PG Music Home
Just got my 2019 installed. Enjoying perusing the new RealTracks and styles.

My Reaper recognized the VST just fine.

But I get no sound when trying to play my song inside the VST. Don't know if that is how PGM intended it to be since PG says everyone is happy but this does not make me happy! When I drag it to Reaper then it plays fine.

I tried loading one of my existing songs and it loaded fine but took a long time to generate.

So I tried creating a small 4-bar song in BIAB and freezing the tracks so no generation would be needed. However, the VST apparently does not recognize frozen tracks insisting instead that it must generate them. Again, this does not make me happy.

I'll play around with it a little more but at this point it seems fairly useless since I can create my songs in BIAB faster with freeze working and then drag them to my Reaper.

What exactly does this VST bring to the party? Oh yeah, multiriffs which I have not tried yet. But I am not hopeful since it has already been reported here several times that they are very slow to generate.

So, back to my old workflow...

1) BIAB
2) Realband if I need multiriffs
3) Reaper
Update: Now, whenever I try to load the BIAB VST it crashes Reaper. After several tries it did not crash but there was no VST loaded even though Reaper showed something was there. I reopened the FX window and now it appeared. If this was an airplane I'd take the train.
Update: Tried multiriff but cannot figure it out. I choose All Riffs from the dropdown and then click Generate but nothing happens.
Originally Posted By: JohnJohnJohn
...I tried loading one of my existing songs and it loaded fine but took a long time to generate...

J3, approximately how long? Just trying to get a handle. Was this seconds, minutes?
Originally Posted By: JohnJohnJohn
Update: Tried multiriff but cannot figure it out. I choose All Riffs from the dropdown and then click Generate but nothing happens.


Did you scroll down to the next page in the VST. The multiriff generates below the main page.
Originally Posted By: Teunis
Originally Posted By: JohnJohnJohn
Update: Tried multiriff but cannot figure it out. I choose All Riffs from the dropdown and then click Generate but nothing happens.


Did you scroll down to the next page in the VST. The multiriff generates below the main page.

There was nowhere to scroll to. Clicking Generate did nothing. When I selected any of the generate tracks options and clicked Generate it changed from Generate to Cancel while it was working. But when I selected multiriffs and then clicked Generate...nothing.
Originally Posted By: VideoTrack
Originally Posted By: JohnJohnJohn
...I tried loading one of my existing songs and it loaded fine but took a long time to generate...

J3, approximately how long? Just trying to get a handle. Was this seconds, minutes?

I just tried it again and it took 3:56 to generate a song with 69 bars, 1 chorus, 5 tracks. Same song inside BIAB will render 6 WAV files in 0:30!!!

The VST is 8 times slower than rendering it inside BIAB!
Also, upon loading the VST in Reaper today and then loading a BIAB song I keep getting this...



I don't even understand the NONAME.SGU since the song I am loading has a name!
Oh and about every other time, when I add the BIAB VST it never shows up in the VST/FX window at all. I have to quit Reaper, restart and try again.
I'm impressed.
I just tried the plug in Sonar 8.5. It found the plug, I generated a song, and dragged the tracks to Sonar. All played perfectly.
Took about 1minute 30secs.
Originally Posted By: silvertones
I'm impressed.
I just tried the plug in Sonar 8.5. It found the plug, I generated a song, and dragged the tracks to Sonar. All played perfectly.
Took about 1minute 30secs.

Lucky you! Try loading an existing BIAB song and I'd love to hear how that goes.
I have tried it at least 50 times and it never has been recognized by reaper. If you figure it out, let me know please.
Originally Posted By: guichard
I have tried it at least 50 times and it never has been recognized by reaper. If you figure it out, let me know please.


I had exactly the same problem. The last update solved the problem.
Originally Posted By: JohnJohnJohn
..But I get no sound when trying to play my song inside the VST. ..


In Reaper's options prefes audio
make sure it releases the audio driver when stopped
the tracks and demos are played with bbw4.exe through windows using windows media player.

There also VoiceMeeter Banana that give you multiple ASIO play back devices.

Did you try the VST3 in Reaper ?

At the moment it serves no purpose loading the BiabVST into a DAW as there is no audio or synced playback that's why I mention SaviHost

Attached picture VoiceMeeter-Routing.png
Originally Posted By: silvertones
I'm impressed.
I just tried the plug in Sonar 8.5. It found the plug, I generated a song, and dragged the tracks to Sonar. All played perfectly.
Took about 1minute 30secs.


I too loaded the BBPlugin into Sonar 8.5, then clicked file > open > and selected an existing song, which took less than a minute to load. I then selected a realtrack and clicked generate... waited several minutes and finally cancelled the generation process... I then selected another RT, and repeated the generation process and again waited several minutes before canceling... I then selected multi-riffs (last RT selected) then I get the yellow box saying the first track I tried to generate just finished rendering after 31sec... I then dragged it to an empty track in Sonar and it played perfectly...
@J3

I was finally able to get the VSTi to run in Reaper after the 606 update...

Run Reaper
Change from my RME ASIO driver to DirectSound driver (written for Windows 95 through Windows XP)
Load BIAB VSTi
Change audio driver back to ASIO
Change Buffer Size to 1024
Set Windows driver output to send to my RME interface (for playback of the DEMO and Generated Tracks within the plugin)
Choose a Style
Generate a Style, which takes about 30 sec.

SIMPLE, RIGHT?

I can then play the DEMO and the Generated tracks within the plugin.

(I keep seeing MME drivers being mentioned/selected on the forum - this is a red flag in my opinion)

The Reaper transport has no effect on the Plugin so as you stated elsewhere, the VSTi really is a Drag and Drop function.

That's as far as I have gotten so fae.




Originally Posted By: gwp99
@J3

I was finally able to get the VSTi to run in Reaper after the 606 update...

Run Reaper
Change from my RME ASIO driver to DirectSound driver (written for Windows 95 through Windows XP) within Reaper
Load BIAB VSTi
Change audio driver back to ASIO
Change Buffer Size to 1024
Set Windows driver output to send to my RME interface (for playback of the DEMO and Generated Tracks within the plugin)
Choose a Style
Generate a Style, which takes about 30 sec.

SIMPLE, RIGHT?

I can then play the DEMO and the Generated tracks within the plugin.

(I keep seeing MME drivers being mentioned/selected on the forum - this is a red flag in my opinion)

The Reaper transport has no effect on the Plugin so as you stated elsewhere, the VSTi really is a Drag and Drop function.

That's as far as I have gotten so fae.





Wow! Impressed you got it to work. But would you have to do all those steps every time you load the VST?
Looks like it.

But this doesn't sync any existing Reaper tracks to the Generated tracks within the plugin - those would have to be drag/dropped onto a Reaper track.

Here is a screenshot if I don't go through the above steps - notice the plugin is missing its transport controls.


Attached picture biab.JPG
I've been saying this for years. You already made your song in BIAB right?
Use the command to save all tracks to individual .wav files. Open the folder and drag each file to your DAW. No need to use the BIAB VSTi. I can do this much faster.
Originally Posted By: silvertones
I've been saying this for years. You already made your song in BIAB right?
Use the command to save all tracks to individual .wav files. Open the folder and drag each file to your DAW. No need to use the BIAB VSTi. I can do this much faster.


That is what everyone does right now and it works but there is a lot of wasted time when you have to keep going back to BIAB and render the tracks again to drag and drop them into your DAW over and over any time you make a minor modification such as a chord change, tempo change, style change, or want to try a different real track ... est, not to mention you can't see the chord changes in the DAW which is a nice feature if you're adding licks as it's playing along. It would be nice to be able to make these change right within the DAW and just hit Play and watch the BIAB VST play along in sync like all other VSTs operate.
Originally Posted By: silvertones
I've been saying this for years. You already made your song in BIAB right?
Use the command to save all tracks to individual .wav files. Open the folder and drag each file to your DAW. No need to use the BIAB VSTi. I can do this much faster.

I agree it is much faster to just use BIAB instead of this new VST. I had hoped the VST would be an improvement over what we already had but it appears to be literally one step forward (VST with multiriffs) and two steps back (very slow and missing lots of BIAB features)! And given that PG himself says everyone is happy with it including him, I guess they don't have any real plans to finish it.

Oh well, another year of "exciting new features" I won't use. Back to 32-bit BIAB and exporting WAVs.
With any luck, they will evolve this into a real VSTi
A couple things that may be not helping.
1. BIAB is not an effect aka VST
2. BIAB is not a synth aka VSTi
3. BIAB was at one time 16bit and I believe a little cheating, for lack of the right word,was used to make it 32bit. A helper file. Now trying to tweak it up from that to 64 bit might be a bit dicey.
To elaborate:
1 &2 above we're compliments. PG is outside the box here. The hole program is outside the box. There are 100s of DAW but only 1 BIAB/RB.Be patient. These are great folk.
Originally Posted By: Pipeline

At the moment it serves no purpose loading the BiabVST into a DAW as there is no audio or synced playback that's why I mention SaviHost

I wanted to thank Pipeline for his post on using SAVIHost along with Reaper. This is what has made me decide to keep the 2019 upgrade (the BIABVSTi is the only reason I was interested in the upgrade).

As there is nearly zero communications between a DAW and BIABVSTi (as there would be with a real VSTi), SAVIHost provides the Drag and Drop mechanism, without the need to monkey around with Buffer Size and Audio Driver protocol within Reaper (64spls @48K for me). I can also click on a YouTube video or listen to a streaming channel all while the above remains active and not having to adjust anything.

Being able to use my VST guitar chain in real time within Reaper, without the huge, added latency of running the BIABVSTi inside of Reaper, was the missing link for me. If I need to actually record the guitar track into Reaper, I can just Drag/Drop the BIAB tracks from SAVIHost first and push Record.

A MASTER OUT LEVEL control, LOOP function and ability to SAVE AS the Current Song with the Generated Tracks needs to be addressed by the developer.
Originally Posted By: silvertones
A couple things that may be not helping.
1. BIAB is not an effect aka VST
2. BIAB is not a synth aka VSTi
3. BIAB was at one time 16bit and I believe a little cheating, for lack of the right word,was used to make it 32bit. A helper file. Now trying to tweak it up from that to 64 bit might be a bit dicey.


Originally Posted By: silvertones
To elaborate:
1 &2 above we're compliments. PG is outside the box here. The hole program is outside the box. There are 100s of DAW but only 1 BIAB/RB.Be patient. These are great folk.


Wondering if you can explain how 1 and 2 are compliments? If I buy an advertised electric guitar that ends up being shipped without pickups, I wouldn't call this "thinking outside the box". A VST and a VSTi are what they are.
Originally Posted By: gwp99
@J3

I was finally able to get the VSTi to run in Reaper after the 606 update...

Run Reaper
Change from my RME ASIO driver to DirectSound driver (written for Windows 95 through Windows XP)
Load BIAB VSTi
Change audio driver back to ASIO
Change Buffer Size to 1024
Set Windows driver output to send to my RME interface (for playback of the DEMO and Generated Tracks within the plugin)
Choose a Style
Generate a Style, which takes about 30 sec.

SIMPLE, RIGHT?



That is about the last thing I would want to include in my recording workflow. Reaper has been flawless for me. Drop and Drag from BIAB has been acceptable. Having to mess with driver configurations is a receipt for disaster. Still hoping for a better resolution to this whole thing.
If you haven't already, give Pipeline's SAVIHost suggestion (link in the above post) a try - it does allow for no buffer/device changing and allows you to keep your existing DAW latency intact.

First I said the plug was impressive and worked well in Sonar 8.5
Second I said I could do it faster the old way. That's just me.
Third My understanding of the VST/VSTi Spec is that BIAB is not truly either of these. Thus outside the box.
I've been with PGMusic for many, many years. My hole musical career is centered around these products.There is no other like it.
I have had problems with the VSTi. It will open and work in Studio One Pro 4 for one time. If I close the VSTi project, start another project and try to use it again my system freezes. Sometimes it takes out alt-control-delete and maybe my Roland Octa-Capture. It I delete the VSTi in the original project, start a new one and insert the VSTi it crashes just like before. Thus it is useless for me and I deleted it. After a crash and I restart the computer adding it will crash the system again. That is not a problem because I will use BiaB as I always have. It is much easier and faster that way.

Another thing is when I drag n dropped the VSTi master it moved all the tracks OK but they were in Wav form and I work in MIDI. I had to move each MIDI track separately.

I do hope they get this working correctly on all systems as I can see some benefits for using it in both RTs and MIDI.
Originally Posted By: silvertones
First I said the plug was impressive and worked well in Sonar 8.5
Second I said I could do it faster the old way. That's just me.
Third My understanding of the VST/VSTi Spec is that BIAB is not truly either of these. Thus outside the box.
I've been with PGMusic for many, many years. My hole musical career is centered around these products.There is no other like it.


I agree that BIAB is a great product and different from any other product. I have 2016 and do use it as backing tracks for practicing - but one of the main ADVERTISED selling features of BIAB 2019 is the VSTi.

This is not a VSTi - it is a wrapper with zero communication with the DAW. Communication with the DAW is the defining feature of a VST. I ordered it based on the fact it had a VSTi, which would make integration with my DAW very convenient.

I have decided to keep it because of the SAVIHost integration and I have hope they will move towards producing a low latency VSTi in the near future. If not, the SAVIHost option will work for me for now.

I am disappointed because of this and because I spent way too many hours getting to this point.
Originally Posted By: MarioD

Another thing is when I drag n dropped the VSTi master it moved all the tracks OK but they were in Wav form and I work in MIDI. I had to move each MIDI track separately.


Yes, another another annoying "feature".
Originally Posted By: silvertones
To elaborate:
1 &2 above we're compliments. PG is outside the box here. The hole program is outside the box. There are 100s of DAW but only 1 BIAB/RB.Be patient. These are great folk.
The main selling point of this upgrade for me was the ability to interactively use BIAB in Studio One, and it does not even come close to delivering that, sure there are a few RealTracks that I like and a couple of styles I like too, but most of the content is just filler, in its current state there is not enough to justify an upgrade, and what adds insult to injury is some of the better Realtracks and Styles are now being placed into Bonus PAKs to squeeze out an extra $49 for the upgrade. I can easily go back to version, version 2018 2017, 0r 2016 and wouldn't miss anything or than the additional bugs to contend with.
I have never had any crashes before in Studio One Pro 4, but this plugin has locked my system up so tight I had to turn off the computer. It does not do it every time but I have had so many problems with it I quit using it. I was hoping this plugin would be sort of like my Toontrack EZ Keys or EZ Drummer which work flawless on my system and is so easy to create music.
I do like the fact they are heading in this direction but for right now it just is not ready for prime time. I am sure they will work it all out and hope they expand on a lot of the suggestions that have already been listed.
Originally Posted By: silvertones
First I said the plug was impressive and worked well in Sonar 8.5

Well congrats! Obviously lots of people are not having the same experience as you. I suspect you may not have put it through its paces as thoroughly or you'd see some of the same issues being reported because PGM is working on fixes currently! The problems are real!

Quote:
Second I said I could do it faster the old way. That's just me.

No, it is not just you. In its current shape no one, not even PG himself, could create a typical song in the VST and get it into the DAW as fast as they could do simply using BIAB and drag/drop!

Quote:
Third My understanding of the VST/VSTi Spec is that BIAB is not truly either of these. Thus outside the box.

The phrase "think outside the box" usually refers to something new and unique and better than conventional solutions. I've never heard it applied to a buggy piece of software!

Quote:
I've been with PGMusic for many, many years. My hole musical career is centered around these products.There is no other like it.

I'm not sure why some PGM customers always feel like they must defend PGM any time a paying customer has the unmitigated audacity to report or even complain about bugs in the product? Yes, I love BIAB too! It is amazing! The new VST? Not so much!
Originally Posted By: JohnJohnJohn

I'm not sure why some PGM customers always feel like they must defend PGM any time a paying customer has the unmitigated audacity to report or even complain about bugs in the product?


It used to be worst! crazy
Originally Posted By: Cerio


It used to be worst! crazy



It's hard to defend BiaB 2019.
That's part of the problem, new users come, speak the truth but are jumped on never to return, being blindly loyal don't work, if you love the end result of BB RB as I do and many others you need to be honest and give constructive criticism where problems are, Oliver Twist was the only one game enough to stand up and say "Please Sir can I have some more",
PG as Basil below doesn't receive any constructive criticism from the regular loyal customers, so Basil thinks everything is fine:
Quote:
Most, including me, are happy with how everything works now.....



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_uDB-0iBR8
The plug-in doesn't work here either and yet again I fell for the promotion of it as being a major new feature.

It ain't it's a half-baked mess made worse by the fact you don't know which (32 or 64 bit) version you are running, sure you can setup a shortcut for the 64 bit version and open it that way, but as soon as you double click a biab song the 32 bit version will dutifully open.

So then you run into problems with the plug-in so you start to wonder is it because the wrong version is running in the background to power the plug-in.

OOBE man it's a headache.

I have a nice Roland Quad Capture interface which seems to be bullet-proof as far as any other app I've used with it goes, yet it doesn't even work in BIAB unless it is in MME mode using the Microsoft Sound Mapper, go figure.

None of which directly relates to the plugin but provides a backdrop of chaos when trying to troubleshoot problems with it.

So far I've tried using both my onboard sound device and the Roland to no avail (with either anything other than the MME option nor the plugin.

The plugin itself does appear (although not always) in Reason 10 and Studio One 4,and I can load and save songs as expected, I can listen to style demo's, however it won't generate anything for toffee. The progress bar starts to move and craps out after a few seconds on both DAW's with both audio solutions I've tried.

I expect the fix to arrive as swiftly as the BIAB archaic Windows "Multi Media Extensions" and fixed sample rate of 44,100 khz format issue has been resolved. A silent audio program is as worthwhile as a chocolate teapot.

I've given up and found a nice place to rant instead. Thanks for letting me offload.
Originally Posted By: Pipeline
That's part of the problem, new users come, speak the truth but are jumped on never to return, being blindly loyal don't work, if you love the end result of BB RB as I do and many others you need to be honest and give constructive criticism where problems are, Oliver Twist was the only one game enough to stand up and say "Please Sir can I have some more",
PG as Basil below doesn't receive any constructive criticism from the regular loyal customers, so Basil thinks everything is fine:
Quote:
Most, including me, are happy with how everything works now.....



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_uDB-0iBR8

I'm afraid you have hit the nail squarely on the head!
Do you think that the Plug-in is worth the upgrade from 2016? I know that the RealTracks alone are worth the Upgrade but "nothing is broken" at this point. I'm running SOnar 8 64-bit and have no issues with the old "drag and drop" method. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

It says that I'm a newbie but my first BiaB was Band-in-a Box 10 and Pro Audio 7...
You don't havew to use the plug-in you can still carry on working the way you are familiar with. The plug-in was a new feature that there had been quite a demand for and it is still a work in progress. However the fundamentals of the program work exactly as before so you could still drag and drop files. You would of course have all the extra new realtracks to drag and drop.
Thanks, Tony. I don't mind dragging tracks over--just a little time consuming with my current processor. I think the celtic flute RTs will be amzing since I don't have a great flute sound on my synth (a Korg n364) and I like the celtic stuff on BiaB. I've always been a great fan of Alex Acuna's percussion stuff as well. Thanks again.
Originally Posted By: funkycornwall
You don't havew to use the plug-in you can still carry on working the way you are familiar with. The plug-in was a new feature that there had been quite a demand for and it is still a work in progress. However the fundamentals of the program work exactly as before so you could still drag and drop files. You would of course have all the extra new realtracks to drag and drop.


The VST plugin was the main selling point of this upgrade for quite a few existing users and it doesn't work, so there is no need to discount the people who purchased this upgrade for the VST plugin as if they are irrelevant and should just pretend to be happy to pay for something that is " still a work in progress".

The VST should have been advertised as a "work in progress that is unusable as a DAW plugin" if that's what it is, instead of a "new and exciting feature".
Originally Posted By: A_R
Originally Posted By: funkycornwall
You don't havew to use the plug-in you can still carry on working the way you are familiar with. The plug-in was a new feature that there had been quite a demand for and it is still a work in progress. However the fundamentals of the program work exactly as before so you could still drag and drop files. You would of course have all the extra new realtracks to drag and drop.


The VST plugin was the main selling point of this upgrade for quite a few existing users and it doesn't work, so there is no need to discount the people who purchased this upgrade for the VST plugin as if they are irrelevant and should just pretend to be happy to pay for something that is " still a work in progress".

The VST should have been advertised as a "work in progress that is unusable as a DAW plugin" if that's what it is, instead of a "new and exciting feature".

Yes!
Yeah, the prototype of some things is rarely bug-free, but at least someone is addressing our "wish list". If I could only learn to play the piano without having 42 takes...:)
Originally Posted By: Jonbouy
...however it won't generate anything for toffee. The progress bar starts to move and craps out after a few seconds on both DAW's with both audio solutions I've tried.


As a test, try leaving it for up to 10 minutes and see if it finally completes the Generate.
Originally Posted By: belnapper
Yeah, the prototype of some things is rarely bug-free, but at least someone is addressing our "wish list". If I could only learn to play the piano without having 42 takes...:)


The BIABVSTi is not a "prototype of some things is rarely bug-free, but at least someone is addressing our "wish list"" - it seems like it was never properly tested and and not a true VSTi.

Perhaps it was thrown in too soon, to be able to use it as an item in a "new feature list" for marketing.

I hope I'm proven wrong.

I wonder if setting bb\bbw4.exe to Run As Administrator would help or does the vst run it in admin mode already ?
I tried setting the bbw4 and bbw64 to Run As Admin - the first time it froze Reaper. The next time I am getting the following error.

That's as far as I can get. I am using the BIAB HDD drive "R".

I have v2016 installed also, with my library on drive G which is where the vst wants to default to initially - I had to change things in the Pref of the VST



Attached picture bb4.JPG
what is R:\bbbbw4.exe - certainly that don't exist.
It looks as thought there is a missing delimiter in the path name.

Do you have an R:\bb\ folder?

When you set the name, is it possible to enter: 'R:\bb\' instead of 'R:\bb' (manually include the trailing backslash).

If their code does not check for or call the IncludeTrailingPathDelimiter function, it may cause exactly what you have witnessed.
I just right clicked bbw4.exe > Properties > Compatibility > Check Run As Admin
Check the paths in the vst preferences has the backslash at the end of each location \
no, bbbbw4.exe does not exist.

However, I did add a "\" to each line in the Pref and I no longer get that error.


Originally Posted By: Pipeline
I just right clicked bbw4.exe > Properties > Compatibility > Check Run As Admin
Check the paths in the vst preferences has the backslash at the end of each location \


Yes, that's how I set to Run As Admin... the issue was the "\" was missing in the Preference/paths
Are you ok now or do you still feel like it's a "new feature list for marketing"? It's a serious question, I'm trying to get a handle on this too.

Bob
I am sure PG Music will iron out these issues over time - to take such a powerful program and boil it down to a VSTi is, I am sure, a huge task.

I am keeping the 2019 BIAB, as it is a great program the way it is now, and I am happy with it.

The way it runs now allows me to keep my DAW latency very low.
Originally Posted By: gwp99
the issue was the "\" was missing in the Preference/paths

Great. The program should have added that if needed. I'll report it.
Thanks. The text example for each of the paths in the Preferences does not include a trailing "\" - good catch by you.
Originally Posted By: A_R

The VST plugin was the main selling point of this upgrade for quite a few existing users and it doesn't work, ...

No, I am not new :-), and reading all the problems will prevent me buying the upgrade.
I do not like to buy a software with the hope, that severe problems will be sorted ourt. Often this hope will not come true.
Originally Posted By: gwp99
Originally Posted By: Jonbouy
...however it won't generate anything for toffee. The progress bar starts to move and craps out after a few seconds on both DAW's with both audio solutions I've tried.


As a test, try leaving it for up to 10 minutes and see if it finally completes the Generate.


Thanks

I left it overnight and still nothing.

I tried various folder and app permissions as well to no avail. It manages to create empty folders in Drive:\bb\BBPlugin\SavedTracks so I doubt it is to do with file permissions anyhow.

Other steps I've taken include uninstalling AV protection, enabling on board sound, instead of and as well as my Roland interface, re-installing WMP as I usually use MPC-BE as my default player, as well as various other ancillary and futile tweaks.

Unfortunately there are no errors thrown by the plug in the progess bar starts and it says it generating and the progress bar starts to move but after a few seconds it just stops.

I think now it might be broken... smile
I raised a support ticket as it looks like my particular issues are unique (story of my life, eh!).
Originally Posted By: Pipeline
I wonder if setting bb\bbw4.exe to Run As Administrator would help or does the vst run it in admin mode already ?


Not sure if this was a coincidence, a Win10 issue, a BIAB issue or a Reaper issue, but after I set the bbw4 and the bbw64 exe's to Run As Admin, Reaper was able to load the plugin, as it should.

Prior to that, I was getting the BIABVSTi GUI coming up without the transport BIABVSTi issue

I was able to load a demo song/style from my BIAB-HDD, Generate tracks and save it as a user preset.
Now when I call up my BIAB Project Template in Reaper, the user preset comes up including the generated tracks, all within a matter of seconds and my latency within Reaper does not change (64 spls @ 48K).

I then changed the permissions back by unchecking Run As Admin, and it all worked. Repeated this several times last evening. Had my computer off over-night and when I fired it up this morning, it all worked!

I no longer need to use SAVIHost.

So thanks to Pipeline for suggesting the Run As Admin step. In the end, this is what got things working for me in Reaper.

I did not change anything else in my system, including updates nor did I disable my AV.

It also may have had something to do with the fact that I kept BIAB 2016 installed with it's library on an internal drive "G drive". The 2019 BIAB is being run off the BIAB-HDD library.

Prior to this, it seemed like each time I loaded the BIABVSTi in Reaper, I had to set the Preferences to the "R drive". That is no longer the case - the Preferences now shows the correct R drive path.

The Drag/Drop into separate tracks took only seconds.

And because my latency didn't change using the current method the BIABVSTi uses, I am very happy with the way things are now running.

It took awhile, but it was worth it.
https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=510519#Post510519

Originally Posted By: PeterGannon
>> OK, I'll accept that but what exactly does it do for us that simply using D&D doesn't?

- You are working in your DAW, not in two programs at a time.

- The chords you type in your song are saved and opened with your DAW project, not in a separate BB file. If you send a DAW project to your friend, he gets the chords and setup for BiaB as well.

- Settings from the DAW are read in to the plugin. Currently it is just tempo, but we will add more as time goes on. When we add the vst3 version (very soon, in a patch release), it can start to add lots more features. There are lots of cool features that vst3 can do, and they are all on our drawing board.

- It is much simpler to use than BiaB. Remember that many people have asked us for a simple version, and many of these are DAW users unfamiliar with BiaB. Remember the posts about "I showed BiaB to my friend, and he said it looked too complicated". So that's a big plus of it as well. When a DAW user sees a similar chord window popup, with a style selection and a Generate button, it shouldn't get the response "this looks too complicated."

- We expect a new version of the plugin to be released here in a free patch that adds a vst3 and fixes any plugin-not-found by DAW issues. That's in pre-release testing now.


Originally Posted By: rap429

Peter,

I agree with all of the above as great benefits of the plugin but my experience is that tempo is not read when used in ableton(maybe better in other DAW's), render times are very slow when loading a previously created BIAB song and even slower when trying to use multi riff. When the chords are typed into the plugin itself performance is much better but still slower than RB. While maybe not during this patch are these items that are being addressed?
Originally Posted By: Pipeline
https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=510519#Post510519

Originally Posted By: PeterGannon
>> OK, I'll accept that but what exactly does it do for us that simply using D&D doesn't?

- You are working in your DAW, not in two programs at a time.

- The chords you type in your song are saved and opened with your DAW project, not in a separate BB file. If you send a DAW project to your friend, he gets the chords and setup for BiaB as well.

- Settings from the DAW are read in to the plugin. Currently it is just tempo, but we will add more as time goes on. When we add the vst3 version (very soon, in a patch release), it can start to add lots more features. There are lots of cool features that vst3 can do, and they are all on our drawing board.

- It is much simpler to use than BiaB. Remember that many people have asked us for a simple version, and many of these are DAW users unfamiliar with BiaB. Remember the posts about "I showed BiaB to my friend, and he said it looked too complicated". So that's a big plus of it as well. When a DAW user sees a similar chord window popup, with a style selection and a Generate button, it shouldn't get the response "this looks too complicated."

- We expect a new version of the plugin to be released here in a free patch that adds a vst3 and fixes any plugin-not-found by DAW issues. That's in pre-release testing now.


Originally Posted By: rap429

Peter,

I agree with all of the above as great benefits of the plugin but my experience is that tempo is not read when used in ableton(maybe better in other DAW's), render times are very slow when loading a previously created BIAB song and even slower when trying to use multi riff. When the chords are typed into the plugin itself performance is much better but still slower than RB. While maybe not during this patch are these items that are being addressed?


What was purpose of looking back to same quote as above?
That's from another thread that gives insight here to what PG is NOW planning (due to all our bad feedback) and what still needs fixing (by your post under).
It needs to be as fast as RB in generating.
Thanks for clarifying. That's what I thought but wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something
Sorry just so tired out from all all this testing/posting/replying should of made it clearer.
But there should be a 607 update released shortly you can try.
Hi All,

I was interested in the upgrade because of the VST but after reading about all the problems I'm not sure what I'd be purchasing? The longer you leave it between upgrades, the more it costs. So is it better to purchase now, then purchase the next upgrade, and the next, until the VST is solid? Or, wait until the VST is sorted and then just pay a higher amount in a single payment later?

I must admit, it doesn't feel I'd be getting what the marketing man's promising at the moment. And why the -40% purchase before 2019 incentive for? To compensate for the part of the VST that's missing?
Wow Pipeline - your BiabVST Chord Picker Tool looks amazing... and I thought you were just a casual BIAB user grin

What a great feature for BiabVST... can't wait to try it out.
Originally Posted By: StaffsLebowski
...why the -40% purchase before 2019 incentive for?


I think this is offered every December.

FYI, you have over a week to order with the discount and this includes the 30 day money back guarantee, if you aren't satisfied.

I couldn't get the VSTi to run in Reaper when I first received it, but with the help of Pipeline and a few others on this forum, I am up and running with it. (Much like the Reaper forum members)

Although more features will be added over time, it is a good start for now. And if some of the features you need haven't been ported over yet, you can still use BIAB and export/import tracks as before.
Originally Posted By: StaffsLebowski
..... So is it better to purchase now, then purchase the next upgrade, and the next, until the VST is solid? Or, wait until the VST is sorted and then just pay a higher amount in a single payment later?

....


Only you can answer that question. If you want the new RTs, MIDI styles, or are interested in BiaB 64 bit then yes upgrade. The plus pak has all of the basic new stuff and the bonus paks have the rest. Its cheaper that way.

I was in you shoes a couple of weeks ago. I finally upgraded with the hopes that the VSTi gets straightened out this year. YMMV.
Originally Posted By: Pipeline
Sorry just so tired out from all all this testing/posting/replying should of made it clearer.
But there should be a 607 update released shortly you can try.


Pipeline,

You have been doing an incredible job! I've been sitting here marvelling at just how much you have been giving people. I don't know how you do it.

Noel
Originally Posted By: gwp99
Wow Pipeline - your BiabVST Chord Picker Tool looks amazing... and I thought you were just a casual BIAB user grin

What a great feature for BiabVST... can't wait to try it out.


+1

Coming here to enquire as to what the heck was up with the VST Plugin I ended up getting a far more useful add-on in that Chord Picker.

Thanks Pipeline for the patient help you've been freely giving and this very useful tool.
As a long time user, I find this thread depressing. For me BIAB has always been like the latest Ferrari.. with many parts held together by string.
I tried loading Spectrasonics Keyscape as a VST, and found it doesn't work (again), like many of my other VSTs. I wrote to PG and got no reply.
After over a decade of use, I do NOT expect things to work, I still find the whole program obscure and unreliable. At least PG has finally struggled onto the 64 bit about a decade after other DAWS. I never have problems loading VSTs in ANY other program, just this one. I have never succeeded in using my keyboard VST sounds "within" BIAB so that I can actually record as I play along. I find things crash, the set up is obscure and the GUI for VSTs is weird and ad hoc. Tracing MIDI channels though the maze is very tedious and MIDI channel is NOT listed in the mixer, which is basic to any DAW.

My favorites are also continually disappearing (for a decade) for no apparent reason, so I never use these too.

Many of the windows like preferences and midi set up have a Windows 95 feel and are obscure and badly need reorganising

So many things need redesigning. The latest update 625 has fixed a few things, but there are loads more issues that have been around for years

So, all I ever do is load a song and hit play or type in a few chords. Even there, when I loop, it's not visually represented on the chord screen - e have no way of "seeing" the loop. It's just another poorly implemented feature I have got used to.
I skipped 2018, and won't buy 2020 unless there is some big positive changes reported by experienced users.


Z
This thread up to your reply was three months old. There has been a huge number of updates since then sorting out many of the 2019 versions teething problems. So if you have been following all the other threads here you should be extremely optimistic about the future of BIAB IMHO. grin
ryclark your new here, PG always update frequently, but this does not mean they have addressed the fundamental problems som (only some of which I ,mentioned above.
My favorites have dissapeared again. I am not going to reply again, like many long time users, I just don't think it's worth it
Not exactly 'new'. I've been around since at least BIAB 2010 and this thread has been particularly about the VST plugin, which has only been in existence this year. So I'm afraid that I don't really understand why you are complaining here not elsewhere? confused
I looked back through these old post from 5 years back to see if any big changes have happened to the Plugin that users will now use it rather than the usual Biab to DAW method.
With all the current section editing of RealTracks in Biab now, that we can't do in the Plugin, is it really worth it ?
What is the drawcard of the Plugin now if any 5 years on ?

I for one have lost interest in the Plugin and more interested in all the features now in Biab giving more creative control.
Just using Biab with the RewireVST works great and the slaved DAW like Reaper will sync with Biab so no matter what varying tempo map the DAW may have it will sync and the acidized files from Biab with fit the tempo map when dropped into the DAW.


Originally Posted By: JohnJohnJohn
..the VST apparently does not recognize frozen tracks insisting instead that it must generate them. Again, this does not make me happy.

I'll play around with it a little more but at this point it seems fairly useless since I can create my songs in BIAB faster with freeze working and then drag them to my Reaper.

What exactly does this VST bring to the party? Oh yeah, multiriffs which I have not tried yet. But I am not hopeful since it has already been reported here several times that they are very slow to generate.

So, back to my old workflow...

1) BIAB
2) Realband if I need multiriffs
3) Reaper


Originally Posted By: gwp99
With any luck, they will evolve this into a real VSTi
Here is my solution - While old school, this actually works pretty well. grin



Attached picture Screenshot 2023-02-27 113658.jpg
Originally Posted By: musocity
What is the drawcard of the Plugin now if any 5 years on ?

Only speaking for myself.
I just purchased UltraPak+ a few days ago. I had played around with BiaB about 18 or so years ago, so I wasn't too unfamiliar with the software.
The selling point for me was the VST plugin version. My intention was to use the MIDI only styles and feed the MIDI output to various other VST instruments in my DAW.
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