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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Maybe, but perhaps PICNIC.  Near enough
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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2bSolo -
My base computer is a Dell Special Edition XPS. The Intel 7700K processor has been over-clocked a bit to a constant 4.6MHz. My over clock speed is limited by thermal issues and without going to water cooling or more, I cannot run it stable past the current speed...although there seems to be quite a noticeable performance increase at 4.7Ghz, I just can't hold it steady there.
With 4 RAM slots the computer can handle 64Gb but I think that the 32 that I have is more than needed. The memory is 2400Mhz DDR4. When my music system is running, I'm typically running 7 to 8 programs at once and rarely see more than 12-15% memory utilization. Have looked at increasing the memory to higher frequencies but think I'm at a point of diminishing returns.
In all honesty...is it fast? Yeah!...on test programs, test loads, etc. On everyday stuff...I guess..more so than my previous computers. But the biggest bang for the buck is SSD drives...no question about that. But my own experience here is that while your computer and programs will start faster, I'm not so sure they run will noticeably faster with SSD's.
YMMV
Jeff
Win11, Intel i7 7700K 4.2Ghz, 32Gb RAM, 2x1Tb HD, 500Gb NVMe, BIAB/RB 2026, MOTU 828MK3 audio, MOTU Midi Express, Yamaha Montage 7, DX7II, TX802, Motif XS Rack, Roland Fantom XR Rack, Oberheim Matrix 1000, VoiceLive3 Extreme, Kontakt 6, SampleTank 4.3
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Journeyman
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Thanks, Jeff. Sounds like a great system.
2b
i5-3210 laptop. Win 10 Home. 2.5ghz, 64 bit. 6gb RAM. Focusrite Scarlet 2i2.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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MountainSide, sorry to jump in like this.
One of the biggest annoyances for me in BIAB is rendering times... Since you have a beast of a machine, can you kindly share how long your complete song re-generation takes if you have all 7 slots with RT/RD? Very curious to know.
Thank you,
Misha.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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PS on overclocking .... very popular with (graphics intensive) gaming PCs, but IMO not really nescesary with a modern (silent) audio computer, especially if you leave it on day and night like in a lot of pro-studios. Why? your computer wears out sooner due overheating etc. Fans running full speed wear out sooner too. - F
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Overclocking with an audio production machine? No. I value stability over an ounce of extra speed.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Interesting question Misha. I never tried to time this before, but this machine is faster than my other two.
Here's how I set this experiment up. I selected 11 previous songs at random that I have worked on. I unfroze the styles that I had in the original song and selected a new style at random. Hit the stopwatch and "Generate and Play" button at the same time and ran the time until I heard music. I typically add RT solos to my 3 verse songs on the entire 2 chorus, in those songs with a RT solo regeneration seems to take longer.
Here are the results, with number of RT's listed first, then the regen time in seconds.
3 - 2.9
5 - 5.2
5 - 7.2
5 - 5.5
5 - 11.2
5 - 5.6
5 - 4.7
6 - 7.2
6 - 6.8
6 - 8.7
6 - 9.2
I really don't know how this compares to anyone else's regen times. It's definitely faster than my other 2 Intel i5 systems. Those systems both had programs on SSD's and secondary 7200 rpm HD's for my RT's with 12 and 16GB of memory respectively. There is a difference between the number of cores and threads on i5 versus i7 but I'm not clear on how BIAB handles those.
As others have stated, overclocking is not for the faint of heart. It will definitely void any warranty that you my have, your system will run hotter and at higher voltage; likely shortening the computer's life. You really have to run very long stress tests to be sure that your system is stable and can handle this playing around. I'll typically run stress tests for 24 hours straight or more.
In my case, I'm a technician and came into music because of the technology not the other way around. I'm sure that explains my tendency to tinker and my lack of music theory which many folks here are expert at.
Jeff
Win11, Intel i7 7700K 4.2Ghz, 32Gb RAM, 2x1Tb HD, 500Gb NVMe, BIAB/RB 2026, MOTU 828MK3 audio, MOTU Midi Express, Yamaha Montage 7, DX7II, TX802, Motif XS Rack, Roland Fantom XR Rack, Oberheim Matrix 1000, VoiceLive3 Extreme, Kontakt 6, SampleTank 4.3
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Jeff,
Thank you for running the tests!
I am guesstimating that adding a soloist tracks, regeneration will take 10 seconds on your machine on average.
I have 7600U which is 2 cores compared to 4 cores of yours. (M.2 SSD and 16gb Ram...)
7 tracks take an average of 12 seconds on my computer... 2 re-generations=full Windows startup (time-wise)
One thing that I forgot to ask, and I am guessing here... you have the UltraPak, not Audiophile edition of BIAB.
A bit sad to see such long re-gen times on such a monster of a computer. I was hoping that doubling processor cores would speed up things significantly, but difference is not that impressive. As I mentioned in other post, I believe it takes so much time because BIAB goes to original file sources every time to gathers files for re-generation instead of loading active group of RT/RD to memory. So, the long times in re-generation depends more on SSD Random access speed... and not as much on processor cores or ram amount.
Jeff, thanks again!
Misha.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Yes, I have the UltraPak. Actually, in most all of my songs I add a soloist track. Only that 3 track song is without the soloist. A full windows startup on my machine from a dead off (not sleep or restart) is 12-13 seconds. I attribute this to the SSD not so much the processor.
Possible point about BIAB going to original file sources for a new style regens. My RT's are not on my NVMe M.2 but are on my secondary 7200 rpm mechanical. Have thought about getting a larger NVMe to put all RT's on, but as I mentioned, I think that I'm at the point of diminishing returns and I've probably pushed this rig as far as it can go.
Personally, I think that I've done as much with the hardware side of the equation as I can now. Any further improvements, at least in my humble opinion, would be of the software side of BIAB's code and implementation.
YMMV
Jeff
Win11, Intel i7 7700K 4.2Ghz, 32Gb RAM, 2x1Tb HD, 500Gb NVMe, BIAB/RB 2026, MOTU 828MK3 audio, MOTU Midi Express, Yamaha Montage 7, DX7II, TX802, Motif XS Rack, Roland Fantom XR Rack, Oberheim Matrix 1000, VoiceLive3 Extreme, Kontakt 6, SampleTank 4.3
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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"Any further improvements, at least in my humble opinion, would be of the software side of BIAB's code and implementation."
+1
Jeff thank you for your time and tests!
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Rustyspoon, you asked if he had the ultrapak or audiophile edition. For purposes of speed tests, the audiophile edition has a slightly faster regeneration time because BIAB doesn’t have to uncompress the RealTracks first.
Note - this assumes you didn’t make WAV files out of WMA, which the program allows but normally makes little sense because of the huge storage requirement.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Hi Matt.
I know. Here is the thing. I will say upfront, I do get the "freezing" concept and I use it where it needs to be. However, my "re-generations" and renderings take about 1/2 time of tune making in BIAB. I am talking hours on each project, just those "regenerations". It does add up.
My UltraPack lives on internal M.2 SSD, it seems that a much faster computer does make some difference in cutting regen time, but not eye popping difference.
Misha.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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I guess the big baddie is the wma to wav rendering. Considering the price of the Audiophile version coming on an external USB 3.0 drive INCLUDED versus the wma only download 'model', and the coming upgrading to 2019 deals, you might be wiser to follow that route instead of building a speed monster. Built an i7 5930K 3,5 GHz ASUSx99 system four years ago, and killed all the Windows 10 bullshit; it is still fast enough. About 3-5 secs rendering time for a BIAB RT ridden MGU. Biab internally installed on a separate 2TB SATA drive.
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fiddler2007... "Biab internally installed on a separate 2TB" not a solution for me as this year it (audiophile) will most likely increase to 1.75TB, so a single internal (I can only have one HD) 2tb SSD would not do it  And larger ones cost a small fortune. If PG had an option of "send your own drive" it would save users $100 or so on purchase of SSD or offer that option themselves (to ship it on SSD)... options, options... I rather see them change code slightly, to reflect modern computers, so active stuff happens in memory, not through original source to destination every generation.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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a good old fashioned SATA3 drive is quite fast these days; with externals you'll have more problems as gradually slowing down USB transfers ... even if you have a separate controller chip per bus as i have ...
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Not buying any more spinning drives, buried too many of them + my comp.takes only M.2. internally. USB 3.1 C gen2. / Thunderbolt 3 looks promising for external connection, but to find out for sure have to spend a lot of money. Audiophile upgrade + 2tb external SSD... at that pace of spending, I will become hunter & gatherer pretty soon 
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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I rather see them change code slightly, to reflect modern computers, so active stuff happens in memory, not through original source to destination every generation. There's 100+ gig of RealTrack audio 'chunk' options available when regenerating. This is with the smaller WMA files; WAV is larger yet. You want this to happen in RAM? I don't follow. In order to have all RTs available for regenerating it has to look to some kind of storage that is larger than RAM .. or are you thinking it should load all options for that one style? (this may still be too large for many systems) Or maybe I misunderstood your idea (?)
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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....Not buying any more spinning drives, buried too many of them + my comp.takes only M.2. internally .... I 'burried' a Samsung SSD pro 250GB recently, after 3 years of intensive use only ... got some really old IDE spinning drives still perfect ... F
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XPro & Xtra Styles PAK Sets On Sale Now - Until May 15, 2026!
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