Now that it's 64bit there are many things that can be done to modern it up, BUT I don't know how enthusiastic they are to improve it, or is it just what it is and that's it, take it or leave it ?
When you save it seems to have to write all the wav files again, if it just imported the wav files into an associated folder to the project file and used non destructive editing. This will make moving, cutting, copying, fading, crossfading, volume etc.. a breeze.
They had destructive editing from back in the 90's when you had to process the wav offline because there was not enough processing power to process in realtime.
When I vertical scroll the tracks there is a delay and it keeps scrolling after you have stopped the mouse wheel, should be nice smooth and responsive. As I scroll this webpage it's smooth and responsive.
So do you think it's something that's worth improving or just make do with it as it is ???
Maybe have the windows floatable outside of the main window like you can with Biab rather than staying in the confines of the main RB window:
And with non destructive editing, if you copy or cut a section it won't create a new wav file to build the size of the SEQ up, it will just reference the original wav file start and end points in the wav, this way the section I cut can be resized out to the same size if need be by dragging the ends. If I copy the track 100 times the SEQ file folder will still be the same size there won't be any extra files created.
If you want new users to come to RB then I think this is a good idea to modernize it. These are things that put me off using it rather than another DAW. The Instant Gen/Play that I talk about in the BiabVST Plugin can also be done in RealBand especially !! RealBand will tell bbw2 hey I need these chords for this RT, it will randomly choose the chord sections from the RT files, but rather than then generating those sections to RAM then rendering them to more wavs it just tells RB what section to playback direct from the source RT files. The RT files don't need to be copied to the SEQ folder as they are a permanent location reference.
Sure, it would need a re-write to compete with modern DAWs, but what needs to be done to RB that will make you use it more ???
With the vertical track scrolling I move the mouse wheel up/down a few times then go and get a cup of coffee when I come back it's still going up and down by it's self with the cpu usage on 95%. Do you need to have all 48 tracks in there when you don't use them ? maybe if you have an Add Track, Delete Track so you don't need it to scroll so many tracks and all the track bmp images, maybe do away with the bmp track images ? Be able to drag a track up/down to change it's position.
I agree that more effort should be put into Realband, there are several of us who use BIAB just to build the basic song (because it is fast) and do all the rest in Realband. My work flow uses Realband 95% of the time and Biab 5%. It seems like realband is the red headed step sister to Biab and it could be Cinderella instead.
These are the destructive FX that will change the audio for good, these can be all applied as non destructive realtime FX, this way you can modify them at any time you like and it will leave the original wav file intact, they are applied during playback and render. No wav's files need to be written as back up, just the project file. Fade In Fade Out Gain Pitch Shift that can all be done directly on the audio item. When it's playing back the RT/RD files direct from source it will use dllelastiquePro.dll this will pitch shift or tempo stretch any of the source files in realtime playback. So it's not creating any new wav files, you down mix your song direct to stereo wav mp3 etc.. Only if you drag render export any track it will do the same and render all the realtrack section of the source files together into a new wav.
This shows the RealTrack source file that's being played, it shows the position and length on the track, It shows the start position of the chord in the source RealTrack file, it shows any playback rate or pitch adjustment.
I tried taking some of the track bmp images out but there are so many of them. If you can get rid of all the bpm's as they look like ones from the DOS days, it may work soother.
Here's a demo of how the Play Direct works. The Chords Playlist.m3u is in the mp3 folder, you can drag it into Notepad to read. The media player plays the section back the same way RB will just by reading the text playlist but will play those section's from the time position start within the RT files. remove .mp4 CoolPlayer+Portable.zip.mp4
You can drag the items in the playlist up/down to rearrange.
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