PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums RealBand realband

I've listened to a lot of the music you folks have made and I love it. I am getting ready to buy BB I guess. But I have some more questions.

First - If I buy Band in a Box, since it has RealBand included, would I also need a separate daw? Isn't that what RealBand is? What would a separate daw do that RealBand doesn't?

Second - What kind of usb-audio interface would I need to add guitars, keyboard, and mics?

Thank you,
Kenny

You would do well to learn Realband as your DAW and see what you may need that it doesn't do.

It does some things no other DAW can do, and can't do some other things. They all have their pluses and minuses.
You'll already have it and will likely find it meets your needs for quite a while.

Question 2- How many instruments do you desire to record at a time?
What is your budget?
How will it connect? Do you have a desktop with a PCI slot, or a laptop that will need something that runs thru USB?

regarding question 2 -

how many - just one at a time.

budget - certainly no more than $150, hopefully less. the better of my two computers, the one I plan to use, is a laptop. I tried recording on it using a free multitrack recording software by coming out of a mixer and into the 1/8" mic jack. But it really sounds lousy. So I figured I needed a USB interface.

Kenny

Yep USB it is then.
Lots to choose from.

I'll let others recommend.

what operating system is on your laptop? The reason I ask is that some (many) USB input device drivers stopped working in Win 7 x64 bit OS

The upshot is:

1) if you are running win 7x64 you should make sure to buy a device that has a driver for that OS

2) if you don't have win 7x64, then check craig's list or Ebay, because a LOT of people who recently bought new computers are now unloading the USB input devices that no longer work on their new systems. You might pick something up for practically nothing.

Search for keywords like USB AUDIO INTERFACE

Hi Pat,

Thanks for your post. I'm over here in Hickory, getting ready to head to W-S tomorrow for the Danner Christmas get together.

I have Vista 64 bit OS. I do some stuff on ebay and will check that out right now. I've never looked at craig's list, but I will also do that.

Thanks. Good idea.

Kenny

I 'd be careful about assuming a device lacking Win7 64 support will work in Vista64 without issues.

rharv,

Good point. I should look for something that specifically says it supports vista 64bit. I saw online that m-audio fast track, I think, works with windows xp and windows 7, but not vista.

Thanks,
Kenny

Unless you have way somewhat more than a 500 dollar walmart computer, (like add a zero) one would have to be a masochist to even think of using RealBand as a "DAW". Ha. It is unmatched for producing realistic tracks, but I can think of quite a few other programs that are considerably faster and are much better at editing, etc. I understand the difficulty of reworking a program, but Real Band/BIAB is in need of major overhaul both interface and architecture-wise. God help you if you have too much going on and cpu usage goes up. No way to stop playback other than killing the process until the whole thing stutters to an awkward stop 17 minutes later. 1995, welcome to 2010. "Whole New Look; Easier to use! FASTER" Is what I'm looking for for RB 2011.5, not 700,000 esoteric features like "now allows 6.12/8.75 time backwards, for that funny African music with the clicking sound language"

I would agree in part with Bill that RealBand is not really a Daw, though it has some DAW features, but it is a good start to learning the process and its dead easy to get tracks together. C
reating orignal work where YOU want to control every drum hit, every bass line is not what its meant for.

Try KVR (website) for freebie DAWs if you find BIAB or RB limiting.

Real Band and BIAB are still fantastic though - I use BIAB more than anything else, unfortunately I can get RB working at all on my 64 bit system.
Be aware there that there are some areas of the handling of VST (virtual instruments) that really need updating and BIAB wont work with any VST.
Also setting up sound can be very strange, as they are still using (very) basic windows drivers for some tasks/set ups (where the world has moved on decades ago) although PG support is very good ( instant on line customer support). As i say, I cannot get RB working here at all - PG blame my sound card driver, but its a very upmarket sound device with no problems with other apps. There is a thirty day money back gauruntee though.

I feel both very dissappointed that PG have not provided proper sound card and VST support, and absolutely delighted with BIAB's flexibility and the authenticity of its RealTracks technology. I have got BIOAB working after a fashion and can platy along with a track but not record - using my piano VST. This alone is worth the moeny to me. Real Tracks are a huge leap forward from any other accompaniment program

Concerning the other question

With a basic sound card you will probably be limited to one (or perhaps two) mike inputs at a time. There is a difference in gain between instrument and mic inputs.

A keyboard can act as a MIDI dievice or you can input the audio out from the sound that the Keyboard is making - two different things. Think of a MIDI as a 'score', it makes no sound in itself, but it can instruct others (PCS) how to make a sound - just lioke a shhet of music. MID contains more info than a score and it related directly to the copmputer, without you having to see tghe notes. Hit a key and a 'note on' signal goes to hte sound device, take your finger off and a 'note off' signal goes. Ther are many more signals than these. Most people, though certainyl not all, use a keyboard as a MIDI device and keep their actual sound on the computer in the form of a 'virtual insrtument' of some kind.

You can use a mixer to input more than one mike simultaneously, this works after a fashion, but the signals are recorded as a whole so there are no ways to edit a particular sound.

DV247 is a good source of advice rfe particualr products

The people that come here trying to figure out how to use the products, probably can't play their way out of a paper bag and now are experts on DAWs.We need to make one thing REALLY clear: it doesn't matter what DAW you use it has NO affect on the sound. I have Sonar, Tracktion,Audition. They are loaded with features but to me they aren't features if you don't need them.

as you search for USB devices that will work on your current system, you may want to consider future systems so you only have to buy once. Look for the phrase "class compliant" which I understand to mean that it doesn't require a driver at all. This allows it to run on pretty much any computer now or later.

My understanding of this may be wrong, and Surely somebody will chime in with a better description of class compliance if I'm far off the mark.

Bottom line: buy smart, buy once

I kind of fall in between Zero and Rharv, i think RB is a true DAW, it will track just fine, and has 95% of the features that any other DAW has. Let's remember one thing, RB is PTPA with added BiaB features, PTPA is a $49 program rather closer to entry level, and certainly not on par with cubase or Sonar as far as depth of features and big time plug ins go, but still very powerful.

RB does not have some of the long time developed plugs, and or deep features, but the plugins are very solid and you can mix with it. The RT/RD features and BiaB features set it apart in another direction. If you add a few choice plugins to it lime multiband EQ, multiband compression, it will stand up to almost anything.

It does a very decent job of midi editing, and if you dig in the audio editing is pretty good. There are so many programs out there that have some feature that is there claim to fame, and people bark about how perfect they are, but they may lack in other areas that RB excels at.

RB/PTPA does need to polish up a tad, it needs better VSTi ability, and it needs to have complete envelope automation added. I will admit that the GUI look is dated, but that really has nothing to do with the ability to record, cause one persons workflow is not the same as the next persons. You hear people say PG should take the path of Sonar, and do a complete redo of the program, really go over to there forum and read a bit, every stinkin release comes with a boat load of bugs and problems, i was a die hard cake user, and never upgraded to sonar due the never finished product.

I like everyone else here wants PG to continue to develop, and hope that all our issues are addressed, but to say this is not a DAW is to over look the truth. I just tracked a new song the other day and had Zero, zip, nada, problems. flawless all the way thru. The end resulting sound was clean and clear. I will say that it does lock up once in a blue mood, and i have found that is related to the VSTi issues. I tried to use amplitude with it the other day, and it locks the system up until the song plays out. remove amplitude and all plays well.

I'm not saying RB is all he will ever need. I have other programs too. But the OP is buying Biab. RB is a natural extention that (in my eyes) qualifies as a DAW. I still don't think he needs to buy another DAW until he decides he can't do what he wants with the included stuff.

Another poster commented about needing an expensive system to run RB. I have found that not to be true in my experience. I know of a half a dozen systems that are over 5 years old that run recent versions of RB just fine, and none were real expensive to begin with.
They are set up to be audio machines though. Taking a few minutes to set up your OS for audio can make a huge difference.

1. Thanks to all. Great info.

2. To Pat - Yes. A Carolina BIAB user group would be very cool.

3. I like the idea of at least trying RB as my DAW to begin with, at least until I think I need something not available on RB.

4. I did go into a music store today while I was in the "big city" (Pat - it was Jackson Music in W-S) and am now trying a TASCAM US-122mkII USB audio interface. And it came packaged with Cubase LE5. So I will see what that DAW does also.

5. To rharv - your last comment about "taking a few minutes to set up your OS for audio can make a huge difference" is very interesting. What all does that include doing?

Kenny

Bob you are right on. What i meant about being between you two is that you see RB as a true full on DAW, some see it as a wannabe. I see it like you a very viable product, but one that you have to learn and setup right.

I have at least three other DAW programs on my Audio machine, it is a 8 year old AMD 2400+ XP machine with 2 gigs of ram and two hard drives. Nothing special, and it runs RB.PTPA/BiaB,MC5/MTS with ease. I use sampletank, and TTS as synths and use RTs and RDs frequently. I did set the machine up for audio/midi recording and playback. But it was a hand built system, that has at one time been the family e-mail/internet system, and at that time a DAW as well.

Since then my daughter bought a new lappy and i got here older desktop which now runs linux fedora 13 for all browsing and e-mails, and general computing. Leaving the old gal to handle recording only. She got a recent reinstall of windows and a few tweaks, the old M-audio 24/96 is 8 years in and still kicking.

I am planning a new DAW this year, but not in a hurry she records up to 12 to 15 tracks with synths and effect just fine.