PG Music Home Forums User-to-User Post your own Tips and Tricks here UNIQUE DRUM AND OTHER TRICKS WITH REALBAND> (RB)....including how to do modern songs.

Thanks Rob for your contribution. much appreciated....you are correct...
(i'm a reaps user from v0.99 and done a ton of songs useing it plus rb/bb combo cos each has their own plusses and minuses.)...
rb has in fact unique features i havent seen in any other music app includeing reaps.

to other rb users feel free to post your own tips…
because as rb is so choc full of features i'm sure i'm gonna forget lots of things.
also i'm hoping new pg users read this...
thus i must go into certain levels of detail that existing long time users would already know.


4..a recap.

if you want a 'modern song' you must use modern sounds…RB HAS ZILCH TO DO WITH IT !!.
Modern sounds can be found in many sources.
viz…
…pg content which is massive. including a ton of modern sounds.
which you can bend/shape/mangle/pitch shift anyway you want….ive done this many times.
…useing plugins with modern sounds driven by midi tracks.
…useing sample libraries both free and paid.
…recording tracks using external hardware.

etc etc…to name a few.

Think of it like an easter egg hunt….in your mind you have a vision for your song...thus begins the hunt for the sounds to realise your vision.
rb (or bb) have nothing to do with it. it is up to YOU to locate or record the sounds to realise your vision.
bottom line is if i or you can't lay down the sounds to realise your song vision…it's not the music apps fault.
I fail many times… it's all part of the creating songs gig…but it's not the app's fault if i fail.
I've seen it many many times on these forums…
'I want a xxx '...xxx being a genre or big name artist or group for example.
pg software isnt stopping you…you can even create your own styles or modify a style.
there's nothing to stop you using various tools to analyse a style or genre you're into…
and then get cracking replicating that style using pg tools/pg content/third party content.
frankly i could do hundreds of 'modern songs' using just SM, sfz and pg's huge sound content and free samples say from cm mag. ie…spoilt for choice.

talking of sforzando that comes free from pg…let me admit my own stupidity in not realising something nice with sfz. (in my defence…lol…i'm no synth expert.)
When I started checking out sfz i was demoing modern sounds by clicking at top left.
THEN one day i said to myself 'hmm what does snapshot do' when sforzando first displayed with the timewarp logo…so i clicked on snapshot and lo and behold a menu appeared and various sub menus/settings i could use for 'modern sounds'.
In summary, really explore sforzando deeply and its timewarp feature including all the various synth oscillators and other settings ... .like synthmaster it's rather amazing for modern sounds.
Let's crack on… lots of things to cover.

5…i want to do a modern song in the style of 'abc famous artist' or 'xyz song.'

i dont condone ripping off anyone. but a truism is various oldie hit songs might have been influenced by and have their roots in music genres of yore…ie…decades or even centuries ago.
.
So let's say a certain modern song or style gets you 'cranked up'..there are many techniques to analyse such…even as a music study/learning exercise.
eg…
..sometimes there is info on the net.
..you can use analysis software which will report such things as tempo and chords etc etc.
eg in pg products check out the audio chord analysis feature ACW.
(see pg vids to save me lots of typing ... .NOTE rb supports 'fractional tempos'.)
maybe you have, like i do…lots of rough song demos from years back done in studios…and you want to create a new pro modern song vibe for such. nothing to stop you doing that in rb.
For example, just import your old demo into rb and apply the ACW.
I did this the other day with an old demo of mine for fun.
even though i knew the chords to my old demo…i saved lots of typing by letting the RB ACW detect the chords and only had just a few chord changes to make on the genned chord sheet.
(note…dont expect song analysis software to do a perfect job. some effort will be needed on your part.)
After getting the rb chord sheet i decided to start checking out the tons of rb stylepicker midi styles..and demoing the styles WITH MY CHORD SHEET in rb viz my song.
If I came across a style that cranked me up I would save the style in my folder for the song.
(I urge you to have separate song folders for each song you're working on.)

let me say at this stage in song development in rb…i like to work fast…so i find working with midi tracks lets me do that.
(Later on I will experiment with modern sounds in other pg content like rt's//rd's//supertracks etc etc.).
Now some people might enter in the rb stylepicker 'modern sounds' or whatever.
i dont do that…because from experience i find i miss lots of cool pg content.
(unless it's just a quickie demo to see how well my vocals/lyrics work.)

If I want a serious song result I put in serious work.
just mucking around yesterday in rb stylepicker…i found a mind boggling amount of modern pg sounds i could use or dice/slice/change etc etc to make my new version of the old demo i did years ago sound great. in addition i found that just using sforzando and synthmaster plugins
I was overloaded with ideas for the new song version.
the problem ive found with having oodles of plugins is there are so many sound 'eggs or nuggets'...one never finishes a song.
So I limit myself…make sense ?

addendum.

a tip the user might find usefull re the ACW.
on a fast song its sometimes difficult to place the bar lines...sooo...i slow the song down by 50 percent
prior to invoking the acw. this makes things a bit easier.
just an idea.

more to come.

happiness.

om