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Journeyman
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Journeyman
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Thanks for the tip and the kind words, Matt.
2b
i5-3210 laptop. Win 10 Home. 2.5ghz, 64 bit. 6gb RAM. Focusrite Scarlet 2i2.
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The only reason I started explaining RB is because the reason you started this thread about Mixcraft or Reaper was you were having problems with RB. To me it's logical to look at the underlying reason for a question as well as the question itself.
You'll notice nobody has actually disputed my points.
RB works as advertised.
VST's work fine.
Time stretch works fine.
Midi editing works fine, it's better than some, not as good as others.
Nowhere did I say RB is perfect or cannot be improved. Every piece of software in any field has issues and can be improved. Especially Help files.
The reason I'm posting this rather than using PM is because thousands of potential customers of PGM search about things like this all the time and this thread will pop up. If I wasn't making these points lots of people will think there's something inherently wrong with RB when there is not. Overall it's a killer program.
Bob
Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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Expert
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Expert
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[quote=jazzmammal]
You'll notice nobody has actually disputed my points.
The reason I, myself can not dispute is because I stopped using RealBand about 3 years ago due to the issues I had. So long ago I don't remember what they were other than frustrating. Therefore, I don't feel qualified to debate it. Meanwhile, I developed a new common workflow. Most often BIAB straight over to Reaper. Basically by-passing the Tourette Syndrom inducing features of RealBand. I watch the forum periodically for consistent claims of RealBand Peace and Happiness Uphoria. Weighing your experience as a veteran user against other novice users has peaked my interest only a little.
Does the noise in your head bother me ?
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I use RB now and again mainly to generate a lot of tracks that I then mix in Cubase. In that sense its a great program, you can enter chords etc generate plenty of realtracks within it. It has crashed on me many times and when restarting always get that message do you want to use factory or default settings as it crashed last time you used it. Did I do something wrong, I don't know nor do I have the time to find out. I just know that it can crash often, but I am not going to stop using it for it does things like generating tracks that no other DAW can do, so I will put up with its little quirks for the above reasons. Another user has so much interest in Realband they actually crated a website to promote it, Real band website He/she got so frustrated with the quirks of the program they left the forum in disgust because they felt that nothing was been done to fix it. He/she may have returned under a different name, I am not sure, but being a computer savvy person he/she sure knows what they are talking about, so its not a good idea to say that they don't. BUT in the great scheme of things it doesn't matter, in 10-15 years time most of us won't be around and thinking of RB, its not wroth getting our blood pressure up about. 
Last edited by musiclover; 11/20/18 01:07 PM.
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Apprentice
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Apprentice
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Agree with David and Dan, Bob. For my part, I wanted to love RB, especially since it's included in the hefty cost of BIAB Audiophile (it's worth it!). I continue to use RB, and have produced charted singles with it, but it's problematic. Sorry, it is. The editing features, zoom and panning into the Tracks window are primitive, It's only 32-bit, and though I purchased jBridge, 64-bit plugin performance is not seamless. It doesn't support VST3, which is important for some of the best 3rd party plugins. Although I have a robust PC, there are still occasional lockups and a less frequent crash. The volume node feature doesn't work well. You can't automate subgroup sliders with multiple channels assigned to them. I'm very happy RB works flawlessly on your end. It doesn't here, and other sophisticated users have experienced problems. Now, with the advent of the DAW Plugin for BIAB, my belief is that RB will not be updated, and will remain a so-so, 32-bit, VST1-2 program, which frustrates me, because again, I wanted to love it. I paid for it, I understand it fairly expertly, and I love the analog look of the UI. Again, can you produce a great sounding track with it? Yes. But in my experience, with lots of unnecessary work. Peace.
Best, Warren
Warren A. Keller- Woodwindist/Producer
Spontaneous Groovin' Combustion
Tune 9 Music- SESAC
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hi 2b im liking mixcraft a lot lately loving the midi side don't seem to have any noticeable latenecy on midi keyboard controller its a nice dawn I have used sonar to bandlab reaper,samplutude,reason and many more real band was crashing for me a lot 4 years ago so I left it alone for a time going to try it again it would give me a lot of options all dawns work great depends on your work flow I hope things work out for you eric
AMD (TM) 5950 4.9 GHz 16Core Processor 64 bit 32 bits of ram windows 10 pro 64 bit os. sound card Antelope ZenQ guitars Ibanez 2202a 1968 les Paul Custom and Cavin ae 185 Guitar boss Gt-100,GT1000 pedal Yamaha HS8 studio monitors
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One factor to consider is the support you can get on Mixcraft and Reaper. I have experience with Mixcraft support and it was excellent. I did not work with Reaper enough to form an opinion on their support. I found the Mixcraft tutorials and forum to be excellent. I did not try them for Reaper.
But keep in mind, lots of folks have one or the other who also have BIAB (and RealBand). This is a helpful forum and a unique place to get support if your questions are about using BIAB together with a DAW. I think, with no real evidence except reading past discussions, that a lot more people here use Reaper.
The brief upsurge to Mixcraft came at the same time that Cakewalk SONAR looked like it was no longer a choice, so some of those users (including me) started learning Mixcraft (and others). Then many of us (including me) went right back to the new incarnation of SONAR in the form of Cakewalk by BandLab. I did like Mixcraft but would advise you more to strongly consider Reaper if for no other reason than the support you can more likely get here when using it with BIAB.
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; Roland Integra-7, Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Interesting thread I missed before. My opinion is simple. Choose a REAL DAW that was designed by a software development team specializing in and focused on DAW software! To me RealBand seems more like a proof of concept project that was never fully developed or optimized for real world use. It is impressive for what it does but it simply does not compare with REAL DAWs IMHO.
There are plenty of REAL DAWs to choose from but I chose Reaper. Reaper is an outstanding DAW with plenty of advanced features along with a modern interface. It has never crashed in the 7 years I have used it (RealBand crashes or bogs down almost every time I use it.)
To those who say digital audio is complicated and that you need to spend 15 years to learn it and get it all working properly I'd say maybe that's true with RealBand but not with Reaper! It pretty much worked out of the box when I could barely spell DAW.
And regarding this silly notion that it is the user's fault RealBand crashes because they don't have a "standard" computer, well when other products like Reaper just work that pretty much proves it ain't the user's fault!
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Journeyman
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Thanks to all of you who responded. I have been out of touch for a few days, so I just saw this.
First, I didn't want to get back into the contentious discussion about the wonders of RB and that something must be wrong with someone who can't get it to work properly and consistently. But since it has resurfaced, let me point out a few things.
1)Most of the people on this thread mention frequent crashing with RB and that was my experience. I used Reaper on the same computer for about 100 hours before I bought it. It never crashed. It still hasn't. I don't turn my wifi off or shut down my antivirus either. It just works.
2) Mr. Gannon has recently published a thread which extols the virtues of using Cakewalk with RB. That could be a signal that PG is going to let RB wither on the vine, and he may not be able to say that because of prior contractual obligations. I am not trying to put words in his mouth but it is something to consider. Most of us would buy BB at the same price without RB, so you could say PG makes no money on RB but they have to support it.
3) RB does some nice things when it works. I bought Reaper but I have opened RB a couple of times to copy and paste by measure number, a function I haven't learned on Reaper yet. I found I was still putting up with crashes and I was thankful I had made the change.
If RB works for you, by all means keep using it. I'm happy for you. At the same time, be happy for those of us who have found something that works better for us.
2b
i5-3210 laptop. Win 10 Home. 2.5ghz, 64 bit. 6gb RAM. Focusrite Scarlet 2i2.
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.....Most of us would buy BB at the same price without RB, so you could say PG makes no money on RB but they have to support it.....
2b and there's some Mac users asking for RealBand for Mac, I shiver and think they have no idea what they would get themselves into, it damn near killed me the stress it caused ! I tried it on Win10 as I thought that maybe the solution, it was going great, then BANG ! error, I just cried, seriously. The plugin and a good DAW is the future, maybe they will get the plugin more compatible with the save BB.SGU songs with F5 settings ? RealBand forced me to get into ReaTrak Win/Lin/Mac and have not looked back.
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The thread is literally called mixcraft vs reaper. I haven’t seen a single post regarding either
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Welcome to the forum.
Did you read the entire thread? There is lots of mention about the two programs, in context that this is the off-topic forum for PG Music products.
Since you’re new here, I might also mention this thread is not an example of our finest work. If I were still teaching, I’d have at least two weeks of material on the interpersonal dynamics failures of a social media platform, just from this thread. But give us a chance. This is overall a friendly, helpful and knowledgeable group.
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; Roland Integra-7, Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Journeyman
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Since I started the thread, let me respond. I was frustrated with Real Band and started looking for something. I had the free trials of Mixcraft and Reaper. I recorded with both.
In the end, I chose Reaper because there are so many support videos and it has an active forum. Also, a lot of people on this forum use Reaper. Since I did, I have not regretted the choice.
That doesn't mean you would make the same choice. IMO, the best way to evaluate is to have a piece you want to record. Try it on both DAW's and see which is better for you. Plan to spend several hours over the course of two weeks when you do it.
A couple of dislikes about Reaper: I don't like the non-destructive editing (but a lot of people like it). So I save before I edit and then tell the program to trim content. Also, it piles up files when you are doing punch-ins. Occasionally, you have to manage those.
If you have any other questions, post them. Or you can PM me, but I am not the most experienced user on this forum.
Hope this helps.
2b
i5-3210 laptop. Win 10 Home. 2.5ghz, 64 bit. 6gb RAM. Focusrite Scarlet 2i2.
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S
In the end, I chose Reaper because there are so many support videos and it has an active forum. Also, a lot of people on this forum use Reaper. Since I did, I have not regretted the choice.
2b Reaper ...is a joy to work in. Primarily given that on my system it is and has been for years Rock-Solid. Can count on one hand the number of times it has crushed over these years. Add to that the Reaper Forum and many videos to view when you what to learn a new feature. And with Reaper there is always something new with constant upgrades. Whoowie, I guess I win! 
BIAB – 2025, Reaper (current), i7-12700F Processor, 32GB DDR4-3200MHz RAM, 1TB WD Black NVMe SSD, 2TB WDC Blue SSD, 1TB WD Blue, 2 TB SK NVMe, 6 TB External, Motu Audio Express 6x6
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Late to the party as usual. But here is my two cents (sense) worth.
I start many years ago with a clarion 4 track cassette recorder, found a copy of cakewalk home studio on floppy disc. Bought a program called N track studios, it was glitches on my system, upgraded to cakewalk music creator 1, used it a while upgraded to 3, along the same time I used acid pro for a while. Then a regular here suggested a program called Multitrackstudios, I found that to be super stable and simple to get stuff done. Mean while I upgraded to cakewalk MC 5 then sonar 1 and 2 pro. Tinkered with them all a bit. Stayed with MTS for a while. Tried Reaper, found it solid and flexible, but it to me took to much set up and fiddling to cause me to switch. Bought a new interface from Presonus, it came with studio one free. Liked it, so upgraded (note I also owed powertracks, and BiaB) upgraded Studio one once again. Now I find it is the most stable and easiest to use. And by far the most productive for me. I did use RB for about two years creating backing track sets. It is fine but does occasionally crash and freezes for me.
Now on my system I have BiaB, RB, cakewalk by Bandlab, Reaper, and Studio one. My current workflow is Created in BiaB, and slide to Studio one. Once some of the little issues get worked out in the DAW plugin that will be a big part of it.
Point to all this is I have literally tried them all including a couple in Linux, even Cubase. Find one you like that works for you and stay they all make music.
HP Win 11 12 gig ram, Mac mini Sonoma with 16 gig of ram, BiaB 2025, Realband, Reaper 7, Harrison Mixbus 9 32c , Melodyne 5 editor, Presonus Audiobox 1818VSL, Presonus control app.
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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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Video: Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac®: VST3 Plugin Support
Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac® now includes support for VST3 plugins, alongside VST and AU. Use them with MIDI or audio tracks for even more creative possibilities in your music production.
Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Macs®: VST3 Plugin Support
Video: Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac®: Using VST3 Plugins
Join the conversation on our forum.
Band-in-a-Box 2025 for Mac Videos
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Reference this forum post for One-Stop Shopping of our Band-in-a-Box® 2025 Mac Videos — we’ll be adding more videos as they’re released!
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Band-in-a-Box 2025 Italian Version is Here!
Cari amici
È stata aggerate la versione in Italiano del programma più amato dagli appassionati di musica, il nostro Band-in-a-Box.
Questo è il link alla nuova versione 2025.
Di seguito i link per scaricare il pacchetti di lingua italiana aggiornati per Band-in-a-Box e RealBand, anche per chi avesse già comprato la nuova versione in inglese.
Band-in-a-Box 2025 - Italiano
RealBand 2025 - Italiano
Band-in-a-Box 2025 French Version is Here!
Bonjour à tous,
Band-in-a-Box® 2025 pour Windows est disponible en Français.
Le téléchargement se fait à partir du site PG Music
Pour ceux qui auraient déjà acheté la version 2025 de Band-in-a-Box (et qui donc ont une version anglaise), il est possible de "franciser" cette version avec les patchs suivants:
BIAB 2025 - francisation
RealBand 2025 - francisation
Voilà, enjoy!
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Stay up to date—get the latest update now!
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