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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Our new drummer just came down with a severe hernia. He won't be playing for some time and we as a band want to continue building the new show. So now I'm trying to replace the drummer with BiaB (temporarily ofcourse  ) As I was creating the drumtracks using preferrably RealDrums, I had the need to have multiple drumstyles available at the same time. For example: I needed a count-in, after that 7 bars of click, one bar of shots and then the normal drumparts. The count-in, the shots and the normal drumparts are no problem. But for the 7 bars of click I wanted to create a simple drumstyle (MIDI) with just closed high-hat on every beat. Assigning that drumstyle to, say, the guitartrack would make me able to play that part for the first 7 bars and then mute that track. I also want to have a rockdrumsstyle playing while at some points in the song some extra percussion added. So what I basicly want is have drums (RD and/or MIDI) assigned to the instrument tracks (guitar, bass etc). But I can't find any way to do this. I read some post of forummembers who use RD's alongside with MIDI-drumparts, so it should be possible do this. But how?  I usually do these things in my DAW. But for band rehearsel purposes I want to use only BiaB. Any help would be greatly apreciated!
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Don't you just change the patch to 10 or something in the patch map. Never tried it though. It would likely take that track and render it unusable for the whole song I think.
John Conley
Musica est vita
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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For those 7 bars of hihat click I wouldn't even bother to try altering the thing that much.
I'd go into Preferences, Countin/Met and invoke the bottom metronome dropdown to both Record and Play, then I'd simply mute the drums on the bars where I only wanted click.
Since you are using this for practice purposes only, having the click keep going throughout is not exactly a kill here, matter of fact it might eventually get things tighter if the musicians are willing to work with the click.
I invoke that met on playback quite a bit in practice sessions with others here, no matter the drums on the drumtrack, real or midi. Make. Them. Count. It pays off if they will. Bigtime.
--Mac
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Thanks for the input. I'll try the metronome for sure. Perhaps this is the right time to convince the guys that a clicktrack is a good thing, especially for practice sessions.
In the meanwhile I found that it works pretty well to simply change the style for a couple of bars.
Still the question stands: How to assign drums to instrument tracks, If possible at all?
Just for the sake of being able to have drums and percussion at the same time.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Journeyman
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If you have Real Band or some other sequencer you could generate as many different drum tracks as you need and then cut and paste or volume change the parts you want from each. I'm not sure BIAB is the program for what you want to do. I suppose you could have one drum track converted to a .wav file and use it on the audio track in BIAB. That would give you two drum tracks anyway.
Good luck.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Quote:
Still the question stands: How to assign drums to instrument tracks, If possible at all?
Just for the sake of being able to have drums and percussion at the same time.
I'll let a copy and paste from the BIAB FAQ page do the talking:
Quote:
All recording in Band-in-a-Box is placed on the Melody (or Soloist) track. Even when instruments in the Drum window are played and recorded, they get placed on the Melody track. If you need to add drums this way to a Band-in-a-Box song, you need to change the channel on the Melody track to channel 10, the drum channel. You can do this by going to Opt. | Preferences | Channels, and setting the Melody channel to 10.
One alternative is, after recording the drums, swap the Melody and Soloist tracks and change the Soloist channel to 10. You can swap tracks by clicking on Melody | Edit Melody Track | Swap Melody and Soloist. This way you can free up the Melody track for something else.
--Mac
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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@Barry: Normally I use a DAW to do these things. But for this I need BiaB as a stand-alone instrument.
@Mac: I was thinking along this line also. But this only works when you record the part with an external MIDI-instrument.
Next best thing would indeed be (as Barry sugested) to render the drums to wav, load them into the melody or solo-track and continue from there.
Ah well, another item for the wishlist then I guess.
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you can assign the soloist or melody to play the drum part on. The channel will need to be 10 more than likely so the soundcard will make the proper sounds. Open up the piano roll window and at the bar you want press ctrl and shift and a pencil will appear, you can then left click your mouse and a note will pop up on the piano roll. Closed HH is a gb3. Just enter as many notes as you like. Make sure to do this on the soloist or melody because otherwise it will reset on you. I hope this helps! Listen To My MusicRead My Blog
My TunesPsalm 57:7 My heart, O God, is steadfast, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make music.
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Quote:
@Barry: Normally I use a DAW to do these things. But for this I need BiaB as a stand-alone instrument.
Real Band is the ticket for this. It's not just another DAW, it is Biab combined with a DAW giving you 48 tracks to play with. You're not creating drum tracks in Biab then having to import them and going through that whole dance. RB generates all the same Biab parts itself including multiple drum tracks both RD's and midi, on an individual track basis. You don't have to regenerate the whole song, highlight one blank track and generate whatever instrument you want for that track using different Biab styles. If 48 tracks is not enough and you're running out of tracks, you can also highlight say, 8 bars of a given track and just generate that so you can put several different drum styles in different places on the same track if you want to.
Bob
Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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I guess I have to give RB another try then....
I abandoned the program almost right from the start 'cause I didn't like the workfow and the feel of it. PowerTracks 12 was the DAW that I used earlyer and still is the DAW I'd recomend to anyone who wants to start home-recording. .Now I use Cubase 5 which has more functions I want and need. Also the way the latter works seems totally natural to me.
I haven't tried RB 2009 (.5) yet. But the earlyer version missed the power and functionallity BiaB has (mho)
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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You don't need to record with a MIDI instrument to enter drum notes on the Melody or Soloist track, you can use the PianoRoll or the Notation Edit windows to click notes with the mouse. Easy job to create say 7 bars of closed hihat like that.
--Mac
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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@ Mac: You're absolutely right. But that still doesn't allow me to use a percussion drumstyle and a rock drumstyle at the same time.
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In BIAB -- try loading the drums or the percussion part first, and it will be on the Drums track. Use highlight, copy and Paste, either in Notation or PianoRoll window to paste that part onto the Melody or Soloist track.
Then load the style that has the other part, drums or percussion, onto the drum track and let it generate by pushing Play.
Don't forget to rechannel the Mel or Sol to channel 10.
--Mac
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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PG Music Staff
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If you have a BB MIDI Drum track, you can easily transfer this to the Melody or Soloist track.
Use the Edit-Copy Tracks command, and copy Drums to Melody track.
Then, use Melody menu, and Set Track Type to Multi (16 channel). Then the track won't get rechannelized and channel 10 will be output.
Have Fun!
Peter Gannon
PG Music Inc.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Quote:
If you have a BB MIDI Drum track, you can easily transfer this to the Melody or Soloist track.
Use the Edit-Copy Tracks command, and copy Drums to Melody track.
Then, use Melody menu, and Set Track Type to Multi (16 channel). Then the track won't get rechannelized and channel 10 will be output.
Cool.
Thanks, Peter!
--Mac
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That could be a good way to deal with it.
Thank you!
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Had the first rehearsel with the band last monday. The guys were blown away by the drumtracks BiaB played. The feel was almost like having a real drummer in the room. The bassplayer even said he played more relaxed now 'cause BiaB sticks to the gameplay no matter what anyone in the band does. This was also the first time ever I played live with BiaB, and even I was amazed with the program  And I've been using it for the last three years!!!
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Quote:
The bassplayer even said he played more relaxed now 'cause BiaB sticks to the gameplay no matter what anyone in the band does.
This will put some pressure on your guy when he comes back. Playing to a good drum track will tighten the whole band up but if he can't keep it solid when he returns, the rest of you will definitely notice it. Especially the bass player.
You mentioned wanting to use a regular drum kit track with a percussion track. This is the first thing I did during the original Real Band beta test. It took all of one minute. You right click on any empty track, highlight "create a RD track" and voila, done. It follows the chord chart part markers just like Biab does, then do the same for another empty track and do the percussion. After a while you realize this is so easy, you might as well create 4 or 5 drum tracks and start playing with mixing and matching different parts of each one until you hit something you like. This can be midi drums too using a Biab style. Typically, I will mess around with several RD's and several midi drum tracks using different styles. I use Jamstix for the midi drum sound module, it sounds so good it blends right in with a RD track. At first I was focused on just one track and if I didn't like it, I would erase it and create another but there's all those empty tracks staring at you from the screen, just use them. If you're familiar with PT 12 and Biab, you should have no problem at all with RB. Obviously, everyone has they're own way of working but imho, once you're familiar with RB, you'll never use Biab for something like this.
Bob
Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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Citaat:
This will put some pressure on your guy when he comes back. Playing to a good drum track will tighten the whole band up but if he can't keep it solid when he returns, the rest of you will definitely notice it. Especially the bass player.
The new drummer is tight, no problem. He is however not a rockdrummer like we're used to (he's a long-time brassband member, playing all percussion and drums). Another thing is he has to learn all the songs including all the changes we as a band made to the original songs. But he'll get there.
Thanks for the info Bob.
As for RealBand. I think I'll really have to give it another try. Unfortunatly my PG USB-HDD stopped working a short while after delivery. I backed-up all BiaB-files, RT's and RD's but never got to the rest of the stuff that's on the HDD. Since I was interested in BiaB mainly I didn't make a fuss about it, because that was backed-up and usable to me. I guess I'll have to contact PG to ask for a download link for RB 2009 and perhaps other things that might be on the 2009 everythingPAK. Will do so next week, I'm now off to my last gig this weekend.
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Quote:
The new drummer is tight, no problem. He is however not a rockdrummer like we're used to (he's a long-time brassband member, playing all percussion and drums).
That's a good solid background, there should not be any unsolvable problems there.
You might consider burning mp3's of your practice tracks and getting them to him so he can start working them out. I'd send one of just the drum track and if possible, one that also includes the whole band doing the song with that track. Find out if the drummer can easily use mp3 format, or maybe you would need to burn CD Audio format instead. Make it easy for the drummer to use the files, in other words.
--Mac
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