b' substyle.
In the 'a' substyle the guitar will chord on beat 2 and 4 , and in the 'b' substyle the guitar will be busier, playing triplets (12 times per bar ).

Move to the A 8 beat line and record a pattern for the 'a' substyle. Play a 4 note voicing of a C7 chord Bb C E and G starting on the Bb above middle C . Play this chord rhythmically on beat 2 and 4 for the 2 bar pattern. Then choose the smooth voice leading option. Quantize the pattern by pressing the Q button or choosing Alt Q. Quantize to 12 beats per bar (triplets).

Then record a pattern for the 'b' substyle. This will be playing eight note triplets for all 8 beats of the pattern. We'll use a MACRO NOTE to record these chords. Use the Midi note #84 macro note , play it rhythmically over the 2 bar pattern. Then set the option OK to use Macro Notes to YES. Play the pattern back by the CHORD button so that you can confirm that you have recorded the Macro note properly.

Now let's record the STRINGS patterns.

Let's get a little lazy. Instead of recording a bunch of String patterns, we'll just import the String patterns from another style. Let's import the strings from ZZCTRY12.STY . Press Alt F3 to import the instrument, then choose strings, then choose ZZCTRY12.STY . You will then see the string patterns come into the style.

SAVE THE STYLE by pressing the SAVE button (or F2 key ).
Try out a song in your new style by pressing the PLAY button on the main screen.

This is the end of this tutorial.
The other options and masks are described elsewhere in the documentation . If you want to dig deeper into the StyleMaker, one of the best ways is to examine existing styles , PLAYING the patterns and examining the options set for the style.


Making Drum Patterns

There are 2 screens in the StyleMaker associated with making drum patterns.

1. The StyleMaker screen with drum patterns

2. The Drum Pattern Editor, allowing step editing of patterns

1. The StyleMaker screen with drum patterns looks like this .

If Drums are not chosen, click on the Drums button to get to the Drums area.

The screen will look like this. The solid box indicates the currently selected pattern. The empty boxes indicate empty patterns, i.e. patterns that have not been recorded yet. If a pattern has been recorded there will be a # in the box (the # is the weight of the pattern).

The 4 rows are for the different types of patterns. 'a' substyle , 'b' substyle , Drum fills and 2 bar endings.

THE DRUM EDITOR is where the Drum Patterns are made

To enter the Drum Editor : With the highlight bar on a pattern on the drum area of the StyleMaker screen  press the RECord button, or press the F3 Key to record the pattern in Step Time.

You'll now be in the Drum Editor. There are 16 rows across, indicating 4 beats with 4 divisions per beat.

TIMEBASE BUTTON
Change the TIMEBASE to 12 by clicking the mouse on the TIMEBASE button. You will then see 4 beats with 3 divisions per beat.(TIMEBASE =12) will then be displayed in the TIMEBASE button.

Move around the screen with cursor keys , or mouse click .

The gray highlight bar indicates where you are. The different drum instruments are named along the left side and the 4 beats are displayed along the bottom.

TEMPO CHANGE

Change the TEMPO by the TEMPO setting on the top right

or type the [ and ] keys .

ENTER NOTES ON TO THE DRUM EDITOR SCREEN

A typical pattern may look like this ...

This pattern is in a timebase of 12 , you see 4 beats with 3 divisions per beat. The #s are velocities. Move around the Drum Pattern screen and type in the #s as above. These are velocities and should range between 0 and 127. The fastest way to put the #s onto the screen are to use the hot keys on the bottom row of the typewriter keyboard. ZXCVBNM,./ These keys will type in typical values from 0 to 127 .

ALTERNATE NOTES

Alternate notes can be entered for any note This tells Band-in-a-Box to randomly choose a different note to the one specified .
For example

-you might want a note to be a closed high hat 80% of the time, and an open high hat 20% of the time.
-you might want a note to be high conga 60% and low conga 40% of the time.
- or high tom 30% of the time and NO note the other 70%

This allows one pattern to sound like many, because it will be played different ways depending on which of the notes are picked..

HOW TO PUT IN AN ALTERNATE NOTE

To do this - move to the note to add an alternate.
Press the [image] button or press the F5 key to get to the Alternate note dialog box.

Type in the #s as you see here. The Alternate note #4 is open high hat (you will see the list of note #s at the side of the screen. When you exit the box you will see that the box has a red border indicating that an alternate note is located there.

PLAY THE DRUM PATTERN by pressing the F4 key.

STOP PLAYBACK by pressing the ESCAPE KEY or the STOP button.

Press the PLAY button again to hear the pattern again if you have made changes.

When the pattern is sounding like you want, press the EXIT button (F10 Key).

You will then see the Drum Pattern Options screen.

RELATIVE WEIGHT
(USUAL SETTING =5)
Relative Weight is the number that you assign to the pattern from 1-9 .	numbers from 1-8 indicate how often you want the pattern to be played in relation to the other patterns on the same row.
a weight of 9 is a special setting that insures that the pattern will ALWAYS be played. Patterns assigned a weight of 9 usually have other options set which instruct the pattern to only be played at certain times (bar after a drum fill for example).

PLAYBACK BAR MASK
(USUAL SETTING =0)
Playback Bar Mask determines on what bars of the song the pattern will play. The bar #s are counted relative to the last part marker. Bar 1 is the first bar after a part marker for example.
Bar mask setting of 0 is the default. This lets the pattern be played at any time.
Other bar mask settings
1	pattern played at odd # bars only 1,3,5,7,9,...
2	pattern played at even bars only 2,4,6,8,10...
3	pattern played on 3rd of 4 bar ( 3,7,11,15..)
4	pattern played on 4th of 4 ( 4,8,12,16,20...)
5	pattern played on 5th of 8 5,13,21...
6	pattern played on 6th of 8 6,14,22...
7	pattern played on 7th of 8 7,15,23...
8	pattern played on 8th of 8 8,16,24...
9:	PRE-FILL special value - refers to the bar before a fill
10	FILL refers to the bar of a fill
         (not applicable to drums because there is a special row for drum fills)
11: POST-FILL refers to the bar after a fill (same as the first bar after a part marker)

DRUM FILL ON SUBSTYLE
(USUAL SETTING =0)
This setting is only relevant on the Drum Fills line. It lets you specify if you want the drum fill to be used on the 'a' substyle , the 'b' substyle , or either. The default setting is Either.

LATE TRIPLETS
(USUAL SETTING =0)
This is only relevant in drum patterns with timebase =12 (triplet feel) .If you want the 3rd triplet to be played late (as is usually done in slow jazz style), then set a # from 0-10 .Default is 0 (not late at all)  A typical setting for a slow triplet style is triplets late =5  (the units are 120/beat)

Now lets make the ending drum pattern. Endings are 2 bars long. In the case of the drums, this is done by 2 consecutive 1 bar patterns on the ending row. Move to the Endings row. Input a 1 bar pattern in the first column and then another 1 bar pattern in the 2nd. These 2 patterns are the ending patterns so you'll should make the 2nd pattern an ending drum pattern , typically with a crash cymbal on beat 3 for example ).


Making Bass Patterns

Bass patterns are recorded live from a MIDI keyboard.
If you can't play in real time,( or if you don't have a MIDI keyboard) you'll have to import these instruments from other styles (as we'll be doing with the strings).

Move to the bass area by clicking the mouse on the bass button ( or pressing the F6 key)

A 8 beat	This row is for 'a' substyle patterns that last 8 beats

A 4 beat	This row is for 'a' substyle patterns that last 4 beats

A 2 beat	This row is for 'a' substyle patterns that last 2 beats

A 1 beat	This row is for 'a' substyle patterns that last 1 beat

B 8 beat	These 4 rows are similar to above but are for the 'b' substyle

B 4 beat

B 2 beat

B 1 beat

ending	The 2 bar ending is recorded on this row.

If you're making a real simple bass pattern you'll only need to record pattern(s) on the A 8 beat row (the top row). These patterns will get chosen for every chord ,regardless of the length.
But if you want the style to play different patterns when the song is encountering chords that last 1,2 ,3 or 4 notes, you should record separate patterns on these rows.

HOW TO RECORD BASS PATTERNS

Move to the top row of the bass area, in column 1. Press RECord. This will begin the recording of the bass pattern. You will hear a 2 bar "lead in", and then you record a 2 bar bass pattern. For your bass pattern, you will play a pattern based on a C7 chord. You can use all 12 notes, but should just play the pattern as you would if the chord was a C7

.
You should center the bass patterns around Midi Note 48 (C3).

tip: If you are uncertain what to play, exit the StyleMaker and edit another style that comes with the program - you can then PLAY the bass patterns by the F4 key to see what patterns we used to make it, and imitate them in your style.

After you have recorded the bass pattern , a dialog box with options will appear. This allows you to specify the conditions that must occur for this pattern to be played back in the song. These are called masks. Usually you can just accept all the defaults, which allow the pattern to be played at any time.

EXPLANATION OF THE BASS OPTIONS

RELATIVE WEIGHT
USUAL SETTING = 5
Set this # higher/lower if you want the pattern to be played more/less often than the other patterns on the same row. This number is also displayed on the main StyleMaker screen.
A setting of 9(always) is a special setting that instructs the pattern to always be played instead of the other patterns on the same row . These patterns always have other options set which specify the times that this pattern would be eligible to be played. See the tutorial Making your won style fro examples of using a weight of  9.

PLAYBACK BAR MASK
USUAL SETTING = 0
 determines on what bars of the song the pattern will play. The bar #s are counted relative to the last part marker, and range from 1-8 .Bar 1 is the first bar after a part marker for example.
Other bar mask settings
1	pattern played at odd # bars only 1,3,5,7,9,...
2	pattern played at even bars only 2,4,6,8,10...
3	pattern played on 3rd of 4 bar ( 3,7,11,15..)
4	pattern played on 4th of 4 ( 4,8,12,16,20...)
5	pattern played on 5th of 8 5,13,21...
6	pattern played on 6th of 8 6,14,22...
7	pattern played on 7th of 8 7,15,23...
8	pattern played on 8th of 8 8,16,24...
special bar masks
9:	PRE-FILL special value - refers to the bar before a fill
10	FILL refers to the bar of a fill
( this allows you to put in "bass fills" for example)
11: POST-FILL refers to the bar after a fill (same as the first bar after a part marker)

BEAT MASK
USUAL SETTING = 0
Set the beat mask to a beat from 1-4 if you want the pattern to only be played on certain beat #s.  1= Beat 1 , 2= Beat 2 , 3= Beat 3 , 4= Beat 4.

ROMAN NUMERAL MASK
USUAL SETTING = 0
If you have a pattern that should only be played on the I chord or the IV chord (of the key), you can use these Roman Numeral Masks. This setting is rarely used.

CHORD TYPE
USUAL SETTING = ANY
This setting is very useful. This allows you to record patterns that will only work on certain types of chords. For example you can record a specific riff that will only work on a minor 7th chord. You then play the pattern on a Cmin 7 ( not a C7 ). There are chord types for most types of chords.

INTERVAL TO NEXT CHORD
USUAL SETTING = ANY INTERVAL
This setting allows you to restrict the pattern to be played only if the next chord is a certain interval away. For example you can record a bass pattern that is walking up a fourth and then assign a Interval of Up 4th so that the pattern would only be played if you're going up a 4th.

HALF OCTAVE RANGE
USUAL SETTING = FULL OCTAVE
This is a new setting in the StyleMaker. Usually a pattern will be picked on any of the 12 roots. You can select a smaller range , either A to D , or Eb to Ab . In this case the pattern would only be picked if the chord in the song is in that range.

PLAY PATTERN PUSHED HOW OFTEN   USUAL SETTING = 0 %
# TICKS TO PUSH PATTERN 	   USUAL SETTING = 0
Pushed patterns are patterns that are played before the chord begins. Jazz styles typically use pushed patterns for the piano. Patterns are recorded in the normal way (non pushed) and then you assign the % of time and amount (in ticks, 120 ticks = 1 beat) to push the pattern. The pattern only plays pushed in the song (not in the StyleMaker)

OK TO USE MACRO NOTES (BASS)
USUAL SETTING = NO
Bass Macros are special notes that you record. When they are played back they are replaced by a function, as listed below.
List of Bass Macro Notes
Note	# 72 (C): Pop Walking Note(s)
On playback <F8>, the Note #72 will be replaced by intelligent
notes walking in a pop/country mode to the next chord. Maximum 4 walking notes per pattern.
Note# 76 (E): Note a semitone below Root of Next Chord
Note# 77 (F): Root Of Next Chord
Note # 78 (F#): Note a semitone ABOVE Root of Next Chord
Note # 79 (G): Best Fifth (a Fifth above or below the Root depending on how high the root is. Also stays on the root if in a slash chord  (C7 /E).
Remember to get Bass Macros Working you must:
Hit the right Note # (you may be out by an octave).
Set OK to use macros to Yes
Playback the Pattern with F8 key or CHORD button (the F4 key gives you an as played playback with the strange sounding high macro notes.


Making Piano, Guitar and Strings Patterns

Piano, Guitar and Strings are all considered together because they have all the same options available They (like the Bass patterns are recorded live from a MIDI keyboard.)
If you can't play in real time,( or if you don't have a MIDI keyboard) you'll have to import these instruments from other styles (as we'll be doing with the strings).
In this section we will refer to Piano patterns , but this information applies equally well to guitar and strings patterns.

Move to the piano /guitar or strings area by clicking the mouse on the bass button ( or pressing the F6 key)

A 8 beat	This row is for 'a' substyle patterns that last 8 beats

A 4 beat	This row is for 'a' substyle patterns that last 4 beats

A 2 beat	This row is for 'a' substyle patterns that last 2 beats

A 1 beat	This row is for 'a' substyle patterns that last 1 beat

B 8 beat	These 4 rows are similar to above but are for the 'b' substyle

B 4 beat

B 2 beat

B 1 beat

ending	The 2 bar ending is recorded on this row.

If you're making a real simple piano pattern you'll only need to record pattern(s) on the A 8 beat row (the top row). These patterns will get chosen for every chord ,regardless of the length.
But if you want the style to play different patterns when the song is encountering chords that last 1,2 ,3 or 4 notes, you should record separate patterns on these rows.

Q. What is a "chord that lasts 2 notes".?
A. Look at any chord of a song. See how many beats there are before the next chord change. We refer to that as the "duration" of the chord. If there are 2 beats before the next chord then we consider that the chord lasts 2 notes. In that case the Band-in-a-Box program will look on the "2 beat" row of patterns to pick a pattern to play. If there are no patterns , it will default to the top row " 8 beat."

HOW TO RECORD PIANO PATTERNS

Move to the top row of the piano area, in column 1. Press RECord. This will begin the recording of the piano pattern. You will hear a 2 bar "lead in", and then you record a 2 bar piano pattern. For your piano pattern, you will play a pattern based on a C7 chord. You can use all 12 notes, but should just play the pattern as you would if the chord was a C7

.

tip: If you are uncertain what to play, exit the StyleMaker and edit another style that comes with the program - you can then PLAY the piano patterns by the F4 key to see what patterns we used to make it, and imitate them in your style.

After you have recorded the piano pattern , a dialog box with options will appear. This allows you to specify the conditions that must occur for this pattern to be played back in the song. These are called masks. Usually you can just accept all the defaults, which allow the pattern to be played at any time.

EXPLANATION OF THE PIANO OPTIONS. THESE ALSO APPLY TO GUITAR AND STRING PATTERNS

USUAL SETTING = 5

Set this # higher/lower if you want the pattern to be played more/less often than the other patterns on the same row. This number is also displayed on the main StyleMaker screen.
A setting of 9(always) is a special setting that instructs the pattern to always be played instead of the other patterns on the same row . These patterns always have other options set which specify the times that this pattern would be eligible to be played. See the tutorial Making your won style fro examples of using a weight of  9.

USUAL SETTING =0
determines on what bars of the song the pattern will play. The bar #s are counted relative to the last part marker, and range from 1-8 .Bar 1 is the first bar after a part marker for example
Other bar mask settings 1	pattern played at odd # bars only 1,3,5,7,9,...
2	pattern played at even bars only 2,4,6,8,10...
3	pattern played on 3rd of 4 bar ( 3,7,11,15..)
4	pattern played on 4th of 4 ( 4,8,12,16,20...)
5	pattern played on 5th of 8 5,13,21...
6	pattern played on 6th of 8 6,14,22...
7	pattern played on 7th of 8 7,15,23...
8	pattern played on 8th of 8 8,16,24...
special bar masks
9:	PRE-FILL special value - refers to the bar before a fill
10	FILL refers to the bar of a fill ( this allows you to put in "bass fills" for example)
11: POST-FILL refers to the bar after a fill (same as the first bar after a part marker)

Set the beat mask to a beat from 1-4 if you want the pattern to only be played on certain beat #s.  1= Beat 1 , 2= Beat 2 , 3= Beat 3 , 4= Beat 4.

USUAL SETTING = 0
If you have a pattern that should only be played on the I chord or the IV chord (of the key), you can use these Roman Numeral Masks. This setting is rarely used.

USUAL SETTING = ANY
This setting is very useful. This allows you to record patterns that will only work on certain types of chords. For example you can record a specific riff that will only work on a minor 7th chord. You then play the pattern on a Cmin 7 ( not a C7 ). There are chord types for most types of chords.

USUAL SETTING = FULL OCTAVE

This is a new setting in the StyleMaker. Usually a pattern will be picked on any of the 12 roots. You can select a smaller range , either A to D , or Eb to Ab . In this case the pattern would only be picked if the chord in the song is in that range.

USUAL SETTING = ANY INTERVAL
This setting allows you to restrict the pattern to be played only if the next chord is a certain interval away. For example you can record a bass pattern that is walking up a fourth and then assign a Interval of Up 4th so that the pattern would only be played if you're going up a 4th.

USUAL SETTING = 0 %

USUAL SETTING = 0

Pushed patterns are patterns that are played before the chord begins. Jazz styles typically use pushed patterns for the piano. Patterns are recorded in the normal way (non pushed) and then you assign the % of time and amount (in ticks, 120 ticks = 1 beat) to push the pattern. The pattern only plays pushed in the song (not in the StyleMaker)

USUAL SETTING = NO
Piano Macros are special notes that you record. When they are played back they are replaced by a function, as listed below.

List of Piano Macro Notes (same as Guitar/String macro notes)
Midi Note # 83 B 	Pop Chord Diatonic Below
Midi Note # 84 C 	Pop Chord
Midi Note # 85 C# 	Pop Chord Diatonic Above
Midi Note # 88 E 	Jazz Chord Chromatic Below
Midi Note # 89 F 	Jazz Chord
Midi Note # 90 F# 	Jazz Chord Chromatic Above

Remember to get  Macro Notes Working you must:
Hit the right note # (you may be out by an octave).
Set OK to use macros to Yes
Playback the Pattern with F8 key or CHORD button (the F4 key gives you an as played playback with the strange sounding high macro notes.

USUAL SETTING = NO
This is a rarely used setting. It only is relevant when voice leading is set to smooth (see below). It determines where the center of the pattern is considered to be. If set to YES, the center of the pattern will be moved to the Key of the song.

USUAL SETTING = NONE
If set to embellish1 the pattern will be embellished . This is useful in Jazz styles. Embellish1 embellishes the chord once in the pattern, whereas embellish2 changes the embellishment during the pattern.

USUAL SETTING = 6
This setting is quite useful. It controls the range that the pattern will be played over.
For example, If the transpose down range is set to =2 the pattern (recorded in C ) will be transposed a maximum of 2 semitones down, and therefore up to 10 semitones up to play all 12 possible roots of the chords.

USUAL SETTING=transpose

transpose = C7 chord based
smooth voice leading
Riff based

The easiest type of voice leading is transpose only. If the notes C E G Bb were played as a C7 pattern, the Band-in-a-Box would transpose that voicing to a F7 chord as...
F A C Eb
...which is fine but not very smooth.
A more pleasant setting would be = smooth voice leading then the F7 would be voiced automatically as
C Eb F A
Riff based voicing is used when you have recorded a pattern with a melodic riff in it. This setting insures that Band-in-a-Box will not try to transform any of the notes into chord tones.


Drum Pattern Option Dialog Box

RELATIVE WEIGHT
(USUAL SETTING =5)
Relative Weight is the number that you assign to the pattern from 1-9 .	numbers from 1-8 indicate how often you want the pattern to be played in relation to the other patterns on the same row.
a weight of 9 is a special setting that insures that the pattern will ALWAYS be played. Patterns assigned a weight of 9 usually have other options set which instruct the pattern to only be played at certain times (bar after a drum fill for example).

PLAYBACK BAR MASK
(USUAL SETTING =0)
Playback Bar Mask determines on what bars of the song the pattern will play. The bar #s are counted relative to the last part marker. Bar 1 is the first bar after a part marker for example.
Bar mask setting of 0 is the default. This lets the pattern be played at any time.
Other bar mask settings
1	pattern played at odd # bars only 1,3,5,7,9,...
2	pattern played at even bars only 2,4,6,8,10...
3	pattern played on 3rd of 4 bar ( 3,7,11,15..)
4	pattern played on 4th of 4 ( 4,8,12,16,20...)
5	pattern played on 5th of 8 5,13,21...
6	pattern played on 6th of 8 6,14,22...
7	pattern played on 7th of 8 7,15,23...
8	pattern played on 8th of 8 8,16,24...
9:	PRE-FILL special value - refers to the bar before a fill
10	FILL refers to the bar of a fill
         (not applicable to drums because there is a special row for drum fills)
11: POST-FILL refers to the bar after a fill (same as the first bar after a part marker)

DRUM FILL ON SUBSTYLE
(USUAL SETTING =0)

This setting is only relevant on the Drum Fills line. It lets you specify if you want the drum fill to be used on the 'a' substyle , the 'b' substyle , or either. The default setting is Either.

LATE TRIPLETS
(USUAL SETTING =0)
This is only relevant in drum patterns with timebase =12 (triplet feel) .If you want the 3rd triplet to be played late (as is usually done in slow jazz style), then set a # from 0-10 .Default is 0 (not late at all)  A typical setting for a slow triplet style is triplets late =5  (the units are 120/beat)


Bass Pattern Option Dialog Box

RELATIVE WEIGHT
USUAL SETTING = 5
Set this # higher/lower if you want the pattern to be played more/less often than the other patterns on the same row. This number is also displayed on the main StyleMaker screen.
A setting of 9(always) is a special setting that instructs the pattern to always be played instead of the other patterns on the same row . These patterns always have other options set which specify the times that this pattern would be eligible to be played. See the tutorial Making your won style fro examples of using a weight of  9.

PLAYBACK BAR MASK
USUAL SETTING = 0
Playback Bar Mask determines on what bars of the song the pattern will play. The bar #s are counted relative to the last part marker, and range from 1-8 .Bar 1 is the first bar after a part marker for example.
Other bar mask settings
1	pattern played at odd # bars only 1,3,5,7,9,...
2	pattern played at even bars only 2,4,6,8,10...
3	pattern played on 3rd of 4 bar ( 3,7,11,15..)
4	pattern played on 4th of 4 ( 4,8,12,16,20...)
5	pattern played on 5th of 8 5,13,21...
6	pattern played on 6th of 8 6,14,22...
7	pattern played on 7th of 8 7,15,23...
8	pattern played on 8th of 8 8,16,24...
special bar masks
9:	PRE-FILL special value - refers to the bar before a fill
10	FILL refers to the bar of a fill
( this allows you to put in "bass fills" for example)
11: POST-FILL refers to the bar after a fill (same as the first bar after a part marker)

BEAT MASK
USUAL SETTING = 0
Set the beat mask to a beat from 1-4 if you want the pattern to only be played on certain beat #s.  1= Beat 1 , 2= Beat 2 , 3= Beat 3 , 4= Beat 4.

ROMAN NUMERAL MASK
USUAL SETTING = 0
If you have a pattern that should only be played on the I chord or the IV chord (of the key), you can use these Roman Numeral Masks. This setting is rarely used.

CHORD TYPE
USUAL SETTING = ANY
This setting is very useful. This allows you to record patterns that will only work on certain types of chords. For example you can record a specific riff that will only work on a minor 7th chord. You then play the pattern on a Cmin 7 ( not a C7 ). There are chord types for most types of chords.

INTERVAL TO NEXT CHORD
USUAL SETTING = ANY INTERVAL
This setting allows you to restrict the pattern to be played only if the next chord is a certain interval away. For example you can record a bass pattern that is walking up a fourth and then assign a Interval of Up 4th so that the pattern would only be played if you're going up a 4th.

HALF OCTAVE RANGE
USUAL SETTING = FULL OCTAVE
This is a new setting in the StyleMaker. Usually a pattern will be picked on any of the 12 roots. You can select a smaller range , either A to D , or Eb to Ab . In this case the pattern would only be picked if the chord in the song is in that range.

PLAY PATTERN PUSHED HOW OFTEN
USUAL SETTING = 0 %

# TICKS TO PUSH PATTERN
USUAL SETTING = 0

Pushed patterns are patterns that are played before the chord begins. Jazz styles typically use pushed patterns for the piano. Patterns are recorded in the normal way (non pushed) and then you assign the % of time and amount (in ticks, 120 ticks = 1 beat) to push the pattern. The pattern only plays pushed in the song (not in the StyleMaker)

OK TO USE MACRO NOTES (BASS)
USUAL SETTING = NO
Bass Macros are special notes that you record. When they are played back they are replaced by a function, as listed below.
List of Bass Macro Notes
Note	# 72 (C): Pop Walking Note(s)
On playback <F8>, the Note #72 will be replaced by intelligent
notes walking in a pop/country mode to the next chord. Maximum 4 walking notes per pattern.
Note# 76 (E): Note a semitone below Root of Next Chord
Note# 77 (F): Root Of Next Chord
Note # 78 (F#): Note a semitone ABOVE Root of Next Chord
Note # 79 (G): Best Fifth (a Fifth above or below the Root depending on how high the root is. Also stays on the root if in a slash chord  (C7 /E).
Remember to get Bass Macros Working you must:
Hit the right note # (you may be out by an octave).
Set OK to use macros to Yes
Playback the Pattern with F8 key or CHORD button (the F4 key gives you an as played playback with the strange sounding high macro notes.


Piano Pattern Option Dialog Box

USUAL SETTING = 5
Set this # higher/lower if you want the pattern to be played more/less often than the other patterns on the same row. This number is also displayed on the main StyleMaker screen.
A setting of 9(always) is a special setting that instructs the pattern to always be played instead of the other patterns on the same row . These patterns always have other options set which specify the times that this pattern would be eligible to be played. See the tutorial Making your won style fro examples of using a weight of  9.

USUAL SETTING =0
Playback Bar Mask determines on what bars of the song the pattern will play. The bar #s are counted relative to the last part marker, and range from 1-8 .Bar 1 is the first bar after a part marker for example
Other bar mask settings 1	pattern played at odd # bars only 1,3,5,7,9,...
2	pattern played at even bars only 2,4,6,8,10...
3	pattern played on 3rd of 4 bar ( 3,7,11,15..)
4	pattern played on 4th of 4 ( 4,8,12,16,20...)
5	pattern played on 5th of 8 5,13,21...
6	pattern played on 6th of 8 6,14,22...
7	pattern played on 7th of 8 7,15,23...
8	pattern played on 8th of 8 8,16,24...
special bar masks
9:	PRE-FILL special value - refers to the bar before a fill
10	FILL refers to the bar of a fill ( this allows you to put in "bass fills" for example)
11: POST-FILL refers to the bar after a fill (same as the first bar after a part marker)

USUAL SETTING=0
Set the beat mask to a beat from 1-4 if you want the pattern to only be played on certain beat #s.  1= Beat 1 , 2= Beat 2 , 3= Beat 3 , 4= Beat 4.

USUAL SETTING = 0
If you have a pattern that should only be played on the I chord or the IV chord (of the key), you can use these Roman Numeral Masks. This setting is rarely used.

USUAL SETTING = ANY
This setting is very useful. This allows you to record patterns that will only work on certain types of chords. For example you can record a specific riff that will only work on a minor 7th chord. You then play the pattern on a Cmin 7 ( not a C7 ). There are chord types for most types of chords.

USUAL SETTING = FULL OCTAVE
This is a new setting in the StyleMaker. Usually a pattern will be picked on any of the 12 roots. You can select a smaller range , either A to D , or Eb to Ab . In this case the pattern would only be picked if the chord in the song is in that range.

USUAL SETTING = ANY INTERVAL
This setting allows you to restrict the pattern to be played only if the next chord is a certain interval away. For example you can record a bass pattern that is walking up a fourth and then assign a Interval of Up 4th so that the pattern would only be played if you're going up a 4th.

USUAL SETTING = 0 %

USUAL SETTING = 0

Pushed patterns are patterns that are played before the chord begins. Jazz styles typically use pushed patterns for the piano. Patterns are recorded in the normal way (non pushed) and then you assign the % of time and amount (in ticks, 120 ticks = 1 beat) to push the pattern. The pattern only plays pushed in the song (not in the StyleMaker)

USUAL SETTING = NO

Piano Macros are special notes that you record. When they are played back they are replaced by a function, as listed below.

List of Piano Macro Notes (same as Guitar/String macro notes)
Midi Note # 83 B 	Pop Chord Diatonic Below
Midi Note # 84 C 	Pop Chord
Midi Note # 85 C# 	Pop Chord Diatonic Above
Midi Note # 88 E 	Jazz Chord Chromatic Below
Midi Note # 89 F 	Jazz Chord
Midi Note # 90 F# 	Jazz Chord Chromatic Above

Remember to get  Macro Notes Working you must:
Hit the right note # (you may be out by an octave).
Set OK to use macros to Yes
Playback the Pattern with F8 key or CHORD button (the F4 key gives you an as played playback with the strange sounding high macro notes.

USUAL SETTING = NO
This is a rarely used setting. It only is relevant when voice leading is set to smooth (see below). It determines where the center of the pattern is considered to be. If set to YES, the center of the pattern will be moved to the Key of the song.

USUAL SETTING = NONE
If set to embellish1 the pattern will be embellished . This is useful in Jazz styles. Embellish1 embellishes the chord once in the pattern, whereas embellish2 changes the embellishment during the pattern.

USUAL SETTING = 6
This setting is quite useful. It controls the range that the pattern will be played over.
For example, If the transpose down range is set to =2 the pattern (recorded in C ) will be transposed a maximum of 2 semitones down, and therefore up to 10 semitones up to play all 12 possible roots of the chords.

USUAL SETTING=transpose
transpose = C7 chord based
smooth voice leading
Riff based

The easiest type of voice leading is transpose only. If the notes C E G Bb were played as a C7 pattern, the Band-in-a-Box would transpose that voicing to a F7 chord as...
F A C Eb
...which is fine but not very smooth.
A more pleasant setting would be = smooth voice leading then the F7 would be voiced automatically as
C Eb F A
Riff based voicing is used when you have recorded a pattern with a melodic riff in it. This setting insures that Band-in-a-Box will not try to transform any of the notes into chord tones.


Chord Selection Dialog Box

This section is accessed by the CHORD button or the F8 key or choosing Pattern ||Play Pattern on Chord from the Pull down menu. This plays back a pattern on a specific chord that you choose. You can hear what patterns will sound like in a style by "trying them out" on certain songs. Macro notes recorded in a pattern will play their corresponding chords , smooth voice leading is demonstrated etc.

Just choose a chord and then press OK .
( does not apply to drum patterns, since drum patterns don't play any differently on different chords.)


Miscellaneous Settings Dialog Box

This dialog box allows you to set some Miscellaneous settings for the style.

They are :

STYLE NAME
This allows you to give a full 60 character name to the style. At present it isn't displayed on the main screen, but in future versions of Band-in-a-Box, will likely be displayed on the Main screen.

TEMPO
This allows you to set the default tempo for the Style. This is stored with the style. You can also change this tempo by the [image] tempo button on the StyleMaker main screen. Tempos can also be changed by the [ and ] keys .

JAZZ ? This lets Band-in-a-Box know if the style you've made is a Jazz style or not. If its a Jazz style it will use the Jazz Snare/Bass Drum instead of the Pop Snare/Bass Drum, and also makes some other decisions based on this setting.

ALLOW VOLUME CHANGES WITH STYLE	USUALLY = NO
VOLUME SETTINGS FOR EACH INSTRUMENT
Usually you don't want specific volume changes in a style. But if you decide to change the volume of instruments, you can do it by setting this to YES and then entering the Volumes you want in the settings below. ( A better way to change the volume of a part is to use the Pattern | Volume Adjust ( Alt W ) to set the volume of each pattern individually.)


Assign Instruments to Style Dialog Box

This dialog box allows you to assign instruments to a style.
When the song is played back using the style, these patch changes will be sent to your synthesizer.
Remember to always use General Midi Instrument #s (not the Patch #s of your synth, unless you have a General Midi synth)
If you don't require a specific instrument for the style, type a 0 for no patch change.

The patch changes take effect immediately in the style, so that when you are recording bass parts for example, you will hear the bass patch that you have selected.

THRU PATCH

If you set the Thru Patch to other than 0 , the instrument that the user plays along to your style will be the THRU PATCH that you set. If you're making a "heavy rock" style , you might want to set the thru patch to be rock guitar if you expected that the user would want to always play along on Rock guitar.

MELODY PATCH

If set to other than 0 ,all melodies will be played on the specified instrument. If you're making a "Grover Washington" style for example, you might want any melodies to be automatically set to Saxophone.


Importing instruments into a Style

Importing an instrument  to a style is a powerful feature that greatly speeds up the making of new styles. In the interests of not " re-inventing the wheel" with each new style, this allows you to import an instrument from another style into your own.

HOW TO IMPORT AN INSTRUMENT INTO A STYLE
From inside the StyleMaker, choose Style | Import Instrument from Style  (Alt F3)
From the Dialog box that appears:
1. Choose the instrument to import (drums/bass/piano/guitar/strings)
2. Choose whether you want to add to existing patterns or replace any existing patterns
You will then see the patterns appear in your style , and the import is complete !

EXAMPLE : IMPORTING THE STRINGS FROM MIAMI POP STYLE
The Miami Pop style has a nice strings part.
Let's import the "Miami Pop" strings into our style.
1. Choose Style | Import Instrument or Press Alt F3 to import instrument.
2. From the Dialog box that appears - select STRINGS
- select Replace Existing patterns
-	 press OK to exit the dialog box
3. Then choose the ZZMiami.STY. You will then see the strings patterns appear on your Lite Rock style.
4. Press the SAVE button to Save the Lite Rock style With strings.
5. The strings will play in the 'B' substyle only, because that's how they were made in the Miami Pop style.
6. You could now import the Guitar from the ZZCONTRY.STY for example, using the steps 1-6 as above. It is quite easy to quickly add instruments to styles by using this import feature.


Drum Screen Alternate notes

WHAT ARE ALTERNATE NOTES ?
Alternate notes can be entered for any note This tells Band-in-a-Box to randomly choose a different note to the one specified .
For example
-you might want a note to be a closed high hat 80% of the time, and an open high hat 20% of the time.
-you might want a note to be high conga 60% and low conga 40% of the time.
- or high tom 30% of the time and NO note the other 70%
This allows one drum pattern to sound like many, because it will be played different ways depending on which of the notes are picked..

HOW TO PUT IN AN ALTERNATE NOTE
To do this - move to the note to add an alternate.
Press the [image] button or press the F5 key to get to the Alternate note dialog box.

Type in the #s as you see here. The Alternate note #4 is open high hat (you will see the list of note #s at the side of the screen. When you exit the box you will see that the box has a red border indicating that an alternate note is located there.


StyleMaker Pull Down Menu Items

These options are also available from the buttons on the StyleMaker screen

File

Save Style	F2

Saves the style, using the current style name.
This will overwrite a previous style !

Save Style As	Alt F2

This saves the style, allowing you to rename the style if desired.

Exit	Alt F4

Exits the StyleMaker, prompting you to Save the Style. If you don't save the style upon  exit, you will lose any changes that you've made.

Edit

Cut

This is not implemented yet .

Copy

Copies a pattern to the clipboard.

Paste

Pastes a single pattern from the clipboard. Can paste between styles y opening and closing styles and copying and pasting.

Delete Pattern	DEL

Erases a Pattern. Can also delete a Pattern by typing a weight of 0 .

Pattern

Play Pattern	F4

Plays the pattern using the currently selected style. Loops after 2 bars. If you want to play the song while the StyleMaker is open, you need to press the PLAY button on the Main screen, as the F4 key will not play the song, it will play the StyleMaker pattern.

Play Pattern on Chord	F8

This plays back a pattern as it would sound in a song on a certain chord. This is useful to see the effects of smooth voice leading or macro notes in a pattern.

Record Pattern	F3

Records a pattern. For drums it enters the STEP EDIT Drum Editor. For the other instruments, it starts a real time record ( 2 bar lead in then record 2 bar pattern) .

Options	F10

Allows you to set or change options (masks) for a specific pattern. This same dialog box also appears at the end of recording a pattern.

Quantize Pattern	Alt Q

Quantifies a pattern to  a given resolution. Very useful - I quantize most of the patterns in styles that I make.

Volume adjust	Alt W

Also very useful. Displays the average velocity (volume) of the pattern and lets you set a new volume . Styles sound smoother if all patterns of one instrument are at similar volumes.

Legato adjust

This adjusts the legato of each note. Units are 120 ticks/beat. Legato is the length of each note. Useful if you find a pattern that's too percussive or too legato.

Style

Patch Assignments	Alt F10

Assign patches to a style.
See Patch Assignment Dialog Box

Misc. Settings	Ctl F10

Assign misc. settings to a style.
See Misc. settings Dialog Box

Next Instrument	F6

Previous Instrument	Shf F6

Changes the instrument setting between drums/bass/piano/guitar/strings

Import Instr. from . Style	Alt F3

Import an instrument from one style into another.

See Import Instrument Dialog Box


StyleMaker Buttons on Main Screen

These options are also available from the pull down menus on the StyleMaker screen

SAVE
Saves the style using current stylename. Overwrites existing style.

SAVEAS
Saves the style, but allows you to rename it first.

PLAY
Plays the current pattern

STOP
Stops the Playback of the current pattern

CHORD
Plays the Current Pattern over a specific chord.

REC	(RECORD)
Records a pattern.

OPT	(OPTIONS)
Allows setting of Options for the current pattern.

Q	(QUANTIZE)

V	(VOLUME ADJUST)

L	(LEGATO)

PAT	(PATCH)

MISC.	(MISC. SETTINGS)

SONG
Plays the current SONG using the new style you're making.

EXIT
Exits the StyleMaker and closes the Window.


KeyStroke List

List of Keystroke "Hot Keys".
These keys are also listed on the pull down menus beside the function.

PLAYING  SONGS	<SPACEBAR> TWICE	or F4
(it is necessary to tap the spacebar twice on the main screen to start playback because entering chords can include a single spacebar.(in the StyleMaker you start songs by hitting spacebar once)
STOPPING SONGS 	SPACEBAR or ESCAPE
HELP	F1,Shift F1,Ctrl F1
RECORD (melody or pattern)	R
RECORD FROM ANY BAR	ALT R
JUKEBOX START/STOP	F8
SAVE SONG	F2
SAVE SONG WITH PATCHES	ALT F2
LOAD SONG	F3
LOAD SONGS WITH MELODIES	ALT F3
EDIT CURRENT BAR OPTIONS	F5
SAVE MIDI FILE	F6
LOAD SONGS IN CURRENT STYLE	F7
CHOOSE A USER STYLE	F9
EDIT USER STYLE	Alt F9
EDIT CURRENT STYLE	Ctrl F9
QUIT THE PROGRAM 	ALT F4

STYLEMAKER HOT KEYS

HELP	F1,Shift F1,Ctrl F1
SAVE STYLE	F2
SAVE STYLE AS ...	ALT F2
RECORD PATTERN	R  or  F3
PLAY PATTERN	<SPACEBAR> or F4
PLAY PATTERN ON CHORD	F8
EDIT PATTERN OPTIONS	F10
CHANGE INSTRUMENT	F6 or SHIFT F6
MOVE AROUND SCREEN	Cursor Keys
QUIT THE STYLEMAKER	Alt F4

DRUM SCREEN HOT KEYS
DRUM ALTERNATE NOTES	F5
DRUM NOTE ENTRY	Bottom row (ZXCVBNM,./)
TIMEBASE	F6
EXIT	F10 or Alt F4

Remember also that any Function on the pull down menu may be accessed by Hot Keys by pressing the ALT key and the first letter of the Menu followed by the underlined letter of the command For example  File | Open  would be accessed by <ALT F> O .