One Chord Backing Tracks

asura

In anytune pro+ for iOS (I don't know if it's android available) you can download dc music school backing tracks and then set markers for any portion of the song (whether it be half a bar, a whole bar, two bars) and loop it indefinitely and you can also slow it down or speed it up or change the pitch.

The app itself is a bit pricey ($15? But there's a free version) but it's totally worth it if you want to slow down a song to transcribe solos or figure out chords or loop things to practice over and over until you get it. It really helps with figuring out timing and articulation/embellishments when you slow down solos!

But back to the main point is that for example if you play the DC music school backing track for blues en mineur and put markers on the first bar of Gm you can loop that forever... Or if you wanted to practice Gm - Cm loop you can put marks on that section and loop it (or however else you want it)

In the picture I attached it shows how I added to markers (the blue '1' & '2') over the first bar of gm and then I set the 'A' & 'B' over the same spot as the markers. When you turn on the loop function it loops wherever from 'A' to 'B'. The '1' & '2' are more bookmarks to know where to place the 'A' and 'B' for any other part of the song you might want to practice :-)

In the profile view of the screenshot I took you can see on the bottom it shows the entire track and I've only put one set of bookmarks '1 & 2'
But if you look at the second other profile screen shot of I'll see you in my dreams I've put lots of bookmarks for each section that I was practicing...

The app looks confusing to use at first but once you get used to it it's pretty straightforward.

If anyone tries it out and doesn't get how to add marks and stuff lemme know! It took me a little while to figure it out completely haha

Anyways sorry this post turned out longer than I thought it would and I'm not affiliated with the app at all haha but it's been really helpful for me and I think it could be for others as well!

NylonDave

Buco wrote: »

Is BIAB sound quality improved with the latest versions?

I mean the version of BIAB I used to have, compared with the current iReal Pro, the iReal Pro sound is as good or better with 10% percent of the learning curve at 10% of the BIAB price.

Hi Buco, I honestly find sound quality pretty irrelevant. Metronomes work just fine, a playalong is just a metronome that helps you hear harmony.

BIAB took me years to learn to use a little. It is a million miles ahead of these flash in the pan apps. It represents HUNDREDS of man YEARS of dedicated work by motivated programmers and insightful musicians and I don't expect to ever get close to exploring all of the ways in which it can be made useful. To be frank I had it for years and didn't realise just what it was.

Most of the stuff for phones I have seen is written by non musicians for non musicians and reminds me of Isaac Asimov's tech men scenario where real expertise is lost to laziness and cashing in and people who don't even realise that they don't know what they are doing.

I am sure they are good apps. After another few hundred man years of work they might be fit for purpose if serious musicians are listened to properly in development.

Again in my opinion hi fi might seem warm and fuzzy but the sound actually coming out of your own guitar is what counts.

D.

bjewell

What kind of guitar is Samy playing?

Buco

Hey Dave, I know there are a lot of goofballs trying to cash in on the app market.
iReal app though is used by a lot of working musicians, amateur and pro.
BIAB is insanely feature rich software and when I used it it did what I needed it to do perfectly well.
I might even go back to it and buy the latest version depending on how quickly, if ever, I get good at reading/writing the charts. That's how I found out about it, my jazz teacher was using it to write charts, chord melody charts etc...
I just checked and saw that they have a phone app which acts as an extension to the desktop version, nice touch.

You know when I say sound quality, I mean how believable the sound is to the real thing. Well I can tell you that with iReal app, I never use gypsy jazz style or even guitar as a backing track, it makes my hair stand up the way it sounds.
I use bass with vibes and drums in the regular jazz/swing style, that combination I love how it sounds and playing against it.

Jazzaferri

I just upgraded my BIAB. The GJ guitar REALtracks are pretty darn realistic given a good sound system or high quality headphones. Our own Denis Chang did a bunch of stuff for the latest releases

NylonDave

@Buco I guess hifi might be important if you were doing a demo or youtube upload something, I don't really do that. I basically like the metronome with harmony idea .It is so easy to loop a section or to try out different substitutions or reharmonise or double or half the harmonic rhythm on BIAB that the faff of trying to do that with an actual audio file seems like a lot of wasted effort. But then I have zero home production skills so that might just be my prejudice not to get involved with that.

It took me a while to get used to the chord entry grammar too, but once you get it it really straight forward (and you can enter in roman numerals too which is great, especially if you are new to chord/harmony analysis.

Glad to hear there are some good aps out there, I wont be switching to apple any time soon though I find them real aggressive and pushy with their chiselling.

As far as the op's initial query BIAB will allow you to have on screen any substitutions that you might be trying to superimpose in a jam where the chord might be expected to be static. You can fill half a page of ideas and play out of phase by two four or eight bars with the band (ie two bars of G7 becomes two beats each of DmA7D7G7 orDmBb7Em7b5Ab7b5 or any wacky idea that passes your min) BIAB will sort out the voice leading for you and even give you the notation and tab for your musings in real time. And you can get it to loop round all twelve keys and improvise a (weird) solo for you to sight read.

With all of those possibilities it really helps you plan interesting experiments and.......... wow I really need to start using it more again.

D.

husy

NylonDave wrote: »

It represents HUNDREDS of man YEARS of dedicated work by motivated programmers

And exactly 0 man hours of work by UX / UI designers with any level of motivation.

</ducks>

Buco

Add to that really sucky website navigation. It took forever just to navigate around and be able to find out what do I do to get GJ backing tracks, which version to buy etc...what a headache.

So I'll put the links here in case @Bones or anybody else wanna go this route.
It does sound very good and believable, it would definitively serve you well to create one chord tracks which indeed sound very good.
I think only by knowing the sound is generated from templates you can spot some small glitches, otherwise you can be fooled into thinking you're listening to an actual band performance.
I might get this myself if/when I eventually get back into recording, if for nothing else then to have auto generated bass track. Rhythm sounds great too though if you wanted to cut a quick demo by just recording your own head melody line/solo without having to record a rhythm guitar track.

Go here to hear a demo, once this link opens, there is a button for a video demo at the top of the window:
http://www.pgmusic.com/realtracks.all.php?os=win#109
There are audio only demo buttons but they didn't work on my laptop.
The template tracks are recorded by Gonzalo and John Jorgenson, didn't see Dennis' name. There's also Tim Kliphuis on violin.

So, if you were interested in a Gypsyjazz style only, what you can do is buy a Pro (the cheapest at around $90) version first and then add a Gypsyjazz set 109 for $30. Otherwise you'd have to buy one of their Ultra, Mega, what have you packs and pay $400-500.

The lowest price I found for the software is here, $90 (the regular PG Music site price is $120):
http://www.midi-store.com/Band-in-a-Box-Pro-2017-Windows-p/sku44073.htm
Mind you it's a download only price and it is a 10GB file, so rather large.
They also sell a boxed version on Reverb for $94:
https://reverb.com/item/2351292-pg-music-band-in-a-box-pro-2017-windows-boxed?gclid=CJLG7oD3gNICFQmqaQodSS4JNg&pla=1

Then there are other Gypsyjazz sets and each one is $30.
Set 110 for a ballad style, but I'm not sure how different/better is that versus slowing down the tempo on a regular 109 set.
There's Gypsy jazz waltz set 129, Latin set 128 and even accordion set 268. They're all on that same page,
http://www.pgmusic.com/realtracks.all.php?os=win
and have a video demo.

NylonDave

husy wrote: »

NylonDave wrote: »

It represents HUNDREDS of man YEARS of dedicated work by motivated programmers

And exactly 0 man hours of work by UX / UI designers with any level of motivation.

</ducks>

I just googled UX/UI, I don't know much about that sort of thing. I appreciate that it might not be the up to modern friendliness standards but it is a beloved old warhorse nonetheless.

Thanks for the research Buco, I might get round to making BIAB in a box sound good some time, but I am as penny pinching as the clichés suggest.

D.

Jazzaferri

The names mentioned in BIAB are lead styles that have been analyzed and you can generate solo's that are phrased based on the algorithms of those players styles. You can then trade 4's or 8's with those guys LOL

I believe Denis' contribution was rhythm tracks which if what I heard is correct will be stylistically better than the last ones.

My new ultraPak came in a hard drive, that is more compact than the previous one. Their operation is a 10 minute drive from me.