This was excellent and should be in the tips and tricks forum.

Also this really demonstrates the need for more tracks in BiaB.

Yes. His method is to make a song, put all the tracks into a DAW, then substitute other instruments and add those new tracks to the DAW. This way he has more tracks and instruments to work with, and mute/unmute as needed by the arrangement. It's perfectly normal. Seeing it done may be valuable to some.

Very interesting! In fact, this guy's whole BIAB channel is very interesting...learned a lot. Thanks for posting!

Jeff

He has some great tips and his videos are fun to watch. Most of all though his videos are motivational.

Wow - I've never heard of this guy or his channel before. Got it bookmarked - definitely useful info here!

Thanks for the share. The video was very fun to watch.

So he's just dragging the tracks over from the soloist and / or melody tracks over to the DAW and adding replacements in BIAB which he's dragging over afterwards. Couldn't you just use F5 to change the realtrack instruments as you want in BIAB? Not as flexible I guess. Couldn't you do all that in Realband and then drag it over to your DAW or not? I'm a bit baffled as to what's going on. He is good though...:-)

I'm thinking he doesn't use RealBand. At least he's never mentioned it in any of the videos I've seen. He's pretty upfront though that there are multiple ways to accomplish things and what he shows is how he does it.

I just enjoy how infectious his enthusiasm is. It makes me want to make music and that's his whole point.

If you are on Facebook, you need to join the PG music pages there. Henry is very active in most of them.

Look up:

Band In A Box Music Anytime

Band In A Box User group

Band in A Box live performers group

Band in A box by PG music

I run the first group and it's got a lot of music from folks that are NOT in this forum on it. It's a BIG BIG world out there. Joanne runs the second group, and Pat Marr is admin of the live performers group, and I'm also a moderator in this group... and of course the PG group.

Come in and join the groups and meet tons of other seriously talented folks.

Hi there. Yes you are correct you could just drag the tracks over. However, I have my own personal methodology that may benefit others. I tend to focus on only adding a couple of extra instruments at a time because I want to hear them with the basic feel of the music before I commit. Also I can't understand the need to pull from RealBand since I'm going to use Sonar for all my mixing so it's less of a step to just use the DAW integration tool and drag directly from BIAB into Sonar. Also I do all my vocals on a TASCAM DP32. I like to pull a full raw instrument sound over into my DAW so I can cut and paste the parts I want. Unless I "freeze" the realtracks they can at times change when you regenerate. I find my tactic especially useful for solo passages. As I state in my video I certainly understand there are multiple ways to do things in BIAB but this way works best for me and though it takes a bit more time I like the results better.

Henry

Mr. Henry.

I'm glad to see you here on the forum posting. I have a Tascam DP24 (the original version with midi and CD burner) that I use for recording in a similar way as you.

Your vocal recording method isn't discussed in this video and that subject may be a good future tutorial. That would be a real treat. I am a big supporter and proponent of stand alone, digital multi track recorders knowing it solves so many issues home recording artists face using a DAW.

At this point, if I may, I have two questions on your recording with an external device;

I'm understanding you do all of the mixing and arranging of the individual instrumental audio tracks generated by BIAB in Sonar and then separately record all of the vocals, lead, lead L, lead R, Oooh/Aaaah's and additional backing harmonies-spoken words into the Tascam DP32 and transferring those raw audio vocal tracks into Sonar for mixing, arranging and adding effects.

In order to accurately record all the different vocal takes, what audio do you use to record to in the DP32? Possibly, just a WAV stereo master of the basic BIAB tracks you first loaded into your Sonar DAW or a WAV master stereo file of a rough mix from the initial BIAB files with some of the additional instruments added or do you transfer multiple instrumental audio tracks into the DP32 to record all the vocals.

I'm assuming you do all of the vocal corrections, punch-in's and overdubs using the DP32 and then transfer the complete final takes over to Sonar?

Hey Zen Master. Let me see how best to tackle this. I hope I answer your the actual question you asked :-)

BTW: I'm a HUGE FAN of recording into an external device. I got so sick of latency or just bad sounding recordings through the PC Buss. My TASCAM is my best friend when it comes to recording vocals. Anyway I outlined my steps for you. I'm sure you already do a lot of this.

1: I create my backing track in BIAB (sometimes without accents).
2: Drag into Sonar.
3: Edit the track in Sonar to get the feel that I want.
4: Create individual busses for instrument groupings (like I may have a buss for drums, horns, bass, music, etc..).
5. From Sonar I will create WAV files for each Bus (sometime I'm lazy and will just create a single background music file). My Sonar only accepts wave at the 16 bit setting but that's fine for me.
6: On my DP32 I create the song "Blank" and save.
7: I "Export" the waves from Sonar into the Audio Depot on the DP32
8: "Import the waves into the song in the TASCAM (usually the last 6 or eight tracks depending on the number of busses)
8: Now I can sing into the TASCAM having tracks 1 - 16 to play with. I usually sing the lead on tracks 1 thru 4 and do my harmonies usually starting around track 5 depending on whether I'm doing 3 or 4 part harmony.
9. You are correct that I do all vocals (punch-ins, overdubs, etc..) on the TASCAM. I like the fact that I can "pre-fade" effects (compression, delay, reverb, exciter, etc..) in my TASCAM while I'm singing but yet record the vocals dry.
10: My microphone is a Shure PG-42. Sometimes I will route the mic into a Behringer Modeling pre-amp before going to the TASCAM but not always. Depends on if I'm being lazy.
11: Once I'm done singing I ONLY export the tracks I did vocals on from the Tascam.
12: IT'S AMAZING !! Because I sang against the waves created from SONAR my vocals line up PERFECTLY in the EXPORT/IMPORT!!
13. Import them into SONAR. Drag them onto tracks and start mixing.

I hope I answered your question here. For someone not saavy like you this probably looks like a lot of steps but actually it's not. If I have my tracks already in SONAR it's probably a 10 minute process to create the backing track and move it over. I probably blabbed more than you wanted :-) I would like to do a tutorial on this but I'm not sure how well it would be received on the Band in a Box Forum.

Henry

I think it's pretty relaxed here. I'm looking forward to seeing this video.

<< " I would like to do a tutorial on this but I'm not sure how well it would be received on the Band in a Box Forum." >>



I'm in lambada's camp on this. I'm certain that forum members would be polite and receptive and even though many prefer recording through an interface and DAW, they would likely also be interested and maybe learn some new techniques from a tutorial.