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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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Can the forum recommend software that has a good selection of traditional instruments. Everything these days seems to be synthesiser sounds. I will be using it with Logic Pro. I won't limit the cost so as to get a good selection.
Tim.
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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Can the forum recommend software that has a good selection of traditional instruments. Everything these days seems to be synthesiser sounds. I will be using it with Logic Pro. I won't limit the cost so as to get a good selection.
Tim. "traditional instruments" is pretty vague. What exactly are you looking for?
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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Sorry it was a bit vague. Pianos, orchestral instruments, brass, guitars, bass, that sort of thing. In fact anything other than synths.
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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I’d start by looking at something such as Kontakt. They have many packages that include good samples of many instruments. For guitars you can’t go past AmpleSound (IMHO). There are any amount of really good orchestral type sounds VSL, Alpine Sounds, and many others.
For orchestras the biggest issue is disc space. It is fairly easy to use several TBytes of space. Also with some you really need to look at SSD storage or you could be waiting a while to load stuff.
Pianos, there are many some are even good. There are several good Kontakt Pianos, VSL have some good pianos, even Addictive Keys can be useful.
For Pedal Steel you can’t go past Tod’s Pedal Steel IMHO.
Have fun,
Tony
HP i7-4770 16GB 1TB SSD, Win 10 Home,
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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For most stuff Kontakt is hard to beat.
Its got the best or near the best of everything.
The list gets longer every month
Its not for the faint of wallet.
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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Spitfire Audio has a great orchestral instrument that is cheap ($50 ish) or free if you fill out a survey and wait a week or two. They also have their LABS free series of interesting instruments. Vienna Symphonic Library (vsl.co.at) also has a basic free orchestra that works well. Another good one that I got free is Miroslav Philharmonic.
Kontakt is really good and lots of free and cheap sounds for it but you'll need the full version for 90% of it. Black Friday is coming and I got it last year for half price.
Last edited by HardwireSpeers; 11/17/21 09:33 AM.
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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Kontakt libraries are on sale right now. If on a budget, you can go nuts with IK Multimedia's SampleTank and Total Studio products. Nearly all bundles include Miroslav Philharmonik. Once you own anything, crossgrades are quite inexpensive. Problem is that you need a spread sheet to figure out the right bundle at the best price—what to buy first and how to upgrade from there. Total Studio etc. I own Komplete Ultimate Collectors Edition and Total Studio Max 3. TS3 gets more use.
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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Thanks for all of the suggestions, there are several I have never heard of in there which I will be investigating. Space is not an issue as I have TB’s of space on external SSD available.
For anyone looking for “unusual samples” I can highly recommend pianobook.co.uk. They are supplied in varies formats and some use the DecentSampler to play them, and best of all they are free.
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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Pianobook is pretty fantastic - I especially love The Gimp (flanneled and unflanneled), it gives me some Trent Reznor vibes.
I double the suggestions of Komplete - honestly there isn't much else out there that has SO MUCH in it. Bonus - the plugins work great directly in Band-in-a-Box!
I work here
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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Native Instruments product does seem to be the way to go, but I am a bit confused. I looked at Kontakt as I already have some libraries from Spitfire audio and Sound Iron. Then I looked at Komplete 13 Select. Would Select 13 play the libraries I already have or do I need the full version of Kontakt as well.
I have not used the libraries mentioned in a few years so do not have the Kontakt player I used previously installed.
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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If my understanding is correct the Select 13 stuff will work in the Player. But understand the full version of Kontakt allows you to do things to the sample sets that the Player Version does not. You will most likely need the latest version of the Player.
For me I’d rather save up and get the Full Version of Kontakt. It does not take long at all and it will pay for itself. There are many Free and/or Low Cost sample libraries out there that require the Full Version of Kontakt. Most NI samples will work in the Player but check.
Say you want to make a Sample simulate Legato you can easily apply scripts that will do the task in the Full Version. You cannot do that in the Player Version of Kontakt.
Just a thought
Tony
Last edited by Teunis; 11/20/21 01:48 AM.
HP i7-4770 16GB 1TB SSD, Win 10 Home,
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BB 2022(912) RB 2022(2), CakeWalk, Reaper 6, Audacity, Melodyne 5 Editor, Izotope Music Production Suite 4.1
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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So I buy Kontakt 6 which is on sale right now at £179.50. I am a little unsure if it is compatible with
the M1 chip though. Can anyone tell me if it works on the M1 24" iMac.
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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So I buy Kontakt 6 which is on sale right now at £179.50. I am a little unsure if it is compatible with
the M1 chip though. Can anyone tell me if it works on the M1 24" iMac. The official answer is that Kontakt is not yet supported though many NI apps are Rosetta II compatible. M1 NI Compatibility Many users are, if fact, using it with the beta version of Native Access. Kontakt etc. M1 Mac Kontakt M1 The long and short is that they're working on it.
BIAB 2025 Audiophile Mac
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Digital Performer11, LogicPro, Finale27/Dorico/Encore/SmartScorePro64/Notion6 /Overture5
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Thanks for clearing that up Mike.
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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If you're looking to test the waters, Miroslav Philharmonik CE is a pretty good symphonic library on sale for $39.99. Miroslav Philharmonik 2 CE Besides its own player, it can be hosted in SampleTank 4 CS which is free and includes other libraries. Upgrades and crossgrade sales abound in the world of IK including to the full version of Miroslav Philharmonik 2, SampleTank Max (which includes MP2) and many other titles. It's hard to keep track of everything I own but once you get started, it's not that expensive if you shop carefully. My wife's favorite piano VI is the Alan Parsons Imperial (Mark Knopfler's Bösendorfer 290 sampled by Mr. Parsons)—$79.95 by itself but included in most bundles. Unlike the Kontakt/Kontakt Player where one is paid and the other free but doesn't play everything, SampleTank 4 is the exact same player whether you get CS for free or spring for TS Max 3.5. IK Max BF Sale To give you an idea of the confusion, the sale price for TS Max 3.5 is $599. It's $399 if you own a product worth $99 or more. The list on MP 2 CE is $149 but it's on sale for $40. $449 gets you a lot of titles. Don't get me wrong. I also have Komplete Special Edition (nearly everything) plus a lot of UVI and other VIs. I use what I need when I need it and it took me a long time to get here.
BIAB 2025 Audiophile Mac
24Core/60CoreGPU M2 MacStudioUltra/8TB/192GB Sequoia, M1 MBAir, 2012 MBP
Digital Performer11, LogicPro, Finale27/Dorico/Encore/SmartScorePro64/Notion6 /Overture5
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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I second the motion on Miroslav.
I own the full package and it is truly awesome. It works better in Sample Tank 4 for some reason. I think the Miroslav player has some quirks. But the library is great.
Plus, the sample tank player has some killer effects you can add to the chain from the full bank of IK Multimedia effects racks and pedals.
I am a fan of IK Multimedia products in general.
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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I second the motion on Mirsolav.
I own the full package and it is truly awesome. It works better in Sample Tank 4 for some reason. I think the Miroslav player has some quirks. But the library is great.
Plus, the sample tank player has some killer effects you can add to the chain from the full bank of IK Multimedia effects racks and pedals.
I am a fan of IK Multimedia products in general.
I think the Miroslav Player needs updating. Since I use ST 4, I don't care. I wasn't hip to the fact that SampleTank itself is free. I had just upgraded to TS 2 Max which included ST 3 shortly before updating the MacOS to Mojave where it didn't work very well at all. This caused a lot of frustration while exploring upgrade options—after all, I had just paid the money and why wasn't the new ST4 included… and so on. So, I downloaded ST4 CS for free to see how it worked—fine—so I opened up a few other libraries to see if it would—and it did. Oh. I get it now. Instant upgrade because the new player is free and all my paid libraries work with it. So, it was a no-brainer for me to do the TS 3.5 Max upgrade to get a bunch of new instruments for a very low price. I'll take it.
BIAB 2025 Audiophile Mac
24Core/60CoreGPU M2 MacStudioUltra/8TB/192GB Sequoia, M1 MBAir, 2012 MBP
Digital Performer11, LogicPro, Finale27/Dorico/Encore/SmartScorePro64/Notion6 /Overture5
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Yeah man. I LOVE all that stuff. Love it. 
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Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh
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Thanks for all the suggestions. I already have Miroslav Philharmonik 2, and some Spitfire libraries. I have the Kontakt 6 player but am not that keen on it, though I know others love it. I purchased Garritan Personal Orchestra 5 on Black Friday and feel it wins hands down over Miroslav. Because of all the black Friday deals my budget is now blown for a while. Having bought several Izotope products as the deals were just too good to miss.
Last edited by TRYUK; 11/30/21 06:45 AM.
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Realitone's +++ Sunset Strings +++ is currently on sale for $199.95 US. It uses either the free Kontakt player or the full version of Kontakt.
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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 Video: The Newly Designed Piano Roll Window
In this video, we explore the updated Piano Roll, complete with a modernized look and exciting new features. You’ll see new filtering options that make it easy to focus on specific note groups, smoother and more intuitive note entry and editing, and enhanced options for zooming, looping, and more.
Watch the video.
You can see all the 2026 videos on our forum!
Band-in-a-Box 2026 Video: AI Stems & Notes - split polyphonic audio into instruments and transcribe
This video demonstrates how to use the new AI-Notes feature together with the AI-Stems splitter, allowing you to select an audio file and have it separated into individual stems while transcribing each one to its own MIDI track. AI-Notes converts polyphonic audio—either full mixes or individual instruments—into MIDI that you can view in notation or play back instantly.
Watch the video.
You can see all the 2026 videos on our forum!
Bonus PAK and 49-PAK for Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®
With your version 2026 for Windows Pro, MegaPAK, UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, Audiophile Edition or PlusPAK purchase, we'll include a Bonus PAK full of great new Add-ons for FREE! Or upgrade to the 2026 49-PAK for only $49 to receive even more NEW Add-ons including 20 additional RealTracks!
These PAKs are loaded with additional add-ons to supercharge your Band-in-a-Box®!
This Free Bonus PAK includes:
- The 2026 RealCombos Booster PAK:
-For Pro customers, this includes 27 new RealTracks and 23 new RealStyles.
-For MegaPAK customers, this includes 25 new RealTracks and 23 new RealStyles.
-For UltraPAK customers, this includes 12 new RealStyles.
- MIDI Styles Set 92: Look Ma! More MIDI 15: Latin Jazz
- MIDI SuperTracks Set 46: Piano & Organ
- Instrumental Studies Set 24: Groovin' Blues Soloing
- Artist Performance Set 19: Songs with Vocals 9
- Playable RealTracks Set 5
- RealDrums Stems Set 9: Cool Brushes
- SynthMaster Sounds Set 1 (with audio demos)
- Android Band-in-a-Box® App (included)
Looking for more great add-ons, then upgrade to the 2026 49-PAK for just $49 and you'll get:
- 20 Bonus Unreleased RealTracks and RealDrums with 20 RealStyle.
- FLAC Files (lossless audio files) for the 20 Bonus Unreleased RealTracks and RealDrums
- MIDI Styles Set 93: Look Ma! More MIDI 16: SynthMaster
- MIDI SuperTracks Set 47: More SynthMaster
- Instrumental Studies 25 - Soul Jazz Guitar Soloing
- Artist Performance Set 20: Songs with Vocals 10
- RealDrums Stems Set 10: Groovin' Sticks
- SynthMaster Sounds & Styles Set 2 (sounds & styles with audio demos)
Learn more about the Bonus PAKs for Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®!
Video: New User Interface (GUI)
Join Tobin as he takes you on a tour of the new user interface in Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®! This modern GUI redesign offers a sleek new look with updated toolbars, refreshed windows, and a smoother workflow. The brand-new side toolbar puts track selection, the MultiPicker Library, and other essential tools right at your fingertips. Plus, our upgraded Multi-View lets you layer multiple windows without overlap, giving you a highly flexible workspace. Many windows—including Tracks, Piano Roll, and more—have been redesigned for improved usability and a cleaner, more intuitive interface, and more!
Watch the video.
You can see all the 2026 videos on our forum!
Introducing XPro Styles PAK 10 – Now Available for Windows Band-in-a-Box 2025 and Higher!
We've just released XPro Styles PAK 10 for Windows & Mac Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher) with 100 brand new RealStyles, plus 28 RealTracks and RealDrums!
Few things are certain in life: death, taxes, and a brand spankin’ new XPro Styles PAK! In this, the 10th edition of our XPro Styles PAK series, we’ve got 100 styles coming your way! We have the classic 25 styles each from the rock & pop, jazz, and country genres, and rounding out this volume's wildcard slot is 25 styles in the Praise & Worship genre! A wide spanning genre, you can find everything from rock, folk, country, and more underneath its umbrella. The included 28 RealTracks and RealDrums can be used with any Band-in-a-Box® 2026 (and higher) package.
Here’s just a small sampling of what you can look forward to in XPro Styles PAK 10: Soft indie folk worship songs, bumpin’ country boogies, gospel praise breaks, hard rockin’ pop, funky disco grooves, smooth Latin jazz pop, bossa nova fusion, western swing, alternative hip-hop, cool country funk, and much more!
Special offers until December 31st, 2025!
All the XPro Styles PAKs 1 - 10 are on sale for only $29 ea (Reg. $49 ea), or get them all in the XPro Styles PAK Bundle for only $149 (reg. $299)! Order now!
Learn more and listen to demos of XPro Styles PAKs.
Video: XPro Styles PAK 10 Overview & Styles Demos: Watch now!
XPro Styles PAKs require Band-in-a-Box® 2025 or higher and are compatible with ANY package, including the Pro, MegaPAK, UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, and Audiophile Edition.
Introducing Xtra Styles PAK 21 – Now Available for Windows Band-in-a-Box 2025 and Higher!
Xtra Styles PAK 21 for Windows & Mac Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher) is here with 200 brand new RealStyles!
We're excited to bring you our latest Xtra Styles PAK installment—the all new Xtra Styles PAK 21 for Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher)!
Rejoice, one and all, for Xtra Styles PAK 21 for Band-in-a-Box® is here! We’re serving up 200 brand spankin’ new styles to delight your musical taste buds! The first three courses are the classics you’ve come to know and love, including offerings from the rock & pop, jazz, and country genres, but, not to be outdone, this year’s fourth course is bro country! A wide ranging genre, you can find everything from hip-hop, uptempo outlaw country, hard hitting rock, funk, and even electronica, all with that familiar bro country flair. The dinner bell has been rung, pickup up Xtra Styles PAK 21 today!
In this PAK you’ll discover: Energetic folk rock, raucous train beats, fast country boogies, acid jazz grooves, laid-back funky jams, a bevy of breezy jazz waltzes, calm electro funk, indie synth pop, industrial synth metal, and more bro country than could possibly fit in the back of a pickup truck!
Special offers until December 31st, 2025!
All the Xtra Styles PAKs 1 - 21 are on special for only $29 each (reg $49), or get all 21 PAKs for $199 (reg $399)! Order now!
Learn more and listen to demos of the Xtra Styles PAK 21.
Video: Xtra Styles PAK 21 Overview & Styles Demos: Watch now!
Note: The Xtra Styles require the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition of Band-in-a-Box®. (Xtra Styles PAK 21 requires the 2025 or higher UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition. They will not work with the Pro or MegaPAK version because they need the RealTracks from the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition.
Introducing XPro Styles PAK 10 – Now Available for Mac Band-in-a-Box 2025 and Higher!
We've just released XPro Styles PAK 10 for Mac & Windows Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher) with 100 brand new RealStyles, plus 28 RealTracks and RealDrums!
Few things are certain in life: death, taxes, and a brand spankin’ new XPro Styles PAK! In this, the 10th edition of our XPro Styles PAK series, we’ve got 100 styles coming your way! We have the classic 25 styles each from the rock & pop, jazz, and country genres, and rounding out this volume's wildcard slot is 25 styles in the Praise & Worship genre! A wide spanning genre, you can find everything from rock, folk, country, and more underneath its umbrella. The included 28 RealTracks and RealDrums can be used with any Band-in-a-Box® 2026 (and higher) package.
Here’s just a small sampling of what you can look forward to in XPro Styles PAK 10: Soft indie folk worship songs, bumpin’ country boogies, gospel praise breaks, hard rockin’ pop, funky disco grooves, smooth Latin jazz pop, bossa nova fusion, western swing, alternative hip-hop, cool country funk, and much more!
Special offers until December 31st, 2025!
All the XPro Styles PAKs 1 - 10 are on sale for only $29 ea (Reg. $49 ea), or get them all in the XPro Styles PAK Bundle for only $149 (reg. $299)! Order now!
Learn more and listen to demos of XPro Styles PAKs.
Video: XPro Styles PAK 10 Overview & Styles Demos: Watch now!
XPro Styles PAKs require Band-in-a-Box® 2025 or higher and are compatible with ANY package, including the Pro, MegaPAK, UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, and Audiophile Edition.
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