Virtual vs External Keyboard {BIAB}

[Chip Fossa]

Hello All,
If I'm not mistaken, I thought I read in the BIAB manuals that an external MIDI'd
keyboard when piped into your soundcard can be used with BIAB in lieu of the virtual keyboard.
I get sounds thru the pc sound system OK, but when it comes to trying to put notes up on BIAB's staff nothing happens. No notation.
Am I missing some box to check here, or is the external keyboard and BIAB incompatible?
I tried searching around a bit within BIAB
for some clue, but wound up in the deep dark forest.
TIA
Chip

[Jack Stoner]

The only reference I could find in V9 help file was using the midi keyboard for chord recognition. I didn't find anything about using it for song writing.

[Chip Fossa]

Thanks Jack......I must have it confused with
Cakewalk or some other program I got goin' here.
Yeah, I went and bought version 9, but have not really looked thru much of the tutorial on it. I'll give it a whirl.

Chip

[Jack Stoner]

Chip, check their web site. They have an updated help file for V9 and updates to the program to bring it to 9c.

[Bobby Lee]

There's a button that says "Rec.". It's supposed to record MIDI from your keyboard to the melody track. The "R" key does the same thing. Here's what the help file says:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">quote:</font><HR><SMALL>Recording Melodies

Band-in-a-Box has a built in sequencer allowing you to record and edit a melody track.
Melodies are recorded from a MIDI keyboard connected to Band-in-a-Box by your MIDI driver.
Press R to begin Recording. This launches the Record Melody Dialog Box.
When you’re done, press Escape to stop (or SPACEBAR). You will then have options to keep take etc from the Record Melody Finished Dialog Box .
Hint: Here's the fastest way to Record an Entire Song

· Press R to Record from the beginning. Record an entire first chorus.
( If you make a mistake, Press R to Record from the bar that you made a mistake )
· Then Choose Copy 1st chorus to Whole Song from the Dialog box that pops up at the end of recording You now have a melody recorded over all the choruses.
· Now record the 2 bar ending. This can be done by Pressing R then E (to record from the end.</SMALL><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Also, in the Opt. menu, you need to have your sound card selected as your MIDI input driver.

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<small><img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b.gif" width="64" height="64">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs
Sierra Session S-12 (E9), Speedy West D-10 (E9, D6),
Sierra 8 Laptop (D13), Fender Stringmaster D-8 (D13, A6)

[Chip Fossa]

Thanks Jack and b0b.....Jim Baron has seen this post and sent an email saying basically the same thing. I got it to work OK.
It's like a little backwords, tho.You have to play along to a chord pattern, instead of just sitting there and keyboarding in notes.
So you'd better have a pretty good idea before you record as to where you are going with the melody.
This is OK; but at 1st when I laid out a simple chord pattern and then punched in R and started to plink stuff out on the keyboard, I thought it wasn't working right because I was expecting the notes I was playing to start appearing up on the staff in EDIT NOTATION. And of course they didn't.
So I said ah phooey, and when I went to exit BIAB a window popped up and asked if I wanted to save the melody, and I said 'yes' and VOILA.....all the notes I'd been playing suddenly appeared in the staff.
BIAB explains things, but not in real depth,
actually.
I guess you just have to try things out and hope for the best.
Now that I've been thinking on this for awhile, I don't think the way I was looking for is possible ALL FROM THE KEYBOARD....
How would you move laterally, bar to bar, down the staff?
Oh well....I'm having fun with it anyway. I've had BIAB for almost 11/2 years now and
am only now getting to understand it a little better.

Thanks again, everyone

Chip