Hi Russell

There are very good perspectives here. Mentioned before me is "knowing what you want." That's the key I think, and maybe you are running out of patience with yourself . . . seemingly unable to make a decision. No offense intended . . . and we all know that the written word can be misinterpreted if there is a way.

I new what I wanted when I found this software back in the early 90s. In the 70s I did some recording of my songs and hired a core of 5 session guys who were friends. I loved the way their head arrangements fit together and augmented what I wrote. I even bought a reel to reel 4-track and subsequently an 8-track cassette recorder but did not have the musical expertise to play more than a couple of instruments - but I longed for "band" sound of that earlier recording session.
Then my part-time accountant from Peru (seriously) told me about BIAB. I was overjoyed 'cause I got that "band" feel in back of my songs again BUT BIAB only had one recording track and was still limited in what it offered - we're talking 95-96. I got PTracks, imported BIAB files after converting them to midi files and could mount my own productions.

At the time there were bigger names in DAW Software - I bought Cakewalk for multi bucks compared to PG stuff and found it less intuitive than PTracks. PTracks is still a simple very effective DAW and it has morphed into RealBand which has this marvellous interface with BIAB . . . so much less work to export from BIAB to RB - and being able to generate midi and RTs right from within RB is fantastic. If you use RB you don't need to render RTs to Wav and then drag them to you fav DAW - they are already in a very simple, effective DAW.

Some of the DAW users here have grown through various versions of better known software - Sonar for one, ProTools for some. If the CODECS are good on your machine then pretty well any software will get you where you want to go. Personally I like my software simple for what I do - make backing tracks for my own songs and try to mix good sounding demos. In the beginning of RealBand I hated it because I saw it replacing PowerTracks and I didn't want to learn another DAW software - but once PG's RealTracks came along to BIAB it sealed the deal, and when I discovered I could still haul my old PT SEQ files into RB and generate RTs for stuff I had midi-ed ten years ago, I was ecstatic.

OK admittedly I'm a happy camper with the software operating in tandem. So that's my take. Keep it simple for now and if you need a more expensive DAW later then get it. For now learn the basics of BIAB-RB - just commit and jump. . . there is no wrong choice I don't think.

Cheers Russell - Ian

Ian
My "Original Tunes" Site
My gene pool needs more chlorine.