I know tons of people have recorded and messed with this tune but.... I've got very fussy ears.

All I would like are bass and drums, that's it, nothing else.
As close to the original sound as possible.

Right now I've got:
Direfast 80's RockCountry
Tempo 145
Bass: 521 Elec Pop synco even 136
Drums: RockHardEven8^2 Brushes HiHat (default for song)

I don't have a ton of real styles for bass and drums but I would splurge some extra bucks *IF* I could get the authentic sound I'm looking for.

What am I looking for? The authentic sound.
Right now, the drums aren't tight, the back beat lingers instead of being real crisp.

The bass would be nicer if I could edit notes and add riffs etc. And if I could make it crisper.

All suggestions are welcome.

Not sure you will get that sound in BB you can try with Sultans midi file and use VSTi's in RB might be easier or have a look here: http://www.songgalaxy.com/Multitrack/Dire-Straits/Sultans-of-Swing/CRG3070.html

Solutions exist within the PG universe. You could:
1. Look for another Drum Style in BIAB/RB. There's probably something there closer. All it takes is time for the search.
2. Make a Style yourself. I don't know how, only that it's doable. Search the forums for instructions.
3. Have user make a Style for you per the User-to-User forums.

Outside of that, the suggestions from the previous post are good. Somebody has probably taken the time to do a pretty good MIDI transcription. Searching for MIDI files is harder than it used to be, but still doable.

HTH,

R.

http://youtu.be/xf-MZ1B37L0

The link above shows how to make a backing track. It uses that very song as an example. I think it gets pretty close. Give it a try and see if it helps. I think the drum choice is pretty good.

Good luck and let us know what you come up with.

Marty

Hi, you also could try "Rock Dire", wich is a RD based on that particular song:

http://realdrumsforbiab.com/singlerealdrums/country-realdrums/

ZZLITROK.STY. Light Rock Style
All MIDI. Quintet.
[ RealStyle sub=_PBALADM.STY Med PopBal w Dreamy ElGt (85 RS)]
M1 Standard Drum Kit, [RD Sub: ROCKLITEEVEN8: a: ROCKLITEEVEN8b: ROCKLITEEVEN8 :]
M36: Fretless Elec. Bass
M5: Electric Piano
M28: Clean Electric Guit
M49: Strings

_PBALADM.STY. Med PopBal w Dreamy ElGt (85 RS)
All RealTracks. Quintet.
RD: NASHVILLEEVEN8^5-a:Snare, HiHat , b:Snare, Ride :Brian Fullen
RT518: Bass, Electric, Pop HalfNotes Ev 085 , Dow Tomlin
RT365: Guitar, Acoustic, Fingerpicking Ev 085 , Jason Roller
RT362: Guitar, Acoustic, Strumming Ev 085 , Tony King
RT542: Guitar, Electric, Rhythm Dreamy Ev 085 , Darin Favorite

Maybe

I'm almost certain one of the learning BIAB Videos, probably one about creating custom styles, this very song was used as an example.

Can somebody confirm/deny this?

Hi, check out this YouTube video, Sultans of Swing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf-MZ1B37L0&index=55&list=PLAFYmlnjKjj7DfOSMPegPKXXn2UJVoTi_

Have a good day.

Thanks Solidrock, I will look into midi too.
It may actually come closer to the sound than audio, which I thought instinctively would be better.

Thanks Ryszard for your suggestions!
I will look into them too.

Thanks Marty for your help. I found that youtube link when I did a search here a couple of days ago.
Although he steps through the process nicely, the actual sound he comes up with in the end is quite far from the original to my picky ears.

Yes sure, Sergio's www.realdrumsforbiab.com are great and a great price also !
he supplies the midi file with them so that you can get them to sound just how you want.

It would be interesting to see this video.

Thanks Soolan, that's the same video Marty gave the link for.

Well I just had a big surprise awaiting me.

It felt like deja vu when I made this post. I think I asked the same question many years ago here. The search engine only goes back four or five years so I don't think it would have found my original post.

As I was moving files into my Mark Knopfler folder guess what was awaiting me there?

Four or five different versions of Sultans of Swing!
I had a good listen to them and one of them sounds quite decent.
I don't think I'd be able to create one as good with BIAB so I think I will stick with it.

The funny thing is that the file was created before BIAB started with audio, so the sounds are either midi-based or were played live. They sound like real audio to me.

It's just bass, drums and electric guitar.
It's an mp3 file so I can't do any re-mixing but as I said, the overall sound is quite acceptable to my fussy ears.

I should add one more thing which I found quite amusing.

Dire Straits have been featured in many versions of Sultans in live performance over the years. Quite a number of these can be found on Youtube.

None of them however capture the original sound from their original studio recording of the tune. Not even close.

Now I know that Mark's voice has changed dramatically over the years and that different drummers have been used too, but the *sound* of the drums and bass just aren't even close to that original recording.

Reasons?
Firstly, there are so many things you can do in a studio that you can't do in a 'live performance' situation and secondly,
whoever produced that original session had way cool ears!
It was done before digital recording had arrived too.