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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Nov 2019
Posts: 241
Apprentice
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OP
Apprentice
Joined: Nov 2019
Posts: 241 |
Hi all,
I come here again for some insights. I'm considering getting the ULTRAPACK BIAB program which already contains many many real styles. I see there are some Styles Packs from 1 to 8. I've listened to them briefly and don't really see how necessary they could be when one has already all the styles of the Ultrapack.
Can you give me your view about it ?
Are the Ultra pack really necessary ? Do they bring something none of the numerous styles included in the Ultrapack wouldn't ?
Thanks!
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 10,986
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Necessary? No. Desirable? Yes.
Xtra Styles use the same RealTracks available to every other style. However, Xtra Styles add unusual effects, use loops and the RealTracks themselves in ways one would not normally expect.
If you are not comfortable with mixing, adding effects or creating styles they are worth having to study and learn. The "sound" is much more modern than anything you'll hear from a traditional Band-in-a-Box style. My guess is the person making the Xtra Styles is a relative new hire brought onboard specifically to modernize the sound of the product.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,471
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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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Joined: Nov 2019
Posts: 241
Apprentice
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OP
Apprentice
Joined: Nov 2019
Posts: 241 |
Ah ok, I understand now the concept of Pack styles (it was obscure to me, just seemed like an addition of new RT when it is a mix of them with some effects). Thanks Jim & Matt for your help ! 
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 3,876
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Just to emphasize what Jim said...the styles paks do NOT contain any new RealTracks. They simply combine existing RealTracks into new sets or styles.
There are a couple of things to understand here...
1) if you have all of the RealTracks then you could create any of the styles yourself by simply combining RealTracks and saving as a style but it would take a lot of time to do so. in that sense the styles paks represent a huge shortcut to finding great combinations of RealTracks that work together as styles.
2) if you do not have all of the RealTracks you may find that some of the styles in the styles paks do not work for you because they depend on those missing RealTracks!
My opinion? Buy all of the RealTracks and buy all of the Styles paks!
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Nov 2019
Posts: 241
Apprentice
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OP
Apprentice
Joined: Nov 2019
Posts: 241 |
Just to emphasize what Jim said...the styles paks do NOT contain any new RealTracks. They simply combine existing RealTracks into new sets or styles.
There are a couple of things to understand here...
1) if you have all of the RealTracks then you could create any of the styles yourself by simply combining RealTracks and saving as a style but it would take a lot of time to do so. in that sense the styles paks represent a huge shortcut to finding great combinations of RealTracks that work together as styles.
2) if you do not have all of the RealTracks you may find that some of the styles in the styles paks do not work for you because they depend on those missing RealTracks!
My opinion? Buy all of the RealTracks and buy all of the Styles paks! Thanks, I understand better. I intend to purchase the ULTRAPACK so I guess I will have the max RT available (minus the Xtra pack combos). Question : can I tweek the Xtra Styles editing them by adding or removing stuff or are they "untouchable" ? EDIT : are all the tracks from the Xtra packs RTs ? Some sound MIDIish to me..
Last edited by Angelomusic; 12/22/19 02:24 AM.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Apr 2013
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The Xtra Styles are completely editable. Every Style, MIDI, Supermidi or RealTrack, is completely editable.
Another option you may want to experiment with is to create Medley tracks. Each Legacy Channel (1-7) in the Mixer can have up to 10 different instruments on it. A quick way to audition this feature is to Select Medley Styles from the Stylepicker. These are Medleys created by PG Music staff that are programmed to work seamlessly into the chord chart of your song. These medleys showcase some of the various ways to trigger the instrument changes. They can be programmed to change every two bars, four bars or 8 bars, by part marker and you can manually create your own multiple instrument track to change instruments at any bar. Note that it can be any count of instrument changes from one to 10 and importantly, instruments do not have to be different instruments. Programmed changes can be two instruments switching back and forth multiple times on a track. Do this on two separate channels but using the same two instruments allows for some very complex arrangements to be created within BIAB without ever leaving the program for further processing in a DAW or RealBand.
Bouncing mixes of multi instrument channels to audio and importing them back into your project and placing them onto legacy channels as Performance Tracks develops a BIAB song project of dozens of instruments onto dozens of tracks. Using each of the 7 channels to interchange 10 instruments totals to 70 instrument changes.
An interesting thing I've noticed but am only speculating to how the results come about is the fact that the BIAB generation engine 'reads' ahead and 'sees' the upcoming instrument change and in turn 'selects' more appropriate instrument one ending bar audio and instrument 2 intro bar audio and cross fades wonderfully. You will encounter instrument changes where the audio of the two instruments simultaneously overlap. That requires some manual work to accomplish in any DAW but is done automatically within a BIAB project using the multi instrument feature.
This feature in BIAB 2020 has added features and enhancements from previous years and it's well worth the time to explore.
BIAB 2025:RB 2025, Latest builds: Dell Optiplex 7040 Desktop; Windows-10-64 bit, Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz CPU and 16 GB Ram Memory.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 10,986
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Posts: 10,986 |
snip ... (A)re all the tracks from the Xtra packs RTs ? Some sound MIDIish to me.. In another post, which I can't find at this time, a PG Music developer involved in creating the Xtra Styles stated they try to use all the resources Band-in-a-Box offers. My resource list would include as a minimum: loops, multiple drum tracks, multiple instruments on a single track, part markers, midi SuperTracks, mixer settings and effects.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Nov 2019
Posts: 241
Apprentice
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OP
Apprentice
Joined: Nov 2019
Posts: 241 |
@Jim : ah ok so that's why sometimes I hear a midi kind of sound. Not a big deal it's not in all of them I can deal with that.
@Charlie : wow! So many things you can do with BIAB. Looks like the one who only use it as a simple backing track machine would miss a lot of all that BIAB has to offer. Sounds exciting because it makes BIAB really a composing tool with endless possibilities. I guess I will have to give it time to process all the features of BIAB.
Last edited by Angelomusic; 12/22/19 12:15 PM.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Nov 2019
Posts: 241
Apprentice
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OP
Apprentice
Joined: Nov 2019
Posts: 241 |
Just curious to those who have the Xtra styles Packs :
1/ How many of those Packs do you have ? Did you just buy 1 or 2 or the whole set of 8 ?
2/ Since they are more modern and fancy, do you use them more than the traditional RTs ?
Thanks!
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Oct 2017
Posts: 745
Journeyman
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Journeyman
Joined: Oct 2017
Posts: 745 |
I have all 8.
When I started I was only playing bluegrass. Because of Band in a box I am now willing to experiment with the different styles.
...Deb
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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!
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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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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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You can see all the 2026 videos on our forum!
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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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- Artist Performance Set 19: Songs with Vocals 9
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Learn more about the Bonus PAKs for Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®!
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