I just don't know how to move on. It's so bug ridden. I can a least use it to build songs. I have 300 to move to a more stable program. I can't deal playing 5 days a week worrying if it's going to crash. I played Friday and it was fine. I opened the program the next gig, went to load the jukebox and get an error message, no file found and RB closes. Have to totally reload the program. Just what I want to do at a gig.Thank God I have PT 2013as well. I've been away from the forums for abt 4 years I was pissed off at all the bugs.4 years later the program is worse. IMHO
In total agreement with VideoTrack. I have used a lot of complex composition programs like BIAB / RB over the years but would always mix down to Mp3/Mp4A or wav format and transfer to ipad, iphone (running Backtrax app.)or other mp3 players such as Archos to create playlists rather than risk running from the parent program. Much less to go wrong in a live situation.
When you just open the computer start the program go to ACTION/JUKEBOX nothing else hooked up and the program crashes. I have my ideas and will explore.
its not my configuration. Mix down is not an option. PT 2013 is always rock solid so i'll just use that. In the meantime now that i've vented ,let's try to find this issue. I have thoughts. Probably most are not using the jukebox as you are mixing down. Please try this for me. I can't repeat it consistently but seems to be the issue. 1. make a folder and put 6 songs in it. 2. open RB 3. open the JUKEBOX and using "add to playlist add these 6 songs to your play list. 4. run through these songs 5. close the JUKEBOX without deleting theplaylist 6. close RB 7. go to the folder with the songs and remove 1 or 2 to another location. 8. open RB 9. open the JUKEBOX 10. do this a number of times and report what happens. Thanks
My system isn't that complicated. Form day one I strived to have a Real Band sound. Pun intended. The consistency and look of a band. I usually use abt 10 tracks in RB. They are all assigned to one of 8 audio outs of my interface to one of 8 channels of my digital stage box. Mixer is software on the computer and my sound persons tablet. They mix me from FOH. I sing and play bass live. One RB track goes to the computers headphone output to provide chord data for my harmonizer.Another RB track is midi data that goes, via a virtual midi cable to QLITE controller program which is for lighting. I built a USB to DMX adapter box to drive my lighting dimmer packs. My hole show is 100% automated. PS all into a 3000wattt triamped PA. I have played 100s of shows.The only weak link is RB.
I am not sure how the juke box works, but if you start moving the source files for a playlist in most software, you will break the links. If the jukebox only stores links to the files in their original location, (instead of making a copy of them) then surely you will break these links, making the playlist not function, Just my thoughts without knowing the detail of the software Realband jukebox playlist, Mike
RealBand broke me some time ago because of it's bugs and crashing. The main issue you have is that all your songs are in .SEQ format else there are plenty of other application that will do what you need for live performance.
You would have to sit down and > Save all Tracks to individual WAV/MID and then > Save Chords Window As Video As I mentioned before, there should be a Batch Convert option for these 2 formats, that might be something easier to add to RB then fix all the bugs. It might take time but the Jailbreak would be worth it.
But lets see what next month brings, you never know, fingers crossed.
With these tools you can get it to batch convert your seq files to wav, midi and avi.
Though the problem I find now is when saving to Video there is no song.seq filename already in the Save to AVI dialog box, it should just have the seq filename already in there !, and it wants to save in the RealBand folder instead of the folder the seq was opened from !!!! Yet when Saving All Tracks to WAV/MID it has no problem saving them in the same folder as the seq and in it's own track folder. The same with BB now, though I'm sure I remember it putting the song name in the Save AVI box in a previous version ????? Else it would be easier to Batch convert with the Macros. So you are just screwed again by RB. My whole life here is trying to create workaround ways of doing things that RB/BB should just do, easily, joyfully, a stress free workflow.
...and then I get the dreaded whiteout when clicking back on RB after trying BB with also no filename in the AVI box, other apps go white and recover but not RB. Just doing this with RB has churned my guts and got the BP up that's why I gave up on RB and are waiting for something stress free.
When you are gigging, you really want to keep things as simple and crash-proof as is possible. That means NOT using BB or RB live.
Take all your songs and mix them down and export them as either 320kb MP3 or WAV files. Any crappy audio player can handle them all day and night without any issues. When you are using BB/RB live, you are asking the computer to work pretty hard to get all 10 or more tracks synced and to the speakers, plus any midi, synths, or FX that are running live. It's one thing to do that in a studio, it's another thing totally to do that live.
Keeping it simple means using 2 computers running the same WAV or MP3 player and booted up ready to go.
Are ya also hearing what else I sad: 1. My old Power Tracks program is rock solid.I just use that now. Jeff just keeps breaking RB more and more. I used to FEAR that Peter would sell to a big company like Sony etc. Now I wish he would or get someone in to help Jeff out. RB keeps getting in features but gains more and more bugs. 2. Someone needs to tell me how my FOH person mixes an MP3 live.
Have you considered using Reaper for live shows? Lots of flexibility and stability. I use BIAB (Jukebox) for live streaming and some shows with little problem, but will be using BIAB created /Realband / Reaper wav files on Voicelive 3 Ext for live shows as The VL3 Ext will store harmonies, guitar patch / effects changes and vocal patch / effect changes. I would also always have a backup of mp3 or wav backing tracks for an emergency. Then I would just dump the vocal effects. Sometimes now I just sing and play acoustic guitar. It has a authenticity that goes down well.
That's what I have to do. I have both Reaper and Sonar. Converting approximately 4000 individual tracks to 4000 .wav files and getting them in another program is doable I suppose. Who wants to do it for me? Btw I'm a bass player.
I was one of the BETA Testers when RB was introduced.I made the first user Real Track during BETA another year.We were all concerned about what looked like some sort of pasting the code for BIAB on top of Power Tracks For me I think the best thing is create my songs in RB.Play them with my old Power Tracks. You might think of that as well.
John, FWIW I've always leaned toward PT for Live, RB for writing. Less overhead = more stable. Plus I don't want that pesky 'Initializing Accompaniment' message holding things up .. for yet another reason.
I've used PT to run live click, drum triggers, synths, guitar patch changes (multiple guitars), lights, vocal processor changes, etc, all in the same song .. while recording it in PT also as a live mix. It can be very powerful and ya can't do that with WAV or MP3. So I get it (I think).
YOU GET IT RHARV. How are you. I miss all the old guys. I push this stuff to the limit for sure. So do you I know. See down here the pay structure is 80/20 split of the gate. These folks are winter Texans ready to party for the winter. Dances I have them change $7. Full bands charge $10. Most rooms hold 500+. Do the math. I have to have a well done professional show to expect to get that sort of cash. Btw we get 80% resort gets 20% I guess RB stays in the studio and PT goes on the road.
When you require mission-critical playback that absolutely cannot fail, you can rely on JoeCo’s BLACKBOX Multi-Channel Player. This multi-channel player – available in a variety of formats – provides a solution for live performance playback in a compact 1U rack-mounted package. Specifically designed to replay backing tracks or multiple surround stems for live shows and themed entertainment, it can replay up to 64 channels of high quality audio at up to 24bit/96kHz. The BLACKBOX Player can be triggered using timecode, a footswitch or QWERTY keyboard, or it can be controlled via MIDI commands, giving the live engineer, installation sound designer, musical director, artist or silvertones full control of the show at all times.
I too have sometimes found RealBand a little flaky. It will sometimes crash unexpectedly but I have never used it in a gig situation. I am slightly in awe of the complex setups described here. I have sometimes used my large format iPad Pro for gigs with backing tracks. I have the music display app forScore which means I have words and music on display. Also good as I don’t need music stand light since I am using an iPad. With forScore you can associate any file with a wave or mp3. This means you have the music up and simply click controls to start playback. You control the output level from theiPad too and it will even turn pages back and forward for you at the right place in the audio track which is cool. Saves having to take huge files of music around as you can put all your music on the iPad. I plug the output of the iPad into my keyboard which then supplies it to my mixer. All nice and simple which suits me!
You seem familiar. This would be awesome. I have always prefered dedicated hardware. Its just that I headed down the RB trail.Do you think it would be easy or real tedious to transfer all the songs. Too bad it can't read *.seq files. BTW my music computer is only used for RB, BIAB, PT, and qlite. Never goes on the internet.
Guitarhacker I will apologize to you as i don't no you. I have been a LONG time Forum contributer, Beta tester and all round techno crazy guy. To start off a post with a condescending statement pissed me off pure and simple. Ive answered those questions ad nauseum for nubes and was never condescending.
Awesome box. I downloaded the manual. Getting 4000 tracks in it would be a challenge. At 66 I can't remember 300 songs and counting so lyrics and chords are needed for reference. Not dependent on them but nice to be able to glance.Weve all had the problem of stepping up to sing a song weve done a thousand times and cant remember the first line. Relistically I need to stay with RB to compose and Power Tracks to play back. PS I still love PGMUSIC and their products.
Guitarhacker I will apologize to you as i don't no you. I have been a LONG time Forum contributer, Beta tester and all round techno crazy guy. To start off a post with a condescending statement pissed me off pure and simple. Ive answered those questions ad nauseum for nubes and was never condescending.
accepted.... and yeah I get it. I'm a bit quick on the trigger at times. We had just had a similar kind of thread.
The above thread demonstrates why this is a cool place to hang out (to me).
'Friends' can say things to each other here, and it does not end up turning into your typical forum/Fark thread. Makes me stick around still. People are honestly just trying to help each other.
Just an observation. I don't do a lot of gigs but I have been using RealBand for gigs for a long time and I have never really had any problem, except for one quirk of the Jukebox. How I would normally set up the computer would be to have folders labeled as set 1, set 2 etc. and I would create a Jukebox file for each set. The Jukebox file would reside in each set folder. If I created my sets and jukebox files on my main studio computer and transferred to my laptop for gigging, then the Jukebox would crash on the laptop. I discovered that the Jukebox program writes a file, with a JUK extension, in the RealBand folder and if that file was there from a previous gig, then RealBand would crash when I tried to load my new Jukebox file in my Set folder. If I deleted the old file with the .JUK extension in the RealBand folder then my new Jukebox files in my set folders would load no problem. Ever since I figured this out I have had no problems. I don't know why this file is written into the Realband folder but I hope this helps. Perhaps PG Music can answer this.
Hi John, great to see you again and I still have those files you sent me.
Pipeline and Guitarhacker your comments are understandable but you don't know who Silvertones is. He's a total pro level user just like you guys are and knows as much about these programs as anybody. I don't know if the forum goes back that far but try to find his posts about performing live with Power Tracks about 4 years ago. After a lot of trial and error he created one helluva live setup because he wanted total multitrack control over each instrument.
I've been using an iPod touch with all my backing tracks stored onto it since I bought one and it's been working for me so far. I do not have worry about my Mac crashing or having to take 5 minutes just to find the next track I want to play. I also use backing tracks that were either given to me or came included with sheet music I bought, and I sometimes make my own backing tracks when I need to have my parts to be precisely laid out note for note.
P.S. I don't own a PC so I can't use RealBand and PG Music has no intention of including RealBand for Mac even though the vast majority of audio productions is done on a Mac. My school has a production lab that only uses Macs.
Hey Bob, Good to hear from you as well. You still gigging? I've since dumped all the analog mixers and drive rack stuff. Now using a 16x4 digital stage box. Mixer on my computer and a tablet. Going to upgrade lights as well to led. Sure glad that in music school it was required to intern for s moving company. At 66 loading in/out and setup/tear down is tough duty but it's still worth it.
Gigging, oh yeah. You know how it is with us warhorses, I just can't say no. I have 5 coming up for December but only one is a jazz gig. Those have dried up but I'm back to my classic rock roots doing Santana, Joe Cocker, the Doors, SRV, Stevie Wonder, etc. Lots of keyboard on that stuff.
You're back now so lets see a new pic of you and your toys.
I don't know if this is helpful to you, but this is the way I do it. I create the songs in BB. If I need to tweak them, I can do it with Notation and Piano Roll in BB if the instrument is midi. If it is RT or I need to add a part of my own, I can go to RB.
When I have the song done, I save it to an SD card that I use in my Jam Man looper. One card holds at least two sets. The looper is always at my feet so it is easy to work with. My sets are pretty well-planned. I keep a list of the locations of the loops in case I want to make a change. The Jam Man has a stereo out if you want to run stereo live (I don't).
Hey Bob, Good to hear from you as well. You still gigging? I've since dumped all the analog mixers and drive rack stuff. Now using a 16x4 digital stage box. Mixer on my computer and a tablet. Going to upgrade lights as well to led. Sure glad that in music school it was required to intern for s moving company. At 66 loading in/out and setup/tear down is tough duty but it's still worth it.
Glad to hear you have your gigging issues worked out. I'm also interested in learning more of your live stage setup.
"I usually use abt 10 tracks in RB. They are all assigned to one of 8 audio outs of my interface to one of 8 channels of my digital stage box. Mixer is software on the computer and my sound persons tablet. They mix me from FOH. I sing and play bass live. One RB track goes to the computers headphone output to provide chord data for my harmonizer.Another RB track is midi data that goes, via a virtual midi cable to QLITE controller program which is for lighting. I built a USB to DMX adapter box to drive my lighting dimmer packs."
If you don't mind my asking, which digital stage box are you using and how are you routing your setup? Which software are you mixing with on the computer and tablet? Are you completely wireless or using ethernet? Thanks for your time.
I Build the songs in RealBand.I don't use the so called "BB" tracks. Just plain tracks. My focus is having a consistent sound like a Real Band regardless of the song. I use an ESI Gigaport HD audio interface.It is 8 outputs, no inputs. I assign tracks like this. 1. Drums 2. Kick 3. solos 4. horns 5. acoustic guitars 6. electric guitars 7. Piano 8. Organ These 8 outs go to 8 ins on my Behringer xr16 mixer. The xr16 is just a box with 16 inputs, 4 aux outs and 2 main outs. It is controlled by software that connects via wifi. The headphone out of the computer provides chords to my harmonizer. Not heard One channel of the mixer is main vocals and two othere channels are harmony vocals. I also use another track in RB with note data that, using a virtual midi cable, connects to QLite controller which is lighting software.I built a box that converts the lighting cues from usb to DMX512. The mixer main outs go to my 3000 watt biamped pa. I use in ears out of the mixer.
BTW the juke box in RB crashed the program again. I bought PT2017 and its been perfect. I would recommend not using RB to play out if your setup is at al complex.
Thanks for the information on your setup. I thought it was likely a Behringer or similar brand stage box arrangement. The Fx plug-ins and routing options are really nice for almost any situation you'll encounter.
I had an X-32 for a while but it was too large for my studio so I sold it and considered the Air-X-18 to replace it but eventually settled on a SoundCraft signature 22MTK.
FWIW, after I visited you several years ago, I adapted my song list to your approach (more or less). The difference is that I mixed all audio down to a master track in order to keep processing to a minimum.
That left plenty of overhead for RB to display my chord/lyric sheet and send any MIDI to external devices for patch changes, real time volume and effects controls, harmonies etc.
And, like you, I ended up switching to Power Tracks for playback. It was always rock solid for me, didn't require me to convert everything to another format, and if I needed to tweak a sequence, I could edit my performance file directly in RB then move the result back to my gig folder where PT would open the same SEQ file format. I think that reason alone is enough to justify using PT for my playback software.
At the end of the day, lots of software does almost the same thing. At my age I don't want to reinvent the wheel. If PT is stable for playback and RB is good at putting the sequences I need together, and the same learning curve makes me familiar with both programs at the same time.. I like that.
John, does it crash if you take the multiply outputs out of the equation? I remember fighting with my 8 out firewire MOTU stuff a few years ago. There is that slight nuanced condition of whether the software is crashing or the hardware is crashing it. You have been using this hardware for a while without incident, right? I doubt the hardware has changed so there must be either an OS or a software condition that is causing it. Working backwards, what changed just before the crashing started? Have you tested with a different output just to make sure it is or isn't the software?
Very strange that something working stops working. The difference in my case of the MOTU stuff was that I was adding it and trying something different, so it isn't the same situation.
It was 2 things: 1. The Jukebox has always been flaky but now it crashes the program at times. 2. One of the updates in 2017 set the buffer to 200. That's what caused me the biggest headache. I set it to 4000 and all is well.
I'm using PT 2017 to play out with. Much better and more stable.
that's why I gave up on RB and are waiting for something stress free.
