Newbie to the list. Interesting thread. I'm finally going to purchase
and dive into BIAB.
I've got several songwriter friends who use it, albeit sightlings, but I
really like the tool it is for writing.
You can get BIAB as low as $129 for the basic program, all the way
upwards of 679 or so.
I've downloaded Pete's scripts, and will check them out as soon as I get
my laptop up to speed and BIAB on it.
Would also be interested in the tutorials you mentioned, and wouldn't
expect them free, same as I won't Pete's scripts once I get them
installed and such.
I write web copy and etc. for a living, maybe I can write a persuasive
piece on the benefits of supporting eyes-free tutorials and such 😉.
Can't hurt to try. They aren't that big of a company
Brad
On 3/11/2021 8:51 PM, Pshon Barrett wrote:
Hi, Gudrun, Thank you, that is very helpful. I’ll check it out, but I don’t think I’m quite savvy enough for all that technical stuff, but I enjoy yours.
Pshon
*From:* midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> *On Behalf Of *Gudrun Brunot
*Sent:* Thursday, March 11, 2021 8:37 PM
*To:* midimag@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
*Subject:* [freelists-midimag] Re: Couple Questions about Band-in-a-box
Hi Pshon: Band-in-a-Box is supposed to work on the iPhone as well, but I installed it there and took it off again. It works better on a PC. It is available from PGMusic.com, and it is upgraded every year. It is not free. I can’t remember how much the program costs now, but at least a couple of hundred dollars. You can work with it just on the computer with a sound card, but it is good to have a midi controller (keyboard) available also.
There are tons of tutorials on the website—most of them oriented towards watching a video and “going here” and “pressing this button will…” So, not too helpful. What the tutorials can do is give you an idea of what they have covered, if not how to achieve things from a keyboard entry aspect.
Peter Torpey has developed scripts for BIAB that works quite well, considering that the program has aspects that are not too accessible. I am working on developing some tutorials in collaboration with a wonderful man in Canada. I have written to PGMusic and suggested someone from there work with me to develop eyesfree tutorials, but no interest. I wrote the BIAB email list, and got some response, but not too involved. The, I decided to write one last time, explaining that I have 16 issues that need to be worked on in order to develop eyesfree tutorial. I didn’t expect much by then—just wanted to write so I could tell myself that, yes, I had tried everything. Then, this man, Roy Robinson, replied. We’ve been working since July, practically every Friday for a couple of hours. We’ve covered the style picker in detail, copying bars, exploring issues with adding melody to style. The song memo, you name it. Certain things take hours to explore, and this man is patience incarnate.
Well, that’s a little bit about BIAB.
Gudrun
*From:* midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> <midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> *On Behalf Of *Pshon Barrett
*Sent:* Thursday, March 11, 2021 6:09 PM
*To:* midimag@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:midimag@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
*Subject:* [freelists-midimag] Re: Couple Questions about Band-in-a-box
Hi, is this a windows program? I have seen it on my iPhone, but can’t get it to work with voiceover.
Where do you get the program and is there a cost?
Thank you,
Pshon
*From:* midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> <midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> *On Behalf Of *Gudrun Brunot
*Sent:* Thursday, March 11, 2021 7:04 PM
*To:* midimag@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:midimag@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
*Subject:* [freelists-midimag] Re: Couple Questions about Band-in-a-box
Pontes Media Downloader
Gudrun
*From:* midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> <midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> *On Behalf Of *Mike Rogers
*Sent:* Thursday, March 11, 2021 2:58 PM
*To:* midimag@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:midimag@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
*Subject:* [freelists-midimag] Re: Couple Questions about Band-in-a-box
Thanks Pete. This is getting interesting.
Mike
*From:*midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> [mailto:midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>] *On Behalf Of *ptorpey00@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:ptorpey00@xxxxxxxxx>
*Sent:* Thursday, March 11, 2021 5:50 PM
*To:* midimag@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:midimag@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
*Subject:* [freelists-midimag] Re: Couple Questions about Band-in-a-box
Mike,
I looked into this a bit and here is what I think:
* In the Control+F9 dialog to find a style, you can indeed search
for a song.
* Once you find a song you want you can tab to the “Load Song”
button and activate it. This will load the song into BIAB.
* If you hit escape, the song you chose will now be in BIAB.
* A caveat: Usually, this will just include the backing tracks to
the song according to the artist selected, i.e., you won’t get the
melody. This is because melodies are copyrighted while chord
changes are not.
* Going back to the control+F9 dialog for selecting a style, you can
also tab to the “Find Songs” button after typing in a song name
into one of the edit fields.
* If you activate the Find Songs button you will see a list of songs.
* Arrow down to the song you want to select it.
* Now tab through this dialog and you will find a number of buttons
that will take you to various web pages where you can listen to or
download the song.
* People on this list have recommended a program called Ponte (or
something similar, I don’t remember) that will let you copy in the
URL to a song on YouTube and then automatically download an mp3
version of the YouTube video.
I hope that helps.
--pete
*From:* midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> <midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> *On Behalf Of *Mike Rogers
*Sent:* Wednesday, March 10, 2021 6:32 PM
*To:* midimag@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:midimag@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
*Subject:* [freelists-midimag] Re: Couple Questions about Band-in-a-box
Hi. Thanks for replying. As to my second question: When picking a style Cntrol f9, There’s a tab that states, “pick a popular song and I can use that style. I write the name, and click. I’m taken to a website that has names of songs. Do I just click on that song stitle to get the style/? I’m not very tech savvy. Just curious.
Mike
*From:*midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> [mailto:midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>] *On Behalf Of *ptorpey00@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:ptorpey00@xxxxxxxxx>
*Sent:* Wednesday, March 10, 2021 6:05 PM
*To:* midimag@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:midimag@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
*Subject:* [freelists-midimag] Re: Couple Questions about Band-in-a-box
I don’t know anything about Real Band but don’t think it is very accessible with a screen reader. When I want to mix tunes from Band-in-a-Box I render the BIAB tune with each instrument on a separate file and then pull these files into another DAW such as Sonar, Samplitude, or Reaper.
As for the downloads, I don’t know which files you are talking about. Perhaps you could provide a URL or description about what exactly you are trying to download.
--Pete
*From:* midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> <midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> *On Behalf Of *Mike Rogers
*Sent:* Wednesday, March 10, 2021 1:25 PM
*To:* midimag@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:midimag@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
*Subject:* [freelists-midimag] Couple Questions about Band-in-a-box
I’m using it pretty well, but don’t have a clue about Real Bands. Is there a tutorial? Also not having luck downloading the recorded songs from website.
Any help appreciated.
Mike
