Originally Posted By: JimFogle
RealTracks ARE awesome! But comparing them to a VSTi program is not a fair comparison. By definition VSTi is a sound generator and can only sound as good as the midi commands let it sound. RealTracks are a collection of audio phrases. The genius is not just the sound but the arrangement the musician follows, the recording and mixing engineers dedication to creating the right sounds AND the (BiaB) program's audio engine capability to compile the phrases into something that is both pleasing and coherent. To me that is truely magical.

Would a laser focused VSTi with the capability described above be great? You betcha'. Would it be the equal of megabucks VSTis like Kontakt? Perhaps but it would be a huge gamble for a small music company like PG Music. But, I don't think the VSTi program would be compared to another VSTi. I think it would be compared against audio loops and against loops RealTracks and a VSTi does not fare as well because loops and RealTracks both rely on audio phrases.

Compare RealTracks and BiaB against VSTi and PG Music "wins" because it is an apple versus oranges comparison. Compare RealTracks and BiaB against loops and you have a much more level match up. PG Music doesn't "win" but it doesn't lose either. They just get to compete against every other company that makes Acidized and Rex loops.

Some good points but not sure what your overall position is!

In my growing collection of virtual gear I have some plugs that feature totally synthesized sounds and I have some that are digitized samples. Some of the synthesized sounds have no real-world equivalent while others are intended to model and synthesize a real instrument.

What they all have in common is they can be "played" using a MIDI controller or by inputting the notes on some version of piano roll software.

Some of these plugs are very simple with only a note-for-note match between the MIDI controller and the samples being played. But others have quite extensive functionality such as loops or strum patterns, or drumming patterns, etc.

I understand that BIAB/RealTracks are not created, stored and manipulated note-by-note, rather, they are complete musical phrases a bar or more in length. So clearly there would be some difference between playing notes on a MIDI controller and having the plug select the proper samples from the library.

But given all of that I see no reason why it would not be possible to implement RealTracks generation via a VSTi interface that would work inside any DAW!

And yes, there would be technical issues to work out and also possible issues with assumptions of users who are familiar with how samples work and unfamiliar with the RealTrack phrase approach.

So, I acknowledge it will be a fairly steep learning curve if the PG team has not programmed VSTi before but I cannot imagine the curve to be any steeper than a complete rewrite in a modern framework! And of course there will still be GUI elements required but all of the stuff the DAW already does can be left out.

At the end of the day, if PG could create a RealTracks plug that follows the standards and works in any DAW it would be a KILLER product!