Band in the Box

[kvk]

I just received a copy of Band in a Box MegaPak I ordered. It's a program that will automatically play background in any of a number of styles. You just enter the chord progression and pick a style. I figure it be good for practicing. I sprung for the MegaPak 2005 with a huge amount of styles as an achedemic web outlet had it for a discount with a student id.

Took about five minutes to install. It then took a minute or two to start up and put in the chords for one 16 progression. I like programs where you can get the basic to work without reading anything.

I put in a bluegrass waltz progression I will call "White Peace Bird". I tried a number of different waltz styles a few different BG and country styles. All sounded more than good enough to use for practice.

I think this program will be way fun and educational. You go to a jam and you maybe get one 16 bar break on some song. You can loop this thing and solo to your heart's content.

One thing I plan to do is save all the songs I'm working on as MP3s in various speeds so I can put them on my portable player for practice.

Follow the link for sample output in .mid and .mp3 for "White Peace Bird" in E Major 150bpm about three minutes, ten times thru the loop.

http://users.rcn.com/kvk/bb/

Progression is--

E E A A
E E B B
E E A A
E B E E

The mids are really small. I don't know if anyone makes an mp3 player that playes mids. Still with mp3s, I could load all my practice songs on my little 64meg player at a few different speeds.

[arbarnhart]

I use TabView and have it play a song over and over (on the Play menu, check the Repeat option). If I only want rhythm, I go into Play->Midi Options (Ctrl-K is the shortcut) and click off the lead instrument (usually the mando, but you can certainly use tabs for other instruments). Then play it and play along.

It has a couple of benefits - most of the songs are already readily available (especially since you can use guitar and banjo tabs as well as mando ones) and you don't have to plug in the sequence. It's free (I may spring the $30 for TabEdit one of these days and have a full composer).

[groveland]

The .mid files are small because they contain no sound, only instructions for a device that would ultimately create the sound, like a midi workstation, or a chip on your soundcard. The mp3's are compressed recordings of that resulting sound, they're big. I wouldn't guess there's much of a market for a portable mp3 player that plays midi files. Apples and oranges?

I checked out your links - Band in a Box is quite an amazing tool.

Craig

[kvk]

Yeah, I use TabEdit also. It's a bit tedious to type in all the rhythm.

Oh, believe me I know what .mid is and what and mp3 is and how they work.

[groveland]

Sorry, kvk, didn't mean to condescend - Only to help. #Lots of folks don't know, and it's not always clear in a post. #My apologies.

Craig

[Pete Martin]

B in a B is a great learning aid. While the Bluegrass backups aren't the greatest, the Jazz backups are very good. I use it a lot!

[Dale Ludewig]

I've been using BIAB for years and recommend it highly. Also available for it for free, the last I knew, are collections of songs. One if the Virtual Bluegrass Band and another group is available from MidiStudio Consortium (sp?). I'm sure you can google them.

[kvk]

Thanx for the tip. I will google them. I figure there ought be some songs already entered.

[kvk]

I've been using BIAB for years and recommend it highly. Also available for it for free, the last I knew, are collections of songs. One if the Virtual Bluegrass Band and another group is available from MidiStudio Consortium (sp?). I'm sure you can google them.

Found the Virtual BQ Stuff here --
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/d.k.mar...tunes_list.htm

A lot of standard songs. Should be fun. Also, both .mid and .sgu so with BiaB and just a free midi-player (TadEdit or a million other) anyone can use them.

Found the Consoritum site here --

http://midistudio.com/midi/MidFram.htm

Having checked out anything there yet. So much to get around to.

Thanx again for the tip.