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Support files for Norton Music's Band-in-a-Box improvement products

Band-in-a-Box Style Picker Window Updates

This free download will add the Norton Music and Hawkesford style names to the Style Picker Window of Band-in-a-Box (activated by the "STY" button).


#1. For newer and all current versions of Band-in-a-Box. (a) For Windows Band-in-a-Box version 9.0c, 2000, or higher (b) and ALL Intel/Mac versions 2009 or higher

    IMPORTANT: This program will update the style picker window in your Band-in-a-Box program.
    PC: It needs version 9.0c or higher of BiaB to work (Band-in-a-Box version 9.0c through 12 -- plus Band-in-a-Box 2000 and higher)
    Mac: It needs an Intel Mac running Verson 2009 of Band-in-a-Box or higher.
  1. Download: (a) BiaB-PC Style Picker Files.zip or (b) BiaB-Mac Style Picker Files.zip (Win: Right Click, Mac: Option Click -- then "Save Target As" or "Save Link Target As") and note where you save it so you can find it (I like the desktop)
  2. Unzip -- Most new computers automatically unzip, if you have an older computer that doesn't, download winzip http://www.winzip.com/ (Windows), stuffit http://www.stuffit.com/mac/index.html (Mac) or another unzipping utility (there are plenty of free unzipping programs on the web).
  3. Open the Instructions file and follow the instructions.

PG Music changed the way Band-in-a-Box style names (it is an improvement). Therefore this will not work with older versions of Band-in-a-Box.


#2. For BiaB Mac versions 12 and older, and Windows versions older than v9.0c

    Instructions:

  1. Download BiaB_old_style_picker.zip (Win: Right Click, Mac: Option Click -- then "Save Target As" or "Save Link Target As") and note where you save it so you can find it (I like the desktop)
  2. Unzip -- Most new computers automatically unzip, if you have an older computer that doesn't, download winzip http://www.winzip.com/ (Windows), stuffit http://www.stuffit.com/mac/index.html (Mac) or another unzipping utility (there are plenty of free unzipping programs on the web).
  3. Open the unzipped folder and follow the instructions.

Style List in .csv and .html format

There is a limitation of the number of style names allowed by PG Music in the Style Picker Window of Band-in-a-Box. Unfortunately, with all the new styles released, the addition of my styles to PG Music's style exceeds that limit in all but the latest versions of BiaB. If you got a "style exceeded" error when rebuilding the Style Picker Window List this is your guide. The files are zipped for fast download.

In CSV, XLS and HTML format (should open in most spreadsheets or web browser) style_list.zip

Everything you ever wanted to know about the Style Picker Window

Everything you ever wanted to know about the Style Picker Window (and a few things you might not)

©Bob "Notes" Norton -- all rights reserved

(The style picker window is the style selection window activated by clicking the STY button in the BiaB program.)

This document may be reproduced and distributed freely as long as it is distributed in its entirety and no changes or edits are made.

These instructions apply to version 9.0c and higher of Band-in-a-Box.

This document is a little long. I think the instructions in the BiaB manual are too short, so I am explaining this in detail. Although lengthy, it isn't difficult.

It is best to read this document entirely before making any changes. Some sections depend on the information included in other sections of this document.

For best results, print these instructions out. It will help to have them on a piece of paper instead of the computer screen.

Contents:

PART I -- HOW THE PICKER WORKS

PART II -- THE LOCATION OF THE FILES ARE VERY IMPORTANT

PART III -- HOW DOES BIAB KNOW WHAT STYLES TO LIST IN THE WINDOW

PART IV -- WHERE DOES BIAB LOOK FOR THE FILES WHEN IT RE-BUILDS

PART V -- TROUBLESHOOTING PROBLEMS WITH STYLES NOT APPEARING

PART VI -- IF YOU GET A "STYLE LIMIT EXCEEDED" MESSAGE, READ THIS

PART VII -- WHAT ABOUT MY OWN STYLES, HOW DO I GET THEM TO APPEAR IN THE STYLE PICKER WINDOW -- HOW DO I MAKE MY OWN .LS3 FILES?


PART I -- HOW THE PICKER WORKS (you need to understand this before making any changes)

Band-in-a-Box uses a slightly indirect system of getting the style names into the Style Picker Window. In early editions of BiaB, all the styles were listed in the text file bbw.lst, including the 3rd party styles like the Norton Music styles and Roy Hawkesford styles (distributed by Norton Music). This resulted in all 3rd party styles being erased every time PG Music released a new style disk or upgrade to the program. PG "fixed" that in version 9.0c of BiaB.

For all versions of BiaB 9.0c and higher this process involves a few text files. The bbw.lst file which comes with BiaB and other .ls3 files for third party users (perhaps that is why the 3 in ls3? -- just a guess). The Norton and Hawkesford text files are #norton1.ls3, #norton3.lst and so on up to #norton6.ls3. The size of the .ls3 files has a finite limit so in the future there may be more than 6.

Instructions on how to make your own .ls3 files are included later in this document. But before getting to know that, you need some more information ... So read on ...


PART II -- THE LOCATION OF THE FILES ARE VERY IMPORTANT

The first requirement of a successful display of all the styles and style names requires that a number of files be in the Band-in-a-Box root folder. The root folder is the same folder that the BiaB program (bbw.exe) is in, and that is C:\Bb, unless you intentionally changed it. The files that ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY MUST be in the root folder are (1) all the style files - anything ending in .sty (2) the bbw.lst file (3) the third party .ls3 files like the #norton1.ls3 file.

If these files are not in the correct folder, they will not be displayed in the Style Picker Window. If you are having trouble, this is the first thing to check.

Understanding how this works is important to get the styles to display so here is a simplified explanation.


PART III -- HOW DOES BIAB KNOW WHAT STYLES TO LIST IN THE WINDOW

When you open Band-in-a-Box, click on the STY button and click the Re-Build button at the lower left hand corner of the style picker window, the BiaB program does this:

1) Looks in the BiaB root folder and reads the bbw.lst and various .ls3 text files in that folder

2) Scans the names of the actual styles in the root folder (anything that ends in .sty)

3) Creates a third text file (the name of this file varies with different editions of BiaB) from all the matches between the bbw.lst files and the *.ls3 files. It uses this third text file to build the contents of the Style Picker Window.

So you can see, even if you have a particular style in the proper folder, if the style is not listed in the bbw.lst or any .ls3 files, it will not appear in the Style Picker Window.


PART IV -- WHERE DOES BIAB LOOK FOR THE FILES WHEN IT RE-BUILDS

IN ORDER FOR THIS RE-BUILDING PROCESS TO WORK, BAND-IN-A-BOX MUST BE FOCUSED IN THE ROOT DIRECTORY. If you have loaded a song from a fake book folder (i.e. Bgfake, Clasfake, Norton's F17_b, etc.) the BiaB program will be focused there and it will not re-build the list properly. NOTE: if you are in a fake book folder and click Re-Build, everything but the PG Music styles will probably disappear.

I have had quite a few trouble calls from people who were re-building the style picker window while BiaB was focused in the wrong folder.

To check or redirect the focus of the BiaB program do this:

1) If it is not already open, open the BiaB program

2) Press CTRL D on your keyboard to open the Change Directory dialog box

3) Use the dialog box to direct Band-in-a-Box to C:\Bb (or whatever you may have intentionally changed the root folder to).

If you have changed your Band-in-a-Box root folder (also called "directory") and are not sure where it is, use the Find File feature in Windows to find bbw.exe. Whatever folder bbw.exe is in is the root folder. If unsure how to use the find function of your OS, check your computer's manual or a computer help book.

Now that your BiaB program is focused in the BiaB root directory, click the STY button and then click Re-Build.

IF THIS DOESN'T WORK AT ALL TRY THIS:


PART V -- TROUBLESHOOTING PROBLEMS WITH STYLES NOT APPEARING

The first thing to try is to shut down all the programs including Band-in-a-Box and re-boot your computer. Sometimes Windows and/or Band-in-a-Box just gets stubborn, and a re-boot will usually fix that problem.

Make sure you don't have more than one copy of Band-in-a-Box on your computer (use the search feature as described in PART IV). I have done some extensive troubleshooting with customers to find that they had more than one copy of BiaB on their computer; they put the styles in the root folder of one copy but were using the other copy to try to re-build their style picker window. Use the file search feature for more than one copy of bbw.exe on your system.

Remove the #norton*.ls3 files and re-install them using the newest User Style Disk you have purchased from Norton Music. If one of the text files got corrupted this will solve the problem. If you need new #norton*ls3 files, I'll be happy to e-mail them to you.


PART VI -- IF YOU GET A "STYLE LIMIT EXCEEDED" MESSAGE, READ THIS:

When Band-in-a-Box gives you the error message "Style limit exceeded" it doesn't really mean you have too many styles, but instead it means that you have too many style entries in the style picker window. As you may recall from PART I, BiaB makes the style picker window file by combining entries in the bbw.lst files with the *.ls3 files and comparing the result with the style names in the root folder.

PG Music adds multiple text entries for every one of its styles. You might find one style listed in the "All" category, listed again in the "Pop/Rock" category, the same style might be listed in the "Country/Folk" category, and again in the "Waltz" category and one more time in a specific disk category. That eats up 5 text entries for one song.

If PG Music adds the same style name in 5 different categories, then it will use 5 of those allotments in the style picker window. The style entry allotment on version 11.0 is 2424 styles; earlier versions of BiaB have smaller allotments. If every style were entered 5 times, 485 styles would exceed the 2424 limit.

If you exceed the limit (various versions of BiaB have different limits) of the entries in the Style Picker Window file, you will get an error message. Remember, that doesn't mean you have exceeded the style limit, but the number of text entries in the "Style Picker Window File".

Since PG Music duplicates all their style names in the "All" category, the easiest way to reduce the number of styles is by eliminating the "All" category in the bbw.lst file.

If you like, I can send you a copy of the bbw.lst with the "All" category removed (e-mail me at norton@nortonmusic.com). -- or -- you can make a copy of the bbw.lst file and edit the copy in a text editor. Once the text file is open, it is pretty easy to see where the "All" category and the included file names are. You can even customize your bbw.lst files to put the files where you want it. The instructions later in this document should help you understand the bbw.lst file before editing. More information about the organization of the bbw.lst file follows, so be sure to finish reading this document before editing it.

Now you should have a reduced copy of the bbw.lst file (either the one I sent you or the one you edited). To install it, first look in your Band-in-a-Box root directory for the bbw.lst file (the root directory is the same folder that the bbw.lst program is in, usually C:\BB). When you find the bbw.lst file, rename it bbw-old.lst. That way if you don't like the changes, you haven't overwritten your original bbw.lst file.

Next move the edited the bbw.lst file that either you created or I e-mailed you (with the "all" category removed) into the Band-in-a-Box root directory.

Open Band-in-a-Box, make sure it is focused in the root directory, open the style picker window, click re-build and all the styles should fit now.

If you don't like the change, remove the new bbw.lst file you just installed and rename bbw-old.lst back to bbw.lst.


PART VII -- WHAT ABOUT MY OWN STYLES, HOW DO I GET THEM TO APPEAR IN THE STYLE PICKER WINDOW -- HOW DO I MAKE MY OWN .LS3 FILES?

It's easy.

Creating the *.ls3 files.

The ls3 file is a text file. You can make one with Window's Notepad or other word processor as long as you save it as a plain text file. If your word processor allows, save it with the .ls3 extension, if not change the extension from .txt to .ls3 after it is saved.

You can make as many .ls3 files as you want, but no file can exceed 65,000 (65K) bytes.

Here is some general information about both the bbw.lst and any .ls3 files you may want to make.

1) Any line starting with a semicolon (;) is a comments line
Example:
; This line will be ignored by the bbw.lst and any .ls3 files

You can write notes to yourself by using the semicolon at the beginning of each line.

2) Any line starting with a tilde (~) is a category and will appear in the category window of the style picker window. Any lines following it will be in that category until you get to the next line that starts with a ~
Example:
~ My Styles

Everything that follows the ~ My Styles line and until BiaB sees another line that starts with a tilde (~) will be in the center part of the Style Picker Window when the ~ My Styles category is clicked.

There are a couple of different ways to enter the information that goes into the center part of the Style Picker Window, but the one I found best and the one I use for my Norton Music styles contains two lines.

*********

Line 1 includes the style description exactly as found in the bbw.lst. Instructions are found in the BiaB user manual but I think they are a little hard to understand, so I'll try to explain them more thoroughly.

The first of the two lines (line 1) should be start with the @ sign.
Follow the @ sign with the style name (max 8 characters + .sty). This must match the file name for the style exactly.
Example:
@MyStyle1.sty

Follow the style name with a back-slash (\) and then add a more descriptive, long style name (max 32 characters)
Example:
@MyStyle1.sty\My First Style

Follow that with a carat (^) and then a memo
Example:
@MyStyle1.sty\My First Style^My first basic rock style

Follow that with an asterisk (*) and suggested song titles
Example:
@MyStyle1.sty\My First Style^My first basic rock style*Rock Me Baby

There is one more thing to consider, the number of letters that follow the ^ and the * must not exceed 255 characters. You can split them up any way you want, as long as there are less than 255 letters, numbers, spaces and other typographical symbols.

Note: You do not have to put anything after the asterisk (*). If nothing follows it, the song suggestion box will be left blank.

See, that wasn't so hard ;)

In Norton Music's 16 beat ballad #1 style (@#16bbal1.sty) the first line looks like this (turn off any word wrap to see it formatted correctly):

@#16bbal1.sty\16beat Ballad • Norton^meter=4/4 ... •=LiveDrums ... Norton-SD#8 ... A 1970s - 2000s 16 Beat ballad*Every Time You Go Away

Each • character was made by holding the alt key down and typing 0149 and creates the • bullet character. The extra spaces between some of the words are not necessary, I did it so things line up and look nice in the style picker window (I'm a stickler for details). I am only mentioning these two things so the above example doesn't confuse you.

Now on to line two.........

*********

Line 1 is the same in the bbw.lst and the *.ls3 files. Line 2 is only found in the *ls3 files and although not necessary, is very helpful.

Line 2 puts additional information into the style picker window like tempo, prototype style, etc.

Here is an example of the second line from a Norton Music style (16 beat ballad number 1 - #16bbal1.sty), and I'll follow it with an explanation. {The explanation will be in the same style brackets this sentence is enclosed in}. You will substitute the values for your own styles according to the recommendation in the { } brackets.

;^@#16bbal1.sty,0,j16,true,4,EV,16,66,100,76,8,jz,jzs

What does this all mean?

;^@
This must appear at the beginning of each line, for all other entries, use a comma to separate them

;^@#16bbal1.sty
#16bbal1.sty (this is the style name, EXACTLY as it appears on your hard drive}

;^@#16bbal1.sty,0
0 {this denotes which specific soloist to use (0-255) and 0 means "don't always use the same soloist"}

;^@#16bbal1.sty,0,j16
j16 {which soloist type to use -- * see SOLOIST TYPE list at the end of this post}

;^@#16bbal1.sty,0,j16,true
true {double time is OK -- use false if you don't want to allow double time soloist}

;^@#16bbal1.sty,0,j16,true,4
4 {base time signature -- use either 3 for 3/4 or 4 for 4/4 here}

;^@#16bbal1.sty,0,j16,true,4,EV
EV {this entry designates whether the notes in the next entry are EV (even) or sw (swing)}

;^@#16bbal1.sty,0,j16,true,4,EV,16
16 {this denotes which notes in the above entry are EV or sw -- use either 8 or 16}

;^@#16bbal1.sty,0,j16,true,4,EV,16,66
66 {lowest recommended tempo}

;^@#16bbal1.sty,0,j16,true,4,EV,16,66,100
100 {highest recommended tempo}

;^@#16bbal1.sty,0,j16,true,4,EV,16,66,100,76
76 {typical tempo}

;^@#16bbal1.sty,0,j16,true,4,EV,16,66,100,76,8
8 {style disk the style is found on -- PG Music has reserved 1-255 for their own use}

;^@#16bbal1.sty,0,j16,true,4,EV,16,66,100,76,8,jz
jz {melody patch to use. Either assign a patch number between 1-128 or use the **melody / soloist patch in the chart below}

;^@#16bbal1.sty,0,j16,true,4,EV,16,66,100,76,8,jz,jzs
jzs {soloist patch to use. Either assign a patch number between 1-128 or use the **melody / soloist patch in the chart below}

In the melody patch and soloist patch I generally use the letters from the chart below for my Norton Music styles. I think this allows the end user more flexibility.

* SOLOIST TYPE
j3.......Jazz Swing - triplet feel 8th notes
j8.......Jazz - even 8th notes
j16......Jazz - even16th notes
w3.......Waltz - triplet feel
w8.......Waltz - even 8ths
c3.......Country - triplet feel 8th notes
c8.......Country - even 8ths
cw8......Country waltz - even 8ths
b3.......Blues - triplet feel 8ths
b8.......Blues - even 8ths
p16......Pop - even 16ths
p24......Pop - swing 16ths
class8...Classical - even 8ths
class16..Classical - even 16ths
tek16....Techno - even 16ths
funk16...Funk - even 16ths
ethnic16.Ethnic - even 16ths
ethnic3..Ethnic - triplet feel

** melody / soloist 1-128 to get a specific patch or ...
jz....Jazz melody patch
jzs...Jazz soloist patch
bl....Blues melody patch
bls...Blues soloist patch
bg....Bluegrass melody (patch)
bgs...Bluegrass soloist (patch)
la....Latin melody
las...Latin soloist
ct....Country melody
cts...Country soloist
po....Pop melody
pos...Pop soloist
rk....Rock melody
rks...Rock soloist
fu....Funk melody
fus...Funk soloist
cl....Classical melody
cls...Classical soloist
tk....Techno melody
tks...Techno soloist
et....Ethnic melody
ets...Ethnic soloist
fo....Folk melody
fos...Folk soloist
re....Reggae melody
res...Reggae soloist
af....African melody
afs...African soloist

Both lines combined for the Norton Music style look like this:

@#16bbal1.sty\16beat Ballad • Norton^meter=4/4 ... •=LiveDrums ... Norton-SD#8 ... A 1970s - 2000s 16 Beat ballad*Every Time You Go Away;^@#16bbal1.sty,0,j16,true,4,EV,16,66,100,76,8,jz,jzs

The line that starts with @ is the bbw.lst style line the line that starts with the ;^@ is the additional ls3 type line

PG Music make their latest BBW.LST available for download from: http://www.pgmusic.com/support_miscellaneous.htm. If you mess up your bbw.lst and forgot to make a copy, you should be able to get one here.

If you have any trouble understanding these instructions, please let me know.

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