PG Music Band In A Box 2009.5 Music Production SoftwareThe Band-in-a-Box 2009.5 music production software features 27 new RealTracks Sets (40-66) with 101 new RealTracks instruments, and 6 new RealDrums Sets (21-26)!
The award winning Band-in-a-Box is so easy to use! Just type in the chords to any song (like C or Fm7b5), choose a musical style from the hundreds available, and click the [Play] button. Band-in-a-Box automatically generates a complete professional-quality arrangement. Plus, add REAL accompaniment to your song with RealTracks and RealDrums. These are actual recordings of top studio musicians that replace the MIDI track with audio instruments. They sound like real musicians, because they are recordings of real musicians!
Band-in-a-Box 2009.5 Features and Enhancements
- Classic RealStyles
- Enhanced Realtracks
- Improved guitar RealCharts
- Enhanced developer mode for RealDrums
- RealCharts for piano are auto hand-split now.
- Audio Smooth looping
New Features
Classic RealStyles styles made. This is a new category in the StylePicker, and it contains new styles that are intended to be commonly used RealTracks. They are divided into genres. So you can go to Classic RealStyles – Jazz to easily find RealStyles for Jazz Swing, Bossa etc.
Guitar RealCharts have been improved. The new guitar RealTracks have more accurate guitar display/tab/notation for the corresponding RealTracks.
The Verify function in the RealTracks assign dialog has been enhanced. It checks your installation to find if RealTracks are properly installed, or any files are missing.
The Verify button in the RealTracks Settings dialog has extra features now:
1. It checks the Bt0 status of the RealTracks st2, compared to the Bt0 found in the RealTracks folder.
2. It issues error messages if a st2 is found, but not the realtracks folder.
3. Issues a message if xt2 not found (for a chording RealTracks).
Developer mode for RealDrums enhanced. (Note: This feature is only for those people developing their own RealDrums files). If the file c:\bbNumberedDeveloperFiles.txt exists, the DrumAudioResults.txt with information get numbered and written to c:\bb\Results folder. (Note: you need to create a c:\bb\Results folder first).
Realtracks are enhanced. These features are present in the new RealTracks that are released with 2009.5:
Smoother playing of piano parts over slash chords.
Support for some more complex slash chords like C7/E played by piano
RealTracks feature to only play certain riffs in certain keys. This feature happens automatically on certain RealTracks, no settings are needed.
RealCharts for piano are auto hand-split now. RealTracks (and MIDI style) piano parts that are on the piano track will appear with hands-split (right hand in red, left hand in blue) on the big piano window, and in notation. There is a setting for this on the Notation-Options dialog.
Audio Smooth looping added. Now the audio track loops smoothly, including using it with the conductor. Frozen songs now loop smoothly and are usable with the conductor.
Any missing RealTracks/RealDrums are listed. When a song is loaded, played or saved, a yellow hint message will appear if any RealTracks or RealDrums are missing, listing the files that are missing.
The SongList dialog now lists if any RealDrums or RealTracks were not found, in a separate column (d and t indicates missing RealDrums or RealTracks).
Note: If you want to disable this feature, you can put in this file: c:\bb\AlsoReadStylesWithSongListBuildUp_False.txt (contents irrelevant)
Chord Options dialog now has a Clear All button that erases all Rests/Shots/Pushes/Pedal Bass from a song.
Audible Audio Glitches in some RealTracks were removed.
Added Songs with RealTracks on Drums (and no drum part) get a drum count-in. For example, _BG_BAND.STY
If a ChordSheet/ notation transpose is in effect, a Transpose yellow hint message will appear on boot up as a reminder.
Audio Base tempo reminder message. If saving a song, and the Audio Base tempo is different than the Song Tempo, a warning message will show, asking you to confirm that you want to save it like this.
Feature that starts a new line on a part marker (section) has been enhanced.
Section starts a new line feature now does it for 2 bar sections too. Previously a section with only 2 bars wouldn’t start a new line, now it does.
F5 bar settings Notation - on a new line now works for chord sections.
Notation starts a new line on a part marker (like the chord sheet). (This can be disabled for a song or globally.)
Option added for Melody -Guitar rechannel, to include events already on guitar channel.
When launching the Audio Chord Wizard, a preserve part markers question doesn't appear now if there are no chords in the song.
Message added when no style demo found in RealTracks dialog.
Many more demos are shown in the RealTracks dialog.
Other Features
RealTracks.
With the previous release of Band-in-a-Box, we added RealDrums. Now we’ve added three additional Real instruments, including Real Pedal Steel, Real Acoustic Guitar, and Tenor Sax soloing (RealSax). These tracks replace the MIDI track for that instrument, and can be controlled just like the MIDI instrument (volume changes, muting etc.). Best of all, they follow the chord progression that you have entered, so that you hear an authentic audio accompaniment to your song. These are not "samples," but are full recordings, lasting from 1 to 8 bars at a time, playing along in perfect sync with the other Band-in-a-Box tracks. RealTracks can be built in to the style, and would replace either the bass, guitar, piano, or strings part, or they can be generated to the Soloist (or Melody) track using the Soloist feature.
MultiStyles.
We’ve added MultiStyles to Band-in-a-Box. These are Styles that can have anywhere from 4 to 24 substyles! Previous Band-in-a-Box Styles were limited to 2 substyles (a and b). Now, for example, a MultiStyle with 4 substyles (First Verse, Verse, Chorus, Break) can be used, and you select the various sections using
a/
b/
c/
d part markers. Some of our newest Styles Sets are MultiStyles, typically with 4 substyles, but some Techno Styles have 24 substyles. You can easily make your own MultiStyles, either from scratch, or combining parts from existing Styles to make a MultiStyle. For example, if you have 10 favorite Country Styles, you can quickly make a single MultiStyle that has 20 substyles available within the same song.
Audio Chord Wizard Enhancements.
The Audio Chord Wizard is the amazing feature that automatically figures out the chords from MP3 files (or other audio files like WAV, WMA, and audio CD etc.). Using the Audio Chord Wizard is a great way to learn and practice popular songs, as you play along and see the chords.
- We’ve added a Lead Sheet window that shows the chords for the whole song on a single screen. This allows you to click on a bar on the lead sheet to jump to that area of the song.
- You can mark sections of the song using part markers, and the sections begin on a new line with a line space between, so are clearly seen. So you can then also learn the form of the song, as you can see the various intro/verse/chorus/break sections at a glance, or quickly jump to the break simply by double clicking on that part of the lead sheet.
- Chord editing
Change of Key Signature at any Bar. Now you can have multiple keys in a song! The new key signature is shown on notation.
The GUI has been enhanced.
- Support for Windows Themes – Band-in-a-Box will use the current theme that you have selected in Windows Control Panel to use for Windows and dialogs.
- Copying of sections or selections can be done using drag-and-drop, simply drag regions around the chord sheet to quickly rearrange your song. Hold down the ctrl key for finer control about insert/overwrite/ etc.
Section Paragraphs.
When you’re reading a book, a new section begins on a new line, with space between; now we’ve done that for chords too! Whenever a new section occurs (a part marker), Band-in-a-Box starts the new section on a new line, and draws a grey line above to clearly mark the new section. For example, if you have a song with a 7 bar section, followed by 8 bar sections, the previous version of Band-in-a-Box wouldn’t start the other sections on a new line. The result there was that it was hard to delineate the sections, as if an entire story was told within one paragraph. With the Section Paragraphs feature you’ll see all of them on a new line so that the form of the lead sheet is easier to see. This feature is configurable and optional.
Medley Maker.
Would you like to make a Medley using Band-in-a-Box, of various BB songs (MGU)? This is easily done with the new MedleyMaker. Inside the MedleyMaker, simply select the songs that you want, and Band-in-a-Box will make the medley for you. A medley is not simply joining songs together –a good medley uses a transition area between songs, to introduce the new style, key, and tempo. The MedleyMaker automatically creates a nice transition area for you, writing in chords that would smoothly transition to the next song/style/key and tempo!