I'm a bluegrass guy, play banjo and mandolin. My 7 year old son plays guitar. Our instructor gave us a backing track to a song we're working on and we loved it. In conversation, I asked about getting them for more songs.
He told me he made them in Band in a Box, and that if I had the software I could make them for any song I wanted. So I bought it.
I've been all over YouTube watching tutorials, and *thought* I understood what to do. Seems fairly simple. BUT...
Everything sounds like a circus organ. I set up my style as one of the bluegrass styles, but nothing changes. Still a circus organ. I *thought* some of the RealTracks came with the version I bought (just the Pro, no added stuff), but they don't seem to be anywhere that I can find.
HELP!!!!
The Pro version includes:
Band-in-a-Box 2014
RealBand 2014
Pro RealCombos: Over 30 RealTracks instruments in 9 bands and RealDrums Set 1.
Bonus RealTracks Set 1: Classical String Quartet
MIDI SuperTracks Sets 1-3: a total of 46 MIDI SuperTracks
MIDI Styles Sets 0-3 plus 100 assorted: Over 300 MIDI styles total.
MIDI Soloist Set 1: Over 100 MIDI Soloists in a variety of instruments
MIDI Melodist Set 1: Over 60 MIDI Melodists in a variety of instruments
Loops Set 1: Nature Sounds and Percussion Loops
Artist Performance Set 1
So Real tracks are quite limited (no sure you will be using those classical stings...). The real combo may not address your bluegrass needs.
So a lot of midi which requires a good sounding synth (which last time I checked does not come with BIAB). There are many available but will cost ya <<Download the free 30 trial of CoyoteForte Dxi to see if your sounds improve>>
Here are the Real Tracks you have. The are grouped as "RealCombos", but can be used individually and combined with midi. But again not sure how well these will work with bluegrass.
Jazz Swing Band with Acoustic Bass, Piano, Acoustic Guitar & Tenor Sax SoloistDemo Bass, Acoustic, Jazz Sw 140 Solo demo
Piano, Acoustic, Rhythm Jazz Sw 140 Solo demo
Guitar, Acoustic, Rhythm Jazz Freddie Sw 140 Solo demo
Sax, Tenor, Jazz Sw 140 Solo demo
JazzBrushes RealDrums
Country Ballad Band with Pedal SteelDemo Bass, Electric, Pop HalfNotes Ev 085 Solo demo
Guitar, Acoustic, Fingerpicking Ev 085 Solo demo
Guitar, Acoustic, Strumming Ev 085 Solo demo
Pedal Steel, Background Ev 085 Solo demo
NashvilleEven8 RealDrums
Pop-Rock Band with "Dreamy" GuitarDemo Bass, Electric, PopHalfNotesSync Ev 120 Solo demo
Organ, B3, Background Pop Ev 120 Solo demo
Guitar, Electric, Rhythm Dreamy Ev 120 Solo demo
Guitar, Acoustic, Strumming Ev 120 Solo demo
NashvilleEven8 RealDrums
Medium Country Swing band with Pedal SteelDemo Bass, Electric, Pop Sw 120 Solo demo
Guitar, Acoustic, Fingerpicking Hank Sw 120 Solo demo
Guitar, Acoustic, Strumming Hank Sw 120 Solo demo
Pedal Steel, Background Hank Sw 120 Solo demo
NashvilleSwing8 RealDrums
Medium Rock band with two Electric GuitarsDemo Bass, Electric, Metal Ev 120 Solo demo
Guitar, Acoustic, Strumming AcRockBright Ev 120 Solo demo
Guitar, Electric, Rhythm ElecRockArp Ev 120 Solo demo
Guitar, Electric, Rhythm ElecRockDirty Ev 120 Solo demo
RockHardModernEv8 RealDrums
Medium-Slow Jazz Quartet with Soprano Sax SoloistDemo Bass, Acoustic, Jazz Sw 110 Solo demo
Piano, Acoustic, Rhythm Jazz Sw 110 Solo demo
Guitar, Acoustic, Rhythm Jazz Freddie Sw 110 Solo demo
Sax, Soprano, Soloist Jazz Swing Sw 110 Solo demo
JazzBrushes RealDrums
Jazz Swing with Piano Demo Bass, Acoustic, Jazz Swing Sw 140Solo demo
Piano, Acoustic, Rhythm Jazz Sw 140 Solo demo
JazzBrushes^ RealDrums
Even 8ths Acoustic Country with Pedal SteelDemo - Coming soon Bass, Electric, Pop HalfNotes Ev 085 Solo demo - Coming soon
Guitar, Acoustic, Fingerpicking Ev 085 Solo demo - Coming soon
Guitar, Acoustic, Strumming Ev 085 Solo demo - Coming soon
Pedal Steel, Background Ev 085 Solo demo - Coming soon
NashvilleEven8 RealDrums
Dreamy Pop Electric GuitarDemo Bass, Electric, PopHalfNotesSync Ev 120 Solo demo
Organ, B3, Background Pop Ev 120 Solo demo
Guitar, Acoustic, Strumming Ev 120 Solo demo
Guitar, Electric, Rhythm Dreamy Ev 120 Solo demo
NashvilleEven8 RealDrums
And finally, Welcome to the forum. I wish you had stopped in before you purchased so we could have given more input to your purchase decision. But nevertheless the forum is here to help you going forward. BIAB is neither easy or intuitive to make good music. But it does what no other software can - it just takes a commitment from you to work with it. Good luck!
So what you're saying is I have to buy something else to get what I already bought to sound like what I thought it was supposed to sound like? Wow... did you follow all that?!?!?
Okay, so what is it I need? I just want the sounds of an acoustic guitar, bass, mandolin, banjo, and (as a bonus) a dobro. Not a circus organ/calliope sounding thing.
Unfortunately, I did understand exactly what you said...
Download and install the free 30 day trial of Coyote Forte from the pgmusic website. It should be a big improvement.
Okay, so after talking with customer service I see what I need. Too bad the website wasn't more clear before I purchased! Live and learn I guess.
Full 30 day return or credit on any purchase. The general rule of thumb with BIAB is buy the most you can afford.
Second rule of thumb is to buy during a sale period which comes once at each end of year.
Truth is, I think you have enough to get started if you get the Coyote forte synth. And here is why I say that. Bluegrass is a pretty straight forward style and the midi styles work very well for the genre. Seems that your problem is more dealing with the sounds. Once yuo learn how to set up the sounds in the synth to play the parts you want you will be well on your way. Then (and then will come) when you are a little more knowledgeable about the program you will be able to pick and choose the additional items that would improve the sound of what you're working on. Or you could do what I and several others here have done and just buy everything PG has to offer and not use a 10th of it. But hey, we can say we got it!
Good luck and stick with it. the program will do what you want if you take the time to learn it and use what comes with it.
Hi caedenspa,
Welcome to the forums.
Have you spoken to your instructor to find out about his or her BIAB setup (i.e. what version, what package, what extras were purchased, etc.)?
Regards,
Noel
When a noob says the sounds are like a calliope or my personal favorite, a kazoo, all that means is you haven't installed and set up a midi synth. Biab ships with the Coyote Wavetable which uses your Windows software synth that your computer uses for sounds effects but it does have a full set of instruments. Since it's free with all PC's it sounds about as good as what you paid for it but it will get you started.
Out of all those vids, find the one that covers basic setup. After you actually hear the individual instruments then you can look into purchasing a better synth or buy some Real Tracks.
Biab like all digital audio computer programs is on a whole other planet than what you're used to but still, Biab is simpler than most. Just keep reading, asking questions and call Support. You'll get there.
Bob
Our instructor is a professional musician and has all the bells and whistles. He did warn me that it could get pricey...
After talking with CS, they informed me that I could by each of the Real Track Paks for $29 each. But to get all the bluegrass ones there were like 8 or 10 of them or something. I asked if there was a package deal if I bought all of them. No, but they offered to upgrade me to UltraPlusPak which gets me ALL the RealTracks for another $279, bringing my total out of pocket to $408.
I went on Amazon, and for $460 bought the EverythingPak, with the USB drive, overnight delivery, and got a refund for the Pro package I bought from PGMusic. More than I need? Yup. Will I ever use it to it's full capability? Nope. But it's there!
I'm sure I'll have tons more questions. Good to see the folks here are helpful - it is much appreciated!
congrats. you're in it now!. Play with it and keep playing with it. Also plan on buying MORE!! I started out with BIAB 7.0 and couldn't get it to do what I wanted it to do for over 5-6 years. I finally solved my problems by buying a dedicated audio interface. What started out as a $79 software package has grown to a 7-8000 dollar setup and I still can't do what I want to do. BUT it's not the software thats holding me back now, its my ownn ability, talent and Timmmmmmmmme.........
Hey, good luck and have fun.
The EverythingPak is great!
You'll have heaps of fun. Don't limit yourself to selecting only those Realtracks specifically designed for bluegrass work. Many of us on here find that Realtracks, from other styles we wouldn't normally use, have a great deal to offer.
All the best,
Noel
Many of us on here find that Realtracks, from other styles we wouldn't normally use, have a great deal to offer.
This is one of the most powerful and least understood features of Biab. To keep things simple to start, all the tutorials talk about simply picking a style and inputting chords. That's fine and will get you started but when it comes to the RT's the styles basically mean nothing. They're merely a starting point. Say you have a bluegrass dobro on the guitar track. Just open the RT picker window for that track and pick something else. Anything else, like oh, say a funky R&B sax soloist. It will plug into your selected guitar bluegrass style just fine. Think about that for a moment and then you'll realize just how powerful and complex this program can get.
Take this one step further and do the same thing in Real Band. Only in RB you have 48 tracks to do this with. You can take a basic style and maybe only keep one or two instruments from that original style and add 32 tracks of all kinds of other instruments from many different styles.
It can get intense.
Bob
Bluegrass is one of the things BiaB & Real Band do exceedingly well.
This is a song I composed in BB and then worked on in Real band using the real tracks.... no synths needed in RB... and yeah, Coyote or TTS are great basic synths to use for BB.
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=12544618To get good results you do need the "higher level" packages.... it's well worth the money. Think of it this way..... try hiring some studio cats to play a tune for you to practice with..... the cost of one session with real musicians and BB is paid for.