<< Could you give a bit more details on how you and your brothers use the APT/APF in real life productions? >>

Artist Performance Tracks and Artist Performance Files operate in BIAB similar to the RealTracks/UserTrack relationship. APT's are made by PG Music and APF's are user developed. PG Music's Bootcamp video where Tobin takes an existing PG Music vocal demo and completely creates a new mix is a good example.

How I use APF has changed over the last couple of yearly version releases. PG Music developers have used APF's to perform functions automatically that were manual operations prior to the introduction of Utility Tracks. Before Utility Tracks, I used APF's to enhance the BIAB Mixer into a very robust and powerful digital multi track recorder. With APF's there was no 8 track limitation to BIAB. An APF could be configured to function as a virtual track, a group, a sub-mix, a comp track, an aux track and a bounce track. Of course, being digital, there was no loss or degradation of mixed audio, no matter the number of routings used in a project. With PG Music adding the 16 Utility Tracks made these processes more visible and simplified the process. It's not complicated to produce a 50 track song in just a few minutes using only BIAB and APF's. Using APF's in conjunction with the RealTracks Medley Maker and MultiStyles makes creating very complex arrangements very quick. Instrument replacements and regenerations can be made without changing or losing the arrangement.

The main functional difference between an APT/APF and a regular RealTrack most obviously is how they generate. APF's will not regenerate to adjust to chord changes. That has to be done manually. APF's will follow key signature changes and tempo changes but don't adjust to bar changes such as adding or deleting measures or rearranging sections. They do not respond to Part Markers. I view them as an advanced track freeze option. A static track.

A user converts a track to an Artist Performance File with a Rt click on the track using the mouse, open Track Actions, Save track as Performance File (Wav/M4a). Saving an APF is different and faster than saving a WAV file. The audio file is automatically named and the track labels change to orange to show the track is an Artist Performance File. APF's can reside on all 24 tracks and are edited in the Audio Edit Window and can be accessed by the Audio Button at the top of the screen for additional functions and commands. This can be quite useful because for example, there are 18 different ways to modify volume control once a track is converted to an Artist Performance File.

<< " So How do I open a factory made APT/APF in BiaB?" >>
The easiest way to open a factory made Artist Performance Track would be to open a Song with Vocals demo SGU/MGU or a Song Lesson. My current BIAB version has hundreds of these dating back to 2009. There are no Pre-made APF files.


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