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https://www.villagevoice.com/2021/12/27/the-strange-history-and-vibrant-players-of-the-hammond-organ/ (thanks to a thread at MusicPlayerNetwork)

I got my wife a pair of these for Christmas.

Imagine if she said, now I don't need to borrow yours.

So with the first livestream of the year in the books, it was a lot of fun discovering this amazing collection of instruments. Each one well recorded and presented in a very caring and effective way. Catch the replay here:

Everybody makes different kinds of music and has different kinds of workflows. BIAB has become a useful tool for me. Maybe not for you. I started using BIAB when it came out in the 80s. It was a fun toy, but I would have abandoned it decades ago if it stayed all MIDI. What interests me are the Realtracks--audio tracks played by real musicians that are put together with algorithms. And I also wouldn't be interested in BIAB if I didn't have as many of them as I could own. I've never once used BIAB as a way of generating musical ideas. I always write everything on my guitar and/or MIDI keyboard before going to BIAB. Once I spend a few minutes putting my chords in, it's a way of checking out the chords of my song in various styles and genres. I can hear over dozens of different styles with a click. Imagine how long it would be to do the same using the appropriate expansions for EZDrummer, EZKeys and EZBass. You'd have to go through them one by one and explore all the different expansion packs. And of course, BIAB also has acoustic and electric guitars of and dozens of other instruments. (Obviously Toontrack instruments have other benefits) I may have thought I wrote a folk song when it actually works better as a rock or jazz or synth-pop song. How about a ukelele? Or maybe speeded up or slowed down. I can experiment with keys to make it easier to sing or play. Easy experimentation. I did a video about this. Working with BIAB I can easily figure out whether out how many bars the intro should be, verses, choruses, whether I have a key change, and coda. Once I decide on a structure, I can send it to my DAW (I don't use the plugin) where I can perform the song. I find it easier to play with a band than with a click track or even drums. In the old days I would always play the guitar parts, but now, with my arthritis, I'm more likely to use other guitar VIs. I might even use EZBass for the bass part. But if there's something BIAB does that I can't do, I have no issues with putting some BIAB tracks into my songs. The background vocals you can get from BIAB are more realistic than any other product currently available, so why not use them? A sax solo is pretty hard to do with a VI. I did a video on generating a sax solo, but that video is now completely obsolete, because the new version of BIAB makes it super-easy to do within the program. It's almost like they watched my video. 😀 To me, there's no difference in building a sax solo in BIAB (which takes dozens of creative choices and gives you control over the result) over hiring somebody on fiverr to play a sax solo for you. So there is no question in my mind but that I will buy every style they sell. I regret not going for their bonus paks in the past. As that database of musical possibilities expands, BIAB becomes more useful for me.

I'm excited to announce the release of Brushed Nipple Gongs, a new FREE PROTOTYPE instrument for Kontakt 6 users. Be sure and watch the Youtube video and go grab the samples from https://www.jonmeyermusic.com/prototypes other prototypes there also, that are free, or Pay What You Want!

Why are they merely brushed? Shave those d@mn things!

Geez, my wife is going to think I'm visiting a porno site.

My wife hated hers! But I only got her one. Could that be the reason? Yea, I bet that's it.

Wait a minute. What is brushed? The gongs or...

I know I need these, I just do.

Judas Priest - No Surrender

The Jam - Beat Surrender

I've had no problems using the plug-in with Reaper. Also, would like to say this seems to be the best BIAB upgrade in years. The multi-riff feature has been upgraded and is working really nice. You can highlight a range, generate a few riffs, choose the best one, then select another range, repeat till done. Very useful and easy way to build up a tune.

I have 73 keys on my synthesizer. I think there may be one that I've never played. I have 88 keys on my piano. Even my cat has played all of them.

$24.99 - info here https://hgsounds.com/product/serenity-group-buy/

Testing the new Christmas gifts, sampler and synth... loving them.. second part with tiny bit of guitar break, i should have done more, really goes up a gear but i wanted to keep song sort... hope you like ... Happy new years to everyone

This started out as a construction around an altered version of the hymn I played using both cello and violin. Since I wanted the piano to carry the melody, the violin actually got in the way and I changed my direction. The cello holds a minor supporting role here to the piano. I used a felt piano to get a softer more distant sound on purpose. The players are pulled back about 35 ft. on the stage and panned using 2C presence. I had some concern I might loose the presence of the piano in mono. Since I didn't pan much I hope a listen on a phone won't loose much.

$59 - Requires FULL Kontakt 6.6.1 https://cinematicalpha.com/pages/concilium

Just got this and of course will share more after I install.

I only use one limiter on the master. I try to have a healthy dynamic range and stereo filed with some simple tricks to have some sheen and loudness. I am no expert but did work for ITV as a tech engineer so i know technically a bit about sound engineering has i was one lol. I find other things more important like you mention the "sheen" and the warmth or shine depending on the soundtrack or vibe. Here some simple tips which will help you, they start at the mixing stage because you cant really make a bad mix or recording sound that great has you know. Better the mix better the sheen.... Tip: Do a low and high shelf cut (20hz-20khz) on nearly "all" tracks at mixing stage, helps reduce hiss and rumble to aim for that "sheen" and headroom that builds up on all tracks when your not cutting, frequencies you can't even hear, so my stereo premaster i will also cut to the sound i want getting close as possible. Not cutting tracks creates at least two problems, often more. I say "nearly al tracks" because i will also do bigger EQ cuts on certain instruments and less on others. So lets say my kick drum sits at 50 to 100hz i will totally cut some tracks low shelf more than 100hz if it doesn't effect the track sound i am cutting, like a hi-hat you can do big low shelf cuts and be more careful with the high shelf. However on the other hand i wont do a 100hz cut on my FX track if i am using impacts and thuds or they would have no impact or thud and we don't want to loose anything that helps the overall sheen, we creating space and reducing mud. You know what sound your guitar or instrument needs to sound like so don't over cut so it doesn't sound like the instrument you want it to sound like. However if some instruments are sharing a frequency we can loose shine and get mud or phasing or stereo issues. So we counter with panning like a band on stage for width and subtle reverb/delay for depth and/or cutting a hole in one instrument frequency by a few db and and boost the other up a few db so they complement each other more. Example If the bass is also at 50 to 100hz same as the kick you got a battle going on and it pushes up the master db loosing headroom and effects the sheen and even mud with overlaps. Most people will turn one up on the fader, bad idea has you chase your tail when mixing turning other things up loosing more headroom, fact its better to turn one down but a cut is better with sheen in mind. We can use the cakewalk pro channel/track eq or Sonitus multiband is a great tool to cut ranges like the example 50 to 100hz kick range maybe 1 to 3db or the bass by 1 to 3db depending on style of music so the master or pro channel db is still the same db and keeping headroom, i might even put a subtle reverb/delay on bass to move in behind or in front keeping the sheen and not creating mud from the overlap frequencies as we don't want to make cuts everywhere and end up sounding to fake with digital processing. More space we have to play with we then can add more life for sheen by adding saturation to glue some harmonics and have that sheen. If we just always push fader up, lots of people do this and it pushes up the the crap, we lose headroom and end up with more noise, hiss rumble and less sheen. We want to create our own noise and sound with saturation and exciters etc to keep the sheen or make it better. hope that helps a bit, im not great at explaining on txt

Thanks Jim. I’ll also check out Reid’s video and groove3 class before jumping in. In 2022 I’m hoping to spend more time writing full songs haha. I have a million songs/ideas started but then lose focus and jump onto something else. I’m hoping maybe adding structure and a different approach will help.

@kevin H The usual advice from users in the Band-in-a-Box forum is to purchase as much as you can afford. My advice is to first decide how you plan to use it and why you want it, then select a package based on your plan. If you want to learn how to use the program and what it has to offer the ProPAK or MegaPAK are good starter packages. You'll get the same programs in the starter packages that are in the higher priced packages; the difference lies in the amount of content each package contains. The program has a lot of features and depth to it. It takes awhile to run through the program, learn what features are available, the terminology used and essentially, just get use to using the program. Both the ProPAK and MegaPAK have enough of all the types of content to fully use all the available program capabilities. One frustration many ProPAK or MegaPAK users encounter is they want to use content their package does not contain. The program "conveniently" marks each piece of content you haven't purchased as N/A. You'll see content that likely matches the project you're working on and it can quickly get frustrating. If you quickly want to begin creating song projects, get the UltraPAK or Audiophile. Both contain all package content but the UltraPAK has lossy audio files while the Audiophile has lossy and lossless. Send me a pm if you have any questions.

Eli Krantzberg has a great tutorial on using BIAB for Songwriting on Groove 3. I loved the different methods he showed of generating ideas, and using parts from what might seem disparate styles in your existing session. To be honest, I've never been that into the middle-of-the-road styles that BIAB generally has, but it's amazing what you can do by using just one part out of context. Here's the course overview: Tutorial 1 - Creating a Melody (7:25) In this first video, use the Band-in-a-Box Melodist function to create a melodic idea for a chord progression and arrangement in a DAW. Tutorial 2 - Exploring the Melodist Maker (10:26) Learn to use the Melodist Maker to create a custom Melodist and hear how it interacts with different styles. Three separate melodies are generated and brought into the DAW, where they're edited together to create a single, unified melody that matches the chords and arrangement. Tutorial 3 - Using the Chord Wizard (7:31) Next, discover the Band-in-a-Box Audio Chord Wizard and hear how it's used to generate chords and tracks supporting a melodic vocal idea for a song chorus. Tutorial 4 - Creating Harmonies (7:15) Explore Band-in-a-Box's ability to generate doubling and harmony parts from existing audio. Hear examples on vocals and guitar! Tutorial 5 - Creating a Guitar Part (7:27) Learn how the Band-in-a-Box MultiRiff feature is used to create multiple variations of a guitar part - based on your chord progression and rhythms - with custom shots and pushes. Tutorial 6 - Creating Better Harmonies (7:40) In this video, discover Band-in-a-Box's advanced harmonizing options, including the ability to export MIDI conversions alongside the generated audio. Tutorial 7 - Creating a Piano Part (8:19) Learn how to have Band-in-a-Box create a fully fleshed out piano part based on your original simple chords, in your choice of musical styles, using RealTracks. Tutorial 8 - Creating an Arrangement (10:36) See how the Auto Generate Chord Substitutions and Auto Generate Chord Reharmonization functions can be used to reinvigorate a simple melody, with examples in various styles. Tutorial 9 - Creating a Solo (11:24) Next, explore the Band-in-a-Box Soloist Maker and its ability to custom design solos and fill lines. Tutorial 10 - Creating an Intro (8:50) Hear the Band-in-a-Box's intro generating feature in action as it's used to create inspiring intros to match specific styles and chord progressions. Tutorial 11 - Creating a Chorus (6:31) In this video, see the Band-in-a-Box automatic generation feature in action, creating a chorus that harmonically and stylistically matches the preceding verses. Tutorial 12 - Generating Random Ideas (5:47) Finally, learn how Band-in-a-Box is used to generate random ideas based on your user input. Individual parts from multiple ideas can be used either independently or in combination as the basis for songwriting inspiration!

Yes a quality YouTube channel lol You might notice from September 2020 the quality got better when i moved from a little a 8track to my first song on DAW Cakewalk which was Wisdom of an Angel although the mastering was not great but im still getting there with mastering, thanx

Fleer, I am with you on this. I am going to wait for the 39.99 price point as well.

And that’s when I’ll bite. No sooner.

Edith started a band on her own. Not nice.

Eventually it will hit the $39.99 sale level...and with a $25 voucher will be $14.99

did a quik A/B on a setting , hard to match for the ik without filter ....(the lack of filter is why , i remember , makes me not using it that much) Gui is indeed crisper

They usually have bells in them, right? So we're still good......

I phoned a suicide prevention helpline last week........... I told the lady who answered that a month ago I met the most beautiful girl in the world and she's really into me. Won't leave me alone, if you know what I mean. Anyhoo, I was feeling so lucky that I bought a lottery ticket for the first time ever and I won 39 million, so I went straight to the swanky car dealership and bought the lamborghini that I've always lusted after and they gave me a 20% discount too. Now I'm having my dream house custom built and I asked my girl to marry me. I know it's a bit sudden, but it just feels right, She agreed, but only if there is a pre-nup that gives her nothing in the event of a spilt because she doesn't want people to think that she's after my money. "So what is your problem?" the lady asked. "Oh" I said, "I don't have a problem, I just thought I'd let you hear some good news for a change." Shut up. It's the CH...old jokes are allowed.

My wife rather wished I was watching porn instead of Thomann.de again

I remember when I used to think Musicians Friend was one. 😉

I particularly like the suicide prevention sign right next to the big sign. 😁

I'd trade the gongs in if they would only include a squeaky-toy into the fakies... 😁

I am such a cheapskate. I wanted the Brainworx bx_console AMEK 9099 for a low price and darn it, Larry came through for me and posted it at an amazing $99.99 Now, I got a $25.00 Loyalty coupon to use that will bring it down to and Amazing $74.99 and I am still too cheap to buy it at that price, what the heck is wrong with me!! I think Waves messed me up with all of those $29.99 plugins. Oh my God, I have been ruined by Waves cheap pricing architect. 😭 😭

Yes it's reliable...

I need to keep the nails of my left hand filed short for guitar fretting duties. But I like to pick my nose with my left little finger, so I need a nail on it. How do I reconcile these requirements?

Saxon - Crusader

Saxon - Never Surrender

Chuck Berry - Rock 'n' Roll Music:

TIL this fun fact: the most iconic bass line in history - talking about the Seinfeld theme, of course - was not played on a bass. It was a keyboard. Yeh, and the guy who played it was probably the un-coolest nerd in the band. The one with a "Math is Cool" t-shirt who plays D&D on Thursdays and knows for a fact which one was the best Star Trek captain. Take that, you cool bassists with your dark glasses and your motorcycle boots and, and, and your girlfriends.

This is a super group buy! Highly recommended.

The DAW plugin is pretty cool. And you can still bake your own songs, while using BIAB for session backing tracks to jam with, and as an idea generator.

Just a heads up - I'm getting a lot of crashes with the BIAB 2022 plugin. This doesn't seem to be a CbB issue, as it crashes Reaper too. Studio One 5 doesn't crash, but frequently pops up error dialogs. I've raised a support ticket with PG Music. The crash only seems to happen when the UI is open, so you can mitigate the issue for now by turning off the audio engine before opening the plugin UI. You can switch off the engine by clicking this button: If it's white as shown above, this means the engine is running... so just click it to turn it off before opening the BIAB plugin UI.