PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic Quick poll

I tend to enter chords and generate the tracks using Realtracks in BIAB. If a Realtrack sounds a bit off I put it into RB and do a MultiRiff replacement. Then to Reaper to arrange, mix and “master”. If I want to add some MIDI I tend to go to Cakewalk where I find editing MIDI easier before pulling the audio files into Reaper for finishing.

Tony

2019 (3) With the extra styles pack.

As an IT professional when I worked I am ALWAYS up to date on everything I own. I actually have a schedule to check about a dozen programs I use for updates, though I never have auto update on for anything. I want control of what comes into my computers. Pro Tools stays up to date as well.

"Expensive" is of no matter to me. I am not wealthy, but I am comfortable. I won it in the songwriting forum awards, though I had already purchased it.

I bought it initially, and every year since, because it write backing tracks. The DAW side is not the primary concern, as I get what I need written, get it close, and send it off to Rog who is a WIZARD behind the mixer. When I did any mixing for other people who brought me tracks I always did it in Pro Tools.

The reason I even asked about this is that people are always posting their help screens to answer questions in BIAB, which is of no use to me because the RB screens are not the same. Because I started from day 1 with RB, RB is as natural for me as BIAB is for the old timers who never used RB.

To ME, Real Band IS the "main" program, since I have never even booted BIAB.

I use BIAB exclusively, mainly because I've never been able to wrap my head around RB. I will go back to RB frequently only hit the same brick wall.

BIAB to Sound Forge and Sonar.

BIAB.
it does 90% of what I need.

I know that there are "features" in RB that are "unique" to the program, but as a DAW it is weak (to say it gently).

Once I suggested that I would not be against if both programs are re-done (properly) and merged into one, with ALL the features modular. You need them-you add them to the work environment. If not, you "un-click" them and they do not bother you any more. As expected, it was met with skepticism.

Oh well, I still think that merging them is a good idea

All roads lead to RealTracks RealDrums MidiSuperTracks RealDrumCharts MidiTracks.
We don't all travel the same road but we end up in the same place.
I have always used RealBand but too many bugs n crashing has moved me up a notch the the Plugin as I can MultiRiff in it directly in any DAW without crashing and bugs, though I'm am very thankful that there was a RealBand.
The Plugin will bring a whole new user base to PG as RealBand don't work on Mac and most pro audio users are on a Mac.

BiaB, Cubase, Reaper.

Only use the MIDI capability of BiaB. (No real tracks, because I can't match the quality (spatial realism) I get with MIDI.)

Have RB but don't use it.

BiaB is the 2nd best (GigaStudio 4 - no longer available) music software I have ever purchased.

BiaB into Reaper.

I wanted to like RB, but it seemed slow and unstable, and not worth the time to figure out what the issues were since I already had a DAW that worked great. I didn't see anything in RB that I wasn't able to already get with the toolchain I was using.

Does RB works for you? That's awesome for you. As long as you're making the music you want, that's all that matters.

Band in a box, then use reason 10 for midi & sound forge for mixing. Don't really use RB as I've never really wanted to change from the format I've used

What is the brick wall you hit and what are you wanting to get done in RB?

I use BiaB but not RB.

I've always liked to keep my apps separate. So I use BiaB for auto accompaniment, Power Tracks Pro Audio for a DAW, a very old Master Tracks Pro for MIDI sequencing, and a very old Encore for Notation.

This summer when gigging gets slow, I'm installing Cakewalk and if I like it I'll keep it.

Keeping my tools separate is just one of my personal quirks.

Insights and incites by Notes

Hi
I think many of the perceived problems folks find in RB or working in multiple programs in general.
Is that at some stage after importing you are going to need to save, at this point you need to make your mind up where you are going next.
All daws including RB have a native format that will save the whole project as it is and retain for further editing by that program . in RB it is a. SEQ file in Cakewalk it is a cakewalk project file .CWP.

Lett’s say you have a BIAB song that you then open in RB
If you save say a RB editing session as a BIAB file it will not save all the info,unless you save it as a SEQ.
There is no magic bullet like always converting to midi as midi does not itself support many things found in DAWs like Chord data.

So what I am trying to say is once you find a work flow that carries along in a logical sequence to you, from one piece of software to the other don’t try and go backwards
Or you will likely lose something on the way.

I might also say there is a lot of difference between opening and importing and saving, saving as, and exporting, when working in multiple software.
Just my thoughts
Mike

Herb,

It's difficult to pinpoint, it is just not very intuitive to my old and tired mind. I'll try again soon and list the mental hurdles as I come to them.

My elementary teachers were not trained to recognize dyslexia so I've suffered difficulty reading all of my life. I learn by watching and I intend watch the tutorials when I can find the time. (chortle)

Peter and Callie keep me busy backstage and I love them for it!

Herb,

I especially like the fact that RB has 48 tracks and volume automation. I could definitely find use for that feature.

As a work-around, I create several soloists in BB then manipulate them with F5 (bar settings). Obviously, it would be much easier in RB.

I’m guessing that a lot of us who use BIAB and don’t use RB, do so because we started using BIAB back in the days when there were no Real Drums and no Real Tracks let alone a Real Band and already had our studio work flows well established by the time Real Band came along.

+1 Keith

Here's your head count:

Biab every time for speed to audition styles, try opening an artist performance track (from song and lessons folder) in both Baib and RB and speed difference is huge, think the audio track is missing in RB as well.

RB has its place for multi generation of tracks that biab can't match.

Other than the above I find biab is a far more fun program to use than RB. You don't really know what it is going to throw at you next time you open it and what inspiration you can get from this.

Both have their place though.

Don Gaynor:"I especially like the fact that RB has 48 tracks and volume automation. I could definitely find use for that feature. As a work-around, I create several soloists in BB then manipulate them with F5 (bar settings). Obviously, it would be much easier in RB."

___________________________________


There's something you may want to try to overcome the perception of the 8 track limit of BIAB and it's a feature and not a workaround. Each channel of the BIAB mixer can have as many as 10 different instruments assigned to it during a song. A song can have up to 70 instruments.


That's actually the minimum you would have using the medley feature. By committing to finished sub mixes/groups/busses, the instrument count can easily exceed 100 and occupying dozens of tracks.

I have composed and posted several songs created using this method where all of the tracks were chosen, generated, mixed and Fx's added without ever leaving the BIAB program for the backing track. "My Sad Story" is one example.


There are several ways to access the medley feature and medleys can be programmed to alternate or change instruments by part marker, designated number of bars, chorus or manually enter the changes.


All of the instruments of a medley song can be selected to play individually or to play simultaneously.


PGMusic has expanded the medley capability in the 2019 version and added some preset medley RealTrack selections.



The variations of the Medley feature are nearly limitless and offer as much opportunity as you'll get using RealBand. You will not have the visual tracks view of RB and it's not quite as intuitive as RB or any other DAW but then, BIAB is not a DAW so it should not be expected.


BIAB does an excellent job of cross fading between the instrument changes and also selecting complementary audio phrases between the two instruments for realistic changes of one instrument ending as the other begins. You'll find in some instances, during a change, both instruments will sound so you get a very human sounding pass off of one instrument to another as both instruments are playing simultaneously. Variations of audio levels between two instruments can be automated in the bar settings by using the 'Change by' command in the drop down menu under Volume Changes. In the Bar Settings Menu is where you also make manual instrument changes. Select the bar you wish for the change to occur, open Bar Settings (F5) and select the RealTracks Button to access a list of all the RealTracks. Follow the prompts to make RT changes back and forth at selected bars. For instance, change a RT acoustic guitar for a Banjo at bar 6 and then select bar 10 and change the banjo to a pedal steel. The result is bars 1-5 play the guitar, 6-10 play the banjo and the remainder of the chorus plays the pedal steel. Use the Volume Changes Menu for the track to balance any volume differences between the instruments.


The easiest way to access the Medley feature is to search in StylePicker filtered for Medley and choose one from the list and audition how it plays.

The quickest way to create a custom medley is using the RealTracks Picker Dialog and selecting the Medley Button in the upper right corner. Follow the prompts to create the medley and how the various instruments will play.