Greetings. I put together a song in Real Band, which is now a seq file. I added a realtrack for pedal steel and I would like to mute it for certain parts of the song. When I go to the measure I wish to change (mute or resume) in the chord view, and hit the F5 key, the only track choices I have to mute are bass, piano, drums, etc. and not the pedal steel track. How do I mute portions of that track?

Hi Soundchaser,

Welcome to the forums.

I'd use volume envelopes.

1. Click on the arrowhead I've labelled #1 to expand the track. (This arrowhead is a toggle for expanding and reducing track view.)

2. Check that "Volume nodes" is selected (#2).

3. Click on the blue line in 4 places to add for nodes (#3).

1. node at bar where mute is required
2. node slightly past first node
3. node at bar where unmute should occur (this is the fourth node)
4. node slightly before the fourth node

4. Drag the second and third nodes down to zero.

This is much more effective than a simple on/off mute because nodes will allow sound to be faded in and out.

regards,
Noel

alternatively...

If only the BIAB equivalent of F5 is what you want then try the following.

1. Change to the chord sheet view (#1 on image below).

2. Select the bar in which you want to mute instruments (#2).

3. Click on the "Bar" button (#3).

Also, F5 should work when in Chord Sheet view.

Regards,
Noel

Well, RB is different than BiaB, and while Noel is showing how to do it in a way similar to BiaB, I'd do it differently in RB.

In RB, in the main Tracks view place the cursor where you want to make a change.
Right click in the track data area of the track and select Insert Volume Change.

I'll post screen shots in a minute.
If I recall this works with both MIDI and Audio tracks, which is one reason I always liked this method in RB.
You can Undo, or manually change the volume change data, or redo over it.

There is also the 'Fill' option which can make changes smoother (fade out a track in this section, and back in at this section.. instead of sudden muting methods).

In the images below I set the cursor to end of Bar 8 (roughly)
Right-clicked and selected Insert Volume change
The pop up let me select a new volume (I chose 4, but zero would be muted)
The last image shows the resulting volume change command at the end of bar 8 (4), which changes the original volume command set at bar 1 (100).
Simply insert another at the bar you want it to stop muting (back to 100).

/note- 127 is max, and 0 is mute in volume settings

If you don't want sound there, just select and delete those bars on that track and save the song as the next revision. That way you can change your mind and go back if you wish.

The less variables you have in an equation, the easier it is to solve.