Originally Posted by Rob Helms
DC Ron you said you gave up on RB 6 years ago.
Rob, it was I, not DC Ron that said he gave up on RealBand 6 years ago. I spent weeks and weeks trying to get the thing to do what I needed and finally gave up; I simply could not justify the time that RealBand demanded to be a part of my workflow. Nor could I tolerate the 1990s GUI feel. Don’t get me wrong, I felt that BiaB was a great tool, and today I’m still a loyal BiaB customer. The idea of typing in a chord progression, selecting a style and hit play is brilliant. Does it need work to remain viable going forward? Yes. Imho PGM should focus on its core strengths while aggressively going after the 20 and 30-somethings; if that demographic is captured and enthralled, other demographics will follow. I believe many would agree that RealBand is not a core strength and its staffing resources should be directed to the flagship product.

However, when I discovered Studio One (now Fender Studio Pro) it was a breath of fresh air; my work flow was no longer slow and clunky but effective, logical and friendly. Studio Pro is well designed, has all the features I need, is fully compatible with my workflows, has a modern GUI, is a joy to work with, is maintained by an industry-leading team that understands software design and quality control and continues to add new relevant features in its major upgrades.

Imho, RealBand should not and cannot compete with the established/mature DAWs out there. The bar is simply too high and the market too crowded. Who am I talking about? Ableton Live, Logic Pro, FL Studio, Pro Tools, Cubase, Fender Studio Pro, Reaper, Reason and others. My understanding is that all of these tools are very strong DAWs.

Back in 2024 we wrote a 14 page White Paper on BiaB. I seem to remember that you participated in its authorship. It seems 2024 is eons ago, perhaps technologically it actually is, particularly in the domain of AI. For those unaware, it’s still available.

https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=813801&page=1

Wouldn’t it be interesting to catalog how much progress has been made since we wrote that paper vs. how much of it is still relevant today.

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.