Snag in BIAB 2018 when rendering a single midi track?

Hi all I am currently working on a complex project to do a version of Brothers In Arms. But deliberately trying to achieve this by doing all the work within BIAB. So lots of regenerating of tracks while the others are frozen and judicious use of the bar settings no problem there,
The snag came because all tracks including Solo had been used by the style.
This left just the melody that I used for just that my Midi melody notes.
But I needed more now for sound effects for intro wind and thunder.2 XG high bank midi sound effects to run simultaneously on two tracks.

The answer to temporally remove the solo track which was in fact only a simple loop track, and put it back later after I had used the now empty solo track as a temp, midi track a few times and saved each take as audio to be imported back into the audio track, using the overwrite option,

This worked in the end, But in order to get it to work I had to export the whole song as separate rendered tracks under Audio menu, then delete all the rendered realtracks exported tracks that I did not require,. Just leaving me my rendered midi, to import into the audio track.

I should have been able to just render the midi track to audio under the track options
Save track as wave file, although this seemed to work and it did write a track called single rendered track as a wav , although this track played in any wave player including windows media player, if you imported it into the projects audio track it was silent mute no mater what ,WHY WAS THAT???

As I say I worked around by exporting the whole song and deleting all the tracks I did not want but what a game.
Your expert thoughts on this would be much appreciated
Mike

Can't help with your silence issue, but I render a single track by using the SOLO button on the mixer panel. For 2 or more tracks I MUTE those not required to be rendered.

Hope this helps.
Vintage

Hi Mike,

If you want to render the Soloist track to the Audio track, This method will work: Solo the Soloist track, right-click on Master at the top left, then Render Song to Audio Track.

This will render the Soloist track to WAV, load it onto the Audio track, and disable the style so you don't hear two bands at once.

Next, unsolo that track, go to File - Load Style Special, and check "Enable Style". Now what was on the Soloist track will play from the Audio track, so you can use it for something else.

Thanks
Kent
PG Music

Another method would be to render the track to a WAV file (Right-click, Track Actions, Save Track as WAV File), and save it in the same folder, with the same name as the song file. If the song is Song1.MGU, call the WAV file Song1.WAV.

Then re-open the song, and that WAV file will automatically play on the Audio track. No importing required.

Thanks
Kent
PG Music

Hi all

Thanks for trying to help but I still have problems with all this.
Tried all methods above but none work completely .
Sooner or later a finish up with the tracks where I want them but cant hear them.

My last attempt got my midi track on to the audio track by importing a single rendered wave of it,to the audio track, test solo play back and yes the audio plays at the correct bars.
Un solo, timing good with original source track that I still have in the song as midi.

Now I would like to use the audio track again.
Tried just importing a different single rendered wave but this removed the one on there got no option to merge so it over wrote ,

Next tried again but decided to move audio to a performance track, as in audio menu.
Had a choice of wma or wave and chose to use the soloist track as the destination.
All looked fine by the track labels that came up, BUT THE TRACK WAS SILENT
If I move it back to the audio track it plays fine again but not as a performance track.
Going round in ever decreasing circles now this is where I came in on the first post.
Got me beat.
Mike

Once an Audio Track has been moved to a Performance track, it will not play until you Regenerate the song. If the other tracks are like you want them, freeze them before regenerating. I have not tried regenerating just the Performance Track but I assume that will work the same as Regenerating the song.

Two ways you can get increased track space\extra channels on your complex songs:

The first is to utilize the BIAB feature that allows alternating or inserting up to 10 instruments on any track. Note that these instruments can play simultaneously during playback if desired. You can enter and change out instruments by choosing the bar you want to change an instrument, using F5, select RealTracks, select the legacy channel you are working with and in the lower bar, select the new instrument from the list. Ok out of this menu.

A second way to access this feature is to select the RealTrack Picker, in the upper left corner, select the Medley button and a window opens with 10 available slots to place instruments. You can also select when and how the instrument medley plays out. It can by a certain number of bars or by part marker etc.

You can exceed the 8 channel limit of tracks in BIAB using the following method:


This can be done in a multitude of ways so I will go through the steps on one way so you can see how it can be accomplished.

Create a chord chart, with tempo, key, and a style selected. Add any shots, hold, or rests, intros and endings. Pan and set volume levels. Generate this song. It will be the foundation portion of your song. Render and export this song as a Stereo WAV file.

Import the exported stereo file back into your song. Be sure the Audio Channel plays in sync with your BIAB mix.

Convert the Audio Channel to an Performance Track and move it to the Bass Track. (it can by any channel, I'm using the Bass Track for simplicity.)

Kill the Audio Track

Select new instruments for the remaining Mixer Tracks, (Piano, Drums, Guitar, Strings, Melodist, Soloist) and feel free to utilize the multiple instrument per track feature to add more instruments, or sound effects.

Mix, pan and set levels of this mix to match and merge with the Stereo Performance Track located on the Bass Track.

Render this new mix and Export this mix to a WAV File.

At this point you can repeat the above process to add more instruments and channels or stop is your song is complete.

Yes, you are commiting to sub mixes and Bouncing track mixes but this is all done digitally so there is no loss of resolution because each render is a digital to analog first generation export.

If you are not satisfied with a render, back up a step and remix and render a new mix.

You can create a render with dozens of instruments and dozens of channels using this method.

HI ALL
And thanks so much Charlie.
I feel such a fool I had a flash to the brain in bed last night and wondered if I needed to regenerate after moving to a performance track.
All well and working now,,
I will study your post in detail later although I must say I have been using many of your old helpful post as a reference for all this ,
So thank you again for all your help Charlie

And my thanks to the others that have chipped in it is appreciated
Embarrassed,
Mike

HI Again
Well I have found a way to work after a few days head scathing not much sleep.
Lots of thanks to all those that helped.
If you think it worth it I will put this in tips and tricks forum, let me know I don’t want to spam the boards,
But I thought I should post here anyway just to round off this thread

Extra tracks in BIAB my way (Mike)

If all tracks are full and you need more for midi or audio you can make room by EG.
From the audio menu Export song as audio file.
I find it most reliable to do this by muting all tracks that you don’t want exporting.
Leaving say the Soloist or melody .export this track as audio file do not select one file per track as you only have one selected, click render and name track.

Import the track into the Audio track under Audio menu import Audio wav etc.
Browse to file and open .

IMPORTANT at this point you must choose to overwrite or merge with existing audio data if any on Audio track or you will lose the original data.
You can do this multiple times from other tracks as long as you merge.

Test by muting all tracks and playing just the audio track, You should hear what you have just put there plus any merged data if you chose to merge with existing,

You may now re use the melody or soloist track for more work.
Note make sure if was a midi track that you are happy with the audio as you will lose your editable midi data. Unless you save a copy else where.

To free up even more space you can convert the combined audio track to a performance track.
You will be asked for a destination track you can choose any track, but since you are likely to have cleared say the melody and soloist to a combined audio track, use one of these say soloist you still have the melody track for yet more midi or audio work.

HERE IS THE GOTCHA.
You must regenerate the song for the performance track to become Audible.
Make sure you freeze any tracks that you don’t want regenerated.

Mike (rev Sept 2017)