Hi,
This is my first post on the forums and I have two questions:

1. Looking for suggestions for a style to use for the song Tempted by Marty Stuart.

2. I made a song for Rambunctious Boy (John Fogerty) but do not know how to do the intro as in the song there is no music only vocals. Looking for suggestions.

Thanks.

Move to a DAW (maybe Realband since it uses BiaB files/features and you have it already most likely)
Create the intro space with a click (so you can hear the count in to the song).
The 'Insert Bars' feature is common in DAWs and will move everything back in the timeline to create the space.

Then record the intro vocals on a separate track in the new space.

Thanks but I was not intending to make a recording, just a backing track with biab. I inserted bars but do not know how to have just a maybe a click to time as I sing along with it without music: "my O' my, I'm a restless guy, got a home everywhere I goooo" then music kicks in.

1. I downloaded Tempted and using the Audio Chord Wizard, determined the key signature is F and the song plays at roughly 134 bpm.
Using the Style picker, Country/4-4/135/ev 8 *** I found the Texas Rock styles performed similar distorted guitars but my personal favorite style was Deputy Honky Tonk Rhythm.


2. Make your backing track in the normal manner with music and mute all the audio tracks for the intro bars where there is silence. At the bar where the music begins, unmute the audio tracks.

When the music starts, solo the mandolin, bring in the drums, mute the mandolin and bring in the first guitar then bring in the rest of the instruments. It is really a sparse arrangement.

I'm a noob so bare with me... How do you mute the tracks?

A reasonable question.
Right-click on the desired bar, and select Bar Settings, then Mute the required tracks from there.
Repeat at the bar where you want to 'un-mute' and do the opposite.
BTW: Welcome to the forums!

Thank you so much and thanks for the welcome.

I suspect most of my questions I will be asking on the forums may be suggestions regarding styles. Is there a more suitable forum than this one (biab for Win) to ask these questions?

Thanks for everyone's responses.

That's a really good question.

If you're pretty sure that a new style is needed, there is a Styles Wishlist forum for that request. But we don't seem to have exactly a What Style Should I Use For This Song forum, so this is as good as anywhere.

The only drawback is that you may not be reaching the BIAB for Mac users. I think if it were me, I would post the question there as well, but I would tell each forum that I'm also posting in the other. Be aware that the two platforms are not always equal, and BIAB Windows users get some new styles each December and Mac users get them the following spring.

But first, did anyone mention that BIAB's style picker has a really large index of songs, and it may already have a recommendation? Just search in the style picker dialog box (upper right) for your song.

EDIT: no hints for Tempted, but there was one recommendation for Marty Stuart/Travis Tritt of a country classic song, tempo quarter=125, for The Whiskey Ain't Workin'. Try it.

About question #2, would it work for you if you played just drums under the beginning of the song vocal? If so, put the chords in but end each one with this, minus the quotes: ".d" for example, Am.d

A similar technique works with any combination of the instruments. Look up Pushes, Shots and Holds in the Help.

If you had something else in mind, give us more detail.

Thanks very much for your suggestions. I did not realize how great of a community there was for biab. You guys are awesome!!!!

I assume a lot of us spend a whole lot of time fishing through styles. I clear my style favorites then start collecting favorites again for each song. As time goes on I've become more familiar with the styles I have available and am able to shorten the time spent fishing and sampling.

For #2.
Why not sing the intro then press play? Use a harmonica on the side to get you initial vocal pitch. You can undo the count in as needed.
Or, put in a simple guitar strum for 1 bar then on bar 2 create a hold for the guitar strum.
Like this.
| G | G... | begin singing | | G | etc...
That will give you a pitch reference for your vocal.
If I were singing this song live with an acoustic guitar and no backing track I would at least strum the starting chord. That would be whether I had a band or not.

1> Tempted: Look for a basic rock even style. If I was going to cover that I'd pick a rock or hard rock style as the basis. Type out the intro and first verse and chorus chords.... then simply try a few different rock styles to see which one tends to fit the best. That's what is really cool about BB. You can try different styles instantly by clicking. If you find one that sounds good but still want to audition a few more, simply write the style name down so you can go back and find it easily. It's really easy to lose a style in the crowd.

2> Use a DAW for the Fogarty song. Let BB create the parts you need starting with the music..... then move it to a DAW and offset the beginning of the music tracks to allow room for the vocals. Us a click track to keep your place during the vocal intro.

All of my songs are completed in a DAW.... Sonar to be precise. Understand that Real Band is also a DAW and you have that already along with BB.

Once again, thanks for everyone's suggestions. All your comments made my "fishing" a lot faster and I stumbled upon the style "HBILLY+Classic Country Blues Rock +" which seems to fit the bill.

As for the fogerty song, I use some of the suggestions made in the above posts and put G. in the first bar and G.bd where the song kicks in in the intro. It works for me. However, i will also explore the DAW suggestions as I do have an old copy of Cakewalk\Sonar from a few years ago.

Thanks again to all of ya.

Dave

One thing that really shortens my time searching for a RealTrack style is realizing that the styles were recorded at a relevant tempo and if I use a style that is too far away from the tempo of my song it just doesn't sound right due to audio stretching magic inside the program. Searching only styles that are close to my song tempo eliminates the ones that simply won't work for me.
With midi styles this doesn't seem to matter as much but using a midi style intended for fast songs doesn't really work for a slow songs anyhow, for example.

I agree with everything said except that part of the last sentence about slow songs. With a good sound source you can make great sounding slow songs using MIDI IMHO.