[ddots-l] New BIAB Tutorial

From: "Farfar, Good Old Farfar" <dgcarlson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <midimag@xxxxxxxxxxx>, "ddots List Server" <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:31:52 -0800
BIAB Users,

Since Jackie has rightfully abandoned the project to generate a full-blown 
tutorial for BIAB for a price, I pulled up one that I wrote for a fellow user a 
couple years ago. I think I've shared it with some on this list and the Dancing 
Dots list in the past, but on an as-requested basis, as-is.

I'd like to dust it off and give it an overhaul to bring it up to the current 
BIAB scripts and current BIAB 2012. If any users out there would give me ideas 
on what you need (and I mean need, not necessarily want) to see in a tutorial, 
send me your ideas.

What I have right now is basic setup, song creation with pitfalls to avoid, 
using styles and massaging melody tracks.

So much of BIAB is very quirky even to sighted users, that we need consistent 
ways to perform tasks. The user interface is very messy with overlaying menus  
and dialogs  that hide controls in seemingly inappropriate places. Add to that 
the process of tabbing through dialogs rarely moves from top to bottom  and 
often skips over important controls. Fortunately for all of us, this Rube 
Goldberg UI hasn't changed much through versions 2008 - 2012, in spite of them 
adding new features. They just tuck them in wherever they find a blank space, 
it seems. But good for us that there are still very many things that can be 
accessed in BIAB using keyboard shortcuts -- they haven't yet gone to a 
completely graphical interface. So I guess we shouldn't be complaining.

I've been using BIAB since version 2008 with Jackie's and Pete's essential 
scripts. I've had some experience with importing MIDI files for their chords 
and melody, as well as some work with the audio chord analyzer. 

I'm not planning to charge for any of this, since I already have a fairly large 
document to start with. But what I think should be in there may not match what 
others would like to see.

Send me your needs list and I'll go through and see what is within my 
capabilities to decipher and write about.

If some of the requests require more scripting, then I'll see if Pete or Jackie 
have any ability to improve on the existing scripts.

Dave Carlson
Sent from somewhere in the Western United States, using a Dell Latitude E6520 
and Windows 7
[ddots-l] New BIAB Tutorial

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