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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,913
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Veteran
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,913 |
Believe what you wish to believe. They physics don't necessarily play out. Several physics items are possibly at play: 1. Isolation pads COULD isolate speaker cabinet vibration from being transferred into the surface that they are sitting on, which could then in turn vibrate itself and create unwanted low end sound which would compete with that coming from the monitor speaker itself. Unless you have some flimsy panels on the desk somewhere, the likelihood of this is rather small, particularly if you are listening at low levels. 2. The isolation pads CAN make the monitors less efficient when the monitor itself is not fixed well to 'ground', in that when the woofer cone pushes against the air, it doesn't have the benefit of a solid connection, rather a more springy connection to 'ground' to push against except it's own mass, not it's mass and the mass of the earth. This is why you see the exact opposite of monitor isolation pads being sold in the hi-fi speaker market - metal inverted spikes designed to be placed under hi-fi speakers and 'pierce' through carpeting and pad down to a more solid foundation. I'm talking about items like this: http://www.oregondv.com/spikes.htmHowever, with the weight of each of your speakers, which you said was 28 pounds each, there's likely enough mass there to not notice a big issue with low end punch if you did mount them on iso-pads. You will likely have more of an issue with room acoustic cavity modes getting excited by your monitors, as well as comb-filtering that could result from having the speakers too close to reflecting surfaces. The first issue is primarily caused by the geometry of the room, and where you place your monitors relative to the geometry of the room and the rooms natural frequencies. This article: http://ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html would be a great place to start to try to get an understanding of what the cavity resonances, also known as standing waves, are and why you should be concerned about them - Spend more effort working this out, than worrying about isolation pads. It's a much bigger issue than whether your monitors are on iso-pads or not, because it doesn't matter at what volumes you are listening, the standing waves in the room WILL get activated at nearly any playback level and will deceive you at your listening position. Pay particular attention to Figure 11 and the discussion around it - highly important stuff there. Also down near the bottom of the article, maybe 3/4 down is a discussion of a tool for free download called ModeCalc - this will take the dimensions of your room and show you specific frequencies that are likely to be issues in your room, where you place monitors, etc. The physics are pretty simple, and this tool will yield quite accurate results unless your room has non-parallel walls, many large items breaking up the geometry of the room like bar-counters, big furniture, etc. Also pay attention to the side-bar in the article about creating a reflection free zone. The advice in that section is quite good, and it's going to help you avoid comb-filtering. Key advice in that section for most home studio design is adding absorption to surfaces that could reflect mid and high frequencies from the monitors to the listening position. One trick not mentioned in that article is that you can do this by putting the absorption on any wall (and ceiling) where if a mirror was placed in the same position, you can see the monitors in the reflection of the mirror. This is ray-trace acoustics and spending the little bit of money that you would on monitor iso pads, on absorbing material like rigid fiberglass insulation, is going to be much better spent for most home studios which are often bedroom spaces, with rather narrow wall dimensions. I'm a bit lucky in my studio, I have 2' from my monitors to the wall behind the monitors, and 4' to each of the side walls - where the reflections off of those surfaces back to the listening position is significantly longer than the direct path from the speakers to my listening position. That article is probably the most concise and honest article on home listening room and home studio acoustics that you can find. While the author has a company that sells acoustic treatment (RealTraps), he also offers up a host of practical and rather inexpensive acoustic treatments in this article that can be purchased mostly at home improvement stores and installed with a little bit of effort. You just bought some nice monitors - make sure they play nice in your space. Iso-pads would be very low on the list, if at all, for getting the most out of your monitors. Most of the endorsees of these iso-pad type products have already gone through the rigor of having a treated space or had a ground-up purpose designed control/listening room built where many of the common issues of home studios can be avoided altogether.
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Band-in-a-Box 2026 for Windows Special Offers End Tomorrow (January 15th, 2026) at 11:59 PM PST!
Time really is running out! Save up to 50% on Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows® upgrades and receive a FREE Bonus PAK—only when you order by 11:59 PM PST on Thursday, January 15, 2026!
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Version 2026 introduces a modernized GUI redesign across the program, with updated toolbars, refreshed windows, smoother workflows, and a new Dark Mode option. There’s also a new side toolbar for quicker access to commonly used windows, and the new Multi-View feature lets you arrange multiple windows as layered panels without overlap, making it easier to customize your workspace.
Another exciting new addition is the new AI-Notes feature, which can transcribe polyphonic audio into MIDI. You can view the results in notation or play them back as MIDI, and choose whether to process an entire track or focus on specific parts like drums, bass, guitars/piano, or vocals. There's over 100 new features in Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®.
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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Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows® Special Offers Extended Until January 15, 2026!
Good news! You still have time to upgrade to the latest version of Band-in-a-Box® for Windows® and save. Our Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows® special now runs through January 15, 2025!
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!
There are over 100 new features in Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®.
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Upgrade to Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows® today! Check out the Band-in-a-Box® packages page for all the purchase options available.
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
In this video, we explore the updated Piano Roll, complete with a modernized look and exciting new features. You’ll see new filtering options that make it easy to focus on specific note groups, smoother and more intuitive note entry and editing, and enhanced options for zooming, looping, and more.
Watch the video.
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
This video demonstrates how to use the new AI-Notes feature together with the AI-Stems splitter, allowing you to select an audio file and have it separated into individual stems while transcribing each one to its own MIDI track. AI-Notes converts polyphonic audio—either full mixes or individual instruments—into MIDI that you can view in notation or play back instantly.
Watch the video.
You can see all the 2026 videos on our forum!
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-For Pro customers, this includes 27 new RealTracks and 23 new RealStyles.
-For MegaPAK customers, this includes 25 new RealTracks and 23 new RealStyles.
-For UltraPAK customers, this includes 12 new RealStyles.
- MIDI Styles Set 92: Look Ma! More MIDI 15: Latin Jazz
- MIDI SuperTracks Set 46: Piano & Organ
- Instrumental Studies Set 24: Groovin' Blues Soloing
- Artist Performance Set 19: Songs with Vocals 9
- Playable RealTracks Set 5
- RealDrums Stems Set 9: Cool Brushes
- SynthMaster Sounds Set 1 (with audio demos)
- Android Band-in-a-Box® App (included)
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- 20 Bonus Unreleased RealTracks and RealDrums with 20 RealStyle.
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- Instrumental Studies 25 - Soul Jazz Guitar Soloing
- Artist Performance Set 20: Songs with Vocals 10
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Learn more about the Bonus PAKs for Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®!
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