I just came across this thread. I want to add my two-cents to the original post by MarioD. I totally agree with the two musicians. I'd like to share my experience. I want to love BIAB. I want to use it to make backing tracks. But so far, that's not happening.

I have upgraded BIAB a number of times, each time being enticed by new features, I think surely I can make it work. With each new version (2018, 2020, 2023 and 2024) I jump into it, spend way too much time googling how to... searching this forum, etc. and eventually giving up. I keep trying because I know the capability is there. So many of you are doing amazing things with it.

I have tried the real tracks, the midi, the super tracks, and a mixture of both, just couldn't get it to do anything useful (for me). Spending so much time going down rabbit holes, led me to abandon every project I started.

I used to use Finale extensively, since I read music. It was super time-consuming, but at least I could enter notes in a format I understood. It was fairly simple to find help online and the help within the program was excellent, as well. I once did a full orchestration of an original composition, used the GM midi sounds, transferred it to audio, burned to a CD and my choir sang to it! Finale was not great for audio, though. Years ago, I tried BIAB. (Maybe 2012?) It seemed cool, but I couldn't figure anything out, so it went to the back burner (way back!).

I finally tried using a daw, starting in 2020. I tried Reaper. I had no experience and it was super confusing in the beginning. It, too, has a ton of options. But there are so many resources to get help. I could find out multiple ways of doing just about anything in a matter of minutes, through both videos and their forum. I did a project for my choir, mostly using existing audio and adding some midi tracks to enhance it. And I've also used the program to "recover" some choir tracks that we only had on cassette, cleaning up the audio and burning to CD. I feel like I understand the program and how do set up a project, and bring it to completion.

I sing and accompany myself on a keyboard (just "piano" sound). I still haven't tried to perform with a backing track. That will be another whole learning curve, if I make any tracks I'm happy with. Sometimes simple is better! But it is my eventual goal to branch out and trying playing along with some "extra instruments."

So here I am back for another shot at it. I just bought 2026, when I saw that the interface has actually changed for the better (in my opinion). There's more vertical screen real estate, with most things being moved to the side. It's so much more intuitive! So here I am trying again.

I know that with any new program, it takes time to learn how to get around. I'm hopeful with the easier interface that I'll actually make headway! I believe once I have a somewhat successful project, I'll be on a roll. But, yeah, I agree that it's complicated!