PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh Disappointed with BIAB 2009 for Mac...

Yesterday I took my regular look at the PG web site to see if there's anything new on BIAB for Mac - and wow, they released the new version! Finally! I immediately bought, dowloaded and installed the UltraPAK. Finally I can kick out the BIAB 2007 for Windows that I owned before switching to Mac and have had running under Parallels during the long wait for the Mac upgrade - or so I thought...

To begin with the positive - the RealTracks and RealDrums sound awesomely good, and the whole technology works fine on my system (2008 MacBook Pro with 2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and 4 GB RAM), tracks generate very fast. Big applause to Peter and his team for this impressive technological achievement.

However, I'm seriously disappointed to see how many of useful newer features from the Windows version are still missing from the Mac version. Where's the full window multiline notation? Where's the Repeats/codas/1st-2nd endings dialog? Where's the simple marking and looping of any number of measures anywhere in the sheet? Where's the choice of jazz or regular fonts in lead sheet printouts? Where's the chord symbols for making a really good-looking lead sheet?

I'm beginning to wonder, am I so different to most customers in what I use BIAB for? I'm a hobby jazzer and jazz learner, I use BIAB for playalong practice, for making lead sheets for myself and the band, for reharmonizing tunes and a little for my own composing. Is that profile so unusual? I just can't figure out why anybody would think the implementation of RealTracks soloing is more important than those features I mentioned above. Sure, listening to my computer blowing a realistic-sounding solo over the changes is a neat trick, but it's not actually of any practical use, is it?

Most frustratingly, BIAB 2009 for Mac won't save anything I type into the solo track - it even erases notes in the solo track of pre-existing files on resaving, I already killed one painstakingly transcribed solo that way. What's going on here? Saving notes in the solo track worked fine in the Windows version and in version 12 for Mac - what am I missing?

The sad truth is, with the exception of the RealTracks, BIAB 2009 for Mac is still way behind BIAB 2007 for Windows in terms of features and upgrades. I'm seriously considering making use of PG music's 30 days money back option and getting version 2009 for Windows instead. It's a pain having to fire up a virtual OS just to run this program, but I just lost faith that we'll ever see all of the Windows version functionality available under Mac.

I took a closer look at the non-saving of manually entered notes on the soloist track, and this has to be a bug.

I entered some soloist track notes in BIAB 2007 for Windows under Parallels, saved the file, closed it and reopened it - the notes I entered are always there and always play. Then I opened the same file under BIAB 2009 for Mac, the soloist track is empty and there's nothing to hear on playback. Re-opened again under Windows and could confirm that everything's still there, so it seems BIAB 2009 just isn't reading the file properly.

Then I typed one extra note in BIAB for Mac, in a place where I know there were no other notes. Saved that, re-opened it under Windows, and everything's vanished except that one extra note. Reopened it again under Mac, and again my one note had disappeared.

Are you sure that saving notes in the solo track worked in version 12 for Mac?
I've always considered the solo track as "volatile".

I'm not a Mac BIAB user, but I read the new forum (I figure I can get some good tips and tricks here as well). I'm sorry you are having problems with the new version of BIAB for Mac.

I would recommend that rather than returning the product, report the bug and let PGMusic fix it. Obviously, you did something that perhaps the beta testers overlooked. It happens. But PGMusic is pretty good about fixing problems, especially problems such as you described. There has already been one update and I saw another is forthcoming.

All I know is that I wouldn't be able to use a computer if I returned the operating system because of some bugs (and wait, M$ doesn't give your money back).

Good luck with it. I would suggest that you keep playing with it and documenting any other problems you might find, and let PGMusic fix it. Remember, PGMusic is not a large company and greatly relies on the volunteer beta testers to weed out problems with new versions, or in this case a major rewrite (in which case, some growing pains would be expected).

What about live help and the 1 800 number?

You are venting to other users, this is not the offical support page, however someone usually pops in in a few hours and provides feedback or help. And if you took the time to read Peter Gannon's post they have a free upcoming release for leadsheets etc. I think they wanted the basic product out the door before they tacked on all the frills.

Yes I'm actually a bit supprised by these omissions.

I can't even make it pause smoothly .

Looping by highlighting ,one of the most important features still hasn't been implemented. This is the feature that I was sure was going to be included and the one feature that would be a deal breaker for me

The platform still isn't getting the respect.

But times have changed. My guess is sales should be 50/50 between Mac/Windows so it's important to close the gap some more.

And another thing. It would be illogical to expect them do do anything with improvements as this just looks like same old story all over again.

As you recall there was a bit of a wait and a lot of promises (for years)

I was a beta tester so I got the program free but if had bought it I would return it. I own quite a bit of Pgmusics stuff , but this is just too much

(and yes ,I posted the bugs)


M

David,

>> the RealTracks and RealDrums sound awesomely good, and the whole technology works fine on my system (2008 MacBook Pro with 2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and 4 GB RAM), tracks generate very fast. Big applause to Peter and his team for this impressive technological achievement.

Thanks.


>>> Most frustratingly, BIAB 2009 for Mac won't save anything I type into the solo track -

I checked it out, but I cannot duplicate any problem with the Soloist track saving and loading.

- For example, I load in any files from the Soloist Demos/SoloDemo folder, and the Solo track is all there. Are you saying that the soloist track doesn't show for files in this folder?
- I make a new song, put some notes on the Solo track, save it, and they are all there.

If this issue recurs, I would recommend:
1. email a song that has the problem to support@pgmusic.com, ask them to forward it to me.
2. Reset to 'Factory settings' - that is done by renaming the Applications/Band-in-a-Box/Preferences folder to something else, and then running the program. If that cures the problem, please zip/email your renamed Prefs folder to support@pgmusic.com

>> Sure, listening to my computer blowing a realistic-sounding solo over the changes is a neat trick, but it's not actually of any practical use, is it?

Many of the RealTracks have RealCharts, which show the notation. That's of practical use. Also, the fact that you are playing with real musicians, and it sounds so much better, is of practical use, because that's whay you are practicing for - to play with real musicians.

Mac Wilson,

>>> I can't even make it pause smoothly .
Pause issue, ie) affecting pause with RealTracks, was fixed in Build 2..

>>. Looping by highlighting ,one of the most important features still hasn't been implemented. This is the feature that I was sure was going to be included and the one feature that would be a deal breaker for me

You can loop using the notation window (loop 4 bars), but not the chord sheet window. Pressing the loop button on the main screen opens up the notation window, and sets looping on. The looping on the notation window includes seemless looping of realdrums, realtracks and MIDI. Yes, we did (and still do) plan on getting the loop by highliting implemented, but it didn't make it into the release.

The current build is build 3, available here.
http://www.pgmusic.com/support_macintoshupdates.htm
======= BUILD 3 ============================================
- Added: Audio Chord Wizard. Now you can send the chords from Audio Chord Wizard to Band-in-a-Box. Items added in the Windows menu to Run ACW (standalone), run ACW (choose file), and Read Chords from ACW.

- Fixed: Audio Chord Wizard. Buttons were sometimes not visible in some resolutions.

- Fixed: Very first time running program only, realtracks were sometimes silent, unless you loaded in a drum kit or clicked on the instrument at the top.

Peter:

I still say thanks for releasing this. I know you had a big decision to make: release *something* so us Mac users wouldn't think you'd abandoned us, or wait until the release was totally on par with the PC version and put things off possibly several more *years*. That's a tough call, but I for one am glad you chose to release something. I'm willing to wait for updates because I have something that is usable now. As someone has already said, the hard work of porting is probably behind you now so what's left is to implement features as you get time and resources.

Thanks again!

--Jim

Hi Peter,

Glad to hear that the multiline lead sheet and highlight looping are still in the pipeline - hopefully that applies to the endings/codas dialog, jazz fonts and chord symbols too.

And I guess I should add that, like Jim, I do appreciate the decision to release this version now without waiting for everything to be ready, even if I would have picked other features as the first priority.

My soloist track problem does indeed turn out to be related to that particular song file. I made a new file and retyped the solo, now everything works fine. I'll mail my problem song to support as requested.

Cheers,
David

Hi!
I am one of those who has been waiting and waiting for BiaB Mac. The main improvement is huge - the Real Tracks. For the first time, I am getting decent sounds directly from BiaB.

I would like to have features like coda and different sections of a song played in any sequence. And space bar start/stop.

Other than improvements to the basic functionality of the application, I dont miss special functions.

In fact, I rather think that BiaB has too many functions already. And an incredibly ugly and cluttered interface. Even the old "S"-menu is still there.

Hi,

I've been running BIAB 200x for Windows under Parallels for several years now and although it works reasonably well, it is rather inconvenient. It's the only reason I have Parallels and Windows on my Mac.

So when I saw this morning that BIAB 2009 was out for Mac I jumped in and bought it immediately.

But I must say I have to echo the sentiments expressed above. Both the Piano Roll editor and the chord wizard on midi files seem to be missing, two features that I use extensively.

My verdict is going back to BIAB for Windows, a few dollars poorer.

If dissatisfied for any reason you likely can take advantage of pgmusic's 30-day no questions asked return policy...


Contact pgmusic sales directly on that issue.



--Mac

I bought the update from v12 immediately I see it, and event I'm also disappointed with the version I've waited for years, I will not ask for my money back, I hope my (our) money will we used to make a new decent Mac version with all the missing features soon.