I played a gig last Friday and it went fantastic. The only issue was the time it took for me to go from one song to another. I would have a packed dance floor and in the minute it took me to go from one song to another a lot of people sat down.
I have had troubles with using the Jukebox feature in the past. How do other live performers setup their set so you can go from one song to another quickly?
As mentioned, many users create their library of songs as audio files and use those live instead of using BiaB live. They can be played for a laptop or even blue-toothed from a mobile device to your P/A equipment.
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.
As mentioned, many users create their library of songs as audio files and use those live instead of using BiaB live. They can be played for a laptop or even blue-toothed from a mobile device to your P/A equipment.
As AT says a lot of folk convert to audio files and play that way. I ensure all songs are at about the same level so I’m not diving for a volume knob on the mixer (I’m playing guitar at the same time so I’m out of hands). I also have the guitar balanced to the audio tracks.
I use a product called Songbook to store all my songs. With this I can set up a program (set whatever) and simply step through the songs. This avoids looking for songs and deciding what’s next. I can control the time it takes to start the next song. Songbook also scrolls through the lyrics and chords in time with the backing tracks.
However, one could simply set up a directory for the songs in order using a simply 2 character numeric prefix so the song order you want can be maintained (that is how I did it before the days of Songbook).
Just a thought Tony
Last edited by Teunis; 03/13/2208:24 PM.
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<"The only issue was the time it took for me to go from one song to another. I would have a packed dance floor and in the minute it took me to go from one song to another a lot of people sat down.">
The 'best' way? The most efficient, quickest and professional way for a solo act is two be a two member solo act! You perform and place all of your attention to performing for your audience and have a sound tech off stage running the equipment, cueing songs, loops, sound effects, vocal effects, harmonizers, a computer, and ensuring the gear stays properly connected.
In the minute you lost your focus from your audience and watched the dancers leave the dance floor, instead, imagine there was an uninterrupted transition from one song to another as one fades the next song segues in... Imagine one song's vocal effect was a bit of reverb and the following had the complex vocal effects of Phil Collins's "In The Air".
Bob "Notes" Norton has discussed this several times and I think there is even some stuff about it on his website norton.com. He is all about keeping the party going and not letting people have a chance to lose interest. He uses recorded backings that at one point were at least started in BIAB I believe. I think that is the best way to do it. I know people use Jukebox function, but I find it to be not be ideal, but that is just me. Everything works until it doesn't!
There are any number of tricks and controllers and software that can be used to do this.
My wife asked if I had seen the dog bowl. I told her I didn't even know he could.
Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful. AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11 BIAB2026 Audiophile, a bunch of other software. Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts .
Thanks for all the tips. I was able to save a BIAB song as a Wav file and then use Audacity to convert it to an MP3. I added the audio file to my Android tablet and then used Bluetooth to connect the tablet to my Pyle mixer.
The song played but the audio quality was horrible. Nothing like it is when I play the song right from BIAB. What can I do to make that audio file sound like the BIAB file?
You will obtain the best fidelity if you store each song as a wave file. A good rule of thumb is each minute of 16-bit stereo sound at 44.1 kHz requires about 10 Mbytes of disk space so storage shouldn't be a problem unless your Android tablet has extremely small storage space. Most tablets have 8, 16 or 32 Gigabytes of memory built in and a SD card slot you can use to add additional memory.
The Lame MP3 convertor used by Audacity offers several settings. Generally you want to select a constant bit rate versus a variable bit rate and a sample rate of 192 or higher.
These are my export setting if I'm saving as .mp3 from Audacity. I have very good results:
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.
If you want to adjust the time between songs when using the Jukebox, there is an option to do so in the Windows version. I've attached a file so you an see the area I mean.
I seem to remember there is an issue with Jukebox concerning what it does if you happen to interupt a song or the sequence inadvertently or deliberately. It is not very stable so make sure you test it throughly. Tony
I use a bluetooth pedal (irig blueboard) that allows me to control start/stop next previous etc very easily. By default I set about 12 seconds between songs. I'm not too chatty. The pedal provides an override that allows either more time to talk or ability to kick into the next tune immediately.
I use a $10 ios/android app (Anytune Pro)that plays 320kbps mp3's (all you need) It also handles my setlist management admirably. I carry a tablet to the gig and my phone as a mirror backup. I use a cable or bluetooth to my PA. Its all you need to gig successfully with backing tracks
Simple, cheap and reliable. Hard to find these days.
biab2026(Mac) Latest Build Mac OS (Latest) Apple Mac Mini M2 pro 32GB Ram Logic Pro (latest or pretty close) Blue and White Sea Star
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