For the latest blast from the past for Band-in-a-Box, check out the article The Software Story: Band-in-a-Box by Norm Weinberg, as published in the June 1993 issue of Percussive Notes!

Imagine a group of musicians who would rehearse with you whenever you wanted, wouldn't tire of playing the same songs over and over, could play at any tempo you wanted, could learn new tunes in a matter of minutes, and never have any ego problems? Wouldn't this be an ideal musical situation for gaining experience? Band-in-a-Box to the rescue!
-Norm Weinberg

Did you have this older version? Share your story with other program users!

Article link: http://www.normanweinberg.com/uploads/8/1/6/4/81640608/931406pn_band_in_a_box.pdf

Excellent piece of nostalgia, it was great fun to read, but also to see how far this product has come.

This is just when I first bought BIAB. Thanks for the trip back, Callie.

Got to love the article praising the "many styles": 100!

Man, you guys make feel like such a noob!

This is the version I started on.

Had a DOS computer (12 Hz, as I recall) with 1M memory and a 20M hard drive. Had to install Windows 3.1 to run the BIAB version I bought (or maybe to run Master Tracks?) - and had to buy an extra 1M of memory for the computer (to run Windows) - which cost $100.

I upgraded to version 6 - but never really used it much - never really embraced MIDI...

I "found" BIAB again in 2012. I have "WORE. IT. OUT." ever since...

I sure hope you haven't completely worn it out yet, Floyd. We like your material

I bought Version 2 (PC DOS) of BIAB in Oct 1990, upgraded to V3 in Feb '91, upgraded to V4 in Nov of '91, V5 in Nov '92 and have been upgrading to every version since.

Thanks for the "way back" link.

Larry

PS Wish I had keep some of the original early mailers - talk about visually BUSY - with my eyesight now I'd never be able to read it Maybe someone has one form early early to mid 90's and can scan it and post it?

Oh yeah, now I can't get that out of my mind. Thanks, Larry.

This sure brings back memories. Having used BIAB since the beginning, here is a track recorded circa 1990. It was an experiment trying to take advantage of the new feature in BIAB providing the ability to change styles within the same song (something we take for granted today). It uses the "built-in" styles of Bossa, Jazz, and Heavy Rock. The flute lead was performed on a PG-380 midi guitar!

https://soundcloud.com/cxp-2/chick-a-dee

I notice that the address for PG Music was New York, not Victoria BC as we now know.
Does anyone know the story behind the "migration?

Thanks a lot for sharing this nice little gem. It just goes to show the old cliché - it's not about the tools but what you do with them that counts!