Otherwise I just wanted to see if BIAB would make sense as a tool for some musical goals I'm trying to accomplish.
One thing I love is how you give BIAB a number of 1 measure phrases and then it sort of randomizes them. This is especially useful for percussion. I have some different drum machines, groove boxes, and an electronic drum kit. Would it be feasible to create or edit a style where I record a whole ton of phrases myself via midi from these different devices? Would it capture the sounds or just the midi information? Or is BIAB the wrong tool for this kind of job?
If it is possible for me to build a song this way, would it be easy to then experiment swapping out different midi instruments while the track is playing to find the sounds that I like the best?
Sorry if either of these questions are too basic, I have been reading the tutorials and watching videos, I'm trying to figure out if my goals are even possible before I spend all this time trying to figure it out.
You are essentially describing creating loops and samples with your question. Biab can do the things you are wanting to do but any DAW will do it faster, easier and better in most conceivable aspects than Biab. DAWs are designed to do that type task whereas Biab is not. Biab can use loops and samples, contains loops and samples and is a great place to construct your song. There is simply little reason to do so unless you wish to use additional features of Biab such as RealTracks, Supermidi, midi or RealDrums. Or, perhaps use Biab to scratch out ideas.
Some DAWs are better suited by design to work with loops and samples than others such as Logic, Ableton Live and FL Studio. However, most every commercial DAW will be more than competent. It is better to work with a DAW you understand and are familiar with than change to another DAW because it recommended for loops and samples.
Thanks for the reply! I guess the only thing I wonder about is how easy is it to structure a song in another DAW? BIAB has been very intuitive so far, since I think in terms of traditional musicianship. Everything is bars, and choruses, repeat signs, bla bla. I've not seen that in any DAWs I've looked at. Also, are there DAWs that do what BAIB does in terms of randomizing phases within a style? Like, if I create some percussion within a DAW I have to create every second of it, then if I don't like the way it sounds I have to do it all over again and again. Wouldn't BAIB allow me to save some time in that regard if I used it to create percussion?
Sorry if I'm not explaining myself very well. Basically I like the "robot drummer with some degree of autonomy" that BAIB provides. But maybe stuff like FL studio and Ableton do that too?
Yes, to your question of randomizing phrases. That's actually a unique feature of Biab/RealBand. Each time you regenerate a track, it changes from the previous version. You can also force these variations to occur and somewhat control them using various means such as part markers, pushes rests and stops, as well as slash chords. I made some additional suggestions over in your other post also.
I'm particularly enjoying following your posts because you are working within a genre that's not featured very much here in the BIAB forum but is a genre certainly within the programming capabilities of BIAB. Your work may inspire others to try this genre too.
I urge you to post some of your ongoing projects onto the BIAB Users Showcase to get other Biab users feedback and recommendations. They are very respectful even if they may not follow your particular genre of music, but for you, it as a wonderful way to fast track your learning how to work with BIAB all the while letting the world hear your original music. Covers can't be posted to the Users Forum and a PGMusic produce must be used in creating the finished work in some manner.
Cool, thanks for all of your help so far. Next time I sit down my plan is going to be to pick an existing style and see how far I can take editing that style, and play with how far I can push that style from what it started out as. I'd REALLY like to have more control of the types and amounts of rhythm phrases that BIAB will randomize, that's kinda how I approach percussion.
I'll also play around with mixing and matching from different styles to see what happens. So, one more thing if you don't mind: I can only edit things in Style Maker that are pure MIDI right? I cannot edit real tracks, real drums, or live drums (pre recorded phrases?), correct? Can I edit midi styles than later assign real tracks and real drums to the phrases I edited?
I'll figure it out eventually I'm sure, and yes I will certainly be sharing stuff here once I start making some progress.
In style maker, you can only edit MIDI events. You can include RealTracks in a style; however, it's just a matter of picking an existing RealTrack for that particular track in the style and it will play according to how the RealTrack engine processes it. You can't edit it.
But for MIDI tracks, you have the flexibility to edit as much as you wish.
For a drum track, each pattern is up to one 4-beat bar in length, broken down into 16th notes (if you use the grid); however, you can also import "live" played drums for each bar as well. You get 14 slots (or 14 bars worth of content) for the "A" substyle and 14 slots for the "B" substyle. You also get 14 slots for drum fills (which will play when transitioning between the "A" and "B" substyles. And you get 14 slots for the 2-bar song ending.
Also, don't forget that you can define multi-styles, which basically daisy chain individual style files together to give you "C", D" and "E", F" and "G", "H" etc. substyles for as many as you wish.
If you want to create MIDI riffs for the other instruments, you get 30 slots to work with. For the "A" substyle, you get 30 8-beat slots, 30 4-beat slots, 30 2-beat slots, and 30 1-beat slots. Likewise for the "B" substyle, and then 30 slots for the 2-bar song ending. What happens is that if a chord's duration is 8 beats or longer, BIAB will pick riffs from the 8-beat slots; if a chord's duration is 4 beats, it will pick from the 4-beat slots; likewise for 2-beat and 1-beat. And again, with multi-styles, you can have very many riffs.
John
Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 12TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 12TB SATA
Hey there, thanks for the response! That's what I figured out RealTracks, I'm thinking it'd be more useful for me to just acquire better MIDI samples and prioritize those over RealTracks if I'm trying to so something really specific.
Also, this is copy and pasted from a different question I had about editing in stylemaker. Basically I was trying to build something from scratch (following the tutorial mind you) and BIAB just started adding in weird rhythm tracks that showed up in the mixer, but were nowhere to be found in stylemaker editer:
""Hi, just got BIAB a few days ago and I've been messing around with it, trying to figure out how it works. I've run into some hiccups with the style maker.
First I tried editing an existing style like the tutorial suggested and that went ok, I get how it works more or less. Then I tried building a style from scratch. I went into the drum grid and put some patterns in. Then, as soon as I save it and hit play I hear all these extra drum sounds on the drum and loop channels in the mixer. They are sort of blended in with the drums I recorded. Has anyone else had this problem? What is going on?""
If you have any insights about this I'd love to hear, just so have a better gut feeling of what is going on when I work with the thing you know?
Some styles have loops defined in them; I would avoid those if you are looking to modify an existing style. I would probably start with the BLANK.STY and go from there, and then after saving the style, make sure your saved style is what is loaded in BIAB. In general, you shouldn't get weird sounds.
John
Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 12TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 12TB SATA
OK, I suspect my problem is that I did not start from BLANK.STY, perhaps assuming that that would happen automatically. I will check that out later, thank you!
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202 New RealTracks Released with Band-in-a-Box 2026!
With Band-in-a-Box® 2026, we've released 202 incredible new RealTracks (in sets 468-488) in a variety of genres—featuring your most requested styles!
Jazz, Funk & World (Sets 468-475):
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Rock & Pop (Sets 476–482):
Our new rock & pop RealTracks bring a powerful mix of requested favorites, fresh genres, and modern chart-inspired styles! We have more of our popular “Producer Layered Acoustic Guitars (15)” featuring Band-in-a-Box favorite Brent Mason. We’ve continued our much-requested disco styles (10), and added new Celtic guitar (5) with a more basic, accessible approach than our previous Drop-D or DADGAD offerings. There are also highly requested yacht rock styles (17), inspired by the smooth, polished soft-rock sound of the late ’70s and early ’80s — laid-back grooves, silky electric pianos, warm textures, elegant harmonic movement, and pristine production aesthetics. Fans of heavier styles will love our new glam metal (13), capturing the flashy, high-energy sound of ’80s arena-ready guitar rock. We also have a set of rootsy modern-folk rock (18), with a warm, organic sound combining contemporary folk textures and driving acoustic strumming. And we’ve added lots of new modern pop styles (16) — the kinds of sounds you’re hearing on the radio today, featuring exciting new drums, synths, and cutting-edge RealTracks arrangements.
Country, & Americana (Sets 483–488):
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