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So I open old (MIDI) MGU jazz standard track.
I change style to Real one - no problem there.
I want to preserve the melody but render it with real instrument?
When I try to change instrument in Mixer it generates a solo and
nukes the melody - what am I doing wrong? Is it possible to have
melody rendered by real instrument or is it restricted to MIDI?

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The MIDI melody cannot be played by a RealTrack. RealTracks are pre-recorded music phrases which are stored in an Audio format, not MIDI format, and cannot follow MIDI data.

(You can of course preserve the MIDI melody by freezing that track)


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As explained, you are not doing anything wrong, only asking the program to do something for which it was not designed.

There is a newer feature called Playable RealTracks that could possibly be of use, but it's designed to work with chord info. I think using it for an entire melody would be tedious, but I could be wrong. The Playable RealTracks are still MIDI, however, just a pretty good-sounding version.

Tom, since you are new here, we don't know what you may know. Are you aware MIDI is just instructions and has no sound? That a good hardware or software MIDI synth can sound acceptable? That BIAB supports a combination of audio backing tracks or soloists, and MIDI, and when mixed, MIDI can sound quite good?


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Thanks for the replies.
To clarify - I understand the concept of MIDI and the idea of rendering using samples - did sequencing in Ableton.
I was not sure if Real instruments qualify as such but it seem that they mostly exist as phrases not single notes.

My particular purpose was learning melody of a jazz standard - using melody that comes with MGU file.
So it was just a question of rendering it in somewhat pleasant form - not really using it as part of my recording.
As the next step I would mute melody, render backup track, import it (whole or separate parts) into Reaper and record
melody and solo parts myself.

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The easiest way (for me) to render a MIDI melody (or any other single MIDI track) is to drag the Melody icon (in this case a Tenor Sax) to the WAV button in the upper left corner

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Last edited by DC Ron; 05/07/23 11:28 PM.

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Originally Posted By: DC Ron
The easiest way (for me) to render a MIDI melody (or any other single MIDI track) is to drag the Melody icon (in this case a Tenor Sax) to the WAV button in the upper left corner


Thanks that is a nice trick. I must admit that despite owning BIAB software for many years I never put any effort in learning the UI to any considerable depth.

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I don't know how far back you go. The GUI was changed considerably in 2018, although with Ctrl+T you can choose between the older and newer.

Also, BIAB very often gives you several ways to accomplish the same thing.


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Originally Posted By: Matt Finley
I don't know how far back you go. The GUI was changed considerably in 2018, although with Ctrl+T you can choose between the older and newer.

Also, BIAB very often gives you several ways to accomplish the same thing.


I have currently 2018 version but I had BIAB since at least 1999.

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