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#144438 12/31/11 03:31 PM
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Is it time for this? A stripped down version, disable ACW, disable printing, provide 50 styles in midi 20 in RealBand but everything else is the same?

I just wonder if that's not the ticket. Would have to be a small download, plus one midi engine or another.

Possible incremental downloads ...for a fee.
Buy only Country or Jazz RT options.

Limited support for free version?

Just batting a tennis ball over the net here...


John Conley
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That's some good thinking, John. We have certainly seen many questions here about whether there is a demo version (like there used to be). We sing the praises of the program and promote the 30-day money-back guarantee, but it's not quite the same.

Perhaps a demo could have one RealTrack set for medium tempo jazz, Bossa, country, rock, folk. These might even be optional downloads. It's the size of RealTrack downloads that likely caused PG Music to not offer the demo version anyway.

I'm not sure I agree about offering limited support for the demo. However it is that people first encounter this program, the great support is one reason they become paying customers.

Maybe some folks who are recent purchasers could give their opinions on what convinced them to buy, and what could have made the choice easier.


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It's a very good idea, but I might boost it a bit. There are already some "built-in" styles which would do very well, possibly with just a hint of a brush-up. Also, limiting each channel to one VST or VSTi, and also including maybe five Real Tracks and about a dozen Real Drums -- and not allowing you to use any others with the free version -- would show off the program while giving a serious reason to buy the whole thing if you like it.

My current thoughts of this are inspired by the free versions of SampleTank, Alchemy Player, and AAS Swatches -- not to mention the various free Players from Native Instruments -- which give you plenty of sound to work with while holding back certain aspects of the programs. Same with DrumCore Free, MDrummer Lite, and the JamStix demo.

There are also programs like BFD Eco, which for the past several months has been selling for $29 rather than its usual $99. The lead-in is to get you to buy BFD 2, which has an absurd 55 GB of drum samples and a number of other functions... but the Eco, at the price point they've had it at this fall and winter, is an incredible deal. (You have five hours left to take advantage of it -- ready, set, go!) My point here is that PG has already done something like BIAB Lite, with SongSmith, a program Microsoft seems to have already abandoned. Certainly PG could remake it to be a proper BIAB Lite and sell it for thirty bucks.


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