BIAB or Cakewalk

George Kovolenko · Post by **George Kovolenko** » 28 Jan 2008 9:35 am

I'm ready to start recording some background tracks to accompany my steel (lap steel) playing. I was planning on buying BIAB but a lot of the local musicians here playing solo are using cakewalk. It seems a lot of the folks here on the forum are using BIAB. Is there a reason for this or is one as good as the other.

Thanks,

George

Miguel e Smith · Post by **Miguel e Smith** » 28 Jan 2008 10:18 am

I am a Sonar user (Cakewalk) but if simple is better for your application, you might want to go with BIAB (I've not used it but a lot of steel players do). My only serious advice would be to not use any midi/audio recording software for playback on stage, especially midi. It's prone to mod unannounced or completely freeze plus if you use a lot of external outboard sound modules you'll have to carry a lot of stuff that can also do routine freezes or whacky stuff during your performance.

I'd recommend recording your tracks at home and then converting them into higher rate .mp3's (192 or above) which will preserve more of the high-end clarity. You can then use something very simple like Windows Media Player (and have all your tunes in alphabetical order) on a laptop. There are also some really cool DJ programs you can use to perform your tracks (Native Instruments used to make a simple program called Traktor DJ..no longer but they have several high-end programs they are pushing now).

Ken Lang · Post by **Ken Lang** » 28 Jan 2008 6:05 pm

Maybe this is just the way I'm doing it, but if I want to make a song file for something I've written:

I use BIAB to find a style I like and write in the chords.

Then I midi it to Pro audio and add other live instruments ie guitar, piano etc.

When complete, I open it in Sonar 6 and add color, like reverb. If needed, I'll bring Dimension Pro for a better instrument sound.

Finally I'll make an MP3 of the whole thing. It's a little time consuming, but I like the result.

Papa Joe Pollick · Post by **Papa Joe Pollick** » 28 Jan 2008 6:20 pm

I do it kinda like Ken.I write the song in BIAB,using just drums and bass,Render to wav. files and burn to CD.Then from the CD to Cakewalk and add insturments and vocals.After I have enough songs for an album I mix and burn to CD.There's probably a better way but I'm kinda dense.

PJ

Howard Tate · Post by **Howard Tate** » 31 Jan 2008 5:45 am

They are two completely different things. I love BIAB, and if you want a program to automatically make some midi tracks, it works great. If you want to record your own instruments or voice, use a sequencer/recording program software like CakeWalk or ProTools. I use Power Tracks ProAudio(it's cheap, like me).