I am so amazed at BIAB. I am very curious about how the recording of real musicians might be done and how is that audio information used to make everything happen in BIAB. Chat tells me that of course this is proprietary information and I understand that. Is there anyone who can give an explanation that will not violate their intellectual property, but still give a good idea about the generalities of the process? I am just fascinated by the whole idea. What can I know without PG having to kill me?!?!?!?
Well I got to the first of your linked videos before bedtime and wow this was REALLY interesting. More tomorrow, but then do I understand for BIAB RTs by professional musicians, they would have the musicians play every chord imaginable within reason so that a chord could be selected by the software to match what the user inputs for his/her song? The studio sessions must be pretty interesting then with the players playing an unusual chord chart covering all the needed chords. How granualar do they get? Do the artists play even the very unusual chords with odd extensions or just the basics and then the software will make the closest substitution like your first video mentioned when discussing User Tracks?
How does this work for non chordal instruments like solo single line instruments? Does the artist record a whole group of single notes that can be used for every eventuality?
I think knowing this is giving me an even greater appreciation for what is going on in these backing tracks. How totally interesting.
If you look at the different pop/rock/jazz UserTrack templates you will see the type of chords being played. There would be chord substitutions/transposing going on for unavailable chords. I made some solo instruments that played in different keys and scales in the UserTrack forum, they were in a Drum template so they don't transpose, you just pick the key and scale your song is in. I imagine PG would have a lot of musical Al Gore rhythms to work it all out, more than my knowledge of music.
I think what's proprietary is quite how they move and mix them so well into the generated version, but the UserTracks themselves are pretty straight-forward.
Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful. AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11 BIAB2025 Audiophile, a bunch of other software. Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts .
We users don’t know very much. I believe there is less substitution of chords if you turn off Natural Arrangement. However, that may result in more range jumps and less effective voice leading.
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.
Right, that's the biggest problem I see as well. A player can play an Ebm9 chord on a piano but which voicing? Which octave? There are so many to use and I think the limitation is the file sizes. I have no idea of the limit but there must be one. The more inversions and voicings of each chord that was recorded, the file size would grow and that has to affect generation times because the program now has to search and try to stitch together the adjoining chords. As it is you can hear a lot of non musical jumps with certain chord changes along with certain RT's.
As it is, what they've done already is pretty amazing and as users we're like mushrooms, we're kept in the dark.
We are here talking about the magic of this program. It is enough to listen to some WMAs of isolated instruments to understand that the idea of PG was its main value. Then all the annual improvements have made it a gas plant that no one thinks of competing. On the one hand a lot of mathematics to assemble the RTs and on the other a lot of Real Music made by Real Musicians. The sum is Biab, and thank you for having such correct prices, Doctor Gannon!
Then along come RT sample sets and you can add the notes you need. This should be automated as I can do this in Reaper to duplicate the notes to fit the chord.
Here's a RT Soloist notes. I want to create up some UserTrack soloist so you can select the key and scale but the A B sections marked in the UserTrack template are not playing A in A and B in B but all over this place.
MultiRiff window will not work on Drums or UserTracks only RealTracks.
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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.
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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
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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)
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!
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