PG Music Home Forums User-to-User Post your own Tips and Tricks here UNIQUE DRUM AND OTHER TRICKS WITH REALBAND> (RB)....including how to do modern songs.

UNIQUE DRUM AND OTHER TRICKS WITH REALBAND (RB).

On the forums one sees at times various negative comments re rb.
which is sad as it has lots of things going for it.
the purpose of the following is to show many unique aspects of rb viz other music apps in the hope people will delve more into rb rather than possibly just having a cursory look.
Does rb have 'QUIRKS' ?? …yep but rb rewards the user willing to 'dig deep' into its massive number of features.
ive used it and powertracks (ptpro) before it to do lots of songs over many years and STILL i slap myself for not realising it can do a certain xyz.
as i'm human i can't cover all the many many rb tricks in one post..as rb is so deep…so it will prolly take a month or so as i'm doing my own projects.
if ive missed something, as rb is so extensive and in order to keep logical flow please pm me and i'll post the tip in this thread and attribute it to you.
The tricks will start simple and gradually get more complex….all done in rb…which remember is free with bb.
So let's get going.

1..you want a quickie simple drum beat for a quickie song demo…ie what is called guide drums in some studios.

ive seen on the forums comments that pg products can't do 'modern songs aimed at the young generation'....
or "i can't do rap/edm and other modern styles'…etc etc.
I hope to prove this to be incorrect….and how usefull and unique rb can be for users willing to delve.
here's an example in rb….the steps.

..create a new folder and give it a name. <<<this is where youll save your rb song. (SEQ).
(rember to save often).
..now open rb and in track view right click for the looong menu and set a track to midi then.. edit>>midi>>FILL TRACK WITH DRIUM PATTERN.
..you will notice in the dialog box loads of drum pattern (dp) files for loads of styles.
lets select dance dp just as a pattern to demo.
(note if you get an error navigate to drive letter (eg C or D or whatever) that pg pack is on and select.... Realband/mididrums….and select the pattern you want from the looong list displayed.).
..now youll see visually the midi drums for the number of bars you want.
..now depending how your pc is set up you might hear 'cheesy sounds'....and thus go 'this is junk'.
this is because the track isnt set up properly…not rb's fault ...SOOO…let's fix that.
..right click over track and the loooong menu will pop up.
THEN…>>select specific vsti and youll see a list of synths that come with rb/bb by default.
..lets select the new fab SYNTHMASTER !!
and you'll now see the synthmaster name appear on the track.
..now on the synthmaster track click the fx button…up comes the synthmaster display with oodles of settings and about 2000 presets if i remember.
select type drums…and youll see a ton of drum presets displayed including lots of modern drum styles.
the midi on the track will now trigger any preset you want.
even crazy fx like spaceships or special fx for usage in films etc etc….as well as modern drum sounds useful in many modern song styles.
..now press the play button in rb and youll hear your selected midi drum pattern trigger the selected drum preset in SM synth.
..NOW THIS IS KEY…experiment with tempo and presets. for example some presets might sound better at slower tempos…some examples of thousands and thousands…
.set tempo at 30, select preset 12 zero cool or
.set tempo at 35 and preset # 13 futuristic beats or # 60 edm kick or # 61 hip hop.
IN SUMMARY EXPERIMENT WITH SYNTHMASTER SOUNDS VIZ THE BEST TEMPO FOR THEM FOR YOUR SONG.
youll notice all sorts of modern sounds exposed by experimenting with the presets…
(see preset names as a guide.)....now go and discover the modern sounds you can use in your next modern hit song.
(note there are loads of free and paid drum plugins on the net….and sample players etc etc...i encourage also anyone to buy one issue of the inexpensive computer music uk magazine in order to get the 80 plugins…fx and synths and loads of other unique plugins.
see you tube for cm mag demos and be amazed..
and NO i have no links with cmmag in case your wondering...i just feel its one heck of a deal for the cost of a burger or two.)
………………………………………………………………..

for anyone else reading the above the techniques can be used for any music style using the rb drum pattern generator…generating a pattern track and then inserting a plugin.
eg whether your interest is the latin music genre or rock or ballads or jazz... rb's pattern generator can be your friend for guide drums....
(not just drums but for generating thousands and thousands of sounds/fx one can use on many diverse creative projects...eg films....ive had the wackiest fx out of it too....lol.)
ive kept this simple but i encourage you to bone up on various midi tips in the rb manual…rb is very very deep re midi and lots of unique tricks to discover.

(more tips to come as i get time because i'm also doing my own song projects.)

happiness.

om

Good tip. Thanks for posting.

Thanks Charlie…appreciated.
frankly i think pg needs to do a series of vids showing how to do modern songs and different modern beats and styles using rb. (and bb )...and why certain features are unique....so young musos get cranked up doing modern songs useing rb and see its advantages.
(remembering of course a rb user has all the great rt's
and rd's and loops and supertracks at his/her disposal also....ie spoilt for choice plus 256 tracks.)
One issue of course is what one muso might consider as modern, another might not. for example one young muso might be into modern jazz etc but another might not and be cranked up by edm or rap instead. Thus it's a bit of conundrum what pg vids should focus on.
also 'the scene' and 'what's hot' can vary over time depending on what famous artists young musos follow.

if i remember from my exchanges with the talented Jeff…the developer working on rb…
he uses rb for edm songs ?
for anyone reading this...much as i have loved a very very popular well known daw over the years and in fact
was a very early adopter when it came out and feature requestor...i cant do certain things in it i can do in rb.
rb has many unique features that can help you create songs....(as does bb.)


2..more fun with FTWDP.
(fill track with drum pattern….i call FT.)
before i start let me say ive heard it all from people younger than myself....viz…'ive heard pg products are for you old dudes'...'I can't lay down some cool modern beats with rb ive heard '...'You old dudes just use bb/rb to do elevator music'...etc etc and so it goes….lol.
So someone goes off and spends serious money on other music apps they could have put into their kids college fund without realising pg products are very capable of doing 'modern songs'.
remember this old guy was young once. your hair would prolly stand on end if i ever related what we used to get up to in various music groups i sang in over the years…
(aah fun memories…lmao.)....i was a crazee wild rocker in a previous life...lol.
if you're into modern music styles like edm /hip hop/trap/rap/world beats…whatever before going out and getting various hardware gear like 808's or beatboxes or hardware synths costing thousands…save the money…you can do all these modern styles in rb.

at first glance the FT feature seems like its just for quick midi drum beats…but like lots of pg product features if one takes one's time to delve a bit and be creative it will in fact do sooooo much more ... .just some things to think about…
….Ive seen on various songwriter forums over the years ' I'm dry for song ideas'.
not myself..i have TOO MANY song ideas and not enough time often once i fire up pg products…like rb and start even with just the FT for example driving an instrument plugin like synthmaster or another vsti.
Here's some fun things FT can be used for…instead of thinking of FT as just a simple midi drum track guide generator.

..for song ideas..randomly generate dp patterns on tracks from the FT dialog..then instead of selecting drum patches in the plugin like synthmaster (or any other plugin)...select non drum sounds…eg synths or flutes or spacey sounds and modern sounds…whatever patch takes your fancy... I guarantee youll get a ton of song ideas from this including modern rhythmic (non drum) textures, film special fx …and yes if you're into 'old guy stuff'..even that…lmao.
if..like me you cant afford fancy synth hardware costing thousands due to other family responsibilities…really dig into using the FT feature in conjunction with the synth plugins provided free by pg. crikey just using synthmaster alone with FT i get sooo many interesting sounds and song ideas it boggles my mind. It is a cornucopia of song possibilities.
..'laying down slamming modern beats'...remember…midi is just note and control data etc etc…
It's the plug in that converts this computer data to actual sound.
In conclusion, rb isnt producing the sound…it's the plugin that's gotta provide those 'modern sounds.'
SOOO…if you want 'slamming beats'...use plugin patches that get you that.
Remember you can also use free sample player plugins which will play loaded modern sound samples whether you got them free from a magazine like computer music mag.uk…or you made your own…or you got free off the net or paid modern sound sample packs.
In addition pg content includes a zillion sounds spread out in the various styles/rt's/midi supertracks/rd's etc etc you can generate and then isolate and slice and dice and change pitch up or down once isolated.
for example i once created a rain thunder effect by taking a sample I isolated from a rt and then lowered the pitch of ... .all this can be triggered by FT or rb midi generated tracks driving plugins. it's a cornucopia of possibilities.
you could also load your own vocal samples to be driven by FT….
eg let's say you want a modern vocal sample saying something like 'layin down beats'...just record such, and load into a sample player plugin driven by FT at an appropriate tempo.
The skys the limit. …(and this is before we get into some advanced things you can do later on i will detail in this treatise.)


FOR EXAMPLE the other day i was just mucking around with sforzando timewarp patch being driven by a FT created afrobeat at a slow tempo..and it was as modern as all get out.
finally let me say ive just scratched the surface so far of what rb can do.
it all comes down to HOW you USE the tool..in this case rb.
i dont want to irk anyone but i suspect some people that dismiss rb easily after a cursory look might not be aware of the many things one can do with rb and its extensive midi features.

if you're not aware of the many things midi can do for you…spend some time on the net and via your local library books to learn all the many facets of midi.
eg…for midi learning start here …

https://midi.org/

AND/OR google (midi tutorial)....
and a slew of midi tutorial links on the net and you tube will pop up.


(let me say i dont consider myself a midi uber pro…but i do ponder sometimes if a user new to rb and midi who makes negative comments about rb…might in fact be lacking midi knowledge rather than the problem being some failing of rb…)
rb is choc full of features….and is perfectly able to create songs in any song genre including various 'modern song genres'. like any song creation app on the market ya just gotta experiment with midi data driving plugin patches.
remember you have the flexibility of up to 256 tracks in rb ... .as much as i love bb on complex songs needing more tracks than bb i'll turn to rb.


(if i forget…remind me to detail later on how to get fancy drum solos in rb like we used to do live whereby the drummer would start a song with a hip groove/solo/scat or in the middle of a song.)

more to come.
happiness....and now go experiment with RB fill track feature triggering a plugin to generate interesting modern sounding tracks.

om

3...creating your own unique patterns for drums/percussion and other 'modern sound rhythms'.
(one option of many in rb.)

It always amazes me when someone says a pg product like rb (or bb) can't do 'modern songs'.
I disagree…imho it's all a question of how one applies oneself.
I sometimes wonder if its rb's (and bb's) plethora of features that some creators find daunting so they run for the hills and put down the products. I mean what can pg do if people won't RTFM at a minimum…lol.
whatever song creation tool you use there will be a learning cycle and lots of work involved.
so just dive in and get started like I did years ago….

Here's another rb 'tool' to do 'modern songs' (ms).
It's called the DRUM GRID EDITOR. …it's a very powerful tool in conjunction with the FT tool upthread. DGE, will allow you to create all manner of your modern custom rhythm patterns you can save in your own custom pattern library.
NOT ONLY for drums BUT ALSO to drive any plugin sound you want…eg synth or fx or anything.
you can load your custom made *.dg file using the FT dialog mentioned previously.
here is the link in rb...

edit>>midi>>drum/patch map>>drum grid editor (DGE).

(BIG NOTE...if your going to create a midi track ensure
that the track is set up as a midi track and not an audio track...)
For example today , for fun I created a custom rhythm pattern I then saved…then opened FTWP …and laid a custom rhythm down on a track in two seconds flat.
(all the while thinking…and some call this rb a 'junk app' ?...ya gotta be kidding me…).
then what i did after filling the track with my custom created rhythm using DGE…i plugged in synthmaster (SM)..and got a cornucopia of 'modern song sounds' using sm plugin.
eg #93 lazer kick. just too many many modern sounds to list. someone with a huge library of plugins literally could lay down millions of different 'modern sounds' using the DGE and FT tools and features....
(frankly synthmaster is enough for me due to SO MANY sound and sound mangling possibilities…and sfz the same.)
(also read up in the rb manual various ways to filter midi data....and pitch transpose etc etc to expose new sounds...)

IN CONCLUSION…if you want to build your own rhythm custom pattern library…DGE will let you do this….and thus using the right plugins create zillions of 'modern sounds' or film fx rhythms
or just good old drum tracks…whatever is your fancy.
remember in rb you have up to 256 tracks...so for example you could put 10 different custom rhythms
on 10 different tracks...the possibilities are endless.
(remember to eperiment with different tempos.
eg if a created track rhythm is too 'cluttered'...slow it down and/or do some filtering on it and/or editing.)

more to come.
some may ask 'why is this old (actually i'm not THAT old…lol.) fool om posting these series of tips ?'
The answer is simple…rb has a cornucopia of tools and features…many other music apps dont have.
just recently i tried another popular music app…and yes it had lots of its own nice features..
but moving to it i would lose loads of features i enjoy in rb.

(ps…note for powertracks users reading this…many of the tips will also apply.)

happiness

om

To your point Let's say you are a Reaper user, and I will admit that Reaper is a very slick modern DAW, however if you want to do what you mentioned above it is no better, you still have to use aftermarket Synths. RB has Synth master and that is a cool deal. The midi tools are very robust here in the RB DAW. When you add the RealTracks and Real Drums, Super Midi tracks, and the other unique features it is a deep and powerful DAW.

Does it need a few things? Absolutely. But is has received a few valuable tools over the last two years. The updated Comping feature Jeff added after some discussion made that far more user friendly. There are a few processes that need refinement but overall, it gets the job done and in ways few can rival. I like you JAOM have done a lot of projects in RB actually probably more than any and all other DAW product i have tried.

Thanks Rob for your contribution. much appreciated....you are correct...
(i'm a reaps user from v0.99 and done a ton of songs useing it plus rb/bb combo cos each has their own plusses and minuses.)...
rb has in fact unique features i havent seen in any other music app includeing reaps.

to other rb users feel free to post your own tips…
because as rb is so choc full of features i'm sure i'm gonna forget lots of things.
also i'm hoping new pg users read this...
thus i must go into certain levels of detail that existing long time users would already know.


4..a recap.

if you want a 'modern song' you must use modern sounds…RB HAS ZILCH TO DO WITH IT !!.
Modern sounds can be found in many sources.
viz…
…pg content which is massive. including a ton of modern sounds.
which you can bend/shape/mangle/pitch shift anyway you want….ive done this many times.
…useing plugins with modern sounds driven by midi tracks.
…useing sample libraries both free and paid.
…recording tracks using external hardware.

etc etc…to name a few.

Think of it like an easter egg hunt….in your mind you have a vision for your song...thus begins the hunt for the sounds to realise your vision.
rb (or bb) have nothing to do with it. it is up to YOU to locate or record the sounds to realise your vision.
bottom line is if i or you can't lay down the sounds to realise your song vision…it's not the music apps fault.
I fail many times… it's all part of the creating songs gig…but it's not the app's fault if i fail.
I've seen it many many times on these forums…
'I want a xxx '...xxx being a genre or big name artist or group for example.
pg software isnt stopping you…you can even create your own styles or modify a style.
there's nothing to stop you using various tools to analyse a style or genre you're into…
and then get cracking replicating that style using pg tools/pg content/third party content.
frankly i could do hundreds of 'modern songs' using just SM, sfz and pg's huge sound content and free samples say from cm mag. ie…spoilt for choice.

talking of sforzando that comes free from pg…let me admit my own stupidity in not realising something nice with sfz. (in my defence…lol…i'm no synth expert.)
When I started checking out sfz i was demoing modern sounds by clicking at top left.
THEN one day i said to myself 'hmm what does snapshot do' when sforzando first displayed with the timewarp logo…so i clicked on snapshot and lo and behold a menu appeared and various sub menus/settings i could use for 'modern sounds'.
In summary, really explore sforzando deeply and its timewarp feature including all the various synth oscillators and other settings ... .like synthmaster it's rather amazing for modern sounds.
Let's crack on… lots of things to cover.

5…i want to do a modern song in the style of 'abc famous artist' or 'xyz song.'

i dont condone ripping off anyone. but a truism is various oldie hit songs might have been influenced by and have their roots in music genres of yore…ie…decades or even centuries ago.
.
So let's say a certain modern song or style gets you 'cranked up'..there are many techniques to analyse such…even as a music study/learning exercise.
eg…
..sometimes there is info on the net.
..you can use analysis software which will report such things as tempo and chords etc etc.
eg in pg products check out the audio chord analysis feature ACW.
(see pg vids to save me lots of typing ... .NOTE rb supports 'fractional tempos'.)
maybe you have, like i do…lots of rough song demos from years back done in studios…and you want to create a new pro modern song vibe for such. nothing to stop you doing that in rb.
For example, just import your old demo into rb and apply the ACW.
I did this the other day with an old demo of mine for fun.
even though i knew the chords to my old demo…i saved lots of typing by letting the RB ACW detect the chords and only had just a few chord changes to make on the genned chord sheet.
(note…dont expect song analysis software to do a perfect job. some effort will be needed on your part.)
After getting the rb chord sheet i decided to start checking out the tons of rb stylepicker midi styles..and demoing the styles WITH MY CHORD SHEET in rb viz my song.
If I came across a style that cranked me up I would save the style in my folder for the song.
(I urge you to have separate song folders for each song you're working on.)

let me say at this stage in song development in rb…i like to work fast…so i find working with midi tracks lets me do that.
(Later on I will experiment with modern sounds in other pg content like rt's//rd's//supertracks etc etc.).
Now some people might enter in the rb stylepicker 'modern sounds' or whatever.
i dont do that…because from experience i find i miss lots of cool pg content.
(unless it's just a quickie demo to see how well my vocals/lyrics work.)

If I want a serious song result I put in serious work.
just mucking around yesterday in rb stylepicker…i found a mind boggling amount of modern pg sounds i could use or dice/slice/change etc etc to make my new version of the old demo i did years ago sound great. in addition i found that just using sforzando and synthmaster plugins
I was overloaded with ideas for the new song version.
the problem ive found with having oodles of plugins is there are so many sound 'eggs or nuggets'...one never finishes a song.
So I limit myself…make sense ?

addendum.

a tip the user might find usefull re the ACW.
on a fast song its sometimes difficult to place the bar lines...sooo...i slow the song down by 50 percent
prior to invoking the acw. this makes things a bit easier.
just an idea.

more to come.

happiness.

om

6…Rob Helms recently posted why he uses RB to do tunes over other music creation app software….here's the link….very interesting post in case someone has missed it.

https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=809740#Post809740

kudos Rob.
---------------------------------------------------
7…more ways to analyse a song and/or learn it after importing to RB.
(or maybe you want to redo an old song of yours but you never made production notes when you did the rough demo years ago…lol..(been there done that)...but now lots of people have told you that's a 'cool song'...and/or some music org/entity is super excited/wowed about the songs potential and want a more flushed out 'modern' version…ie..actually you might actually make money...)

8...There are lots of interesting views and approaches in RB to help you.…(RTFM…lol.)
Here's some examples….

..if you do it right notice how the timeline in rb tracks view reflects chords of the imported midi file…and chords in chords view.
..notice the funky useful re-interpret feature in chords view for both midi and audio.
(i jused this recently to quickly analyse an old audio demo of mine.)
..notation view (<<<< PLEASE NOTE I'M USELESS AT NOTATION…so i'm hoping other rb users can post tricks about such.). but let me comment...
maybe having analysed your old demo and derived
the notation…notation view might be useful if say your in a band and want to print out the notation to show your bandmates or say a session muso your bringing in ??
..classic view provides various info…eg events/patches etc etc.
..guitar view is kinda neat cos let's say you have a midi stream…it will show you notes being played etc. an interesting aspect of this might be maybe youve loaded a pg song demo.
using this you could see the notes the pg session players played…might be useful to see how the pro's do it eg midi supertrack..?
..event list…i could go into various aspects…but in the spirit of brevity…please read the manual.
Lots of seasoned midi users are very creative with event lists. (lots of info on the net too.)
..piano roll of course allows you to do all sorts of editing and other tricks.
Once again it might be useful to see how a piece was played by a pg session muso ??
and of course it will allow you to edit a genned midi track.
..bars view…one of my fav views over the years…with various uses.
eg let's say you have a mate playing midi piano but you like a lick at bar 29 for 4 bars but not bar 99 for 4 bars. just copy the bar 29/4 bars to bar 99/4 bars.
Also there are lots of funky things you can do in bars view like copy/paste sections of midi spread over one or more tracks to new tracks . Here's an example…let's say you like tracks 14 thru 19 for bars 39 through 49 and you want to to copy to new tracks you can do that.
a really funky tip also is maybe on track 29 you have midi driving a fav vst but you want to test with a different vsti…without disturbing track 29…SOOO copy one or more sections of track 29 to a new track…say…blank track 39 that you call vsti tests…and then on 39 plug in your other vsti(s) you want to test and mute 29.

I hope the reader new to rb is starting to realise, as I said, rb is choc full of features one can use if one digs a bit and develops one's own custom tricks and work methods over time.
yes the gui/dialogs are dated...BUT...start working with rb and go thru the initial learning cycle...and hopefully youll find it very usefull like me (and Rob and other users) over other music apps.
dont forget...as Rob says...all the huge numbers of pg session music tracks you can generate in a ton of different music genres. in summary....
RB is really unique in music apps.(like biab is.)

more to come.

happiness.

om

9…how not to create lots of wav files that chew up disc space.

One critique of rb is the number of wav files generated e.g. from real tracks…
and thus use up lots of disc space. to be fair to rb ive used other daws that still use up lots of disc space for a song of course and they DONT have the unique rb (and bb) track generation features.
but there are ways to lessen the creation of oodles of wav files.
Here's some techniques to consider….after creating a new song chord sheet in rb (or bb).
(what i often do.)

..initially when auditioning styles in the stylepicker…and i audition oodles of them so i dont miss a great 'nugget of sound'...in the stylepicker is a feature to log a style as a favorite.
so log the styles as fav's. (note ensure in picker you have double clik style to play using your chord sheet is enabled.)...
also you could note in a text doc rt's and other pg content id's that really 'crank you up' regarding your song….or just save the style as they are so small in a sub folder of your overall win folder and call the sub 'potential song likes'.
..often suddenly…which has occurred often to me not just in rb (and bb) but in life one goes THAT'S THE ONE…(or maybe with some tweaking and substitution of existing tracks or track additions it could be the one.)..it's sorta like how i met my wife. for years i didnt find 'the one'..thought it would never happen/gave up…then bam by happenstance when i least expected it i knew i had met 'the one'...
lol…and I was the one needing 'tweaking'…not her.
soooo…when you get the style that's ' the one' or 'maybe the one'...what i do is mix to stereo…and load into rb..and proceed from there doing vocal tests…as well as using midi track generation…(rb menu GENERATE…). in summary i have just one track that's a wav audio file song guide as it were and this allows me to test out not just my vocals and iron out nuances in eg vocals by singing along with the guide stereo audio wav but also generate midi tracks and then add plugin vsti's eg sfz or SM or other plugins and see what great sounds i can expose that compliment the pg content.
As I said before, midi tracks let me work fast.

…NOTE…you can also drop midi and wav tracks into rb if you wish using the drop station....eg from biab.


hth…more to come.

happiness.

om

Great suggestion. One thing i do is to use the Exterior hard drives i have collected through the year. I like to take a song file when i am done and move the stems and complete file including all the .SGU instructions to one of these drives and make sure it is archived then remove it from the internal drive. This way i save it in a place where it is not in danger of being erased. Tghis keeps the internal drive cleaner and fresh.

A picture will say a 1000 words (rather than having to read so many) and an animated GIF even more.
If you want to encourage users to use RB add some screen shots or gif's between all the text.

Add an attachment then:
"You can optionally inline an attached image (embed it into your post body) by clicking on the image below."

mcity.

unfoftunately i know my limitations...including the fact that im useless at vids and graphics...lol...
your the graphics master....but i dont have your ability.
so i cope the best i can. ...thanfully my vision is improving after the brilliant eye docs did their thing....


happiness.

Rob.

thanks for your contributions...hopefully all the tips
will help new users.

happiness.

om 🇨🇦 🇬🇧

1. Press "Print Screen button" on keyboard
2. Irfanview press "Ctrl+V"
3. Select section in pic to crop by dragging mouse "Ctrl+Y"
4. "Ctrl+S" png or jpg

Great input Pipester, you are the master of the gifties!

sigh…mini rant…

it's very easy to be critical of something one writes.
In the case of rb…if i just say rb is 'great'...people will ask for more info...or i could say 'ive used rb feature xyz and its great'...and a new user will probably in her/his mind go…the fool didnt say why and go into details.
These types of topics I'm covering I dare 'anyone' to explain without going into lots of detail.
it would be the same if i had to go into a reaper feature and detail some interesting different things I can do in reaps and tips and methods….in the past ive had to get into lots of detail re reaps when explaining to new people.

In summary i can't win…whether i keep it brief or go into detail...anyway..i won't be putting in this type of effort again….once is enough cos it takes lots of time away from my own song projects.
In addition…imho the unique features in rb need to be detailed in a series of vids by pg entitled something like..'Reasons to use rb and its unique features for music production.'

I also feel strongly that pg (via news releases perhaps ?) should get music production mags like sound on sound, musictech, computer music mag uk and other major music production mags and web sites.. to review rb (and bb)...because from my own interactions with many musos over the years and trying to assist them in setting up decent recording rigs…too many are just not aware about what these nice pg products can do. many times ive been met with 'huh ?..never heard of it.'...
Then they go bonkers with lust when I show them what rb (and bb) can do and some tricks…as in…
'it can do THAT…holy moly' and other expletives i won't mention…lol.
(note i dont pretend to be at talented charlie fogels wonderfull level of expertise re bb.)

In future when someone asks for rb details i'll just refer them to this thread…to save me retyping.

In closing let me say if rb was the only music production app on the market available on the market…lots of production people and musos would say '..yes it has 'quirks'...but i can still do great songs with it'. think if this had been on the market decades ago with 256 tracks and all its unique features.

mini rant over….i'll try and keep things as brief as i can.

10…mp3 creation in rb.
for some reason i can't put my finger on…maybe pg have some special mojo…but ive used the mp3 feature in rb more and more (eg songs in my sig)..and like what it produces.
and i'll leave it at that in the spirit of brevity…except to say rb can import and export in various formats people might find usefull. (RTFM.)

more tips to come which i'll try and keep as brief as possible.

om

Rather than all the development time spent on Biab, to make Biab a DAW, why was it not spent on RealBand to put the Delphi generate code directly into RealBand generating tracks up non destructively without having to run BBW2 in the background creating and render tracks to a hard drive full of wav files with massive SEQ files ?
It's just all so wrong how it all works without much thought for tomorrow. PG don't seem to initiate the right thing in the first place unless they are forced to do it, like apple forcing them to go 64bit, and there are going to be more things coming, as mrgeeze posted https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/05/logic-pro-takes-music-making-to-the-next-level-with-new-ai-features/
Is there going to be a mad rush panic attack to catch up when more and more things FORCE them ?
At the moment they are flat out programing the Mac version with the same things they spent the previous 6 months doing on Win, while other companies already have crossplatform version of their software out released at the same time.
Ask yourself.

mcity.

you always make very good points.
i'm sure we will see the gen speed and new multipicker (both i love)..in rb.
its only logical.

as ive said before ages ago i very nearly did a daw as i was working in tech and knew many many top notch programmers. At that time I was very and I mean VERY frustrated with market music app offerings.
however…once i got into the deep coding nits/grits i realised doing a daw was not a trivial effort…even with hot shot techs.

I'm just trying to be fair to pg. There are two sides to any tech coin.
imho what pg has done (and i suspect will do over the coming years) isnt trivial imho.
so i have lots of respect given the size of the company that they have built quite unique music production apps
given the various technical challenges.
Are there 'quirks'/probs that need to be addressed ? yep…but this is no different than we faced in industry whereby although we used very talented people…the user base was always wanting more and never remembered the successes only the failures even though we tried VERY VERY hard to satisfy the user base. including user base departments that couldnt even agree between themselves.
twas ever thus....'office politics'..

Thus, I have sympathy for pg's situation and respect them….'quirks' and all.

fyi just this week i looked at a VERY EXPENSIVE daw costing BIG MONEY…and it couldnt do things rb does.(it did have lots of nice features of its own though..)
as always with any daw including rb there are pluses and minuses.


now 'please' let me finish the tips i wanted to get down to help new users who might get past rb's 'various quirks' and over time realise that as you and i both know rb has various interesting
unique and useful features.

greatest respect for your contributions of solutions in these forums including the latest bb 'big clock'.
well done.
i will be posting what i hope are more interesting tips soon.
i'm sure i will miss something...so other rb users feel free to contribute your own tips to help new users.

happiness.

om

11…Fancy drum Solos. ( and other solos ?...lol.).

Why do I create songs ? …my wife says it's some 'primal urge'...lol…and would you believe..
She even heartily pushes me to do more and is a great critic of my work which is why I dedicated the 'Pretty Girl' song in my sig to her for her patience.
Maybe it's because I come from a very musical family…dunno. but for me it's all about enjoyment and having lots of fun. I agree with Dr PG…have lots of fun.
Part of that fun is finding new ways to do things with what one has and be inventive like the brilliant hit song 'telstar' decades ago in the 60's that needed a special effect so they used a 'toilet flush sound' reversed. (just google telstar.)

So let's consider for fun how to be inventive with drum tracks.
note… in my rb/bb wishes ive suggested that drums should be treated differen from other musical instruments and deserve their own special features and tracks.
but until those special features are included in rb/bb there are many things we can do including getting drum solos for song intros or in the middle of a song, and even creating 'illusions' of two drummers in a song.
In summary there are many ways to have fun and be creative in creating drum tracks.
I'll cover those alternatives as follows…

1..please read these tips of mine as one technique to save me from retyping.

https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=797927#Post797927

2..another fun alternative.….useing bb/rb midi generated drum tracks.
in bb and rb you can generate lots of midi tracks NOT ONLY for drums but also a cornucopia of loads of different midi instrument tracks in tons of different music genres...(includeing 'modern genres'.)
we can use these instrument midi tracks in new ways…one being 'drum solos'.
huh ? Is he nuts ? I can hear you thinking…. well actually NO…there's lots of fun to be had using instrument midi tracks in new ways….via experimentation.
for example…let's say we want a funky drum solo at beginning of a song or as an intermission scat in the middle of a song…here's a couple of ways…
..remember the fill track with a drum pattern feature ? experiment with different drum pattern (dp) files. for example just because the song is a rock song…let's think laterally and use other drum patterns and/or ones youve made yourself ie there are lots of dp standard patterns you could use or modify. so generate different dp tracks…and then experiment with editing the best bits together to get a funky drum solo going with a drum plugin vsti or see what you can do with the free pg synthmaster or sforzando plugins with their own funky drum sounds.
the skys the limit…..if you also try various editing tricks.
eg in rb bars or tracks views you could mix n match n mash up loads of different patterns to create intricate drum solos.
..purposely create midi tracks generated in styles meant for instruments but then instead of the instrument…use drum patches. also experiment with tempos etc…and here's a MAJOR tip…
in piano roll let's say you see the midi notes for an instrument or drums track…once again experiment with moving midi notes up and down (from eg…a genned midi track for an instrument..) driving a drum plug in.
eg you have a midi piano track genned…copy it to another track and insert a drum plugin or synthhmaster (for modern sounds)...and see if you can get a funky drum solo with some editing in piano roll.

In summary there are many ways to get interesting drum solos…its a question of using all the features at your disposal and testing.
For example, people say doubtfully 'I cant modern drum sounds'...i totally disagree.
just a few weeks ago i had generated a single note midi stream not meant for drums…a solo for another instrument and plugged in synthmaster and got all manner of modern drums.
to summarise you dont have to spend big on sample packs etc etc and other paid software if you're willing to get 'down and dirty' with various approaches.
Now 'PLEASE' see what you can do with the above hints for creating drum solos....there's LOTS OF FUN to be had.
(its interesting to note from what ive seen over the years
on the pg forums...many people with deep expertise in midi often appreciate rb's very deep midi features....
and dont run away from rb....in summary if you would take the time to RTFM for rb..and spend time with rb..
and develope midi expertise..you'll be rewarded.
let me say..even though ive used rb for a long time...
i still find neat rb features to use.)

(more to come.)
happiness.

om (who isnt THAT OLD…lmao.)