Aleck Rand, village techno-idiot here with greetings to all.

I'll try to state my question in the plainest language I can understand.

How can you get RealBand to play the MIDI sounds built in to an external hardware synth and have these sounds incorporated into an RB audio track? My question implies that going-outside-the-software recording with an amp and a mike is the last resort.

I know the basics of plug-ins and see them as the only way to trigger MIDI sounds using a simple keyboard controller that has no sounds of its own. You're limited to whatever sounds the chosen plug-in, e.g., Coyote WT, can produce. But what if you have a KORG with great sounds? How do you these into RB?

DUH,

Aleck

With an external synth you can just send the MIDI to the Korg and hear it during playback, while working on the song.

However, if you want a mixdown using these sounds you will eventually have to record them to an audio track.
You can record each track separately, or combine them into one stereo track, but in order for the 'Merge ..' function to work with an external synth, the tracks will have to be recorded as audio.

There is no way to 'Render' tracks from an external synth other than recording the audio.
This is true for all DAWS in general.

So send the MIDI out of RB to the Korg, and connect an audio cable from the Korg to RB and record these tracks directly from the Korg as audio tracks.
No amp/mic needed, just an audio connection from the Korg audio out to the computer.

This should be posted in the Realband forum, not Tips and Tricks forum.

short version:

1) RB's MIDI output goes to the KORG's MIDI IN

2) Korg's audio out gets patched back to your audio interface

3) Use that audio input to record the KORG in realtime, just as you would record your guitar playing in real time

4) repeat with other tracks, same way

Thanks Pat and RHarv,

Now that you've explained it, it should have seemed obvious to me. But it wasn't and I thank both of you for the guidance.

Aleck

Real band is a full featured DAW so it should be totally possible to use an external (not in Real Band) VST to play the midi parts...

However, having said that... I use Sonar.

Everything ends up in Sonar. I use BB to create and write.... I use RB to render the BB tracks to the RB tracks and into audio. I export the RB tracks into Sonar. Since I know the BPM, I set Sonar to that and then if I need to record additional audio tracks or use a VST triggered from a midi track, it is a simple process to use any of the number of VST synths I have in my DAW computer in Sonar to create that track.

I have never liked the DAW in RB since when I got RB I had already been familiar with Sonar fro many years and was used to working in it.

Aleck,

it may be worth mentioning that many of us have gravitated away from hardware synths because:

1) some of the newer ones have better sounds than most hardware synths

2) when using soft synths you can generate the track directly to audio without the hassle of having to patch the synth output back to the interface for real time recording.

3) and you can use multiple soft synths, which makes it easy to use the best horns, the best keyboards, the best whatever (as opposed to being locked in to using whatever is on your hardware device)

.. or a mix of hardware/software synths
.. and multiple hardware synths are available too
It's all good. Use whatever fits best.

Thanks Pat and RHarv -

To both I ask: Which DAW do you do your final production in? I've noticed that RB does not recognize everything called a "plug-in" as valid. Are there DAWs that can use any and all plug-ins?

I was in a music store the other day and saw something called a Trillian Bass module. It cost at least as much as a decent bass made out of wood. Is that a plug-in that could work in RB?

Uh boy, I know I'm just adding to my rep as techno-idiot but what the hell. I'll be satisfied to learn half of what you guys know.

Aleck

Trilian is a great bass module and includes all kinds of great electric basses as well as acoustic basses and synth bass sounds. The DAW I use is Reaper which can load pretty well any plugin. i think it is a brilliant program and you can try it free of charge for 60 days and if you decide to purchase it is very competitively priced. You can download an excellent user manual and the forum is a very friendly and helpful place just like PG Forums. Reaper is available to download from www.cockos.com

As far as I am concerned Reaper is one of those must-have programs which you appreciate more and more as you delve into it. Like all great software though there is a learning curve as you can do so much with it. The person that wrote the excellent Reaper manual has also published other books based around Reaper ranging from beginner to advanced level.

you can use any DAW, but a 32 bit DAW can't use as much RAM as a 64 bit DAW... and many plugins and soft synths used at the same time can really consume RAM in a hurry. So, at present I use 32 bit RB if the project is not a resource hog, and 64 bit Sonar if it is.


I'm not familiar with Trillian so ....



Aleck, I think its safe to say that's not the rep you have around here! It would be more along the lines of the alphabetized adjectives you directed at Guenter.