PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Windows Wma and Wav

How do I know if wma or wav is used?
Can I choose?
Can I delete the wma files?

Excellent Question! I'm wondering the same. I upgraded to the Audiophile edition and want to be absolutely sure the wav files are being used, not the wma ones. I look forward to an answer too! -charley

If BIAB sees both a .WMA file and a same-named .WAV file in the same place, it uses the .WAV file.

This can occur in one of two ways:
1) you uncompressed the .WMA files, making them into .WAV but keeping the same audio quality, or
2) you have the audiophile version, in which case you have purchased uncompressed higher-quality .WAV files

There is a slight speed advantage to using method one, even though the quality of the sound is unchanged, because BIAB does not have to uncompress the file first. And of course, the audiophile files would also load slightly faster.

If you have the audiophile version, yes, you may delete all the .WMA files.

If you do not have the audiophile version but chose to uncompress all the .WMA files to .WAV, you may also choose to delete the .WMA files.

Keep in mind that, if you do delete all the .WMA files, since they are about one-tenth the size of the corresponding .WAV files, you are only saving about one-eleventh the total space. It's a lot of work to go through for that small a benefit, and then you have to do it all again next update.

Thanks for clearing that up! However I have a follow up question:
Is buying the audiophile edition the only way to get "good" wav files or can they be purchased as realtracks sets?

I don't know. You should call PG Music Sales and ask.

I can say that I have not seen separate audiophile packages for sale, but that doesn't mean they would not be willing to discuss it; can't hurt to ask Sales.

Of course, after you buy enough individual RealTrack sets, it becomes more economical to just get them all.

I also takes a longer time to load a hard drive with all .wav files...

Bob is quite right! However, if you purchase the audiophile
version first, then you will have both the HQ .wav files and
the compressed .wma files available to do a comparison.

There is a 30-day refund period as mentioned.


There are 19,876 .wav <-> .wma pairs of files and they are all
located in the 'bb\Drums' & 'bb\RealTracks' folders/subfolders.

The .wav <-> .wma pairs are NOT located anywhere else in the
bb folder. I know, I checked.


The .wma files mentioned above total 48.5 GB while the total
size of the .wav files mentioned above totals 589 GB -- and for
those who care that's 1,495 hours, 54 minutes, and 17 seconds of
quality .wav audio files that we are talking about.

Considering that these files are chopped up and served multiple
times during a single song... that's a lot more hours of the same.


It's also currently cheaper to upgrade from audiophile to audiophile
than it is to upgrade from the EverythingPAK; and then there are also
return charges, time to return, time to wait again for delivery, etc.


And then there's what seems to be the biggest wait of all, and that
is copying ALL of the files to the harddrive if you don't want to
carry around the external drive.

I did read where someone used velcro to attach the external hd to
the bottom of their laptop. We know that this can block the air
ports and cause overheating of the laptop and/or the hd.


If you do return the audiophile version, I don't know what would keep
you from using the audiophile .wav files anyway, other than honesty

But the pricing structure just mentioned deters this from happening.
And if it does happen too often, PGMusic can easily disallow returns
of audiophile, or only allow the audiophile version as an upgrade.


Honestly, if you listen to Bob you won't spend the extra money. But
if you are 'one of those' who it's going to gnaw upon that you don't
have 'the best', or you ARE running a recording studio, then you
should spend the extra $$$ and get it over with.

Statistics show that if you do purchase the audiophile version, that
you will keep it instead of returning it.


I googled and did not see anywhere that you can 'sample' the two files
*.wma and *.wav side-by-side. This should be added to the website imo.

It will probably be added in the near future, as there is a huge interest
in the difference between the EverythingPAK and the audiophile versions.


If you do have the audiophile version, then you might do the following:
-- rename: JazzFunkFiery^_75_Style.wav to JazzFunkFiery^_075_Style.wav ...

This is a typo or an oversight of some kind, and the file should match both
the JazzFunkFiery^_075_Style.bt1 and JazzFunkFiery^_075_Style.wma files that
are already in that folder.

Note: It is in the C:\bb\Drums\JazzFunkFiery^ folder.