Hi fellows and gals.

I am trying to merry midi files from arranger software to BIAB. This is what happens. I can open midi file, BIAB accepts it. Chords are recognized and I can hear that midi file. Only one mixer channel is active. I forgot what it is called when all midi channels go to one track...but the question is about realtracks. When I select a realtrack, on lets assume piano track, it would not play/follow chords. Maybe biab is not designed to do this? Or what should I look at to get this resolved. Main idea is to use immported chords and some of midi arrangement tracks from opened midi file and some of realtracks.

Can somebody please help?

Thank you,
Misha.

Hi Misha,

Because BIAB is backing software and not a DAW, when a MIDI file is loaded into the program, it can only be loaded as a multitrack MIDI file on either the Melody track or the Soloist track. The individual MIDI channels are still present in the file. The other five BIAB tracks are reserved by BIAB for creation of a backing.

What BIAB does after loading a MIDI is to deactivate the style that's loaded. You'll see X at the beginning of the name of the style in BIAB's style window. That indicates a disabled style.

To get the style enabled, right-click on the style's name and select "Style is enabled".

Regards,
Noel

Noel, Thank you!
Yes, I thought that X in style looked weird

I enabled the style, but I can not get tracks of BIAB (RT/RD) sync to MIDI file.

Maybe somebody would be kind enough to guide me into workflow I am aiming at or suggest something more logical...

This is scenario: I have a software arranger that can save a complete song (arrangement) with chords. That midi file and chords are recognized by BIAB. My idea is to substitute or add Real tracks to that arrangement, so they are synced to timeline, working with bar changes to get everything glued (if for example there is a break, hold or similar) Then I would export WAVs to DAW and mix them there. Naturally, it seems like a good idea to do everything in DAW, chopping everything like Japanese sushi chief, but I would like to have the luxury of auditioning various styles, tracks before settling, so I can hear how it will sound closer to final thing (with all Midi+real tracks), rather then just exporting tracks blindly to DAW. I hope that makes sense.

I would appreciate very much, if somebody can guide me with this.

Thank you,
Misha.

Actually, I suspect the specific chords in your file are not actually recognized by BIAB, but instead, BIAB is using it's MIDI chord wizard to figure them out again (which sometimes is not always correct). Unless you are bringing it in as XML, there is no MIDI "chord" command to say "this is a chord".

If you are not syncing, what MIDI sound source are you using? Is the song tempo and time signature properly set in the MIDI file you are bringing in? Is the sync off just from the resultant file from your arranger software (you didn't say which one you use), or from any MIDI file you import?

More information may let us better help you out.

Misha,

To follow on from John's post, when you say 'sync', what exactly are you meaning?

Does the midi file continuous play, for example, 2 beats ahead (or behind) of the backing? Does the midi play at a fast tempo than the backing? Does the midi play slower than the backing in some sections and faster in other sections? (etc.)

As John says, a little more detail would help greatly.

Regards,
Noel

If the other suggestions don't work, you can also render the midi to audio and analyze the song with the ACW for chord detection.

John, Noel Thank you for helping in trying to resolve this.
Charlie, thank you (Lets assume chords are correct, just want to get Real Drums to be in sync for starts )

Long story about my little tech quest:
Before I started using BIAB, I mainly used a program called vArranger (virtual arranger) to make "bones" for backing tracks for my songs. That program is a midi based program which is similar in a way to hardware arrangers (Yamaha Tyros, etc.) As with most of hardware arrangers it uses midi styles. Like most of styles written for arrangers it has sections for Intros, Breaks, Main Parts, Endings. Program has chord chart that you enter your chords in and position of your breaks, etc. After you arrangement is complete, you can either output it as audio or midi file. Unfortunately, taking the easy way out by exporting audio files did not work well, because internally to the varranger program it is not bound by specific "clock" (does not have Midi Sync in) so using audio files from it with files from BIAB was a pain in the butt.

I decided to take a different approach, and perhaps a more creative one. My idea was to use arrangement midi file from vArranger in BIAB as a reference to try different things, to see what works and what does not as far as using RT/RD with that arrangement.
To my understanding, Midi file, unlike audio would sync to the program internal clock, in this case BIAB.

What I know so far: Original midi file is 86BPM and BIAB opens it as 86BPM. Midi file plays (more or less) as it should in BIAB. I am using Halion Sonic GM mode. It starts correctly from the first bar. Now, if I introduce Real Drum track from bar #1 it would not be in sync.

Most likely it has to do with those midi files from vArranger. I downloaded a generic midi song file from internet and in BIAB was able to add Real Tracks and they were in sync.

More....When I opened midi file from Varranger in DAW, the starting position was something ridiculous 9.xxx seconds into the timeline. When I manually matched exported BIAB exported Real Drum track, everything was in sync.

What got me confused is the "starting" position of the vArranger midi track and it might be that is where the problem lies. Again, in BIAB it starts to play "from the start". In Daw after 9 seconds...

I hope you guys did not fall asleep reading this and maybe can suggest something to get things in sync. If somebody is brave enough, here is BIAB MGX file with that midi test file from arranger loaded:
MGX /google drive

Thank you,
Misha.

I'm getting ready to go out to dinner to celebrate my birthday, but I'll give your file a try when I get home later this evening.

John,
Happy Birthday!

I do not want you to have this "puzzle" as your "birthday gift" Please enjoy your dinner and evening without extra homework, this is not urgent at all.

Thank you,
Misha.

Misha,

One thing I've figured out is you need to set the RealTracks to double time in this instance.

As the midi song presently plays the RealTracks are playing at half speed as measured against the sound generated by the midi tracks. I'm thinking Band-in-a-Box and vArranger are counting tempo differently.

Right click on one of the RealTracks > (1) Track Settings > (2) Track Timebase > (3) Double Time to change the track timebase and then regenerate (I tested with Guitar 1). The RealTrack playback is at the same tempo as the midi file; however the midi and RealTracks still do not play in sync with each other.

I believe the midi and RealTracks are not in sync because Band-in-a-Box reserves the first two (2) bars for count-in. I bet if you add two bars to the beginning and set the RealTracks to double time the song will play fine.

PS: Another program you might want to look at is +++ ChordPulse +++ It is also a software based midi arranger and has some really nice styles!

Jim,
Thank you for your time in trying to figure this out. The "double time" did not help. I tried another style and I had some success.
I believe one of the problems is that real tracks do not follow chords same way as midi does with synthesized sound. Maybe I am hallucinating.

I will experiment with other styles from vArranger, maybe some are just buggy. I wonder if there is a way to sync first note of midi to RT in BIAB. As I mentioned, I can align individual exported tracks from BIAB manually in DAW to the midi files from varranger and they play like good boys in the sandbox. The purpose of having things happen in BIAB is to be able to experiment with different real tracks with arrangement from vArranger without the need of exporting until I get it right.


P.S. I have Chordpulse (I follow these types of things too ) I had it for several years now. It is written well and is very solid. The problem with Chordpulse, it has limited styles and all "in house" made. Developer refused to adopt common format (I asked on more than one occasion), such as Yamaha sty or similar. vArranger can use imported styles and there are thousands of them available free and paid. Chorpulse has its unique place, but honestly you can not compare the two.

Misha.

To those folks who tried to help and thinking of helping.

Kindly put your troubleshooting energy on hold. I think I might be on the right path. Seems it is related to how and which styles are saved in VArranger and conversion to MIDI files. I got some arrangements to work nicely in BIAB just now. I will experiment in the next 2-3 days and will report back if I solved this or not.

In any case, thank you! I am grateful to know there are people here who are willing to help.

Misha.

Misha -

I loaded your file and discovered several interesting things. Mine loaded using the MIDI style ZZBOPBAL - I hope that's the one you selected, otherwise there are more problems.

First of all, if you haven't, you need to look at the melody track using the BIAB Sequencer feature. There you will see all the tracks from your MIDI file. That also includes a MIDI drum track. If you mute all the other BIAB tracks, you will then just hear your MIDI rendition, as you did when you had the track disabled.

When I loaded your file, I noticed that the RealDrum selected is an Even feel drum style; however, the the MIDI drum part in your song is in Swing feel. When you add the RealDrums, you get both playing together and that doesn't sound good.

And for the RealTracks guitar, I think that even though it is swing, it is a different swing feel than your MIDI arrangement (I think your imported MIDI file is more of a 16th note swing, but the RealTracks guitar is more of an 8th note swing). So those just aren't going to work well together.

One troubling thing is that I had to keep reloading the file, because the melody track kept disappearing (BIAB told me there was nothing there, when clearly a moment ago it played). Don't know if this is an issue with v2019 - I'll have to look further.

Another thing to keep in mind is that by enabling the style, you enable all the instruments of the style, you run the potential for channel conflicts. Your default MIDI device only supports 16 channels (mine is playing through the TTS-1 synth). With imported MIDI files, it is easy to get channel conflicts with the channels used for the style tracks. You can end up with notes from both a style track and your imported MIDI track playing on the same channel, but using whichever instrument patch was loaded last. So for example, if a piano track (on channel 3) was set for electric piano, but an imported MIDI file had an organ on channel 3, you would get both parts playing together using whichever instrument was sent last to the synth (either piano or organ).

In your file, I see the following:

Channel 5 - Finger Electric Bass
Channel 6 - Electric Piano
Channel 7 - Brass
Channel 8 - Muted Electric Guitar
Channel 9 - Trumpet
Channel 10 - Room Kit
Channel 11 - Alto Sax
Channel 12 - Slow Strings

BIAB tracks use the following channels by default (using their legacy names, but any instrument can be assigned to them):

Channel 2 - Bass
Channel 3 - Piano
Channel 4 - Melody
Channel 5 - Thru
Channel 6 - Guitar
Channel 7 - Strings
Channel 8 - Soloist
Channel 10 - Drums

You've got RealDrums enabled, so that overrides the drums track, but had you not you could have had a conflict on channel 10.

With the style enabled, you have two different basses playing on channel 2 (from the style) and channel 5 (your MIDI file). You have strings on the BIAB strings track (channel 7) and your brass on channel 7 from your MIDI file (although you wouldn't hear it because the strings only come in on "B" part markers, which you don't have in your file).

Also, the ZZPOPBAL style is an Even 16th style, which would not be a suitable choice for your MIDI file.

So, at least on my machine (other than the weird intermittent disappearance of the melody track), everything plays as it is supposed to, it's just that the mixing of channels and tracks and style feel (even versus swing versus 8th note versus 16th note) and MIDI channel conflict needs work.

To my mind, this is something that would be better handled in RealBand (or another DAW where you could also use the new VST plugin to generate your additional RealTracks. That way, you can reassign MIDI channels and avoid any conflicts there. Be sure to set other tracks to the same feel and note resolution as your MIDI file (unless you are explicitly going for a different kind of sound).

I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.

John,
Thank you for testing and trove of interesting info!
Reading and re-reading. Many things to explore and learn.

I had better luck with a couple of other styles from my vArranger software in BIAB. I am getting closer to grasping workflow. Unfortunately Real band is a no go for me. I tried it several times (oh, believe me , I did) It just does not sit well with me. BIAB should do this just right.

I am not going for "particular style" from BIAB with this. The style and chords are more or less complete in my vArranger program. With BIAB I am looking to substitute 2-3 tracks for Real Tracks or double them up MIDI + RT if it sounds interesting. It is a bit awkward, because of mixup in the channels, but it is much more convenient than anything else. (Style picker, fast re-generations etc.)

P.S. I believe Mario proposed opening mixer to 16 channels... It would be so much more convenient to have it all laid out in a mixer tracks with clearly defined what is playing in what track. Real track or Midi or both.

Will report how it goes.

Thank you!

If you do anything, you should open the Melody track in the sequencer Window and uncheck the "Play" box for the instruments you are substituting, and also mute any other BIAB tracks from the style that duplicate any tracks you are keeping in the imported MIDI file.

Misha,

It's a pity that Realband and you are not on friendlier terms because what you want to accomplish is much easier in Realband.

Because BIAB is not a DAW, it's quite clumsy when it comes to working with multichannel MIDI files and adding Realtracks to the MIDI mix.

Have you had a look at the Realband videos found at the below link? If you want to get the most out of combining you arranger files with Realtracks, it is worth persevering to learn RB (in my opinion).

https://www.pgmusic.com/videos.realband.htm

Regards,
Noel

John, good thoughts. Thank you!
This was a very strange experience because midi tracks were not aligned to BIAB mixer. I opened Halion Sonic VST on second monitor, so I can pinpoint what channel in which mixer is playing what, so I can adjust things properly, otherwise it was a huge bowl of spaghetti

As soon as I got it close enough to what I wanted, I just exported everything (Midi / RT) as individual WAV files. Seemed to do the trick.

Noel, Thank you for trying to encourage me to use R.Band, but this quest is probably the last piece of puzzle for me as far as composing software goes... To merry vArranger to BIAB. I am 65% there. I am happy I got this far I feel that learning RB would be a distraction. I better use this time to master BIAB.

P.S. Many things had been suggested for BIAB mixer... If it was open to more channels and added functions, I believe it would solve many issues related to GM Midi / Midi + Realtracks.

Thank you!
Misha.

Hi folks,
Sorry to revive this post. Got another question. Would appreciate if somebody could answer.

Here is workflow I am after:
Open midi file in BIAB. Have realtracks/ realdrums on BIAB mixer and have everything midi, from the file opened controlled only from VST mixer, so the tracks (like drums, or any other) are not overtaken by BIAB.
So if I want to play 2 drums (midi from file through Halion and Realdrums) at the same time, I would do that.

So that controls of BIAB mixer do not touch mixer of Halion and wise versa.

I know it is possible to move channels and juggle things around...to make it work, but it would be a pain to do it every time.

Is there a universal simple setting that would separate two things (BIAB mixer / Halion mixer) into independent sources for future songs?

Thank you,
Misha.

If I'm interpreting your question correctly, you would essentially like to have two easily available mixers that work for separate sections of what's loaded. BIAB does not do this.

Noel,
Thank you for the reply.


It is possible, to have it semi-independent.
Arrangement is on melody track. I solo melody track, and all channels from H.S. will play on that melody track and can independently tweak Halion tracks.
+ choose, for example real track bass from BIAB mixer and soloing it too. Both will play. I can audition two at same time or chose either. So to make a point, it is possible, but very clumsy and not intuitive. So that is one way of isolating instruments, so they play independently.

With this post, I wanted to know if there is a simpler way of doing that.

The only true solution to this (and far not only to this) would be open up mixer to 16 Midi channels.

Or simple and dirty method, to have what I described above happen in more logical workflow.

P.S. BIAB would render all tracks on its own mixer + the ones on the VST, except for original midi drums from midi file. I successfully rendered 11 tracks in one "render" operation.

<<< Is there a universal simple setting that would separate two things (BIAB mixer / Halion mixer) into independent sources for future songs? >>>

Not setting but setup, yes. Use the BIAB VST/Halion VST into a DAW and port each track from each VST individually to a track and output to your interface. You could also accomplish the same with a digital mixer with a multitrack interface. The Behringer XR18 would give you 18/18 in/outs for $500. Each track would be independently controlled by its software and you'd control the outputs, Fx's, levels, panning, mixing and routing with the mixer. Similar results can be obtained from a Control Surface such as the Behringer XTouch but you'd still need a separate audio interface to control everything.

Charlie,
Thank you.
this is not about porting to DAW or controlling them in sense "riding" things in live studio rig.
I want to audition select realtracks and compare with midi tracks from imported midi side by side, before rendering tons of wavs, going back and forth between programs.

As I mentioned, it is possible in BIAB (tested!) but very cumbersome. The logical and smart thing would be to open up BIAB mixer to make it more versatile for real tracks and midi.

If this happens, the simplest way would be assign one stereo mixer track as a BUS for monitoring things that come from VST. Get the sound you are after and then render/export to individual wav files to do the mixing in DAW in one step.

I think it is a better approach than involving hardware or exporting huge amounts of data per song just for auditioning purposes. I guess if it is not there, it is a valid item for feature request.

Misha.

<<< I think it is a better approach than involving hardware or exporting huge amounts of data per song just for auditioning purposes. >>>

I agree. Although the mixer is a one stop hub, in my case, it takes a lot of real estate and is not a permanent fixture in my studio making set up and tear down along with space, so it's not used very often. The situation would be the opposite in a permanent installation.

The mixer is not source dependent and audition options are one, the other, both are neither, all without any latency issues. A good mixer with good Fx would also expand your opportunities to test Fx's side by side without any additional set up. I was looking at your particular issue in the same light as Noel96.

Misha,

I believe the present limitation is Band-in-a-Box is limited to one midi port and 12 of the 16 channels are assigned.

One solution would be to add multiple midi port capability to the program. Even if one midi port is added all the present midi port one channel assignments could be maintained internal to the program while opening the remaining midi port one channel assignments and an additional 16 channel assignments on midi port two.

Pipeline uses utility programs to accomplish his goals but having multiple midi port capability built-in is a much more elegant solution than creating workarounds.

Hi Jim,

Another solution would be to have an A/B switch for the one MIDI port BiaB has now. The default could be A, as it it now, and B would be all 16 channels open for MIDI, MST, Rts, RDs or any combination of them to be used at the users discretion.

Jim, thank you for elaborate response!

Quote: "Even if one midi port is added all the present midi port one channel assignments could be maintained internal to the program while opening the remaining midi port one channel assignments and an additional 16 channel assignments on midi port two."

If I understood you correctly, that one extra port, I assume visually an extra mixer channel? That would act as independent midi bus, hosting 16 MIDI channels from VST or such?


P.S. Oh, how I wish this would be a two way communication with developers. If I am not mistaken similar feature(s), (of opening mixer) were requested for years. Not sure what is keeping developers from engaging in conversation?

Mario! Thank you for joining in!

Was just thinking about you while I was typing previous message! I remember you had good idea about this, but could not remember what exactly you proposed

I think the BIG question is how to get developers involved? Send them Flowers? Chocolate? Beg? Explain? Demand?

Misha,

Ideally Options > Preferences (Ctrl + E) > MIDI Options > MIDI Settings could be expanded to include a second button called MIDI Port Settings.

MIDI Port Settings would have 20 MIDI channel settings to reflect the four midi channels not used in the default port and the 16 new MIDI port channels. Change the original port MIDI channels from their defaults and the selections available in the MIDI Port Settings four default port midi channel number selections should reflect whatever unused channels remain.

The twenty MIDI channel settings would be assigned to internal and external connections that would includes: 1) 8 permanent mixer channels, 2) 8 floating mixer channels, 3) available USB ports, 4) User defined A, 5) User defined B.

Mario,

Emulating a hardware A / B switch is innovative but limiting. As you described A / B switch emulation it would allow MIDI use within BiaB or direct all MIDI data outside of BiaB. That all or nothing approach eliminates any hybrid options like use of a VSTi in one or more tracks while also using external hardware.

I don't know how easy or difficult adding additional midi port capability is but other softwares

I have been requesting that PGMusic open up all 16 MIDI channels for years.

Wishes, wishes...
Here is my amateur drawing of what would work for me.
16 channels about 9 dedicated for RT/RD (that can be also substituted for MIDI)
I think PG limited number of these, because by design (at time it was designed) average computers would not have pulled more, or they would suffer. I think expanding it to about 9 possible simultaneous RT/RD channels should not cause significant pain to render.

And a secondary, independent midi bus, which would not re-assign channels and all settings (volumes/ FX etc.) would happen within VST, only to have master volume be available as control from BIAB mixer.







Misha.

Misha,

I know you that you and Realband are not good friends and that's a shame really because what you describe above can be done in Realband without too much effort.

Realband combines all the backing creation and generation ability of BIAB and adds to that some DAW capabilities. It also allows for 48 tracks that can be either MIDI or audio.

Regards,
Noel

Misha, you're essentially asking for what we have all be requesting for too many years to remember. Noel's tip about RealBand will pretty much deliver that now. Or... you can wait...

Misha, I think that in the early days of BiaB GM was the biggest thing to hit the music world. (Note that GM is General MIDI and not General Motors ) People were very happy to just put a song into BiaB, do some harmonies and/or play a MIDI guitar controller and come out with good results; good results being based on that era. They could also DL a song from the Internet and have it play. Those were big things back then and people did not have to worry about assigning channel numbers, picking VSTis, etc.

But in today's MIDI world that has all changed. People have learned how to do those things. With the advent of much better sound sources like Kontakt, SampleTank, UVI, and other VSTis that contain many layers of sounds GM went mostly by the way side. GM is still around but it is not as dominant as it was back then.

PGMusic is moving in that direction IMHO. With first HQ sounds, then SFZ, and jBridge and now a 64 bit and a VSTi, although still a work in progress, things are moving fast toward today's MIDI situation.

I still advocate for an A/B switch for MIDI channels with A being as it is today and B opening up all 16 channels for user discretion. YMMV

Noel, Videotrack, Mario
Thank you for your replies!

Mario, I was thinking about what Jim said a few posts above and your idea of A/B switch.
It seems Jim's idea is more universal.
If lets say one more "universal" independent midi track is opened on the mixer that can host entire VST without "stealing" channels, that should solve A/B switch, but in a different way. Because in theory, you should be able to use your VST as an independent mixer and have as many channels as you wish, layering styles etc and they would not interfere with 7 channels that are internal to BIAB.

To make this happen, in my opinion, does not require much. As it is all there, but not logical. BIAB renders tracks from VST + BIAB, so even that is solved...

Or am I missing something?

P.S. I wish people who are interested in this would come to a consensus of something universal for different tasks and appeal to Peter Gannon directly with a worked out, balanced solution. A joined, detailed proposal / request from full time loyal supporters.

I guess, no one interested in my proposal... Of jointly figuring what would be a (more or less) universal approach and apealing this as a group...

obviously did not work for years the way it was requested...


A old joke comes to mind...

A guy is casting a fishing rod and a loud voice from above rattles the air:
-There's no fish here!!!
Guy looks at the sky and asks:
-God, is that you?
Voice says:
No, I am the manager of this swimming pool!


In any case, I think asking for this jointly, with a worked out solution might bring more fruit than individual requests.

Misha.

I haven't read all the posts as it's so long.
But I did download your BIAB ARRANGER.MGX and had a quick look, the Arranger midi tracks was a bit late and needed moving forward.

If you want to bring a lot of midi tracks into BB use energyXT Vst

https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=518287#Post518287

pipeline,
thank you for testing! It seems that some of these midi files from vArranger have issues. But most are ok and are usable in BIAB. I accidentally turned this post another topic.... of having more channels on the mixer. Particularly in my case, an independent midi channel / bus would be very useful, which would let use VST as independent mixer. Essentially adding as many channels/ layers as your hardware would allow without interfering with real tracks or the mixer of the BIAB except maybe controlling VST master volume from BIAB mixer on that "independent" midi track.

I want to persuade people who are interested, to have a discussion and come up with something that would suit most and appeal as a group request to see if that will work. To my understanding similar individual "requests" were asked for years without success.

That's a pretty innovative concept. Good idea.

Charlie,
Thank you for words of support! It can solve some major problems when those extra channels are needed. Most of credit goes to Jim.

I am surprised this gets so little traction...

Have you tried MiniHost you can load it in the BB audio track or a midi track.
You can then load energyXTvst with a 64 bridging file and have a lot of midi tracks that send out to Kontakt.

Mac
Win

Full Screen

pipeline,
interesting workaround, but I believe this will not solve rendering individual VSTs channels to Wav from BIAB.
Right now, BIAB exports those channels! The problem is it steals drums and channel 12 I think and incorporates
VST channels to BIAB mixer, making things sloppy. All they (they?) have to do is duplicate melody channel and make it independent, not associated with any stuff on the mixer except for master volume.

Strange that there is a communication with big and small companies between developers and those little human beings (like me, for example) who are using their products. A good example is Cakewalk. I was struggling with one particular bug, that was messing with my workflow for some time. I tried posting it on forum several times, but did not help. Then, I gathered all information and appealed to chief engineer directly. Yes, it took time, but not years I got the issue fixed in recent update. That alone flashes word "respect!" in my mind. Just saying...

I got a feeling that community members care more about fellow users than the folks listed as "developers" on BIAB "about" page.

From Wikipedia: Software developer. First line reads:
A software developer is a person concerned with facets of the software development process, including the research, design, programming, and testing of computer software.

If you solo the midi track then drag the audio track that will give you the midi rendered through kontakt.
But as I said I haven't read all the post.
I just try and find workarounds as PG can take 10+ years to implement something.

I tried BB64 with just energyXTvst32 dragged your arranger midi in set a track to Kontakt32 and did an audio render and it render the track.

Full Screen

Pipeline, thank you for experiment. My workflow is different. As some other members suggested, I like to stay in BIAB as long as possible, before starting to export stuff.

quote: "PG can take 10+ years to implement something."

Well it was "years" already, this is just one of those persistent reminders, you know the ones that happen if you forget to pay your bills on time

I found a few ways to deal with issue, so not huge deal, but my + Jims suggestion, if implemented, would give those many midi channels without extra hoops to jump to BIAB users.

The easiest way would be in RB, but with the new Biab Plugin that might be the way to go when it's all working well, the latest pre-release has the same render speed as Biab now.

To do it all in Biab they could have an 'Extra Tracks' button that opens a separate DAW style tracks window that you can drag n drop both Audio & Midi files in, as you get many user asking for extra audio tracks.
This could have it's own separate mixer and on the BB Mixer have a Master slider for it, or maybe have an arrow at the bottom of the BB mixer that expands it to show all the current Extra Tracks.
This way you could also drag a RealTrack/Drum into the Extra Tracks window, you could also Multichannel RealDrums into the Extra Tracks window giving you a lot more control over the Drums.
But as said before they have the Plugin now and that may well take off in a big way allowing you to do it all without leaving the DAW, as it's more of a Revolution than an Evolution of Biab (BiaDAW).
Maybe Biab will stay how it is for auto accompaniment, practice, learning, song writing etc...
Instead of bringing the DAW to Biab they have brought Biab to the DAW.
And ReWire added to Biab will give you all those Extra Tracks and could be easier to implement.
But you never know, I've lost count of how many times over the years "Ya Flogging a Dead Horse give it up, Ya dreaming, give up these silly notions, that won't work...." so were they pipedreams that pipeline had ? well here we are with vst sync, 64-bit (& still have a 32-bit) and a BiabVST !!!

Pipeline, what I am asking is much, much simpler.
A single track for VST sound module, that would be independent from other parts of BIAB mixer.

P.S. some months ago I did request a feature of lanes, similar to what you described, but that will unlikely to happen, but adding a single midi bus channel will add many independent midi tracks that can be fully controlled from VST interface, yet be a part of whole mix in BIAB.