55. How do I use Band-in-a-Box® with other applications and software synthesizers?

After creating a song in Band-in-a-Box®, you can save the song as a standard MIDI or Audio file, then import the file into other applications. For example, you may want export a MIDI file if you wish to fine-tune your song by editing the individual tracks in a MIDI sequencer, or if you have better MIDI sounds available in another application. You can use GarageBand to play/edit your Band-in-a-Box® songs.

You can also have Band-in-a-Box® play directly through other MIDI programs and software synthesizers on your computer by using either the IAC (Inter-Application Communication) Bus, or the BIAB Virtual MIDI Output. You should be able to use this method to play your song through a VST soft synth or Audio Units hosted by another program.

The IAC bus and BIAB Virtual MIDI Output can be used in much the same way. We originally developed a BIAB Virtual MIDI cable for OS 10.2 (Jaguar) users, since OS 10.2 did not include the IAC Bus. Apple added the IAC bus starting with OS 10.3 (Panther). On newer operating systems, you should probably use the IAC bus. Below are the basic steps, but there is more information in our "No Sound" tutorial.

  1. If you will be using the IAC bus, you need to first make sure that it is enabled. In Band-in-a-Box®, go to the MIDI menu and click on CoreMIDI Audio Midi Setup. You should see an IAC Bus icon there; double-click on it and make sure that the 'Device is online' box is checked. Also, make sure that there is at least one port added. Close the CoreMIDI Audio MIDI Setup window and go back to Band-in-a-Box®. If you did have to enable it, you should close and re-open Band-in-a-Box®.
  2. In Band-in-a-Box®, go to MIDI | Select MIDI Driver or Apple DLS Synth. Select 'MacOSX CoreMIDI' and press OK. This should open the 'Choose Instruments/Ports' window.
  3. The first pull-down menu at the top of this window is the input port. The following pull-down menus (Bass, Piano, Drums etc) are the outputs. The reason that each instrument has its own menu is that you can send different instruments to different ports. Click on the Bass pull-down and choose the IAC bus port (You could have specify the name of the ports in the IAC Driver dialog, but by default there may be a port named "Bus 1"). Then, click on 'Set all ports to this', and press OK.
  4. The next thing you need to do is open the third party MIDI application that you want to pipe Band-in-a-Box® through. You need to figure out how to get that program to accept the IAC bus as MIDI input. You may also need to make other settings changes, depending on the application. You may need to consult the documentation for the program to learn how to do this. Often it is done in the program's Preferences | MIDI window. If you are having trouble getting it to work, note that it may make a difference which application you open first.

Alyssa - PG Music