PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Windows Band-in-a-Box 2010 - description of 50 new features!

Band-in-a-Box 2010 is here with over 50 cool new features!
There's a video to watch, on this page http://www.pgmusic.com/win.htm (click on the link that says video on that page)
There is a full list of new features below. For more information about ordering Band-in-a-Box 2010, or about Realband 2010 or the 101 new RealTracks, go here ... http://www.pgmusic.com/ubbthreads/showfl...ge=0#Post249429

There are some exciting new features in Band-in-a-Box. We've added a new "Plug-in" mode, allowing you to simply Drag-n-Drop tracks between Band-in-a-Box and your favorite sequencer (RealBand, Sonar, Reaper, ProTools, FL-Studio, Nuendo and more). RealTracks generate much faster now, typically 3X faster. RealTracks now support Shots, Holds, and Pushes. Endings are improved, and RealTracks endings are now 4 bars long, giving time for the natural decay of the instruments. Individual MIDI or Real Tracks can be frozen now, so the arrangements can be saved and fixed, and will replay quickly without need for regeneration. Soloist RealTracks are now saved with the song. We added Multiple Undo support, up to 999 levels of Undo. There are new Reverb and Bass/Treble controls for each track, allowing you to add these to individual Real tracks. All settings are now saved with each song. And many more!

The New Features in Band-in-a-Box 2010 for Windows are...

There now is a "Plug-in" mode for your favorite sequencer (RealBand, Sonar, Reaper, ProTools, FL-Studio, Nuendo and more). With the new plug-in mode, BB is open as a small always-on-top window, and acts as a plug-in for your favorite DAW/sequencer, so that you can Drag-n-Drop MIDI and audio (WAV) tracks from BB to your favorite sequencer. Work in your favorite sequencer, type a progression in Band-in-a-Box, and then simply drag the track from Band-in-a-Box to your sequencer's track at the desired track and bar location.

No more long waits for RealTracks to generate! RealTracks generate much faster, 3X faster on average. A typical song with RealTracks that took 20 seconds to generate will generate now in about 6 seconds. And if you freeze some or all tracks in the song (see below), playback of RealTracks is almost instantaneous.

Freezing (locking) MIDI or Real tracks/RealDrums . Any track can now be frozen (MIDI or Real track). When frozen, it won't get changed or re-generated. This saves time when replaying previous songs, and allows you to freeze an arrangement that you like. If you freeze the whole song, you don't have to wait at all for the song to regenerate. Next time you play,it is ready to go. (note: this new freeze feature is different than the previous limited freeze feature that renders the whole arrangement to the audio track)

Soloist generated RealTracks are now saved with the song, so you will hear the RealTracks play the same solo when you reload the song.

RealTracks now support new features, including Shots, Holds, and Pushes. Simply type in the chords as you normally would, adding periods (…) for shots and holds, and the RealTracks will play them.

RealTracks endings have been enhanced, and are now 4 bar endings instead of 2 bar, allowing time for a natural decay of the instruments.

Multiple Undo support. Up to 999 levels of undo (configurable).

Always Save all song settings. Now all settings are saved with songs, including patches, reverbs, volume etc., so that the song will play the same way each time, without having to set this in the Save With Patches dialog.

Reverb control added for individual tracks with RealTracks or RealDrums, so you can easily add reverb (0 to 127) for any RealTrack. Reverb type also settable, and saved with the song.

Bass/Treble Tone Control added for individual tracks with RealTracks or RealDrums, so you can easily adjust the bass/treble EQ for any RealTrack. Settings save with the song.

Band-in-a-Box window is now sizable, when size changes, chord sheet, notation, and other windows redraw in proportion to the new size. This allows you to have BB open as a small window on screen with other programs, and you still see a full chord sheet. The screen size is remembered between sessions.


New favorite songs/styles dialog, with separate lists of ‘recently played’ and favorite songs or styles. The previous ‘favorite’ songs/styles dialog was a list of recently used songs/styles. Now there are 2 tabs in this dialog, showing you both recently used songs/styles, and a new list of ‘favorites’ that you select as a favorite songs or styles. Favorite Song/Style lists can be edited, sorted, saved/loaded, and used with the jukebox. You can add an unlimited # of favorites. Also, a Sort button has been added to Favorite/Recent songs/styles dialog.

Double time and half-time support for RealTracks added. Now you can play any RealTracks at half-time or double time. This allows you to, for example, in a ballad at tempo of 70, to add a RealTracks Sax solo with tempo of 140, and play it as a double time, which will match the ballad tempo of 70. So now all of your existing RealTracks can be used at 3 different tempos. (normal, half-time, double time)

Automatic Tempo swapping of similar RealTracks. If you have similar RealTracks available at different tempos, BB will automatically choose the best one to use. For example, if you have a ballad loaded, with an Acoustic Bass RealTracks at tempo of 60, and you speed up the tempo to 140, and press play, BB will automatically choose an Acoustic Bass RealTracks closer to tempo of 140, if it is the same genre and feel. This means you can use a simple Jazz style, and play it at various tempos, without having to set the best RealTracks based on tempos.

Rendering now has a Normalize option, to normalize individual tracks or the complete arrangement. Normalizing boosts the volume to a maximum level without distortion. Most professional music tracks are normalized.

RealDrums picker dialog has been enhanced, with information about Artist name, Artist bio, and Real Drums Set number.

Songs ‘Saved-As” a different name now have the new name added to the Recently used song dialog.

Support enhanced for non-concert instruments (Bb/Eb sax, trumpet etc.). Now when chord sheet is transposed, you can type in chords in the transposed key, and they will show up as you have entered them, instead of requiring you to enter the chords in the concert key.

Rendering songs to audio is now much faster for songs with no MIDI, such as RealStyles.

Rendering RealTracks no longer require you to have a DXi or VST in use.

Lyrics enhanced
Undo added for entry of individual lyrics
‘Enter’ and ‘Close’ button added to lyric entry.

More Soloists are now available, up to 2000.

RealTracks Picker dialog enhanced :
- opens up faster.
- New Columns added (tempo swappable, holds type)
- Columns are now sizable, and remember the sizes

Rendering Wav dialog enhanced. It has a simpler layout. The Render wav file doesn't need to be in same folder – it can be in any folder/drive. The Render Dialog has Default button.


StylePicker is enhanced. Favorites and Recent styles now appear in this dialog as separate lists. It now has the ability to add/remove styles as favorites. A Favorite Style indication (F) shows up for each style. You can filter any list by only showing favorite styles. Over time, you can build up a list of favorite styles, and only show them when needed.

Many messages changed to “yellow alerts” at top right of screen, so that you don’t have to respond to the message, interrupting work flow.

Peter: I only read a couple of these, but the multiple "Undo" levels alone is worth the admission price. I talked with Catherine yesterday and ordered the upgrade. I'm currently using 2009.5, with the JazzPak1..... I went to the 2010 ExtraPak for $159! Yikes, that is some great pricing, considering I'm going to get EVERYTHING..... Thank you for the agressive pricing and the great product.... Bill in Littleton, Colorado.
P.S. My Boss JamStation is now in the corner collecting dust with my Nordic Trak.....

Glad to see that you added imporoved support for transposed instruments. However, I am disappointed that you did not add a button on the main page where I can more easily change from Concert to Bb to Eb rather than having to peck through the various setup menues. I feel this would be a highly used feature.

What's wrong with the Practice window. Cannot be faster me thinks.

Now, I spend 90 percent transposed for horn, and make the synth transpose to -2 and put the horn on my lap and wail away on the synth, then pick up the horn.

I'm hoping for scalable fake sheet mode so it does not take up the whole screen, I'm trying to learn to sing before the Old Age Pension cheques come......

what's the brand and model on hard drive?

Great, Peter!

I wonder if someone can advise if the cut paste option between sequencers also extends to CUBASE, which is what i use?
Thanks

Yea me too. Although Cubase is not mentioned Nuendo is. They're of the same family. It should work fine.

If you mean, "Drag and Drop" feature, it seems that Cubase users will have to resort to the workaround of Dragging and Dropping into any Explorer window folder first, then drag again from there into Cubase.

This is not a BiaB problem, it seems. Cubase should be able to grab the Drop, but it apparently cannot. The entire thing is a Windows-based operation and since BB can drop into Explorer window, there must be something about the Cubase code that prevents the direct drag 'n drop.

But use of the intermediate Explorer window is still a rather fast thing, try it.

There's an added advantage, actually -- you always have a folder with backups of all tracks in it. Talk about Undos --or easily doubling tracks...

--Mac

Very nice. I normally use guitar pro, but I know that band in a box is way better.

You guys drive me nuts.

'"Plug-in" mode for your favorite sequencer'...

Would it be so hard to say what technology this uses? VST? DXi? Rewire? Come on people...

Well, I think it's "D. None of the above".

Yes, it is an entirely different concept that pgmusic developed here.

You can put BiaB into "DAW Plugin" mode and it shrinks to a little sizable window that sits on top of your favorite sequencing software. BiaB still runs standalone, but you cna change styles, type in chords or new chords, generate and regenerate tracks or whole songs and Drag and Drop tracks all at once or one at a time into your sequencing software.

I think it is a BETTER idea than using one of the already-established technologies.


--Mac

Can someone tell me if the price for biab has gone up.Ive been trying to get some answers from customer service before purchasing this item and have failed to get them answered.Now it seems the offer has gone can anyone tell me if this is right TM

Well, if you couldn't get answers and tried to purchase the product I thought the front of the webpage was pretty explicit. If you sent emails, it may be that they are a tad short staffed and stretched right now, there is a 'conference' in the US called NAMM.

Google NAMM, Pgmusic is a small company and staffing a booth and running demos in another is no small undertaking.

The best thing is to remember what timezone they are in, and use the phone numbers to try and get them in person. So when it's about 5 p.m. your time they are getting out of bed in Victoria. Then they have crumpets and tea. Or scones.