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This is a problem I'm returning to after a skirmish with it in 2010, which was put on hold when I transferred to Ubuntu as my everyday operating system.
I've recently upgraded to 2012, and have purchased a number of extra RealTracks, so I'm going through my repertoire updating the songs so as to use RealTracks whenever possible.
The yellow card in the upper right corner of the screen which comes up with suggestions about these changes when you open a file is a handy prompt, and I decided to try running through the whole folder using JukeBox.
I've unticked all the boxes in the "Options for JukeBox" screen, except the "(Preview) Switch to next song after ... bars", and I've set the number of bars to 4.
Every time I try this, BIAB becomes unresponsive after the third song's introduction has been played. I've tried this numerous times, with the same result, and I've just tried the same test with 8 bars instead of 4, and BIAB hangs after the second song.
Is there some way of posting the offending files, so that someone else can check it on a different machine?
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I think this is due to the time required to generate RT's. You didn't say if these existing songs have some RT's already in them or if they're all midi. If they're all midi then this answer has no bearing on the problem. Biab has not finished generating the Real Tracks/Drums for one song before you go on to another. I don't use the Jukebox so I'm not positive about that but it sounds like it. Biab will allow a song with RT/RD's to start playing before the song has finished generating. If you stop the song before that happens and either hit play again or start a new song immediately it hangs and since the Jukebox just runs from one song to another the generation time could be the culprit and that of course is a function of how fast (or slow) your computer is. Normally, people use the Jukebox to play the whole song and even on a slow computer Biab will have finished generating after the song has played 8 or 12 bars or so. Try extending the number of bars per song to say 15 or 20 and see if that fixes it.
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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Thanks, JazzMammal,
I previously tried extending it to 8 bars, and this time it died at the end of the second song.
I've just tried 16 bars, and BIAB died at the end of the sixth song.
I've generated and then frozen all the RT-containing songs before saving them, so I don't think that generation time should really be the issue. When this happened to me that last time (in 2010) I tested it out on two computers with widely differing resources (4 times the RAM and a much faster processor), and found they both got stuck at the same point.
My purpose here isn't to find a way of playing four bars of each piece with JukeBox (a pretty useless activity, I have to admit!), but to point out that I can repeatedly cause BIAB to hang.
I don't think a program should hang like this - particularly one which is used for live performance - and if BIAB is indeed "allow[ing] a song ... to start playing before the song has finished generating" it should be able to deal more elegantly with the consequences.
When I did some semi-professional programming in years gone by, I was delighted to be informed of reproducible problems with my code, as they often revealed problems in sections of code I would never have thought of checking, and which were causing other obscure problems,
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Quote:
I've generated and then frozen all the RT-containing songs before saving them, so I don't think that generation time should really be the issue.
Freezing the RTs doesn't remove the need to regenerate the song. Freezing just stores info about how to construct the RTs. It will still take roughly the same amount of time to generate. You could try checking 'this song has playback problems, disable fast re-generation' in the song settings menu and see if that helps. In theory that setting should cause the song to wait until the RTs are generated before playing.
BiaB 2013 b366, RB 2013 b4, WinXP Pro SP3, Toshiba M70, 1.8GHz 2GB RAM 100GB HD. Focusrite Saffire 6 USB, Ketron SD2. BiaB Wiki
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Hi FoxyLady,
Thanks for that information. Hopefully we can duplicate it, and then we could solve it. For testing purposes, could you try pwarren's suggestion of trying the jukebox with the "PRefs-RealTracks-SpeedUp Generation" DISABLED.
This would make generation of all songs much longer, but provide us helpful diagnostic information, to see if they still hang or not.
Have Fun!
Peter Gannon
PG Music Inc.
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Hello,
I will be testing this with your examples and my own and submitting information on this issue to the developers.
Thanks!
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Quote:
I don't think a program should hang like this - particularly one which is used for live performance - and if BIAB is indeed "allow[ing] a song ... to start playing before the song has finished generating" it should be able to deal more elegantly with the consequences.
When I did some semi-professional programming in years gone by, I was delighted to be informed of reproducible problems with my code, as they often revealed problems in sections of code I would never have thought of checking, and which were causing other obscure problems,
This is exactly what's happening now and maybe your specific Jukebox question is separate from the generation problem and it is fixable but we'll see. When you're dealing with Real Tracks remember those are audio files. Even a super fast i7 with 12 gigs of ram takes time to generate those tracks because they're audio but a machine like that is pretty quick if not immediate.
The generation times issue has been talked about to death since RT's were first introduced several years ago. The "fast generation" feature was implemented maybe two years ago in response to those concerns. If it was simply something in the code I'm pretty sure it would have been done by now. If you stop and hit play again too soon Biab will hang but it hasn't crashed. That had me fooled for some time. I thought it had crashed and got all kinds of freezes and error boxes when trying to close out of the program. Just wait and the song starts playing again. How long is the wait depends on your machine of course and like I mentioned in the other thread talking about "antique" PC's my new machine can generate and start playing a 6 track RT song in about 7 seconds. That's fast enough for a gig. Trust me unless you're truly permanently short of cash, you'll get tired of messing around and upgrade to something fast.
As to the freezing of tracks, that was specifically implemented for live players because real time generation of RT's takes too long on a gig if you don't have the latest and greatest PC.
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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Thanks, Peter.
I've disabled the Speed-up generation option, and am running a four-bar JukeBox job on a large directory of songs. It may take several hours, but it didn't crash after three songs this time.
Perhaps you can clarify the meaning of "generation".
I have understood it to mean the process of selecting appropriate RealTracks phrases for assembly into the complete song, and that this would be done every time a song is played UNLESS the part is frozen.
This implies that, if all of the RealTracks in a song are frozen, the decision about what phrases to play has already been made, and the delay between pressing Play and the start of the song relates to the assembly of the phrases.
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I can report that with the Speed-up option OFF, the 4 bar JukeBox exercise got through 231 of 233 songs in a folder, without hanging, but it stopped with piece 231 open.
There were two sets of "Large Lyrics" on the screen at the time (I'd previously noted that persistence of Large Lyrics after a song had been closed was a feature of the exercise), so clearly there are circumstances where these aren't shut down with the song itself.
BIAB is able to play piece 231 in the normal way, and it shouldn't have been too challenging, as it only used RealDrums and MIDI - no RealTracks. Piece 232 was all MIDI, and piece 233 was RealDrums and MIDI, and played through without trouble.
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Quote:
Perhaps you can clarify the meaning of "generation".
I have understood it to mean the process of selecting appropriate RealTracks phrases for assembly into the complete song, and that this would be done every time a song is played UNLESS the part is frozen.
This implies that, if all of the RealTracks in a song are frozen, the decision about what phrases to play has already been made, and the delay between pressing Play and the start of the song relates to the assembly of the phrases.
Yes, frozen means "the process of selecting appropriate RealTracks phrases for assembly into the complete song" is completed. This is what takes so long each time you hit play and regeneration is performed. Howver,when you freeze the tracks this is already done and playback will be immediate.
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Quote:
Yes, frozen means "the process of selecting appropriate RealTracks phrases for assembly into the complete song" is completed. This is what takes so long each time you hit play and regeneration is performed. Howver,when you freeze the tracks this is already done and playback will be immediate.
Although it would take a comment from the programmers to confirm, I believe this isn't quite correct. While the calculations to fit the phrases to the song have already been done the bulk of the work remains. The phrases still have to be assembled from the master audio files and any pitch correction and stretching still needs to be done. It'll be faster, for sure, but not immediate.
BiaB 2013 b366, RB 2013 b4, WinXP Pro SP3, Toshiba M70, 1.8GHz 2GB RAM 100GB HD. Focusrite Saffire 6 USB, Ketron SD2. BiaB Wiki
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Quote:
Quote:
Yes, frozen means "the process of selecting appropriate RealTracks phrases for assembly into the complete song" is completed. This is what takes so long each time you hit play and regeneration is performed. Howver,when you freeze the tracks this is already done and playback will be immediate.
Although it would take a comment from the programmers to confirm, I believe this isn't quite correct. While the calculations to fit the phrases to the song have already been done the bulk of the work remains. The phrases still have to be assembled from the master audio files and any pitch correction and stretching still needs to be done. It'll be faster, for sure, but not immediate.
Paul, I did see you earlier comment here, but I am 99% sure of this response (of course I could be wrong  ). But this has been my experience as freezing the tracks was a life saver to my show providing immediate playback when frozen (~1 sec?). And I do believe this has been confimed by Peter in the past. Heck, give it a try and see. 
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FoxyLady,
Thanks. A followup question... Can you also get it to happen by simulating a jukebox, by 1. 1. Playing a song (**not** using jukebox) from the folder that has the 3 offending songs that you posted.
2. pressing the Next button to go to the next song as the other one has just started
Does the same issue happen - a hang (ie without involving the jukebox)
Have Fun!
Peter Gannon
PG Music Inc.
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Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Yes, frozen means "the process of selecting appropriate RealTracks phrases for assembly into the complete song" is completed. This is what takes so long each time you hit play and regeneration is performed. Howver,when you freeze the tracks this is already done and playback will be immediate.
Although it would take a comment from the programmers to confirm, I believe this isn't quite correct. While the calculations to fit the phrases to the song have already been done the bulk of the work remains. The phrases still have to be assembled from the master audio files and any pitch correction and stretching still needs to be done. It'll be faster, for sure, but not immediate.
Paul, I did see you earlier comment here, but I am 99% sure of this response (of course I could be wrong ). But this has been my experience as freezing the tracks was a life saver to my show providing immediate playback when frozen (~1 sec?). And I do believe this has been confimed by Peter in the past. Heck, give it a try and see.
I have tried it. When I click play on a song with a frozen soloist you can see the track generation in the title bar. It is definately faster but still takes long enough to see the info. Peter said in a previous thread that only the info for the track is saved with the song not the actual waveform. Which is easliy confirmed by looking at the file sizes.
Quote:
Freezing wouldn't make a difference, since the BB MGU files don't contain the audio anyway... Just pointers to the audio files.
Quoting PGannon from this thread
That means the track still has to be assembled from the master audio files. I would guess that your PC is fast enough that it seems immediate.
However, in the absence of official confirmation I will label this as my opinion rather than fact.
BiaB 2013 b366, RB 2013 b4, WinXP Pro SP3, Toshiba M70, 1.8GHz 2GB RAM 100GB HD. Focusrite Saffire 6 USB, Ketron SD2. BiaB Wiki
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>> Although it would take a comment from the programmers to confirm, I believe this isn't quite correct. While the calculations to fit the phrases to the song have already been done the bulk of the work remains. The phrases still have to be assembled from the master audio files and any pitch correction and stretching still needs to be done. It'll be faster, for sure, but not immediate.
Paul,
Yes, this is correct. On a fast machine, this appears to be instant, maybe 1-2 seconds until playback starts.
(RealBand is different. It saves the actual audio, so playback there would be instant, and every song is "frozen")
Have Fun!
Peter Gannon
PG Music Inc.
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Quote:
So Paul, I guess that answers our question for us from Peter himself. 
I was still typing as Peter replied. As I suspected, your PC is fast enough that reassembly appears immediate. On my PC not so much. 
BiaB 2013 b366, RB 2013 b4, WinXP Pro SP3, Toshiba M70, 1.8GHz 2GB RAM 100GB HD. Focusrite Saffire 6 USB, Ketron SD2. BiaB Wiki
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Quote:
Yes, this is correct. On a fast machine, this appears to be instant, maybe 1-2 seconds until playback starts.
Exactly, Peter. If the OP had a i5 with 8 gigs of ram or my machine, this thread would not exist. Yes, the question comes up all the time "does Biab work on my older machine?" and the answer always is sure it will, no problem. The problem is that question is incomplete. Yes, the programs run fine but do they run to your expectations? That answer is usually no.
Doing normal household stuff on your computer like emails, web surfing, sharing a few photos on Facebook, maybe creating a few Wordocs, stuff like that sure, a 10 year old machine is ok but start doing digital audio work? No way. It will do it but it also spawns tons of threads like this one.
Speed is your friend with computers and digital audio/video work. Gotta keep fairly current or you will just frustrate yourself.
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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Thanks, Peter.
With fast generation turned off, I have no trouble in cycling through the three songs.
When I turned fast generation back on again, I was able to play the first four bars of the first two pieces, but when I pressed "Next" at the 5th bar on the second one, BIAB hung - by which I mean that the menu bar at the top of the screen went white, the Title bar included "(Not Responding)" at its right hand end, and the cursor became an hourglass when hovering over any part of the BIAB screen except the title bar. It's not so unresponsive that clicking on the "Close" box doesn't work, however, which is different from the occasional Access Violation, which does require the Task Manager.
Incidentally, if I watch memory and CPU loads with Task Manager while BIAB is regenerating a song, BIAB doesn't seem to be overstretching the CPU or using much system memory - is BIAB being too "nice" for its own good, and being unnecessarily parsimonious with system resources?
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Our new country & Americana RealTracks deliver a rich collection of acoustic, electric, and roots-inspired styles! We have new country pop (9) with legendary guitarist Brent Mason. There is also a potpourri (14) of bouzouki, guitars, banjo, and more, perfect for adding texture and character to contemporary acoustic arrangements. We’ve added funky country guitar (5) with PG favorite Brent Mason, along with classic pedal steel styles (5) featuring steel great Doug Jernigan. There are more country songwriter styles (8) that provide intimate, rootsy foundations for storytelling and modern Americana writing. Finally, we have “background soloing” acoustic guitar (12) with Brent Mason — simpler, but still very tasty acoustic lines designed to sit beautifully behind vocals or act as a subtle standalone solo part.
Check out all the 202 new RealTracks (in sets 468-488)!
And, if you are looking for more, the 2026 49-PAK (for $49) includes an impressive collection of 20 bonus RealTracks, featuring exciting and inspiring additions to add to your RealTracks library. You'll get new country-rhythm guitar styles from PG Music favorites Johnny Hiland and Brent Mason, along with modern-pop grooves that capture today’s radio-ready sound! There are also new indie-folk styles with guitar, bass, 6-string bass used as a high-chording instrument, acoustic guitar, and banjo. Plus, dedicated "cymbal fills" RealDrums provide an added layer that work very well with low-key folky styles with other percussion.
The 2026 49-PAK is loaded with other great new add-ons as well. Learn more about the 2026 49-PAK!
2026 Free Bonus PAK & 49-PAK for Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac®!
With your version 2026 for Mac Pro, MegaPAK, UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, Audiophile Edition or PlusPAK purchase, we'll include a Bonus PAK full of great new Add-ons for FREE! Or upgrade to the 2026 49-PAK for only $49 to receive even more NEW Add-ons including 20 additional RealTracks!
These PAKs are loaded with additional add-ons to supercharge your Band-in-a-Box®!
This Free Bonus PAK includes:
- The 2026 RealCombos Booster PAK:
-For Pro customers, this includes 27 new RealTracks and 23 new RealStyles.
-For MegaPAK customers, this includes 25 new RealTracks and 23 new RealStyles.
-For UltraPAK customers, this includes 12 new RealStyles.
- MIDI Styles Set 92: Look Ma! More MIDI 15: Latin Jazz
- MIDI SuperTracks Set 46: Piano & Organ
- Instrumental Studies Set 24: Groovin' Blues Soloing
- Artist Performance Set 19: Songs with Vocals 9
- Playable RealTracks Set 5
- RealDrums Stems Set 9: Cool Brushes
- SynthMaster Sounds Set 1 (with audio demos)
- iOS Android Band-in-a-Box® App
Looking for more great add-ons, then upgrade to the 2026 49-PAK for just $49 and you'll get:
- 20 Bonus Unreleased RealTracks and RealDrums with 20 RealStyle.
- FLAC Files (lossless audio files) for the 20 Bonus Unreleased RealTracks and RealDrums
- MIDI Styles Set 93: Look Ma! More MIDI 16: SynthMaster
- MIDI SuperTracks Set 47: More SynthMaster
- Instrumental Studies 25 - Soul Jazz Guitar Soloing
- Artist Performance Set 20: Songs with Vocals 10
- RealDrums Stems Set 10: Groovin' Sticks
- SynthMaster Sounds & Styles Set 2 (sounds & styles with audio demos)
Learn more about the Bonus PAK and 49-PAK for Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac®!
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