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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Hello, I am a long time BB user first time forum poster. I am going to upgrade to BB 2015 and need some advice on the Audiophile version. I like to record and occasionally like to use BB to generate a backing track to record to. I am wondering how much noticeable improvement I am going to hear from the Audiophile version. I appreciate any comments.
Thanks!
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Welcome to the forum.
This is a frequent question each year when new versions are released. In my opinion, you will hear the difference if you have good ears, good monitors, a good listening environment, and all tracks in the mix are CD-quality. If any of these are missing, you will not likely hear much difference (such as listening in a car, or making MP3s as your final product).
Some instruments show the difference more than others, such as solo acoustic guitar, acoustic piano, and certain drum sounds, particularly cymbals.
The more instruments in the mix, the more there may be a noticeable difference as 'noise' adds up in a mix. This may apply more to RealBand, where you may have many more tracks than in BIAB.
The audiophile version will cost you more for annual updates.
The difference is less now than it was several years ago, before the use of the Elastique algorithm.
I've noticed over the years that my fellow users may have different opinions than mine on your question. Bottom line, my recommendation is to get the audiophile version if your intent is to produce commercial recordings.
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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Hi GtrDude
Welcome also to the Forum
Matt's comments are accurate and concise.
I started with the normal version, and upgraded to the Audiophile version. There is a difference. It is subtle and as Matt stated, you need good equipment to notice the difference. High frequencies are crisper.
Also, as Matt mentioned, not everyone agrees that there is a worthwhile or identifiable difference, but there certainly is for me. I've got both, and compared both, and I did a lot of research before upgrading.
Don't expect an outstanding difference. But there is one for sure, especially if you need to produce high-end output and are looking for that performance 'edge'.
Hope this helps in some way
best
Trevor
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
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As a follow up, at $669, the Audiophile version is 42% more expensive than the Ultra Plus Pack ($469)
Is the audiophile quality better? Yes.
Is it 42% better? No, (Just my opinion)
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
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P.S. - VideoTrack, I don't recall if it was you or maybe Solidrock several months ago had shown I believe an Adobe Audition spectral analysis on Audiophile vs. Standard realtracks on some files. Visually, you could see the different in frequency ranges between the two types.
That proved it for me since I don't have the 'expert' ears for detecting the difference.
 Steve BIAB/RB 2022, Pro Tools 2020, Korg N5, JBL LSR 4328 Powered Monitors, AKG/Shure Mics.
PC: Win11 PRO, 4 TB M2 SSD, 2 TB HD, 128 GB Memory
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This is what I had hoped to hear. I do notice the lack of quality especially on the cymbals (kind of a wooshy sound) and have found that it is hard to get certain sounds to fit properly in the mix. I do use BB occasionally to generate parts for Pro Tools projects and have always felt those sounds were the weak link. I am not sure I understand the reason for such a difference in cost to provide uncompressed wave files, this has to be where the sounds start originally and if anything they don't have to convert them. I am undecided as of now, I guess I will think on it a few more days. Thanks for the input!
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Another thing you can do to improve your recording quality a little bit is to set your recording audio preferences to 24-bit, 96K rather than the default 16-bit, 44.1K.
Steve BIAB/RB 2022, Pro Tools 2020, Korg N5, JBL LSR 4328 Powered Monitors, AKG/Shure Mics.
PC: Win11 PRO, 4 TB M2 SSD, 2 TB HD, 128 GB Memory
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Steve, I'm sure you mean, when you record new sounds. Obviously the files from PG Music will not be improved by converting or re-recording them to a higher bit and sample rate. In other words, the audiophile files are recorded at 16/44.1 CD quality.
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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Hey Matt, yeah you are technically upsampling when you record that way but from that point on, all the edits you do will be in a higher resolution than if you left it in the 16/44.1 mode.
Just checked the .WAVs on some RealTrack generation with those settings and it did upconvert to that.
Steve BIAB/RB 2022, Pro Tools 2020, Korg N5, JBL LSR 4328 Powered Monitors, AKG/Shure Mics.
PC: Win11 PRO, 4 TB M2 SSD, 2 TB HD, 128 GB Memory
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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So if I purchase the Audiophile version and next year decide to not upgrade to the audiophile version but just a regular upgrade, can I still use my Audiophile sounds from this year with next years program? I would think I could and then just add in next years styles onto the Audiophile drive. Do you think it would work? Just weighing my options.
Thanks!
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Yeah, those files would still work.
Steve BIAB/RB 2022, Pro Tools 2020, Korg N5, JBL LSR 4328 Powered Monitors, AKG/Shure Mics.
PC: Win11 PRO, 4 TB M2 SSD, 2 TB HD, 128 GB Memory
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Agreed, they will work. BIAB first looks for a .WAV file. If it finds it (the audiophile one), it loads that. Otherwise, it finds and loads the .WMA (compressed) file, and uncompresses it. The audiophile version actually contains both .WAV and .WMA files.
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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..the audiophile files are recorded at 16/44.1 CD quality.
Is that what they are recorded at or downsampled to 16bit ? I was just thinking if that is what they are recorded at then they could not release a 48KHz 24bit Audiophile HD. WMA...................................................................WAV 
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An appropriate question, but I do not believe we know that answer. PG Music has never told us, to my knowledge. Their process of making RealTracks is proprietary, and I only know a small part of it.
On a practical level, the audiophile version requires a 1TB drive just to hold it all. Can you imagine any other program that needs more space than that? And then consider how much bigger 24/48 files would be...
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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On certain real tracks, especially acoustic guitar strumming, I hear a kind of slight phasing or chorusing sound in the standard BIAB version. Similar to what someone above described as a "wooshy" sound for cymbals. But I don't know if that sound is attributable to the wma files or to the fact that the files -- whether they are wav or wma -- are being stretched and pitch shifted by the BIAB program.
For example, if I play the actual wma file for real track Guitar, Acoustic, Rhythm, NorthernRockBallad EV 065, it sounds perfectly clear to me with no phasing. If I play that same real track through BIAB, I think I hear some slight phasing.
If the Audiophile version eliminates that phasing or wooshy sound, I also am interested in upgrading to the Audiophile version this year, but I'm thinking it's more attributable to the pitch shifting/stretching than the wma conversion.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Hello, I am a long time BB user first time forum poster. I am going to upgrade to BB 2015 and need some advice on the Audiophile version. I like to record and occasionally like to use BB to generate a backing track to record to. I am wondering how much noticeable improvement I am going to hear from the Audiophile version. I appreciate any comments.
Thanks! Gtrdude - With the gear you are using (and your musical chops), you will hear the difference (especially when your track count gets up there). Bite the bullet. Get the Audiophile. By the way..... Gtrdude is no slacker guys. Check out his website. The videos, and especially the photos. There are a few faces you might recognize.  Gorgeous studio as well. http://jlkstudio.com/Home_Page.htmlRegards, Bob
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I'm an audiophile user since Bandinabox 2007 (the first year they sent to me a lot of free CDs I still have as a souvenir of the time).
I produce not commercial music for a theatre and some short movie maker.
I agree that the difference from wma is not so great, and I must say that, according to me, that is due to the no excellent recording of the Realtracks samples.
I turn off all the Biab effects while exporting the wave files, but the quality is rarely as good as for my Vienna Library instruments that are recorded 44.1k-24bits as well.
Sergino
Bandinabox 2024 standard (2020 Audiophile)
VST3 plugins on Studio One Pro 6.1
Windows 11(SSD) - AMD Radeon R9 5950X - 32GB RAM
MOTU: 2408 MkIII - 24i - Traveler - MIDI Express XT
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On certain real tracks, especially acoustic guitar strumming, I hear a kind of slight phasing or chorusing sound in the standard BIAB version. Similar to what someone above described as a "wooshy" sound for cymbals. But I don't know if that sound is attributable to the wma files or to the fact that the files -- whether they are wav or wma -- are being stretched and pitch shifted by the BIAB program.
For example, if I play the actual wma file for real track Guitar, Acoustic, Rhythm, NorthernRockBallad EV 065, it sounds perfectly clear to me with no phasing. If I play that same real track through BIAB, I think I hear some slight phasing.
If the Audiophile version eliminates that phasing or wooshy sound, I also am interested in upgrading to the Audiophile version this year, but I'm thinking it's more attributable to the pitch shifting/stretching than the wma conversion.
BINGO!!! You hear the artifacts from the conversion (key and tempo) and this will likely exist to some degree or another in the Audiophile Version. On occasion, when the RT's sound bad, due to the artifacts, I will either not use that track or I go into the folder, find the original RT's and determine their original key and if possible, change the key of the song closer to the original key and tempo. If that doesn't work, the other option is to try some other RT's to see if I can find one with less artifacts.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd 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.
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Well as 90 dB puts it, I bit the bullet (and thanks for the kind words). I will be interested in seeing how big a part the time stretching plays in degrading the sound. Regardless, the files are going to sound better! It is such a great program for building a bed and now I hope to be able to leave some of these tracks on the final version!
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Well as 90 dB puts it, I bit the bullet (and thanks for the kind words). I will be interested in seeing how big a part the time stretching plays in degrading the sound. Regardless, the files are going to sound better! It is such a great program for building a bed and now I hope to be able to leave some of these tracks on the final version! As this seems an appropriate time for a shameless plug , if any of your clients come up short on some filler material, we have some modest demos on our Bandcamp site. https://90dbband.bandcamp.com/ Best of luck with your Audiophile. You're going to love it! Regards, Bob
Last edited by 90 dB; 10/17/15 04:20 AM. Reason: I Edit, Therefore I am.
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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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