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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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difference in Performance? I am not just talking about faster access and rendering times but also asking if it will make timing and beat reliability among tracks better.
I already run the BIAB program on the computer with SSD, but I am accessing the RealTracks on a peripheral 7,200 spin Hard Drive. If my peripheral drive is a Thunderbolt SSD would my sessions be "qualitatively" better?
Also, my Mac has 16mb of memory. When I am working on a PT session is there a way to load the RT data into RAM so my BIAB session does not keep accessing the RT data on the peripheral HD?
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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Are you using the compressed files as that could cause timing problems. You could try converting them to wav in the real track folders so the program is using direct from wav without having to decompress the file first. If they are late in timing you could try and trim that amount off the front of all the files in that real track folder. I don't think having 16gig of ram would make a difference to the timing. Um..that's all I can think off that might help you.
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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Joined: Dec 2015
Posts: 85
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OP
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Fascinating reply - I guess buying the audiophile version is the way to go but it is incredibly expensive. And, I cannot imagine how big a 7200rpm hard drive I would need to store them.
I guess you are saying is that for each song I have selected and settled on a set of RT's for I could uncompress those only. So, for each song I would be doing different uncompresses. I do not have a program to uncompress but I use iTunes (it has a file converter) to do that and it works really well.
I never considered actually cutting a piece off of a PG RealTrack. This is a totally new thought for me. I have found some of the acoustic guitar strum RT's to be lagging. I might give that a go.
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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I just did a G search and found this http://www.mediahuman.com/audio-converter/ check to see if it converts mono tracks to mono and stereo tracks to stereo.
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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Joined: Dec 2015
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Yes - it converts mono to stereo and looks really capable. It does not covert other formats to .wav or .aiff which is what I need - but I do that in iTunes. WHAT I HAVE NOT TESTED YET is whether I can convert .m4a into a .wav or .aiff.
I NEED THIS BECAUSE I have just found that rendering audio files out of Garageband means having an .m4a as a final product. I NEVER THOUGH I WOULD USE GARAGEBAND for anything but just discovered that you can apply Apple's iteration of AutoTune to any track. It works well (the technology was stolen from Antares when Antares forgot to protect it's patient in Germany).
From now on I will do all of my vocal tracks in GBand and then import them into BIAB or ProTools for further work.
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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I saw a windows version of it so I just got that, it should convert anything to wav or aiff. In the preferences config you select custom in the drop down and set channels to original so it will convert your mono real track to mono and not stereo and make it double the size.
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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Are you using the compressed files as that could cause timing problems. Pipeline, Could you please elaborate on this statement that you made? I'm a little confused about what you mean. I have used the compressed-file version of BIAB since Realtracks were first invented in 2008. I have not had a problem with timing. As I understand it, the process that PG Music use when generating backing is to convert the compressed file to a non-compressed wav (on PC) and then generate the backing from that wav. I'd imagine the process is similar on Mac. I can't see how pre-converting a file to decompressed audio will make for more accurate timing when that happens as part of the generating process any way. Regards, Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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Kevin, In relation to your timing issue... Is it possible that you have combined tracks from the swing-beat family with tracks from the even-beat family? Doing this can create a sound that does fit together well. (Mixing 4/4 timed tracks with waltz tracks can also create a mismatch effect.) As shown on the image below, even-beat tracks will have EV in their name and swing-beat tracks will have SW in their name.  Also, if tracks are mixed and the tempo of the song is significantly different from the tempo at which the track was designed, strange consequences can arise. On the image above, the top track say 'EV 065' which means "even beat, designed to be used at 65 beat per minute (bpm)". The lower track says 'SW 090' and this means "swing beat designed to be used at 90 bpm". If the above tracks were used in a song that was set to a tempo of around 80 bpm, they'd probably both work fine. If, however, the song's tempo was 60 bpm, the track designed at 90 bpm may not work well. Similarly, if the song's tempo is 100 bpm, the track designed for use at 65 bpm would probably not work too well. Hope this helps, Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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No, I have been careful about this. There are just some RT instruments and RT's sets that really have a tough time rendering without glitching. For example, open Real Track Set 72 - electric piano based cool Jazz tracks. Check out the first one - =SJAZZC2 Demo - (RealTracks-PianoElecSmoothCoolSw100,BassElSmoothCool).SGU
this one and many in the set are so glitchy the piano is simply not useable unless you bury it in the mix.
AGAIN - I am on 2010.5 and maybe later versions of BIAB handle it better. But I am running a Quad Core Intel i7 processor and not running the BIAB program and the audio files on the same drive. I have 16GB of memory installed and my Drive is solid-state. So computing power is not my problem.
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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Thanks for the style names, Kevin. I'll have a look and get back to you.
Regards
Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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Kevin,
I had a look at the style. The electric piano that's used has a delay effect on it and sometimes this delay seems to echo out of time. I wonder if this is partly what you're hearing.
As an experiment, try changing to Realtrack 907. This is the 'dry' version of 906. That is, RT 907 is the same electric piano but it doesn't have the effect added to it that RT 906 has.
Regards,
Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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I will try that - but it seems to me that this RT Song stumbles over itself at some chord changes.
I maybe should wait till I have a version of BIAB newer than 2010.5 running before I make further comments. As I recall, 2020.5 was compatible with Leopard and Snow Leopard. I am probably (hoping) I am running software from PG that does not operate too well on an i7 Intel Quad Core processor.
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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Kevin,
I can't remember with certainty but there have been 2 or 3 changes of engine that drive BIAB since 2010.5 version. It's good idea to wait for the up-grade.
Regards,
Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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