Originally Posted By: Janice & Bud
Good heavens!

Is that the THE Rachel Price of Lake Street Dive? It assuredly sounds like her.

Yes Janice & Bud, she does sound a bit like Rachael Price! I'm old enough to be her father.

But I didn't know anyone here would recognize this, so now I have to take down the link, since this was just an experimental demo, and the released version will have all real players (not BIAB). But this may explain how I have used BIAB as a tool to arrange and experiment with songs before recording in the studio.

Like once, recording in Nashville in the late 90's I produced a three-album compilation of 30 tracks with top session musicians, and before going into the studio I played around with BIAB tracks using widely different styles, experimenting with arrangement, key, different chords, and other things. Then in the studio I played the BIAB "demo" for the musicians before they recorded and each got great ideas for the feel and style without me having to say or write anything else. I believe it saved a lot of money in studio time. In those days it was all midi (no real tracks) but this was enough to give an idea to musicians, and easily editable. I believe they played differently because of the ideas they got from the various styles. And, of course, they played from the chord charts printed by BIAB.

On another occasion I was orchestrating a piece for a European symphony orchestra, which required a complex ostinato line in sixteenth notes for a swirling string part. With over a hundred bars of complex chord changes, it would have required me to write out over 200 different notes, carefully calculating the notes of each bar, with accidentals, to match the moving chords. It would have taken hours to do that, and I would likely have made a few mistakes if not careful, so I made a BIAB instrument with the exact ostinato pattern I wanted, typed in the chords for the whole song, and within minutes it created the part I wanted perfectly, and I could hear it to make sure. I then imported the midi out of BIAB directly into my orchestral parts and the violins played exactly what BIAB wrote. (I could send you the live performance of this orchestra if you don't believe me)

So BIAB, apart from what most people use it for, is also a great experimental tool for producers and composers to try out chord changes and feels in an unlimited way, even if they never use the output except as a demo. In this case, I was experimenting with the vocals recorded by Rachael & JB Ekl to see what kind of arrangement might work, and I turned to BIAB to see if the vocals could be made full and fat and saturated and then be sustained by a minimal arrangement, just a few instruments. I wanted to see if people thought this worked so I thought this forum would be a safe space to get a few unbiased opinions, and I appreciate what everyone said.






Last edited by ThomasS; 10/02/22 04:24 PM.