David, I agree comparing Band-in-a-Box to any DAW is not fair to Band-in-a-Box or the DAW because it is an apple to orange comparison. Comparing the two was not my original intent. I tried to phrase the title question, "Why Use A DAW When There Is Band-in-a-Box?" in such a manner that responding forum members would not compare.

The thought that prompted me to ask the title question is: PG Music continues to add more and more DAW like functionality to Band-in-a-Box every year. At the same time forum users continue to render tracks flat, dry and centered to export the tracks to their DAW where the tracks are edited, mixed, processed and mastered.

Much, but not all, of that work can be done in Band-in-a-Box. Sometimes the work is easier in Band-in-a-Box. Then why not do the work in Band-in-a-Box?

As someone that has Band-in-a-Box, Cakewalk (software DAW), Audacity (software digital recorder and wave editor), (hardware DAW) I've challenged myself to stay inside Band-in-a-Box as much as possible. What I'm discovering is I can do almost everything in Band-in-a-Box that I can do with my other products.

I'm also discovering old habits are hard to break. It's easy to return to the other products because I'm comfortable using them for certain tasks. So I have to use Band-in-a-Box long enough to be comfortable using Band-in-a-Box.

There are some tasks Band-in-a-Box can't do or the steps to perform a task don't make sense to me but overall I'm finding Band-in-a-Box can do more than I thought.

One last thought if I may. Some of the users that posted in this thread have used software DAWs or midi sequencers for a long time. They have their DAW templates tuned to perfection, the skill to edit, mix and process tracks to achieve a unified sound. I'm not that person. My investment in time and money is Band-in-a-Box so the more I can do in Band-in-a-Box the more return on my investment I receive.


Jim Fogle - 2025 BiaB (Build 1128) RB (Build 5) - Ultra+ PAK
DAWs: Cakewalk Sonar - Standalone: Zoom MRS-8
Laptop: i3 Win 10, 8GB ram 500GB HDD
Desktop: i7 Win 11, 12GB ram 256GB SSD, 4 TB HDD
Music at: https://fogle622.wix.com/fogle622-audio-home