Just finished a project for an entry to a on-line contest solely using IK-Multimedia's Syntronic. Used nothing but the free demo version of the new release. It was fun and a great learning experience.

But now what. I need a new project. So I open up BIAB and start to Audition styles. BAMM! the very first one I click on and "where has that been hidding?" I didn't expect that...

That is MY FAVORITE THING about BIAB. The ready source of Music Inspiration.

Dan,

I agree! I did something similar yesterday and today I've got the first draft of a whole new song.

Inspiration lurks around just about every BIAB corner!

Regards,
Noel

Dan, I feel exactly the same way. I am playing genres that I would have never even attempted without BiaB. Also the melodist and soloist have generated ideas that have lead to complete songs.

Great feedback - thank you for sharing!

So, what do you think about IK Syntronic? I keep getting emails to buy it, but dang, I've got almost everything else IK has put out.

Thanks for asking. The contest permitted us to use only the "free" version which gives full functionality but only a limited number of sounds. Understand I am not a keyboardist and therefore I did not grow up living and loving the history of the Synthesizer. So while the workflow for the software was adequate as a plugin to Reaper, I found the sounds far from inspirational.

I had a lot of fun working with the software mostly as it was a great learning experience to work elusively in midi with my keyboard. The prizes are a couple full versions of the software with grand prize a keyboard controller with software.

If I win it will be my lucky day and it will mean very very few others entered the contest. But I had fun.

Give the free version a try - easy download if you have an IK account. You may hear some of those old sounds that you fell in love with.

Thanks, Dan. I'll give it a try.

So I entered the contest with my best effort. Remember, you had to only use the free version for all sounds. When I heard what others entered it was like they were using the full version. Hard to believe they were getting such sounds from only the free limited version. Suffice it to say, there were several winners that had some great entries. So, I thought that would be the end of it. No full Syntronik in my future.

Today I got a note from IK saying that they decided to give me the full version of Syntronik! Apparently, Everyone is a winner.


Syntronik

Congratulations! I bet you're glad you entered now!

Congratulations Dan! That's excellent

BIAB does help me with musical inspiration especially when writing backing tracks, All I have to do is type in the name of a song I want to create a backing track for and bam, it finds a style that is the closest to it. It may not sound the like the original song, but what do I care, I like the Real Tracks.

Yep, being able to audition the styles is a very nice feature. But I've found that, well let's say PG is putting the style's best foot forward. I've found that a style that sounds great at audition often misses the mark when put to a chord progression I've cooked up. Good thing there are so many to choose from.

Michael, you can get realistic song previews using the Stylepicker's "Play Using Current Chordsheet for song" feature.

1. Set up the chordsheet so the first four bars accurately represent your song. Many people start a song with an intro that differs significantly from the main parts of the song so you may need to temporarily lose the intro and use the first four bars of a verse or chorus.

2. Set the Stylepicker tempo to the correct song tempo.

3. Make sure the "4 bar preview" checkbox is selected. This limits regeneration to four bars.

4. Press the "Play" button inside the red square.

Sorry, but I have to disagree with this. That is not my experience at all. Now there have been reports that the audition demo does not play the same as when you load it, but that is a bug which is generally fixed as soon as someone reports it.

I am wondering what type of chord sequences you "cook up". You mentioned you were going to give us a link to some examples of you genre. ---not much gets past us on this forum.

Dan, I think he is comparing the audio audition against his chord progression. If so then he is right in that they will not sound the same.

Cooltouch, I always addition the demos to my chord progression. Click on play using current chord sheet for song. It is in the lower right hand corner. Be sure to uncheck the 4 bar preview if you want to hear your entire song.

< I always addition the demos to my chord progression. Click on play using current chord sheet for song. It is in the lower right hand corner. Be sure to uncheck the 4 bar preview if you want to hear your entire song. >

Adding to this, I find it useful to sometimes change the first 4-8 bars from the intro chord progression to a particular chord progression from elsewhere in the song that may be distinct to your song.

Music Student, Mario and Charlie, doesn't my post above state the same facts you posted? Was my post that confusing?

No. Not confusing. I was just reiterating to what Music Student and Mario had reiterated you said...

To be honest, I did not go back and read any of the previous comments and only read the post by Mario immediately prior to my post.

I will state that I rarely use the 4 bar preview.....

And if it were such that your post may have been confusing, Music Student, Mario and myself rectified it.... All is good....

Jim you're right and I apologize for the redundancy. I have a propensity to write of the top of my head without going back to see if anyone already said that. I have to change my ways.

No issue here Mario and please don't take offense that I even asked the question. Sometimes what my mind thinks differs greatly from what's written. I just needed to make sure this was not one of those situations.

No offense taken.

I hear you. Many times what I write comes out wrong, I leave out an integral step and/or I assume a person knows a lot more or less than they really know.

Thanks for the tip, Jim. I'd never paid attention to that setting before. Now I use it all the time. Many of my songs have four bar intros that the rest of the song doesn't necessarily follow. And if I leave that 4 Bar Preview unchecked, it plays the whole song, which I prefer since it gives me a better understanding if the style will work.