PG Music Home Forums PG Music Wishlists Band-in-a-Box Wishlist Specific rhythms and licks for the rhythm section

I realize and appreciate that the RealTracks contain actual single-bar or multi-bar performances and are not mere samples which follow MIDI events. But, sometimes songs contain specific rhythms and accents, and, while pushes, shots, and holds address this need somewhat, the current method of special chord notation to achive this kind of rhythmic flexibility is cumbersome at best, and limiting. There have been many times when I've wished for a way to input complex specific rhythms that the entire rhythm section would follow, in an "idiomatic" manner, i.e. drums doing the appropriate kicks & fills for the style, based on the rhythms input.

Also, some songs, for them to be recognizable, depend on certain licks being played by the rhythm section at various points in the song. A couple of examples which come to mind at the moment are "Some Skunk Funk" by the Brecker Brothers, and "Chameleon" (Herbie Hancock). You can have BIAB play the changes to these songs, but unless you have the rhythmic accents and the whole rhythm section soli melodic licks, they don't sound like those tunes. There are many other songs which would benefit from including specific rhythmic/melodic licks in them.

The way I'm envisioning it working is, you would put BIAB into a "Rhythm Only from MIDI input" mode, (for just rhythms) or "Rhythm & Melodic from MIDI input" mode (to record both rhythmic and melodic elements). You would play the song, and at the points you want specific rhythms and/or melodic licks to be played by the rhythm section, (in real time) you play them on your MIDI controller (recording them into the BIAB song), optionally quantizing the MIDI input in realtime or after-the-fact. When you then play the song again, the rhythm section would follow these user-input rhythms and/or melodic licks. This "accent track" would be saved with the song.

I'm not sure if this could be accomplished with the current implementation of RealTracks, but if not, perhaps PG Music could do this through a hybrid "RealTracks/Sampled" mode whereby the non-user-accented portions of the song would be regular RealTracks segments, and the accented parts would switch to MIDI-controlled sampled instruments. It would obviously be important to match the sampled sounds to the RealTracks audio, to make the transitions seamless.

I know this is a tall order, but it could be the next step beyond RealTracks in the evolution of BIAB. "RealAccents". :-)

Thanks,
--Doug

Can't be done with Realtracks.

Can be done with MIDi styles.

Matter of fact, if you can find a good MIDI file of the target piece, there is a Style Wizard that can streamline the conversion of the MIDI file licks into your own custom style, I recommend checking that feature out.

Still, forcing BIAB to blow "Some Skunk Funk" would likely take making two or three styles and changing style at bar in order to get through it right every time. But I would think it entirely possible to do.

A very good MIDI synth is a good thing to have, also. Like the Ketron SD2 or the likes.


--Mac

Hi, Mac,

Yes, I realize that it can't be done currently. The point of my post was to introduce an idea which PG Music might consider for development, if they haven't thought of it already. It might take them a few years to get this capability into BIAB, but I think it would be worth the effort (from a user perspective).

Regards,
--Doug

Well, what you want can be done, but I would think it would result in a RealTrack that could likely only be used in one specified song.

Don't know if such would be a good marketing plan or not. Gut feel says no. There are a lot of songs like that out there...


--Mac