Ron,

I am not much of a bass player. I have an Englehardt plywood bass that for years I would throw in the back of the pickup sans gig bag and drive it over to the weekly front porch get together. We played old time. I stopped doing that a few years ago and now mostly play standards on guitar. I can't play those bass parts very well. I can do them better on an electric with a pick, but I much prefer the authentic sound of a double bass.

I now have a copy of Biab Pro that I am evaluating for 30 days before deciding if I want to buy the Ultrapluspak. I am still evaluating Forte DXi. My computer can handle Forte DXi or Realtracks, but it is best if I don't run both at the same time. It can handle Forte DXi and Realdrums at the same time which works out well. I agree with you that the Realdrums are the best part of the real instruments (that came with Pro -- and the sax is good but I mean the accompaniment Realtracks). But my point is that I now think that I would not be able to use Garritan Jazz & Big Band on this computer since it can barely handle Forte DXi. I doubt that it could handle any of the big sample programs. And I can't add more ram; already maxed out. I really need a new computer to run these apps but if I bought one then I could not afford the programs.

Andrew, I guess I could request a style and wait to see if it ever comes out and then buy the Ultrapak, but my dislike is more about Neil Sainson's sound than the style. I wish they had not named it a swing bass because it sounds nothing like the double basses from the swing era, possibly because they used gut strings back then and did not play so much up the fingerboard which accentuates the buzzing. To me, Neil Swainson's sound is more tailored to hard core jazz where all of the instruments are the equal of each other and each tries to be noticed as much as possible, which I feel is not appropriate when backing up a standard's singer.

I also don't like the sound of the Oliver Gannon "Freddie" guitar. The style is okay but there is a lot of string rattling in the sound, like the guitar is being banged or the action is set too low. It sounds amateurish to me, so even if I were to request another style and it were produced but with the same unsatisfactory sound then I still would not want to use it.

For the moment I am sticking with Biab 2004 and using Forte DXi for the bass while I continue to evaluate the Realtracks. I like the sound of the Forte DXi bass okay and it has the advantage that I can control the note selection. I am still pondering whether it is worth the cost of upgrading mainly to get the Realdrums. I have a couple of weeks left in my evaluation period.

Thank you for the tips regarding Garritan Jazz & Big Band.

Jim