pwilliamssocal.rr.com Posted December 27, 2000 Share Posted December 27, 2000 There used to be a program called Jamtrax. You could build basic songs by selecting a style, stringing various chords together, etc. It was a great way to quickly build a foundation for ideas. Is there anything like that available today? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creative90aol.com Posted December 27, 2000 Share Posted December 27, 2000 On the previous post with the click-on links, you need to delete the periods and commas at the end of the URLs. Just clicking on them will give you a "wrong address" message. This message has been edited by creative90@aol.com on 12-26-2000 at 07:55 PM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Bryce Posted December 27, 2000 Share Posted December 27, 2000 I know of two, off of the top of my head. Band In a Box (www.pgmusic.com) , and Jammer (can't remember the manufacturer). I believe both programs are available for well under $100. Additionally, I'm sorry to say that I'm not sure about which platforms are supported - I've never had occasion to try either program...maybe someone else on the forum has? Hope that helps, dB ==> David Bryce Music • Funky Young Monks <== Professional Affiliations: Royer Labs • Music Player Network Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marino Posted December 27, 2000 Share Posted December 27, 2000 I know there is a program called Band-In-A-Box, from PG Music I think. It does exactly what you need, plus other things... It can also write complete songs for you if you want!!! I saw a demo and it seemed to work very well. However, I don't use it, so that's all I can say. P.S. Sorry, but I can't resist a bit if advice... please get rid of such programs ASAP, and write the *whole* of your music... Sorry again. marino Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marino Posted December 27, 2000 Share Posted December 27, 2000 Ooops, three replies at the same exact time... amazing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creative90aol.com Posted December 27, 2000 Share Posted December 27, 2000 Jammer is still available from Sound Trek at (www.soundtrek.com) Other good programs to check out are Band in the Box from PG Music at (www.pgmusic.com) NTONYX at (www.ntonyx.com) and Norton Music at (www.nortonmusic.com) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stratman_dup1 Posted December 28, 2000 Share Posted December 28, 2000 I've been sort of researching 2 of these and though I am by no means an expert ( I don't have either yet ), Here are my observations. Band in a Box- appears to be more of an automated program, you give it a basic chord progression and it makes the song for you. Good for someone who doesn't want to get too involved in the little details of song structure. Jammer Pro- This seems to be geared much more toward someone who wants to have a lot of control over song structure, intro's, fills, variations, endings, though it can be very automated as well. If you want a lot of control I would suggest checking out Jammer Pro, that's the program I'm gonna get. Your best bet is to get on the net, download a trial version and judge for yourself. Sorry Marino, I personally can't stand trying to program all the midi required to make a proggression one of these programs can come up with fairly quickly. Not to mention I just don't have the technical knowledge to do it even if I was more into midi. I'm learning, maybe one day I will be good enough to lay down all the tracks by myself but till then these programs are invaluable to keep the creative juices flowin, for me anyway. When it boils down to it I'm more interested in playin than programming. My .02, Phil W. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creative90aol.com Posted December 28, 2000 Share Posted December 28, 2000 Originally posted by Stratman: I've been sort of researching 2 of these and though I am by no means an expert ( I don't have either yet ), Here are my observations. Band in a Box- appears to be more of an automated program, you give it a basic chord progression and it makes the song for you. Good for someone who doesn't want to get too involved in the little details of song structure. Jammer Pro- This seems to be geared much more toward someone who wants to have a lot of control over song structure, intro's, fills, variations, endings, though it can be very automated as well. If you want a lot of control I would suggest checking out Jammer Pro, that's the program I'm gonna get. Your best bet is to get on the net, download a trial version and judge for yourself. Sorry Marino, I personally can't stand trying to program all the midi required to make a proggression one of these programs can come up with fairly quickly. Not to mention I just don't have the technical knowledge to do it even if I was more into midi. I'm learning, maybe one day I will be good enough to lay down all the tracks by myself but till then these programs are invaluable to keep the creative juices flowin, for me anyway. When it boils down to it I'm more interested in playin than programming. My .02, Phil W. I think you would be rather amazed at how much flexibility you do have with Band in the Box. The sequenced styles you come up with in Band in the Box are really quiet convincing. You do have flexibility to change styles, beats, etc. within a tune as often as you like.......you can change styles, beats, drumfills, etc., every measure if you desire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stratman_dup1 Posted December 29, 2000 Share Posted December 29, 2000 Creative90- O.K. I'll take your word for it, as I said I don't really know a lot about them. Just giving my general impression from using trial versions and other musicians comments. I assume you have BiaB so you would know better than I. Have you used Jammer at all?? I really want to get one of these two programs but won't buy till I'm sure which one I need. I have a fair amount of technical knowledge and want to have a lot of control over the various elements of a song. The ability to choose styles, even having different styles on different instruments at the same time, as well as programing your own styles and measures is what made me lean toward Jammer. Another important factor for me is to be able to work offline, sort of like a sequencer in other words. I don't want to have to put chord changes and such in real time. Do you have this much control over BiaB?? This message has been edited by Stratman on 12-28-2000 at 10:37 PM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creative90aol.com Posted December 29, 2000 Share Posted December 29, 2000 Originally posted by Stratman: Creative90- O.K. I'll take your word for it, as I said I don't really know a lot about them. Just giving my general impression from using trial versions and other musicians comments. I assume you have BiaB so you would know better than I. Have you used Jammer at all?? I really want to get one of these two programs but won't buy till I'm sure which one I need. I have a fair amount of technical knowledge and want to have a lot of control over the various elements of a song. The ability to choose styles, even having different styles on different instruments at the same time, as well as programing your own styles and measures is what made me lean toward Jammer. Another important factor for me is to be able to work offline, sort of like a sequencer in other words. I don't want to have to put chord changes and such in real time. Do you have this much control over BiaB?? I have both Jammer Pro and BIB version 10 Mega Pak. I use BIB 80% of the time and Jammer 20% of the time. BIB does have a much larger variety of styles to choose from, though Jammer is always in the process of developing new styles. Jammer does have some useful styles which you may not find in BIB. You can create new styles in BIB as well. I understand they are coming out with a training video going through this procedure. You can create different styles for different instruments in BIB just as you can in Jammer. You do not use either of these programs in real time. You select what style you want to try and then audition it. Once you have entered all of your appropriate chord changes, you can have a ball selecting different styles and auditioning them. They way I like to work with BIB is to enter my chords, and then audition various styles for different instruments and save the various styles in both standard midi format and .sgu format which is Band in the Box format. I then open up these various styles which are in standard midi format in my favorite sequencing program and copy the appropriate midi tracks for whatever instruments I like and paste them into a new session. This is very easy and quick to do. You can also do any additional refining and editing to your newly created session in you favorite sequencer. I very highly recommend you buy both BIB and Jammer. They are both relatively inexpensive, especially Jammer Pro. There is a very slight learning curve to each of these programs, with Jammer being just slightly more complicated. You can easily master both of these programs by dedicating an evening to each one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stratman_dup1 Posted January 2, 2001 Share Posted January 2, 2001 Thanks a bunch Creative, I appreciate the time taken to post. I will definately be getting BiaB REAL soon and will decide after using if I need to have Jammer as well. Thanks again, http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif Phil W. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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