I have two questions here (newbie questions ). Let's say that I have a song with three 32 bars choruses. The first chorus has a singer with another audio track for harmonies. The third chorus has the same singer. Now for the questions.

First, how can I use the soloists that come with BIAB to generate let's say a tenor sax solo in the second chorus using Realtracks ? It would have to respect the style of the song or the style of the soloist whichever is best. Can it be the same solo that BIAB would have generated in this situation? If I can't use the BIAB soloist, can I at least generate one that fits the style always using Realtracks ?

Second, how can I be sure that the solo is generated for only the second chorus and that it lasts only for 32 bars? I want to use Realtracks because it makes a big difference in the realism of the instrument. Thanks for any hints and take care.

Hi ve2cjw,

When I load songs with multiple choruses into RealBand, RealBand expands them into a single chorus. Keeping that in mind, here's how I go about creating RealTrack solos in RealBand.

• I click on the Chords view
  
• I then locate the range of chords that correspond to the region where I want the solo.
  
• Holding the the left button of the mouse down, I drag across that region to select the bars I want.
  
• I now return to Tracks view. (All tracks are selected at this stage.)
  
• Next, I left-click on the blank track where I want my solo so that only the desired region on a single track is grayed out.
  
• I then right-click on that track and choose "Select and generate realtracks".
  
• After I select the RealTrack I want, I then click "Close" and the track is generated. (This takes a little time and the progress of track's generation can be seen as a % in the top left corner of the monitor.)
  

NOTE: It is also possible to select parts of bars for generating a solo if you do the selecting in Tracks view rather than Chords view. In addition to this, it is also possible to have different solo instruments at different locations on a single track.

Hope this gives you some ideas,
Noel

P.S. I also suggest you have a look at the "Introduction to RealBand" tutorial /demo at this link

Noel is right. That's the way I do it too.

However, RT solos depend upon picking the right soloist and upon the chord progression (and tempo). You can't get them to follow your melody, they don't work that way... yet

To expand on this a little bit, there's big difference between midi solos that Biab generates and the Real Track solos that can be generated in either Biab or Real Band. RB doesn't have the ability to generate a Biab midi solo. You have to do that in Biab first, then save the solo as a midi file and open it up in Real Band. It's the Biab midi soloist function that gives you all the options to follow the style, different feels, different soloists like the Andy Laverne or Milt Jackson ones and all kinds of other things. This is a totally different concept from the Real Track soloists. Those are actual recordings of a studio pro playing a solo over a whole range of standard chord changes. When you go to create a RT solo, the program takes those prerecorded phrases and chops them up according to your chord changes and key sig. You have no flexibility to have a RT soloist sound like Joe Pass or Jimmy Smith or whomever. The tradeoff is the sound quality is great and the phrasing and articulation is done by a real player because it is a recording of a real player. The Biab midi soloists can sound quite good with a good quality synth and I use them a lot but still even with the limitations, those Real Track soloists are just killer but they all start to sound alike after a while. There's only so many phrases in those RT's.

Bob

Thanks guys for all that input. I have been experimenting with the concept and a lot of things became clear. The last poster, Bob, got it right on the dot by explaining the big difference between the two kinds of soloists. Depending on the context, a good BIAB solo with my Sonic Cell is perfectly acceptable but I do like a lot what you can do with Realtracks. I enclose an mp3 of something I did while experimenting. Your opinions sollicited but remember that I am a real newbie. Take care.

Link to the demo file I modified: http://pages.videotron.com/ve2cjw/teststereo.mp3

VE2CJW

Sounds like a ham call to me. Am I right?

Mac, Botma and myself are hams and probably a few more.

73,

Don S. - KF8M

Quote:

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Thanks guys for all that input. I have been experimenting with the concept and a lot of things became clear. The last poster, Bob, got it right on the dot by explaining the big difference between the two kinds of soloists. Depending on the context, a good BIAB solo with my Sonic Cell is perfectly acceptable but I do like a lot what you can do with Realtracks. I enclose an mp3 of something I did while experimenting. Your opinions sollicited but remember that I am a real newbie. Take care.

Link to the demo file I modified: http://pages.videotron.com/ve2cjw/teststereo.mp3

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Very nice, particularly for a newbie! Well done!

But wait, isn't that the demo track for the TC Helicon exercise? Ah! You modified it! Hmm, what did you do?