Hi Folks

I'm really struggling and hope for some help. I have made a full track with chords etc. and have sorted it into the arrangement I want. However, I am really struggling to understand how to insert say just 4 bars of one of Brent Mason's solos as an intro. I want to slow it down to the speed of my track (120bpm) but have no idea how to do this.

Any suggestions would be super appreciated. Many thanks in anticipation.

Cheers and Merry Christmas to everyone.
Chris

HI Chris and a very Happy Christmas to you too.

To do what you're asking I would personally go down the RealBand route.

Open your saved BIAB track in Realband > Go to the Track view (waveform view of all instruments) > Select a new track and highlight the bars you want the solo fit into > right click and pick Multi Riff (choose) and select your Brent Mason solos. RB will generate around seven alternatives which will fit and you can pick which one suits the song best. (If there's nothing you like from that choice just repeat the process and RB will generate another selection to pick from. Providing the solo samples are reasonably close in tempo the tempo will be adjusted automatically (to 120bpm in your case)

The resulting song and solo(s) can be mixed and reverb etc applied within RB.

Hope that helps some. Other more experienced forum members may have other ways but that's just how I'd tackle it.

Best wishes

Kev.

Creating a 4 bar Brent Mason solo intro is also quick and easy in BIAB. Select the track you will be using for the guitar solo. Select the RealTracks button. Filter your search for Brent Mason 120
and a list of possible Brent Mason soloist tracks will populate the window. Here you can also stipulate if you want Bluesy, half time, double time, simple, held and other selections.

For this example, we will select RT 1515 as the selection for our soloist.

Selecting the RT1515 populates our entire chord chart but we only want it to play the 4 bar intro.

Open Bar Settings at Bar five using F5.

Mute the 1515 RT

Click Ok

This plays the 4 bar intro and then mutes the soloist from bar five forward.

If you want to use the soloist again, simply hit F5 at the bar you want the soloist to begin playing and unmute. You can mute and unmute as many times as you wish.

Chris, do you know about F5? This "Edit for current bar" shortcut allows you to have a solo instrument play anywhere you want in the arrangement and only in the places you want. It also allows you to have a difference tempo or style for any specified section. Use this to bring in and out your solo instruments.

Or do you not know how to insert an "Intro"? It is in the "Song Form" button under the title "Generate Intro". This will insert a number of bars which will only play through the first time at the beginning of your song. It will not repeat with additional choruses.

Does that help?

All good advice above. Of course, just to clarify, F5 means keyboard function key F5, and nothing to do with a chord value. I'm only adding this because I know others have misinterpreted the meaning previously.

Regarding slowing down the tempo to match, the RealTrack should automatically adjust to the song tempo. You should take care to try and select a RT that is close to the song tempo in order for BIAB to generate the best sounding audio. For instance, 110 would work with 120 better than a 65 RT.

Hi Folks and thanks for coming back to me on this one so fast. Hope you've all had an awesome and relaxing Christmas Day.

@Kev T:

I have no idea what "RealBand" is or whether I have it as a part of my BIAB on the MAC. Had a brief look about but couldn't work out how to get it running, so put the idea on the back burner for now. Sounds like a really nice way to get the stuff mixed but I'm going to need to wait for someone to tell me how to get RB running..


This is brilliant - thank you so much, Charlie. I now have an intro of 4 bars which sounds reasonably like it was meant to be there.

@MusicStudent - This advice from you all is opening my eyes to just how powerful BIAB actually has become. I just inserted an intro as well as a test and it sounded great.

Now... on to my next (related) question. Most songs have little "noodles" from the electric lead guitar or other solo instrument at the end of some of the lines of the song.... How would you guys select to insert those and which sounds would you choose for that?

As always - thank you SO much for the help.

Cheers
Chris

First, the MAC version does not have RealBand so although that is a great solution for your issue, you will not be able to utilize it.

All is not lost. Any DAW can use audio tracks you generate in BIAB. Most people do not complete their projects entirely in BIAB and few use RealBand although it is capable to finish a project. It really boils down to personal preference and having experience with a DAW or hardware recording gear.

Garageband is a very capable DAW that will work well for you.

One method to repeat certain riffs your RealTrack generates is to export the track to a DAW, cut out the riff and import it back into Biab. Importing audio into BIAB will offer options to which bar and beat to place the audio and whether to merge with the track or overwrite it. Merging will allow you to drop the riff onto the audio track multiple times.

You can also easily place the riff multiple times in the DAW if you export rendered audio of the BIAB project into the DAW.

Ah - of course. I am proficient with Adobe Audition 6 which I use all the time for track mixing so this one would be my preferred option. I'll give exporting the solo track from BIAB, fiddling with it, then bringing it back in a little exercise and see what happens.

Many thanks, Charlie.

Cheers
Chris

Good luck and I'm hoping you'll share some of your original work with us on the User Showcase.

Charlie I absolutely will do that, if I ever get the song to work! heh heh

I've not yet had the time to try the various things in latter comments but will do so and let you know how I get on.

All the best
Chris

Hi Folks

A little feedback for you. I have managed, thanks to your recommendations, to create pieces of a solo track from bar (a) to bar (d) etc. and have a couple more questions if I may?

(a) If I want to stop a solo at a specific bar but want it to fade rather than stop suddenly, what is the best number from 1 to 127 to put in the little box and would you use this to do that job?

(b) I found that if I say "export solo to AIFF" it only exports the bits that it's playing in the song. How do I tell BIAB to export the entire solo track to an AIFF file?

I'll think of some more questions to ask!

Cheers for now
Chris

Chris,

My answer for (a). You can create a fade for your solo track by pressing F5 to open the Current bar settings window, then selecting the fade by bar drop down for the track you want to fade. A second window opens so you can enter a numeric value. I suspect your asking for suggestions of what numeric value to use.

You'll have to play with the numeric value. BiaB track volume can be any numeric value between 127 for full volume and 0 for mute. Over how many bars do you want the fade to extend? What is the starting volume level for the bar where the fade starts?

Assume the starting bar volume level is 90 and you want the volume level to be at 0 after four bars then you might start with a volume reduction of 23 numbers per bar. That means that if the solo ends on bar 16 then the fade begins on bar 17 with a numeric value of 23 and enter 23 again on bars 18, 19 and 20 (23 X 4 = 92). That is a linear fade but a linear fade may not suit what you need so you may need to adjust the number for each bar up or down to achieve the fade out you want.

I'll let a Mac expert answer (b).

Aha! Thank you VERY much - I didn't think of doing the gradual thing. I want to put little "bits" of the solo instrument at the end of most of the vocal lines, so just normal volume for a bar and then either a mute where needed or perhaps at the end of a verse before a chorus, a couple of bars then fading as the vocal begins again.

I'll play with putting two values - one into each of two bars, in an effort to get the lead instrument to fade nicely. That's a great idea - Thanks again.

Cheers
Chris

Mr. Chris Kenward,

I am looking forward to having you share your composition here or by sending me the composition/details by PersonalMessage.

I also should mention that i have learned from your question and the responses to your question.

Hi there - so pleased that my question is helping. I'm one of those folk who get totally bogged down with instructions, so it's great not to wade through manuals and have people who have actually done this helping with advice.

I'll certainly share the composition as soon as it's completed.

All the best
Chris