PG Music Home Forums PG Music Wishlists Band-in-a-Box Wishlist My thoughts regarding the future

BB's unique selling point is the creation of additional tracks and variation of styles. Tools like RealBand may be good as a quick start for beginners... most users stick with their favorite DAW as long as they can.

You've laid out a good work flow. DAW, BIAB, RB, DAW

My main work scenario, Band in a Box should support:

In my DAW I already have an audio jam track of a band rehearsal, without a constant tempo (but tempo markers). Maybe I already have some vocal melody, a midi drum track and some guitar tracks along with it. I want to create a proper song from that, bringing some structure to it, creating additional parts/bridges and further instruments. Band in a Box shall help me doing so.

Let your audio jam track be your starting point. It can be an audio file or a midi file. It can be a live field recording of your entire band rehearsing a song.

Stage 1 - Preparation:

So my first challenge is to make BB aware of what is already there (either as midi file or audio file). Use BIAB or RealBand to give you the chance to import some tempo map.

Yes. That is how you should begin your project. By importing an existing recorded audio file or midi file, you can use BIAB or RB tools to create a chord chart, tempo map, determine the key signature from your existing song.

- So far I have not found a way to import multiple audio files

You only need a single audio or midi file to work with between BIAB/RB and your DAW.

- The project tempo from the DAW is not taken over by the plugin

This is not necessary. Use BIAB or RB in stand alone mode.

- I couldn't import any midi file from my DAW project folder to any of the plugin tracks

If you're using a midi file and not an audio rendered from a midi file, open that midi file you want to use in BIAB. BIAB will automatically analyze the chords and populate the chord chart. It can be a midi file you play or program or it can be a commercial midi file you've purchased or downloaded from the internet.

Here my first level of frustration starts. From what I understood from the tutorials so far, I have to import one of the audio tracks only.
As I can't import a midi chord track, I have to create the chord sheet and tempo changes in BB manually or try to use the ACW function.
The tempo detection there is ok. The chord detection in ACW didn't deliver satisfying results to me yet. Means a lot of manual correction work again before storing the result as a raw song idea.

See my comments above. Opening a midi file, every thing is automatically decoded or a single audio file can be processed by the Audio Chord Wizard (ACW).

Stage 2 - The creative part

Usually I already have some idea what I would like to try out on the song. Usually I already have some midi drum file from Toontrack's SD3 as a rhythmic basis, but that doesn't seem to help me much with BB.

It will help once you adjust your workflow.

Here I reach my second level of frustration. I can select a style from the style picker and BB will create some nice song for me. But it sounds like a typical song of this style/genre would sound like.

You can either select a style, either RealStyle, Midi or a hybrid style of both. This is not necessary if you want to add individual instruments to play along in the style you have already determined with your initial DAW band rehearsal recording. That will be the groove you are trying to match using individual instruments, either midi, super midi or RealTracks.

- No mix of styles

You can mix, match, modify and change styles all you want.

- little influence on instruments used with the predefined style

Midi instruments and styles are completely editable. RealTracks are recorded audio and are not as editable as midi but there are techniques to maximize and make these tracks unique and distinct to your song.

Don't get me wrong, but the whole reminds me a bit of instant soup (which nevertheless may taste good). But I want to create something different. Probably I could search for the various instruments and styles, switch the styles for the song sequentially and bring single tracks back into my DAW after each generation. But that will become pretty time consuming and requires a lot of patience. I am also a bit afraid that the results won't be as good as they could be, as in such a case BB won't have any idea about the tracks used in my song and their melodic interaction.

You are correct that you have to tell BIAB/RB what you're looking for but consider that to be the same as if you have hired live session musicians to contribute tracks to your project.

Stage 3 - Refining the song, arranging and mixing

Most of this job I will do in my DAW. There I have all the comfortable mixing and editing functions and I am used to the workflow. Although the RealTracks sound good and I might keep some of them, in most cases I will prefer a midi file to work with. I have tons of good sounding VST instruments available and tweaking around with sounds, tempo changes and melodic corrections is a lot easier using midi. So getting midi tracks from BB is crucial for me. In some cases I might be able to convert a RealTrack to midi myself, but if possible, I would like to avoid that additional step.

You can just use midi tracks if that's what you prefer to use. Save a track as midi, open this saved midi file in your DAW and apply your preferred VST instrument from your DAW library.

Summary of my desired improvements:
- when adding the BB plugin in the DAW, the plugin should automatically take over the project tempo from the DAW, as other plugins do.

I recommend you create your BIAB tracks in the full version rather than the VST version in the beginning. The full version has many more features and options and knowing the full version will help you a lot when you do work with the VST and your DAW together.

- I want to be able to import/drop an audio or midi file from the DAW clipboard to any of the predefined mixer tracks in the BB plugin or standalone version.

It's very easy to open an audio file or midi file in BIAB to work with on a BIAB project. If you are having issues, just place your question here on the forum.

- A CW function on a midi track should make chord recognition a lot easier for BB, helping me to fill the chord sheet without retyping everything.

Opening a midi file in BIAB automatically analyzes the chords and populates the chord chart, sets the tempo and key signature. It's a great way to get a jump start on a project.

- An instrument and style selection per track would be wonderful (if not explicitly chosen, the overall song style can still be used as default)

Regarding RealTrack instruments, I recommend you work with individual instruments from the RealTrack picker to find instruments that fit the recorded audio recording of your band rehearsal.
- Midi files available for all RealTracks, that could be brought back into my DAW.

Here you should select RealTracks that contain Real Charts. If a RealTrack has a chart, the RealTrack name is underlined. Real Charts are midi.

After having said all that, I discovered that RealBand might be able to solve some of the subjects above. But after some first enthusiasm, trying out and reading another manual - it seems to to be another dead end. I haven't found any way to sync RealBand with my DAW. I am stuck, getting confused and frustration starts again...

Use RealBand as an intermediary step between constructing your song in BIAB and your DAW. It has many features to help select and generate additional tracks for your project.

Maybe I should rather practice with my real instruments instead of playing with the computer.

I suggest you create a recording of a song you want to use in a BIAB project, use it to locate and generate midi and RealTracks to supplement your live recording and import all that together into your DAW and create your song just as you imagine it to sound.