PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Windows Zen and the Art of BIAB - A New Peace for Me [Resolved]

Has anyone noticed I am complaining a lot less this upgrade cycle? Oh, I will throw a barb now and then on things like "All Tracks are Equal." But generally, I have enthusiastically embraced one new feature, multiriffs, and moved on. It is a zen thing for me!

In the past I have been more than a bit annoyed at new features like custom track names that don't work throughout the program, VideoRealTracks that have almost zero usefulness and BIAB VST that never seems to make it across the finish line. I have complained, (sometimes too loudly) and had my posts deleted! (This one may be next!)

But, I am getting old. And tired. I had very little time in 2021 for music. In 2022 I intend to focus more on the music and less on the tools. And I encourage all of you to do the same.

So, I will call this Zen and the Art of BIAB.

Stressing over features that do not work is mostly in the past for me. BIAB VST doesn't work? I'll simply never try to use it again. Oh, maybe someday, when Pipeline or MusicStudent get in touch and say "Hey, it works perfectly now!", I'll reconsider. But for now...what BIAB VST? Same approach for Utility Tracks, UserTracks and other initially promising features that just never seemed to pan out.

And...I Am OK With This!

With BIAB 2022 I received the finest set of RealTracks anyone could ever wish for! When added to my 10-year collection I now have a MASSIVE set of instruments that sound amazing and work almost flawlessly in any key across a range of tempos.

And with my one new favorite feature, multiriffs, I feel like I have a complete toolkit in BIAB! But even without multiriffs (in case they don't work out) I recently realized I am damned happy to have 4 fully functional tracks plus a drum track to use (even if they are called Bass, Piano, etc.) and almost 10,000 styles made up of a hard drive's worth of REAL instruments that BIAB will assemble for me on demand!

Now don't get me wrong, I'm keeping Komplete and all of its amazing instruments and synths and those will find their way into most of my new music.

But I won't spend another nanosecond trying to get Kontakt to work inside BIAB or BIAB VST to work inside Reaper. And no Charlie, I won't be dragging RealTracks to utility tracks and then medlyfying-melodizing-audiofying-whatever them; all of that deep technical diving and uncertainty (is it another bug or am I stupid or maybe both?) sucks all of the fun out of music creation for me.

So I will ENJOY BIAB 2022 immensely as I explore all of these new RealTracks and styles. And I will use BIAB as sparingly as possible; get in, generate some tracks and get out! And then I will explore adding new stuff from Komplete to see if maybe I can create some modern music using parts from BIAB and parts from elsewhere.

This approach may not be for everyone and if not, well, have fun in the trenches fighting the good fight and lemme know if a particularly useful feature suddenly appears to be fully functional!

But for me, at least for now, it will be Zen and the Art of BIAB.

(And, as I have stated here in the past, I will continue to upgrade every year if PGM continues to provide new and fun RealTracks and styles as they have done in the past!)

Ahem.... I presume you mean VideoRealTracks ?!

Signed:
VideoTrack

(I do think I need to change my name )

Hello John(cubed). Well I am a complete newbie but actually read your post with interest. I too have come to realize that one cannot possibly do all the things that are offered in life and even cannot do all the things that might be on your top ten list of things you would like to do... or even the top five. Happiness for me seems to involve picking what matters or resonates most and crossing the other things I would like to do off my to-do list "UNDONE".

A wonderful new book is out discussing this very phenomenon called "4000weeks" which has helped me learn this lesson and increased my enjoyment of life a great deal.

Didn't realize you were going to get such a serious reply didja?!?!?!

Cheers.

Ha! Indeed, I meant VideoRealTracks! VideoTracks is a quite friendly and enormously helpful member of this community!

Thanks! I bought this book back in September but haven't read it yet.

Oh that is awesome. Well that book is about exactly what you are talking about. If you were serious about what you have discovered about less being more(very Zen), I think you will love it. I am reading it now for the second time.

Interesting perspective, I think I've been there before, haha

Hello Backing Track,

thank you for making me aware of this book. It hits a nerve.
I just bought it and I am eager to dive in.

Me too, like JJJ, reached a point where this full amount of Functions and Software are not helpfulfull anymore. To much time is spent to care, update, learn and struggle with problems. Just making music, the main reason I have gathered all this tools, is an activity that suffers from so much time and energy eaten up.

So, I was ready for something like this book.
But, having had a glance into it, there seem to be more wisdom revealed than just helping with the issues described above.

I wish you well JJJ. I hope I can find this path of enlightenment in the near future. God knows I have tried, but I keep getting sucked back into this dark hole. Stay in touch buddy and stay on the path.

Thanks Dan! I'll still be around. But now I'll prolly be in the Off Topic forum asking Kontakt questions!

OMG!!! Hell has frozen over!

JJJ, life is too short and I totally agree with you. Unbelievable I know!

Sincerely, the many the discussions we've had over the last few years have been fun and I mean that.

Bob

Thanks Bob. The feeling is mutual! And I'll still be here in case you say something I disagree with so I can jump right in!