PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Windows Confession of a Fence Sitter

For full discloser I initially hesitated to purchase my yearly update of BIAB due to financial constraints. I have just built my retirement home on the lake and have not yet sold the home I have been in for the past 20+ years. The dual home ownership is nearing an end but also nearing the breaking point for my saving. As a result, I felt it best to just sit back this year on any discretionary spending.

But I followed the PG Forum from the day of launch Dec 1, to the end of the year. What a roller coaster it has been –initial excitement for the new VSTi and 64bit features, then disappointment for their reported shortcomings, then love for the new folk guitar real tracks, then anger for the loss of CoyteForte, my favorite GM synth. At times when reading the forum threads it was like watching a train wreck in slow motion. Patches came, and Patches went and still problems continued to be reported. Best I could figure from the forum was PGMusic had made a colossal mistake in releasing this new update. I am not new to rough launches for the company, but this year seemed more challenging than most. As a result, up to the point of closing the sale at midnight on Dec 31, I was convinced that my decision to hold my cash and not purchase a problem product was the right thing for me.

On Jan 01, 2019 I woke. Switched on my computer… What’s this? The sale is still on? The 2019 update is still in my Cart for the same discounted price? In the breaking of a new day and a new year all I could imagine was, “ What could I have been thinking?” As the sun rose a new clarity came over me - Of course I am going to update, it is all so clear now! it was always just a matter of when! If I don’t jump off the fence now it will cost me more $$ at a later time. I need to save those extra $$ for when we move to the new home! And with that, I jumped off the fence and pushed the order button.

On Jan 1, 2019 I Downloaded and Installed BIAB2019 v208. My first 20 minutes of use was a revelation. I pushed each button with extreme care expecting smoke to come up from my PC at any time. I specifically tried the new features including opening the VSTi in Reaper. In this short period of time everything has been flawless!

Now I don’t expect that I could have put BIAB 2019 through all its paces in this short a period of time and it is likely that some bugs continue to hide, but I will not look back and I don’t regret for a minute the purchase. Workflow has always been a critical aspect of BIAB and with so many ways of getting things done I know I will find a way. And if and when I find a problem\bug that prevents me from getting it done, there is always the Forum to raise holy heck to get the attention of PGM and the help from our Forum mates.

Have a Happy New Year all and remember to have fun.

Dan

congrats ... now you're finally in RealTrouble tracking all them new goodies

BIAB2019 - Now introducing for the first time release of the new feature: RealTroubles! ...that is cute That is what I will be in when my wife sees the charges on the credit card.

Duck 'em boyz ..

Happy New Year Dan.
Whats this about CoyoteForte Dxi?Are you saying it no longer works in BB?Ive not managed to get any other,like Vacuum Pro etc to work without horrible distortion.If all ive got for midi therefore is the windows bilt in thingy then thats a GameChanger for me.
All I want from midi are for the instruments to sounds like what theyre supposed to be.Techies love allthe fancy screens,pretty knobs and buttons and jumping through hoops to get stuff to work.Not me.I just vwant to make 'X' my default like my Forte is now and it "work". No?
Wendy

Hi Wendy,

Coyote Forte works fine (BIAB 32-bit). I guess Dan must have missed the rest of the below thread.

https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=513927#Post513927

Regards,
Noel

one of the best GM2 synth VSTs is free: Halion Sonic 3 SE
Probably with 32 bit OS/BIAB you'll need jBridge; i found that this worked flawlessly with BIAB 2018 on a 64bit OS last year.

Wendy,

What kind of sound are you trying to get out of your synth? Synthy sounds (evolving swirly shimmery stuff, or pumping trance) or natural instrument sounds to feed MIDI into and have them sound like natural instruments?

TBF, I picked up Vacuum pro as well, and it's layout and sounds are modeled on classic old-school hardware synths, and, although it excels at hitting the specific mark it aimed for, it's also unfortunately one of the least intuitive, and visually incomprehensible VSTs I ever encountered in my life :-( It also uses terminology and naming conventions that are trying to be clever instead of the industry standards.

I might have misunderstood, but I understand that currently, the existing Coyote Forte works with the 32-bit version and VSTSynthFont64 works with the 64-bit version. Also, that Coyote Forte will probably be released soon as a 64-bit version (maybe this has happened).

Thank you for this info fiddler,

Can I just ask whereabout's did you browse to on your computer to find the Vsti for Halion?

I do have Cubase elements 7 which includes Halion?

I do have Jbridge.

Or wonder do I need to download something else from your link?

Thanks a lot

Usually here, C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VSTPlugins\HALion Sonic
If you have Cubase 7 legit (there's a much used illegal one around) you might have Halion Sonic, the more extended version compared to SE. F

The free one seems useless since you have to purchase sound sets to make it work.

did you set it to GM mode, under options?

Hhhmmmm well no I didn’t

Another issue BiaB can’t find it

set it to GM mode, and configured it in BiaB as default synth it still has no sounds I can see the midi data hitting it as the channels light up but no joy

RobH - Are you running build 610? There was an issue in 609 where certain synths didn't produce sound. That might be your problem with not hearing it.

yes the latest

Rob,

The VSTSynthFont64 sound files are found in "C:\Windows\SysWOW64\drivers". Double-check that each MIDI channel in VSTSynthFont says "GM.DLL"

If they do not, open VSTSynthFont and in the column under "Sound source file", point each of the 16 channels to GM.DLL found in that directory.

Note: Once you point channel 1 to that directory, the path becomes a menu item which makes setting channels 2 - 15 pretty quick.

Regards,
Noel

Happy New year Deacon.
Ok-lets try and sort out what i want.Im using BB in 32 bit-no interest yet in 64. Ive got Forte DXi and the midi sounds FROM PRE-EXISTING MIDI STYLES are better than the original ones.But not great-as in they dont often sound like the instruments theyre supposed to.Im looking for a BETTER DXi or VSTi hopefully free that will give the existing instutments in BB midi styles more reality.Id make it my default.
So am I just chasing rainbows?
Wendy