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#455358 02/02/18 04:41 PM
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Not exactly Roe vs Wade, but still interesting.

It has to be close to 90% of these posts that refer to BIAB. Am I the only one using Real Band here? What am I missing by using Real Band exclusively? Do they both do the same things as a subset of the other? I mean does BIAB do things RB doesn't and does RB do things BIAB doesn't?

I had someone send me a chart and it was a BIAB chart. 4 of the tracks were MIDI and I don't really use MIDI.

My typical workflow is that I enter chords, pick a style, hit generate, and then start looking for better Real Tracks and quite often generate new Real Drums. Then I generate solos, do my cutting and pasting, add whatever I will add with manual play input, and save to wav files. After that it's over to Pro Tools.

Now, doing those same steps in BIAB, what about the outcome would be different? Are there more styles available in BIAB? More instruments available for Real Track generation? As I watched Floyd's great video, one thing that hit me like a punch was "There's a new interface but I like the old one". How can you use a new version on an old interface? When you put new software on, how can you use just selected parts of the old software?

I guess I have to spend a week looking at BIAB. I have still never even looked at it. I have been on Real Band since day 1.


I smashed the hell out of my car today. When the cops came I told him "Officer, that guy was BOTH texting and drinking a beer." The cop said "Sir, he has every right to do that. I mean, it's HIS living room..."
eddie1261 #455360 02/02/18 05:07 PM
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For me I like BIAB because of the Melodist and Soloist that generate melodies and solos. Since I use Pro Tools, I have no need for RealBand. Styles and RealTracks appear to be the same regardless of BIAB/RB as far as I know.




Steve

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sslechta #455361 02/02/18 05:31 PM
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I have put off trying it for 2 reasons. 1 is that I don't want another learning curve. 2 is that I have reinstalled this thing so many times as I moved it from computer to computer that the serial number now tells me it has been used too many times. Since I have no need for soloist and melodist it seems like a lot of bother to be not any further ahead. So I will continue on with status quo until I can afford to buy 2018. $2030 in my mouth has set me back on a lot of fronts. Not enough for a gofundme. Plus if all my friends would donate 20 bucks, I would have about 40 bucks.... LOL

Last edited by eddie1261; 02/02/18 05:32 PM.

I smashed the hell out of my car today. When the cops came I told him "Officer, that guy was BOTH texting and drinking a beer." The cop said "Sir, he has every right to do that. I mean, it's HIS living room..."
eddie1261 #455367 02/02/18 06:49 PM
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A significant advantage BIAB offers over RB to your workflow is with Stylepicker. The BIAB Stylepicker has a feature that lets you hear RealStyles and RealTracks play over your chord chart. You can audition dozens of Styles in a short period of time and hear the different RT instruments playing within that style over your chord chart.

Using the BIAB Stylepicker, each style changes how it sounds when played over your chord chart and may not sound anything like the style demo. It can be drastically different. It is a completely different experience that what you are currently hearing using the RB Stylepicker and directly addresses your specific workflow when you start looking for better Real Tracks and quite often generate new Real Drums.


BIAB Ultra Pak+ 2024:RB 2024, Latest builds: Dell Optiplex 7040 Desktop; Windows-10-64 bit, Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz CPU and 16 GB Ram Memory.
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Charlie, here's why I never tried it., When I was first introduced to PC software, someone loaned me an old copy after he upgraded. I also got a sample song to go with it. I loaded it up and listened to it. Then I imported that song into Real Band and during that process the song I heard in Real Band was NOTHING like what I heard in BIAB. Every track regenerated. So in order to avoid the situation where I like what I hear in BIAB and if I move it to Real Band to work more on it (since I am more familiar there) I lose what I liked in the import. Yes, I would import a copy and still have the original, but there is something about the "DAW-ness" of RB that I like.

I'll have to play with this next week.


I smashed the hell out of my car today. When the cops came I told him "Officer, that guy was BOTH texting and drinking a beer." The cop said "Sir, he has every right to do that. I mean, it's HIS living room..."
eddie1261 #455371 02/02/18 07:36 PM
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Hi Eddie

I concur with what Charlie said. Biab is great for quickly getting the bare bones of the chords, tempo and feel (basic rhythm and style) down.

Try out the section of the style picker where you can type in the name of a well known song and get BIAB to show you what styles you could use for this song.

So say I wrote a song that I could imagine Willie Nelson singing. Just type in Willie Nelson and choose a song like the one you have just written and audition all the suggested styles.

Once you have your basic style, chords and tempo down then save as an mgu and open that in RealBand. You can then record your vocals, add tracks, mute tracks, add effects etc in RealBand.

I absolutely love BOTH of these products.


LyricLab A.I assisted chords and lyric app. Export lyrics and import directly into Band-in-a-Box 2024.
https://lyriclab.net
Play-along with songs you know and love, download SGU files
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eddie1261 #455382 02/03/18 02:20 AM
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There isn't much of a learning curve in biab for very basic stuff, But don't go down reading the manual route, will drive you crazy.

I find it the best way to lay out the basics of a song, a lot faster to preview styles than RB.

As well I find it more of an entertaining program to use, more fun than RB, so from a songwriting point of view easier to get creative ideas from.

I mainly use RB to generate loads of realtracks then bring them over to Cubase.


Last edited by musiclover; 02/03/18 02:21 AM.

Musiclover

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eddie1261 #455407 02/03/18 05:22 AM
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Eddie, if you are happy with your RB workflow and you are getting results that you like why change anything?

I don't use RB as I go from BiaB to Studio One Pro (it used to be to Sonar). This works for me so I am not going to change. Note that I work mostly all in MIDI so RB is of no use to me BUT if I worked mostly in RTs and RDs I would use RB for the partial track regeneration feature. YMMV


Me, it's not about how many times you fail, it's about how many times you get back up.
Cop, that's not how field sobriety tests work.

64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
MarioD #455414 02/03/18 06:05 AM
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To me, Eddie's original post isn't so much about changing to BIAB from RB but questioning why there is such a disparity 90% BIAB to 10% RB posts disparity between the programs and what he may be missing by his exclusive use of RB.

Eddie is missing the speed increase of a BIAB generation versus a RB generation of a chord chart.
Eddie is missing the advantages in auditioning styles and realtracks that the BIAB Stylepicker has over the RB Stylepicker
Eddie is missing the speed increase of a BIAB regeneration of chord chart changes over a RB total song regeneration in RB.
Eddie is missing many tools easily accessible in BIAB that are not available on the RB chord chart page or else they are hidden in submenus.

That Eddie lost the original version of a BIAB song he wanted to preserve because opening the BIAB file in RB caused the tracks to regenerate can only happen in RB or Power tracks if it will open a BIAB. I don't have PT and don't know if it will or not. The point is, BIAB tracks must be exported as midi or audio in order for any other DAW other than RB for those tracks to regenerate. Opening any BIAB rendered midi or audio file in RB rather than opening the sgu will preserve the original sound that was rendered from BIAB.

Reading Eddie's comments about his personal workflow indicates to me that he will likely find that starting his projects in BIAB will be worth his time to explore without much of a learning curve because he can use his same process to enter chords in the chord chart that he does in RB.





Last edited by Charlie Fogle; 02/03/18 06:12 AM.

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eddie1261 #455424 02/03/18 06:58 AM
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Since you asked, the only thing RB/DAW gives you versus BIAB\DAW is 1) the ability to regen portions of a Real Track prior to DAW and 2) MultiRiffs.

And regarding why most presumably work in a BIAB\DAW configuration, has been mentioned by Charlie.


Dan, BIAB2024, SoundCloud Win11, i7(12thGen), 32GB, 1TB SSD(M.2 NVMe SSD), 2TB Libraries, 1 TB(WD-Black), 2TB SSD(M.2 NVMe SSD)Data, Motu Audio Express, Keystation 61, SL88 Studio, Reaper

eddie1261 #455438 02/03/18 07:39 AM
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You can enter a tune much faster in Biab than RB but you are limited in editing. Move that tune to RB, save as a seq. file & you can edit all the tracks. Not just the melody & soloist....Hank

JoanneCooper #455467 02/03/18 10:56 AM
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Originally Posted By: JoanneCooper
Once you have your basic style, chords and tempo down then save as an mgu and open that in RealBand. You can then record your vocals, add tracks, mute tracks, add effects etc in RealBand.


See, there's the thing I don't know and it bothers me to think that when you open that mgu file in Real Band, it regenerates everything I just spent 2 hours getting right in BIAB. If the style choices are the same in both (are they?) and the Real Tracks are the same in both (are they?) and the Real Drums are the same in both (are they?) then it sounds kind of redundant to start in one and switch to the other. That only applies IF the styles and tracks are not the same in both. If BIAB is somehow more flexible than RB then it's worth a look.

This is why I say I will spend next week working with BIAB and see.

(Though this is the 4th time I installed the software as I got new computers and it now tells me my serial number has been used too many times.)


I smashed the hell out of my car today. When the cops came I told him "Officer, that guy was BOTH texting and drinking a beer." The cop said "Sir, he has every right to do that. I mean, it's HIS living room..."
eddie1261 #455480 02/03/18 12:25 PM
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Originally Posted By: eddie1261
Originally Posted By: JoanneCooper
Once you have your basic style, chords and tempo down then save as an mgu and open that in RealBand. You can then record your vocals, add tracks, mute tracks, add effects etc in RealBand.


See, there's the thing I don't know and it bothers me to think that when you open that mgu file in Real Band, it regenerates everything I just spent 2 hours getting right in BIAB. If the style choices are the same in both (are they?) and the Real Tracks are the same in both (are they?) and the Real Drums are the same in both (are they?) then it sounds kind of redundant to start in one and switch to the other. That only applies IF the styles and tracks are not the same in both. If BIAB is somehow more flexible than RB then it's worth a look.

This is why I say I will spend next week working with BIAB and see.

(Though this is the 4th time I installed the software as I got new computers and it now tells me my serial number has been used too many times.)


Eddie, it is not clear to me if you understand you can treat RB the same as every other DAW and open RB and import audio files that have been exported from BIAB rather than have to open a BIAB sgu or mgu file to get those tracks. You can also open a BIAB file to have use of the chord chart populated with the chords of your song, key, tempo and style but still have the ability to import, access and use of the exact copies of the tracks you created in BIAB. It's not a choice of either/or it can one or the other and it can even be both.


BIAB Ultra Pak+ 2024:RB 2024, Latest builds: Dell Optiplex 7040 Desktop; Windows-10-64 bit, Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz CPU and 16 GB Ram Memory.
eddie1261 #455482 02/03/18 12:31 PM
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As for the serial number issue you've mentioned a couple times now ..
Serial numbers are good for 3 installs on 3 separate systems. If possible, disassociate one of the machines to free up another license. Under 'Help' there is a Utility for this. If that doesn't work, call/chat PGMusic and have them free up the license or authorize another install. I know of both options working.

As for the 'RB regenerates everything' issue; there is a check box in RB config (I think it is under the Prefs-Song Generation tab) that tells RB whether or not to regenerate an MGU file when opened in RB.

Then also notice that when you open a BiaB file in RB, it is likely the file format will cause RB to treat the first 8 tracks or so as BiaB tracks.
They will have blue text in the track name to let you know.

When they are BB tracks, RB tries to act like BiaB and will regenerate all BiaB tracks when Generate is invoked, which takes longer in RB because RB generates everything before starting to play .. whereas BiaB generates just enough to get going, then continues generating behind the scenes as it plays.
So BiaB is faster.

To change this 'BB track' behavior in RB use Tracks-Make all BB tracks regular tracks. Then you are back in familiar RB territory. Only selected parts regenerate. No surprise regenerating.

BiaB = very quick chord/style/tempo creation over RB
RB = better editing/regenerating/tempo control over BiaB
plus RB has more tracks to work with, multiriffs, multiple audio/midi ports, etc.

BiaB is faster for what it does. When you start feeling stifled in BiaB, RB offers some relief.
When you feel stifled in RB move it to whatever you are comfortable with.

They are all just tools.


Make your sound your own!
.. I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
DrDan #455485 02/03/18 12:42 PM
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Originally Posted By: MusicStudent
Since you asked, the only thing RB/DAW gives you versus BIAB\DAW is 1) the ability to regen portions of a Real Track prior to DAW and 2) MultiRiffs.

And 48 tracks to work with!


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eddie1261 #455493 02/03/18 01:24 PM
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This, seriously, is a useful list. Are there any more functions for RealBand that using a DAW instead doesn't give you?


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Matt Finley #455499 02/03/18 02:33 PM
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Originally Posted By: Matt Finley
This, seriously, is a useful list. Are there any more functions for RealBand that using a DAW instead doesn't give you?


Nope. Just the fact that it can generate music.

Harv, the problem with the serial number is that those computers where it was once installed are in pieces and/or long gone. I'll be buying 2018 soon anyway so in the bigger picture it's fine. I don't have to start playing with BIAB right now. I just wanted to ask what the attraction was since so many of you use it over RB.

A lot of the replies included "speed" in some fashion. It is of no consequence to me if it takes 90 seconds to generate music or 5 minutes so that doesn't enter into my equation. I am not under a crunch here because my label is waiting for the next CD.... NOBODY is waiting for my next CD, LOL!!!!

Mainly just started this thread to explore the other side of the software.


I smashed the hell out of my car today. When the cops came I told him "Officer, that guy was BOTH texting and drinking a beer." The cop said "Sir, he has every right to do that. I mean, it's HIS living room..."
eddie1261 #455500 02/03/18 02:38 PM
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We don’t use RB (the Mac version doesn’t have it). We just generate and regen RT/RD tracks and drag them to our DAW where along with a host of Izotope plug-ins we spend most of our production time - a lot comping RTs.. So BiaB essentially constitutes our ready access to studio top level musicians on demand. Janice works up our chord structure with her old Martin box and we dump them into BiaB and then audition RTs very rarely starting with a style. FWIW.

Bud

eddie1261 #455509 02/03/18 04:19 PM
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Eddie,

One answer I'm a little surprised you didn't receive is Band-in-a-Box has been around longer than RealBand so users have grown accustomed to NOT using RealBand.

My theory is some users developed their workflow before RealBand was released. Users became comfortable using specific features within Band-in-a-Box then switching to a DAW as needed. RealBand is bypassed entirely so many Band-in-a-Box users are not aware of the program's capabilities.

If my theory is correct then perhaps this thread will help users better understand RealBand's capabilities.


Jim Fogle - 2024 BiaB (1109) RB (Build 3) Ultra+ PAK
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eddie1261 #455513 02/03/18 05:41 PM
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Jim, that’s exactly right. My workflow to SONAR was established long before RealBand. I never really explored RealBand, so this thread is helpful.


BIAB 2024 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 6.5 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6; Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus Studio 192, Presonus Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors
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