Previous Thread
Index
Next Thread
Print Thread
Go To
#445722 12/17/17 01:16 PM
My Favorite Things
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 1,193
B
bluage Offline OP
Expert
OP Offline
Expert
B
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 1,193
Good afternoon, folks...

I just experimented with the new "natural arrangements" feature in Band-in-a-Box 2018. It seemed to unleash an even more exciting electric guitar solo in the song I'm working on using the Guitar, Resophonic, Rhythm Blues Delta Sw 065 style.

Has anyone else noticed this very welcome improvement in chord interpretation/performance rendering while using the natural arrangement option in your song?

Thrilled,

LOREN


"Music is what feelings sound like."-- borrowed from a Cakewalk Music Creator forum member, "Mamabear".
My Favorite Things
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 25,943
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 25,943
Absolutely. This is an excellent feature. You haven’t read about it because it was new for last year’s release, 2017 BIAB.


BIAB 2024 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 6.5 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6; Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus Studio 192, Presonus Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors
My Favorite Things
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 1,193
B
bluage Offline OP
Expert
OP Offline
Expert
B
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 1,193
Hi, Mr. Finley...

Yes, I passed on the 2017 version because I thought I had all I needed from Band-in-a-Box -- WRONG laugh !!! Won't do that again!

Anyway, the effect the "natural arrangement" option had on that electric guitar solo was stunning. If you'd been in my presence at that moment you probably would've seen my jaw drop to the floor. It was as though the "natural arrangement" option had located a hidden layer of improvisational sophistication in that particular Realtrack and turned it on, up, and out-of-the-park. It was exhilarating!

I set the natural arrangement option to "Always for all genres (unless disable for the song)". I want to see if what it did for the current song I'm working on could be duplicated in other songs, and especially for jazz styles.

Thanks for commenting on my post, Mr. Finley!

Sincerely,

LOREN


"Music is what feelings sound like."-- borrowed from a Cakewalk Music Creator forum member, "Mamabear".
My Favorite Things
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 25,943
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 25,943
Loren, you raise an interesting point. If I’m reading your post correctly, you say a soloist RealTrack was improved. It is my understanding that Natural Arrangement does not do that directly. Its purpose is to change chord progressions.

Your experiment suggests that changing the chord progression makes the soloist play better. I’m guessing that’s because perhaps more patterns were recorded over the ‘naturalized’ chords than were possible over the unaltered progression. This makes sense. To my knowledge this has never been discussed. It’s the same for live musicians of course: you’re going to get a better solo out of someone if they understand the chord progression better.

I would never have noticed this as I never use soloist tracks in BIAB - that’s my job. But I’m interested if others have observed what you did.


BIAB 2024 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 6.5 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6; Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus Studio 192, Presonus Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors
My Favorite Things
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 1,193
B
bluage Offline OP
Expert
OP Offline
Expert
B
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 1,193
Originally Posted By: Matt Finley
Your experiment suggests that changing the chord progression makes the soloist play better. I’m guessing that’s because perhaps more patterns were recorded over the ‘naturalized’ chords than were possible over the unaltered progression. This makes sense.


Mr. Finley...

Yes, I'm guessing (and hoping!) that is what happened.

When I work on songs in BIAB, I tend to click on the "Generate and Play" button over, and over, and over again until I hear an arrangement that I want to keep, or "freeze". But even when I do that, it's usually only the soloists that I "freeze", and not the drums, bass, or any rhythm pianos and guitars.

Now, the original version of the song in question was composed/created last June. I did not change the Real Style, the song form or any of the chords once I had finished composing it, which only took a single evening. From June to the present, I re-generated that song more times than I kept track of, and I never, ever heard anything that sounded even close to what I heard this week after applying the "natural arrangement" option to a copy of the original song, which has the exact same chord structure, song form (AABAA), and Real Style as the original.

Ohhh-h-h, no-o-o-o, Igor! I...I think that I have a created...a m-m-monster!!! Aiiieeee, somebody save me-e-e-e! laugh

Excited,

LOREN


"Music is what feelings sound like."-- borrowed from a Cakewalk Music Creator forum member, "Mamabear".
My Favorite Things
Joined: Dec 2017
Posts: 117
C
Apprentice
Offline
Apprentice
C
Joined: Dec 2017
Posts: 117
Are you kidding me, it is a godsend! I'm listening to an arrangement that I did with RT, and I was thinking to myself, who in the world hired that piano player.

I haven't got use to the Piano Roll yet, so I've been relying on that feature to get me through. I can definitely tell the difference when I don't heed the yellow pop-up suggesting it.


Windows 10 build 16299
2018 Ultra
Intel i5-3550 @ 3.3GHz
p8z77-v pro
RAM: 32GB
Roland V-Studio 100
Alesis VX49

https://soundcloud.com/dirtbom/
My Favorite Things
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 1,193
B
bluage Offline OP
Expert
OP Offline
Expert
B
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 1,193
Hey, there, "CoolBreeze"...

Right on! So, you believe you heard a significant improvement in the musicality of a Realtrack performance rendered through the "natural arrangement" feature?

Spreadin' the word,

LOREN


"Music is what feelings sound like."-- borrowed from a Cakewalk Music Creator forum member, "Mamabear".
My Favorite Things
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 1,193
B
bluage Offline OP
Expert
OP Offline
Expert
B
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 1,193
Fellow Friends of the Forum (and, laydies, but, of course!)...

Here's something else about the "natural arrangement" option that I want blather on about! And mind you, I'm only reporting on what I believe I'm hearing, meaning that PG Music music hasn't confirmed that what I'm relating to you was actually programmed into BIAB.

Regardless, after you apply this marvelous feature to your song, listen...listen closely. You'll hear the most deliciously subtle "slips in pitch" that, to my ears, near perfectly emulate the micro-imperfections in the instrumental performances of human beings: that slightly "wrong" note, the minutely de-tuned riffs caused by the speed with which the instrumentalist is picking, plucking, blowing, bowing, or striking her instrument.

The "natural arrangements" option is an exciting, thrilling, wonderful, humanizing addition to the list of Band-in-a-Box music rendering tools dreamed up by the seemingly inexhaustible genius of the developers at PG Music. Yeah, yeah, I know: according to dear Matt Finley, I'm a year late discovering this tool laugh !!! But I haven't seen anything written about it in the forums, so I'm ringin' the bell, knockin' on doors, blowin' the whistle and beatin' the drums to call out to everyone to use this thing!

Calming down, now,

LOREN

Last edited by bluage; 12/20/17 01:37 PM.

"Music is what feelings sound like."-- borrowed from a Cakewalk Music Creator forum member, "Mamabear".
My Favorite Things
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 2,732
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 2,732
I was curious about this myself from this post and dug this up from the 2018 .PDF Manual:

Natural Arrangements (re-interpret complex chords)
If you give a pro musician a complicated chord progression with fancy extensions like C7b9b13 or Gm11, the musician may reinterpret these rather than playing them exactly as written. This can achieve a much better sounding arrangement because the musician has freedom to choose from similar chord extensions. You can get Band-in-a-Box to do the same thing with this option for all tracks in all songs. (Note: To set this feature for all tracks in the current song, use the option in the Song Settings dialog. To set this feature for all tracks in all songs, use the option in the Arrangement Options dialog. To set this for specific track(s) in the current song, right-click on the track radio button, go to Track Settings | Set Natural Arrangement, and select an option.).




Steve

BIAB/RB 2022, Pro Tools 2020, Korg N5, JBL LSR 4328 Powered Monitors, AKG/Shure Mics.
PC: Win11 PRO, 4 TB M2 SSD, 2 TB HD, 128 GB Memory
My Favorite Things
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 1,193
B
bluage Offline OP
Expert
OP Offline
Expert
B
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 1,193
Hello, "sslechta"...

Thanks for your detective work laugh !

Have you used the "natural arrangement" option and, if you have, did you notice any of the results that I reported hearing in my composition?

Thanks for contributing to this thread, sir!

Sincerely

LOREN


"Music is what feelings sound like."-- borrowed from a Cakewalk Music Creator forum member, "Mamabear".
My Favorite Things
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 2,732
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 2,732
Loren,

I have not had a chance to play with it yet. I've just got 2018 upgraded from last year's version and haven't dabbled much yet.

Steve




Steve

BIAB/RB 2022, Pro Tools 2020, Korg N5, JBL LSR 4328 Powered Monitors, AKG/Shure Mics.
PC: Win11 PRO, 4 TB M2 SSD, 2 TB HD, 128 GB Memory
My Favorite Things
Joined: Apr 2020
Posts: 8
H
Newbie
Offline
Newbie
H
Joined: Apr 2020
Posts: 8
I have not been able to find the "Arrangement Options" dialog box in the Mac version. Does anyone know the path to access it?

My Favorite Things
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 10,149
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 10,149
Harmony,

Welcome to the forum and to Band-in-a-Box.

One way to find the arrangement option in 2020 Band-in-a-Box (BiaB) for Mac is to:

1) Right click on a track button
2) Select "Track Settings"
3) Select "Set natural arrangement - [reinterpreted chords]"

There maybe other ways I'm not aware of. Band-in-a-Box typically has multiple ways to do something.


Jim Fogle - 2024 BiaB (1111) RB (5) Ultra+ PAK
DAWs: Cakewalk by BandLab (CbB) - Standalone: Zoom MRS-8
Laptop: i3 Win 10, 8GB ram 500GB HDD
Desktop: i7 Win 11, 12GB ram 256GB SSD, 4 TB HDD
Music at: https://fogle622.wix.com/fogle622-audio-home
My Favorite Things
Joined: Apr 2020
Posts: 8
H
Newbie
Offline
Newbie
H
Joined: Apr 2020
Posts: 8
Thanks Jim. Your solution works well for a single track; but I was looking for a global solution. Apparently, there is no "Arrangement Options" dialog box in the Mac version, even though the manual shows a picture of it. I did, however, find something similar near the lower left corner of the Preferences 1 panel.

My Favorite Things
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 18,955
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 18,955
Tagging on to Jim's post...

With the Windows version of the software, if I right-click on the chord sheet and then select "Song Setting" from the pop-up menu, "Natural Arrangement" options are found there. This is for adjusting on a song-by-song basis and it applies to all tracks. This is also found under "Edit | Song Form" menu.

If I choose "Options | Preferences | Arrange", there are options for setting Natural Arrangements. These settings are the default settings that open when a new chordsheet is created.

Regards,
Noel


MY SONGS...
Audiophile BIAB 2024
My Favorite Things
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 10,149
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 10,149
Noel, are all those options available on the 2020 Mac edition? I must have missed them while scanning through the Mac pdf manual.


Jim Fogle - 2024 BiaB (1111) RB (5) Ultra+ PAK
DAWs: Cakewalk by BandLab (CbB) - Standalone: Zoom MRS-8
Laptop: i3 Win 10, 8GB ram 500GB HDD
Desktop: i7 Win 11, 12GB ram 256GB SSD, 4 TB HDD
Music at: https://fogle622.wix.com/fogle622-audio-home
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Go To

Link Copied to Clipboard
ChatPG

Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.

ChatPG's knowledge base includes the full Band-in-a-Box User Manual and sales information from the website.

PG Music News
Band-in-a-Box® 2024 Italian for Windows is Here!

Ci siamo dati da fare e abbiamo aggiunto oltre 50 nuove funzionalità e una straordinaria raccolta di nuovi contenuti, tra cui 222 RealTracks, nuovi RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, "Songs with Vocals" Artist Performance Sets, Playable RealTracks Set 3, Playable RealDrums Set 2, due nuovi set di "RealDrums Stems", XPro Styles PAK 6, Xtra Styles PAK 17 e altro ancora!

Tutti Pacchetti | Nuove Caratteristiche

Band-in-a-Box® 2024 French for Windows is Here!


Band-in-a-Box® 2024 apporte plus de 50 fonctions nouvelles ainsi qu'une importante de contenus nouveaux à savoir : 222 RealTracks, des RealStyles nouveaux, des SuperTracks MIDI, des Etudes d'Instruments, des Prestations d'Artistes, des "Morceaux avec Choeurs", un Set 3 de Tracks Jouables, un Set 2 de RealDrums Jouables, deux nouveaux Sets de "RealDrums Stems", des Styles XPro PAK 6, des Xtra Styles PAK 17 et bien plus encore!

Tous Packages | Nouvelles Fonctionnalités

Video: Making a Song with Band-in-a-Box®, ChatGPT, and Synth V

Take your Band-in-a-Box® project to a whole new level when you incorporate ChatGPT and Synth V to add lyrics and vocals to your song!

We wanted to demonstrate how this is done with our video, where we show you how to go from nothing to a finished "radio ready" modern pop song by combining the features of Band-in-a-Box®, ChatGPT, and Synth V!

Listen to the finished song, so you get a listen to the finished product: https://demos.pgmusic.com/misc/behindthefame.m4a

If you like it, watch the video. Either way, let's hear your comments!

Henry Clarke: Revolutionize Your Band-in-Box® Tracks with Regenerating Function

One of the new features added with Band-in-Box® 2024 is the Tracks Window, which will look familiar if you've worked with other DAWs.

Henry Clarke explains why he loves the Re-generation function within the Tracks Window in their video Revolutionize Your Band-in-Box® Tracks with Regenerating Function.

Watch video.

Learn even more about what the Tracks Window can do with our video Band-in-a-Box® 2024: The Tracks Window.

User Video: Next-Level AI Music Editing with ACE Studio and Band-in-a-Box®

The Bob Doyle Media YouTube channel is known for demonstrating how you can creatively incorporate AI into your projects - from your song projects to avatar building to face swapping, and more!

His latest video, Next-Level AI Music Editing with ACE Studio and Band-in-a-Box, he explains in detail how you can use the Melodist feature in Band-in-a-Box with ACE Studio. Follow along as he goes from "nothing" to "something" with his Band-in-a-Box MIDI Melodist track, using ACE Studio to turn it into a vocal track (or tracks, you'll see) by adding lyrics for those notes that will trigger some amazing AI vocals!

Watch: Next-Level AI Music Editing with ACE Studio and Band-in-a-Box


Band-in-a-Box® 2024 German for Windows is Here!

Band-in-a-Box® 2024 für Windows Deutsch ist verfügbar!

Wir waren fleißig und haben über 50 neue Funktionen und eine erstaunliche Sammlung neuer Inhalte hinzugefügt, darunter 222 RealTracks, neue RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, "Songs with Vocals" Artist Performance Sets, abspielbare RealTracks Set 3, abspielbare RealDrums Set 2, zwei neue Sets von "RealDrums Stems", XPro Styles PAK 6, Xtra Styles PAK 17 und mehr!

Paket | Was ist Neu

Update Your PowerTracks Pro Audio 2024 Today!

Add updated printing options, enhanced tracks settings, smoother use of MGU and SGU (BB files) within PowerTracks, and more with the latest PowerTracks Pro Audio 2024 update!

Learn more about this free update for PowerTracks Pro Audio & download it at www.pgmusic.com/support_windows_pt.htm#2024_5

Forum Statistics
Forums66
Topics81,910
Posts738,749
Members38,615
Most Online2,537
Jan 19th, 2020
Newest Members
Jim Gear, gdl68, that_bear_there, TwoHandsDown, reidmakesmusic
38,615 Registered Users
Top Posters(30 Days)
MarioD 153
musocity 119
rsdean 108
DC Ron 95
dcuny 93
Today's Birthdays
annick.vanlooy, Ray George, Timber
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5