I have yet to actually buy Band in a Box and wanted to find out first if it would fit my needs best.
Top the point, I am an amateur singer. I am interested in creating my own cover versions of popular songs. For the sake of example, I might want to sing the song "Hello" by Adel.
The LAW says that a cover version needs to be music created by me. But, the original music must be used.
To the point, I don't play an instrument and I really don't want to spend hours and hours getting the music all set up. What I want to do is find a way to quickly take the sheet music (Which honestly I don't really know how to read) and get into into my DAW so I can sing to it and I am exploring if Band in a Box is the answer?
Once again, getting the music set up is the part I want to spend the least amount of time on!
Buy midi backing tracks. BIAB will create backing tracks but not the sheet music arrangement. Backing tracks will recreate the song you want to sing and your DAW will allow you to change key if necessary.
As far as I can understand, the chords used in a song are not copyrightable.
I understand that you could use BiaB to enter the desired chords of your song, and choose an appropriate existing BiaB style to generate the song - without creating any copyright issues.
BiaB can certainly do this. It does not guarantee to replicate an existing song, including the melody, but will provide you with a usable backing track, and often the results can be quite astounding.
Also, Welcome to the forums.
BIAB & RB2025 Win.(Audiophile), Sonar Platinum, Cakewalk by Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M Monitors, Pioneer Active Monitors, AKG K271 Studio H'phones
BiaB does an excellent job of making a backing track from a chord progression. Getting a good chord progression can sometimes be a bit of a problem as, whilst they're often online, not all are authentic. The official sheet music may or not have the chords stated ... often not.
BiaB has a tool, Auto Chord Wizard (ACW) that will try to extract chords from a recording.
Once you have a chord progression in BiaB, try out different styles with them, to find a backing that works for you. Find a sound and feel that suits you, probably regenerate a few times, freezing tracks as you like them.
This almost certainly won't make a backing track that's the same as the original song's, but it can make an excellent backing track for a cover.
There's a "Melody track" that BiaB won't change, so you could import MIDI or XML into it, it can be a single-line melody or a full piano piece. It, indeed any track, can be muted completely or by bars or by choruses/verses.
There's no demo version, but I believe PGMusic are as good as their word on the 30 days unconditional money back guarantee, though I suspect they're not that often asked to do so.
The bad news is that the "Pro" version is the entry version and has very a limited selection of styles. Just about everyone advises getting the best/biggest version you're prepared to afford. Most of us have the UltraPAK. You may find that it's cheaper to buy the Pro version and then upgrade than to buy a bigger pack at the start.
PGMusic's videos are good but can be a bit overwhelming and hard to navigate. I rather like the versions done on YouTube by Henry Clarke.
There are differences between the Windows and Mac versions, the Mac vewrsion tending to be somewhat behind.
Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful. AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11 BIAB2024 Audiophile, a bunch of other software. Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts .
BiaB will not give you an exact replication of a cover song. It will generate its own parts based on the chord structure. It will read a MIDI file of a cover song and extract the chords from it so you do not have to input all of the chords yourself.
If you want an exact replica of a cover song the best way to achieve that is to input a MIDI file into your DAW and sing to that. There are a lot of MIDI files on the web, some free and some for purchase. Some free ones are not very good but many are excellent. The purchased ones are the best for exactly transcribed cover songs.
BiaB is great for generating different versions of a cover song but it will not exactly duplicate a cover song.
BiaB excels at creating your own music.
Also note that you can not post cover songs on the showcase forum or on many web sites.
Unclear if the pianist is a total beginner or a professional jazz player?
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
With all due respect, I think you guys missed this. The OP is not a musician, only wants to sing to a backing. My advice is Karaoke. Therefore, not a candidate for BIAB.
I agree, there are karaoke tracks available on the Internet, and for someone who is not a musician, it's the easiest way to go.
The only problem I see is that the karaoke tracks are probably in the same key as the recording. I have very little experience with them (although some of our competitors use them) and I assume that you cannot transpose them very far from the original key without generating those telltale artifacts.
I base this on listening to my competition. Perhaps they don't know how to transpose without the distortions. Singing out of their range and hearing artifacts.
MIDI songs can be easily transposed to any key without any artifacts, but of course you already know that. That is the reason I suggested downloading MIDI songs.
However the OP still hasn't answered the question I posed as to whether he wants to do exact cover copies or his own version of covers.
Unclear if the pianist is a total beginner or a professional jazz player?
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
With all due respect, I think you guys missed this. The OP is not a musician, only wants to sing to a backing. My advice is Karaoke. Therefore, not a candidate for BIAB.
I got the impressions that the O/P wanted to actually explore creating his/her own music. This was mentioned in the O/P's post:
Quote:
I am interested in creating my own cover versions of popular songs.
The LAW says that a cover version needs to be music created by me. But, the original music must be used.
What I want to do is find a way to quickly take the sheet music (Which honestly I don't really know how to read) and get into into my DAW so I can sing to it
If the user can choose a style and type the chords of a song, to me it sounds like BiaB is actually a perfect candidate.
BIAB & RB2025 Win.(Audiophile), Sonar Platinum, Cakewalk by Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M Monitors, Pioneer Active Monitors, AKG K271 Studio H'phones
A singer can be a musician even if they don't play an instrument.
Our voice is an instrument, it isn't so easy to use, we automatically harmonise to music out of our vocal range.
There are plenty of musicians who can't read music.
Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful. AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11 BIAB2024 Audiophile, a bunch of other software. Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts .
I agree. And I'll bet that there are plenty of BiaB users who can't read music too. That's one of the main reasons this product can be so valuable to so many people.
BIAB & RB2025 Win.(Audiophile), Sonar Platinum, Cakewalk by Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M Monitors, Pioneer Active Monitors, AKG K271 Studio H'phones
I agree. And I'll bet that there are plenty of BiaB users who can't read music too. That's one of the main reasons this product can be so valuable to so many people.
1000% agree! Thats why BB is so useful to me personally. Whilst it has levels way ahove my pay grade for those musically trained and/or technically minded, at my Base Level I can just input chords to a Style (or even have ACW guess them) and take it or tinker from there. Bests Ian
Old Guys Rule.The older I get,the better I was! BB2023 ULTRA, 1013, Win 7 and 10
I'm assuming that the O/P is familiar with other forms of existing backing tracks, but wants to also explore the potential of BiaB to provide a suitable solution.
BIAB & RB2025 Win.(Audiophile), Sonar Platinum, Cakewalk by Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M Monitors, Pioneer Active Monitors, AKG K271 Studio H'phones
I think BIAB is a great way to go. Generating backing tracks is not all that difficult. If you don’t understand or know chords you could use Ultimate Guitar or a similar type site and download the chords for whatever song. Put them into BIAB then arrange away. That way you can make fairly simple arrangements of cover songs.
Once you have the chords in BIAB it is very simple to adjust the key or tempo to suit your voice or taste. In a DAW such as Reaper it is equally simple to fine tune a key, the tempo or the balance of tracks.
My thoughts on BIAB go for it, buy the best version you can afford (get as many styles as you can), play with it, relax and enjoy it. Don’t skimp, you’ll regret that.
Tony
HP i7-4770 16GB 1TB SSD, Win 10 Home, Focusrite 2i2 3rd Gen, Launchkey 61, Maton CW80, Telecaster, Ovation Elite TX, Yamaha Pacifica 612 BB 2022(912) RB 2022(2), CakeWalk, Reaper 6, Audacity, Melodyne 5 Editor, Izotope Music Production Suite 4.1
My thoughts on BIAB go for it, buy the best version you can afford (get as many styles as you can), play with it, relax and enjoy it. Don’t skimp, you’ll regret that.
My sentiments, exactly.
BIAB & RB2025 Win.(Audiophile), Sonar Platinum, Cakewalk by Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M Monitors, Pioneer Active Monitors, AKG K271 Studio H'phones
Band-in-a-Box is primarily used to make backing tracks for your own original songs. You may find something similar to Adel's music and "Hello" is included in the familiar Song Titles database in order to use it to filter the Styles list. However, it will not sound exactly like the existing song. Also, you will still need to know the chord names of the song you want to make. You would not need to know every single note in the chord, just the letter names to enter into the Chords view.
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