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I've got the bulk of a good arrangement of a tune in BIAB. I did ACW, edited the chords, using a lot of Chord Options with pushes, a few MicroChords activities, etc. I did a bunch of Bar Settings activities as well as a bunch of Volume Automations to make string quartet sound more "real", etc.

I ended up with only the Vocal stem, and the Real Tracks are doing the rest. Now I want to import into RB to edit a few of the Real Tracks, mix my own vocals in, probably edit the form of the tune to add solos, etc. Can I do that? I'd like to not lose the Volume Automation edits and Bar Settings edits. Do these come over into RB?

What's the best way to import the file with an eye on keeping all BIAB edits?


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For a start, I chose "Open" and pointed to the .sgu file. The tracks have been imported, but they're way out of synch. The Vocal stem track is at maybe 75% speed, coming in really late and slow. The Bar Settings edits did not come with the track, so there's a lot of excess noise that needs editing out. I thought BIAB and RB worked together fairly seamlessly?

Last edited by Funkifized; 05/30/25 10:54 AM.

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best bet...

post the song somewhere so people can test it.
more details would help re rb menu actions your useing to import the song. how are you opening the song ??

om


my songs....mixed for good earbuds...(fyi..my vocs on all songs..)
https://soundcloud.com/alfsongs
(90 songs created useing bb/rb)
(lots of tips of mine in pg tips forum.)
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I could post it later once I'm done teaching for the day.

As far as opening the song, I'm just doing the basic File-->Open, point to the file in the dialogue box.


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While in Band-in-a-Box save each track as a wave file then use the wave files in RealBand.

I don't believe you will keep all your edits when moving a SGU file from Band-in-a-Box to RealBand. As a test, in Band-in-a-Box freeze all the tracks then save the SGU file under a different name. The new name gives you a working copy. Open the new name SGU file in RealBand.

You loose several features when moving out of Band-in-a-Box. Track freezing is one, MultiStyles is another and bar settings is another.


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Funk.

try the following.

1..make sure that all saves from bb and rb go into SAME FOLDER.
2..open bb tracks view
3..open rb tracks view so its on screen by the side of bb tracks view.
4..with both track views open drag EACH bb track to a rb track.
5..NOTE...YOU MUST ENSURE AS I SAID THE TRACKS IN RB are saved into the same folder as bb song OTHERWISE youll be hunting around for the default where rb saves tracks if the user forgets to do such.
SOOO...if your song folder for bb is called 'crazy funky street cats';
ENSURE the rb tracks are saved into the 'crazy funky street cats' folder.

report back if the above works for you with no anomolies.

@jim....and any lurkers.

the problem is rb does things bb doesnt as to features and vice versa.
and thus imho the coders of both rb and bb need to update both bb and rb to establish commonality between both apps as this seems to cause confusion for new users.
jim...with respect actually the points you make re rb not doing certain things have never stopped me doing a song in rb. lots of ways to do things and alternatives.
for example with great respect i would far prefer to do audio and midi editing in rb than bb which is a dogs breakfast imho by comparison.
rb tracks view is king imho. plus in rb...its superior in handling imho odd time sigs
etc etc. while bb's advantage is speed of generation.
as i said plusses and minuses of each.
some seasoned rb users ive talked to have done 100 songs in rb.
ive lost count myself how many songs ...both bb and rb have their 'quirks'.
(for any lurkers see some of my tips in pg tips forum re getting a song down fast in
rb.)

Last edited by justanoldmuso; 05/31/25 04:58 AM.

my songs....mixed for good earbuds...(fyi..my vocs on all songs..)
https://soundcloud.com/alfsongs
(90 songs created useing bb/rb)
(lots of tips of mine in pg tips forum.)
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Originally Posted by Jim Fogle
...
You loose several features when moving out of Band-in-a-Box. Track freezing is one,

This is misleading...
In RB default a track is 'frozen' automatically.
Unless you specifically change it, it is for all intents and purposes froze

/The exception is if you use RB in BiaB mode where it generates everything .. .
// why would someone do that?

Last edited by rharv; 05/31/25 12:52 PM.

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@justanoldmuso
Quote
@jim....and any lurkers.

the problem is rb does things bb doesnt as to features and vice versa. Very true. The features in Band-in-a-Box and the features in RealBand complement each other. It is helpful for a user to be familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of both programs.
and thus imho the coders of both rb and bb need to update both bb and rb to establish commonality between both apps as this seems to cause confusion for new users.
jim...with respect actually the points you make re rb not doing certain things have never stopped me doing a song in rb. lots of ways to do things and alternatives.I did not say don't use RealBand. I said that not all the work Funkifized performed in Band-in-a-Box will accurately transfer to RealBand. I suggested one (of numerous) way he might accomplish what he wants to do.
for example with great respect i would far prefer to do audio and midi editing in rb than bb which is a dogs breakfast imho by comparison.
rb tracks view is king imho. plus in rb...its superior in handling imho odd time sigs
etc etc. while bb's advantage is speed of generation.
as i said plusses and minuses of each. True.

@rharv
Quote
This is misleading...
In RB default a track is 'frozen' automatically. So, if I freeze a track in Band-in-a-Box and then drag the BiaB frozen track to RealBand the RealBand track does not regenerate?
Unless you specifically change it, it is for all intents and purposes froze Correct, RealBand only regenerates by user control. However, that is only after the initial generation is automatically performed.

/The exception is if you use RB in BiaB mode where it generates everything .. .
// why would someone do that? By using RealBand in Band-in-a-Box mode do you mean where the first eight RealBand tracks act as legacy Band-in-a-Box midi tracks? I'm not sure what you mean by BiaB mode in RealBand.

Last edited by Jim Fogle; 05/31/25 05:12 PM. Reason: typos.

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Yes
by BiaB mode I meant as you described

that mode seems useless since BiaB does it faster ..
I prefer working track by track *as do most RB users
If every track keeps changing all willy-nilly how do you ever finish anything?

As for RB regenerating when opening a BiaB file, yes that happens, and your workaround by saving as audio is valid if you stayed in BiaB too long before moving to RB ..
just my thoughts

*at one point enough RB users complained that a BiaB file opened in RB saved as a BiaB SGU/MGU in RB as default, and that got changed to saving as SEQ file because enough users thought that behavior was detrimental

Last edited by rharv; 05/31/25 05:32 PM.

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The nice thing about RealBand's "Band-in-a-Box mode" is it transfers both RealTrack audio and the underlying midi. That makes it easy to edit the midi and come up with tracks that can complement and support the audio tracks.


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Some great input here. I like to point out that while RB will not import all the BiaB features it does a lot of them and no other DAW will do most of this. So, the best thing to do is as mentioned above convert tracks you feel re just right into audio track and import them that way. Orrrrrr!!! even better once you get to the automation and mixing process move to RB first!


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@Jim.

jim i wasnt trying to be negative in any way.
i'm very respectfull re your pg knowledge.
just concerned about 'lurkers' thats all.

@Funk.

my studio is being rearranged right now but i seem to remember there is a trick in getting the underlying midi of a bb audio track.
so do these tests....not guaranteeing anything.

1..firstly before the test save your sgu so you have backup.
2..try this...drag the audio tracks into rb...and THEN...
3..delete in bb each audio track and you should get a bb message
'wanna keep the midi ?'....say yes...then...
4..drag across the midi track to rb.

see if the above works....another way..
1..export the songs bb midi file and then import into rb.
2.then drag the audio tracks into rb.

remember bb has a drop station top left you can use also.

as i said i'm not at the pc right now.
it would help if you posted the sgu somewhere so the rest of us can see which methods work the easiest and fastest....because there are various alternatives.
and nothing beats trying things and running tests with your sgu.

happiness

om

Last edited by justanoldmuso; 06/01/25 04:54 AM.

my songs....mixed for good earbuds...(fyi..my vocs on all songs..)
https://soundcloud.com/alfsongs
(90 songs created useing bb/rb)
(lots of tips of mine in pg tips forum.)
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Originally Posted by Funkifized
I've got the bulk of a good arrangement of a tune in BIAB. I did ACW, edited the chords, using a lot of Chord Options with pushes, a few MicroChords activities, etc. I did a bunch of Bar Settings activities as well as a bunch of Volume Automations to make string quartet sound more "real", etc.

I ended up with only the Vocal stem, and the Real Tracks are doing the rest. Now I want to import into RB to edit a few of the Real Tracks, mix my own vocals in, probably edit the form of the tune to add solos, etc. Can I do that? I'd like to not lose the Volume Automation edits and Bar Settings edits. Do these come over into RB?

What's the best way to import the file with an eye on keeping all BIAB edits?

It sounds like you want those BiaB tracks in RB exactly how they sound now -
Export it all as Audio tracks and Import those to RB.
That's really the best way considering how far you are in the process.

The resulting wav files should incorporate into the render and sound the same in RB as far as automations and such.
Expected Caveat:
In RB you won't be able to go back and undo something already done in BiaB (prior)

// Which, again, is why many users move to RB earlier; to do volume automation and selected RT edits (etc.)

Last edited by rharv; 06/01/25 10:32 AM.

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So, is that to say that volume automation, RT edits, micro chord edits, etc., are easier to do in RB?


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I find Volume automation and Rt or audio edits easier. Micro chords i have not done there other than to check it works. Once i have my basic tracks i move on to RB for the most part.


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what he said ^^


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what rob said seconded.

as ive said before i really think that pg need to post a table of feature differences between bb and rb.

re volume automation i'll be totally frank.
ive found it too 'fiddly' no matter which daw i try.
drives me bonkers putting all the points in and mucking around.
for someone like myself with vision problems...tho' improved now due to some brilliant eye docs vol auto is a pita.
i can never get it the way i want and end up often doing things manually. eg if a vocal note or section is too high or low i have to drill down into the waveform and do editing.

if one wants to understand rb think of a marriage one often sees between big film stars. some marriages have lasted decades while others a few months.
same with rb...some people walk away after a 'look see' and others persist with rb.
lmao...why my wife persists with me i have no idea.
she deserves a zillion gold medals.

thus to realise the potential of rb ya gotta persist as it can be exacting but also very exciting when ya delve into it.
but what isnt in life ?
ive found all music apps/daws have their idiosyncracies.
just gotta dive right in and get to it.
bottom line is songs are loads of work no matter what one uses.

happiness.

om


my songs....mixed for good earbuds...(fyi..my vocs on all songs..)
https://soundcloud.com/alfsongs
(90 songs created useing bb/rb)
(lots of tips of mine in pg tips forum.)
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How should I post the song?

This is a really frustrating activity. I can create a song in BIAB, and supposed to be able to edit it in a more DAW-like fashion in RB, but there are apparently a number of undocumented hoops to jump through to make this happen. I'm dealing with a piano-and-voice arrangement that I want to add a band to. Using File->Open and picking the .sgu file brings in the stems, but there is some sort of tempo problem, so they don't play well together. In RB, I muted the stems except for the Master Stem, because the other stems are wildly out of tempo with everything else.

I suppose I could redo the stems from the Master Stem, but I can't see how to do that in RB.


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Okay, this is beyond vexxing. Importing an .sgu file through standard Open->File does not work even remotely correctly. This really needs to be addressed by the company. It's useless.


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< It sounds like you want those BiaB tracks in RB exactly how they sound now -
Export it all as Audio tracks and Import those to RB. >


Yes. This is how to use BIAB tracks exactly as they sound in BIAB when imported into RB or any DAW.

Originally Posted by Funkifized
Okay, this is beyond vexxing. Importing an .sgu file through standard Open->File does not work even remotely correctly. This really needs to be addressed by the company. It's useless.
No. Open and import are not the same. Two different functions for two different outcomes of the tracks.

RealBand is BIAB lite. Opening an SGU file has limited BIAB features apparently some by PGM design and others because of confusion that BIAB is not a DAW. You want to import tracks to retain the BIAB processing. Opening a BIAB file is meant to merge BIAB features in a DAW environment. It's unique to PGM products.


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Using the "Import" command under "File" does the same thing. Useless.


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How do I Export All as Audio? Exporting the whole .sgu track as Audio doesn't allow me to edit the separate tracks.


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J:

I would be happy to do more of my editing in RB, if I knew how. Everyone has said to do the track in BIAB to start and do the heavy editing in RB. How are the Microchord/Chord Option functions worked in RB? Volume Automation? Bar Settings? I'm getting decent at working that stuff in BIAB, but not sure with RB. Right now, my Stems from the .sgu file are importing incorrectly to RB, coming in about a measure later than they should. I've done some work in RB, but few and far between, so that I can't figure out how to manually correct these errors, not to mention maybe figure out why the BIAB tracks are importing in correctly. Some of the Stems are importing in a slower tempo, so it's a mess.


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Funk.

best bet is to post the sgu somewhere so people can see what is going on and thus give you help.

btw in bb how are doing the sgu save ??
i always do following SAVE >>>SPECIAL>>>PATCHES AND HARMONY

as i said before...you can just drag each bb track from bb tracks view
to rb tracks view...have you tried this ??

note >>> editing of tracks in rb is superior...with various features not in bb.

dont expect bb and rb to do various things identically.
eg rb has a usefull bars view but bb doesnt.
see rb manual for more info.
there are many other differences tween bb and rb.

one reason of many i like rb is lots more tracks than bb...now 256.
so one has more track flexibility. eg its a doddle in rb to dupe a track...
a trick i often do is dealing with vocs.
i record a vocal track...dupe it to another track.
the original i keep dry and the second i'll add fx to eg pg dxi echo chorus and then blend the two tracks. various songs in my sig used just pg dx fx on my vocs etc.
eg pretty girl song.

hth.


om

Last edited by justanoldmuso; 06/26/25 01:41 PM.

my songs....mixed for good earbuds...(fyi..my vocs on all songs..)
https://soundcloud.com/alfsongs
(90 songs created useing bb/rb)
(lots of tips of mine in pg tips forum.)
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Dragging the BB tracks one-by-one to the RB tracks view is not working at all. Why have I never had this problem before? There isn't a documented way to open a BIAB file in RB?

Last edited by Funkifized; 06/26/25 08:18 PM.

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Funk...

dragging from bb tracks view to rb tracks view works here..
detail your steps.

i just drag on each bb track name over to a rb track whether midi or audio. have you gone thru the rb manual in detail plus rb tips of the day plus rb faq's plus rb vids ?

heres the thing re rb....it DOES have a deep learning cycle.
but if one sticks at it there are lots of neat things i havent seen in any other daw....and like recently...once a year i test out lots of different daws in case i can find something better.

contrary to what some might think here on pg...and which irks me and cheeses me off...
i really DONT have any biases to any app. its simply that after trying lots of music apps yearly...like an old girlfriend flame...lol... i keep on coming back to rb. and i'm not the only one.
there are various avid rb users here like rharv and rob helms who i understand like myself have done loads of songs....and various other rb users. rb quirks and all.

as an aside re daws....for years since its inception ive been an avid reaps daw user. but rb has features that even the great reaps doesnt.
so to anyone..NO..i'm not biased towards rb.
(i actually use reaps less these days as rb has added more features i need. i really feel sorry for Jeff Y the rb dev cos i'm always asking for more...lol....just like i used to ask for reaps...)
the PROBLEM is with rb is because of its plethora of deep features...
(a goldmine imho..) as i said its a steep learning cycle with lots of tricks....and...tbh even after years of useing rb i STILL go to myself
'oh you idiot OM why didnt you figure that out before'.

after a time funk youll develope your own methods re the bb/rb combo.
eg a trick i use is to use the speed of genning in bb often and then drag the track into rb. thus a way of many is to use bb as an auditioneer of pg session musos and a track generator and then bop over to rb.
SO its not a case of one over the other but the combo useing the strengths of each.
in SOME cases tho eg winky time sigs i feel rb is the better solution as one can see the time sig denominator graphically in rb for each bar.
i'm still experimenting with odd time sigs in rb.

in conclusion rb isnt a wham bam thank you xxxx app.
it requires work cos its sooo deep.

hth.

om


my songs....mixed for good earbuds...(fyi..my vocs on all songs..)
https://soundcloud.com/alfsongs
(90 songs created useing bb/rb)
(lots of tips of mine in pg tips forum.)
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Yeah, I simply opened the file in RB and it worked as expected.
RB kept the frozen track(s) and generated some others and it all stayed in time.
Not sure how you are getting the results you say you are.

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What seems to be different in yours is the lack of Stems that I've got. The stems are really the problem. Do they not import into RB correctly?

Some of the Stems import to the wrong measure, starting the recording a measure late. The other Stems are actually playing at a slower tempo, making the while thing a big mess, as you can imagine.

Now I got a suggestion from support to try Drag-And-Drop each track one at a time. I followed the video tutorial, which showed how to drag the track onto the DAW toolbar button to make the track into a WAV file. I saved the WAV files to the same folder as the .sgu file, and then dropped them into a new RB doc. Doing it that way worked perfectly, except I don't end up with chords in the Chord View, so can't edit the chord rhythms, shots, holds, etc.


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Did you try File - Open ?
Then Open the SGU.
I remember seeing previous posts mentioning 'Import', but did you try simply Opening the BiaB SGU?


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Oh, yes. That's the main way I tried this. That's the way I had been aware of for BIAB files in RB. I tried File-->Import after that. Same result. The only way that worked was using the DAW mode to change each track to WAV and Drag/Drop into the Tracks window.

The problem with that is that there's no chord changes in the Chord View. With the tracks all as WAV files, I don't (yet) know if I can change the rhythms in Chord Options, Micro Chords, etc.


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Funk.

i think it best if you detail what your overall objective is here.
eg it sounds like you have an existing audio/song you are trying to add pg content to ? thus the added use of the stem splitter ?
please clarify.

you mentioned not getting chords in rb tracks view with one work method.
if so as per rharvs post and graphic step one is to load up the bb sgu so you get the chords in rb chords and tracks view firstly.
THEN do any other things you want to do.
eg maybe you decide to generate an xtra track in bb thats not in the original sgu loaded into rb. so just drag the new bb genned track to a rb spare track.

please post back why you are also wanting to use the stem splitter.
what is the overall objective ??
remember you can use the stem splitter in rb.

om

Last edited by justanoldmuso; 06/28/25 04:39 AM.

my songs....mixed for good earbuds...(fyi..my vocs on all songs..)
https://soundcloud.com/alfsongs
(90 songs created useing bb/rb)
(lots of tips of mine in pg tips forum.)
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Originally Posted by Funkifized
Oh, yes. That's the main way I tried this. That's the way I had been aware of for BIAB files in RB. I tried File-->Import after that. Same result. The only way that worked was using the DAW mode to change each track to WAV and Drag/Drop into the Tracks window.

The problem with that is that there's no chord changes in the Chord View. With the tracks all as WAV files, I don't (yet) know if I can change the rhythms in Chord Options, Micro Chords, etc.

Sooo ..
Open the file in RB, first, so you get the chords.
THEN drag your stems into that file.
/would that work?


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I had the recording of the tune, which is piano/vocal. I used BIAB stem splitting to separate the vocal track. At that point, I used ACW to define the measures, equalize the tempo, and define the chords. Used Chord Options and Microchords to define the rhythms closer to the original performance. Sounded pretty good. Added a couple of Real Tracks for more of a band arrangement; bass, strings, etc.

Some of the piano performance sounded a little unnatural, and some of the string parts sounded unnatural in the attacks, so I decided to edit these in RB, as it's supposed to be better for audio editing. I'd also like to experiment with other rhythm section instrument Real Tracks, etc.

I'm using the chords gotten from ACW, the original voice stem, and then adding Real Tracks for my own arrangement. ACW and Stem Splitting has been done in BIAB, and now I want to edit in RB. My previous experience has been to simply File ->Open the .sgu file in RB to do more complicated edits to the tune, such as generating alternate instrument Real Tracks and possibly editing them to my taste.

However, it seems as though doing this is not working correctly with Stems from BIAB. It seems like a lot of extra steps to enter the chords by eye from the BIAB file, with chord pushes and MicroChords, into RB, and then load the Vocal Stem after, In order to arrange other Real Tracks for subsequent arranging.

Does this all make sense? I've gotten a good portion of the tune to sound the way I would like in BIAB, with Auto Analysis and Equalize Tempo, but want to use RB for further editing/adding instrumentation.


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Funk.

ok i see.. as i suspected your trying to add content to an
existing song.
let me say upfront even with the state of current software engineering in music apps ive seen no perfect solution.
(i used to develeope big industry apps.)

in summary i admire your persistence cos this isnt trivial work.
i'm a happy go lucky fun bloke with tons of patience but sometimes one has to accept a ton of work is needed to reach ones goals with some songs.

ive failed many times in adding new content to old songs of mine that people like that were originally produced on tape.
i find particularly the small tempo variances of tape can be an issue...more in fact than stem splitting which i find works rather well.
(depending on the song).

frankly i fail many times because i'm trying to preserve the original song 'vibe' and 'sound picture' that people have told me they like while adding new content and ensuring i dont lose that original vibe.
in summary ive got lots of old songs here that i just cant get right adding new content to....bugs the heck out of me.
maybe i'm a dunce...lol...

given what you, i, and others are trying to do i think at the software engineering level there needs to be integration of the acw with the stem splitting feature.
ie.. one feeds into the software the old song and the software spits out the chords plus varying tempo map plus the stems....and then the user does minor 'cleaning up'.

the ONLY solution i can suggest at this time and given how much work youve done in bb is to just use rb for audio editing.
ie drag a track from bb into rb...do the editing...and then send it back to bb.

frankly given the complexity at this level i think due to rb's capability for fractional tempo handling and track editing and other features...
(bars view and the way rb tracks view works plus 256 tracks...to cite a few examples...)
that from git go it might have been better to try doing the shebang in rb.
maybe on another song you might try useing rb from git go and see if its an easier alternative.


in closeing let me say from my experiences in software engineering imho the software tech is getting there these days but isnt perfected
and might never be perfect....we shall see.


i wish you the best and admire the effort your putting into
this.


happiness.

Last edited by justanoldmuso; 06/29/25 05:16 AM.

my songs....mixed for good earbuds...(fyi..my vocs on all songs..)
https://soundcloud.com/alfsongs
(90 songs created useing bb/rb)
(lots of tips of mine in pg tips forum.)
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Originally Posted by rharv
Originally Posted by Funkifized
Oh, yes. That's the main way I tried this. That's the way I had been aware of for BIAB files in RB. I tried File-->Import after that. Same result. The only way that worked was using the DAW mode to change each track to WAV and Drag/Drop into the Tracks window.

The problem with that is that there's no chord changes in the Chord View. With the tracks all as WAV files, I don't (yet) know if I can change the rhythms in Chord Options, Micro Chords, etc.

Sooo ..
Open the file in RB, first, so you get the chords.
THEN drag your stems into that file.
/would that work?
Bears repeating


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So, remove the stems from the BIAB file, save the .sgu file, open it in RB, then add the vocal Stem back in? I did do the Equalize Tempo thing in BIAB, so I'm not sure if the stem still has that alteration.


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Try it.
You don't have to remove the vocals first, just mute them or delete them in RB after.

Last edited by rharv; 06/29/25 09:23 AM.

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I did that, and it seems to be what I'm looking for. I then deleted the old stems in RB, and the Drums track to Generate a different RD track, which I'm liking. Now I'm working on Volume Automation with Drum Stems, etc. I guess that should be a different post.


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Glad to hear it

FWIW you can Mute a track in RB, select a different blank track and generate to your hearts content, so you don't lose the original.

Last edited by rharv; 06/30/25 02:15 PM.

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