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I'm glad this discussion has been helpful to you.
This forum is hosted by PG Music, and we haven't discussed specific PG Music products yet, so I'll just throw this out. First, a little background: I use BIAB to make composer's demos. I normally have piano, guitar, trumpet, flute or sax in some combination on the two channels BIAB has allocated for that. I absolutely love the way BIAB enters notation, and even if my end product is a dedicated notation program, I always enter it in BIAB first.
Once the notes for the melody (and often counterpoint) are entered, then BIAB plays them mechanically, as instructed and as expected. However, there are plenty of adjustments that can be made, some very easy and some detailed and complicated. BIAB can move the entire track forward or backward (in several ways), so that, for example, my Latin jazz lead line is anticipated (played early). Easy to do. BIAB can also humanize a MIDI track, under my control somewhat, by adding or deleting notes, varying the timing of the notes and the velocity (loudness), all to emulate a human player. This can go a long way to making it sound real. Finally, I do some spot editing of individual notes. I might shift the timing, change the volume, or especially change the length of the note. Doing just a little of this makes a drab, computer-sounding line come alive.
There's so much more to it, but the point is, with the right tool, amazing things can be done in MIDI to make it sound so much better.
Most helpful, for sure. I came here without the answers, period, just unconfirmed suspicions. You well point out the next step, that to actually do more tweaking, the humanizing aspects you mention, which I’d only wish to apply to the final, properly notated product, though, could show some promise with your BIAB, which I’m not familiar with. (I take it you are strictly referring to post-processing the score, not inputing humanization from a controller.) Of course, for now, it’s a problem of time, then there’s the problem of time. Hopefully, I’ll soon have an opportunity to play with these things, which is all I’m worth, in terms of sound engineering expertise, as it stands. Thank you so much, Matt.
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Hi Mat
Yes I couldn’t agree more , much of today’s keyboards and software could not exist without Midi And yes it can be good with a bit of extra time spent on production, as indeed anything can; it’s all in the finish.
Would not like to be back in the days of Valve voltage controlled triode oscillators And voltage ladder keyboard dividers at 1.2 volt per octave Well only for fun anyway! Have fun Mike
BIAB2021 UltraPlus,AsusN55S1Tbssd, W10/64,Akai EIEpro Yamaha CVP405,SquireStrat, CoolsoftVMidSynth Novatation Impulse61 Ctr kbd, Cwalk blab Kontakt http://mikesmusic.byethost16.com/
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Hi Mat
Yes I couldn’t agree more , much of today’s keyboards and software could not exist without Midi And yes it can be good with a bit of extra time spent on production, as indeed anything can; it’s all in the finish.
Would not like to be back in the days of Valve voltage controlled triode oscillators And voltage ladder keyboard dividers at 1.2 volt per octave Well only for fun anyway! Have fun Mike
But I would like to make one tangential point, as to even the old wooden ways. In the times of Ludwig Van Beethoven, you know what the big enchilada of the music publishing industry was? Pop music, not Beethoven, and not criticizing the genre, as music is about what people like. I would, though, ask you how many pop tunes from the early 19th century can you play in your mind? What has survived for hundreds of years was painstakingly laid down on paper, in Beethoven’s case with calculated, great consideration of each note and an, as if, divine discontent with editing, to make it better. Who I’d argue the greatest musician who ever lived, not “greatest” perse in creativity and product, as there may be no greatest in that regard, to my mind, and I like some others more than Beethoven, overall aesthetically, but greatest for Beethoven’s prolific, revolutionary library of high quality that changed the world, and, again, his painstaking deliberation, total dedication, to not just roll off notes onto a page, or, in modern parlance, rip the composition off by way of a midi controller. I would put to you a question. How much of today would survive? Would most of what’s happened the past, say, fifty years survive at all, absent recordings? Can you even get the highest quality, quickly pouring streams of notes from a midi controller, or would you get better quality, all things being equal, considering each note, phrase the act of manually scoring enforces a discipline of? Just some thoughts on the matter, not meaning to be controversial, even though music history proves this is true. You can’t argue that, if it worked for Beethoven, or Chopin, etc... Thank you all, again. It’s off to be responsible today, for a change!
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HI DAW Monkey, Excellent posting. Just adding my thoughts to the postings replies you have from the PG forum gurus. You say : is there a product, at all, that just plays your score, created in Finale or Sibelius I have Finale and Sibelius. They have their own built in sound libraries which are very extensive that play the music scores you create. Therefore, there is no " tweaking " involved. There are also some very excellent VST instruments. If it's only a piano sound you are looking for I personally recommend Neo Soul Keys® from Steinberg . Combining faithful recordings of vintage keys with state-of-the-art technology employed in Steinberg's engines and effects, Neo-Soul Keys proves to be the ultimate electric piano experience. And of course you can just play the Neo-Soul keyboards just out of the box or you can tweek them. Or Steinberg's , The Grand 3, presenting a premium collection of various piano models including three concert grand pianos. I would also like to comment that it also takes a good sound system to make your ears happy rather then the low cost built in in computer speakers.
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DM, yes, in my superficial introduction, I was referring to post production. Yes, most of the products mentioned allow you to play the part and record it, with nuances.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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An important word when looking at sound libraries is articulation. Articulations are keyboard based triggers you "pull" to make the performance sound more natural and human.
Many sound libraries include extensive variations that can be used to enhance the sound of a score. For instance the library may include midi riffs recorded during a live performance, multiple velocity level samples or instrument specific samples. When you write your score you include the variation triggers in your score to add that human dimension to the performance.
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HI DAW Monkey, Excellent posting. Just adding my thoughts to the postings replies you have from the PG forum gurus. You say : is there a product, at all, that just plays your score, created in Finale or Sibelius I have Finale and Sibelius. They have their own built in sound libraries which are very extensive that play the music scores you create. Therefore, there is no " tweaking " involved. There are also some very excellent VST instruments. If it's only a piano sound you are looking for I personally recommend Neo Soul Keys® from Steinberg . Combining faithful recordings of vintage keys with state-of-the-art technology employed in Steinberg's engines and effects, Neo-Soul Keys proves to be the ultimate electric piano experience. And of course you can just play the Neo-Soul keyboards just out of the box or you can tweek them. Or Steinberg's , The Grand 3, presenting a premium collection of various piano models including three concert grand pianos. I would also like to comment that it also takes a good sound system to make your ears happy rather then the low cost built in in computer speakers. Hi. Thank you, and I must look into those products, but please suffer that I'm in the throes of skeptical. Delighted somebody is happy! Alright, now. Let's get this straight, based on the conversation, as you've made hopeful comments, except that I also use those products and am thinking like science is against anti-gravity, and you're, yet, out there, floating. Somebody stole into your home and ripped off your midi keyboard. And please don't be a wise guy, ripped off your old keyboard in the closet and all your gadgets, then. You are left with your laptop and its notation software. You call the police, and, waiting for them to respond, you write a piano concerto. You hit play, you're running the notation data into East West Quantum Pole Vault Moocho Platinum Plus Hollywood Keys of Baal, with all ten libraries you need to buy. Are you telling me the playback could fool you somebody was sitting at even a console acoustic piano, slightly out of tune, playing your score? Or, despite Quantum Moocho, will a work MANUALLY SCORED not play worth a hill of beans, in terms of sounding like a real piano performance, this my experience? If it sounds like a real performance of a manually entered score, what on earth settings are you using, with the caveat you're not sitting for hours, quantifying note phrases, mixing stuff, that is, post-processing the time away, which I take is a resounding no for the all important “no tweaking” aspect of your comments? (By real performance, you close your eyes, and it sounds like just an average quality recording of somebody playing your score on any acoustic piano, could, at least, almost fool you.) Perhaps I should have cut to the chase: are you talking about note performance entry by a midi controller, instead of manual entry of notes? I was seeking realistic playback of a manually engraved score, not midi controller keyboard entered, with the more expansive electronic articulations in the data. You are likely referring to exporting your keyboard playing into notation/VSTs? In which case, yes, they're great, like the real thing, all sorts of grand pianos available, but the best of which I've tried, some great ones, won't perform a manually notated midi export realistically, my opinion it's an intractable data issue, or lack thereof? Nor have I seen any builtin feature in notations programs to juice some form of export with AI sorts of humanization. Nor does any program I’ve used accurately notate complex performance music: forget about it. I had to conclude, the past day, what I'd like has simply never been developed, and probably won't be, because I believe it’s a dirty little secret most people don’t “write” music anymore, rather play it into the robot, that does the scoring, re: previous posts, how uncouth! It’s the McDonald’s of scoring going on out there, though an occasional quarter pounder with cheese is good, but, otherwise, a steady diet will just make a person fat and lazy. (I mix metaphors better than midi data.) Never mind me. I’m just pissed off you can painstakingly write scores the good old hard way that all this technology can’t play, with demos that pretend they can, can't play without a post-processing act of Congress, and feel like I landed from Mars, to find somebody who also scores the same old ways and shares the issues. You can score great things you can’t easily play. Nor can a composer be a whole orchestra, on midi controllers. All we can do is write all the notes and expressions that nobody performs, but some tinny, jerky or staccato sounding computer fake rendition of the notes and most instruments. And, speaking of fake, that’s just what I’m convinced the big name demos are: they’ve massaged the notation output, post-processed God knows how much (because they won’t tell you!), as you don’t get that stuff they try to sell their products by out of the box, that plays anybody’s score like that realistic demo. And this is deception. I would love to be proven wrong, hear reliable testimony somebody wrote a complex piano score, 16 orchestral staves, whatever, from their computer mouse and computer keyboard, let's throw in perfecty notated, hit play into that VST and hears something that sounds real or is merely close proximity to fooling you. I would buy that VST in a heartbeat.
Last edited by DAW Monkey; 03/25/17 10:24 AM.
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An important word when looking at sound libraries is articulation. Articulations are keyboard based triggers you "pull" to make the performance sound more natural and human.
Many sound libraries include extensive variations that can be used to enhance the sound of a score. For instance the library may include midi riffs recorded during a live performance, multiple velocity level samples or instrument specific samples. When you write your score you include the variation triggers in your score to add that human dimension to the performance. All ears! Triggers? Important word? Sounds just so! On the research list, and thanks.
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Dude, I have to ask, is English your first language? Your very long, rambling and totally off topic posts in this thread read like they're written by a Tibetan Yak farmer using Google Translate.
Here's what I would like you to do:
1. Describe exactly what equipment, software, plugins and the specs of the computer you're using now. 2. Post an audio file of something you did that you think sounds terrible. 3. Ask how you can make it sound better.
Short, sweet, and stop with all this irrelevant stuff like the history of classical music.
Oh, and you have no clue. What you're asking is like sitting down at a bar with a heart surgeon and over a drink saying "You know, I've always wanted to do open heart surgery, can you show me how to do it next weekend?"
These people are pros with 4 year degrees in music production from places like the UCLA School of Music, Berklee and the like. Of course those guys can make a score sound fabulous using midi. But you're not going to pick it up in a week or two. How do you think all the blockbuster movie soundtracks are done? It's mostly midi, few productions have a budget for a full orchestra any more.
Bob
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Why am I now visualizing a hyperactive chimpanzee riding a yack in rocky snow covered mountains with white powder residue under the chimps nostrils?
Another question for DAW Monkey; Uh, how many words can you type in a minute?
Does the noise in your head bother me ?
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......the best free tools I've found (I'm not going to invest in anything that won't play a realistic piano), it always comes down to sounding, in part, like a toy piano, best I've found like a toy with some notes in the mid to upper registers, most of the keys sounding alright, but not all: it's like somebody inserted a Casio electric piano for some keys on an acoustic grand, so-called
Bottom line. Is there a product that will play a very explicit piano score, without having to turn those annoying little knobs for a week and still have it sound like some of the strings are broken and laying on adjacent? Anything out of the box that sounds civilized and works, without an act of Congress, for retards like me? Is it you just get what you pay for, and, if so, pay for what product that works, as such, then, short of thousands going to East West? Or do you simply have to spend half your time tweaking knobs, instead of scoring, which is just a frustrating time pit, to my mind?
Thank you very much, sincerely, for any advice.
In full disclosure.... I did not read every reply or comment in full.... so this may have been answered..... or not. Free tools and cheap midi patches will sound like a "casio" no matter how well it's played. In short, you do tend to get what you pay for when it comes to sounds. Midi these days has 2 general ways to make sounds. First is synth patches. These are not real instruments but someone's attempt to make a set of oscillators sound like a piano. Most are pretty cheesy and can be spotted almost instantly. They sound "midi" as I like to say. And yeah, in the basic synths where they exist, they are called things like "Grand Acoustic Piano" and other grossly misleading names. Then there is the world of Sampled sounds. Samples are the real pianos...Steinburgs, Bosendorfs, and other classic pianos from around the world's concert halls and studios, recorded in professional situations, with the best engineers and mics. Samples can vary from reasonably good up to "jaw droppingly amazing" Price determines which end of the spectrum into which they fall. Practically all the samples sound 100% better than the patches. I stopped using patched synths a long time ago. Even a "cheap" sample can go a long way towards a convincing performance. The higher priced and better sounding samples have many layers recorded and have a wider range of expression. Getting the midi to articulate. We all know that articulation of the instrument.... how the artist plays, touch... hard or soft, delay or pushing the note, use of pedals and so many more things go into the human aspect that makes the world of difference between a performance that sounds static and dull, with every note being perfectly in time and the same volume and attack level to one that has the articulations and variations that a human player delivers. Taking a top quality sample and playing it in a simple midi manner will make that performance sound mechanical and fake. Copying a midi pattern to a song using software will deliver, in most cases, a very boring, although, accurate, version of the song. One would have to go through the song, note by note, to properly articulate the performance. Not impossible... but time consuming and tedious work. Assuming one understands how to do it correctly in the first place, because if it's not done right, it will be worse than not doing it at all. The best method of getting proper articulation into a piano performance is to actually "play it in" using a midi piano keyboard that sends all of the articulation data. You need a touch sensitive keyboard and a DAW that can read it all and record it. Many of the cheaper keyboards are not touch sensitive and would not work well for doing that. All that said.... for piano sounds, I use Cakewalk's Music Creator DAW which came with a synth called the Cakewalk Sound Center and I bought the $20 Steinburg Piano's add on pack. I think they are migrating to Sonar Home Studio now and phasing MC out but it's still available for $50 or so. I also have Kontakt from Native instruments. A bit more costly than MC but it's professional quality stuff. They have a few nice sounding pianos in the basic lineup. Lots of 3rd party sounds are available for Kontakt. A friend has Ivory Piano's. Those are some nice sounding piano samples. If I was strictly a piano player, I'd probably have Ivory in my DAW. For my purposes, MC and Kontakt are sufficient to give me what I need. So yeah, you can get what you're looking for. It's doubtful you will find it for free. SO..... I don't consider myself a piano player. I prefer guitar. So when I need a really good piano part, I turn to the Piano real tracks that PG has in BB/RB. You have the human factor complete with articulations built in and ready to go. Unfortunately, it won't, at this time, play a midi score for you. It will play the chords and key, to provide a nice back up track for a song. For my purposes, it works exceptionally well, but I'm not asking it to do scores. For your purposes, perhaps you do need scores played accurately. The problem you face has 2 components. One is to get a realistic piano sound that can be articulated. I have answered that. The second part of the problem is to get a program that will articulate a score for you in some sort of automated way that results in a natural sound and feel. That's the part that I don't know if that kind of software exists or if it does, how costly it might be. The problem I see with articulating software is that the articulations on each song would vary and also on the same song from player to player..... a very difficult task to accomplish in a manner that sounds natural and pleasing to the listeners. Hopefully this is helpful to you.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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John Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 2x2TB, 1x4TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 2x1.5TB, 2x2TB, 1x4TB SATA BB2025/UMC404HD/Casios/Cakewalk/Reaper/Studio One/MixBus/Notion/Finale/Dorico/Noteworthy/NI/Halion/IK http://www.sus4chord.com
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Wow, you're right John. Very impressive!
Jeff
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I get the "cheesy" General MIDI sounds, but Casio has come a long way since they were the gold standard of cheese... Yep... I agree that they have some really nice sounding stuff these days....I was referring to those cheap keyboards they used to make back in the day. Once you get a reputation it's hard to outlive it. Believe it or not, I have a Radio Shack branded keyboard that my mom had in her house. It has a bunch of pretty cool features including touch sensitive keys and some of the sounds are pretty decent.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Interestingly, some of those Radio Shack branded keyboards were actually Casios (with a Radio Shack logo).
John Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 2x2TB, 1x4TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 2x1.5TB, 2x2TB, 1x4TB SATA BB2025/UMC404HD/Casios/Cakewalk/Reaper/Studio One/MixBus/Notion/Finale/Dorico/Noteworthy/NI/Halion/IK http://www.sus4chord.com
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Hi Noel. I just listened to your song. Very impressive to say the least. As I was listening I could hear oooh and ahhh background harmonies in my head that would make that song jump out at you. Again, very nice piece of work.
Russ Anyday above ground is a good day Computer is Hp Pavillion Vision 6 Ghz quad core AMD processor 8 Gig memory 1 TB hard drive 6 GB hard drive Windows 7 Premium Loose nut behind the keyboard
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I am not a great pianist, but I dabble in it, and am good enough to play pop. I also have friends who are GREAT pianists.
I use a touch sensitive keyboard and play parts myself that record basic velocity, articulation and such. I then run it through either Garritan's awesome Abbey Road Grand(s) which has many controls for top down, top up etc. or just a regular GPO 5 piano if the part is way in the background.
Honestly, I think the piano sounds that come out in the end are lovely, and I am flabbergasted by the quality of modern technology. Some stuff played back through good samples using midi tracks which were recorded by great players sometimes sound as good to me or better than a mic'ed piano in a studio.
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Hello, Daw Monkey,
I don't know what type of music your mainly compose but this book, The Guide to MIDI Orchestration should get you started.
Computer: Macbook Pro, 16 inch 2021 DAWs: Pro Tools, Logic, and Maschine plays drums, percussion, bass, steel pan, keyboard, music producer/engineer
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Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.
ChatPG's knowledge base includes the full Band-in-a-Box User Manual and sales information from the website.
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The 2025 49-PAK is loaded with other great new add-ons as well. Learn more about the 2025 49-PAK!
Bonus PAKs for Band-in-a-Box 2025 for Mac!
With your version 2025 for Mac Pro, MegaPAK, UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, Audiophile Edition or PlusPAK purchase, we'll include a Bonus PAK full of great new Add-ons FREE! Or upgrade to the 2025 49-PAK for only $49 to receive even more NEW Add-ons including 20 additional RealTracks!
These PAKs are loaded with additional add-ons to supercharge your Band-in-a-Box®!
This Free Bonus PAK includes:
- The 2025 RealCombos Booster PAK:
-For Pro customers, this includes 33 new RealTracks and 65+ new RealStyles.
-For MegaPAK customers, this includes 29 new RealTracks and 45+ new RealStyles.
-For UltraPAK customers, this includes 20 new RealStyles.
- Look Ma! More MIDI 13: Country & Americana
- Instrumental Studies Set 22: 2-Hand Piano Soloing - Rhythm Changes
- MIDI SuperTracks Set 44: Jazz Piano
- Artist Performance Set 17: Songs with Vocals 7
- Playable RealTracks Set 4
- RealDrums Stems Set 7: Jazz with Mike Clark
- SynthMaster Sounds and Styles (with audio demos)
- 128 GM MIDI Patch Audio Demos.
Looking for more great add-ons, then upgrade to the 2025 49-PAK for just $49 and you'll get:
- 20 Bonus Unreleased RealTracks and RealDrums with 20 RealStyles,
- FLAC Files (lossless audio files) for the 20 Bonus Unreleased RealTracks and RealDrums
- Look Ma! More MIDI 14: SynthMaster,
- Instrumental Studies Set 23: More '80s Hard Rock Soloing,
- MIDI SuperTracks Set 45: More SynthMaster
- Artist Performance Set 18: Songs with Vocals 8
- RealDrums Stems Set 8: Pop, Funk & More with Jerry Roe
Learn more about the Bonus PAKs for Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac®!
New! Xtra Styles PAK 20 for Band-in-a-Box 2025 and Higher for Mac!
Xtra Styles PAK 20 for Mac & Windows Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher) is here with 200 brand new RealStyles!
We're excited to bring you our latest and greatest in the all new Xtra Styles PAK 20 for Band-in-a-Box! This fresh installment is packed with 200 all-new styles spanning the rock & pop, jazz, and country genres you've come to expect, as well as the exciting inclusion of electronic styles!
In this PAK you’ll discover: Minimalist Modern Funk, New Wave Synth Pop, Hard Bop Latin Groove, Gospel Country Shuffle, Cinematic Synthwave, '60s Motown, Funky Lo-Fi Bossa, Heavy 1980s Metal, Soft Muted 12-8 Folk, J-Pop Jazz Fusion, and many more!
All the Xtra Styles PAKs 1 - 20 are on special for only $29 each (reg $49), or get all 209 PAKs for $199 (reg $399)! Order now!
Learn more and listen to demos of the Xtra Styles PAK 20.
Video: Xtra Styles PAK 20 Overview & Styles Demos: Watch now!
Note: The Xtra Styles require the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition of Band-in-a-Box®. (Xtra Styles PAK 20 requires the 2025 or higher UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition. They will not work with the Pro or MegaPAK version because they need the RealTracks from the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition.
New! XPro Styles PAK 9 for Band-in-a-Box 2025 and higher for Mac!
We've just released XPro Styles PAK 9 for Mac & Windows Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher) with 100 brand new RealStyles, plus 29 RealTracks/RealDrums!
We've been hard at it to bring you the latest and greatest in this 9th installment of our popular XPro Styles PAK series! Included are 75 styles spanning the rock & pop, jazz, and country genres (25 styles each) that fans have come to expect, as well as 25 styles in this volume's wildcard genre: funk & R&B!
If you're itching to get a sneak peek at what's included in XPro Styles PAK 9, here is a small helping of what you can look forward to: Funky R&B Horns, Upbeat Celtic Rock, Jazz Fusion Salsa, Gentle Indie Folk, Cool '60s Soul, Funky '70s R&B, Smooth Jazz Hip Hop, Acoustic Rockabilly Swing, Funky Reggae Dub, Dreamy Retro Latin Jazz, Retro Soul-Rock Fusion, and much more!
Special Pricing! Until July 31, 2024, all the XPro Styles PAKs 1 - 9 are on sale for only $29 ea (Reg. $49 ea), or get them all in the XPro Styles PAK Bundle for only $149 (reg. $299)! Order now!
Learn more and listen to demos of XPro Styles PAKs.
Video: XPro Styles PAK 9 Overview & Styles Demos: Watch now!
XPro Styles PAKs require Band-in-a-Box® 2025 or higher and are compatible with ANY package, including the Pro, MegaPAK, UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, and Audiophile Edition.
New! Xtra Styles PAK 20 for Band-in-a-Box 2025 and Higher for Windows!
Xtra Styles PAK 20 for Windows & Mac Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher) is here with 200 brand new RealStyles!
We're excited to bring you our latest and greatest in the all new Xtra Styles PAK 20 for Band-in-a-Box! This fresh installment is packed with 200 all-new styles spanning the rock & pop, jazz, and country genres you've come to expect, as well as the exciting inclusion of electronic styles!
In this PAK you’ll discover: Minimalist Modern Funk, New Wave Synth Pop, Hard Bop Latin Groove, Gospel Country Shuffle, Cinematic Synthwave, '60s Motown, Funky Lo-Fi Bossa, Heavy 1980s Metal, Soft Muted 12-8 Folk, J-Pop Jazz Fusion, and many more!
All the Xtra Styles PAKs 1 - 20 are on special for only $29 each (reg $49), or get all 209 PAKs for $199 (reg $399)! Order now!
Learn more and listen to demos of the Xtra Styles PAK 20.
Video: Xtra Styles PAK 20 Overview & Styles Demos: Watch now!
Note: The Xtra Styles require the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition of Band-in-a-Box®. (Xtra Styles PAK 20 requires the 2025 or higher UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition. They will not work with the Pro or MegaPAK version because they need the RealTracks from the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition.
New! XPro Styles PAK 9 for Band-in-a-Box 2025 and higher for Windows!
We've just released XPro Styles PAK 9 for Windows & Mac Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher) with 100 brand new RealStyles, plus 29 RealTracks/RealDrums!
We've been hard at it to bring you the latest and greatest in this 9th installment of our popular XPro Styles PAK series! Included are 75 styles spanning the rock & pop, jazz, and country genres (25 styles each) that fans have come to expect, as well as 25 styles in this volume's wildcard genre: funk & R&B!
If you're itching to get a sneak peek at what's included in XPro Styles PAK 9, here is a small helping of what you can look forward to: Funky R&B Horns, Upbeat Celtic Rock, Jazz Fusion Salsa, Gentle Indie Folk, Cool '60s Soul, Funky '70s R&B, Smooth Jazz Hip Hop, Acoustic Rockabilly Swing, Funky Reggae Dub, Dreamy Retro Latin Jazz, Retro Soul-Rock Fusion, and much more!
Special Pricing! Until July 31, 2024, all the XPro Styles PAKs 1 - 9 are on sale for only $29 ea (Reg. $49 ea), or get them all in the XPro Styles PAK Bundle for only $149 (reg. $299)! Order now!
Learn more and listen to demos of XPro Styles PAKs.
Video: XPro Styles PAK 9 Overview & Styles Demos: Watch now!
XPro Styles PAKs require Band-in-a-Box® 2025 or higher and are compatible with ANY package, including the Pro, MegaPAK, UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, and Audiophile Edition.
Video: Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac®: VST3 Plugin Support
Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac® now includes support for VST3 plugins, alongside VST and AU. Use them with MIDI or audio tracks for even more creative possibilities in your music production.
Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Macs®: VST3 Plugin Support
Video: Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac®: Using VST3 Plugins
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