FYI - I was at a nursing home Christmas party today, my aunt is a resident there. A duo was playing Christmas songs and tunes from the 40s, 50s, and 60s. Two guys, one on a trumpet and flugelhorn and the other on a trombone. Both sang and played to backing tracks. After the gig I talked to them and asked what they were using for the backing tracks.They said iPro. I said I use Band-in-a-Box and their response was " that is to complicated".
I thought that was an interesting comment from two musicians. It was not about how dated the program looked but how complicated it was to create a song was using BiaB. That was their impression of BiaB.
Principal: Your child always causes trouble in school. Me: My child causes trouble at home, do I ever call you?
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
Over many decades I’ve talked to other musicians about BIAB. I usually hear that they tried it and didn’t like the sound quality (from bad MIDI synths, never the fault of BIAB, and amazingly improved by RealTracks) but they didn’t try again, unless I demo it for them. That also quickly alleviates any doubts about how hard it first appears to be to learn. We musicians need to be evangelists.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
I have often wondered how every year introducing 50+ new features - sometime twice yearly - might have made the program unwieldy to many. Let's see? 20 years of 50 new features adds 1000 new features, most of which potentially many users don't want, use or need. I think that model is a contributing factor to the suggestion that the program is complicated.
This year may be different because there are more feature improvements than new features. And that is something that many users have been begging for for a long time.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
I think the RealTracks sound very good but at the same time I have a feeling that there is something missing from them. I can't describe what I mean but I mostly get the feeling that it is not really right. It is like there is a level of "Edge" that is missing but I can't describe it.
I also think a major problem for new users are "How to find what they are looking for". (even very experienced users have big issues with this).
BIAB 2026, Studio One 7 Pro, Song Master Pro, Win11 Home. i7-9700K CPU, 32GB, ESI MAYA44eX, ZOOM UAC-2, Guitar Pro 8, Transcribe, (EZKeys2, EZD3, SD3, EZBass, EZMix3) Amateur: fiddle, guitar, vocal, beginner on bass.
… I also think a major problem for new users are "How to find what they are looking for". (even very experienced users have big issues with this).
I agree with this. It should be the next area for innovation. The ability to find RealTracks and Styles to match a song or sound could be improved.
Hi Matt and shlind. I found your comments so interesting. I too have trouble navigating the vast choices. But the filtering aspects of the unified picker seem to help greatly. What changes would you two propose to make things easier? I ask because I would love to be educated in better ways to search or understand how the process could be made better. Can you discuss this issue more? I think this is a really interesting issue.
... Hi Matt and shlind. I found your comments so interesting. I too have trouble navigating the vast choices. But the filtering aspects of the unified picker seem to help greatly. What changes would you two propose to make things easier? I ask because I would love to be educated in better ways to search or understand how the process could be made better. Can you discuss this issue more? I think this is a really interesting issue.
User shlind is correct; there are many discussions already about this, some that you can see and many others that were suggested behind the scenes during testing, and even some specific proposals that have been submitted by a small group of experienced users.
One specific answer to your request for an example is that the Sort function of the style and RealTrack picker should support sub-sorting within categories. We should be able to sort by Genre (like Jazz) then, keeping only those jazz entries, sort that further by tempo, then keeping that result in that tempo order, sort by Even or Swing feel, etc. Something like that.
Another specific request is to give BIAB a recording and ask it to find a few RealTracks or Styles that closely resemble the audio sample. We speculate this might be a feature where AI could eventually assist. There are other audio programs already with this ability, such as finding a similar drum beat.
And you are correct, the Multipicker is a great improvement! We are just suggesting possible next steps to make it even better. I'm not saying any particular person made these suggestions; it's been a team effort for decades. I do have quite a few of my suggestions that have been implemented, and so do many other users, but we get the best results when ideas are debated and refined. The Wishlist Forum is a good place for this to occur. This year, PG Music opened up the process more for suggestions (which we appreciate), and they sure received them!
Does that help explain? There's a lot more to it ... there's always more.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
I think the RealTracks sound very good but at the same time I have a feeling that there is something missing from them. I can't describe what I mean but I mostly get the feeling that it is not really right. It is like there is a level of "Edge" that is missing but I can't describe it.
I also think a major problem for new users are "How to find what they are looking for". (even very experienced users have big issues with this).
I never thought of “edge” as being a constraint in BiaB styles, but I think you are on to something.
What if each BiaB style had a user-selectable “Edge Score”? This would allow for much easier style exploration plus a higher fidelity of creative control over your song.
Don’t think your song is edgy enough? Just increase the Edge Score and audition 😊
This might even reduce the “need” for over 7,000 styles to just a dozen or two, thereby solving the “It’s too difficult to search thru thousands of styles” problem.
I know there are anti-AI, or at least AI-ignorant folks here, but AI should easily be able to adjust the edge of a style if trained properly.
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
... Hi Matt and shlind. I found your comments so interesting. I too have trouble navigating the vast choices. But the filtering aspects of the unified picker seem to help greatly. What changes would you two propose to make things easier? I ask because I would love to be educated in better ways to search or understand how the process could be made better. Can you discuss this issue more? I think this is a really interesting issue.
User shlind is correct; there are many discussions already about this, some that you can see and many others that were suggested behind the scenes during testing, and even some specific proposals that have been submitted by a small group of experienced users.
One specific answer to your request for an example is that the Sort function of the style and RealTrack picker should support sub-sorting within categories. We should be able to sort by Genre (like Jazz) then, keeping only those jazz entries, sort that further by tempo, then keeping that result in that tempo order, sort by Even or Swing feel, etc. Something like that.
Another specific request is to give BIAB a recording and ask it to find a few RealTracks or Styles that closely resemble the audio sample. We speculate this might be a feature where AI could eventually assist. There are other audio programs already with this ability, such as finding a similar drum beat.
And you are correct, the Multipicker is a great improvement! We are just suggesting possible next steps to make it even better. I'm not saying any particular person made these suggestions; it's been a team effort for decades. I do have quite a few of my suggestions that have been implemented, and so do many other users, but we get the best results when ideas are debated and refined. The Wishlist Forum is a good place for this to occur. This year, PG Music opened up the process more for suggestions (which we appreciate), and they sure received them!
Does that help explain? There's a lot more to it ... there's always more.
...I know there are anti-AI, or at least AI-ignorant folks here, but AI should easily be able to adjust the edge of a style if trained properly.
AI should ABSOLUTELY be used to enhance BiaB functionality in both search and stem generation, and probably more. Unfortunately (to me), the AI functions added to date have been bolt-ons only obliquely related to building a backing track. (I am obviously differentiating song deconstruction from backing track building, and biased to the latter)
We're in the dawn of a revolution in AI generated backing tracks, right?
DC Ron BiaB Audiophile Presonus Studio One ASUS I9-12900K DAW, 32 GB RAM Presonus Faderport 16 Too many guitars (is that a thing?)
I never thought of “edge” as being a constraint in BiaB styles, but I think you are on to something.
What if each BiaB style had a user-selectable “Edge Score”? This would allow for much easier style exploration plus a higher fidelity of creative control over your song.
Don’t think your song is edgy enough? Just increase the Edge Score and audition 😊
This might even reduce the “need” for over 7,000 styles to just a dozen or two, thereby solving the “It’s too difficult to search thru thousands of styles” problem.
I know there are anti-AI, or at least AI-ignorant folks here, but AI should easily be able to adjust the edge of a style if trained properly.
One question Bass Thumper, who defines Edge? Edge for you may be different than mine. If you asked100 people to define musical edge you probably get 100 different answers.
Using AI as a search tool for Styles, RTs, and RDs in BiaB IMHO is absolutely necessary.
Principal: Your child always causes trouble in school. Me: My child causes trouble at home, do I ever call you?
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
................................ One specific answer to your request for an example is that the Sort function of the style and RealTrack picker should support sub-sorting within categories. We should be able to sort by Genre (like Jazz) then, keeping only those jazz entries, sort that further by tempo, then keeping that result in that tempo order, sort by Even or Swing feel, etc. Something like that.
That would get a Big +1 from me.
Originally Posted by Matt Finley
Another specific request is to give BIAB a recording and ask it to find a few RealTracks or Styles that closely resemble the audio sample. We speculate this might be a feature where AI could eventually assist. There are other audio programs already with this ability, such as finding a similar drum beat.
Another big +1 from me
Originally Posted by Matt Finley
And you are correct, the Multipicker is a great improvement! We are just suggesting possible next steps to make it even better. I'm not saying any particular person made these suggestions; it's been a team effort for decades. I do have quite a few of my suggestions that have been implemented, and so do many other users, but we get the best results when ideas are debated and refined. The Wishlist Forum is a good place for this to occur. This year, PG Music opened up the process more for suggestions (which we appreciate), and they sure received them!
Does that help explain? There's a lot more to it ... there's always more.
Yes PGM did one heck of a job posting different improvement categories in the wishlist forum and then listening to the suggestions that were made. I hope they repeat the process in 2026
Principal: Your child always causes trouble in school. Me: My child causes trouble at home, do I ever call you?
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
One question Bass Thumper, who defines Edge? Edge for you may be different than mine. If you asked100 people to define musical edge you probably get 100 different answers.
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
I totally disagree. I don't think anyone or any company can universally define edge in music. Is it the groove? The lead instrument? The chord progression? A great bass line? Is edge the same for jazz as for blues, new age, ambient, country. folk, etc? IMHO Edge is to generic of a term for music.
I think the way PGM does it now with listing a song title and have BiaB select styles is the way to go. But as I and many others have said improvements must be made in that area. YMMV
Principal: Your child always causes trouble in school. Me: My child causes trouble at home, do I ever call you?
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
I have no idea how to define 'edge' for all genres. In jazz, I might say more edge is more use of chord substitutions, resulting in playing that sounds more 'outside'.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
I have no idea how to define 'edge' for all genres. In jazz, I might say more edge is more use of chord substitutions, resulting in playing that sounds more 'outside'.
I call Edge Playing as 'playing in the cracks' (but that's only me). Peter Nero could do it. Oscar could do it - well, Oscar could do anything. Dudley Moore could do it.
It's an interesting term. I think that there are lots of interpretations.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
Band-in-a-Box 2026 for Windows Special Offers End Tomorrow (January 15th, 2026) at 11:59 PM PST!
Time really is running out! Save up to 50% on Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows® upgrades and receive a FREE Bonus PAK—only when you order by 11:59 PM PST on Thursday, January 15, 2026!
We've added many major new features and new content in a redesigned Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®!
Version 2026 introduces a modernized GUI redesign across the program, with updated toolbars, refreshed windows, smoother workflows, and a new Dark Mode option. There’s also a new side toolbar for quicker access to commonly used windows, and the new Multi-View feature lets you arrange multiple windows as layered panels without overlap, making it easier to customize your workspace.
Another exciting new addition is the new AI-Notes feature, which can transcribe polyphonic audio into MIDI. You can view the results in notation or play them back as MIDI, and choose whether to process an entire track or focus on specific parts like drums, bass, guitars/piano, or vocals. There's over 100 new features in Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®.
There's an amazing collection of new content too, including 202 RealTracks, new RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, “Songs with Vocals” Artist Performance Sets, Playable RealTracks Set 5, two RealDrums Stems sets, XPro Styles PAK 10, Xtra Styles PAK 21, and much more!
Upgrade your Band-in-a-Box for Windows to save up to 50% on most Band-in-a-Box® 2026 upgrade packages!
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If you need any help deciding which package is the best option for you, just let us know. We are here to help!
Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows® Special Offers Extended Until January 15, 2026!
Good news! You still have time to upgrade to the latest version of Band-in-a-Box® for Windows® and save. Our Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows® special now runs through January 15, 2025!
We've packed Band-in-a-Box® 2026 with major new features, enhancements, and an incredible lineup of new content! The program now sports a sleek, modern GUI redesign across the entire interface, including updated toolbars, refreshed windows, smoother workflows, a new dark mode option, and more. The brand-new side toolbar provides quicker access to key windows, while the new Multi-View feature lets you arrange multiple windows as layered panels without overlap, creating a flexible, clutter-free workspace. We have an amazing new “AI-Notes” feature. This transcribes polyphonic audio into MIDI so you can view it in notation or play it back as MIDI. You can process an entire track (all pitched instruments and drums) or focus on individual parts like drums, bass, guitars/piano, or vocals. There's an amazing collection of new content too, including 202 RealTracks, new RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, “Songs with Vocals” Artist Performance Sets, Playable RealTracks Set 5, two RealDrums Stems sets, XPro Styles PAK 10, Xtra Styles PAK 21, and much more!
There are over 100 new features in Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®.
When you order purchase Band-in-a-Box® 2026 before 11:59 PM PST on January 15th, you'll also receive a Free Bonus PAK packed with exciting new add-ons.
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Band-in-a-Box 2026 Video: The Newly Designed Piano Roll Window
In this video, we explore the updated Piano Roll, complete with a modernized look and exciting new features. You’ll see new filtering options that make it easy to focus on specific note groups, smoother and more intuitive note entry and editing, and enhanced options for zooming, looping, and more.
Band-in-a-Box 2026 Video: AI Stems & Notes - split polyphonic audio into instruments and transcribe
This video demonstrates how to use the new AI-Notes feature together with the AI-Stems splitter, allowing you to select an audio file and have it separated into individual stems while transcribing each one to its own MIDI track. AI-Notes converts polyphonic audio—either full mixes or individual instruments—into MIDI that you can view in notation or play back instantly.
Bonus PAK and 49-PAK for Band-in-a-Box® 2026 for Windows®
With your version 2026 for Windows Pro, MegaPAK, UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, Audiophile Edition or PlusPAK purchase, we'll include a Bonus PAK full of great new Add-ons for FREE! Or upgrade to the 2026 49-PAK for only $49 to receive even more NEW Add-ons including 20 additional RealTracks!
These PAKs are loaded with additional add-ons to supercharge your Band-in-a-Box®!
This Free Bonus PAK includes:
The 2026 RealCombos Booster PAK:
-For Pro customers, this includes 27 new RealTracks and 23 new RealStyles.
-For MegaPAK customers, this includes 25 new RealTracks and 23 new RealStyles.
-For UltraPAK customers, this includes 12 new RealStyles.
MIDI Styles Set 92: Look Ma! More MIDI 15: Latin Jazz
MIDI SuperTracks Set 46: Piano & Organ
Instrumental Studies Set 24: Groovin' Blues Soloing
Artist Performance Set 19: Songs with Vocals 9
Playable RealTracks Set 5
RealDrums Stems Set 9: Cool Brushes
SynthMaster Sounds Set 1 (with audio demos)
Android Band-in-a-Box® App (included)
Looking for more great add-ons, then upgrade to the 2026 49-PAK for just $49 and you'll get:
20 Bonus Unreleased RealTracks and RealDrums with 20 RealStyle.
FLAC Files (lossless audio files) for the 20 Bonus Unreleased RealTracks and RealDrums
MIDI Styles Set 93: Look Ma! More MIDI 16: SynthMaster
MIDI SuperTracks Set 47: More SynthMaster
Instrumental Studies 25 - Soul Jazz Guitar Soloing
Artist Performance Set 20: Songs with Vocals 10
RealDrums Stems Set 10: Groovin' Sticks
SynthMaster Sounds & Styles Set 2 (sounds & styles with audio demos)
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