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jonel Offline OP
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Hi All,
I am a quite uncertain as to the processes involved in BiaB when track instruments for a style are changed. For example, if I have a midi track on a style then I have no problem in selecting a RealTrack replacement for the track and regenerating the part for that instrument. The same works fine when I choose a super midi track to replace the midi. But..., when I come to move back from the RealTrack to midi, or even to another RealTrack, then nothing happens, the track remains a RealTrack. The Patches dialogue box indicates that I should be able to this.

Can anybody tell me what I am doing wrong or that I'm not actually able to do these operations?

Thanks

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I can give you a clue - It is a Style thang! crazy

Yes, you can place a RT or a SMT on any track in any style and it will play fine. That is because all the information to play the new RT/SMT is provided with the RT/SMT. However, this is not so when you want to replace a RT/SMT with a midi track. This is due to the fact that the midi information is not present in the Style.

That cryptic explanation should confirm exactly what you already have discovered. So you are doing nothing wrong. There is a very specific way to copy/transfer the midi information from one style which has midi to a style which does not. That is what you need to do.

Dan


BIAB – 2025, Reaper (current), i7-12700F Processor, 32GB DDR4-3200MHz RAM, Motu Audio Express 6x6 - My SoundCloud (Tip: No need to create a SC account to hear music - just hit ESC ).

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jonel Offline OP
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Yes, that sounds reasonable to me but, but I'm not so sure about the ability to actually select a midi replacement for a track that I have recently changed to a RealTrack. Surely the software should tell me that I can't really do this rather than simply not actioning the selection.

Anyway, I thought that the ability to generate midi from a chord sequence on the chord sheet was related to the fact that style itself was a midi style. So, I can understand why a RealTrack style would know nothing about generating midi for a track on which a midi patch was assigned but surely a midi style would be able to do this?

It seems to that I really have to think about midi right at the outset if I am going to be replacing tracks. It seems that the safest possible approach is to begin with a full midi style because, once a track is changed to RT or SMT then there is no going back (or at least that's the behaviour I have come to experience.

So, in short, I thought that if the track started off as a midi track then at least I should be able to go back to it after I had changed it to an RT. BiaB implies by the Patches dialogue that I am able to this and in fact let me do all the operations and then simply not carry out the job with any indication that it can't be done.

But I do realise the limitations now.

When I was looking at the topic in the manual for midi, I came across a statement that the midi chords were generated from C7 patterns. I tried in vain to understand what that meant but I am still none the wiser.

Thanks for your help though.

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if i understand what's going on an instrument using a RealTrack has no midi information even though there is a chord chart. as a work around i think if you save the BIAB file, open it in RealBand delete the RT you want to discard (say the bass), change the track type to midi choose a midi style you like and get RB to generate a midi bass line.

personally i'd stay in RB and i know that'll be ok, but i'm not sure you can reopen in BIAB successfully if you save the file as sgu or mgu. maybe maybe not.

in RB you can do just about anything you like. i know there are lots of people who do everything in BIAB but with RB its all straightforward not 'under the hood' like it is in BIAB.

even simpler in RB is to mute the RT and generate a midi track on another track. that is non-destructive and you still have the RT. same with midi tracks you want to mute and generate a super midi tracks. that way you can always 'go back' or go forward with anything you choose - new midi track, new supermidi track, new RT

Last edited by Bob Calver; 07/29/20 07:40 AM.
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jonel Offline OP
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That's some great advice Bob. At one time I had gone over to RB and did a lot of stuff there. The experts on this forum can always plot my latest interests by the posts that I make on here asking for help - lol.
So I will get looking at RB again with what you are saying.

The main issue I really have is this ability to change a track to midi from a style that has a super midi or RealTrack. This was the issue that was getting me even more confused by some of the answers I was getting to my posts.

I really do understand that a Super midi or RealTrack does not 'know' how to generate midi. But it is not the RealTrack or SuperMidi that would be responsible for doing that anyway, it is the style that uses the chords in the chordsheet to convert to midi. So, if the track can be replaced with an appropriate midi track that IS a midi style then that WILL work and the menu selection supports this by allowing the selection of a custom midi style.

What will NOT work is to simply change a RealTrack or Super Midi by selecting a midi patch. The latter is clearly won't work for the reason mention earlier; that there is no midi information. But why, in this case, does BiaB actually allow me to follow these steps only to see no change?

Thanks for your help

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Originally Posted By: jonel

The main issue I really have is this ability to change a track to midi from a style that has a super midi or RealTrack.


This is very doable. It has been a discussion point in the pass and has been thoroughly explained. You are not the first to stumble across this. Sorry I can't give you the instructions just have not done this in a long time. But if no one else pipes up, I will find some time to get to this.

Dan


BIAB – 2025, Reaper (current), i7-12700F Processor, 32GB DDR4-3200MHz RAM, Motu Audio Express 6x6 - My SoundCloud (Tip: No need to create a SC account to hear music - just hit ESC ).

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jonel Offline OP
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Thanks

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jonel Offline OP
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Well Bob, I've saved my BiaB song and opened it in RealBand. It's now coming back to me some of the earlier issues I had in RB.
Firstly it's OK to delete the generated RealTrack in RB, either the data only or the complete track.
What RB will not allow me to do is to change the track type, because it was a BB track.
I tried generating the midi on a new track. This was for the Bass track. I'm told that I can't do this because there is no Bass track in the current style. And of course there isn't and you are not saying this either because you say to use a midi from any style that I want. However the only way I know to do this is to change the style in the song in RB although I'm not sure that this is the way to go. Or is it?

Incidentally I can generate the midi for the drums, but perhaps there is something different about RealDrums as opposed to RealTracks in this area.

Thanks

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