PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Windows BIAB 2016 - Initial Feedback (Installation)

I have installed BIAB 2016 and used it for half an hour before starting the work of installing all the realstyles (I went for the EverythingPak).

I'm sure I'll have some feedback on the program itself. However, following is some initial feedback only on the installation process.

I decided to use the "PG Music Download Manager" from within BIAB 2016. Doing so, I ran into the following snags that could be improved with a revision of the Download Manager:

1) "Download/Install" selected files - note that by the default all were selected except for "Loops Set 02" - which was marked as already installed. No problem yet there. I had "Install automatically when all downloads are finished".

Issue: after all downloads were finished, no installs began. This could have been due to insufficient disk space. I had the necessary disk space for the downloads - but probably not enough to install everything while keeping the downloaded files on the same disk. I'm inferring here since the problem was there was no messaging and no installing. If I have the install automatically checked - I would expect something more than the system going back to idle. An error message if that is appropriate or the installs to start.

2) I started to manually install the RealTracks one by one. Starting with the "Shots and holds 1-242" and then picking some others from the beginning and then starting backwards from the end (last RealTracks sets) until 15-20 were showing green "Installed". Once my disk space got to a low level, I decided to copy all of the install files (in the BB download for 2016 folder) to an external drive to free up the space. The download manager is built for this - as you can change the download folder. I also see this "download folder" as the "installation source" folder. I mirrored the download folder on an external drive with only the drive letter changing and folder root staying the same name. After changing the download folder all of the sets have cleared the "Installed" green status. I would hope it would preserve this - not a huge deal - room for improvement - but I expected pressing the "install" button would quickly "jump out" of the process if it found the RealTrack was already installed. I went to one of the last RealTracks because I knew all of those at the end on up were already installed. It sure took a long time to install (same time as if not installed) and also showed on the destination drive more and more disk space getting consumed. Seems like some improvement could be made.

3) When I had the "Download folder" the same disk drive as the destination ("install") folders, the "Disk Space Available" was helpful since it applied to both the download space and install space. However, when I changed the source drive ("Download folder") to a different external drive, I cared more about the destination drive's space since the source drive had already downloaded everything. Now I'm not expecting the software to be intuitive and read my mind - but I would suggest perhaps the space of the source and destination be displayed. Perhaps to the right of every folder in the "Install Settings" (since there may be multiple drives) and to the right of the folder under "Download Settings".

4) Given the install did not automatically start, I would prefer that there is a button added to force install of all packages not yet installed so I don't have to manually click each one. As a test, I just tried (now that I have plenty of space on the destination drive) to force the install by pressing the "Download/Install Selected files". All are selected except for the loops package - and all are already downloaded 100%. So I would expect this to reduce to the "install selected files" button. However, pressing it does not start the installs (keep in mind this was in the "idle" state so there were no installs occurring). There is no feedback at all from the button press.
Also note that the "Loops Set 02" which is marked as already installed shows "Not Downloaded" - but I would hope the match for "all downloaded" would mean only those that were checked and any items not checked would be "masked" from the logic which checks for "all downloaded".

5) Not necessarily an issue - but I noticed some folders created just have a text file (AlternateFolderNames.txt) which shows another folder which presumably has the data for an alternate name for the realtrack. What's the history of this (needing to call something my multiple names)? Just curious.

Due to the manual process of installing - it's going to take some time before I can see if the packages all landed correctly.

#5 is normal. BIAB often reuses RealTracks and especially RealDrums in multiple styles.

6) As an update - the install completed. A quick glance at the available RealStyles - I see all categories have something listed except the "Top 40" category. This category shows 8ths, 16ths, and a swing 8th I believe - all empty. Was this a stretch goal never realized, is there something missing, or does Top40 belong to the 49pak?

7) http://www.pgmusic.com/bbwin.packages.htm shows 2000+ RealTracks for the EverythingPak. Taking a look at the C:\bb\RealTracks - the count is 1493. If I show all RealTraks in the picker - the count is less. When I add up c:\bb\RealTracks and c:\bb\drums - the count is still <2000. Now there are sub-directories such as c:\bb\RealTracks\Loops (and UserTracks, and Library\Holds, and ...). Not sure how these are to relate to the accounting of RealTracks.

8) bbw.exe was shown as the latest build per the patch list, but RealBand was at level (2) instead of (3) which is the current latest. It would be helpful if biab would check the version of RealBand if possible - but not a huge issue. I patched RealBand to (3).

just status:

... and although I already have the "loops set 02" installed, I'm currently having the download manager get that package for a re-install in case this has anything to do with the top40 or other realtracks.

Other than the jbridge install (and pending loops download) - I've run and installed everything available with the EverythingPak. Next step is to regression test some of the 2015 issues I was having.

Hi Jason,

Re #7...

In my Realtrack picker, I'm told that I have 2123 items listed (at the very bottom (centre) of the RT picker). I have been adding new Realtrack installs over the top of existing Realtracks since they first came out in 2008. (I don't have any user tracks installed other than those that came form PG Music.)

That your installation value in the RT picker is less that 1493 (if I understand your post correctly), it sounds like some files have not been installed.

If you go into RT Picker and sort by set, it will be easy to see which sets are missing (if my theory is correct). In case it helps, below is a list of Realtracks from my computer sorted by set number (high to low). The section coloured yellow/pink are the 2016 sets.

List of Realtracks in ver. 2016 (17 MB pdf)

Hope this helps,
Noel

Ok, I see how to account for the realtracks. Using the stylepicker is not how it's done.

Instead:

Under the "Tracks" group (group in far-right-bottom corner of the window with all the buttons, song title, etc) click on the Saxophone icon labeled "RealTracks" with the down-arrow. Then click "Realtracks Picker Dialog". Or shift-then-click the same icon. Can click the "Copy List ..." and cut/paste the result (opened automatically in Notepad by BIAB) to a spreadsheet. Doing so, I count 2,106 RealTracks. There are "holes" in the numbering - but 2106>2000 is all I was looking for. I'm sure everything landed.

The software does have some "quirks" around the RealTracks as I would have expected all of the RT### sets to show up in the "StylePicker". But perhaps the StylePicker is not the right tool to pick all RealTrack sets and there are cases where StylePicker is blind to a RealTrack.

===============

9) I have loaded a song saved with 2015 which had a tag (coda) and in the coda some holds. Loaded in 2016, the ending of the song is not showing correctly during playback. When playing the tag (which shows up fine all in the same 1st "page" under the "chord sheet" - when the tune gets to the tag, band in a box decided to "turn the page" into the dark-grey past-the-end-of-the-song area. The paging wasn't correct since the song sounded as playing the tag which is in the light-grey area.

BIAB seems overly aggressive with the focus. The entire song fits on the page - so there isn't a need to shift around which measure is at the top-left. Instead, the display is "going off into the weeds" although the playback itself is correct.

Hello Jason,



Thanks. We do plan on further improvements to the Download Manager. One thing I'm curious about in your description - In the Download Manager there is a setting "Install automatically after download". Do you know if that was checked? Because you shouldn't have had to press each install button manually, the big "play" button at the top is a Download AND/OR Install button. If all the files were downloaded but not installed, it should have installed them automatically.

Yes, install automatically was checked. This was part of the feedback - that it wasn't working.

I tried to delineate possible causes for the software getting confused - namely the "Loops 02" already detected as installed and therefore automatically unchecked. I mentioned that there may be a lack of a mask for unchecked items (meaning the code assumption may be that only automatic downloads will happen if ALL items are checked and ALL items are downloaded).

The code should ignore anything unchecked from the pool of consideration of the "all downloaded" check before install. Anything unchecked should not prevent the installs from automatically starting (assuming "installed" is also not detected).

Also, I noticed that previously installed realtracks were not detected as installed the second time I loaded the download manager. So I just reinstalled again - not knowing exactly which ones I had already installed or if they worked correctly.

Regards,
Jason

I did have a writeup on how it'd be great for debug and social media to have a save as video feature - then I found it. Doing so, however, discovered a few problems

1) The "focus" issue I was trying to demonstrate with a video does not happen with the video render since the rendered video shows 9 lines of chords (measures 1-36) while my screen shows 10 lines of chords (measures 1-38, measures 39-40 are past the end of the song).

Therefore, the saveas video is not a strict rendering of what is displayed on the screen. There may be something to this, however - since the screen focus seems to flip to the next page when the saveas video renderer flips (correctly) its page to display measures 37-38 (10th line) which in the rendered version is not displayed until the page flip happens. On my system screen (application version) I see the entire tune and therefore there should be no page flipping.

2) The audio of the avi is distorted. I'm using the default codec "CVSM: MS-CRAM". Have not used this feature before, so settings are as install default.

3) The dialog for the avi render menu/progress ("Make Video of the Chordsheet" is placed in the background. The "alt-tab" graphic in windows shows the dialog box - but when switching back to BIAB - the main application window is displayed. In order to "uncover" the dialog box, I have to press "alt-esc" until it comes up. The issue is that this dialog box is not modal and has a parent so it doesn't end up having its own taskbar icon. When it hides behind the main app window - it's "difficult" to uncover as I also do not see a button or other way to bring it back to the foreground.

Note that by starting the rendering process, the program changes focus back to the main application thereby placing the "Make Video Of the Cordsheet" window hide in the background. This loses the progress bar during the rendering. At the moment, I'm having issues recovering from this state ("finding" the dialog) without exiting out of bbw, restarting, and bringing up the feature (saveas ... save as video) after restart.

Sometimes it is not forced to the background for the video rendering portion. Perhaps while the window is in the background while the realtracks are regenerated, I clicked on the main window which prevented the focus from being restored. At any rate, there are pitfalls with the current implementation.

... for the original "focus" issue - I'm going to have to bring up a 3rd party screen recorder to demo the issue.

-- here's a link (focus issue): http://vimple.co/a1d12632e9414716879a2bb4334088a9

Hi Jason,

For the "focus" problem, it would be very helpful if you could email us the Band-in-a-Box song file.

Please send it to support@pgmusic.com, and direct it to Blake.

Sure - no problem. Rereading my post - I generated some possible confusion.

There's an issue with the current measure as "off-page" because bbw (main window) during playback using the Chord View will turn the page and that new page will not have the current measure on the page - aka "off in the weeds" focus issue.

Then there's the second and entirely different dialog box (non-modal) issue where the focus will go to the main program with the dialog box in the background without a good way of getting the dialog box back. This is the "generate a video GUI issue".

I'm sending the tune to support for the "off page" focus issue.