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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
Joined: Mar 2020
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Hi folks, my day job is a windows software developer using a little thing called Delphi. (not music related though). I bought BIAB MAC because my studio machine is a mac. Should I buy BIAB Win also? :-)

Are there features in BIAB WIN that anyone finds particularly fun or neato or interesting that are not in the mac version yet?

Probably next purchase for me is some more PAK type stuff.

Warren


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First, there is a difference for part of the year between ‘not in the Mac version’ and not in it ‘yet’. The Windows version is historically released in early December, and the equivalent Mac version in the following late spring.

Second, although the versions on the two platforms are getting much closer, there are a few features in Windows that I think are not yet in the Mac version. The most notable is that the Windows version comes with the bundled program RealBand, a DAW that reads native BIAB files. There are a few smaller features that I’m not sure about. Search the Mac forum for posts on the subject from user Icelander; he keeps track.

As far as I know, the content like RealTracks, RealDrums, and styles is equivalent (though in different audio formats). The Paks are great but if you want a lot of them it might be more economical to upgrade to the UltraPak, which is needed for the XtraStyles anyway.


BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Wow. Considering how much fun this is I might need to own both Win and Mac versions.

Has anything been said about making a RealBand edition for Mac?

I have a regret ... it's that I didn't buy BIAB about 10 years ago.... this thing is redonkulously fun.

If I buy UltraPak does that go on my account for both Mac and Windows, so if I own both base programs (mac, and windows) and one ultrapak purchase, both of those platforms get all the ultrapak content?

I posted a glowing review on this here...
https://gearspace.com/board/reviews/1412005-pg-music-band-box-2023-a.html#post16723349
"Band in a Box gets you more for $129 US (list price, taxes extra) than any other music application I have seen. It's an incredible resource ..."

is there crossgrade price from MAC to WIN BIAB 2023? I see something that says "or crossgrade" but I'm finding the pricing and matrix a bit hard to read.

Last edited by Warren P; 10/14/23 01:05 PM.

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I think for both of your purchase questions, you would do best to call PG Music Sales on Monday. As to RealBand for Mac, it has been discussed. I think the main cited reason is that Mac users have Garage Band, although that lacks integration with BIAB. A secondary reason used to be the smaller user base, although PG Music said something this summer about Mac sales becoming at least equal to Windows sales. You could make a post in the Wishlist Forum and raise the issue again.


BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Agreed. There is an option named 'Crossgrade' on this page, however, it's not explained clearly what 'crossgrade' actual is.

I agree with the above suggestion that a good place to start is to contact PG Music themselves to get clarification.


BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
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RealBand just uses Biab in the background to generate up the tracks and is on the old side of things, you are best to watch the BBPlugin as hopefully at the end of the year it should work in a totally new way and be crossplatform and released at the same time with same features.

You can Crossgrade and use both by just Crossgrading the app/exe only and just convert wma<>m4a or if you buy the Windows Audiophile version you can use it on Mac also as Mac will use the wav files as well as aiff and m4a.

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