I just installed BIAB 2016 Pro from the 3 disks. I've also installed build 431 and the latest RealTracks and RealBand updates. When I go into Melodist, about 2/3 of the genre options are listed as N/A. I read some posts from last month that seemed to indicate that was not normal and talked about reinstalling build 429, I think it was. I assume 431 includes 429, so I'm not sure if this is still an ongoing issue, I don't get these styles with Pro, or if I need to do something else.

With all the various options, paks, etc, its a little hard to know what I should have available and what I would need to pay extra for...

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

Hi Lee,

Welcome to the forums.

Unless otherwise specified, updates are indeed cumulative.... so update 431 will also contain all that's come before it.

I don't know much about the Pro package. Because it's the entry level to the software, though, I know that there are aspects that will not be present.

If you have a look at the below link, it gives an overview of what you should have.

http://www.pgmusic.com/bbwin.packages.pro.htm

If you have registered the product with PG Music, it's possible that such a document might exist if you log in to your PG Music account and go to "My Products".

If that doesn't help, I suggest you write to PG Music and ask if they have a document that outlines more comprehensively what you should have received with the package.

Regards,
Noel

Thanks for the reply, Noel.

When I look at the Pro link, it says I should have 100 melodists and 550 styles. I"m not clear on the difference between the two, which is another problem. I'm on the melodist dialog and looking at a list that says "in a style similiar to". In any case, something isn't adding up to me. As an example, the Pro list says there are 5 Bluegrass MIDI styles included. When I look at my list in Melodist, the two genres that have bluegrass in them, "Country/bluegrass 16ths" and "Country/bluegrass waltz" have [N/A] in front of them. The list says Pro has 3 Classical. I don't see any Genre with "classical" in it at all, N/A or not.

It would be easier if I had bought the "super-duper, mega, all you can eat package, with the bonus whaling songs pak", but I'm not there yet. I'm just trying to figure out if my bread and water package really is giving me the water.

The "ProPak" is somewhat of a misnomer, in that it really is the entry-level version of BIAB. That being said, the actual application is exactly the same as what you get with the other "PAKS"; the difference is (as you have found out) in the number of MIDI styles, RealStyles, RealTracks, RealDrums, Melodists, Soloists, etc that you get. The ProPak is really just to be able to take a look at what you can do with BIAB and get a feel for it. As such, there is going to be a lot of N/A entries, because they are just not there. You really need one of the higher level paks to have a larger musical palette from which to create songs.

But with the ProPak, you do have the ability to create your own UserTracks, your own styles, modify and define existing melodists, etc. But that's a lot of work when there are thousands of existing styles and tracks available for you to use right away.

It's sort of like buying the Kontakt player from Native Instruments, but with only one sound library. You're going to be very limited on what you can do. Kontakt itself is the same across all the sound libraries, but you're only going to get the sounds for the library you bought. It's the same way in BIAB.

So use the ProPak to evaluate the kinds of things you can do with it, even if you can't create all the things you want to with it, then later upgrade for more capability (i.e. sounds and styles) to then be able to make real music with it. That's what most of us here have done.

When I first bought BIAB (way back when with version 8.0, which is way before version 2008), I did the same thing. I bought the ProPak, but within about 6 months, I was upgrading to the UltraMegaSuperDuperHasEverythingEvenTheKitchenSinkPAK.

Hi Lee,

I totally understand how the terminology is confusing. I remember having to get my head around it when I first began using the program.

The number of styles are found by looking at Stylepicker (not the Melodist). It would also be possible to sort the \bb folder by extension and then count the number of .STY files.

The number of Realtracks could be counted by going into Realtrack picker (click the Saxophone (Realtrack) icon). Once in Realtrack picker, select the 'Show all' button and then click on 'Copy List'. This list can then be pasted into Excel. Excel should automatically read that each cell is separated by a comma. (It's a list of all Realtracks present.)

The number of Realdrums is obtained in a similar way by selecting the Realdrum picker by clicking on the Drum icon.

Hope this helps,
Noel