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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 6,104
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 6,104 |
I suppose it depends on the song, the person, and what he/she is going to do with it.
As most of you know, I play music for a living. I don't have, nor do I want, a day job. Mrs. Notes (then the future Mrs. Notes) and I quit a 5-piece band in 1985 to form a duo. I make my own backing tracks. Until COVID, we were never out of work, and 2 years after COVID we are back doing up to 20 gigs per month in season, and 15 in the off-season.
Around here, if you want to play music for a living, you have to both be a chameleon playing many musical styles, and play cover songs.
Most people don't go out to hear original music, they go out to hear memories, songs they know by heart. Even when you go to a big artist's concert, that artist plays mostly the songs the audience knows, and later in the show, introduces a few new ones.
There are a lot of songs that you can use a generic backing track of the same style and add your own solos and fill-in licks over the track.
There are plenty of songs you can reinterpret, play as Reggae, Latin American, slow them up, speed them up, or whatever.
But, especially in pop music, often the musical figure, the breaks, rhythmic kicks, and other song-specific parts are essential to the song.
These are the kinds of songs you cannot do with Real Tracks, but you can do with MIDI. How can you do the licks from “I Shot The Sheriff” with a Real Style? Or “Sunshine Of Your Love”? “Beat It”? “Jerusalema”? “Uptown Funk”?
If you have good MIDI voices, whether they are from hardware or software synths, you can get almost as good tone as you can from the real instrument. And what is good tone anyway? Which artist, on which instrument?
So for me, as amazing as the RTs are, on the gig, they don't work for me.
We play music from the 1920s to the 2020s. What we choose depends on the audience of the day and what they react to. We play songs they know by heart, and perhaps half of them are pretty direct covers of a favorite record.
There is a lot of competition around here. In order to keep working, we have to please our audience better than the others. MIDI works for me. The mortgage is paid off, we take a vacation every year, either close or as far as China and Australia, and we have no debt.
That doesn't mean our way is the only right way to do this, it's just the right way for us.
Whatever you do, if it's working for you, it's a good way.
Whether RTs ever eclipse MIDI in BiaB, I can't say, but I don't think MIDI is going away in professional music any time soon.
Insights and incites by Notes
Bob "Notes" Norton  Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com
100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 1,989
Expert
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OP
Expert
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 1,989 |
Agree with you Notes, but my original meaning of the topic was that RTs make it larely unnecessary for new users of BIAB to have anything to do with midi and that they were missing out on a hugely useful musical tool.
If I can make a prediction (always risky!) i think one of 2024's suite of 'improvements' will be making playable RT's capable of taking a keyboard input and recording parts from scratch or at least adding hooks and riffs in the right places to a generated RT.
We all know that that will in fact be mainly a midi process but BIAB will become the 'front end' of midi much the same as windows became the 'front end'of DOS.
and i note that so far noone has come forward despite Lloyd S's many requests saying 'i used to use midi but now I use playable RT's to do what i used to do in midi'.
maybe making playable RT's actually 'playable' will bring an extra functionality to BIAB without new users realising that they are really using what midi has been capable of for years.
Last edited by Bob Calver; 07/29/23 11:45 AM.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jun 2022
Posts: 14
Newbie
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Newbie
Joined: Jun 2022
Posts: 14 |
MIDI is a lot more editable. You can do hundreds of things with MIDI that you cannot do with the Real Tracks. If you have good MIDI modules, they can sound almost as good as the RTs and if you need to do that editing, using MIDI can be in your favor. A lot of pros like MIDI for that reason. Nox Vidmate VLCOn the other hand, if you like to type the chords in and play, and have no need or desire to change what you get, the RTs are wonderful. I have a long-time customer from back in the 1990s who writes songs. He uses the RTs to send demos to Nashville. That works for him better than MIDI. But he is not an editor, he knows chords from rhythm guitar playing, and writes nice words and sings the melodies. Me? I like having both MIDI and RTs in my musical tool box.
Last edited by mariusnoah; 10/04/23 06:37 AM.
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Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.
ChatPG's knowledge base includes the full Band-in-a-Box User Manual and sales information from the website.
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User Video: 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!
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!
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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.
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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