Jon,

In relation to your second point, a number of styles already have A - D substyles rather than simply the A and B variations.

If you go to the BIAB users manual, information about sub-styles, multistyles and part markers begins on page 72. It's well worth having a quick read.

Also....

You'll definitely find it a benefit in your song production if you learn how to drive Realband.

Like you, I begin in BIAB when I'm writing. I find it more comfortable to work in. Then, when I've pretty much nailed my composition, I move to Realband (RB). After Realband, I save and take my tracks to Reaper (my DAW). The main features that I use in RB are...

1. Multiriff: this allows for generation of up to 7 different variations of a Realtrack (RT). I find this very useful because I usually create a comp'd track from selecting the bits I like from the multiple generations.

2. Realband lets a user generate part of a RT in a selected section of an existing track. For example: if, say, bars 21 and 22 of a track generation are not working, it's possible to highlight those two bars and regenerate just those two bars.

A new feature in RB 2016 that I haven't yet played around with too much is the Click track. It's much more sophisticated than a simple click track. I suspect that this could be very useful to you with your instrumental work as it will allow easy matching of your instrumentals with Realtracks. The link below will take you to some links on this Click track feature if you are interested.

Click track (link)

Lastly, if you're curious about RB, the below link leads to some videos on the software.

http://www.pgmusic.com/videos.realband.htm

All the best,
Noel



MY SONGS...
Audiophile BIAB 2025