Now I’m able to record my voice just one take at the time on my bb file. I can’t check anything on the file before recording. Cuz it disturbs starting timings of bars. Just record my voice. No second take nothing else but one take. If I want more takes I shut the program off. Open it again and do one take recording again. My voice track still playback micro second later than other track. And wav file that automatically saved only has voice track. It’s still not usable function as it is. Why me?
As far as Reaper issue, I’m still studying about it. I’ll install it soon.
Don't buy a DAW - you shouldn't need to. You should be able to do what you want in BIAB and RB. Did you use an ASIO driver? Can you describe the equipment you are using?
are you recording through an audio usb interface or plugging a mic straight into the pc?
i am worried that you might not solve a basic problem before you take the plunge and go for some other program like Reaper only to find you have the same problem.
you say you used to record your voice. what program and what equipment? you might have made a quantum leap in terms of what you are trying to do. we can help but more information would be helpful.
perhaps we're all too far ahead of ourselves suggesting solutions when the issue might be simple and basic
>perhaps we're all too far ahead of ourselves suggesting solutions when the issue might be simple and basic
I got a feeling it’s exactly what you are saying. I just want simply record my voice on my bb file. But I never done it before. I plug in my simple microphone into my PC.
>You should be able to do what you want in BIAB and RB.
I thought so too. I used to record my voice and edit it using Audacity. I sung harmony parts on multiple tracks and mixed them. But it’s too much work. I thought bb can do some portions of the work for me. Now I have no time to do my music. Cuz too many things I have to learn. I’m so behind with respect to modern technology.
Here's a PG Music video on recording audio in Windows 7 and 8, it might be useful for you.
I haven't recorded audio for a long time in BIAB because, in the past, I couldn't hear myself back through my headphones while I was recording. This might have changed now. I'll give it a try and get back to you.
Realband, which comes with Windows BIAB, makes recording much easier and it's TC Helicon harmony generator also separates the harmony on to individual tracks.
BIAB, on the other hand, only has a single Audio track and when harmony is performed on an existing vocal track, it will overwrite the vocal. So with BIAB, it pays to keep a copy of the solo vocal so that it's easy to return to it.
My use of the BIAB/RB program suite is to create my song in BIAB.
Load the BIAB into Realband and investigate possible RTs for arrangement purposes.
Put all wav files into Reaper, record a vocal and create a production. If I want vocal harmonies, I take my vocal from Reaper, load it into Realband and use it to generate all the harmony tracks.
I haven't yet got around to investigating if the BIAB VST3 in Reaper can create harmony.
I hope the video helps.
Regards, Noel
P.S. There is also a PG Music forum at the below link where you can ask for a specific video... might be worthwhile making a request here, too.
I was able to record using biab DAW plugin with Reaper. My vocal track plays still a bit later than other tracks. One of PG music videos shows how to move existing track to make it insync with other tracks. But I want to be able to record insync. Maybe I should write a new posting with a new title, shouldn’t I?
I'm glad you've got somewhere. I haven't yet tried recording in BIAB.
If the track you recorded is on Reaper's tracks, it is very, very easy just to drag it left of right to align with BIAB's playback. Don't worry about the bars in Reaper at this stage. I haven't tried it, but I imagine that they can be re-calibrated to suit.
To work out where to slide the track, when you are watching the playback, monitor Reaper's cursor on the very top bar/time scale. When the first note of where your song's melody starts, move the track so that the 'blob' on the track wave that represents the first vocal note lines up with this position. Sometimes the aligning the beginning of the blob is best, sometimes about 10% into it works best, sometimes 20%, etc. You will easily find what suits by using trial and error.
There is also a Reaper function called "Nudge" -- select the track by clicking on it, now either right click and select Nudge from the menu or press N when the track is selected. Nudge will move tracks right or left.
It's ok to leave everything in this thread because it's still part of the same problem.
Although BIAB recording problem is still remaining I can do recording with Reaper for now usung 60 day free traial. Thank you guys. I’ll report you bakc when something new happens.
Noel, thank you for the details. I may need it later.
I recorded my vocal on Reaper insync with bb file by DAW plugin. It playback fine. But I can’t save it in bb file. I click File in bb screen on Reaper. And click save or save as. Both only save bb accompanying tracks not my vocal tracks. I have to be able to save it in order to use harmony function on bb. What am I doing wrong this time?
And audio track that you recorded in your DAW isn't going to be "in the plugin" automatically. However you can import it something like this:
1. save the track as a wave file if necessary (if it's not already a wave file as part of your project).
2. In the plugin, click on the + symbol beside the Audio track (the bottom track) and 'select audio file'.
3. Click the [+] again and select Harmonize. The harmony tracks will be saved on the second group of tracks, and can be dragged into your DAW like the other tracks.
Hi Andrew, I tried the procedure that you wrote me. Unfortunately the harmonies are so disturbed and not acceptable. Using Reaper, or any DAWs are not my intention originally. I want to do some recording using biab.
My original problem was that I couldn’t record using biab nor Realband. Accompanying tracks and my vocal track won’t playback insync. Then later on the recording function of biab became totally unusable. It won’t start from the beginning even I set the first bar as starting bar.
What do I need to know more to make my biab recording function usable? I’ve been struggling for about a month since I purchased my 2020 upgrade. Please help me.
I can hear your frustration. Hang in there. You are nearly at the end of this particular road and, once you are at the end, it will all be easy.
How I would go about getting the file into BIAB is as follows...
Firstly... IN REAPER...
1. SOLO the vocal track.
2. Right-click on the vocal track and select "Item Processing | Normalize Item" as shown on IMAGE 1 below. This will lift the volume of the track in case the recording was quiet.
3. Under "File" select "Render" and set the rendering criteria as shown on IMAGE 2. While IMAGE 2 looks a bit horrific with all the numbers, most of these are default and should be set.
The reason I'm suggesting 44100 Hz (#5) and 16 bit (#10) WAV (#9) file is because that matches the Realtracks in BIAB. In reality, you could use any frequency and bit depth.
I've selected Dither and Noise Shaping (#8) just in case you have recorded at anything other than 44100/16 as this will help give the best render. If you recorded at 44100/16, noise shaping and dither do not need to be active.
Following the above you will create a WAV of your vocal track.
Now in... BIAB
3. Open your song file.
4. Select "File | Import | Audio" and load in the vocal track.
This is where it's necessary to know at what bar the vocal started relative to BIAB's 2-bar count-in.
The settings on IMAGE 3 below, will import the audio on beat 1 of the first bar of the count-in. If you want the audio to start on the first bar of the song, the following numbers would do that...
1 1 1 0
To intrepret these numbers, it's necessary to keep in mind that BIAB uses 120 ticks per beat.
BIAB also uses bars -1 and 0 as the two bars of the count-in.
Thus an import setting of 1 2 3 60 would import the audio in: (a) Chorus 1; (b) Bar 2; (c) half a beat (i.e. 60 ticks) past Beat 3.
Everyone has given solid advice so far, so your getting closer. Let me offer one tidbit. I struggled just like you in the beginning, until I broke down and bought a dedicated recording sound card from m-audio it served me well for years. Having a dedicated device that has ASIO drivers takes all the fight out of this. I have since replaced it with a USB interface that does the same and far more. It doesn’t take a lot just one really targeted piece of equipment. This will be the heart and soul of your home studio.
Hi Noel, thank you so much for step by step explanation. I followed your procedure. The first one step was a bit different on mine. But basically almost all steps are the same on my computer. Finally I was able to use my harmonization function on biab. I didnt have enough energy to complete a tune to let you listen to it today. I’ll do so when I have a done product in a near future. Now I got the idea. Thanks again for your time and effort.
I was pleased to read this. Music software in general (BIAB, DAWs, plugins, etc.) all have a learning curve associated with them. Unfortunately, there's no way to shortcut this is most instances. I've learnt over the years that every time I want to understand new music software, I need to do the following...
(a) remind myself that I have to allow two weeks to start to begin to feel comfortable and to know enough to feel that understanding is developing
(b) watch a beginner's video (or two or three) and get a feel for how the software works
(c) fearlessly play around with the software
(d) make back up files so that I don't lose the original work during when I fearlessly play around
(e) when I feel frustrated, go for a walk around the block
Being aware of and doing the above has helped!
I'm glad you are on your way.
Now... once you feel comfortable in BIAB with this (and as recommended above, I encourage you to use BIAB32 and to experiment with both harmonisers), you can take the NEXT STEP.
The next step is to use the harmonisers in Realband. Both of them are there.
Realband gives more control with the harmony because it creates individual WAVs for each of the harmony parts. This means that it's possible to volume shape each harmony voice as needed. After creating the wav files in Realband, I take them to Reaper to do the volume shaping.
The good thing with Realband is that it reads/opens BIAB files. Proabably the best way to think of Realband is that it's a DAW-like version of BIAB.
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