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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 167
Apprentice
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OP
Apprentice
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 167 |
What exactly is going on when I press humanize melody or soloist? I see nothing as far as notation is concerned. Is this going to show up in a midi file or is it only good for making a wav. file from BIAB. I get the idea of what it's trying to accomplish, but to my untrained ear I really hear no major difference in the tune. Is there any way that you can possible reproduce the same feeling of a real track piano solo in a midi format? I got what I consider the best VSTi piano program called Pianoteq to reproduce my piano sounds. I'm solely depended on the BIAB to create the tune for my drum parts as I have no piano or guitar skills. Is this just an impossible task or can I make really good music from BIAB? I've been using it for more than a year now and just have not gotten the results I'm looking for. Any tips to make a more realistic sound?
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 12,893
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 12,893 |
Quote:
... Is there any way that you can possible reproduce the same feeling of a real track piano solo in a midi format? I got what I consider the best VSTi piano program called Pianoteq to reproduce my piano sounds.
Absolutely. But keep in mind, some midi is crap and a good synth will not make it sound much better. However, good midi and good synth piano can indeed sound just as good as the real thing. In BIAB this is best accomlished with the Supermidi (ST) tracks which are midi recorded tracks directly played by an artist. Combine these with Pianoteq and it should be sounding damn good.
Quote:
...I'm solely depended on the BIAB to create the tune for my drum parts as I have no piano or guitar skills. Is this just an impossible task or can I make really good music from BIAB?
So you are a drummer playing with BIAB? Have we heard any of your efforts here in the forum? Let me go check the user forum.
OK no posts in user forum that I can find? So let us hear you and perhaps we can make recommendations specific to your sound.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 6,490
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 6,490 |
Humanizing randomizes certain things about the music (attack, release, volume are the most common). The concept is that humans don't play everything perfectly, so a little randomizing will help the music sound more human.
It came around when MIDI sequencing was still quite new, and many sequences were step-inputted instead of played life or quantized to cover up gross timing errors. This gives the music a mechanical feel, and not all forms of music want that mechanical sound. So humanizing was intended to loosen up the timing and volumes a bit to make it sound less robotic and more human.
Well it has its good and bad points. It does what it does and it's IMHO better than nothing. Used too much IMHO it just ends up sounding like sloppy musicians with poor timing.
However, as a drummer you probably know this, human imperfections are not entirely random like the humanizer makes them. Musicians play with a groove (feel and other terms) where certain beats or sub beats are played slightly ahead or behind where they would be if step-entered or quantized.
My first introduction to this was when I was in either Junior or Senior high school (I had the same band director for both). He played a series of orchestras playing Viennese waltzes and had us notice how that the second beat of the measure is usually rushed a bit. He used contrasting examples of different waltzes to demonstrate how this was an interpretation by the conductor. Then we played a waltz as he directed us to rush the second beat of each measure a little. We could feel the difference.
Jazz bands, funk bands, blues bands, country bands and so many others just do this without thinking about it. Even in the same genre, one song can have a different groove from another similar one.
A Humanizer cannot inject a groove into the music. But if used in combination with a groove filter, both in the right amount, the combination can inject a live feel to MIDI music that has been step-entered or quantized.
When I write my styles, I play the music live into a sequencer and then import the sequence snippets into the StyleMaker. That way the groove is there when you play it back -- and if you are playing it back through a good sounding MIDI synth, MIDI music can sound excellent.
MIDI music can sound very expressive. Entire motion picture scores and hit records have been recorded using nothing but MIDI instruments, and millions more have mixed MIDI with other instruments.
MIDI often gets a bad name because it's easy to get a sound out of a MIDI synth, just like it's easy to get a note out of a drum set. But there is a big difference between someone banging on the drums and someone like Bernard Purdie. To get good MIDI, you have to learn how to play the instrument, and a MIDI sequencer IS an instrument.
Insights and incites by Notes
Bob "Notes" Norton  Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com
100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: May 2000
Posts: 15,944
PG Music Staff
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PG Music Staff
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 15,944 |
))) Any tips to make a more realistic sound?
Yes. If you are looking for real sounds, start with Realtracks. Then there is no need to humanize, or wonder if your synth is good enough, or need to spend hours editing each note so you can improve it. You will be hearing real musicians, playing on their real instruments.
The easiest way to choose the most common Realtracks styles is from the Band button . Use it to load in a RealStyle. On the same button, there is a menu item at the bottom to load in a song demo. Then you can hear an example of what it sounds like with typical chord progresson.
You can also load real styles from the the style picker, just pick styles that begin with an underscore _ character.
You will then be hearing music like you are hearing in the many demos that we post, and will be playing your drums along to some of the best musicians in the world.
Have Fun!
Peter Gannon
PG Music Inc.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 1,869
Expert
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Expert
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 1,869 |
Some instruments lend themselves to MIDI, typically those instruments that have clean predictable sound with a predictable starting point. It's far easier to emulate a piano than a wailing blues harmonica which has unpredictable runs, mouth noises and a good deal of spit.
When you strike a piano key there is little you can do after to change the note. If you strike it harder the wave form changes in ways that are only loosely to do with the simple math of increasing amplitude, but are also to do with the size of the case, the length and type of the string (s) and a whole host variables.
Each piano string also creates sympathetic resonances. Other strings that have not been struck, but share simple harmonic relations actually sound 'in sympathy'.
A good virtual piano will have several different samples for each note if its sample based, or it will have an algorithm for each note.
Emulating a violin is harder, the bow can strike the string in over fifty differemt ways [called articulations], then as the sound continues, various amounts of vibrato can be added, humanising the sound. Also the angle and pressure of the bow can be varied.
If you are a drummer you will also know that every time a cymbal is struck it creates a different noise - using the same sample to say tap out a triplet series will sound wooden and lifeless. This is called the 'machine gun effect' and IMO is even present when the velocity is altered.
Notes Norton has already explained the timing issues, randomisation does not realy sub for humanisation, each phrase may purposly bend the rules of metronome timing, though perhaps without the player realising. A good player does not randomise but may 'play' with the timing. Billy Holiday comes to mind as someone who instinctively slips and slides over timing and sounds fantastic.
Recreating all this in a track is really a challenge if one does it well, for one has to understand exactly what goes on at a subconcioous level in the music, whether it is swing, a latin montuno or a marching band. Frequently simply playing the piece in is the best option, but playing, for example a guitar part in on a keyboard, will not capture the fret noises and muffled notes present in a real guitar .
Real tracks are real people playing real instruments.
Win 11 64, Asus Rog Strix z390 mobo, 64 gig RAM, 8700k
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Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.
ChatPG's knowledge base includes the full Band-in-a-Box User Manual and sales information from the website.
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Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac® users: Build 904 now available!
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Happy New Year!
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Wishing you and yours a very happy 2026—Happy New Year from all of us at PG Music!
Season's Greetings!
Wishing everyone a happy, healthy holiday season—thanks for being part of our community!
The office will be closed for Christmas Day, but we will be back on Boxing Day (Dec 26th) at 6:00am PST.
Team PG
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