Non Repeating Parts

I would like to suggest a feature in the BB Manager that can make certain parts of a song non repeating, ie. played only once during the song. There can be a ‘check’ on each part of the song to select whether that part is to be repeated.

For instance, a song can have the following parts:
Intro
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Outro

If Parts 1 & 3 are selected as Non Repeating, the song will play as normal first time round. But at the end of Part 4, it will transition to Part 2 (Part 1 will not play since it is selected to Non Repeating). Part 2 will then transition to Part 4 (Part 3 will not play). Parts 1 and 3 will only play one time during the whole song.

This is useful, for example, when you want to put the first verse as Part 1 and Part 2, to play the verse twice at the start of the song, but the first time with very light drums, and the second time heavier drums. And you don’t want the light drums first verse (Part 1) to play again during the song. And you want subsequent verses of the song to be Part 2, and not Part 1.

Such a function can allow more flexibility when setting up a song.

Within current functions, you could just set up the specific loops you need in order, repeating where you want, playing only once where you want. As an example:

Verse
Chorus 1
Verse
Bridge
Chorus 2
Verse
Chorus 1
Outro

Set each of these up as separate lines in the song with their own fills and transitions. BBManager makes it really easy to set up songs this way. I know because I just did it, borrowing parts from two different songs and repeating parts where I wanted them repeated.

There’s nothing in BBManager to keep you from putting as many separate loop-fill-transition lines as you want in an individual song.

Rob, I know what you’re saying in terms of setting up the entire sequence of the song to play only once through without coming back to Part 1. This is the way to go if you know exactly the sequence of the song you want and you’ll stick to it.

I use the BB differently, in congregational church settings, where the sequence for a song is not fixed, like the number of repeats of verses and choruses. I think quite a number of BB users use the BB in this way too.

Hence I normally set up only 2 parts per song, covering the verse and the chorus. If there is a bridge, it would be just be the transition held down. In this way, after the Part 2 (which normally is the chorus), it transits back to Part 1. It is here that a non repeating Part 1 would be useful, allowing me to transit back to Part 2 instead (where I can put a busier sounding verse). Or I could set up the song to skip Part 1 (verse) and Part 2 (chorus) on the repeat, and go back to Part 3 (a busier verse than Part 1).

So instead of a 2 part song, non repeating parts would allow me to have more parts to a song… Hope this makes sense…:slight_smile:

I play in church, CCM exclusively - if your songs aren’t predictable, I don’t think the ‘play once’ feature is going to help you - what if they repeat the ‘play once’ part? For CCM, there’s little reason to have exact matches because the music doesn’t need it and the audience won’t notice it. It’s more important that the band stay together and the audience get a sense of the beat than having exacting drum parts - IMO.

That said, if you still think you can’t get what you need out of the current configuration, then by all means ask for the feature. I think it would be simple enough to add a ‘play once’ flag to a music section that would be selectable in BBManager a priori.