First of all let me point out that there is more than one right way to use these tools. If the music is good, no matter what tools and/or what your work flow is, you are doing it right.

Me? I like separate dedicated tools for different functions.

My usual work flow is:
  • If there is an appropriate style, start the work in Band-in-a-Box
  • Export to an old copy of Master Tracks Pro (I can't recommend the new edition - too buggy) where I can massage parts, add song specific licks, and do things that this tool does better than BiaB
  • Import into Power Tracks Pro Audio to add audio parts
  • Export everything as a WAV file
  • Use CDex to make an mp3 file


There are variations of this theme. If I use Real Styles I'll go right to Power Tracks Pro Audio and skip Master Tracks Pro -- if there is no appropriate BiaB style I might start with MTPro, and so on.

I find BiaB does auto-accompaniment with a few more features than Real Band, and I find Power Tracks Pro Audio to have more features than Real Band --- but that could be simply because I haven't used Real Band that much and simply don't know where to find them.

Like some of the other posters, I've been using MTPro since the 1980s and Power Tracks since it came out. I'm comfortable with the programs and can work quickly with them (more hands on my instruments and less time with the computer).

There might be better apps out there for me, but I know how to use these.

It reminds me of this. The standard US QWERTY keyboard was designed to slow down the typist. In the early days the typewriters were slow, mechanical beasts and typists used to jam them by going too fast.

The DVORAK keyboard is much, much quicker. In the early days of the PC, there was a software switch to convert your keyboard to the DVORAK system. Even though DVORAK is much faster, people stuck with QUERTY because they already knew how to use it, and although in the end DVORAK would be faster, until the learning curve was complete, it would be slower. In other words, instant gratification won.

I've seen schemes to have transposing piano keyboards. That would make life easier for piano players. Unlike guitars, the scale has a different shape in every key. So for every major, minor, blues, pentatonic, etc. scale or mode you have to learn 12 different fingerings. A transposing piano keyboard would cut your work in a twelfth. But nobody embraced them because pianists and organists already knew the old system.

Real Band and most of the other tools out today are far better than they were a decade ago. Great music was made on computers 25 years ago, so there isn't much for you to be concerned about. Try it, if it doesn't agree with you, or if you find it can't do something you want to do, investigate another option.

Insights and incites by Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com

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