PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Windows Limited bass tracks in BIAB??

I'm new here (hi everyone) and I just started working on a song from the Real Book with BIAB
tunes. The piano and drums aren't too bad, but the bass doesn't work for me because I need
something like a mild funk to try (or at least more options for bass lines). So, either I'm
lacking the knowledge to make it work the way I want it or the bass line tracks are too
limited. For example, if I'm doing a 4/4 song, I want a quarter and a very short heavy (pop)
for the second note...then maybe rests and the last note in the bar be an eighth note on the
upbeat.

Is there any way to do this without having to dig into the editor and make my own bass line
(which seems to defeat the purpose of BIAB). Right now, all I want is a funky bass line.

Thanks,
Debb

P.S. I recently bought the Everything Pak. Maybe I assumed too much?

You should be able to find a Midi style that does what you want. If there is a known song that has the bass you like, search for that song in the Stylepicker - it may show up. If not, audition the styles in the category you are looking for (ex: Funk).

What song are you working on? Maybe someone here has some ideas.

R

And don't forget that you can use the Hybrid Style Wizard to mix and match parts from different styles.

Hi Debb,

I went through our RealTracks All page ( http://www.pgmusic.com/realtracks.all.php?os=win ) and did a find for 'funk' and found a few sets with funk basses you may be interested in:

You can listen to the demos on the pages themselves.

Set 145: Jazz Funk Breezy
http://www.pgmusic.com/realtracks.all.php?os=win#145

Set 127: Groovin' Jazz Funk
http://www.pgmusic.com/realtracks.all.php?os=win#127

RealTracks Set 22 : Funk and Pop Bass
http://www.pgmusic.com/realtracks.all.php?os=win#22

You can always pick these Basses individually from the RealTracks Picker dialog.

Hope that helps,
Will

This is your second post referring to the Real Book. There's quite a few pro players here and we all use the Real Books. Just tell us the name of the tune. What, you're ashamed of it or something? I probably have five different versions of what you're working on.

Bob

Thanks everyone for all the input!
Jazzmamal (great name) the song I'm working on is "Yes Indeed" but I'm doing it
as a trial run. The other song I called Happy or Get Happy (not sure which).

It's great there are professionals here. I'm a professional, too, but not
with the software programs I've used a few in the past so it gets tedius
and time consuming and takes away time practicing my main instrument!

If interested, my YouTube posts are listed under my a.k.a. of Debb Saxx.
I've had quite a few views since my videos have been posted in September!

Thanks!

Debb Saxx

Not to diminish your request in anyway shape or form but it only seems like yesterday when all we had in the line of bass tracks/samples were what was available in midi soundfonts.

PS: Welcome aboard!

Good Luck,

I just listened to Angel Eyes and was blown away. You will have no problem
getting BIAB to compliment your Sax style. There are a lot of fine musicians
on this site that are glad to help.

Debb, I see you just posted in the other thread where I describe a lot of the jazz RT's and how to use them. With the Everything Pak you have all those RT/RD's I talked about.

In that thread I was only talking about RT's because that was the question but Biab has some great midi funk bass parts too. The only thing there is you need a good synth to play them. If you don't have one and you're just using the Coyote WT, that won't cut it. Spend the $40 and get either the Forte DXi or the Roland TTS-1 with Music Creator. PG sells them both. For jazz I prefer the Forte but the TTS-1 is not bad either. Those are not the best but trust me, they're way better than the basic WT synth.

Why would you want to use midi parts for some things? Because RT's can't be used for specific note for note parts. They're more like groove tracks. If you want to get specific you have to use midi and the Stylemaker can be used to create song specific parts. The best example of that is the Herbie midi style. PG calls it Herbie for copyright reasons but it's really Canteloupe Island. The piano and bass parts are there. The midi drums don't sound all that great to me so I use the Jazz Funk Real Drums. That style is a good one to show what can be done with the Stylemaker. The bad news about that is the Herbie style can really only be used for one song otherwise everything sounds like Canteloupe Island even with different changes. Some years ago Mac talked about how he used the Stylemaker to create Chameleon. That would be tricky in Biab but he said he pulled it off. I remember asking him to post that style but alas he never coughed it up.

The big advantage of a midi style over RT's is you can pick as many different basses for that part as your synthesizer has available and the same for the piano part. Plus you can go into the style or midi track and edit it. Can't do either of those with RT's. If you're really going to get into this thing you need both the RT's and a good midi synth. Combining a few RT's with good sounding midi parts is really the bomb.

Believe me I know how confusing it is at first because your comment about being a pro player and getting hung up in the software when all you want to is play is exactly what everybody on this forum has gone through. All you can do is spend a bit more time than you think you need and to have faith it will work out because eventually it will.

I've got two gigs coming up, plus I just had dental surgery yesterday and my mouth hurts but when I get a chance I'll look up those two tunes, see what I can do with them and get back to you.

Bob