Remember the original Linn Drum machine? It sounded horrible, weighed a TON, and was very expensive. All the drummers said "Man, it'll never work, I can't be replaced". Then the pop hits of the 80's came out with the Linn Drum and next thing you know, the friendly next door Elks club band had a shiny new linn drum (Hey, we gotta sound like Air Supply!) minus the drummer.

BIAB came out about 1990, most musicians I knew then didn't have a laptop, but there where a huge number of lounge bands with a big Desktop running Mastertracks pro or Studio Vision with their Yamaha DX-7 and Linn Drum. State of the art! So many bands cut back from 10 or 12 musicians down to 6 or so.

Forward to 2000, digital recording and VST's made it much easier to play with sequences onstage, but most bands still had to have a BIG rack for all the modules and effect units. Most clubs won't pay for anything over a Quartet, so Bass and Drum players were having a tough time.

Forward to today. I live in a tourist town (Acapulco) we have a 4 mile long chain of huge Hotels. Those hotels USED to have a full time 8 to 10 piece bands playing day and night. Now, most Hotels only have a DJ and the one's that do have a band, it's a trio or duo. I am playing most of my events alone, using an iPod with MP3's I make using BIAB and Sonar. I always try to get the manager to hire a group with me, but I always get the same answer "I'm sorry, there is no budget for that". Thank God they have the budget to hire a DJ to sit around and smoke, drink, steal food from the buffet, chat up the help while looking "cool" with his headphones half on while "Mixing" the next tune.........(sarcasm)

As Wynton Marsalis said "We live in a Cultural Dark age".............how true.
Ed