PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Windows who uses BIAB like i do?

been playing since the 60s with various degrees of success. in electric bands and acoustic bands i played with live musicians in various line ups. some of the guys i played with were excellent, some average. but the stuff i still want to play -either recording for my own entertainment or as backing tracks for occasionallly playing out is much the same as in four or five piece bands.

i find that most of the time BIAB styles sound just like the bands i used to play in. sometimes i stray into RB to finish a track and add extra RTs.

but the individual instruments in BIAB sound similar to what the other guys played. bass, drums, guitar - they sound like my old band mates.

i've always upgraded BIAB but quite frankly most of the new 'features' don't apply to me. i like new RTs but i've got so many that i'm spoilt for choice. have i reached the saturation point?

would be interested to know how many BIAB users upgrade every year and whether the number is dropping. is the bulk of sales new users?

Thus far I have upgraded the engine every year. Depending on my money situation I upgrade to the Ultra pac and purchase the extra stuff.

Bob, I don't know how one would determine the percentage of repeat customers vs new customers; I'd guess that would be internal and company-proprietary data.

However, I agree that most of the new features that come along don't apply to me either. I have too many RTs and RDs to effectively hunt through to find what I hear in my head. Interesting enough, for me this hasn't been all bad because it has forced me to compose much more on my physical keyboard than would otherwise be the case, thereby contributing to my overall music skills.

But I can say that I do upgrade every year for 2 basic reasons:

1. PGM is an innovative company and BiaB is a great product deserving of my continued business and favorable word-of-mouth. My loyalty has been earned.

2. I have hopes that future upgrades will have relevant improvements such as smart search, filtering and mapping capability to address the above mentioned "too many RTs problem". Perhaps this, and other features that musicians need, will be implemented in the coming months via AI solutions.

I upgrade every year because...
1) I find that a good number of new tools & additions significantly improve my workflow.
2) There is always some cool & surprising content that inspires me to create.
3)There are only a small number of companies that I believe deserve to be supported annually, PGM is one of them.

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As it was evident from the Rob H's Poll, most people who responded are in favor of optimizing workflow & existing features + fixing known issues and limitations, instead of introducing new items. After this year (2024) update, I support that philosophy. Would I upgrade if the 2025 would primarily focus on maintenance? Absolutely.

upgrade every year.

Mostly because I want PG Music to stay in business.

I have upgraded every year since 2013. I like to support companies that supply a good product at a fair price. Most companies pester you with email and texts forever after you order something. BIAB doesn't do that. I like the ability to make backing tracks which is my main use. I adment I don't use all the bells and whistles but I do like playing with some of them from time to time.

I started with BIAB in it’s earliest years, upgrading each year. I did skip 2022 and ‘23 for some reason. Now, using 2024. Don’t use any of the latest bells and whistles. Not a song writer, or creator of original stuff. I play out live with BIAB straight from the chord/lyric screen on a laptop. Works great. All I need is a 4 or 5-piece rhythm section. I upgrade for new, or, improved styles and real tracks, working several times a week in retirement homes. I hope PG Music will be around for a long time to come.

how 'bout that i to have some biab floppy's around somewhere (3.5 not the 5") you may have come in before me with the 5" floppy.
sounds like you got a nice rig for the senior circuit. where are you out of? i'm outside philly. i was in that biz from 1987 to 2013. made way more money in nursing /retirement communities than playing bars/parties as a sideman...
i stared using biab on those kinda gigs but performance /karaoke tracks were just tooooo easy pop in and re key if needed and just to work.

now i write musicals so making the rhythm sec in biab and then importing the midi tracks into Sibelius for orchestral treatments if needed. i like the human feel of biab over writing it all out in a piano roll in cubase. biab adds a human feel to the projects. tons of versatility with a system like this.
anyway, i digress, since i was busy playing guitar, a laptop didn't fit my work flow and had to many choices. i'd get all distracted wondering about a new way i could manipulate the software etc. OCD.
none of this digital tech existed when i started that circuit. karaoke tracks were on cassette tape which was never in tune and i play guitar on these gigs as well, so that sucked. then we got DAT tape which held pitch but ya had to line up your sets cause you had to physically fast forward that digital audio tape to search for a song and that took time. if i recall correctly, then came the CD and i could find songs really fast for the first time. finally enter, the ipod/zune! it was a gig rig in the palm of my hand. nowadays i'd use my phone for playback if i were still active.

there was one other bit that was coming into vogue as i was retiring from performance. using pitch to midi software or a good daw to extract midi from karaoke tracks and produce them in any key with no artifacts.

do you have any tracks posted? i'd like to hear what you're doin' with biab.

The User Showcase forum has all of the BiaB customer's songs so head there to hear them:

https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=50&page=1

I upgrade every year. I usually go with the UltraPak as I really don't like not having the full set of styles and RTs at my fingertips. My primary use is to create backing tracks with bass, drums, piano, and guitar. A real jazz quartet in the box is wonderful to have for my performances.

I think PG does deserve our support and I'll probably upgrade even though I don't need any new features. Interesting SaxaBruce seems to use BIAB the same way I do but for jazz not country folk and pop.

Bob.

i love it that a small cdn company like pg has been successfull.
i always root for the underdog in a market sector.

happiness.

om

Bob,
Sounds like we could be twins separated at birth.
This sentence very much applies to me;
i've always upgraded BIAB but quite frankly most of the new 'features' don't apply to me. i like new RTs but i've got so many that i'm spoilt for choice. have i reached the saturation point?
Vintage