Thanks for the quick response,

I already laid out a chunk of change for my last upgrade to 2009.5. My upgrade to 2010 is going to cost me $250. I don't think there are many SOLOIST upgrade . . . well, not $250 worth.

I've tried all the handful of soloists I can find in the 120 tempo range and none of them work well. Metal and blues just does not work and the slides are too bluesy. I already used it for the first song, but I might use the "Dire" solo to write the solo by editing it after its recorded into a DAW. At least I can create a guide for the studio soloist give him a good idea of what I'm looking for.

I am surprised that there are no generic "pop / rock" guitar soloists in 4/4. I would have thought that the first "Guitar Soloist" would have been the generic "pop / rock" style soloists in slow, medium and fast tempo. Even if its just "clean electric" sound can be easily altered to add distortion later.

I just don't understand that all the work that was put into creating all the wonderful Real Styles but did not create the soloists using the same players used to create the Real Styles. If a particular Real style had Bass, B3 Organ, acoustic guitar and clean electric guitar, that particular Style should have a soloist for the Bass, B3 Organ, Acoustic and Electric guitar with matching sound for solos. I don't think there is a single B3 Organ soloist at all.

The lack of matching soloist means that there is going to be a HOLE in every song that does not have a soloist for each instrument used to create that Real Style. The other way of looking at it is . . . Any Real Style isn't usable in a Studio Environment unless there is a matching soloist available or the particular song does not have a solo break. A solo break in a song happens more often than not.

Now I am realizing that SOLOISTS is the big WEAK LINK in the Real Styles. Replacing MIDI SOLOS is possible with keyboard sounds like piano, EP and Organ Sounds, but trying to create a MIDI based stringed instrument is much harder and require very extensive MIDI editing to even get them to sound passable within any Real Styles.

The next best thing is to write the stringed or wind instrument solos using MIDI instruments and have the studio musicians learn the solos. But with wind instruments like sax or trumpet, the character of the sound itself is a product of THE particular instrument used to record the Real Style. There really is no way to match an acoustically recorded instrument in the solo parts recorded in a studio. In this aspect, Electric guitars and Bass can be EQ'd enough to come close to the instrument played in the rest of the Real Style. Any electrified instruments can add a different effects in the Solo parts make it blend well enough to work with the rest of the song. Acoustic instrument solos would be a lot tougher to get them to sit well in the final mix.

With the exception of the time and expense of having to record SOLOS in the studio to match the rest of the Real Style used for a song, BIAB does eliminate the rehearsal time and expense of hiring a real band. BIAB Real Style is still a "god-send" to singer / songwriters who can afford studio time by saving a great deal on production cost.

I wish there were more soloists. Specially Soloists that match a created Real Style.

I do realize that I am trying to get a "Consumer" software to work in a "Professional Studio" environment. But OMG . . . Real Styles are so close being a "professional" tool . . . with the exception of the "weak link" I am up against.

BIAB . . . its a great software. It is probably the most under-rated software for professional use. It is second to none for writing songs for a band.

Thanks