PE,

The below is just my take how these problems might come about. I have no particular understanding of the Realtrack process other than playing around with User tracks.

To understand how wrong chords can occur....

It is necessary to understand how BIAB and Realtracks work to appreciate how easy it is for a chord to be: (a) generated correctly sometimes and not other times; (b) how a minor/major mix up might occur.

When Realtracks are created, the musician making them creates a single file where s/he plays a few bars of one chord in different style variations. The musician then moves on to the next chord in the sequence for a few more bars. The end result is that the Realtrack audio file is one continuous file that contains many chords in many keys. Inasmuch as I understand the process, the location of each chord in the audio file is referenced in a separate file.

When a backing is assembled, BIAB references the co-ordinates of the chord entered on the chord sheet and then copies the appropriate section from the original audio file. (Chords are not built up on a note-by-note basis as would be the case if a midi backing was used.) If a chord's reference co-ordinates are slightly inaccurate, it's possible that a wrong chord could be copied. By freezing tracks and sending a note to PG Music about the problem and which bars to listen to so that they can hear it, you help track down the inconsistency so that it can be remedied.

The reason that backings can sometimes be right and sometimes wrong is because of the different variations that the musician played. For example, there might be 10 variations of a C major chord. Of these 10 variations, 9.5 may be referenced correctly. Because BIAB randomly chooses a variation when creating a backing, the program will not always select the inaccurately referenced region. Again this is why freezing and sending the file to PG Music Support (along with problem details) is very useful.

As Peter said, this problem is not a common one but it does sometimes happen. Over the years, I have tested heaps of Realtracks and have only sent four or five frozen SGU files to PG Music with notes about a chord issue. These issues have always been resolved.

Hope the above helps with a little more insight.

Regards,
Noel



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