Hi,
I just purchased 2010.5 MegaPak and I am thinking about upgrading to the EverythingPak but I have a few questions.
1 Is it worth it?
2 As I understand it everything is on an external disk drive, what happens if the disk crashes?
3 Is the LessonPak worth the upgrade?
My motivation for the upgrade to begin with is to achieve a better more realistic sound.
TIA tim
Hi Tim,
I take it that this is your first purchase of BIAB.
My feeling is that you won't be disappointed. The EverythingPak or UltraPlusPak will give you all the Realdrums and Realtracks. Having these will provide you with all available studio sounds and thus give you the biggest possible choice when making your own music. Whilst both of the above Paks come on a USB drive, they don't have to be run from USB. It's possible to install from that drive onto your internal hard drive. The USB drive then becomes a backup set of installation files should you ever need to reinstall. That's exactly how I run BIAB. Other people choose to install the program so that it runs from the USB drive. The option is yours. If you do choose to run from USB, though, I'd suggest getting a second USB drive to backup the installation USB.
Four or five years ago (pre-Realtracks and -drums) I started with a MegaPak. The very next opportunity that I had to upgrade, I converted that to a deal that gave me everything. I haven't been sorry since. I learned from this that once you have everything, some very good update deals become available every half-year. These have allowed me to "top up" the program and keep me with everything that PG Music produce for BIAB/RB.
Regards,
Noel
Great information...thank you very much
tim
Great answer from Noel, and I did the same, installing from the provided hard drive. Nevertheless, PG Music could assist you if you ran from their hard drive and it developed a problem, since they keep records of sales and registered users.
I'm not familiar with the Lesson Pak, but I was wondering if you were asking about that in connection with your final comment, that you wanted better sound. If you are asking how to get the best sound, please write back and we can give you advice. Tell us about your system.
I'm also curious about your purchase of 2010.5. Version 2011 has been out since early December.
Great, OK..
I have a Win7 Based system with an AMD Dual Core Processor and 4 GB Ram.
I have a motherboard with on-board HD Audio.
I have two small Logitech computer speakers.
I also have a Yamaha P-85 Digital Piano with a USB UNO MIDI connection.
The MIDI Audio Setup is as follows:
Use VST/DXi is checked.
Route MIDI through to MIDI Driver is checked.
MIDI Input = No MIDI Input
MIDI Output = USB Uno MIDI - This used to be set to MS GS Wavetable.
Thanks tim
The lesson pak will not improve your sound, it may improve your playing though.
I thought it was well worth the $20 difference, but some may not have any use for it.
You can still run everythingpak from the internal drive if you want, or use the external drive or both. It gives you options during install.
Most of us make a backup copy of the disk in case it crashes. However, I think PGMusic keeps your purchase on file just in case..
I'm sorry, I meant that I was not happy with the sound I am getting out of BIAB.
I am not having any problems getting sound out of BIAB.
I was thinking that if I added more RealBand sounds I would appreciate the real music sound more...
tim
If it's not RealBand then the problem is your synth. Band in a box, when not using RealDrums or RealTracks uses midi, which was the industry standard for making sounds.
The best of the non 64 bit synths is either of the free, sent with the software Roland VSC Dxi synth. You go to opts prefs midi and check the dxi box and select it there.
The other is the Coyote Forte, that's some small change.
If 64 bit you either do the same as above, check the dxi box and there is a workaround there if you don't figure that out ask.
If you still need a 64 bit midi synth then you might consider picking up the Music Creator 5, it has the TTS-1 synth as part of the package for 60 bucks, plus you get the software.
The other option is to ensure you go all Realtacks. Some people love them and use nothing else, others won't touch them. (Which I don't get.)
I'm still using both sometimes, but prefer all RealTracks.