Hi all,

My name is Roy. This is my first post. I've been thinking about getting one of the lower priced versions of the 2010.5 packages. I had a fine chat with one of the Salespersons earlier today and have listened to several demos. I also understand that there is a rather large user community and have seen at least one site with tons of free (please donate) files. These are of file types that I cannot open, so I'm not 100% sure of what is out there.

So, what to get is the big question. Here's how I normally do things and how I would like to do some things. first off, I am strictly a hobbyist with too many toys. I may decide some day down the road to do live music with a band or something, but I think that it would be un-likely.

I have both a digital "rig" and an analog rig. My digital rig is in my home office. I play guitars through a Boss GT-10 and can hear it through my PC monitor speakers (a decent set) or a guitar amp. I record using Reaper, but am quite novice in that arena as well. I'm looking for a software solution that will enhance my playing experience in a few ways. In no order:

A: I've downloaded a good number of backing tracks. Some of these are of well known old Classic Rock and Pop songs. Some are canned 12-bar Blues types of things or other common & basic generic genre offerings, ie, Jazz or Country.

B: I find great joy in reverse engineering popular songs. My favorite backing tracks for artist's songs have a maximum of percussion, bass and piano. I import this track into Reaper and record my guitar tracks, both rhythm and lead, and vocals....which should be punishable by firing squad.

C: Other things I like to do are to just plain "jam" to music as I've outlined in item A. I might select an MP3 found online called something like "Slow Blues in D" and have at it for an hour or so.

D: And finally, I sometimes will just play and sing some gingle guitar arrangements of songs I enjoy listening too. Generally speaking, these are not fit for human consumption.

So, what I am wondering is how much, if anything, a software solution like Band In A Box or it's sister applications will help in all of the areas. In particular, the importing of MP3 songs and playing to them. (Item B) I've seen some Vox JamVox demos and have not been impressed.

Perhaps the answers lie in the files that I can't open.

I've also got Guitar Pro 6 with it's realistic sound engine sound samplings and user community generated scores and have been able to create some fairly decent backing tracks from them. The biggest problem with that is either bad scores or songs that no-one have done anything with.

So, if anyone has got this far and has opinion(s) on whether or not I'd be satisfied with the PG suite (let's say the $269 mega pak), I'd love to hear them.

Thanks in advance,

Roy