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#78217 06/30/10 12:41 PM
Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Hi guys,

I'm getting ready to upgrade to 2010.5 and at present I have the Omnipak that has compressed files. What are your thoughts about upgrading and spending the extra money to get the audiophile edition?

Thanks!


Earl Green
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What are your plans for use?

Releasing a mastered CD with lots of Realtracks may make it worth it... but if you plan to make mp3's to play along with; probably not.


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Hi Earl. There have been several good discussions about this, though none lately that I can recall.

In my opinion, the choice comes down to what you are going to do with the tracks. if you intend to make tracks for commercial use, there is a difference between the regular and audiophile versions, particularly since noise in a mix is additive. However, listening to any individual track, the difference is subtle, and requires decent equipment to hear.

Keep in mind that the storage requirements are multiplied by a factor of around 10. The 2010 audiophile version required a 1.5 TB drive, and 2010.5 adds more Real Tracks. Update patches take a lot longer to download.

A very tiny benefit to using audiophile Real Tracks is that they generate faster. However, this is not the advantage it once was, since PG Music considerably sped up the generation of Real Tracks in the last year. The newest version, 2010.5, goes one step further and regenerates even faster after the first time.


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I do want these for commercial use. So...sounds like I better wait until I can afford the audiophile edition.

Thanks everyone!


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How good are your ears and how good are your skills? If you THINK you could make better use of them what I would do is explain your situation to Sales and see if they could send you a download of a Real Track in .wav format to compare. They do have a no questions asked 30 day money back guarantee. I think this would be a legit use of that policy. Buy it and return it if it makes no difference to you sound wise.

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John has a good suggestion. You could decide for yourself after comparative listening.


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I've been using the "standard" compressed files commercially all this time. No complaints.

I believe that Harvey Gerst is using them, also.

The more important part is *what you do with them* IMO.



--Mac

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