PG Music was founded way back in 1988 - so it's no huge surprise that we still have this 3.5" floppy disk for Band-in-a-Box 1.0 for Windows!

Very cool! So that would have been for Windows 2.0 or 2.1, as Windows 3 wasn't released until 1990.

That was the first version of Windows I worked with. I was working at the US Federal Aviation Administration at the time and implementing a new desktop environment for about 500 users there that was based on Windows 2.
I was so happy when we went to Windows 3 and ultimately Windows for Workgroups 3.11. Networking in Windows 2 was a real PITA.

I also got to implement Microsoft Word for Windows 1.0. We've really come a long way since then.

I wish I had kept my discs. I started with BIAB in 1995. I remember having a rough time back then with my Sony laptop. I was brand new to computers at that time.

But I found this 5 and a quarter inch from 1987.

I think we need to talk guys.

Get a usb floppy disk drive and DOSBox then try it out.

I remember the floppies, DOS versions, the first Windows version, Atari versions and Motorola CPU Mac versions.

I wish I still had the disks, for nostalgic reasons.

Notes

I want to hear what BIAB 1.0 sounds like and compare to today's.

No you don't. There is really no comparison. I started using BIAB just a few years later and it's only MIDI, with the chintzy MIDI sounds of its day. Quite awful by today's standards.

I go back to 1992. Wish I still had the Atari, I would be tempted to fire it up. But I do remember the sounds and quality. It's come a long, long way.

concur (unless one likes gritting one's teeth)

Larry

ROFL!!

But actually, you can get an idea of what the typical 90's BBox sounded like, from an earlier 'News' post - check this out:

http://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=433186

Play the "built in" styles without an ending and that's pretty much what it sounded like.

And BiaB has no sound at all, it depends on the synth module, synth, or software synth you are using. BiaB tells the synth what to play.

Back in the early 1990s, sound modules weren't as sophisticated as they are now, digital advances make them sound much better now. But some of the sounds back then were decent, and in it's day it was the most advanced thing going.

Fortunately PG Music did not rest on it's laurels and have continued to innovate and improve on the original design.

Insights and incites by Notes

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!

This is the funniest thing I have ever seen!!

I am laughing so hard I can't breathe!!

"Yeah, sales people are beautiful that way...anyway, Peter is making a fortune doing house calls but he plays in a band on weekends and he married my sister......and he made this thing called Band in a Box."

ROFLMAO!!


http://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=433186

Don't tell me it's after midnight at your end now too, eh?

Dude,

I am totally showing this to all of my friends. This is better than anything I have seen on Saturday Night Live.

When he got to the part about complex numbers and "my tie really isn't a pair of suspenders" I almost choked, I was laughing so hard.

Told ya it was f...... hilarious!

My other sister Kathy?

He has two sisters named Kathy?

Like my other brother Darrell???

Huh???

It's just beyond bloody brilliant, innit, like a gift that just keeps on giving

I vote that this post, or at least the video, gets pinned forever more.

Been a long time since I saw a 5 1/4 inch disk. In the very early 80's there were two micro operating systems that were vying for the market. They were cpm86 and dos. cpm86 was a much better operating system faster than dos using the Motorola chip that I am pretty sure apple picked up on.

Apple, Commodore and Atari computers all used the Motorola chip. I agree the cpm85 was a much better OS.

Ps I was using tape prior to HDs and floppies!

The Radio Shack Color Computer also used a Motorola chip the 6809E

I think mine originally had 16KB (KILO bytes) it was good enough that I wrote my Masters thesis on a CoCo.

Larry

Larry, I still have one of those! I have no idea if it works.

LOGO....

Mario, yes I remember tape with my TI-99/4A - my first computer, which makes me a little bit of a late starter.

I actually sold my aftermarket user styles on either a 5.25" or 3.5" floppy disk for a while with a DOS installer for PC because the Windows version hadn't come out yet.

My how things have progressed. It's like comparing a Model T to a 21st century Ford Explorer.

Notes

I'm guilty of using tape also (both magnetic and paper punch), not for music but for programs and data.

Of course we have what we have now as a result of the progress made from what we had then.

Fairly certain I didn’t buy or use LOGO. I have used LISP, PL1 and a few other obscure languages, never used outside certain places, none on these on CoCo obviously. I’ve also written many thousands of lines of real-time FORTRAN (yes, without GOTO’s) but that’s like saying “I wrote books with a reed stylus on a wet clay tablet” LOL).

I was running OS9 on the CoCo by time I built first ‘x86, OS9 even on that slow clocked 6809 processor was putting DOS on a much faster x86 to shame. But the handwriting was on wall, 'x86 was going to be "it," at least for mainstream industry, science & tech & Gov't (aka work) so I simply moved on.

Larry

To me it's amazing how quickly different technologies came to replace the floppy disk.

Those magnetic-optical disks came and went, along with zip and jaz disks, CD-R and RW, and even some BD-RWs.

And now we have little USB flash drives.

The flash drives are great, and I wonder what's next?

Notes

And there we have it, peeps, the very essence of "profound" right there!

Yep...so many memories!!! I go back to '93
Bought a custom built desktop that had a 250MB hard drive (yes... you read that right - "MB")
4MB of ram
2 floppy drives
Pentium 486 processor.

For this "state of the art" mean machine I paid just over $2,000.

Remember when you booted up the computer and it came to an MS-Dos prompt where you would type in "win" to get Windows 3.0 running?

And now I have a confession to make and I'm hoping that PG Music doesn't prosecute me and throw my butt in jail for the rest of my life. Back then every piece of software came on 3 1/2" floppy disks. There really wasn't anything stopping someone to just make copies of the software to share with friends. The words "pirate software" wasn't invented yet.(at least I didn't hear it and I really wouldn't have known what it meant anyway) There were no serial numbers needed to install BIAB, or just about any other piece of software. Even Win 3.0 could be copied and installed without anything that tried to stop you from doing that.

I did change my ways once I realized that the practice was becoming illegal and I have bought any software that I've owned and used over the years.

And so I had my very first "copy" of BIAB in '93 It came with what seemed like a hundred floppies containing all the styles. I used Power Tracks Pro to edit the BIAB files. I would then record my masterpieces with a Yamaha 4 track cassette recorder... another machine marvel of it's time.

Bobby