Could you pls advise?

In BIAB, you can find separate styles for funk, soul and disco.

But recent chart songs like Uptown funk mix these styles together.

So in BIAB, what would you do to make a backing track with mixed influences of funk, soul and disco?

Thank you

fantasyvn,

This is probably more easily accomplished in Realband. That being said, though, this is how I'd go about developing such a hybrid style in BIAB (I hope I'm understanding your question correctly)...

1. My first step would be to find a style that has the drum feel that I need at the required tempo. (It would probably be 16 beat... then I'd determine if I needed (sw)ing or (ev)en.) The selected tempo then determines which Realtracks to choose. To help with this, I'd sort the Realtrack Picker by the Tempo column.

2. Next I'd find a Bass instrument that would do the job. To do this, I'd simply re-assign the Realtrack bass I chose. (Using the original track names, I'd assign this to the Bass track.)

3. Next I'd look for rhythm Realtracks. These would probably be guitars but I'd keep piano in mind, too. Midi Supertrack piano could be good. I'd assign these two tracks to the Piano and Guitar tracks (using the original track names).

4. The style I'm building might or might not need a pad sound (i.e. a sustained sound), if it did, strings or organ or synth sounds are good. I'd assign any sustained sound to the Strings track (Supertracks also have useful pad sounds).

By doing the above, I would gradually build up a style. In the process of building this style, I'd mute any track that did not yet have my chosen track on it. That way, I can get to hear how each new addition track fits with what I've already selected.

I hope this helps,
Noel

Remove the word 'probably' and I agree 100%

hi Noel96, your reply is wonderful. Could you pls so kind to further explain what you can do in Realband?

I dont use Realband. My Daw is Reaper. But i suppose what you will do in Realband is the same as in any Daw?

Hi again,

I tend to use Realband more as an extension of BIAB than a DAW (although many on here use RB very successfully as a DAW). Like you, my main DAW is Reaper.

Realband is great because it allows for 48 tracks whereas BIAB only has 7 tracks (Bass, Piano, etc.).

How I would use Realband...

1. Firstly create a songfile and set the tempo I want in BIAB. Again I'd look for a style that has a drum sound that suits what I'm hearing in my head. (This can be easily done in RB but since I tend to use BIAB more, I'm more comfortable in that program.)

2. Save the file.

3. Start Realband and open the SGU file in Realband. It will take a few moments while Realband populates the BIAB tracks.

4. Before anything else, I'd click on "Save As" and save the file as in SEQ format. Then, periodically throughout my song's creation, I'd use CTRL+S to save.

In Realband, I can right click on any of the 48 tracks and generate a RT (or midi track) on that particular track. This is a huge advantage over BIAB.

Have a look at some of the beginning videos for Realband at the following link and if you have any questions, please ask and I'll do my best to address them.

http://www.pgmusic.com/videos.realband.htm

All the best,
Noel

Rather than write a book trying to explain how this might be done, just try searching You Tube for some backing tracks for a tune like Uptown Funk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BtfEoBPVWM

As an old guy who did a lot of this kind of thing over the years I absolutely love that tune. The best new thing I've heard in a while.

Bob

Hi Noel96, thanks a lot. I will try and may ask you other questions.

All of this is true and I'm a huge fan of RB.

However without knowing exactly what you're trying to do and given your example of Uptown Funk, you will not find any style or RT that will give you that sound. In the backing track I posted you hear a bunch of good elements of that song. You can load that entire audio file into RB and then start chopping it up.

Note it starts with that strong drum track. I don't think there are any Real Drum tracks with that exact beat or sound but you can create a loop from that backing track in RB and then paste it anywhere you want.

Then, RB also allows you to mix any Biab part with any loops or audio you've created from other sources. You don't even have to generate an entire track either. If you want a certain part to only be on a 4 bar section, you just highlight those 4 bars and the program will only generate those bars. That means you could have many different individually generated parts on just one track.

Considering you have 48 tracks already, you can see that just generating only the bars you want you can effectively have hundreds of tracks if they're all broken up into individual shorter parts.

There's so much you can do with RB which is why I wasn't kidding above when I referenced writing a book about it. Go over to the RB forum and start reading plus watch all the RB vids.

Bob