There are some good sounding tracks the BIAB core Reggae RealTracks, but too much of the cliché stuff in regards to the Reggae Skank (and by cliché, I mean the common misinterpretation of Reggae structure). I would like to have stripped down versions of the existing Rhythm Guitar and Piano tracks which only play a single strum/chord on the 2 and the 4 and none of those cute little double chuck-chuck things which is usually supposed to be the job of the organ or percussion instruments. Doing it with the guitar and piano (and with such repetitive frequency) turns good Reggae into corny Reggae, imo.

And that segues right to the single and most significant oversight in the BIAB Reggae styles--the absence of a proper organ track. In NONE of the BIAB Reggae styles is there a proper bubbling organ. Reggae organs don't hold chords like that in the current styles--it's outrageous. I've been muting the organ tracks just because it is so annoying and wrong-sounding. Please record a proper and versatile organ track which bubbles with some good bubble variations and authentic riffs (used sparingly), because that can have a huge impact on how different sounding each generated song could be.

I strongly recommend hiring a Jamaican organist who could just play variations for an hour to create a really versatile and proper Reggae organ track which would be really cool and useful.

Here's a great example of the kind of things a Reggae organ should do in the right channel of this classic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DknR0Oz3wLs

Notice all the riff variations, but still the solid bubbling (but please ignore the unusual panning of the organ to the left and then back to the right in one part of the song). And the organ is the only instrument playing that double-chunk that has been so questionably added to the guitar and piano tracks.

Here's another with the organ bubbling a little further back in the mix. It's almost invisible if you're not listening for it, but it is the glue the ties all the Reggae tracks together and gives it real vibe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyaqijPqtP8

Also notice in the above songs that neither the piano nor the rhythm guitar do any of those cliché double chucks in the rhythm. It's just solid chords on the 2 and the 4. It should be very easy to provide us with an edited alternate versions of the current piano and guitar tracks to have a more straight cut version of those instruments not doing all that fancy stuff that isn't really fancy at all. I tried to do this myself but couldn't get the UserTrack to work.

Sorry if I sound too opinionated. On this topic, I definitely have some strong views. Since we've got some great sounding basic tracks, it would be great to build on them so that we can have the ability to create some more authentic sounding Reggae.

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About bass and drums...

The Reggae Bass in the style _REGROCK is bang on the money in terms of it's sound. It would be great to have some additional tracks that sound just like this but have more bassline riff variations. I create my own basslines, but if BIAB could spark more ideas with some more riff variations it would be a lot of fun to experiment with variations and to discover other ways the song could be performed that we may not have thought of on our own.

The drums in the current sets are also very generic interpretation of the Reggae drumming style. It is the least of my concerns because I would replace the drum tracks with material I would create with stuff I already have, but it certainly would be nice if there were some more solid kick-a$$ Reggae drum tracks, since PG Music has done such a great job with many drum tracks in other genres.

Here are a few songs with interesting Reggae drum tracks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jM8JZ7HQok
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13euj4xgwNw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eJ3ru1BQ_I (A whole album of crucial drumming which is way too much to ask for, but...)

The point is that there are a tonne of amazing Reggae drum grooves beyond that very common basic thing with the sidestick... Perhaps more importantly is how the Reggae drums are processed so that they have some weight and substance to them).

Adding some interesting percussion tracks to the Reggae styles would also help to create some more interesting results since there are so many ways that percussion can play with the basic groove to give it some personality. But I guess that's the part which can be left to each of us when producing our songs... though it would be cool for BIAB to be able to generate songs choosing from a pool of really good Reggae percussion tracks. That could allow each generated performance of the song to be quite different and much more interesting overall.

Hope that gives you some ideas. I'll look forward to hearing what comes of this.

Regards,

Zedd

BIAB 2024 Audiophile, MacPro (Mid-2010) OSX 10.12.6
DAW: Digital Performer 8