Proposition is to use stems of existing MIDI styles as tracks. Existing method is working, but workflow is simply absurd.
I propose a non-modal module (meaning you can do other things in arrangement similar to new Partial Regen) In that module you will have curated list of MIDI stems derived from PG midi styles and others*, that you can audition in the context of existing arrangement (chord sheet), using selectable internal synth, which could use PG branded HQ sounds or directly through Default or selected plugin on a particular track. Placing desired stem to any empty track. Since it could be non modal, you can continue audition other stems and placing them on other tracks, without closing out of that module.
A good start would be pianos and other keys as they can be easily re-voiced to many other instruments. Later list of these stems could be expanded to other instruments found in MIDI styles.
A user should be able to save pulled stem as a User track (not rendered audio!) to be used with any other composition.
It seems at one point PG team started tackling the idea, coming up with "Presets" in Custom Midi dialog, but that is still very raw, with those abra cadabra names and string search madness, no preview and other unintuitive workflow issues.
The existing PG MIDI content is huge (I am not talking about Super Midi). So what I am proposing is not something from science fiction. The idea is to be able to use existing content with ease. As of now, it feels that MIDI content is simply lost for most people.
Here is a video demoing existing workflow for using / extracting stems. Sorry a bit raw, I am not a content maker
Not just metadata but MIDI files, audio waveforms and image thumbnails can be displayed with zooming. One-click playback of MIDI and audio files. Drag any MIDI tracks directly to your DAW.
Musocity... looks nice. Ideas, sure. I would rather see condensed simpler filtered picker similar to ones found in Halion, Synthmaster and many others.
#1 Task: The work must be done to sift through the jungle of PGmusic MIDI styles to find better stems. A good start, in my opinion would be extract 300-400 usable piano and related stems from styles, rename, index them etc. The good news, this doesn't require much knowledge in programming, just a pair of good ears, so even a PGmusic intern can do this kind of work.
My main issue is this. Most of us own the content, it is there! But almost no one uses it, simply because the workflow is absolutely awkward.
If I take bb\Data\CustomMIDIPResets.txt and add the rest of the instruments from all the other midi .STY to it then make it into a proper csv that can be sorted in the floating picker/browser. It would preview the the midi by using it's patch with the default synth and playing back the midi contained in the .STY as a 4 Bar Preview. So if it's what you want it would then generate up that instrument in the chosen track.
The first instrument in the CustomMIDIPResets.txt is
Synth, Alternative Rock A-B Ev 170 Any$altrock1$strings$103
Memo: Alternative rock even 8ths feel. 5 instruments: acoustic guitar, bass, drums & high synth at A. Add distorted electric guitar at B. T=150-190 -Examples: How You Remind Me, Semicharmed Life, Genre "Intensity" Score=70/100 ALTROCK1.STY. Alternative Rock 1 Style All MIDI. Quintet. Tempo=170 (150-190) Instruments: M-Finger Electric Bass, M-Distorted Rock Guit, M-Acoustic Guitar, M-Echo Sweep M9 Room Drum Kit M34: Finger Electric Bass M31: Distorted Rock Guitar M26: Acoustic Guitar M103: Echo Sweep
I'm thinking it would be easier to batch extract the instruments from the midi STY to the CustomMIDIPResets.txt but maybe these have been manually named ? You wouldn't want to go through them all manually.
Trombone, Simple Root Ev 100 Any$Brass_44$guitar$58
Memo: This Style will emulate a brass quintet playing in 4/4 time. T=50-200 -Examples: Fanfares, Rule Britannia,, Genre "Intensity" Score=10/100 BRASS_44.STY. Simple Brass Quintet 4/4 Style All MIDI. Duo. Tempo=120 (60-180) Instruments: M-Trumpet, M-Trombone M57: Trumpet M58: Trombone
There are tools that preview instruments in Yamaha prs sty styles, I can't remember if JJazzLab will do that and import the separate tracks from different styles.
I just had a look a the keyboard styles in JJazzLab and it's much the same, it has the style name and basic instrument names, they don't use 8 character names anymore for the keyboard styles. Modern Pop Ballad.T173.prs Mod Orch Ballad.T173.STY Big Band Shuffle.T157.STY
After going all through this how it works now with the Custom Midi Dialog, it just needs all to be in one floating picker that you browse the styles and each style will display the contained tracks that you can select and preview without going in and out of jail dialogs, if it's what you like it will generate that instrument into the chosen track and allow you to choose another track and another style instrument without going in/out of jails. A floating compact trimmed down version of the current style picker that just shows midi styles.
Musocity, your last paragraph is a rephrasing of what I requested. The mock drawing I included is a drawing of a picker. A "floating" module/ picker. I was too lazy to fill it with example content.
The extraction of midi stems in bulk, that part In will leave to PGmusic. Maybe they already have them separated. The work is to curate the list. There are many junky styles, with just simple chord slaps. But there are others which are great. I would prefer a much smaller list of stems that are good-great, rather than thousands of things that you will need a showel to go through.
My question is, when select a yellow MIDI for a track, what is the difference between "Select MIDI Instrument (Patch)" and "Select Custom MIDI for this track"?
They both seem to do the same thing: Assign a yellow MIDI to your track.
Another question is: If you don't like part of the yellow MIDI, can you do a partial regen?
Unfortunately, Alt+F8 and MultiRiff features only work on green RealTracks, not yellow MIDI tracks.
A Canadian music producer, singer songwriter, composer, and professional guitarist.
Musicvanillin, I cheer your strive to learn, however your post belongs in a non-wish section since it is unrelated to the wish. You will most likely get your answers in the Windows section of the forum. Kindly, try to keep focused discussion topics within that subject. Thank you.
I can copy and paste my questions to the Windows forum, but the two questions I asked are based on after watching the YouTube video you shared in this thread.
I don't think many people in the Windows forum have watched your video.
Could you at least share some thoughts on my questions? If you don't want post it here, you can private message me.
I want to know why in the video, you choose "Select Custom MIDI Style", not "Select MIDI Patch". Any benefits?
A Canadian music producer, singer songwriter, composer, and professional guitarist.
"Select patch" as name implies selecting a patch-SOUND. As I understand that is for selecting GM based sounds when you already have things happening in Piano roll.
Custom Midi- selects (pulls) a MIDI segment/performance stem from PG MIDI style catalog.
I have watched 3 of your videos in the past, one for Alt+F8 non modal, one for exporting MIDI from BiaB, one for this custom select MIDI suggestion. Very informative and demonstrative videos. Short but helpful!
I hope PG Music could consider hiring you to make more short tips & tricks videos like this in the future.
It would be beneficial to everyone in the forum.
A Canadian music producer, singer songwriter, composer, and professional guitarist.
"I hope PG Music could consider hiring you to make more short tips & tricks videos like this in the future." Ha ha. that's funny. I do agree that indexed video manual should be in place. At least to cover basics.
But boys, c'mon. So far it is this and that... Do you see the what I am talking about? PG MIDI content is Ali Baba's cave. We have it - We need to be able to use it. I don't believe my request is a rocket science. Do you see the potential?
> A good start, in my opinion would be extract 300-400 usable piano and related stems from styles, rename, index them etc.
The custom MIDI feature uses any track from another style. For example, if might use the Freddie guitar comping track from a a jazfred.sty. That midi track plays actual guitar voicings, and they change in the style of the famous 4-in-the-bar comping style used by big band guitarists.
To use, it you need to choose jazfred.sty, and select the guitar track.
You have requested “extracting stems from styles”. There isn’t a single MIDI loop that would represent the guitar track generated by Freddie.sty. The patterns aren’t just mapped to chord tones - there are methods that play differently over different chords, different parts of the form etc.
If you extracted a few bars and just did a mapping to chord tones, it wouldn’t sound like the guitar part in the Freddie style, and wouldn’t even be playing real guitar voicings. It would sound robotic and have lost its musicality. ‘Would you want us to replace a MIDI supertrack with a single MIDI loop that you could map to chord tones? That would also sound bad. And nothing as good as the actual midi supertrack. And the same reasoning applies to the midi tracks from midi styles.
Likely what is needed is the existing method (custom midi tracks) to be enhanced with better auditioning to choose what track/style you want. And maybe a way to generate part of a track as a one time action.
I could be wrong I will see what Rusty says but I think he wants the whole style track (stem) but an easier way to preview and choose them. I originally thought he was talking about creating midi sections like EZKeys to drag in.
OK. This thread was supposed to be a fun read of Misha saying "Open Sesame" to the MIDI treasures hidden in BiaB. But now it's getting a bit technical here.
Can someone please help me understand what Peter Gannon was saying in his last post? There's some quite juicy stuff going on there I'm still trying to grasp.
Quote:
There isn’t a single MIDI loop that would represent the guitar track generated by Freddie.sty. The patterns aren’t just mapped to chord tones - there are methods that play differently over different chords, different parts of the form etc.
In BiaB, there are two methods of inserting yellow MIDI to a track. One way is to insert MIDI super track, then in the dialog box select a yellow MIDI, not a blue MIDI. The other way is the method of discussed in this thread, select custom MIDI style, then select a stem from that style.
So, did Peter mean, each method mentioned above is accessing to different yellow MIDI database? For yellow MIDI, BiaB has two different database collections?
Did Peter also mean, some yellow MIDI doesn't change based on chords?
Quote:
And maybe a way to generate part of a track as a one time action.
Did Peter mean, currently in BiaB, you can not partial regen a yellow/blue MIDI track?
If you like the MIDI track but want to regen only a few bars and keep the rest, you can't do that?
A Canadian music producer, singer songwriter, composer, and professional guitarist.
MusicVillain... I am not asking for workarounds. I am sorry, I believe you are missing the whole point of proposal.
Have ever tried arrangers or backing modules and assembled your custom styles? You have a pool of loops/stems and are able to audition just those separated parts out of the style they initially belonged to and re-assemble your own style. The pool of separated from styles instrumental lines, that is what the request is for.
> In BiaB, there are two methods of inserting yellow MIDI to a track. One way is to insert MIDI super track, then in the dialog box select a yellow MIDI, not a blue MIDI. The other way is the method of discussed in this thread, select custom MIDI style, then select a stem from that style.
There are two methods discussed for adding a Single MIDI track. One is “blue” (midi supertrack) and one is “yellow” (custom track from “old” midi style).
1. Midi supertracks have the advantage that the performance is based on input provided by a real musical artist. 2. The older MIDI a styles were based on algorithms simulating a real performance, but based on patterns and rules for adopting them to different chords.
If it was me, and I wanted to add a New Orleans pianist track, there wouldn’t be any thought - I’d go with #1 midi SuperTrack, and choose a Kevin McKendree New Orleans MIDI supertrack. But if you were choosing something specific, you might find that we don’t have a midi supertrack for that, and an “old school” track from a midi style works.
"2. The older MIDI a styles were based on algorithms simulating a real performance, but based on patterns and rules for adopting them to different chords."
There are some very usable lines there and it seems enormous amount of them are available, but they are only selectable within the context of style they belong to, or through the "Custom MIDI" picker (which is the culprit of original request of this thread)
Of course Super MIDI is "better", I am not questioning that. But... Having a pool, of the stems separated by instruments (style, feel, etc) derived from older MIDI styles will give users quite a bit of usable content. And as you said, it will adopt to different chords.
Dear Peter, although I understand the yellow MIDIs from the old styles (pre 2007 BiaB) are like expired milk that doesn't taste good to you, I sincerely ask you to leave them alone and not to remove them in the future BiaB updates.
As a professional virtual guitarist, I produce hundreds of commercial guitar solos each year.
One way was to use BiaB's new Playable RealTracks feature.
The other way, and also the main way, is to use the monophonic MIDIs from these old school yellow styles.
I don't care much about the performance quality, because I will have to edit then add my own articulations anyway, such as pitch bend, vibrato, slide, palm mute, whammy bar, etc.
But I do care about the quantity. Although the blue super MIDIs are better performance, the quantity is lower than the yellow ones.
Especially in my case, I can't use polyphonic MIDIs such as piano. I have to specifically search for monophonic MIDIs like guitar, violin, saxphone, horn, etc, in order to convert to a guitar solo later.
For yellow MIDIs, there are thousands of them. That gives me some options to choose from.
Peter, whatever you do, please never divorce these old yellow MIDIs.
They are like old pals to me. I'm emotionally attached.
A Canadian music producer, singer songwriter, composer, and professional guitarist.
Don't forget you thousands of Yamaha keyboard styles you can use as they are just midi files and you can open a Biab MGU/SGU in JJazzLab and create midi style tracks that can be dragged export into Biab.
The first SGU is the main arrangement loaded with RealStyle.
The second SGU has the same chords, key, tempo, feel, but loaded with an old school yellow MIDI style.
The purpose of the second SGU, is that I can use the regular Style picker, to select a yellow MIDI style. Works much better than the "Select Custom MIDI Track from Style" dialog box, because the Style picker has filters.
Then I will audition the MIDI. If it sounds great, I will export the individual track to a .mid file.
Last, I will import the .mid to the main SGU, make some edit, assign a VST, and call it for the day.
This is probably the best workaround until a new feature called "Legacy MIDI Picker" is added in a future BiaB release.
A Canadian music producer, singer songwriter, composer, and professional guitarist.
<< Currently, for every song, I will have two SGUs.
The first SGU is the main arrangement loaded with RealStyle.
The second SGU has the same chords, key, tempo, feel, but loaded with an old school yellow MIDI style.
The purpose of the second SGU, is that I can use the regular Style picker, to select a yellow MIDI style. Works much better than the "Select Custom MIDI Track from Style" dialog box, because the Style picker has filters. >>
Addressing your current workflow and not the Wish request, it's possible to do this in the original SGU file StylePicker without the necessity of having a second SGU file. It works using the Copy/Move command in the Track Actions Menu that's accessed directly from the StylePicker. I've attached screenshots to display where the menus are located.
> For yellow MIDIs, there are thousands of them. That gives me some options to choose from. Peter, whatever you do, please never divorce these old yellow MIDIs. They are like old pals to me. I'm emotionally attached.
Right, there are no plans to remove/downgrade those older yellow MIDI styles.
Since you mentioned “midi guitar solos”, a good source would be the old-school MIDI soloists, generated from soloist numbers 1-360 in the Soloist dialog. When we switched to RealTracks, we started the numbering at 361, so that’s why the lowest RealTracks you see is 361. But you should be able to generate lots of nice midi guitar solos using soloists 1-360. That’s accessed from the soloist button, and then you launch the soloist dialog.
Another source for midi “solos” would the Melodist. It generates Melodies, which might be a source for “simple” solos in some cases.
Peter, awesome idea! You are the Peter Pan and I am the lost boy. I once was lost, but now I'm found!
First, yellow MIDIs from both Soloist 1-360 and Melodist are already assorted as monophonic MIDIs, so I don't have to worry about getting a polyphonic solo.
Second, under the same chord progression, I can generate one Soloist MIDI, and one Melodist MIDI, then comp the two MIDIs together. In this case, I will have both the emotional long notes from Melodist, and shredded fast notes from Soloist 1-360, at my disposal.
Last, I become the Brent Mason of virtual guitar.
Let's be honest, this method of making custom guitar solo is WAY faster and much more controllable, than trying to partial regen again and again on a guitar Playable Realtrack.
And Peter, thank you for your promise not killing the yellow MIDIs. This is a good news for all young BiaB users like me out there.
As a producer of the young generation, I do tons and tons of EDM songs to pursue fame and money. With the new KV331 integration in BiaB 2023, I can now easily and quickly generate a chord track and route to a SynthMaster Arpeggiator, and then generate a bunch of yellow MIDI tracks and route to various SynthMaster pads, and finally use volume node automation to turn the pads on and off and comp a full song.
People hate yellow MIDIs because they are too computerized, not as humanized as blue MIDIs.
This is no longer the case in the world of synthesizers and EDM productions.
A Canadian music producer, singer songwriter, composer, and professional guitarist.
I believe original request got a bit buried, but since there is no support from users or from Peter himself, I will leave the topic alone. It is unfortunate that people don't see value in these stems from older MIDI styles. I tried.
I believe original request got a bit buried, but since there is no support from users or from Peter himself, I will leave the topic alone. It is unfortunate that people don't see value in these stems from older MIDI styles. I tried.
I see the value. I was just waiting to see what Peter would say.
+1
I want my last spoken words to be "I hid a million dollars under the........................"
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
I though I could make a separate database picker for it. The first issue is the Style Picker in the Custom Midi Style it does not have the 4 bar preview like in the normal Style Picker. The next issue if you go into the normal Style Picker and try a midi style track by soloing it and click 4 bar preview it will work good and give a preview but when you "Cancel" out of it it still leaves the midi style loaded rather than going back to original style.
So I made this up, give it a try and see if it works okay for what you need. It's just brought up by right click a track > Custom MIDI Styles for Tracks/s, so whatever instrument you check will play preview with your chords and you can set it to any track, it will also preview multiple checked tracks along with your existing tracks. It's a free floating non jail window so you can adjust volumes, mute or solo tracks in the Mixer while it's open. It uses existing code copy and pasted into new picker. You maybe able to make an option to just generate for selected bars in the chord sheet. It should preview with whatever Plugin or default synth is on that track.
Auditioning individual instruments in MIDI style picker will not solve this. As it implies browsing of thousands of styles that are not sortable by specific instrument line they contain (or don't contain).
But if those tracks extracted from these styles and converted to normal midi tracks, similar to Super Midi (midi loops if you want to call them that). List becomes searchable by type. So if you are looking for "flute" you will get only "flutes", search for "piano" get results for only pianos, etc.
You could add another criteria "Search Instrument" that will show all styles with "Flute" in them. If I do a search now for instruments it seems to show styles with those and you can see the style of playing by the style name, it should not be too hard to go through and preview them without going in n out of dialogs by using the one dialog to do it all.
If PG are willing to convert them all it would be good. This is where MIDI UserTracks would come in handy, I had a plugin all worked out to do that by reading the BB chords and creating a midi UserTrack.
You could have it so if it finds that instrument in a style it will check it ready to preview in the selected track, so you could preview it by double click the style or with the preview button. You could have an Auto Play check box so when you move the cursor keys up/down it will preview without having to double click or hit preview button each time.
"MIDI UserTracks" very true. Actually I am very surprised "audio" user tracks came before MIDI ones.
I came to BIAB from the world of hardware and software sequencers based on keyboard styles. Of course I used all kind of other things, but these gave me a "skeleton" for the tune. (Midi sequences that would follow chords). 95% of arrangers would allow to remix the MIDI stems from various styles and their parts, such as intros, chorus, break, ending to create "your own" style. Similar as what we have with RD/RT and Super Midis. But while Super Midi tracks are great, there is only so much of them...
Really, it confuses me, why not to expand the catalog by deriving these MIDI stems from older styles and sell them all sorted and cleaned up in packs? Loops were met with enthusiasm.... Besides, they (MIDI stems) are already there, so no musician has to be hired to do this stuff. It is only technical and mainly sorting, keeping only better ones...
Unfortunately BIAB is locked on it's in-house MIDI based styles and bringing something from style made for arranger is possible, but requires a lot of trickery.
--- Musocity, save your energy. The only true way to do this is what I mentioned. To have these stems act in similar manner as Super Midis. Let them be called MIDI Style tracks (without the Super part)
I'd like to offer a different perspective on this discussion. It seems this suggestion is offered from the perspective of those who have come to the program after the advent of RealTracks. I have always valued the original midi styles and thought that RealTracks limited the programs capabilities when compared to midi. As good as the RealTracks sound, you are limited to the instruments offered by BIAB. On the other hand, having grown up with midi and the original BIAB, I have never limited the styles to the description and instruments suggested by BIAB. The beauty of midi is that it is only data, and just because a BIAB midi part is labeled as bass, doesn't mean it is limited to being used as a bass. It works just as well as a bell, chime, pizzicato strings, alien space laser, etc. Between hardware and software, I have literally tens of thousands of midi patches which are useless with RealTracks but work beautifully with the midi styles. However, because of the need to provide a common denominator for showcasing the styles, BIAB is limited to using General Midi patches. Once you break from the GM limitations, these styles lend themselves to the modern sound so often described as lacking in BIAB. Perhaps now that BIAB includes Synthmaster some of these styles can be redone using more interesting sounds.
While I support the original wishlist proposal, I believe it is only useful if you use the instrument as it was original labeled by BIAB. But if you understand that the midi is only data and not instruments, then curating by instrument is of limited value.
As far as user tracks for midi, doesn't BIAB already provide for this with the original sylemaker ? Notes Norton has been doing this and selling his styles since the earliest days of BIAB midi. There used to be a company called “Twiddly Bits” that sold midi patterns (loops) and I use to use them in the BIAB stylemaker. BIAB recently introduced appegiators into styles with the inclusion of Synthmaster. Decades ago I created a BIAB arpeggiator style using Twiddly Bits arpeggiator patterns in the stylemaker. In addition, the stylemaker is capable of interesting musical output allowing for pattern weighting, macros, and masking based on musical context. All of this became obscured and ignored with the advent of RealTracks.
Here is an example using parts of various BIAB midi styles and the arpeggiator created using the Twiddly Bits midi loops in the BIAB stylemaker:
Your request is exactly the same as mine. "It is only useful if you use the instrument as it was original labeled by BIAB" Of course request includes sorting these stems for the instruments they were originally intended. Obviously you would be able to re-voice MIDI stem after it is placed on a track. There is nothing limiting about that.
My idea, to start small and 300-400 stems that were designed for Pianos. If everything works out and there is good reception, more stems could be derived.
"However, because of the need to provide a common denominator for showcasing the styles, BIAB is limited to using General Midi patches" That doesn't limit anything. It depends on your Default Synth and the way you have it mapped.
"Original sylemaker" is horrible. It hanged my computer a couple of times and I stopped even trying it. It is not 21st century tool...
Musocity, Most of these Giglads, JJAzzlabs and 3-4 others are very amateurish (I have done extensive homework on the subject). There are only two that I know are done more or less right: vArranger and Yamaha Mobile sequencer (iOS only) but even they have not been updated in years. There is a new kid on the block, who is pushing pretty aggressively: Sofeh Sunrise. Very good start. The problem is none of these are in form of VST's. Syncing is possible by virtual midi and tying MIDI clock to be driven BIAB->Arranger. The issue is, it's not very stable and you get all kinds of anomalies.
Essentially what I proposed is an "updated" MIDI style maker / assembler from older styles. Non-modal, with direct preview from the chord sheet.
If it's JUCE it should have a VST version, did you ask them about that ? I see it has an audio stream vst but I suppose that would be much the same as ReaStream free vst. You should be able to drop Yamaha style sections in a Biab track and snap them to chord or key with the reajs.dll vst. That is a drawback with Biab, it's a pain in the *^(^ to drop n drag midi in.
Honestly, I believe approach should be taken at BIAB level for building own MIDI styles from various segments that will follow chord changes...
I don't have illusions, most likely BIAB will never have support for other arranger full MIDI styles, but I do believe in-house Midi style mixer/module should happen, as there just wealth of material waiting to be discovered.
Unless of course somebody comes up with super stable VST arranger that can take Yamaha based styles. As of now, the seat is vacant.
RapidComposer VST you can open Yamaha Styles save them to the library. Drag the chord track from Biab into RapidComposer Midi Import to give the same chords. I think they were planing on implementing it to just work with Yamaha styles. You can drag midi style tracks from Biab into RapidComposer and save them to the library then they will refit to any progression. You can Drag midi phrases from the internet and save to library. You can drag midi loops from EZKey, EZDrummer and EZBass and save to library. This will work with all midi not just Yamaha style midi.
Musocity, Yes, the general idea is what you are describing. There is also a company called Cognitone. In my view, they are significantly ahead of Rapid composer, and also have a way to working with Yamaha type styles.
However, for most people, the processes using 3rd party programs discussed in this thread would be a steep learning curve and only few would use it.
What I initially proposed is "in-house" module. BIAB had style functions (phrases following chords) way before EZkeys or Rapid composer were born. I believe with amazing synths available these days, MIDI phrase/style module should be given serious thought. Essentially EZkeys is a Midi phrase/loop module.
The long and winding road That leads to this door Will never disappear I've been down that road before It always leads me here Lead me to this door
I just updated RC and they seemed to have added more features since I last used it like saving phrases with controllers so might be worth looking at again especially now with great prices.
RapidComposer full edition orders receive free Melodya and MIDI Mutator licenses (by request).
RapidComposer Full Edition $ 199 119
Light Edition Features + 3 Melody Generators, Idea Tool, MIDI Mutator, Melody Editor, Percussion Generator, articulations, phrase morphing
RapidComposer Light Edition $ 70 47
Core functionality, VSTi and soundfont support, standalone/VST/VST3/AU versions for Windows and macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), all updates until v4.99, thousands of reusable phrases, product support
Quote:
Feel free to post feature requests about RapidComposer in this thread, or start a new thread. We will implement every sensible request, as it happened in the past.
Thank you, Attila
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Musocity, I am an average user, and I found RC pretty complicated and Cognitone too for that matter (I have Sparks, which is a cheaper / light version, still I find it pretty involved). While both are very capable, I am afraid these type of software titles are not for mainstream. ---
The module I proposed is in a way a MIDI phrase/pattern player, that would follow chords. It could be made "universal" to accept any MIDI line similar to EZkeys. A part of a 3rd party style for example. BIAB Code/Engine is there already, just has to have a proper GUI / Browser.
It seems, Peter Gannon was not inspired by the idea. It is his company and I completely respect his right to not get involved. As an alternative, I have another wishlist item that might be much easier to implement and would have universal usage similar to the Chord Track that we got in 2023. I am talking about chaining VST's. From one VST MIDI Out to MIDI In of another VST. I probably should start another thread on this to explain the benefits and a few workflow scenarios.
"I am an average user, and I found RC pretty complicated but Biab was the easiest thing to learn "
"I am talking about chaining VST's. From one VST MIDI Out to MIDI In of another VST. I probably should start another thread on this to explain the benefits and a few workflow scenarios. "
I have been asking for that and been posting examples for years
I'm glad to see you catching up on these things I have been posting and asking for
I just came here now to create a RC video doing it all so hang in there.
BIAB is is probably not easier compared to RC. It took me years to get comfortable.
When I started out 5 years back, my main issue was that BIAB was missing certain "parts" for the songs like lines for intros, variation for rolls, breaks, endings that are commonly found in arranger keyboards and backing track units. With RTs, even with Partial Regen (which was a blessing), sometimes it is hard to get things the way you imagined. So one has to go MIDI route... And it seemed that using existing BIAB midi content would be the easiest place to start. That is the core of the request. To give users more ways to use existing content.
Musocity, even if this thread was not met with enthusiasm, can I ask you to post RC video post separately? Because if someone new comes...one day.. it would be hard for them to figure out what this thread was about.
I wonder how many users in the forum actually spent time watching the two YouTube videos posted by Rustyspoon in this thread.
For those of you who didn't watch, just so you know, Rustyspoon wasn't lying about the importance of the yellow MIDI stems.
There are four types of media in Biab.
Real - Green Audio - Orange Super - Blue Legacy - Yellow
In BiaB 2022, there was a new feature released called "All Tracks are Equal". This feature makes Utility Tracks equally functional as the Style Tracks.
If all tracks can be equal, why can't all MIDIs be equal too?
I think for PG, the easist way is to make the "Select Custom MIDI" dialogue box non-modal. Non-modal means the dialogue box is floating, so user can still click other parts of the interface without having to close this dialogue box first.
If PG wants to go above and beyond, they can make a new dialogue box called "Select Legacy MIDI". Exactly the same as Super MIDI picker, but only list yellow MIDI stems to be selected from.
Hope to see this request come true in BiaB 2025.
A Canadian music producer, singer songwriter, composer, and professional guitarist.
Let me try to figure out what he was talking about in his post.
Quote:
It works using the Copy/Move command in the Track Actions Menu that's accessed directly from the StylePicker.
1. Open a regular Style Picker, filter to show legacy MIDI styles only.
2. Audition the styles with the feature "Playing using current chord sheet for song".
3. Pick a MIDI Style. Go to bottom left of the Style Picker window, click the two dot button.
4. Click Track Actions, Copy/Move Tracks. This will copy a MIDI stem track to an empty Utility track in the current SGU.
5. Click Cancel to exit the Style Picker, without loading any Style.
6. In this way, no Style is loaded to the SGU, and existing Style tracks are not overwritten. The yellow stem track is being copied to a desired Utility track.
7. Same method can be done again, to copy another stem MIDI to the same Utility track, in order to overwrite and replace the existing loaded MIDI, with a new one.
Anyone any thoughts on this Charlie Fogle's idea?
A Canadian music producer, singer songwriter, composer, and professional guitarist.
"All tracks are equal" is still a work in progress.
Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful. Kawai MP6, Korg M50, Ui24R, Saffire Pro 40. AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11; Win8.1: Scarletts BIAB2022 UltraPAK, Reaper, a bunch of stuff.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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."
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