Originally Posted by SpencerH
Band in the box has pretty good sounds but they are only close to what I'm used to using these days. It is obvious that Band in a Box is not a DAW. It seems to be a great tool for starting a song but not to finish it.

This is how I use BIAB, too. I use it as a tool to create tracks that I then take to a DAW and add effects, etc., to create a more polished sounding backing.

Originally Posted by SpencerH
I also did read what I could about the Real tracks and I activated the Playable tracks and it has a green box around it. I noticed the notes I add are also green. But they play a different sound/ instrument. As example the Pedal steel plays what sounds like a acoustic guitar patch. I'm trying to fix the mistakes like the wrong chords which you can clearly see in the PRV. It seems to miss chord changes mid bar.

Realtracks are audio tracks played by a studio musician. They are not activated nor controlled by MIDI notes. The MIDI notes are simply a transcription of the notes the Realtrack is playing. To some extent, the notes within a Realtrack can be modified using playable Realtracks (which are MIDI insertions). As you point out, these notes are not necessarily a perfect match for the overall sound of the Realtrack. They're more a correction device and if the volume of the added/corrected note is a little quieter, the overall tone will be controlled by those notes that were not changed. Melodyne, which you mentioned, is a great option because that uses the original Realtrack.

Originally Posted by SpencerH
The midi editing seems very limited which is why I need to be able to export the midi files so I can work in a proper editing environment. ( DAW)
But as I said some of the resulting midi exports do not include a lot of the tracks. And there's no CC data, only velocity.

As mentioned above, MIDI information does not control the Realtracks. It's just notation. A MIDI file can be saved and used with a softsynth but the performance information is limited.

Originally Posted by SpencerH
Is this is due to the fact that it is actually playing audio samples ?? Real Tracks? Are the midi notes just to trigger the samples? If so why doesn't adding a midi note trigger that sample? The added notes sound like wavetable GM synth sounds.

Realtracks are snippets of actual audio that are sliced and diced to create a backing. The Realtracks are not samples. The backing is created on a bar-by-bar basis from the studio musician's performance and not a note-by-note basis using MIDI triggers with sampled, individual notes.

Originally Posted by SpencerH
If none of these styles you pick are actually midi and If the auto generated chords are not playing correctly is there no way to fix that?

There are a few options.

1) Right-click on the track and select "Track Settings" and down the bottom of the pop-up window is an option called "Autofix sour notes". Activating this will help.

2) As you have already done, it's possible to use playable realtracks, or if that is not suitable for the instrument involved, use Melodyne to change notes.

3) What I personally do is to use Partial Regeneration. It is possible to select a range of bars and then generate a new version of the Realtrack just for that chosen section. Have a look at the video below. The section to watch begins at 10:30. Below are the time stamps for the sections that will help you.

10:30 Basics of Partial Re-generation
14:28 Partial re-generation Options window
20:04 Changing RealTracks using Partial Re-generation
23:01 Editing RealTracks (copy/paste/erase)
27:38 More partial re-generation (Bootcamp 1 excerpt)


Lastly, you mentioned that when chords are added in the middle of a bar, they don't seem to play. They should play. One thing to note is that if they were added after you have generated the chord chart, you will need to re-generate so that the changes are picked up. BIAB doesn't automatically adjust to chord chart changes. I like to think of the chord sheet as a set of instructions for BIAB. It tells the program what chords to play and where to play them. Then, when I generate the backing, BIAB implements the instructions on that chordsheet. Whenever something new is added to the chord sheet, or it changes in some way, BIAB needs to be regenerated to implement the new and updated 'instructions'.

I hope this helps. BIAB is a fantastic tool and once you get over the learning curve, you'll be amazed what can be achieved.

Regards,
--Noel

MY SONGS...
Audiophile BIAB 2026