First off, you'll get the amazing new "MIDI-file to Style Wizard", that automatically converts a MIDI file (.MID) to a Band-in-a-Box Style (.STY). This wizard has plenty of options so you can quickly make your own simple to advanced styles from a MIDI file, without any knowledge of the StyleMaker required!

Twice as many instruments! We've added support for General MIDI 2 standard (GM2). This GM2 support adds 128 new instruments to Band-in-a-Box styles and songs, including ukulele, mandolin, 12-string guitar plus many new and improved piano, organ, guitar, brass and string sounds! We've made many new styles using the new instruments, and include updated versions of previous styles. You'll be hearing the new instruments with many of your new and existing styles. (Note: The included Roland VSC3 synth supports the new GM2 instruments, as do most newer modules/sound cards. If yours doesn't, a similar instrument from the existing 128 General MIDI sounds will be substituted.)

We've enhanced the Guitar Window by adding fret display support for other instruments, including mandolin, ukulele and banjo. You'll see authentic chord voicings and melody display on the fretboard for all of these new instruments. The StyleMaker has been enhanced with support for GM2 instruments, so you can make styles that use the new instruments and have correct instrument voicings displayed on the fretboard. We've also added an option for standard guitar chord diagrams to be included in the notation display, leadsheet, and printout. Choose from Folk, Pop or Jazz Guitar Chord Diagrams.

Bass players will now see bass tablature and correctly displayed bass parts on the new bass fretboard.

The program’s user interface has been enhanced, with a single dialog for all program options and song settings, right mouse support, simplified menu, additional hot keys and more.

All of the styles are enhanced! We've improved / updated EVERY Band-in-a-Box style that we’ve made with the newest StyleMaker features including guitar and other fretted instrument voicings, consistent volume levels, edited patterns and more. Many of these styles and new demo songs are included with your Band-in-a-Box version 12 upgrade.

There are many new options for song navigation during playback, including a new "One-More-Time” feature that allows fine control over the song looping during live performance. For example, as the song is playing you can get it to endlessly loop the last or middle choruses with a simple hot key. Now you can control when the song ends. If the “dance floor is full”, you can extend the song for as long as you like, all without skipping a beat! This is also useful for home practice, so that you can play “endless choruses” for soloing practice, and conveniently navigate the song during playback.

You can now load and play an entire MIDI file in Band-in-a-Box, including interpreting the Chords with the Chord Wizard.

Harmony notation display has been enhanced. Harmonies can now be displayed on the leadsheet window (or printed) with separate notation tracks for each harmony voice. View each harmony on a separate track, or view/print a single harmony voice! Print harmony charts for your band, or use for sight reading practice – to read/play a harmony voice along with the melody that you're hearing.

Some Band-in-a-Box Version 2004 Features

All New 32-bit Program Engine - Previous versions of Band-in-a-Box were a combination of 16-bit and 32-bit code. The new program is rebuilt with a 32-bit-clean engine. Program operations are much faster, including up to 3 times faster notation redraws, song and soloing generation. Playback timing is improved and rock-solid with all versions of Windows, including the newest XP and Media Center operating systems. The GUI is enhanced with floating/dockable toolbars.

DirectX Instrument Synthesizer (DXi plug-in) Support - Software synthesizers allow Band-in-a-Box to play high quality sounds directly through your computer sound card, without requiring any external MIDI hardware. Most new software synthesizers are released as “DXi plug-ins,” so they will work in a standard way with many programs. Connecting Band-in-a-Box to the software synth as a plug-in provides several advantages over the previous method of connecting as a MIDI driver. The plug-in allows Band-in-a-Box to merge/synch in any existing audio file (vocals etc.) with the synth output. You can also directly render your performance to a .WAV file using the DXi plug-in. Sampler-based synths allow you to assemble a huge, customized library of instrument samples to use with Band-in-a-Box. Examples of popular DXi synths include the RolandED HyperCanvas, LiveSynth, or VSampler.

Amazing Audio Vocal Harmony Routines! You can apply a harmony to the audio part – allowing you to automatically create up to 4 part vocal harmonies from your singing. And don’t worry if your singing is not in perfect tune, Band-in-a-Box can now “fix” vocals to the correct pitch - automatically! Simply record your vocal part, choose a harmony, and Band-in-a-Box will generate the vocal harmony part for you! Band-in-a-Box generates the harmonies using the world-leading TC-Helicon Vocal Technologies engine. Once you have recorded a vocal part into Band-in-a-Box, you can use this feature in many ways, including:

Record yourself singing into a Band-in-a-Box file. Create a vocal harmony for part or all of the song by selecting a Band-in-a-Box harmony and choosing the Generate Audio Harmony option. You can now hear yourself singing in perfect harmony!
Did you hit a few “out-of-tune” notes when you recorded your singing to Band-in-a-Box? Fixing your “out-of-tune” singing is easy, by instructing the program to correct the pitches to the Melody track.

Load a MIDI file into Band-in-a-Box using a single keystroke. You can now load a MIDI file into Band-in-a-Box by pressing a single keystroke (F7 or File-Open MIDI file), and the MIDI file will play with the chords intelligently interpreted on-screen. Band-in-a-Box may become your preferred MIDI-file player as you can see the chord symbols to any MIDI file that you load! The on-screen piano shows channel numbers for all of the notes played so you can see which channels each instrument is playing on. By erasing all channels except the melody you can change the style and hear it played in any Band-in-a-Box style!

Repeats, first and second endings, DS/DC al Coda symbols and more. You can now add these repeats and endings so that the Lead Sheet window will display and printout using 1st /2nd endings. There’s a NEW Wizard that will intelligently add 1st/2nd endings automatically for you. Now you can view and convert your current song collection to include 1st/2nd endings in lead sheet format! To view a lead sheet in 1st/2nd endings format, simply select the “FakeSheet” checkbox on the Lead Sheet window, and Band-in-a-Box will display the Fake Sheet using 1st and 2nd endings. You can add your own repeats and endings by right-mouse-clicking the Repeats-Endings option.

LyricView Window - There’s a new LyricView window, displaying a full screen of fully formatted lyrics so you can easily copy and paste lyrics to and from your favorite word processor. If you have the lyrics available you can quickly paste them into Band-in-a-Box.
You may already have the lyrics to your song typed into a word processor, nicely formatted with font/color/bold choices etc. Previously, you would need to retype them into Band-in-a-Box and would lose your formatting. Now you can simply Copy/Paste them to/from your word processor. This allows you to quickly add lyrics to any Band-in-a-Box song.

Hybrid Styles - There’s a new “Hybrid Styles” feature that allows you to play and create a style that has instruments from up to 5 different styles! You can, for example, play a song with a Reggae bass, Rock drums, Salsa piano, or any combination of up to 5 styles that you want. Create a name for your “Hybrid Style” and you can save it with the song so that it will play that way in the future.

Odd-Time Signature Support - Previous versions of Band-in-a-Box supported only X/4 time signatures, but now we’ve added support for odd-time signatures like 9/8, 11/8, 13/16, 19/16 etc. The count-in and the style plays in the odd-time signature feel, and you can change time signatures during the song. (Note: The notation window still displays/edits these odd-time signatures in 4/4, but the styles all play/sound correctly.)

Improved Song List Dialog - The song list dialog displays information about all of the songs in a given folder, including song title etc. We’ve made major enhancements to this dialog, by adding new fields like song key, form, file size, and more. You can now sort your songs by any field!

Solo an Instrument Part - While listening to Band-in-a-Box, you can easily solo (isolate) a certain part by holding the Control key and mouse clicking (left or right) on the instrument at the top of the screen. For example, if you want to hear only the Piano part, Control-Click on the Piano part. If you want to use hot keys for this, you can press Alt-2 (Mute-All) and then Alt-4 (Unmute Piano).

Transpose Each Chorus - When learning a new song, you might want to play it in different keys for each chorus. There’s a new function designed for this purpose. The Thru-Transpose dialog now has a “transpose a certain # of semitones each chorus” field. For example, if you set it to “7 semitones,” Band-in-a-Box will transpose the song up 7 semitones (a perfect 4th) after each chorus. You can use this in combination with the “endless loop middle choruses feature” to endlessly play the song as it transposes keys each chorus. This is a great way to practice a tune. When Band-in-a-Box transposes, it’s not simply moving the notes higher/lower, it is intelligently re-arranging the performance to keep the instruments in correct ranges and the Melody within one octave of the original.
For the “adventurous” user, there is also a “transpose RANDOM # of semitones each chorus” option.

Mute All Parts - To mute/unmute all parts as the song is playing, simply press Alt-2 or right-click on the “Combo” radio buttons at the top of the screen.

Copy, Repeat X times, with Transpose - The Edit-Copy dialog now has additional fields, allowing you to define the number of times to repeat each copy and define the number of semitones you transpose. For example, you could have a 16 bar section, copy it 3 times with a semitone transpose each time. Or, take a single 4 bar phrase, and copy it 11 times, transposing up a 4th each time, generating the same 4 bar phrase in all 12 keys!

Copy Dialog has additional functions - In addition to the above, the Edit-Copy dialog has “insert bars at destination option” which allows a copy to also insert bars at the destination point. This is handy to create a repeat, for example, by copying 8 bars and then inserting the 8 bars at the destination copy point. Additional enhancements to the Edit-Copy dialog include:
a “copy 1st chorus to whole song option”
copy to specific chorus option
option to include part-markers/bar settings
show less/show more options button

Songs with multi-channel MIDI information on the Melody or Soloist will be displayed. Any song with track type set to Multi-Channel will show the channel numbers on the on-screen piano. These show with different colors for each channel, and channel # written in the piano key. This makes it easy to identify parts and which channel is playing the melody. You can also display these channel #s on the Notation window.

Maximum Number of Soloists increased to 1,024 (from 256), and new Soloists added. The previous limit of soloists was 256, and we had already defined 253 of them! We’ve now increased this limit to 1,024, and have added new soloists.

Bar Settings Dialog – Status Display at top of the Band-in-a-Box window. If there is any bar setting information (style changes, patch changes at any bar etc.) a red box is drawn around the bar. Previously to see what the information was, you’d need to open up the Bar Settings dialog. Now the status bar at the top of the screen will display the information for any bar with a “red box” around it. Simply click on the bar and the information will be displayed at the top of the screen. For example, the status bar will say “Style Change to ZZBossa” or tempo change by 20%. There’s also “Clear” and “Clear ALL” buttons in the Bar Settings dialog, allowing you to clear setting for the current bar or the whole song.

“Count-in” can be Drum Patterns instead of “1-2-1234.” There is an option in Prefs added for count-in type. You can specify to play 2 bars of drum patterns instead of the count-in. You may prefer hearing the drum beat to a simple count-in, since it provides more information about the upcoming groove. If you’re playing with Band-in-a-Box live on a “dance floor,” this setting will avoid “dead air” between songs, and keep the drumbeat going. Includes options to have “a” or “b” drum fills or patterns play for the 2 bars.

Harmony – Low Root Feature - The Harmony Edit dialog now has settings for “low root harmony” which adds a voice that plays the root of the chord. This is useful for a cappella harmonies where the lowest voice is playing the bass roots. You can set the low-high range. The root played will always be at least one octave from the melody note (assuming it can still be inside the set low-high range).

Transform 4/4 Melody to a Waltz 3 /4 (“Strauss-in-a-Box”) - You can now automatically transform any 4/4 song/melody to a Waltz 3/4 feel. Simply load in any 4/4 song and change the style to a Waltz style. The program will offer to transform the melody so that it works as a Waltz (or choose the added menu item Melody-Edit-Utilities-Transform to 3/4). This function is referred to as “Strauss” in honor of Johann Strauss – the famous Waltz composer. It’s fun and educational to hear and play familiar songs in a Waltz feel. Band-in-a-Box uses intelligent algorithms to transform the melody to the new time signature.

Transform “Waltz” Melody to 4/4 (“De-Strauss” the Melody) - If you have a song with a 3/4 time signature, you can now instantly hear it as a 4/4 feel. Simply load the Waltz song and then change the style to a 4/4 style. Band-in-a-Box will prompt you to transform the melody to a 4/4 feel and will then will change the melody. There’s also a dedicated menu item for this, Melody-Edit-Utilities-Transform to 4/4. Band-in-a-Box uses intelligent algorithms to transform the melody to the new time signature. (Note: If loading from the StylePicker window, you need to have “Prompt w/preview” for the prompt option to appear.)

Customize the Relative Volumes of the Drum Kit Instruments - Perhaps when you listen to Band-in-a-Box you feel that crash cymbal is too loud or the kick drum is too quiet. This new feature allows you to set relative volume for each drum instrument individually. You can set the volumes of each drum instrument by the Edit-Prefs-Drum Kit-Volume dialog. This dialog allows you to make the crash cymbal 10% quieter, boost the kick-drum by 15%, and turn off the “tambourine” entirely. Changes apply to any song when this feature is enabled, and playback and written MIDI files will reflect the changes.

Additional Options for changing Volumes of Parts. You normally change the volume of a part (Bass/Drums etc.) by clicking on the part name and then clicking on the volume up or down arrow. There are additional options for this that instead control the volumes of all parts except the one that you click on.
Alt (or control) clicking down on volume control increases other volumes.
Alt (or control) clicking up on volume control decrease other volumes.
Clicking up past 127 on volume control decreases others.
For example, if you find the bass is too quiet, Alt-Click on the up arrow for the Bass part, and this will increase the bass volume AND decrease the volume of all the other instruments.

Improved Rendering to MP3 - If your Windows installation includes an MP3 rendering codec, Band-in-a-Box will be able to access it to convert a rendered WAV file to an MP3. Also, the function now reports the correct size of MP3 and can preview the MP3 used in the Render dialog.

Improved MIDI Driver Wizard to auto-suggest which MIDI-Driver you should be using. This wizard is improved and recognizes software synths and hardware wavetable drivers. It now recommends Wavetable first, then VSC3, and then other softsynths.

The Harmony track names written to the MIDI file are now more descriptive, including an 8va/8vb setting.

Improved Chord Wizard Pop Ballad Preset - Now sets to 1-beat to easily detect songs with slow tempos.

Option to Auto-Open Big Lyrics or LyricView Window if song has lyrics, and close it if no lyrics present.

Option to Auto-Open Song Memo Window - Opens Memo window if song has a memo.

Playback Metronome Option - This option is for metronome during playback. Useful if the drums are muted or for students learning to count beats.

Track Copy with Channel Filter option. This Edit-Copy tracks dialog allows:
Copying from one track to another. An example would be to copy the Bass track to the Melody track (to double it an octave above).
For a multi-channel melody (e.g. a MIDI file on melody track), you can copy or move selected channels to another track.
Or delete selected channels from the track, useful for isolating the Melody track on a MIDI file.
There is an optional merge with destination track option.

Simulate NUMPAD keypad for Notebook users - Notebook users often don't have a NUMPAD so they can't use the Band-in-a-Box looping features (Ctrl-NUMPAD 1-6 keys). If this new option is set the regular #s can be used to trigger the looping feature. For example, pressing Ctrl-2 will start playback of looped choruses.

“Search again” button added to StylePicker and SongPicker Dialogs (Alt-G hot key). Search is enhanced so that it includes all items when searching, even if a filter is selected.

StylePicker Dialog “show all” button added which removes any filter set.

Chords like C7+ can be typed without using the shift key, the program automatically converts the “=” symbol to the + key.

StyleMaker “mute a pattern” option added (press M to mute a pattern or select Pattern-Mute from the menu).

StyleMaker import instrument has been enhanced. Will import additional information such as the patch number, push amounts, and time signature if “Replace Existing Patterns” is set to true. For songs in 16th feel converted to 8th note feel (and vice versa), algorithm is improved to make the resultant melody more natural sounding.

E-mail a song/style - Convenient option added to File-Send a song to an e-mail address. This prepares an e-mail with your song composition and style attached.

And Much More!

First off, you'll get the amazing new "MIDI-file to Style Wizard", that automatically converts a MIDI file (.MID) to a Band-in-a-Box Style (.STY). This wizard has plenty of options so you can quickly make your own simple to advanced styles from a MIDI file, without any knowledge of the StyleMaker required!

Twice as many instruments! We've added support for General MIDI 2 standard (GM2). This GM2 support adds 128 new instruments to Band-in-a-Box styles and songs, including ukulele, mandolin, 12-string guitar plus many new and improved piano, organ, guitar, brass and string sounds! We've made many new styles using the new instruments, and include updated versions of previous styles. You'll be hearing the new instruments with many of your new and existing styles. (Note: The included Roland VSC3 synth supports the new GM2 instruments, as do most newer modules/sound cards. If yours doesn't, a similar instrument from the existing 128 General MIDI sounds will be substituted.)

We've enhanced the Guitar Window by adding fret display support for other instruments, including mandolin, ukulele and banjo. You'll see authentic chord voicings and melody display on the fretboard for all of these new instruments. The StyleMaker has been enhanced with support for GM2 instruments, so you can make styles that use the new instruments and have correct instrument voicings displayed on the fretboard. We've also added an option for standard guitar chord diagrams to be included in the notation display, leadsheet, and printout. Choose from Folk, Pop or Jazz Guitar Chord Diagrams.

Bass players will now see bass tablature and correctly displayed bass parts on the new bass fretboard.

The program’s user interface has been enhanced, with a single dialog for all program options and song settings, right mouse support, simplified menu, additional hot keys and more.

All of the styles are enhanced! We've improved / updated EVERY Band-in-a-Box style that we’ve made with the newest StyleMaker features including guitar and other fretted instrument voicings, consistent volume levels, edited patterns and more. Many of these styles and new demo songs are included with your Band-in-a-Box version 12 upgrade.

There are many new options for song navigation during playback, including a new "One-More-Time” feature that allows fine control over the song looping during live performance. For example, as the song is playing you can get it to endlessly loop the last or middle choruses with a simple hot key. Now you can control when the song ends. If the “dance floor is full”, you can extend the song for as long as you like, all without skipping a beat! This is also useful for home practice, so that you can play “endless choruses” for soloing practice, and conveniently navigate the song during playback.

You can now load and play an entire MIDI file in Band-in-a-Box, including interpreting the Chords with the Chord Wizard.

Harmony notation display has been enhanced. Harmonies can now be displayed on the leadsheet window (or printed) with separate notation tracks for each harmony voice. View each harmony on a separate track, or view/print a single harmony voice! Print harmony charts for your band, or use for sight reading practice – to read/play a harmony voice along with the melody that you're hearing.

Some Band-in-a-Box Version 2004 Features

All New 32-bit Program Engine - Previous versions of Band-in-a-Box were a combination of 16-bit and 32-bit code. The new program is rebuilt with a 32-bit-clean engine. Program operations are much faster, including up to 3 times faster notation redraws, song and soloing generation. Playback timing is improved and rock-solid with all versions of Windows, including the newest XP and Media Center operating systems. The GUI is enhanced with floating/dockable toolbars.

DirectX Instrument Synthesizer (DXi plug-in) Support - Software synthesizers allow Band-in-a-Box to play high quality sounds directly through your computer sound card, without requiring any external MIDI hardware. Most new software synthesizers are released as “DXi plug-ins,” so they will work in a standard way with many programs. Connecting Band-in-a-Box to the software synth as a plug-in provides several advantages over the previous method of connecting as a MIDI driver. The plug-in allows Band-in-a-Box to merge/synch in any existing audio file (vocals etc.) with the synth output. You can also directly render your performance to a .WAV file using the DXi plug-in. Sampler-based synths allow you to assemble a huge, customized library of instrument samples to use with Band-in-a-Box. Examples of popular DXi synths include the RolandED HyperCanvas, LiveSynth, or VSampler.

Amazing Audio Vocal Harmony Routines! You can apply a harmony to the audio part – allowing you to automatically create up to 4 part vocal harmonies from your singing. And don’t worry if your singing is not in perfect tune, Band-in-a-Box can now “fix” vocals to the correct pitch - automatically! Simply record your vocal part, choose a harmony, and Band-in-a-Box will generate the vocal harmony part for you! Band-in-a-Box generates the harmonies using the world-leading TC-Helicon Vocal Technologies engine. Once you have recorded a vocal part into Band-in-a-Box, you can use this feature in many ways, including:

Record yourself singing into a Band-in-a-Box file. Create a vocal harmony for part or all of the song by selecting a Band-in-a-Box harmony and choosing the Generate Audio Harmony option. You can now hear yourself singing in perfect harmony!
Did you hit a few “out-of-tune” notes when you recorded your singing to Band-in-a-Box? Fixing your “out-of-tune” singing is easy, by instructing the program to correct the pitches to the Melody track.

Load a MIDI file into Band-in-a-Box using a single keystroke. You can now load a MIDI file into Band-in-a-Box by pressing a single keystroke (F7 or File-Open MIDI file), and the MIDI file will play with the chords intelligently interpreted on-screen. Band-in-a-Box may become your preferred MIDI-file player as you can see the chord symbols to any MIDI file that you load! The on-screen piano shows channel numbers for all of the notes played so you can see which channels each instrument is playing on. By erasing all channels except the melody you can change the style and hear it played in any Band-in-a-Box style!

Repeats, first and second endings, DS/DC al Coda symbols and more. You can now add these repeats and endings so that the Lead Sheet window will display and printout using 1st /2nd endings. There’s a NEW Wizard that will intelligently add 1st/2nd endings automatically for you. Now you can view and convert your current song collection to include 1st/2nd endings in lead sheet format! To view a lead sheet in 1st/2nd endings format, simply select the “FakeSheet” checkbox on the Lead Sheet window, and Band-in-a-Box will display the Fake Sheet using 1st and 2nd endings. You can add your own repeats and endings by right-mouse-clicking the Repeats-Endings option.

LyricView Window - There’s a new LyricView window, displaying a full screen of fully formatted lyrics so you can easily copy and paste lyrics to and from your favorite word processor. If you have the lyrics available you can quickly paste them into Band-in-a-Box.
You may already have the lyrics to your song typed into a word processor, nicely formatted with font/color/bold choices etc. Previously, you would need to retype them into Band-in-a-Box and would lose your formatting. Now you can simply Copy/Paste them to/from your word processor. This allows you to quickly add lyrics to any Band-in-a-Box song.

Hybrid Styles - There’s a new “Hybrid Styles” feature that allows you to play and create a style that has instruments from up to 5 different styles! You can, for example, play a song with a Reggae bass, Rock drums, Salsa piano, or any combination of up to 5 styles that you want. Create a name for your “Hybrid Style” and you can save it with the song so that it will play that way in the future.

Odd-Time Signature Support - Previous versions of Band-in-a-Box supported only X/4 time signatures, but now we’ve added support for odd-time signatures like 9/8, 11/8, 13/16, 19/16 etc. The count-in and the style plays in the odd-time signature feel, and you can change time signatures during the song. (Note: The notation window still displays/edits these odd-time signatures in 4/4, but the styles all play/sound correctly.)

Improved Song List Dialog - The song list dialog displays information about all of the songs in a given folder, including song title etc. We’ve made major enhancements to this dialog, by adding new fields like song key, form, file size, and more. You can now sort your songs by any field!

Solo an Instrument Part - While listening to Band-in-a-Box, you can easily solo (isolate) a certain part by holding the Control key and mouse clicking (left or right) on the instrument at the top of the screen. For example, if you want to hear only the Piano part, Control-Click on the Piano part. If you want to use hot keys for this, you can press Alt-2 (Mute-All) and then Alt-4 (Unmute Piano).

Transpose Each Chorus - When learning a new song, you might want to play it in different keys for each chorus. There’s a new function designed for this purpose. The Thru-Transpose dialog now has a “transpose a certain # of semitones each chorus” field. For example, if you set it to “7 semitones,” Band-in-a-Box will transpose the song up 7 semitones (a perfect 4th) after each chorus. You can use this in combination with the “endless loop middle choruses feature” to endlessly play the song as it transposes keys each chorus. This is a great way to practice a tune. When Band-in-a-Box transposes, it’s not simply moving the notes higher/lower, it is intelligently re-arranging the performance to keep the instruments in correct ranges and the Melody within one octave of the original.
For the “adventurous” user, there is also a “transpose RANDOM # of semitones each chorus” option.

Mute All Parts - To mute/unmute all parts as the song is playing, simply press Alt-2 or right-click on the “Combo” radio buttons at the top of the screen.

Copy, Repeat X times, with Transpose - The Edit-Copy dialog now has additional fields, allowing you to define the number of times to repeat each copy and define the number of semitones you transpose. For example, you could have a 16 bar section, copy it 3 times with a semitone transpose each time. Or, take a single 4 bar phrase, and copy it 11 times, transposing up a 4th each time, generating the same 4 bar phrase in all 12 keys!

Copy Dialog has additional functions - In addition to the above, the Edit-Copy dialog has “insert bars at destination option” which allows a copy to also insert bars at the destination point. This is handy to create a repeat, for example, by copying 8 bars and then inserting the 8 bars at the destination copy point. Additional enhancements to the Edit-Copy dialog include:
a “copy 1st chorus to whole song option”
copy to specific chorus option
option to include part-markers/bar settings
show less/show more options button

Songs with multi-channel MIDI information on the Melody or Soloist will be displayed. Any song with track type set to Multi-Channel will show the channel numbers on the on-screen piano. These show with different colors for each channel, and channel # written in the piano key. This makes it easy to identify parts and which channel is playing the melody. You can also display these channel #s on the Notation window.

Maximum Number of Soloists increased to 1,024 (from 256), and new Soloists added. The previous limit of soloists was 256, and we had already defined 253 of them! We’ve now increased this limit to 1,024, and have added new soloists.

Bar Settings Dialog – Status Display at top of the Band-in-a-Box window. If there is any bar setting information (style changes, patch changes at any bar etc.) a red box is drawn around the bar. Previously to see what the information was, you’d need to open up the Bar Settings dialog. Now the status bar at the top of the screen will display the information for any bar with a “red box” around it. Simply click on the bar and the information will be displayed at the top of the screen. For example, the status bar will say “Style Change to ZZBossa” or tempo change by 20%. There’s also “Clear” and “Clear ALL” buttons in the Bar Settings dialog, allowing you to clear setting for the current bar or the whole song.

“Count-in” can be Drum Patterns instead of “1-2-1234.” There is an option in Prefs added for count-in type. You can specify to play 2 bars of drum patterns instead of the count-in. You may prefer hearing the drum beat to a simple count-in, since it provides more information about the upcoming groove. If you’re playing with Band-in-a-Box live on a “dance floor,” this setting will avoid “dead air” between songs, and keep the drumbeat going. Includes options to have “a” or “b” drum fills or patterns play for the 2 bars.

Harmony – Low Root Feature - The Harmony Edit dialog now has settings for “low root harmony” which adds a voice that plays the root of the chord. This is useful for a cappella harmonies where the lowest voice is playing the bass roots. You can set the low-high range. The root played will always be at least one octave from the melody note (assuming it can still be inside the set low-high range).

Transform 4/4 Melody to a Waltz 3 /4 (“Strauss-in-a-Box”) - You can now automatically transform any 4/4 song/melody to a Waltz 3/4 feel. Simply load in any 4/4 song and change the style to a Waltz style. The program will offer to transform the melody so that it works as a Waltz (or choose the added menu item Melody-Edit-Utilities-Transform to 3/4). This function is referred to as “Strauss” in honor of Johann Strauss – the famous Waltz composer. It’s fun and educational to hear and play familiar songs in a Waltz feel. Band-in-a-Box uses intelligent algorithms to transform the melody to the new time signature.

Transform “Waltz” Melody to 4/4 (“De-Strauss” the Melody) - If you have a song with a 3/4 time signature, you can now instantly hear it as a 4/4 feel. Simply load the Waltz song and then change the style to a 4/4 style. Band-in-a-Box will prompt you to transform the melody to a 4/4 feel and will then will change the melody. There’s also a dedicated menu item for this, Melody-Edit-Utilities-Transform to 4/4. Band-in-a-Box uses intelligent algorithms to transform the melody to the new time signature. (Note: If loading from the StylePicker window, you need to have “Prompt w/preview” for the prompt option to appear.)

Customize the Relative Volumes of the Drum Kit Instruments - Perhaps when you listen to Band-in-a-Box you feel that crash cymbal is too loud or the kick drum is too quiet. This new feature allows you to set relative volume for each drum instrument individually. You can set the volumes of each drum instrument by the Edit-Prefs-Drum Kit-Volume dialog. This dialog allows you to make the crash cymbal 10% quieter, boost the kick-drum by 15%, and turn off the “tambourine” entirely. Changes apply to any song when this feature is enabled, and playback and written MIDI files will reflect the changes.

Additional Options for changing Volumes of Parts. You normally change the volume of a part (Bass/Drums etc.) by clicking on the part name and then clicking on the volume up or down arrow. There are additional options for this that instead control the volumes of all parts except the one that you click on.
Alt (or control) clicking down on volume control increases other volumes.
Alt (or control) clicking up on volume control decrease other volumes.
Clicking up past 127 on volume control decreases others.
For example, if you find the bass is too quiet, Alt-Click on the up arrow for the Bass part, and this will increase the bass volume AND decrease the volume of all the other instruments.

Improved Rendering to MP3 - If your Windows installation includes an MP3 rendering codec, Band-in-a-Box will be able to access it to convert a rendered WAV file to an MP3. Also, the function now reports the correct size of MP3 and can preview the MP3 used in the Render dialog.

Improved MIDI Driver Wizard to auto-suggest which MIDI-Driver you should be using. This wizard is improved and recognizes software synths and hardware wavetable drivers. It now recommends Wavetable first, then VSC3, and then other softsynths.

The Harmony track names written to the MIDI file are now more descriptive, including an 8va/8vb setting.

Improved Chord Wizard Pop Ballad Preset - Now sets to 1-beat to easily detect songs with slow tempos.

Option to Auto-Open Big Lyrics or LyricView Window if song has lyrics, and close it if no lyrics present.

Option to Auto-Open Song Memo Window - Opens Memo window if song has a memo.

Playback Metronome Option - This option is for metronome during playback. Useful if the drums are muted or for students learning to count beats.

Track Copy with Channel Filter option. This Edit-Copy tracks dialog allows:
Copying from one track to another. An example would be to copy the Bass track to the Melody track (to double it an octave above).
For a multi-channel melody (e.g. a MIDI file on melody track), you can copy or move selected channels to another track.
Or delete selected channels from the track, useful for isolating the Melody track on a MIDI file.
There is an optional merge with destination track option.

Simulate NUMPAD keypad for Notebook users - Notebook users often don't have a NUMPAD so they can't use the Band-in-a-Box looping features (Ctrl-NUMPAD 1-6 keys). If this new option is set the regular #s can be used to trigger the looping feature. For example, pressing Ctrl-2 will start playback of looped choruses.

“Search again” button added to StylePicker and SongPicker Dialogs (Alt-G hot key). Search is enhanced so that it includes all items when searching, even if a filter is selected.

StylePicker Dialog “show all” button added which removes any filter set.

Chords like C7+ can be typed without using the shift key, the program automatically converts the “=” symbol to the + key.

StyleMaker “mute a pattern” option added (press M to mute a pattern or select Pattern-Mute from the menu).

StyleMaker import instrument has been enhanced. Will import additional information such as the patch number, push amounts, and time signature if “Replace Existing Patterns” is set to true. For songs in 16th feel converted to 8th note feel (and vice versa), algorithm is improved to make the resultant melody more natural sounding.

E-mail a song/style - Convenient option added to File-Send a song to an e-mail address. This prepares an e-mail with your song composition and style attached.

And Much More!