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#506053 12/02/18 10:39 PM
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Did not upgrade last year and this time went with the Ultra Pak+ Package. Thinking in my mind that I would receive back everything that I had previously purchased on other upgrades only to find that I'm missing a whole bunch of stuff that I use to have. I love BIAB, but I swear to God it's the most complicated thing to understand with regard upgrading year to year. I wanted a clean fresh install as over the past two years BIAB has become corrupted. The certain thing just would not work and I'm not going to be calling tech support every week to try and figure out what the hell is wrong.
So I got the biggest package I could and with the installments, I went with Ultra Plus pak+ since the Audiophile version doesn't make sense to me since I can't tell any difference sound quality.
Long story short after spending all morning from 12 to 6 am downloading the files onto a 1 terabyte HD and then installing onto too the very same drive I seem to be missing quite a bit of material I use to have. I can't tell you what exactly because I am lousy at keeping tabs on certain things and with the 5 zillion different files that seem to show up when installing BIAb I could never keep up with what I have or don't. Needless to say, I have lost a lot of stuff I've bought from PG Music because of the way it installs. Ultimately it's my own fault for not backing up everything from previous installs. I guess I can go online and try to download things I think I'm missing from BIAB. But, I would rather just have a more understanding of what goes forward from the previous year or do I need to save a certain file for instance or will it again be included in the next year's purchase? I mean if this was the very first time I bought BIAB for the full purchase price. Does that mean that the person buying it is getting everything from all the previous year's incarnations of BIAB or is it just what they get this year and going forward they have to make sure if they don't want to lose anything to back it up? I hate installing new software over old I rather have a fresh install every time I buy a program so nothing gets messed up. But, I guess in this process unless you do back it all up then you're going to lose a lot of material.

Last edited by leonard1962; 12/02/18 10:41 PM.
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Even if it didn't happen to me, I feel your pain, and I completely agree with you.

I've saved all the install files since v. 2010, and it's paid-off to get me through unharmed not less than three HD crashes and a stolen computer.

Sometimes being a pack rat has its advantages? wink

Last edited by LtKojak; 12/02/18 11:09 PM.

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I had a backup copy of my whole 2018 installation. Installed 2019 'new' in newly named 'BIAB2019'and 'RealBand2019' besides the original folders on that external drive. Then copied (moved) without overwriting all the styles and RT stuff. Still waiting for the APh drive though.
Maybe the best way?

2019 seems to run OK, but some things are annoying; the style picker took a very long time to finish importing 3rd party styles. Searching in the songpicker you cannot use the keyboard letters to find songs starting with 'h' etc. Guess still some bugs?

But 64 bit !, havent tested the VSt yet, but 602 seems reasonably stable sofar ... F

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I suspect that what is missing is all your old 49-Pak bonus packs you paid for in the past.

I have also learnt my lesson LtKojak and keep an accumulated set of old those 49-Pak
installations which you now have to install every year on your new HD.


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Leonard,

I've been installing each new version of BIAB over existing versions since 2006 and I've never had any problems at all. This has allowed me to keep everything that I've obtained from various once-off specials that happen from time to time.

My experience is that the software overwrites older files with new versions when the latest edition of the software is installed.

With a program like BIAB, because new material gets added to existing material year after year, the above approach seems to be the most productive for me.

Also, because I have the audiophile drive I also synchronise the USB drive the files on my computer's hard drive so that I have all collected files in two different locations.

I'm just passing this on in case it's useful information.

Regards,
Noel


MY SONGS...
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Leonard, I agree it can be confusing and complicated.

If this helps a little, everything you've purchased should be recorded on your 'My Accounts' page on the PG Music web site, and you can (usually) download anything you might have lost from there.


BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
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I understand the frustration however it's been this way for years. All the extras don't carry over unless you install over the top of the previous versions.

Last edited by silvertones; 12/03/18 03:54 AM.

John
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Well, yea I will be doing that. But I've also lost in the past Norton Styles and other little things like that. Like I said my own fault. Still irksome though. I just know in the past would see all these.exe files in the BIAB Folder and go well I never seen that before and click on it to install it.
If there would be just some way that they could have it fully install all files like that unless I've missed something in the past. The one great thing about BIAB beside a great musical tool is the fact that they don't have it tied down to Windows stupid registry when you install it. You can move the folder with BIAB anywhere you like and not have to worry about missing links and such.
I'm just waiting for the day when the real tracks can be played on a note for note bases. I know it won't occur the sheer size of one real track would prohibit this. Imagine trying to record every single note, every single nuance of every single note, every sing combinations of notes, it couldn't happen, could it?
Oh well, I'm just thankful that I found this product years ago and it's continually worked on. I don't know how they do so cheap considering all the real artist they record. I wonder if they have to sign these people to contracts and pay them royalties.

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No.The thing some folks don't realize is the RT are real people playing 1-8 measure pharses. Music is phrases not notes.
You'd call that a sampler for just notes.


John
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Lenovo Turion II /4 Gig Ram/ Win7x64 be
15.6" Monitor
"The only Band is a Real Band"
www.wintertexaninfo.com/BANDS/JohnnyD.php
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