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As I look at the mixer I see as I have for years 7 main tracks. What exactly are the utility tracks? Are these extra tracks that I can put anything I want on? When I render the final song do I need to ping pong these tracks down to the basic 7? What is the basic purpose, and use of them?
Dell 610 dual Monitor, win 7-10, Sonar Plat, ProTools 10 & 11, Reaper 4, BIAB/real Band 2022, Easy Drummer, Superior Drummer, Kontact Essentials, Personnel Orchestra, Korg Legacy Analog & Digital
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Have a look in the BiaB Manual for Utility Tracks, Page 31 is a good starting place and also Page 165.
In summary:
"Band-in-a-Box has 16 editable Utility tracks, which can be used for audio and/or MIDI. You can generate RealTracks on the Utility tracks, where you can hear and edit the audio RealTracks, or view and edit the RealCharts MIDI. You can record audio or import an audio file to the Utility tracks to play, edit, or harmonize the audio. You can copy or move audio, MIDI, or both from other tracks to the Utility tracks. You can record MIDI or import a MIDI file to the Utility tracks for playback, notation display, or editing."
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
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The main song consists of the legacy tracks.
Utility tracks are placeholders or storage slots. They are not part of the main song but are alternative choices or variations.
In a software DAW they might be considered "takes" while in a hardware DAW they might be considered "virtual tracks".
For example my MRS-8 is an eight track digital recorder. Each track has one playback track and ten virtual tracks. I can record, edit, swap and comp audio between the ten virtual tracks to create a playback track.
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Utility Tracks can be used for a number of things. Primarily, you can generate more Realtracks onto them, you can record MIDI onto them with a MIDI controller, and you can record audio onto them. This means you can do things like add multiple tracks of vocals, some keyboard work, a guitar solo, and add an extra couple Realtracks, without having to merge everything together onto one track.
I work here
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Utility Tracks can be used for a number of things. Primarily, you can generate more Realtracks onto them, you can record MIDI onto them with a MIDI controller, and you can record audio onto them. This means you can do things like add multiple tracks of vocals, some keyboard work, a guitar solo, and add an extra couple Realtracks, without having to merge everything together onto one track. With the introduction of Utility Tracks, BIAB 2021 now effectively functions the same as a hardware 8 input, 24 track digital multi track recorder. It has audio editing features similar to the Tascam DP-24 but the BIAB Audio Editor is more robust. In addition to the common audio editing features, BIAB's Audio Editor can also: Convert channels from stereo to mono Transpose an audio region or the whole track Add audio harmonies to regions or the whole track Transcribe Midi to the audio track Fix 'Sour' notes (audio and midi) Extract Stems (if third party software Spleeter is installed) Generate RealTracks Currently, generation of RealTracks onto a Utility Track does not include the capability to access and implement the Melody feature. The RealTrack Melody feature provides a 10 channel sub-mixer to each of the original Legacy channels. Thus, each Legacy channel contains 11 slots to place any RealTrack meaning a single render of a BIAB song could have 77 total instruments. Although this feature isn't currently possible to do on Utility Tracks, Legacy Tracks that apply this feature can be moved to and reside on Utility Tracks as long as the Utility Track is subsequently not regenerated. Another use for the Utility Tracks is to bounce tracks to a stereo or mono sub-mix and place those sub-mixes onto Utility Tracks. It's fast and easy to create layers and sub-mixes that can be rendered into a stereo master mix consisting of hundreds of instruments and hundreds of tracks... Because everything occurring on a BIAB Mixer Legacy track is digital until audio is rendered. There's no quality loss in bouncing, merging or creating Medleys on these tracks. Lastly, the Audio Channel can be used to apply the Audio Menu Plug ins - like compressor, gate, distortion, echo, de-essor and parametric EQ before moving the track to a Utility Track.
Last edited by Charlie Fogle; 05/27/21 06:07 AM.
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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Transpose and audio region Huh?
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Transpose and audio region. That's a Typo. It should read, Transpose an audio region
Therefore, to transpose an audio region means select (highlight) a region of the audio track and use the Transpose command in the Audio Editor menu to transpose only the audio previously selected and not to transpose the entire track.
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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I corrected the typo and added that the entire track can also be transposed making the word "and" technically correct. I'll just leave the posts as they are... 
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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The forum won't let me delete my Huh? post. 
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That doesn't make sense. Not much time has elapsed.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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That doesn't make sense. Not much time has elapsed. I think something changed in the settings for this. I suspect the time is much shorter now.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
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PG Music Staff
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One thing about Utility tracks to take note of, is while you can record MIDI tracks to them and click on the track and select "Select RealTracks" in the menu to generate a RealTrack, they cannot be clicked on to choose and generate a MIDI track. Instead a MIDI track would need to be generated on one of the main legacy tracks, then copy/pasted to the Utility track.
Best,
Chantelle
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One thing about Utility tracks to take note of, is while you can record MIDI tracks to them and click on the track and select "Select RealTracks" in the menu to generate a RealTrack, they cannot be clicked on to choose and generate a MIDI track. Instead a MIDI track would need to be generated on one of the main legacy tracks, then copy/pasted to the Utility track. Good point, Chantelle. The functionality delivered by the Utility tracks is continuing to be developed. It is hoped that it will eventually have identical functionality to the original tracks.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
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