What is performance track please

Hi all.Normally when I'm done with working in BB i right click each track and make them wav files.But I see theres an option to make them performance track.Before I mess up my latest piece of genuis,whats the difference please?
Wendy

Hi Wendy,

From what I understand, it's basically a way to render the track to audio so you can play it and share it as such and also keep it in your song/style but with the added benefit of being able to later erase the performance (but not the track itself) in case you want to further tweak it later.

From the user manual:

Quote:

This feature takes “freezing” a track one step further, and saves the audio itself. So you can send your Band-in-a-Box song to your friend, who will be able to play that track without needing to have the RealTracks installed.

To save the track, right-click on the instrument radio button and select Save Track as Performance File. You have a choice of a WAV file or a WMA file. When you choose, the track will be rendered to c:\bb\<Song Title><track name (e.g. Bass).WAV or .WMA. Use the “Erase Performance Track” command to remove the Performance Track.

Technical Note: A Performance Track can be made by simply making an audio file (WAV, WMA) and naming it the same as the song, but with the track name (Bass, Piano, Drums, Guitar, Strings, Melody, Soloist) added. For example, if the song is MySong.mgu, you put a file named MySong Melody.wma in the same folder, and that will be a performance track on the Melody track.

Additionally, you also have Artist Performance tracks:

Quote:

Performance Tracks with Artist’s Performances on the Melody track showcase the Band-in-a-Box RealTracks demos playing along to an artist performing the melody. These performances play the melody (2 choruses), and 2 choruses of solo (first chorus “simple” solo, 2nd chorus advanced).

All performance tracks include audio (stretchable to any tempo), notation, on-screen guitar, and tab. To play the Artist Performances, open the songs from the c:\bb\Artist Performances folder.

THank you guys.I wonderhow it could be different from "Freeze". If I want to send my BB song to a friend who doesnt have it, she currently gets individual wavs as per and pops them in her DAW. How is Performance different then? As usual Im probably having a bad brunette day and missing the obvious.

Let's say your friend only has the Pro- or the Mega-PAK, which doesn't include all the RealTracks. The performance track lets you send the .SGU or .MGU file to your friend, along with the accompanying audio performance tracks for the ones she doesn't have (which must all be stored in the same folder), and your friend can hear the song as you intended, even though your friend may not have those RealTracks. Your friend could still change instruments on the other tracks. However, if you had just frozen the tracks, you still have to have all the underlying RealTracks to hear the song.

That being said, your friend would not be able to make any changes to the chord grid without it sounding weird, because it would play the changes made along with the static audio file you created, which would be based on the original chord progression.

I would probably just personally render the entire song to WAV or MP3 and send that to my friend. However, with the .SGU or .MGU file along with the performance track(s), you can still change mix levels and other settings.

Pros and cons.

Get it? Got it! Good!! Thank you for expanding on it for me.As it happens she does have BB at all.Ive just sent her a single render wav of my latest lead balloon and it seems tosound OK.
Thanks John