Making a modern Pop Song with Band-in-a-Box, ChatGPT, and Synth V
Over the last few months, I’ve heard some amazing songs from the User Showcase, with vocals provided by the amazing SynthV vocal synth. People have been asking us for a tutorial style video showing how to use Band-in-a-Box with SynthV to make a song from scratch.
Here’s a video where we show you how to go from nothing to a finished “radio ready” modern pop song in a 28 minute video. First off, here’s the finished song, so you get a listen to the finished product. https://demos.pgmusic.com/misc/behindthefame.m4a If you like it, watch the video. Either way, let’s hear your comments!
On this song, a human wrote the chords and melody. There are no live musicians or singers on this track.
Chat gpt wrote the lyrics Band-in-a-Box did the instruments, guitar solo and the harmonies. SynthV did the vocal (Solara voice) Final Mix in a DAW (Reaper)
Of course there is still a lot of important, creative human, musical input that goes into this. As you can see in the video, aside from composing the chord progression and melody, decisions regarding arrangement, mixing, tweaking lyrics placements and sounds. I think of it that the AI gets the creativity flowing, allowing the creative musician the tools to go from nothing to a complete song in a very short time!
…. And stay tuned for our next vide uploaded later today, where BiaB also generates the chords and melody!
Making a Song with Band-in-a-Box, ChatGPT, and Synth V Link:
What a great video! It is highly informative on so many levels and very well put together. I would love to be able to write and produce a song as good as this so quickly! Kudos to the video presenter, too. He has an excellent knack for taking difficult concepts and explaining them in an easy-to-understand way. I found this well worth watching! --Noel
I think it is important to note that you began your workflow in Band-in-a-Box and then moved the BiaB tracks to a DAW. That way you create song structure first and use a DAW to embellish the song.
One suggestion. Please add links to ChatGPT and Synth V in the YouTube video description.
Windows 10 (64bit) M-Audio Fast Track Pro, Band in a Box 2025, Cubase 14, Cakewalk and far too many VST plugins that I probably don't need or will ever use
That is a very interesting video which has introduced me to a product which I knew little about. This is the future. It looks like a lot of fun and it might even allow me to write my first opera!<grin>. I was knocked out by this and if pg music are smart they should get on board and develop "Singer In a Box"! The software price is very reasonable so I'm going to give it a try and see where it takes me. The only downside I can see is that the workflow seems somewhat laborious but should speed up with practice.
interesting vid and very neat way of doing a song.
just note many studio rigs includeing mine arent on the net.
heres what i would like to see as add on utilities included in rb (and bb) if poss...i DO realise technically the following might not be doable..so just concepts.
...a vocal generator like in the demo....but in my case back up male and or female vocs generator actually singing.my lyrics i input..like back up singers one would hear in a band. even if there are minor artifacts...partial regen could address this ? ie similar to rt's...user inputs lyrics and output is back up vocs. reason being i often end up ditching a song concept cos i have no way for example to get femme back up vocs. a synsy or some kind of ai built in would be nice.
as i said its prolly not doable....but just a hope. i dont need a lyric generator as i have too many lyric ideas... but im sure a built in lyric generator would be usefull to pg users.
happiness.
om 🇨🇦🇨🇦 🇬🇧🇬🇧
Last edited by justanoldmuso; 05/22/2412:08 PM.
my songs....mixed for good earbuds...(fyi..my vocs on all songs..) https://soundcloud.com/alfsongs (90 songs created useing bb/rb) (lots of tips of mine in pg tips forum.)
Great work Peter, i love it. Can I ask though, why not use RB to do the final mix? That would have also added value to RB and a good tutorial on how to mix down in it.
HP Win 11 12 gig ram, Mac mini Sonoma with 16 gig of ram, BiaB/RB 2026, Reaper 7, Harrison Mixbus 11 , Presonus Audiobox USB96
Peter- I think I made this suggestion last year regarding AI.... but it has advance so much, let me make it again. Since December I have been working on AI for music and the programs have grown geometrically since that time. In addition to Synth V, I also use Ace Studio which is a similar program and produces outstand results. They've just added a stem separation tab in the plug in which is extremely helpful. Besides those programs I have used several where I upload my lyrics and give it prompts for the type of music and singer I want and the results have been spectacular. Some come out close to my original tune... others vary and to be honest some are better. What would be killer is if BIAB had an AI section where you not only upload lyrics, but also upload the song you've put together in BIAB and then you get a vocal to your own tune. I know it's close to the December release for BIAB 2025 and I'm guessing if something like this isn't in the works, it might be too late for the next update. The way AI is exploding, I am sure someone will put together a program like that, where you can upload music and lyrics and get a vocal to your own tune..hope PG music is the one that develops it
BIAB user since it first came out, 15 years as NSAI Regional Coordinator, Emmy nominated songwriter, Playwriter "It Started with a Kiss" 12 time Emmy winning Investigative reporter
Just to add to my post asking BIAB to institute AI vocals so a BIAB version would do it. SUNO has basically done it! they've added a new feature that will do "cover songs" so if you add a BIAB song, with a rough vocal (like i used to do for my demos) tell it what style you want.... it will do a cover of your song with your tune. It is spectacular... however you have to get the paid version (it's relatively inexpensive $10 a month or $96 dollars if you pay for a year). This is minor, but I'm listed on site as a newbie, but I've had every edition of BIAB since it first came out in the early 90's and wrote an Emmy nominated song using tracks from BIAB
BIAB user since it first came out, 15 years as NSAI Regional Coordinator, Emmy nominated songwriter, Playwriter "It Started with a Kiss" 12 time Emmy winning Investigative reporter
The video is good, but what happens with people who don't use a DAW? Could a video be done to show how this could be done completely in BIAB, or at least importing into RealBand?
Band-in-a-Box® for Windows Version 2026 (1237) 64 bit application RealBand 2026 (4) Windows 11 Home Intel(R) Core(TM) 5 120U (1.40 GHz) 12.0 GB (11.7 GB usable)
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
I've worked with AI creativity tools for a couple of years now, beginning with the first generation of image generators. I was very excited when Suno and Udio came out and began using them right away. I've integrated AI into my workflow but having this feature in BiaB is a great start. The only thing I would encourage PG Music to do is they can't sit on the technology for a year between releases. This has been their marketing strategy for years now, but the AI workspace moves so rapidly that the technology you introduce and are excited about today can be surpassed very quickly. "Cutting edge" tools don't stay cutting edge very long in AI. They'll need to make enhancements throughout the year or risk looking out of step.
I wondered if PG would get into the AI market with this release. I'm glad to see them embracing the technology rather than fighting it. I've used a similar workflow to the video to create some stuff. I call my creative process the, "Beg, Borrow, and Steal" method. I'll mix live instruments, AI, BiaB, loops, etc.
I released the album the video below came from without a single performer. The voice, even the artist's image on the album cover, is AI-generated. Adding AI to the workflow is a serious game-changer.
Last edited by BigWhirl2012; 12/04/2407:20 AM. Reason: To move the video's position.
Again - pls add support for hosting SynthV - and - even better- ARA2 - so we can compose and use this fine AI tool totally standalone when we want to,
Dont get me wrong - I like using BB inside a fave DAW - But there are times I just want to omit all the complexities of the DAW side - and just work "top down" just in BIAB alone. But .., and here's another feature suggestion of course - with the ability to later on port the metadata and song into a DAW easily. There are already several attempts at a data format for sharing / porting content between DAWs. One as I recall started by Bigwig and Persons (Studio One)
MacOS Sequoia, M4 Pro Mac Mini , 64GB RAM 512GB SSD , BIAB, Cubase, Ableton, Logic Pro, SCALER 3, GigLad, AnyTune, Synthesizer V Pro,Vienna Ensemble Pro, Audiofuse, Fractal FM3, KOMPLETE 15, StreamDeck, iReal Pro White beard, beer belly, bald patch
I really hope Realband functionality just ends up entirely in BIAB and RealBand can be made "legacy"
I think things are already going that way. And after all - there's NEVER been a version for Mac. Far better imo for PG to focus all their efforts on BIAB - and making that code more cross-platform - so that - eventually - the Windows and Mac versions can be released at the same time.
My strong hunch is that currently the code bases for Win and Mac are so separate that they simply cannot be released simultaneously. This is so rare in this and and age.
Moving the entire codebase eventually to something like JUCE or QT under the hood would be a good move. The former being much better of course as it's already the cross platform library of choice for countless audio and midi apps - including Studio One .... AND............. Synthesiser V !
Last edited by nonchai; 04/15/2506:12 AM.
MacOS Sequoia, M4 Pro Mac Mini , 64GB RAM 512GB SSD , BIAB, Cubase, Ableton, Logic Pro, SCALER 3, GigLad, AnyTune, Synthesizer V Pro,Vienna Ensemble Pro, Audiofuse, Fractal FM3, KOMPLETE 15, StreamDeck, iReal Pro White beard, beer belly, bald patch
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MIDI Styles Set 92: Look Ma! More MIDI 15: Latin Jazz
MIDI SuperTracks Set 46: Piano & Organ
Instrumental Studies Set 24: Groovin' Blues Soloing
Artist Performance Set 19: Songs with Vocals 9
Playable RealTracks Set 5
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SynthMaster Sounds Set 1 (with audio demos)
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MIDI SuperTracks Set 47: More SynthMaster
Instrumental Studies 25 - Soul Jazz Guitar Soloing
Artist Performance Set 20: Songs with Vocals 10
RealDrums Stems Set 10: Groovin' Sticks
SynthMaster Sounds & Styles Set 2 (sounds & styles with audio demos)
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