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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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Joined: Oct 2016
Posts: 4
Newbie
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OP
Newbie
Joined: Oct 2016
Posts: 4 |
I am playing around/trying to learn/getting around BB 2022 with an M1 Mini. I am noticing that a lot of song/styles, I guess you call them, have a lot of instruments that sound like an old Atari video game. Is this because I don't own all the sound packs needed?
Is this the way the software is designed?
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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,418
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Veteran
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,418 |
No.
Sound can be from audio or MIDI. If it’s MIDI, which has no sound of its own, what you hear is completely dependent on what you use to play MIDI. If it’s audio, which in BIAB is RealTracks and RealDrums, then what you hear are snippets of actual pro musicians stitched together under the instructions given by the program, using your choices of instruments, tempo and style.
Since you cite the Atari sounds (and I remember those), I suspect you are hearing MIDI. Can you tell us what you are using to play MIDI sounds? And if you are hearing only MIDI, try selecting a style that uses only RealTracks. How does that sound on your system?
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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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 2,622
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Veteran
Joined: Jan 2015
Posts: 2,622 |
Welcome to the fora.
You can tell the type of track from the the labels of the radio button at the top of the BiaB window.
From page 38 of the manual:
"""
The color of the track name indicates its type or state.
- White indicates that the track is empty and is not in use.
- Yellow indicates a MIDI track playing a Band-in-a-Box MIDI part.
- Green indicates a RealTrack. If the track name is underlined, it also has RealChart notation.
If [V] is shown, the track has a video RealTracks.
- Blue indicates a MIDI SuperTracks.
- Orange is an Audio Performance track.
- Red means that the track has been muted. When one of the tracks is being soloed, all other tracks
will change color to red.
- For the Audio track, orange shows that an audio recording is present on the track.
"""
Green RealTracks should sound quite realistic as they're built from recording of musicians playing.
Yellow or blue mean that the sound you get will depend on the MIDI player you're using.
BiaB's default MIDI player is Coyote, which doesn't come with great sounds. I think many or most people use a different MIDI player and there are plenty to choose from. BiaB ships a copy of VSTSynthFont (manual p8), but for some reason it's tucked away in bb/Data/libx64.
There are numerous good soundfonts around. There's one with VSTSynthFont, which I think is better that Coyote's, but there are even better soundfonts free on the 'Net.
The other way to get good sounds from MIDI is with VST Instruments, via the plugins tab on the mixer.
As you're a newcomer, I'd suggest using RealTracks for now as they should sound good and natural, and they're easy to use. Setting up a good MIDI player can be a bit fiddly, so unless you actively want MIDI, I'd suggest leaving that that until you do.
Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful.
AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11
BIAB2025 Audiophile, a bunch of other software.
Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts
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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 20,975
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Veteran
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 20,975 |
Good information above.
The quality of the sound you hear will very much depend on the quality of your audio reproduction system.
The integrated speakers in small computers rarely (if ever) provide high-fidelity sound.
Tell us more about your listening environment, do you use integrated small speakers, or an external sound system with active monitors, etc.
Most importantly, the sound quality from BiaB is of an extremely high standard. Faithful reproduction requires adequate sound equipment, quality VSTi libraries (for MIDI), etc.
Please update us on your listening environment from the above comments.
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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