BIaB Plug-in?

[banditblack]

Is there any type of Plug-in instrument for DP that will emulate, do what Band-in-the-box will do: That is, let you type in chords and get a generated Bass line and chord sequence?

Find myself wanting to use the Digital Performer environment more and more for woodshedding, and not wanting to continue upgrading my old BIAB.

I know it's not difficult already, but just curious what is out there....

[mikehalloran]

One exists if you have access to Finale 2014.5 or earlier. You would use it in Finale, then export the MIDI and import to DP. F-2014.5 is no longer offered from MakeMusic but some resellers still may have boxed versions for sale. It’s possible that 2014.5 will not install in Mac OS 10.13.

Otherwise, buy a copy of BIAB and do the same.

[banditblack]

Hard to believe someone hasn't come up with something....

[mikehalloran]

Hard to believe someone hasn't come up with something....

Well... the someone probably needs to be PG Music.
http://www.pgmusic.com/

BIAB 2017 for Mac is still 32 bit and doesn't have some of the features working as promised in their documentation. The Win version is better but some of their older Win products were recently discontinued. Although many of us are expecting that the 2018 versions will be 64 bit (otherwise, what's the point?), I just don't see a 64 bit version of the Finale plugin this on their "must do" list. I don't know that they've ever had it for anything else.

I used the Finale plugin once only in 2002 when I had to deliver an infomercial 24 hours after I got the gig. It worked quite well and saved me hours — I was a happy guy. A few Finale users wish it had never left.

I haven't given any thought as to how such a plug would work in DP or any DAW since I never compose in it. Can't believe it would be easy to write — the task is different than trying to guess what is needed from a notation program.

PowerTracks Pro Audio is PG Music's DAW (Win only) and does not have this functionality unless you count TC Helicon Vocal Harmonizer. They make you buy BIAB to get it (DP already has a harmonizer plug).

So back to my original answer. Purchase BIAB. It can import/export MIDI and MusicXML. DP can export MIDI/MusicXML and import MIDI. That's what I would do... Ok, that's what I am doing on a couple of vanity projects and it works ok. My clients are happy so far.

If you're not in a hurry, you might wait for the 2018 versions to see if they are 64 bit. Windows usually announces before Christmas while the Mac version generally announces around NAMM and ships later.

[bayswater]

Hard to believe someone hasn't come up with something....

Not really. BIAB is not a simple thing to produce. Have a look at the SOS review. There's not a lot of motivation for anyone to put the money and effort into reproducing what it does. Microsoft had a try, and that went nowhere.

You could try using Soundflower and IAC MIDI to connect DP, or any other DAW, with BIAB, as long as BIAB supports things like MMC and basic MIDI in and Out. If the support is there, you might be able to send a basic MIDI song line from DP to BIAB and get the accompanying tracks in Audio back from BIAB to DP.

[mikehalloran]

If your OS is old enough (Win 7, 8, Mavericks), Guitarcenter.com is showing Finale 2012 in stock at some stores for $29.95. They’ll ship it to a store near you.

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Finale/MAKE ... FHR12GC.gc

There may be a reseller with a boxed version of 2014.5 around. That installs as late as Sierra. MM is not allowing the sale of downloads for older versions.

Functionality is limited in later OS but nothing that cripples the app. The BIAB plugin works as does MIDI import/playback. The free Dolet 7 plugin updates either version to the latest MusicXML functionality.
http://www.musicxml.com/dolet-plugin/do ... or-finale/

[dewdman42]

RapidComposer is the only thing I know of that runs as a plugin. But it doesn't come with a bunch of well crafted styles like BIAB, you have to roll your own. But you can basically do multiple tracks of any patterns you want, and apply chords and scales to them, which ultimately results in music. It can also import MIDI files and attempts to extract some patterns from it which you can use as a starting point.

There is very little for mac for this sort of thing. On PC there are quite a few things floating around that do that type of thing, some are even compatible with PSR yamaha styles, etc, but I'm not aware of any that runs as a plugin.

[dewdman42]

well there is also Synfire Pro if you wanna spend some bucks...

[mikehalloran]

well there is also Synfire Pro if you wanna spend some bucks...

http://www.cognitone.com/products/mps/intro/page.stml

779 € If it does everything it claims, I can see it being popular the film scoring crowd working under deadlines. Not sure that a truly original score can be done with it, though. Of course, originality and BAIB can’t be used in the same sentence either.

BAIB is working well for these vanity projects I’ve taken on. The clients are making albums of popular songs for themselves or gifts to family. I flirted with licensing karaoke tracks but they sounded just too cheesy and they’re not cheap. I knock out the basics in BIAB, export to DP and go from there.

[dewdman42]

I spent a lot of time researching the cognitone stuff once I was always very intrigued but the price is way too high, it would have to be a miracle worker and it’s not. As to what you were saying about getting precanned results from Biab, that is somewhat true but NOT the case with cognitone, you really have to create the patterns yourself. Thst being said, the nuance of arrangement, counterpoint, voice leading, etc are lost entirely. You mix together patterns and apply chords and scales to it and harmonious and interesting music comes out the other end. I’m sure there is more to it, but for me all the examples did start to sound kind of like a high schooler with very advanced chord and scale knowledge wrote the music without understanding voice leading and counterpoint. For me it would still be very useful for experimentation. It’s not worth the miracle worker price though.

For pop and especially jazz biab has no equal.

Rapid composer is actually pretty cool in the same way synfire is and often goes on sale for a fraction the price, but again, like synfire you will end up with some very interesting music that lacks the nuance I mentioned above. But some users have come up with some phrases that sound very filmnscorey in a repetitive way. You can only take a certain phrase and repeat it with different chord scales so many times. It does include some interesting tools to variate things for you and perhaps if used sparingly could save some time, same goes for synfire but rapid composer is priced more appropriately. But it does NOT really come with precanned rhythm sections like biab does.

Biab can actually do some amazing stuff, generate solos too and they’ve put a lot of intelligence into that but the jazz and country bias is too overwhelming so I’ve never found it usable for my liking. But if you want to knock out a somewhat generic sounding country tune for a wannabe singer using any chord progression you want, it’s incredible, there is nothing else that can compare even close.

I used to use it for practicing blues piano. Then later I bought a boss jam station which was just easier to deal with for that.

Question for the op, what specifically do you want to do?