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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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K-Toons Offline OP
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Hello,
I'm a long time user of BIAB, intermediate but not expert. Frequent visitor but infrequent poster here. I've got 2018 (509) audiophile edition running on Windows 8.1. I'm trying to replace a Real Track in a style and the new track doesn't seem to be playing correctly.

I started with simple 8bar tune with the _REFLECT style loaded. No shots, rests, or pushes. I generated all tracks. Nothing frozen.

I wanted to replace the Guitar2 real track in the style (638:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm RootsRockTremolo Ev 100) with 2553: Guitar, Acoustic, Fingerpicking Songwriter16thsHigh Ev16 075 (Joe Robinson). I did this by right-clicking the track in the mixer, choosing "Select Best All Real Tracks, finding and choosing 2553. Then pressed F4.

Listening to the new track soloed I found it wasn't playing a high fingerpicking part, rather it was playing the same sustained chords the 638 track was playing, but with an acoustic sound. I tried regenerating under Track Actions. Tried erasing the track, also tried selecting "Choose No Real Tracks for This Track" (tho not disabling it for the style), both followed by reinserting 2553. All these produced the same result.

I also determined that if I inserted 2553 into the Melody or Soloist tracks, that track did have the high fingerpicking playing I expected from 2553.

On another tune I did after this one I inserted 2 different drummers in place of the real drummer in the style using the new drums picker. When I listened to the original and new drummers as exported WAV files in my DAW, they were all identical. I haven't assembled the detailed steps here for that one.

OK, I'm ready for my lesson. What don't I understand or am I doing wrong here? Thanks in advance for any help from the forum membership.
K-Toons

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In relation to the guitar track....

It sounds like you might have a rendered audio file attached to the song file and that this is playing along with the file and masking the guitar change. That would certainly produce the results you give (including how the track sounds fine in the Melody or Soloist positions).

To check this, click on the Audio menu in the uppermost main tool bar and select 'Mute'.

Regards,
Noel

Attached Files (Click to download or enlarge) (Only available when you are logged in)
mute audio frozen realtracks.JPG (42.28 KB, 144 downloads)

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K-Toons Offline OP
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Hi Noel96, thanks for the quick reply.

Well, I tried your idea of muting the audio via right-click and it didn't change things. Regen'd the 2553 after doing that to be sure. Then I also tried the "Kill audio" choice and got the dialog "There is no audio track. Nothing to do!"

Thanks for that suggestion tho...
K-Toons

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OK... thanks for the extra information.

Also, thank you for being so explicit in your initial post. All the information you gave was very valuable to me in tracking down what is happening.


When the easy solution doesn't work, it's time to move on to the more complicated...

I loaded the demo song for _REFLECT.STY and substituted #2553 for #638. As you say, #2553 now plays strummed chords just like #638.

When I went into Realtrack Picker and had a look at the settings for #638 (it's on the Strings track using the old static names), it's possible to see that "Held" is active; the name is prefixed with [Held] and on the right of the screen under Artist Bio, the "Held" checkbox has a tick in it. Since this box is grayed out, though, it cannot be accessed in Realtrack picker. This means that it's been set in the style. (See the below IMAGE 1.)

I then went into editing the style as follows...

1. Select "File | Stylemaker | Edit current style".

2. Select "Misc" (#2 on IMAGE 2 below).

3. Select "More" (#3)

4. Click on the dropdown list (#4)

5. Remove the check/tick from "Held" (#5)

6. MOST IMPORTANT... now save the style with a new name otherwise you'll end up overwriting the present style. Maybe a good name would be something like _REFLCT2.STY so that it sits near the _REFLECT style.

Exit Stylemaker and all should now be good.

Also, it's worth noting that the Piano #2157 is set for on 'HELD' in the style well. This means that any RT placed on this track will be affected.

Hope this helps,
Noel

Attached Files (Click to download or enlarge) (Only available when you are logged in)
held set in style grayed out.JPG (85.83 KB, 129 downloads)
IMAGE 1... indicators the Realtrack has "Held" set in the style
held chords removing from style.JPG (61.73 KB, 129 downloads)
IMAGE 2... how to remove the "Held" setting from the style

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Good detective work there, Noel!


John

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Originally Posted By: jford
Good detective work there, Noel!


Thanks, John. It was probably more good luck than good management, though! Stylemaker is a pretty amazing tool.


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K-Toons Offline OP
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Hi Noel,
Sorry for the delay responding. A non-music project had me away from the studio for a couple of days. (I can tell you that furniture moving as a recreational activity is highly overrated.)

Thank you very much for this detailed step-by-step, which of course effected the solution perfectly. I just knew when I did my OP that I was gonna learn something, and to my delight, I did, courtesy of you. I've always just swapped real players in and out of tunes indiscriminately (rarely ever even made a style out of the new combos as I don't tend to reuse them). So I may have had a few behaviors like this in the past that I just worked around.

Now I know there are a ton of parameters in the actual player position itself that can affect other players swapped in. So I'll be keeping an eye on those in the future as things to tweak!

I know I join the ranks of many on this forum whom you have helped. We all appreciate your generosity with your vast knowledge of this amazing program.

Best,
K-Toons

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This is the very first evidence I have seen regarding how a "style" effects a RealTrack. Prior to this I was convinced the "style" had no impact on how the selected audio of a RealTrack plays.

But this appears to show code-settings in the style which effects how the Realtrack plays. Am I understanding this right? Or is it that in this case this "code-setting" prevented the RealTrack from playing?? confused

Dan


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Hi Dan,

You are correct. There are settings for Realtracks that can be applied and set via Stylemaker.

With PG Music created styles, they often use Stylemaker and permanently set the options in Stylemaker. As you'd already know, these can also be applied manually on a song by song basis.

Noel


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