PG Music Home
Posted By: Alcarms Real Band 2019 is a BIG disappointment - 01/14/19 08:00 PM
Just got BIB 2019 which includes Real Band. It is a BIG disappointment. The notation window in RealBand has become virtually unusable for playback (play along) reading. The notation problem started in Real Band & PowerTracks in the 2013 release & has never been fixed & consequently become more broken in subsequent releases.

I use 4 bars per line & scroll ahead enabled at 50% trigger & scroll ahead amount set at 50%
Here are the issues:

1-On RealBand launch the notation screen shows 4 bars but revert to 2 bars as soon as it plays the 1st bar. If you stop song & restart the problem disappears. Subsequent songs play OK. (Annoying but livable)

2- Bars dividing line – on playback this dotted vertical line appears properly at the middle of the window between bars 2 & 3, but subsequently migrates to slightly past the second bar causing the scrolling to not properly display 1st few notes of the 3rd bar. In addition part of the 5th bar now appears at the right side of the window to further confuse the user.

3-Timing cursor
A) – Does not move smoothly across the bars. It starts OK but hesitates/jumps when it gets to the end of current bar & then suddenly jumps back into time when it crosses into the next bar.

B) – When it gets to the end of the 2nd bar the timing cursor disappears & is not shown in bars 3 & 4, subsequently when bars 5 & 6 scroll onto the left side of the window it reappears again. Then it disappears after 2 bars & repeats the cycle to the end of the song.


I reported the above to the help folks & they were able to experience the same problems while we were on the phone. In terms of a fix, they started down the path of prioritization etc. I have been reporting the growth of the notation window problems from 2013 on. Very very disappointing!

At this point number 2 & 3 above are so bad that I am inclined to ask for a refund on the entire BIB package. I really love PG Music (since the beginning of time) & would almost be willing to pay for a fix. In the interim I have uninstalled BIB 2019 & reinstalled 2012 (the last good version without these problems).
There is an issue in RB 2019 Build 1 and 2 in which there is part of an extra bar drawn which makes the scrolling look incorrect (like it's behaving strangely). That particular issue did not exist in 2018. This was fixed in RB 2019 Build 3, and I'm not sure why Build 3 was not yet released. From what I'm seeing in Build 3 (not yet released), there are 2 remaining issues that need to be looked into: 1) the notation window showing 2 bars instead of 4, and 2) The timing cursor not being drawn on right side of screen after the scroll ahead to the next screen occurs (and before it gets to the end of the current screen), but the notes are still highlighted in red correctly on the right side of the screen in that situation.
Build 3 was just posted.

Bob
The Build 3 that was just released today, should also fix the issue in which 4 bars per line would temporarily revert to 2 bars per line the first time a song was played after booting up RealBand.
Posted By: Alcarms Re: Real Band 2019 is a BIG disappointment - 02/03/19 10:58 PM
So Jeff,

Thanks for the update - If I read the Real Band release 2019 3 notes correctly, the following are still not fixed in this release:

2- Bars dividing line – on playback this dotted vertical line appears properly at the middle of the window between bars 2 & 3, but subsequently migrates to slightly past the second bar causing the scrolling to not properly display 1st few notes of the 3rd bar. In addition part of the 5th bar now appears at the right side of the window to further confuse the user.


3-Timing cursor
A) – Does not move smoothly across the bars. It starts OK but hesitates/jumps when it gets to the end of current bar & then suddenly jumps back into time when it crosses into the next bar.

B) – When it gets to the end of the 2nd bar the timing cursor disappears & is not shown in bar 3 & 4, subsequently when bars 5 & 6 scroll onto the left side of the window it reappears again. Then it disappears after 2 bars & repeats the cycle to the end of the song.


BTW - These problems may not have been in BIAB - RealBand 2018, but they were happening in PowerTracks 2018. So I just stopped using it & reverted to an earlier version.

As soon as these are fixed I'll reorder BIAB 2019. Thanks.
There is only 1 issue at all in Build 3 that I am able to duplicate (and will be fixed in build 4), and that is that the timing cursor is blank on the right side after the scroll ahead to the next two bars, but before the entire next screen is redrawn, which will cause the right side to be drawn. (and, in my opinion, it's not really a major issue, since the notes highlight in the correct time, but, again, will be fixed in build 4)

I'm not currently able to duplicate any additional issues, and they were most likely the result of the bug that was just fixed for Build 3, in which a partial extra bar was being drawn.

Thanks.
Posted By: Alcarms Re: Real Band 2019 is a BIG disappointment - 02/04/19 02:18 PM
Thanks Jeff,

Thanks for the update, I would be more than willing to beta test any patches to build 4.

Do keep me in mind.
Posted By: Alcarms Re: Real Band 2019 is a BIG disappointment - 02/04/19 08:10 PM
Jeff,

BTW the timing cursor disappearing is important! It is a big help you when there is a rest followed by an intentional "off beat" note (slightly early or slightly delayed.)

It also is a great training tool for songs with many of these intentional "off beat" notes.

Thanks.
© PG Music Forums