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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 20
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Enthusiast
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 20 |
AMD has their x6 processors out now. $200 at www.newegg.com. They have gotten rave reviews. They also overclock very nicely if you want to squeeze a little extra speed out of them.
Jeff
Custom built computer
I7 920 processor over clocked to 3.8 ghz - water cooled
Win 7 64 bit
6 gig memory
2 tb raid 1 hard drive
40 inch monitor
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 48
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OP
Enthusiast
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 48 |
Peter, you've got a great program, and I'm having a fun time using it, and exploring all of the features. You've packed a huge number of features in BiaB and Real Band, and many of these are challenging my musical knowledge. On the threading, all of these features show up as generally about 20 active threads (it varies from 10 to 30 or so) at any one time. I think the only time a programmer would really try to intervene is when you know a subroutine is going to be a resource hog, so you try to give it priority and its own core (or 'hyperthread' = fake core) or memory until if finishes. I generally am scared of second guessing the compiler or operating system. It's not so much that you can't do better, but the odds are stacked towards you getting in completely wrong.
Jazzmammal, I think there is some real street cred in recycling your old cases -- I take pride in the fact that I didn't even buy this case; it was given to me by a friend who had already used it for a few years. I'm going to see how long I can keep it on the road.
Jeff, I had seen the write-up on the AMD 6-cores (Thuban was their internal code name) which have L1/L2/L3 cache and DDR3. The two core Phenom II uses the same cores (the K10 cores) and basically salvages rejects from the 4 core chips (chip harvesting) with two cores disabled. Because of this, you get a real discount ~$85 wo fan. And you get that same 6mb L3 cache shared by two rather than six cores, which should help predictive execution for a single program (but who knows). And they all clock at 3-4Mhz.
But I think just as important is the memory access -- I'm guessing that RT/RB are really memory intensive; probably the sequencing part as well. On my monitor, BiaB is the biggest memory consumer (around 200 MB out of 2GB or 10%) of the active programs besides the system. And I suspect the read/write activity is pretty high. So having DDR3 (twice the transfer rate of DDR2) and a 64-bit fetch (which you can have on Win7 and Mac) is perhaps just as important as cores. And I like to have a lot of onboard memory (at least 4GB) so the disk can page into the memory.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 48
Enthusiast
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OP
Enthusiast
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 48 |
BTW Jeff, the best deal, if you wanted to go the AMD Phenom II X6 processor route is to buy Dell's Studio XPS 7100 which has this processor, a Foxconn board (produced to Dell specs ... a good deal), CD R/W, 1TB HD power supply, onboard ATI graphics (AMD owns ATI) and nice box all for $799. Don't add anything, but just buy your extras from Newegg. I have the forerunner of this (with Athelon II X4) which was about $600. You can't build them for this price.
Chris
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 48
Enthusiast
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OP
Enthusiast
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 48 |
Just a quick note on my setup. I've installed my memory (the Corsair, which is OK but not great) and the AMD chip and Motherboard:
ASUS M4A88TD-M ATX Motherboard $98
AMD Phenom II X2 3.2 GHz 2x512 KB L2 + L3 Cache Dual-Core $89
I figured I try out an option I'd seen on other forums of unlocking the cores on the AMD. AMD basically makes one chip -- a 4-processor Phenom II x4 ... if they disable the l3 cache, they call it an Athlon (dropping 30% off the price); if they disable one or two cores, they call it an x3 or x2 (knocking 25% to 50% off the price). It's all marketing so they can address different markets and pricepoints. Blackbox chips can be overclocked (the 3.2Ghz can be made higher ... in the extreme, they've gone up to 7GHz with this chip); blue and green box can't.
Fortunately, Asus has motherboards (e.g., M4A88TD-M) that override AMD's settings -- just flip a physical switch on the MB or go to the startup menu. It takes no time at all. I was able to turn on all four cores and overclock to ~3.5 GHz within a few minutes and everything is stable.
Realtracks and Realdrums compile in <3 seconds, even if I have RealTracks on all of the sequencer tracks. I checked and all four cores are being used about equally during this process -- I think that Win 7 does most of the load balancing and assignment of cores.
Anyway, if you are looking for a quick upgrade on the cheap, this is a great way to do it.
Last edited by westland; 10/24/10 12:58 PM.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 8,333
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 8,333 |
That is a very good report, thanks!
John Conley
Musica est vita
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 7,693
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 7,693 |
Great report, thanks Chris!
Bob
Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 48
Enthusiast
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OP
Enthusiast
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 48 |
Thanks John and Bob ... here are some pictures ...  From the Store  This old cabinet  This is what's in the boxes Removed my old board and DRAM  New MB assembled  Bolted into the freshly vacuumed case (amazing how much dust these accumulate in a couple of years)  Finished, almost, I need to neaten up the drives 
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 48
Enthusiast
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OP
Enthusiast
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 48 |
Here is the final Win7 performance comparison of the hacked $200 ASUS/PhenomIIX2 system versus a commercial budget Dell (the Dell counterpart to my hacked system is now about $800) 
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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 Italian Version is Here!
Cari amici
È stata aggerate la versione in Italiano del programma più amato dagli appassionati di musica, il nostro Band-in-a-Box.
Questo è il link alla nuova versione 2025.
Di seguito i link per scaricare il pacchetti di lingua italiana aggiornati per Band-in-a-Box e RealBand, anche per chi avesse già comprato la nuova versione in inglese.
Band-in-a-Box 2025 - Italiano
RealBand 2025 - Italiano
Band-in-a-Box 2025 French Version is Here!
Bonjour à tous,
Band-in-a-Box® 2025 pour Windows est disponible en Français.
Le téléchargement se fait à partir du site PG Music
Pour ceux qui auraient déjà acheté la version 2025 de Band-in-a-Box (et qui donc ont une version anglaise), il est possible de "franciser" cette version avec les patchs suivants:
BIAB 2025 - francisation
RealBand 2025 - francisation
Voilà, enjoy!
Band-in-a-Box 2025 German Version is Here!
Update Your Band-in-a-Box® 2025 to Build 1128 for Windows Today!
Already using Band-in-a-Box 2025 for Windows®? Download Build 1128 now from our Support Page to enjoy the latest enhancements and improvements from our team.
Stay up to date—get the latest update now!
Update to RealBand® 2025 Build 5 Windows Today!
Already using RealBand® 2025 for Windows®? Download Build 5 now from our Support Page to ensure you have the latest enhancements and improvements from our team.
Get the latest update today!
PowerTracks Pro Audio 2025 for Windows is Here!
PowerTracks Pro Audio 2025 is here! This new version introduces many features, including VST3 support, the ability to load or import a .FLAC file, a reset option for track height in the Tracks window, a taller Timeline on the Notation window toolbar, new freeze buttons in the Tracks window, three toolbar modes (two rows, single row, and none), the improved Select Patch dialog with text-based search and numeric patch display, a new button in the DirectX/VST window to copy an effects group, and more!
First-time packages start at only $49. Already a PowerTracks Pro Audio user? Upgrade for as little as $29!
www.pgmusic.com/powertracks.htm
Video: Summary of the New Band-in-a-Box® App for iOS®
Join Tobin as he takes you on a tour of the new Band-in-a-Box® app for iOS®! Designed for musicians, singer-songwriters, and educators, this powerful tool lets you create, play, and transfer songs effortlessly on your iPhone® or iPad®—anytime, anywhere.
Band-in-a-Box® for iOS® :Summary video.
Check out the forum post for more information.
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