PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Windows Tip: Don't forget to adjust Reverb, Pan, and especially Tone

Disclaimer: I write Brazilian and Latin jazz, and my comments are based on styles in that genre. Nevertheless, I think anyone in any genre should be aware of the default values BIAB uses.

In this post, I will talk briefly about Tone, Reverb, and Pan in BIAB and why you should experiment altering their default values.

Tone
One of the first things I do when starting a song, after choosing the instruments, is to make the Mixer window (in version 2017) wide enough so that I have a slider for Tone control on the far right (instead of just a number). This gives Tone the same 'importance' as Volume, Reverb and Pan as you consider your mix.

The default tone value of 0 for each instrument often sounds 'muffled' to me. The available range [not sure why] is -18 to +18. I leave the drums fairly low, maybe 6, and the bass not much higher, maybe 10, but I raise the guitar and piano up to around 16. This makes these instruments really come alive in the mix.

Reverb
The available range is 0 to 127. To my ears, the default setting of 40 is too high for any instrument. Too much reverb leads to a muddy sound, with instruments too far in the background. [Be aware that you can choose the baseline of how much reverb to apply in Preferences, RealTracks, Reverb Strength, so if you have altered that from 100%, your value of 40 will not equal mine.] Assuming you are using the default, then here are the settings I generally use to give my mix a crispness that is lacking in the default value of 40:

Bass - 0 (in other words, no reverb added)
Drums - 0
Piano - 14 to 20
Guitar - 20+ but nowhere near 40.

Pan
I've noticed that the jazz and Latin styles often have guitar and piano panned on the same side. The default varies; it is NOT always 0 (centered). Although they are panned different amounts by default, I immediately pan one of them to the opposite side of the other. This means using negative numbers (or move the slider to the left) to send an instrument to the left side of the sound stage. Bass, being very hard to determine direction, is generally (correctly) panned to the center (0), and drums should be at or near the center as well. My piano might be 20 right, and my guitar (a lighter sound) might be 40 left, so it stands out.

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The great thing is that PG Music has given us an easy way to override the defaults to make the mix sound like you want. Don't settle for the defaults. Try adjusting all three of these things [tone, reverb, & pan], as well as volume to get the instrument sounds 'right' before you proceed with composing, arranging, or editing. It might take some getting used to, if you haven't altered these settings before, but you'll be happier with your results, and your mix should 'pop' better.