I hope people don’t mind me pushing this thread into the 60’s for a moment but some may be interested what you can do with a basic slightly cheesy midi style sound and adding real instruments to improve it. The same method can be used of course for 50’s tunes.

I wanted a backing for “Downtown” originally of course by Petula Clark.

I started with “TEMPTN2-60’s Med-Slow Gro SD#48” style. Here’s a bit of the original.

http://www.box.net/shared/4kfs6nhdl3

Well not all that exciting is it.!, but it has the basis of a Motown beat that we need.
So first thing to do is to replace that awful midi drumming with a real drummer (RealDrums Nashville Even 8 HiHat Ride). Replace the dreary bass with a real bass 539 Bass,Electric, Pop Sw 120 and add two real guitars (405 Guitar Acoustic Strumming Ev 120; 509 Guitar, Electric Rhythm Dire Ev 120) in the “Melody” and “Solo” slots in B&B. Keep the other midi parts, they add to the beat. OK set the tempo higher at 125 and lets see how that sounds:

http://www.box.net/shared/mr3tef0hzu

Well, a lot better I think.

Finally, drag and drop all instruments into Sonar (or RB); adjust the instruments volumes; plug in a stratocaster into the UA-4FX interface and use the GS-201 tape echo plug-in to do two takes and set these tracks in the left and right channels to play together. This example is actually an outtake because a few mistakes plus a couple of other hiccups crept in on the lead guitar part. But it’s a start and gives a flavour at least of what is possible.

http://www.box.net/shared/9avvgkq2ul


It’s not always evident when listening to the styles that they might fit in. You have to play around with them and mix in other ingredients to make them sound better. But the possibilities are enormous with the tools provided by B&B midi and real tracks.

Cheers FK