Experience with Band in a Box?

[Scott J]

Hi there. I have been playing around with various MIDI based apps (iReal pro, jjazzlab etc.) to make quick backing tracks to practice improvisation. But I have been finding that entering info to be fidgety and the quality of the MIDI sounds to be so-so, and that there are a limited number of styles that the chords will play back in.

Thus I have been looking at the basic package of band in a box which has RealTracks instrument sounds and while the whole program can be quite complex, the basics for down and dirty backing track creation with real instruments being played looks straight forward.

Are there any users here who have experience in this regard and can offer me their feedback?

Thanks in advance

[sunjamr]

Hey Scott, I’ve seen a couple of Band in a Box discussions here on the forum in past couple of months, but I don’t know how you could find them. Maybe do a search of the forum? Or just keep posting your question once in a while until some BIB user sees it.

Sunjamr Steve

[Richard G]

Hi Scott, if you type in ‘Band in a Box’ in the Search Forums box, you’ll at least get a few returns from members that use the product. You could then perhaps ‘Private’ email them with your questions.

Richard

[Barry L]

Hello Scott

i use BIAB 2020 and have for 2 years now. If you didn’t find, in the post archives, the answer to your questions, pls let me what exactly you are looking for regarding MIDI in BIAB. Maybe I can help.

barry

[Scott J]

Thanks so much Barry! I don’t see a way to send you a private message so I will put my questions here.

Have you found that the “RealTracks” sound quality is much better than the usual MIDI sounds and therefore worth the use of BIAB?

Have you found that the quantity of RealTracks and Combos in the entry level $129 package is more than sufficient to make practice backing tracks to practice improvisation and that you didn’t get frustrated not having more of them that come with the higher levels of the software?

Do you feel a need to update each year?

Do you have any other thoughts for a potential first time buyer?

Thanks so much Barry for being willing to field my questions!

Scott

[Barry L]

Hi Scott

no prob.. leave these questions with me and I’ll get back to tomorrow afternoon after I can put together good answers for your questions. btw.. these are great questions.

tc
barry

[Scott J]

Super!

[Lefty Mike]

ive been using it almost 20 years for bluegrass and its great. plug in your chords, pick a style and realtracks makes you a backing band that you can turn on and off all of the various instruments. change keys and tempo with a button. whats not to like?

Longtime banjo player looking for some variety so taking up the blues on guitar

[Barry L]

Hi Scott,

here are some answers, that you where looking for.

1. Your question: “RealTracks” sound quality is much better than the usual MIDI sounds and therefore worth the use of BIAB?

My Answer: Yes, RealTracks is light years ahead of of Windows Midi sound bank. I took this text snippet from the BIAB 2020 user manual. “… RealTracks add “Real” instruments recorded by top studio players and recording artists. These tracks replace the MIDI track for that instrument and can be controlled just like the MIDI instrument (volume changes, muting, etc.). Best of all, they follow the chord progression that you have entered, so that you hear an authentic audio accompaniment to your song. These are not “samples,” but are full recordings, lasting from 1 to 8 bars at a time, playing along in perfect sync with the other Band-in-a-Box tracks. RealTracks can be built in to the style, and would replace the Bass, Guitar, Piano, or Strings track, or they can be generated to the Soloist (or Melody) track using the Soloist feature.
included are selection of Pop, Jazz, and Country RealTracks Combos with Band-in-a-Box Pro. Many more RealTracks are available as separate add-ons or bundled into the various Band-in-a-Box PAKs for better value.” But BIAB will make 85% of RealTracks into notation. But RealTracks notation cannot be editable, as opposed to MIDI SuperTracks notation that is editable.

Again, a short text of description, taken from the BIAB user manual on what “Super Midi Track” is… “What are MIDI SuperTracks? MIDI SuperTracks are MIDI tracks that can be added to a track or a style and play like other MIDI tracks in a style. They are called “SuperTracks” because they are generated using a different engine than typical MIDI style tracks. Typical MIDI style tracks are generated from C7 patterns in the style and repeat these patterns over any chord. MIDI SuperTracks use actual MIDI playing from musicians (similar to RealTracks in that regard), so are not based on patterns.” And great thing is that Midi SuperTracks are editable!!

2. Your question: “Have you found that the quantity of RealTracks and Combos in the entry level $129 package is more than sufficient to make practice backing tracks to practice improvisation and that you didn’t get frustrated not having more of them that come with the higher levels of the software?”

My answer: You can go to PG Music <https://www.pgmusic.com/bbwin.packages.htm&gt; Go to tab menu at the very top of the screen, “Windows Band In a Box”. Once there, you will see a matrix of purchase options. The $129 Pro version details are listed there. You then can compare Pro package to MegaPack package, UltraPak package, etc. No matter what package you choose, you get the same BIAB version engine across all packages. PG Music does not offer trail versions. When you buy a BIAB version, you get a 30 day money back option.

3. Your question: Do you feel a need to update each year?

My answer: No I dont feel you need to upgrade, when a new very of BIAB is released. I am running BIAB 2020 and have considered upgrading recently. But for me, the reason I am considering upgrading is to get the latest “RealTracks” and new features because the new block of RealTracks are only useable in BIAB 2021 and cannot be used in BIAB 2020. With BIAB 2020, I have bought a couple RealTrack sets. So I’m happy with what I got so far. I’m still learning BIAB 2020 🙂 . WOW.. BIAB is a massive software music composition and music education tool. I would wait till early December to wait for, as PG Music generally has specials on substantial discount on their products for the XMAS buyers.

4. Your question: Do you have any other thoughts for a potential first time buyer?

My answer: I think BIAB is one of the best music software packages for home music production and as a music education tool also. I know of a few others software packages that i have purchased for tablature entry. But for features, BIAB is the best I’ve seen. If you purchase BIAB, in my humble opinion, at the beginning of trying to learn it, you will get over whelmed with all the features of BIAB. I started out using BIAB just as a backing track creator, using it’s chord sequencer. I live in a small town and the music community musicians for acoustic swing and traditional bluegrass music is not there. Now with BIAB, I have the ability to playing / practicing with an authentic band in ANY professional “RealTrack” musician style. I play in any key, any style I want, and in perfect time. In my 30+ years of jamming with other musicians, it can be both rewarding and frustrating too for various reasons depending on skill level and repertoire. But jamming with BIAB, you can circumvent those issues. Working with PG music technical support is best using their chat feature. On YouTube they have lots and lots of tutorials that you can access even without owning BIAB just to see features explained in depth. You can download them and take the time to study them over and over again.

So I don’t want to sound like I’m trying to sell BIAB, as I do not work for them in any way shape or form. I’m just a huge fan of PG Music’s BIAB product. Hope this helps you out making a decision to see if it is right for you.

barry

[Scott J]

Thanks for that Lefty Mike!

[Scott J]

Yo Barry L!! What a massive, thoughtful and generous answer. So helpful. Thank you for all the time you put into that – what a kind thing to do.

I have just one point of clarification I might ask of you. I understand all the different levels and amount of Realtracks in each of the packages. BUT I would like to know what your personal experience was as to whether you found the number and variety of RealTracks available in the entry level pro pack was sufficient and satisfying for making generic backing tracks. If you started with the entry level (I don’t know if you did or not), did you say to yourself, gee I wish I had bought a bigger pack with more RealTrack selection? My intuition is that the selection in the entry level $129 package should be enough. Did you experience that as well?

Again, what a massive and thoughtful post you made.

Scott

[Barry L]

Hi Scott,

very glad you liked my post to you with my answers.. hope that helps. Your last question, i can answer that from my experiences with my BIAB purchase history.

here is what I purchased and in three years. this list includes the purchases of BIAB since 2018.

MIDI Styles Set 17 (S17-I)
MIDI Styles Set 17: Unplugged ($29)
Description of midi S17: “You asked for great sounding acoustic styles. We got ’em ! You’ll find styles emulating groups like the great David ‘Dawg’ Grisman , Dave Mathews, Bon Jovi, Newgrass Reunion, Ry Cooder. There are also classic driving straight-ahead Bluegrass styles ala Bill Monroe, Folk-Rock ala The Band or Van Morrison, a James Taylor Latin style, 60s Folk styles ala Limeliters, Kingstons & PP&M, up-tempo Appalachian with fast fingerpickin’ banjo licks, a new acoustic Grisman-type Samba, slow Folk-blues with finger-picked guitar, and lots more.”

RealTracks Set 128 – Gypsy Jazz Latin (RT128-I)
RealTracks Set 170 – Texas Blues-Rock: Slow Groovin’ 12:8 (RT170-I)
RealTracks Set 349 (RT349-I) Celtic Guitar, Bodhran & Jaw Harp with Quinn Bachand
Band-in-a-Box Pro Upgrade with RealBand (BUPS-I)

I found that I was happy for what the original package for the $128. But I found that in some keys areas of genre of music, certain styles and instruments where not there. So I decided to not give in to temptation of buying the ULTRAPAK, for instance, and just work with the smaller $129 package and add what I wanted to concentrate on in only areas of my interest. I remark that it would be very easy to get so very side tracked if you buy a large package. There is so much styles, instruments and artists to listen to and discover. But that is great, but a person like me , tends to spins wheels and then the learning path gets interrupted. As a side note, I learnt that many many years ago when I met Dan Crary at a bluegrass guitar picking workshop. He said to learn efficiently, don’t sit down with your guitar in , (your learning session) and have a coffee and a cigarette in that session. You need to be focused on what your learning goal and do the work required without distractions. So I learned from that to this day. That’s why BIAB is such a monster to distract me. At anytime that PG MUsic has a sale, you can then buy an UltraPaks or whatever you want. If you havent done so yet, go to <https://www.pgmusic.com/bbwin.202newrealtracks.htm&gt; and listen to some demos of RealTracks. My recommendation is to start small with BIAB and slowly go forward as you learn it’s functionalities, it’s RealTracks available and Styles of BIAB. Hope that helps you out. Let me know what you think. tc Barry

[Scott J]

What remarkable and complete answers you give. I can’t really remember when someone on a board was so thorough and helpful. How generous of you.

Your comments have really helped me and align with my intuition as well. I will buy the entry level package for all the reasons you state.

One fascinating thing I found out, and verified through their chat feature, is that it is approximately $60 cheaper to first buy the entry level “pro” package and then upgrade to the ultraPAK from there. Why this unusual pricing; who knows? But easy to save $60.

BUT, I will start with the entry level. I hope you have a wonderful day and again thanks so much; you really helped me!

[Barry L]

your’e very welcome Scott.. I hope We’ll talk sometime about it after you get it installed and peruse over.. I hope your computer has a Itel i5 cpu core. I have an i5 and it runs great with this software. tc barry

[Scott J]

Hiya. Because I am a photographer, I have a self built monster PC with i7 & 32gb RAM. That really helps now that I use amp sims almost exclusively and of course Photoshop a lot. I am so happy with sims now that they sound so good. I have tried several of them am currently most satisfied with Guitar Rig 6. I actually like clean tones the best right now, and their “jazz” amp sounds just great. I also now plug in my acoustics so I can add some volume and reverb and can get a very natural tone. Well this is off topic but I thought I would respond.

BTW it is felt that BIAB 2022 may come out between last week of November and first week of December and usually there are a bunch more new RealTracks. we shall see. This is going to be a great post for the archives when other people have similar questions.

[Barry L]

Hi Scott, good to hear that you have a great computer for these demanding sound programs. I’m guessing also, that the using Photoshop, you have must have video editing functionality so that also would take a lot of cpu resources. Cool. Recently I bought a zOOM G3X gear with pedal. I wanted to use it to get some Jimi sound on using an Epiphone guitar. Wish I could buy at real Fender Strat. (Maybe when i win a lottery 🙂 Anyways, the Zoom G3X is pretty good for getting the JIMI sound, I’ll live with that. It also has some amp sims on it too. Man when I have a question on digital photography, I’ll call you man 🙂 tc barry

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