PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Macintosh No Updates since last December?

Seems odd to me that the 2017 Mac version (with numerous faults) has had no updates since the 2nd of December, while the 2018 win version has had six or seven.

Not feel'n the love.

Busy with 2018? Maybe!

I'll be waiting with bated breath to see if that arrives (if ever) still chock-full of 2017 problems.

Past release history indicates the annual release for the Windows program is near December first and the annual release for the Mac program is near June first.

If I had a Mac and was planning to purchase or update Band-in-a-Box I'd be checking the PG Music website daily for release information starting the last week in May. That way I could enjoy the anticipation.

Thanks Jim.
I was more interested in; why no updates for so long. Seems to me that if they are fixing faults for the new release, why wouldn't they give those who forked out for 2017 some fixes along the way/

Maybe the 2018 release will be different from the Windows approach which seems to be; Look! New Features....
The Mac release might be more like; Look! Some of the things now work....

I understand. I just thought I'd say something so you wouldn't think no one saw your post.

On a different note:

Perhaps the Mac edition has less updates than the Windows edition because ... wait for it now ... the Mac hardware / software platform is more stable than the Windows hardware / software platform?

Also perhaps new features are discovered and debugged first on the Windows platform. It’s less likely they would make the same mistake twice.

I knows it's a big ask, but eventually PG needs cross platform development, code once then after whatever is programed, new features added or bug fixes you go up to the Tools menu > Compile > Win64 or Compile > Mac64.
So you get both platforms released at the same time with the same features, so if you come from a PC you don't spend all day looking for the piano roll on the Mac version.
But then what do they do for the other half of the year ? go to Rio ? Hawaii ? Florida ? or go back to the biannual release ? ????

Thanks Matt,
However, it’s not the new features which are the problem but things that have worked for years in the Win version. Lyric entry, lyric edit, inserting beats (beyond 4) in melody, scrolling notation. All things reported but seemingly ignored.

The ugly truth could also be, that PG Music only have one or two Mac developers.
PG Music is one of very few tools for DIY and Pro Musicians, that seems to down prioritize OSX users.

I've chosen to give in with protesting, since it's the best composing tool and "companion" band available - but in a state of Nirvana, 1 major and 3 dot (patch fixes) releases per year would almost make me levitate from joy :-)

They may not have one, as it might be all out of house. Windows users get invited to send their faults to PGMusic for assistance, while MAC users get a "pop up" inviting them to send BIAB faults to Apple. LOL I can just imagine the bank of dedicated techs on standby for PGMusic issues.

Hi to all on this topic

On a related topic but different topic, by any chance, did any of you notice a few things start to NOT work properly in the last few updates of the 2017 Mac version of BnB.

Ie, specifically, suddenly I started noticing that the last song I had saved would not appear when rebooting BnB after shutting down - this used to happen by default. Secondly, the list of the "recently loaded songs" loaded into BnB disappeared from this menu if selecting it...almost as if these bugs were planted to encourage a "fix" this when purchasing the 2018 update... ie, these things should be fixed and working in in the 2017 version since this is how it worked with the initial release of 2017.

regards, Carlos

Ughhhhh

>>> but in a state of Nirvana, 1 major and 3 dot (patch fixes) releases per year would almost make me levitate from joy :-)
=========================================

Last year there was 1 major and 6 dot (patch fixes).

Here are the details of the patches and the fixes - all available for free for 2017 users.

Summary of Changes for Build 186 (Dec 2, 2017)

Added: Support for Xtra styles content released Nov. 2017

Fixed: Some dialogs would prevent menus and their hot-keys from working.
Fixed: Setting "Audio Master (Base) Tempo" does not take effect until reloading the song.
Fixed: Cut/Copy/Paste was not working by hot-keys in editable text layers.
Fixed: Cut/Copy/Paste was not working by hot-keys in note-based lyric editing.
Fixed: Copy Lyrics to Clipboard feature does not copy lyrics unless "Include Chords" is checked.
Fixed: The playback cursor in the Audio Edit window would sometimes jump forward and then back briefly.
Fixed: In the Audio Edit window, "Mark this point as Bar 1 of the song" would mark the wrong point if song tempo did not match the audio master tempo.
Fixed: It was not possible to set Audio Master Tempo to zero.
Fixed: Audio goes out of sync if: audio track uses bar one offset, song has tempo changes, and audio base tempo that does not match song tempo.
Fixed: Freezing the Bass track did not work if it was a MIDI style.
Fixed: Band-in-a-Box might crash when saving a song with certain VST plugins, or when saving a .pxf preset file from the plugin (eg. EZ Drummer 2).

Summary of Changes for Oct 12, 2017)

Fixed: Audio Chord Wizard was broken on High Sierra OS.

Summary of Changes for Build 184 (Sept 26, 2017)

Fixed: Changing the color setting for "Window background" in the Audio Edit window had no effect.
Fixed: Hitting [Cancel] in the Audio Edit Settings dialog would cause a random zoom to occur.
Fixed: The [Sample] button in the Audio Edit window would zoom in to the far left of the screen, rather than to the cursor.
Fixed: If opening a song that was saved in the Windows version, the first character of these lead sheet fields would be missing: "Style", "Tempo", "Copyright", "Composer", and "Composer2".
Fixed: Fixed: Disabling "Draw interpolation" would cause random lines between sample points in the Audio Edit window.
Fixed: If a THRU harmony is selected, then Band-in-a-Box would freeze when soloing the Soloist or Thru tracks.
Fixed: MIDI sustain pedal would not be shut off when stopping song or hitting Panic button.
Fixed: "Individual MIDI Tracks" in the Render dialog did not work.
Fixed: Dragging to the WAV quadrant of the drop station would ignore the "Drag Master as separate tracks" setting.
Fixed: There would be duplicate buttons in the custom tool panel.
Fixed: The vertical zoom buttons in the Audio Edit window were missing.
Fixed: The New Features menu items would link to the Windows web pages.
Fixed: The VU Meters window would always indicate sound activity at -25 dB when lower than -25 dB.
Updated: PDF Manual.

Summary of Changes for Build 180 (July 19, 2017)
Fixed: For localized versions, the long style name would be wrong on the main screen.
Fixed: Sometimes RealTracks would play a dominant 7th chord for plain major triad song chords.
Changed: "Tempo/Pitch Stretching Quality" now defaults to medium instead of low.
Fixed: If there were any style changes in a song, the Bar Settings layer would display "Style changes" on any bar that had any other type of changes (eg tempo, volume).
Improved: Elastique has been updated from version 3.1.8 to 3.1.11.
Fixed: The Play-Loop popup menu was all blank.
Fixed: The Play-Loop button (in normal screen mode) was not displaying a check mark.
Fixed: "Save all tracks as M4A file..." was missing from the Master context menu.
Fixed: Drag and drop would fail if the song title contained invalid file name characters (eg slashes).
Fixed: Drag and drop would fail if the song title contained a period (eg "Up with the Trees - BGRock.Sty Demo").
Fixed: If a flash message was showing, copy/cut/paste commands would not work in dialogs.
Fixed: The Chord Builder would not update to the current bar/beat when re-opening the window.
Updated: Activation dialog has been improved.
Added: Web links have been added to the Help menu.
Fixed: Some hints in the Chord Builder were not showing transposed notes, and a % symbol was showing instead.
Fixed: The right arrow key would not work in the chord sheet during playback if "MIDI Keyboard Wizard Enabled" was enabled.
Fixed: New lines for sections on the chord sheet was not allowed when the song had repeats.
Added: Several requested 'genre' user categories in the StylePicker.
Fixed: The popup menus in the Chord Builder were not showing any chord descriptions.
If you encounter a problem or have a concern with any of the features / functions of Band-in-a-Box®, do not hesitate to contact us. Updated July 19, 2017

Download Now!
Band-in-a-Box® 2017 for Mac Update - Build 175 (40 MB)
This patch will update Band-in-a-Box® 2017 to build 175 from any previous 2017 build. You need to have Band-in-a-Box® 2017 (build 170 or higher) installed for this update to work.

If you are updating an external PG Music hard drive, make sure to choose the correct destination volume (install on specific hard drive).

Summary of Changes for Build 175 (May 25, 2017)
Added: The RealTracks Settings dialog now has a choice of low/medium/high for Elastique stretching quality, instead of just high quality on or off (high quality disabled meant medium).
Fixed: The "Select Hi-Q MIDI Patch Plugin" menu item should be available to the Melody, Soloist, and Thru tracks.
Fixed: Audio Unit plugins would be erased from the exclude list while booting up Band-in-a-Box.
Fixed: Plugins on the Thru track should not be removed when loading a style or song.
Fixed: Sforzando and Amplitube should not be listed in the Plugins dialog unless they are installed.
Fixed: Keyboard input might stop working after using the Preferences dialog.
Fixed: Clicking on a mixer piano would send the event to the default synth, rather than the plugin on that track.
Fixed: Options > Return to Factory Settings... would cause various problems (eg. the chord sheet would be squished to the left).

Summary of Changes for Build 173 (May 3, 2017)

Fixed: Drag and drop from Master to MIDI quadrant would fail with errors.
Fixed: When opening an XML file, the current song would be erased if the user clicked Cancel in the file open dialog.
Fixed: The extended RealDrums patch descriptions were not displaying on the mixer.
Fixed: A mixer patch description would be blank for RealDrums on non-drums tracks.
Fixed: When you select a style with your cursor or keyboard and hit return, the StylePicker closes but your selected style wasn't chosen.
Fixed: "Memo:" should not be showing in the Titles dialog.
Fixed: If you select a song in the Titles dialog then sort by something, it jumps to the top and loses your selected song.
Fixed: If you type in random words in the filter in the Titles dialog it shows up with lots of entries.
Fixed: The [Show all] button in the Titles dialog doesn't work. It deletes the text but doesn't show you all the songs available.
Fixed: The [Defaults] button in the Titles dialog reveals a whole bunch more hidden empty columns.
Fixed: The [Save list] button in the Titles dialog doesn't function.
Fixed: Step advance issues in the notation window.
Fixed: In the notation window regular advance in editable mode should advance to the 1st or 3rd peg of a beat that has 4 pegs on it.
Fixed: Band-in-a-Box might crash if user clicks on any of the main menus while booting up.
Fixed: The 'F3' hot key symbol did not display in some popup menus.
Fixed: For some cases of opening or saving a file (eg choosing VST plugins), the file dialog would not open in the right directory.
Fixed: The menu item "Insert Current MIDI chord" should display command+return as the hot key instead of control+return. Both work, but control+return is impossible to do with one hand on a standard Apple keyboard.
Changed: Update patches are downloaded into "/Band-in-a-Box/Data/Updates" instead of "/Band-in-a-Box/Data".
Fixed: If running Band-in-a-Box in a language other than English, automatic updates should not report available English update patches.
Fixed: Choosing to save a song would ask to "save as", as if the song file did not already exist.
Fixed: Blues chords were showing up when importing xml.
Fixed: Whole song was not saved to xml.
Fixed: Program could freeze when saving to xml.
Fixed: Program would crash if attempting to save xml to root of hard drive.
Updated: 2017 PDF full and upgrade manuals.
Fixed: Small omissions/typos in Artist Bio's.
Summary of Changes for Build 171 (April 20, 2017)
Fixed: Chord sheet fonts were limited to a maximum size that would not quite fill the cells. This would cause superscript extensions to sit too high above the roots.
Fixed: Some hot keys were not working if in the notation window (eg. command+3 to mute bass, control+T to change screen mode, etc.).
Fixed: The Select Song by Title dialog would not use the correct directory.
Fixed: "Open Previous Style" is set for "At program bootup..." then the user would be asked if they wanted to save their song when loading a different song.
Fixed: Save As did not work. All files would be saved with the name "No File Name.sgu".
If you encounter a problem or have a concern with any of the features / functions of Band-in-a-Box®, do not hesitate to contact us. Updated May 25, 2017

Fair point - so this mean that Mac users can expect dot releases until december every year, and then next release is a major?

Maybe from a commercial standpoint you should communicate that strategy, to avoid the frustration from december to may, where bugs will not be fixed. If that's the honest strategy, I will dry my eyes, and calculate in my software budget, that I need a yearly upgrade.

The fellows at Izotope, might end up slightly disappointed. :-)