BIAB? Quick endings? Extending a verse/chorus?... on the fly. Possible??

Bellyman

I've been toying with putting together a solo act. I play piano / keyboard already, most of the time in a trio. And that's fine. But, there may be situations that could arise where I might find a solo act might work a little easier. Small room, in particular, can be difficult for the current trio as it takes up a good bit of space. Doing solo, so long as there is room for a keyboard and a bit of sound equipment, I could do it. I've been building a repertoire of songs in my head, probably a couple hundred now, and slowly growing.

I could play just solo (cocktail or otherwise) piano. But I kinda like the piano/bass/drums sound.

One of the things that playing with a live group allows is flexibility. Someone wants to make an announcement and the music needs to end in the next 4 bars. Live musicians, not hard. BIAB? Is there a "panic button" or a "end song NOW" button? Also, if people would happen to be dancing and you'd want to extend an extra "verse / chorus" without ending anything and completely starting over, on the fly, is there a button somewhere for that?

Not even sure whether there would be a better program than BIAB. (?) But it seems to be one of the main players of accompaniment out there. I wondered if any of you might already be using it or something similar.

I will add, I don't really need something like that for recording. I already own some pretty decent (though dated) recording equipment. With the various keyboards and voices I already have, putting together some basic tracks without anything new wouldn't be that difficult. I'm thinking more towards live performance where I only have two hands, maybe a set of foot pedals if I wanted to play bass on those (I used to play organ as well), and maybe some voice if I practiced a little.

Any thoughts, I'd be thankful to read. 🙂

diretonic

Bellyman This takes me back nearly 30 years when I did occasional restaurant duo gigs with a vocalist using a two-octave bass synth atop the piano and an alesis sr-16 drum box - (in the uk at the time a restaurant could have 'live' music without a performing licence, but only two musicians!). The alesis has two foot-switch inputs, one for start-stop and another for fills. I don't know about BIAB but I'd imagine something similar in the way of control. Very easy to use and will stop on a sixpence but beware of polished floors - footswitches love to slide out of reach!

Bellyman

diretonic but beware of polished floors - footswitches love to slide out of reach!

LOL!! Yeah, the sustain pedal for my keyboard loves to travel. I have been contemplating something to attach that thing to the keyboard stand. It's already one of the ones that has the rubber pad that swings out in front of it so you can supposedly put your heel on that and keep it from walking away. Works better than the ones without but it still walks.

Thanks for the thoughts. 🙂

FrankCox

Bellyman the sustain pedal for my keyboard loves to travel. I have been contemplating something to attach that thing to the keyboard stand. It's already one of the ones that has the rubber pad that swings out in front of it so you can supposedly put your heel on that and keep it from walking away.

I've mentioned before that my wife's sewing machine pedal always wanted to slide away so she got a car dashboard pad to put under it.

Now it's like that pedal is nailed to the floor. You can pick it up straight and there's nothing sticky there, but you can't slide it at all.

rsl12

You made me curious about Band in a Box (BIAB), so I looked into it. It seems like the conductor window will let you do everything you want during a live performance:

https://www.pgmusic.com/manuals/bbw2020full/chapter5.htm#_Conductor

I am going piggyback a question to your thread. Can anyone recommend a good karaoke program for home use? I think BIAB might be a solution, but it's an expensive and fiddly one, and based on what I've seen of the BIAB song files, I would have to add a karaoke melody track for many of the songs.

Speaking of which, I personally prefer listening to a solo keyboard performance over solo keyboard + computer backing. Instead of a "live music" vibe, I feel a "karaoke" vibe. On the other hand, if you have a request for danceable music, I can see why you would want to have the backing.

Bellyman

rsl12 Speaking of which, I personally prefer listening to a solo keyboard performance over solo keyboard + computer backing. Instead of a "live music" vibe, I feel a "karaoke" vibe. On the other hand, if you have a request for danceable music, I can see why you would want to have the backing.

That general idea has run through my head a few times as well. I did wonder, though, if the idea of me creating the tracks that I'd be using would influence how they'd sound... or whether they'd just end up generic sounding anyway. Having the ability to turn them on and off might be useful in some settings. (?)

I have messed around with splitting the keyboard, putting a double bass on the bottom, and adding strings to the same keys as the piano sound. Doesn't sound too bad, actually. I've not tried to add a drum track behind that. It can be kinda tedious trying to make the most of every finger since I've only got 10 and at least one of 'em is occupied playin' bass, which often puts usable stuff out of reach for 2 or 3 more fingers of the left hand.

Dunno. I don't have BIAB yet. Not sure how much I might use it even if I had it. At minimum, I'd thought about having that as a practice tool for when I want to practice without the band, be able to work on licks, comping, fun stuff like that with more than just imagining what it might sound like if they were playing, too.

Sorry I don't know more about karaoke to make any suggestions. Just never messed with it. Maybe someone reading will have some ideas for you.

Thanks for the reply!

rsl12

Bellyman I used to have a little 64-key Yamaha, and I enjoyed splitting the keyboard and using a voice called "upright bass+cymbal". Because it gives a hi-hat hit on each keystroke, it works well for a walking bass (for a while anyways, though it can start to sound too repetitive).

If you just need something for practice, have you tried iReal Pro? The backing sounds more robotic than BIAB, but it's way cheaper, less fiddly, has a great user base that is creating song libraries of all genres, and is flexible enough that you can easily adapt it to your own chord changes.

Bellyman

rsl12 have you tried iReal Pro?

Not yet. But thanks for the suggestion! I'll have to check it out.

Had a gig on Monday and we were supposed to rehearse today. Called it off. Life here on the farm is really demanding that I do quite a lot of irrigation as we've not had rain in weeks and the plant babies are begging for water.

The band leader has noted that I have two avocations, piano and farming, neither of which make any money. LOL!! I keep hoping at least one of 'em will just make me a profit one of these years. 😉 Strawberries seem to do well...