I'm new and just beginning. I have BIAB 2014 ultra plus.
my questions and problems are.
1. When I record a vocal in BIAB. I can hear the music play, while I sing over it. And I don't have to change drivers to play it back.
But where is the vocal recorded? { where are the tracks ?}
Can I mix this?
Add fx?
2. In realband I can't hear the music play when I try to record. But, the vocal does record { way out of time } And I have to change the driver to hear it.
So im having better luck recording in BIAB, except I cant see how to mix anything.
Is there a tutorial that shows these differences and how to adjust?
If you need to change drivers to hear it, you need to visit the same Audio Settings area and click the Drivers button, then look at your available Driver options.
You may need to click the 'Move selected driver to the top' to make it the default. Also normally you will only want one driver for In and Out highlighted. Unless you do multitrack recording using an input device that handles multiple tracks (recording 4 or 8 tracks at a time).
Make sure the audio driver you want is highlighted and moved to top ..
As far as hearing the music while recording; what MIDI synth device are you using? Is 'Use default Synth' checked in the options? These are important settings to get correct before messing with the 'Latency Adjust' tool. In RB you can try clicking 'Prefs-Audio Settings-Latency Adjust button' if audio is still out of time with MIDI.
As for 'Can I mix this? : In BB you can mix the vocal with the rest of the tune using the mixer at upper right (in recent versions). You only get one audio track and it gets saved to same folder as the song but named with the .wav extension. So it would be songname.wav This gets opened and imported into a BB song if it exists.
In RB, each track is saved as part of the project and you get many more audio tracks to work with. If you have a BB song using 8 tracks already, RB offers 40 more tracks. Open the BB song in RB and you'll have 40 more tracks to use for either more MIDI or more Audio.
You may want to check the page below or youtube for tutorials http://www.pgmusic.com/howtos.htm Of Note are the two tutorials below Band-in-a-Box for Windows - No Sound / MIDI Driver Setup Realband - No Sound / MIDI Driver Setup
Last edited by rharv; 04/17/1501:08 PM.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome Make your sound your own!
Regarding the vocal, it sounds like the Windows setting for the microphone input might be down.
To check this, right click on the speaker icon (next to the clock) and choose "Recording Devices".
Once the Recording Devices window opens, double click on the Mic input. For me in Vista, there is then a tab called "Levels" that allows me to adjust the mic level.
Also, once a vocal is recorded, it's possible to run it through the audio effect called "Gain Change". That will normalise the volume.
To do this, click on the vocal track, use ctrl+A to select it all, right-click on the track and, from the pop-up menu, select "Audio Effects".
Now select "Gain Change" and, from the dropdown menu, select #3 "Normalize".
Yes a compressor may help, or you may need to adjust your recording level to begin with, hard to say from here.
As Noel said, Gain Change may work fine, but this is hard written changes. Using a realtime VST compressor may be preferable. When I have a low volume track I'll often use the realtime PGPeakLimit plugin and just boost it a bunch and see if it sounds OK or needs to be redone. It's a very simple, very efficient compressor/limiter tool.
There is a trick to using RB with multiple monitors, searching the forum may help or a separate post. I do not have helpful info on it myself but recall discussions.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome Make your sound your own!
I note you can't drag the tracks window, nor the mixer window, to a different monitor in RB?
In RealBand, all the sub-windows belong to the main window, so you can't go out of those bounds. However, if you un-maximize RealBand, you can drag the main window across both video monitors and then keep the Tracks window on one monitor and the Mixer window on another monitor.
John
Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 12TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 12TB SATA
Regarding the vocal, it sounds like the Windows setting for the microphone input might be down.
To check this, right click on the speaker icon (next to the clock) and choose "Recording Devices".
Once the Recording Devices window opens, double click on the Mic input. For me in Vista, there is then a tab called "Levels" that allows me to adjust the mic level.
Also, once a vocal is recorded, it's possible to run it through the audio effect called "Gain Change". That will normalise the volume.
To do this, click on the vocal track, use ctrl+A to select it all, right-click on the track and, from the pop-up menu, select "Audio Effects".
Now select "Gain Change" and, from the dropdown menu, select #3 "Normalize".
I note you can't drag the tracks window, nor the mixer window, to a different monitor in RB?
In RealBand, all the sub-windows belong to the main window, so you can't go out of those bounds. However, if you un-maximize RealBand, you can drag the main window across both video monitors and then keep the Tracks window on one monitor and the Mixer window on another monitor.
thanks much, jford.
Seems like a decent workaround, when I tried it. Is everyone happy with it, or is it on the wish list for improvement?
EXAMPLE QUESTION- Using a laptop { with second monitor attached}?
--- If one saves a project in that GUI style, and one then takes their laptop with them { down to one monitor}, will it open correctly on the single monitor?
Yes a compressor may help, or you may need to adjust your recording level to begin with, hard to say from here.
As Noel said, Gain Change may work fine, but this is hard written changes. Using a realtime VST compressor may be preferable. When I have a low volume track I'll often use the realtime PGPeakLimit plugin and just boost it a bunch and see if it sounds OK or needs to be redone. It's a very simple, very efficient compressor/limiter tool.
There is a trick to using RB with multiple monitors, searching the forum may help or a separate post. I do not have helpful info on it myself but recall discussions.
Thanks rharv,
good tips, to work with.
Yes, that was my other question: Are all those effects in the audio fly out - NON destructive?
In the most recent versions the "Edit-Audio Effects" fly-outs are hard written (destructive) .. although 'undo' works for the current session to revert back after testing a few. (CTRL + Z) This includes the suggested Gain Change method above. It is hard written and once the file is Saved is irreversible.
The "Edit-Audio" fly-out contains an option for 'real time FX' configuration. These are not hard-written and are adjustable on the fly (preferable) which is why I suggested PGPeakLimit as opposed to the Gain Change approach. PGPeakLmit is available as both a 'hard written' effect and a 'real time' effect. Try it in real time and if you like it, the option is always there to hard write it.
Again these paths are for recent versions. Older versions had the same options but used a different click path to get to them. The Menus were different. What version do you use?
Last edited by rharv; 04/19/1509:00 AM.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome Make your sound your own!
The recorder in BB is a very basic recorder. One track and I don't think you can do much editing with it. I think it's more of a scratch pad sort of thing. I've used it a few times and didn't really see much of a way to do any kind of editing.
Real band is a much better program to use for recording your live tracks. Close the project in BB and then simply open it in RB. Add the live tracks you need to add.
In most cases, the factory sound card in the computer might do OK but often will exhibit latency with certain kinds of tracks..... mainly synths. For a smooth, flawless, and latency free playback/recording experience, you need a dedicated interface that can run with ASIO as the driver. These interfaces tend to be external and connect through USB and get set up as the default sound card for the musical programs in the computer.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.com Add nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.
The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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