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Joined: May 2009
Posts: 867
PG Music Staff
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OP
PG Music Staff
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 867 |
56. What is the difference between the Audiophile editions of Band-in-a-Box and the regular Band-in-a-Box packages?
Windows:
The Audiophile editions ship pre-installed on a portable high-speed USB 3.0 hard drive, and has everything that the "regular" versions of Band-in-a-Box and RealBand have, plus all the uncompressed audio in WAV file format for ALL the RealTracks and RealDrums, so the highest sound quality is preserved. We normally ship RealTracks audio files as compressed WMA files (usually 128 or 160 kbps) instead of WAV files. The WMA files are excellent quality, and make the program MUCH smaller (roughly 120GB).
With a typical setup at home, many people would not be able to hear a difference, but some advanced users prefer to have the original WAV files. Note that it is possible to uncompress the 'regular edition' M4A files to AIFF, however these will not be the same as the original WAV files, having already been compressed once. Also, please note that the 'Audiophile editions' do include the WMA files as well, which gives you the option of installing the program on your computer the same way as with the 'regular edition'.
Macintosh:
The Audiophile edition ships pre-installed on a portable high-speed USB 3.0 hard drive, and includes everything that the regular Band-in-a-Box packages have, plus all the uncompressed audio in AIFF file format for ALL the RealTracks and RealDrums, so the highest sound quality is preserved. We normally ship RealTracks audio files as compressed M4A files (usually 128 or 160 kbps) instead of AIFF files. The M4A files are excellent quality, and make the program MUCH smaller (roughly 120GB). With a typical setup at home, many people would not be able to hear a difference, but some advanced users prefer to have the original AIFF files. Note that it is possible to uncompress the 'regular edition' M4A files to AIFF, however these will not be the same as the original AIFF files, having already been compressed once. Also, please note that the 'Audiophile editions' do include the M4A files as well, which gives you the option of installing the program on your computer the same way as with the 'regular edition'.
Alyssa - PG Music
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,485
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,485 |
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; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Joined: Dec 2019
Posts: 36
Enthusiast
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Enthusiast
Joined: Dec 2019
Posts: 36 |
Is the bitrate mentioned above still correct? I was hoping the compressed versions would be at least 320kbps m4a. 160kbps WMA quality seems to be what we would have used around the year 2001-2005. If you already have the WAVs on hand (since you sell Audiophile Editions) it would be great to replace the old WMA's with higher bitrate versions now that our computers have much more storage. 
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Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 10,999
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 10,999 |
Ryan_P, First welcome to the PG Music forum. There has been a long standing request for the Audiophile edition to offer RealTrack and RealDrum files with 24 bit depth. +++ HERE +++ is one request from 2015. If you like the idea you can add your support for the idea with a +1 post. A +++ related +++ request is to have 24 bit RealTracks and the capability for Band-in-a-Box to render 24 bit tracks. However the fact that RealTracks and RealDrums are 16 bit does not reduce the quality of the recordings. Listen to the raw files and you'll find all are professionally recorded. I made the requests because 24 bit files allow a user to use more of each track fader while mixing. Many Band-in-a-Box users including myself are inexperienced at mixing so any advantage that will make mixing easier I want. Listen to some of the compressed RealTracks and RealDrums. I think you'll discover whatever compression algorithm or algorithms PG Music uses does a really good job.
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,485
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,485 |
Also, don't forget some of the tracks using the lower bit rates are monaural.
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; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Joined: Apr 2016
Posts: 110
Apprentice
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Apprentice
Joined: Apr 2016
Posts: 110 |
The Audiophile version does not get a discount on upgrades, unless you're going to upgrade every year.
Keep that in mind if you're considering upgrading.
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Joined: Apr 2016
Posts: 110
Apprentice
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Apprentice
Joined: Apr 2016
Posts: 110 |
And, while 24-bit would be great, I'd be happy with upping the sample rate to 48k. Higher sample rates would help generate far fewer artifacts with all the time shifting the program is doing. Audiophile version or not, some of these tracks sound just horrible when they pitch-shift and/or time stretch. It's a physical limitation of 16/41.1 audio.
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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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Happy New Year!
Thank you for being part of the Band-in-a-Box® community.
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Season's Greetings!
Wishing everyone a happy, healthy holiday season—thanks for being part of our community!
The office will be closed for Christmas Day, but we will be back on Boxing Day (Dec 26th) at 6:00am PST.
Team PG
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Band-in-a-Box 2026 Video: AI Stems & Notes - split polyphonic audio into instruments and transcribe
This video demonstrates how to use the new AI-Notes feature together with the AI-Stems splitter, allowing you to select an audio file and have it separated into individual stems while transcribing each one to its own MIDI track. AI-Notes converts polyphonic audio—either full mixes or individual instruments—into MIDI that you can view in notation or play back instantly.
Watch the video.
You can see all the 2026 videos on our forum!
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