Yes - you are right.
I guess this is the same for all tools we as musicians use.
For instance - I bought a Yamaha Montage quite some time ago, but I simply had not the energy to work through Manual,
Youtube Videos, the User Interface and even the sounds ..
There were little issues every time - like how to transpose a part ... though this is so logical if you split your keys, that you have to transpose. But its not at the main performance screen.
Things like this are way to often in BiaB its even more crazy.

For me - I work this way ..
First I take some weeks and months to find out all about my VST Plugins, vst effects, software, keyboards, guitar effects and so forth. I try to do it like the pareto principle with 20% time I know 80% of the features .. mostly those I need most .. I organize performances, styles, sounds, effects, rank them and so forth

WHY
Because when I get into my creative moments I dont want to loose track, I want to stay in the flow and this IS REALLY REALLY hard with BiaB. To be honest I NEVER EVER used it for new songs the last year, though I wrote more than 50. I only use it for training myself playing chords, solos at the guitar or keyboards thats it.

Whats the main reason for this?
Hm, easy to answer, ITS SO HARD TO ADD FAVORITES and rank them. The workaround people provide are at CSV, file level and this not with 500 but thousands of styles included .. how should this work.

If for example I want to do a funk song.
I end up adding "FUNK" to the style or song filter .. then get 100s of results ..
Then I almost always loose myself in clicking through tracks soloing to tracks ..
Does not help.

One of my favorite tools EVER to work with was the ensoniq MR61 ..
Though not enough drum styles, worse sounds than TS or ASR, but it was so easy to use ..
1-2-3-4 record .. arrange with a few buttons click click click arrangement done ..
But save to floppy - not appropriate this days ..
But all the montages and this does not help, so I do it now with Cubase and Toontrack Superior Drummer.
Sometimes I take my bass while playing find a bassline- > record, then maybe add guitars or keys or immediately select from the drum sequences provided ..
Sometimes I start with the drums, sometimes with the keys, sometimes with the guitar, almost never with chord progressions, its mostly about good riffs ..

So still am happy I can use BiaB, I bought all styles all upgrades everything .. and its nice .
But I will only begin to really work with BiaB Song Writing if I am able to

1. Search for funk .. and get results
2. audition of tracks while ranking
3. sort by ranking -> select the best
4. come back - try the ranked - if they dont work, continue with the unranked

This way at some point all is ranked.

BEST WOULD BE to rank in different dimensions. But as my proposal said, if I would be able to just press
a key from 0 to 9 which is whatever rank I want it to be - and then use this to structure FAST..

->1 (at my keyboard) <- could be "best country songs" or "best in BiaB" or "style I will write songs for" or whatever ..

This is sooo easy, to implement and use, and its sooooooo helpful for everyone ..., as with nearly every approach towards biab it gives you fast structure to styles, songs or realtracks even midis ..

Last edited by Steffen Bernd; 12/17/22 03:59 AM.
Steffen Bernd-(Blues-Funk-Fusion)
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