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STYLHELP.BB
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ON LINE HELP FOR STYLE MAKER
Use cursor keys or page Up/Down to move around
This help is on a file called stylhelp.bb
PRINTING OUT THIS MANUAL
If you would like to print it out type:
copy stylhelp.bb prn
( from the DOS prompt outside of the program)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Overview of the Style Maker
2. Explanation of the Screen
3. Entering Drum Patterns
4. Entering Bass Patterns
5. Entering Piano Patterns
6. Tutorial
7. Compiling the style
************************************************************
1 . Overview of the style maker
The Style Maker is a part of the Band-in-a-Box that lets you
make up your own styles . Once made , the styles are saved to disk
and are then ready to be used by the program for playing any song
in the selected 'User style'.Styles end up as small files eg. 5K
so 50-60 styles can be stored per 360K floppy disk. Note that styles
( with .STY extension ) are distinct from song files (.SG? extension ).
The style maker has been designed to be as flexible as possible.
a simple style would consist of 3 patterns ( 1 each bass , drums ,
and piano ) , but more complex and varying styles are created by
using more patterns ( up to 600 may be entered ! ) .
The Styles are made by entering drum ,bass and/or piano patterns
in the desired style .
Drum patterns:
- are entered in step time from a typical
drum programming screen (grid).
- are always entered as 1 bar patterns
( longer patterns may be chained together using MASKS -
decribed below )
Bass and piano patterns:
- are played in real time from a Midi Keyboard
- are played in always on a C7 chord ( C E G Bb )
- The Patterns for Bass and Piano are classified by
the length of the pattern ie. the number of notes that
the chord lasts without a change of chord .
4 bar ex. | F | Bb C7 | F6 | |
chord duration 4 2 2 8
-Patterns may be entered for chord durations of 1,2,4, and 8
notes . The Band-in-a-Box program sorts out everything else
about determining the length of the chord durations in the song
and combining lengths for unusual lengths ( 3= 2+ 1 etc .)
- The patterns are always recorded in 2 bar chunks , regardless
of the chord duration . If a short chord duration is
entered , the remainder of the pattern is ignored .
- Patterns are also entered for the A and B substyles .
- If more than 1 pattern is entered for a particular
chord duration , the program will randomly pick between them.
- When a pattern is picked may be further controlled
by Masks- for example a pattern with a Mask of 2 would be played
only on even #'d bars ( #'d from last part marker ) .
- special notes called MACRO notes are available in
bass and piano patterns . When the playback encounters
the Macro notes , it will not play the note but rather will
trigger a specific function , be it a bass walking note ,
or a ' jazz chord ' - see below for specifics.
PLAYBACK OF PATTERNS IN THE STYLE MAKER is
done from the main screen :
- <F4> key plays pattern back exactly as played
- <F8> key plays pattern back as Band-in-a-Box would
ie . on a specific chord set by the user from a menu
- any key stops playback of the pattern
PATTERNS ARE ERASED BY ASSIGNING A WEIGHT OF ZERO TO THE PATTERN
************************************************************
2 Explanation of the Screen
The Style Maker consists of 2 screens:
1.Style Maker Screen
2.Drum Pattern screen
1. The Style Maker screen
The Style Maker screen is full of patterns - mostly empty.
These numbers indicate whether or not a pattern has been
recorded at the location - a period (.) indicates no pattern and
a number from 1-9 indicates that a pattern has been recorded
with the actual value corresponding to the desired weight
the pattern is to be given relative to other similar patterns.
Patterns that you don't want to here very often in the style
are given low weights,
eg. 0 = no pattern recorded
1= pattern recorded
8 = pattern recorded with weight = 8
The rows correspond to the type of pattern
-the screen is divided into 1/3 drum/bass/piano
-A and B refer to the 2 substyles available in the
Band-in-a-Box program
- the number following refers to the CHORD DURATION for
the Pattern . This is important so will be described in
detail here .
Consider the following chord progression
| F6 | | G7 | / / Am7 / |
| Gm7 | C7 / / Gb9 | F6 Dm7 | Eb9 D9 C7sus|
When Band-in-a-Box goes to play this back it will
analyze the chord durations as follows
the F6 chord lasts 8 notes
G7 chord lasts 6 notes
Am7 chord lasts 2 notes
Gm7 chord lasts 4 notes
C7 chord lasts 3 notes
Gb9 chord lasts 1 notes
F6 chord lasts 2 notes
Dm7 chord lasts 2 notes
Eb9 chord lasts 1 notes
D9 chord lasts 1 notes
C7sus chord lasts 2 notes
- Because patterns are played very differently on
chords lasting 1 note compared to those lasting 8 notes
( the 8 note pattern might rest for the first 4 notes )
the Style Maker gives you the option of entering specific
patterns for each chord duration. Durations of 1,2 4 and 8
are allowed . If a duration of 3 is encountered it is
broken up into 2 patterns ( 2+1 ) , and so on .
so the row
BASS B 4 Beat 5 6 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
would be for entering Bass patterns with Chord Durations of 4
in B substyle
in the example above there are currently 3 patterns recorded
with relative weights of 5,6 and 1. The pattern with a weight
of 1 will only be chosen occasionally relative to the other 2.
************************************************************
2 . The Drum Pattern Screen
- this screen is used for step recording and playback of
1 bar patterns
- patterns are recorded in timebase of 12 ( 4 beats * triplets)
or 16 ( 4 beats * 16ths )
- NOTE : ALL USER STYLES ARE ENTERED IN 4/4 TIME
The Band-in-a-Box Program is capable of playing back
in any time signature ( via the F5 Key setting )
so user defined waltz styles would be made as 4/4
but played as 3/4 .
************************************************************
3. Recording Drum Patterns
-From the Main Style Maker screen , move the highlight
square to over the Drum pattern you wish to record.
-From the Main Style Maker Screen type 'R' to
enter the Drum Sreen STEP time record screen
- The Screen will now change to the Drum Pattern Entry
screen . This has a grid with 4 beats across the top
and 18 instruments down the side .
- Your first decision is the timebase - either
12 for triplets ( 4 beats * triplets )
or 16 ( 4 beats * 16th notes )
- If you set timebase of 12 - the program will ignore
the 4th column of each beat - in fact will skip over it
when you move around the screen using cursor keys .
- the idea is that you move around the grid and type
velocities from 0 to 127 where you want a note to
be played in the bar . Press <F4> for playback - this is
pretty routine drum pattern programming so it may be
intuitive to you .
- Hot Keys are available to avoid cumbersome typing of
velocities - in fact the bottom row of keyboard
ie. zxcvbnm,./ are all hot keys from 0 to 127
Other Hot Keys are ENTER key : = Last Entry
[ ] keys : +/- 5 to current entry
- Every note can have an alternate note associated with it .
-For example you might want a closed high hat 80% of time
and open high hat 20% . This is accomplished by
entering the closed high hat velocity - then typing F5 key
to enter the Alternate screen - Set Alternate Play%=20
and Note#=4 (high hat ) - numbers are displayed on
left of screen.
-Other use would be a crash cymbal 20% of the time with
nothing the other 80% . Enter the crash - then set
Alternate %= 80 Alternate Note#=0 ( no note )
- When you're done with your pattern play it with F4 key
now Save it and Exit by typing F10 Key
You are now presented with the following options :
This screen is also accessed directly from the main
Style Maker screen by typing 'E' to Edit the settings.
-RELATIVE WEIGHT : This was described above - it refers
to how often you want to here this pattern relative
to other patterns on the same row . Weights can
be changed at any time - so don't worry - this is
usually used to fine tune a style eg. " I wish it
would play that drum fill less often "
- PLAYBACK BAR MASK: This # is usually left at 0
if set to
0:pattern played at any bar 0,1,2,3,4,5...
1:pattern played at odd # bars only 1,3,5,7,9,...
2:pattern played at even bars only 2,4,6,8,10...
3:pattern played on 3rd of 4 bar ( 3,7,11,15..)
4:pattern played on 4th of 4 ( 4,8,12,16,20...)
5:pattern played on 5th of 8 5,13,21...
6:pattern played on 6th of 8 6,14,22...
7:pattern played on 7th of 8 7,15,23...
8:pattern played on 8th of 8 8,16,24...
The bar #s are measured relative to the
last part marker.
This Mask feature allows entry of multi bar patterns
by setting mask = 1,2,3,4 etc.
- ALLOW OTHER PATTERNS : If Set to Yes the Picker will
include other patterns with a mask of zero as well
as the present pattern.For example if you have a
drum pattern to occur on every 4 bar , but not to be
the ONLY pattern to be a candidate to be picked , you
would set ALLOW OTHER PATTERNS=Yes.
- LATE TRIPLETS : Most drum patterns are quantized ,
which sounds great , except for jazz . The third
triplet in jazz swing is really between the 3rd triplet
and the 4th sixteenth . This setting lets you set
this "LATE TRIPLET" to be from 0 to 10 with a typically
nice setting=6
- when you've exited the drum screen you're returned
to the Style Maker screen . From the Style Maker screen
you can directly Play the Drum Pattern - <F4> key
and also Edit the settings above from the E-Edit Key
in addition to re-entering the pattern by the R-Record
Key .
Drum Patterns may be copied by using the SCRAP
<ALT C > copy the pattern to the scrap
<ALT V > paste from the scrap
( the scrap also works for bass and piano )
************************************************************
4. RECORDING BASS PATTERNS
- move the cursor to the bass area which is the middle of the
screen . Decide on entering a pattern for 'A' substyle or
'B' substyle , then decide on the Chord Duration you're
entering for - move the cursor to this row and then to
an empty pattern ie with a Zero weight setting . If You
have chosen a chord duration of 4 in B substyle you'll be
using the row BASS B 4 beat . This pattern would get used
a lot in the M.A.S.H theme ( mostly duration=4 )
| Dm7 | G7 | C6 | F6 |
| Bb6 | E7 | Am7 | |
Even though you'll be recording a 4 note pattern , like
every other pattern you'll be recording 2 bars - 1bar of
your pattern , the other bar blank - you'll wait out the
2nd bar until the program automatically shuts off record
by presenting you with the Bass Options Menu .
- Here's what you play for a Bass Pattern
- Every pattern is entered on a C7 chord ( C E G Bb )
The Root is = Midi Note #48 (C)
On A Korg M1 this is 12 semitones above the
lowest note on the keyboard.
- So all of your bass patterns should be centered around
this C Note (#48) . Also don't go more than a fourth below
this ( the G Note (#43)) or your patterns will sound too low
when transposed.
- Never enter a pattern for a chord other than C7 , The program
will sort out how to play the other chords ( as you can
here by pressing F8 key )
- When you press record the program will play a total of 4 bars
then automatically stop, displaying the Bass Options Menu
- the first 2 bars are a lead in - playing drums and piano
patterns in the style that you're making
- the last 2 bars are for you to record the bass pattern
- if you interrupt the recording ( by pressing a key )
the take will be REJECTED.
- If you make it to the end of the 2 bar recording , the Bass
Options Menu will be displayed with the following Options
-RELATIVE WEIGHT : This was described above - it refers
to how often you want to here this pattern relative
to other patterns on the same row . Weights can
be changed at any time - so don't worry - this is
usually used to fine tune a style
- PLAYBACK BAR MASK: This # is usually left at 0
if set to
0:pattern played at any bar 0,1,2,3,4,5...
1:pattern played at odd # bars only 1,3,5,7,9,...
2:pattern played at even bars only 2,4,6,8,10...
3:pattern played on 3rd of 4 bar ( 3,7,11,15..)
4:pattern played on 4th of 4 ( 4,8,12,16,20...)
5:pattern played on 5th of 8 5,13,21...
6:pattern played on 6th of 8 6,14,22...
7:pattern played on 7th of 8 7,15,23...
8:pattern played on 8th of 8 8,16,24...
The bar #s are measured relaitive to the
last part marker.
This Mask feature allows entry of multi bar patterns
by setting mask = 1,2,3,4 etc.
- ALLOW OTHER PATTERNS : If Set to Yes the Picker will
include other patterns with a mask of zero as well
as the present pattern.For example if you have a
drum pattern to occur on every 4 bar , but not to be
the ONLY pattern to be a candidate to be picked , you
would set ALLOW OTHER PATTERNS=Yes.
of less than 4 - for example for a chord duration
of 2 to be picked only when on beat 3 set Beat Mask=3
*********
OK TO USE MACRO NOTES (BASS)
- Macro Notes are an important feature which allow
your patterns to access intelligence within the
Band-in-a-Box program . A pattern recorded with
Macro notes will sound a little strange when you're
recording it , or playing it back as played with
the F4 key , but will sound correct when played
back with the F8 key ( and therefore OK in the style)
The Following are the Bass Macros :
Note # 72 (C) :Pop Walking Note(s) .
-On playback <F8>, the Note#72 will be replaced
by intelligent notes walking in a pop/country
mode to the next chord. Maximum 4 walking notes
per pattern
Note # 76 (E) :Note a semitone below Root of Next Chord
77 (F) :Root Of Next Chord
78 (F#):Note a semitone ABOVE Root of Next Chord
79 (G) :Best Fifth ( A Fifth above or below
the Root depending on how high the
root is.
Remember to get Bass Macros Working you must :
- hit the right note # ( you may be out by an octave)
- Set OK to use macros to Y.es ( can check this
setting by pressing E.dit key.
and - Playback the Pattern with F8 key ( the F4 key
gives you an 'as played' playback with the
strange sounding high macro notes
Bass Patterns may be copied by using the SCRAP
<ALT C > copy the pattern to the scrap
<ALT V > paste from the scrap
( the scrap also works for drums and piano )
*****************************************************
5. Entering Piano Patterns
- see entering bass patterns for info on moving to the correct
pattern - piano is bottom 3rd of screen
- as with bass , the pattern is recorded as 2 bars , following
the 2 bar lead in played by the bass/drums .
- as long as you haven't interrupted playback by pressing a key
the Piano Options Menu will be displayed
with the following options :
Playback Weight: ------ THESE OPTIONS ARE THE SAME
PlayBack Bar Mask: | IDEA AS DESCRIBED FOR BASS ABOVE
Playback Beat Mask: |
Allow Other Patterns: ------
OK to use macros
The Piano macros are similar in concept to the Bass Macros
described above except that they trigger a piano chord when
played back:
The Piano Macros Are :
Midi Note # 83 B Pop Chord Diatonic Below
Midi Note # 84 C Pop Chord
Midi Note # 85 C# Pop Chord Diatonic Above
Midi Note # 88 E Jazz Chord Chromatic Below
Midi Note # 89 F Jazz Chord
Midi Note # 90 F# Jazz Chord Chromatic Above
Midi Note # 93 A Next Chord ( Jazz )
OK to embellish pattern:
Normally when entering piano patterns you would only use
the notes C,E,G,Bb ( unless as passing notes )
Also the Left Hand extends from Note #36 to #48 ( the
Left Hand does not participate in smooth voice leading
or embellishment )
If You set ok to embellish the pattern , the chords
will be randomly embellished IF you've set Jazz to Y.es
at the top of the Style Maker screen.The embellishment
works in a similar way to the Jazz embellishment in the
Band-in-a-Box jazz style ie.intelligent in key you're in .
Embellishment=0 no embellish
=1 constant embellishment through the pattern
=2 embellishment changes through the pattern
Type of Voice Leading
0 = intelligent
1 = smooth
2 = simple
400 The usual type of voice leading is type 0 = intelligent
If the notes C E G Bb were played as a C7 pattern
the Band-in-a-Box would transpose that voicing to a F7
chord as F A C Eb
which is fine but not very smooth
A more pleasant setting would be=1 smooth for 4 note
then the F7 would be voiced automatically as
C Eb F A
If you plan to use passing notes and not just chord tones
then set voicing =2 for the simple type of voice leading
which will just transpose the pattern and adjust notes
only if 3rd is minor or 5th is b or # .
Transpose Root Pattern Y.es or N.o
Used in conjunction with smooth voice leading - if set to
yes then the tonal centre to decide which inversions of chord
to use will be changed to the key of the song , and smooth
voice leading will proceed from the new tonal center.
If you had entered an arpeggio as
as C E G Bb ( C7 )
this would be smooth voiced in the key of F
as C E F A
unless we set transpose root pattern to Y.es
then will be voiced as
F A C E
Piano Patterns may be copied by using the SCRAP
<ALT C > copy the pattern to the scrap
<ALT V > paste from the scrap
( the scrap also works for drums and bass )
*******************************************************
Playback of patterns
F4 to playback pattern exactly as recorded
F8 to playback pattern on certain chord
6. Tutorial
Lets put in a simple style into the StyleMaker.
It will be the 'BlueHill style'
It should be already on your disk on a style called bluehill.sty
It is an example of a simple style - I made it for this demo in
under 5 minutes - it has a total of 4 patterns
an 'A' drum pattern (high hat )
a 'B' substyle drum pattern (ride cymbal)
a Bass Pattern
a Piano Pattern
The file is stored as a .STY file . The size is small - BLUEHILL.STY
is about 1K .
Lets load it in and have a look at it
-Choose USER from the pull down menu and select EDIT exisitng style
( a shortcut for this is ALT F9 )
- You will now see a menu of the styles - move the cursor over
BlueHill.STY and Press <ENTER> .
After a delay to load in the file you will be in the StyleMaker.
You can move around the StyleMaker with cursor keys ( no mouse ).
Mostly you'll see dots ('.' periods). These represent empty
patterns which haven;t been recorded. You'll see a few #'s -in this
case they'll be 5's - these #'s represent the patterns . Move
the cursor over these patterns and press <F4 Key> for play.
You will then here all 3 instruments playing but you should
concentrate on listening to the instrument of the pattern you
are listening to - indicated by you cursor position.
- Move over the Drum Pattern in A substyle (column 1 row 1)
Press Play - you should hear a pattern of drums with high hat
triplets. As drums are entered in step time* you may edit the
drum pattern by pressing R ( for Record )
(* unlike piano/bass which are recorded in real time )
After pressing R you are now in the Drum Editor.
- Move around with cursor keys .The #s on the grids are
velocities which vary from 0 to 127 . Use the bottom
row of QWERTY keyboard ie zxcvbnm,./ keys for rapid entry
of common velocities .
- The timebase is set to 12 in this style . The only
alternative is = 16 ( 4 * sixteenth notes ).Set the
timebase by moving up to the timebase box
- Play the pattern by F4 Key. Adjust the playback
tempo by [ ] while the pattern is playing
- note that the last high hat note has a * beside it .
This indicates that there is an alternate note which is
played a certain % of time as set by the F5 key. This
particular setting is to play a open high hat 20% of time.
- change a few notes so you can hear how the grid works
and then exit by the <F10 Key> . Accept all the default
settings by pressing <ENTER Key>. If you want to make a
new pattern in addition to the 1 provided in the A pattern
move over a '.' and type 'R' to Record a new Drum Pattern
You will now have a blank drum pattern .
To erase a pattern type a 0 (zero) onto the main screen
To copy a pattern type Alt C then Alt V to paste it
where you want to .
The original bluehill.sty has 1 pattern . The #5 is the
WEIGHT of the pattern relative to others on the same row.
In this case there are no others on the same row, but if
there were the WEIGHTS would determine the probabilty
of each of them being played relative to each other
Drums A pattern 5 5 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . .
This row has 3 patterns recorded , 2 with weight of 5
and one of weight =2 . At time of playback the pattern of
weight=2 will be played less often then than the two with
higher weight.
Play the other patterns by moving over them and
pressing F4 Key .
Try recording a new bass pattern
Move the cursor to the box beside the bass pattern
already recorded . You should be recording a similar
sounding pattern , as it will be picked randomly
instead of the other one during playback and you wouldn't
want a drastic change .
Bass A 8 Beat 5 . . . .
^
Press R with cursor on this box
To record the bass pattern : press 'R' for Record
The total time that the patterns will play is 4 bars
2 bar leadin to prepare you to record the 2 bar pattern
LET THE PATTEN PLAY TO THE END - IT WILL SHUT OFF AUTOMATICALLY
IF YOU PRESS A KEY TO STOP PREMATURELY THE PATTERN WILL BE
REJECTED
Record the bass pattern in the Key of C - based on
a C7 chord C E G Bb . The Root of the pattern is Midi Note
Number 48 .(C)
Accept all the default settings .
Playback the pattern <F4>
Quantize the pattern by typing ALT Q and choosing 12/bar
See how the pattern will sound on different chords by
typing F8 key.
Put all your patterns in the row for 8 beat for now.
The other rows 4 beat / 2 beat / 1 beat are used to
provide custom patterns for chords in a song that last shorter
durations. If no patterns are recorded the program will
pick from the 8 beat pattern and will truncate the pattern .
Try the same process with piano - playing a pattern
on a C7 chord centered around Middle C .
Try a pattern using a Macro Note , specifically use
the Macro Piano Note 84 which is a POP Chord . Remember
to turn Macro Notes on at the end of the pattern in the
box that pops up , and then listen to the Macro Note
pattern by typing the F8 Key.
When you're done - press F10 then save under a different
name and exit - Have a look at the size of the file -
adding a pattern adds only about 50 bytes to the size of
the .STY file so you can input literally hundreds of patterns
to make a complex, varied style .
Hear you're style by typing in the chords to
Blue Hill and playing it in BlueHill.STY
( or your renamed style ) by pressing the F8 key
End of tutorial
8.Saving /Compiling Style to disk
At the end of your session , or to be safe you should save your
style . This is done by F10 key . It is a good idea to
give new names to the style each time you save it: MyPop1,MyPop2,MyPypop3
The styles are tiny (6k) and won't take up much space , so these types
of backups will insure that you won't screw up a good style )
When you want to play a song in your style ( you must have exited
the Style Maker ) use the F8 Key to Play In User Style , or F9 Key
to Choose a User Style .If your style is on a different subdirectory
you can hunt for it by using the last icon in the file list ( press
Enter ).
9.Endings
Ending Patterns work similar to Others except
1. Drum patterns are always 2 bars consisting of 2 one bar patterns
with the second pattern being the one to the immediate right
of the first one
2. Bass Patterns + Piano Patterns are always 2 bars and will
correspond to the drum ending pattern ( ie. directly under it )
Therefore , you can have several different endings with weights
attatched , Once an ending is picked , the drums/bass/piano will
all be co-ordinated in playing patterns in the same columns.
3. The Ending will occur in a song on the Bar following the
Chorus End . Endings will always be played with a song unless
Endings have been turned off from the Settings
window accessed by the TAB Key .
For example : A Song with no intro has Chorus
From Bar 1-32 . In Bar 33 a Cmaj7 is typed in .
10. Other Masks
-Roman Mask : This mask will allow the pattern only if
it is the same Roman Numeral as the specified mask.
ex. If a pattern is intended only for IIm7 ( read as
'Two Minor Seventh' ) chords you could set
a Roman Mask of 2 and a Chord Mask of 4 ( = m7 from
table below )
- Chord Mask : This mask is used when a pattern would only be
intended for a specific type of chord , and you
don't want it transformed to other chords .
eg a blues lick that would work only on dominant 7th
chords would have a chord mask of 9 (= dom 7 )
Chord Masks
1 Major C
2 Major 7th Cmaj7
3 Minor Cm
4 Minor 7 Cm7
5 m7b5 Cm7b5
6 Diminished Cdim
7 Sus Csus
8 Sus7 Csus7
9 Dominant 7th C7 C9 C13 C9#11
10 Altered Dominant 7th C7b9 C7#9 C7b9b13
11 Major or Dominant 7th C C7 C9 C13 (used in blues )
Tempo Masks
Certain patterns esp. drums will only sound good at slow or fast
tempos . It is therefore useful to mask a pattern for slow/fast
tempos .
if set to 0 ( no mask ) the pattern might be played at any tempo
if set to 1 will only be played at slow tenpos
if set to 2 will be played only at fast tempos
ex a drum fill with sixteenth notes - should set tempo maks
=1 = slow so won't be played at fast tempos .
Slow/fast tempo is defined as +/- 25% above/below the tempo
set with the style from the main StyleMAker screen .
Next Interval Mask
Certain patterns ( bass patterns ) are dependant on where
the root of the next chord is going - ex up a fourth , down
a fourth , up a third etc.
There are some bass macros ( Walking Notes ) which help by
walking to the next chord but in situations where this i s not
suitable tou can make a pattern and set the Interval Mask
to = the desired Interval - do you can record a bass pattern
for chords that are followed by a chord with the root a fourth
above for example . This is useful for walking bass lines in jazz.
End of Style Help.BB