Dear All . this BIAB is pure magic for me but I was wondering about the likes of Fj,Tom Adams Janice and Bud RnM ,How about if possible a video tutorial of how you use biab to write and produce. Im sure if possible other members would be enthralled to see your creative flow. Its just an idea but I thought id put it out there cheers Brad
Os Windows Biab 2018. studio one pro 3 ozone 8 focusrite 214 se electronics Gemini mic
I write in BB. I use it like a scratch pad. Get the idea, grab my guitar, find a style in BB that works, and start working on the song. Get everything like I want it. Right structure, key, tempo, groove..... save the file.
Open Real band and use it to render the tracks from the BB project to audio/waves and add the other instruments that I want in the song that are not indigenous to the style chosen in BB. For example, a hard rock style, which I often use for country, doesn't have fiddle or steel guitar but RB lets me render those kinds of instrument files.
Export the files to Sonar and mix.
I think PG was working on a project kinda like this... video of how we work, but IIRC, it got shelved. I don't like doing the video thing on this because each one of the steps could easily be 5 to 10 minutes of detailed instructional information and even after 2 hrs, there would be things forgotten and not said that make a huge difference.
I'm sure someone will provide you the video of what they or someone else has done.
If you have questions about something you hear in one of our songs and want details, just ask.
Then of course, you could look at this: http://www.pgmusic.com/videos.bbwin.htm PG has a ton of video tutorials up on how to do things. My process uses the stuff in those videos as I'm sure everyone else's does too.
I learned a lot looking at the YouTube videos of forum member +++ dfizzbom +++. While published in 2014 the videos give a pretty good overview of the steps taken to create a song from start to finish. The video features Band-in-a-Box, RealBand and the DAW Reaper.
My top production tip to you is the master the "dots." Putting a dot (period) after the chord and before the letter corresponding to the channel/instrument allows you to solo one instrument or several, or gradually have the whole band kick in.
G.p means you will hear the G chord only played by whatever instrument is in the piano slot. G.pd means you will hear whatever is in the piano slot and drums. It only works on the the top five channels though, not melodist and below. That is reserved for midi, although though you can add real tracks to these slots, they just won't yield to the trick described above--at least not the last time I checked.
(When you open this BIAB file up in Real Band, RB preserves this "mix." Magical.)
Study these channels, look at these dots and listen to the song below and you will see what I mean. The "mystery guitar" at the first chorus was added by me. The right acoustic is me as well at the beginning of the song. I also added various other parts self-played as the song got kicking.
The key to understanding the dots, however, is understanding the legacy track names. Currently (and hopefully it will be fixed in the future), the instruments you include/exclude from shots, rests, and holds must be the legacy track names.
From left to right across the top you'll see:
Master - this is not a track name, per se Bass - indicated by a "b", even if the instrument is something else Piano - indicated by a "p", even if the instrument is something else (such as organ or rhodes or whatever) Drums - indicated by a "d", even if the instrument is showing as "TrapSet" or "Bongos" Guitar - indicated by a "g", even if the instrument showing is "acoustic" or "electric" Strings - indicated by a "s", even if the instrument showing is "violin" or "orchestra"
In other words, don't use the initial letter of the instrument (otherwise, BIAB would get confused if for example you had two "Guitars", but use the legacy track name to indicated which instruments to exclude from a rest or a shot or a hold.
So, for example, if you have entered:
Cm7...pg
the dots should be read as "Play a Cm7 chord and hold all instruments except the instrument on the piano track and the instrument on the guitar track.
Gsus.d
should be read as "Play a Gsus chord and rest all instruments except the instruments on the drum track. Of course, effectively, this means that a Gsus won't be heard at all, because only the drums are playing (although a live soloist might be playing over the Gsus chord along to the BIAB arrangement, so you keep the chord in for notation purposes).
Bbdim7..bd
should be read as "Play a Bbdim7 chord as a shot (a hit) for all instruments except the instrument on the Bass track and the instrument on the Drum track. That means the instruments on the piano, guitar, and strings track will play the shot, but the bass and drums will play whatever riffs they would have played were the dots not there.
Additionally, you can't use the "dots" for the melody or soloist track, on the five auto-generated tracks.
There are long posts about needing to rename the legacy track names and I won't get into that here, but hopefully this helps folks use this powerful feature of BIAB.
John
Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 2x2TB, 1x4TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 2x1.5TB, 2x2TB, 1x4TB SATA
Good point John, that's the very first mistake I made when I just tried this. I put in the first letter of the instruments I put in not the "legacy" names. Very confusing, especially when I change the track to a completely different instrument and I forgot what the original track assignment was!
If it helps, I always run BIAB with the old names. This option is available on the first screen when one opens "Prefs". It's called "Auto generate track labels".
And to make the mud even clearer, you don't actually have to type the letters in any particular order. So as long as you are using those letters, you can type them in any order and BIAB will re-sort them properly when you hit enter.
John
Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 2x2TB, 1x4TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 2x1.5TB, 2x2TB, 1x4TB SATA
I had a play around with this and was very impressed. Great when the drums play and other instruments hold or just guitars come in or a bass solo. Also nice for drum fills. All in all very powerful. The pushes are also neat.
Last edited by lambada; 08/27/1703:56 AM.
Windows 10 Home 20H2 Build 19042.487 BIAB 2021 (Build 818) Intel(R) Core(TM), i3-4160, CPU @3.60 GHz RAM 16 GB, 64 Bit X64-based processor Zoom UAC-2 (USB 3 interface-built in midi) VoiceLive 3 Extreme, Sputnik Valve Condenser Mic
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Introducing XPro Styles PAK 10 – Now Available for Mac Band-in-a-Box 2025 and Higher!
We've just released XPro Styles PAK 10 for Mac & Windows Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher) with 100 brand new RealStyles, plus 28 RealTracks and RealDrums!
Few things are certain in life: death, taxes, and a brand spankin’ new XPro Styles PAK! In this, the 10th edition of our XPro Styles PAK series, we’ve got 100 styles coming your way! We have the classic 25 styles each from the rock & pop, jazz, and country genres, and rounding out this volume's wildcard slot is 25 styles in the Praise & Worship genre! A wide spanning genre, you can find everything from rock, folk, country, and more underneath its umbrella. The included 28 RealTracks and RealDrums can be used with any Band-in-a-Box® 2026 (and higher) package.
Here’s just a small sampling of what you can look forward to in XPro Styles PAK 10: Soft indie folk worship songs, bumpin’ country boogies, gospel praise breaks, hard rockin’ pop, funky disco grooves, smooth Latin jazz pop, bossa nova fusion, western swing, alternative hip-hop, cool country funk, and much more!
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Xtra Styles PAK 21 for Mac & Windows Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher) is here with 200 brand new RealStyles!
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Rejoice, one and all, for Xtra Styles PAK 21 for Band-in-a-Box® is here! We’re serving up 200 brand spankin’ new styles to delight your musical taste buds! The first three courses are the classics you’ve come to know and love, including offerings from the rock & pop, jazz, and country genres, but, not to be outdone, this year’s fourth course is bro country! A wide ranging genre, you can find everything from hip-hop, uptempo outlaw country, hard hitting rock, funk, and even electronica, all with that familiar bro country flair. The dinner bell has been rung, pickup up Xtra Styles PAK 21 today!
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