If there is a perfect Real Style that works, I'll use it.

Most of the time though I'll use MIDI because if the MIDI style isn't perfect, I can edit it to as close to perfection as my skills allow me. And the more I do this, the better my skills get.

I can exaggerate the groove of a MIDI track, this goes great for live performance backing tracks.

Speaking of that, I can pump up just the snare or whatever I need to make it sound more live than a recording. Have you ever noticed when you approach a venue with a live band, you hear the bass and the crack of the snare first before you even enter? Live mix is very different from recording mix.

I can change instruments, and use different styles as needed for A, B, C, parts, and change instruments so it sounds like the same musicians are playing the different styles.

I can export to MIDI and use a MIDI sequencer/DAW to add song specific licks, change chord inversions to complement the melody better, rearrange some of the parts, put a real intro or real ending on the tune, add musical cues to help me with my live performance, change a few notes of any given track without the same instrument/mic/recording studio, add kicks, change any instrument or drum kit, and do so many other editing tricks to get the very good MIDI output into something really ready for prime time.

Through the years I have collected many different synths, hardware samplers, and sound modules. My Ketron SD-2 and Edirol StudioCanvas SD-90 usually get the bulk of the sounds. Bit players are my Roland SC-55, Yamaha VL70-m, Yamaha TX81z, Roland MT-32, Korg DS-8, Korg i3, Korg DDD5, or my Akai or Peavey sampler. But then I got my first synth in the 1980s (Korg DDD5 and then the MT-32).

The perfect clean guitar might be on one module, while the best sax is on another. I've got a Tele rear pickup on one synth module that might sound great but I also have LPs, 335s, Strats, and other guitar sounds. Dozens to choose from. And that's only the clean guitars. Other instruments work the same way.

The external sound modules have for all practical purposes zero latency (I think they are about 5ms +-1ms) and are always in sync.

Plus they are never orphaned. My first sound modules were purchased in the Atari ST/pre-Windows DOS/Motorla CPU Mac days, and they still work perfectly using MIDI cables today. So I don't replace, just add, and they never go obsolete by an OS update. In addition, they don't tax the computer's CPU and never crash.

If I were to recommend a 'starter' sound module, I'd recommend the Ketron SD2. It has a great General MIDI sound set, a few other banks, and all the sounds are solid. Then when you can afford it, instead of buying a new soft synth that will some day be obsolete, get another MIDI sound module.

In most cases I can find sounds that are 95% as good as the real tracks, and in very many cases I can find sounds that are much more appropriate for the song I'm doing than what is on the Real Tracks.

This is not to dis the RTs though. When the RT is right, it's easy-peasy and sounds great. Depending on the song, I just try to use the tool that will make the song come out right, and I'm not going to ignore any tool.

In fact, I have been known to combine MIDI and Real Tracks in the same song in my DAW. Sometimes using both tools is perfect.

BiaB is an immense, multi-functional app. There are so many tools in there to help make better music, that for me, I want to use whatever is best for the job.

And don't give me the line about MIDI sounds cheesy. Some MIDI synths sound cheesy, but you hear MIDI on virtually ever major studio recording - and it doesn't sound cheesy.

Excerpt from Electronic Musician (EM) February 2013 by Craig Anderton:

…Thirty years ago, at the 1983 Winter NAMM show, a Sequential Circuits Prophet-600 talked to a Roland JX-3P and MIDI went mainstream. Since then, MIDI has become embedded in the DNA of virtually every pop music production (yes I stole that line from Alan Parsons, but I don't think he'll mind)…

IMO it's foolish to overlook MIDI in favor of the Real Tracks, but instead to use them both, either one or the other or both to make the music sound better. And the more you play with your Band-in-a-Box tool/toy, the better you will get at using the tool, and the better your music will sound.

I hope this isn't TMI laugh

Insights and incites by Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com

100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks