My approach is similar to Bob's and Ron's. I used to start in BIAB. Then when the song was created, I'd move to RB because Realband had some useful features not found in BIAB. Then, when I had the creation production-ready, I'd move to Reaper. These days, I don't use RB quite as much because BIAB has adopted many of the features that I used to use Realband for. My last couple of songs have been created and made production-ready exclusively in BIAB before moving to Reaper.

Below is my approach to narrowing down the style options when I write songs.

1) Tap the tempo identifier in BIAB to find out what the tempo of my song is. (In older versions of BIAB, this is the "=" or "–" icon.

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2) Decide if I want (a) 8-beat swing style (Sw8) or (b) 16-beat swing style (Sw16) or (c) 8 even beats style (Ev8) or (d) 16 even beats style (Ev16).

3) Identify the song's time signature.

I then use the dropdown menus to set the filter options in Stylepicker.

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Sometimes I use the "Category" dropdown menu to filter genres. Mostly, I don't, though, because I like to investigate all genres when I'm finding a style.

Apply the above filters narrows down the options for suitable styles. I then go through the list and listen to the demo for the filtered styles until I encounter something that appeals. I then mark that as a "Favorite" so that I can easily find it again.

--Noel

MY SONGS...
Audiophile BIAB 2025