Joe,

I think you've gotten some wonderful and informed responses. However, I think the responses have been somewhat guarded due to the lack of details regarding the division of labor between you and Dan Cutrona for this project. Without having an idea of your strengths and weaknesses using Band-in-a-box, your role in the project, Dan's role, the project budget and who has final decision authority it's difficult to say just how much BIAB recordings CAN contribute to the project. At least in my opinion, the results can wind up across the board from not acceptable and leaving a bad taste in the mouth to award winning.

What I'm saying is there needs to be as much thought, care and energy spent on project planning as will be spent implementing the project. Sure, you've got your set list and know which songs may sound better with a female vocalist, male vocalist or you. Maybe you have an idea of the structure for each song and how long each will last but ... what if?

You've got a high energy, up tempo, toe tapping song and you can't build a good ending? Instead of the typical two or four bar ending you may need to run the last chorus twice so the ending can be faded.

You find a really good John Jarvis piano midi supertrack that works perfectly but your midi sounds stink? Does Dan have a good sound library? Is the cost of using the libraries included in the project?

When you use Realtracks are you going to try and rely on direct input (DI) Realtracks, regular Realtracks or best for the song Realtracks? The first offers better mixing choices, the second will partially "lock in the sound" before any mixing is done while the third offers the best selection of audio choices to choose from.

There are bunches and bunches of "what if" questions that will come up and directly affect both the cost of the project and how satisfied you and Dan will be with the results.

Questions: How much of a Band-in-a-Box, RealBand, Realtracks, midi supertracks and styles expert are you or Dan? Do you or Dan know them well enough to be able to create tracks that will be acceptable for the project within whatever time or budget constraints both of you have? If not, you may want to pm some of the forum members that are and hire someone to assist with track creation. I don't mean that in a cruel way but it's an important point and goes back to what I was talking about in the beginning. Communication, time and budget constraints will have more of an effect on the project outcome than any limitation caused by Band-in-a-Box or RealBand.

Jim Fogle - 2026 BiaB (Build 1224) RB (Build 8) - Ultra+ PAK
DAWs: Cakewalk Sonar - Standalone: Zoom MRS-8
Desktop: i7 Win 11, 12GB ram 256GB SSD, 4 TB HDD
Music at: https://fogle622.wix.com/fogle622-audio-home