I'm not sure if you want to pursue getting RB working working at this point and that's ok. Just let us know if you do. Otherwise, I'll not try to push you to use it. It's a tool. It has to be set up. It can be quirky. You can certainly use Biab and never use RB and you can use RB and never use Biab. But I get it that Biab/RB is mostly about having fun with music.
I will attempt to answer the last questions you posted.
Q: So you're saying that basically RealBand gives you everything that BIAB has and more?
Biab and RB share a lot of features but each have features separate from the other. They are different types of software programs from each other. RB is specifically a DAW (digital audio workstation) and Biab is an audio accompaniment program.
Q: That I should be entering my chords from scratch into RealBand rather than
BIAB?
You can do that. Most bigin a project in Biab and move the project to RB to refine their project. Biab generates tracks much faster than RB. Biab's Stylepicker works faster to review and select styles than the RB Stylepicker.
Q: Do I even need to install BIAB? Not sure as I've never heard of anyone not installing Biab. PGMusic sells a similar DAW software called Power Tracks that RB is based on but Power Tracks does not have the Biab interface features contained in RB.
Q: Exactly what is the relationship between the two programs? They are married. They share features, styles, RealTracks and Rb can open Biab saved files.
Q: Does one program need the other?
Not necessarily. They can work fine independent of each other but are designed to work complementary to each other.
Q: what RB says after I try to load another version of the BIAB song. "Initializing accompaniments"
Good news. This is normal behavior. That is part of RB syncing its startup procedure.
Q: Then it opens a Note .txt file on screen and the song/program is basically frozen now.
The note text file is also normal behavior. I'm going to speak just a bit more about the freeze up in a moment. That is obviously not normal behavior, or is it?
Q: The green song Play light is on.
But the song doesn't play and nothing can be pressed in the program.
Good news again. That green triangle is always on. When RB is working properly, the green triangle when clicked, appears like the button is indented.
Not a happy camper here bob.
I reluctantly installed RealBand.
Now it seems I will have to cope with two headaches instead of just one.
Fired up RealBand. It opens midi settings to start.
I don't have Input. It asks to choose Output.
I choose standard Windows Wave.
I go to open the song I was working on in BIAB,
RB complains that it's 48k instead of 41k (or vice versa).
It opens it anyway.
Then the program freezes!
Can't do a bloody thing.
Programs crashes when I try to close it.
ARghhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!
Let's talk about this post for a moment.
A big difference between Biab and RB is how they open. Biab generates a song(RealTracks and Midi) very fast and allows you to press and begin playing the song after just a few seconds because Biab is reading ahead of the playing and generating the remainder of the tracks in the song while you listen.
RealBand generates a song differently. RealBand generates all the tracks of the entire song before you can play the song and it takes a minute or so before you can press play and the song plays. IF you hit play before all the tracks have generated, this may stop the generation process and attempt to play the tracks but they have not generated yet so the program freezes as it continues to search and play generated tracks that are not there.
There are many things that can cause a newly installed program to freeze up and most times it's something easy to correct by pushing a button or changing a setting but it's not always easy to find. I can't tell from your post if you possibly pressed play before the tracks generated but that would be a very common and easy mistake to make until you are familiar with the program and how it operates. It is only one of many things that could be causing your issue.
It looks to me like you have RB really close to being properly setup. If you want to give one more try I recommend we try to simply get RB to open on its own and not worry about importing a Biab file at the moment. That may be your ultimate goal and use for RB but we should concentrate on getting RB open and ready to accept a Biab file.
If you're interested, try these steps. It should take less than 2 minutes.
If Biab is open, close the program.
Open RB and wait for all the messages to complete and it to initialize.
You should be seeing the Tracks view
At the top of the screen in the VIEWS Menu, click on the CHORDS button
You should be seeing the familiar Biab Chord Chart.
Enter 8 to 12 chords as you normally do
Return to the TRACKS page
There may or may not be a STYLE chosen. Once you've used the program it defaults to the last Style used (or that's how mine reacts and I don't recall setting the program up to do that so I think it's the default setting)
Regardless, if there is a Style in the Style window you are good to go, if not, choose a Style from the StylePicker.
The only other change you need to make is to set the END BAR number to the number of chords you entered on the Chord Chart page. 8 or 12 or whatever your number of bars are. The other defaults should be fine.
There is a Large Button 'GENERATE' - Click on that button and select the first entry "Generate all BB Tracks (Entire Song)
You will get a spinning cursor and you can monitor the generating tracks by watching the small bar across the very top of your screen.
The style I've chosen _FLYAWAY.STY has three RealTracks and one RealDrum Track. I entered 14 bars of chords on the Chord Chart page and my RB program defaults to a Bar Offset of -0- and the 2 bar button is checked so when I change the END BAR to 14, I have a 16 bar chart and my tracks generate from bar 1.
So, wait until all 4 tracks have generated and are visible on the TRACKS view - Three green tracks and a Yellow Drum Track. The Drum Track is always the last track to generate and you will see a message pop up saying the RealDrums are generating.
Once all 4 tracks have generated, you can press Play and the song should play from start to finish.
If it doesn't there is still a button to push or setting to change to complete the RB initial set up. If that's the case, report it back here and we'll walk you through the setup that's specific to your computer and gear.
Hope you'll try this but no problem either way. I get it that music should be fun and life is to be lived.