Hi everyone,

Before I start off with my problem, I'm using a HP pavilion notebook, windows VISTA and the 2 audio drivers listed are "IDT High Definition Audio CODEC" & "NVIDIA HDMI Audio". Instead of using my notebook speakers, I've connected one of the headphone jacks into Logitech speakers (with bass woofer and all) . I've been using GuitarPro5 to compose music (the file formats are .gp3, .gp4 or .gp5) but got sick of the articial sound which hinders me from being innovative. So I was looking for a music software that could create "real-sound" or "real sound samples" which sound good then I decided to try BIAB & RealBand. BIAB was a real disappointment for me because not only was it alot harder to use as compared to GuitarPro5, it sounded EXACTLY the same. However, I was listening to 2 of the ONLY playable samples in RealBand (demosng1 and rock) and it sounded reasonably good. Since GuitarPro5 has the feature of exporting those .gp files into midi files which can be directly played by Windows Media Player, I thought of composing songs in GuitarPro5, exporting it into a midi file and then saving it as a real track in RealBand.

I'm a real newbie/idiot when it comes to computer sound devices so I can only understand very elaborate terms. When I opened mp3 files in RB, it played fine but when I opened midi files, it was silenced. Took me so long to get the output driver thing set-up properly that I almost smashed my notebook into pieces! And when I finally got the sound going, this pop-up "Couldn't open the wave device" appears whenever I click PLAY, and then it sounds EXACTLY like GP5 and BIAB!

I'm really on the verge of giving up and uninstalling this program but I already bought it. If any of you can suggest a fix for this problem, I would REALLY appreciate that. Also, IF this program does work, would there be a way to export the file into a wma or mp3 file to be played by Windows Media Player? I'm craving for some good quality sound and karaoke tracks!

One more problem, whenever I exit RealBand, this pop up from windows saying "RealBand has stopped working, windows is searching for a solution.........." appears. Though it doesn't affect me in any way, it gets me a little paranoid.

I apologise for making my issue such a long one. Please HELP me if you can! Thank you soooooooooooooo much!

The sound you get from BIAB or Real Band when you play *.mid files or midi like files is going to be dependent on your sound card. If the sound card is crap the sound will be crap. The exceptions to this of course is if you use Real Drums and Real Tracks within these programs.
Now the scolding!
Read, read and re-read the manuals that are included in the BB & RB folders as PDF files. I can tell you haven't. Both programs are extremely complex. Read this stuff and then we can better help you as you progress but you've got to get the basics under your belt first.

As I was reading your post, it occurred to me that User Account Control in Vista might be interfering with RB. You can disable UAC. When I installed it on Vista, because I wanted to keep UAC working, I installed BIAB and RB by right-clicking on the installation file and then selecting "Run as Administrator".

Vista seems to have made life difficult for a few people in these forums. Seems to work fine for me, though.

Regards,
Noel

P.S. As Silvertones indicates, BIAB and RB are really worth persevering with. RealTracks are brilliant If you want to have a listen to one of my songs which is entirely BIAB/RB (no live playing at all) just to give you a very tiny idea as to what is possible, have a listen to

http://www.songu.com/yearbooknew/songinfo.aspx?ID=706&LockerID=21596

Silvertones is right. Learn to use the programme - it will deliver all you want and then some

Good luck :-)

Hey thanks alot for the replies. Okay, silvertones, I will take your advice.

Hey Noel96, I'm not sure if I get what you meant by how the UAC interfers with RB. By the way, I'm the only user for my computer so I'm pretty sure it recognises me as the administrator of this computer.


Thanks!

1. As has been pointed out, there is a learning curve, and it will take some tweaking to get RB performing at its best. All the advice given here is sound and based on experience. The effort you put into getting RB to work will be totally worth it.


2. This thread really belongs in the "Real Band" forum. You will get a lot of useful and practical advice if you move it over there.

Flatfoot is right about his second point (and his first for that matter) - you would get more response if you posted this in the RB forum