Because I like the soul beats from the '60, like Al Green, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield and many more, I want to create them myself. Any idea where I can get info about this like a book, site, midi files or whatever. Because I am not a drummer, analyzing them by ear is too complicated for me.

Or maybe software which can analyze it, but I doubt this.

Rayzoon has a $9 expansion pack called "Breakbeat" for their Jamstix drum software (currently on sale for $79 for the holidays).

It might be the sort of thing you're looking for, since it's an all-in-one solution that doesn't require you to be a drummer.

Have you checked out the R&B and soul styles in Band in a Box? There are some great ones.

Just for starters filter by Zane Carney. He has played with John Mayer and the drums to many of the styles he plays on are old school soul. They sound great.

David Cuny: Thanks for these links. Several of them sound very good. They do not seem to be midi files, so I have to buy the full program. But thanks for the links.

David Snyder: Never thought of this. I use BIAB once in while, but it is not my main program. But I will check them out. You mentioned "Old school soul." I never came up with the idea of using this search term. Because of that, I found the perfect site for me. Site with a lot of midi files with my favorite music. Yes, I am old school. Not sure if they have the original beats, but they sound very good.

This is the site: https://freemidi.org/genre-rnb-soul
(No idea how to add an url here, but that is not a problem). Click on the song tittle link for download. It has more styles besides rnb and soul.

Perfect site for me. So indirect you helped me a lot. Thanks.

Since you use midi files, have Biab, you have the complete recipe to create your own soul beats and backing tracks.

If you open a midi file in Biab, it loads the file on the Melodist track and additionally, it analyzes and populates the Chord Chart with the chords of the song, the key signature and tempo.

If you hit the play button at this point, you're likely to be dissatisfied with the sound. Here's how to fix that.

Open StylePicker. Here you can search for styles that fit the profile of your song by the song title. The StylePicker in 2018 now contains more than 10,000 songs in the database. If for some reason the particular song in your project is not listed, search by the artist name, genre or a similar song.

Once you've chosen and loaded a style you like. On the main chord chart page you will likely want to do something with that midi file on the Melodist Track.

You can mute the track and hear how the style plays over your chord chart but if there are certain parts of the midi file you want to retain, open the sequencer, select the Melodist Track and a window will appear where you can do minor editing to the midi file.

Yeah, that is a cool site.

I found a song from back in the day, loaded the midi into Sonar, and pasted the drums into the Session Drummer Synth with a Led Zep kit.

Funkadelic man!!

Charlie. Thanks for the info. Never tried this workflow before, but going to give it a try.

Not using BIAB as much as I used to, because I have gone back to basics. And that is creating melodies and arrangements myself from scratch. The only problem I had was the drums. I can create beats myself, but they are not as good as what the old timers did. The above site solved that problem. Now I can filter out the drumbeats and if needed improve them.

Replying out of future interest

Here is a link to a midi song I posted here on the forum using this method and workflow I described to you.

I think it is a good representation of how good a result can be obtained using BIAB to create backing tracks. The project combines a midi file, Midi tracks and RealTracks.

Cherish Lyric Video