I have a bossa nova song at 140BPM. If I put Realtrack 1060 (Eric Marienthal soprano sax) on the soloist track via the mixer (so track color stays green) and set it to half-time, I get a great laid back solo. But if I use the Soloist dialog and add the same track, there doesn't seem to be a way for me to get it to generate/play a half-time solo, so it's way too busy. I was hoping to use some of the Soloist options for fill percentage, trade 4s, etc but keep the half-time "performance". Am I missing something (hopefully)? There's a dropdown for Normal/half/double/triple buried on the Soloist Editor "more..." pop up, but setting that to half time doesn't have an effect.
Update: It looks like a mixed bag as far as which "Select Soloist" dialogs affect RealTrack soloist. Thinks like "Solo Which Choruses" work. Also under Solo Mode, the "Fills%" and "Trade" radio buttons seem to work. I was hoping for "Around Melody" to work, and had put a MIDI melody in as a place holder to see if that would silence the RealTrack soloist during those phrases (kind of a more advanced "Trade" <g>). Still, if I could get the half-time soloist playback along with some of those features, I could probably get something useful.
Last edited by cwiggins999; 05/15/2010:23 AM.
Chuck Wiggins
BIAB 2023 Win UltraPak, Cakewalk, Windows 10 Pro Custom AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core, Focusrite Scarlett 4x4 interface
That didn't work - still plays at normal time/tempo. That's the option I had tried earlier and described as "there's a dropdown for Normal/half/double/triple buried on the Soloist Editor "more..." pop up, but setting that to half time doesn't have an effect. Here's how the track looks after using the Soloist forms. But it is playing at normal time.
Last edited by cwiggins999; 05/15/2006:14 PM.
Chuck Wiggins
BIAB 2023 Win UltraPak, Cakewalk, Windows 10 Pro Custom AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core, Focusrite Scarlett 4x4 interface
Did you regenerate the song after making the time-base change? This regeneration should have happened after making your trade 4, etc., settings. These settings need to be regenerated to be activated.
Also, are you running the latest build with BIAB? If you are using BIAB 2020, the latest build is 720.
That is the build I'm running. I did regenerate the song multiple times. I can't force rebuild only the Soloist track like I can the guitar and bass realtrack, perhaps because it was generated by the Soloist? So don't know if regenerating the song really effects that track.
I think setting the time base on the Extra Soloist Information dialog is resetting the default time base for the soloist. Changing it stays associated with that realtrack in other places in the program, but doesn't change behavior for this particular generated solo.
There's a bug coming at this same desired result from a different angle that leads me to think their's some "disconnected" functionality when it comes to timebase and soloing/arranging. In this case I followed the below thread and changed soloist track at a bar level to get some end of phrase soloing. But if I switched the track to half-time it didn't honor the "silencing" (not muting) track changes.
Well, to tell you true; i never experienced anything useful for me coming out of the Soloist and Melodist features since they first showed up in BIAB as MIDI only then (Lorber Levine addons bought).
Noel96, thanks for trying things and following up with the developers. I'm a software engineer by trade, so always am a fan of finding reuse for existing tools, and the half-time feature for realtracks has already come in very helpful in my few short weeks of using Biab. So I just hope the functionality can be carried through consistently. It's taking a fair amount of trial and error to see what works and what doesn't, what's affected by Soloist options, etc. I did find a bit of a workaround - can use it as a final step before taking my arrangement to my DAW. RealBand is honoring the half-time setting on the Extra Soloist Information dialog. That setting is persisting with the Realtrack, so who knows what else it might affect. I want a number of 2-3 bar embelleshments to play around my melody, so I can use Realbands ability to generate solos for just a few bars. It's a little tedious, and I don't know if I could use Multiriff with it. But might do the trick for now. So the way things work from the Realband side, given two Eric Marienthal soprano tracks at 65bpm, the one I've marked as half-time on the Biab side works great in my 140BPM tune, and the bluesy version which is still marked normal plays at twice the speed I would want. Just FYI.
Fiddler2007, I know what you are saying about Soloist - I'm not usually a fan of generated melody/improv lines. The most I've used it for is generating some simple mallet accompaniments that I can use as starting points for editing on the DAW side. I'll have to say some of the generated parts are quite interesting, and the drop 2 Nat King Cole piano harmonization is rather interesting. But a lot of the results is crap :-)
Is there a way to tag a username in a post so they get notified? I think I saw some tagged usernames in earlier posts, but can't find how that was done in FAQ. Could have been some other forum.
Chuck Wiggins
BIAB 2023 Win UltraPak, Cakewalk, Windows 10 Pro Custom AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core, Focusrite Scarlett 4x4 interface
That Realband approach of generating a few measures of solos doesn't really work - bad phrasing and abrupt cutoffs. So I'm just going to let the solo track generate fully without using the Soloist settings at all, and then will chop/mix as needed on the DAW side. The idea scenario for a lot of songs is to have the solo track improvise around a melody. I think the MIDI soloist will do this, and the short phrases of the Realtracks lend themselves to doing this. So would be nice to "close the loop" and have the Realtracks soloist be a little more intelligent at least as far as when to sit out.
Chuck Wiggins
BIAB 2023 Win UltraPak, Cakewalk, Windows 10 Pro Custom AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core, Focusrite Scarlett 4x4 interface
Don't think you can tag other users than your poorself ...
Some times i found generated RTs once there hard to remove, seems even erase from the soloist's track menu is not always working.
It might help by first resetting the track to MIDI only, then reselecting the RT again to solve that issue. Could maybe be that generating your RT soloist track to work again needs some extra steps.
BIAB is quirky, but it's one of the most rewarding music creating programs around. Sometimes it feels like riding a camel with three humps. With always some old, or needed new emergency roadworks getting in your way. Keep your eyes on the update numbering, they are always fixing something at PG.
But lucky us: we got AA men like Noel, Matt, Pipeline and Videotrack etc around helping us out when this camel has a flat tire or worse ....
On the subject of Half-Time base not working RealDrums also have an issue.
As an example start a new song add a few chords with holds then pick any RealTrack style. What ever RealDrums are used for that style change the drum tempo base to Half-Time and generate. Then maybe change the RealDrums to another Realdrum (in the same-ish tempo) and generate.
.....You will find that BIAB does not generate Count-in or Holds
Still waiting for a response from PGMusic.
Brian
Brian Cadoret BIAB 2025 Pro build 1125e with BIAB2023 UltraPAK . Samplitude Pro X4 Suite. Mixcraft 10.5 Pro Studio Focusrite 2i2 Scarlett Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3470 CPU @ 3.20GHz 3.20 GHz Installed RAM 8.00 GB
My apologies for not being clear in my initial post. Thanks for asking so I could clarify.
Brian Cadoret if you will post your song file and remind us what is wrong, some of us can look at the song file and verify the issue and possibly suggest a workaround.
cwiggins999,
Since Noel96 has confirmed your issue and informed the developers I don't think there is much more other users can offer.
With the release of Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac, we’re rolling out a collection of brand-new videos on our YouTube channel. We’ll keep this forum post updated so you can easily find all the latest videos in one convenient spot.
Whether you're exploring new features, checking out the latest RealTracks or Style PAKs, this is your go-to guide for Band-in-a-Box® 2026.
Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac is here and it is packed with major new features! There’s a new modern look, a GUI redesign to all areas of the program including toolbars, windows, workflow and more. There’s a Multi-view layout for organizing multiple windows. A standout addition is the powerful AI-Notes feature, which uses AI neural-net technology to transcribe polyphonic audio into MIDI—entire mixes or individual instruments—making it easy to study, view, and play parts from any song. And that’s just the beginning—there are over 100 new features in this exciting release.
Along with version 2026, we've released an incredible lineup of new content! There's 202 new RealTracks, brand-new RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, “Songs with Vocals” Artist Performance Sets, Playable RealTracks Set 5, two new RealDrums Stems sets, XPro Styles PAK 10, Xtra Styles PAK 21, and much more!
Special Offers
Upgrade to Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac and save up to 50% on most upgrade packages during our special offer—available until May 15, 2026. Visit our Band-in-a-Box® packages page to explore all available upgrade options.
2026 Free Bonus PAK & 49-PAK Add-ons
Our Free Bonus PAK and 49-PAK are loaded with amazing add-ons! The Free Bonus PAK is included with most Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac packages, but you can unlock even more—including 20 unreleased RealTracks—by upgrading to the 2026 49-PAK for just $49.
Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac® users: Build 904 now available!
If you're already using Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac®, make sure to grab the latest update! Build 904 is now available for download and includes the newest additions and enhancements from our team.
PowerTracks 2026 is here—bringing powerful new enhancements designed to make your production workflow faster, smoother, and more intuitive than ever.
The enhanced Mixer now shows Track Type and Instrument icons for instant track recognition, while a new grid option simplifies editing views. Non-floating windows adopt a modern title bar style, replacing the legacy blue bar.
The Master Volume is now applied at the end of the audio chain for consistent levels and full-signal master effects.
Tablature now includes a “Save bends when saving XML” option for improved compatibility with PG Music tools. Plus, you can instantly match all track heights with a simple Ctrl-release after resizing, and Add2 chords from MGU/SGU files are now fully supported... and more!
Get started today—first-time packages start at just $49.
Already using PowerTracks Pro Audio? Upgrade for as little as $29 and enjoy the latest improvements!
One of our representatives will be happy to help you over the phone. Our hours of operation are from
6:00AM to 6:00PM PST (GMT -8) Monday thru Friday, and 8:00AM to 4:00PM PST Saturday. We are closed Sunday. You can also send us your questions via email.
One of our representatives will be happy to help you on our Live Chat or by email. Our hours of operation are from
6:00AM to 6:00PM PST (GMT -8) Monday thru Friday; 8:00AM to 4:00PM PST (GMT -8) Saturday; Closed Sunday.
Dansk
Deutsch - Windows
Español
Français - Windows
Italiano - Windows
Nederlands
Polski
Português
Svenskt
русский
Japanese
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Korean