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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 8
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Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 8 |
Good morning all, I've had BB since about 2014, upgraded now for about my fourth time...excited to see the new changes. Started downloading yesterday morning after purchase, tried downloading with the Install Manager, but it seemed the program was freezing (or so I thought) on Win11 -- was probably just the massive size that I wasn't expecting all the huge transfer activity in the background and under the hood. So in my awesome wisdom  I used FDM (Free Download Manager) and this morning about 30 minutes ago the last file finished downloading. I'm on StarLink and the download speed bounced around between at the lowest, 45 Mb/s to about 105Mb/s randomly, so roughly around 23-24 hours. I'm using the BB Install Manager now to install. When I ran it to install, I was imagining it might try downloading some again (horror thoughts in my head), but alas, all were green (indicated "Downloaded") after the program read the download space, and I clicked on Install All Files...it's installing now, will circle back and update this. Can't wait to try it out with the WAV files. My last version was an audiophile version and this is such an amazingly awesome, timesaving songwriting tool! I really don't think PG Music gets enough kudos!
Last edited by lbolen; 04/16/25 09:32 AM.
Les
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 8
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OP
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Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 8 |
Ok, all installed and working awesome! 
Les
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,577
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Great. Just to clarify, BIAB 2025 now uses FLAC files instead of WAV files. Same sound quality, less space. That’s what made the download more practical.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: May 2020
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Great. Just to clarify, BIAB 2025 now uses FLAC files instead of WAV files. Same sound quality, less space. That’s what made the download more practical. Yep, otherwise the download would've been around 2.2tb! FLAC is a "lossless" type of compression, meaning that when it's decompressed it holds exactly the same data as a WAV file, literally bit-for-bit identical. FLAC ends up around 30-40% of the size of the original WAV. Started downloading yesterday morning after purchase, tried downloading with the Install Manager, but it seemed the program was freezing (or so I thought) on Win11 -- was probably just the massive size that I wasn't expecting all the huge transfer activity in the background and under the hood. If you don't mind could you give us a bit more detail here? How was the install manager freezing - did Windows tell you it was not responding, or did you get the spinning wheel on the mouse, or something else?
I work here
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 8
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Joined: Jan 2012
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Hey Matt,
Thanks, and yes, I knew that, and also knew that they convert back to WAV files with absolutely no loss. They sound great by the way!
Les
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 8
Newbie
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OP
Newbie
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 8 |
Hello Simon,
No worries,
While executing the download/installer, it would get going and about tree or four files would start downloading. Then after a while (about 15 minutes or so), I'd come back and there was no apparent activity indicating that anything was downloading. When I moved the window at the top bar, the program would turn grey/translucent.
Checking in the activity bar at the bottom, Windows indicated that the program was not responding.
Happened about three times, that's why I went to the other downloader...which was fine, it worked in the end to install everything.
Les
Les
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,577
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,577 |
Hey Matt,
Thanks, and yes, I knew that, and also knew that they convert back to WAV files with absolutely no loss. They sound great by the way! Very good. For anyone else reading, again just to be clear: BIAB will read a RealTrack which is in FLAC format and uncompress it internally. I believe Las was making a general statement about FLAC file quality, not about anything you need to do in BIAB. I only say this because there used to be a helpful commend in BIAB for Windows to convert all the WMA files to WAV. It didn't improve the quality and the resulting files took eleven times the space, but they did load a bit faster so some people did it. Now, the program speeds are such that this conversion is not necessary, even with the FLAC files. Carry on.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: May 2020
Posts: 2,766
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: May 2020
Posts: 2,766 |
Hello Simon,
No worries,
While executing the download/installer, it would get going and about tree or four files would start downloading. Then after a while (about 15 minutes or so), I'd come back and there was no apparent activity indicating that anything was downloading. When I moved the window at the top bar, the program would turn grey/translucent.
Checking in the activity bar at the bottom, Windows indicated that the program was not responding.
Happened about three times, that's why I went to the other downloader...which was fine, it worked in the end to install everything.
Les Thanks, I'll pass this on to the developers.
I work here
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,577
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 27,577 |
Les, that’s correct. This is a very helpful evolutionary change by PG Music to use FLAC files. Another user asked if he could try downloading them (instead of the shipped audiophile SSD drive). When that worked and seemed practical, PG Music made it happen quickly, and at a reduced price!
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.
ChatPG's knowledge base includes the full Band-in-a-Box User Manual and sales information from the website.
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Band-in-a-Box 2026 for Mac Videos
With the release of Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Mac, we’re rolling out a collection of brand-new videos on our YouTube channel. We’ll keep this forum post updated so you can easily find all the latest videos in one convenient spot.
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Along with version 2026, we've released an incredible lineup of new content! There's 202 new RealTracks, brand-new RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, “Songs with Vocals” Artist Performance Sets, Playable RealTracks Set 5, two new RealDrums Stems sets, XPro Styles PAK 10, Xtra Styles PAK 21, and much more!
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Holiday Weekend Hours
As we hop into the Easter weekend, here are our holiday hours:
April 3 (Good Friday): 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM PDT
April 4 (Saturday): Closed
April 5 (Easter Sunday): Closed
April 6 (Easter Monday): Open regular hours
Wishing you an egg-cellent weekend!
— Team PG
Update to Build 10 of RealBand® 2026 for Windows®!
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