Bobby Z,

One caveat, a sort of warning, about BIAB. Get a pad and paper. You'll need it for two reasons.

First, WRITE DOWN A BRIEF STATEMENT OF WHAT YOU WANT TO DO WITH BIAB. Put that piece of paper somewhere that you can see it whenever you're using the program. Here's why.

BIAB is the deepest piece of consumer software I have come across. So far I haven't found bottom. That's a good thing and a bad thing. The bad thing is that you will keep finding new features. In the process of chasing them down you may lose sight of what you were trying to do in the first place. That's what the first piece of paper is for.

The good news is that some of those features will lead you to things you never would have thought of on your own. You want the rest of that pad of paper so you can write down questions as they come up so that you can pursue the answers in an organized fashion. Otherwise you may be continually distracted by the neat new things you will find (and keep finding) on the way to your musical bliss.

I offer my own experience as a somewhat extreme example. I bought BIAB in the early 1990s in order to quickly create song demos. It's a fantastic tool for that and does it very well. In the process of pushing buttons, though--mainly changing Styles--BIAB began to do some unexpected things to my songs. In effect, it started suggesting changes in my music.

Good news and bad news again. I have all abandoned my former pop songwriting attempts. I now use BIAB as I would a hardware sequencer, creating electronic backings for my electric blues playing. I never would have thought of it on my own, and I'll never go back. In effect, BIAB has become a co-composer. (While I primarily work in MIDI, I have fooled around with Real Styles enough to know that the same principle applies.)

So, WATCH OUT! Unless you do this in an organized fashion, you may wonder what hit you. I mean that in a good way.

Again, welcome to the community. I look forward to seeing you grow with us and with BIAB.

Richard

"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."