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My first computer, long before the IBM PC was even invented, used a portable cassette tape recorder for storage.
Anybody have BIAB on cassettes? (kidding)
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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That wouldn't happen to be the Radio Shack Color Computer (aka CoCo) would it? I still have soft spot for the CoCo - it got me through grad school (a CoCo and a TI-59 with more than a few of the library modules) . (I was a late bloomer I didn't attend college for a long time after high school)
But then in late 70's early 80's more than a few "PC's" used cassette as "mass storage" - what was the blinding baud rate again?
Larry
Last edited by Larry Kehl; 08/15/12 09:06 PM.
Win10Pro,i9,64GB,2TBSSD+20TBHDDs,1080TI,BIAB'24,Scarlett18i8,Montage7,Fusion 8HD,QS8,Integra7,XV5080,QSR,SC-8850,SPLAT,FL21&others,Komp.14,IK suite&others, just a guitar player-AXE FX III &FM9T, FishmanTP, MIDIGuitar2, GK2/3'sw/GI20
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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I still have a Color Computer in the closet, but no, that came out in summer 1980 and ran LOGO, among other things. I started in 1977 with the TRS-80 Model 1 and then a Model 3. Before 1982 I worked for Tandy and was selling these computers to IBMers among others and demonstrating them on TV, and I managed the first retail computer store in the Albany region. I then became their regional educator before teaching computer science in college for the next twenty-five years.
The data transfer rate of my first modem, which had suction cups to fit over a telephone receiver, was 300 baud. It was a happy day when the 1200 baud unit came out.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Apprentice
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I got my first taste of BB back in 1982 when a friend of mine from a musical show we were both in gave me a boot-leg copy of BB/DOS version on 5 1/4" floppy. I liked the program so much that I've since bought every version on a yearly basis since then and am waiting for Christmas to get 2013 BB. By the way, I still have every version except the 5 1/4" floppy version.
Great Product, Great Company. Thanks Peter for 30 years of joy.
Last edited by David Walker; 08/16/12 06:04 PM.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Apprentice
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Apprentice
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My first computer was something called an "Elf". Had a full 256 bytes of ram. Not even enough to store this post. Disks were 8" floppies at that time and drives were were so expensive, you only saw them them at your place of employment.
My first "midi" computer was a Commodore64 with a home built midi interface and Dr T's sequencer. There was also a very crude music creating program around at that time that produced some type of rythm loop, if I remember right. Later moved up to an Atari ST, also with Dr. T's sequencer. The sequencer would crash any time you entered an invalid quantity.
Never knew BIAB went back that far. Glad to see they made it.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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My first computer was a Texas Instruments TI99/4A and it had a cassette storage device. "Brrr-brrr-brrr-brrr-brrr-brrr-brrr".
My first edition of BiaB was the first version they put out on Atari. Second version was a PC pre-windows DOS version and I also had one for a Mac with a Motorola chip soon after I went into business.
I do remember working BiaB on a PC with 5.25" floppy disks but BiaB itself came on a 3.5 disk.
And before the TI I had a slide rule, and actually knew how to use it (but I don't remember now).
Notes
Bob "Notes" Norton  Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com
100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks
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Hey Bob, I remember your ads in an audio recording magazine from sometime in the 90s. When did you first start marketing BIAB add-on styles?
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Ahh..slide rules - got me through high school, AF tech school, and part of college, I suspect quite a few on THIS forum used them as well and in the same "venues!" I also collect them and have a fairly large collection, a few can be seen http://sliderulemuseum.com/ (look under Dietzgen). I had more in Mike's gallery but he replaces virtual collection (ones not physically at the museum) with ones the museum actually owns (some bought, some donated which is where my collection will go some day). There are some manuals that I passed along as well (they didn't have and or the correct version wasn't on the web anywhere). I still carry a pocket SR in my bag. Sometimes it's a Nestler 0130 MultiMath Duplex but most of the time it's a Pickett N-600ES, becasue that particular model went to the moon on Apollo missions (SR's, paper and pencil got us to the moon; not 64 digits of "precision"
Last edited by Larry Kehl; 08/18/12 04:23 PM.
Win10Pro,i9,64GB,2TBSSD+20TBHDDs,1080TI,BIAB'24,Scarlett18i8,Montage7,Fusion 8HD,QS8,Integra7,XV5080,QSR,SC-8850,SPLAT,FL21&others,Komp.14,IK suite&others, just a guitar player-AXE FX III &FM9T, FishmanTP, MIDIGuitar2, GK2/3'sw/GI20
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Larry, you are a man to mine own heart *grin*.
Along with the Slide Rule, I also sometimes load the Sextant into my kit when doing TechRep work on GSAT systems.
You should see the faces of the younger set when I pull that thing out of the case and step out onto the flybridge...
"What's he DOING?"
"I think he's DIVINING our postion. From the STARS..."
"Can that be done?"
Does anyone remember the scene in the movie "Apollo 13" where the engineer confronted with in-flight emergency is shown with a TI Calculator?
Hard to find that scene anymore as so many of us contacted the Producer, etc. to tell them that there weren't any TI calculators at the time of Apollo 13. So they actually redid the movie and inserted a clip of the guy using his slipstick...
Then, of course, there's this digital code, the only one that can be translated using nothing more than the human brain. "Morse Code" -- Yet another skillset which should not have been allowed to languish.
--Mac
Last edited by Mac; 08/18/12 06:44 AM.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Journeyman
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I taught myself Basic programming on a ZX81 monitor was the TV, all of 16k RAM, programs was saved to cassettes. Upgraded when the ZX Spectrum came out 48k RAM....
I remember the tricks we tried to keep the programs lean to fit it all in!
I tell the youngsters at work how a pal of mine and myself wrote a complete PC Board productiion control system in the 80's on a Sharp MZ80B using dBase II (yes not dBaseIII). This also had 2 cassettes, one for the system, one for data....could'nt pick it up myself, so heavy ..
I'm doing allright for Country Trash ....
I used to care, but things have changed (Bob Dylan)
BIAB 2026W + RB
M-Audio FastTrack C600, Rode NT2-A
Digitech VoiceLive 4
Epiphone Sheraton, Ibanez 12str, Washburn 6str, Cort 6Str Nylon
Yanagisawa Tenor Sax
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The ALTAIR was my first personal computer. Mid 70's -- and you ahd to be able to follow schematics, directions, solder and pretty much built it from scratch. The Output was a row of LEDs and many of us home experimenters dedicated a LOT of time and resources towards getting the Altair to display ASCII on a screen. When I finally achieved that using a standard old television set, man, it was time to dance around the ham shack. http://oldcomputers.net/altair.html My first Music Machine was an Atari, running the incredibly powerful, even by today's standards, "Bars 'n Pipes" MIDI sequencer software. (Still keep a running Atari around here because sometimes the MIDI editing capabilities of Bars 'n Pipes can streamline delivery in certain projects. The ability to roll your own scripts to do any sort of batch work is still incredibly powerful despite all the sequencing softwares now available.) --Mac
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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My first computer was a Timex-Sinclair with 2K of memory. Added an external keyboard and 16K memory and thought I was really "Cookin'" Graduated to a Kaypro -- remember those?
Bob Coy
HP Desktop
Windows 10 Home, AMD A6-7310, 6GB Ram 1TB Hard drive. Radeon Graphics & Sound
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Quote:
Hey Bob, I remember your ads in an audio recording magazine from sometime in the 90s. When did you first start marketing BIAB add-on styles?
When PG Music offered version 4 for Atari, it was the first version to allow end users to make user styles. I believe that was in 1991 or 1992. It only had 3 instruments. Drums, bass and piano.
The basic 24 'built in' styles were very limiting, and especially the Latin American styles wouldn't do down here in South Florida, so I wrote a number of styles for myself. Better Latin styles, more rock styles a couple of country styles and so on.
I gave my styles away to a few of my friends, and they all told me they liked my styles better than the PG Music styles (aren't friends great!). So I took out an ad in Electronic Musician magazine, I think this was in 1992, but I could be off a year.
A few months later, Peter Gannon called, and encouraged me to write for IBM compatible computers (that's what we called PCs back then) and offered to convert my Atari styles to IBM styles (Atari and IBM shared the same floppy disk format). So I sent him the disks.
Then when I sold enough style disks to buy an IBM compatible computer, I got a 386 / DOS 5.0 / Win 3.1 IBM compatible with a 5.25 floppy and a 3.5 floppy (BiaB was DOS only then, the first Windows version hadn't arrived yet). Then came the Mac Classic II running system 6. I've upgraded all but the Atari quite a few times. Though I do remember getting a 10M hard drive for the Atari that was about the size of the Manhattan telephone directory.
So I'm guessing 1992. I never thought I'd still be doing it 20 years later but I am thankful for PG Music for the product and all my loyal customers for the support.
I wonder if Peter Gannon had any idea as to what would become of that great but clunky little infant program that was developed back in the early days of the PC?
Notes
Brand new 2012.5 updates from Norton Music:
- 2 new style disks for Band-in-a-Box
- 2 new free (with a purchase) fancy intro/ending disks for Real Band and other DAW's
- The Ultimate Gospel Fake Disk
- The Real Rock Fake Disk (plenty of classic rock in this one)
- The Beatles Fake Disk
- And an updated Christmas Fake Disk
Hundreds of Free .sgu and .mp3 demos for the above at: http://www.nortonmusic.com
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What was the original publishing/sales date of BIAB?
Thanks
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Quote:
What was the original publishing/sales date of BIAB?
Thanks
Peter,
I'd also like to know - Come on go dig out your records (both kinds  I suspect like me you still have/play vinyl?) and report when the first BIAB for "PC" sold (intel x86 platforms because I think PG
Win10Pro,i9,64GB,2TBSSD+20TBHDDs,1080TI,BIAB'24,Scarlett18i8,Montage7,Fusion 8HD,QS8,Integra7,XV5080,QSR,SC-8850,SPLAT,FL21&others,Komp.14,IK suite&others, just a guitar player-AXE FX III &FM9T, FishmanTP, MIDIGuitar2, GK2/3'sw/GI20
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I remember seeing little ads in EM and Keyboard on the PC when all I had was an Atari (if my memory is correct but then, that was a loooooong time ago). I tend to think it started as a DOS program (again, I could be wrong about that). I've been using it since it first came out on the Atari. I might even have the floppy disk somewhere  I don't know the edition of DOS I started with, but when BiaB finally came out in Windows, they re-numbered it to Version 1 again. So I would guess either late 80s or early 90s would be the origin of this great app. Notes
Bob "Notes" Norton Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com
100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks
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Expert
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I've still got a copy of version 1 for DOS. I have it installed on an old HP Vectra 486 DX/25. It works with my MPU401 plugged into the computer but otherwise will not run if it doesn't find an interface it 'likes'. Kevin 
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Quote:
What was the original publishing/sales date of BIAB?
Thanks
According to information from another area of this webiste, http://www.pgmusic.com/about.htm Peter formed PG Music in 1988.However I suspect that BIAB in an earlier form was around prior to that, judging by some of the above comments.
Cheers,
Keith
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Last edited by seeker; 08/21/12 08:52 PM.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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The package shown must be later than version 1 for DOS as it has drums, bass and piano. The version I have on the HP only has drums and bass.
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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 2026 for Windows Special Offers End Tomorrow (January 15th, 2026) at 11:59 PM PST!
Time really is running out! Save up to 50% on Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows® upgrades and receive a FREE Bonus PAK—only when you order by 11:59 PM PST on Thursday, January 15, 2026!
We've added many major new features and new content in a redesigned Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®!
Version 2026 introduces a modernized GUI redesign across the program, with updated toolbars, refreshed windows, smoother workflows, and a new Dark Mode option. There’s also a new side toolbar for quicker access to commonly used windows, and the new Multi-View feature lets you arrange multiple windows as layered panels without overlap, making it easier to customize your workspace.
Another exciting new addition is the new AI-Notes feature, which can transcribe polyphonic audio into MIDI. You can view the results in notation or play them back as MIDI, and choose whether to process an entire track or focus on specific parts like drums, bass, guitars/piano, or vocals. There's over 100 new features in Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®.
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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Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows® Special Offers Extended Until January 15, 2026!
Good news! You still have time to upgrade to the latest version of Band-in-a-Box® for Windows® and save. Our Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows® special now runs through January 15, 2025!
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!
There are over 100 new features in Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®.
When you order purchase Band-in-a-Box® 2026 before 11:59 PM PST on January 15th, you'll also receive a Free Bonus PAK packed with exciting new add-ons.
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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
Band-in-a-Box 2026 Video: The Newly Designed Piano Roll Window
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You can see all the 2026 videos on our forum!
Band-in-a-Box 2026 Video: AI Stems & Notes - split polyphonic audio into instruments and transcribe
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You can see all the 2026 videos on our forum!
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- MIDI Styles Set 92: Look Ma! More MIDI 15: Latin Jazz
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- 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)
- Android Band-in-a-Box® App (included)
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- 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 PAKs for Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®!
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