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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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I’ve been wondering lately where Band in a Box and Real Tracks will be going in the near and not too distant future.
There are now only a few (nine) instruments and a few different styles and already Real Tracks comprises over 30gb of disk space.
What is going to happen when more instruments and more styles are added? There has to be an upper limit somewhere.
I suppose the ultimate solution is to figure out some way to either use computer coding to generate a RealTrack (on the fly so to speak) or to accurately greatly compress the R/T files.
Just wondering. Any thoughts? Any advance word from PGM?
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Here comes the Grand Speculation thread. Again...
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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FirstBassman, Well hardware companies keep making larger disk drives.  But I do share your concerns but not 100%, as I really do not use all of the real tracks, so I guess when I come to that bridge I will be even more selective as to what I install on my hard drive. Until then I am starting to think terra bytes . . . not even sure if I said that correctly. Later,
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Gazillabyte drives are on their way. Bluetooth ones you can leave in the safe and Band in a Box and Realband will come with even the most obscure instruments playing with Realplainsong the latest hit. This will happen in about 3 years when every machine will boot all o/s simultaneously, and every piece of software will run on all them. Realvocals will feature Rod Stewart, Paul the seal hunt hater, and Inuit throat singers. Nuns and priests will come out of the Devils and Deamons dungeons to participate.
And due to the fact that the product is made in Canada the US will disallow the sale of it in the US, or make PG music to relocate to LaLa land.
Don't think the last is far fetched, our reasearch labs are being forced to move south because they cannot get any further funding unless they are american based. One in Montreal with 50 people working on aids just packed up and left for Florida.
Simulate one country, kill the neighbour.
John Conley
Musica est vita
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 177
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On the serious side I think we need to look to advancements in how sound files are compressed and played. There are folks working on this. The solution is not bigger drives but smaller files in my opinion. Someone somewhere is working on it.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Quad processors, double the speed every few years, bigger memory chips, more storage, solid state drives, slimmed down operating systems for specific tasks like music, all that will solve things faster than writing better code to compact the files. Not saying that can't happen, but the other technology is seeming to overtake the whole issue.
John Conley
Musica est vita
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 150
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Hard drives are relatively cheap.
I just bought a top of the line 500GB notebook drive for $100.
Considering the cost of the tracks this is not that much of an issue.
MW
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Quote:
Hard drives are relatively cheap.
I just bought a top of the line 500GB notebook drive for $100.
Considering the cost of the tracks this is not that much of an issue.
MW
I agree. I'm using a 250gb ext hd that I bought for $69 a few months back. Per Peter G's suggestion, I put all of the real track related stuff on it and left the rest, including real drums on my laptop. I should disclose, though, that I'm not using real tracks as much as others are.
I am sorry that our Canadian friends have to pack up and move due to politics. I hope we can continue to buy Canadian products because I'm a customer of various Canadian items.
Stan
Cornet Curmudgeon
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Quote:
Here comes the Grand Speculation thread. Again...
Mac,
If there is already a thread on this topic since Ver. 2009, I apologize.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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No need to apologize, it is just that this sort of speculation thread is a repeater.
And the answers are always way out there, because all the users can do is speculate.
At a certain point, I imagine that even the developers don't have a crystal ball either...
--Mac
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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1.) They should move to FLAC files instead of wav files. FLACs are 1/2 the size.
2.) Maybe physical/sample modeling (Mr Sax T) makes more sense in the long run than realtrack stuff.
Kevin
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Conversion from FLAC to PCM during the loading of each song would seem to be interminably longer than people would want to put up with, especially those who use BIAB in live situations or even just for practicing. We already have plenty of complaints about RealTracks loading times as it is...
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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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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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