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I have the UltraPak "Audiophile Edition" on the external hard drive, and have been really getting into practicing along with Band-In-A-Box. I play several instruments, but currently I'm concentrating on the flute; I started on it in April of last year. So I still consider myself a beginner on the flute, and I realize I have a lot to learn. Part of my progress so far on the instrument has to be credited to BIAB... I have so much fun playing Real Book tunes with BIAB that I can sometimes play for hours and forget about the time. :-)

I've recently been rehearsing with a vocalist (Paula) who is a very good jazz singer, and I think we're going to work well together as a duo, with BIAB as our backing combo. One thing that is great about BIAB is the ability to generate separate .wav files for each instrument. I've taken some BIAB songs and rendered the audio to .wav files (using all RealTracks), and imported these to a DAW called Reaper (highly recommended). I've recorded flute and vocal tracks along with the imported BIAB instrument tracks on several standards, and created a MySpace page to showcase these tunes. You can listen to my current material at the following page:

http://www.myspace.com/elegancemusicinfo

All of the rhythm section instruments were originally generated by BIAB and transferred to Reaper for multitracking, recording and mixing. I'll let you folks be the judge, but I feel that the quality of these mixes is in large part the result of being able to use the RealTracks in my mixes. Hats off to Peter Gannon & the PG Music developers for creating such an outstanding piece of software.. And I haven't even scratched the surface of its capabilities yet.

I'll also be using BIAB as my accompaniment (live) on upcoming gigs, both as a soloist, and with my vocalist as a duo. Fun stuff!

Regards,
Doug

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Hi Doug,

An excellent outcome - well done

I have been using BIAB for backing tracks for some ten years and agree with you that with the advent of all the Realxxx's it has pushed it to a very high level

jazzman


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Excellent work in every aspect. A fantastic listen. Thank you for posting the link.

Noel


MY SONGS...
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Hi Doug,

Good sounds there.

And Welcome to the Forum!



--Mac

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Thanks, guys, for the comments & compliments. I'll be working on some more mixes this week from my rehearsal/recording session with Paula this past Sunday. I posted one of the tunes from that session last night- "Summertime". So far, I've kept the production very simple on these songs- nothing but the BIAB instrument tracks, vocals, and flute, because that's pretty much how we're going to sound live. If I make a CD, I might dress things up a bit with sampled strings and whatnot.

Mac, I remember you from my previous lurking on the forums here... Your location caught my eye, because I was in the U.S. Army "TRADOC" Band at Fort Monroe in Hampton for over 13 years, from the mid '70s to late '80s. A major part of my 22-year career with the Army Bands. I wonder if you might know guitarist Bob Roetker, who I worked with there at the Ft. Monroe band. He's also an avid BIAB user and has been sighted on these forums. I'll wager that there's a bunch of former and retired military band folks on here, in fact.

--db


Visit the Elegance Music page on MySpace for samples of my current work.
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I don't know if I've met or seen Bob or not, as you say, the service bands provide a lot of musicians to the area, many of whom elect to stay here and live after their military band service.

I'm USAF band alumni, which kind of makes for a bit of parochial fun when we do manage to get together, the majority here being Army or Navy band alumni, but not exclusively so.

Always thrilled to meet any service band member and the door is always open to same here.


--Mac

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Nice work Doug! You and Paula sound great!

I bet others are interested in the process of starting in BB, and going to the finished product, as you have done.
For example, did you edit the RealTracks at all, or just take them 'as is'. What type of effects were added. How were the vocals and flute recorded? What other tools were used? That type of thing....

If you have time to post something on that, the ideal forum for that would be the Tips n Tricks forum.


Have Fun!
Peter Gannon
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Holy smokes! Mr. PG Himself!

(picking myself up off the floor)

Thank you, Peter. I would be happy to provide details of how I arrived at this recorded product using BB, including the recording session details, mics, editing, processing, etc.. In fact, I've already explained most of this to one of my facebook friends, so I'll take that explanation, do a little wordsmithing, and post it in the Tips'n'Tricks forum. Since I love to play and record, I can blab all day long about this! But I think I'll do some reading here, too, because there's always something new to learn. ;-)

Best Regards,
Doug


Visit the Elegance Music page on MySpace for samples of my current work.
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Very professional sounding Doug. The recording sounds fantastic, gotta love those Real Tracks. Biab is my favorite "go to" software for creating music with. Paula is an amazing singer with an incredible voice. You two make an awesome duo team. I loved the Flute chops as well. In fact, all of your tracks sound professional.

I am also in Southern California, about an hour north of you.

I really enjoyed your music, thanks for posting it. Keep on track'n !!

Trax

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Doug,

1st of all dittos on the welcome to the forum, secondly you cats sound great! I especially liked When Sunny Gets Blue and your great flute playing on Fly Me To The Moon. Congratulations on some very fine work.

Later,

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Very professional recordings and impressive playing and singing. I sampled a few of the tunes and they were all top notch.

Kevin


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Hi Doug. I was in the Langley Band from 1970 to 1976. I played piano (still do). We've had to have crossed paths. I worked every now and then with Bob R. and Tom J. Bob and I have exchanged a couple of e-mails. I've been using BIAB since 1995. Love the program. The Real Tracks and Real Drums are great! Later, Ray M.


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Doug:
Really great stuff...you and Paula sound fine together, and your flute work is very nice. As a clarinetist who is sometimes forced to double on flute, I am really impressed with your flute chops. Thanks for sharing!


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Doug;

You and Paula make a really good team. I liked all of your songs. Great arrangements, flute and vocals. I went to boot camp in San Diego, and used to enjoy the night blooming jasmine in the evenings as we walked to Ocean Beach to build a fire and drink beer. Some nice memories of your town. Thank you for posting.

Gene

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Hi Doug

Nice work, you and Paula sound great !

Happy playing
André

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Thank you all for your kind words! Paula doesn't use BB, but I've forwarded the URL for this thread to her, and she said she really appreciates the encouragement.

I'll check in sometime later- gotta go to my day job now...

Best,
Doug


Visit the Elegance Music page on MySpace for samples of my current work.
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Doug,

Outstanding!

Steve


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Quote:

Hi Doug. I was in the Langley Band from 1970 to 1976. I played piano (still do). We've had to have crossed paths. I worked every now and then with Bob R. and Tom J. Bob and I have exchanged a couple of e-mails. I've been using BIAB since 1995. Love the program. The Real Tracks and Real Drums are great! Later, Ray M.




Hi, Ray - well, we overlapped for a year or two in Hampton. You do seem familiar, although I don't remember if we actually met. I got there in early '75. Did you by chance know a guy from the Langley band named Walt Street? I don't remember if he played an instrument, but he was certainly a good singer- wonderful booming baritone voice. Imagine Lou Rawls' voice, but even fuller and richer. He performed the vocal on a song demo of mine, and did a great job. I think that was probably around '78, so he may have gotten to Langley after you left.

Bob Roetker is one of the finest guitarists I've had the pleasure to know, and he has been very generous with his BIAB help and song collection. You jazz fans should check out Bob's youtube videos. He is a huge part of the Cincinnati jazz scene- wish I lived in Ohio so I could catch him sometime. The spirit of Joe Pass lives on through Bob's playing.

I remember Tom Jeffrey's excellent stage band drumming at Ft. Monroe. He still plays, from what I heard.

Take care, & see you around.
Doug


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Quote:

Doug:
Really great stuff...you and Paula sound fine together, and your flute work is very nice. As a clarinetist who is sometimes forced to double on flute, I am really impressed with your flute chops. Thanks for sharing!




Thanks! Well, I've been primarily a clarinet player (and electric bassist) for most of my adult life, but since last year, I've been playing mostly flute, and my poor clarinet feels neglected, collecting dust in the corner. Like I mentioned, I've only been playing flute since last April ('08), so I am still a beginner, stumbling around, but I do appreciate the compliments. Listenting to flutists like Bill McBirnie, Sir James Galway, Lori Bell, Linda Chatterton, Yusef Lateef, Robert Dick, Nestor Torres, Holly Hoffman, and many others too numerous to mention, have inspired me to try to learn this instrument.

There are many things I like about the flute, but my favorite are: A) a beautiful flute tone almost brings tears to my eyes (okay, I'll 'fess up, it actually has brought tears to my eyes, in the case of Linda Chatterton's beautiful version of Debussy's "Arabesque #1" with harp accompaniment), B) there are no reeds to mess with! and C) I have much better endurance on the flute than on the clarinet.

But I will probably get back to the clarinet, cautiously. I may pick up a 'C' clarinet, so that I can read off the same parts as the flute and not have to transpose. I said "cautiously" above, because there is a school of thought that contends that reed instrument playing, particularly clarinet, can be damaging to one's flute playing. We'll see.

Regards,
Doug


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I will venture to say that it is that Bass playing experience that comes in handy for you today on the wind instruments.

A better perspective on the thing, so to speak.


--Mac

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