Installed 2022 last night and am just starting to play with it today. Impressed with the general offering this year, PGM seem to have been listening. Also very grateful for the 20% tax gesture.
On playing about with Drum Stems I notice a couple of things. (to keep it simple all tests are from the Americana set with 7 stems each.)
1. Loaded Mix and Stems of AmericanaSlow128Fred into 32 bars at default setting, i.e. Substyle A, Chord C, set tempo to 60
2. When RDrums picker is first opened Stems box needs to be checked for the chosen style before pressing OK, but if I move off this to another style Stems box needs to be checked again. After generating if I re-open the RDrums picker all styles with stems are checked by default.
3. Auditioned each Stem separately and find there is a lot of bleed in from the Snare in the Cymbal and Toms Stems. For example there is not a massive difference between the HH Stem and the Mix, is this normal?
4. I reset the Substyle to A & B alternating every 4 bars and regen. The Mix changed but the Stems didn't. F7 revealed that all the stems are frozen by default when first generated and can only be unfrozen one at a time in the F7 page. The Stems Freeze buttons on the mixer are deactivated. When unfrozen the stems will regen, but this is a tedious process.
5. Changed drums style to Americana16thsSyncFred and, as expected, on regen, Mix changed but Stems didn't. When unfrozen Stems will regen to Americana16thsSyncFred, but are still named as AmericanaSlow128Fred. In F7 I erased the stems, again one by one, but these did not regen until I entered and exited the Drum Picker, regen was correct, but Stems still named as AmericanaSlow128Fred.
While I welcome the introduction of Stems and see a lot of potential, I hope that the above are teething problems to be addressed.
3. Auditioned each Stem separately and find there is a lot of bleed in from the Snare in the Cymbal and Toms Stems. For example there is not a massive difference between the HH Stem and the Mix, is this normal?
Yes. Just look at pics of drum kits in a recording studio, there's no way to avoid lots of bleed. People have been requesting this for years and some kept saying they could do all these great things but I think they were thinking of midi, not real audio stems. I've said for years the bleed through on the mics will be a problem, it won't be as great at some think. It's still useful because you can control the mix 'somewhat' but it's not perfect. You want to bump up the snare, you'll bump the kick and cymbals too, after all they're right next to each other with live mics. Still, you can achieve a decent mix you just have to experiment with rebalancing the whole kit.
When I was recording live bands I would spend more time on the drums than anything else. One way to use live drum stems is to put them into a DAW and use midi triggers that track individual drum kit parts and replace the audio with midi and them play the midi with a good drum program. But, the downside to that is you lose the live feel of the real drummer. Everything's a tradeoff. There are many techniques to use. Say the kit has an open hat and you want a closed one. You could use a midi closed hat and take the kit hat to zero and the trigger system would match the rhythm. There will be some bleed through the open hat from the overheads but the midi closed hat would mostly hide it. You can also use EQ to eliminate some of the bleed. Having drums stems to play with can be fun but it's a lot of work. No instant gratification.
All good points. When I experimented with the new drum stems feature, I had the most fun with the Latin drums and the ability to bring out or hide the pandeiro (the Brazilian reinvention of the tambourine). That is quite effective.
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; Roland Integra-7, Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
Downloading 2022 now. I'm seeing in the downloads a RealDrums Stems Set 2 included with the Bonus 49 Pak. Can I assume that the first stems just come with 2022? I'm not seeing a download for a Stems Set 1.
Yes, the first stems come with BIAB2022, but not a lot. I've counted 57 styles with stems in in the RealDrum picker. According to the promo video for the Bonus 49 pack, 36 of these are in Pt 2. I imagine that if these prove to be popular they will become an additional form of revenue for PGM, much like Styles Paks etc.
I would be interested to hear, when you try them, if you find the same issues that I commented on earlier.
I would imagine that when you really get down to mixing them, it will take several busses with EQs and compression to ferret out the best of the sounds. Hi pass low pass etc.
Maybe even a combo of the stems and the midi charts will be a cool idea. Stems RDs, charts VSTIs just tools to work with.
HP Win 11 12 gig ram, Mac mini Sonoma with 16 gig of ram, BiaB 2025, Realband, Reaper 7, Harrison Mixbus 9 32c , Melodyne 5 editor, Presonus Audiobox 1818VSL, Presonus control app.
Happy holidays! I'm excited about the drum stems, which I think are a tremendous step in the right direction. I work in the contemporary/smooth jazz genre, and my RealDrums players are: Michael White, Ricky Lawson, Franklin 'Third' Richardson, Sput Searight, and Brian Fullen. Unfortunately the new stems aren't available for these, only Americana and country. In an exchange with Simon in customer service, it sounds like PGM is receiving a good response on drum stems, and I'm hopeful that some of the older C-Jazz and funk tracks will be made available. If they were, I'd upgrade my Audiophile 2021 yesterday! Still, there may be enough new RealTracks to warrant it. Thanks all.
Warren, I can’t cite the post but my impression is that we can expect more drums to have stems. I think it’s early days, and they are getting a few operational things settled now
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; Roland Integra-7, Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
Video: Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac®: VST3 Plugin Support
Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac® now includes support for VST3 plugins, alongside VST and AU. Use them with MIDI or audio tracks for even more creative possibilities in your music production.
Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Macs®: VST3 Plugin Support
Video: Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac®: Using VST3 Plugins
With the release of Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac, we’re rolling out a collection of brand-new videos on our YouTube channel. We’ll also keep this forum post updated so you can easily find all the latest videos in one convenient spot.
From overviews of new features and walkthroughs of the 202 new RealTracks, to highlights of XPro Styles PAK 8, Xtra Styles PAKs 18, the 2025 49-PAK, and in-depth tutorials — you’ll find everything you need to explore what’s new in Band-in-a-Box® 2025.
Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac is here, packed with major new features and an incredible collection of available new content! This includes 202 RealTracks (in Sets 449-467), plus 20 bonus Unreleased RealTracks in the 2025 49-PAK. There are new RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, “Songs with Vocals” Artist Performance Sets, Playable RealTracks Set 4, two new sets of “RealDrums Stems,” XPro Styles PAK 8, Xtra Styles PAK 19, and more!
Special Offers
Upgrade to Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac with savings of up to 50% on most upgrade packages during our special—available until July 31, 2025! Visit our Band-in-a-Box® packages page for all the purchase options available.
2025 Free Bonus PAK & 49-PAK Add-ons
We've packed our Free Bonus PAK & 49-PAK with some incredible Add-ons! The Free Bonus PAK is automatically included with most Band-in-a-Box® for Mac 2025 packages, but for even more Add-ons (including 20 Unreleased RealTracks!) upgrade to the 2025 49-PAK for only $49. You can see the full lists of items in each package, and listen to demos here.
If you have any questions, feel free to connect with us directly—we’re here to help!
Cari amici
È stata aggerate la versione in Italiano del programma più amato dagli appassionati di musica, il nostro Band-in-a-Box.
Questo è il link alla nuova versione 2025.
Di seguito i link per scaricare il pacchetti di lingua italiana aggiornati per Band-in-a-Box e RealBand, anche per chi avesse già comprato la nuova versione in inglese.
Band-in-a-Box® 2025 pour Windows est disponible en Français.
Le téléchargement se fait à partir du site PG Music
Pour ceux qui auraient déjà acheté la version 2025 de Band-in-a-Box (et qui donc ont une version anglaise), il est possible de "franciser" cette version avec les patchs suivants:
Band-in-a-Box 2025 für Windows Deutsch ist verfügbar!
Die deutsche Version Band-in-a-Box® 2025 für Windows ist ab sofort verfügbar!
Alle die bereits die englische Version von Band-in-a-Box und RealBand 2024 installiert haben, finden hier die Installationsdateien für das Sprachenupdate:
Update Your Band-in-a-Box® 2025 to Build 1128 for Windows Today!
Already using Band-in-a-Box 2025 for Windows®? Download Build 1128 now from our Support Page to enjoy the latest enhancements and improvements from our team.
One of our representatives will be happy to help you over the phone. Our hours of operation are from
6:00AM to 6:00PM PST (GMT -8) Monday thru Friday, and 8:00AM to 4:00PM PST Saturday. We are closed Sunday. You can also send us your questions via email.
One of our representatives will be happy to help you on our Live Chat or by email. Our hours of operation are from
6:00AM to 6:00PM PST (GMT -8) Monday thru Friday; 8:00AM to 4:00PM PST (GMT -8) Saturday; Closed Sunday.
Dansk
Deutsch - Windows
Español
Français - Windows
Italiano - Windows
Nederlands
Polski
Português
Svenskt
русский
Japanese
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Korean