RealBand 2011 New Features Guide

RealBand 2011 is here with 50 cool new features!

RealBand 2011 is more powerful and easier to use than ever, and now it sounds better than ever too. Weve made big improvements to the sound of the RealTracks with a new lastique Pro V2 time stretching and pitch transposition engine so that they sound more natural over a much (3x) wider range of tempos. And weve made the size of the RealTracks much smaller, so that they now only take up 30% of the space that they used to. The new version will shrink the size of your existing RealTracks too, so that you can free up lots of space on your drive. You can now have RealTracks styles changes within a song, and generate Soloist Medleys - solos that play RealTracks instruments during the solos. Soloists can now have a bluesy setting. RealCharts have been added, so you can see, and print, notation for the RealTracks you generate. There are lots of improvements to the StylePicker, including additional columns of information, new filters, auto-generated memos, and the ability to use Band-in-a-Box MultiStyles (up to 16 substyles) with RealTracks. There are new MIDI and audio transpose options for key signature changes, replacing the previous Yes/No dialog for MIDI transpose. Tempo changes are easier too, with improved audio time stretching from the new lastique Pro V2 time stretching and pitch transposition engine. You can now generate MIDI solos and MIDI harmonies, and also add audio harmonies to audio tracks using the built-in audio harmonies feature in Band-in-a-Box and PowerTracks Pro Audio. Plus there are lots of helpful improvements like clicking on the Chorus Start/End buttons to assign the bar number, updated fly-by hints including volume and pan settings in the fly-by Track window hints, a new Mini-View mode for the Track window, support for long track names and long Band-in-a-Box style names, and many more!

Here are the new features in RealBand 2011.

RealTracks Enhancements Weve made big improvements to the sounds of the RealTracks, so that they sound more natural over a much wider range of tempos with the lastique Pro V2 time stretching and pitch transposition engine by zplane.development. These improvements are built-in, so theres nothing you need to do to get it working. Your existing songs will just sound better over a much wider range of tempos and transpositions. Please watch the demo videos for audio examples of the improvements. Weve made the size of the RealTracks much smaller so that they now only take up 30% of the space that they used to. And the audio fidelity is improved, since it sounds

better over a much wider range of tempos with the lastique Pro V2 time stretching engine! You can now have RealTracks styles changes within a song, and generate Soloist Medleys - solos where the RealTracks is made to switch instruments every N bars or every chorus. Either use the pre-existing Soloist Medleys in the RealTracks Picker or define your own. For example, you can add a Bluegrass Medley Soloist that switches between solos from Mandolin, Guitar, Banjo, and Fiddle every 4 bars. Or a Jazz Medley Soloist that switches between Alto Sax, Trumpet, Piano, and Guitar solos every chorus. Or insert Silence as one of the instruments, which allows you to play your own instrument. Triple Time RealTracks have been added. These allow you to use fast waltz RealTracks as slow 4/4 RealTracks (with a 12/8 feel). We have made some new 12/8 RealStyles that use this feature. RealTracks can be made as Half-Time/Double-Time/Triple-Time, so it is easier to select them, and they show up in the RealTracks Picker with tempos indicating when they can be used. For example, Alto Sax, tempo 140 will also show up in the RealTracks picker as Alto Sax, tempo 70 [Double Time] so you can easily choose it. RealTracks sound more musical when stretched to extreme tempos. In addition to the major audio improvements when tempo is stretched by lastique Pro V2, the RealTracks soloists sound more musical when stretched to extreme tempos. This is because musicians tend to play more ahead/behind the beat at slower/faster tempos. This is a done automatically. Existing Jazz RealTracks are enhanced. Phrasing is improved, with more pushes to sound more natural. Playing over non-Jazz chords (triads) is improved. RealCharts notation, bass tab, and on-screen bass fretboard now displays for some of the Jazz Swing Acoustic Bass RealTracks. Some styles have better playing over m6 and 6th chords (e.g. the new Gypsy Jazz styles). Some RealTracks have a simpler variation with less complex playing (e.g. Acoustic Bass Jazz Swing). RealCharts for RealTracks RealCharts are now implemented for those RealTracks that support them, with a menu option for generating RealCharts when generating RealTracks. This is a powerful tool for learning, arranging, and chart printing. RealCharts Notation and the Guitar fretboard are improved for some guitar styles (e.g. Brent Mason). Now you can see bends in blue on the guitar fretboard. StylePicker Enhancements New StylePicker Filters show you only the styles that match your search criteria. These help you to select the style that you want, by allowing you to specify: Even/Swing feel,

8ths/16ths, tempo range, # of instruments, specific instruments (e.g. styles with Banjo), specific RealTracks Artists, RealDrums Artists, Real styles or MIDI styles.

For example, if you are searching for a Jazz Ballad style that is all RealTracks, has bass, drums, and guitar, works for a tempo of 60, with Swing 8ths you can set this filter and then only see styles that match these criteria, instead of a list of thousands of styles. New StylePicker Columns added # of instruments in style, e.g. 4. Whether any required RealTracks, RealDrums are not installed, e.g. NA. Whether a RealTracks substitute for a MIDI style is available, e.g. sub. StylePicker columns now have headings that show descriptive popup hints when they are moused over. Auto-Generated style memo added for each style. This lists names of all instruments, # of instruments, RealTracks/RealDrums used, whether any required RT/RD are missing, and more. Example Memo: _BOSAMDF.STY. Bossa Med slow FreeComp Gt (110RS) All RealTracks. Trio. RD: BossaTerryClarke^1-Brushes , Terry Clarke RT921: Bass, Acoustic, Bossa Ev 110, Neil Swainson RT923: Guitar, Electric, Rhythm BossaFreeComp Ev 110, Oliver Gannon StylePicker display is wider on bigger monitors. Other New Features include: You can now get a list printed out of current contents of the RealTracks Picker dialog. Hold the Shift key and press the [Update] button. MultiStyles (with up to 16 substyles) made with Band-in-a-Box will play with RealTracks in RealBand. Expanded and improved hints are now present for most dialogs. New Flash messages for quicker work flow. The Tempo Change Warning message has been converted to a Flash message, and various other messages were converted to Flash messages as well. The hourglass stays on when generating a song, or individual RealTracks, etc. to inform the user that the program is busy.

RealBand verifies the folder locations for Band-in-a-Box (BB), RealDrums (Drums), and RealTracks (RealTracks): Selecting an incorrect BB folder creates an instant Flash message. Selecting an incorrect Drums folder creates an instant DIALOG. Selecting an incorrect RealTracks folder creates a DIALOG once you exit the main folder selection menu. Folder checking on boot up. If the BB, Drums, or RealTracks folders don't exist on boot up, a Flash message will appear to warn the user. When choosing a MIDI style, (or generating a song using a Band-in-a-Box style) RealBand will confirm that the BB folder exists, and if it doesn't, it should open the dialog that allows selection of BB folder, along with a Flash message saying c:\bb\ folder doesn't exist, please point to the correct location of your BB folder. Folder checking on boot up. If BB, RT, or RD folders don't exist on boot up, a Flash message will appear. Transposing and Tempo Changes Key signature change dialog now has a Transpose combo box, with additional settings made possible by the new lastique Pro V2 time stretching and pitch transposition engine: no transpose transpose MIDI only transpose audio only transpose all (MIDI and audio) The previous Yes/No MIDI transpose question dialog has been eliminated. The Tempo dialog now shows up where the mouse was clicked for greater convenience, and it has optional checkboxes to Stretch Audio and Adjust all tempos proportionally. When starting up Band-in-a-Box features in a new session, a Flash message will say "Initializing accompaniment functions... please wait." to notify the user of the delay. Song Generation The Song Generation preferences now have an option to "Allow Auto-RealTracks tempo substitution based on tempo."

The Generate menu has added items for Generate MIDI Solo, Generate MIDI Harmony, and Generate Audio Harmony.

Tracks Window The track names could not be seen in entirety so we added the ability to display longer track names, they now spill over into the second line. It will still display the patch, or the audio track type, if there is room after the end of the track name on that 2nd line.

Audio tracks now are drawn with a background color which makes it clearer as to the location of specific events. There is a right-click menu item in the Tracks Window to highlight the current Audio Event. This makes it easier to select specific audio events, which then could be clicked and dragged (with Ctrl button held down) to a new location, etc. Right-click on the RT### in the Tracks window has a Show RealCharts Notation menu item if a corresponding RealChart track exists. A new "Mini View" mode has been implemented for the Tracks window. It has a shorter track height. When loading an .MGU or SGU file, unused BB tracks are automatically put in MiniView mode. When you have multiple tracks selected, Track | Remove Track now removes them all. The ability to scroll left & right in the Tracks window during playback by clicking on the horizontal scroll bar has been added. And many more The long style name from Band-in-a-Box is now shown below the style name. Pan settings for RealTracks in Band-in-a-Box songs are now loaded when a Band-in-aBox song file is loaded. The Master Volume setting from the Mixer is now duplicated in the main tool bar. The Align Music to Click Track dialog has buttons added to set From to either the start of the bar < or the start of the song <<, and Thru to either the end of the bar > or the end of the song >>. Plus 101 New RealTracks! Weve added a huge number of new RealTracks (101), with great new Jazz, Pop, and Country Styles. These include new Jazz RealTracks (vibes, piano), and Gypsy Jazz RealTracks (guitar). New Country and Rock RealTracks include 6 new guitar soloing RealTracks. 33 New Jazz RealTracks! These include: Jazz Swing Piano comping and soloing. Vibes Swing/ Bossa comping and soloing. Gypsy Jazz: Guitar, Violin, Bass, and Drums. Smooth Jazz Piano Soloing. Smooth Jazz Guitar. Swing Jazz Guitar. and existing Jazz RealTracks have been enhanced with more natural phrasing (more pushes), better playing over non-Jazz chords (triads), RealCharts notation for some Acoustic Bass parts, and options for simpler playing in some RealTracks. 35 New Pop/Rock/Folk RealTracks! These include: Celtic (Irish) Jigs and Reels: Guitar, Piano, Bass, Bodhran (percussion).

Reggae: Guitar, Organ, Bass, Drums. Calypso: Guitars (2), Accordion, Bass, Drums. Pop Waltz, Hard Rock Waltz, and more. Brent Mason Pop/Rock Guitar Soloing (3 styles).

33 New Country RealTracks! These include: Praise and Worship: Styles: Shining and Uplifting - 14 RealTracks (Piano, Synth, Bass, Guitar, Drums). Brent Mason Pop/Rock Guitar Soloing (4 styles). Tex Mex Styles: 2-beat and Country (Accordion, Bass, Guitar, Drums).

Tutorial: Using the New Features in RealBand 2011

Generate Solos and Harmonies You can now generate MIDI solos and MIDI harmonies, and also add audio harmonies to audio tracks using the built-in audio harmonies feature in Band-in-a-Box and PowerTracks Pro Audio. To generate a MIDI Solo: 1. Select a track in the Tracks window. 2. Right-click on the track, or click on [Generate], and select Generate MIDI Solo.

3. Select a MIDI Solo from the list and click OK.

To generate a MIDI harmony:

NOTE: There must be data on the BB Melody track for this feature to work.

1. Select a track in the Tracks window. 2. Right-click on the track, or click on [Generate], and select Generate MIDI Harmony. 3. Select a MIDI Harmony from the list and click OK.

To generate an audio harmony: 1. Select a track or a part of a track in the Tracks window.

2. Right-click on the track, or click on [Generate], and select Generate Audio Harmony.

3. The Generate Audio Harmonies dialog will pop up.

4. Choose a Harmony type. - Melody Pitch Tracking Only: This option fixes the pitch of audio melodies in the track chosen for Audio Input Track by comparing them to the MIDI melodies in the track chosen for MIDI Input Track. - Generate Multi-part Harmony from Multiple MIDI tracks: This option allows you to create a harmony based on several MIDI tracks. You can select up to four. - Harmonize to the chords symbols of the song: This feature will create harmonies based on the chord symbols in your song, not on the MIDI melody. It does not require a MIDI Input Track so this is your only option if your song does not have MIDI tracks. You can choose what type of harmonies you would like (i.e. three up, four down, 1 up 1 down). 5. Select an audio input track. This is the track you want pitch correct or harmonize. 6. Select the output type for the Harmony track(s) you are creating. You can select Single MONO, Single STEREO, or Multiple MONO audio tracks. 7

7. Select the audio output track. This is the destination track for the processed audio. If multiple output tracks are selected this will be the first of up to four individual output tracks. 8. You may need to Transpose MIDI Melody to match the actual octave of the audio. For example, a male bass singer would set this to Down One octave since MIDI melodies are in a higher octave than male bass singing. 9. Auto-set Melody octave will automatically set the output audio to match the selected voice (tenor, bass, soprano, alto, or none). 10. Click OK and the TC Helicon Harmony plug-in will open. If you are not already familiar with this plug-in from Band-in-a-Box or PowerTracks Pro Audio, you can find it described in the Band-in-a-Box Help.

RealTracks and Soloing Your RealTracks will already sound better with improved lastique Pro V2 time stretching and pitch transposition, and now you can do more with them. You can now have RealTracks style changes within a song, and generate Soloist Medleys - solos that play RealTracks instruments during the solos. Soloists can now have a bluesy setting. To change RealStyles in the middle of a song:

Click on the Chords button. Select a bar where you would like to change your RealStyle. Hit the F5 key to open the Settings for Bar dialog.

Click on the .STY button to open the StylePicker.

 Click [OK] in the Style Picker.

Select a new RealStyle.

Click [OK] in the Settings for Bar dialog.

To play a Soloist Medley: RealCharts for RealTracks RealCharts are now implemented for those RealTracks that support them, with a menu option for generating RealCharts when generating RealTracks. This is a powerful tool for learning, arranging, and chart printing. To generate a RealTrack with RealCharts and view the charts: 1. Open RealBand. 2. Start a new session by going to File | New. 3. Click on the [Generate] button and click on Also Generate RealChart. There should be a check mark beside it now. 4. Make a track selection in the Tracks window. The track should be lit up in red. 5. Click on [Generate] and go to Select and Generate a RealTrack. 6. The Assign RealTracks to Track dialog (RealTracks Picker) will open. 7. Notice the column labeled Charts directly to the left of the Artists column. If a RealTrack has an N in the Charts column it has notation. If it has a Gt in the Charts column it supports charts and guitar tablature. 8. Select a RealTrack style with an N or Gt in the Charts column and click [Generate]. 9. When the RealTrack is generated there should also be a new MIDI track directly under. This MIDI track displays the notation for the new RealTrack. 10. You can view the notation by double clicking on the MIDI track or right-clicking on the RealTrack waveform image and selecting Show RealChart Notation.

RealCharts Notation and the Guitar fretboard are improved for some guitar styles (e.g. Brent Mason). Now you can see bends in blue on the guitar fretboard.

To view a guitar player's fingering on the guitar fretboard for a particular RealTracks style: 1. Load a song and select an empty audio track in the Tracks window. 2. Right-click on the track, or click on the [Generate] button, and select Also Generate RealChart (if not already checked). 3. Then click on Select and Generate a RealTrack to launch the Assign RealTracks to Tracks dialog (RealTracks Picker).

4. Select a guitar style that has the letters Gt under the Chart column.

5. Click [Generate] to generate the guitar RealTrack with accompanying MIDI track for notation.

6.

Select the MIDI track, and then click on the Guitar window toolbar button.

7. The Guitar Fretboard window will pop up and show you the fingering as the song plays.

NOTE: This can also be done with Bass RealTracks that have the letters 'Gt' under the Charts column. Follow all of the steps above, but follow these additional steps as well. 1. Click on the [Settings] button in the Guitar window.

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2. Click on the drop down box beside Fretboard and select Bass.

3. Click [OK]. The Improved StylePicker There are lots of improvements to the StylePicker, including additional columns of information, new filters, auto-generated memos, and the ability to use Band-in-a-Box MultiStyles (up to 16 substyles) with RealTracks. New StylePicker Filters show you only the styles that match your search criteria. These help you to select the style that you want, by allowing you to specify: Even/Swing feel, 8ths/16ths, tempo range, # of instruments, specific instruments (e.g. styles with Banjo), specific RealTracks Artists, RealDrums Artists, Real styles or MIDI styles. For example, if you are searching for a Jazz Ballad style that is all RealTracks, has bass, drums, and guitar, works for a tempo of 60, with Swing 8ths you can set this filter and then only see styles that match these criteria, instead of a list of thousands of styles. To use the Style Picker Filter: 1. Click on the currently selected style to bring the StylePicker up.

2.

Click on the Filter button at the top of the Style Picker window.

3. Select the parameters for your filter and click [OK].

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4. Your Filters will now affect the styles that are visible in the Style Picker. To view all styles again, you can click the [Show All] button directly to the right of the Filter button. Alternatively, you can erase your filter by reopening the Filter and clicking on [Defaults]. To use a MultiStyle: 1. Click on the currently selected song style (directly under the song title).

2. The StylePicker will appear. 3. Scroll down to MultiStyles in the left column and click on it.

4. Select one of the MultiStyles from the middle box. 5. Click [OK]. 12

6. Click on [Generate] and select the Generate BB (All BB Tracks) menu item.

More Transpose Options There are new MIDI and audio transpose options for key signature changes, replacing the previous Yes/No dialog for MIDI transpose. To Transpose your project: 1. Double-click on the current Key selection.

2. The Key Signature dialog will pop up. 3. Select a new key. 4. Select whether you would like to transpose MIDI and audio (Transpose All), audio only, MIDI only, or transpose nothing (No Transpose), which changes the key signature for notation but does not affect tracks.

5. If you are transposing MIDI/Audio but would like to exclude certain tracks, insert the track numbers (separated by commas) or a range of track numbers (separated by a dash). 6. Choose whether you would like to exclude tracks with drums in the name. This option is normally left checked unless you are experimenting with drum sounds. Increased Range of Tempos Tempo changes no problem, with audio time stretching from the new lastique Pro V2 time stretching and pitch transposition engine allowing RealTracks to be used over a much greater range of tempos. To Change the Tempo of your project: 1. Double-click on the currently selected tempo.

2. The Tempo dialog will pop up. 3. Select a new tempo. 4. All MIDI durations are automatically changed. If you would also like to stretch or compact the audio to match the new tempo put a check in the Stretch Audio

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box. 5. If you have more than one tempo, and would like all tempos to be adjusted proportionately put a check in the Adjust all tempos proportionately box. 6. Click [OK]
NOTE: If you check the Stretch Audio box, Adjust all Tempos Proportionately is automatically checked.

RealTracks sound more musical when stretched to extreme tempos. In addition to the major audio improvements when tempo is stretched by lastique Pro V2, the RealTracks soloists sound more musical when stretched to extreme tempos. This is because musicians tend to play more ahead/behind the beat at slower/faster tempos. This is adjusted automatically. To test the tempo stretching capabilities of RealBand: 1. Start a new session in RealBand. 2. Click on the style name to bring up the StylePicker dialog, then select a RealStyle with a tempo below 100 and click [Load Song Demo].

3. tempo.

After the song has finished generating, double-click on the current

4. Increase the value by 40 BPM, check the Stretch Audio box, and click [OK].

5. Listen to your song at the new tempo. Plus there are lots of helpful improvements like clicking on the Chorus Start/End buttons to assign the bar number, updated fly-by hints including volume and pan settings in the fly-by Track window hints, a new Mini-View mode for the Tracks window, support for long track names and long Band-in-a-Box style names, and many more!

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Plus there are lots of helpful improvements like clicking on the Chorus Start/End buttons to assign the bar number, updated fly-by hints including volume and pan settings in the fly-by Track window hints, a new Mini-View mode for the Tracks window, support for long track names and long Band-in-a-Box style names, and many more! To set the Chorus Start/End parameters: 1. Click on the [C7] button to open the Chords window.

2. The two Chorus parameter buttons are located above the piano keyboard and directly to the left of the [Generate] button.

The first one (left) displays the Chorus start, and the second one (right) displays the Chorus end. 3. 4. Click on the Chorus Start button then click on the desired bar in the Chords window. Click on the Chorus End button then click on the desired bar in the Chords window.

To use mini-view in the Tracks window: 1. Click on the disclosure triangle located below the track number in the Tracks window. The track will expand to disclose additional track information.

2. Now click the arrow again and the track will go into mini view. 3. To expand your track to normal size, click on the arrow again. You can now get a list printed out of current contents of the RealTracks Picker dialog. To make a printout of your current RealTracks style list: 1. Right-click in the Tracks window, or click on [Generate], and then click on Select and Generate a RealTrack. 2. Hold the Shift key and press the [Update] button.

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3. A Notepad document will appear with all of your RealTracks styles listed. Go to File | Save to save a copy of the document, or File | Print to print it out.

The Song Generation preferences now have an option to "Allow Auto-RealTracks tempo substitution based on tempo." If you would like to enable Auto-RealTracks Tempo Substitution: 1. 2. 3. Click on Options | Preferences or the [Prefs] button. Click on the Song Generation tab. Put a check in the box labeled 'Allow Auto-RealTracks Tempo Substitution' and click [OK].

There is a right-click menu item in the Tracks Window to highlight the current Audio Event. This makes it easier to select specific audio events, which can then be clicked and dragged (with Ctrl button held down) to a new location, etc. If you would like to select and move audio data: 1. Make a selection in the Tracks window (the current selection can be made by clicking and dragging. The dark zone represents the current selection.

Note: You can also right-click on an audio track and select Highlight the Current Audio Event, which will select the entire event.

2. Hold the Ctrl key and drag the selection to another audio track, or to a different location on the current track.

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3. When you let go the Drag/Drop Edit dialog will appear.

You will have to choose whether you would like to: - move to new location and overwrite - move to new location and merge - copy to new location and overwrite - copy to new location and merge 4. Once you have made a selection, click [OK]. When you have multiple tracks selected, Track | Remove Track now removes them all. To remove multiple tracks: 1. Select the first track you would like to erase. 2. You can either select individual tracks you would like to erase (by holding down Ctrl and selecting several tracks) or select a range of tracks you would like to erase (by holding down CTRL and selecting the LAST track you would like to erase). 3. Select Track | Remove Tracks and a warning message will appear.

The Align Music to Click Track dialog has buttons added to set From to either the start of the bar < or the start of the song <<, and Thru to either the end of the bar > or the end of the song >>. To use the Align Music to Click Track feature:
NOTE: You must have a MIDI click track enabled on one of your tracks that uses the default C Note click track values.

1. Go to Track | Align Music to Click Track. The Align Music to Click Track dialog will open. 2. In the top box, select the track you would like to align. 17

3. In the second box, select the click track number. 4. Check the box if you would like to Insert Tempo Changes. 5. Enter the appropriate From and Thru settings. 6. Click [OK].

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