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I repeatly get this annoying message in a green box saying my transpose section is not correct ... There is no way to make this popup go away unless you constantly click on it everytime you start your BIAB 2010 program. GET THE BUGS OUT PG MUSIC!



Ohhhhh, now why did you have to go and say that?

I don't know how everyone else's program works, but mine just disappears on it's own after a second or two. This gives me just enough time to read it and then it just disappears ... I don't know what else I could ask for really, since I don't have to do anything more than just read the message (and perhaps follow up on it if I choose to).

As a retired systems analyst and applications developer / programmer (and an adult-continuing- education teacher in auditory technologies), I'd like to offer up some free advice to you. I think that maybe I can help you and others here understand some things about the tools you're using. Not the least of these being these kinds of 'annoying' features that plague us humble users!

I believe that your, "... popup that won't go away ..." problem is a pretty decent design feature actually because it gives PG a means of dynamically informing the user of some relevant information about a current 'situation' that may exist. I say 'dynamic' because the message(s) will likely change depending on each user's unique circumstances. Note that my own settings may be totally different than yours and visa-versa. In reality, this should be seen as one of the great qualities of any software manufacturer's products; not just PG's. This kind of flexibility is what all software developers strive for. While it might seem annoying to us, trust me, it's better than the alternative -- having those settings hard-coded where you have no choices at all or maybe fifteen different versions of the same program 'out there' to suite every platform and/or hardware setup (typical of where the technology was not so many years ago)!

One thing that I firmly believe all of us Band-In-A-Box'ers can agree on is that there's a LOT of user settings in any of PG's software products -- some will argue that there's just far too many. It became instantly obvious to me that this company likes to give ya' options! I'm just a BiaB rookie and I can clearly identify with those users who are becoming annoyed with feature-bloat software. These days, as I have less and less time to devote to 'learning', I tend to avoid this stuff like the plague and having read several reviews of BiaB before I committed to purchase it, it was clear to me that as learning curves go, I was in for a very long ride here! At first I wasn't sure myself if I wanted to commit to something like that.

Reading so-called quick, user-friendly, inch-thick user guides seems to be the norm these days, doesn't it? Who the heck has time to read a good 'ole novel anymore when you've got a ring-binder full of printed PDF 'guides' to get through (and hopefully understand)? I'll even bet that every one of us has a box in the closet full of software manuals that didn't do anything, as much as it did to just dive in and kick the wheels ourselves! Yes, I too am a member of the "Use-The-Manual-When-I-Absolutely-Have-To" club and I don't remember the last time I followed printed directions on Christmas day!

While I can appreciate that PG and companies like them are trying to apply their software to every imaginable computer scenario, I will argue that taking a single software title and adding dozens of windows with software settings intended to cover every potential feature, does not at all appeal to the casual user. It is obviously a pet peeve of this user's as he regards it as a 'bug'! And by the way ... when we first started using BiaB, which one of us was not a casual user? Right?

In this case though (and BiaB can hardly be considered the king of casual-user software), I'd encourage us as users to try and understand that most people do not begin to realize what "circumstances" they're in when they start up their software. So here (with software that's some pretty heady stuff), it makes perfect sense to me to use the computer's reasoning ability to let us BiaB-dummies know if and when we're headed for trouble! I'll tell you this ... If a feature like this one eliminated my having to call my Indian-speaking support desk at all hours of the day and night, I'd be soooooo happy! Yes?

Note: I beg that my friends from India will forgive me, but I myself have terrible frustration trying to understand non-English speaking, tech-support personnel (not just those from India). I'm speaking of those who have distinctive, 'hard' foreign accents (accents that until recently, were relatively foreign to this country). I certainly do not intend my previous comments to be regarded as a racial slam and it would be terribly upsetting if I knew that I had offended anyone here. As a matter of fact, I have many very good, life-long friends of other ethnicity's, including those who know far more about computers than I will ever hope to know. It is difficult in my opinion however, to understand why American companies routinely man their support help-desks with personnel who have obvious difficulties speaking the language that my owner's manual is printed in and indeed, I take offense at this. Some of you know what I mean. This trend will certainly WILL have an affect on my technology-purchasing decisions in the future. This I can guarantee isn't my own thinking.

Now, where were we before I slammed India and the millions of Indians who will undoubtedly and deservingly bombard my blog into oblivion ...

Okay, so agreed ... PG has "forced" this messaging feature on you (and perhaps other features you're not happy about or understanding very well at this moment). In fact, I'll bet it won't be the last time that a feature drives both of us batty! But, I think it's safe to say that this particular feature might have been brought about because historically, PG staff could have received requests for support which were related to such users stating that they were, "... not aware of that feature ..." or that, "... I didn't see that printed anywhere ... where's that in the book?" or, "... it worked yesterday!" As a former help-desk supervisor my personal favorite was, "I don't have time for this!" Now folks, my employer would never have stood for this, but I fantasize about saying something like, "Well maybe this really isn't up your alley and if you're not going to invest the time to learn how to use it as it was designed to be used (and use it well so you're not bothering me), then I guess you'll be getting just exactly what you paid for and obviously, I'll then be getting paid (with your credit card of course), to answer your call! Is there anything else that I can help you with today kind sir?"

So, I would suggest that we think of PG's design decision like this ... at least if they do it this way, they can be reasonably certain that some lucky users will read the messages and then hopefully some of those users will feel compelled to actually do something about them and follow up on what they're reading.

Now I know it might sound amazing (and I'm not trying to sound condescending), but some users don't even read the documentation that they paid for! How about that! And what about a README file that never get's read or an OPENMEFIRST envelope that's never opened? Even more ridiculous ... Just imagine that some users will actually choose not follow up even when the program makes a logical choice (on their behalf), that it's an important issue ... Important enough for the user to be immediately informed about it (as it flashes colorfully on your screen as if there were a fire in the building)! And, just as in my analogy, if users choose to ignore the fire alarm, they'll probably get burned ... And they do!

We can assume from the time it took the developer to implement this feature into the program, that they felt that you might benefit from this and would want this information relayed to you BEFORE starting to use the program (a program that perhaps as of yet hasn't been set up just right).

Personally, I feel that without this timely information I might otherwise spend a whole lot of wasted time on my music project, only to find that the software can't perform as I expected because there's a critical setting missing or something else that prohibits it from working correctly. Note that the program's not stopping you from continuing -- or from complaining about software bugs either (when you actually find an honest-to-goodness bug rather than a feature of the product)!

I'm not a BiaB expert by no means and I'm not belittling you, trust me. I'm a VERY new user of BiaB and I don't know anybody here. I'm relatively certain that even you, yourself have a better handle on the BiaB software than I do. Actually, I've never even heard of BiaB until recently and I know even less about the company. I'm simply trying to show you (and other users) a different 'side' of the feature-delima on the software development side. But, in all fairness to PG, they seen this particular feature as critical enough to plaster right there at the program's startup, right smack over top of your controls even! Obviously the user simply cannot avoid it. In fact, I'd venture a guess that when PG staff sees your complaint, the developers will likely slap high-fives all around the office because that, "... popup that won't go away ..." problem of yours did just exactly what it was designed to do! It got your attention! Your post is proof-positive that it is a good feature and it works!

If users make a conscious decision to ignore these messages, then that is up to the user, not the people who created or sold the software. So, know that there are consequences.

I hope I haven't offended anyone or stepped on any shoes. I offer my opinions and comments here as a friendly gesture and I hope it helps someone. If for no other reason, maybe to cool tempers over this and the other 'features that don't work' or software errant 'bug' posts that I've read here recently. I don't think they're justified at all and PG has a great set of products. I can't wait to try new features! Keep 'em coming!

Good luck to you!

P.S. I could be wrong, but I sensed that this user is pro-Apple / Garageband and anti-Windows PC / Band In A Box. In charge of multi-millions in hardware and software, I've had both environments under my wing, and trust me, there's enough complaints on both sides of the table to go around! I find that platform actually has nothing to do at all with our discussion here. To me, this is more of a problem where the user is neglecting their responsibility to educate themselves adequately even when there has been provided a marvelous array of resources for him to use.

Ike