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Quote:
I went back and took another look at Reaper. You can download it for free for the 1st 30 days with all features enabled. I figure there's nothing to lose to try it, so why not? It took me a few tries to get midi i/o working. I like the interface better than Wavepad and Reaper handles midi better also--but not as good as Real Band, IMO. If I decided to buy Reaper, it's only $40 and that includes a couple of future upgrades. It looks like Reaper has a helpful forum. It will take me some time to get really going with it because I'll be using mostly RB and BIAB for my major projects. Reaper does have some neat features and the pgm size is way smaller than Ableton Live, partly because there are no libraries. Time will tell.
I had no idea, when I first bought biab 4-5 years ago, that sound was this complex. I guess most of us just never thought of it that way and we took everything for granted. So much to learn........ Thanks again to everyone for your valuable suggestions/comments.
Stan
I just mixed a song in RB. It was all midi tracks. I changed the midi style to a real style, recorded the midi melody track to audio, mixed, and merged all into a stereo .wav file. I never did get the DAW plugin to work, but maybe someday......... I'm not sure why the pitch sounds a little off (just a tad) after merging. I checked in Support and didn't find anything that seemed on point to address this issue.
The output is useable though.
Stan
Cornet Curmudgeon
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Update:
Reaper and I didn't get along probably due to my inexperience and knowledge. I'm now trying Mixcraft 5.2 for 14 days free (cost is $75 to buy). So far I really like it and can actually do stuff with it. The HELP is very good with color illustrations. It is probably a lot easier to learn than some of the more high powered DAWs. FWIW
Stan
Cornet Curmudgeon
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Stan
Mixcraft looks very feature rich. Please keep us posted as to how it works for you.
Can you tell whether tempo-synced vst and vsti actually work? Probably the easiest is to use a tempo synced delay and see whether it actually syncs with the clock.
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The way i look at it, unless there is some glaring reason why RB or PTPA does not do what you want why chase all over for another DAW. As I said above, or er on the other page, i did that for a long time. I have found that RB does just as good a job recording as anything else. I only use another DAW when i run into something it does not do. That is rare these days.
I bought reaper recently just because it is really cheap, and has some really deep features that you can't get anywhere else that are interesting. Still i will most likely do most projects in RB. the only thing RB does not do yet is run my jamstix program under the jam settings, and do fancy automation. If I need that Reaper or Multitrackstudios will come to play.
I tried Mixcraft, but to me it was decent and fairly stable, but rather simple and more geared towards loop based stuff and i found that part of it to not have enough variety.
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.
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I'm just doing a 14 day trial with Mixcraft now. I don't know if I'll buy it or not. I don't know why, but when I render to .wav via BIAB or RB, the count-in gets put in even though the box is not checked. This has been going on for years and I always just use WavePad to fix it. While I'm in WavePad, I use some other features like noise reduction, filters, equalizer, etc.. Then I save as mp3. I try to save as mp3 in BIAB or RB but is says it cannot do it. I thought I had all the right codecs so I don't know what the problem is. WavePad does it though. I was just looking at some other daw's to see if I might like some other features and gui better than RB. Given my current knowledge, I'm limited in making an educated judgment about any of them. I'm having fun playing with some of the effects in Mixcraft which are not in WavePad. When I import midi into WavePad, the track wave form looks the same as an audio track. I don't like that and prefer RB's track view. There sure is lots of variation to explore in Mixcraft. I have to admit that I might not have a full appreciation of these effects since I might not recognize an appropriate situation to apply them to. I do like Mixcrafts's Help better than Wavepad, too. Maybe this is the wrong way to look at it, but I seem to be learning more by doing the stuff in the software than trying to read if from books--even though I have a few of those, too.
Stan
Cornet Curmudgeon
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I agree Rob and that's why I don't shop around until I run into a snag I can't get around. The lack of tempo locking in PG products is a show stopper for me.
Some of the plugins that come with Mixcraft tally up to more than it's purchase price. I can vouch for VB3 as being an excellent B3 emulation VSTi - and that's what it is not a sample playback synth but a physically modeled emulation of the B3. Lounge Lizard electric piano is also included. Those plugins alone purchased separately tally up to the Mixcraft price.
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Quote:
I agree Rob and that's why I don't shop around until I run into a snag I can't get around. The lack of tempo locking in PG products is a show stopper for me.
Some of the plugins that come with Mixcraft tally up to more than it's purchase price. I can vouch for VB3 as being an excellent B3 emulation VSTi - and that's what it is not a sample playback synth but a physically modeled emulation of the B3. Lounge Lizard electric piano is also included. Those plugins alone purchased separately tally up to the Mixcraft price.
Yes, as Rob points out, you can do just about everything in BIAB and RB. However, there are some things that Mixcraft has that biab and rb do not such as some effects and as I said, I like the GUI. I'm still "playing" with it and I have to try some keyboard input to see how that works with my setup. I think that PG may have fixed the drag and drop problems for BIAB so I have to go and check that out now. I'm still considering Mixcraft as a DAW learning tool. I'm not seeing anything out there, right now, that is designed for pure beginners to learn DAW. I've had BIAB since the 2006 version and I'm still learning new things since I still am barely past the rookie level. Hey, I enjoy learning....just sayin'....
Stan
Cornet Curmudgeon
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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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XPro and Xtra Styles PAKs Special Extended Until August 31st!
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- Look Ma! More MIDI 13: Country & Americana
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Video: XPro Styles PAK 9 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.
New! Xtra Styles PAK 20 for Band-in-a-Box 2025 and Higher for Windows!
Xtra Styles PAK 20 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 and greatest in the all new Xtra Styles PAK 20 for Band-in-a-Box! This fresh installment is packed with 200 all-new styles spanning the rock & pop, jazz, and country genres you've come to expect, as well as the exciting inclusion of electronic styles!
In this PAK you’ll discover: Minimalist Modern Funk, New Wave Synth Pop, Hard Bop Latin Groove, Gospel Country Shuffle, Cinematic Synthwave, '60s Motown, Funky Lo-Fi Bossa, Heavy 1980s Metal, Soft Muted 12-8 Folk, J-Pop Jazz Fusion, and many more!
All the Xtra Styles PAKs 1 - 20 are on special for only $29 each (reg $49), or get all 209 PAKs for $199 (reg $399)! Order now!
Learn more and listen to demos of the Xtra Styles PAK 20.
Video: Xtra Styles PAK 20 Overview & Styles Demos: Watch now!
Note: The Xtra Styles require the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition of Band-in-a-Box®. (Xtra Styles PAK 20 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.
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