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Post your own Tips and Tricks here
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Joined: May 2005
Posts: 1,992
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Joined: May 2005
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tips...009. the black art...more stuff.(n speakers.) erm...what speakers should i buy ?? let me tell you speakers/monitoring will drive you nuts if you let it. remember that in the past big songs were often mixed on less than stellar speakers. even though the studio might have had fancy expensive monitors. why ?? because most folks dont have superb speakers. some do, but a lot dont. some might be listening to your song the first time on a junky radio or a tv speaker or on a boombox. Thus ideally you need a variety of speakers. and play back your mixes on a variety. computer speakers (for people playing your song on the net), a mono check speaker, maybe a radio speaker, a boombox, and maybe a decent set ofspeakers (if you can afford them). you should also check how your mix sounds over headphones. In summary its a heck of a balanceing act getting a mix to sound good on everything. and i often fail. even great mixes done on 5k speakers have been known to fall apart on a small tv speaker. once again the black art of audio engineering laughs at our puny efforts to beat the boss of the black art. Youll notice i talk often about the BLACK ART OF AUDIO ENGINEERING. what do i mean by this ?? the answer is that in many respects recording audio is a bit of a black art in many respects. with lots of hidden tricks and pitfalls. Many of which i'll attempt to point out. from my experience. Ive paid homage to what i call the god of audio engineering for quite a few too many years. and he still laughs at me. for example some days i sit down with a junk mic and for some reason a good track is recorded or a good song. other days bad by comparison. same with expensive mics. This is one cruel god to worship. for example you buy a 2k guitar amp cos it sounded good at the store, but then someone gives you a used 50 bukker amp and you sling a guitar peddle in front of it and get a more pleasing sound than the 2k jobby from your speakers. this is the god of the black art laughing at you again while you try and fathom why...!!!! LOL...definitely a cruel god to worship. Or you buy a fantastic new set of speakers but your mixes end up not sounding as good on different mediums. this is the god of the black art laughing again !!!! In summary...in theory your mixes might sound better the better the monitors and other gear you buy. but not necessarily. (i'll cover guerrilla mixing on the cheap later on). But for now i just want you to think about the concept of testing your mixes on different speaker mediums from cheap to pricey. (Radio shack sell a little box that lets you flip tween different speakers.) once again there are no magic solutions ive found. once i did a mix at a top studio, and it didnt translate well on other speaker set ups. One advice i CAN give you. is to think carefully how much you wish to spend on monitors. You could spend your life saveings away without getting the ideal solution. ALSO PUT FUSE PROTECTION ON YOUR SPEAKER LINES. Radio Shack normally sells them. They are likkle plastic gizmos you put a fast blow fuse inside. you connect them before the + input of the speaker. Please consider these if your speakers dont have protection. also watch out you dont connect your speakers around the wrong way. Lets say your driving them with a stereo amplifier. THE POSITIVE (+) OUTPUT of amp goes to plus input of speaker. THE NEGATIVE (-) OUTPUT of amp goes to neg input of speaker. to ensure things dont get out of phase.
syndrome... i spent 50k on recording gear and my songs dont have the quality of the old hits. LMAO... Been there done that. Want to be really blown away ?? listen to the Patsy Cline hit "after midnight" recorded in the 50's, and many other recordings back in that era. Listen to the fabulous sound of her vocals on after midnight. amazing. So how did they do it ?? back then ?? you spent all this money and you cant get close. right ?? even with supposedly superior tech today. well pal neither can a lot of people. I mean really listen to those songs from the fifties. i encourage you to listen deeply and analyse them. Do internet searches on the producers/engineers at the time. brilliant people often working under trying situations. My perspective is once again it was how they used the equipment at that time. remember i said gear alone wont rescue you ?? because of track limitations they had to record live in a big recording room. maybe useing creative leakage with the singer in a seperate booth. Think about it logically. If you had two mono tape machines lets say. how would you do it ?? i suspect you would record to one machine the backing arrangement on one machine. then bounce the backing to a second machine while recording the lead vocals and other lead needs like lead guitar possibly. I suspect a lot of the "old sounds" come from studios building their own equipment in those years. Money alone doesnt gurantee youll be able to recreate those brilliant sounds. Just to show you the lunacy of spending lots of money on gear. One day i did an experiment. just useing a cassette deck mic pre through some tape electronics and recorded a track in ptw. after futzing around for some time i got a lot closer to what i was looking for. In many respects i got flukey useing the cassette dek mic pre. It gave me more of a "vintage" sound with the tape deck electronics than other approaches. Next day i thought i would try a different instrument......nope..not as gooood. The god of the black art laughing at me again....lol gave me a little teaser of the magic "vintage" sound to make me chase my tail for eons. The BEST you can do to get those old sounds is to experiment basically without driving yourself crazy. A lot of the old engineers prolly laugh at our puny attempts to emulate their brilliance. Basically they were just totally gifted. And i respect them highly.
retired puter engr....powertracks on amd......NICE ! "what is the black art of audio engineering ?" my silly songs...motagator.com/bmanning see my tips in the tips section.
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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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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."
Happy Easter! Holiday Hours...
2024 is well underway - it's already Easter Weekend!
Our Customer Service hours this weekend are:
Friday, March 29: 8-4
Saturday, March 30: 8-4
Sunday, March 31: closed
Regular hours resume Monday, April 1st - no joke!
Convenient Ways to Listen to Band-in-a-Box® Songs Created by Program Users!
The User Showcase Forum is an excellent place to share your Band-in-a-Box® songs and listen to songs other program users are creating!
There are other places you can listen to these songs too! Visit our User Showcase page to sort by genre, artist (forum name), song title, and date - each listing will direct you to the forum post for that song.
If you'd rather listen to these songs in one place, head to our Band-in-a-Box® Radio, where you'll have the option to select the genre playlist for your listening pleasure. This page has SoundCloud built in, so it won't redirect you. We've also added the link to the Artists SoundCloud page here, and a link to their forum post.
We hope you find some inspiration from this amazing collection of User Showcase Songs!
Congratulations to the 2023 User Showcase Award Winners!
We've just announced the 2023 User Showcase Award Winners!
There are 45 winners, each receiving a Band-in-a-Box 2024 UltraPAK! Read the official announcement to see if you've won.
Our User Showcase Forum receives more than 50 posts per day, with people sharing their Band-in-a-Box songs and providing feedback for other songs posted.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed!
Video: Volume Automation in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows®
Video: Audio Input Monitoring with Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows®
Video: Enhanced Melodists in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows®!
We've enhanced the Melodists feature included in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows!
Access the Melodist feature by pressing F7 in the program to open the new MultiPicker Library and locate the [Melodist] tab.
You can now generate a melody on any track in the program - very handy! Plus, you select how much of the melody you want generated - specify a range, or apply it to the whole track.
See the Melodist in action with our video, Band-in-a-Box® 2024: The Melodist Window.
Learn even more about the enhancements to the Melodist feature in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows at www.pgmusic.com/manuals/bbw2024upgrade/chapter3.htm#enhanced-melodist
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