PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Windows Just bought BiaB 2017 Everything Pack. Best way to get started?

I also bought the optional 49-pack to go along with it. This ain't my first BiaB rodeo -- I've been using it since 1998. The last version I bought, though, was 2014, and it's been about that long since I've used it, plus I never really achieved any level of mastery with BiaB 2014 -- more of a passing acquaintance, really. Got busy with other things and it got set aside.

Well, I've decided it's time to get busy again and I'm wondering what the best way to reacquaint myself with BiaB, the everything pack in this case with the 49-pack addon, would be. I've been a member of these forums for about five years, but my last series of posts were about three years ago, so I've been absent for a while and my absence corresponds to my lack of use of 2014 as well. Oh well.

I've browsed through some of PG's tutorials and I'll probably start there. I've noticed some posts here about Youtube videos, so I'll probably take a look there too, see if any are worthwhile. I've been browsing through the forums here, but I haven't found much so far -- but I'll bet I'm just not looking in the right places.

Right now, my machine is still downloading the basic core files. I think I'll probably wait on all the others until I have BiaB 2017 up and running on this machine.

So, is there any sort of learning procedure you'd recommend? Just go through all the PG tutorials more or less sequentially? What about info sources here at the forums?

I guess it also bears mentioning that I've collected thousands of BiaB format song files over the years and I use a lot of them as ways to rehearse the music. As for my own work, I compose primarily instrumentals, and my styles can range from classical to zydeco and just about everything in between. One of the nice things about BiaB is it is flexible enough to handle just about anything I can throw at it. But I want to get acquainted with this new interface first before I start to put it through the paces I'll need.

If it was me, I would start by purchasing the Groove3.com ++2015 Band-in-a-Box for Windows Explained ++ video tutorials (or try the monthly all-access pass). Just read the list of videos and I think you will agree the series is presented in a clear, concise manner. I downloaded the videos and use them as a quick reference. Groove3 has numerous video series you may find interesting.

After that I would watch both of the new features video for BiaB & RealBand (RB). That will bring you up to date with what you are purchasing and act as an introduction to RB. Many Windows users overlook RB and how its features compliments BiaB.

Then I would use the collection of song files you have. Start loading songs into BiaB and figuring out how the chord sheet matches what you're hearing.

Finally, select a few of your favorite song files, save them under a new name (so you don't mess them up) and modify them. Experiment, go crazy, have fun!

By the way, welcome back. We missed you while you were gone.

Thanks for the response, Jim. Well, I've started working my way through a couple of tutorials. I may try out the one you suggest too.

But right now I'm struggling with other things. You know, it's all coming back to me now. When I bought the 2014 version, I discovered that my laptop wasn't up to the task. I was getting pops and crackles and drop-outs. It was somewhat slow, with a 1.7 gig processor and only 2 gigs of RAM (with no possibility for increasing RAM capacity). So I bought the one I have now, which has a 2.8gig Core 2 Duo processor and 8 gigs of RAM, plus I'm running a 64 bit OS (still Win7) on this machine.

But shortly after I bought this machine, a couple of things happened. 1) we moved to a new house, and it was a major move that took a long time and a long time to recover from (we'd lived at our last house for 16 years), and somewhere in all the chaos, BiaB fell by the wayside. 2) My desktop DAW's hard drive crashed during the move (I dropped it, POS Seagate!) and I lost everything on that 2TB drive, including my BiaB setup and all the other music software I had installed. I still haven't given up hope of recovering something off that drive, but the desktop sits in a room piled high with boxes full of stuff that I don't know where is gonna go. I have a new 3TB drive for it, but I haven't bothered to reinstall the OS yet.

So anyway, I'm dependent on this current laptop, which, with a 5.9 ratng on the "Windows Experience Index," should be more than capable of handling anything BiaB can toss at it, especially since it handles Cakewalk's Sonar Platinum and Studio One v3 without so much as a hiccup.

But what do I get when I open up BiaB and set the screen to notation mode? Pops, crackles, and drop outs. Say what!? OK, so the song I was trying to play was pure MIDI, so I go and take a look in preferences at the MIDI settings. They all looked good to me. So, to reduce overhead, I closed all other programs. This helped a lot, but there was still the occasional pop, crackle, or drop out. They were most likely to occur when the music reel reloaded the screen with four more measures. A curious thing began to happen, though. The longer I let the tune play, the fewer glitches occurred. It was almost as if BiaB was healing itself. Well, fine, I think. As long as it stays healed. But there's the rub. It doesn't. When I load a new tune, I have to go through this mess all over again.

I can't afford another laptop --and I feel that this one should be able to handle BiaB anyway. I'm gonna find a tool that will help me clean out the registry of junk, which I'm sure there's a lot of. And I'm currently in the process of offloading a bunch of files just so I can continue with installing the rest of BiaB. Frankly, I'm stunned that I'm having to come up with another 170+ gigs of space (that's what the BiaB installer is telling me I need). I've never in my life dealt with another computer program of any sort that required that much disk space for a full install. Even the Win7 OS doesn't require that much space!

So anyway, if this problem continues, then I guess I'll have to get busy setting up and configuring the DAW again. And turn my back on the POS 2 TB Seagate. And hope I don't have the same problems with it!

Michael,

The EverythingPak is fantastic software. From the description of your current lap top, it should do the job.

If you are still having "pops and crackles" issues, try the following....

1. Right-click on the chord sheet.

2. Select "Song Settings".

3. Activate the option that says "This song has playback problems, disable fast generation" as shown on the image below.

Let us know if it helps.

Regards,
Noel.

P.S. Pops and crackles are sometimes due to antivirus software double-checking everything that BIAB does. Try entering into your AV software setup and then exclude the \bb folder from checking. This often helps.

Perhaps there is a clue in his comment:

"A curious thing began to happen, though. The longer I let the tune play, the fewer glitches occurred. It was almost as if BiaB was healing itself."

I seen this myself. Doesn't this have to do with the way that BIAB loads and buffers the song initially versus RB? Wouldn't disabling fast load in BIAB help?

Jeff