Re Peter Gannon’s posting “Here’s a no-brainer ....install Cakewalk and the TTS-1 64 bit (free)”

I have a two questions:

1) I run BB from the hard drive it came on. Peter advises that Cakewalk should be installed inside Band-in-a-Box 64, which in my case would on the BB hard drive. However, the downloaded version of Cakewalk installs itself on my C-drive, without offering an option to install it somewhere else. Is there a solution for this?

2) Presently I am using a Roland SD-50 to produce my non-MIDI sounds, with which I am quite happy, but I would indeed prefer “Great sound with Band-in-a-Box - likely better than any MIDI sound you’ve heard before with Band-in-a-Box” for my non MIDI-sounds. Could TTS-1 work alongside my SD-50?

Hope to hear from you soon.

Tonnie van der Heide
Bergen, Norway

You have this a bit confused. There are no restrictions as to where you install Cakewalk. All you are after is the location where Cakewalk puts the TTS plugin. Then you simply tell BIAB where it is. Thats all.



Not sure what you mean by "non-midi" sounds? But I do believe you can have two different midi players at the same time. So, very good chance you can use both the TTS-1 and SD-50, on different channels of course, at the same time.

Thanks for your answer!

By "non-midi" sounds, I mean Real Sounds (prerecorded Real Instruments).

Tonnie

Ok, I think this thread means, how do I get better sounds for MIDI than the Roland SD-50. The SD-50 is pretty good. I’ve used all the Roland MIDI synths.

The TTS synth from Cakewalk is a General MIDI synth. It’s basically free and it sounds ok. Im not sure it qualifies as ‘great’. Twenty years ago, I might have said it’s great. A non-GM synth would be better, but you can pay thousands. So is your question how to get better sounds for free? If not free, what’s your budget? What genre do you play, and what instruments are most important to you?

Finally, it’s not possible in BIAB (to my knowledge) to mix MIDI output devices. You need a DAW for that. I don’t use RealBand but I would expect it would work.

The TTS Synth sounds OK. It is fine for a quick listen. I would not use it in production of music for others to listen to. It is not of that quality.

IMHO that is true of all GM sound sources.

If I remember the context of Dr. Gannon's suggestion, it was that there is a free GM MIDI synth, and it's not bad if you don't have anything to play your MIDI. This is what I think, although I may be remembering it wrong.

Tonnie, if you want advice about great MIDI sound, state your needs and your budget, and you'll get some excellent advice here.

Mat,

Thanks!

I prefer the best possible sound for my MIDI sounds!!!!! The budget is not important, but at the technical side, I prefer to keep things as simple as possible, so I can concentrate on making music and arranging.

Is use REAL sounds, whenever possible and am happy with the sound quality it produces, However using MIDI for the melody (and my own created background), I find that only the flute and vibraphone come close to sounding OK. Most other instruments sound like "toys". So any suggestion will be most welcome!

Tonnie

I agree that RTs sound great IF they match what you are doing but for total control you need MIDI sound sources. Your "Most other instruments sound like "toys"" statement is IMHO true for all GM sound sources. GM is good in BiaB for scratching out backing tracks but for polished work you need better MIDI sounds.

I would suggest that you work with Kontakt or SampleTank. I use Kontakt because it has a ton of native and third party sound presets. Other can chime in on SampleTank.

I suggest you get the free Kontakt Player first. Play with it to see if it fits your workflow. Just remember that if you purchase other presets BE SURE they say they work in Kontakt Player as some will only work in the full Kontakt. If you like the Player you can then purchase the full version IF you want more sounds and control over those sounds. Many people only use the Player. I use the full version.

Also google/Bing (an instrument of your choice) VSTi. There are many VSTis that don't need a player and some are very inexpensive and/or free. You may find sounds that you want there; I have a number of them that I use.

If you have heard any of my songs on the Showcase forum you will hear many of them as I mostly work in MIDI. Note that I do my chord work in BiaB then immediately after that move everything to my DAW Studio Pro One 5 as I find working in a DAW is much easier then working in BiaB. I had the same workflow when I was using Cakewalk then Sonar.

I hope this helps and if you have any questions feel free to ask.

PS - If you like Kontakt and want the full version wait for a sale. They usually have at least one a year. You can usually purchase Kontakt for about half price.

Tonnie, I defer to Mario here. I use a hardware MIDI synth, the Roland Integra-7, because I'm a composer and I don't produce radio-quality material, just good composer demos. I prefer the speed and convenience of a hardware device (except that you can't render at less than real time). But if I needed to go to 'the best possible' I would do what Mario is recommending and open up my checkbook. Note that Mario normally only uses MIDI, not RealTracks. He is also a fine musician. We've even met. I would follow his advice.

Contradictory statements but you are on the right track

I agree completely.

Mario,

Thanks for your reply.

I did a background check on you, so that is why it took some time to react.

My normal use of BB is:
1) accompanying me, while playing my guitar (mostly jazz and some latin)
2) reharmonizing songs
3) creating my own arrangements to play to.

This means that I prefer BB, as it will vary the bass line, drums and piano comping etc. somewhat for each chorus, like a real jazz group would do.

Question 1: will I still be able to play Real sounds, while using Kontakt Player for backgrounds and (counter) melodies, that I have created in BB?

Question 2: once a song is set up for using the sounds from Kontakt Player, can I still just press play, or is there a setup necessary for each "playback"?

I see from Kontakts Specifications page, that I might need a new laptop (4 GB RAM, or 6 GB recommended for large KONTAKT Instruments).

Hope to hear from you.

Tonnie

I use my DAW, Studio One Pro 5, for all of my work, I only use BiaB to scratch out my chord progressions and to pick a style(s). Using a DAW will give you many options not available in BiaB, like more tracks to work with; more on that in a moment. RealBand is a DAW but it is only a 32 bit DAW and Kontakt may have problems with it, don't know for sure. Cakewalk is a free 64 bit professional DAW and many here use it.




Yes. Here is where using a DAW has advantages. You would generate a song in BiaB then transfer the song to the DAW via drag and drop or the VSTi. You would add Kontakt to the DAW on a different track(s). Note that you can have as many Kontakt tracks and BiaB tracks as you like or need; this is a great way to add percussion parts like shakers, congas, bongos, etc. Plus now you can go back to BiaB and either regenerate the song for more variations or change the style. Again transfer either everything or just selected tracks to your DAW. Thus you could end up with say 10 or more Realtracks, drums, percussion, and any number of other tracks. Plus each track is independent of other tracks so you could have say a sax play for 8 bars, then a trumpet for 8 bars by changing the volume of each track. And you can have different effects on each track. The options are endless.




I believe in BiaB you just press play and the Kontakt tracks should play along with the BiaB tracks. That is you should not have to set up the Kontakt tracks for each play.



BiaB is a great product but I believe one needs a DAW if they need or want more then the limited number of tracks BiaB has available. Others may not agree and have other workarounds but me I like to go the easy route and a DAW works for me. YMMV