Originally Posted by JAPOV
Originally Posted by Fdemetrio
it just SEEMS to me all this software from many companies are all groove oriented. And they are REALLY designed to make you write your song TO the stuff they provide, and not as much to make their parts TO your song.

Its like im not buying this stuff to help me write songs, im buying it to help me arrange them


Bingo!... I purchased the $99 version of BIAB back in November, used it once for a piano track and gave it back. BIAB gave me no control over phrasing, and limited what samples I could use by "style/genre". Ultimately, I was dissatisfied with the sound... I found myself re-arranging my mix to accommodate the "character" of the piano.

GB/LogicX on Mac are very MIDI intensive, if you can at least play chords on a keyboard then you're all set. If you play an E-kit it gets even better, but you can also program drum parts with a keyboard. Or, use the pre-programmed patterns to "block out" your arrangement, then edit. I like GB/LogicX because it an easy to use, all in one program. It already has every "effect/plugin" you can possibly imagine, and allows you to create and store your own. It has arpeggiators that you can program and play any way you can imagine, you can even double them up, but....lol, no... Mac will not play your instruments for you.


My version of BIAB was about $400, I think. It was their 2nd or 3rd tier offer. It was a special that they told me offered all of their entire library, with some limitations of some kind.

I cannot phrase the piano solos and wish I could.

What I can do is pick a style and then set a few parameters concerning how closely it will follow the chords and vary the notes durations. Then I can use a function called multi-riff which spits out seven variations on a solo at a click . Sometimes they are pretty bad but once in a while they are pretty good. And if they are pretty good , I can usually do a little cutting and pasting between the seven variations and end up with a convincing result.

I've been working on a song for going on 3 months. Most of the time is spent watching instructional videos about how to use the software. I completed an 8 bar piano solo in BIAB that I really like. I'm going to send it as a guide to NashvilleTrax and see if a real player can improve on it. I'll post it up when done. You can issue your own verdict. smile

Sidenote: I tried using EZ KEYS to embellish a piano solo that I banged out on the midi. I watched a video where you load in a midi of your playing and then assign EZK parameters that embellish it. Sounded like crap. But maybe one day.

https://soundcloud.com/sunset-poet-of-texas