I want to know what the pro version of Band in a Box is. Is it the basic version of Band in a Box or is there something more to it?

Hi, if you are watching now go to the PG Sales cat box. They’ll steer you right. But yes the Pro is the most basic version. It lets you do a lot but mostly midi based. If you want RealTracks, that is stuff recorded by real musicians you need to go up to the UltraPAK at least. I started with the Pro and within a year upgraded to the UltraPAK.

Tony

Islansoul,

I'm sure you know the Mac and Windows packages differ from each other. But, for each operating system the ProPAK includes the least amount of content and for that reason is the basic package.

The ProPAK includes the newest edition of Band-in-a-Box and all available loops.

The 2019 Windows version also includes a 64 bit version of Band-in-a-Box as well as 32 and 64 bit VST plugins and a standalone version of the plugin.

The plugins can be thought of as Band-in-a-Box light as the plugins do not include all the functionality of the program. But they can be used to create tracks and multi-riffs while staying inside your DAW of choice. No one but PG Music knows for sure but I believe PG Music plans for plugins to be included in the next Mac release.

The Windows edition includes RealBand but RealBand is currently not available for Macs. RealBand has multi-riff capability. Multi-riffs are bars of RealTracks versus the full song length track renderings normally available from Band-in-a-Box. RealBand will render up to seven distinct multi-riffs for each highlighted track selection. A user can select one or more multi-riffs they like to cut and paste within a song project as desired. Multi-riffs greatly enhances audio choices so it is a popular feature. Assuming DAW plugins are available in the next Mac release, the multi-riff capability of the DAW plugins should minimize the need for a Mac version of RealBand.

Of course, it is a foregone conclusion that 64 bit Band-in-a-Box plugins will be available for Mac in the next release. After all Apple is pushing real hard for everything to convert to 64 bits.

What else is included in the Mac ProPAK?

• 54 of a little more than 175 available MidiSuperTracks
• 22 of 145 available Artist Performances
• About 750 of more than 2,300 available MIDI styles
• About 150 of 300 available MIDI soloists
• About 100 of 200 available melodists
• 340 of more than 2,700 available hours of RealTracks audio recordings

The last list item is the one that gets most people. The 300 RealTracks you receive are lifted from RealTracks sets and combined into about 100 Real Combo Bands. That breaks down to receiving about 13% of the available RealTracks programming.

You receive more content with the MegaPAK but not everything.

• 74 of a little more than 175 available MidiSuperTracks
• 63 of 145 available Artist Performances
• All 2,300 available MIDI styles
• All 300 available MIDI soloists
• All 200 available melodists
• 550 of more than 2,700 available hours of RealTracks audio recordings

I hope you find this informative and helpful.

Thank you. The multi riff feature in Real Band is another reason to have Real Band created for Mac.

I wholeheartedly agree. The RealBand multi-riff feature is awesome and most likely is the most used program feature.

Assuming the content remains the same for 2019 Mac as it is for 2019 Windows (which is a huge assumption I know) Mac users may obtain the multi-riff feature without having to use RealBand.

The VST plugin has a multi-riff feature. Perhaps the 2019 Mac will have VSTs or Audio Units (AU) for Mac.

No argument there! I'd certainly buy. I might even use it in my own projects rather than vanity projects for others (about a gazillion times better than buying karaoke tracks give or take a trillion or two ).

I'm not going back to Windows just for that, however. Spent too many years on a Win help desk to ever want to ride that clown car again.

The upcoming 64 bit version is an absolute must for those of us who must keep our Mac OS current.