The real tracks are...real.
The audiophile files are still better...
but
when I listen to the on-line demoes made by PGmusic they sound even more real
than my songs.
Even the song demoes in Band-in-a-box do not sound as good as the demo on line.
EQ, compression???
It would be interesting to know how they are made!
I would bet they use Real Band ! You can try some online mastering sites to learn how to EQ and compression .
http://musicmastering.org/ http://www.mikfielding.com/EQ_Instruments.shtml
Not so.
To the best of my knowledge, the Band in a Box demos that pgmusic creates are made using Band in a Box and Band in a Box only.
My Band in a Box songs sound as good as theirs do.
I don't do a lot of tweaking and mixing to them.
what I *have* done is to normalize the gain staging of my soundcard, though.
Most consumer soundcards, when using Band in a Box, work best when both the Playback and the Record software mixers are *turned up all the way* - including any Master faders there if it has them. This is the problem most people encounter when their renderings are not so full sounding. There is also the BiaB "normalization" feature that can be taken advantage of if you still don't have enough wave amplitude.
--Mac
I say you need to leave headroom in your recordings ,because when master you use EQ and compression they increase the volume and you'll end up with waves that have squared off tops they don't sound as good. Try to keep the peeks is the best advice I ever had from pro studio's I make tracks for .
I don`t think they do much on their demos. They sound as normal (good) as my files. Maybe thesongs are just better arranged than yours (NOI).
Sandra
I remember it as Mac and Sandra do: Peter Gannon has said periodically that they just record 'straight'.
However, we don't know what they currently use for MIDI sounds. It used to be the Edirol SD-20, which they even sold on this website. I suspect that may not be the case now, and it would be interesting to know what hardware or software synth they use. With the increasing use of RealTracks, though, it makes less difference now than it used to.
We make a typical demo in about 10 minutes, entirely within Band-in-a-Box.
Type in a chord progression typical to the genre. Keep it simple, since there is no melody, a "normal" chord progression sounds best.
Render the song to wma or mp4 by dragging to the drop box at top left of screen.
We use the Coyote gm wavetable for midi rendering these days, since it comes with BB, and works on all versions of Windows.
I'm no expert but my reading of your message and Mac's are that the points you each make are not mutually exclusive. Mac is saying get the full qualitative output from the generating device to not lose any content robustness and you are saying don't record at too high a volume to avoid clipping, leave needed headroom for down the stream, etc. Or am I missing something?
Let me try to make my point with a little more clarity.
I used the term, "most consumer sound devices" - work well with BiaB when the *software* mixer applet faders for both Playback and Record Properties are turned all the way up.
Of course, if you try that and your particular sound device causes clipping, then revisit the applet and turn faders down a little and try again. Most of the time, you won't get any clipping though.
Understanding GAIN STAGING is important here.
For example, you could Render or Record a set of tracks that is low in amplitude such that at playback someone must reach for the Volume control and turn it up in order to have it sound equal in amplitude to other recordings they have been playing back. *But that won't have the same sound* as the identical recording that is printed hotter. It will sound rather, well, "thinner".
On the opposite end of that scale, you might record or render it too hot, in which case it will sound "blasty" or even "clipped" in some cases, even though you turn your Playback Volume down, it cannot change that because that sound is what is printed in the file.
Fortunately for us, we can usually easily normalize the sound device's input and outputs as I described. What you are after is simple enough, and that is "what goes in is what comes out" Amplitude-wise. In technical terms, your system should play back a 0dBFS sinewave from a pre-recorded test disk at exactly 0dBFS. Likewise then, it should play back a -12dBFS sinewave at -12dBFS as well.
I have found out empirically that most consumer sound devices will do this when the software faders are turned all the way up, inclusive of any Master software faders.
Once I do that, I no longer use the Software Mixer Faders for volume control when listening. I rely on my mixer or the amplitude knob on the monitor amp for that purpose. This leaves the Line being driven hard enough that at any chosen volume level, things will sound as they should. No, I'm not a fan of the software faders in those sound card software applets, not when it is consumer gear anyway. Prosumer and full Pro gear often works differently, though. It is still different for each brand and model of them, though, so then it becomes necessary to use an Audio Test Disk to find out where the levels should be set for a normalized gain staging in your system.
But, if at any time what you do makes audio clipping, then you must turn something down, of course. The important part there is to identify *which stage* is causing that clipping so that you turn down the amplitude at the proper point in the signal chain. Otherwise you might end up with clipping that is just a bit lower in volume if you turn down the wrong fader at the wrong point in the chain.
--Mac