Band-in-a-Box 11 for Windows Adds 50 New Features

Caption (Click for a close-up)

Jazz Font

PG Music Inc. has released Version 11 of its Band-in-a- Box intelligent music software for Windows with over 50 new features including MIDI File Chord Wizard, Jazz Music Fonts, "Direct-to-Disk" Audio Rendering, Multiple Tracks of Notation, Melody Embellisher, and Notation Enhancements.

The "MIDI File Chord Wizard" reads any MIDI file and interprets the chords, then displays them in Bandin- a-Box. The added new "Jazz Music Fonts" for music, chords, lyrics and titles provides an option for authentic looking Jazz notation and symbols. "Direct-to-Disk" Audio Rendering provides the ability to directly convert any Band-in-a-Box song to an audio WAV file in 5-10 seconds.

Band-in-a-Box Version 11 also includes Notation Enhancements including the ability to display and print Multiple Tracks of Notation at once. Users can now view and print bass, piano, melody - any chosen tracks - at the same time. "Section Text" and "Boxed Text" can now be added to the notation. The appearance of the notation has also been enhanced with slanted beams, chord/music/lyric font selection and more. The new Scrub Mode allows the user to quickly hear a part of the notation by moving the mouse over the notes.

The new Melody Embellisher automatically adds life to existing Melodies by adding slurs, grace notes, vibrato, legato changes, extra notes and more to simulate the varied interpretations that different musicians make when playing a Melody.

Band-in-a-Box also includes the RolandED VSC3 MIDI Synthesizer. This synthesizer works with Band-in-a-Box and any other Windows MIDI programs. The Guitar Styles have been enhanced with a Jazz Guitar "highest-4-strings-comping mode" that has voice leading on the highest four strings to simulate a "sax section." The Melodist now composes songs for BeBop tunes and Jazz Ballads. The main window chordsheet now has selectable fonts, font size, and number of rows.

Many of the more than 50 new features in Band-in-a-Box 11 for Windows came from the users' Wish List.

• Enhanced Audio Support for saving in Windows Media Player Version 8 format.
• StyleMaker Enhancements - Style Checker, Style Summary, Pattern Velocity Adjust.
• MIDI File Enhancements - Save as Type 1 or 0 MIDI file or Karaoke file, Save Lyrics in GM format.
• Audio Rendering Enhancements - specify length of silence at the beginning and end of the file.
• File Selection Dialog Enhancements -- Search, highlight current file, favorite directories.