PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box VST and Pro Tools/AAX DAW Plugin (Windows) How I use Band in a Box

Here some explanation about my usual workflow, how I use Band in a Box. It may explain a bit, why certain functionality of the plugin is cruicial for me and/or why some current behaviors are a bit annoying.

1st step:
It usually starts all with some roughly recorded song idea, jam session, band rehearsal or recording from a live gig. I load it into the bbw64.exe as an audio file for a new song. As usually there are all kind of tempo changes in it, I use the ACW to determine tempo and to tempo equalize the audio towards the desired tempo. This makes later processing a lot easier, and is also necesssay when using the bbw plugin with my DAW later. Here comes my first big wish: Often there is a desired ritardando or tempon change at a certain point of the song. ACW is currently not able to equalize the tempo only for a particular area, it can only do the whole song, which leads to problems later on.
During this phase I just use a drum track from bbw to determine the sync. All other style tracks are muted at this point. I use a one chorus structure with the required amount of bars.

2nd step:
I try to determine the appropriate chords and enter them at the chord sheet along with the A/B part markers for intros, verses, bridges and choruses. Most times the chord detection is not very reliable. It seems to be easier to enter the chords manually to the chord sheet. The copy and paste functions help a lot here.During this step I usually just unmute some drums and a guitar or piano track in bbw. This makes it easier to figure out the chords. Fequently I have to go back to the ACW to make some little timing adjustments (fine tuning) and to equalize the tempo again to a constant tempo.

3rd step:
Once the chord sheet is done, I start playing around with various styles and additional instrument tracks in bbw64.exe, until I got what I like. It is a lot faster and easier to handle than the plugin. I then save the .sgu file to my appropriate DAW song project folder.

4th step:
I open a new song as a DAW project using some DAW template where the bb plugin is already loaded with a default song. I have to ensure that the new DAW project uses the correct tempo first. Then I replace the default song in the plugin via the file menu, with the .sgu created by bbw64.exe. And I have to generate the song already generated by the .bbw64.exe once more. Usually it sounds similar but slightly different. I have no idea why the plugin can't just take the tracks previously generated, but let it be.

5th step:
I copy the audio track from the plugin to my DAW and mute or delete it on the plugin. My DAW projects use 96kHz/24 bit. Often something has to be restructured on the initial jam/song structure and that's a lot easier to be done using the DAW. Along with that, I have to correct the chordsheet at the plugin. Using the insert/delete bar function in the plugin is a real pain, as it currently does not move the part markers for A/B sections accordingly.
After several corrections, re-generations and saves of the .sgu, I usually roughly get what I wanted. Not perfect, but something audible.

6th step:
During this step I sometimes also add additional instruments using the bb plugin, change a style of a single instrument or of the whole song, Once I am happy with it, I start moving bb tracks from the plugin to DAW tracks. The BB .wav tracks are converted to 96/24 and copied to the song project folder by the DAW automatically. Sometimes I use the RTs provided, sometimes just the midi charts. Although some of the RT drum and bass tracks sound pretty good, tools like Toontrack's SD3 or EZ Bass give me a lot more control over the sound and particular notes. Thus I sometimes take the bb tracks just as source of inspiration to further elaborate the tracks with SD3, EZBass or something from the Komplete, UVI or Korg library.
Along with the tracks coming from bb, I record and edit my own instrumental and vocal tracks in my DAW, often enough whilst the bb tracks still reside within the bb plugin. All further FX, mixing and mastering happens in my DAW. I copy the used bb tracks to my DAW project before doing the final mix.

Some of the painpoints I still have with the plugin:

a) Dealing with solos and fills that should only appear at certain points in a song. I read that there's a solution using silence tracks and style changes for particular tracks. But I couldn't figure that out properly yet. Currently I just cut out what I don't need from my DAW tracks.
b) Trying to apply tempo changes during a song is a pain too. May it be a ritardando in some verse or at the end, it is a struggle to get the DAW and the plugin playback in sync. I wonder why it should not be possible for the plugin to track tempo change information from the DAW automatically, write it to the chordsheet (as option) and reflect it during the next audio track re-generation of the sgu. At least the other (midi) plugins I use seem to do so.
c) Some of my songs use specific rhythms or better to say accents or they mix 16th and trioles within the same bar. Microchords may be the solution here, but I was not able to figure that out properly yet.

There may be other workflows and possibilities to deal with the subjects above, but for me it appears somehow intuitive, simple and straight forward. Only some "little functional bridges" within the BiaB package and the plugin reliability as such missing here and there.