MIXER: Why does RealDrums (green) turn into MIDI (yellow) when the song is Rendered into Audio?
Can this be prevented?

Right-clicking on Drums gives you a menu apparently allowing you to choose RealDrums, but since the song is already in Audio mode this has no effect.

When you render a song to an audio file, it should use the tracks that are loaded in your Mixer and playback exactly as how it played in your Band-in-a-Box song project. What version of Band-in-a-Box are you using and is it for Mac or Windows?

i'm a bit confused.......if you render your BIAB song to audio it makes an audio file - wav or mp3 - so how do you know the drums are midi when you play the audio file? i think there's a bit of confusion about what you are doing - do you mean that when you render a track to audio (by which i presume you mean a wav or mp3 file) the BIAB mixer drum track turns yellow and you are left with your BIAB project, a wav (or mp3) file as well and a midi drum track in BIAB that was RealDrums?

that is very odd

When you are in Real Band, as I recall, most audio tracks are rendered green, but drums are yellow. This is normal.

Tracks you record yourself are a darker yellow in color. I think loops are purple.

I WISH you could render a Real Drum with notation as a midi (you can with Real Tracks) but sadly, this does not seem to be possible yet.

I’m using Windows. The BB version is 2021.

After the song is finished and saved (in BIAB), ALL tracks in the mixer are green.
I then choose the following:
1 .WAV -> export song as audio file
2 Audio -> render song to audio track

Doing this, I end up with 3 files: (1) my BIAB file, (2) an audio file with the same name, (3) an audio file with the same name + the word “render.” In the mixer, the DRUMS track is now yellow, the rest of them remain green. The AUDIO track has become orange or dark yellow.

i'm still a bit confused.........why do you want an audio (wav) file and also render song to audio track?

If your audio file and your SGU/MGU file has an identical name this can cause issues. Try renaming your audio file to something else and then re-open your song.

Bob - regarding your first response:

You are absolutely right that I’m confused about what I’m doing. I think the process is extremely complicated (the terminology is often impenetrable), and my understanding of how it works is still very limited. I appreciate the responses I’ve received – suggestions and queries from all of you have been very helpful.

My issue regarding the Mixer RealDrums track (green) appearing to become MIDI (yellow) after Audio rendering hasn’t been resolved, but (as you imply) may perhaps be due to another misunderstanding on my part. I was under the impression that Realtracks are green and MIDI tracts are yellow, but if this is not invariably so, then of course the yellow Drums track might not indicate MIDI at all (?).

Hi Bent,

I haven't come across your problem before. The steps that I would do in this situation are...

1) Double-check that I have installed the latest BIAB for versions 2021. If you have a look under "Help | About Band In A Box", the update will be in brackets after the version... eg.g Band In A Box 2021(xxx).

The latest update for BIAB 2021 is #845 and it's available at the below web page.

https://www.pgmusic.com/support_windowsupdates.htm

If you need to install it, simply download and double click on it. Make sure to check the paths of BIAB, Realtracks and Realdrums when you get to that window.

= = = = =

If the above doesn't help...

2) I'd restore to factory defaults.

This is found under the "Options" menu. Choose the upper "MOST" option first. If that doesn't work, try the lower "ALL" option.

Prior to returning to factory settings, though, save your current settings so that you can get back to them if needed. You will also find this in the "Options" menu.


Hopefully one of the above things will get BIAB working properly for you.

Regards,
Noel

Noel96 troubleshooting steps would be the first thing to try.

Also, there is a setting to force a RealDrum track to become a MIDI track. Do you think you possibly clicked it by mistake?

Thanks, Noel, for your detailed suggestions. I’ve now tried out most of the suggestions I’ve received. I went through yours one by one, but each time the Mixer RealDrums became MIDI when rendered to Audio, until I tried the last resort, Factory Settings/ALL. This time Drums remained green in Audio, but now the other tracks weren’t Muted, like they’re supposed to be in Audio (how’s that possible?)

Later when I was using ctr+shift F8 to load a previous song, I accidentally hit F6 instead of F8, and - lo and behold - the green Drums track turned yellow across all my songs. Ctr+shift F6 is defined in the shortcut list as “enable/disable RealDrums.”

So it would have been easy to say I just clicked a wrong option by mistake, except the green-to-yellow change in Drums only happens (automatically) when the song is rendered to Audio. After that, of course, ctr+shift F6 has no effect. When I “unrender” the song from Audio, the Drums track automatically becomes green again.

So I guess I’m stuck with MIDI Drums for Audio songs until I figure out what’s wrong.

/Best, Bent