Originally Posted By: drutgat
Hi,
This is my first post here - the folks on the Cockos (Reaper) forums suggested I post some questions I have about BIAB.

Reasons for Possibly Buying BIAB
I write my own stuff (rock songs), and find it a bit laborious to do everything in Reaper from scratch, so I was thinking that I could create quick arrangements/tracks in BIAB, and export the results to Reaper for editing.

Even though I am primarily a guitarist, I am really finicky about drums (and to a lesser extent, keyboards), so my thinking is that I will probably export drum tracks from BIAB as MIDI, but I would imagine that most of my usage for BIAB will involve Real Tracks.

QUESTIONS
1. Is my assumption / hope that creating arrangements quickly, then exporting them to Reaper where I will edit them and overdub guitar and vocals, a realistic assumption/hope?

By this, I mean are there any potential problems with that as a workflow?

2. I will probably be giving myself a new computer for Christmas (to be used exclusively for tracking and video production), but until then will be using my laptop, which does not have a lot of space left on the SSD.

So, I plan to run BIAB from a USB (50 MB)

Are there any problems with running BIAB from a USB? Freezing? Latency? Anything like that? Will I be sacrificing any features if I go the USB route?

3. Is BIAB / Real Band capable of automation for volume, panning and effects - it would be nice to be able to do as much as possible in BIAB before exporting to Reaper, just to save time.

4. What Pak would you all recommend for me?

5. What are the potential pitfalls or disadvantages with using BIAB for the purposes I describe above?

Many thanks for any answers.

All the best,

drutgat


I didn't read the other replies so forgive me if this is repeated.

1 Absolutely. No problems at all.

2. If you buy the SSD hard drive version, you can run it right from there. That's how I do it. Freezing and latency are from other causes if they occur. Latency is a product of the sound card and driver you are using.

3, Yes it is HOWEVER..... I personally would not use the automation, panning of FX in BB or RB if you are exporting to do the mixing in Reaper or any other DAW. Do all your mixing, production, and automation in the DAW. Keep your tracks raw so you can change things later if you desire. If you print FX or automation to the track before you put it in the DAW you're kind of locked in or else you have to go back and redo the track from the beginning. This essentially causes you to waste more time than you thought you were saving. When you do it in the DAW..... if you don't like the volume automation or the FX.... you simply delete them and start again with the raw track. Not a lot of lost time this way or redoing things from square one.

4. My advice is to ALWAYS buy as high up the ladder as you can afford. This is one buying decision you will not regret.

5, THe biggest pitfall to using BB/RB in this manner is it's going to spoil you big time. It will cause you to get more work done in less time at a higher level of professionalism than ever before. So, use it with caution, knowing it's going to change your song writing in ways you never imagined.


I see no downside to using BB. I've been a BB addict and proponent for a decade now. Several folks in this forum are here because they heard my music and had to investigate it for themselves. And no..... I'm not compensated for recommending it.

JUst a brief insight to how I use it.

1. I write the songs in BB. Very quick, easy to edit. I get the song structure exactly how I want it to be at the final recording of the song..... key, tempo, verses, choruses, beginnings and endings, etc...
2. I save it and close it in BB and open it in Real Band (RB) where I render all the tracks to audio and use RB's track generation to add additional tracks that might not be in the BB style. I use rock styles and I can add steel guitar and fiddle easily in RB
3. I export each file to a folder that I have created for this song project.
4. I import the tracks into Sonar.
5. I add my live guitars and vocals in Sonar as well as my FX, volume and panning envelope automation and get the mix sounding like I want.
6. I export the finished file from Sonar and do the finalizing and trimming in my Wave editor.

The song is essentially finished at this point and I will render an MP3 and post it.

that;s my 2 cents on this

Last edited by Guitarhacker; 10/10/18 03:44 AM.
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