<< “One (Tonalic) is far superior to the other but one (BIAB plug-in) has more instruments (for now).”>>

That comparison overlooks a fundamental limitation in Tonalic’s current design.

Tonalic’s core functionality is dependent on ARA integration, which tightly couples it to the DAW. At present, many widely used DAWs either do not support ARA at all or support it only partially. As a result, a large segment of users cannot access Tonalic’s full feature set; even if they purchase it. In that sense, this release promises potential that it does not yet deliver universally.

By contrast, the BIAB plug-in is not a reduced product. It is a gateway to the entire BIAB standalone engine. That distinction matters.

The commonly accepted idea that users “only use 10% of BIAB” exposes the weakness in the comparison. Even when working inside a DAW centered workflow, the BIAB plug-in can leverage some of the remaining 90% of BIAB’s arrangement logic, form control, substitution rules, medleys, and generation tools before tracks ever reach the DAW. That allows for exporting tracks, or complete songs, of greater structural and musical complexity than Tonalic can currently produce. There's also the option to produce and arrange tracks entirely in BIAB retaining 100% of the software. That's how PGM produces all demo's, lessons, artist performance tracks. The artist performance sets with vocals are all saved as SGU/MGU files, not RealBand SEQ files, not as pro-tools, studio one, Reaper, Cubase, etc. That's another distinction that matters.

Every forum member I’m aware of who posts DAW finished songs in the User Showcase, especially those who comp, edit, and manually manipulate multiple RealTracks exported to their DAW, still operates within that same 10%/90% reality. The difference isn’t whether the other 90% exists; it’s which parts of it are not accessed and how that affects the quality of what gets exported.

Which specific features remain unused varies by workflow, but the ratio remains remarkably consistent: roughly 10% active usage, 90% ignored; even though that ignored portion is still shaping the quality of what ultimately ends up in the DAW in a negative way.

BIAB 2025:RB 2025, Latest builds: Dell Optiplex 7040 Desktop; Windows-10-64 bit, Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz CPU and 16 GB Ram Memory.