How to use a BIAB file to create an entire song Tutorial

[@PianoMan-hx3ev]

I have “Since You’ve Gone Away”, along w the rest of your “What Happened to Yesterday?” (I’ve always loved the music from my parents era.), on my Spotify playlist. This new song’s incredible. Best new artist of 2020. Your music should be on the radio, TODAY. 🎶

[@robertgoldbornatyout]

I been struggling with BIAB for weeks , you opened the door for me ,Thanks

[@rickeguitar9086]

Henry, you are honestly my lost soul brother! Resurrecting the Delfonics sound along with that 70's Philly R&B sound to a new generation is so needed! What your videos are doing for me is: 1. Demonstrating that I don't have to be a software engineer to operate BIAB as their in-house tutorial videos make me feel. 2. You are finding those grooves and patterns that are a part of my soul demonstrating that BIAB is more than country, and traditional jazz by nature. Thanks for taking the time to produce these videos. I am a new BIAB user (just purchased 2021 last month). I am thoroughly enjoying your explanations on how to make music using this tool. Hopefully, the development team at BIAB can learn a thing or two of how you simply a very complex piece of software. This can help us elevate songwriting skills beyond the simple songs we create within each of our comfort zones! Keep up making these great tutorials! They are very helpful!

[@henryclarke5407]

I'm glad they are helpful. I actually started making these because I knew I wasn't the only one out there who wanted to do something besides Country and Old Jazz and based on all the comments I get I was right :-) Anyway again I'm glad the tutorials are helpful and just experiment and have fun !! I'll be listening out for your tracks :-)

[@WickBeavers]

I got a song going. I want to insert verses. What you’re showing me here is PERFECT! Thanks!

[@henryclarke5407]

It's my pleasure. I'm glad you found the tutorials useful !!

[@36JohnT]

Thanks for your reply. For some reason my email reply bounced back. You're a great singer and teacher...

[@luvkayakn]

Just found your channel while trying to figure out if band in a box will work for me. Great demonstration and awesome final song.

[@henryclarke5407]

Thank you. Not sure exactly what you mean "will work for me", but I will say that BIAB is a valuable tool but not the only tool that I use. It doesn't do everything for me. 🙂

[@luvkayakn]

@@henryclarke5407 I'm trying to learn improvisation and create my own chord progressions at tempos I can play. I did purchase BIAB and look forward to watching more of your videos and tips. Great content ❤

[@jeremiahwilliamsmusic]

Im a musician and I like your creative song. Your'e a musician too. Your instrument is biab. Im ok with that. You're not lying about it. No one can really say anything if youre being honest about how you made the song. If you do have any musical questions, I would be happy to answer them if I can. Keep on doing you!!

[@Valsi876]

Henry, you had some great words of wisdom at the beginning of your video. Make your music for you, and for your average listener.

[@henryclarke5407]

Thanks so much !!

[@ProzKhmer]

Thank you for the video, Sir. I just subscribed. I used to own and played BIAB 6-7 years ago, but I stopped using it. But it is a much much better musical software now, and I want to buy the the 2022 and start using it again. I will come to your videos for HOW-TO. Appreciate your videos very much.

[@henryclarke5407]

Thanks so much. I'm glad they are helpful !!

[@BroRicPatton]

You did it again.. I been struggling with BIAB for weeks , you opened the door for me ,Thanks

[@henryclarke5407]

Glad I could help!

[@RicHollandUK]

You’re very good at opening up BIAB for everyone Henry. The program’s sometimes derided, but for ideas and experimentation it’s first-rate and very versatile.

[@henryclarke5407]

Ric, I find it really great for ideas. I love the way I can change the key on the fly. It is first rate. I don't use it for everything but I develop a lot of my ideas with the program.

[@wallclap1]

Thanks man! Some of the clearest, easiest instructions to follow. This program can be so damn confusing. You've cleared up lots of my confusion.

[@henryclarke5407]

Thanks a lot. The program can be a bit confusing. I'm glad this tutorial helped.

[@lenimbery7038]

I'm a musician who likes what you do and I love your videos....I use BIAB because I'm not a particularly good musician as far as knowing music theory and it helps in that regard.

[@henryclarke5407]

We're in the same boat. I know music but I'm no expert in theory either :-)

[@petergedd9330]

Thank you, great tutorial. Just got BIAB so looking forward to getting in there. Those wah wah in the intro really sound good, very smooth. Subbed. The finished song is so good man!

[@henryclarke5407]

Thanks, glad the video was helpful. I love wah wah guitar. I think it's a great instrument in a ballad. Thanks again for viewing and good luck on your compositions. Henry

[@RussellBluesBand]

Henry! What an excellent hands on tutorial - by a seasoned artist! I just downloaded the software yesterday and this was a boost to my confidence! Thank you for sharing!

[@henryclarke5407]

You're welcome. Thanks for viewing. I'm glad they help. :-)

[@Muzaert]

Such a wonderful song you made, Henry. Should be high in the charts! The Biab guys of PG music will be surprised - and thankful for all the new clients you bring them. By the way, did you already make a tutorial about your mixing and mastering habits - the sound quality of your songs seems very profesional.

[@lewchaney2138]

Great example Henry. Very intuitive. I noticed your chosen style was an Xtra PAK 1 style. I have BIAB 2019 Audiophile version. I've realized the Xtra PAK's are significantly enhanced styles but aren't included for use in any BIAB version. I'm disappointed in that, since keeping up with separate purchase of all Xtra PAK styles is quite expensive. I think the Xtra PAK's are a beast I'm unwilling to continue feeding as my original package was already pricey. Still, I'm impressed with the product overall. Back to my original point, demos like this help so much with the BIAB learning curve, so thanks again...

[@henryclarke5407]

Lew. I'm glad they help. I like to demonstrate the product with song creation. I think folks get more out of the tutorial but I do realize that doing it this way makes the video longer. I may have used Ultra Pak in this demo but I have a lot of other songs where I used some of the old styles (some as far back as 2006). Thanks again. Henry

[@cfogle100]

Don't be disappointed. Your 2019 BIAB audiophile version should have all the instruments Mr. Henry used in creating his song. Simply replicate his chord progression, key signature, tempo and select the same RealTracks he used and you can have your own version of his song. In fact, any BIAB song you see in a video from 2019 or prior, you can duplicate in this way because all of the styles that PG Music staff create use existing RealTracks and Supermidi instruments . Hope this helps.

[@skratchtat]

Love that song Man, you nailed the Philly sound! Vocals are on point. Great job 👍

[@henryclarke5407]

Well thank you sir !! I think my new "Philly Soul" song is even better :-) Will be out soon !!

[@pierrelareau468]

Henri you are my hero. Thank you so much !!!!

[@henryclarke5407]

You're more than welcome. Hopefully you find my other tutorials helpful. :-)

[@KennethGonzalez]

That was instructive, Henry -- thank you! Seeing you work an example like this was good. I've done some of that before, but I like your formula for chunking it out. One of the hardest things I've had to contend with so far has been dealing with the selection of styles! I'll start working on a basic frame of a song with me, a guitar, and some simple percussion... something starts to emerge. Next? I need to see if I can dig up a style that will fit. Wow, that's a tough nut to crack. So much so that it almost feels like I'm doing it backwards -- my progress just stalls when I hit that point. I guess I'll vary my process a little bit and see what happens! ;-)

[@henryclarke5407]

Kenneth, I have a tutorial on selecting styles which may help. I use style picker BUT load the chords first .Then if it's a song that I like the basic rhythm I'll type in that song and audition styles against that song. Doing it this way allowed me to find styles quicker than just random searching and searching hoping to find the right style. If you type in the song first it's a lot easier.

[@KennethGonzalez]

@@henryclarke5407 Thanks! I will look for that and watch it. I do enjoy many of the example songs that are constructed for the styles. Looking forward to trying your approach!

[@ConeyIsland1952]

Outstanding!! Thank you for your help its wonderful..

[@henryclarke5407]

Glad it helped! Please continue to view for more "realisitc" tips :-)

[@PianoMan-hx3ev]

I’m a novelist and a composer. I write for myself. It’s the best way.

[@monroec.hatcherjr.8233]

Thanks Man...TSOP..forever..

[@henryclarke5407]

YES !! TSOP FOREVER !!

[@Paul_Tull_Music]

Appreciate you, Henry!

[@henryclarke5407]

Thanks you sir. Thanks for watching :-)

[@mmane257]

nice my brother 👍🏿

[@henryclarke5407]

Big up !! Thanks for listening ! :-)

[@karlwrbell9214]

nicely done henry

[@henryclarke5407]

Thank you sir !!

[@TWMTWM-eb1lw]

Henry, Royal Albert Hall and Phil Collins! Wow, impressive. Tell the rest of that story!

[@henryclarke5407]

It was a great evening. I also met Prince Charles, Princess Diana, Pete Townsend, Paul Young and a few others but I had a pretty long chat with Phil Collins. He was great to talk with and extremely forthcoming :-)

[@petergedd9330]

@@henryclarke5407 Wow, you met all those in one go!! I loved what you said about writing for you, thats so true.

[@jan-u8h]

Love this old school... remember the Orginals?

[@henryclarke5407]

Of course I remember the Originals. Baby I'm for Real and "The Bells". HA !! Great cuts. I like the old school sound. Here's one of mine you may want to check out kzbin.info/www/bejne/l2rdaJKXrsSig9k Henry

[@TheLilmizer]

Having a very difficult following your curser (arrow). If you could highlight it , in maybe yellow, it would be very helpful in following your movement on the screen.

[@FabFourable]

Great tutorials!! Love it! Question: What is a "hook" for you? Would there be already a singer? Where is the difference to the "Intro"?

[@henryclarke5407]

A hook is the Chorus of the song. The part that usually included the name of the song lyrically sung. It's the main part you want listeners to remember.

[@FabFourable]

@@henryclarke5407 Ah...thank you..!

[@CreedeLambard]

This is great. I had never thought of loading a demo and using it to build a brand new song. I like the 70s soul feel you've created here. The one thing I noticed that I do differently from what you do is, when I start building a song the first two things I usually do are set the choruses to 1 and the number of bars to 200. That gives me plenty of flexibility to copy verses, choruses, bridges, hooks or what-have-you, and when I have my song strructrure created I'll reduce the number of bars to closer to however many bars are actually in the song. But whatever works, right?

[@henryclarke5407]

Right. I find that something like 80 or 90 bars usually hits around the 3:45 - 4:30 minute mark for most music. That works for me. Anything longer than 4:30 and I'll probably put myself to sleep !! :-)

[@RBourn9]

Just found your channel and appreciate the effort you've put into explaining how band-in-a-box works. My only suggestion would be that when you're doing your voice overs, the music is too loud to hear your voice clearly. I would rather hear your words of wisdom than the music in the background quite so loud. Otherwise, great video!

[@henryclarke5407]

I will work on that. Thanks.

[@virgotoro1230]

i Love your tutorial .... How to use sound from Hypersonic 2 in BIAB ?

[@babymixswing2269]

I think the real sound of BIAB is better.

[@RonGrovesMusic]

Hi Henry, Man, all your songs sound great!! I was just wondering, how much effects do you put on the Virtual Instruments once you move them to your DAW, Eq, compression, etc

[@henryclarke5407]

Hi. I put very few effects if any on my virtual instruments. I do isolate the drum tracks and use a percussion plug-in published by Cakewalk which helps me achieve the drum sound I want. I'm a big fan of Hi-Hats and I find the BIAB drums don't really highlight hihats.

[@RonGrovesMusic]

@@henryclarke5407 Thanks for your reply, Henry. Yeah! that's where I was messing up, I was putting too many effects on the Virtual Instruments.

[@davidbass5127]

I have learned so much is just a few videos. Thanks you so much for doing these tutorials. I do have a question though and if it is in another video I will check it out, but I was watching the instruments you used and I am not sure how you got the Wah added the piece. Could you explain or point in the right location?

[@henryclarke5407]

Hi David. Sure. I have a video of "how to get a fuller sound" where I use different templates of the same song and add/subtract instruments that I think will fit. It's because of the limited number of tracks you can play in the program. I probably added the Wah Wah guitar on template number 2. I will say that if you have BIAB 2021 it has 16 "Utility Tracks" that you can use above and beyond the standard 8. Thus if I was building this song in 2021 I could build the entire song on one template. If you don' t have 2021 check out the video "how to get a fuller sound". I also have a video on "Utility Tracks" in BIAB 2021 and how I use them. Thanks again for the question. Henry

[@davidbass5127]

@@henryclarke5407 Perfect...thank you so much! I have the 2021 version so I watch both you suggested. That is exactly what I was after.

[@yramhossoo8586]

HaHaHa. Preach to sinners not the self-righteous. I Love your videos.

[@maxandkellyestesrealestate]

What if I have just the melody line I want to create a chord progression can ban in the box help with that

[@henryclarke5407]

Kinda backwards but you can play or input the melody line and try some styles against that. If you record the melody line it should work. You didn't mention but you do need a basic understand of music to get this to work the way you probably want.

[@JoeOng11]

How did you put in the vocals bro?

[@henryclarke5407]

I sing ALL my vocals into my DAW which is Sonar Producer.

[@36JohnT]

Great job. Thanks. How did you do the vocals? Did you sing all the parts? Do you manipulate them through Melodyne or something?

[@henryclarke5407]

Thanks Mr. Thomas. I do all the vocals in my songs both lead and background. Most times I sing all the background vocals but when I'm feeling lazy I use a product called Antares EVO Harmony Engine. It's a bit more complex but I find it far better for me than Melodyne. Though I have Melodyne I rarely ever use it. I can usually sing close enough to pitch that I can use Antares Autotune Live on the lead vocal to pull me in. Plus with Melodyne I have to record and play with the notes. That's too much work. I'd rather let Autotune do the correction on the fly. Hope this helps and thanks for watching.

[@PianoMan-hx3ev]

I’m thinking for that intro part (haven’t watched the entire video yet): The following in a soul harmony... Ooh yeah baby (Ooh yeah baby) Ooh yeah baby (oh oh oh oh oh)... At bar 17: I can’t see you today... But they’ll always be tomorrow...

[@henryclarke5407]

Ha !! LOL ... Nice intro but I already did the song with a few harmonies to get it started. As far as music from your parents era LOL makes me feel old. Wait !! I AM OLD :-) Thanks for the kind words. I'm glad you enjoy the kind of music I write and produce. You should share your novel with the community. I'd be interested in the genre you write in.

[@PianoMan-hx3ev]

Henry Clarke I write science fiction. The first one I’m writing now will make you think twice (no, three times), about sending in saliva to those dna testing companies.

[@greglynes183]

I was wondering how you created the backup vocals - were they done from band in a box somehow or another way from within your DAW?

[@henryclarke5407]

Hi. I sing my own background vocals.

[@wilhelmbembenek3632]

How did you create the melody ? It seems quite difficult to me to start with the chords and then to write the melody. I've no idea to do it .

[@henryclarke5407]

I always start with chords. It gives me timing, feel, and fit for the melody. It also helps me with emphasizing certain phrases and overall lyrics. Sorry but I's just my method and I can't see it any other way.

[@TonyThomas10000]

Where do you come up with your chord progressions?

[@henryclarke5407]

Sometime I make them up, sometimes I use BIAB styles and change them around, sometimes I use song books and shape the sound. A variety of places. Depends on how I feel and what moves me. Not sure where you're trying to go with all these questions. Do you need help with something in particular? I'd be glad to share what I know.

[@TonyThomas10000]

@@henryclarke5407 No, I was just curious. I use a variety of methods. I like Scaler 2 the best. Most pop/rock/R&B is just 1-4-5 or 1-4-6-5 these days so it does not matter that much. I started out with MIDI 40 years ago and have been making music ever since. I think you said you were in radio. I was as well for a few decades. BTW, I am 68 years young and still making music!

[@TonyThomas10000]

@@henryclarke5407 I figured out how to make BIAB use Nashville Numbers. Works better for me because you can quickly notate in any key.

[@TonyThomas10000]

@@henryclarke5407 I also just found the Melodist feature that can generate chords and melodies as well.

[@alittlebitoffiddle]

"I don't write for musicians" Haha. That is so true. They are picky, critical, jealous, and probably don't have any money to buy your stuff anyway. And there are very few in the total population. Yep, you are right. Louie Louie vs Giant Steps - which will get you more and bigger tips?

[@henryclarke5407]

LOL .., What about "Little" Richard .. TUTTI FRUITTI !!!! LOL

[@alittlebitoffiddle]

@@henryclarke5407 Exactly.

[@rodmckuan7198]

You don't say how to set the song length

[@henryclarke5407]

I think I do. I set the bars to 80 which automatically extends the song length.

[@steelfish84]

I’m sorry but video too verbose. I am interested in learning how to produce songs onBIAB, not listening to a song made with BIAB. Skips over steps by just mentioning them rather than showing them and then listening to the result. A bit frustrating. A long listen but a bit short on instruction.

[@henryclarke5407]

To each his own.. My channel is not for everyone. I suggest you view PG Music videos. They may be more suitable to your taste. Sorry.