Tom...welcome...

I use Band in a Box (BB) mostly as a writing tool. Instead of a pad and pencil, I use BB as that scratchpad. I can change keys, tempo and experiment with dozens of styles as well as slice and dice the parts as needed during the evolutionary process of writing.

I use Real Band to render the BB tracks into real tracks. While it is a worthy DAW, I use it mainly to create the tracks for my song.

I export them into a DAW which I know and use and love. Sonar. It's there that I mix the tracks, process them and also add my live tracks and do the final mixdown and polishing.

However, you can use it in whatever manner best suits you.

While it is possible to record audio into BB, I have not used it for that. Same thing with Real Band. It too will record audio but I don't use it for that either.

As such, I have never gone into it to set up the preferences which tell it where to get the audio from. In Sonar, I select the available input sources and click on the one I wish to use.

You can find my music at:
www.herbhartley.com
Add nothing that adds nothing to the music.
You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.

The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.