Hi all,
I'm having problems with the harmony function in RB 2017 version 3.
I select a track, define the type of harmony etc. as defined in the help file, but when I press OK I don't get the TCH dialogue, but a message "converting sample rate", then nothing. It screwed my audio up and I had to do a reboot. I have win7 64 bit and have tried it with asio and mme to no avail.
Anyone ideas?

sinbad,

I have RB 2017 build 3 and I run it on Windows 7 (64 bit). I just tried creating harmony with TC Helicon and it worked fine for me.

What I suggest is that you slip back into BIAB for a moment and work through the tutorial on creating harmonies that's found under the Help. I think that this will give you a better sense of how the harmoniser works.

The tutorial is #14 and found under "Help | Help Topics | Tutorials". It uses a file called "Listen.MGU that's found via the following path...

x:\bb\Tutorial - Audio Harmonies

...where x: is the drive you have the \bb directory on. Listen.MGU has an audio file attached and the tutorial takes the user through adding harmonies to this file.

When you open the file, I suggest that you immediate save it with a new name so that you don't accidentally overwrite the tutorial mgu file during the course of practising: maybe something like "listen_test.mgu".

Once you have the harmonies working in BIAB, open the file Listen.MGU in RB and apply the knowledge gained.

This was how I learnt how to use TC Helicon and it was well worth spending 20 minutes on the tutorial.

Regards,
Noel

Thanks for the reply Noel, unfortunately I couldn't find that tutorial. Mine has a gap between #12 and #15.

See the input and message files below

The plot thickens. I just reinstalled BIAB 2017 and the tutorial list was complete, including the #14 you recommended. However, after installing the update 457, the numbers between 12 and 15 disappeared.

Chris,

That's interesting with update 457!

In relation to the harmony in RB.

1. On track 11, did you drag the mouse across the audio file to select the region you want to harmonise? (This is what I do rather than fill in the details where you have 9 to 74. Selecting should fill these values in for you.)

2. Instead of writing to multiple mono files, try writing to a single mono audio track. (It's always better to go the for the most basic approach first when trying to problem solve.)

Lastly, try opening the Listen.MGU file in the folder I mentioned above and see if you can generate harmony for the audio contained in that. (Save it as a SEQ file after opening so that you don't accidentally overwrite the MGU file.)

Regards,
Noel

P.S. Thanks for the graphics, they really help understand what you've doing.

Thanks again for your reply Noel.
Regardless of what I do, as soon as I hit the OK button I get the "converting sample rate" message and no TC Harmoniser dialog. I'll forward this to support and see if they have the answer.

The converting sample rate seems to indicate you may be working with a compressed audio file (MP3) and TCH is creating a WAV file to process. If that is the case, try converting your file to a WAV before using the TCH. If your file is already a WAV, I'm not sure why there would be a conversion of a sample rate...

Either way, I think the issue has to do with the audio you are working with. If it's a track you recorded, make sure you did not record it at some other rate than what RB is set to. For instance, recorded your audio at 48/24 and RB is set at 44.1/16

Charlie

Chris,

In BIAB, open the Listen.MGU I've mentioned a couple of times. It's only a short file so let's try generating audio for the whole song.

When the file is opened, select "Harmony | Audio Harmonies & Pitch Tracking". Then, in the window that appears, set it up as I have in the image below. Generate the harmony.

Does this work?

(This is worth testing because, as far as I'm aware, RB uses TC Helicon in BIAB. This might help isolate the problem.)

Regards,
Noel

The TC-Helicon in RealBand and BIAB is fairly long in the tooth now (it's been around and unchanged for a long time). I suspect it only works with 16/44.1 audio, which may be why you are getting the message. I would try a standard 16/44.1 audio file and test that.

Just a thought.

You may have a point there John, the file in question is 48K 24bit. I tried it on a 16bit 44,1k file and got a flash of message which I couldn't read.

Noel, I tried the Listen.mgu in BiaB and that seemed to work ok, and a harmony was generated. Then I tried RB while BiaB was open and got this message.


I then tried it without BiaB being active and nothing happened.

Chris,

Have you checked that the path to BIAB is correct for your system? (See image: "Options | Preferences".)

Even if it is, it might also pay to click on the "Select" button I've labelled #4 and navigate to your \bb directory. I've found that sometimes doing something like this can give the settings a kick-start.

Also, do you run BIAB in administrator mode? (That is, right-click on the startup shortcut and select 'Run as administrator'.)

Regards,
Noel

If this message was in RB, go to Help > Show log text file of flash messages.

If you tried this in BiaB, then go to Help > Utilities > Display log text file of Yellow/Green messages.

Note: The latest messages are at the top of the file.

Bingo Noel!!

I wasn't running RB as Admin. As soon as I tried as Admin it worked. Also the fact that the file is 48k 24bit had no adverse effect, it looks like RB will convert the sample rate before doing the harmony. Not being in Administrator mode, RB couldn't start the TC Harmoniser.
Thanks guys for your help

FWIW
I've watched/used RB a long time. Since before it was ever published to be honest <grin>

I think RB (like PT that it is based on) does the 24 to 16 conversion at the time the track is created.
In other words, I think every 'track' in RB is using the same bit rate.
Once it is imported/saved, it is all the same bit rate. So the Harmonizer at that point wouldn't need to do that conversion as it is now reading and writing in the same bit rate (whatever the project is set to).

But that's just my observation of how it works ..
I think anything brought into BiaB is set to 16/44 and anything brought into PT/RB is converted to whatever the Options-Prefs-Audio setting is for the project.

Maybe as an experiment try changing the Pref setting and see what RB does ..
I get the pop up below.
Final evidence is that if you say 'No' to the pop up you get a message that the previous setting has been restored. IOW, if you don't change all these tracks, you are forced to work in the existing settings.
Therefore I assume all tracks are already 'converted' as far as bit rate. Especially if analyzing an error message.

Excellent!

Also, in case you are not aware of this....

If you want to set admin mode permanently, simply right-click on the startup shortcut, select "Properties" and, under the "Compatibility" tab, select 'Run as administrator'.

You learn something everyday, thanks.