Hello, folks. I've had the product for about three weeks and will use it mostly for developing backing tracks for 50's and 60's rock 'n roll. Can anyone tell me how to insert a drum loop into a song? Mostly want to put particular fills in particular places.
I don't see a way. Thanks in advance for your tutelage.
In Band-in-a-Box (BiaB) you create a drum fill by adding a part marker. If you want a drum fill in bar 4 then add a part marker by clicking on the number 5 in bar 5. Click on the number 5 in bar 5 multiple times to rotate through the part marker choices; typically the rotation starts with none, blue, green and none once again. Part marker colors visually indicate the feel of the song. None means the feel is the same as the last part marker, blue is with "normal" energy (such as what you have in the verse of a song) and green has "higher" energy (such as what you have in the chorus of a song). Adding a part marker of the same color as the previous part marker does not change the energy level, just tells the drum track to add a feel.
Hi, Jim. On the same subject, I occasionally get blue, green, and other, so four RD settings, (I don't have a song up right now, so guessing say yellow and violet).
Can you tell me what triggers them to be available?
I'll take my answer on the line.
Andy
BIAB 2017 Ultra Windows 8 and 10 Scarlet 18i8 Reaper and Mixpad
The part markers trigger a drum fill based on the color of the part marker.
You can insert part markers anywhere you want a drum fill.
The fills, like I said are in the style you selected and will work for most applications.
If you need a specific fill, or some kind of custom fill, you will need to be slightly more creative.
In that case, you want to work in a DAW where you can edit the drum track directly. Dong that in BB is difficult if not impossible. (I have actually never tried to edit a track in that manner in BB) In a DAW, you can edit by cutting and pasting in a new part.... or even using a drum synth with a similar sounding kit to play exactly what you need played by MIDI.
I have done that very thing with piano in the song FOOLS ERRAND. (on my music site) Biab uses a Real Track piano part for most of the song. However, there's a part closer to the end immediately following the bridge, where the piano is playing simple quarter note chords.... that part is midi with a piano sample chosen to be a sound alike to the BB/RB piano part. It's not even noticeable that it's not the real track doing that.
You just have to think outside of the box every now and then to get things done like you want them done.
Last edited by Guitarhacker; 03/09/1703:12 AM.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.com Add nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.
The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
Hi, Jim. On the same subject, I occasionally get blue, green, and other, so four RD settings, (I don't have a song up right now, so guessing say yellow and violet).
Can you tell me what triggers them to be available?
I'll take my answer on the line.
Andy,
Many of the RealDrum tracks include variations for both "A" & "B" part marker parts of a song. PG Music calls them Groove Variations. Some styles have variation calls built-in. You can take any existing style and do the same thing.
Hover your mouse over any bar number and right click and the window you see in the photo below pops up. Notice RealDrum groove variations is not active in the menu. If I was using a RealDrums track with variations the command would be active.
Also notice another menu command "define C/D ..." has a red box around it. Select define C/D ... and you can call up another style with it's A & B part markers redefined as C & D for this song. Save the current style with a new name and you've created a multi-style.
Also of note is the long, vertical alphabet menu. You can use the alphabet menu to divide a song into user defined sections like A = intro, B = verse, C = chorus, d = ending then build a song using song sections.
Thank you all for the suggestions. But this is not exactly what I need. I want to know hot to insert a drum loop into an individual bar and have it temporarily replace the real drums for the one bar only. I will probably need to do this with the bass as well, but for now I am concentrating on the drums.
Nick, I really think this is undertaken most effectively in a DAW, e.g. RealBand, where you could edit any bar and introduce the audio drum loop wherever you want.
As an example, you could place the Drum Loop(s) on a separate track, and cut the audio of the main drums, or even just lower the volume of the main drums at that point where the loop audio takes precedence.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
Thank you all for the suggestions. But this is not exactly what I need. I want to know hot to insert a drum loop into an individual bar and have it temporarily replace the real drums for the one bar only. I will probably need to do this with the bass as well, but for now I am concentrating on the drums.
Thank you again!
Nick
Hello Again Nick,
As VideoTrack indicated, what you are wanting to do is much easier to do using RealBand than it will to try in Band-in-a-Box.
With that said, I remember Band-in-a-Box 2017 allows use of multiple drum tracks but I have not used that new feature so you may have to view the new feature video or check the user manual.
A second way is to record the audio of the existing drum track (without drum fills), name the recorded drum track audio file the same name as your song file (song.sgu and song.wav for instance) then import the audio file into the audio, soloist or melody track.
Now use midi and a midi instrument to create your drum fills on the drum track.
Use F5 bar settings to switch between the sound of the drum audio and drum track as needed.
Thank you! I have another month of BIAB under my belt since I made this post. I have found that I usually don't do an entire backing track in BIAB. I do some of it, then save as .wav, put it up in Audacity and add more tracks. I see that it's possible to render the song as all separate audio tracks. I need to get that figured out too! That would make for a more flexible final mix.
I haven't had time to really try Real Band as yet. It sounds like that is where I should be spending my time. I'll give it a go as time permits.
Nick, thanks for the reply. Do try RealBand. I think you will find it easier to mix tracks there than in Audacity.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
With the release of Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac, we’re rolling out a collection of brand-new videos on our YouTube channel. We’ll keep this forum post updated so you can easily find all the latest videos in one convenient spot.
Whether you're exploring new features, checking out the latest RealTracks or Style PAKs, this is your go-to guide for Band-in-a-Box® 2026.
Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac is here and it is packed with major new features! There’s a new modern look, a GUI redesign to all areas of the program including toolbars, windows, workflow and more. There’s a Multi-view layout for organizing multiple windows. A standout addition is the powerful AI-Notes feature, which uses AI neural-net technology to transcribe polyphonic audio into MIDI—entire mixes or individual instruments—making it easy to study, view, and play parts from any song. And that’s just the beginning—there are over 100 new features in this exciting release.
Along with version 2026, we've released an incredible lineup of new content! There's 202 new RealTracks, brand-new RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, “Songs with Vocals” Artist Performance Sets, Playable RealTracks Set 5, two new RealDrums Stems sets, XPro Styles PAK 10, Xtra Styles PAK 21, and much more!
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PowerTracks 2026 is here—bringing powerful new enhancements designed to make your production workflow faster, smoother, and more intuitive than ever.
The enhanced Mixer now shows Track Type and Instrument icons for instant track recognition, while a new grid option simplifies editing views. Non-floating windows adopt a modern title bar style, replacing the legacy blue bar.
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