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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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... if you are serious about your recording and you want to pursue your music growth by doing recordings, you have to move to a true DAW. Recording ones music is serious business and requires serious tools and workflow that BIAB simple does not have. Okay Dan, I'll play devil's advocate and bite at the bait. What serious recording tools does BiaB simply not have? Here is a short list specific to Reaper in my case: Take Management & Comping: REAPER excels at managing multiple vocal takes, allowing users to record in loops and easily select, swipe, or lane the best parts for a perfect vocal performance. Razor Edit Mode: A non-destructive editing mode that acts similar to Adobe Audition, allowing for fast cutting, moving, or editing of specific vocal phrases without destroying the original take. Take Folder/Lane System: Allows for stacking takes on top of each other, making it easy to compare and combine different performances. Item Pitch Manipulation: Users can hold Shift + Alt/Opt while dragging to quickly change the pitch of specific, individual vocal items for tuning adjustments. Customizable Track Templates: Allows setting up dedicated vocal tracks (lead/backing) with pre-loaded plugins, routing, and coloring, speeding up the workflow for repeated sessions. Input Monitoring & Effects Management: Offers low-latency monitoring with the ability to add effects (like reverb) while recording, which helps vocalists, while allowing the raw, "dry" signal to be recorded. Now to your point, of couse a newbee may not understand and therefore not appreciate any of this. But my point is I would encourage them to to start to learn. With out going into the details - Reaper is essentially free to use as you are learning. When you discover how wonderful this specific DAW is, you will gladly send them $60 for lifetime use.
BIAB – 2026, Reaper (current), i7-12700F Processor, 32GB DDR4-3200MHz RAM, Motu Audio Express 6x6 - My SoundCloud.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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... if you are serious about your recording and you want to pursue your music growth by doing recordings, you have to move to a true DAW. Recording ones music is serious business and requires serious tools and workflow that BIAB simple does not have. Okay Dan, I'll play devil's advocate and bite at the bait. What serious recording tools does BiaB simply not have? Here is a short list specific to Reaper in my case: Take Management & Comping: REAPER excels at managing multiple vocal takes, allowing users to record in loops and easily select, swipe, or lane the best parts for a perfect vocal performance. Razor Edit Mode: A non-destructive editing mode that acts similar to Adobe Audition, allowing for fast cutting, moving, or editing of specific vocal phrases without destroying the original take. Take Folder/Lane System: Allows for stacking takes on top of each other, making it easy to compare and combine different performances. Item Pitch Manipulation: Users can hold Shift + Alt/Opt while dragging to quickly change the pitch of specific, individual vocal items for tuning adjustments. Customizable Track Templates: Allows setting up dedicated vocal tracks (lead/backing) with pre-loaded plugins, routing, and coloring, speeding up the workflow for repeated sessions. Input Monitoring & Effects Management: Offers low-latency monitoring with the ability to add effects (like reverb) while recording, which helps vocalists, while allowing the raw, "dry" signal to be recorded. Now to your point, of couse a newbee may not understand and therefore not appreciate any of this. But my point is I would encourage them to to start to learn. With out going into the details - Reaper is essentially free to use as you are learning. When you discover how wonderful this specific DAW is, you will gladly send them $60 for lifetime use.Excellent examples! One minor quibble. The $60 personal license fee is good for the current major version, plus the next one. For example, I bought a license when v4 with the current major version, so it was valid for v4 and v5. That was many, many years ago. When v6 was released, I bought a new license for $60 that was valid for v6 and v7 (which is the current major release). Here's part of the header from my license file: Version: 6 (valid through 7.x) Type: Non-commercial Created on: Tue Dec 3 20:31:37 2019 That was over 6 years ago! And v7 is still going strong at v7.61. I will happily pay another $60 when v8 is released. I pay about $150 each annually for Bitwig Studio and Studio One (now Studio Pro). Reaper is extremely capable and is easily the most cost effective full DAW. Personal caveat: I'm 74. Assuming that I live long enough to see the release of v8, the v8/v9 license will almost certainly be a lifetime license for me. 
Last edited by TheMaartian; Yesterday at 11:31 PM.
ThinkPad i9 32GB RAM 7TB SSD; Win11 Pro; RME Fireface UCX II; BiaB 2026 Ultra
Bitwig Studio 6; Studio Pro 8; Melodyne Studio 5; Tonalic Studio 1; Acoustica Premium 7
Gig Performer 5; NI S61 MK3; Focal Shape 65; Beyerdynamic DT 880 & 770
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Great answer Dan and I appreciate TheMaartins addition about Reaper's licensing practices. Reaper seems to be very popular with many forum members.
While the comments about input monioring with added effects and take management pertain to the discussion of recording in BiaB instead of recording in a Daw the other items mentioned have more to do with post production functions like editing or program management and do not pertain to recording so much. Still, all the comments are nice to know.
One comment I can make about recording in a DAW versus recording in BiaB is most DAWs allow the use of surface controllers while BiaB doesn't. It seems to me that many people prefer to set levels with a surface controller over setting levels with a mouse.
Another observation is most DAWs can accept more sample rate and bit depth settings without having to convert than BiaB. That restriction can make it more problematic to use some interfaces with BiaB than using the same interfaces with a DAW.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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One comment I can make about recording in a DAW versus recording in BiaB is most DAWs allow the use of surface controllers while BiaB doesn't. Ya, here is my vocal recording booth with "surface controller".  I use this to arm, start and end my sessions since I can't sit at the workstation and perform in the booth at the same time. ![[Linked Image - Only viewable when logged in]](https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=download&Number=32299&filename=IMG_2379.jpeg)
BIAB – 2026, Reaper (current), i7-12700F Processor, 32GB DDR4-3200MHz RAM, Motu Audio Express 6x6 - My SoundCloud.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Back to the OP's topic?
In my understanding, people who DO want to record into BIAB want a simple solution for basic recording. Unlikely they would use 80% of features mentioned by Dan. Instead of sending these folks to DAWs or/and under-daw RB, perhaps a good idea to request this feature from PGM. The functions for doing this are there, but the process is not user friendly, outdated, inconsistent and does not reflect current philosophy of Track View.
I am certain that a good number of BIAB users would settle with several tracks of audio recording + BIAB accompanying tracks without the need of using another software, if it is simple enough.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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BIAB needs a simple Arm>Record audio record option. Current method is very obsolete. Maybe not as advanced as mature DAWs, but simple enough to understand and use without digging out manual or asking questions on forum.
I feel it is getting close to that point. I just wish it would be done well (like new UI) and not half baked, even if it would be limited to the number of existing tracks.
While I record audio / MIDI in DAW, I would very much appreciate being able to use a couple of existing tracks for basic audio input recording for sketches and ideas.
2026 BIAB Piano Roll is already very usable. Time to tackle audio recording.
P.S. Ohh, and a statement: "BIAB is not a DAW" makes me nauseous. BIAB is a DAW. A different kind, but nevertheless a DAW. A significant difference between the DAWs I'm familiar with and BiaB is BiaB tracks can accept audio or midi input while DAWs have tracks that are midi or audio specific. Even DAW hybrid tracks, like Cakewalk's instrument track, is really just a midi track with a hidden instrument patch. I don't believe BiaB can have a "simple arm/record audio record option" as long as BiaB tracks are not midi or audio specific. While you do not agree with the statement "BiaB is not a DAW", all you have to do is check out the +++ BiaB for Windows "About" +++ statement or consider why PG Music offers Realband to see PG Music does not agree that BiaB is a different kind of DAW.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Back to the OP's topic?
In my understanding, people who DO want to record into BIAB want a simple solution for basic recording. Unlikely they would use 80% of features mentioned by Dan. Instead of sending these folks to DAWs or/and under-daw RB, perhaps a good idea to request this feature from PGM. The functions for doing this are there, but the process is not user friendly, outdated, inconsistent and does not reflect current philosophy of Track View.
I am certain that a good number of BIAB users would settle with several tracks of audio recording + BIAB accompanying tracks without the need of using another software, if it is simple enough. Surprise! I agree with everything above. I'm just not sure what is the best way for PG Music to make recording more simple than it is at present. However I'd like more information about the poster's problems while recording in BiaB to see if we can advise steps he can take to minimize the problems. I haven't said anything about the RealBand comments because RealBand is a DAW and the question was about record in BiaB or a DAW. Additionally, while everyone in this discussion has computers using Windows I still try to consider readers with Macintosh computers. They do not have access to Realband.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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"I'm just not sure what is the best way for PG Music to make recording more simple than it is at present." It could work 100 different simpler ways. One way this can be done: 1)Open track view. 2)Add blank utility track 3)Right click on track header and it should have option "Convert to Audio Track" or similar with arrow with input choices of your interface. (No silly pop-ups or modal windows!) Once the input is chosen, track is converted to accept audio input from the choice you made, adding arm button and level slider or knob. Hit main transport "Record" button and off you go. ![[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]](https://i.postimg.cc/zDWC4TCt/rec.jpg)
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Bass Thumper, just like with my response to Dan I'm playing Devil's Advocate. I have a question for you; are you more familiar with using a DAW or BiaB? I ask because I assume you are more familiar with recording in a DAW than you are with recording in BiaB. Remember this thread started with the question should the op record in BiaB or a DAW. Jim, you are entirely right, I am more familiar with recording in my DAW than in BiaB. However, over the years I’ve had sufficiently painful experiences with the GUI and workflow of BiaB and RealBand to confidently say (imho) that if you take your music seriously and seek to musically grow then BiaB is not the recording tool you want. It isn’t only about “recording” per se. It’s about all the other tasks and sub tasks that are required to take an idea from creative inception thru completion. I have struggled with BiaB’s outdated GUI, inconsistent workflows and lack of quality post-processing for years. But the chord entry grid and the quality of the RTs is what keeps me loyal. But struggles with basic elements like odd time signatures and consistent looping workflows have been detractors for many. What does this have to do with recording? Everything. Because the same lack of strategic design thinking is embedded in the recording aspects of BiaB. This is contrasted to Studio One, now FSP where simple drag and drop is prevalent in the program and logic and consistency is prioritized by the Presonus/Fender development team. FSP is my audio hub and there isn’t a single feature I can think of that is missing (or is clunky) regarding it. Is it perfect? For me, right now, yes. Despite this, improvements and additions are continually made to it; many of which I may never use. If you spend some time in the world-class DAW forums, you’ll see that they are way beyond debating odd time sigs and whether or not looping should be standardized. Those issues were solved years or even decades ago. And so, rather than needing to fight BiaB to accomplish what I need, FSP is not only a joy to work with but historically has been 3 steps ahead of me on what I need to do. BiaB historically has been 2 steps behind. My time is too valuable to spend 20 minutes doing a task in BiaB where 2 mouse clicks and a drag gets it done in FSP. To one degree or another we’re comparing elephants to ants. I wouldn’t be surprised if the weekly staff effort of the big-name DAWs are measured in multi-thousand manhours. My AI assistant searched Ableton as having 500 employees (20k hrs/wk) and Avid/ProTools having approx. 1500 employees (60k hrs/wk). Of course, not every employee is involved in sw development, but it gives some idea as to what we’re talking about. My advice to those that want to compose music is to put BiaB in your toolbox. My advice to those that want to record, process and share music is to put a big-name DAW in your toolbox.
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677BiaB 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.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Some posters are missing one trivial point. A good number of people using BIAB don't need much. 2-8 tracks of audio recording would fulfill their needs entirely. If I had to guess, that number of users are likely at least 20% of all BIABers. Possibly much more.
BIAB+Vocals
BIAB+instrument
BIAB+Instrument+Vocals
Last edited by Rustyspoon#; 2 hours ago.
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I've enjoyed this conversation. It's been fun playing Devil's Advocate. Thanks to everyone for participating up to this point and particular dpresley for starting the thread. I've about exhausted the Devil's Advocate part of me so I'll drop out for now.
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