PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Windows biab or realband

Hi
can anyone tell me the difference...?

I am confused what is what..why two..?

For me
BiaB - very quick to try new ideas and different chord patterns or different styles etc (it regenerates on the fly, which is faster and the default is to regenerate all tracks every time you hit play).

RB - used for when you want to start drilling down and adding/editing things that either BiaB can't do, or you simply want more tracks to experiment with, or more synths, or more FX, or routing options, or only change this track from this point to this point, etc
Also its default behavior is it only regenerates the sections you tell it to (and also writes a backup of previous version so it can Undo).

BiaB is very different than RB.
I'm glad both exist.

If you want to jam,experiment, or write tunes, BiaB is faster/better.
If you want to start getting surgical and control the result more, RB is the next step.

For me....!



BiaB - very quick to try new ideas and different chord patterns or different styles etc (it regenerates on the fly and the default is to change tracks every time you hit play)..............................


Thank you for your reply regenerates on the fly....?

I don't know what your talking about ...did you notice newbie at all....!......................!


RB - used for when you want to start drilling down and adding things that either BiaB can't do, or you simply want more tracks to experiment with, or more synths, or more FX, or routing options, or only change this track from this point to this point, etc It only regenates the sections you tell it to (and also writes a backup of previous version)...............hello...


answer....Do not even know how to add things or synths or change this track or that track....!


BiaB is very different than RB.
I'm glad both exist...................Hello.....!


I'm sure one day I will feel the same when I get a an answer to my post ....!


Rharv....I think...?....Is that your name.....!

I tried to answer your post, apparently I failed ..

Joe,

Here are some videos that PG Music has prepared.

BIAB (Windows)
http://www.pgmusic.com/videos.bbwin.htm

Realband
http://www.pgmusic.com/videos.realband.htm

Have a look through a couple of the getting started ones in the 'Beginner's' section. These will help you get a feel for programs and their differences.

Regards,
Noel

Countryjoe - Chill!! Folks are only trying to help best way they know.
IM A NEWBIE too and id be dead in the water if it wasnt for these guys.
AFAIC BB is where you search fir a Style or make one up, put in yr chords to try things,arrange etc. ON THE FLY means that a minute you press the button it will play what you have. Not have to wait. Beware. There are TWO buttons. One replays what you had, the other REGENS it and plays the new form unless you FREEZE a track. (,i just discovered that;-))
RB is like PGs DAW. You can do everything BB can do it just takes longer IMO. But you can manipulate bits of tracks etc, add lots more tracks etc. Itsca bit beyond me at moment but I'll get there.
BTW Noel those links are v helpful. Thanks.
WendyM

Countryjoe - Chill!! Folks are only trying to help best way they know.
IM A NEWBIE too and id be dead in the water if it wasnt for these guys.

WENDYM

I am chilled at the time of posting no one gave me what I asked.

Now I am looking I see some good posts.

As my old grandma would say....you've been here before....WENDYM,......!

Thanks all for replies

Band in a Box is a very powerful music accompaniment software program that allows you to enter chords onto a chart in a sequence of measures, select a musical style from a very large list of styles that include many different genres of music. When you select one of the two large green buttons, Band in a Box generates an audio rendition of a selection of musical instruments or midi instruments or a combination of the two creating an audio accompaniment playing the chords you input into the chord chart.

RealBand is a powerful software program that is uniquely programmed to interact with Band in a Box and can use many of the functions, styles, RealTracks, RealDrums elements of Band in a Box. There is no other similar type software from any company other than software programs of PGMusic that can make use of Band in a Box elements like RealBand does.

Because of this unique integration between Band in a Box and RealBand, RealBand allows the user to do advanced editing and manipulating of audio files that are generated to play your chord chart accompaniment file. RealBand allows you to generate more tracks of music than the limit of 8 in Band in a Box.

You are not limited to use one program or the other. But you can. If the music you create in Band in a Box suits your needs and satisfies your ear, you can ignore RealBand because none of its advanced features are necessary for you to make the music sound as you want it to. If you find you are limited in making music sound exactly as you want, then you may be able to easily correct the music or manipulate it to your satisfaction using the advanced editing and additional tracks (and a lot more features it has) to make the music sound exactly as you want.

You can also choose to work exclusively in RealBand and never use Band in a Box. Rharv is one who does most of his work in RealBand but he is is very advanced in understanding and manipulating audio files.

Hope this helps.

Charlie

Countryjoe, As has been previously explained BiaB is an accompaniment program. You put in your chords, pick a style and you have your backing tracks. BiaB only has 7 tracks for your backing tracks plus one track for audio or MIDI recording. If that is all that you need then BiaB will completely do the job for you. Note that two of those tracks are the melodist and soloist tracks. These can be used as backing tracks, put sections of riffs in your song, or you can have BiaB generate a complete song for you.

Most people start in BiaB then move to a DAW. Realband (RB) is a DAW. A DAW will have more tracks to work with. For example RB can have 48 tracks, Sonar, my DAW, can have as many tracks as your computer system can allow.

I start virtually all of my songs in BiaB then transfer those tracks to my DAW. I have had 3 guitars recording simultaneously in Sonar. I have also had a guitar and a blues harp recording simultaneously, a bass, keyboard and singer recording simultaneously as well as a couple of other configurations. I have also had up to 30 MIDI tracks playing while another track, either audio or MIDI, recording. You can also punch in and punch out to record the mistakes that you might make. You can also comp, that is play the same section/song over many times, and cut and paste the good parts into one track. I believe you can do the same in RB. RB also has some enhanced BiaB features that other DAWs do not have.

As you can see BiaB is limited in the number of tracks and one audio/MIDI recording track while a DAW is much more versatile when it comes to the number of tracks you can use.

So if BiaB does what you want then that is as far as you need to go. But if you want or need more then you will need a DAW. It sounds like you don't have any experience with a DAW so my advise is to use RB. Work with BiaB until you are comfortable with it then look at RB.

I hope this helps.

I see you have Sonar pro, Are you also at Cakewalk forums?

Just because one reply doesn't give you the answer you seek doesn't mean someone else won't. So yeah, try to be a bit patient. If someone seems to be missing the point of your question, simply restate the question with more details added or in a different way. The folks here are helpful and friendly.


OK.... SO to answer your question.



BB/RB is such an amazing program and has so many functions I never use...so I will explain this from my POV and how I use the two programs.

BB is a great scratch pad kind of a program. It's super easy and fast to try an idea and switch it around..... new key, different tempo, different style, and all in a matter of a few seconds switching from one to the other. You have a small number of tracks.... 5, I think plus a melody track and one audio track you can record into. I use this program to get the song structure together and hear, approximately, how it will sound when it's finished. When I'm satisfied, I save the file and close BB. I almost never use the melody track or the audio track in BB.

RB is a DAW with some limits but it allows way more tracks than BB does. You can save your song in BB and then reopen it in RB. First thing RB does is to populate the tracks with the existing 5 or 6 tracks you had in the song in BB. At this point, you can easily, and in a matter of a few seconds, add as many more tracks as you want and not only in the style you used for the song but also using instruments not in the style at all. For example, if I write a song in BB using the LA Hard Rock style.... it has bass, drums, and guitars (IIRC).... but in RB, I can add steel guitar, dobro, trumpet, or whatever else I want in my song. You can also do your own live recording into as many of the available tracks as your computer will adequately process.

The 2 programs work together and do seem to do similar things and yes, a number of the functions overlap, but then as you understand what BB and RB can do differently and uniquely, that's where it starts to get interesting.

Even though RB is a DAW, it has some limitations that other DAW's on the market do not. I use Sonar, and other folks here use Cubase, and other DAW's. I find that it's easier for me to work in Sonar, but perhaps some of that comes from the fact that I have been using Cake products before I started using PG products.

Hopefully this shows some of the differences between the two and why you really should learn to use them together to get things done.

Simple incomplete explanation:

BIAB (Band-in-a-Box) is a program that allows you to create a virtual band for your song's chord progression. You just first frame out your song (tell BIAB how many bars the song contains, whether there is an intro, and how many times to repeat the song - or just enter the complete song linearly and set the song repeat to 1)
Then just enter the chords for the song on a chord grid, pick an appropriate style (much like picking a style on an arranger keyboard), hit PLAY, and BIAB will generate up to five different accompaniment tracks, which can be any combination of Audio (RealTracks and RealDrums) and MIDI. You pick the synth you want to use for the MIDI output. From there you can save the song to an audio file (WAV, MP3, WMA, etc), or if it's all MIDI, to a MIDI file. Like an arranger keyboard, you can specify where drum fills go and when to change to different substyles defined within the main style you are using.

You can also record a MIDI melody and/or solo, or you can have BIAB create one for you. You can also record a single stereo audio track to go along with the arrangement.

RealBand is a Digital Audio workstation that lets you create up to 48 tracks in any combination of audio or MIDI. RealBand has a number of BIAB features built-in, but it isn't BIAB and it doesn't always do things the same way BIAB does.

If you have Sonar (as your signature line indicates), then RealBand would correspond to features found in Sonar.

RealBand provides for much more granular editing of audio and MIDI data, as well as selective generation/regeneration of BIAB style-based content. You can assign DX/DXi/VST/VSTi instruments and effects to all the tracks, as well as the submixes on each track, as well as the master output mix. Once done, you can render your song out to WAV/MP3/WMA/etc.

RealBand will read and load BIAB files and can export certain elements of your RealBand song to a BIAB file. However, BIAB can't read a RealBand (.SEQ) file.

Both applications support the Audio Chord Wizard, which helps you find chord progressions in audio files (such as files in your MP3 collection). Both applications also support (albeit a somewhat dated) TC-Helicon software based harmonizer.

But, you have to buy Band-in-a-Box to get RealBand (which makes sense, since you really need the BIAB content - styles, RealTracks, RealDrums, etc - to make full use of RealBand).

That's it in a nutshell. If that's still too convoluted, then I can try to make it simpler, or just ask about what you don't understand. There are lots of knowledgeable patient folks here who will help you.

But be careful because it does not read everything you do in BIAB. For example, your bar settings will not be restored in RB. And I cannot recall for sure but I think frozen tracks still got regenerated in RB but maybe I'm wrong and if so someone will correct me.

My only point is you need to think about what you will do before spending a lot of time in BIAB because if your next step is gonna be RB then some of that BIAB work may not survive the transition.

My work flow, because I have a DAW I greatly prefer to RB, is as follows,

1) create tracks in BIAB
2) export my tracks as individual mono WAV files with no reverb or panning applied
3) import those tracks into my DAW and mix them

If I find I cannot get exactly what I want I will open the BIAB file in RB and then try to selectively regenerate certain sections and export those tracks as WAV files to use in my DAW. But I avoid RB if possible because I find it to be cumbersome in my overall work flow.