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Songwriting
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So I have started the recording process for a new song and I'm running into a brick wall trying to get the right style for the song to render it the way I hear it and play it on the acoustic.
So it's a lazy 6/8 time sig which is problematic since BB doesn't really cater to the 6/8 music world. A list of the 6/8 (all) styles shows contradance, jigs, nashville swing, and celtic options.
The funny thing is, in my attempts to use BB ACW to facilitate this, It is countable in 4/4, 3/4, or 6/8, but nothing has the groove. In 4/4, neither the swing or the even styles are close enough to "squeeze by". In 3/4, adding real tracks doesn't work because they play too fast. I haven't seen or figured out a way to do "cut time" in 3/4, if that would even work if it was possible to do. In 6/8 the styles are just plain "wrong".
As much as I try, I keep hitting that wall and have deleted this project several time and restarted it to end up stymied again.
A previous attempt to record a 6/8 song also ended in frustration and that song is still languishing in the byte encrusted hard drive on my computer until I figure this out.
Maybe it's simply time to pull out the stops and record all the instruments live to a click and let the chips fall where they may, without any assistance from the BB RT's.
One thing has occurred to me and I will watch the tutorial video on this to see it is feasible. Creating my own original User Style from scratch. I know what instruments I want to use in this style but then the individual RT's are all recorded in a particular style.... even/swing.... so that might be a spectacular crash and burn effort.
Any thoughts on options, solutions, or work arounds are appreciated.
Note: the Keith Urban song Blue Ain't Your Color is kind of the feel I'm looking for. It's countable in a lilting 6/8 but charted as 4/4. There's several other songs that are similar, for reference to what I'm trying to do.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Songwriting
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Joined: Nov 2008
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Herb, feeling your pain.
That's a nice Keith Urban tune. When I need a rhythm like that I'll choose a faster 3/4 time RealStyle and just "make it work" in my head. Yes, it's a compromise. If there's a better way I'd like to learn as well.
Have always been intrigued by the UserStyle opportunity, but never had a need that justified the investment. That would be interesting I'm sure...
DC Ron
BiaB Audiophile
Presonus Studio One
ASUS I9-12900K DAW, 32 GB RAM
Presonus Faderport 16
Too many guitars (is that a thing?)
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Songwriting
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Joined: Aug 2014
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Hmmm.
I use the user track thing all the time.
I've made a whole lot of them and they come in handy for a bunch of stuff.
I play a lot of guitar tracks myself because I have to in order to get the particular flavor or Back Beat that I'm looking for. For example if I want anything to have that Keith Richards type of sound I definitely have to do it myself.
I don't think Keith Richards has ever landed on the one in his entire life thank God and what would we do without him.
So yeah I would say instead of driving a screwdriver through your head just go ahead and play it yourself man.
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Songwriting
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Joined: Mar 2025
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Hi Herb!
If you do have a crack at User Styles and succeed, you could always post to the User Styles forum and share - particularly if there’s a dearth of that style. I’m sure whatever you do will be good quality. I’ve been meaning to scan that forum for a while.
Andrew
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Songwriting
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One thing has occurred to me and I will watch the tutorial video on this to see it is feasible. Creating my own original User Style from scratch. I know what instruments I want to use in this style but then the individual RT's are all recorded in a particular style.... even/swing.... so that might be a spectacular crash and burn effort. I'd be very interested in what you are able to accomplish with User Style creation! When that feature came out I thought it would be ground breaking. I'd hoped I'd be able to easily create my own finger picking style that I could rely on for early songwriting drafts. But I never got very far with it and the feature never seemed to go anywhere or be very popular/useful around here. If you do this please keep us posted on your tips and tricks to get this working!
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Songwriting
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In 3/4, adding real tracks doesn't work because they play too fast. I haven't seen or figured out a way to do "cut time" in 3/4, if that would even work if it was possible to do. In 6/8 the styles are just plain "wrong". I have had some success by running the RTs at half-time.
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Songwriting
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I've got a solid framework so I'm going to see what I can do with BB. Probably gonna start again from scratch.
I'll keep everyone posted on my attempts
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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I see you've got an answer, but it piqued my curiosity.
Listening to the Keith Urban song, it feels like the main driver of the 6/8 feel are the strings. The rest of it could be done in 4/4.
So I'd do exactly that - figure out where the 6/8 feel was going to come from, and then try to find 4/4 tracks that are ambiguous enough to fit. That would likely mean drums and bass that were pretty sparse, so they wouldn't clash much. I'd then need to edit those 4/4 tracks to make sure they were hitting in the right place against the 6/8 track.
-- David Cuny My virtual singer development blogVocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?BiaB 2025 | Windows 11 | Reaper | Way too many VSTis.
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Can't you edit some BIAB midi stuff to use?
Cheers
rayc
"What's so funny about peace, love & understanding?" - N.Lowe
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In 3/4, adding real tracks doesn't work because they play too fast. I haven't seen or figured out a way to do "cut time" in 3/4, if that would even work if it was possible to do. In 6/8 the styles are just plain "wrong". I have had some success by running the RTs at half-time. I've done this too occasionally with pretty good results
Don't ever try and be like anybody else and don't be afraid to take risks. -Waylon Jennings
PC-Win 10 Pro-Intel i9 9900 3.6 GHz-32 gig ram-SSD (X3)-AMD RX 550
AUDIO INTERFACE-Presonus FP10/Firepods
SOFTWARE-Sonar X3 / BiaB 2026 UltraPAK
~Russell~
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Songwriting
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In 3/4, adding real tracks doesn't work because they play too fast. I haven't seen or figured out a way to do "cut time" in 3/4, if that would even work if it was possible to do. In 6/8 the styles are just plain "wrong". I have had some success by running the RTs at half-time. I've done this too occasionally with pretty good results As an example of what can be done - here is my "Long Way Home" - it is clearly in 6/8 time. But I was able to work with 4/4 BIAB RTs and sych them up to get the groove. Check out the BIAB RT guitar soloist which comes in about 75% into the song until the ending. the RT Soloiost is Half time. https://soundcloud.com/dan-hoch-784636941/a-long-way-home-030526
Last edited by DrDan; 04/14/26 10:11 AM.
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