Hello,

I have to agree 100% with what sundance said.

I understand that some of us use BIAB as backing track for live performance. Some use BIAB as backing track just for their own use to record their own composition.

I have been helping with different local bands using BIAB for many years. A band usually has one or two song writers in the group. BIAB can easily come up with the FEEL of the song when a new song is presented to the rest of the band. It serves to save hours of verbal description by the song writer trying to explain the FEEL of the song. One listen . . . and everyone in the band GETS IT. They go through the song an make changes and in short order the song takes on the character of that particular band. BIAB always saves time for any band to put a new song into their live play list. Its is not unusual to present the band with several variations of usable styles. The few bands I helped out all ended up buying BIAB.

From time to time, they are back in the studio to record their song that they used BIAB to learn and refine the song. Mind you, these are local unsigned bands playing gigs whenever they can get one. All I can say is that, after BIAB, the band isn't writing and playing songs that all sound the same any more. How many "local" CD releases have you heard where nearly all the songs sound the same ??

For any songwriter, BIAB of any version is the best thing available to "audition" a style for a new song. In many ways, just playing a new song using BIAB in various styles often ends up improves a song by new inspiration. With BIAB new changes and experiments become very simple . . . which allows the songwriter to concentrate on being musically creative. Using BIAB as a song writing tool can't help but expand the writing palette of any writer.

For studio recording . . . I don't get to use BIAB very often. Most studio clients are "bands". But from time to time I'll get a singer / songwriter without a band of his own. Thats when I fire up the BIAB. Back in the "only MIDI" days it took a lot of work to make the tracks sound acceptable to record. It required another DAW to Groove quantize and edit individual MIDI tracks. With Real Tracks, BIAB usefulness in a studio has increased 10 fold. My first use of Real Track for a studio project is what started this thread.

Real Tracks and Real Drums is in its infancy. I can't wait to see what it would be capable of in 5 years. Currently, Real Drums is stereo, but its quite usable. I am able to re-EQ the stereo tracks by creating 3 or 4 stereo drum tracks with different high pass, bi-polar, and low pass filters applied to each track. There are other "stereo" tricks that are available to gain control over a "stereo" source.

BIAB is a very versatile software that can be used for many purpose. The addition of Real Tracks and Real Drums is probably a milestone and probably the best thing ever to have happened to BIAB.

I understand that its just a few of us that have a recording studio set up available, but if you do. BIAB's Real Tracks and a good session player for solos can produce a very good sounding final product.

Thanks
Ed Layola

www.pointconceptionstudio.com