I want to update an old piece with Real Track organ, but I'm looking for a way to keep "the foot on the pedal" of a certain note for an extended section.

I know how to use the "pedal bass" function for an organ line, but I want just the "pedal" to play for a while.

Any style, RT, or other tips for achieving this (without midi)?

Please correct me if I'm wrong but I'm interpreting you comment about "I know how to use the "pedal bass" function for an organ line" as meaning that you understand the 'Pedal Bass' in "Chord Settings" (ALT+F5).

This pedal bass is applied to the Bass track and not the track that the organ is on.

So if you want the pedal sound to hold and all other sounds to play, enter the chord as

X...pdgs

This tells BIAB to hold everything except the Piano, Drums, Guitar and Strings tracks (which, of course, translates into telling only the Bass track to hold).

The PDGS refers to BIAB's legacy track names. In the mixer from top to bottom, the legacy names are...

Bass
Piano
Drums
Guitar
Strings

I run BIAB so that these names show constantly on the tracks by disabling the 'auto-name tracks according to what instrument is present' option.

Alternatively, it's always possible to use the Melody or Soloist tracks and notate a MIDI note that you'd like held. Bar settings could then be used to set the Bass track's volume to 'mute' while the Melody track plays.

Because the note is in the bass, when the song is playing, people may well not be aware that the bass instrument has changed.

Hope this helps,
Noel

• my latest, a co-write with J&B: Deciduous Love (with a twist of Tin Pan Alley)

It indeed does, Noel. I guess I was being a little too cute with the "pedal" bit. I think a more or less held bass-line will do the trick, maybe processed a bit in DAW. Thanks.

If I understand correctly, you want a style that will hold down a single note over many measures; the essential definition of pedal point bass.

Is that correct?

Yes, or a real track that does similar. I don't want a solid "tone" as in tone-generator, but a something that holds the note. I'm trying to generate a track to add to a mix that will take the place of (or be the equivalent of) an organist holding the pedal down.

Sorry I didn't see this earlier.

Will it fade like a bass note that's held or will it remain constant like an organ note that's held?

edit: saw that you want an organ like hold....

I don't use held notes in that manner..... and I don't know if it's possible in BB. I know you can do holds and the organ will hold indefinitely, as I have used this on endings and needed to fade the organ in my DAW. The issue if I grasp it correctly is how to hold the organ while everything else does what it needs to do. And that, I don't know how or if it can be done. That would be a good question to ask the folks in support if and how.

Thanks, Guitarhacker. You've grasped it.

I reckon it wouldn't be a frequently requested real-track. LOL.

In my mind's ear, I can hear Noel's suggestion working and I think I can make that happen. It wouldn't be a "drone", necessarily, but if I can find a really smooth, not too plucky, bass real-track, I think it will work fine playing in a rhythm. I could take the track to DAW and apply a little tremelo and make a passable facsimile. It's not the star of the show.

Hmm. Seems this is the simplest of midi recordings, unless I am missing something.

Start recording midi
Push down the note on your midi controller that you want held.
Continue holding.
Hold some more until you have enough measures of that one note.
Stop recording.

Easiest midi recording ever - yes or no?

OK so.... I see 2 ways to do this. Both would, in my world, involve a DAW to edit as needed.

1. Use MIDI. Simple and easy and done in no time.

2. Use 2 different versions of the song in BB... One would be the normal everything keeps playing song and the other is the one with holds where you want them. Open the songs in Real Band and render the tracks you need....
from the one that keeps playing... all the tracks.
from the one with holds.... only the track that is the one organ with the holds.
Put them into a DAW and edit the project with volume envelopes. This is how I would do it if the midi didn't cut it.


The whole thing for me is not so much how you get there but the final end result that the listener hears. If you listen to my song with Joanne Cooper, Fool's Errand, I used a similar technique on the middle piano part..... But it was live and MIDI.... did my best to find a sample that had a very similar tone..... no one noticed.

https://youtu.be/itQXml5aimU

Tangmo,

My approach would be to open Piano Roll View and Click-Drag on the target note and drag it's duration. That would at least give you several bars of "drone." I recently did a fiddle drone this way.

Yup Donny. That would be how I handle it as well.

Steve,

"Great minds..." (chortle)

Herb, that was wonderful. Thanks. Yep, the method doesn't matter if the result works. Thankfully, with an organ, the pedal doesn't have to match the "stops" set for the keys.

Hey, great minds. :-) I asked for tips withOUT midi. That's ok, though. Somebody may be wanting to do similar and not have my limitations.

Thanks, all. I've got it worked out. Now just have to do it.

What is the aversion to midi? This is truly the simplest way to do any simple single note non melodic recoding There’s probably Little this no pedal point realtracks because it is really just not ore extremely rarely needed .

There are so many free and powerful DAW these days. Download one of them and learn it. That will take less time than trying to manipulate a real track.

+1

Interesting thread.

It doesn't have to be an aversion to midi. Sometimes I find a specific sound on a RealTrack, that I cannot reproduce easily by using midi - in that case it is nice to know other workarounds.

On my track "In My House" I wanted a RT synth to keep playing the same chord over 4 bars, while the other instruments were playing 4 different chords over the 4 bars.

So I had to export the "other instruments" playing those 4 chords and then play it as a loop over the 4 bars, while the main synth only was playing one chord. Worked fine!

I know it would be easier with midi, but sometimes you just like a sound so much that you need to find other ways of doing things (in this case because you cannot use the piano roll with RealTracks).

Will