Hi,

For a while I have been running a jazz jam club where I record the jams while using BIAB to provide a constant speed and to provide some of the missing rhythm section instruments such as drums, bass guitar or piano so we can always have the jam if we have at least two participants. I have just started to consistently (after the jam) use real band to mix the songs down to mp3 for transfer up to soundcloud where the players/singers involved can hear them.

At this point all I do is set a fixed mix setting for the whole song that more or less provides a good average balance for the various instruments. However many times the mix is good during part of the song and at other times during the song an instrument is too loud or too quiet. So after I get my mix setting that is reasonable I send it to .wav then have a program convert it to mp3. That leads to a question.

If I was to adjust the levels during the mix such that I fix the slight imbalances during the song is it possible for Real Band to remember these dynamic volume fixes and transfer them to mp3? If not is it possible to have it write to mp3 as the mix is playing and I am making these adjustments?

Thanks,
John

John,

Set all the mixes the way you want them in Realband; it sounds like volume envelopes would be the best for doing this. Once that's done, simply export to audio (in your case, mp3).

Regards,
Noel

Hi Noel, I did a realband help search on "volume envelopes" and since nothing showed up with a title "volume envelopes" except a plug ins section it sounds like this is a plug in feature. I then did a youtube search "realband volume envelopes" and this video showed up
RealBand: Volume Automation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5kKx5ThpSY
That is pretty cool.

I did this youtube search "realband envelopes tutorial" and I found this video which has a different way of doing the same thing as the above video shows.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAvy_STxwos

I did a forum search for volume envelopes and found on hit. It was pretty advanced.

I was also thinking after reading your suggestion I could use the compression knob on my live mixing board. The problem with that is it locks it in stone.

Mixing these recordings will be a 3 or 4 hour capped activity for me. A simple compression approach will be all I have time for since learning songs, organizing the jams, practicing my songs, can easily suck up 6 hours a day and I wish I could put more time into it :-)

Thanks,
John

John,

It would also be possible to use a compression plug-in in Realband on the recorded wav. This is non-destructive and so you would be able to get back to the original recording any time you wanted.

Regards,
Noel

Okay thanks Noel. It is something I will dig into a little bit each time I have to mix a jam and send it up to soundcloud. Basically it is just so they can critique their playing. I do all this work for free so they can't complain :-) The last one I did they were very happy with.

Yet another way is to simply highlight the section you want to change, and use Edit - Gain Change.

This hard writes the changes, so it's a good idea to have a backup of the original Seq file.

In a situation like yours, where time matters more than perfection, this is a viable option, in my opinion.
Yeah, it's better to use non-destructive edits, but if you are doing work that will likely be 'one time' and not for production/public consumption, this can be an quick/easy way to do things.
Once done it works every time.

The envelopes are pretty intuitive once you get used to them, but like everything there is a learning curve and your system may need fine tuning to hear it accurately (ASIO works better usually, for accuracy), etc.
Gain Change simply hard writes the volume change to the audio data.

If you pay attention to the check boxes in the Gain Change you can Fade the selected section In/Out or just reduce/boost it.

Yet another way is to open the Mixer and enable the 'Record Mixer Moves' button at the bottom.
Then you can record the mixer moves as you do them.

If you are using MME, there will be a delay between when you move them and hear them in real time, but they render fine, which is why I mentioned above ASIO is better (faster) for envelopes and mixer moves.

Gain Change just works (even with MME), but once written and saved it can't be undone.
There's always a trade off, and it depends on the need and preferred workflow as to which is better for any given user/need combination.

Thanks Rharv, these methods seem pretty straight forward too.

One question about the volume envelopes. Is that built into RealBand? Earlier tonight I was looking for a tutorial on it and could not find anything.

John,

Volume envelopes are available in latter versions of Realband (from 2014 upwards).

See the image below to make the volume and/or gain envelope visible. Nodes are added simply by clicking on the envelope line at required positions.

Hi Noel
I can see that being a very useful feature Noel.
Thanks for pointing it out ,I had missed that one!
Regards
Mike

Mike,

There are so many features in BIAB and RB that even after 12 years of BIAB and 10 years of Realband (it was first released in 2008), I'm always finding new things!

In fact, it's rare for a day to go by where I don't learn something about the programs that I didn't know the day before.

All the best,
Noel

Thanks Noel.

It turns out that what you call "Volume Envelopes" is the same as what this video I included
in a prior post is all about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5kKx5ThpSY
It explains the use of the nodes you just mentioned.
I guess my youtube search did work after all but I did not realize it because of the terminology difference.
I will play around with it (and everything else that has been pointed out) during my next mix session after the next jam.

I will never learn as much as you know Noel :-) Well maybe. I plan on living to 150 :-)

John

Many months later I finally got around to doing this.
I ended up using this node based volume automation method.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5kKx5ThpSY
I gives a nice visual on the places where I changed it and a few times I had to scroll forward and back to find these.
Great feature!

Next up is learning to put in reverb. On my first attempt it locked up on me :-) Hopefully this was a fluke.