I think we've discussed that BIAB and perhaps RB make use of multi-core processors. I think, but perhaps I'm wrong, that the consensus was that BIAB does take advantage of multi-core capabilities.
Here's what I'm wondering: it seems that newer processors are constantly upping the number of cores and threads, is BIAB and RB keeping up with this and do they take advantage of this? If I go from a 4 core processor to a 6 core, 12 thread processor would I expect to see and difference?
I have been experimenting with few animation programs. It is scary how much you can spend that is actually useful for processing video.
$2500 for a video card, $2500 for a processor, $1000 for a motherboard. AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X 32-Core, 64-Thread Unlocked Desktop Processor...$2600 WOW
8K plus for a machine ready to go. Then of course you need the latest iPhone to go with it. The new phone is actually useful.
The only good news is that Blender software is free and can do almost everything that Maya can. The industry standard is called Maya and costs a mere $1700 a year...lol
It is totally amazing to me the quality of animation that one can create in a home studio.
Well, in the scope of things I guess it is pretty easy to spend 10K on a good piano. So everything is relative I guess.
Billy
“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig? “Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
To answer Jeff's question, yes. I saw speed of use increase with the new i9 computer I built. I have no idea if BIAB is using all the cores. Things load faster and render faster as far as I can tell.
But... whatever performance increase I got with the i9 over the old i7 4770 was not all that useful for BIAB.
If my old i7 computer would have not started to give me issues I would not have built a new one. If I was forced to build a new one again I would still buy an i9 because the price difference between the i7 and the i9 is not much.
I also just finished building a new i5 machine. BIAB runs on it faster than I can think...lol
All these more complex CPU/GPU devices make a large difference with video. With the type of audio stuff that most of us are using everything ran fine on XP with i7 processors. If BIAB was my only consideration, buying really faster CPU's does not buy you a lot.
Billy
“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig? “Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
Since graphics cards were mentioned, it has always been the case that this is at the bottom of the list for BIAB hardware. Now, I don’t use any of the video functions BIAB introduced a few years ago. Not much is discussed here about that. But for audio and BIAB, that’s the last place I would spend any money; instead I would upgrade to an SSD then the CPU then RAM.
Billy, there are some hardware-monitoring utilities that show the activity of each core while running a program. Give it a try on your best CPU and let us know if all are being used.
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; Presonus Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
I think we've discussed that BIAB and perhaps RB make use of multi-core processors. I think, but perhaps I'm wrong, that the consensus was that BIAB does take advantage of multi-core capabilities.
Here's what I'm wondering: it seems that newer processors are constantly upping the number of cores and threads, is BIAB and RB keeping up with this and do they take advantage of this? If I go from a 4 core processor to a 6 core, 12 thread processor would I expect to see and difference?
Jeff
I've used BIAB on an 8-core machine, and IIRC it did use all the cores available. Honestly, I've tried BIAB on slow dual-core laptops, my 6-core gaming machine, and my old 8-core monster, and never noticed much difference in speed. Yes, I can measure a difference (sometimes a significant difference), but seeing or feeling the difference? Not much. If you want to upgrade, try putting in a nice NVMe SSD, that will likely give you the most noticeable difference.
Originally Posted By: Planobilly
Well, in the scope of things I guess it is pretty easy to spend 10K on a good piano. So everything is relative I guess.
It's also easy to spend $10k on a not very good piano as well. I've played a few in the $10-20k range that I didn't particularly care for.
That said, I've also played one that was $150k, and was much happier with the one across the room from it that was $25k. Whatever floats your boat I suppose
Originally Posted By: Matt Finley
Billy, there are some hardware-monitoring utilities that show the activity of each core while running a program. Give it a try on your best CPU and let us know if all are being used.
There's one built into Windows - the Resource Monitor. It can give you a graph of what each CPU is doing - see my screenshot.
Last edited by Simon - PG Music; 09/07/2112:05 PM.
I thought Task Manager would show the cores but I don't know how to make it do that.
Billy
In resource manager, it shows all 8 cores being used. Less than 2% CPU use and 2 gigs of ram being used if I understand what I am looking at.
Last edited by Planobilly; 09/07/2112:21 PM.
“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig? “Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
Task Manager doesn't, but Resource Monitor does and costs just as much (nothing). Some systems seem to have it, some seem to need to have it installed (download from M$ via SysInternals), but it is an excellent tool for troubleshooting and other fun stuff, as Simon showed.
Sometimes, once installed, Resource Monitor actually shows up inside Task Manager as a button to launch it. Sometimes you need to make a separate shortcut, never bothered to learn whatever trick makes it appear, maybe it's simply OS dependent.
*Edit- I see you found Resource Monitor (I assume, though you said Manager, which is for servers), great. This post may help others know how to find it so I'll leave it for now.
Last edited by rharv; 09/07/2112:34 PM.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome Make your sound your own!
Billy - most likely your CPU's are too powerful, and only need to exert 2% of the power to get the job done. BIAB typically starts playing before the entire song is generated, so it likely is programmed to not use 100% when it's not necessary.
Realistically, there is likely something else bottlenecking BIAB. It could be a power management setting, could be storage speed, who knows. I personally don't often see BIAB using absolutely 100%, usually topping out at 50% on my ancient computer.
Rharv - I've always seen the Resource Monitor linked from the Task Manager, so I didn't know that there was the possibility of it not being there. Maybe it's not automatically installed with Windows 10 Home - every computer I personally use with Windows 10 is running the Pro version.
Resource Monitor is at the bottom of the performance tab in task manager on my system. I just did not see it at first and went to the control panel to find it.
The Radeon RX 570 GPU is the only thing on this system that gives me any issues. I have had to reload the driver after an update a couple of times.
Billy
“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig? “Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
I thought Task Manager would show the cores but I don't know how to make it do that.
Billy,
Task Manager does show the cores. See my screenshots. Highlight the Performance Tab, choose CPU, right click on the graph and choose Change Graph to-->Logical processors.
Thanks, Steve, that is a pretty convoluted process...lol
Billy
“Amazing! I’ll be working with Jaco Pastorius, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, and Buddy Rich, and you’re telling me it’s not that great of a gig? “Well…” Saint Peter, hesitated, “God’s got this girlfriend who thinks she can sing…”
Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac is here and it is packed with major new features! There’s a new modern look, a GUI redesign to all areas of the program including toolbars, windows, workflow and more. There’s a Multi-view layout for organizing multiple windows. A standout addition is the powerful AI-Notes feature, which uses AI neural-net technology to transcribe polyphonic audio into MIDI—entire mixes or individual instruments—making it easy to study, view, and play parts from any song. And that’s just the beginning—there are over 100 new features in this exciting release.
Along with version 2026, we've released an incredible lineup of new content! There's 202 new RealTracks, brand-new RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, “Songs with Vocals” Artist Performance Sets, Playable RealTracks Set 5, two new RealDrums Stems sets, XPro Styles PAK 10, Xtra Styles PAK 21, and much more!
Special Offers
Upgrade to Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac and save up to 50% on most upgrade packages during our special offer—available until May 15, 2026. Visit our Band-in-a-Box® packages page to explore all available upgrade options.
2026 Free Bonus PAK & 49-PAK Add-ons
Our Free Bonus PAK and 49-PAK are loaded with amazing add-ons! The Free Bonus PAK is included with most Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac packages, but you can unlock even more—including 20 unreleased RealTracks—by upgrading to the 2026 49-PAK for just $49.
Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac® users: Build 904 now available!
If you're already using Band-in-a-Box® 2025 for Mac®, make sure to grab the latest update! Build 904 is now available for download and includes the newest additions and enhancements from our team.
PowerTracks 2026 is here—bringing powerful new enhancements designed to make your production workflow faster, smoother, and more intuitive than ever.
The enhanced Mixer now shows Track Type and Instrument icons for instant track recognition, while a new grid option simplifies editing views. Non-floating windows adopt a modern title bar style, replacing the legacy blue bar.
The Master Volume is now applied at the end of the audio chain for consistent levels and full-signal master effects.
Tablature now includes a “Save bends when saving XML” option for improved compatibility with PG Music tools. Plus, you can instantly match all track heights with a simple Ctrl-release after resizing, and Add2 chords from MGU/SGU files are now fully supported... and more!
Get started today—first-time packages start at just $49.
Already using PowerTracks Pro Audio? Upgrade for as little as $29 and enjoy the latest improvements!
Band-in-a-Box 2026 for Windows Special Offers End Tomorrow (January 15th, 2026) at 11:59 PM PST!
Time really is running out! Save up to 50% on Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows® upgrades and receive a FREE Bonus PAK—only when you order by 11:59 PM PST on Thursday, January 15, 2026!
We've added many major new features and new content in a redesigned Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®!
Version 2026 introduces a modernized GUI redesign across the program, with updated toolbars, refreshed windows, smoother workflows, and a new Dark Mode option. There’s also a new side toolbar for quicker access to commonly used windows, and the new Multi-View feature lets you arrange multiple windows as layered panels without overlap, making it easier to customize your workspace.
Another exciting new addition is the new AI-Notes feature, which can transcribe polyphonic audio into MIDI. You can view the results in notation or play them back as MIDI, and choose whether to process an entire track or focus on specific parts like drums, bass, guitars/piano, or vocals. There's over 100 new features in Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®.
There's an amazing collection of new content too, including 202 RealTracks, new RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, “Songs with Vocals” Artist Performance Sets, Playable RealTracks Set 5, two RealDrums Stems sets, XPro Styles PAK 10, Xtra Styles PAK 21, and much more!
Upgrade your Band-in-a-Box for Windows to save up to 50% on most Band-in-a-Box® 2026 upgrade packages!
Plus, when you order your Band-in-a-Box® 2026 upgrade during our special, you'll receive a Free Bonus PAK of exciting new add-ons.
If you need any help deciding which package is the best option for you, just let us know. We are here to help!
One of our representatives will be happy to help you over the phone. Our hours of operation are from
6:00AM to 6:00PM PST (GMT -8) Monday thru Friday, and 8:00AM to 4:00PM PST Saturday. We are closed Sunday. You can also send us your questions via email.
One of our representatives will be happy to help you on our Live Chat or by email. Our hours of operation are from
6:00AM to 6:00PM PST (GMT -8) Monday thru Friday; 8:00AM to 4:00PM PST (GMT -8) Saturday; Closed Sunday.