Constructive Criticism, Please

[Al Marcus]

Bob-I heard the original and steel sounds good nice tone, but all the advice is good from all the guys. The drum too loud, steel should be up in the mix, etc. but all in all very good...al.

[Brian McGaughey]

Hey Bob,

Nice! Just the smallest amount of intonation issue against the BIAB boys grabs my ear near the end...nothing serious mind you...I'd be happy to play as well as you! Good tone, too. Oh yeah, too much kick. All my opinions. (You asked!)

A couple of ideas about BIAB. I've been going in and and editing the bass lines generated. I won't go into how to do it here (unless you want), other than to say DO NOT START BIAB WITH "START", rather use the "+" sign which plays the tracks with the changes you've made. Clicking "start" will regenerate all the tracks and you'll loose your work. I like a little more chromatic interest in my bass lines than BIAB generates.

I then make a wave file of each individual instrument and import it into Sonar. Vouila! I can control each instrument level, effects, eq, etc. Then add ME!

Also, "high string guitar"... http://www.daddario.com/Resources/JDCDA ... Tuning.pdf

[Al Marcus]

Brian-Sounds like you got it all together. I dont know how to adjust the individual bass lines, which are most critical to good perfromance, also drums, in BIAB. Is it easy to do? I dont want to get into a steep learning curve at my age.LOL> All I know how to do is change the chords , endings, etc.to suit me as sometimes they are too bland for my style of playing. I would appreciate any advice you can give. Thanks...al.:)

[Brian McGaughey]

Brian-Sounds like you got it all together.

Ha! Don't ask my wife!

As a courtesy to Bob's thread, I'll start another in Recording to explain it, Al. I'll do this in a day or two when I've got some time in my practice space at my computer there.

[Bob Snelgrove]

Thanks, Brian

Tell us how to!


bob

[Al Marcus]

Ok, Brian, I'll be looking for it...thanks...al.:)

[Brian McGaughey]

Since it sounds like Bob doesn't mind me explaining it in his thread...

OK, I've got an older version of BIAB so I hope this holds true for the newer versions. To change a midi part in an arrangement:

-First press play to generate the parts. Then stop.

-On the main menu go to "Window/Lead Sheet Window" or use shortcut key "alt + W".

-Click on the letter "B" all the way to the left on the top of the page. The bass part on the Bass Clef staff should come up in the notation window.

-Click on the eighth note button near the top of the screen on the left. Now you should see the bass part on the lower portion of the screen with the familiar tool bars on the top.

-Click on the letter "N" which you'll find on the bottom row of the top tool bars, 3 buttons over from the left. This will toggle the staff between three views: Regular non-editable, Editable and piano roll editable. The second editable style is easiest for me. This is the one that shows vertical broken lines.

-You can now press play and see a new bass line each time you do. To start the song and NOT generate a new bass part press the "+" button or "Ctrl + A".

-In this view you can drag and drop the existing note, or delete it by right clicking with the mouse right over it. To move the note to a different spot on the staff, put your mouse over it, hold down the left button and drag it where you want it. You'll hear it as you do.

-The lowest tool bar at the top pertains to this process. I won't go over every bit of it but you can check it out.

-You can hear your notes by selecting the little speaker and note button all the way to the right on the lowest tool bar. This allows you to hold down the left mouse button and drag over the staff from left to right to hear hear the notes. You can also hear them in real time without losing you work by using the "from" button as described below.

IMPORTANT: When editing like this, do not use the start button or your work will be lost as the song generates a new part. Use the "+" button or "Ctrl + A". Then to pause use the "H" button or "Ctrl + H". This will allow you to press the "H" button again and resume from where you paused. Another useful tool when in this mode is the "from" button or "Ctrl + F". This allows you to start from anywhere in the song without generating a new part.

This can be a slow process but if you just have a few spots to change it's not bad. Give yourself some time to get used to doing it, it takes awhile to get the hang of it.

I usually render my song to a wave file right away so I don't loose the new part. In fact, I direct render each instrument using the Roland VSC3 giving it it's own track and then import each individual track into Sonar. Just mute every instrument except the one you want to render to wav by right clicking them at the top and turning them red color. I've had no timing problems with this but I could imagine that a real time render could have timing problems when all the seperate tracks are combined.

You can build melodies this way on it's own midi track, too. This would be the melody part you see near the top next to string, piano, etc.

I hope this is helpful and you can make this work for you, guys!