Remember Computer Shopper? It was basically a book of ads plus a few articles. It was as thick as a metropolitan phone book. In the 90s it was "the" way to find out what was happening in the new world of computers, peripherals and software.
Recently I was cleaning out an old file cabinet, and there was a folder labeled "future purchases"
One of the ads I had saved for future reference was from Computer shopper's April 1992 edition. As it turns out, I bought two of the items shown on this page: Cakewalk 4.0 and Band in a Box (not sure which version of BIAB I bought first. I'm pretty sure I bought Cakewalk first, then decided it wasn't easy to use. Later a friend at work introduced me to BIAB, and I remember thinking "THIS is how music creation should work!"
I remember Computer Shopper. I love seeing those old ads.
And that version of BIAB is three behind where I started (I started in version 8). I bought the ProPak and just as today, and then quickly realized that what I needed was the MegaPak (which at the time was the one with mostly everything - UltraPaks, UltraPlusPaks, and EverythingPaks came later), so when BIAB v9 came out, I upgraded to the MegaPak. Never looked back and have used BIAB for something on almost a daily basis since.
John
Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 12TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 12TB SATA
I also remember when other software first started incorporating audio loops. It was fascinating, but I thought that method of applying loops lacked the musical quality that BIAB achieved with its method of splicing snippets together into a cohesive song that followed the chords, and wasn't the same loop over and over.
At the time, people were getting frustrated by trying to play MIDI thru stock PC sound cards, and they couldn't get realistic sound. Even then the thought occurred to me that if PGMusic could ever figure out how to use audio loops the same way they were using MIDI snippets, they would have a game-changing product.
In 2008, they did!
To this day, nobody else has anything like it.
Hats off to Dr. Gannon and to everybody who has ever worked at PGMusic. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Making the idea work is much harder. And marketing the working idea into a product with a global user base is quite an accomplishment. Everybody reading this has benefited from your accomplishment. We thank you for making our lives a lot more fun than they would be without BIAB.
Check this out Pat, speaking of loops.... My first Sound Sampler for the Amiga, circa 1990.... I was also using Dr. T.'s KCS MIDI Sequencer and in years shortly after discovered Cool Edit Pro (now Adobe Audition). I was a late bloomer to BIAB but had my first experience with it in the mid '90s with a Music Theory class in college.
Check this out Pat, speaking of loops.... My first Sound Sampler for the Amiga, circa 1990.... I was also using Dr. T.'s KCS MIDI Sequencer and in years shortly after discovered Cool Edit Pro (now Adobe Audition). I was a late bloomer to BIAB but had my first experience with it in the mid '90s with a Music Theory class in college.
I remember in the early days of computing, the Amiga was a superior product that never got the foothold in the USA that it had in Europe. It was an interesting time when different platforms fought for market share. Microsoft's alignment with IBM pushed it over the top, when people like me decided it made more sense to learn the operating system we'd probably end up using at work... and PCs surged ahead of Amiga and Apple in sales, even though both of those were superior products.
And your post about the Perfect Sound Board reminded me of the first product I bought in my search for better MIDI output. It was a Roland Sound Canvas daughter board, which attached to some of the early Sound Blaster cards that were mainly for games, not music production. The daughter board had great sounds, and I used it until the Sound Blaster croaked. After which, I bought a Roland XV-3080 rack unit, which I still have... along with a bunch of expansion boards
My first BIAB was version 4, and I had Cakewalk Pro also. Fun post, Pat.
Not long after, I noticed Notes Norton's ads in Recording Magazine or some such for a "better band in your box".
I find it interesting that so many early adopters of BIAB are still active users! How many products from the early days of computing still exist at all, let alone still have faithful users who have been on board from the beginning?
as a tie-in to another thread about market share: PGMusic's ability to stay relevant in a changing market probably has a lot to do with their longevity (and therefore cumulative global user base). They outlived a lot of their original competitors, and they've parlayed their unique approach to making music so that the survivors haven't made them irrelevant.
The ability to export tracks directly to other DAWS was a brilliant idea, because it eliminated the idea that you only need one piece of music making software. By positioning itself as one part of a multi-faceted system of music creation, I think PGMusic pretty much carved out a niche that has become unassailable.
It was an interesting time when different platforms fought for market share. Microsoft's alignment with IBM pushed it over the top, when people like me decided it made more sense to learn the operating system we'd probably end up using at work... and PCs surged ahead of Amiga and Apple in sales, even though both of those were superior products.
Spot on Pat. I worked at a "Software ETC" computer store in 1989. That year most PC software sales was business/productivity software and they were getting a foothold on gaming software. We did sell lots of Sound Blaster 1.0 and Adlib sound cards. Amiga had the edge on games, art (Deluxe Paint), music followed by Apple. The original Macintoshes' were popular and Amiga had adopted their windows desktop look before M$ had got there. Of course M$/IBM would steal share from the others as you mentioned.
I also find it interesting that in 1992, Cakewalk Pro cost $175 while BIAB cost $59 (what would that be today, adjusted for inflation?)
Yet, today, Cakewalk is free while a first-time purchase of BIAB can run as much as $669!
Prices adjusted for what the market will bear? You can't charge more for a product that nobody wants to buy!
And given a marketplace that is so glutted with similar products that a popular product like Sonar is abandoned, then resurrected for free... PGMusic's ability to continue charging relatively high prices for its flagship product tells us all we need to know about the demand for BIAB. People tend to vote with their wallets. They won't spend money for products they don't want.
Of course M$/IBM would steal share from the others as you mentioned.
yeah, and they also stole a lot of ideas from their more creative counterparts.. like the GUI
Also one of the Mac's early advantages was that they had a standardized SDK, so all of their software looked the same, making it easy to learn any program that was available. PC software, on the other hand, was all over the place, with everybody trying to create their own interface.
Visual Basic changed that. With a standard set of menus and dialog boxes etc, it wasn't long before a bunch of top-notch shareware emerged for the PC... all of which looked and worked the same way.
Sorry for saying stuff everybody already knows, but I'm on a roll down memory lane and I can't find the brakes. ;-)
Pat, I don’t recall if I’ve told you this but I worked for Tandy in the 1970s. People know Tandy as Radio Shack. I used to take a computer in 1977, strap it into the passenger seat, and head to shows, schools, corporations and even TV appearances. I would often compete with the Apple dealer.
Working near the enormous IBM in Poughkeepsie NY, I sold tons of personal computers TO IBM and to IBMers years before they came out with their own personal computer in 1981.
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.
Check this out Pat, speaking of loops.... My first Sound Sampler for the Amiga, circa 1990.... I was also using Dr. T.'s KCS MIDI Sequencer and in years shortly after discovered Cool Edit Pro (now Adobe Audition). I was a late bloomer to BIAB but had my first experience with it in the mid '90s with a Music Theory class in college.
Small world isn't it as I started with an Atari and Dr. T,s KCS! Dr T's software was way ahead of its time back then. I also used Cool Edit Pro. I then got a PC and later go Cakewalk's Pro Audio 9.
I tried BiaB back in my Atari days and I didn't like it. That is probably due to the fact I was using lousy sound sources and I didn't have the MIDI knowledge that I do today. I went back to using my external Korg DS-8 and doing everything myself.
I tried BiaB around 2000-2001 and I liked the improvements that they did. I've been using and updating every since.
It is extremely impressive that a software company has been in business for such a long time. Especially a small market software business, meaning the percentage of computer owners recording music. I understand that it is the lowest percent tile of all the specialized computer applications.
Love is grand. Divorce is twenty grand!
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
Mario, in a real way I'm STILL using Cool Edit Pro. I use Adobe Audition 1.5. Version 1 simply was Cool Edit Pro renamed, and version 1.5 fixed a few things. I also have version 3 which requires ASIO but rarely fire it up since 1.5 is so stable.
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.
In the US, Radio Shack was the poor man's way to open the gateway to computer land. The one close by my house sold the Model 1 and model 3 but also sold the Commodore and Atari product lines. Later on they sold IBM and GoldStar (Korean IBM clone).
There really isn't anything quite like Radio Shack today (sigh).
Jim, your local Radio Shack was a franchise store as opposed to a company one. They were typically much older established stores that added the part of the Radio Shack line they wanted to carry.
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.
Pat, I don’t recall if I’ve told you this but I worked for Tandy in the 1970s. People know Tandy as Radio Shack. I used to take a computer in 1977, strap it into the passenger seat, and head to shows, schools, corporations and even TV appearances. I would often compete with the Apple dealer.
Working near the enormous IBM in Poughkeepsie NY, I sold tons of personal computers TO IBM and to IBMers years before they came out with their own personal computer in 1981.
My first computer was a Tandy 1000 SX... it had:
one 5.25" floppy drive. (I upgraded to 2 so I could copy stuff)
8088 CPU running at 7.16 MHz.
640 Kb (not megs, not gigs, not Tb) of ram
no hard drive. I bought a 500 gig HD card for $500...
Monitor was monochrome green.
GWBasic! I loved that!
In the days before the internet there was PCLink, and you paid by the minute to be online. I once ran up a $200 bill because I didn't realize I was being charged. Glad those days are long gone!
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Band-in-a-Box 2026 Video: The Newly Designed Piano Roll Window
In this video, we explore the updated Piano Roll, complete with a modernized look and exciting new features. You’ll see new filtering options that make it easy to focus on specific note groups, smoother and more intuitive note entry and editing, and enhanced options for zooming, looping, and more.
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.
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