PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic Discussion, suggestions for style content (cont...)

Hi Jim.
That got me thinking so I asked AI: "What is the difference between billboard's top 100 of today and 30 years ago?"
Answer:
Today: The Billboard Top 100 of today showcases a diverse range of music genres, including pop, hip-hop, R&B, EDM, and Latin music. There is a significant presence of rap and hip-hop artists dominating the charts.
30 Years Ago: In contrast, 30 years ago, the Billboard charts were more dominated by rock, pop, and R&B music. Genres like grunge and gangsta rap were emerging but had not yet reached the mainstream popularity they enjoy today. <end of answer>

My personal appeal to the Coders, Developers and Peter Gannon is for more relevent RT's and Styles for todays music. On form I doubt this will happen but the competition is about to become scary

izzy...

with respect i can get a zillion modern sounds...in pg apps.
see my tip in tips forum...you can do any modern genre you want
includeing your own custom styles.

it continues to beat me why people think that pg products cant do modern sounds n songs. realband developer jeff uses realband to do his own edm songs.

if you want a modern sounding song then use say pg synthmaster
or another sound source. driven by midi tracks.
synthmaster alone hax a cornucopia of modern sounds.
also nothing to stop you izzy generating a pg rt then slicing n dicing n editing it to get a fab sample you can put in a sample pkayer plug in and triggered by a midi track...the skys the limit.

eg lets say i want in a modern song a repeating vocal...
'i got some beefs'...just record such n edit n drop into a sample player
etc etc...driven by midi.

as i worked in tech for many years...yes ai is very interesting ...but in the end even with ai any song is work.

hth

om

OM.

I can slice and dice samples and load them into any favourite sampler, patch midis to the best synths on the planet and even make my own user tracks
until the cows come home but, meh.....

The magic of BIAB is instant gratification via the availability of genre friendly Real Tracks and styles.

(but I will go and have a squiz at your tips)

Hi Izzy,
I was thinking about different types of musical files such as WAV, MP3, MP4, audio loop, midi, effects, VSTis and so on that Band-in-a-Box can utilize. You appear to be thinking of the music genre content Band-in-a-Box offers.
Several users have posted songs from the music genres listed in the User Showcase; some to prove it can be done and some because they enjoy current music genres.
Band-in-a-Box can use almost any audio source or tool (except for VST3 plugins which is promised sometime in 2024) a DAW can use.
The key take-away to using Band-in-a-Box to make current music is you have to use your creativity different. By that I mean you have to learn to use the tools in Band-in-a-Box to structure your modern song the way current songs are structured, not the way you may have created a song in the past.

I agree with you 100%!

I also share the enthusiasm of Floyd and others about this amazing software. I have written and produced hundreds of songs that I really love and that would never have been possible without BIAB. I've even made enough money with my work to almost offset the yearly upgrade costs. So, I am very happy with BIAB.

My interests have mostly been with classic rock, country and folk and maybe a bit of alternative rock. These are areas where BIAB absolutely excels. I can come up with an idea for a bluegrass or country or rock or folk song, write some lyrics, write a melody and then enter chords into BIAB, audition some styles and minutes later I have something as good as many professionally written and produced songs (at least to my ears!)

But I disagree with the claims that creating modern music with BIAB is anywhere near as easy as creating classic music with BIAB. When I'm focusing on classic stuff BIAB is like an encyclopedia of suitable styles, all ready to go with very minimal alteration needed. But when I want to write something more modern BIAB is far less helpful, at least to me. And yes, I get that you CAN create any kind of music in BIAB. But the whole point of BIAB, at least for me, is to help me quickly lay down the instrument tracks. If I have to do the same heavy lifting in BIAB that I would do with libraries from Toontrack or Native then honestly I'd much rather use TT and NI in my DAW.

So, I also appeal the the devs and coders and PG to focus a LOT more on modern music. I go further and say we have enough bluegrass, country, jazz and rock tracks so a focus more on modern stuff would be most welcome to me.

J3 and izzy.

i just dont understand why people feel they cant do modern songs in pgmusic apps....

heres the issues...

1..you both want modern rt's...but which ones that pg dont provide ??
please provide example modern songs and sounds you feel pg content is missing...bearing in mind synthmaster alone i can get a slew of modern sounds.

2..any year whats 'in' re modern song styles and sounds might be different than next year...there are literal!y millions of possible sounds out there. so how do pg cope with this...its like constantly shifting sand.

3..if pg try to provide another eg...1000 new 'modern' sounds..lets say....to keep users into modern sounds happy ...there are implications like ballooning download times...as not everyone in the world has uber fast fibre net service...
so how can pg address this problem ?...and some users ensuing comp!aints re download times due to slow net services.

wouldnt it make sense given the above that pg users use midi generation features in bb and rb in conjunction with plugins with a ton of modern sounds in ?

honestly im not trying to be awkward...im just trying to suggest re above there are no win downsides for pg....thus its a catch 22 for pg.

i would love to know how pg solve the various issues.
cos in the past if ive wanted modern sounds i would generate midi tracks in pg apps and these would drive plugins and sounds i selected.

let me add why im carefull with sample libraries cos there are downsides...

1..they are so huge often and time consuming thus they interfere with my creation rhytm when im trying to get song ideas down fast as creative ideas flow.
2..the time spent going thru menus...for example in last month i saw a loverly lib...but realised i would have to expend not insignificant time with it.
3..because sample libs can be so large...once again cos the producers trying to keep their user base happy like pg with pg users...then people might complain it takes a long time to navigate like some pg users complain currently due to the vast.pg content....even if pg went the music genre seperate pacs route.

throw in the fact pg offer their products in different languages..thus i would suggest respectfully it might become a maintenance nightware for pg.
its like an old boss of mine in tech used to say to me 'you try to solve a problem bulge in a balloon in one area...only to create a problem bulge in another area...'.

haveing worked with some of the above aspects in tech in the past ive found there is no perfect solution to keeping user bases happy...cos....any way one looks at it the developer is in a no win situation and developers get user complaints over and over.

if pg users have any solutions to the above conundrums im sure that pg woukd love to hear them...cos...like we used to do in tech...we were often haveing meeting after meeting to find some breakthrough ideas to keep users happy...but no matter what we did...in the end.....complaints ensued.

let the solutions to above now flow cos im out of ideas how to keep pg users happy all the time based on my time in tech and tearing my hair out too many times...lmao...

happiness.

om 🇨🇦🇨🇦 🇬🇧🇬🇧

I didn't say you can't. Read my post.

I can make modern music with my comprehensive library of tools like Native Instruments and Toontrack and others.

And, I can make classic music with Native Instruments and Toontrack and others too.

But what I love about BIAB is, for classic music, I can make the music a lot quicker with a lot less hassle than using those tools.

All I'm suggesting is to add much more focus on modern music in BIAB instead of having the bulk of every new upgrade consisting of more country, classic rock and jazz!

j3...

re your last paragraph...i completely agree.
eg ive got enough bass rt coming out my ying yangs in those styles.

but to get what you want then out of the zillion styles and sounds out there...if were me i would give example sounds and songs to help pg out. pg arent mind readers.
i tried once re the lottery and failed miserably...lol.
is that fair comment ?

keep rocking.

om

If only there was some sort of resource out there. You know, something like this,

https://www.billboard.com/charts/

j3.

of course mate but its not as simple ax that.
did you not read my post about other issues...like...
bal!ooning ultrapaks or audiophile paks size ? how do pg handle that ??...so users dont complain ? or users with slow net ?

even say pg had a special department always adding sounds like the top 200...maybe some users might not be happy.
we had same problem in industry...getting groups of users to agree.
what might be one users fav pizza combo might not be another users.
which is why suggest its a no win situation for pg.

keep rocking.

om

j3 and all users wanting more modern song content.

Critique this idea.

to cover pg logistics maintenance personnel and other costs and given the dynamic and ever changeing shifting sands of the top 200
how about the following...

1..each year a user wanting lots of new constant pg modern song content pays a small added fee...thus covering pg's costs...
in return...
2..each quarter a user can download a new small pac of modern content...ie...new styles and sounds.

ie through each year pg is monitoring the top 200 re new hot trends and sounds.

the advantage of the above idea would be the downloads wouldnt be onerous for users around the world with slow net services.
ie basically it solves the size problem by doing things in bite sized chunks..whaddya think ?? wou!d this keep users happy wanting more modern song content ??

just an idea.

keep rocking.

om 🇨🇦🇨🇦 🇬🇧🇬🇧

Or, how about this...PGM continues doing business like they do now but they produce more modern music and less jazz, country and rock? And we continue to send them the money every December like we do now.

j3.

but what modern content ??
every sngle new sound in the top 200 ?? and style ??
only ones hot that are 'in' in the year ?? or artists ??
but only hot artists might cheese off other users into more alternative non hot artists ?
how do pg decide what new content to provide without detailed user guidance ??...ie whats ones persons meat might be anothers poison...per a roman philiosepher.

please put yourself in the position of pg staff deciding which new modern content to include each year...and the types of thought processes they go thru such as ...i suspect...

1..ok message received loud and clear our user base wants lots of new.modern content. but what content ??..per my opening sentences.
2..what the heck are we gonna do about the ballooning size of our content libs we ssue each year ??..
3..how do we keep users with slow net services happy ??
ie it might take ages for such users to download and get fed up in the process.
4..how do we handle the added different language issues ??
5..what about staffing impacts ??

please j3...answer the above questions and conundrums...
what are your solutions to the 5 points above ?
assume you have your own tech company striving all the time 24/7 to keep diverse user groups all over the world with different cultures and languages happy ?? what would you do ??
im curious to hear your answers to the questions ive posed.
its ok for users to say 'we want modern content'... but the devils in the details....

believe me the logistics are not trivial for the service provider.

i wish you only the best...and look forward to.your asnswers.. if you were tasked in a tech company with keeping diverse groups of users all over the world happy....
i wont even get into the fact that what we in the western world consider modern...people on the asian and african continents might not.

happiness.

om 🇨🇦🇨🇦 🇬🇧🇬🇧

JAOM, you will never convince anyone with that argument. Why? Because every person wants what they need to make what they want to make. It is human nature to see things from our own vantage point. To your point, there are literally thousands of modern EDM, Rap, Hip hop etc, libraries out there in loops, (a feature PGM refine over the last few years) This type of content can then be used to make songs and also make User tracks. VST3 will upgrade another need in modern music. The ability to use better libraries to make tracks.

triple Johns point about it being easier to use BiaB to make Jazz, Rock, Pop, etc has some validity. Still to make the other types of music it takes a bit more work. Personally with looping i don't think it is harder than using a DAW, but still takes more work. What i think would help is to create a couple really good videos on looping modern sounds to create these style tracks. Maybe add a few EDM or Hip Hop RTs to the next couple years If your going to create 225 new RTs how about 25 new Hip hop bass and piano, and 25 new electronic drum sounds them you still have 175 new pop rock country Klezmer and jazz sounds! Hey when is the last time a really good Klezmer tune hit the top of the charts!!! Oh yeah when it battled for dominance with Polka!

.

Floyd, I understand your frustration. I actually really do understand. Many people appreciate where you are coming from, but perhaps not everybody, and then things lose focus.

Your initial post is still the most valuable. Most will agree.

Same here.

I was going to answer OM's 5 questions until I read your post Floyd. The very positive start of this thread has been hijacked enough.

OM, start a new thread with your post and I will answer all 5 questions, probably not to your satisfaction though.

OM.

In days of yore when seeking ideas for a new song my first port of call was BIAB but that is no longer the case. I now start by exploring a sample manager such as COSMOS or ADSR. In the search field I might typically type: cinematic , fm, dance, urban, house, hip hop, lo-fi, electronic, pop, dark, acoustic, edm, modern, synthwave, ambient, trap, atmospheric, breakbeat, soul, dubstep etc etc. At the press of a button voilà - modern contemporary samples which are hiding somewhere on my computer or are available on the web. But after aquiring the desired samples there is work to be done with the risk of losing inspiration and motivation.

As you correctly alluded to OM, samples can be manipulated and placed into a sampler but I have often thought why doesn't BIAB get their Developers and Coders to make a few RT's and Styles in some of the above mentioned genres ? The few RT's currently available that claim to represent some of the above......well.....less said the better.
OM,I think you also alluded to the need for speed to capture inspiration so I repeat " The magic of BIAB is instant gratification via the availability of genre friendly Real Tracks and styles."

OM, For the sake of brevity on other issues that you have raised I agree with John3 on all the points that he has addressed.

Just so everyone knows - I am not bagging PGM. I agree 110% with Floyd's expressions of approval and praise for the brilliant folk behind BIAB. I hope they keep on keeping on, after all, I've been a happy user of BIAB since late last century!

mario.

ok i agree...when i have time ill start a new thread focusing on the diverse needs of users re modern sounds.
and various opinions can be detailed.

i was just trying to mentionto to j3 and others some of the problems
service providers often face.
eg its ok to say to an architect...i want a house...but then the architect has to find out a ton of specs and details of needs of the buyer.
om out.

happiness.

om

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