Dear all,

I have been using BIAB for a while and love it.

However, I am puzzled by this question. What if I buy a Yamaha keyboard like the PSR-423? Will the auto-accompaniment of that keyboard, and similar keyboards, be better than what BIAB gives you?

My sincere thanks,

"Better" is an undefined term.

One person might call it "better" while yet another might find the *other* method to work or sound "better" from their way of thinking.

Band in a Box does not work like an auto-accompaniment keyboard, though. You can't hold down a few keys at a time and have BiaB create accompaniment in realtime, you ahve to lay out the song on a grid and at least enter the chords before BiaB can do its autoaccompaniment routines. That is a difference that you must consider.


--Mac

Of course, you can use the output of BIAB to drive the keyboard and get the best of both worlds. They are not mutually exclusive.

We don't know all the details like how good a player you are, what do you want to use it for, etc.

I have a Korg Pa1XPro. New, it cost about three grand and I bought it used for $1,300. It takes a good, experienced keyboard player to get the most out of it. If you're just messing around with 3 fingers or something like that, no way. It will sound like a toy. That PSR you're asking about costs about $250. I'm going out on a limb and will say no way will it give you a better sounding arrangement than Biab will. Note I said arrangement not just sound. The sound quality with Biab is completely dependent on the quality of the synth you use with it. If you only use the built in Windows Wavetable it will sound like a kazoo but if you were to play Biab through my Korg then the sound quality is very good but the arrangements are generally better in the Korg in my opinion. You won't start beating Biab with an arranger keyboard until you move up to the big boys but you're talking big bucks.

That PSR you're asking about is from Yamaha's consumer line of arrangers not their pro line. The pro line of any of these arrangers like the Yamaha Tyros, the Roland G70, the Ketron Audya or the new Korg Pa3x are much better than Biab to me at least but then I know how to play them. If you're not a good player then Biab will give you some very good complete arrangements to have some fun with.

This is my usual convoluted way of saying in answer to your question, "it depends".

Bob

Thanks a lot for your kindness in replying to my question. I meant to ask about the arrangement, not the sound. It's great to know the arrangement in the BIAB can beat the consumer line of a Yamaha keyboard.

My experience with keyboard arrangers is this:

Keyboard arrangers (Yamaha, Korg, etc.) usually have from 2 to 8 measures of music that play over and over and over again. Often very good styles, but no "intelligence"

BiaB styles can have hundreds of patterns ranging from 2 beats to two measures that can be assigned to be played in appropriate musical situations. In addition, the style author can write more than one pattern for each musical situation, and assign probability numbers for them, so the ones with the most personality appear less frequently. The result is less repetition and more musical appropriateness to the patterns (since you enter the chords before clicking play, BiaB knows what chord comes next and can choose the patterns 'intelligently')

Keyboard arrangers generally have 2 rolls, BiaB styles can have more.

The keyboards usually have better intros and endings, and often more than 5 instruments.

Personally, I think the output of BiaB is both much less repetitive and much more musical.

Insights and incites by Notes


Brand new 2012.5 updates from Norton Music:

• 2 new style disks for Band-in-a-Box
  
• 2 new free (with a purchase) fancy intro/ending disks for Real Band and other DAW's
  
• The Ultimate Gospel Fake Disk
  
• The Real Rock Fake Disk (plenty of classic rock in this one)
  
• The Beatles Fake Disk
  
• And an updated Christmas Fake Disk

Hundreds of Free .sgu and .mp3 demos for the above at: http://www.nortonmusic.com

I have a Yamaha DGX arranger keyboard. I find that the built-in accompaniments are too busy and too robotic to suit me. On the other hand, this keyboard has a very old laptop on it that runs BIAB. This is a great combination - BiaB songs played on a good-sounding synth.

If you can, I recommend going up to the $500 range for your Yamaha. The difference is definitely worth it.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=yamaha+dgx

IF you have a keyboard with arrangement facilities you wont be able to upgrade one without loosing the other. I suggest concentrating on getting a good keyboard - ie. one that a pianist would say plays well. Rig this up to your laptop and BIAB you will get excellent results. Also, its perfectly feasible to run the MIDI through a decent virtual piano - e.g. Ivory. TruePianos is decent and has a 40 day free trail.
I have had some yamaha's and am not impressed with the PSR's though some of the range may be OK.

I don't want to turn this into a forum for arrangers, there's several good ones around already. I'll just say while they all have their fans, the majority of pro players think the Korgs are the best including me. The Tyros 4 and the Audya are a close second. Check out the prices on those. A $500 PSR won't come close to cutting it. You've got to move on up to the $1,000+ territory and the top ones are more like $4,000. Until you get up there then yes they're robotic and unsatisfying.

I completely agree, Biab is by far the best bang for the buck going because you don't beat it with an arranger until you're spending big bucks and are a good enough player to take advantage of it.

I have a friend who's a grad of Berklee on piano and he uses a Roland G70. Another $3,500 arranger. You should hear what he can do with it. Incredible. He also agrees with me, his next one will be the latest Korg although that G70 is no slouch. The older Roland G1000 is pretty good and they're now going for under a grand used. If you want an affordable arranger, try to find one of those.

I just decided to check out Ebay and found this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Roland-G-1000-G1...=item4604cde17d

That's a great keyboard for that kind of money. It would blow that PSR into the weeds. Just speaking generally of course, I know nothing about this seller.

Bob

Can Band in a Box use chords input from my Yamaha motif xs6 to play along (auto accompaniment) with Band in a Box different styles?

I know it can detect midi chords, but using chords to generate auto accompaniment is unclear.

Thanks.

Hi Patos,

BIAB doesn't generate chords in realtime. That is, all of a song's chord progression has to be first entered onto the chord sheet and generated before BIAB plays.

This means that BIAB would not be able to read and generate chord changes (coming from the Yamaha keyboard) while BIAB playing.

Regards,
Noel

Again what's been said as above better sound for who, for what, Yes at times I use my Keyboards on sounds, fridge yep on one occasion for drums same as buddy holly only kidding guys , guitar anything in my roland sound module or life .
because.. They do sound more modern yep That's why I like midi.

I done gigs for more than ten years, that was my bread and butter and never used biab.,, ,real tracks why ?.

because if an artist , records their stuff for Biab they record/play their style they way they do..But..then we end up with variations of their style of playing, Transformed in to songs.

Not our own sounding songs ..songs written to accommodate the way they play.

Yes of course its a writing tool, But not on its own, their has to be the personal touch .

And it can/does, do this but it is not the be all and end all!.

you should always seek to find playing/samples whatever to personalize your song.

Why,,, because you wrote it this is your song.