You don't want to buy anything, but just for those interested, the Tyros 2, 3, or 4 has incredibly good brass.  I assume the Motifs have the same or similar sounds.

I use Vienna for most brass things, but if I need falls, shakes, and other jazz-type aritculations, I go to the Tyros 2.

Suprisingly, my ancient JV-1080 has some great sounds on the expansion boards, particularly the saxes and double horn (French horn).

daveny5

I use Band in a Box but.... the downside to band in a box is that you can not tell it what to play...as in a specific melody.

What you can do with BIAB is export to a MIDI file and load it up in Sonar and add whatever other tracks you want to it. 

kind of..... but not in any useful way.... 


Sure, you can export to midi and edit.... BUT.... you can not export to.... or convert to midi from a real track, which is what I have in the song I referenced. Which means, when you convert to midi in BB you get midi sounding tracks that are only as good as the synth you now use to play them. 

I have tried to convert to midi from real tracks and while I believe there is a function that supposedly lets you get a midi track.... it is not articulated or humanized in any manner. 


BB is amazing for what it is and what it does, but that is the one drawback to using it. You can not tell it to play a specific melody. 

Guitarhacker

daveny5

I use Band in a Box but.... the downside to band in a box is that you can not tell it what to play...as in a specific melody.

What you can do with BIAB is export to a MIDI file and load it up in Sonar and add whatever other tracks you want to it. 

kind of..... but not in any useful way.... 


Sure, you can export to midi and edit.... BUT.... you can not export to.... or convert to midi from a real track, which is what I have in the song I referenced. Which means, when you convert to midi in BB you get midi sounding tracks that are only as good as the synth you now use to play them. 

I have tried to convert to midi from real tracks and while I believe there is a function that supposedly lets you get a midi track.... it is not articulated or humanized in any manner. 


BB is amazing for what it is and what it does, but that is the one drawback to using it. You can not tell it to play a specific melody. 

If I'm following you correctly I don't see the problem. You export the MIDI from BB. You then export the audio track(s) or find where they are located on the hard drive. You import them all into Sonar. Now you can add melody whether it is audio or MIDI. I don't see where the difficulty you suggest would arise from. Also, I believe you can indeed enter melodies into BB. Dozens of the included files have melodies and I have also done so myself.

Yes, I just double checked to see. You can enter a melody into Band in a box via notation. You can record a melody via MIDI (or audio, obviously). You can also Import a MIDI file to melody. Not sure why you claim it is a limitation.

i used to love edirol Orchestra Hq

OK... let me splain this again. 

Yes you can do what you say...easily. 

However, take a project in BB..open it in real band to render the real tracks. Now you have a "you got what the program decided to do" scenario. It is a great track most of the time but it will not be what YOU might want.  If you decide to render that to midi so you can edit it, that can be done BUT it is not possible to get the midi track to sound anything like the rendered one. I have tried several different ways to accomplish this...all without success. I can get a midi track but it is not even close to what the real track sounds like, it is a very midi sounding track. 

I wanted to do some editing to a real track that BB exported as audio on a piano sample. Convert to midi did convert it to midi, but it sounded nothing like the original. My plan was to apply a synth piano sample I have to get a better sounding piano part but with the notes and articulations in the original rendered part..... could not make it happen. 

I have tried, I have called BB support, and posted in their users forum and no one had a satisfactory answer. Tech and the advanced users agreed with me, that what I wanted to do was not currently possible in any way in the current versions of BB. 

A shame you can no longer get hold of the free Kore Player which, when i got hold of it, came with a shedload of free samples, including some great horns, trumpets, trombones & saxophones.

However, take a project in BB..open it in real band to render the real tracks.

I didn't mean to imply that you should convert audio to MIDI. I just meant to export the MIDI tracks generated by BB to a MIDI file and load that into Cakewalk. 

I don't want to get my wallet out for this one

 
depending on how much the sound of the horns mean to you. i found that only 3rd party library's offer the best in samples, articulations, and tweakability. but if you have a basic foundation in arranging and somewhat midi savy, you can get away with a few things, with the stock sounds that come in Sonar. but as your projects become more and more ambitous, be prepared to break out that wallet.

Guitarhacker


OK... let me splain this again. 

Yes you can do what you say...easily. 

However, take a project in BB..open it in real band to render the real tracks. Now you have a "you got what the program decided to do" scenario. It is a great track most of the time but it will not be what YOU might want.  If you decide to render that to midi so you can edit it, that can be done BUT it is not possible to get the midi track to sound anything like the rendered one. I have tried several different ways to accomplish this...all without success. I can get a midi track but it is not even close to what the real track sounds like, it is a very midi sounding track. 

I wanted to do some editing to a real track that BB exported as audio on a piano sample. Convert to midi did convert it to midi, but it sounded nothing like the original. My plan was to apply a synth piano sample I have to get a better sounding piano part but with the notes and articulations in the original rendered part..... could not make it happen. 

I have tried, I have called BB support, and posted in their users forum and no one had a satisfactory answer. Tech and the advanced users agreed with me, that what I wanted to do was not currently possible in any way in the current versions of BB. 

Herb,


Maybe you should explain that real tracks in BIAB is "audio only" clips created by BIAB based on the chord arrangement styles chosen. IOW, it is not MIDI playing a VSTi.  These audio clips are from a library of pre-recorded audio of a "real" player.