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Band-in-a-Box for iOS
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I have biab 2025on my Mcbook and want to play the songs i have created there on myipadusing the latest biab ios version. Not all features of the biab on my mac seem to be working yet on the ipad version. I have many many songs to convert over to the ipad version, trial and error is too frustrating. Is there somewhere a list of things that work on both and what features are not incorporated intge ios version yet?

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There is no published feature comparison between BiaB for Mac program and the iPad app.


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It would be my guess that it may take years or even never before the iOS version equals the Mac or Win versions. I doubt it is meant to be a replacement. I can't envision an app having the coding to rival a 30 year old program. It will in my opinion be more of a scratch pad for creation and hopefully a notebook for performance and practice.

My suggestion for now is to save songs as complete before transferring to iOS. freeze the tracks so that they play in a simpler format.


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Thank you. I don't want to create songs or edit songs on the iPad. I'm performing as a singer and guitar player "on stage" with relatively simple basic Biab comping tracks in the background that I have created on my MacBook Pro. Instead of using my MacBook for the playback "on stage" I'd like to use my iPad as a Player allowing me to see the cursor wandering through the chords whilst it is playing back the songs I created on the iPad, so that I can follow where it is in the song. What do you mean with "freezing" a song?

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Originally Posted by Otto Marr
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What do you mean with "freezing" a song?
In BIAB it is possible to 'freeze' one or more tracks. This action ensures that the tracks don't regenerate whenever the song is played. The song arrangement, notation, etc is always delivered exactly the way the song was played when the tracks were frozen. It essentially 'locks' the performance. Frozen tracks are depicted by the blue colored snowflake in the mixer window:
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Export as a wave file or wav stems Just thinking out loud here. I have been asking them to add a lyrics track or to add bar based lyrics instead of just note based. I like to use a scrolled lyric and chord window to help my feeble mind recall songs when needed. So far I am using JamZone to play with. But hope soon the IOS version get these needed upgrades so i can build all my own tracks rather than use premade stuff.


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Thank you Rob for your response. I am using a cheap separate stand-alone iPad for the lyrics as PDF files and that works for me. I'm playing the BIAB comping tracks on my MacBook where I have created them. But it would be better to play them on a second iPad and avoid carrying my main computer around. Some years ago I trialled the previous BIAB iPad/iPhone IOS version from 2017 (and earlier). It was using a "rendered" mp4 or wave file of the BIAB song, plus the BIAB SGU file. (You had to create both file types for each song using BIAB on your computer and then download them to the iPad App. The iPad App played the song and showed the chord chart with the cursor moving through the chart whilst playing, ie not "scrolling" which is what I prefer). That old App was the predecessor to the current iPad App we are talking about. It was quite basic but worked for me to some degree and I used it as a backup, just incase my Laptop computer had a problem during performance. Unfortunately the developers seem to have given up with that approach and now want to create a cut-down stand-alone iPad App which is too basic for my needs and is not allowing the BIAB songs that I created on my MacBook to play correctly. And I certainly won't use that new basic iPad App to create my backing tracks, it's too basic for that...

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Otto, i do believe the app version will get there at least to be an option to play backing tracks. You can play BiaB made tracks now. Yes it needs a few things upgraded it but it really depends on how you setup the song files. Keep them simple and use the RealTracks to get a better result. Or Use Midi files only and incorporate a nice rack mount synth to play them. I don't mean to imply that the app is useless it is just young in development.

Have you ever used JamZone? it is the real deal.


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Hello Otto,

I was hoping the iOS version of the software would do exactly what you say - allow you to play your created backing tracks on your iPad (for example) without your laptop and the full version of the program. My solution was to use Stage Trax 3, wherein I imported each track (up to 8) and the lyrics on a pdf and used that for live performances, gigs rehearsals etc.

It does require a little time in importing the content, but it may be a solution for you.

Tom Marvan (San Diego, but from Melbourne!)


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This is a great program. https://www.jamzone.com.

No not BiaB tracks but it has a lot of features and a load of songs to choose from. You can create set lists and mix the songs and remove the tracks you want to play. Comes with scratch vocals for practicing phrasing and such.

Last edited by Rob Helms; 11/08/25 05:53 PM.

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