I just did this:

- Make a BIAB song with a single "campfire" guitar
- Export single track to Logic
- Regenerate in BIAB
- Export to Logic again as a second guitar track

This works out really nicely, it's like having two real guitarists dueting the same part with subtle differences.

It might be nifty to have an audio export option, "Render N regenerations as tracks", but I doubt there is, so what might be the next best way of doing this?

I would add a second RealTrack of the same guitar. BIAB usually does a good job of rendering those two tracks differently but you should check because I have had an issue of the same thing being generated for one or more bars and in that case they add together instead of sounding like two separate guitars.

I was wondering about that.

I'm guessing BIAB has ways to micro-tweak audio so that even though *THIS* 2-bar recording is the same as *THAT* 2-bar recording, such multiple instances won't (or shouldn't) be perfectly aligned and identical, and can double one another.

Yeah I have had pretty good luck doing this. Just like you described...I found a single guitar I liked and wanted a second one and this worked out very well as long as I check for that occasional dupe bar. And with the new multiriff feature even that is easy to fix.

Try your procedure using BIAB's 'RealTrack Medley Feature'... just load up two of the single "campfire" guitars, pan them, volume level if you want, generate and play.

Wow, that is EXACTLY what I was looking for! It even asks how many clones I want. And it IS available in the Mac version.

Many thanks.

I just discovered an option to "Duplicate RealTracks (to thicken sound)", which I believe does the same thing as "simultaneous medley".

Unfortunately, what this gets me is a single audio track with lots of guitars, where I need all those guitars to be on separate tracks for export to Logic.

So I guess I'll need to create duplicate tracks for cloned RealTracks after all.

Easiest way!

Yeah, for my purposes I do believe so.

That other thing kind of scares me, anyway. Too "internal" to BIAB. I mean, after I "thicken" a track into 5 guitars, where ARE they all? I guess the answer is, they aren't anywhere, you just have a 5-guitar "ThickTrack" with very limited internal controls (vol/pan).

<< Unfortunately, what this gets me is a single audio track with lots of guitars, where I need all those guitars to be on separate tracks for export to Logic. (snip)
That other thing kind of scares me, anyway. Too "internal" to BIAB. I mean, after I "thicken" a track into 5 guitars, where ARE they all? I guess the answer is, they aren't anywhere, you just have a 5-guitar "ThickTrack" with very limited internal controls (vol/pan). >>

I'm not understanding your DAW process from your comment. The idea of using BIAB to create a RealTrack medley mix is to complete the "thickened" arrangement so the user doesn't have to manually do it to each individual component in a DAW, regardless whether it's instruments or vocals. I consider a BIAB RT Medley as the equivalent of creating sub-group output from a Mixer or a sub-group in a DAW. A BIAB RT Medley can also be thought of as the output of a Fx track bus or any bus. "Thickened" is just one use for a RT Medley. Entire song productions can be compiled as arrangements consisting of dozens of instruments and 'tracks'.

A RT Medley track can be used in a DAW as a DCA track, VCA track, aux return, Fx return, sub-mix, stem, bounced track, or many other uses. You're correct, if you think you'll need to process each instrument individually, there's no need to ever construct a Medley. It has specific uses and purpose in its completed state.

A "thickened" track in BIAB is the same as every other track in BIAB. Even before the introduction of "all tracks are equal" or Utility Tracks, the RT Medley feature has been available for years. The medley instruments are where every Legacy Track has always been. They are data assimilated using pointers (WAV Instructions) on the Legacy Track that's being used to direct BIAB to use specific RealTrack audio from multiple RealTracks files. They don't physically 'exist' until that track in rendered to an audio file.

I wouldn't use a "ThickTrack" for BIAB-to-Logic export for the same reason I wouldn't export the combined mix, exporting individual tracks instead. If possible, I prefer to avoid the loss of flexibility that comes from such "marriages". No besmirchal intended of the feature for those who use it differently.

No besmirching of your workflow was intended or made. Not understanding your workflow is not besmirching. It's not understanding your workflow. All of the workflow processes I mentioned are common to recording and pre-date DAWs by decades. They are also common to live performance sound system setup and they are all common uses that apply to using a RealTrack Medley.

I agreed with your statement that if you found that individual track processing was necessary for each instrument to certainly export the individual tracks. The Medley is not designed for individual instrument processing and in that case is not the tool for the job. However, with Thickened Medley grouping all being the same instrument, in such an instance, it will work with any processing being placed across the track that's common to each of the instruments. For instance, applying a low cut filter, adding reverb, adding compression, or a limiter. The processing would apply equally to all the instruments. A RealTrack Medley is different from a Thickened Medley. A RealTrack Medley can be made from any RealTrack combination included in your version of BIAB where a Thickened Medley is the same instrument used multiple times.

My comment had nothing to do with your workflow because I have no idea what your workflow is or any idea what additional control and flexibility you're speaking of. My comment was that the RealTrack Medley feature has always been what it is today, an arrangement option intended to be done in BIAB so users (if they prefer) can do the entire process in BIAB without needing a DAW to complete this task.

Sorry if my colorful language about ThickTracks being scary occult entities seemed disparaging or lacking in gratitude or reverence. My only concern is to avoid combining audio sources earlier than necessary in a multi-application workflow.

No problem, everything's good. The RT Medley feature it seems isn't the best tool for your work flow.

Well alrighty then, here's another way to do this sort of thing! To "thicken" a particular RealTrack part, in a Logic project, one can:

1) Create a BIAB song track with that part repeated sequentially as many times as desired.
2) Export an audio track to Logic. It will be way too long but that's OK.
3) Duplicate the track and chop the regions down to have the different sequential versions play in parallel.

The value here is a single audio file out of BIAB and a single file into Logic, rather than having multiple regens in separate audio files.

Having said that, working more with such material I do see Charlie's point about the value of "ThickTracks". Importing a complete BIAB song into a Logic project with even one part "cloned" in this way makes for lots of tracks to keep track of and mix. Pre-import mixdown simplifies things a lot, and do I really need to tweak each part individually? Is there really any loss of quality it this way? Probably not. I still wouldn't mix down the entire song for export/import, but that's a very different situation.