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Joined: Dec 2003
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I have a Tascam Porta3 Recording Mixer that I used exclusively before DAW. It was THE ultimate tool for analog work. The belts were new and no signs of "keystoning" of the head when I last used it. It was a valuable piece of gear in it's day.
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Joined: May 2000
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Quote:
The multitrack cassette is a rather poor sounding technology that I for one will never miss...
Tape hiss (yes, even with Dolby), limited high end, wow, flutter, limited bass response, in many instances the pitch changes as the takeup reel gets larger with tape, the loss in overdubbing, all of these anomalies have been solved via pcm digital recording. ....
That's why its headed out the door here. Doing some cleaning up and re-arranging in my music room at home. That floppy based keyboard from another thread was part of it as well. Technology marches on. That old board sure taught me a lot about sampling and sequencing .
I'm sure I copied all the MIDI sequences from those (176) floppy disks to a hard drive around here somewhere, so it's pretty much useless now.
That hard drive is still useable though (although it may be a 100 meg drive if its the really old one laying here)
Gotta start swapping out drives now and see whats on each one. 16 or 17 years of digital recordings takes a few drives to keep track of. I should probably get another terrabyte external drive and replace quite a few of them. Always something to do here.
Make your sound your own!
.. I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
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Joined: May 2008
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Bob, I kept my Tascam 246. Beautiful machine. Sits in my "studio" for mood lighting. Fun times but I sure don't miss all that bouncing down tracks. BIAB makes computer recording fun for me. It's the next best thing to having live musicians with none of the hassles. And all of the computer DAWs and plugins available now - many free - it was overwhelming at first but fascinating once I got into it. I still get frustrated but I got frustrated with the Tascam back when too.  When I looked at some newer stand alone recorders I didn't care for those itty bitty screens. I think computer recording has done what Tascam originally did and that is bring home recording to the masses - only even more masses now. 
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Joined: Apr 2003
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Mine was a Yamaha MT-50, I wore the heads out on that thing & took it everywhere there were folks willing let me set up 4 mics  Before that it was 2 cassettes decks & a Radio Shack mixer, before that it was Stereo Panasonic Reel-To-Reel that I used a piece of film negative over the Erase Head to do overdubs... I miss the one-kob-per-function way of doing things, just reach over & give 'er a spin! 
i5 3.20GHz, 32gb RAM, 1tb SSD OS, 12tb HDD, 4gb gForce vid card, 32" monitor, Audient id44, Win10 x64, BiaB/RB 2023, Reaper 6,IK Multimedia Total Studio 3.5 MAX, Waves 10
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Bob at first I thought you were joking, just making a comment about modern life. But, if you're serious, you do know how to arm a track in Real Band, right? It's dead simple. Plug in your instrument, arm a track and hit record. That's it. Same as the Tascam. If you want three other friends over to record live with no overdubs then get an interface with 4 or more 1/4" inputs. Don't worry about plugins, EQ, midi, effects or mastering. Just use 4 tracks and the mixing faders and create a 2 track stereo mix. Just like the Tascam. If RB is too complex for you then use the freebie Audacity. If you want to be brave and innovative use an analog tape plugin to give you that great, crappy, noisy tape sound. Actually, you don't even need that, run your audio outputs through some old yard sale amp or tape deck and record it back into RB. Be happy.
Bob
Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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Joined: Jan 2002
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Just to go kind of old-school, I recorded this little song intro with my iPhone and it's internal microphone in my kitchen, iPhone mic pointed toward sound hole, about 10" away. 4 tracks: an arpeggiated chord, two tracks of simple plucking the bass note, and a little modal melody on the 4th track. Used internal reverb and delay build into Garageband. Again, this is a 5$ application. https://soundcloud.com/rockstar_not/4-track-record-acousticCheap 60$ acoustic guitar BTW, at least that's what I paid for it used on Craigslist. New they were around $300. -Scott
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Bob, Quote:
Bob at first I thought you were joking, just making a comment about modern life.
You had it right the first time. My tongue was firmly in cheek, except that I was serious about wishing I’d held on to the old Tascam 244 and about how much recording I’d accomplished on it.
So far, my favorite DAW has been Sonar 4 PE. It’s very intuitive and easy to use, but unfortunately mine is 32 bit only. It won’t even install on a 64 bit system. On my last PC I had Win 7 64 on the C drive and XP 32 on the D drive and I had it set up as a dual boot system with Sonar running on XP. It worked great until the MOBO fried.
I got a new PC custom built earlier this year and I intend to add another drive for XP 32 so I can install Sonar 4 PE, but I haven’t done it yet. I’ve looked at RB and I’ll probably give it a whirl at some point before bothering to add XP. RB looks fairly intuitive and the ability to generate tracks is a definite plus.
In the thread, I was also wistfully remembering the “good ole days” of recording on a dedicated unit. I didn’t mean to give the impression that I’m a Luddite.
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See, you had me worried there buddy. Bob
Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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Just checked a stack in the garage and yup, I've got a TASCAM PortaTwo which I was given by a customer, and which I never used. Why? Before that I had a TEAC 2340-SX SimulSync four-track reel-to-reel deck which I mixed through a TASCAM M-106 desk onto whatever cassette deck I had at the time. With an outboard Dolby AN-60 I could get up to 10 mono tracks with what was, up until the mid 1980s, acceptable noise levels. Got a bunch of material with great (well, to me) vocal harmony work, but no drums--which is why I got Band-In-A-Box in the first place.
I also have a Korg DDM-1 drum machine which was supposed to take the place of a drummer, but I still had to program it and dump sequences off onto cassette. What a pain. By the time I got the PortaTwo I had already embarked on my digital journey with BIAB v. 7 and Passport's Master Tracks Pro. It hass been another kind of struggle as I learn to work with audio in the digital domain, but it is an infinitely more elegant process. It's still not easy, but the results are fantastic compared to what I was able to produce on my own with tape. The journey has been a lot of fun--when not trying to pull my hair out because this or that doesn't behave as expected.
"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."
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About 20 years ago when I was in Chicago, we had an 8 track Fostex reel-to-reel that was hooked to a 2 track mastering reel. Somehow you could sync the two if needed.
We had a nice board to mix with, but not being able to save settings .. ouch
Sure you could get a really good mix set up and move sliders easily .. but the next time you wanted to work on it, it was a crapshoot if anybody did anything else in the mean-time.
Digital convenience for the win (IMHO).
Make your sound your own!
.. I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
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Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.
ChatPG's knowledge base includes the full Band-in-a-Box User Manual and sales information from the website.
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Update Your PowerTracks Pro Audio 2024 Today!
The Newest RealBand 2024 Update is Here!
The newest RealBand 2024 Build 5 update is now available!
Download and install this to your RealBand 2024 for updated print options, streamlined loading and saving of .SGU & MGU (BB) files, and to add a number of program adjustments that address user-reported bugs and concerns.
This free update is available to all RealBand 2024 users. To learn more about this update and download it, head to www.pgmusic.com/support.realband.htm#20245
The Band-in-a-Box® Flash Drive Backup Option
Today (April 5) is National Flash Drive Day!
Did you know... not only can you download your Band-in-a-Box® Pro, MegaPAK, or PlusPAK purchase - you can also choose to add a flash drive backup copy with the installation files for only $15? It even comes with a Band-in-a-Box® keychain!
For the larger Band-in-a-Box® packages (UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, Audiophile Edition), the hard drive backup copy is available for only $25. This will include a preinstalled and ready to use program, along with your installation files.
Backup copies are offered during the checkout process on our website.
Already purchased your e-delivery version, and now you wish you had a backup copy? It's not too late! If your purchase was for the current version of Band-in-a-Box®, you can still reach out to our team directly to place your backup copy order!
Note: the Band-in-a-Box® keychain is only included with flash drive backup copies, and cannot be purchased separately.
Handy flash drive tip: Always try plugging in a USB device the wrong way first? If your flash drive (or other USB plug) doesn't have a symbol to indicate which way is up, look for the side with a seam on the metal connector (it only has a line across one side) - that's the side that either faces down or to the left, depending on your port placement.
Update your Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows® Today!
Update your Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows for free with build 1111!
With this update, there's more control when saving images from the Print Preview window, we've added defaults to the MultiPicker for sorting and font size, updated printing options, updated RealTracks and other content, and addressed user-reported issues with the StylePicker, MIDI Soloists, key signature changes, and more!
Learn more about this free update for Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows at www.pgmusic.com/support_windowsupdates.htm#1111
Band-in-a-Box® 2024 Review: 4.75 out of 5 Stars!
If you're looking for a in-depth review of the newest Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows version, you'll definitely find it with Sound-Guy's latest review, Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows Review: Incredible new capabilities to experiment, compose, arrange and mix songs.
A few excerpts:
"The Tracks view is possibly the single most powerful addition in 2024 and opens up a new way to edit and generate accompaniments. Combined with the new MultiPicker Library Window, it makes BIAB nearly perfect as an 'intelligent' composer/arranger program."
"MIDI SuperTracks partial generation showing six variations – each time the section is generated it can be instantly auditioned, re-generated or backed out to a previous generation – and you can do this with any track type. This is MAJOR! This takes musical experimentation and honing an arrangement to a new level, and faster than ever."
"Band in a Box continues to be an expansive musical tool-set for both novice and experienced musicians to experiment, compose, arrange and mix songs, as well as an extensive educational resource. It is huge, with hundreds of functions, more than any one person is likely to ever use. Yet, so is any DAW that I have used. BIAB can do some things that no DAW does, and this year BIAB has more DAW-like functions than ever."
Convenient Ways to Listen to Band-in-a-Box® Songs Created by Program Users!
The User Showcase Forum is an excellent place to share your Band-in-a-Box® songs and listen to songs other program users are creating!
There are other places you can listen to these songs too! Visit our User Showcase page to sort by genre, artist (forum name), song title, and date - each listing will direct you to the forum post for that song.
If you'd rather listen to these songs in one place, head to our Band-in-a-Box® Radio, where you'll have the option to select the genre playlist for your listening pleasure. This page has SoundCloud built in, so it won't redirect you. We've also added the link to the Artists SoundCloud page here, and a link to their forum post.
We hope you find some inspiration from this amazing collection of User Showcase Songs!
Congratulations to the 2023 User Showcase Award Winners!
We've just announced the 2023 User Showcase Award Winners!
There are 45 winners, each receiving a Band-in-a-Box 2024 UltraPAK! Read the official announcement to see if you've won.
Our User Showcase Forum receives more than 50 posts per day, with people sharing their Band-in-a-Box songs and providing feedback for other songs posted.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed!
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