Hi Jim,

Your earlier posts were very helpful to me. At the time I was trying to figure out what exactly was going on.

As I now see it PGMusic appear to have a significant problem with this range of add-on sets assuming that they all have the same problem as the one that I purchased and downloaded. As add-on products for Biab, they simply can't be used in any practical way and to my mind they are substantially misrepresented on the PGMusic website for what they actually are.

You said:
" If they had not included the styles you likely would have been content to use the set #299 RealTrack instruments with the styles you have."

This unfortunately is not correct. Having these extra five RealTracks on their own would be of little or no use to me or most other users. As I pointed out in a previous post, my experience is that it is no trivial task to effectively utilise stand alone RealTracks in other styles. While it can be done in a technical sense the end results leave a lot to be desired and it probably can't be done effectively, even by a suitably skilled person, with the limited supply of RealTracks instrumentalists available in the Mega Pak or a lesser package.

What I expected to get, based on the information on the PGMusic website was five new styles featuring the RealTracks shown as the leading instrumentalists, supported by suitable backing tracks. I expected these new styles, when installed on my system to be accessible in my Style picker and to work in the same way as the other 300 odd existing RealTrack styles that are a part of my standard 2019 MegaPack installation. When applied to a suitable song (i.e. chord sequence) I expected that the sound produced would be similar to its respective demo track. Nothing like this occurred. I don't believe that any of these expectations are unreasonable.

The #299 download installed 7 new styles on my computer. The demo tracks did not match those on the web site and the styles, when applied to a simple 12 bar blues chord arrangement sounded nothing like the web site demo tracks. I also noticed that all the new styles were missing a good many instruments and were marked [RT N/A]. There were 15 individual instruments in total missing from the seven new styles. None of the pre- existing RealTrack styles - Real (No MIDI)- appear to be missing instruments or are marked [RT N/A]. See the screen dump images below.

As you suggest PG Music could add a disclaimer to their web site which in effect could say that these sets do not include all the instruments required. The purchase of additional sets which in turn are then also likely to be incomplete will be required. Does doing this really make any sense however from a marketing point of view?

A second and much more sensible option in my opinion would be for PG Music to include in each and every set all the components needed to make it work properly.

A third option would be to withdraw all these add-on sets from the market.

I have been a Biab user for a very long time and have had a long and happy association with PGMusic and Biab. From memory, the first version I owned was V7. Since that time I have recommended Biab to many musician friends and many have bought it and now use it. This latest fiasco with the add-on sets creates a significant ethical problem for me. I don't want any of my friends or for that matter anybody to ever have to go down this frustrating and time wasting path that I have just travelled.

As you and others have suggested, the quickest and easiest way to resolve my own immediate problem is to request a refund for my #299 set purchase and then upgrade to an Ultra Pack. This is what I intend to do in the near future.

Regards
Tim


Attached Files (Click to download or enlarge) (Only available when you are logged in)
bandInaboxStandardMegaPackStyle.png (98.67 KB, 132 downloads)
BIAB Style picker window showing one of the complete and working RealTrack styles in the standard 2019 MegaPak
Band in a box 299 Real Track set Installation.png (109.83 KB, 129 downloads)
BIAB Style Picker window showing #299 add-on styles with missing instruments.