If I'm looking for a specific type of music or song, is there a way to search within a style in the showcase? Or do I do that in soundcloud somehow? I like current country music a lot. I see the showcase has country and folk. I do like that too but am looking for slightly different than that. Otherwise do I just click and listen to each to find them? Sorry if this question is in the wrong place. I didn't think I should ask it in the showcase.

There are some "'round-about" ways to accomplish this. I can suggest a few.

You can find a good deal of Country from BIAB users.
Most of that will be "old school" Country because, generally, that is who we are and where we came from.
You will find very little that fits the "modern country" mold, but, that depends on YOUR definition of "modern" - and you will need to decide for yourself if anyone fits that...

There is a link to the collected Showcase songs by Category here:
http://www.pgmusic.com/user-showcase/
(This is not the Showcase forum, but a gathering of songs from the Showcase).
It is fairly random. You can sample stuff a little more quickly there.
You can sort that by the column headers - so if you find an "artist" that is doing what you are looking for, you can find a number of their songs by sorting on that column.


(I think this is a better way) - Within the actual Showcase:
http://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=50&page=1
you can click on the blue header "Poster" where it says "Subject/Poster" and the entire Showcase will be sorted by Poster (in the order of their posts by date).
Again, if you find someone you like, this will allow you to locate all of the songs that they have posted. (Once you are "finished" doing that, make sure to click the "Posted" header (far right column) to get it back to sorted by posted date.
If you need to jump many pages to get where you want to go, there is a "down-arrow" at the end of the pages (1 of 206...) - click that and you can enter any number then click the Go...


Most people have a favored place where they place all their songs, so once you discover that, it is generally easy to hear a bunch of BIAB examples in succession.

For example, (warning: "tootin' my own horn here"..) I've collected some of the songs I've posted into "CD's" on my site
http://floydjane.com/index.html
- click a CD, it will take you to list of songs that you can play - virtually ALL BIAB..
I have recently added a Soundcloud page, too (it will have some of the same songs, some different) -
https://soundcloud.com/floydjane (again, ALL BIAB songs)

I would recommend Tom Adams' (tommyad) site...
- a good variety - mostly BIAB - Tom adds his own guitar and, at times, his own pedal steel...
http://tommyadamsmusic.com/music

and Steve Young's Soundcloud site:
(Steve's use of BIAB is what convinced me to buy it - I thank him as often as I can!)
https://soundcloud.com/stephenwyoung

Janice and Bud's place:
(a VERY wide variety music examples - great use of BIAB)
https://soundcloud.com/mootsman

Herb's place - which will, again, be very old-school Country
- Herb also adds his own guitar in -
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=443134

That's a few examples in the Country area...

Really helpful and detailed reply. Your songs caught me ear. Good stuff. I get the feeling you aren't new to this. I do like almost any country traditional or even bro. From reading a few threads I see there is a heavy lean to one side. A few friends and me have a basement band. We practice once or twice a week to play out every three months. Nothing serious to it just fun. We are doing some Zac Brown Cole Swindell Luke Bryan and the like. It gets the girls dancing and bring the boys that drink beer come for the girls. Thought about using this for some backing tracks and maybe try some originals. Thats a different ballgame though. Is anyone one here doing the chart type country?

Essentially, "no". People here are not doing that sound. But NOT because it can't be done. Most people don't really aspire to that sound. And most don't understand how to create it. But it CAN be done. I have a production set up to get that sound - simply to see if I could get it - I haven't written a lyric to it, so it is just the "sound bed" (for the most part, it is not the sound I am after for my songs - there are elements of it in my latest post "Too Dangerous" once you hit the chorus - but it is not an attempt to recreate that sound).

Caaron ("HearToLearn") has done a lot more in that direction than anyone else here has - but he hasn't been around for a number of weeks - and he does not post in the Showcase (but if he pops up, he might be willing to post a snippet of something he is working on to demonstrate "the sound").

In order to do it, you need a good "producer's ear" to understand all that goes into the "modern Country sound". It's not hard, it's just "different". And you need all of BIAB (the UltraPlusPak) because it take elements from many different styles (most of which are NOT the standard "Country" stuff) - it a mix-and-match-hodge-podge. You need some imagination. It's P&W drums and Rock guitars with heavily delayed pedal steel and underlying banjo. And maybe a metal or funk bass. It doesn't hurt to throw in a RAP percussion loop...

(If I find time later - and if you are interested - I can post a snippet of the "sound bed" that I have - to demonstrate...)

Had the showcase player going for a while this morning and there some good stuff to be had there for sure. Also listened to your song dangerous song and feel that could be on the radio. You grab on of the chart toppers right now and have them sing that and it would be game over. That's what we want to do right there. Not looking for fortune or fame just to be good where we are. A song like that would turn heads. are you using band in a box for that? I hear a bit what it can do and am surprised. I'm guessing it takes some playing around to get things just right but it's there. that would be great if you post your snippet. if it's a music bed how do you put words to it?

For the most part, everything I do is 100% Band-In-A-Box. The tracks are exported out of BIAB so that they can be remixed in a DAW (RealBand can serve that purpose. I happen to use Presonus Studio One). In the case of "Too Dangerous" I used a piano track that was generated by EZKeys - because I happened to be "playing around with it" - but I could have just as easily found a BIAB piano RealTrack to fill that spot. The song also included guitar leads done by my buddy Tom Adams (but 90% of my songs use lead work from BIAB).

So, here is a snippet of BIAB tracks put together to achieve that "sound-wash" that you typically hear in current Country radio songs (it's a long way from finished - there will likely be more "layering" later). Keep in mind, there are no vocals and the vocals in today's songs are a BIG part of why they sound as they do... there is a cadence to the lyric writing that defines that "new sound". Country radio songs from 10 years ago were an entirely different kind of lyric write (and I, for one, hope that it will return to that. The "old style" has moved over to Americana for now...).

http://floydjane.com/Songs/Mixtest.htm

(if you use the opening lead figure to "sing" once that lead stops, you should be able to "feel" what the lyric would do - current country is very repetitive)

I see what you mean. That has the right sound for sure. It seems like it has a melody even without it. Should be cool to see what you do with it. I get what you are saying about repetitive. More pop than story driven. You would think it makes for an easy write but not the case many times at least for me. I like both kinds of the story and more pop country for different reasons. When do you think your song will be done. I would like to hear it. Are you going to post it here?

I played a couple of your songs for my band and they think you are a good writer. Do you write for more local bands ever? or can you give tips on how to write like that? we don't want to put a ton of time into it because this is just a fun thing but like to have good sounding songs to. it just seems like there is more to it than just a few chords, guitar, bass, and the singing. if you listen, there is more than I would have guessed going on in these songs. I grew up on traditional country and like that. This new stuff is cool in its own way though. I thought it was trash at first but catchy. Now I get it's clever in a different kind of way. That's where were hoping band in a box can fill in some holes for us. It's a rude awakening when you realize its hard to pull off the crap you've been ripping on. You can dumb it down but its usually cause you cant do it all. I guess asking how long it takes to write like that is asking how long it takes to learn an instrument. It just seems like it should be simple. We kept saying theres nothing to these words but to write them is hard. A lot of people have help though. I think thats what we need to.