I've got BiaB installed on two computers (one Workstation that is mainly used to assist with forum matters) and one with the Audiophile drive installed which is only used as an actual Music System.

The "What Add Ons Do I have" shows exactly the same between both systems.

However, the Workstation shows that it has significantly more styles available than the Music system.

There are no User Styles on either system.

How can I definitively find what styles etc are missing from the Music computer?

Using the command prompt (right click on the start, select run then enter cmd. You should get a black window with a prompt for the directory). Change to the directory that has your styles then type "dir > mystldir.txt" no quotes this will create a text file of your directory. Do the same in the second pc. Then import both into a spreadsheet and compare. In some word type applications you could do a simple compare.

It all looks like work but it is not too bad. That is a way I would check two directories but there may be easier methods.

Tony

Yes, not a bad idea Tony. I'll definitely give that some attention. I'm a little more interested as to why BiaB gives the same results when clearly there are differences. It will likely boil down to 49-paks or Xtra paks for sure. But the test should know these exist, even if not installed, and point out the discrepancies.

Thanks for your input.

Silly question, is the Audiophile version up to date with all the 2018 stuff?

Tony

Should be, the only difference is supposed to be the availability of WAV files as well as the WMA files.

I'll be checking more closely though. I wrote a program a while ago that analyses the contents of an Audiophile installation and lists any discrepancies in file content.

If it's of any help, Trev I have just done this. I have 2 drives,one XP and one Win7, both latest 2018 507 but the Styles count was different. Win7 won with 6051 but I was nearly 100 down in XP.
So I created an Excel file, brought up the alphabetical Win7 style list which you can dump to Notepad and thence to Excel and then did the same with XP and dumped it following the Win7 one. Trimmed out the unecessary columns to keep important ones like name, date, Pack etc, then brought the XP set up alongside the Win7. Just scanning down, comparing Win7 vs XP and you can quickly spot the omissions. Or 'Sort' by Pack or date etc at will. Anything missing will quickly be obvious.
I'm sure clued-up Users have a shorter, more accurate way of auditing the two together but it worked for me.
HTH
Ian

If the two machines are networked so you can access both machines folders from one machine, kdiff3 (http://kdiff3.sourceforge.net/) can compare folders and show what is different.

I just did a simple test.
I have removed randomly 3 styles from MIDI set #61.
Rebuilded the style data base.
Restarted BIAB and checked what addon's do I have : 'You have all of the Style disks (unless we've made some new ones)'.

Status : the 3 missing styles are not detected.
Everybody will make its own conclusion.

Yes, everyone's answers are very worthwhile and very much appreciated, but I think this is the actual issue.

The program itself does not correctly calculate what is there and what is missing.

I think I need to report this as a problem.

In the meantime, I'm off to Excel.

Trev

It'll look a bit like this when you do. Note _AIRILY is shown as missing on this screenshot page.
AND - I have no idea why the Set / Packs show differently one to the other. lol!

Hi Trev,

If you click on the Category button under the Filter String box, you'll be able to see how many styles you have in each category on each machine. Once we know which categories are missing styles, it won't be too hard to figure out exactly what's missing.

Feel free to give our tech support line a call tomorrow if you need a hand with this.

Cheers
Kent
PG Music

It would be great for PG music to verify user purchase data in a more up to date fashion. In other words, do away with the "unless".

PG music knows what it has sold, knows what I have purchased and could confirm what is on my machine.

Quite possibly it could be a revenue enhancing feature.
After over 2 decades of purchasing BIAB, I would like to know I have access to all I have purchased.

Hi Kent
I've been installing everything I can find, and have reduced the discrepancy.
However, the missing styles seem to be from just about everywhere:

Why not just COPY the larger count style folder to the SMALLER count style folder? no harm no foul.

Actually I NEVER install BIAB I just COPY the ENTIRE desktop \BB folder (and \Realband and \PT) onto other PC/laptop. Minus the need to re-activate and thus decrementing that count, they are IDENTICAL in every way, never an issue - ever.

==================
I’ve been accumulating in the same (virtual) desktop \BB directory since DOS. Once we started getting BIAB on HDD’s and not just new versions via downloads, CD’s, and floppies (oh my!) here’s what I do:

First I install the DOWNLOADS onto actual working \BB directory on desktop (I don’t wait for HD to arrive). Then I back up entire BB folder (so I have all styles and RT’s backup) and Realband and a few others misc folders.

When new HD arrives I COPY, I do not move, I do not install the entire CONTENTS of the new USB drive’s \BB folder over to my working computer.

If there was an extra (good, bad, or left over/unaccounted for) style, RT, demo, etc. that’s on the this new factory HD that WAS NOT part of any download, as unlikely as that is, it is NOW on my working desktop.

I run BIAB make sure it all works - everything is accounted for then I make another backup (so yes now TWO backups of all RT’s, RDs and styles, aka the BIGGIES).

NOW I COPY the this final DESKTOP \bb folder to LAST YEARS external USB drives \BB folder.

and then COPY THOSE working FOLDERS onto my LAPTOP (now everything is 100% identical).

Yes if I used AUDIOPHILE RT's that would UN-DOABLE on a laptop and impractical on a desktop (but ONLY for the RT's themselves not the rest)

Larry

You are absolutely correct Larry, and I think I've sorted just about everything out.

However, the real underlying problem is that the 'What Add-Ons Do I Have?' provides erroneous results. It states that the user has everything when clearly this is incorrect, and was further proven by John-Luke who deliberately removed styles with no change in the Add-Ons results.

So I would like PGM to improve the tests that evaluate the existence of all available files and provide a more accurate result. As mentioned also, it is likely to increase sales if users can determine that they are missing specific features.

Yes indeed.
They gyrations users are going through in thready simply cannot provide definitive results. At best you can say you diff'd 2 lists of files for example. That is not the answer to "What Am I missing"?

I believe the ONLY way of determining which piece/part of biab you are missing is for PG music to tell you.

In most cases many of us are multi-year consumers of this product. At this point we are all in with biab. I know I am. If I knew definitively I was missing a bunch of real styles, I would probably buy them. As long as they weren't KLEZMER!!
I've got all I need of them.

More REAL FunK Styles Baby!!

I'm pretty sure they're all KLEZMER.

The discrepancy between the 'forum' computer and the 'music' computer discussed in this thread might have been due to not having installed the latest update patch on the music computer, as we added more styles in the patch.

You're right it would be good for us to improve the "What addons do I have" dialog so that it makes more sense for version 2018. To check if you have absolutely all Styles and RealTracks, currently the best way is to:
1. Make sure you have installed the latest update patch, so that the program knows about all available styles and is up-to-date.
2. Check in the StylePicker and see if there are any N/A styles listed.
3. Check in the RealTracks Picker and see if there are any N/A RealTracks listed.

Thanks Andrew for your time and effort to respond. It's appreciated.

I certainly have all of the patches installed. My problem apparently stemmed back to 2015/2016.

This is the first time I've put everything onto the BiaB USB HDD.

Working backwards, I eventually got back to 2015 / 2016 and added these files from my archives:

- xtra_styles_pak_1.exe
- 2016_49pak.exe
- 2016_8pak.exe
- 2015_49pak_1.exe
- 2015_49pak_2.exe

Then I ran the Cleanup Utility (each time).

After that I now have over 6000+ Styles

So it seems that What Add-Ons doesn't know about many of the paks that have been released. But it also doesn't know about missing Styles that are expected to be there, i.e. deliberately removed for testing the function.

Also, there appears to be no way to search for the string "N/A" in the StylePicker. Scrolling through 6000 Styles looking for a few N/A's is of course impractical. Too easy to miss.