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DrDan Offline OP
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Hi guys, I'm Dan and I spend a lot of time in the BIAB, BIAB-VST and Off topic forums. I don't get over here much and I suspect many of you folks don't spend a lot of time in my areas. But I have a question that I felt best to ask you - since you folks are making music with BIAB.

Here it is. On a scale of 1 - 10 how helpful to your song making are the new Utility Tracks introduced in BIAB 2021?
1) "what are utility tracks",
3) Heard of them, but so far have not used them,
5) Find them somewhat helpful to my workflow
7) Very helpful, make things much better
9) A real game changer
10) Best new feature in years.

Thanks for playing along.

Dan


BIAB – 2026, Reaper (current), i7-12700F Processor, 32GB DDR4-3200MHz RAM, Motu Audio Express 6x6 - My SoundCloud.

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I go with 1. I don't know what you are talking about.

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Dan,
11) I don't use them. I write within BIAB I don't use many Real Tracks or other BIAB tracks in my recordings. I use drums, often B3 organ and occasionally other things but not in quantities that require the whole, let alone more than, the basic 1/2 dozen.


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rayc
"What's so funny about peace, love & understanding?" - N.Lowe
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They feel like they're tacked on with only limited functionality.

This makes them far less useful than I'd hoped.

I tried doing some MIDI editing. Turned out that had't been implemented.

I used a Utility RealTrack, and then found I had to manually regenerate my track - unlike the non-"Utility" tracks. This makes them a pain to use.

Using RealTracks? Welcome to the new RealTrack selector dialog. frown

What I'd hoped they would do, they often don't. And what they do... they do worse than the existing tracks. So I pretty much ignore them. They are useful if I find a track that I want to use, and not lose track of it.


-- David Cuny

My virtual singer development blog
Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?

BiaB 2025 | Windows 11 | Reaper | Way too many VSTis.
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Dan,
unusual place for the poll...
I will go #6
They are very useful in my workflow, but incomplete. It was said by management that they will acquire features of regular RT's. That is what I am hoping for. When that day comes, I will change rating to 10.
There are many, many ways how these can be used once completed...and my sincere hope, that it comes within reasonable time frame.

But in simple terms, I use these almost every day, even "as is" smile

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I'm going to go "5-ish". I've messed with them a bit, but I am not as prolific as some are, so it will take time to see if they add great use for me. I expect they will, as I pretty consistently use more than the "limit" of tracks in ultimate production by creating or copying new .sgu's. It's nice to be able to hear them all playing. It lets me get an earlier jump on production ideas.


BIAB 2021 Audiophile. Windows 10 64bit. Songwriter, lyricist, composer(?) loving all styles. Some pre-BIAB music from Farfetched Tangmo Band's first CD. https://alonetone.com/tangmo/playlists/close-to-the-ground
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They are a -10-

Why 10? The addition of the new Utility Tracks makes multitrack recording with BIAB easier than ever and is well worth the growing pains it's experiencing in my opinion.


Here's a link to where I fully explain why - https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=647912#Post647912


BIAB 2025:RB 2025, Latest builds: Dell Optiplex 7040 Desktop; Windows-10-64 bit, Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz CPU and 16 GB Ram Memory.
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3) Heard of them, but so far have not used them

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I've heard about them but have not investigated them and obviously, not used them to this point.


You can find my music at:
www.herbhartley.com
Add nothing that adds nothing to the music.
You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.

The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Hi Dan,

I used them sometimes for vocal extracts, but since the last udate for BiaB things aren't working so well. I hope there comes a new update very soon!
Still I think they can be handy, so I choose 5.
I also tried them for adding extra instruments, but that failed.

Hans


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Not sure what they are. Most of my time is spent with DAW plugin. Real tracks and Midi tracks


Scott Collingwood
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https://soundcloud.com/spiritlevel-ca
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I've been using BIAB for about a year and hardly understand the very basic capabilities.

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