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Posts: 95 |
I've been a member of several rock bands over my life time. I found in each band there was a consistent workflow when writing a new song with other band members. First step in involves someone / me coming up with a chord progression that I like. I share it with the other band members and everyone adds a little creativity to the piece. I then may change a chord or two, change the tempo, come up with an arrangement that features a solo for each band member, and any additional melodic enhancements like harmonies and such are explored. It's a real give-and-take process where everyone contributes their expertise on their instrument. Of course there is also a downside to this way of doing things. Mainly band members that don't show up for practice, show up drunk or stoned, or just are not into the current music being created. At times of frustration I used to fantasize about creating music in an interactive way with software. I needed to be able to create a bunch of chord progressions and like I did with the real band members, allow the software for each instrument to be creative and come up with something I feel is musical. And then be very flexible to all the possible changes that can be applied to that creativity. The software would have to be very complex to allow this kind of human/computer creative process. But also very user-friendly. Imagine my delight and surprise when I discovered a piece of software that allows me to interact with it like I do with band members. And one that helps me deliver results I am proud of. The software is called band in a box and it is awesome. In addition to being designed to be audio mixing software it also allows amazing abilities to shape and make suggestions to each instruments performance. The computer has access to a music library of clips / phrases / riff performances from thousands of professional musicians. And the software determines which ones it wants to use in response to my creative shaping requests. Very similar to how I would interact with my band members in the song creation process. I am staggered by the results I get. This is a real paradigm shift in how I make music and makes my home studio a viable way of making music without a band. There's no AI involved. As an older retired guy who doesn't like shlepping equipment around or dealing with band member drama, this software has been a real godsend. By the way it doesn't all happen with the push of a button. Learning to use this tool took me three months and is still an ongoing process. I really love band in the box. In this example I created the progression and played lead / rhythm guitar, slide guitar, harmonica and vocals. BIAB played drums, bass and keyboard. It took lots of work to get it just right. https://tigerboytom.bandcamp.com/track/my-baby-dont-love-me
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Joined: Mar 2022
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Excellent results. Your band is very good.
Laurent
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Thank you very much for listening!
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Joined: Dec 2003
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TigerBoyTom, that was some fantastic blues. Great vocal and outstanding guitar chops: you make that Tele sing! Super backing band and mix. Have fun and welcome to the forums. The only downside I found with BiaB is that when I get drunk the whole band gets drunk 
Last edited by MarioD; 12/04/25 05:10 PM.
The bumper sticker said "I'm a veterinarian, therefore I can drive like an animal".
Suddenly I realized how many proctologists are on the road.
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
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LOL! When I take a toke, the whole band gets a contact high. Thanks a lot , man. I appreciate you listening to my tune. 
Last edited by lasvideo; 12/04/25 05:18 PM.
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Sounded good, Tom. You don't need to convince anyone here about BIAB - we're all solidly sold. Welcome, blues is my thing, looking forward to more from you.
Windows 11, Intel Core I5 10400, 16 gig ram, Scarlett 2i2, Sony Acid Music Studio 10, BIAB 2020 UltraPlus Pak
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Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed the song. Yes I realize I'm preaching to the chorus here, but I guess I shared it for any folks out there that might feel a little guilty about using band in a box. I know I enjoyed the software for many years but was very hesitant about sharing how I made my music with people that listen to it because of a bit of guilt on my part. But after thinking about it I came up with the thoughts present in my original post. :-)
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Very cool blues jam.
No, BB is not cheating. It's no different than someone who hires studio musicians to play instruments they are not capable of playing themselves. I remember back in the old Cakewalk forum days the comments from other folks about those of us who were using BB to play the parts.... "Fake, cheating, not real....."
For me, the BB real tracks and real drums are hard to beat. If you do it right, you can enhance those raw tracks and give them more of a professional polish. I had a guy who ran a studio as a business ask me how I got the fiddle part. He knew I didn't play and I didn't credit any of the fiddle players in the forum. His comment was, " Herb, I can hear the rosin on the bow in the sound " Yep, it ain't cheating. It's common sense and way more affordable to hire the BB players. I love the Kill Branch Studio band. They're always ready, don't show up late, don't show up drunk or high, don't argue with me over my selection of key, tempo, or choice of chords, work for cheap, and they don't try to flirt with or hit on my wife.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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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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Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac® users: Build 904 now available!
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We've packed Band-in-a-Box® 2026 with major new features, enhancements, and an incredible lineup of new content! The program now sports a sleek, modern GUI redesign across the entire interface, including updated toolbars, refreshed windows, smoother workflows, a new dark mode option, and more. The brand-new side toolbar provides quicker access to key windows, while the new Multi-View feature lets you arrange multiple windows as layered panels without overlap, creating a flexible, clutter-free workspace. We have an amazing new “AI-Notes” feature. This transcribes polyphonic audio into MIDI so you can view it in notation or play it back as MIDI. You can process an entire track (all pitched instruments and drums) or focus on individual parts like drums, bass, guitars/piano, or vocals. There's an amazing collection of new content too, including 202 RealTracks, new RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, “Songs with Vocals” Artist Performance Sets, Playable RealTracks Set 5, two RealDrums Stems sets, XPro Styles PAK 10, Xtra Styles PAK 21, and much more!
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Happy New Year!
Thank you for being part of the Band-in-a-Box® community.
Wishing you and yours a very happy 2026—Happy New Year from all of us at PG Music!
Season's Greetings!
Wishing everyone a happy, healthy holiday season—thanks for being part of our community!
The office will be closed for Christmas Day, but we will be back on Boxing Day (Dec 26th) at 6:00am PST.
Team PG
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