.....You should remember, there are thousands of people using all of this already. Some comments that you see are people wanting the plugin to work in a different way with their DAW or have additional features. Most, including me, are happy with how everything works now.....
Q. Are you one of the thousands of people that are happy with how everything works now ?
I spend most of my time finding workarounds for Biab to do things it should just do, this is an example getting a generated track to playback in sync with the current tracks in the DAW to see what track or multiriff fits best, a simple thing the VST should do but don't, yet apparently thousands of people are happy with this. How to Sync Play BiabVST Tracks Watch Video Demo
I upgraded from BiaB 2017 to BiaB 2019 specifically for the plugin. It will be a great thing when it is working correctly. Until then 2017 would be just as good for me.
Q. Are you one of the thousands of people that are happy with how everything works now ?
Yes.
I often see things discussed here on the forum where a technique is called a work around or deficiency in BIAB because it's done differently in BIAB than in Reaper, Sonar or Studio one DAW's. I interpret the technique to simply be the way it's done in BIAB rather than how the same process is handled in a DAW. I have never viewed BIAB to be a DAW. I see the same issue between Audacity and DAW's. Audacity is an Audio Editor and does not always function exactly like a DAW. That's not a deficiency but a difference. I'm happy with my car even though I know it would sink if I used it as a boat. Same concept in BIAB versus DAW with me.
I'm completely happy with BIAB because I use it to create audio/midi/chords and such and export to DAW or Stand alone Multitrack to do further processing.
I'm one of the thousands of people that are happy with how everything works in BiAB because I view the process of using BIAB to create tracks and the resulting output to be the same as if I hired session musicians to come into my studio and work on my projects. Once the session musicians have completed their workday, been paid and gone, you work with the tracks recorded or rehire them to come back and rerecord if necessary.
I am very happy to see that the progress have been made into adapting BIAB to modern software standards as we getting closer to the third decade of twenty first century. But I feel that VST is still far from where it has to be. It is a big step in the right direction, but only a step. I will wait until it matures, or at least fixed properly before using it.
I mainly upgraded for the 64 bit version and the VST but after playing around with them for a couple days I'm back to using the 32 bit version, they look very promising but at this stage they're an early beta release at best, not something that should have been released as a retail product
Also the quantity of real tracks and styles continues to increase, 202 real tracks with this release, but There are only a few of them that I see myself actually using.
At this point it would make no difference to me if I was using version 2019 or an earlier version.
So I guess I'm excited about the prospects of a VST that actually functions like a VST, but I'm a little concerned that rather than a real VST all we'll get is a new name for the DAW plugin mode of Band in a Box that only allows us to drag and drop wav files into a DAW with a few new features added.
New contents (realtracks, etc) are just great, as usual.
On the other hand, the program itself, to be honest, seems to be a little bit out of control, there are just too many bugs and things not working as they should everywhere, specially (but not only) on new features.
I bought BIAB to have a great time exploring new features and content, but I'm spending way more time fixing problems than actually using the program. This happens, more or less, every year, it's only that this year was worst than usually.
It's obvious that BIAB needs a complete rewrite from the scratch, its core code is more than 20 years old (255 bar limit, 8 character filenames, etc) and this is just too much for any piece of software. I suspect they are never going do that, so I hope they seriously concentrate on fixing bugs (there are MANY of them reported for years) instead of simply ignoring the bug reports and keep adding more and more buggy new features for 2020.
No. I purchased the upgrade and I will love using the new RealTracks. But the excitement I felt learning about 64-bit and VST has mostly faded now that I see what they have delivered. It reminds me of the new GUI feature that I quickly turned off. And of the track renaming feature which I stopped using because it is not used consistently throughout the software. And of UserTracks which never seemed to reach their potential. And VideoTracks which should never have been added.
I think PGM have become too used to their easy-to-please-never-critical senior market. They have had little serious competition. The result is...a VST that appears to be little more than drag/drop wrapped in a VST. And the boss assures everyone that this is plenty. But pretty much every time a new user drops into the forum, especially younger pros, their first impression of BIAB is "what a mess"!
At this point I wish they would just stop adding weight and complexity and just do what they do best...RealTracks! I'll keep upgrading for RealTracks. They are truly AMAZING!
Yes and a little NO. No: Lots of bugs. I think PG already knows most of them. 64-bit is a very good start, but there is a lot to do. VST, actually not a real progress compared to render the files and import it. YES: I'm one of these old easy-to-please users. Since ATARI ST days. I saw a lot of progress in these years and yes, I trust PG that this will last. And I know even software engineers have to pay their rent. And I want the company to remain alive. And I have more money than in the old ATARI days. And I like 64bit, maybe someday I like VST. And who knows someday it will be possible to work with real 6/8 bars. Hope I'm still alive
Yes, I am relatively happy with the BiaB 2019... I'm very happy with PG Music and their support efforts... Love the Forum, in spite of some frustrated negativity. The positive vibe & helpful nature of some here, far exceed the negative...
Yes, I am relatively happy with the BiaB 2019... I'm very happy with PG Music and their support efforts... Love the Forum, in spite of some frustrated negativity. The positive vibe & helpful nature of some here, far exceed the negative...
That's for sure ...
Originally Posted By: Pipeline
.... a simple thing the VST should do but don't, yet apparently thousands of people are happy with this ...
Ain't no VST (just yet?) .... and feel kind of 'cheated'. Still need all them quite time consuming ole hat-tricks to get what i want properly exported. Current thing i am working on is now at version 5 reworked in, and exported from BIAB.
A few more editable audiotracks there could help out. BIAB slaving to MTC or Midiclock is STILL NOT POSSIBLE ! Asked for that already 20 years ago, them Ataridays.
Tried realband as DAW few times, but it ain't flexible enough regarding midi data (grooving, selection of particular notes and special edits) and controller editing, and plugin handling IMO. But a lot of BIAB is great, like the RTs, the styles, printing leadsheets etc.
Yes, no, maybe. I upgrade every year just because. Primarily the real tracks. Every year I plan on digging into the program and actually learning how to use it. Last year I never even go around to registering it. This year is THE YEAR!
A key quote: "In the widest possible sense a VST-Plug-in is an audio process. A VST Plug-in is not an application. It needs a host application that handles the audio streams and makes use of the process the VST plug-in supplies. Generally speaking, it [a VST plugin] can take a stream of audio data, apply a process to the audio and send the result back to the host application."
From reports so far, sounds to me like the BB-VST is NOT receiving an audio stream from the host. Or just about any other data either except tempo. At any rate, if I gotta drag generated tracks manually from plugin to host track, how is this much different from what we can do already?
What saddens me the most is that the head of company says he's satisfied with it, which implies there'll be no further development. Say it aint so Peter.
I wrote somewhere else “look for a standard of excellence not perfection” I’m sure if you seek perfection you will be surely disappointed. There is always room for improvement.
I read somewhere else on the Forums a wish that BB did this or that. I thought to myself thank heavens it does not. We all have differing views on what constitutes perfection. It is impossible to cover for everyone’s views.
I wrote somewhere else “look for a standard of excellence not perfection” I’m sure if you seek perfection you will be surely disappointed. There is always room for improvement.
I read somewhere else on the Forums a wish that BB did this or that. I thought to myself thank heavens it does not. We all have differing views on what constitutes perfection. It is impossible to cover for everyone’s views.
My thoughts
Tony
While I generally agree, literally anything can be excused by this philosophy. I ordered a car and it came without wheels. Yes, I can purchase wheels and rig it up but when a common definition/expectation exists, receiving something less than that and complaining is not "seeking perfection". And as a previous poster pointed out, there is a clear definition of what a VST does and this, this ain't that! Also, I paid in actual currency and was not allowed to pay in shells or chickens even though those might have value!
Don't forget we are asking about "& BiabVST" @Charlie Fogle is the VST working correctly for you ?
Yes it is now but didn't at first. I currently use Presonus Studio One 3.5 Professional and after the last BIAB update it began working. Before the last update, it was crashing S1 if I tried to load it.
I wrote somewhere else “look for a standard of excellence not perfection” I’m sure if you seek perfection you will be surely disappointed. There is always room for improvement.
Many of the bug reports are referring to standard or very basic features: VST not being recognised or not following the tempo of the host, importing audio not working, songpicker not launching, transposing recorded audio not working, realtracks making aleatory noises... things like that.
Asking these features to get fixed shouldn't be wrong in a mature community. We all want the best for BIAB.
I mainly upgraded to 2019 to move to the Audiophile version.
My workflow has been, Create in BiaB, Load into RB, Add more tracks, Export to DAW. I thought the VST might make that faster & easier, but that's not happening yet.
I thought 64-bit would enable the use of better VSTi's. IDK yet, but we'll see.
I hope & expect to see improvements to the VST and to the program itself. All that said, there really isn't anything else like BiaB.
If you watch this video you will see how things sync play. RapidComposerVST is loaded into Biab because the vst sync was finally fixed, therefore the RapidComposerVST will sync play and send midi to Biab, if RapidComposer did not sync play I would have to drag the midi from the standalone RapidComposer app into Biab, but wait, you can't drag so I would have to import that midi phrase into Biab into the correct bar then playback Biab to see if it fits nicely to that section, if not I will have to import another.
I just finished putting BiaB64 through it paces and it worked perfectly. I inserted five different Kontakt 5s, one on each different instrument channel, set the MIDI channel to one on each with no problems what-so-ever. I then dragged and dropped them into Studio One Pro. This of course was all MIDI.
It would be nice when we drag and drop the project into our DAWs that it also moved our MIDI sound sources with it. But with all of the problems with the VSTi lets let PGMusic straighten out that mess before trying to change BiaB64.