PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Beginners Forum Change of panning / RT/ loops

I have a few beginner questions:

1. Is it possible to change the panning of an instrument at a certain bar? I can't see that option in the "bar settings"-menu? Suppose I have a piano to the left in the first 16 bars, but would like to get it closer to the middle of the stereo field from bar 17.. how do I do that in BiaB?

2. I have read in other posts that you can change RealTracks or loops several times on the same track. I thought that would be in the bar settings I should do that, but I can only see a "style"-change or a "patch"-change which is not what I would like to do.
Let's say I have a loop running from bar 1 to 8 and would like to change it to a different loop from bar 9 (but still in the same track). How do I do that?

Oh and before you say use a daw... I know I can do that, but I would like to learn what is possible without leaving BiaB.

Will

Hi Will,


As far as I'm aware, this is not possible in BIAB as a 'Bar-Settings' process (as you've already noted). What it would be possible to do is to create a 'Performance Track' for the example piano. To do this, it would be necessary to use some DAW-orientated software. Once the waw/mp3/wma file is created, this could then be loaded into BIAB so that it will play instead of the generated track. Have a look at "Performance Tracks" in Help and you'll see how they work.

The above is a bit convoluted but it's the only way that I can see how to do it for playback in BIAB.


Try clicking on the "Realtracks" button in 'Bar Settings'. This button is located to the right of the 'Key Signature Change To..." option.

When you click on this button, you'll have the option to load Realtracks on the Bass, Piano, Guitar, etc., tracks. These are the legacy names from when BIAB was created and correspond to the mixer tracks from the top downwards. For example, the 'Strings' track is the 5th track down from the top; this means that it corresponds to the 5th track down from the top track in the mixer.

Regards,
Noel

• my latest song: Summer Moon

1. yes.

Panning is done from the Mixer. In your example where a piano is panned left for 16 bars and you want to pan the piano to center simply requires having the piano occupy two tracks. Track One will have the piano panning set to the left and Piano Track Two will have the panning set to Center and will be muted for the first 16 bars. Use Bar Settings (F5) to mute track One at Bar 17 and Unmute Track Two. This will change the panning but it will be very course and abrupt. You can smooth the panning transition quite a bit by using more channels all loaded with the same Piano RealTrack. For this example we will assume all of the Mixer Channels are available so you will adjust the panning of each subsequent track a small amount to the center and every 3 bars between Bar One and Bar 16, Mute a channel and Unmute the next channel causing the panning to move a small amount left with each step. Generate and render this mix to Audio. Import this Audio Track, Convert the Audio Track to a Performance Track and Move the Performance Track to a Channel and the Performance Track will play though your song as an Audio Track panning incrementally from the left to the center over 16 Bars. This technique will also work if you want to apply dynamics or special effects like Flanging, Delay REverb and echo to selected phrases or bars.

2. To change a loop running from bar 1 to 8 and have it change to a different loop from bar 9 (but still in the same track). Here's the steps.

Select a Mixer Channel to add your loop. Right Click and from the menu window, choose Select A Loop For This Track
From The Loops Menu Window - Select a Loop
Look down to the bottom of the window and you'll see 'b' Substyle Loop (optional) with Choose and Clear Buttons to the right of the search bar.

Select Choose and from the menu window, select a loop

Ok out of the windows.

When you generate and play the song, the loops will change at the 'A' substyle and 'B' substyles Part Markers.

RealTracks:

Each Mixer Channel can have up to 10 instruments in any combination, order and they can play simultaneously if desired.
This means a single 8 Track project can have 70 RealTracks.

This feature can be accessed from the Bar Settings by selecting the RealTracks Button near the top of the window and following the prompts.

It can also be accessed from the RealTracks Picker and selecting the Medley Button near the top right of the window.

Thank you Noel and Charlie.
That was exactly the information I needed. I'll have to read up on those "performance tracks" as I don't really know what they are.

I appreciate the time you took to help me!

Will

A Performance Track is how BIAB places a non-BIAB audio file onto a BIAB Mixer channel other than the Audio Channel itself. The audio can be done externally from BIAB or generated by your selection of one or more of a BIAB Mixer render. The render can be of Audio, RealTracks, Midi, SuperMidi,Loops or any combination. It is a very powerful feature and tool that allows more complex editing of a BIAB mix. PGMusic uses it a lot for Artist Series Performances.

It is easy to make any track a Performance Track and undo it if necessary or desired.

I use Performance Tracks to make sub-mixes of channels by Bouncing the mix of two or more tracks to a stereo or mono mix and then placing that mix as a Performance Track and continuing working on my project by replacing the original instruments of the tracks I Bounced into the sub mix with different instruments. This allows me to have a BIAB mix that exceeds the 8 Track limit it appears the BIAB mixer has. Between the feature that BIAB allows up to 10 RealTrack instruments per channel and the ability to create sub mixes using the Audio Channel and Performance Tracks, BIAB can create quite complex mixes of dozens of instruments/sound fx/Channel Fx/loops placed on dozens of Channels. BIAB reads ahead when it is generating and this makes for very good instrument transitions, endings and cross fades automatically done by BIAB.

Thanks again, Charlie Fogle.

A follow-up question: How do I change presets on a midi-track in bar xx? I do not mean changing from guitar to keyboard, which you can do in Bar Settings, but suppose I am using a preset with "sound one" from a synth like NIs FM8 or Absynth and want to change to another preset with "sound two" in bar 17 (on the same track)?

Will

The way I would do that task is I would create a track of each synth, render the two tracks to a single stereo audio file using volume changes and panned to where that track is intended to set in the mix as well as mute/unmute between the two tracks so the appropriate synth is playing in the appropriate bars while the other synth is muted. I would import that audio track, convert it to a Performance Track and replace the two tracks with other instruments intended for the song. There may be a correct way to do it on the same track and someone should jump on here with instructions. I tend to build songs by instrument more often than I use to when in earlier times I always started with a Style. It requires pre planning and constructing my song structure in a certain order so I have enough tracks available to accomplish what my end result will be.

Thank you, Charlie!

I was hoping for an easier way to do this, but I did expect an answer like that. :-)

Will

I'm not a midi synth expert and there could likely be an easier and more logical procedure that someone more knowledgeable than me will give. Also, if you have the PC version of BIAB, RealBand handles some midi tasks much easier.