PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Windows Is the Real Styles/Tracks Automatic Change with Tempo Feature Still Present or Gone?

Can BB (v2011 316b) be set so that it will automatically select different (and perhaps more appropriate) Real Styles/Real Tracks depending on whether or not slower or faster tempos being given to the original tempo in any given song? Or does BB keep the current RS/RT and stretch its original tempo to fit or cover any newly requested tempo change.

If I’m not being clear in the first paragraph, please allow me to write a few more words to elaborate.

My experience with some of the recent BB versions that featured Real Styles and Real Tracks, was that, if I inserted a tempo change that was drastically different from the originally saved tempo, the program would automatically search for Real Styles and/or Real Tracks that were more in-line with the newly requested tempo change, load, then play that different style or track.

My experience with the most current BB versions is that, with the current superior capabilities of tempo stretching, any song’s currently saved RS/RT will be kept and stretched to fit any newly issued tempo. The automatic selection of a more appropriate RS/RT that more closely relates to a new tempo feature seems to have been discarded. Am I wrong? I hope I am!

Is there a setting in Preferences or somewhere that will allow me to have the program automatically load then play a totally different Real Style based on the new tempo I set for a given song?

For instance:

I load a jazz bebop-type swing tune that has been saved at 140 bpm with sticks-drums and walking bass.

However, this is too fast for some of my current students, so for them, I temporarily change the tempo to 60 bpm.

In earlier versions, BB would automatically get a ballad style with brushes drums and a different bass for the ballad rendition.

But now, the same original 140 bpm sticks-drums style is kept, “stretched” and made to fit this new 60 bpm using the original sticks-drums and walking bass instrument assignments. It sound great with the superior tempo stretching capabilities but I still would like to have the option to make the program automatically get a “ballad” style if I drop the tempo from 140 down to 60 and vice versa.

Is that feature still in the present version?

I apologize for the logorrhea but this feature(!) or former feature(?) is kind of important to me.

Any kind words on the matter will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

A

If I'm not mistaken, RealDrums will automatically substitute with the appropriate tempo if available. The key is 'if available'. Some, such as BossaTerryClarke^8-Shaker can only go as low as 110. If you set the tempo to 60, the 110 tempo will be used as it is the lowest available.

I would check that the 'Allow RealTracks substitution...' checkbox is selected in the RT Preferences. Perhaps that is unchecked and not allow tempo substitution. And not all RTs have substitutions available. Check yours in the RT dialog under the column labeled TS (Tempo Swaps). If it says Y it should change tempos.

R

Yes, the feature is still present. As Rachael mentioned, you should confirm that it is enabled (Prefs-RealTracks settings), and also remember that it only works with some RealTracks. If you are interested in an exact list of what RT's it works with, look at the txt file c:\bb\RTTempoSwaps.txt

Thank you Rachel

I did check to see that the 'Allow RealTracks substitution...' checkbox is selected in the RT Preferences and yes, it is selected. And yes, I understand what you say about certain styles not being able to go lower than 110 for instance.

The feature about which I’m writing would recognize this hypothetical 110 as a low floor limit and then it would tell BB to go a get another similar style in that tempo range and in the case of the jazz styles, there are definitely some candidates from which the the program could make a selection. I’m finding that BB no longer goes and gets a different style in the new tempo range that’s similar. It simply stretches and renders the current style so that it fits into the newly requested tempo range.

I’ll give another example using a jazz tune that uses jazz Real Tracks which were rendered at varying tempo ranges that extend from 60 to at least 160. I did this test just before writing this second message.

I loaded a swing jazz tune called “C Jam Blues” and I saved it at a tempo of 160 with a the style titled, “_JSTF_B.STY (Jazz Bop 160 RS). This style uses sticks-drums by default with a nice walking bass in the B sections.

I then set the tempo to 60. The feature that I’ve used in some of the more recent BB versions that used RSs and RTs, which seems to be MIA now, would tell BB to go and get another jazz style in the range of 60 which was usually a “Ballad” style with brushes at that tempo.

With this new tempo stretching feature, I’m finding that BB will no longer go and get a different “ballad” style with brushes. It will only stretch the current style I listed above with the default stick-drums of this style so that the sticks are playing super slowly… Again, it does a beautiful job at with stretching the tempos, so I hope no one reads my post a complaint about tempo stretching. My question is about the automatic style change feature that I used to use a lot in my classes that was present and functioning in some earlier BB versions..

Even though the 'Allow RealTracks substitution...' checkbox is selected in the RT Preferences, BB won’t go and get a substitute style even though there are jazz ballad styles in the 60 bpm range in my bailiwick of jazz styles.

I’m just trying to determine if that older feature of automatically loading and playing a different style in the newly requested tempo range has been totally cast aside or is it still available as a preference choice or check-box tick somewhere else in the program.

Thanks again, I’ll keep searching

A

Thanks Peter,

I'm going to check the c:\bb\RTTempoSwaps.txt right now

A

The only style substitution I know of is when a checkbox in RT Settings that will swap a RT style for a Midi style. I think the list is very small - the last time I checked it works mostly for the original ZZ styles.

There is a Song Setting to allow RT substitution according to tempo. You may check to see if that is unchecked. I believe it overrides the global RT Settings to allow a particular song to use a specified RT regardless of tempo. Perhaps this is what is happening.

Does the problem happen in other songs or limited to one song?

R

Hi Rachel,

First, let me thank you again for watching this post a little closer and coming back again to help me work my way out of this “dark room” in which I find myself.

Regarding the RTs tempo-swapping-track-change feature, as it relates to RTs only (let me exclude RDs for the moment), your previous tip about checking the individual RTs that get loaded into a given RS by default, to see whether or not there is a “Y” in its “TS” column, has turned out to be the answer for which I was looking.

The jazz style that I had loaded was assigning a bass track titled, “Bass, Acoustic, Jazz Ray Sw 160”. The “TS” column for this particular RT is blank and, thanks to you, I now know that this “blank” is telling me that it will not respond to tempo-swapping requests. From your tip I’ve learned that the only RTs that will respond to tempo-swapping-track-change requests are the RTs that have a “Y” in the “TS” column.

So, I assigned a bass RT titled, “Bass, Acoustic, Jazz BeBop Sw 190” which has a “Y” in the “TS” column, saved the file at a tempo of 190, then closed the file. When I reopened the file and changed the tempo to 60, the bass track was automatically reassigned a ballad bass RT titled, “732: Bass, Acoustic, Jazz Ballad Sw (060)”. YES! I have definitely learned something here! Thank you and Peter for giving me some tips and clues which have helped me out a great deal!

Now, the RDs did not change or respond to my tempo-swapping-track-change request. The stick drums RD track that were loaded by default remained the same with the stick-drums playing very slowly instead of a different drum track with ballad brushes.

So, equipped with what I’ve learned from you and Peter, I’m going to go see if I can get BB to do the same type of thing with the RDs and have a ballad brushes RD track be assigned to the drum track when I make a tempo-swapping-track-change request by changing the 190 tempo to 60.

Thanks a ton Rachel and Peter! Your help is very much appreciated!

I love BB!

A

If you cannot resolve the RD problem, let us know what style and RD. Also, make sure the drum part is not Frozen.

R