from your viewpoint what is realband's most underrated feature
Lenovo YOGA 900 Window s 10 Home 64bit 16GB RAM\2018 13” MacBook Air casio wk7500 presonus audiobox i2 usb interface casio wk-7500 biab & realband 2023 everything pk both with Current builds
from your viewpoint what is realband's most underrated feature
This is a tough question for two reasons; first many Windows users have not used RealBand enough to be aware of all its features (me included) and those that do use RealBand consistently typically use just a few of its many features.
The most underrated I'm aware of? The simple fact you can have a combined mixture of up to 48 midi or audio tracks. For Window users that wish Band-in-a-Box had more instrument tracks, use RealBand!
I use RB a lot to work with existing audio files. I have taken old audio played years ago and where the artist may have passed away or lives across the country. Or, even in another country. Not unique or underrated, but a pretty cool feature.
To be able to have an audio of a singer and guitar and create a chord chart, tempo map and then generate midi and real tracks to complete a whole band performance is exhilarating but I don't think many users use RB in that manner, so I would say that is an underrated feature.
I not only add new midi or realtracks, I can add my vocals, use the TC Helicon to create harmonies, add effects to my singer (which sometimes includes repairing poor audio quality of the original recording.) Again, I think most usere bypass RB and do that work in another DAW.
But to say what the most underrated feature would be, I say without hesitation, it is multiriff. It is unique to RB and is where the user becomes an artist. The user is no longer bound to computer generated audio tracks but can surgically cut/paste, merge phrases into complete, one of a kind tracks.
A close second for underrated features is the fact that each track can be generated individually without changing any other track. This allows the user to change the chord progressions making them simpler or more complex as the music dictates on a per track, per instrument basis.
Lot's of features to choose from. It is remarkable software.
But to say what the most underrated feature would be, I say without hesitation, it is multiriff.
When did multiriff first appear? I ask because I have been building solos that way since I first got the software, but I have been doing it longhand by generating 8 tracks of the same Real Track and then cutting and pasting. One of the songs from the CD (Here Goes Nuttin') had a pedal steel solo that I played for the best steel player in NEO and he said "I don't know if even I could duplicate that exactly." And it WAS humanly possible, or the tracks would not have given me the options.
Multiriff is an outstanding tool. I now use it on every song. Sometimes I create them, not like any of it, and do it again. That does give me a lot of repetition but sometimes the second time through gives me something I didn't get the first time. Even when I get the same phrases in a different order it gives my ears another view and another path to consider.
I am using the new 1040XTRAEZ form this year. It has just 2 lines.
1. How much did you make in 2023? 2. Send it to us.
I don't know. One of the first and most influential video series I watched when I started with BIAB/RB was by dfizzbom - Dan Mullins. He did a complete 5-6 video series on constructing a song starting in BIAB, then working on it in RB, recording vocals in his studio and finally bringing everything into Reaper. His videos were uploaded onto YouTube in 2011 and he constructed specific and unique fills and riffs the same as you did, using multiple tracks of the same instrument and cut/paste from them all to create one riff and he never mentions Multiriff.
I became active using RB around 2014/2015 and I think it was included in the software at that time.
I'm with you. I tend to use it on every song I do now.
What Mult Riff means to me is it seems to be the single thing that gives me the control that separates computer generated tracks into human generated tracks and where the composer transforms into an artist. It where the human artistry feel in BIAB software starts.
EDIT: Just found this video is dated 2/11/2014....
I'm with you. I tend to use it on every song I do now.
I just wish I could defeat the MIDI tracks it generates. For me they are a redundancy because when I generate, THAT is the sound I wanted to start with. I have done those "check this" or "uncheck this" steps (I don't remember) but every time I use Multiriff it makes those tracks no matter what the check box looks like.
This is a good thread for me because as people mention stuff I am learning that those features are even there. Since day 1 (and I have never even booted BIAB, only RB) I have gotten in, composed, dumped to individual tracks, and gotten out and went to a DAW. That chord wizard thing I see discussed is moot for me. I still don't even know what it is actually supposed to be. Something that identifies chords of someone else's song? I have a tool for that already. It's called "my ear". I have near perfect pitch and once I hear the base chord, knowledge of the chord wheel tells me what the other chords can possibly be. (And this isn't me saying "Look how great I am'." All of you guys with a lot of experience and any theory training at all can do the same thing.) And that piano thing at the bottom of the screen? What is that supposed to be for? All of this is exactly WHY this software is landmark software. I barely scratch the surface of what this software will do and I have put out a CD with it. Most of you use a lot more MIDI than I do, and as I watch the conversations about putting in controller 7 data to make the volume go up and down is just something I will never need to be concerned with because in Pro Tools I have automation. Cut a section, boost a section, all using the automation tunnel.
There comes a point where this stuff does TOO much. With all those styles it would take 3 days to sit and preview EVERY style and make notes on each style, and that is needed because 80% of the descriptions are subjective and each user may think "cntry_shuf_16ths_push_hard_" means something different. I have spent some time doing that and my notes are more like "(style name here) sounds like SRV's Look At Little Sister". Similar in concept to walking up to a strange synthesizer and seeing a patch named "heavenly" or "power drive". WTH does that mean? So you need to preview EVERY sound on the synth and say "Oh. Power drive is like the hard edged synth part in ABACAB". Of course I can't say that in 10 characters, so I would rename it ABACAB. Real Band is at a point where it is like if Crayola went to a box of 256 crayons. They ran out of color names with the 128 box. (Burnt Siena?)
I'd love a forum for "Real Band's least used feature".....
Last edited by eddie1261; 12/12/1611:48 AM.
I am using the new 1040XTRAEZ form this year. It has just 2 lines.
1. How much did you make in 2023? 2. Send it to us.
I don't use the generated midis from multiriff very much either. I have on occasion selected a midi instrument to play along but it was an exercise to examine the feature rather than an attempt to accomplish something necessary to get a sound I was looking for in a song. I haven't done it yet, but I also want to experiment with these generated midi sections in conjunction with TC Helicon and see if they may be valuable with it.
The ACW I do find valuable and use it a lot. I work with a lot of tracks created by other people. I've acquainted myself with it enough that it is normally accurate creating the chord chart but more importantly, the tempo map is necessary to sync midi and realtracks to the pre-existing audio.There is an unlimited supply of singer/songwriters on the internet and downloading their original songs and covers has become somewhat of a hobby. All of them can play and sing better than me so it is a way for me to create quality playlists that people enjoy listening to.
For me, the least used feature of RB are the group faders in the mixer. They do not follow automation so rather than automate sliders during mixdown and then rendering the final song, the group faders work when I mix the song live, exporting out to a recorder. I don't use the group faders often.
I just wish I could defeat the MIDI tracks it generates. For me they are a redundancy because when I generate, THAT is the sound I wanted to start with. I have done those "check this" or "uncheck this" steps (I don't remember) but every time I use Multiriff it makes those tracks no matter what the check box looks like.
To me this sounds like you haven't changed the original BiaB MIDI tracks to Regular Tracks.. Weird thing is, these shouldn't default to being 'BiaB Tracks' unless you Opened a BiaB file, and since you said you 'never' use BiaB this seems unlikely. The tell-tale sign is whether the MIDI track Names are blueish colored. If so, they are marked as BiaB tracks.
Anyway, the setting below changes all BiaB MIDI tracks to 'Regular Tracks' so they won't regenerate every time. Then RB will handle them like normal; only generate them if they are selected. Otherwise RB tries to 'honor' BiaB file settings, which means regenerating the BiaB tracks all the time. I have no use for this feature personally; once in RB, I am counting on RB type control of the tracks. YMMV for other users ..
Make your sound your own! .. I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Harv, once I finish generating the rhythm tracks, I change those first 5-8 tracks to regular tracks, because all I have left to do by that point is generate solos. If there is occasion that I WANT to create a new rhythm track, like adding a backing pedal steel guitar, I go to an empty track, select all, then generate the Real Track. At this point I am at "all rhythm tracks generated. now let's do solos." and use the multiriff. No matter what I say as far as those check boxes that were listed in a previous thread, I still get those MIDI tracks right under the audio tracks of the multiriff. It's not that big of a deal to erase them, but it would be less of a deal if they weren't being generated.
I never did know blue vs yellow vs green tracks. Since I am so quickly done with the Real Band-ness of them, I don't care what they are. They all dump out as generic wav files.
Last edited by eddie1261; 12/12/1604:16 PM.
I am using the new 1040XTRAEZ form this year. It has just 2 lines.
1. How much did you make in 2023? 2. Send it to us.
Lenovo YOGA 900 Window s 10 Home 64bit 16GB RAM\2018 13” MacBook Air casio wk7500 presonus audiobox i2 usb interface casio wk-7500 biab & realband 2023 everything pk both with Current builds
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!
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