When I started with BiaB, I got the first version that was available for the Atari. Probably close to 1989 or 1990. I too saw that ad in Keyboard or Electronic Musician mag. I saw it for the IBM first, and wished they made it for the Atari. This was my first of many wishes to be granted by PG Music.

It was a primitive program with no user styles, 3 instruments and no endings, but it was awesome for its day. As a sax player, I used it for a practice tool. It's difficult to try out improvisational ideas without a band and hear what works better and what doesn't work at all.

Then, still with only 3 styles, BiaB came up with the ability to make user styles. Well, I had arranging in school, I played drums, sax, flute, bass, guitar and keyboards at the time, so I thought I'd give it a try. I figured BiaB styles were limited, there were thousands they didn't cover, and as a different musician, I would have different ideas.

I wrote a couple of dozen styles, gave them to my friends, and they told me that they liked them better than the built in BiaB styles. (Aren't friends wonderful for your ego?)

So I took out an ad in Electronics Musician Magazine (now EM) selling my styles to other Atari users.

One day I came home and found a message on my answering machine from Peter Gannon asking me to call him. I was very nervous, thinking that perhaps he might be putting a stop to my little business. Nothing cold have been farther from the truth.

Peter told me that his biggest market was for IBM (now called PC) and if I sent him my Atari disks he would be happy to convert them to IBM format styles so I could sell them to IBM users as well. This is the friendly, helpful attitude Peter Gannon and the entire PG Music staff has displayed since day one!!!

A company doesn't get any better than this.

The PC (IBM) version of BiaB was still DOS at the time. The first Windows version wasn't born yet. and they were still shipping on 5.25" floppy disks as well as the brand new 3.5" version, so I bought an "IBM Clone" PC and later a Motorola CPU Mac Classic computer.

Since those humble beginnings I've watched Band-in-a-Box change and grow. Windows version came, then 5 instruments and endings, support for more chords, and yearly update at a time it grew into the monster of a music utility program it is today.

Wow, what changes, from a practice aid 'toy' to a full blown music making machine which I consider one of the 3 programs every musician with a computer should have.

But one thing hasn't changed; Peter Gannon and PG Music's commitment to their customers.

Friendly, professional, customer service has always been first priority with PG Music. Peter obviously cares about us, and this reflects on the staff choices he hires, so the entire enterprise seems like it is here for me personally, and judging from what I read on these forums, each one of us probably feels the same way. It's here for me, John, Russell, Mac, Ed, Mario, Pat, Joanne, Mike, Leo, Janice, Bud, Steve, Eddie, Don, Charlie, Matt, and the rest of us.

So it's my turn to say "Thank you for the wonderful program that has blossomed through the years", and just as important, "Thank you for caring about your customers and supporting us as well."

Notes

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

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