Greg,
And the light dawns!

Okay.

Vista is not a problem. I do understand the financial, but I didn't know you had the Amazon gift cards. That helps somewhat.

As you know, Band In A Box creates up to a five part backing track. It uses some kind of a synthesizer to create those sounds. A synth can be either hardware, or software. Your Microsoft computers come with a built in software synth. This is the Microsoft GM Wavetable Software Synth or whatever they're calling it now. This is a slightly watered down version of the Roland VSC. In your BIAB 2006 disk, there should be a Roland VSC and VSC DXi directory, or .exe files. We can use those, but we have to use the DXi version. I think. I'm trying to remember if 2006 has the DXi version or not. If not, then we're going to have to find something else.

The Oxygen, Axiom and KeyRig keyboards all have controllers on them. These are configurable to send different types of data. So, if you were looking to emulate an old type of synth, with the knobs and buttons and stuff you would press, twist and twiddle in real time, these keyboards would be great for that. The KeyRig even gives you a couple of synths that you can do that with. But, we run into some problems.

Band In A Box is PRIMARILY designed to work with General MIDI synths. Of the four software synths that are included with KeyRig, only one is a GM synth, which severely limits you on how much of it you can use right now. Secondly, the 25 key keyboards only have two octaves, not a whole lot.

Right now, I would go with this:
http://www.amazon.com/Audio-KeyRig-Key-Keyboard-Controller/dp/B000NGG3HU/ref=tag_dpp_lp_edpp_ttl_in

This will give you the four synths and a 49 key keyboard, four octaves, which will allow you more room to play.

The next thing I would do would be to ditch the KeyRig sound modules, and buy this:
http://www.amazon.com/cakewalk-10-CWMC5-00-10C-Cakewalk-Music-Creator/dp/B0023RTCMU/ref=pd_sim_sw_1

This will offer you the Roland TTS-1 software synth, which is a very good software synthesizer for those just starting out, PLUS, it will give you a Digital Audio Workstation to start to learn on. This will allow you to take the parts from Band In A Box, and save them as a .mid file, then open them in MC5. From there, you can record each track individually as audio, add effects, set volume and pan, and play with the instruments. You can also use the keyboard to input to MC5 as well.

The 49 key keyboard, and MC5 will be at right about your $140, you'll need to pay tax and shipping extra, but in the end, it's a great way to start.

Here's the information on MC5 from Cakewalk's site.
http://www.cakewalk.com/products/musiccreator/

Gary

I'm blessed watching God do what He does best. I've had a few rough years, and I'm still not back to where I want to be, but I'm on the way and things are looking far better now than what they were!