To play spontaneously with BIAB is on my personal wish list of things to learn next. For now, I will just lump myself with the crowd that uses this software as a composition tool. When performing live I simply back out the guitar track on the .WAV file to set up a guitar karaoke style. So BIAB becomes Band in an iPod.

Funny you should mention about your wife's voice, karaoke, and gigs. I have a very dear friend who sings while her husband does the showboating or crowd schmoozing that have been getting solid bookings more than any band or DJ out there. That is partly because she is an outstanding vocalist that can sing anything from Pat Benatar to Barbara Streisand to Brittany Spears if you can imagine. Part of their act is including karaoke as well. And they are getting booked anywhere from reunions both family and school, to weddings and anniversaries to nursing homes. The nice thing about nursing homes she says is that they are usually in the late morning/afternoon leaving the evening free for another booking. Makes me wish my wife could sing! I am already the crowd schmoozer.

As far as their setup goes, they are using the Bose PA system that is a tube with a subwoofer. Attach an iPod of their playlist and a couple of microphones and they are set. 5 minutes set up and 5 minutes break down. And that includes the walk back to the car!

I had a custom electric guitar built. It is the most versatile tool in the box. I wanted something that would blend my Strat and Les Paul together. And the luthier pulled it off. Nice large Les Paul tones coupled with the split coils to get the 2 & 4 on the Strat switch. And I use a POD xtLive for all my effects. I have gotten so lazy or like you adult responsible that I have not the time to tinker with stomp boxes or their settings. The POD has a USB connection to their web site where I get to down load tone setups created by the youngens' that got the time to play with it. Then, I just tweak them. My sound is routed into my PC via FocusRite Saffire interface. An excellent firewire interface if you require 1/4", XLR, & MIDI inputs. I have a Fatar MIDI 88 keyboard connected to it as well. Everything feeds into the PC where the BIAB resides that starts my composition process. It took a while and some bucks to burn through some inferior products out there especially when it comes to the interface. I decided to go with the Saffire because of the quantity of good reviews and it has thus far matched and even exceeded those reviews for me.

From one Ric to another,
Thanks,
RickeG