PG Music Home Forums User-to-User Post your own Tips and Tricks here Tip: differences between the 'regular' and audiophile version

These are some comments on the difference between the 'regular' and audiophile versions of BIAB for Windows. It is only my opinion, but PG Music appears to concur and made this a sticky post. If anyone finds fault with what I've written, please explain and I'll make corrections and updates. The forum software allows me to edit only this first post in the thread, and I try to keep it up to date.

EDIT: it’s now the end of December 2024 and BIAB has recently released version 2025. The audiophile version now uses Flac files instead of WAV files! Flac files are encoded to be smaller than WAV files but they retain full audio quality (what is called 'lossless'). You will see this post you are reading is about two main themes: what is the difference in quality of sound, and how does it all work.

The rest of this thread still applies as far as quality of sound! The main purpose of this thread is to give potential purchasers a good sense of whether they should upgrade to the audiophile version. That information has not changed, since the new Flac files sound identical to the WAV files.

About how things work, well, as of right now that is evolving quickly. I don't want to update this file fully until a few things are better known. I will only make a few general comments now:

1) You can buy an SSD drive that is much smaller than in years past, since the Flac files are considerably smaller than the WAV files were.
2) You can order an update of only the newest audiophile files, which will be in Flac form, and download it. There is a special price available now for a bit longer.
3) You can order a new tiny 1 TB SSD with all the audiophile files in Flac form. This will also include WMA versions of each file.
4) As of very recently, you can also order a download of all the Flac files only. This does NOT include the WMA files.
5) Everything you already have will still work. BIAB first looks for WAV files, then Flac files, then WMA files. Whatever you have, even a mix, will work.
6) There are a few unanswered questions and problems about the management and function of the new Flac files. Give this some time to be worked out.



Originally written December 1, 2016. Last revised: December 13, 2023
To my knowledge, most of this information still applies with BIAB version 2024 but there are some important changes about Regeneration speed, and the type of supplied external drive. I have made a few clarifications based on improvements to BIAB in the last seven years since the original version of this post.

This topic comes up frequently and you should be able to find plenty of opinion in posts within the last few years, and those opinions will vary.

I've used the audiophile version of BIAB for Windows for many years and highly recommend it with the following understanding: you will need good equipment, a good listening environment, and good ears to hear the differences. In other words, if you listen to MP3s in a car and you have long lost your high-frequency hearing like some musicians, you will not be able to notice any difference.

The 'regular' Windows version uses .WMA files. The specs on these are often 128 Kbps, some less so. The sound seems to me to be comparable to a 198 Kbps MP3. The compression is about 11 to 1, so they are the same smaller size of a 128 Kbps MP3 but sound better than that.

Some instruments (such as acoustic guitar, acoustic grand piano, and cymbals) show compression artifacts more than others and thus are particularly better sounding in the audiophile version.

The audiophile version uses .WAV files of 44.1, 16-bit, or in other words CD quality. Because they are not compressed, the .WAV files will take up about 11 times more space than the corresponding .WMA files (and you still have the complete set of .WMA files taking up the same space they did before).

The audiophile Windows version runs slightly faster, which might not sound intuitive, but it does so because BIAB doesn't have to first uncompress the .WMA files. The way BIAB works is, if there are .WAV files available, it uses those; if there are none, it uses .WMA files, uncompresses them (which takes a bit of time and CPU power), then plays the song. This scheme makes it possible to have a combination of .WAV and .WMA files in your RealTracks and it works fine.

EDIT: While I believe the above explanation about speed is still true, a substantial improvement to regeneration speed has been made with BIAB 2024, and I doubt that there is any significant speed difference any longer.

Be aware, the annual upgrade price for the audiophile version will be more.

At this time, PG Music ships the audiophile version on a very nice external drive that uses USB 3.0. EDIT: Up until BIAB 2023, the supplied drive was a 2 TB Samsung drive. For BIAB 2024, the drive is now a somewhat thicker 4 TB drive by Seagate. There is enough content that the audiophile version, with all the new WAV files, will no longer fit on a 2 TB drive. Since not everyone will have space in their internal drives for over 2 TB of date, it is important that BIAB performs well using the external drive, and it does.

I have noticed that the difference in quality between the audiophile and regular versions seems to be getting less over the years. In the early days of RealTracks (2007), there were easily recognizable differences. I suspect improvements in the BIAB program using the Elastique algorithm have made this difference harder to detect, but that's just a guess. This year for BIAB 2017, PG Music has re-recorded a number of RealTracks for better sound. [EDIT: more updates were added this year (2023) and the last two years]

Regardless of whether you have the audiophile version or not, the farther you stray from a recommended tempo, and the harder the Elastique algorithm must work, the more you risk hearing artifacts. Also, try unchecking some of the speed-up options in Preferences, RealTracks. I have a fast i7 [EDIT: now it’s an i9] and I turn some options off to get the best quality I can for my final mix.

If you are producing commercial recordings, the audiophile version also makes a difference because noise in a mix is cumulative. If you have a little noise on each track, but add many tracks, you may notice it more. [EDIT: with the addition of many more tracks (Utility Tracks) this may be more of a consideration as of version 2022.:] Therefore, my guideline is, if you are doing commercial work, you should get the audiophile version. For anyone else, it depends on how much you value having the best sound you can get. As a composer, I get inspiration just from great sound, and that is reason enough to go audiophile.

If you have just purchased BIAB and like what you hear but want the best possible sound, call PG Music Sales and see if they can work something out to upgrade to the audiophile version.

If you have songs saved that were developed in the regular version, frozen or not, and you upgrade to the audiophile version, your songs will now use the WAV files.

All comments about RealTracks in BIAB also apply to RealBand, which uses the same RealTracks [EDIT: and also apply to the PlugIn version].

There is good information from other posts in the following comments.

Matt Finley
Kingsmill Music
Devoted BIAB User since 1994