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Band-in-a-Box VST and Pro Tools/AAX DAW Plugin (Windows)
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I made a video of the smooth seek, so rather than playing the rendered wavs in the SavedTracks folder within the Plugin it's playing all the sections the new way directly in Reaper.
VST6-Smooth-Seek.mp4

Those keyboards are around $5000 compared to $569 for Biab.
I said years ago to have a hardware version of Biab with an LCD touch Screen.

Band-in-a-Box VST and Pro Tools/AAX DAW Plugin (Windows)
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Originally Posted by musocity
I made a video of the smooth seek, so rather than playing the rendered wavs in the SavedTracks folder within the Plugin it's playing all the sections the new way directly in Reaper.
VST6-Smooth-Seek.mp4
Yes, that sounds fine. I did believe you, though smile

Originally Posted by musocity
Those keyboards are around $5000 compared to $569 for Biab.
I said years ago to have a hardware version of Biab with an LCD touch Screen.
Indeed. All the better arranger keyboards are that kind of price. Ketron's SD90 (module, no keyboard) is significantly less and pretty good.
I have a touch-screen on my older laptop, though it's a rather short of power for this, the screen's small and beyond the keyboard, so not really ergo-friendly. I have vArranger on it, but don't use vArranger for that reason. My large touchscreen has lost touch, so to speak, but that may be just a USB-cable problem.


Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful.
AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11
BIAB2026 Audiophile, a bunch of other software.
Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts
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Band-in-a-Box VST and Pro Tools/AAX DAW Plugin (Windows)
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Ketron Event
Live Drums: 580 Live Drums with a complete Arranger structure (3 Intros, 3 Endings, ABCD, 4 Fills, 4 Breaks). Reverb and 3 band Parametric Equalizer with 10 presets, programmable on each style. Drum Boost. Possibility to load external User Live Drums. Drum Lock.
Grooves: 3 x independent Groove sections. Huge library of more than 780 Latin percussions, Electro and Acoustic Drum loops, Single percussion hits. Groove to Variation. Separate volume and controls.
Live Guitars: 216 sliced Guitar patterns including Long Chords. Separate volume and controls.
Real Chord: More than 300 Real audio accompaniments covering a full chord range (up to 13 different chords). A wide variety of electric, acoustic, and jazz guitars patterns and other orchestral sequences perfectly synchronized to Midi. Dedicated Insert EFX with full editor, programmable for each style. Possibility to load external User Real Chords.
Real Bass: 256 Real audio Basses synchronized to Midi. Twin Bass: possibility to switch Midi or Audio on the same style. Support to external User audio Basses. 3 band Parametric Equalizer with 10 Presets, programmable on each style. Possibility to load external User Real Basses.

Compare that with what Biab will give.

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I'm not arguing for or against either BIAB or a hardware arranger here, just comparing some ergonomic factors and wondering in part if there might be enough interested people to justify a hardware button-panel to put the direct arranger buttons close to the player's hands. I'm suspecting not, or perhaps a simple matrix-controller is enough anyway. Akai LPD8, Presonus Atom or some such. Lots of controller keyboards already have a matrix, which also suggests "no real market for such a keypad". My stage piano does not, though.

Where I think there should be be an important comparison is in the reliability/robustness area. Dedicated hardware should be dedicated to the task and not dependent upon what other software is running on a PC, and there are lots of those on most PCs. In principle dedicated hardware should be closer to "bullet proof", but in practice I'm not so sure in practice that it is. There seem to be more than a few bugs in some of these hardware arrangers. No names.

BTW, I'm not sure that comparing things like number of styles really tells the story. One could easily argue that the number of actual styles is number of base styles x number of intros x number of variations x number of endings, even before one starts selecting different styles within a single song or adding intros mid-song.

I think BIAB's strength is the ability to pre-build custom styles and structure for specific songs and assigning those by section-name, rather than having to prompt/remember that the one has, e.g., to "start with intro 2, go to style 2 for the verse, go to style 3 for the bridge, back to style two for the final eight then to ending 4". It gives the potential to have my into, my variations and my ending for each song. Conventional arrangers don't really do that, though customised styles go part way towards it.

I write here with very little actual arranger experience.


Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful.
AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11
BIAB2026 Audiophile, a bunch of other software.
Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts
.
Band-in-a-Box VST and Pro Tools/AAX DAW Plugin (Windows)
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"might be enough interested people to justify a hardware button-panel to put the direct arranger buttons close to the player's hands"
Yes that sounds good, have it as optional so you don't need to have it to use the Live Arranger but it will make things easy.

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