PG Music releases Band-in-a-Box and RealBand Versions 2010.5 for Windows (+101 more RealTracks in Sets 83-101)

PG Music has released Version 2010.5 of Band-in-a-Box and RealBand.

Band-in-a-Box Version 2010.5 Build 301

Summary of Changes:

• Added: The StylePicker now has a filter to show/hide Real or MIDI styles. So if you only want to see MIDI styles, or if you only want to see styles that use some/all RealTracks, you can set this.
• Added: If you like the current mix (of volumes, panning, reverb), and you want this applied as a default for all songs, you can now set this by right-clicking on the Combo radio control. Choose "Make Current Mix the Default", "Load Default Mix" or "Reset Mix (to factory defaults)".
• Improved: RealTracks naturally occurring pushes are enhanced in many styles. This requires updating the ST2/XT2 files, and these are included in RealTracks and Band-in-a-Box 2010.5 updates.
• Added: When rendering, you can now add a dB amount to the whole mix, so that the mix will be louder or softer. There is automatic "peak-limiting" added, so that the music will not distort if you set it too high.
• Improved: For Audio Track rendering, Reverb is now added to the mix if there is Reverb set for the audio track.
• Improved: Playback timing accuracy and performance on MIDI DXi/VST Softsynths. Also, songs with MIDI tracks now render to WAV files about 20% faster.
• Added: Styles can now be made that are set to use Half-Time and Double-Time RealTracks. For example, you can make a Jazz Ballad style (tempo 65) that uses a Sax Soloist at tempo 140 (playing double time). The StyleMaker- Misc-More dialog now has setting called TimeBase: Normal/HalfTime/DoubleTime for RealTracks.
• Added: MIDI Styles can now be expanded or reduced. For example, if you have a Bluegrass style at a typical tempo of 130 that is 16ths note based, and you would prefer it as a style that is 8th note based at a typical tempo of 260, you can do this in the StyleMaker by selecting the menu item Style-Expand. Style-Reduce is available also for styles that you want to reduce from 8th notes to 16th notes.
• Added: If Band-in-a-Box cannot find your RealTracks folder or your Drums folder, a yellow hint message appears at bootup to alert you to that, and tells you how to fix it: "Note: You have RealTracks installed, but none are found in your RealTracks folder. You should point to your correct RealTracks folder in Prefs-RealTracks Settings.".
• Improved: RealTracks Pushes are now played a little quieter (2 dB quieter), so that they don't stand out as much.
• Improved: For Hypercanvas or TTS-1 users only. The Roland HyperCanvas and Cakewalk TTS-1 sound better in Band-in-a-Box if you use note 36 for bass drum, instead of note 35 (36 is more velocity sensitive). Now you will get a message to that effect when you exit the MIDI Driver dialog, and if you answer yes, it will set this for you, improving the sound of the drums with your HyperCanvas/TTS-1.
• Improved: For RealTracks, many Jazz comping styles now play triads (instead of 7ths) when simple triads are entered, instead of "jazzing them up" to 7ths chords (e.g. Guitar: Freddie, Wes Piano: Some Jazz. All Stride, Rehearsal). If you prefer this "the old way", where triads are automatically "jazzed up" when comping using Jazz RealTracks, then you can set the Prefs-Realtracks settings option to force 7ths for triads.
• Added: Utility function added to "Change all songs in current folder to a specific tempo.".
• Added: Utility function added to "Change all songs in current folder to the current style name.".
• Added: Utility command added to change channels by N on melody or soloist.
• Added: Notes like Fb, Cb, E#, B# can now be entered. To do this, right click on a note (like F), and set the forced accidental to #, and the note will appear as E#.
• Added: Right-click menu item added "edit section text".
• Added: Option for the Leadsheet Lyric memo to start on new page on printout.
• Added: If a song has lyrics (or other text) in the Lyric Memo or Lyric Document, these lyrics will now show up on the Big Lyrics window, so that they can be seen during playback. Note: if you have lyrics in text format, it is easy to paste them in as a Leadsheet Memo, and now you will see them on the Big Lyrics Window as well.
• Added: When entering lyrics, additional buttons are available "Close lyrics" "Edit Lyrics" and "Enter as Section Text" (instead of Lyrics).
• Fixed: 3rd and 4th endings weren't displaying correctly.
• Fixed: Chord Options Update button updates the chordsheet, clear all works better.
• Fixed: BBStyles button wasn't working in RDPicker, now loads the style chosen.
• Changed: File-New gets volumes of 127, instead of 90.
• Fixed: Spurious message about better realtracks available when half-time realtracks were used.
• Added: Enhancements for entering songs quickly. Typing special words, instead of chord names, will make the following settings:
  • begin sets the begin of the chorus to the current bar.
  • end sets the end of the song to the current bar.
  • chorusend sets the end of the song chorus to the current bar.
  • tkc sets key signature to c, tkbb would set it to bb.
  • trc transposes song to key of C.
  • t125 sets tempo to 125.
• Added: Enhancements for playing songs from the chordsheet
  • or double click on ending bar (or a bar in the tag), and it will play from the ending (or tag). This only applies to the chordsheet, since notation windows always play from the ending or tag already.
  • Right Click on ChordSheet (or notation) to quickly set Chorus Begin, Chorus End, or Song Ending.
• Improved: Default for output for pumping out chords changed to 1 from 90.
• Fixed: Frozen tracks were playing louder, when Play pressed again.
• Improved: Frozen tracks generate faster if play pressed again.
• Fixed: Stop shouldn't repeat the message about tempo match.
• Added: Quick-load a song by typing only. In Chord entry modeType word 'Song' followed by a filename, or partial filename, and the song will get loaded in. e.g. type c:\a\MySong.sgu to load in that exact style name, Type bossa to load in the first song with 'bossa' in the name AFTER the current song name, in the current folder.
• Added: Quick-load a style by typing only 'style' followed by a stylename. e.g. stylezzbossa will load in zzbossa.sty.
• Fixed: Now checks for valid drive letter when custom directory for RealTracks and RealDrums.
• Added: Message if frozen track loaded, but RealTracks or RealDrums folder doesn't exist.
• Improved: Will keep on generating RealTracks if some wav files are missing.
• Fixed: Thru banks now saved (if option to save thru in save patch dialog is set to true). Note this fix applies to the main screen, not the F5 dialog.
• Improved: Will not show this message if using ASIO and MS GS Wavetable is selected: "MIDI driver installed properly but in use...".
• Fixed: Copying melody when regions overlapped was losing some notes.
• Changed: Default of tempo swapping for RealTracks is now true.
• Added: RDbutton now has menu (like RT picker button) to choose prefs or rd picker.
• Added: Song memo now says if RD come from song or style.
• Fixed: Sometimes would crash on looping if no lead-in option was chosen.
• Fixed: Render bug - extra 2 bars were removed from render of MIDI track if no lead-in option.
• Updated: Help file has been updated.
• Updated: PDF New Features Guide.

Summary of Changes for RealBand 2010.5 Build 1:

• Added: Major new feature - Conductor, Live Looping/Playback control. As the song is playing, many "single key" hot keys are now available to control the playback and looping of the song. This is ideal for live performance or "jam sessions" where you want full control of playback. The loops happen seamlessly, so are suitable for the "dance floor." In addition, you can control RealBand from a standard MIDI keyboard, pressing MIDI keys that correspond to each of the functions. There are over 80 conductor functions in all.
• Added: Tempo mapping for MIDI tracks allows you to align a freely recorded MIDI performance (i.e., not recorded to a click track) such that it displays properly in notation and follows the bar lines correctly, but still sounds exactly the same as how you recorded it. To do this, select "Align Music to click track" from the Track menu, and choose the option to "Insert tempo changes.".
• Added: Double/Half time feature in Realtracks dialog.
• Added: Forced accidentals supported in notation.
• Added: Shift-click extends the highlighted area in the Chords Window.
• Fixed: Access violation when loading a .MID file without chords that caused the Chord Wizard to run automatically.
• Fixed: Track - Merge would render to audio even if merging two tracks that were only MIDI tracks.
• Fixed: If undoing a song generate, and the old tracks are moved upward as a result of the undo, then the DX/VST slots of tracks might vanish.
• Fixed: Access violation on startup, that sometimes occurred when loading a MIDI file.
• Fixed: If track disclosure panel was present before loading a new song, it would show up as a gray rectangle after new song was loaded.
• Fixed: Tracks messed up if creating RealDrums track over a RealTrack track by mistake, and then Undoing and then Redoing.
• Updated: Help file has been updated.