PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Windows For live work - BIAB or Realband?

In a live situation which would be better to use, BIAB or Real Band?

I want to use it for "pseudo" style play using the Conductor function. Playing a few Jazz funk tunes mostly. And only probably using the drums and bass parts - the rest will be muted out..

Maybe add some midi backing parts, but again only bass drums and maybe one gtr...

Thanks

Dennis

Once you are at the level of performing it, it doesn't matter. How hard do you want to work at home creating it? I prefer Real Band because it is a 48 track sequencer with the value add of being a composition tool. Create your stuff from a style, add your sweetening tracks, and go. For live stuff (I have done little but I have done it - only songwriter night when I got 3 songs) I saved my songs to wav files with the vocal track removed and just played guitar and sang along. I played the tracks from my iPad plugged into the house sound system.

Your Real Band songs will load instantly once save as a SEQ. file, you have to wait for Biab songs to generate.

joden,

I have loved BIAB for many many reasons and see no reason to change. Of course other's milage may vary.

Good Luck,

My friend plays jazz live with just bass, piano 7 comping guitar. He uses BIAB. I have 200+ songs I play live and use RB.I use 9-12 tracks. I play country & R'n'R

Super opinions guys thanks heaps - Maybe a case could be argued for actually using both??

W7 is very good at multi tasking so I can see no reason why both cannot be open at the same time to simpy drop in and out of depending on the song.

I do think I agree more with Mac, more so for the reason that BIAB seems to offer far more flexibility and operational control...

Good "food for thought" though...Much appreciated.

Dennis

Mac I totally agree with you on BIAB, I too have been gigging with BIAB for years. I had to upgrade my computer though when they brought all the real tracks out. I also load the next song before the present song is finished. With my new laptop (3 years old now) songs load in about 3 seconds which is fine for me. I play jazz gigs and dinner music in restaurants, many times the customer is talking to me between songs so it doesn't even seem like there is a delay. I do dabble with RB because I still use midi files for pop music. Can someone give a quick explination on the conductor feature? I hear guys talking about it but I've never used it. Keep the music flowing guys, it's what keeps us all from going crazy!

I also see both sides of the dilemma. As is usually the case, there is no one correct answer -- no one right way to do it.

I'm not doing a jazz gig, and so the arrangements of my tunes are the same every time. A little like playing in a band that reads charts or a pop star doing a concert. The vocals and the instrumental parts my partner and I play on top of the backing tracks can vary from song to song (and do in most songs).

I use neither BiaB nor RealBand to play my tracks, even though I often use BiaB to help me generate my tracks. I export the final edition of each song from BiaB, import it into a Sequencer (I use MTPro instead of Real Band), and then take the very good output of BiaB and turn it into a much better track by adding/subtracting/rearranging and doing other edit jobs.

I have been criticized for posting the entire process on the forum by testy members who have already read it, so I created a web page explaining how I make my backing tracks and how I use them on stage http://www.nortonmusic.com/backing_tracks.html

Take what you like and leave the rest.

Bob

To ask a question, sorta kinda related to my OP, is there a list somewhere of what styles in BIAB suit what songs?

Mac kindly posted that j_dolphin is perfect for On Green Dolphin Street so I was wondering if such a list has actually been compiled anywhere, or is it a case where one needs to just go through every style available to see what works?

As a new user (last BIAB I seriously used was version 3 or 4 I think!!) I find the list of styles is almost overwhelming and it would take a mountain of time to pick and choose what works best with what tune...so a list for at least getting started with a playlist would be a good quick start, and would then allow the app to be used live quickly, and then take time to "fine-tune" the styles later...

Just askin' is all

Dennis

I don't kinow of a specific list, there may be one somewhere on the web though.

I use the feature inside the Stylepicker, "Search".

Just type in one keyword, such as "dolphin" or "green" and then hit Search.

Use the G key to Search again for the same string without having to reopen that window.

Scrolling through all available Styles that have the keyword in them often finds a Style to suit a particular song.

Of course, not all songs that a certain style might work well with will be listed.


--Mac

Cool tip, thanks Mac I will try that.

I had already tried a web search, but you know what they are like - ask the question th wrong way and you find either nothing or mountains of hits that bear no resemblance at all to what was asked .

But I think your tip might at least get me started more quickly in the right direction.

Cheers
Dennis

I hear ya re: "style overload" but I've found that the style names are pretty descriptive.

Plus, you know the time signature...the approximate bpm's and the genre so applying those filters will cut down on the choices big time.

At that point it become trial and error but up to a point, that can be both fun and creative.

Best,
Jim

Cheers Jim, thanks

Dennis

I am in a three piece band call the Dukes of Cymru, 'WWW.TheDukessofCymru.NET' and we use BAND in THE BOX for live gigs lastimg up to 3 hours. We have all songs 'FROZEN' and once saved we open up the set and I use a remote control velcroed to my STRAT to play the track and then skip to the next song when ready. This way I don't even need to touch the PC. Only problem I have found here though is that in BAND in the BOX you cannot save songs with different intro options. The intro options are for all songs. I have requested this as an option though in another thread. Hope this helps. All the best, Bob.

There are plenty of styles, and when you are trying to find the right one for the song, the task can be overwhelming -- but when you do find that perfect style, it's worth the search.

When I wrote my first style disk, I thought, "There, I've addressed what I perceived to be was was missing in the PG Music catalog of styles, that should do it!"

Was I ever wrong.

We had a weekly gig playing for an Arthur Murray dance studio at the time. We learned a couple of ballroom dance tunes and to pick one example I'll choose the Cha-Cha. Brought up "Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White" and the Cha-Cha style I wrote worked great. Learned a couple more and it started to get very predictable for the musician (although I don't think the dancers noticed). They we did something similar to the Chris Montez version of "The More I See You", which is a lighter, gentler Cha-Cha. So I had to write a new Cha-Cha style.

Fast forward 20 years and I've written 23 style disks http://www.nortonmusic.com/contents.html#biab , and PG Music quite a few more.

Leilani and I also write Fake Disks http://www.nortonmusic.com/contents.html#fake and as we do fake disks, Leilani who does the original programming, and chooses the working style before we send it off to the musicians who choose the final style, is always telling me, "We need a style for this song."

So in my 20+ years of involvement with BiaB, I've come to realize that as big as the menu for styles is, it's still way too small. There are thousands of songs that could use a style that neither PG, Myself, Roy Hawkesford or Sherry Mayrent haven't written yet. It could even be a similar style to one already written, but with subtle differences, but those subtle differences can make such a great big difference in the song.

So like everything else about BiaB to a newcomer, the style menu seems too big and too confusing. But as you work with it more, as you learn how to use the search function and the other style finding tools like the Prototype style button AND as you get more familiar with the styles you are choosing and playing songs with, it will get a lot easier. And in time, you will be saying, "I wish there was a better style for this song." and hopefully either PG Music or myself will write it for you.

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

Thank Bob and the Bob above you Wonderful insights. As I have written elsewhere I am moving back to software after years of using hardware w/s's and arrangers.

I have been messing about with something called vArranger for a while but even though BIAB does not do chord recognition in any live sense, I think in some ways it gives far more freedom in what I actually play.

I might try to really get into it for a while and maybe be brave enough to launch it at gigs and see where it leads. The real tracks, particularly drums are amazing. I do a fair bit of left hand basslines , along with playing keys on the right, so I can even get a pseudo-live thing happening by only using drumtracks...

Believe it or not I have had the modern versions of BIAB (since ver 2007 I think) on my data drive for years without ever really loading it up and seeing exactly what it can do. I guess experiences of BIAB ver 4 and 5 etc put me off, as they were a bit naff (clever as they were at the time) and I always allowed that view to cloud the use of later versions.

I bit the bullet a while back to spring for 2012, and it is only now that I have gotten rid of the w/s keyboard and arrangers that has "sorta kinda" forced me into re-evaluating the whole BIAB, Real Band thing.

Lots of ideas on this thread and every one is appreciated.

Cheers
Dennis