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Joined: Mar 2010
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Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 11 |
Hi all,
I am pretty new to Band in a Box, but am slowly starting to understand it. I have been writing lyrics for years, and decided to buy Band in a Box 2010 so I could actually turn my lyrics into completed songs.
I am currently part way through my first song, I have sorted the guitar chords and have added the drums I wanted from the RealDrums.
However, I am having a slight problem with the actual pattern of the drums I have used.
Basically, the drums do suit the song, but the drum pattern seems to end too soon during my song. The drums seem to end and the loop seems to restart again too early, before I reach the bridge of my song.
What I am really asking is this - is there any way that I can manually change the length of the drum patches I use? As it stands, the drums come to an end as I am still part way through my first verse. I need to extend the drums by a few more bars.
Alternatively, is there a way that I can just have a continuous drum beat that simply repeats itself over and over again, a beat that doesnt have an "ending" at 8 or 16 bars?
Does anybody know what I mean when I say "ending"? Im really not sure how to describe it. Its the bit at the end of a drum loop, usually heard when a song comes to the end of a verse, where there is usually a change in tempo and a distinct different ending to the last bar of that drum loop.
Does this make sense to anybody? And can anybody help me?
Many thanks
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Joined: May 2000
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Check the Chord Grid view at that point for a Blue or Green 'Part Marker indicator.
Part Markers also force Drum "Fills" in the previous bar.
You can click on a Part Marker to change it from Blue for the A variation Fill to Green (B variation Fill) or none.
You can also add part markers by clicking in the same spot.
--Mac
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Joined: Oct 2008
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Hi Enforcer,
Welcome to the forums.
It sounds like you have some setting is askew. By default, BIAB will add drums to the entire song. How I am interpreting your words is that for part of the song, the drums are muted. I'd need to know more about your settings before I can help out with this.
It also sounds to me that you are using multiple choruses (BIAB defaults to 3 choruses - a chorus, from BIAB's perspective is "once through the song"). If this is the case, a simple solution that might let you get around you problem, is to unfold your song into a single chorus. This option is available under the "Edit" menu. Before you start playing with this, though, I suggest that you save your song with a new file name so that you can always get back to the original song if you need to.
Regards,
Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Joined: Mar 2010
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Quote:
Hi Enforcer,
Welcome to the forums.
It sounds like you have some setting is askew. By default, BIAB will add drums to the entire song. How I am interpreting your words is that for part of the song, the drums are muted. I'd need to know more about your settings before I can help out with this.
It also sounds to me that you are using multiple choruses (BIAB defaults to 3 choruses - a chorus, from BIAB's perspective is "once through the song"). If this is the case, a simple solution that might let you get around you problem, is to unfold your song into a single chorus. This option is available under the "Edit" menu. Before you start playing with this, though, I suggest that you save your song with a new file name so that you can always get back to the original song if you need to.
Regards,
Noel
Many thanks for your reply.
In response to your first point, yes, I have muted the drums to begin with. For the first 8 bars, I have used accoustic guitar only, then, in the 9th bar, I change the drums to "back to normal" and add a part marker on thye 9th bar.
The next part marker after this is the 30th bar, which is where the bridge for my song will begin. However, there is a drum fill in bar 16 for some reason, and I dont want it there, I just want the drum loop to keep repeating until the next part marker.
There are no other instruments playing, other than the drums and accoustic guitar, the rest are all muted from the start. Is there any reason you can think of as to why the drum fill is used there? And how can I just get rid of the drum fill altogether?
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Joined: Mar 2010
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One other thing, my song is just one chorus, it isnt divided up into 3.
As it stands, all my bars are set to the normal settings apart from 1 (which is now 1a), 9 (which is now 9a), and 30 (which is not 30a). 1,9 and 30 are now in blue coloured boxes, the rest are just normal.
All I really want is to get rid of the drum fill. Is there any way I can actually get rid of it altogether? Or is there always going to be some?
Many thanks to both the above posters for reply.
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Joined: Jan 2003
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You can also use Real Band to create songs with. Real Band (RB) comes with the Biab styles version of whatever build of Biab you are using.
It is much easier to use Real Band for creating drum tracks with. It works like a sequencer where you can cut/paste each part of whatever track you are working on. Hi-lite the drum pattern then paste over the bar of the unwanted fill etc. RB also uses Real Tracks as well. Most create their layout in Biab and then open their song up in RB to execute the "details."
RB comes with Biab, no need for a separate purchase. Buy as much of Biab as you can afford, mores styles etc . . .
Welcome to the forum. You can create some great songs with both BIab & RB.
Trax
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Hi again, Enforcer.
The way your song is structured with the part markers would produce fills in bars 8 and 29. Having a fill in bar 16 is strange. It might be, though, that one of the variations of the rhythm patterns has a fill-like quality for the particular Realdrum rhythm being used. To ascertain this, I would temporarily switch to another drum style and regenerate and compare the results.
Music Trax's idea about using Realband is excellent because you could simply cut the offending bar and copy-and-paste from another "correct" sounding bar into the cut region. RB is extremely powerful in this regard.
I find myself wondering if you have frozen the drum track. If so, I'd unfreeze it and regenerate it a few times to see what happens. Again, one of RB's strengths is that it's possible to regenerate whole tracks or parts of tracks.
A last option that I would try would be to save the song under a new name then remove ALL bar settings (right-click >> bar settings >> reset all bars). I'd then regenerate the song (after having unfrozen all tracks). I'd then reset the bar settings and again regenerate the song. This might have the desired outcome.
Hope these thoughts help,
Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Are you sure you wouldn't want a fill or change up there? I don't mean to second guess your production but that is a long time for the drums to sound exactly the same. I have noticed that on long stretches of same pattern with no markers the real drums will put in a change up or slight fill in sometimes. I've always thought it's because that is what a real drummer would do. Personally I like that it does that. Otherwise to me it sounds too much like a drum machine instead of a real human drummer playing.
But if you don't like it, trax gave you good advice. You can finish your song in biab just overlook the fill for now and when you have everything else the way you want open it in realband OR take your song from biab to real band and finish tweaking it there. Once your song is in real band you can hand edit the drum track any way you want it. You can also audition other real drum tracks and see if there's one you like better than the one biab used with that particular style.
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Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.
ChatPG's knowledge base includes the full Band-in-a-Box User Manual and sales information from the website.
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