Originellement posté par doogiet
I have to admit this is all getting way over my head although I think I can follow a lot of what you said.

The thing is I'm not an audio producer or a composer. I'm just a jazz guitarist who's playing with a jazz combo. I want to set up Band-in-a-Box so I can play with the computer when my fellow musicians are busy but not have their virtual instruments sound like crap. The real tracks sound great but if I need a horn to play the melody, the Band-in-a-Box horns sound terrible. That's the only problem I'm trying to solve.

Hello doggiet,

I think we use Band-in-a-Box in a similar way: I’m an amateur jazz pianist (and a bit of a composer), and I use Band-in-a-Box to stand in for my musician friends when I’m practicing at home. Like you, I input the notes of the tunes I play into the melody and/or soloist MIDI tracks, so I can practice playing the melodies correctly.

To play back my MIDI melody and soloist tracks, I use the sforzando player—a free plugin included with Band-in-a-Box— with a few virtual instruments (VSTis):
- the "Band-in-a-Box Sounds" included with Band-in-a-Box ; the selection is limited, but some of them are quite good;
- the "JABB3" library (Jazz And Big Band 3 by Garritan); I bought it, but it’s getting old, and the instrument quality varies a lot (good piano, but disappointing saxes);
- a free SoundFont called "Tyroland," where I found several decent instruments—specifically a tenor sax that sounds perfectly acceptable when tweaked correctly. Tyroland is a "General MIDI" SoundFont (a substantial 872 MB), meaning it offers the standard's 128 sounds (plus many others); you can find it on various sites, such as: https://stgiga.itch.io/tyroland

The advantage of this setup over the free version of Kontakt Player is that you have a full range of instruments at your disposal. Plus, the sounds—while not excellent—are still significantly better than those from Coyote, the VSTi that comes bundled with Band-in-a-Box.

Installing and using sforzando and VSTis with Band-in-a-Box isn't straightforward for someone unfamiliar with VSTis, but you will surely find help on this forum for setting everything up if you run into technical difficulties.

Best !

Lazy Bird