PG Music Home Forums PG Music Wishlists Band-in-a-Box Wishlist 2026 GUI Improvements

PG Music has done a great job with the redesign of the GUI in the 2026 version, a GUI that integrates elements that were previously scattered in different places into a single location, providing coherence, flexibility, and ease of use to the program. Most users have welcomed the new version positively, and they're right, as it represents a huge step forward compared to previous versions.

However, after several days of using the new interface, there are several aspects that, in my opinion, continue to hinder the program and pose an obstacle to the workflow of most users. There are many aspects that could be considered, but if we focus exclusively on the GUI, there are IMO, three key areas:

a) The Disconnection of the Different Views
The ability to work with different views is one of the greatest points of the new GUI; however, these views should be synchronized so that user actions in one view are reflected in the others. For example, if we have the "Chords" and "Tracks" views active and we select measures 5 to 10 in the first view, that selection should automatically be made in the "Tracks" window, or in any other view that is currently open. Or, if we mute the bass track in measure 5 via "Chord View > F5", the "Tracks" and "Audio" views should show that this track is muted by displaying a volume automation node.

However, none of this works in BIAB. The user can maintain several views simultaneously, yes, but these views behave as if they were completely independent, which is not only counter-intuitive but (even worse) is a guarantee of unexpected behavious and bugs from the program. For instance, if we select some bars in the "Chords" view and some different bars in the "Tracks" view, and then press the "Del" key, how will the program know exactly what we want to delete?

Note: Try it and you will see a very strange bug in the program.

In summary, it is great to be able to have several views simultaneously, but these views must behave in a coordinated and coherent manner.

b) The Lack of Contextual Menus
Most users of modern music software are used to contextual menus: you select an element, right-click, and the program shows you a list with the commands you can perform on that element. However, in BIAB, these contextual menus are rare, and in some views (such as the "Tracks" view) they are almost non-existent.

Suppose a user wants to regenerate measures 5 and 6 of the bass track in his project from the "Tracks" view, and that he has forgotten the convoluted keyboard shortcuts to do so directly (to make things more difficult, there are three of them). Most users would expect to simply select those two measures, right-click, and access a contextual menu showing, among others, the Regenerate command, right?

Well, no. The right-click over a selection from the "Tracks" view does absolutely nothing. Instead, the user must make his selection and then click on a small arrow in the bottom right corner of the track, which shows an overcrowded menu with non-descriptive submenus, where he has to choose the correct option from three very similar ones, to finally be able to do what he wanted:



If that user does not use BIAB daily, I assure you that in a week he will have completely forgotten how to regenerate a part of a track (let alone memorizing the different key combinations —CTR+F8, Alt+F8, or F8— to execute practically identical commands).

That's one of the main reasons why people uses to find BIAB difficult to use. So please, PG Music, add contextual menus!

c) Inconsistency between Track Types
Edit commands should have the same effect on all the different track types (audio, RealTracks, RealDrums, MIDI, etc). For example, if we select a couple of measures on a track and press "Delete," that section should be erased. However, pressing "Delete" on any selection will have different effects depending on the track type:

- With RealTracks: It works as expected.
- With RealDrums: The user will get s a dialog box with the following question: "There is no RealTracks on this Track. Would you like to select one?". An old known bug.
- With MIDI tracks: There is no effect at all.

Again, the new GUI represents a very important step in the right direction and makes things much easier, but in my opinion, there are still certain basic aspects to improve, so that the BIAB GUI adheres to current standards and the workflow can be as fluid as it can be.

Cerio, fantastic effort summarizing issues, most of which I really hope to see resolved in the next month or two., View consistency was a soft spot for a long time way before new UI. Now the time is better than ever to fix that.

One item I disagree on. Mutes at the bar are tricky, they don't utilize nodes, but some kind of internal instructions. While I like the feature and logic of F5 (automated mutes / back to normal), nodes in traditional sense will not work. However some kind of indication throughout all views would be nice, even something simple as thin line, as we have in Chord sheet when settings at the bar are altered.

And one item you mentioned, I want to amplify. Partial regeneration. I would bet that 1/2 of the users are not familiar with it at all, but it is likely one of the 3 top tools of the "box". It deserves it's own single press "action" button, not just context right click menu By the way, that is how I have it programmed in Streamdeck. I select part of the track press single button on Streamdeck and get a new version of the segment. Rinse and repeat till I get something close to what I am looking for.

But taking discussion a bit wider, what about custom buttons that can accept any "open dialog" or action that is achievable with a shortcut.? Select that custom button, write in your shortcut and make it appear in upper toolbar. For example single press partial regen

Very helpful analysis. I am a light user of BIAB and I must say that yes I am baffled by the user interface (2025 currently) and its menus, sub-menus and options that really make no sense to me. Often I have no idea how to do something and must rely on help from the forum whereas in most software these days, you just right click on an item and the answer of what you want to do is right there for one click. For instance my year long adventure and documentation here of importing an audio file, splitting and aligning the results with a chord chart etc. was so inconsistent and buggy that I finally just gave up in defeat and use SMP instead. I have never encountered a software program as byzantine as this one, and because after several years with it and I still cannot understand much of it, I just use it for quick backing track creation for guitar improvisation practice over the SPECTACULAR sounding RealTracks. So while the front end GUI seems to have been improved for 2026, I know from all these comments generously shared by users, that this will not solve my difficulty using the program. So I will be making the choice to upgrade only based on whether there are some great new RTs and styles available that I will actually use. I suspect not for $150, but I am am still waiting for the PG fix of the non-playing RT demos that are new in the 2026 update. Pretty weird situation. I can see why younger folks may not go for this program. I am not really complaining here; just describing my experience. Other than quick custom backing track creation, for me I have found other more modern tools to do other complex music manipulation and transcription chores.

+1./ for suggested improvements.

Very nice summary.

I completely agree that this proposal is the next evolutionary step. Now that the overall GUI has been modernized, the windows must be synchronized, both in identifying location and range in each view, and consistency of how commands work (especially right-click context commands).

This concept was identified years ago by a small group who put forth many of the suggestions that were implemented this year. I would hope that this 2026 version is but a step in the full needed direction, and I’m grateful for that first step.

Big +1 for these recommendation!

Not to nitpick but there is a large portion of the program that has definitely NOT had a GUI modernization! Any time I open the preferences dialog I feel like I'm playing some sort of complex role-playing game!

You are correct. The changes this year were most notable on the ‘main’ windows, not the underlying menus and dialogs.

The upgrades they made to the main windows are exceptional! As I explore this further I find I am actually enjoying using the software! I have always LOVED what I could get OUT of BIAB; now I may just end up loving using it too!

And yes, the sync issues the OP explained so well are def something that need addressing but my advice for everyone is BIAB 2026 is a MUST UPGRADE!

Yes, I also think this has been one of the best updates in many years. Highly recommended

Yes, this is one of the best updates in many years.

Hopefully this is just the tip of the iceberg. After the Mac version I hope they continue to work on the menus and have everything sync together. I also hope they ask for our input, as they did this year.