PeterGannon,

Thank you for your's and PG's interest in this matter.

Having worked with many musicians in the studio for the last 30 years, a solo can be divided into 2 main types of solos. "Melody based", and "Ad-lib / Free-form" based. A "melody based" solo is nearly impossible to create for this type of a program like BIAB, since there is no way to predict any lead melody line. What we have so far are the "Free-form based" solos for the soloists. Please remember that I don't have any idea of the required production process to create ant Real Styles or Real Soloists

If I was the producer in charge of creating new soloists, I would start with "generix" type of solos covering the tempo range of 60 to 180 as slow, medium slow, medium, medium fast and fast. I would also start with the most common time signatures of 3/4 and 4/4. By "generic", what I mean is the typical solos played by any performing band that does not "emulate" any particular "well known" artist. I do understand that when asked to perform in a "generic" style, every player can not help but bring in their "own style" of playing into such a performance. That should be fine as long as the player has a large number of solo riffs in their arsenal. A "generic" style should work with almost any Real Style within its genre (Rock, Metal, Pop, Country, Jazz etc.). In the case of guitar solos, regarding "clean" or "dirty, I would start with clean. Many of us have the capability to add desired level of distortion as needed.

The same concept of production should apply to all solo instruments. Guitar is a good starting point since its the most common instrument. Then wind instruments that are most commonly found in a "Band". Then keyboard instruments with vintage sounds that needs to be a real track, like a couple of variations of B3 Organ.

After that is done, then move on to the "emulated" soloists, much like the "Dire" type of solos. The problem with "emulated" soloists that they are too "recognizable" when doing an "album" of songs. A solo used for one song is "too similar" when used in another song in an album.

Currently existing Soloists have too narrow of tempo range. In the example of the "Dire" soloist, there is only one tempo, 140. If there was a temp of 60, 90, 120, 150 and 180, then the "Dire Soloist" would have been more useful for many more song. Of course, with each recorded tempo range would naturally create different riffs. This will further enhance the "variety" in the soloists while still retaining the "Dire" feel.

Believe me, I can imagine the enormity of the production process I am suggesting. I am also very excited about the future of where Real Tracks is headed. I'm sure that with the advancement of the recording software and computers, the cost of production process should continue decrease.

Other minor things I am noticing about Real tracks and Real Drums is the amount of recorded "ambiance". In general, IMO there are too much "room ambiance" recorded with the tracks. For example, the "sax tracks" have too much "room reverb" included. If it was recorded in a more "dead" room, it would make "mixing" a bit easier. With the Real Drum tracks, if a "gate" was included in each drum input (snare, toms and kick / bass drum), the "ringing" of the skins will be more controlled to match the type of music these drum tracks were intended for. The Real Drum tracks don't sound like any "gates" were used in the recording chain. Of course, cymbals will not be gated. I might be getting a bit too "nit picky". Lastly, a larger variety of "fills" for Real Drums would be nice. For slower tempo Real Drum tracks, some triplets in the "fills" would be nice too.

I was not trying to create a "wish list" but I thought I should say enough since we have the attention of PG Music in this case.

Thanks a lot for your attention Peter and PG.

Ed Layola

www.pointconceptionstudio.com