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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 326
Journeyman
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OP
Journeyman
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 326 |
Would someone be kind enough to give explicit instruction on how to shrink the RealTracks. I don't want to do anything wrong and resort to re-installing because of any misguided error I may make. Many Thanks.  PS ....... The new 2011 is just WOW!!!!!
Mal
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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1) First make sure that you have all your Realtraks BACKED UP somewhere, like on another drive. Always back up data. You may desire to RESTORE it at some future point.
2) Inside BiaB, open the Realtracks panel by clicking on the toolbar icon, the sax with the wav graphic on it.
3) in the Realtracks control panel window will be a button, Erase +/- files. Push it. Wait.
--Mac
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 326
Journeyman
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OP
Journeyman
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 326 |
Mal
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 326
Journeyman
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OP
Journeyman
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 326 |
........... That's a hefty backup. 110 Gigs.
:-)
Mal
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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110 gigs, these days, with the low cost of external USB drives, is nothing.
Everybody in this game should have at least one large archival hard drive.
Half a terabyte is now old gear. 1.5 terabyte drives are likely the current offerings, with larger just around the corner. Price per megabyte is getting ever lower.
If you are into the music making with computer, you NEED these just to archive your own work as well.
--Mac
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 326
Journeyman
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OP
Journeyman
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 326 |
Yes ..... I have 4 external terrabyte drives, 4 internal terrabyte drives.
Thing is, usb 2 backups are slow and I'm impatient to play with this new version.
:-)
Vsti's take up gargantuan space, so does song recording, specially if mixing at 96 kHz.
:-)
Mal
Mal
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jul 2007
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Expert
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Expert
Joined: Jul 2007
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Do we really neede to shrink Realtracks? I mean I dont know the technology,
a] is it lossy?
b] For the older real tracks (those before this update, can we just leave them alone?
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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That's why you save them. At least go with the flow. I think everything sounds better, and it works faster, and it takes up way less size. Band in a Box 2011 includes the new engine, and the new Realtracks. Some of those are in sets. You can choose all new ones, double time them, stretch them, and decide before pressing the button. And you can restore. Not that difficult if you don't believe Mac who said he was a beta tester. He didn't say for what. Might be MS-Dos 1.1.
John Conley
Musica est vita
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Quote:
Do we really neede to shrink Realtracks? I mean I fdont know the technology,
a] is it lossy?
b] For the older real tracks (those before this update, can we just leave them alone?
My understanding is, A) - No. Compression (hence, 'lossy') has no role here. The utility that "shrinks" existing RealTracks does not change any one file; it eliminates some of them that are now redundant because of the improved stretching algorithm. This means that some now-unneeded files are simply deleted. That's where the "shrinkage" of the total size of all RealTracks comes from.
HOWEVER - if you have an older slow machine, particularly an older laptop, you may want to keep the complete set of files. They may work better. Hence, the cautions about keeping backups if you decide to restore the files.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 326
Journeyman
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OP
Journeyman
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Posts: 326 |
Now I am confused.
Before I press 'the button', what is happening? Am I deleting some of my RealTracks?
What is this 'stretching algorithm'?
I am familiar with most audio formats and how compression works.
:-)
Mal
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: May 2007
Posts: 1,616
Expert
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Expert
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You're not deleting any RealTracks. The 'button' deletes files that are not needed with the new stretching engine. The 'old' RealTracks had several files that were used to transpose the instrument into other keys. These are the +/- files that is referred to. There is an option in the RT settings that enables the use of these +/- files. If it is not checked, the new engine is being used. If your computer is slow, the option to use the +/- files is there. My understanding is that using the new engine is a bit slower than the +/- route. If you look in a RT folder, you'll see the +/- files. As stated, make sure you have a copy of your RTs before deleting the +/- files. Here is a post I made yesterday with more info. http://www.pgmusic.com/forums/showflat.p...true#Post297218
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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I may be able to explain it. The stretch engine in the old version was not fast enough nor of high quality to do the stretch on the fly. Those +/- files were not separate recordings they were the original that had been statically stretched.So now what you are hearing is a far superior stretch tool doing it on the fly and at better quality instead of the program grabbing pre-stretched files.
Follow the logic.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 326
Journeyman
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OP
Journeyman
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Posts: 326 |
Yes ........ I understand all of that.
Thank You all.
Mal :-)
Mal
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 44
Enthusiast
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Enthusiast
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So the new engine only uses one of the realtracks as the "master" track? The other, stretched ones are not used at all, which means you can remove them and thus reclaim some disk space.
/pete
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Yes, you are in reality deleting some of your realtracks. Only because you don't need them anymore.
This is why the suggestion to 'back them up' keeps coming up. You will likely never need them again; but if you are worried about it or if something goes wrong, it would take a while to download and start over. So back them up and reduce them afterwards. Always good to have a backup anyway.
That said, my 100 gig of realtreacks is now 30+ gig. That' a lot of savings.
If I wanted to go back and use them on a system that has BiaB2009 I would be in trouble (since it doesn't have the intelligence to use the new format). So I would need the backups.
For use on an an every day basis it is a great feature.
I don't plan on going back to 2009, but backing them up gives me that option.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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I need help please.
Ok, I just dl'd the new 2011 BB/RB but have not yet dl'd any new RT's. I have been running 2010 on my c drive but I have BB/RB 2010 with all my existing RT's also backed up on the usb drive they came on.
So I could go ahead and shrink my existing real tracks and see if my old computer can handle the new way right? I'm still using my Compaq Presario AMD Athlon 64 3800+ 2.41 ghz running XP sp 3.
My other question is how do I know how much cpu it's using - where do I look?
Thanks ya'll.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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CPU usage CTL ALT DEL at the same time and watch or check the thing while pressing play after loading an all Realtracks style.
John Conley
Musica est vita
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Josie, Peter Gannon specifically advised that users of older laptops running under Windows XP may not want to erase those +/- files. However, yes, since you have backed them up, you could try it and see if it worked. I would first take a very careful look at the files and make sure you will be able to recognize what got deleted and what therefore would need to be put back.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Matt,
It's a tower not a laptop - does that make any difference?
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