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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: May 2008
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OP
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Hi awesome music software developers,
While I understand the desire to keep the end-user purchase price down, the 1.5TB drive that comes with the Audiofile PAK is the loudest thing in my studio. I am going to have to remote it out of the room somehow in order to use it.
My guess is those of us who go all-in on this are pretty serious about not only recording the best possible tracks, but also preserving the environment in which we mix them. Please be conscious about this on upcoming releases. I would happily pay more for it if I knew the HD it came on was whisper quiet.
Thanks for considering this,
stratavinsky
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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This is good info. I do not have that edition. However, if I did buy it, and noise was a big consideration, I would spring for a Solid State drive. Expensive, but if you read the reviews of the latest drives, they are blazing fast, make no noise, and are cool running. Theses drives have also had the bugs out, the reviews of the latest drives put them at 2.5 million hours. In other words, even if you moved 50 GB of data on them everyday, they would last between 15-25 years.
I looked at both Newegg and Tigerdirect webpages to get info.
Ed
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Stravinsky, I have the audiophile external drive. I took the drive out of its case and mounted it inside the PC case (I was fortunate to have another SATA slot open). The drive is almost completely quiet like my other drives because the noise was from the fan in the external case, not the drive.
Ed, wow, an SSD drive for Real Tracks would be wonderful. However, there are over 1.2TB of files for the audiophile edition. I haven't seen a SSD as large as a TB in size yet, and if there were one, it would probably cost as much as the rest of my PC. Or my car. I can't wait until the capacity goes up and the cost comes down, though. If that happens, all drives will be SSD in short order.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: May 2008
Posts: 21
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OP
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Posts: 21 |
Great tip Matt! I've never performed open heart surgery on an external drive before, but all-in-all it went pretty smooth. Navigating through the directory structure on the Audiophile HD is lightning fast now, too.
Hail SATA,
stratavinsky
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jun 2003
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Quote:
Hail SATA
I've gone to the same solution on the last 2 Audiophile drives. Frankly, PG Music could save themselves and me some money on future audiphile editions by offering an option of just shipping the bare SATA drive without the usb case. I'm just going to pull the drive out of the case, put it in the PC and throw the usb enclosure in the trash any way.
Quote:
I would happily pay more for it if I knew the HD it came on was whisper quiet.
Naw, not so much here. Considering that I don't need an external usb enclosure to make the drive work, I'd rather get cheaper and leave the enclosure out altogether.
Keith
2026 Audiophile Windows 11 RYZEN THREADRIPPER 3960X 4.5GHZ 128 GB RAM 2 Nvidia RTX 3090s, Vegas,Acid,SoundForge,Izotope Production,Melodyne Studio,SONAR,3 Raven Mtis
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Stavinsky - excellent. Glad it worked for you.
Keith, I was thinking the same thing. For the next major version, I will urge them to send me just the drive.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Journeyman
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Another perfectly reasonable course -- if you need to keep it in the USB box -- is just to cut the wires on those noisy junk fans and throw them to hell.
Many high-grade enclosures no longer have fans, which have proved unnecessary for present-day drives. I have two fanless (in fact ventless) USB hard drives that don't get hot and have worked nicely for a couple years.
Larry
______
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Larry, interesting idea. But you still have the performance limitation of USB rather than using the SATA connection directly. About receiving only the drive, I just posted in the Wishlist. http://www.pgmusic.com/ubbthreads/showfl...ge=0#Post266911
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Update. I just saw a 1 TB SSD drive at Newegg. It costs $3800, and even that would not be large enough capacity for the program with audiophile Real Tracks.
I was right. It costs well more than my whole PC, and almost as much as my car is worth now!
Someday...
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Hey Matt, yeah, you nailed it on the head about cost/capacity issues. Let's hope they come WAY down in price soon.
I watched a few videos today on Youtube about SSD drives in General, learned a lot. I saw where they are best used in a Raid o array, up to 24 can be used. Access time as well as Write/Read times go through the roof as well.
I just bought a refurbished Dell D620 Laptop for $349. Intel Core duo 2. 60 gig drive. So I'm thinking about replacing it with a OCX or Micron 60 GB SSD drive. The drives are about $200, but the speed is supposed to be amazing. And more durable when I'm traveling, less heat, much longer life. If and when I do it, I'll report on how it's working in regards to using it with Digital Audio.
Ed
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Journeyman
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Journeyman
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Matt, if you have that much of an 'in' with PGMusic, perhaps you can also push for them to update the enclosures for the hard drives (for all versions) to include eSata ports. That would make it much nicer for me anyway. USB on a 1.5tb drive is painfully slow. My computer case is full, so external or replacement for another drive are my only options.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Yes, I thought about that, too. I don't have any more 'in' than anyone else, and you should post that good idea on the Wishlist. Having a choice of preferred drive type would be nice.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 180
Apprentice
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Apprentice
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 180 |
Quote:
Update. I just saw a 1 TB SSD drive at Newegg. It costs $3800, and even that would not be large enough capacity for the program with audiophile Real Tracks.
I was right. It costs well more than my whole PC, and almost as much as my car is worth now!
Someday...
Hi Matt,
There are a couple of 2TB raid SSD drives that are mounted on PCIe cards and which can achieve throughput many times faster than SATA but these are even more prohibitively expensive than the one you quoted. Given that they are basically built around silicon, Moores Law should mean that they will come down in price pretty rapidly over the next 3 or 4 years so to the point where we could maybe afford them as our dedicated BIAB server drives.
I have previously suggested to PG that they should consider distributing the audiophile version in the 'Lossless WMA' format. This will only give around a 2 to 1 compression ratio but right now that would mean that we could fit the audiophile version on to 600GB instead of 1.2 terabytes. If they did this then maybe BIAB could meet SSD drives a year or two sooner down the price performance curve. (Which would be nice!)
For people who are happy with the WMA version of realtracks an SSD may be an affordable option right now - you can pick up a Samsung 256GB SSD for around £500 in the UK (The way the exchange rate is going that will probably translate to $500 pretty soon!). This is still not pocket money cheap but you get a lot of bang for your buck.
Meanwhile I am thinking about installing a Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB drive as my internal BIAB drive. This is a 7,200 RPM drive which uses clever technology to deliver performance which beats even the 10,000RPM Velociraptor drives. This costs around £200. Together with the faster realtrack generation times in BIAB 2010 this should give awesome (if not quite SSD) performance.
Regards, Aubrey
If I hadn't seen such riches I could live with being poor.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Posts: 27,616
Veteran
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Fascinating being on the cutting edge. Let us know how it works out.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Before buying a SSD here's a link to some interesting information about these little beasties. There seems to be two different grades and the consumer grade has some undesirable artifacts as per this quote: "The consumer grade drives (the Adaptec, Apricorn, Dot Hill and Ritek systems) showed dramatic variations in response times (latency) under sustained write conditions, which some vendors are calling the 'write cliff'." The link to the article is here: http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/CDN/News.asp?id=57255For us folks that use BIAB on laptops the USB drive is a necessity but the fans on the unit enclosure supplied are pretty loud and distracting. If you have "golden ears" the whine of the drive can still be pretty annoying even without the fans. (I disconnected mine and have been monitoring the heat but there have been no issues or heat generation of any significance so far.) I have ordered a new HDD enclosure to try out and will report here if it makes a significant difference. I hope so! Otherwise, I can't say enough good things about the new BIAB audiophile version. I've waited for many years for something like this and feel it is absolutely outstanding. Highly recommended.
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Last Chance! The Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac® Special Ends Today (May 31, 2026) at 11:59pm PDT!
Time really is running out! Save up to 50% on Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac® upgrades and receive a FREE Bonus PAK—only when you order by 11:59 PM PDT today!
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With Band-in-a-Box® 2026, we've released 202 incredible new RealTracks (in sets 468-488) in a variety of genres—featuring your most requested styles!
Jazz, Funk & World (Sets 468-475):
Our new jazz, funk & blues RealTracks include a groovin’ collection of RealTracks and RealDrums! These include more requested “soul jazz” RealTracks featuring artists Neil Swainson (bass), Charles Treadway (organ), Brent Mason (guitar), and Wes Little (drums). There are new “smooth jazz” styles (4), which include a RealTracks first: muted trumpet, as well as slick new smooth jazz brushes options for drums. Blues lovers will be thrilled—there are more “classic acoustic blues” styles, including guitar (5), bass (4), and drums (10) with blues master Colin Linden, featuring understated and tasty background acoustic soloing, plus brushes drums and acoustic bass. There are also new electric blues RealTracks, including electric blues with PG favorite Johnny Hiland (3) and soulful electric slide guitar from Colin Linden (4). If you love funk & gospel, there are great new options this year, including gospel organ (3) from Charles Treadway, as well as new funk, tango, and rock ’n’ roll drums (3) and bass (1). And for big, bold arrangements, we have uptempo soul horns (4) featuring a three-part hip horn section with options for a full mix or stems of each individual horn — plus an accompanying rhythm section (4) of drums, bass, guitar, and electric piano!
Rock & Pop (Sets 476–482):
Our new rock & pop RealTracks bring a powerful mix of requested favorites, fresh genres, and modern chart-inspired styles! We have more of our popular “Producer Layered Acoustic Guitars (15)” featuring Band-in-a-Box favorite Brent Mason. We’ve continued our much-requested disco styles (10), and added new Celtic guitar (5) with a more basic, accessible approach than our previous Drop-D or DADGAD offerings. There are also highly requested yacht rock styles (17), inspired by the smooth, polished soft-rock sound of the late ’70s and early ’80s — laid-back grooves, silky electric pianos, warm textures, elegant harmonic movement, and pristine production aesthetics. Fans of heavier styles will love our new glam metal (13), capturing the flashy, high-energy sound of ’80s arena-ready guitar rock. We also have a set of rootsy modern-folk rock (18), with a warm, organic sound combining contemporary folk textures and driving acoustic strumming. And we’ve added lots of new modern pop styles (16) — the kinds of sounds you’re hearing on the radio today, featuring exciting new drums, synths, and cutting-edge RealTracks arrangements.
Country, & Americana (Sets 483–488):
Our new country & Americana RealTracks deliver a rich collection of acoustic, electric, and roots-inspired styles! We have new country pop (9) with legendary guitarist Brent Mason. There is also a potpourri (14) of bouzouki, guitars, banjo, and more, perfect for adding texture and character to contemporary acoustic arrangements. We’ve added funky country guitar (5) with PG favorite Brent Mason, along with classic pedal steel styles (5) featuring steel great Doug Jernigan. There are more country songwriter styles (8) that provide intimate, rootsy foundations for storytelling and modern Americana writing. Finally, we have “background soloing” acoustic guitar (12) with Brent Mason — simpler, but still very tasty acoustic lines designed to sit beautifully behind vocals or act as a subtle standalone solo part.
Check out all the 202 new RealTracks (in sets 468-488)!
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- MIDI Styles Set 92: Look Ma! More MIDI 15: Latin Jazz
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- Artist Performance Set 19: Songs with Vocals 9
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- RealDrums Stems Set 9: Cool Brushes
- SynthMaster Sounds Set 1 (with audio demos)
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- Instrumental Studies 25 - Soul Jazz Guitar Soloing
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