PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Beginners Forum Multitrack recording

<<< Charlie. I hope you are better now! Sounds horrid.

To the original poster: I think Charlie’s method of doing multi track recording is very creative if you do not have access to a daw. >>>

Good morning Joanne. Thanks for your thoughts and concern. It was a very bad week but points toward a much brighter and hopefully long future.

Regarding Biab as a multitrack recorder, I'd like to make a few points for you to consider, especially with regard to finding value in applying multitrack recording from within the Biab program exclusively. I think this may actually be a beneficial future Blog for you to consider.

First, it expands a users knowledge base exposing them to features that may be meaningless if they are aware of them, but don't use. One example I think of that not many people seem to use or be aware of is that each track in the BIAB mixer can have up to 10 instruments. This equates to the equivalent of 70 Tracks in Realband or other DAW. Adding, replacing and alternating instruments using this feature also allow you to compose your arrangement as you compose your song without completely relying on F5. You can also gain change, pan and add/remove effects by duplicating the instruments on two tracks. For instance, say the Piano Track has Strumming Guitar| Mandolin|Pedal Steel|Bgrd Fiddle; Change the order of the instruments on a second track the Piano Track Strumming Guitar lowers in Volume -5db and the second track increases +5db for a Mandolin solo and the mandolin panning changes from -25L to 0 center for the solo and back to -25L at the end of the solo as the Piano Track strumming guitar volume is raised back +5db. Quite easy to automate tracks in the Biab mixer... There are many, many ways for novice and expert to manipulate instruments and settings in BIAB. For me, this has become somewhat a hobby within my hobby of music production. It is challenging and very rewarding to construct intricate and complex arrangements with limited tracks. As the producer and arranger, forethought, planning and care are required in building a song.

A hidden feature found when using this multiple instrument per track technique is because the BIAB generation engine reads ahead and sees the coming change in instruments and does two things; creates a smooth ending of instrument one, while creating a beginning of the second instrument complimentary to what the ending was doing. The second thing is the BIAB generation engine creates a smooth transition.

Another seldom discussed and little value given to feature is the Performance Track. This is again valuable to the novice as well as the expert Producer/Arranger. It requires careful planning to compose your song in a specific order because you will be committing to sub-mixes (bounce Tracks) just like the old school limited track analog Reel to Reel and Portastudios of the past. It allows the old school "Sound on Sound" layering technique of recording. Another thing it does is explode the 8 track limitation people think applies to Biab.

Couple this with Biab includes Dxi and Vst effects, the ability to use third party add-ons, the ability to select and generate thousands of RealTracks, Supermidi tracks and midi tracks from thousands of styles, regenerate them as desired as well as record multiple tracks of audio and add harmonies make BIAB a very robust multitrack recorder. It can in fact, do things no other multitrack recorder can do with the exception of Realband.

These techniques can be used by people like yourself who create original songs and cover songs as well as those who develop accompaniment, Karaoke tracks or practice chord charts. These techniques can extend some of the RealBand capabilities to MAC users who don't have access to RealBand. I believe their greatest use will be found by the BIAB hobbyist who enjoys 'playing' with BIAB.

Challenge yourself to creating a 20 instrument, 16 track song that includes special audio sound effects all within a single BIAB project, all without using any outside resource, completed solely by BIAB. You'll see. You'll also see that regardless if you use 20 different instruments or two instruments alternately 20 times or any combination between the two, you will discover many opportunities these techniques provide to have a professional and finished project you did not think possible in BIAB alone. In a non-serious piece, one can do this in less than 10 minutes.

Probably one of the best benefits to building a complex arrangement in BIAB is the BIAB StylePicker has the 'Play over current chord structure' option. The Realband Stylepicker does not have this option, at least not through the 2017 version. Literally dozens of styles and hundreds of Realtracks, Supermidi and midi instruments can be auditioned as they will sound in your song in minutes using the BIAB StylePicker.

Will there be naysayers? Of course. We already have those, be it get rid of midi, get rid of RealTracks, they won't upgrade because BIAB is not 64 bit or their wishlist request hasn't been granted. There will be those who have an established workflow and have no need or desire to change. There will be those who are simply not interested. There will be those who will point out it's so much easier to accomplish these tasks in a DAW. True. This isn't intended for those folks. But for the MAC user who uses these techniques for a partial regeneration may find this useful even if it's a workaround. It's not a DAW nor is it intended to be. It's an alternate workflow that's available if one chooses to use it. It's a possible expansion of an already feature packed software program.

Anyway, it is fodder for a future Blog and other members may take the challenge, try the techniques and find a benefit and enjoyment playing around with these techniques.