I’ve had BIAB 2011.5 (EverythinPAK) for 2 weeks now and I must say that I’m stoked. I’m completely new to BIAB so the learning curve is steep for me but the time invested so far has been well worth it. While I still have a lot to learn I have managed to put together a tune or two and drag them into my daw. I am reading the manual a little at a time at work during my breaks and making notes here and there. I will then take my notes home and try to apply them while building a tune. I’ve discovered in the past that I won’t understand or remember everything I read but often somewhere along the way a light will come on and I will say “oh now I understand”. Also the lingo is sometimes confusing (realstyles, realband, realtracks,) but eventually I will sort it out. By far the Windows forums have helped more than anything (the thread about song structure especially) with so many willing participates with so much knowledge about the program and music in general. I am very grateful to all of you who choose to help others. I am a very average guitar player and I can’t read music but I am having a blast with BIAB. The sounds that come out of this program are just amazing. Who could have known that I would be in a recording session with some of the best session musicians in the country – lol.

Thanks and I am having fun!

Welcome. It is fun, isn't it?

Welcome to the Forum.
Days before RealDrums & RealTracks
1. Band in a Box = an auto accompaniment program that had 5 "tracks" of backing musicians. One track for a soloist ,one track for the melody. These 7 tracks were all MIDI tracks. There was also one track for the user to record audio of his own,eg Guitar,vocals etc.
2.STYLE is made up of the 5-7 instruments mentioned above that will play your chord progression based on the STYLE chosen. There are 1000s of STYLES to choose from with subtle variations.
So in it's simplest form you type in chords,choose a STYLE & hit play. Want some real fun type in the chords to a familiar song and go through the STYLES choosing stuff that's way off base.

OK now moving on to NOW. We have all of the features as mentioned above and everything works just the same.The big difference is the introduction a couple years ago of RealDrums & RealTracks. What PG did was to get REAL Musicians into the studio and have them record varying instruments playing all sorts of parts. If you are familiar with Looping" like in programs like Acid you get the concept. The big difference between ACID & BIAB is that BIAB picks the parts for you and arranges them.It's the same with RealDrums.So now in BIAB you can have all MIDI players, all Real players or a combination of the two.
REAL STYLE = a style as mentioned in the old days but it may utilize one or more of the RealTracks players & RealDrums.The cool thing though that is different from the old is that you can type in your chords and NOT choose a STYLE. You can RT Click on each of the 7 instruments at the top and pick "add/remove RealTracks" This releases you from the confines of pre-made STYLES. YOU get to choose the players. Unfortunatly we are not yet able to do this mix and match with MIDI players.

OK RealBand is a full blown sequencer that has most of the features of BIAB but has slots for 48 tracks as opposed to 7.And BIAB only has 1 audio track to record to. RB has all 48. Most of us rough out the song in BIAB then import it to RB and continue on to completion. I have a friend that is a pro jazz guitarist and he only wants:
1.Bass
2.Piano
3.Drums
in his Band so he just uses BIAB. No real need for RB.
Hope this helps some.

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The cool thing though that is different from the old is that you can type in your chords and NOT choose a STYLE. You can RT Click on each of the 7 instruments at the top and pick "add/remove RealTracks" This releases you from the confines of pre-made STYLES. YOU get to choose the players.

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Wow - Thanks for the tip. That really does open up possibilities.