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Hello,

I must admit that I’m not a frequent visitor to this forum. Even though, I’ve been using BIAB for almost 10 years.

Currently I’m on 2009.5 when I upgraded to it 6 months ago. I have the “everything pack” that came pre-installed on the 160GB USB drive.

I am a producer and part owner of my studio. Its not very often that I get a chance to use BIAB extensively in the studio for a client. I have a client in my studio who is a “hobbyist singer - song writer” who writes all of his songs on his guitar. As a producer, using BIAB on his project is basically a no-brainer decision. He has been in my studio a few years back to do an EP. That was just before the introduction of Real Tracks.

He returned to do a CD of 12 to 15 song album. We are very impressed with Real Tracks, and how good it sounds. I was hoping to eliminate the use of hired studio musicians to play on his tracks. Hiring studio musicians can get expensive and time consuming.

The ISSUE :
The first song we finished went smooth and painless. The result sounds great. Now I’m working on other songs on his album. I am having a difficulty finding SOLOISTS to play in the solo breaks.

Since I purchased the “everything pack”, I’m sure I have all the available “solist disks”. I had assumed that there are soloists recorded in slow, medium and fast tempo range. The first song I worked on, finding a Style and usable Soloist was easy. Now I realize I was just plain “lucky” for that song.

Most of the songs require a “guitar solo” but there are so very very few available. For example, there are several Styles that resemble “Rolling Stones real tracks” yet there are no “Rolling Stones Soloists” to work with these Styles.

The current song I’m working on is a song using the style “_TEXROCK - EV - 8 - 120 “. It is a 2 guitar style. But when I went to look for a “guitar solo” for this Style, I could not find one that I can use. As a matter of fact, the only remotely usable soloists were the 2 “dire straits” blues soloists.

I’m thinking “this can’t be”. All I want is a pretty generic sounding “pop / rock” clean or distorted guitar solo.

So . . . Am I missing something ?? I thought I would be able to find an “electric guitar soloist” in slow, medium and fast tempo range in a generic “pop / rock” category. I can’t find one.

I’m hoping someone can give me a “V-8 moment” by pointing out something I missed.

Could this be an issue that can be solved in Real Band ?? I must admit that I have nearly no experience using Real Band.

I need help. As it stands, I’m going to have to hire a session musician to play the “guitar solos”, which is something I would like to avoid.

Can someone help or advise me in what to do next ??

Thanks
Ed Layola

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Hi Ed,

BB 2010 upgrade has a lot more RealTracks added to it, maybe that would help.


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For Rock, there are Metal, Blues, Dire, Slide, DrivingCountryBallad soloists

If you type keywords in the filter dialog of the RT picker you can find them.

For example, type "guitar soloist metal" or just metal

Then you can sort by tempo to see what works.

Based on your description, the metal, blues, dire and slide should be worth a try.


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Thanks for the quick response,

I already laid out a chunk of change for my last upgrade to 2009.5. My upgrade to 2010 is going to cost me $250. I don't think there are many SOLOIST upgrade . . . well, not $250 worth.

I've tried all the handful of soloists I can find in the 120 tempo range and none of them work well. Metal and blues just does not work and the slides are too bluesy. I already used it for the first song, but I might use the "Dire" solo to write the solo by editing it after its recorded into a DAW. At least I can create a guide for the studio soloist give him a good idea of what I'm looking for.

I am surprised that there are no generic "pop / rock" guitar soloists in 4/4. I would have thought that the first "Guitar Soloist" would have been the generic "pop / rock" style soloists in slow, medium and fast tempo. Even if its just "clean electric" sound can be easily altered to add distortion later.

I just don't understand that all the work that was put into creating all the wonderful Real Styles but did not create the soloists using the same players used to create the Real Styles. If a particular Real style had Bass, B3 Organ, acoustic guitar and clean electric guitar, that particular Style should have a soloist for the Bass, B3 Organ, Acoustic and Electric guitar with matching sound for solos. I don't think there is a single B3 Organ soloist at all.

The lack of matching soloist means that there is going to be a HOLE in every song that does not have a soloist for each instrument used to create that Real Style. The other way of looking at it is . . . Any Real Style isn't usable in a Studio Environment unless there is a matching soloist available or the particular song does not have a solo break. A solo break in a song happens more often than not.

Now I am realizing that SOLOISTS is the big WEAK LINK in the Real Styles. Replacing MIDI SOLOS is possible with keyboard sounds like piano, EP and Organ Sounds, but trying to create a MIDI based stringed instrument is much harder and require very extensive MIDI editing to even get them to sound passable within any Real Styles.

The next best thing is to write the stringed or wind instrument solos using MIDI instruments and have the studio musicians learn the solos. But with wind instruments like sax or trumpet, the character of the sound itself is a product of THE particular instrument used to record the Real Style. There really is no way to match an acoustically recorded instrument in the solo parts recorded in a studio. In this aspect, Electric guitars and Bass can be EQ'd enough to come close to the instrument played in the rest of the Real Style. Any electrified instruments can add a different effects in the Solo parts make it blend well enough to work with the rest of the song. Acoustic instrument solos would be a lot tougher to get them to sit well in the final mix.

With the exception of the time and expense of having to record SOLOS in the studio to match the rest of the Real Style used for a song, BIAB does eliminate the rehearsal time and expense of hiring a real band. BIAB Real Style is still a "god-send" to singer / songwriters who can afford studio time by saving a great deal on production cost.

I wish there were more soloists. Specially Soloists that match a created Real Style.

I do realize that I am trying to get a "Consumer" software to work in a "Professional Studio" environment. But OMG . . . Real Styles are so close being a "professional" tool . . . with the exception of the "weak link" I am up against.

BIAB . . . its a great software. It is probably the most under-rated software for professional use. It is second to none for writing songs for a band.

Thanks

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+1 to the lack of soloists.

BUT then again as I have found Its very very difficult to find a soloist that will fit in with your particular song. eg I have a few of my own country songs that I am laying down in band in a box, the main and only country soloist for that is the cowboy electric guitar soloist, but the phrases that it plays doesn't really fit in with the songs. I would think that will be the same for most genre.

Although I'm not a great lead guitar player I think my own simple lead lines will soound better.

Rhythm real tracks no problem.

joe

Ed-your website is a fountain of information in itself, well worth the read, some of Ed's ideas on mastering.

http://www.pointconceptionstudio.com/FAQA/FAQ09.html

Last edited by joemardo1; 05/20/10 03:52 AM.

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I've found that with a little creative cutting and pasting and Guitar Rig I can make usable distinctive solos from what's available for just about everything I've written.
Don't forget that the RealTracks will be a little different each time they are loaded.
Save several of these tracks and you can find passages that can be strung together to compliment your arrangement. I've even used acoustic Jazz passages run through Guitar Rig in my country stuff, and I've used combinations of Blues, Blugrass and the Metal soloists within the same track, with a little EQing and effects it can be quite interesting

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Ditto on the Jazz passages. I have taken some of those oh so smooth passages and put a vst on that track and created some "nice" lines for country work. Especially older country, which I prefer. Probably not as elegant as Guitar Rig, but some of the free amp simulation vsts can really create some convincing sound.

I play guitar though, so mainly I noodle around on my own till I find a good melody. But, these RealTracks can be very inspiring and make a good jumping off point.

BTW, I really enjoyed reading and exploring your site Ed. Good stuff. I especially like the emphasis on having fun.


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There is not enough fun. Remember the soloists have a huge range you need to work outside the range. Double or half them and see what comes up. Try taking a soloist ..(non Realtracks) generate it, use a good sound device like the Ketron SD2 and change the instrument.

I am the soloist. So often I find what someone else was using for fills, riffs and runs, print that part and stick it beside the lead sheet and have a go at it. Even if it's not the Realtracks, in some cases, the audience is going ok buddy is playing an electric piano doing this and boom, there's some guy I can't see playing um um, what is that, a guitar. Better you take the musical ideas, put them into your performace, stand up, lay 'er down, and take the applause. NON?

Just my ramblings, don't mean a thing if it ain't got that baby swing my grandson loves to swirl about in at the park. Wish I was one year old again when that giggle starts. No worries....look Papa John a doggie!

Make songs now for your grandchildren, Peter et al put out the childrens song book. You have X number of days, spend 10 minutes a day making a plan Stan, and solo "Mary had a little lamb"....in a goofy hat in front of a video camera. Remember, you might not be around later to see the fun, but you can make it today....


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Quote:

The lack of matching soloist means that there is going to be a HOLE in every song that does not have a soloist for each instrument used to create that Real Style. The other way of looking at it is . . . Any Real Style isn't usable in a Studio Environment unless there is a matching soloist available or the particular song does not have a solo break. A solo break in a song happens more often than not.




Absolutely true and a very good point. You should contact forum member Harvey Gerst. He uses Biab a lot in his studio for exactly what you're doing and he's posted some examples over the years. He's the definition of an old pro master, if you don't recognize his name, just Google it.

You mentioned Real Band. Yes, RB can help here because it's a hybrid of Power Tracks Pro Audio and Biab. Without going into a whole blurb here, you have 48 tracks to work with, you can work with all the same Real Tracks/Drums that Biab does and for a solo track, you can create several different versions one track one at a time using different styles, changing the part markers to mix things up and then cut and paste from those different tracks to create one good solo part. You can do the same with every instrument. Plus, it's still a good Daw with all the midi/audio recording functions you would expect with plugins, mastering, 16 midi output ports etc. I'm sure you already have a lot of that covered but using RB to stitch together parts of different Biab generated tracks both midi and RT's, is something I do all the time.

Bob


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Yes, more realtracks clean (emphasis on clean and not dirty,gritty etc or jazz) guitar solos. +1

Cheers F

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Hello,

Thanks for your inputs.

Gee . . . I didn't realize anyone ever read any of my ramblings on my web site. LOL Thanks for reading!!!

As you can see in the "studio photo page", our current recording set up is two Roland VS2480 and one Alesis HD24. This basically does the job of Real Band. I also use Ableton and Sonar on my computer.

If I was working on my own project, time for production is my cheapest investment. In the case of "client project", I have to be aware of time spent on each song. While I'm giving away a lot of production time to get thing right, I still have to charge something for the time I work with BIAB and associated DAW work.

As I said before, my client is a "hobbyist" singer / song writer. He is a guitar player, like most of us, he is not proficient enough to match the "musicianship" of the players that recorded the rest of Real Tracks. Real Tracks are great . . . BUT the down side is . . . any parts, like the solos, would have to be played well enough to match the "musicianship" of the rest of the Real Track players. Real Tracks certainly brings up the expectation UP a bit.

This is what I'm thinking. I can not leave the basic "composition" of the solo to the hired studio musician. The solos would have to be written for him. This eliminates the time required to write the solo in the studio . . . which is expensive to do. The solo can be written as MIDI or by stealing riffs from various real tracks, even the ones with "out of range" tempos. Once the solo is written, I just need the session player's chops to play the solo. Half a dozen takes should give me what I need. It should take less than 2 hours to finish tracking the solo. Decent studio players around here charges $50 to $75 an hour.

Once the various takes are recorded, I can create a composite track by taking the best parts of several takes. There will be small overlapping parts at the ends of each comped parts. I can then export each part that makes up the entire solo as individual WAV file. I can then import the audio clips into Ableton and edit each clip to match the ends so that there are no overlaps. Then export the finished solo back to the recorder and mix it there.

Well, I was hoping to find a "secret cache" of soloists somewhere on my BIAB HD that I missed. I'm glad I was not holding my breath.

Thanks everyone

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Quote:

As you can see in the "studio photo page", our current recording set up is two Roland VS2480 and one Alesis HD24. This basically does the job of Real Band. I also use Ableton and Sonar on my computer.




Those very nice devices and programs don't do the job of Real Band. Now, maybe you do really understand my point earlier and if so, my apologies for beating that dead horse again. The really, really big deal with RB is it is capable of generating almost any Biab tracks on it's own using everything in your arsenal as far as midi, Real Tracks or Real Drums. One thing RB does not do is generate Biab midi soloists, only RT soloists. As you said, the midi soloists are not that great for studio work anyway. This is much faster than creating one RT solo in Biab, exporting it, going back, generating another version, exporting that etc, etc then in Sonar cutting and pasting parts of those tracks. RB does it all right in front of you plus you don't even have to generate a whole track. If all you need is 8 bars, you can highlight those 8 bars on the target track and hit generate. You can change styles, change the instrument, go into the chord grid and tweak that then highlight the next 8 bars and generate those 8 bars only without changing what you just did. Multiply that by 48 tracks and you suddenly have all kinds of possibilities that you can't touch with Biab or any other DAW. This also works great with drum and percussion tracks. I use Jamstix and a Biab midi drum track played through JS sounds almost exactly like a RD track and they mix together very well. I've used 3 or 4 tracks of RD drum kits, RD percussion and midi drum parts going through JS and then mixing those for a killer drum track. Again, this is all right in front of you, no generating one track, exporting, going back and forth. Auditioning sounds, using trial and error is much faster in RB because you don't have to delete something you may not think is perfect until you've used up all 48 tracks. Just leave them there, no harm, some part of that track may fit perfectly with another track you haven't generated yet. And, you don't have to pay anything for this, you already have RB included with your Ultrapak.
As a studio producer you may not need Biab for it's primary purpose of creating a complete backup band although RB has an option to load Biab songs and do that too. You probably only need a few tracks to go along with what you already have. This is exactly what RB was created to do. I would export your existing tracks into RB and work from there or, maybe not all of them just a quick reference mix. Once you have used RB to create, cut and paste your new tracks, create a nice submix then export those back into wherever for your final mix although RB is perfectly capable of doing that too.
I think once you've gotten the feel for this it will save you a lot of time not to mention open up creative possiblities you may not realize yet.

Bob


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I would also like to see more guitar solos across more tempos. I agree with some of the other posters in that you can squeeze more juice out of what is already there by running the existing solos at half or double time and/or using solos from other styles, but having a greater choice of solos to start with would be better. Something recorded specifically for the style and tempo you are working with will usually sound best.

I guess that PG have come a long way with realtracks in just a couple of years but it is obviously time consuming and expensive to produce new realtrack styles and they seem to be working at full capacity. Personally I would support any initiative from PG to speed up the rate at which new realtrack styles are delivered and would be happy to shell out more money for bigger and/or more frequent new batches of styles (perhaps independently of BIAB releases?).

If PG were able to find some way to open up the architecture so that other content providers could create realtracks, (under PG's quality control and even perhaps distributed by PG in an 'Appstore' kind of approach), then that would be brilliant - both in expanding the number of realtrack styles available and perhaps by opening up genres that have not been PGs natural territory in the past.

Meanwhile I have my fingers crossed that 2010.5 will come soon and deliver me some useful new goodies on the realtracks front.

Regards, Aubrey


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jazzmammal,

Thank you for your informative response regarding Real Band. I must admit that I am a total novice when it comes to Real Band. I never really got into it. From what I can understand from your post, it sounds like its a part of BIAB that warrants some time investment to get to know. It sounds like Real Band can save a lot of time "composing" solo parts to match an existing Real Style.

Since the available "soloists" are quite limited, I'll be writing solos using bits and pieces from where ever I can find the "Pieces". When something is written in this manner, the finished composition will still have to be played by a studio musician to record the finished solo.

When recording a solo, a passage or the entire instrument part for a song, its rare that I encounter a musician who can "play through" without error. Typical level of "musicianship" of a session player for a typical demo studio usually requires a number of takes. I just have to make sure I have enough "good parts" that I can comp a finished track later. After the "parts" are recorded, I would export each "good part" as a WAV file to be edited in Ableton. Once in Ableton, it has a feature that allows me to edit each WAV file to quantize a each beat point of an audio file. Once all the pieces are quantized, I can comp the finished solo in Ableton. Then its just a matter of exporting to the DAW for mixing. Therefore, all the import / export process I mentioned previously is in regards to the required process for completion after the tracking session is finished.

As much I dislike reading manual, you gave me enough incentive to go through the Real Band manual. I just did not get around to doing that because BIAB seemed to be doing what I needed. Now I have the incentive to explore into Real Band.

Thanks for your help.
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Yoda,
We do plan on adding more guitar soloists. What specific ones do you have in mind (sample tunes). Basic Rock can mean different things.


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Thank you Peter. And thank you Yoda for bringing it up. I had just put a note on the Realband wishlist forum last weekend requesting more lead and riffs for those of us who don't play lead guitar. I'd like to have lead riffs that match each tempo range guitar style - as part of the set. So in addition to the a only, b only, a and b, rhythm tracks for a particular guitar real track - we'd also have a soloist track that goes with it.

I think if the soloist are more riff based than song based - with a variety of more complex riffs and combinations of riffs for the genre - that would work for a lot of different songs. Just something to consider.

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Peter

Perhaps this is a bit of a cop out, but for me, the most useful thing would be to have soloists that can cover more of the splended "matched sets" of rhythm tracks issued over the last couple of years. For examples, the matched sets on disks 67 - 69, and 78-82 have given me masses of ideas (and pleasure), but there are no matching soloists. Sometimes you can make do (and I do try to use all the ones you mentioned earlier in this thread, as well as some more imaginative choices like cutting and pasting "background" phrases from Dobros etc to make "solos") but not always.

I do have an electric guitar but it is more a form of musical therapy than a bona fide contribution to my music making!

To sum up, ideally, for me, each matched set of rhythm tracks would have a matching soloist. There are already examples of this (e.g the faster Dire Straits RTs and the splended Driving Country Ballad set) and I'd love a few more. If I'd to pick one only, it would be the rock waltzes. It is hard to make do around these, and trying to play solos in anything other than 4/4 does my head in!

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I agree with Sundance that riff-based Soloists would be great.
I've done the cut and paste thing, moving phrases around, changing a single note in a phrase, etc.

What would be really cool is a Soloist generator where you can program the speed, intensity, range, direction (up and down), and number of notes for a solo - in much the same way that Holds, Shots, etc can be programmed for Chord progressions - With Selectable Preset Soloists and/or create your own.

Currently, the Real Tracks pretty much blow away MIDI trying to do anything similar, not to mention that they sound better than what most of us can do with real instruments.


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PeterGannon,

Thank you for your's and PG's interest in this matter.

Having worked with many musicians in the studio for the last 30 years, a solo can be divided into 2 main types of solos. "Melody based", and "Ad-lib / Free-form" based. A "melody based" solo is nearly impossible to create for this type of a program like BIAB, since there is no way to predict any lead melody line. What we have so far are the "Free-form based" solos for the soloists. Please remember that I don't have any idea of the required production process to create ant Real Styles or Real Soloists

If I was the producer in charge of creating new soloists, I would start with "generix" type of solos covering the tempo range of 60 to 180 as slow, medium slow, medium, medium fast and fast. I would also start with the most common time signatures of 3/4 and 4/4. By "generic", what I mean is the typical solos played by any performing band that does not "emulate" any particular "well known" artist. I do understand that when asked to perform in a "generic" style, every player can not help but bring in their "own style" of playing into such a performance. That should be fine as long as the player has a large number of solo riffs in their arsenal. A "generic" style should work with almost any Real Style within its genre (Rock, Metal, Pop, Country, Jazz etc.). In the case of guitar solos, regarding "clean" or "dirty, I would start with clean. Many of us have the capability to add desired level of distortion as needed.

The same concept of production should apply to all solo instruments. Guitar is a good starting point since its the most common instrument. Then wind instruments that are most commonly found in a "Band". Then keyboard instruments with vintage sounds that needs to be a real track, like a couple of variations of B3 Organ.

After that is done, then move on to the "emulated" soloists, much like the "Dire" type of solos. The problem with "emulated" soloists that they are too "recognizable" when doing an "album" of songs. A solo used for one song is "too similar" when used in another song in an album.

Currently existing Soloists have too narrow of tempo range. In the example of the "Dire" soloist, there is only one tempo, 140. If there was a temp of 60, 90, 120, 150 and 180, then the "Dire Soloist" would have been more useful for many more song. Of course, with each recorded tempo range would naturally create different riffs. This will further enhance the "variety" in the soloists while still retaining the "Dire" feel.

Believe me, I can imagine the enormity of the production process I am suggesting. I am also very excited about the future of where Real Tracks is headed. I'm sure that with the advancement of the recording software and computers, the cost of production process should continue decrease.

Other minor things I am noticing about Real tracks and Real Drums is the amount of recorded "ambiance". In general, IMO there are too much "room ambiance" recorded with the tracks. For example, the "sax tracks" have too much "room reverb" included. If it was recorded in a more "dead" room, it would make "mixing" a bit easier. With the Real Drum tracks, if a "gate" was included in each drum input (snare, toms and kick / bass drum), the "ringing" of the skins will be more controlled to match the type of music these drum tracks were intended for. The Real Drum tracks don't sound like any "gates" were used in the recording chain. Of course, cymbals will not be gated. I might be getting a bit too "nit picky". Lastly, a larger variety of "fills" for Real Drums would be nice. For slower tempo Real Drum tracks, some triplets in the "fills" would be nice too.

I was not trying to create a "wish list" but I thought I should say enough since we have the attention of PG Music in this case.

Thanks a lot for your attention Peter and PG.

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I don't know what to think about the previous post. Obviously the theory of time stretching and the reverse elude the author. Part of the perception that there is a problem is exacerbated by the fact if you chose a tempo of 92 and the realtrack is recorded at 90 you get the equivalent of an error message via the dastardly flashing yellow box. I urge that this be thought through and the error message only appear if the track is being stretched past it's limit.

The technology of melody based solos is already part of the PG arsenal. In fact, try putting a very prominent melody you know well and mute it and play the real track and see if you can spot it. In many of my songs it's there, hinted at, fooled with, and becomes part of the style. This I believe, and I'm sure Mac will jump in here, but is the difference between using a realtrack fill and a realtrack soloiist.

As to how something is recorded, ie the way a drum kit is done, will vary with almost every studio, and every song. I think given the artists involved, the people involved, and the company you are going to get a group who have a good feel for what they do and how they do it. I'd like to see you walk up to award winning people like Terry Clarke and tell him it's being done all wrong. He sat in the studio, and no doubt listened to the result, and I doubt the recording was done in the back room of the Seattle Radio Shack Store with stuff from the shelves.

We have a wish list forum, and normally Dr. Gannon and his crew go through, with Dr. Gannon answering the wishes personally, at times with explanations.

The new prevailing wisdom of the 'recording' community here seems to have a track for every part of the drum kit, and then they will argue over how it was recorded.

REMEMBER, some of us are USING this software as an end product. WE don't want to spend hours tweaking some cowbell so that the ring is right for the size of the room when it's 21 degrees C with a relative humidity of 72 percent and an east wind at 12 kmh.

At the end of the day, the need for more variety in the RealTracks offered is trumps the tweaking of the existing stuff, even if on or two users think it was done all wrong and needs a total redo along with the interface, the support for everything apple, and making it work with a 128 channel mixer that I store in my garage.


John Conley
Musica est vita
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User Video: Next-Level AI Music Editing with ACE Studio and Band-in-a-Box®

The Bob Doyle Media YouTube channel is known for demonstrating how you can creatively incorporate AI into your projects - from your song projects to avatar building to face swapping, and more!

His latest video, Next-Level AI Music Editing with ACE Studio and Band-in-a-Box, he explains in detail how you can use the Melodist feature in Band-in-a-Box with ACE Studio. Follow along as he goes from "nothing" to "something" with his Band-in-a-Box MIDI Melodist track, using ACE Studio to turn it into a vocal track (or tracks, you'll see) by adding lyrics for those notes that will trigger some amazing AI vocals!

Watch: Next-Level AI Music Editing with ACE Studio and Band-in-a-Box


Band-in-a-Box® 2024 German for Windows is Here!

Band-in-a-Box® 2024 für Windows Deutsch ist verfügbar!

Wir waren fleißig und haben über 50 neue Funktionen und eine erstaunliche Sammlung neuer Inhalte hinzugefügt, darunter 222 RealTracks, neue RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, "Songs with Vocals" Artist Performance Sets, abspielbare RealTracks Set 3, abspielbare RealDrums Set 2, zwei neue Sets von "RealDrums Stems", XPro Styles PAK 6, Xtra Styles PAK 17 und mehr!

Paket | Was ist Neu

Update Your PowerTracks Pro Audio 2024 Today!

Add updated printing options, enhanced tracks settings, smoother use of MGU and SGU (BB files) within PowerTracks, and more with the latest PowerTracks Pro Audio 2024 update!

Learn more about this free update for PowerTracks Pro Audio & download it at www.pgmusic.com/support_windows_pt.htm#2024_5

The Newest RealBand 2024 Update is Here!

The newest RealBand 2024 Build 5 update is now available!

Download and install this to your RealBand 2024 for updated print options, streamlined loading and saving of .SGU & MGU (BB) files, and to add a number of program adjustments that address user-reported bugs and concerns.

This free update is available to all RealBand 2024 users. To learn more about this update and download it, head to www.pgmusic.com/support.realband.htm#20245

The Band-in-a-Box® Flash Drive Backup Option

Today (April 5) is National Flash Drive Day!

Did you know... not only can you download your Band-in-a-Box® Pro, MegaPAK, or PlusPAK purchase - you can also choose to add a flash drive backup copy with the installation files for only $15? It even comes with a Band-in-a-Box® keychain!

For the larger Band-in-a-Box® packages (UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, Audiophile Edition), the hard drive backup copy is available for only $25. This will include a preinstalled and ready to use program, along with your installation files.

Backup copies are offered during the checkout process on our website.

Already purchased your e-delivery version, and now you wish you had a backup copy? It's not too late! If your purchase was for the current version of Band-in-a-Box®, you can still reach out to our team directly to place your backup copy order!

Note: the Band-in-a-Box® keychain is only included with flash drive backup copies, and cannot be purchased separately.

Handy flash drive tip: Always try plugging in a USB device the wrong way first? If your flash drive (or other USB plug) doesn't have a symbol to indicate which way is up, look for the side with a seam on the metal connector (it only has a line across one side) - that's the side that either faces down or to the left, depending on your port placement.

Update your Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows® Today!

Update your Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows for free with build 1111!

With this update, there's more control when saving images from the Print Preview window, we've added defaults to the MultiPicker for sorting and font size, updated printing options, updated RealTracks and other content, and addressed user-reported issues with the StylePicker, MIDI Soloists, key signature changes, and more!

Learn more about this free update for Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows at www.pgmusic.com/support_windowsupdates.htm#1111

Band-in-a-Box® 2024 Review: 4.75 out of 5 Stars!

If you're looking for a in-depth review of the newest Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows version, you'll definitely find it with Sound-Guy's latest review, Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows Review: Incredible new capabilities to experiment, compose, arrange and mix songs.

A few excerpts:
"The Tracks view is possibly the single most powerful addition in 2024 and opens up a new way to edit and generate accompaniments. Combined with the new MultiPicker Library Window, it makes BIAB nearly perfect as an 'intelligent' composer/arranger program."

"MIDI SuperTracks partial generation showing six variations – each time the section is generated it can be instantly auditioned, re-generated or backed out to a previous generation – and you can do this with any track type. This is MAJOR! This takes musical experimentation and honing an arrangement to a new level, and faster than ever."

"Band in a Box continues to be an expansive musical tool-set for both novice and experienced musicians to experiment, compose, arrange and mix songs, as well as an extensive educational resource. It is huge, with hundreds of functions, more than any one person is likely to ever use. Yet, so is any DAW that I have used. BIAB can do some things that no DAW does, and this year BIAB has more DAW-like functions than ever."

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