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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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Joined: Oct 2014
Posts: 13
Newbie
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OP
Newbie
Joined: Oct 2014
Posts: 13 |
I'm trying to make a recording with a quality MIDI solo instrument track and Real Tracks for the rest. If I use the default MIDI synth, it works well. I select File...Save Special...Render as AIFF and I get a recording that has both the Real Tracks and the synth track I made as "Melody".
But I'd like to have the Melody played by Kontakt or some other software synth. I am able to connect Kontakt through the IAC bus and it sounds great when I listen on my computer. But when I record as above, I don't get the Kontakt synth. How might I be able to do that? Thanks.
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 393
Journeyman
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Journeyman
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 393 |
I don't know whether you can do this is BIAB, but you should be able to if you drag and drop your song to a DAW.
Bruce
Macbook Pro 2018
2.6 GHz 6-core Intel Core i7, 16 GB RAM
OS Monterey
BIAB for Mac 2022
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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Joined: Oct 2014
Posts: 13
Newbie
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OP
Newbie
Joined: Oct 2014
Posts: 13 |
I can try that. My thinking was that since the aiff mix works without the plugin, the builtin synthesizer BIAB uses (from the Mac?) must be routing its audio to some appropriate place where it ends up in the mix when I do the Save Special...aiff . So, if I could only route the software synth (Kontakt) to the same place, it would be saved in the mix as well. And the Kontakt "Natural Sounds" sound so good!
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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Joined: Oct 2014
Posts: 13
Newbie
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OP
Newbie
Joined: Oct 2014
Posts: 13 |
When you said "drag and drop your song into a DAW", what exactly did you mean? I'm using Logic Pro and it won't accept a .SGU or anything like that. Were you meaning to have BIAB render audio without the software synth track and then add that using the DAW? I'd rather not do that because I want to be able to edit the BIAB and software synth track simultaneously and also because I need to do this for many songs. Thanks.
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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Joined: Apr 2013
Posts: 8,831
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Apr 2013
Posts: 8,831 |
I'm trying to make a recording with a quality MIDI solo instrument track and Real Tracks for the rest. If I use the default MIDI synth, it works well. I select File...Save Special...Render as AIFF and I get a recording that has both the Real Tracks and the synth track I made as "Melody".
But I'd like to have the Melody played by Kontakt or some other software synth. I am able to connect Kontakt through the IAC bus and it sounds great when I listen on my computer. But when I record as above, I don't get the Kontakt synth. How might I be able to do that? Thanks. The short answer is yes. Just record the audio output (what the computer is playing). Rather than get a render in a few seconds, this method requires you record the audio in real time. You will record the sound exactly as it sounds - with a mixture of Realtracks and the midi tracks - The synth you assign to play the midi will be what the audio recording captures. This method works across any platform, PC or Mac. Charlie
BIAB 2025:RB 2025, Latest builds: Dell Optiplex 7040 Desktop; Windows-10-64 bit, Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz CPU and 16 GB Ram Memory.
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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Joined: Oct 2014
Posts: 13
Newbie
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OP
Newbie
Joined: Oct 2014
Posts: 13 |
Thanks, Charlie. After a lot of experimenting and thinking, I think I'm understanding the situation. On Windows, BIAB would have the Roland or Coyote DXI synthesizer and I think that perhaps it can render faster than realtime (which is what BIAB does). But DXI refers to DirectX and that's a Windows thing, not a Mac thing, so there's no direct equivalent.
On Mac, it would seem, the only MIDI sounds that can render faster than real time would be those directly available within BIAB and they are not as classy as the sounds available through using a software synth.
I could just record the audio in real-time from BIAB, as you suggested. That does require more time but the main problem is that for my particular application, it's important that the starting time be accurate for the track. Perhaps there would be a way to make the recording start at precisely the time BIAB starts playing, but I don't know how to accomplish that without doing a manual trim afterwards.
So, for me, I think babarton's suggestion is best and I've already tried it using Logic Pro X as the DAW. My strategy will be to make the real tracks accompaniment and the MIDI "melody" track sound as good as I can in BIAB. Then I'll drag and drop all the tracks to Logic Pro X and be able to substitute a Garage Band or similar instrument within Logic Pro X, adjusting the mix and making small changes as necessary. I'll still be able to produce files at different tempos, provided I mark the audio tracks as "Enable Flex" after bringing them into Logic Pro X.
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 393
Journeyman
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Journeyman
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 393 |
Bruce, Sorry I didn't respond sooner - had to work this weekend  Glad you got the drag-and-drop thing figured out. I also use Logic, which has all kinds of synths and instruments available - much better than the default general midi sounds I get from BIAB. That's become my go-to workflow - create in BIAB, drag-and-drop into Logic - from there can play around with different synths, record tracks, add effects, etc. Very simple. Good luck! Another Bruce
Macbook Pro 2018
2.6 GHz 6-core Intel Core i7, 16 GB RAM
OS Monterey
BIAB for Mac 2022
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Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.
ChatPG's knowledge base includes the full Band-in-a-Box User Manual and sales information from the website.
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You can see all the 2026 videos on our forum!
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