When you've been in business for more than 30 years, there sure is a lot of throw-back resources to be had!

Like this New Features video for Band-in-a-Box® 7!



Some of the New Features added with Band-in-a-Box® 7 included:
-Automatic Soloing
-Soloist Maker
-Style Changes and Any Bar
-MIDI Chord recognition
-Loop Notation Screen
-Favorite Songs Window
..and more!

Tip: Within the Band-in-a-Box® Help window, choose Features and you will see a separate list of new features released with every version of Band-in-a-Box from 7-2020!

I remember this very well.

This was one version before my first version. I started with version 8 ProPak, but when version 9 came out, I went with the MegaPak (which at the time was what today would be the "UltraPak", and haven't looked back as I've upgraded to every version since.

A great release at the time. It came on quite a bunch of 1,44 MB diskettes . . .

Just out of curiosity, what year are we talking here?

Around December 1996 I think.

Yowza! Some of you really have been here for a long time, then, to actually remember that release

I began with version 4, and I don't think I'm the longest owner here (as a customer).

Also, don't forget, there was a user forum here for several years before the current one began in the summer of 2000. All prior posts and post counts were lost.

I never even knew that!

It would have been fun to look at the early history. I forget what year it started but I began writing websites in 1994 so it was probably around then.

Would a site like this have any of the old forum stuff on it? I've used this to find old web pages I made in the 90s.

Web Archive

I used to use that frequently, Steve, when someone would ask a question requiring research. For example, what version introduced RealTracks? My memory will get me close, then the Internet Archive gets me quickly to the exact place. However, I noticed a year ago that the PG Music sites were no longer there! I reported it to PG Music, no response.

I'll look again using your link.

EDIT: Yep, got this:

Sorry.

This URL has been excluded from the Wayback Machine.

My use of BIAB goes right back to version 1 which came on stiffy/floppy drives and was in a box which I got at a music store. The internet was quite basic in those days and mostly consisted of dial-up access and Bulletin Boards so I would not have been aware of PG Music's web site. I think we only had sixteen styles as well.

That version I have backed up onto an archive drive. I cannot run it as it requires a hardware interface to run and I do not have any computers old enough to install my old MPU-401 into. Virtual DOS machines do not work either so the software will never be installed again. In the old days it was a way of getting drums and bass before carrying on the sequencing in Cakewalk Pro. A lot of the songs I could get away with just drums, bass, live guitar and my vocals. But of course in the following years extra instruments were added.


Kevin

i first bought BIAB on floppies and the earliest file i have was done in 1997. i got PowerTracks free and from then worked out the sequence i still use. Rough out in BIAB and then edit in PowerTracks - now RealBand.

Yes it was all midi and for playing out live we used a Roland SC7 and a yamaha file player. and before the yamaha file player we used a laptop running the DOS version of powertracks. windows was 3.1 and the soft synth i used was the Roland VSC1.

we used bass, drums piano and horns to back our duo of two guitars and singers. brass parts i often entered with edtable notation then harmonised to create a complete brass section. can't help thinking that the workarounds we used on the very simple early version of the program gave us an understanding of what could be done and how to do it that new purchasers faced with a much more powerful (but complicated) version of BIAB are missing.

the last century suddenly feels so far away......................

Bob, you were probably running BIAB version 7 then.

Kevin, as you are even more of a pioneer, I salute you.

I'm not sure if I should own up to this, but I started with Atari, however, a lot of water went under the bridge in the meantime.
(Still got the disks, haven't got the Atari...)

Trevor, hang on to those. After appropriate aging, the blue ones taste better.

I think I've lost my appetite

I do remember knowing about the program in the 90's, even had a try at its chord entering interface in the music store... where I was to buy one of them keyboards which could do that instantly (plus BBox not on the Mac yet at that point), so I never really paid any more attention to it at the time.
But then two things happened in a short span - it came for my precious Mac platform, and so did the Realtracks - and the rest is... well, now you're stuck with me

p.s. I have to wonder, about those tasty floppies - red or white to go with, what you reckon??

Yes, I bought BIAB in a Sam Ash music store in New York City on the recommendation of the salesperson, after inquiring if there was a newer version of what I was using, a Yamaha QY10.

My Introduction in June 1992 - a freebee on a PC Format disk

Keith