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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Dec 2012
Posts: 421
Journeyman
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OP
Journeyman
Joined: Dec 2012
Posts: 421 |
OK I'm running out of time. I have been wondering on and off about the 2014 upgrade offer? I don't feel I know enough about BIAB 2013 yet and concerned with upgrading that it will distract me from recording with having to relearn new software?
Can anyone say it's a must have upgrade? My only temptation is the price, good reason to upgrade now and save but with all the long list of changes how are people finding it? One of my biggest annoyances with BIAB is the sluggish regeneration every time I want to switch RealTracks despite having a 6 core FAST CPU. Does BIAB 2014 solve this?
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 2,281
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 2,281 |
Hi Paul,I.m a faithful upgrader since 2007 and has always found a good reason to do it. If you use Real Tracks at all, I don't see why not, since they alone are worth the price. As far as the new feature goes, I don't think I ever mastered the previous one (if there is someone whom really does). So I wouldn't worry much about what's new, you can always ask a question in this forum (probably the best in its class IMHO)and someone would answer your question. Don't just take my word for it, stay tune long enough and you'll see what I mean.
Mike B.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Dec 2012
Posts: 421
Journeyman
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OP
Journeyman
Joined: Dec 2012
Posts: 421 |
I took the plunge and bought it tonight. Downloaded just what was missing and have spend about 20 minutes playing with it - nothing serious yet. So far I like it. And my biggest pet peeve was the time it took to generate Realtracks in the style picker if you wanted to try different ones before making your selection. This new version is much faster at changing Realtracks so this alone was worth it for me. It also opens a previous song much faster also. I'll take another look tomorrow as it's late now.
Thanks
Paul
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,473
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,473 |
Paul, I saw the mention of the speed problem in another thread. I don't think that has anything to do with the version. It seems more likely that the new version simply overwrote whatever file(s) that gave you trouble. Anyway, I'm glad 2014 is working well. It is a great upgrade and continues to improve through patches.
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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Joined: Dec 2012
Posts: 421
Journeyman
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OP
Journeyman
Joined: Dec 2012
Posts: 421 |
Hi Matt, no I don't think so. I bought BIAB December 31 2013 and partly because of the delay in real track generation I upgraded my PC this year from intel quad core 3ghz to I7 6 core 3.2ghz with new motherboard, ram hdd etc etc. it was an expensive build all in. so I had to do a full reinstall on a new hard drive. Same problem only a little faster. This new version is definitely faster in the areas that matter. I think this is partly because BIAB 2014 has previews in style picker - makes a big difference. But even opening existing songs are almost instant.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,473
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,473 |
That's great. I'm still using my home-built Core2 Duo, so perhaps I don't notice the improvement you are seeing. It works fine, but I am starting to think about making a new PC again.
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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Joined: May 2000
Posts: 38,502
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 38,502 |
Matt, during the testing I ran three totally different puters with BB2014, and did indeed notice that RealTracks generation times "seemed" to be a lot faster, especially when running the older XP machine, but the same was noticeable when using the newer Win7 and Win8 machines. I did comment on that somewhere during our testing, but was careful to use that word, "seemed" because I didn't want to sit there with a stopwatch or anything, besides not having established a baseline first with 2013.
I'm fairly certain at this point that PG did indeed work some sort of programming magic that does indeed make for a more streamlined RealTracks/RealDrums loading time situation, though I also noticed that on the newer and faster machines, the delta time is indeed a bit less noticeable than on the older one.
On top of that, Matt is using the Audiophile version, which stores and uses the files in the .wav format instead of the compressed .wma format.
WAV file raw RealTracks do indeed load into BB faster to begin with, because the computer does not have to go through conversion from compressed format to wav audio format before the program is ready to play the assembled files. (Which is one of the things that users of the Standard non-Audiphile versions can indeed do to get faster loading RealTracks if they have an older machine that loads slow but they also have the drive space available to convert .wma RealTracks files to .wav using the RealTracks Control Panel. Note that this will not yield the full Audio Spectrum of the Audiophile version, since the information is not available from the compressed .wma files to begin with, but it will indeed make for faster loading RealInstruments.)
--Mac
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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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We've packed Band-in-a-Box® 2026 with major new features, enhancements, and an incredible lineup of new content! The program now sports a sleek, modern GUI redesign across the entire interface, including updated toolbars, refreshed windows, smoother workflows, a new dark mode option, and more. The brand-new side toolbar provides quicker access to key windows, while the new Multi-View feature lets you arrange multiple windows as layered panels without overlap, creating a flexible, clutter-free workspace. We have an amazing new “AI-Notes” feature. This transcribes polyphonic audio into MIDI so you can view it in notation or play it back as MIDI. You can process an entire track (all pitched instruments and drums) or focus on individual parts like drums, bass, guitars/piano, or vocals. There's an amazing collection of new content too, including 202 RealTracks, new RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, “Songs with Vocals” Artist Performance Sets, Playable RealTracks Set 5, two RealDrums Stems sets, XPro Styles PAK 10, Xtra Styles PAK 21, and much more!
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Happy New Year!
Thank you for being part of the Band-in-a-Box® community.
Wishing you and yours a very happy 2026—Happy New Year from all of us at PG Music!
Season's Greetings!
Wishing everyone a happy, healthy holiday season—thanks for being part of our community!
The office will be closed for Christmas Day, but we will be back on Boxing Day (Dec 26th) at 6:00am PST.
Team PG
Band-in-a-Box 2026 Video: The Newly Designed Piano Roll Window
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You can see all the 2026 videos on our forum!
Band-in-a-Box 2026 Video: AI Stems & Notes - split polyphonic audio into instruments and transcribe
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You can see all the 2026 videos on our forum!
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- MIDI Styles Set 92: Look Ma! More MIDI 15: Latin Jazz
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- Artist Performance Set 19: Songs with Vocals 9
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Learn more about the Bonus PAKs for Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®!
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