User Guide

Chapter 11: User Programmable Functions
184
Style Checker
Analogous to a “Spell Checker,” this function analyzes your style-in-progress and identifies possible problems. The
results are output to a text window, allowing you to examine the patterns and fix them if required. It identifies
patterns that might be “too busy” or incorrect macro notes etc.
To access the Style Checker, open up the StyleMaker (Ctrl+F9), and choose Style | Style Checker. You'll then get a
text report about the style, listing possible problems with the style. Here is a sample printout:
-----Start of style checking ------JAZQUINT.STY
Drums: Row 1, Column 1 First pattern of instrument shouldn't contain masks in it. It should be generic.
Piano: Row 1, Column 3 Non Chord tones found (other than C, E, G, Bb) and pattern is not set to a chord mask, riff
based, or MACRO.
Style Summary
This displays a text window summary of the style, including lots of information about the style such as # patterns, #
patterns for each substyle, patches, pushes, volume changes, guitar patterns, and more. To access the style
summary, from the StyleMaker, choose Style | Style Summary.
Auto Endings for Styles without Endings
If you‘ve made a style, and haven’t included an ending, a 2-bar ending can now be generated automatically, based
on the style. This makes it easier to make complete styles using the Style Wizard, which makes a style by analyzing
a MIDI file.
Using the MIDI File to Style Wizard
The Style Wizard converts any MIDI file to a Band-in-a-Box style. In this tutorial, we're going to
load in the Violet.MID found in the \bb folder and convert it to a style - which we'll call Violet.STY.
Start with a new song and press the Style Wizard button or choose Styles | Style Wizard to launch the Style Wizard.
The dialog is largely empty because we haven't chosen a MIDI file yet.
Press the [Open] button and load in the file c:\bb\violet.MID. The Style Wizard then does the
following automatically: