I agree with your last statement completely - I was just limiting my comments to one thing at a time.

Band-in-a-Box started out as a simple DOS program with a handful of simple styles ("built-in"). It was not exactly a user-friendly program by today's standards. Then they ported it to Windows and started adding in not "built-in" styles.

Each year they have added 50+ "new features" in a real attempt to improve the program – unlike some other software that issue “upgrades” every year which consist of trivial, often cosmetic changes to the program, without correcting some of the bugs that should have been corrected years ago (I am specifically thinking of Finale). In contrast, Band in a Box has constantly added value to the program over the years.

But it seems to me that each year they seem to kluge on features without really integrating them into the program. Several new icons appear on screen which becomes more and more complex. They add an external metronome, another plug-in, now something called J-Bridge. We have the melody maker, the harmony maker, the style maker, the solo maker, the guitar neck window, the drum kit window, the piano roll window – all of these seem to be acting separately, probably because they were created at different times and added on separately, without really integrating them into a unified structure. Even after nearly 25 years of using this wonderful program, it still confuses me at times – I am sure I use less than 50% of its capabilities.

Where BIAB has really succeeded in improving the product is in the use of the Real Tracks which can be transposed and varied in tempo to afford realistic sounding accompaniments. It wasn’t until about 5 years ago when I started using Pro Tools that I really appreciated this feature (I used to be an all-MIDI guy). This feature has allowed me to prepare complete backing tracks and bring them into the studio and prepare demos of my songs rapidly. Sometimes I replace some of the Real Tracks with real musicians, sometimes not. But it gives me a workable arrangement that I can use to teach the musicians what the song sounds like, thereby saving hour of time. Most of them already have Pro Tools, so I can give them the arrangements in advance and they can learn it.

I have long been suggesting that they ought to bite the bullet and re-program Band-in-a-Box with an eye to integrating all these wonderful features into a logical coherent and user-friendly menu structure that allows easy access to all the features in an understandable way – the multicolored icons could stay for those who find them useful – perhaps in a floating window that could be closed for those who don’t want to see the icons. I am all in favor of artistic freedom, but BIAB acts like no other Windows program I know – to some degree Pro Tools is like that too. But a great deal of simplification of the menu system, using sub menus to group related functions would make the program more elegant in design. I’m not suggesting that BIAB buckle under to the tyranny of Microsoft Windows or the Apple OS, but the functions could be grouped in a more accessible way – but I am afraid that that would require a reprogramming effort from scratch.