Installed 2022 last night and am just starting to play with it today. Impressed with the general offering this year, PGM seem to have been listening. Also very grateful for the 20% tax gesture.
On playing about with Drum Stems I notice a couple of things. (to keep it simple all tests are from the Americana set with 7 stems each.)
1. Loaded Mix and Stems of AmericanaSlow128Fred into 32 bars at default setting, i.e. Substyle A, Chord C, set tempo to 60
2. When RDrums picker is first opened Stems box needs to be checked for the chosen style before pressing OK, but if I move off this to another style Stems box needs to be checked again. After generating if I re-open the RDrums picker all styles with stems are checked by default.
3. Auditioned each Stem separately and find there is a lot of bleed in from the Snare in the Cymbal and Toms Stems. For example there is not a massive difference between the HH Stem and the Mix, is this normal?
4. I reset the Substyle to A & B alternating every 4 bars and regen. The Mix changed but the Stems didn't. F7 revealed that all the stems are frozen by default when first generated and can only be unfrozen one at a time in the F7 page. The Stems Freeze buttons on the mixer are deactivated. When unfrozen the stems will regen, but this is a tedious process.
5. Changed drums style to Americana16thsSyncFred and, as expected, on regen, Mix changed but Stems didn't. When unfrozen Stems will regen to Americana16thsSyncFred, but are still named as AmericanaSlow128Fred. In F7 I erased the stems, again one by one, but these did not regen until I entered and exited the Drum Picker, regen was correct, but Stems still named as AmericanaSlow128Fred.
While I welcome the introduction of Stems and see a lot of potential, I hope that the above are teething problems to be addressed.
3. Auditioned each Stem separately and find there is a lot of bleed in from the Snare in the Cymbal and Toms Stems. For example there is not a massive difference between the HH Stem and the Mix, is this normal?
Yes. Just look at pics of drum kits in a recording studio, there's no way to avoid lots of bleed. People have been requesting this for years and some kept saying they could do all these great things but I think they were thinking of midi, not real audio stems. I've said for years the bleed through on the mics will be a problem, it won't be as great at some think. It's still useful because you can control the mix 'somewhat' but it's not perfect. You want to bump up the snare, you'll bump the kick and cymbals too, after all they're right next to each other with live mics. Still, you can achieve a decent mix you just have to experiment with rebalancing the whole kit.
When I was recording live bands I would spend more time on the drums than anything else. One way to use live drum stems is to put them into a DAW and use midi triggers that track individual drum kit parts and replace the audio with midi and them play the midi with a good drum program. But, the downside to that is you lose the live feel of the real drummer. Everything's a tradeoff. There are many techniques to use. Say the kit has an open hat and you want a closed one. You could use a midi closed hat and take the kit hat to zero and the trigger system would match the rhythm. There will be some bleed through the open hat from the overheads but the midi closed hat would mostly hide it. You can also use EQ to eliminate some of the bleed. Having drums stems to play with can be fun but it's a lot of work. No instant gratification.
All good points. When I experimented with the new drum stems feature, I had the most fun with the Latin drums and the ability to bring out or hide the pandeiro (the Brazilian reinvention of the tambourine). That is quite effective.
BIAB 2024 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 6.5 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6; Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus Studio 192, Presonus Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors
Downloading 2022 now. I'm seeing in the downloads a RealDrums Stems Set 2 included with the Bonus 49 Pak. Can I assume that the first stems just come with 2022? I'm not seeing a download for a Stems Set 1.
Yes, the first stems come with BIAB2022, but not a lot. I've counted 57 styles with stems in in the RealDrum picker. According to the promo video for the Bonus 49 pack, 36 of these are in Pt 2. I imagine that if these prove to be popular they will become an additional form of revenue for PGM, much like Styles Paks etc.
I would be interested to hear, when you try them, if you find the same issues that I commented on earlier.
I would imagine that when you really get down to mixing them, it will take several busses with EQs and compression to ferret out the best of the sounds. Hi pass low pass etc.
Maybe even a combo of the stems and the midi charts will be a cool idea. Stems RDs, charts VSTIs just tools to work with.
Lenovo Win 10 16 gig ram, Mac mini with 16 gig of ram, BiaB 2022, Realband, Harrison Mixbus 32c version 9.1324, Melodyne 5 editor, Presonus Audiobox 1818VSL, Presonus control app, Komplete 49 key controller.
Happy holidays! I'm excited about the drum stems, which I think are a tremendous step in the right direction. I work in the contemporary/smooth jazz genre, and my RealDrums players are: Michael White, Ricky Lawson, Franklin 'Third' Richardson, Sput Searight, and Brian Fullen. Unfortunately the new stems aren't available for these, only Americana and country. In an exchange with Simon in customer service, it sounds like PGM is receiving a good response on drum stems, and I'm hopeful that some of the older C-Jazz and funk tracks will be made available. If they were, I'd upgrade my Audiophile 2021 yesterday! Still, there may be enough new RealTracks to warrant it. Thanks all.
Warren, I can’t cite the post but my impression is that we can expect more drums to have stems. I think it’s early days, and they are getting a few operational things settled now
BIAB 2024 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 6.5 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6; Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus Studio 192, Presonus Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors
Wir waren fleißig und haben über 50 neue Funktionen und eine erstaunliche Sammlung neuer Inhalte hinzugefügt, darunter 222 RealTracks, neue RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, "Songs with Vocals" Artist Performance Sets, abspielbare RealTracks Set 3, abspielbare RealDrums Set 2, zwei neue Sets von "RealDrums Stems", XPro Styles PAK 6, Xtra Styles PAK 17 und mehr!
Add updated printing options, enhanced tracks settings, smoother use of MGU and SGU (BB files) within PowerTracks, and more with the latest PowerTracks Pro Audio 2024 update!
Download and install this to your RealBand 2024 for updated print options, streamlined loading and saving of .SGU & MGU (BB) files, and to add a number of program adjustments that address user-reported bugs and concerns.
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Handy flash drive tip: Always try plugging in a USB device the wrong way first? If your flash drive (or other USB plug) doesn't have a symbol to indicate which way is up, look for the side with a seam on the metal connector (it only has a line across one side) - that's the side that either faces down or to the left, depending on your port placement.
Update your Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows® Today!
Update your Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows for free with build 1111!
With this update, there's more control when saving images from the Print Preview window, we've added defaults to the MultiPicker for sorting and font size, updated printing options, updated RealTracks and other content, and addressed user-reported issues with the StylePicker, MIDI Soloists, key signature changes, and more!
A few excerpts:
"The Tracks view is possibly the single most powerful addition in 2024 and opens up a new way to edit and generate accompaniments. Combined with the new MultiPicker Library Window, it makes BIAB nearly perfect as an 'intelligent' composer/arranger program."
"MIDI SuperTracks partial generation showing six variations – each time the section is generated it can be instantly auditioned, re-generated or backed out to a previous generation – and you can do this with any track type. This is MAJOR! This takes musical experimentation and honing an arrangement to a new level, and faster than ever."
"Band in a Box continues to be an expansive musical tool-set for both novice and experienced musicians to experiment, compose, arrange and mix songs, as well as an extensive educational resource. It is huge, with hundreds of functions, more than any one person is likely to ever use. Yet, so is any DAW that I have used. BIAB can do some things that no DAW does, and this year BIAB has more DAW-like functions than ever."
Convenient Ways to Listen to Band-in-a-Box® Songs Created by Program Users!
The User Showcase Forum is an excellent place to share your Band-in-a-Box® songs and listen to songs other program users are creating!
There are other places you can listen to these songs too! Visit our User Showcase page to sort by genre, artist (forum name), song title, and date - each listing will direct you to the forum post for that song.
If you'd rather listen to these songs in one place, head to our Band-in-a-Box® Radio, where you'll have the option to select the genre playlist for your listening pleasure. This page has SoundCloud built in, so it won't redirect you. We've also added the link to the Artists SoundCloud page here, and a link to their forum post.
We hope you find some inspiration from this amazing collection of User Showcase Songs!
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