PG Music Home Forums General Discussion User Showcase “Hey, What Nashville Studio Did You Cut Those In?”

I will go to the punch line first, then discuss my love of Real Band and Band in a Box. I recently submitted a bunch of songs for a mentoring session at a Nashville group I belong to, and the response was “Hey, those songs sound awesome man! What studio around here did you record those in? You had some heavy hitters playing on there, obviously.”

Uh, well….I said my phone was ringing and I had to go.

One song recently done with that “super band” that seems to have gone well is “ Bright White Horses” and can be heard on the link www.soundcloud.com/david-snyder-gigs.

I use this link for demos to venues and other professional uses, and also for band practice. It is also the lineup for my next album. Almost every song has been produced using a combination of Band-in-Box /Real Band and live instruments.

People ask why I use Real Band as a DAW and I say “Because it syncs with Band in a box files and is a great recording system. Why not?” (Thanks to Herb Hartley for turning me on to these amazing tools.)

There is another reason: Real Band brilliantly lets you use the Finale Aria player as a VST for midi files, and I happen to own the Garritan sample libraries for Jazz and Orchestra. This means that in post production or in real-time I can play sampled violin or piano notes (on a Steinway piano or a Stradivarius violin) inside of Real band, and when I am done I push a button and I have the score.

A few elements I have found useful in production that will often make you sound better than if you went to a 42 track studio.

1.) Use BIAB or Real Band as a bed for basic tracks and then add in some live acoustic or electric, or piano. You have to add in some live stuff. Like shakers for example. And acoustics. It is fine to play along with Brent Mason but you can’t let him do it all.

2.) Remember that your goal is production—which means PARTS. Real Band lets you select with the swipe of a mouse certain measures where you want to add a violin solo, or piano, or what have you. But don’t run everything all at once. Make liberal use of the fader and mixer recording tool options.

3.) It is critical to use EQ and compressor and Reverb and other effects inside each track to boost the signals and make them meaty before you export. IK Multimedia has some great basic EQ’ing and compression tools, and the Scarlett line from FocusRite, which come free with the audio interface, work great, because you can adjust them in real time with no hiccups. The Scarlett line works extremely well with Real Band. (I also almost always do a global gain change boost in BIAB tracks before adding effects.)

4.) Invest in Ozone 5 mastering software so you can sweeten it all in post production. It is a crucial final step. If you do all of this, you will be hard pressed to tell the difference between a Band in the Box driven production and a professional $3,000 studio demo or even a professional album production-- to me it is often a lot better. And the drummer actually shows up and doesn’t call in sick.

5.) Consider a program like Guitar Pro that allows you to compose drum tracks that you can add as secondary drum tracks underneath Real Tracks. If you listen to the radio a lot, you will hear a mixture of kit drums and electronica. Guitar Pro allows you to create all the organic sounding fills and pounding electronic you may need to supplement Real Drums (even in country, just go to Billboard.) Same thing with Garritan. Use the Aria Player VST in Real Band on a midi drum track, do a few drum rolls on your keyboard, run them through the jazz drums on Aria, add some compression and you are all set. You’re live.

6. They said to talk about your composition. In Bright White Horses, I am playing two live acoustic guitars and one electric (a Tele) against a Band in a Box backdrop using the _Sugar Style as a bed. (I think this only comes in UltraPak.)This is a great writing style, with congas and simple acoustics. I build by bringing in the Nashville 8s drum set only after verse two. The style also has syncopation, which pushes the momentum forward. A good mindset to fall into.

7. On the Tele, I am running a line out from a Super Champ XD tube amp (a great little recording amp with built in amp models and effects) straight into the audio interface, getting a nice clean signal. Then, I look at that track to see if I need gain changes or reductions anywhere (if so, use audio effects gain change.) Then I go to Amplitube where I have a fleet of virtual amps and pedals. Choosing the amps and effects is the last step, and since I recorded clean, I can always change them later.

Well, I am one happy camper with Band In a Box and Real Band. The more you study it, you see the possibilities are limitless.

I hope the music link works. Let me know if it does not and I will try again. Have fun out there. Just though I would share some of the stuff I have learned.

Hope you enjoy the tunes.

David Snyder
www.reverbnation.com/davidpsnyder
www.soundcloud.com/david-snyder-gigs
https://www.youtube.com/user/DavidPSnyder