Styles and the Library

A style is a way for the band to play: the drum groove, the rhythm the piano strikes the chords in (musicians call that comping), what the bass plays, and in many styles a guitar, strings or an organ. A style also has a usual tempo and a swing, and many bring a well-known chord progression of their kind of music.

The Library, the tab in front on the left of the main window, holds about two hundred styles: pop, rock, blues, jazz, soul and funk, hip hop, electronic, Latin, tango, Latin American folklore, flamenco, reggae, country and folk, classical and film music, dances in odd meters, and the styles you make yourself.

Finding a style

• Search: type a name, a kind of music, a time signature or an instrument, such as bossa, tango, 6/8 or accordion. × clears the search.
• In 4/4 keeps only the styles in the song’s time signature.
• Near 110 BPM keeps only the styles made for about the song’s tempo, at most 1.15 times faster or slower.
• With chords keeps only the styles that bring a chord progression.
• Swing keeps only the styles whose drums swing.
• Any instrument opens the list of the instruments the styles bring, and the drums. Choose one, such as Accordion, to keep only the styles that bring it.

The tick boxes name the song’s own time signature and tempo, and the filters are remembered for next time. When nothing is left, the Library says whether the search or the filters did it.

The styles are grouped by genre, with your own styles in a group of their own, and a search opens the groups it finds something in. Edit > Settings… > Library > Style list > Alphabetical list shows them all in one list instead.

Each style shows its time signature when it is not 4/4, as in Waltz (3/4). Point at one to read what it is: what to listen for, its progression in C as chords and as Roman numerals, its time signature, tempo and length in bars, and its drums.

Under the styles are three groups you can open:

• Twelve-tone rows and Micromodes (Kröpfl): styles that play a twelve-tone row or a micromode instead of chords. The key becomes the row or the micromode, starting on the key note; see Beyond keys: sets, rows and micromodes.
• Fills: one bar of drums each: Snare roll, Tom fill, House build, Latin fill, Hip hop fill and Crash ending. While the song plays, a click puts the fill in the last bar of the song’s drum patterns.

Trying a style

Click a style. A small window asks what to take from it. Each option brings one part of the style; unticked, the song keeps its own:

Next to each option, now: says what the song has and where it came from, so you can see what the option would replace. Press Apply, or Cancel to leave the song as it is. The window starts with the choices you confirmed last, also the next time you start the app.

Ctrl+click a style (⌘-click on a Mac) applies it at once, with the choices you made last. Ctrl+Z undoes a style, whichever way it was applied.

What the first choices do:

• Your chords stay. With Chord progression off, every style you try plays the chords already on the sheet. A style with no progression has its option greyed out.
• The tempo comes. With Tempo ticked, a style in the song’s own time signature brings its usual tempo, where most of the song plays, and any tempo changes move with it. Untick it to keep the song’s tempo while you try styles. A style in another time signature changes the bars instead, and each bar lasts as long as before: a song at 112 beats per minute in 4/4 becomes 84 in 3/4, the same pace counted in three, and goes back to 112 when a 4/4 style comes back. The song’s own time signature is the one it came with, so a style brings the same tempo whichever styles you tried before it.

The three accompaniment options go together as you like:

• Drums alone: the style’s drums under your own chord and bass parts, played in the style’s time signature if it is ticked.
• Chord and bass parts alone: the style’s way of playing the chords and the bass, with the drums you had.
• Voices / instruments alone: your own parts with the style’s sounds. The tracks named Keys and Bass, or the one chosen in the rack, take its piano and its bass. In a song without them, such as an imported MIDI file, each track but the tune takes the style’s sound for its family: a bass its bass, a piano its piano, a guitar its guitar, an organ or an accordion its organ (or its piano), and strings its strings.

So you can take one style’s drums and another’s chord and bass parts.

Where a style goes

• With a band, as in a song from File > New, a demo or an imported chord sheet, and whenever SONG is lit in the toolbar, the style becomes the band’s way of playing the whole song. While the song plays, the band goes on in the new style from where it is, so you can click through styles and hear each one over your chords.
• In pattern mode with no band (PAT lit, as in a beat from File > New beat), a click writes the style into a pattern of its own, a trial pattern, and plays it there, leaving the song alone. The next style you click rewrites the same pattern, as long as you have not changed it.

Right-click a style for two more choices:

• Play the whole song with this preset applies it to the whole song, even in pattern mode.
• Edit a copy in channel rack… opens a copy in the style editor, to change it and save it as your own (see Your own styles).

Where each part came from

At the top of the Library, nine lines say where each part of the song comes from: Drums, Chord and bass parts, Melody, Instruments, Time signature, Key, Chords, Tempo and Swing. Each one names the demo or the style it came from, says edited, was … once you change that part yourself, or yours when nothing brought it in. A melody only comes from a demo: styles bring none. Some lines also say what the part is, as in 4/4, C major, 130 BPM or even. Drums and Chord and bass parts name two styles when you took them from two. A line too long for the panel is cut short; point at it to read it all. A Sections line lists the sections played in other styles (see Song form and sections), and a Locked line the tracks that styles leave alone (see Locking a track, and playing your part). Undo, redo and saving keep all of it.

Progressions from the Library

The chord sheet’s Progression button opens the same list, with the same search and tick boxes, showing only the styles that bring a chord progression. Pick one, and its chords are written on the sheet from the selected bar on, in the song’s key, without changing the band’s style. The selection moves past them, so the next progression you pick goes on after it. It is a quick way to start a song: Progression, then Four chords, gives you I V vi IV, the progression of a thousand pop songs.

The Library settings

Edit > Settings… > Library has:

• Style list: Group by genre, as the app starts, or Alphabetical list.
• Style application defaults: the choices each style’s window starts with, as buttons to switch on and off (Drums, Chord and bass parts, Instruments, Chords, Meter, Tempo, Swing). Edit defaults… opens them as a style’s window does. Changing them changes the next style you apply, not the song.
• Your styles: Styles folder… chooses the folder your saved styles are read from (see Your own styles).