David: "you identify as a "newbie""
Yes, to PG, but not newbie to recording with computer and trying out many different software titles for the past 20 years smile
RealBand... well... in the nice way... Maybe a spectacular program for 2003-2005, but not for for 2018 (almost 2019). That expressing it in the nice way. You are only using both programs because one does not have things that the other has. Not because you would not use it if it was a single, well written software.

Of course I tried it, and if I really (REALLY) do not need it, I will not touch it for the life of it. BIAB and Realband are not two different things. They have more similarities than differences. PG wants users to believe they are, but they are not. I am all in for two programs to get merged into something stable and user friendly (about that time), instead of hypnotising me into believing that jumping like a monkey from one program to another is a good thing when you are working with same clay.

"And these aren't samples--they are performances. Where else on God's Green Earth will you go to find that?????"

I never questioned that. Performances are spectacular indeed. But both programs are wayyy outdated. Not in terms of functionality, function wise they are very detailed, but user experience. From a scale 1-10 I put it close to 5. I am VERY hopeful that that will change.

P.S. I would not even go the route of comparing Cakewalk to Realband smile