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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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I have Windows XP operating system with a Pentium D (whatever that means) on my Dell. I have decided to start recording directly into my computer rather than by using my video camera (it's a good one, a ZOOM Q3HD) to capture the guitar & vocals from an amp and the BIAB (and sometimes karaoke tracks) from the computer speakers. To me it sounds good but, of course, it'd be much better going direct. SO WHERE DO I START?  Oh, and PLEASE, I do NOT want to spend a lot of money NOW because I'll just get depressed and decide to stick with the INdirect recording method I have been doing. I know I need an interface (I only want one with TWO inputs just for guitar and microphone!) but I have some questions. I have been messing with my BIAB for a few years now and have finally learned enough of it to quickly generate songs. My question, however, is should I now start getting into RealBand? I have read that it's the program I use for recording. But I really don't want to.  So isn't there a way to continue doing things on BIAB and have it play on my computer (while recording) and also, while I play and sing (with the interface) at the same time?? Or do I have to start using RealBand? Again, I'm looking for inexpensive route because although I want the better sound, and also to be able to tweak everything, the cost will just depress me and I'll stick with the way I have been doing things. NO I don't care about sounding like an experienced pro now but just want to make everything a bit BETTER then the way I've been doing things. (Hey, some of the stuff isn't too bad actually!) Also, what's a good beginners software recording program and interface? Sony ACID Music Studio 8.0? Apple GarageBand? Cakewalk Music Creator 6? M-Audio Fast Track MKII USB Audio Interface with Pro Tools SE?? Thanks in advance.
Last edited by rokq22; 03/02/12 12:47 PM.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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The MKII would be a good purchase for your purposes. It is very reasonable, http://www.dv247.com/computer-hardware/m-audio-fast-track--68396You can plug your guitar and mic into the MKII and record them at the same time onto different tracks. You could then add some effects to each track via free software like the Amplitude 3 that comes with the latest BiaB/RealBand. What I don’t know is what version of BiaB and Realband do you have? What I do know is that RealBand will do everything you want to do. Plus you already have it! Personally I would stay away from ProTools and go with RealBand. Realband is made to work with BiaB. If you have to learn something new, as you would with ProTools SE, it should be RealBand IMHO.
Last edited by MarioD; 03/03/12 12:26 PM.
I think my wife has started to show the first signs of dementia.
She said she can't remember what she ever saw in me!
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Whew, very openended question RokQ. First Real Band is a "music studio" program. You don't need anything else. Pro Tools, Garageband or Real Band are all Digital Audio Workstations or DAW's. There's certainly differences between them but they're all esentially the same. You can record, mix and finalize audio and midi tracks. The big difference with Real Band is it will open and play Biab songs. So, you're all set. Biab only has one audio track available so if you want to record more than one like your guitar and vocal then you need Real Band. RB is much better for recording anyway in my opinion. Just read some of the threads in the RB forum. Lots of posts talking about what interface to use and how much they cost plus you can read all about how RB works.
The other thing is your computer. A Pentium D is fairly old but depending on the system you may be able to have 2 gigs of ram. If you don't have that much already I would add some. No need to get it from Dell, you're out of warranty anyway so no harm in opening up the case and sticking in more ram if you can. Ram is very cheap for older PC's, like $20 or so.
Have fun,
Bob
Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Okay, so I'm not TOTALLY out of touch as I have read that RealBand was for recording but my problem is that I can only handle learning new stuff small bits at a time so as to not be overwhelmed and get depressed when it doesn't get digested fast enough for me. Good thing is that I think I've progressed enough on BIAB as to now move on to the next "step". And that is away from recording from the amp & computer speakers and on to computer recording.  I have RealBand 2010 and just upgraded to BIAB 2012. I know I should actually break out the manuals to RB and BIAB (and indeed I HAVE!) but just find asking questions here to be easier and less stressful cuz I can pinpoint my questions without too much manual page turning. One problem I already have is that earlier today while I was messing a bit with RB I found that I can import my karaoke stuff to it (and it works!!) but had trouble importing my finished songs from BIAB to it. I clicked on the BIAB folder but nothing appeared so I couldn't import anything from it into RB. Okay, yes, the MKII sounds good but it comes with ProTools and I will definitely NOT be using PT. RB it is!! Oh, I have previously read that Behringer has some good interfaces too. (Hmmm, I"m now liking the POD Stuydio UX1). Again, just need something for guitar and mic only. 2 inputs. Anyhow, onwards to the RealBand Forum. 
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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If you just upgraded to BB2012, take a look, you should also have received RealBand 2012 as well.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Quote:
If you just upgraded to BB2012, take a look, you should also have received RealBand 2012 as well.
Oops, yes, RealBand 2012! (I was going by the date on the manual I had in front of me. )
Anyhow, I think I'm going for the LINE 6 POD UX1. I made my mind up today and the price of $89.75 on eBay looked good too. Of course, that was the price last night. Naturally when I went there today to buy it it was already sold. 
P.S. The vitals on my computer are:
Dell Optiplex GX620
PentiumR (D)
CPU 3.00GHz
2.99GHz
0.99GB of RAM
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Another gig of RAM may help it along if it starts to struggle at all.
What kind of drives do you have in there?
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Quote:
Another gig of RAM may help it along if it starts to struggle at all.
What kind of drives do you have in there?
It'll cost only $39 or so for a 2GB stick (replace the 1GB stick).
DriveS (plural???). I know I should get another one (perhaps an external) but this one only has one 74.5GB HD (with 33.3GB used).
P.S. Well, I guess the interface thing is solved. I just picked up a new Line 6 TonePort UX1 Recording Interface for $74.50 on eBay.
Last edited by rokq22; 03/05/12 04:42 AM.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Check Song from start to finish - BIAB, RealBand, & Reaper. http://www.pgmusic.com/videos.user.htm As well as other videos on this page 4 ideas
Lenovo YOGA 900 Window s 10 Home 64bit M4 pro Mac mini 1tb HD 24GB mem casio wk7500 presonus audiobox i2 usb interface
casio wk-7500
biab & realband 2025 everything pk both with Current builds
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Quote:
Check Song from start to finish - BIAB, RealBand, & Reaper. http://www.pgmusic.com/videos.user.htm As well as other videos on this page 4 ideas
Thanks. Definitely time to view some of the tutorials and read the manual.
This one looks extremely interesting and I'm just about there!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qCscIjxkuI
But, well, before I get into that, can someone please tell me (as the very FIRST STEP towards using RealBand) how do I get my BIAB songs into the RealBand program?
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Just open Real Band... Open button, then navigate to where your BIAB .sgu or .mgu files are located. RB will then read them in and create the tracks.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Quote:
Just open Real Band... Open button, then navigate to where your BIAB .sgu or .mgu files are located. RB will then read them in and create the tracks.
The songs I've seen so far that I have saved are .SGU. Er, what does that mean, as opposed to .MGU? Hey, have to ask. What's more, when I get my Line 6 going I just know I'm gonna have problems. Hopefully I can get them resolved here and not have to do the Line 6 Forum thing too.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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.SGU is the extension for a song with no melody. When you add notes in the Melody track, it is saved as .MGU. There are a few more types, and you can read about it in the Help file.
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.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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there is a lot of free stuff at KVR
Win 11 64, Asus Rog Strix z390 mobo, 64 gig RAM, 8700k
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Well, I knew it. I ran RealBand and clicked on "File". I then clicked on "Open" in the drop down menu and in the box I clicked on "Band In A Box". NOTHING APPEARS!! However, when I do that and click on my (MP3) karaoke option the files appear. But NO FILES are appearing for BIAB! (Same thing happens when I click on "Import"). Now what as I can't get ANY files into RealBand from BIAB? I guess today is the day I REALLY start to get into this stuff and view the tutorials but it sucks when I can't even get the BIAB stuff to open in RB. Heck, seems simple enough. 
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Viewing the tutorials would be a good idea.
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.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Quote:
Viewing the tutorials would be a good idea.
Yeah, but have to say that I didn't view any tutorials nor read the manual (much) to have LOTS of hours of pleasure with BIAB. It was all pretty easy to get the basics down which worked for entire songs. (Just expand the chart area into one large chorus and type in the chords for the entire song. Done). Okay, I had a few questions that got answered here but other than that it was pretty easy to figure out. But I guess the computer recording aspect involving RB is gonna be a bit more difficult.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Have you ever been in a recording studio? Do you know how a semi pro level 12 channel mixer works? No? Then you definitely need some basic education in digital audio recording. It's a whole different animal from simply typing in the chords into Biab and hitting play.
We're all here to help even with very basic stuff but you have to show you've done at least some basic reading and watching those tutorials. Go to the RB forum and don't even bother with searches, just take the first post and start reading and don't stop until you've gone through say, the first 4 pages. there's tons of good stuff in there. All your questions have been asked and answered time and time again. After that you still won't understand it all even though you've read about it because for a noob (and believe me I painfully remember being one!) it's still difficult to grasp at first. One reason is simply the terminology. Every big name recording software in the world uses the same language the pro studios use because that's what they're selling, a home based pro studio. Just learning that vocabulary is a challenge.
Hobbies are supposed to be fun and challenging otherwise what's the point? One member here was posting all the time but he's switiched his primary focus to RC airplanes. You know you don't just pick that up in a weekend, buy a killer kit for 2 grand or so with a controller and just go out and fly it. I suspect you try that without some practice and you'll see your nice new model airplane auger right in. Splat, and a cloud of dust. Same here, baby steps.
Bob
Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Quote:
Same here, baby steps.
Yeah, but as noted, I was doing fine recording externally onto my videocamera. Just play a (karaoke/BIAB) song, hit record, play/record, edit and then upload to YouTube. Simple, and I have dozens of finished videos on YouTube. But I want things done BETTER now. Which means, for me, recording into the computer. What I've found by being on another message board is that questions usually get answered quickly and that's because, oftentimes, people like solving other people's problems. Same here, I guess.
Anyhow, just today, I finally found out how to get my BIAB songs into RealBand. It was a snag that has been overcome. It's time to go from there.
Bob
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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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Band-in-a-Box 2026 for Windows Special Offers End Tomorrow (January 15th, 2026) at 11:59 PM PST!
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