This tip grew out of several recent BIAB forum threads touching on wish list requests, DAW style workflows, and questions about why Band in a Box doesn’t duplicate tracks the way traditional DAWs do. Many of these discussions come from experienced users whose workflow focuses primarily on arranging, comping, and editing tracks after exporting them to a DAW rather than building complex, finished arrangements within BIAB itself. What often gets missed is that BIAB already provides powerful generation level tools that address many of these requests, but they work very differently from DAW post editing and may not be obvious when BIAB is approached with a DAW centric workflow.

In BIAB, a RealTrack is a generated performance, not an existing audio clip. Before generation time, BIAB selects phrases from its RealTrack library and assembles them into a coherent musical performance based on the song structure, style, chords, and settings. BIAB generated tracks can represent RealTrack audio in ways that look similar to DAW tracks, which are audio. BIAB has advanced ways to copy generated audio under certain conditions, duplicating a DAW track, but the key distinction is that BIAB operates at the generation level before an actual audio file exists.

The RealTracks Medley Maker works at this generation stage. It allows BIAB to duplicate the exact same RealTrack performance or generate variations of that performance, and to combine multiple RealTrack instruments into a single musical part. Because this happens before audio is finalized when rendered, BIAB can create multiple musically identical instruments that either play the exact same performance simultaneously or play different performances generated from the same musical intent.

This functionality is already used throughout BIAB. Many factory created Styles include multiple RealTracks performing as a single musical part, either layering different instruments or using the same instrument more than once. These performances may be identical or subtly varied. In the RealTracks Picker, users can find Multi-Simultaneous RealTracks and Multi-Thickened RealTracks, which allow the same instrument to be used multiple times, or multiple instruments to be layered, either duplicating exact performances or generating variations, simultaneously or sequentially. The RealTrack Medley Maker tool is available individually on each of the 24 Mixer Tracks.

DAWs can achieve similar musical results, but doing so typically requires generating and exporting multiple tracks from BIAB, importing them into a DAW, and then manually comping, editing, arranging, and adding fades, crossfades, and transitions across multiple tracks and tools. While this approach is powerful, it is more time-intensive and depends on additional software and workflow knowledge. A RealTracks Medley can produce the same musical outcome within BIAB in a single generation and render.

Because RealTracks are generated performances, BIAB doesn’t duplicate tracks the way DAWs do. But, BIAB supports exact duplication and regenerated variation via the RealTracks Medley Maker, as well as through factory Styles and multi-instrument RealTracks in the RealTracks Picker. The real opportunity isn’t missing functionality, but improving discoverability and DAW-style access to BIAB’s existing generation-level duplication tools that's requested in the Wish list forum.

To recap. BIAB duplicates and varies RealTracks at the generation level, not by copying existing audio (although it can do this). This allows BIAB to create musically identical or varied performances in a single render. Results that DAWs only achieve through exporting multiple tracks and doing extensive post-editing.

Users can see a PGM created Multi-Simultaneous RealTrack used in a User Showcase original song post, "Money in the Bottle" by BabuMusic which uses RT-4395 added as an additional instrument to the Style.

Attached Files (Click to download or enlarge) (Only available when you are logged in)
Medley Maker.jpg (48.08 KB, 7 downloads)
Multi RealTracks.jpg (166.6 KB, 7 downloads)
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