The Steel Guitar Forum

Has anyone decompressed both the RealTracks and RealDrums? I decompressed the RealDrums and the styles load a little faster as the RealDrums don't have to generate like the RealTracks. I experimented and found out how much hard drive space is required. Yowza! I left the RealDrums decompressed and wound up erasing the wav file RealTracks by "archiving" in preferences. This erases the wav files when there is a smaller wma file available. Man, those real tracks really take up some space. If I had the hard drive space available I'd like to have all the RealTracks decompressed so they load faster.

Andy,
Did you get that RB File???

When I installed BIAB I enabled de-compress real drums and real tracks during installation....big mistake!
Couldn't do it....ate up whole hard drive after just like 5% was downloaded.
Had to delete program and reinstall without decompressing tracks.
I'm still very new to this so I'm not sure what happens when you go to use an uncompressed file....does it uncompress just once, the first time you use it?
Or does that happen each time, causing a delay before the song loads?

Tony, you have to wait for the tracks to load when using real tracks every time you use the play button so once the tracks load be sure and use the "replay" button after that to play the song again.

It usually works out best due to the size of the real tracks, to put them on an extra drive. I use a usb external hard drive 500gb, but you can now get 1tb for not much more money.

Keep the main program on your main drive usually (C) drive, and put all the real tracks and large file stuff on the external.

Yep, I use a USB 2.0 hard drive with uncompressed files and that seems to be the best way to go.

Big files, Big program - small $$$ for the drive.

Do keep the BIAB programs on your internal drive.

Also be aware that IF you place your Real Drums and/or Real Tracks on an "External Drive" you must go into the Options Menu then either the Real Tracks Options and/or Real Drums Options and indicate where to look for the audio files (which folder i.e. D:\audio).

bo

Ok, some great suggestions, especially using a seperate hard drive with uncompressed files.
Now I have a question: how do you get the real drums tracks to be enabled and play in place of the midi drum files, if you're using a ready made file from someone else?

Tony Palmer wrote:Ok, some great suggestions, especially using a seperate hard drive with uncompressed files.
Now I have a question: how do you get the real drums tracks to be enabled and play in place of the midi drum files, if you're using a ready made file from someone else?

OK ... first a couple of important items. Real Drums/Tracks are AUDIO files recorded to match a specific STYLE of music at a targeted tempo,key and time signature. Both the tempo and key can be changed (within limits) but not the time sig. or the style. (note that some styles work with various other styles, i.e. blues or rock).

So the first thing you must do is determine what the STYLE of the music you want to work with is and what its time sig. is i.e 3/4, 4/4, 2/2 etc.

Informed with that information you can then begin to search for a Real Drum/Track that will be appropriate.

Here is how:

Open up the song file you wish to work with.

At the top is a list of the "instruments" active in the song (not all instruments are active in all songs).

Right mouse click on the DRUMS (in your case) and choose "Add/Remove Real Drums" [none for this style may appear] just keep moving on . . .

This will open up a list of your installed Real Drums and provide a detailed description of their style content.

Choose a Style from the list on the left with a single Left Mouse Click. You may see one or more "variations" of this style in a small box on the lower right.

You can play your choice without first "loading it" with several options in the lower right area of this window (highly recommended) or just proceed without hearing a "version" of what you chose.

When you are happy with your choice and think it will work depress the OK button. You shoud now see the "instrument name" i.e. DRUMS in GREEN. The green indicates that it is now using REAL DRUMS.

This takes you back to your song. Click the PLAY button and you will see BIAB Generating your realtracks. This will take a while the first time through but will begin playing when it has completed.

Choose REPLAY to play again without going through the "regeneration" process or PLAY to create a different version of the same style.

NOTE: It can be a big help to play your song several times through before trying to choose a Real Track type. Get the beat and style in your head. Then as you "audition" different Styles you will come closer, quicker than just a "stab-in-the-dark" type of approach.

Also, as with most things, the more you do it the easier it becomes.

Good luck and blessings to you.

Bo

Thanks a million!