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Post your own Tips and Tricks here
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Joined: May 2005
Posts: 1,992
Expert
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OP
Expert
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 1,992 |
tips...017. A REAL RECORDING SESSION WITH POWERTRACKS.(cont.). ok.the band CEFE have heard your drum tracks you created useing some of the triks ive outlined, and a good basic drum track is there. and they are happy. you dont want drums too fancy at this point cos, once the whole song is down and/or as the song is recorded the whole drum arrangement idea might change. but the drummer is kinda annoyed that your drum track sounds good..lol. and has stepped out for a coffee. but the band want a cynbal track done to make the drums just a bit realistic. luckily u have some nice cymbal samples. in your library of samples. but how do you place those cym samples at the specific time points in the song the band wants ?? once again a trik is involved. name a trak in ptw hits trak, set a mic up in front of the band member that wants the cymbol trak, and tell him to tap the mic with a pencil (use a crummy mic..!) each time he wants cymbols. record the pencil taps. (not too high !! in level.) (while playing back the song.) now go into ptw audio edit window after recording the taps, and youll see a series of signals recorded. at various time points. place the mouse just at the start of each tap, and note the time that ptw displays. write down all the times. then copy the cymbal sample u decided to use imported to a spare track...copy it. EDIT>>>>1 track paste. and enter the time in the paste dialog. the FROM box. ie...paste for each time where a cymbal is needed. once u have this special cymbal trak done just wipe the pencil taps trak. now..before folks jump on me , there are other ways of course. one could simply record a midi note from a midi kbd into a midi trak in ptw to do a similar thing , then note the times etc. but the idea above assumes there is no midi kbd available or cant be afforded. this idea can be used in any song. useing this idea you could add anything to a song. perhaps u have some nice samples of some african drums for example.
now lets return to our mythical recording session. lets recap the tracks. track 1 is the clik. track 2 its been decided that the live off the floor with the poor drummer wasnt working. so we have muted this track. tracks 3 thru 6 mebe now become the drums weve just created. with the combo of techniques ive discussed. after haveing mebe created audio tracks from midi tracks. so....at this point at least we have a decent drum track. now we can proceed to get the rest of the bed tracks down like the guitars n bass. so lets redo track 2 now with say just the guitarists playing along to the drum track ..you..the engineer has created. i would leave a space tween tracks and now record the stereo guitars on track 8 leaveing track 7 free (just in case u want to add another drum track later on.) this brings up another point. a seperate track sheet. i would strongly suggest u run off on your pc printer a track sheet u designed. showing things like client name/song name.., ptw's 48 tracks. with a nice big area against each track for track notes etc n run off lots of blank copies. this track sheet will be a record of everything that occurs in the session n equipment settings etc.
now let me mention one thing. another alternative to recording loud guitar amps (lets say your in an apt...) would be to use something like a pod. or one of the other little boxes that has lots of guitar sounds in. in this scenario. the guitarists might sit near u in your control room, hook their guitars into a pod, the output of each pod would say go into a mixer , and the stereo output of the mixer fed to the sound card line in for recording. its just another option. its up to you as the engineer to politely coach the band. for example if u find out that the bass player as well as the poor drummer is not that great, but the two guitarists are, i would leave the bass player out of the equation at this point till u get the first rhythm guitar guide tracks recorded. cos u might have to do several takes of the bass player , and then do a composite trak of the various takes.
so now lets get just those rhythm guitars down on trak 8. which youve named rhythm guitars. make sure in ptw trak 8 is selected of course ! then press ptw's main record button and away we go. STOP of course to stop recording. now....on play back things are starting to sound better. the new stereo guitars on track 8 are kiking with the drums. hmm...but on reflection , listening back...the guitars dont have exactly the right sound dialed in. there are a zillion options at this point. one of course is to do another take. so now you would name track 8 rh guitrs take one. and now on trak 9 rh guitrs take 2. some times the guitarists might be nervous on the first take. so just do another take on trak 9. but mebe they want to hear back a bit of track 8 as well. what youll typically find is hearing some of track 8 while also recording track 9 will enervate them. you should be able to get a big rhythm sound. and this brings me to the concept of "stacking". sometimes youll find just one track is a tad "wimpy".. but double tracking of this nature (or even triple tracking.) can realise a BIG SOUND. once again its all experimentation. stacking is basically the concept of recording whereby settings on guitar amps are subtly changed or guitar pick up selection..thus creating a pleasing rhythm picture. NOW..lets not forget ptw's large effects suite in all of this. you can try a zillion and one things. BUT dont go overboard...try teeny bits of effect. for example hilite a bit of audio track to test out, then EDIT>>>>audio effects >>>>chorus or flanger or reverb try just a touch of effect. ie,,,largely dry with just a touch of effect. frankly this is what seperates the top audio engineers from the rest of us. ie...these type of decisions. this is all about the black art of audio engineering . ie...DECISIONS YOU MAKE. ie.which of the many ptw fx facilities will improve that rhythm track , or say a third party plug in. there are loads..but beware... they CAN consume lots of pc resources. mebe u use a bit of ptw's real time echo chorus and see how that sounds. now let me explain another trik. for those with low power pc's. theres TONS you can do with ptw's non real time plug ins (EDIT>>>audio effects.). and my concern is many folks might not have discovered their depth. for example..this rhythm track. mebe it sounds wimpy. hi lite the trak in ptw's audio edit window. (select whole.). then see what u can do useing audio effects >>>compressor mebe. lots of luverly compressor settings there. notice if u clik the drop down arrow at the bottom pg have kindly put some standard settings in ?? try some settings of your own also. (just undo if not happy.) and dont be scared...just cos its a setting for drums say... with some adjustment u never know...it might just work. u dont know till u try. just oodles of settings to experiment with. a tip .when experimenting....like this... name a trak test trak. for example lets say we want to experiment on the trak 8 the guitarists just did. duplicate it to a trak named test track. for example ..lets say our test track is trak 40. make sure trak 8 is selected in tracks view..then... TRACK>>>duplicate...and in the box provided enter trak 40, and notice now trak 8 has been duplicated on trak 40. thus u can experiment on trak 40 (the clone of trak 8) without affecting trak 8 . heres another trik. try this sometime. this track 8 with the guitar rhythms on ?? duplicate it to track 9. then offset track 9 a smidgeon from zero start marker. what we are doing here is slightly moveing forward in time..track 9. (experiment with 5 to 8 millisecs for example.) what is the purpose of this ?? it really depends on the source...but now track 9 (the clone of 8) together with some of ptw's effects , u might get a new interesting sound picture. in particular this technique might be usefull for getting a wider fx palettte on a very slow pc where u cant run a lot of plug ins. its all EXPERIMENTATION. and it can result..if done properly and the clone trak is displaced from zero by the right number of milliseconds a distinct sound picture. (more to come.)
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Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.
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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!
For the larger Band-in-a-Box® packages (UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, Audiophile Edition), the hard drive backup copy is available for only $25. This will include a preinstalled and ready to use program, along with your installation files.
Backup copies are offered during the checkout process on our website.
Already purchased your e-delivery version, and now you wish you had a backup copy? It's not too late! If your purchase was for the current version of Band-in-a-Box®, you can still reach out to our team directly to place your backup copy order!
Note: the Band-in-a-Box® keychain is only included with flash drive backup copies, and cannot be purchased separately.
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."
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!
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