Has anyone ever written a funk tune using BIAB or RB? I own the Mega Pak and was searching through the reams of possibilities but I could not find anything labeled "funk." I am looking for something along the lines of Average White Band, Tower of Power type styles. I am hoping perhaps someone out there may have tweaked an existing style and can offer insight as to which style came the closest and how did you alter it to get the desired funk genre.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
RickeG

Funk has been requested on the Styles Wishlist.

Until we get our wish, I think that some of the r&b styles may make a fair substitute for certain things, using MIDI and not RealTracks.

But we ain't got no Tower of Power horns in there as of yet...

I did once work up a bb version of "I keep diggin' on James Brown" using one of the older JB styles, though. Not great in sound, but not bad either.

There already are some AWB styles, BTW, do a stylepicer search for them, IIRC one is even named, "AWB-something-or-other.sty" and is the "Pick up the Pieces" thang more or less.


--Mac

As Mac says Funk has been requested on the styles wishlist section of this forum (as has Reggae). Feel free to add your vote to the relavent posts.

There are a few funky sounding styles on some of the older midi style disks but nothing in the real styles. (Check out some of the 'praise and worship' style disks as they are often quite R&B orientated and towards the funkier end of the BIAB spectrum)

The funkiest I have managed within realtracks is by combining the James Brown Slap bass style with the 'sugar' realguitar styles and one of the Nashville 16ths drum styles. One or two of the Jass fusion Realdrums styles are also pretty funky. Nothing really in the AWB space though.

One of the demos for the BIAB 2010 R&B rock styles had a funky vibe to it as well but I haven't got my upgrade delivered yet so I haven't been able to try it out.

It would be great to have some more funk bass, drums and guitars within the realtracks selection, and some real horns and clavinets would be awesome.

Regards, Aubrey

Hey guys,

You might want to check out Bob Norton and his website. Seems to me he had some good funky styles there. Or at least much better than the stock stuff.

I also want to encourage you to get the Jeff Lorber Artist add on for BIAB. Wow....there is some great Funky Keyboard stuff going on there.

I have had good luck with a few of the funkier styles in BIAB. The problem was always the horns. Most of the Horn sample libraries are pretty bad (Garritan, etc) BUT......
There is a new Horn library from Big Fish Audio which is AMAZING. It's called "Mojo"

Listen to the demo's, works for everything from Glen Miller to E,W&F, to TOP.

http://www.vir2.com/4DCGI/vir2/products/mojo/index.html?1205

It is a little pricey ($499) but I've never worked with anything so realistic before. With some good RDs/RTs and this horn library, you could make some incredible tracks.

Hope this helps.

Yeah, horns pretty much gotta be written, or they won't fit. A 'standardized' horn section would be a cool concept .. maybe a 'Tom Scott' arrangement type, and a Tower of Power and and .. and .. <drools>

I finally got a few minutes to tinker around in the new realtracks ..
Saw a drum session done with (as I recall) a high school kid! He's got a lot of potential

So of course I started 'realtrackin' and ended up with this -
http://audiomastering-online.com/stuff/Funk.WMA

Originally titled "FUN!" it turned into "FUN!k" .. thanks to those bass realtracks
No postproduction, the new laptop system only has the program (on external drive) and PGPlugins, so its raw realtracks pretty much, didn't even cut the 2 bar intro (silence) or fade the end of this 30 second diddy .. but I had some fun

While I have not yet written anything 'original' in Funk for BIAB, I am a solo artist who depends on BIAB for some of my pro shows, and I have done several funky tracks where I either had to write my own bassline or use a combo of that line plus a generic one from the BIAB artists.

For most gigs, I usually can hire a bassist and guitarist, so we truly rely on BIAB for drum tracks; other times, I am on my own as a pianist/vocalist and can use the fully-scored versions as needed.

See what you think about these BIAB 2020 backing tracks that I created from scratch, using either a fake book/lead sheet or piano books as a guide (no melody, as we have the guitar, sax, or vocals as leads for each). Several folks have also dropped by on Soundcloud to use these to practice/play along.

FUNK

Herbie Hancock: "Chameleon" - https://soundcloud.com/timkatent/herbie-hancock-chameleon-biab-2021-backing-track
Jaco P. (based on Maceo Parker): "The Chicken" - https://soundcloud.com/timkatent/the-chicken-bb-102-bpm-5-chorus-biab-backing-track
Shakatak: "Don't Blame It On Love" (+ accent horns, punctuating phrases) - https://soundcloud.com/timkatent/dont-blame-it-on-love-shakatak-band-in-a-box-playalong
Hall & Oates -- "I Can't Go For That" - https://soundcloud.com/timkatent/cantgo
James Ingram (based on Candy Dulfer funky style) "One Hundred Ways" - https://soundcloud.com/timkatent/one-hundred-ways-biab-backing-track-in-style-of-candy-dulfer
Bill Withers/Grover Washington, Jr - "Just the Two of Us" - https://soundcloud.com/timkatent/just-the-two-of-us-biab-2020-db


Contemporary Jazz (with the "Praise" set that someone mentioned above, worked extremely well on this track, almost exactly like the 1986 album version)
Larry Carlton "Smiles and Smiles To Go" -- https://soundcloud.com/timkatent/larry-carlton-smiles-and-smiles-to-go-biab-backing-track

Check all of the tracks I am sharing now at https://soundcloud.com/timkatent and feel free to follow, I follow back.

Best,
Kathryn Shut /shoot/
TIMKAT Entertainment LLC
http://www.timkatent.com
Denver, CO, USA

There is also Broadway Lites 2.0 which is the starter version of Broadway Big Band. The horns sound really good and it is on offer at VSTBuzz for the next 4 days @ 99 euros (https://vstbuzz.com/deals/78-off-broadway-lites-fable-sounds/).

Patrick