Band in a Box and Tracktion?
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- KVRAF
- 9096 posts since 5 Feb, 2004
Just wondering if anyone has used Band in a Box, and if you were able to integrate it into your workflow with Tracktion. I'm getting it at my boss' recommendation as a practice tool, but I know you can output midi and it also comes with some sort of vocal harmonization deal. I've never actually seen it, so I getting it on blind faith.
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- KVRist
- 110 posts since 21 May, 2004 from Pennsylvania
I'd recommend Jammer Professional 5 from Soundtrek (www.soundtrek.com) over Band! Band does some nice things but is very awkward to work with for many things. Jammer is set up much more the way a Producer/Engineer/Songwriter thinks, as they construct a track. Band also limits you to 6 virtual performers, where Jammer gives you 256 MIDI tracks to work with, which enables you layer parts and easily build an arrangement. It's also a breeze to build your own styles in Jammer. Don't get me wrong, Band has some cool little features, but I find myself continually using Jammer when I need to generate parts for a song. Both Band and Jammer export MIDI files that will import perfectly into Tracktion.
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- KVRer
- 13 posts since 2 May, 2003 from Salt Mines
I agree that Jammer delivers. BIAB definately does what it does well(as advertised on their site). Both have very loyal users. I like em both.
BIAB spits out some really neato melodies and solos especially on the trad jazz vein. Great stuff if you want to learn to improvise.
Jammer can generate some killer grooves and fills and generate progressions that frankly i wouldn't have thought of in a zillion years.
Both pgms in my opinion are quite powerful for what you spend. To make them work for you I think you really have to wrap your head around their manuals and tutorials (especially BIAB which has hours of them).
Both have very active forums which if you check them out you will probably get your immediate questions answered.
How you integrate either one or both of these pgms is definately up to you and I think will depend on your musical chops and understanding of these pgms and your instrument(s).
I think these pgms will surprise you though.
me 2 cents.
BIAB spits out some really neato melodies and solos especially on the trad jazz vein. Great stuff if you want to learn to improvise.
Jammer can generate some killer grooves and fills and generate progressions that frankly i wouldn't have thought of in a zillion years.
Both pgms in my opinion are quite powerful for what you spend. To make them work for you I think you really have to wrap your head around their manuals and tutorials (especially BIAB which has hours of them).
Both have very active forums which if you check them out you will probably get your immediate questions answered.
How you integrate either one or both of these pgms is definately up to you and I think will depend on your musical chops and understanding of these pgms and your instrument(s).
I think these pgms will surprise you though.
me 2 cents.
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- KVRist
- 300 posts since 11 Feb, 2003
I installed the Jammer demo but I cannot play anything because when I use only Remote 25 Audio I do not have the Microsoft Midi synth available to choose as a midi output device. I have it when I enable the regular sound card but I want to play through the Remote 25 Audio...anybody knows how to use the Microsoft midi synth or is there any other general midi synth that can even use ASIO for low latency?
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- KVRian
- 500 posts since 27 Nov, 2003 from Oslo, Norway
Hmm, is Jammer available on Mac? If it requires a lot of manual reeding, im not interested, though..gitardad wrote:I agree that Jammer delivers.
Both pgms in my opinion are quite powerful for what you spend. To make them work for you I think you really have to wrap your head around their manuals and tutorials (especially BIAB which has hours of them).
I think these pgms will surprise you though.
me 2 cents.
Is Garage Band serious, or is it just a groovebox toy?
Kim
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 9096 posts since 5 Feb, 2004
I got Band in a Box because iis multiplatform. And GarageBand is a cool scratchpad, but hogs resources and has limited editing capabilities. You need a nice new G5 to make it usable IMO. But it is an amazing value for $12.50.
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- KVRian
- 500 posts since 27 Nov, 2003 from Oslo, Norway
a G5???braj wrote:I got Band in a Box because iis multiplatform. And GarageBand is a cool scratchpad, but hogs resources and has limited editing capabilities. You need a nice new G5 to make it usable IMO. But it is an amazing value for $12.50.
My god, and I was looking forward to get the new 1,5 G4 powerbook. Man, Mac should do like old Silicon Graphics machines, many times fasster then Intel, and quad processors on the motherboard(wasnt it?) And a lot of ram slots, i do remember corectly!
That would set the price tag in respect, for shure!
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 9096 posts since 5 Feb, 2004
You can get away with a G4, I'm overemphasising the CPU usage, but it is quite a lot, compared with Tracktion. Apple uses reverb and delay to make the software instruments sound nice, and this isn't well optimized. If you do six or more tracks, it can start to bog down. They really need to include an 'all effects off' setting for composing, and a freeze/render track option would be hugely helpful.
Anyway, GarageBand put me over the edge and made me buy a PC. It sorta pissed me off. It really is a simple, relatively powerful app (and sounds very nice), but I couldn't justify getting an iMac since it still would have issues, which for most things besides music would have been fine, and a G5 was just too expensive for me, so I bought an HP instead. I wish I could have gotten a Mac, but damn, they're expensive. I'm saving for a G5 Powerbook when the eventually get released, but no more desktop Macs for me, I'm afraid.
Anyway, GarageBand put me over the edge and made me buy a PC. It sorta pissed me off. It really is a simple, relatively powerful app (and sounds very nice), but I couldn't justify getting an iMac since it still would have issues, which for most things besides music would have been fine, and a G5 was just too expensive for me, so I bought an HP instead. I wish I could have gotten a Mac, but damn, they're expensive. I'm saving for a G5 Powerbook when the eventually get released, but no more desktop Macs for me, I'm afraid.
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- KVRian
- 500 posts since 27 Nov, 2003 from Oslo, Norway
I agreea, no more desktops, so I thought, as well as talking to apple dealers last summer in europe, that it should be available G5 books in the summer of 2004... Yea right! They just released the 1,3 and 1,5 G4!!! Ill bet it will take one more year, and theyl cuf up something like 1,3 1,5 and a 2Ghz in a serias, where the 2Ghz is to expensive for you, hah! Cant you see that clearly happening? Dam! Heck you could already get a 3Ghz intel lappy a year ago!braj wrote:I'm saving for a G5 Powerbook when the eventually get released, but no more desktop Macs for me, I'm afraid.
My old G4 867mhz book is to slow, but a 1,5 G4 will not eksactly have a 3 year life, like my old friend...
Should I just get a PC lappy in the mean time? and use the old mac for all the iLife stuff? (all my pictures, music, movies, links, and adresses, and so fourth) It might be worth it. Though id have to carry two laptops around, if going away for longer periods of time, witch I thus intend to. Is XP good enough for somebody that went to mac because of windows 95-98?
I hated windows, and im not a tweeker, or P.C. know how dude at all!!
Im a bit of topic, sorry
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 9096 posts since 5 Feb, 2004
There's some things I hate about Windows, but honestly XP is a lot better than 98/ME etc. Apple's got the iLife thing down though, I got a Windows desktop to get the best of both worlds. IMO don't get a Win laptop, there's all kinds of driver issues for all the little crap that comes on them, and everyone I know has had problems.
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 9096 posts since 5 Feb, 2004
So, what would be a good plug in to use to play GM drums (I'm assuming Band in a Box exports midi drums as GM.) In OS X there isn't a decent free Soundfont player, but I'm not sure Soundfonts are the way to go anyway. Any advice? I want fairly realistic sounding drums.
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- KVRian
- 1272 posts since 11 Apr, 2002 from Nashville, TN
BIAB finally has a vst plugin that works in Tracktion/Waveform. Odd thing... it still feels older than this thread.