For my particular needs, the less flashy players like Miles Black and Oliver Gannon work better - I think their tracks are more plug-and-play than some others who take more liberties. I'm shooting to make recordings that sound as if I had some unsung hero studio musicians providing the foundations of tracks without drawing too much attention to themselves. I haven't investigated the details of how RealTracks are recorded, edited, and reassembled (and as a software engineer I'd love to know more), but I think some players have a better understanding (or coaching) as to how to play for these general purpose tracks.

Not to muddy the water for saxman, but I do know that my 15 year old Yamaha Motif ES workstation has some amazing sounds and a very versatile "arpeggiator on steroids" that does a great job at creating believable instrument tracks - especially in the guitar and keyboard world. That's at least 3 revisions back in the Motif product line, so can only imagine they have improved drastically. So it's fairly easy to assemble usable, professional quality tracks with these kinds of keyboards and without a computer/DAW involved. You do have to play or step enter the chords. So it's another way to approach things. I do like being able to type out a chord chart in Biab and see my whole arrangement like a spreadsheet. If I get time (it will be a while), I'll hook up my Motif and see how some of the MIDI styles sound. I haven't invested in Kontact or other expensive sample players, so won't make a rash judgment, but the onboard demos/sample projects I heard on the MOTIF years ago still have a better pro quality to my ears compared to online demos I hear from various software instrument vendors. I have to pull that keyboard out of the basement for a gig in a couple of months, so I'll revisit it a bit.

Last edited by cwiggins999; 05/16/20 01:40 AM.
Chuck Wiggins

BIAB 2023 Win UltraPak, Cakewalk, Windows 10 Pro
Custom AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core, Focusrite Scarlett 4x4 interface

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