Background:

RustySpoon# and I started veering off topic in the Specific suggestions - Toolbars, layout, menus, preferences and “other” thread started by Simon +++ here +++.
I suggested starting a new thread so the original thread can get back on topic. I also hope other users may want to contribute to a discussion about how much should the Band-in-a-Box graphic interface resemble a DAW.

One thought is Band-in-a-Box, or BiaB for short, is predominately a song structure and arrangement tool that creates backing tracks. There are numerous structure and arrangement commands that have no counterpart in the typical DAW. Navigate to Edit > Song Form and ask yourself, "Can a DAW do these things?" For example BiaB has a chord sheet with bars that can handle multiple choruses, repeats/codas/1st & 2nd endings.

RealTracks, MIDI SuperTracks, UserTracks, the Melodists, the Soloists are track content creation tools unique to Band-in-a-Box. BiaB can even create midi from patterns. BiaB creates track content, DAWs can in some instances but it's not a strong point.

The really big thought though is this, there are four major steps to a song project, pre-production (planning and practicing), production (track content creation), post-production (editing and mixing) and mastering (distribution preparation). The way many users use BiaB is in pre-production and production. They then move the BiaB tracks to a DAW for post-production and mastering. Why not stay in BiaB? Because editing and mixing is more comfortable in a DAW than in BiaB. BiaB has unique editing and mixing features but they are grouped in different places within the program.

For that reason, I'd like to see the editing and mixing functions in BiaB look and work more like a DAW.

Jim Fogle - 2025 BiaB (Build 1128) RB (Build 5) - Ultra+ PAK
DAWs: Cakewalk Sonar - Standalone: Zoom MRS-8
Laptop: i3 Win 10, 8GB ram 500GB HDD
Desktop: i7 Win 11, 12GB ram 256GB SSD, 4 TB HDD
Music at: https://fogle622.wix.com/fogle622-audio-home