Composing Parts

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Loading a band style does not affect any existing track data. Track data is not affected until you compose by clicking the Compose button on the Transport Bar. When you press the compose button, Bandora will compose parts for all band style changes in the punch area and write the results to tracks in the Tracks View. Measures outside of the punch area will not be modified. After the new parts have been composed Bandora will then start MIDI playback. If you press the Compose button again, new parts will be composed and then played back. If you just press the play button no new parts will be composed, instead the existing MIDI parts will be played.

Tracks that are set to Compose will be composed, tracks that are set to Erase will be erased and tracks that are set to Keep will not be modified at all. The composer mode for each musician in a band style is set up for you when you load the style. However, you can change this as needed after you load a style. You can set a track to Erase to have it removed the next time you compose or you can lock a tracks part down permanently by setting it to Keep. Note that when you change a track's compose mode you are only changing it for the current band style, i.e. the track can still be composed in other band styles.

Feel free to compose as many times as you like until you are satisfied with the results. Even without changing the composer styles, Bandora will improvise and continue to come up with different parts each time you compose (depending on the style, some are more dynamic than others). When you hear one or more parts that you would like to keep, you can do several different things:

1. If you like all of the tracks that Bandora came up with then you should change the punch settings to work on a different section of your song.  

 

2. If you like some of the tracks in the current section but wish to recompose the other tracks, you can select the tracks that you wish to work on by clicking on their track numbers. Then hold down the Ctrl key when you press the Compose button to compose only the selected tracks. Alternatively, you may set the track mode to Keep for any tracks that you wish to save. The next time you compose, the tracks on Keep will not be affected. Each style in your song has it's own Compose / Keep / Erase settings for each track.  

 

3. If you wish to recompose only certain measures within the punch area, select those measures with the mouse or the keyboard. When you compose, only the selected measures will be processed. Also, if looping is enabled, the selected measures will be looped when playback begins. This allows you to focus in on a small section of punch area without having to change the punch and loop values.  

 

4. If you like the whole song and want to prevent yourself from accidentally recomposing part of it, you can set all tracks to Keep mode via the Tracks - Set to Keep Mode menu. Of course, you should also save the song regularly as you work on it.  



You can also combine steps 2 and 3 to work on specific measures and tracks within the punch area. This is the fastest way to fine tune a small section of your song. Once you have completed a section of your song, you can set the punch to a new section, load a new style, and then start composing again. If your punch settings span across multiple band style changes, Bandora will compose all of the band styles in the punch area.