Band-in-a-Box 2014 for Windows® is here... info and links

The home page has an overview and High-Def ("HD") video www.pgmusic.com
( The video is also on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4Y6vfjDIn8
Note that, as with other youtube videos, you can select a resolution, from 240p (loRes) to 720p (High Def)
Ordering information and order here ... http://www.pgmusic.com/bbwin.packages.htm )

Learn more about the new features here...
http://www.pgmusic.com/bbwin.htm


Description of the new features here...
http://www.pgmusic.com/bbwin.new.htm

Information and demos for the 101 new RealTracks here
http://www.pgmusic.com/bbwin.realtracks.htm

Dr. Gannon,

Another milestone in a great company. The joy, time and
acceptable results have allowed me to work way beyond my
playing abilities.

Am still downloading with HD on it way, but grateful
for all of the work that you, your staff and the rest of
the employees have done on this new music system.

Thank you and your staff again!

Frank J Blecha

... and an equally heartfelt Thank You to all be Beta Testers. We'll never know how much time and effort they put in on our behalf, and oft times I'm sure, sacrificing time with their families.

THANKS FOLKS!

LLOYD S

Hello
I am very exiting to ear the new BIAB 2014 and I am ready to order it but I just want to say something about the way PG Music is charging Customer for the new release.
I have the BIAB 2013 Everything and I was ready to upgrade to BIAB 2014 Everything it looks like I have 2 options
1 - BIAB 2014 Everything pre installed on a USB2 HD (159$)
2 - BIAB 2014 Everything Direct download (159 $)
I found strange to have these 2 version at the same price as they don't really cost the same for PG Music (no USB HD provided, time taken to install (duplicate) the content on the HD so why the Downlowding version is not cheaper thant the HD one ?
I also want to make the potential customer (specially thoses ordering from Europe) that it is not really the same amount if you order BIAB 2014 pre installed on a USB 2 Drive
a - They have to pay for the UPS shipment
b - They will be Tax changed at delivery in some country which could increase the price significantly (around 60 euros 80 USB in total.
I think it would be fair to have this information clearly indicated when ordering to avoid surprises and frustrations.
Thanks a lot
Best regards
Fred

Saxfred: I am under the (unconfirmed) impression that the 2014 PlusPAK download for $99 is the way to go for most users that have the 2013 UltraPlusPak or the 2013 EverythingPak. I guess you would need to know if there is anything "extra" in the 2014 EverythingPak that is not in the 2013 version.

Peter

Salivating at the prospect of this making it over to Mac in the near future!


Paul

I had this very same question and spoke with PG support before I upgraded. They told me all I needed was the $99 upgrade. Below is our conversation,

Thanks for that confirmation, John -- quite helpful!

When I talked to the sales staff the other day if you buy the everything pack, you can download immediately but they also send you the USB drive. A convienent backup. That's why they are the same price....

Thanks Kevin and John... like Fred, I also have the 2013 EverythingPAK. So it's good to know we'll still have 'everything' by upgrading to the $99 2014 PlusPAK!

Something don't sound right here? Always seemed there was a valid reason I had to pay the extra in the past to maintain my everything pak. However, now that the licensing limits the abilty to move a HD from machine to machine, perhaps this is the way to go.

Jazzmandan, I don't think we know that, do we? The activation will factor in if you install to multiple machines, but what if you just travel with the supplied hard drive from machine to machine? There's another recent thread on this, too, called Three Times.

Yes, I am watching all the treads on this topic. I think the answer is beginning to come into focus - something like this: only 3 machines, but you can remove and restore. And there is a 30 grace period for activation on any one machine. So it does sound like it may be pretty flexible. Just something new to deal with. Does look like you need internet to do the switching. Otherwise, No problem here.

I think you are correct, Dan. I'm sure the full details will emerge shortly. The great news is, if you need to do something that hasn't been anticipated, just give PG Music Support a call and they should be able to figure out a solution.

The 2014 BIAB features overview video stutters throughout.

At least it does on my system.

The strange thing is that ALL of the other features overview videos for previous BIAB versions etc. work beautifully without stuttering.

TIA

There is a possibility that the file is fragmented.

Fragmentation after install of a lot of large files, such as when installing a proggie like band in a box, can happen.

Of course, if you are speaking of the online webstreaming video, that would not be the case. Could be congested servers at the release, try agaio later, try a reboot of the puter and try again also.

--Mac

Yes I'm talking about the online video.
Let's try an experiment.
Can you play it without stuttering?

The 2014 video is a HD video, and previous ones weren't. So this one likely requires more bandwidth.

On my tests, it plays fine, including on PC's and iphones.

The one on the main page is flash (if you have it), or mp4 (if you don't have flash, such as using an iphone).

The video is also linked from this page...
http://www.pgmusic.com/bbwin.demos.htm

On that page, there is an option to download the mp4, where you could then play it stutter-free.

http://demos.pgmusic.com/video/bbw/BB2014_NewFeaturesRT.mp4

Note that this download is 90MB for a 12 minute video, which means that the bandwidth is about 130KB/second. So a slowish broadband connection might stutter on that.

Yes, it played just fine here, the other day, I watched it within minutes of its appearance.

This kind of issue can be different for everybody, though, since it is an HD High Definition resolution video, each ISP situation can be a lot different from user to user.

PGMusic should consider publishing another of the same done in lower resolution for folks to be able to make a choice.

360p



--Mac

BTW, the solution for playing the video at lower bitrates, is to play the youtube version....

Band-in-a-Box 2014 for Windows new features
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4Y6vfjDIn8

Note that, as with other youtube videos, you can select a resolution, from 240p (loRes) to 720p (High Def)

I just talked to PG sales. You may want to get the $99 upgrade AND the Bonus 12 Pack for $25. The 12 pack includes the FREE 6 pack, but also 6 more goodies.

http://www.pgmusic.com/bbwin.bonuspaks_2014.htm

Thanks Peter, I was able to view the video on Youtube.
This was a bitrate issue then.

Anyone know how much the upgrades are going to cost in January? Is it substantially higher?

History says YES, unless PG should choose to extend the sale, which none of us would be able to predict unless and until that happens.

Historically, you save $$ bigtime by purchasing before New Year's Day.


--Mac

Peter -

Wow, just wanted to say thanks for the fast delivery of my BIAB 2014 hard drive. I ordered it Monday evening and the FedEx man delivered it Tuesday morning - you blew Amazon Prime out of the water!

Give those guy and gals that work behind the scenes in shipping a raise!

Take care!

Hello,

at first I wish you a good and blessed New Year 2014!
Then I want to say thanks to Peter and staff for your great work with BIAB in it's new version 2014!
I was reluctant this time to uprade. But since I got to experience with it yesterday I can say: it was good for me upgrade. The workflow in finding suitable styles and realtracks alone makes version 2014 worth for me. But there other items, too, that are fine.

But there is one thing in the new GUI that I'm missing: the Combo-Boxes for the melody and the thru harmonies.
I'm working a lot with these harmonies, and that is difficult now. When I open a song, I no longer see whether there are harmonies in it or not. Well, the Memo-button reveals the melody harmony - somewhere ;-) - and I seee that there are "Short cuts" like "Alt F10", Alt F11", "Ctrl F10" and "Ctrl F11".
But these solutions are not really short ways to find and change these harmonies.

There is so much empty space in the new GUI on the right hand side of the song parameter section . Could you please fill in the good old Harmony Combo Boxes there? That would be great for a even better workflow.
Thank you!

Best greetings from germany

Ulrich

Addendum:

if these Combo Boxes for the harmnies aren't useful for the majority of the BIAB-users, it might be a fine solution for all to add an option in the Preferences menu to show / hide these boxes.

Greetings from germany

Ulrich

Hi

when will the 2014 manual for BIAB for windows be ready,thanking you for a incredible program it just gets better each update

regards jazzband Dave Hoskins