UserTracks added. Now you (or others) can make your own RealTracks (guitars, pianos, strings, etc.). To make your own RealTracks, simply record tracks in Band-in-a-Box, RealBand or any DAW, and name your UserTracks, and add them to the UserTracks folder in Band-in-a-Box (or RealBand). They are now ready to use, the same as you use other RealTracks!
Does it mean that I have necessarily to RECORD a track?
OR
...(since it's written that I can use any DAW), could I use any wav file, even existing one?
An example: suppose I have single backing tracks for an existing song (e.g. Money for Nothing, Dire Straits). Could I use the bass, or the rhythm guitar of that song to make a UserTrack, and then use it in any new song with BIAB?
I haven't yet had a chance to play around with the creation of User tracks. My understanding is that any audio can be used. How effective it is, I don't know.
One thing you need to be aware of though, is that if you are using custom riffs from backing tracks, copyright applies to those.
As soon as a get a chance, I'll start playing around. There are some sample files that come with the new BIAB so that a person can practise.
As I understand it, you could use those tracks but you would need to create a BIAB file of the chords to the song. Noel is correct to be concerned with copyright here, because the resulting playing in a new song could have recognizable licks.
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That's a pretty interesting question here. To my understanding, it is allowed to use a few bars of otherwise copyrighted tunes and songs. Cutting up such a song into bits and pieces and recycle its bits somehow differently was never a question in the past - imagine some tune sort of scambled via some grinder - who would have wanted to listed to such a jam.
With bits and pieces recycled via Band-in-a-Box, though, it appears feasible now to jam along in some reasonable sense. First time in history.
Plus it's all about backing tracks and harmonies, which usually cannot be copyrighted. Copyrighting usually is all about melodies and songs.
I would imagine this would add in a very great opportunity to add Ohhs and Ahhs and other harmonies to a song with ease.
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if this turns out the way I think it will, the free exchange of user tracks could blast some doors wide open. Until I get my brain wrapped around it, it will be fun to see what others come up with.
Hi Noel. I updated to the 2014 EverythingPak and looking forward to all the new features. The ability to create UserTracks is the most welcome. My question is: will the RealCharts feature apply to UserTracks?------Leon
Hey Leon, that's a great question we forgot to ask (I think). I'm going to guess No, because you are recording audio to make your UserTracks. To have RealCharts, you would have to convert that audio to MIDI. There are utilities that can mostly do that with single-instrument recordings.
But I could be completely wrong.
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Is there a certain format that rt's follow like 4 or 8 bar patterns or loops
It's been a long time since I looked at a rt as a sound file but I seem to remember something like that.
Would you create several instrument tracks then merge to one?
Could you use loops? Does anyone know yet? Hey this is Christmas as far as I'm concerned I just ordered 2014 and looking forward to what this might work into. Wyndham
Is there a certain format that rt's follow like 4 or 8 bar patterns or loops
John - Silvertones - is likely the goto guy about User Tracks at the moment, he was the first to figure it out and announce success during the Beta.
As far as the patterns go, it seems to be fairly automatic from the way I've worked with it so far.
Quote:
Would you create several instrument tracks then merge to one?
I don't see why that couldn't be done, the way it works is that you either use the PGMusic supplied Template songfiles to play along with, or IMO better, create your own songfile and Chord Progression and then play along with that.
It would then also work with an edited Audio track in place of playing and recording it in one pass.
Quote:
Could you use loops?
If the loops were put together following the chord changes and key signature and tempo of that target songfile in BB, I would answer YES.
Quote:
Does anyone know yet?
Like I said above, Silvertones is the cat who got results first and possibly worked on that the most out of the beta test group.
Quote:
Hey this is Christmas as far as I'm concerned I just ordered 2014 and looking forward to what this might work into. Wyndham
OK here is a simple way to make a basic User RT. I'll give step by step.This will be for a Rhythm/Background Track. 1. navigate to bb/RealTracks/UserTracks 2. create a new folder inside of UserTracks folder & call it test. 4. Open BIAB and open up a song that you have been playing that has a lot of chord variations. 5. Setup BIAB for recording on the audio Track using ASIO. 6. Unfold the song to one big chorus. 7.Hit record and play the chords exactly as written. Different voicings are fine.YOU'RE TIMING MUST BE DEAD ON. 8.When done recording use the "Save As" to save the song to the "test" folder you made in step 2. (. go back to the "test" folder and you'll see there are now 3 files; a. *.sgu b. *.wav c. *.bt1 We are now ready to try it. 1. Open a blank chord sheet & type in chords or open another song. 2. Right click on one of the instruments 3. Choose "Select a user track for this track".You should see Test in the list. 4. Double click on test.The screen closes. 5. Click on "Generate and play". ^. That's it. What you'll see is that the more elaborate the chord patterns and chord types are in step 4 the better the RT will be.
thanks for the run down. if one were musically challenged, ah, can't play an instrument, I seen to think , from what you said that a recording of chords via loops or other mechanical means might work as well, right? Wyndham
On the other hand, it could devalue PG musics RealTracks as user tracks become available from third parties.
when you consider the fact that virtually ALL of PGmusic's real tracks are recorded by world-reknowned music pros, I'm thinking that hobbyist-created user tracks won't diminish the demand for the really good stuff.
The real value in the user tracks is that it gives us a way to have tracks that are tailor-made to what we want. Now when you hear it in your head, you can crank out a track that sounds like it instead of searching through a thousand RTs looking for something that's close enough to use.
I can see UserTracks working really well for rhythmic material, such as acoustic guitar strums or accompaniment piano parts.
But melodic material is much more sensitive to leaps.
If BiaB automatically tagged the first and last pitch of a loop, and used that information when reconstructing monophonic material, what would be awesome. I suspect that it's probably a bit much to ask. At least, with version 1.0.
when you consider the fact that virtually ALL of PGmusic's real tracks are recorded by world-reknowned music pros, I'm thinking that hobbyist-created user tracks won't diminish the demand for the really good stuff.
thanks for the run down. if one were musically challenged, ah, can't play an instrument, I seen to think , from what you said that a recording of chords via loops or other mechanical means might work as well, right? Wyndham
As long as you can place your loops in the right key, tempo and match the chords on the BB chord grid, YES. Just import that wave file into the BB Audio track as if you had recorded it there and let the User Tracks algo rip.
I figure you'll be interested in this. I've already used UserTracks to create a user track of the Native Instruments Session Brass. Because it's so large, I can't use it in a 32-bit program, but was able to create the WAV file with 64-bit Sonar.
Now that I have the basic file created, all I have to do is change the song parameters in Session Brass, change the keyclick triggers, and render to a new WMA file.
John
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I just picked up Session Brass, but haven't had much chance to play with it. (I'll skip my MIDI keyboard sob story, it's long and boring).
Some of these sample libraries have restrictions on what they can be used for, with the language primarily against repackaging as sample libraries, but broad enough to possibly cover something like RealTracks.
I assume that if you create unique musical material (say, a string trio) for a UserTrack it wouldn't matter, but distributing a UserTrack made up of one of the patterns from something like Session Strings looks like it would be forbidden by the EULA.
Well, I tried a little, recording some classical styles with SampleTank and Miroslav Philharmonik sounds. I did some UserTracks, wanted to do Strings and Brass Sections.
I generated the UserTrakcs, but I am not really happy with it. It is farly not satisfying by now. Because: If I use the UserTracks in a new composition, they never really fit, even if it is the same tempo and everything in the options.txt is right. Always not really on the beat and when harmony changes it makes ugly noises. At least with strings and brasses.
Are there any Options or further knowledge about doing UserTracks, because I did it like with the Template and everything...
Could you help me. I am a newbie and am trying to create a User Track for my Acoustic guitar in BIAB 2017. The help folder says that I can store multiple templates (endings, long chords etc) in a folder that I created. I did the first Song_1m_Pop-1 template and stored it and it worked find. But when I tried to add another template (PopSong_2_Endings) it showed up with the SGU and WAV files but either I get one or the other to play but not both. Can you explain to me how this is supposed to work? Here is what I have stored so far:
This is what I have in the pic below, it plays thru the song then plays an ending.
There were a lot in the UserTrack forum but are not hosted anymore, there are ready made usertracks here you can download to see how they are made, there are also tutorials http://www.realband.org/tutorials.html
You may want to try the Yahoo music group for UserTracks, go to the files section and download some of the information. The UserTracks music group is +++ HERE +++
UserTracks is folder based. ANY folder inside the bb/realtracks/usertracks folder IS a UserTracks. The name of the folder IS the UserTracks name. Everything INSIDE the folder is part of, and belongs to THAT UserTracks.
Music files must be paired by name. The files can have any name but one half of the pair must have the SGU file extension and the other half of the pair must have either the wma/MP4 or wav/aif file extension. As an example one pair could be called a.wma & a.sgu. In this example a.wma supplies UserTracks audio while a.sgu describes the audio content to the Band-in-a-Box and RealBand programs. If you decide to add more content to the UserTrack, create another pair of files and place them inside the UserTracks folder.
Additionally the UserTracks folder has two text files: Memo.txt and Options.txt. The contents of Memo is displayed while looking at the UserTracks. Options provides how to use information to the programs.
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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!
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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