An RB Newbie question.
Ive had RB for as long as I've had BB (years!!) and I'm finally going to try and use it as a DAW.
However, I fell jumping over the first fence. I have an arrangement which is on 2 BB SGUs. All the tracks will ultimately run together but there are are chord and timing variations between the 2.
If I open one SGU in RB it loads fine but it wont accept my second one. It looks like i have to make those tracks wave files and import one by one. Which is a bummer cos I'll lose the ability to re-gen those tracks.
Is there a workaround please?
Ian

Hi Sixchannel,

being an RB newbie myself I'm not quite sure wether I should dare to post my first suggstion, but I'd love to help others for a change...

If I get you right, it depends on whaf your BIAB files consist of: If they're RealTracks, they're already audio wave files and you can't really change them anyway.

If they're not, you might export your BIAB files to single MIDI tracks which can then be imported one by one into RB where you still can edit them.

Hope I didn't misundersfand your issue.

Crossroads

PS: I love your 'old guys rule' (especially because I daily experience it to be true...)

I have checked the following, and added a .mgu to the end of an existing .sgu by using the File > Import command. As my two files were different songs I was advised that I had to accept one set of Chord symbols only. The data did contain Realdrums.


Have a go.

LynB

HI
Yes - the SGUs tracks are ALL RTs (which are wma's). Within RB though I can re-gen just a section of those RTs for example where a section isnt quite what I wanted and it can re-gen that part over and over until I hit a bit I like.
Lyn - thats where the problem lies. I hadnt thought it through. Although the SGUs are for the same song, the other SGU has some different tracks and more importantly some chord changes. Sounds odd but they WILL work together once combined. RB cant cope with two sets of chord instructions.
I think my Workaround will be to run "SGU1" with all the tracks that I am NOT happy with and D&D to RB. Then I can mess with the tracks in RB. "SGU2" I will be the Frozen tracks that I am happy with and do not need to be re-genned and import those as wav tracks into RB.
Regards and thanks for the info
IAn

Export all tracks to wav files, load the second sgu, then import the wav files onto the next section of empty tracks one at a time. Not LOAD, Not OPEN, but IMPORT.

Well if you know the names of the realtracks, and intend to re-generate them anywyays, why don't you just repick them and re-generate them from within RB?

Musiclover

That's what I thought too ^
Also,
In RB you can easily change the chord chart to generate certain tracks or section of tracks without affecting others.

So basically you are saying that provided the tracks that are good in SGU1 have been Frozen, I then can add the new RTs I want and change the chords / timing within RB, re-gen them (ad nauseum probably!) and it wont affect the original tracks at all?
Ian

Yes! That's one of the biggest abilities of RB that nobody seems to get.

RB does NOT regen all tracks like Biab does unless you treat RB like it is Biab and why would you do that? You already have Biab if that's what you want.

RB is a DAW. Each track stands on it's own. Each track can have it's own chord grid if you want including drums. You can create several different drum tracks for example using different styles and different part markers in the chord grid. What does that do? Gives you control over placement of different drum fills that are taken from different RD sets. Then you can either use the nodes to automate volume on the different tracks for mixing or cut and paste sections of different tracks to make one good one.

It amazes me how many folks on this forum simply have no idea about any of this. They think RB is just another version of Biab and therefore use it like another version of Biab.

The confusing part is it can used like Biab if that's what the user wants but it certainly doesn't HAVE TO act like Biab. That's under your control. Part of it is when someone opens up a Biab file in RB and that makes the first bunch of tracks blue Biab tracks. The first thing you want to do in that case is check the box that says "Make all Biab tracks regular tracks" and then DO NOT check the box that says "Regenerate all tracks".

Now you've taken RB back to it's DAW roots. Remember a DAW is designed to replicate what happens in a studio. Everything goes on it's own track and is handled individually. Think of it. What does recording a new part in the studio have to do with changing other tracks that have already been laid down? Absolutely nothing.

Bob

Ian,
You can not only do that, but you can highlight a section of one track, and generate/regen as many times as you like, and better yet is a feature called Multiriff where you can generate 8 variation of the same section at once to pick through (as long as you have 8 blank tracks of the 48 available) ..
or highlight a section for all tracks, change the chords and generate just that section on all tracks.
There is a ton more flexibility in RB.

As Jazzmammal mentioned, I also change the BB tracks to regular tracks right away for more control.
Then (important) Save As a seq file format, so you don't lose your work. If you click Save it'll save it as a BB file (if you opened a BB file). So make sure to save as a SEQ file and RB will take it from there.

BEST ANSWER award goes to Musiclover!

Yes, just go into one of them.... get the real track, track numbers, write them down.... close that SGU and open the next one.... go to the unused audio tracks and select GENERATE REAL TRACK and enter that track number. DO that for all the tracks.

Use a SAVE AS function after you add the last one and use a different name for this new project.

That will eliminate the that you mentioned as well as seamlessly blending the 2 different SGU files into one.

All problems you mentioned are solved with this solution.

Thanks for the tips Bob.

If anyone is having as much trouble as I did finding this menu option (on Windows 2015 anyway) it is under "Edit->Track->Make All BB tracks regular tracks" it isn't a checkbox.

As far as the Generate All option your would have to select it from the Generate menu. There isn't a checkbox.

Cheers,
Tim

Can explain how this is done? Is there a video explaining this? I would love to know how to do this! (each track having it's own chord grid)

>>>"Can explain how this is done? Is there a video explaining this? I would love to know how to do this! (each track having it's own chord grid)"<<<

Simple Explanation:

Open first sgu file in RB
Save file as RB seq
Generate RB tracks with instruments you want to follow the sgu 1 chord chart.

Open your second sgu file in BB so you can note the differences between sgu 1 chords and sgu 2 chord chart. (This is for reference, changes are made in RB)

In the chord chart of RB, make the changes in the chord chart so the RB chord chart matches the chord chart of sgu 2.

Select and generate the Realtracks that you want to respond to the sgu 2 chord chart. Do not use the generate all function, because it will of course Generate All which will alter the audio files that were previously generated to the sgu 1 chord chart. To avoid this, select and generate these either one at a time or you can also select multiple tracks (which would be the instruments you want to follow the sgu2 chord chart.)

You can easily continue to build as many tracks as you want by repeating the above process.

Your RB song now has some tracks that follow the sgu 1 chords and additional tracks that follow squ 2 chords.

It's not as hard as it appears and an easy and simple way to practice before you are working on a actual project is to write a simple chord chart in a new RB project. Select and generate a track that follows that first chord chart. Once that track has generated, make any change you want to the chord chart, select and generate a second audio/midi track and it will generate a track that follows the changes you made. Doing this will let you see exactly how RB responds to your changes.

All that to say that in RB create or import a chord chart, generate the tracks that will follow that particular chord chart.

After generating the tracks, make whatever changes or additions you want to the chord chart.

Select and generate new instruments that follow the altered chord chart. Each track now has its own chord grid.