Band in a Box styles for Pa2x/ Pa800 - an update

[mbncp]

When I'll have some time I will make a MIDI to pa_sty.mid app, so it's easier to import all these files into Pa80StyleToMidi.exe in one go. Could even make a macro that could genrate a bunch of styles at the same time.

Anyway, I do something like that with my psr converter, generating these files that I can then load all of them with a single click, so it's much faster than importing each one in the pa.

The styles seem to play fine, off course there is still a lot of editing involved (key, chord, NTT, chord table, ..) plus all the stuff that's stored as style perf.

Again, if Korg was so kind to give us the file spec, the whole thing would be even faster and easier, and with only minimal tweaking once loaded in the pa.

Examples of file generated by my tool that can be imported directly into Pa80StyleToMidi.exe

Code: Select all

E1CV1.mid
E2CV1.mid
F1CV1.mid
F1CV2.mid
F2CV1.mid
F2CV2.mid
F3CV1.mid
I1CV1.mid
I2CV1.mid
I3CV1.mid
V1CV1.mid
V2CV1.mid
V3CV1.mid
V4CV1.mid

[rikkisbears]

Hi Rob,
haven't had much luck with a simple conversion process.
Did end up converting one of the Praise & Worship styles to PA800 format.
It's all but complete. Maybe a bit of tweaking. Unfortunately had to do it via seperate midifiles.

Downloadable at
http://www.createsongstyles.com/forum/i ... pic=6094.0

Not sure if you'd prefer me to upload to the normal Korg forum at creatsongstyle or to the BIAB forum?
[quote="rikkisbears"]Hi Rob,

[rikkisbears]

Hi Rob,
so far haven't come up with a simple process.

Have learnt a bit more about BIAB during the process, though.

Not sure if the way BIAB randomly chooses it's phrases is the best way to create a style part for a keyboard.
For instance, I've been playing around with a couple of the jazz styles. One's a 12/8 ( actually written in 4/4) the others a Jazz Ballad.

Predominately Drums, Bass & Piano ( with guitar added in substyle b)
If I only create a 4bar variation, the chances of getting BIAB to come up with 4 bars of suitable piano is fairly limited. Have to keep regenerating till it comes up with something that may work .
It's easy enough to just generate the 4 bars , save as mid file & import them into the korg, the problem is, they may not actually suit a song.

The jazz ballad has at least 30, 2 bar piano phrases it chooses from to generate a song. A lot of them just don't work if you're trying to use them in a 4 bar loop.
Other option is to create extra bars, then some can be deleted. Copy & paste in a pc sequencer is another option.
Just not sure if there's an easy option.

As for myself, I'll keep playing around with it. It's got some interesting jazz /swing styles that may be suitable for the old standards out of the 40's/50's that I enjoy playing. For myself I don't really need much more than bass, drums, piano, maybe guitar & strings for backing.

[Rob Sherratt]

Hi Rikki,

Just a thought which I've not yet tested - what happens if we create a 4 bar song in BIAB, every bar a CMaj7, then set it looping and record the output as an SMF?

[rikkisbears]

Hi Rob,
haven't tried that in BIAB either.

I'm actually using PG's new sequencer called Real Band. Hybrid between BIAB & Powertracks 12.

Ok
Basically load in a BIAB style into Real Band.
Type in Cmaj7th in the Chord sheet.
Choose 4 bars. Press generate & I end up with a 4 bar variation ready to to save as a mid 0 for importing into the Korg.
Be nice if it was quite as simple as that, but it also generates some phrases that aren't 100% suitable ie 1 or 2 of the bars in the song are too busy to loop every 4 bars .

What I've found when testing with different bar lengths is,
it chooses 2 bar phrases for the first 2, 4,or 6 bars ( depending on how long the song is) then it always chooses 1 bar phrases for the last 1 or 2 bars depending whether the song has an odd or even amount of bars.
For instance with the piano phrases, 1st 2 bar phrase it chooses might be perfect, then the next 2 bar phrase might be one of it's riff pattern phrases & be totally unsuitable, bars 5 & 6 could be okay again.
Maybe the more bars the better, & unsuitable ones can be deleted.

What I've actually done with the couple of jazz styles I like , is delete some of the piano patterns in the Biab style itself & saved it as a user style itself to give me a bit more control over what is generated.
Bit overboard, but an interesting exercise.

Hi Rikki,

Just a thought which I've not yet tested - what happens if we create a 4 bar song in BIAB, every bar a CMaj7, then set it looping and record the output as an SMF?