Hi there! I signed up for this forum because I am very interested in BiaB (UltraPlusPAK to be more specific). I have to add I've been very interested for YEARS already... but a few things were holding me back everytime I thought about buying BiaB.

1. First of all (and this might not be a very nice thing to say for a newbie here, sorry, but I like to be honest) I was put off by the interface... It looks like shareware from 1995... (Again: sorry!). Now I know this doesn't mean BiaB isn't good, but well... I always thought it looked old and very complicated.... Maybe I am sensitive for this because I am a graphic designer...? Anyway, year after year (yes, I've been looking at BiaB since the nineties!!!) I was hoping the interface would get an update, but it seems that won't happen, so... I might as well get over it. Ok, now that is out of the way, let's move on to my next questions...

2. I wonder if BiaB is suited for more er... alternative music. Seems a lot of styles are more or less middle of the road and very America-oriented (lots of country and gospel). The songs I made up to now aren't very alternative or weird, but not middle of the road (I think). Now this won't have to be a huge problem because I am considering to get BiaB mainly for laying down a quick foundation for my songs. I work with Cakewalk's Sonar Producer Edition 8.5 and I sometimes get very tired of laying down the basic tracks all by myself. And since I can't afford studio musicians, BiaB seems a nice alternative. I might for instance only use it to get a quick bass part of some piano backgrounds. Still, I wonder if BiaB is suited for what I usually do.

Maybe someone can direct me to some more alternative user demo's? I listened to a few already, but they wren't my kind of thing. Maybe it's a good idea to post links to some songs I made, so you can understand in which direction I am thinking. So here are a few of my songs:

Yellow light

Turn around

Distortion

Fallen leaves

After awakening

You can find more on my Soundclick page. Anyway, would BiaB help me with songs like this? My music use a lot of melodic parts (or whatever you call it) that can't be automated, I think...

3. I wonder if, since RealTracks use real recording of 1 to 8 bars (?), using RealTracks won't give me VERY repetitive songs... with the same licks and stuff all over the place...?

4. Is it easy to somehow get the BiaB RealTracks into Sonar 8.5...? RealTracks aren't midi, so I guess that I HAVE to use those tracks and can't use them to let other instruments do their thing? What exactly will I get into Sonar: wavs or midi or...? How does this work? (Any Sonar users here?)

5. Are there any recent reviews of BiaB somewhere (from musicsites and magazines, not Amazon)? I can only find old reviews.

Well, that's it, for starters. I hope I didn't offend anyone with my (perharps sometimes blunt) remarks, but I like to be clear about things...

EDIT
O, one more thing: if I buy the UltraPlusPAK, will I have to download EVERYTHING before I can work with BiaB or can I download the program itself and some RealTracks first in order to get going...? Or is it all or nothing? Just curious.

Last edited by J van E; 10/08/11 06:05 AM.