Also, I could also say there CAN be more to it than that. I have received excellent feedback from artists and producers in Nashville lately with very encouraging words, and I have some solid projects going.
I play instruments, obviously, but I also use BIAB for other tracks. No one is complaining. I am only receiving compliments, and as I say I have some VERY interesting things in the works.
Plus, I am actually selling my stuff right now, for sync, and also online.
It is a really fun "hobby" for sure--but there is a lot more that can be done here.
David Snyder Songwriter/Renaissance Man Studio + Fingers
Bob, just to clarify the "demo" incident. That was in 1993 when I went back to college for the IT degree and took music classes to have more credit hours for my grant. The offender was a 19 year old kid who thought he could cheat his way into an A. In my mind had I let him get away with it, that would have devalued my A. (And I take that seriously as while going through a BA program in 3 1/2 years and the AS in 18 months I never had anything BUT an A.) That class met Tuesday and Thursday. He made "his" presentation Tuesday. On Thursday I asked if could present a composition and played the exact thing he did Tuesday. The prof asked "Didn't we just hear this on Tuesday?" I said "Yes. It's the demo song in a Yamaha DX7."
So it wasn't an elder who dud that. In 1993 I was 42 and he was 19. And lazy. And a cheat. Had I met busted him he would have cheated his way into an A.
Eddie if you don't write a freaking song or at least have a verse and chorus for a decent collab when I see you at the party in April, I will run over you with your own camper dude.
Tune up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Write a song dude!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BIAB 2022!!!!!!!!!!! Plug it in man!!!!!!!
The clock is ticking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
David Snyder Songwriter/Renaissance Man Studio + Fingers
I’m with David on this one. I do a lot of Band-in-a-Box one on one coaching. Procrastination is a big problem and people tend to use the technology to hide behind. “If only I had a better mic. If only I knew how to…” etc etc.
I say to them, just make a backing track of an easy popular song, choose Amazing Grace or Let it Be or whatever, switch on your mic and make a recording. Do this as often as you can and most importantly, have fun. But many people can’t (or wont ) do this.
I think people’s tendency to procrastinate is the reason for my YouTube channel’s success. They chance upon a play along of a song they know and love and think “hey, maybe I can play this” . They haul out their guitar and end up playing for 4 hours! Just starting is always the hardest part.
To get back to Billy's original post and considering this is PG's forum, the answer to him is whatever makes you happy is good. The point is to still make/play/listen to music. I've been on this forum for over 20 years and most here are hobbyists just having some fun. There are a few true pro's but most are just messing around having some fun.
At age 76, the worst thing I see with an old person who's still pretty healthy is they get bored. They never developed any worthwhile hobbies, never developed their minds in anything. They never had a real career, just worked regular jobs because they needed to live but the jobs never meant anything to them. Now they're retired with nothing to do but watch reruns of Oprah or something. This is why when I retired from the CPA firm almost 5 years ago now I agreed to still work part time for them as a remote consultant. It's why I still gig every chance I get, like I basically froze my butt off doing two outdoor gigs for Presidents Day in Avalon on Catalina Island. I had to play bass because our bass player was sick so I needed to work up some songs that I already know well but never paid much attention to the bass lines. In addition to that I'm a high tech geek and I watch a ton of YT vids about all kinds of stuff. I have a very curious mind and can find tons of things that interest me. The internet is the best library ever created in the history of the human race.
I say this to not brag, far from it. I know there a lot of elderly people on these forums. If you're retired and do not stay active to the best of your ability both physically and mentally, you're just going to waste away. I try to, gently of course, tell people this both in person and online.
All the toys we all have are all good. If you need to get rid of some of it to make space, that's sensible just don't quit making music. There is no downside to this, music improves the mind because of how it all works. I get Eddies point about somebody using a demo song and saying he wrote it and that somehow offends him. Fine, but the person who did that and posted it is probably older and is simply keeping themselves active by doing that and I say good for them. They're not trying to go to Sony and tell them Hey, listen to this new song I just wrote! Discussions like this always revert to the musical world in general, I'm trying to keep it real, here, on these forums.
Keep it up, don't give it up. If all you can do is a rewrite of Mary Had a Little Lamb using a Biab demo song, great I'd love to hear it and good for you. It's better than watching 30 year old reruns and drinking beer on your couch.
Bob
As this thread has turned out to be about everything other than the question I ask I will at least respond to what Bob has said.
I am 76 and I can assure you I am defiantly not bored. Turned on BIAB two or three times in the last two weeks. Played two of the three pianos I have here. Canceled my subscription to Auto-Tune Played two of the dozens of guitars I own. Oh, and my wife did dust off a few of the custom amps. Started another war protest song, then decided to put all my guns in good condition as better use of my time. Went to the gun range to see if I could still make a 1200 yard kill shot with my 300 Winchester Mag sniper rifle. Ordered another 4000 rounds of NATO 5.56X45mm Stocked up on 4000 gallons of diesel fuel for the ranch before the price went. Ordered twice the usual amount of fertilizer because the prices are going up. Got all my employees the third booster shot.
I may stockpile a lot of stuff but I can assure you I don't have a storage shed that I have been paying $150 a month for full of crap I have not looked at in three years that I just can't bear to part with.
The comment about excessive amounts of musical equipment was a much more far-reaching question.
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 never saw a post that was a bigger flex in all my years here.
The answer to your question is "no". NONE of your vast collection of instruments makes music. You do.
Should we all now feel inferior because you told us about your 29 pianos and 723 guitars?
EDIT after some curiosity crept in:
I wonder if he typed that post while wearing an Armani suit and Gucci shoes or a Versace robe and slippers? While checking the time on his Rolex?
Makes me feel SO inferior because my shoes come from Sketchers, I wear cheap yoga pants and t-shirts all the time, and I don't even own a watch other than the one I got in 1961 for my Confirmation. (And it STILL WORKS!!) I never wear it but it came from my sponsor who was my "hero" big cousin and the reason I am involved with music.
I almost bought an expensive watch once but when I looked closer it was a Polex...
I HAVE a lot of audacity, but I suspect that's not what you meant!
Not let me get back to my 29 pianos and 723 guitars and get this song done. I may even drop a few names of famous people while I'm at it, because as we all know, the successes of other people somehow makes ME better...
Oh, and while I am talking to you, my dear friends Steve Lukather, Joe Perry, and Neil Schon are not returning my phone calls, so you are next on deck for some solo work!!
Well, thanks to Mr. Snyder I now have pedal envy, so I started digging through the junk closet and found a tremolo pedal, and I am headed to the second chance music store to pick up a phase shifter. And maybe 4 different distortion pedals and 2 flangers.
Silver 120 Roland JC120 Black Duo Fender Twin Reverb AD Clean Orange AD 30 MATCH DC Matchless DC30
ODS 50 Dumble ODS 50 HRM
Glassy Tweed Bass Fender Bassman AC Boost Vox AC30 Checkmate Teisco Checkmate20 Two Stone SP50 Two Rock Studio Pro 50 Crunch American Deluxe Fender ’57 Custom Deluxe Plexiglas Marshall Super Lead 100 JM45 Marshall JTM45 Lux Verb Fender Deluxe Reverb Blues Boy Fender Blues Junior
High Gain
RB 101 Bogner Ecstasy 101 British 30 Orange AD30 American High Gain Mesa Boogie JP-2C SLO 100 Soldano SLO-100 YJM100 Marshall YJM100 Signature
Metal Treadplate Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier Insane EVH 5150 III SwitchAxe H&K Switch Blade Rocker V Orange Rockerverb 50 BE 101 Friedman BE100
Insane 6508
Peavey 6505 Acoustic Pure Acoustic PG Original Fishboy Fishman Acoustic Amp Jumbo PG Original Flat Acoustic PG Original Bass RB-800 Gallien-Krueger 800RB Sunny 3000 Sunn 300T W600 Eden WTP600 Hammer 500 Aguilar Tone Hammer 500 Experience Jimi Hendrix™ for Spark
J.H. 45/100
Marshall JTM45/100
J.H. Super 100
Marshall Super Lead 100
J.H. Bass Master
Fender 1968 BASSMAN 50
J.H. D-Show Master
Fender DUAL SHOWMAN
J.H. Sun 100S
SUNN 100S
J.H. Tone City 100
SOUND CITY One Hundred
Effect List Category Effect Gate Noise Gate Comp LA Comp Sustain Comp Red Comp Bass Comp Optical Comp Drive Booster Tube Drive Over Drive Fuzz Face Black Op Bass Muff Guitar Muff Bassmaster SAB Driver Clone Drive MOD/EQ Tremolo Chorus Flanger Phaser Vibrato UniVibe Cloner Chorus Classic Vibe Tremolator Tremolo Square
Guitar EQ Bass EQ Delay Digital Delay Echo Filt Vintage Delay Reverse Delay Multi Head Echo Tape Reverb Room Studio A Chamber Hall Natural Plate Short Hall Ambient Plate Rich Hall Medium Plate Long Room Studio B
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.com Add nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.
The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
Eddie, did he win the competition?? Is our beloved Herb, the biggest, baddest, most epic man of all international gadget-buying epic hero men with more stuff ever to strut and swagger his epic-ness on the forum???
How can we compete???
Should we crawl home and die or go over to his house on April 2nd and beat him up????
Wait...both of you guys are old school vets. Not sure I want to see this fight....
It could get nasty.
David Snyder Songwriter/Renaissance Man Studio + Fingers
Eddie, did he win the competition?? Is our beloved Herb, the biggest, baddest, most epic man of all international gadget-buying epic hero men with more stuff ever to strut and swagger his epic-ness on the forum???
How can we compete???
Should we crawl home and die or go over to his house on April 2nd and beat him up????
Wait...both of you guys are old school vets. Not sure I want to see this fight....
It could get nasty.
When I bought this amp, it was a mere $224 and included free shipping. When you come over I'll be glad to let you play around with it.
SPARK just released a MINI version....as if the original was too big. The Spark is 40w stereo.... the mini is 5w stereo.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.com Add nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.
The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
You got me to do some spring cleaning in the studio and I am glad I did.
This is not your setup per se with that Spark amp (which I looked at) but it is similar.
I can do a lot of things (because I have a lot of instruments) but one thing I just did was run a line out of the Fender Super Champ XD, which has some cool amp sims, using a tweed amp, into the audio interface.
Then I opened up Amplitube and tried some Fender amp sims at a low gain with the incoming amp signal, chaining the real amp to the fake one. It sounds REALLY good. Basically two amps, but one is real (and tube) and the other is not. I can keep the amplitube amp or turn it off and just use the pedals.
There is MORE than enough here for me to find more sounds than I will ever use, considering I have pedal boards, and effects racks too.
So I kinda jimmy-rigged a version of what you have and it is fun. I look forward to messing with it. With the amp speaker unplugged I get to keep my wife as well.
Well, at least for the time being.
David Snyder Songwriter/Renaissance Man Studio + Fingers
It might be time for me to look at some of the other models on my Line 6 Spyder III. It has been on the same model for 5 years or so. I also have a Line 6 Pocket Pod I got cheap but have never used.
And my Tremolo pedal!!!
Though the Line 6 has all that stuff built in. Distortion, phase, flange, reverb, echo...
Yeah, sometimes I think we all forget how much stuff we have that we haven't touched or plugged in for years.
If I simply turned the dials on the Super Champ XD, and flipped a few switches in Amplitube, and loaded in 1/100th of what is in real tracks (has anyone seen the 13 stem drum tracks in 2022 BTW??) and loaded 1/1,000th of the free loops in Bandlab, I would have to have another million years or so to finish some songs with nothing but what I already have.
It's crazy. It really is.
But in a good way.
I ain't complaining!!!!
David Snyder Songwriter/Renaissance Man Studio + Fingers
This takes me back to being a young stupid kid who went out and bought a set of MacGregor Golden Bear golf clubs because that's what Jack Nicklaus played. And only Titleist golf balls because that's what Jack used..
And I still shot 93 to 95.
It ain't the clubs, and it ain't the gear. A 1958 Les Paul will still sound like me. A Selmer 7 sax will sound like a squeaky gate if I blow through it.
It ain't the gear. Learn major from minor, steps of a scale, why keys relate to each other.YOU make the music, not your gear.
Band-in-a-Box 2026 Video: AI Stems & Notes - split polyphonic audio into instruments and transcribe
This video demonstrates how to use the new AI-Notes feature together with the AI-Stems splitter, allowing you to select an audio file and have it separated into individual stems while transcribing each one to its own MIDI track. AI-Notes converts polyphonic audio—either full mixes or individual instruments—into MIDI that you can view in notation or play back instantly.
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MIDI Styles Set 92: Look Ma! More MIDI 15: Latin Jazz
MIDI SuperTracks Set 46: Piano & Organ
Instrumental Studies Set 24: Groovin' Blues Soloing
Artist Performance Set 19: Songs with Vocals 9
Playable RealTracks Set 5
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SynthMaster Sounds Set 1 (with audio demos)
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Looking for more great add-ons, then upgrade to the 2026 49-PAK for just $49 and you'll get:
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Instrumental Studies 25 - Soul Jazz Guitar Soloing
Artist Performance Set 20: Songs with Vocals 10
RealDrums Stems Set 10: Groovin' Sticks
SynthMaster Sounds & Styles Set 2 (sounds & styles with audio demos)
Join Tobin as he takes you on a tour of the new user interface in Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®! This modern GUI redesign offers a sleek new look with updated toolbars, refreshed windows, and a smoother workflow. The brand-new side toolbar puts track selection, the MultiPicker Library, and other essential tools right at your fingertips. Plus, our upgraded Multi-View lets you layer multiple windows without overlap, giving you a highly flexible workspace. Many windows—including Tracks, Piano Roll, and more—have been redesigned for improved usability and a cleaner, more intuitive interface, and more!
Introducing XPro Styles PAK 10 – Now Available for Windows Band-in-a-Box 2025 and Higher!
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Note: The Xtra Styles require the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition of Band-in-a-Box®. (Xtra Styles PAK 21 requires the 2025 or higher UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition. They will not work with the Pro or MegaPAK version because they need the RealTracks from the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition.
Introducing XPro Styles PAK 10 – Now Available for Mac Band-in-a-Box 2025 and Higher!
We've just released XPro Styles PAK 10 for Mac & Windows Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher) with 100 brand new RealStyles, plus 28 RealTracks and RealDrums!
Few things are certain in life: death, taxes, and a brand spankin’ new XPro Styles PAK! In this, the 10th edition of our XPro Styles PAK series, we’ve got 100 styles coming your way! We have the classic 25 styles each from the rock & pop, jazz, and country genres, and rounding out this volume's wildcard slot is 25 styles in the Praise & Worship genre! A wide spanning genre, you can find everything from rock, folk, country, and more underneath its umbrella. The included 28 RealTracks and RealDrums can be used with any Band-in-a-Box® 2026 (and higher) package.
Here’s just a small sampling of what you can look forward to in XPro Styles PAK 10: Soft indie folk worship songs, bumpin’ country boogies, gospel praise breaks, hard rockin’ pop, funky disco grooves, smooth Latin jazz pop, bossa nova fusion, western swing, alternative hip-hop, cool country funk, and much more!
Special offers until December 31st, 2025!
All the XPro Styles PAKs 1 - 10 are on sale for only $29 ea (Reg. $49 ea), or get them all in the XPro Styles PAK Bundle for only $149 (reg. $299)! Order now!
XPro Styles PAKs require Band-in-a-Box® 2025 or higher and are compatible with ANY package, including the Pro, MegaPAK, UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, and Audiophile Edition.
Introducing Xtra Styles PAK 21 – Now Available for Mac Band-in-a-Box 2025 and Higher!
Xtra Styles PAK 21 for Mac & Windows Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher) is here with 200 brand new RealStyles!
We're excited to bring you our latest Xtra Styles PAK installment—the all new Xtra Styles PAK 21 for Band-in-a-Box version 2025 (and higher)!
Rejoice, one and all, for Xtra Styles PAK 21 for Band-in-a-Box® is here! We’re serving up 200 brand spankin’ new styles to delight your musical taste buds! The first three courses are the classics you’ve come to know and love, including offerings from the rock & pop, jazz, and country genres, but, not to be outdone, this year’s fourth course is bro country! A wide ranging genre, you can find everything from hip-hop, uptempo outlaw country, hard hitting rock, funk, and even electronica, all with that familiar bro country flair. The dinner bell has been rung, pickup up Xtra Styles PAK 21 today!
In this PAK you’ll discover: Energetic folk rock, raucous train beats, fast country boogies, acid jazz grooves, laid-back funky jams, a bevy of breezy jazz waltzes, calm electro funk, indie synth pop, industrial synth metal, and more bro country than could possibly fit in the back of a pickup truck!
Special offers until December 31st, 2025!
All the Xtra Styles PAKs 1 - 21 are on special for only $29 each (reg $49), or get all 21 PAKs for $199 (reg $399)! Order now!
Note: The Xtra Styles require the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition of Band-in-a-Box®. (Xtra Styles PAK 21 requires the 2025 or higher UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition. They will not work with the Pro or MegaPAK version because they need the RealTracks from the UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, or Audiophile Edition.
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