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#232875 01/04/14 07:21 AM
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I have a 'smooth-jazz/standards' duo with me on piano and my wife on vocals...our objective is to sound like a jazz quartet - guitar/bass/drums/piano...with simple/tasteful arrangements... why is it that pretty much every RT I use (no matter what instrument) is WAY too busy and overplaying? I appreciate the 'live' quality the RTs give our duo, but it's like the whole band is soloing all the time... making me seriously consider going back to the Midi tracks - sacrificing quality for simplicity/taste... Any comments/suggestions would be appreciated... (using 2012.350).

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In the RealTracks picker dialog box, look near the bottom for an option to make them play "simpler". Many RealTracks have this, although if I recall a great deal of the simpler versions were added in version 2013, particularly bass.


BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Also be sure you are selecting the tracks from the rhythm choices and not the SOLO tracks.... and be sure to check that the tempo recommendations for the tracks are as close as possible to the actual tempo of the song.

If they are still too busy, try some of the surrounding similar style tracks. There is quite often, a large difference between the way 2 RT will render out, even when they are setting side by side in the list.

Another thing to look at is the "musician" on the tracks.....they all have different playing styles. That is a factor.

When evaluating a track I consider all those things. If you have the 2014 version, you have the track preview feature where a sample of that track plays so you can hear what the musician is doing before you take the time to render it out.


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Add 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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Yes, follow the tempo recommendations when you can. Also, the preview function is another good reason to upgrade to version 2014, along with the many 'simpler' RealTracks.


BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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You should press the Song Settings button, and set to "Simple Arrangement" (you need to do that for each song). Also consider muting one or more instruments. Actually instead of muting them, you disable them (see this option on the menu for the instruments on the radio buttons).



Here's an example of a Jazz Funk demo that has simple arrangment, and one of the guitars muted.
http://nn.pgmusic.com/pgfiles/jazzu/misc/_JAZFUNK_DemoSimple.m4a

This sounds simple to me, considering it is funk.

Failing that, we made some new Electric Piano Smooth Jazz RealTracks (also available as MIDI SuperTracks), and they are simpler (less percussive) than the Jeff Lorber ones. Search the RealTracks with the filter "Miles Smooth" without the quotes. These are RealTracks #1994-1997

Demos are here: (note these are the normal versions, not the simple ones)

http://demos2.pgmusic.com/pgmusic/audio/realtracksdemos/1994band.wma
http://demos2.pgmusic.com/pgmusic/audio/realtracksdemos/1995band.wma
http://demos2.pgmusic.com/pgmusic/audio/realtracksdemos/1996band.wma
http://demos2.pgmusic.com/pgmusic/audio/realtracksdemos/1997band.wma



Have Fun!
Peter Gannon
PG Music Inc.
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