Hi!

In BiaB you can enable multiple instances of the program to run parallel. Isn't that possible in RealBand, too? I couldn't find anything in the preferences.

No, that's not possible.

Thanks fo letting me know, Simon!
Would be a huge time-saver for me, so I'll post it in the Wishlist forum.

What are you trying to do?
You can Import one song into another in RB, so if you just need to run two versions of the same song, that route might be a workaround.

I've done that before; import one SEQ file into another (then use Save As to keep the originals)

rharv,

yeah, I copy parts of midis into other midis ... many of them, and at repeating occasions ...

Therefore: thanks for this idea! This will - in comparison to a simple copy&paste - probably come with some limitations (which parts of which tracks to insert where exactly, and such), but it might be a considerable workaround for now. I'll definately try that out!

Once you have everything inside of RB you can still slice/dice whatever tracks you want and put them wherever you want. Not really any limitations, just an extra step ..

rharv,

I've thought that this might be an even better procedure than working with two instances - but so far, I struggle with that.
The reason will most probably be that I'm not familiar enough with RealBand yet.

What I currently try to do, step by step:
1. I open Midi A in RealBand (it has 3 tracks)
2. I import Midi B (it also has 3 tracks, so now there are 6 tracks)
3. I switch to tile view
4. I highlight and then copy the needed tiles of the 3 imported tracks
5. I mark a target-place in the tracks of the original Midi A
6. I press CTRL+V to paste the copied tiles.

Well, the result is that BiaB pastes the tiles into the imported tracks instead of pasting them into the upper 3 original tracks.

Looks like I have to gain more real basic knowledge first about the Copy&Paste procedures in RealBand.

if the tracks use the same instruments can you just merge the tracks? i think the command is under the edit menu

Hey Bob, wouldn't that overlap the notes of both tracks? I want the contents of both tracks in the resulting (merged) track one after the other with a 1-bar gap between both of them.

I think to achieve that I'd have to first shift the content of the second track by Cut&Paste within that second track, and then to merge both tracks. So finally that all would probably be even more uncomfortable than the save-open-copy-close-open-paste process that I use currently. - However, I'll try it out.

I think the problem is trying to do all three tracks at once.
When you use CTRL+V with multiple tracks the Paste window says 'Paste (to original tracks)' in the title.

If you do one track at a time it should allow you to select the destination track.

MTGroove.
i'm haveing trouble understanding why you need to work in this fashion, aggregating midi.
so could you go back to the beginning why ?
what is your situation.

normally when i do a song from scratch, my workflow is..
in brief...
1. create chotd sheet.
2. go through zillions of styles
noting down which rt's//rd's//midis work best.
ie instrument id's.
3. in rb right cliking over blank traks and generating
audio and midis useing the instrument id's i noted down and running sound picture tests ...sorta idea.
useing plug in vsti on midi traks etc etc.

thus i never get into midi aggregation.

so please explain why the aggregation, cos might be alternatives.

best
om

rharv,

then it would also be even more uncomfortable than my initial process.

oldmuso,

I have thousands of midi files, each with one riff/lick only. When I practice one of these riffs and then want to go to the next, I have to close the current file, reopen the next file and then play that next riff.
But it turned out, that I don't like to do that all the time, so I very often stop practicing after a few minutes. Also, I want to loop two consecutive riffs, either for comparising reasons or for "drill" reasons.

Some examples:
The same montuno in 3-2 clave (= Riff from Midi A) and in 2-3 clave (= Riff from Midi B) and again in 3-2 clave and so on; I only can loop both seemlessly if they are in the same midi.
Or: I want to practice the same blues bassline in all 12 keys (all obtained in seperate midis)

So I merge those files, sometimes by key, other times by other criteria, whatever I find useful for specific riffs. This makes a huge difference for how quick I progress in a practicing session.

MTGroove.
much as i love realband, i feel , from what youve described, and obviously i dont know all you want to do;
and given the midi file volume you have;
i would suggest you look at reaper that i also use.
(www.reaper.fm) because i find i can work very rapidly that way with reaps.
ie lots of midi clips/files...i feel you could save time.
just download the reaps demo. and run tests importing midi along timeline and lots of different traks etc.
its very easy to grab midi clips with the mouse n rapidly move around etc. i also feel reaps would handle such a big volume...run tests n see if it meets your needs.

best
om

muso,

yeah, that sounds reasonable. I've already though about that, so I'll follow your suggestion.

Is running multiple instances of BIAB officially supported, or just not prevented? I've known applications over the years where the advice was, yeah, you can do it, but you really shouldn't since it wasn't designed that way.

Disclaimer: I use the Mac version, which doesn't allow it.

The Windows version of BIAB officially supports multiple instances - there's a preference setting to enable that even.

The 2021 Mac version does in a way - there's a preference setting for it there, but due to how macOS apps work you actually need to duplicate the Band-in-a-Box app to be able to run two instances at a time. Before the 2021 version it is not supported.

So you're officially supporting a crude hack to allow Mac users to do something MacOS normally disallows, to be more like Windows.

Eek, a mouse.

Whatever is accomplished in this way should be doable with multiple windows under the same application. You don't need two copies of Safari to browse two websites at once. Does APPLE even support this?

It is possible, just use Sandboxie
https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=582669
https://github.com/sandboxie-plus/Sandboxie/releases/tag/0.9.8