Hi,

I wanted to try Giancarlo Griscenko @TheGuitarBand BIAB cover songs at $79.00 dollars.

They are not fantastic but with a moderate amount of work they can be re combobulated in BB and other programs to make pretty good backing tracks for live performances.Not many people speak English here where I live so if I screw up the words no one will notice...lol

It is also teaching me more about how to use BIAB so be prepared for more novice questions...lol

Along with the songs are the lyrics which when I learn to put it all together will play out with the chord changes...I think. They will play out in BIAB and also they are MP3 files.

Does anyone else you this stuff?

Billy

If you are not familiar with the website Billy is referring to, it is +++ The Guitar Band dot Com +++.

Also of note, while the bundle of every song file on the site requires payment, you are welcome to download as many of the single song files as you want.

Hi Jim,

I got the idea from one of your posts.

I don't have it all figured out yet and I expected there would be .sgu files but I have all the windows media files and the mp3's

A screenshot.



The whole Google drive thing was new to me. I had the software to deal with. rad files.

Still on a bit of a learning curve.

Billy

Hi Billy

My site Playiit now has 50 BIAB SGU files (with lyrics) for download.

Here is a list https://www.playiit.com/list-of-sgu-files/

I am adding new SGU files (nearly) every day. You can join Playiit for a 30-day free trial (no credit card required) and download them all. You can join here www.playiit.com/free-trial

Thanks, Joanne, I will go check it out.

For the last ten years or so I have been focused on running around in my boat in the ocean. I have been going to the Bahamas and spending all my time and money chasing fish.

I got too old and slow to fly airplanes so the boat became my main source of enjoyment.

Now old age and health issues are making the boat less fun so I guess I am returning to my childhood and love for music.

I have this crazy idea about finding some lovely vocalists and playing live music in public once again. The pandemic still has me very concerned so playing outdoors is what I am trying to put together.

I don't need or care much for money and as some English lads said "money can't buy me love". In my case it is the love of music, not the other kind...lol

Over the years I have listened to a good many people try to play with backing tracks and in more recent times with loopers. Some were OK but nothing really impressed me.

I did hear Andy Timmons play to backing tracks to demonstrate amps for Mesa. Those tracks we taken from the stems from professional studio recordings of his albums with the lead guitar parts removed.

Of course, he is pretty much a world-famous guitar player but haveing those really professional recordings made things sound just like the record.

I don't have the money to do that so something more affordable is what I am looking for.

The trouble with all backing tracks is that one has little control over the consolidated track. If you don't like the bass for example you just have to live with it.

I am hoping to find backing tracks that will load into BIAB so I can rework them to my liking. There are many Real Tracks that are really great sounding but the drums and many times the bass lines are way to generic to suit me.

Thanks,

Billy

Those are some of the worst cover versions that I have ever heard.

Roll your own.


Regards,

Bob

Hi Bob,

Yes most of them are pretty bad. I am not sure I understand even how to use them. The MP3 downloaded without issue. The MP3 files are not useful because they are pretty bad versions of cover songs as you indicated.
I was expecting .sgu files to load in BIAB where I then had control and could rework them. Until now I have not been able to figure out how to do that.

If someone could download one of the songs in .sgu format and explain just how to do that it would be super helpful.

Also perhaps I should be going about this whole process differently because I really don't understand how to make a more complex cover song with BIAB. I created Knockin On Heavens Door in BIAB last night. Well...hell that is such a simple three-chord song I don't need any software to do that.
Just play out the parts live and record them. Perhaps use Superior Drummer for the drums.

But how would you go about making a cover of a Gary Moore song like Parisienne Walkways? The keyboard part is pretty complex. I can play the main riff solo but playing the chord structure with the timing Gary has is super hard to do. It would be ever so cool to be able to do that part with software.

I absolutely know the answer to all this at a cost of $500 to $1000 per song with high-quality studio musicians who can duplicate anything but to do that I am going to need to find a very rich girlfriend...lol

I have yet to see a complex well made cover song done in BIAB.
I assume they may exist somewhere.

So you understand what I really want it goes like this.
1. The intro needs to be close to the original.
2. The solo needs to incorporate the signature licks.
3. The chord structure needs to follow pretty closely to the original. I am unlike to come up with a better version/arrangement than the original
4. I do not expect to use all the instrumentation that was used to create the original.
5. The song has to be very recognizable to the general public. It does not have to be exact because they are not generally going to recognize the fact I played an A minor as opposed to an A minor 7 for example.

What I really want is a professional sound backing track that I can load in my DAW and play out live and have the option to omit certain parts if I happen to have a live bass player for example.

Perhaps I am looking for something that simply does not exist and is not really possible to create with the software.

Billy

https://www.karaoke-version.com/custombackingtrack/


It should be noted that Malwarebites blocked that other sites downloads. Govern yourselves accordingly.


Regards,

Bob

That is the beauty of these SGUs. I have done the initial work of working out and inputting the chords and lyrics and choosing a basic style. You can the change them to make them your own very easily.

Give it a try.

Billy, what I would do would be to purchase good sounding MIDI cover songs; sites will let you preview such songs. Those that I have purchased were transcribed perfectly.

Bring the tracks into your DAW. You might want to swap out the GM sounds with better ones assuming you have some good MIDI sound sources. Then save the songs as wavs. Save it once with what you need for a solo gig then again a few times leaving out certain tracks. That is save the song again sans the bass track for when you have a bassist. Then again sans the keyboard track, or the rhythm or lead guitar tracks, etc. I would place each different version in a different folder like songtitle full band or songtitle sans guitar, etc. Then on a gig pull up the folder needed and have a ball playing those covers.

Hi Mario,

Yes, I also have some MIDI cover songs. They work well enough in some cases.
Everything has gotten better in midi.

Some instrumentation is less problematic to make very good sound VSTs. Guitar VSTs are better than they use to be but...close but no cigar...lol

The custom Gary Moore track I downloaded from https://www.karaoke-version.com/custombackingtrack/ has about ten stems. Some were good and some were not good at all. It did give me everything I needed that I can not play well. I can play the guitar solo pretty much note for note. I have a very hard time to arpeggiate the chords used. It is not the chord progression. That is easy enough and has been around in other songs for a long time.

I can not play the Rhodes keyboard part. That was in the download and usable.

At the end of the day, I think the final product I need will come from several sources.

There are one or two songs I like well enough to pay the price to get the professional stems I want. A radio-ready song from a Nashville studio cost between $500 and $1500 dollars with the vocals. As I will have my own vocalist, that will take $200 to $400 off the cost to produce a top-quality track.

In many ways, this is a new world for me. I have never had any real interest in playing cover songs. And yes, our band played a good many but we were really mostly involved in playing our own stuff. Even the cover songs we played we very different arrangements from the originals. That was not my idea, but my lead players, both guitar and keyboard were monster players and there is no way to hold those types of musicians down...lol Nor would I want to.

Now I want a duo, me and some nice-looking woman who can sing in many styles, play keyboards, and understands the value of how to dress and act, and understands the value of the theatrical aspect of performing and interacting with people.

I am not some cute young kid and I can assure you I will be dressed in whatever type of Hollywood style makeup and motif I think may work.

The music is only one part of what I have in mind to do. I am in the process of designing and building cost-effective robotic theatrical props to enhance the visual effect of the performance. I am creating animated avatars and animation videos of this production for sales and marketing purposes.

I am way over my head in the deep end of the pool...lol I have no way to predict the actual outcome. Only the public will tell me that. For me, this is not really about success or failure. The creative process is super fun. I am not taking a dime with me when I die so I don't care what it cost to the extent I have the resources to support the concept.

And I am damn tired of musicians I have worked with in the past telling all this theatrical stuff is a load of crap. Go ask Lady Gaga what she thinks and how successful she has been at doing more or less the same sort of thing I want to do. Check out what ABBA is doing.

For sure I do not have a huge budget to try all this but if it works on a small scale I will be able to get any amount of money I need. There is a lot more money in the world than there are good ideas.

Personally, I don't care much about money, it is just a tool. If someone gave me ten million dollars in the morning it would have little effect on the way I live.

Wow...what a rant...lol

Billy

I use midi-hits.com for many of my backing tacks. The midis are done quite well and capture the original tunes exactly with all the memorable parts. You need some good virtual instruments and a little tweaking here and there for some expressions etc. but the results are usually very good. At $7.99 or $8.99 each, it won't break the bank and they have sales all the time for $3.99 items. The samples on their web site are done with some awful GM sounds, but you can get the idea of what it sounds like. They list the artist with the songs so you know what version you are getting if not the original artists version as they have covers as well as the original arrangements for many songs.

Hello Pianobilly

'there is a new Facebook group where you can download a lot of very good SGU- files , Membership is free , and downloading also.


https://www.facebook.com/groups/sgubackingtracks so give it a try

Kind regards Hans van Rosmalen