Note: The following "essay" originates from an even longer reply I had made to a post elsewhere some good couple of years ago. I had been meaning to lift this section of it into its own designated "Tip" post, but something or other must've sidetracked me until I'd nearly forgotten all about it. Anyway here it is at long last:


Tip: Always spend the extra minute it takes to insert the intended melody as Midi into the Melody track before you start rendering the accompanying instruments!
You can then mute it, put a "Performance track" on it (vocal or any other thing), or use it for whatever you like. But if you need to free up that channel, then don't delete the underlying midi data until after you've rendered (and frozen!) the other tracks.
Now, you may ask, "why is this important if I'm only going to make backing tracks for a singer or something", and the core reason is simply: The program obviously can't hear your vocal, but it can detect the midi - and it does make a difference in how the accompanying realtracks turn out!! In other words, they do somewhat 'take into account' (for the lack of a better term) if the melody is there or not (or more importantly, when it's there and when not), if the midi data is there as reference. I have even got instances where, once I had entered the midi melody, a Realtrack would then on subsequent regeneration actually avoid notes of chords that otherwise might clash with the melody (that trickster of an automatically added flat nine to a seventh comes to mind). It must, however, be acknowledged here that this statement is neither absolute nor infallible. Generally speaking, this works best (or is obviously best noticeable) with RT's that have a very varied, "decorative" performance data than, say, something that is strumming the same pattern bar after bar.
But don't just take my word for this. Have a listen to these samples: The first is from BBox own "Artist" collection, and showcases how the accompanying piano provides this lovely flourish right after the melody. And the second sample is from a song I myself made, so the BBox crew couldn't possibly have prepared something specifically for it. In that sample, notice how the piano actually seems to be directly playing along with the melody, note for note!
I maintain that these cases didn't "just happen", that what you get from the Realtracks is not just arbitrary or 'random', hence my advice.

Thank you for taking the time to read all this, sorry for how long that "tip" became in the end.


Thank goodness words aren't knives.
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BBox 2022 Audiophile, Mac Pro Intel, OSX 10.6.8, 800x600 (TV VGA)