Conference napalm::commusic_v1

   <<< Note 2448.0 by NIOMAX::LAING "Soft-Core Cuddler*Jim Laing*282-1476" >>>
                              -< Band-in-a-Box? >-

Jim,

never heard it, but this sounded like fun to me also. Also might be good as 
a source of song "templates" to be used during the creative process as a 
scratchpad of sorts.

Mike D    

    Re. "Good clean fun cheap" ... yes, cheap for the program (well under
    $100, as I remember, with >500 song "templates" already loaded) ... but
    for *me* it wouldn't be cheap; I don't even have  a computer (yet) ...
    Hmm, Atari ST's are cheap these days, rn't they?
    
    	-Jim

Now's the time to get one.  With the STe out the 1040's gotten real
cheap.  I have one Atari 1040-ST ST for sale, and know of at least two
others.  Everything from a bare 1040 with no monitor for $550, ($600
with the monitor) up through a complete color system with 40 meg hard
drive, a printer, and tons of software for $1000.  These are all listed
in MAY14::ATARIST topic 460.

    Band-in-a-Box is great fun.  I got it a few months ago from Leigh's
    Computers in NYC (including the 2 volumes of preprogrammed songs)
    for the same price PG wants for just the main program if you order
    directly from them.
    
    Essentially, one types in chord progressions to a song, the style
    of song (may choose from 14 different types like light rock, medium
    rock, heavy rock 4/4 country, swing, etc.) and Band-in-a-Box instantly
    generates piano, bass and drum accompaniaments, any of which may be
    turned off (if you want to play that instrument or just want to hear
    another solo).  It also comes with some predefined 'drum-maps', for 
    Roland, Korg, and Yamaha drum sets, so most people can be
    'up-and-running' in jsut a couple minutes.  
    
    I'll never forget the time I first used this - I set up my U-20
    to respond to piano, acoustic bass, and the standard drum set, and
    loaded up "Bb Blues", a standard jazz/blues progression.  Just hearing
    those three were great enough, but when my wife heard it, she made me
    hook up the WX-7 and set the U-20 to also include a sax.  She then
    'let loose' (improvising) for about 5 minutes, loving every minute of
    it, while I was growing impatient wanting to try different styles.
    
    I've also used it to hear what different chord progressions would sound
    like (in different styles) in my own compositions.  With me not having
    any sort of drummer background, I let Band-in-a-Box take over just to
    give me an idea of how things could sound.
    
    Definitely a bargain for less than $70.  BTW, it runs on the Atari ST 
    and Macintosh.  I heartily recommend it.
    
    -Dan

Re: .4
    
    >>    Definitely a bargain for less than $70.  BTW, it runs on the Atari ST 
    >>    and Macintosh.  I heartily recommend it.
    
    It also runs on IBM/compatibles.  
    
    There was a very favorable article about this is the latest _Electronic
    Musician_.  Sounds like just the thing if you just wanna jam.  
    
    Rodney

I read the article last night in EM. $59 for the main program, $29 for the 
extra disk(s) with >500 songs. Now that's cheap! Sorry Jim, I assumed you
had a computer. 

Mike D

    Well, something like this, if it's decent/good/fun, makes me wanna buy
    a computer (and makes me wish I'd never sold my old Mac 512E)!
    
    	-Jim
    
    Sure wouldn't mind a STacy if only they could be bought somewhere...

    When I was in Boston last year I paid a visit to the computer museum.
    One display had a piece of software running that sounds very much like
    what is being described here. If you want to hear what it sounds like,
    you could nip along and see if the display is still there.
    
    
    Chris

    Are you talking about the Kurzweil running a jazz composition program
    that runs overnight and plays during the day?  The notes are all on the
    white keys.
    Tom

    re .4 and other(s) ...
    
    Do you know of any stores in the Boston-to-NH area that might be able
    to demo this Band-in-a-Box?  Sure would like to hear it ...
    
    	-Jim

I've had Band-In-A-Box since last December. I love it. In fact, I used it to 
make about 2 1/2 hours worth of tapes to learn improvisation for some of the 
folks in the DEC Big Band. Works well. I use it for learning tunes, etudes, 
lots of stuff. 

If you want to hear it send me a note and I'll try and copy some of the tapes. 
I have a sick dubbing deck right now.

Geoff

    An off chance I suppose but does anyone know where to get B-I-A-B in
    the UK
    
    Jonathan

There is an ad for Band in a Box in the latest issue of Sound on Sound.

I think the software that I saw displayed in Boston was more sophisticated than 
the white-note only Kurzweil hook-up mentioned earlier. Also, it seemed to be 
operating in real time.


Chris

    Could someody post an Atari address for this beast with phone, cost
    etc.  It sounds like it could be a real fun toy.
    
    Thanks
    Joe

Bit Bucket usually stocks it.  They're out rightr now, but expect more soon.

    
    Does anyone know if you can edit the bass lines? ie: Can you make the
    bass start on notes other than the roots?
    
    -bruce
      

    Provided you have a sequencer that can read MIDI files, you can edit
    anything you want after it has been generated.  BiaB can write
    MIDI files.

    re: .16
    
    Chords may be entered in the following format:
    
    D/F#, G/D, etc. where the note after the / is the bass note to be
    played.  Or, you could do as .17 said and dump the file to a standard
    MIDI file and then edit it in you own sequencer.
    
    As I mentioned in an earlier note, after calling around, Leigh's
    Computers in NYC had the best price, though I can't remember for
    the life of me, what it was that I actually paid.
    
    Leigh's advertises in almost every Keyboad and Electronic Musician
    magazine.  Their phone may be somewhere in this conference as well.
    
    Happy hunting,
    Dan
    

    I ordered from Leigh's yesterday.  They charged $69.95 including the
    Midi Fake Book, plus $3 shipping by UPS ground.  Direct from PG for
    the same thing would be $88 (presumably plus shipping).
    
    This was the Mac version.

	You can hear a recorded demo by dialing 416-528-2180  -24 hours-

		bob p.

Question - do you need to play this through an SGU, or does it create the
songs with the internal Atari (or whatever) sounds? And if so, how would
you amplify it? Or, if you need an SGU, will any work? (ie. I have an
Atari hooked into an MKS70 - I assume this is enough?)

thanx,
alan

    You need three timbres: one for the piano, one for the bass, one for
    the drums.  The MKS-70 will give you two, right?  Then you need a drum
    machine, too.
    
    							Brian

> You need three timbres: one for the piano, one for the bass, one for the 
> drums. The MKS-70 will give you two, right? Then you need a drum machine, too.

The MKS70 has four timbres - one drum, one bass, and two keys. (Hmmmm...maybe
I have an MKS7, not MKS70....I forget!). Anyways, sounds like I have all
that I need! This could be fun!!!

thanx,
alan

The demo is actually quite impressive in terms of what was was generated.
However, the editing on the tape is *terrible*!  (Of course I didn't expect
much in the way of fidelity what with an answering machine tape playing into
a long-distance telephone line).

Burns

    Computers & Music in San Francisco quoted me a price of 59.95 for BIAB 
    and the Fake Book. Their # is (415) 541-5350
    
    PS Todd Rundgren shops there!!
    
    -Ed
    

    I got mine last night and stayed up until midnight playing with it.
    I must say I'm impressed.  It is particularly fun setting the style to
    "Reggae" and listening to the variations in the bass part each time it
    repeats the chorus.
    
    What I got was "version 3", which adds more styles and cleans up the
    Mac interface a bit.
    
    The files for saving the songs are quite compact, and the fake book
    disk is crammed full of stuff.  Recent stuff, too.  I found "Wind
    beneath my Wings" in there.  The program disk includes another 100
    songs.

RE: .23 (Alan, MKS70 vs. MKS7)
    
    You have an MKS7 - the 70 is at most bi-timbral and has no "drum"
    sounds available (unless you count synthesized percussion, which I
    don't).
    
+b

    I knew something was up when I read the EM review and they said there
    was more than 14 styles to choose from.  Guess who I'm calling for an
    upgrade as soon as I can find their number?
    
    -Dan
    

    The 10 new styles in v3 are:
    	Milly Pop
    	Funk
    	Jazz waltz
    	Rhumba
    	Cha cha
    	Bouncy 12/8  (eg "When I'm 64")
    	Irish
    	Pop Ballad 12/8  ("Brown eyes blue")
    	Country 12/8
    	Reggae
    
    Also the bar limit is now 255 instead of 64, and it supports
    the Midi Manager.

    
    Anyone know if BIAB will drive the (Yecch!) Roland MT-32 drum set?
    is this one of the mappings it supports?  
    
    Thanx-
    
    -Ed

    What kinds of things can you modify and store on a PER-SONG basis?
    Things like instrument volumes, MIDI numbers, program-change commands?
    
    What things are "globally" saved, i.e. affect ALL songs played?
    
    	-Jim

    You want a sequencer, buy a sequencer.  This ain't one.
    
    You can set the channel number for Bass, Piano, and Drums.  You can
    specify a +/-2 octave offset for piano and drums.  You can make it
    send a program change at the beginning.
    
    It will drive an MT32 drum section, and is easily modified for any
    other kind.  It comes knowing about Roland, Yamaha RX5, and Korg M1
    setups, and you can make your own.
    
    It generates the volumes and volocities it wants to.  You have
    no control over that.  If you want such control you have to move
    a MIDI file into your sequencer, or have a synth with separate outs
    so you can do it in your mixer.

    Sounds like just enuf control ... channel numbers for each sound, the
    ability to send a program change over each channel at the start, and
    octave.  
    
    I assume in -.1 you mean "+/-2 octave offset in piano and bass" rather
    than in drums ...
    
    I'm now anxious to hear/try it ... 
    
    	-Jim

    Uh yes, Piano and Bass can each be shifted +/- 2 octaves.

    YEAH !!! This is a really groovy little product and I am very happy
    with it. I do hope they continue to bring out enhancements because the
    scope for such a 'jamming' tool seems endless.
    
    Mind you, I found the manual a little sparce, so perhaps I can get a
    few pointers here.
    
    The manual mentions TAGS. What are they ??
    
    If I want to set out a song... for example :
    
    
    Am		G		F                    for an intro
    
    Am		G		C,D                  as the main body song
    
    C		D		F                    for the bridge
    
    Am		G		F                    for the ending
    
    I want it to play the intro once, repeat the main body 4 times, play
    the bridge twice loop back to the main body and again play that 4 times
    repeat the bridge twice again and then play the ending once.
    
    Is this feasible using looping techniques ??? How ??
    
    Thanks
    
    Jonathan

    What you call the "ending" is a tag.

    Hi,

    Could anyone give me the address of dealer whom I can overseas
    mail-order for MAC version of BIAB from?  (I live in Japan.)

    thanks in advance, tak

    Takeshi-san,
    
    
     Band-In-A-Box was written by Peter Gannon of PG Music. The address is:
    
                          PG MUSIC
                          111-266 Elmwood Avenue
                          Buffalo
                          NY 14222
                          USA
    
    The telephone number is : 1-416-528-2368
    
    There is also a 24-hr a day demo line which will play some BIAB created
    music to you together with a dialog about the product. The demo line
    number is : 1-416-528-2180.
    
    I bought my copy in the U.K from a company called Zone Distribution.
    I don't have their address with me but will try and bring it in
    tomorrow. I do not know if Zone Distribution will deal with overseas
    customers.
    
    Hope this helps,
    
    Jonathan (who finds BIAB lots of fun)   

    
    	The address in the U.K. of Zone Distribution, who distribute
    Band In A Box, is:
    			Zone Distribution
    			5 Abbeyville Road
    			London
    			SW4
    
    			Telephone: 081-766-6564
    
    Their advert in the current issue of Sound On Sound indicates that the
    MAC version requires 512K and a MIDI interface.
    
    Hope this is of some assistance,
    
    Brian

    re: .38 .39
    
    Thanks!  I would try either of the two.
    
    Tak

What's the UK price?

I'm not that bothered since I ordered a copy from the US at $59. I figure about
$30 for airmail to France (par for the course nowadays, I'm afraid!) for a 
total of $89. At current exchange rates, that's as good as 45 or so pounds.

Gavin

Has anyone succeeded in transferring stuff from BiaB to a sequencer? I tried
to load and only got a load of rests and a couple of notes!

Gavin

I have used BB to generate standard midi file and then load them into CAKEWALK 
3.0. No problem. The piano, bass, and drum parts end up on separate CAKEWALK 
tracks. 

The stuff even sounds the same when played back.

Geoff

>I have used BB to generate standard midi file and then load them into CAKEWALK 
>3.0. No problem. The piano, bass, and drum parts end up on separate CAKEWALK 
>tracks. 

Was this on a Macintosh? 

The case for getting a newer and better sequencer grows daily...

Gavin

    
    
    Works  ok on an Atari with Cubase as well.
    
    
    				Paul

I played a bit more this weekend, with not a lot of success... I am beginning
to feel that the fault lies with BiaB, not Concertware since CW can load 
MIDImusic files discussed in another note. I may give the author/creator a call.

Another (minor) problem is that BiaB only plays Piano/Bass if yoy've not mucked
around with the settings on the synth. If you have played something else, BiaB
plays Whatever_was_left_on instead. I only discovered this after using CW to
play something and then switching to BiaB; the result was, to say the least,
interesting (something like Harp plus Violin!). However, it led me to play
around some more and see what variations sounded good. 

It also autosaves on exit and if you load a new song. That's a grrrr for me 
and contrary to the Mac guidelines. 

Gavin

    
    
    Biab Does allow you to send program changes on entry...So you should
    now have to put up with Piano parts played on Violins..
    
    I think it's one of the options in the midi menu.
    
    						Paul.

    Are the program changes stored with *each* song in BIAB?
    
    -Jim

    
    re-1
    
    No they are on-offs with the setup.
    
    						Paul.
    

    I called the "technical support" number for B-i-a-B.  There is a new
    version (4.0) coming out "real soon now" - by early 1991 - that he says
    will have a lot of new features.  One of them is program changes
    allowed in any song, at any point in the song.  I can't remember what
    the other new features were ... oh yes, one was "user-created STYLES"
    were possible.  It's almost like B-i-a-B is moving towards being a
    "language" in which you create songs or styles!
    
    	-Jim

    Well after many months away from COMMUSIC, and reading your reviews
    (raves) here, I have ordered Band in a Box from ZONE, the UK
    Distributor. They were very helpful, a pleasure to do business with.
    
    The upgrade to Version 4 is available for IBM PC now, expected end of Jan
    for the Atari, and will cost 20 pounds to upgrade to in the UK. The 
    price for new users also rises by 20 pounds to 65 pounds. 
    
    (There is also another Fake Book with 500 further songs, mostly pop,
    which will cost 20 pounds.)
    
    I have obtained a FAX of the new features for version 4 these are as
    follows:-
    
    	.Play from any point in the song
    	.Place and save patch changes anywhere in the song            
    	.Tempo changes may be entered
    	.Real time tempo changes
    	.Styles may be changed anywhere in the song
    	.Lyrics may be entered
    	.Any Time Signature
    
    Stlyemaker allows the user to create their own styles by playing in
    the bass and rythm chord patterns in real time and the drum patterns
    entered from an easy to use grid......
    
    I have just copied this from a "flyer", so no "in depth" knowledge here ...
    but for 20 pounds extra, it looks like it is worth it. 
    

    The Atari Version will have MIDI "thru" as well.
    
	Peter

re .51

>    The upgrade to Version 4 is available for IBM PC now, expected end of Jan
>    for the Atari, and will cost 20 pounds to upgrade to in the UK. The 
>    price for new users also rises by 20 pounds to 65 pounds. 
>    
>    (There is also another Fake Book with 500 further songs, mostly pop,
>    which will cost 20 pounds.)

I've just bought BIAB from Zone in the UK and initially thought that it was
rather sharp practise to ship me Version 3 with an order form for the upgrade 
to Version 4. Why not sell me version 4 in the first place? I don't feel so bad 
now that I know that the price is going up. I think that I'll go for the 
upgrade now.

I've been really pleased with BIAB. I got it with the Fakebook but I'm not 
really quite sure how useful this is. There are about 20 songs supplied with 
BIAB and it really is _so_ easy to enter your own selction of songs. I suppose 
that it is probably worth it just to save you having to work out the chord 
changes of cover songs but it does rather depend on them being to your taste.

One of the big benefits for me is that I know zilch about drumming and find it 
really useful for generating the drum parts. I take the output as a Standard 
MIDI File and input it into my sequencer which then allows me to add all the 
other parts, change the bass line, voices or whatever.

Version 4 with its user defineable styles should be a big improvement. It
occurs to me that I can use my Roland RA50 Realtime Arranger and play its music
styles into BIAB and them define them as BIAB music styles. There are 32 styles
in the RA50 so it should increase the felxibility of BIAB considerably for me. 
I wonder if Roland is able to copyright the music styles? I doubt it.

Nigel

	Now a technical query regarding BIAB. How do you get TAGs (endings) to
work.
	Pressing the <TAB> key brings up the display that enables me to change 
the song settings. There is something like 

			TAG present	N
			TAG commence after 32
			TAG start	41
			TAG end		47 

	If I change it to TAG present Y and then put some chord entries for 
bars 41 to 47 I don't ever get it to play them.

	Is there something else that I should be doing. The use documentation 
is sketchy to say the least and only refers to TAGs in passing and doesn't show 
how to use them.

Nigel 

    
    I had the same problem yesterday (just got this package Friday). 
    Has anyone figured out how to get tags to work??
    
    Phil  (I love this product!!)

The latest EM rag has a *full* page ad for BIAB V4.  I think all of the new
features have been discussed in the last couple of notes but I wanted to
mention that along with the ability to create your own style, you can now 
*buy* an additional styles disk (25 new styles) for $29.  They also have a
new Fakebook (#2) with 550 more songs for $29 and the upgrade itself is $29.

If, however, you buy any 2 of the above, you only pay $49, and if you buy
all 3, you pay $59.

Not sure yet what I'm gonna do...
-Dan

    Price on V4?
    
    					Brian

To buy V4 by itself (not upgrading) is $59 for all 3 platforms 
(Mac, IBM, Atari) if buying directly from PG Music.  It may even
be cheaper through places like Leigh's Software in NYC.

-Dan

    Hi folks !
    
    At the Musikmesse Frankfurt I asked about the availability of V4 over
    here and they claimed that the ATARI version is not ready yet. Can
    anyone confirm that ?
    
    	thanks
    
    		Richard

    	I've had BiaB V4 for the Atari ST for over a month.....
    
    Brian
    

            <<< DNEAST::SYS$TOOLS:[NOTES$LIBRARY]COMMUSIC.NOTE;2 >>>
             -< * * Computer Music, MIDI, and Related Topics * * >-
================================================================================
Note 2646.0          Saving MIDI channels in Band-in-a-Box?           No replies
RIPPLE::BRENNAN_JE "J.D. Brennan, Boeing Business Gr" 8 lines  22-MAY-1991 14:56
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    I just got Band-in-a-Box for my Mac, and I love it, but I can't
    figure out how to save the setting for the MIDI channels. It
    defaults to 10 for Drums. So I change it to 1 everytime I start
    it up, but that's a pain. Can I tell my EPS to map MIDI channel
    10 to instrument 1, maybe?

    Tx, JD

I called PG music to get an update on Band-in-Box V5.0 futures for
Macintosh and it sounds like they've made some big improvements!

      +	3 additional instruments: Horns, Strings and Guitar (the horns and
	strings are very similar, so you may consider this 2 extra instruments)

      + You can keep 10 of your favorite combinations of patches for easy 
	recall instead of having to set each patch number for each instrument
	each time.

      + Support of the Roland GS Standard.  This is perfect for all you
	Sound Canvas owners.  It supports panning, level, etc...

      + "Melody Track", a 2000 event mini-sequencer.

      + 24 Built in styles like before, with the availability of 175
	user-defined styles.

      + Improvements to Mac interface.

      I hope I got all this info correct...

      Their best *guess* on availability for Macintosh is January, 1992.
      Apparently the IBM version has just been finished and should be 
      available soon (I don't know if the IBM version has the same features
      or changes as the Mac version).
    
    -Matt-

    A bit of E-Mu Systems trivia: while developing the unit we know as
    Proteus, the internal name was.. Band In A Box..
    
    karl

    
    Unfortunately, the new releases of BinaB no longer include the fake
    books - apparently PG got concerned about copyright issues...
    
    Looks like they better change the name of the product - with the
    addition of strings it would more accurately be named
    
                            Orchestra In A Box
    
    

re .64

> Unfortunatly the new releases of BinaB no longer include the fake
> books....

May I ask here what a 'fake book' is?
I have seen some of these books in a music shop and I don't see the
difference with a normal music book. I wondered why it is called a 'fake'
book... don't seem fakey to me...

Dirk

Fake books contain tune and chords, no "arrangements"for the tunes. Presumably
the name arose because that's all you need to "fake it." (Maybe some of our
music historians could confirm or refute this...)

What seems to be a standard among fake books is called "The Real Book."
Cute, huh?

Bob

    No, the term "fake" comes from the fact that they were bootlegs, often
    hand-written, with no royalties paid to publishers.  
    
    The original Real Book was (legend has it) developed at Berklee School
    of Music to give students a reference to a large body of "standard" jazz
    tunes that were not readily available in sheet music.  It was still a
    bootleg publication, however.
    
    More recently some "legitimate" fake books (an oxymoron?) have come out
    with names like "Ultimate Fake Book", etc.
    
    Most likely the Band-in-a-Box developers didn't want to deal with the
    hassle of music publishers harassing them about paying royalties on
    copyrighted material.
    
    							Brian

	The "Real Book" is still available as a bootleg, albeit in a
	newer revision.  It costs, last I heard about $30.  It comes
	in most keys that are common.  There is also "The New Real Book"
	which is supposed to be in the same spirit as the real book but with
	more modern tunes is legal.

	Chad

Hi there !

I have BiaB V4 for the ATARI and don't like the UI, ie. the one for the user
defined styles. Has this changed for V5 ? And, what about the ATARI V5
availablity ?

	thanks and best regards

		Richard

    Re. last few:
    
    Does that mean that you CAN'T BUY the "fake book" disks at ALL from PG?
    Just the Band-in-a-Box software itself, no songs?
    
    Jim

    
    That appears to be the case.  I haven't seen the latest version, so I
    can't state unequivocally that there are NO songs, but my guess is that
    there are probably just a few public domain tunes in the package now.
    
    Just as well, 'cause when you try and guess a song title from the
    six character file name and you're looking at what seems like hundreds
    of songs, it's almost faster to punch the tune in yourself.  I never
    can find that little title-to-file-name cheat sheet when I need it...
    

    I got the latest version last summer as a gift and there was just
    one demo song with each style. I used it last week for the first time
    and while it doesn't take long to enter a song, you need to have the
    music or at least the chord changes.
    
    I remember reading somewhere that they discontinued the fake book
    because of copyright infringement.  All right somebody with the fake
    book willing to make the files available because us folks can't get
    it........just joking in a serious kinda way if you know what I mean.
    
    Great practice tool for keyboards, guitar and bass.
    
    Errol
    

    You can buy a much more complete fake book at most music stores for
    about $40.  Then enter the ones you want into BiaB.

    Re: last few, fake book
    
    The issue of royalties on sequence data is probably going to get worse
    before it gets better.  One supplier of pre-programmed sequences
    recently responded to a review of his product in the Transoniq Hacker
    magazine.  The reviewer had complained that no notation was provided
    with the sequences.  The supplier mentioned that he pays a simple
    mechanical royalty to the music publisher but would have to pay
    considerably *more* for the right to reproduce the sheet music (not to
    mention his cost to print it).
    
    Anyway, the point is that the mechanicals for a large fake book (which
    may have a thousand tunes) can be substantial and to throw such a fake
    book in for "free" would add to the cost of the product.
    
    There is one sneaky way to get around this, namely since Band in a Box
    deosn't store the *melody* only the changes, that the pieces could be
    subtly renamed.  I saw this once in a method book that had changes to
    famous jazz tunes as exercise, but remamed them all ("Sophisticated
    Lady" became "Slick Chick", etc.).
    
    							Brian
    
    P.S. A rumor I heard somewhere (in here maybe?) was that at least one
    composer, namely George Harrison, has told his publisher *not* to grant
    permission to make sequences of his songs.

	I just got the flier from PG Music on BIAB Version 5. Looks like they 
still do a FakeBook. I'll be ordering my upgrade immediately, this is 
definitely the best bit of MIDI software that I've got. I use it to generate a 
Standard MIDI file that I can then import into my sequencer, means that all the 
hack work of sequencing simple drum & bass patterns gets done for me It should
be even better with 5 instruments & with the ability to enter a melody as well 
I may not even need the sequencer.

Nigel


Main new features are :-

	2 more accompaniment instruments - guitar/strings
	built in sequencer - record melodies
	support of General Midi standard
	Built in styles updated to utilize guitar/strings
	Stylemaker now allows you to make or edit all 5 instruments
	70 other improvements!

Two other new products are

	Styles disk #2 - 25 new styles (5 instrument styles!)
	Midi-FakeBook Disk with MELODIES included
		100 Standrad songs with Chords and melody on disk
		Mixture of Jazz standards and Pop/Country

Prices are:-

BIAB version 5 upgrade	$29
Styles Disk #2		$29
Midi-FakeBook Disk	$29
Any 2 of above		$49
Any 3 of above		$59
+ Shipping/Handling $3.50 (S/H outside USA/Canada $7.00)
For IBM MAC or ATARI

To order mail or fax 416-628-2541 (cheque/m.o./institutional p.o.)
PG Music Inc, 111-266 Elmwood Ave, Buffalo NY 14222
To order by phone (VISA/MC/AMEX/C.O.D.) call
	1-800-268-6272 or 416-528-2368

    
    Ol' Peter's trimmed that fakebook down quite a bit.  There were
    literally hundreds of tunes in the good old days.  The fact that he's
    including melodies now probably indicates that he's only got
    traditional, public domain type tunes in the book now.
    

 Blue Ribbon Soundworks has released something called SuperJam for the
 Amiga. Although I haven't taken a test drive, I think it is similar
 to BIAB. I'm sure there is a focus on creating soundtracks for
 animations and video, and maybe an emphasis on using the Amiga sound
 chip, but the idea is similar. It can be used alone, with other Amiga
 applications, or integrated specifically on the same screen with the 
 Bars&Pipes sequencer. 

 I've been annoyed that BIAB doesn't exist for the Amiga, and I won't
 claim that SuperJam is better ;-)

 Mail order ~$75

 Dave

 Oh yeah - this is a FYI. If anyone wants to discuss SuperJam, they
 should probably start a new topic or use an existing Amiga topic.

Re: .75

Hi Nigel !

Did they mention User Interface improvements too ? V3 with it's limited
functionality was tolerable, V4 with the StyleMaker was a pain in the back,
especially if you work on the ATARI and used to the comfortable tools there.

	thanks

		Richard

re .78

>Did they mention User Interface improvements too ? V3 with it's limited
>functionality was tolerable, V4 with the StyleMaker was a pain in the back,
>especially if you work on the ATARI and used to the comfortable tools there.

No mention of it. Perhaps it's one of the 'over 70 improvements'!

I found the Stylemaker so difficult to use that I've never actually managed to 
create my own style. The other major improvement that I would look for is some 
decent documentation. Basically this currently consists of a short README.TXT & 
the suggestion that you just get on & try it out for yourself.

Does anyone know how to have rests e.g. stop the drums etc for a bar or 2?

Nigel

re                      <<< Note 2448.77 by TERSE::ROBINSON >>>
>                        -< SuperJam for Amiga <>BIAB? >-


> Blue Ribbon Soundworks has released something called SuperJam for the
> Amiga. Although I haven't taken a test drive, I think it is similar
> to BIAB. I'm sure there is a focus on creating soundtracks for
> animations and video, and maybe an emphasis on using the Amiga sound
> chip, but the idea is similar. It can be used alone, with other Amiga
> applications, or integrated specifically on the same screen with the 
> Bars&Pipes sequencer. 

> I've been annoyed that BIAB doesn't exist for the Amiga, and I won't
> claim that SuperJam is better ;-)


	Funny, I just called Blue Ribbon and they made  EXACTLY  that 
claim (-:, (-:


	I have the little glossy flyer, so I called them to ask,
"Just what IS Super Jam ?"   their reply was,  
"Well, are you familiar with BIAB ?"    He went on to describe it as 
"Similar in concept, but better in implementation"  (Ya, ya, predictable). 

	As always, there is a freely distributable demo of it 
availbale on Compuserve and Genie - as always, I don't have access to 
either (-:

	Reg

    Re .79
    
    Nigel,
    
    	The documentation with my Atari version said that the ability to
    have rests was being considered in a future release. Let's hope it's
    soon.
    
    	Your DH100 friend,
    
    		Stuart P.
    
    	

    Can anyone provide a quick reference for purchasing BAND-IN-A-BOX at
    the right price in MA?
    
    I will be visiting the Acton area soon and want to pick up a few items.
    
    ...Sean