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Ok so you want more then a player. You do extensive edits. That's all good. So now let's not talk BIAB let's talk Real Band. In RB you could take your note for note as you call them SMFs and import to RB. You can do a lot of editing right here. There are many parts within a song of the type you are doing that are nothing special. This is were Real Tracks can make your tunes really stand out. The same with Real Drums. I've played this music since I was 12 and I'm now 58 so I've done it a fair amount as well. You need to do the hooks, the stops etc. that make that song recognizable for what it is. If all you did was replace the crappy midi rhythm guitar players with Real Tracks & did Real Drums you'd pee your pants.
RB also has a juke box and you can do scrolling lyrics and a chord sheet.
BTW I used a Roland MC50II for many years. JV module, Alesis d4, strummer all the crap. I'm 100% RB.

I exhume you're a keyboard player? I'm a singer / guitarist / guitar synth player.

I never use any SMF guitar parts. Also I only use a very few SMF monophic solo lines preferring (naturally enough) to play as much as I can from my guitar (such as sax lines etc). I also play as much keyboard as possible from my guitar synth. I also sometimes layer both guitar and keys from my guitar synth.

However the idea of using RB with my existing SMF's by replacing parts is very interesting but...

Have you been able to take high quality SMF's of the three below tunes and replace the SMF drums and bass with RB drums and bass parts?

"Drive" The Cars
"Red Red Wine" UB40
"Wild Horses" The Rolling Stones

Note that I chose these three because the drums and bass are somewhat idiosyncratic to the individual tune. Now I can't see how they could be replaced with generic RB styles, but perhaps I'm mistaken (I like to be wrong if it means I get to do something better-easy-to-implement).

However I play a large number of cover tunes in which the drums and bass need to be the same as the covers and can't be transplanted with generic RB parts (well at least I cannot see how they could and still be the cover tunes but again I may be wrong).

Now you may well be able to use RB parts for guitar, solo woodwinds (and SMF parts that are simply poorly done) but I never have guitar parts or solo woodwinds in my SMF's preferring (as discussed) to play them myself. In fact a large number of my backing tracks are simply drums and bass because I can do so much with my Brian Moore i2.13 guitar, Axon AX100sb, Roland JV1010 and TC Helicon VoiceWorks in real-time.

Then the question comes up of consistency. It's really important for me to have all my drum and bass backing tracks to be very consistent from song to song. I cannot have some backing tracks using RB drums and some backing tracks using SMF drums. That would be a nightmare for me to mix in a live situation.

Understandably I have edited all my SMF's so that I can play any of them in any order at any time and they will all mesh perfectly in terms of the kick drum levels, high-hat levels, bass guitar range etc. So if I was to replace my SMF drums and bass I would have to do it with all my songs. Do you think this would be practical I wonder?

OK, now on to the juke box feature (ie scrolling lyrics and chord sheet) and the problems as I see them...

What if I do not want scrolling lyrics and a chord sheet? What if I want no-scrolling text (as edited prior by me or for that matter scanned in) showing the entire tune all at once and I want this text to take up the vast majority of the laptop screen so as to get maximum readability at a distance but still be able to select any song in any order at any time via foot-switches or a single key stroke? ShowPlay can do this type of thing easily what about BIAB?

At the moment it seems that Muzik Trax is most correct when he says "Biab and RB are more suited for making the backing tracks." as compared to ShowPlay or MIDI Maestro which are built for the express purpose of live MIDI / SMF / Audio/ text etc playback.

However if you would be so kind as to address further my questions as they relate to RB and replacing drums and bass parts of SMF's I would be forever in your debt!

That's interesting that you're 58, I'm 54 and have been a fulltime working solo musician for many years; however I now teach fulltime so I don't gig anywhere near as much as I once did.

Merry Christmas and I do thank you ever so much for reading this long thing!

Obliged,

Danny