I know this isn’t a “fix this in the program” post. But I’ve been using BIAB for several years, and had the audiophile edition since 2015. I don’t upgrade as often as I’d like to because there are no price breaks for owners of the expensive edition. EVER. It’s frustrating because 95% of what I’m buying I already own. A couple times over. Why isn’t there, A. An upgrade pack for audiophile people. Let us download just the updates (it’s ok to put WAV files into a heavily compressed ZIP or RAR file. It doesn’t affect the sound quality) and give us a price break, or, B. Just offer us a discount for a limited time when you release new versions in December like you do for everyone else.
I have hard drives piling up in a drawer. If you won’t give me a discount, then at least let me resell my old hard drives so I can recoup part of my investment. It’s like being told you can buy a new car at full price but you can’t sell your old one.
Don’t get me wrong. I love BIAB. I just don’t like having to pay so much more for a 5% improvement. Please, PG Music, do something nice for your audiophile people. Thank you.
There is only an introductory upgrade discount offered to audiophile owners for the previous year (e.g. 2018), and not for earlier years.
All other products offer introductory discounts for both the previous year and also to upgrade from earlier years.
This is likely to hold back some customers from upgrading their earlier version. Users of all other products get offered a special introductory discount for earlier years, but not the Audiophile users.
Definitely needs looking at. +1
BIAB & RB2024 Win.(Audiophile), Sonar Platinum, Cakewalk by Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M Monitors, Pioneer Active Monitors, AKG K271 Studio H'phones
Maybe you could just send PG a 2T SSD (very light on postage cost) and they will load it up for you, as most of the cost is the actual hard drive. Maybe have an Audiophile Update download but you would need a good internet connection. RAR will shrink to 25% a lot smaller than ZIP.
I have tried asking exactly that, sending drive in... Couple of months ago when I called in. I do not believe they will do it in such manner. That would mean keeping track & responsibility of other peoples property. I see only 2 better alternatives.
1) have the update packages "downloadable" and make it $75 cheaper than sending physical drive. 2) send update (just update) on usb flash drive, which would cost a bit cheaper than spinning hard drive, cheaper to send, easier to store. Reusable.
Consider that VAT or whatever it is that Europeans have to deal with. Apparently they pay a tax based on the value of the shipment. They are looking for a less expensive method for delivery than the USB 3.0 drive. If a better method were found it might encourage more to upgrade to the audiophile version.
BIAB 2024 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 6.5 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6; Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus Studio 192, Presonus Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors
True, but the 2019 audiophile version takes up a little under 1.5 TB. That's still a huge download even if compressed, or a flash drive more expensive than the USB 3.0 drive they use now. I don't know what the better answer is.
BIAB 2024 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 6.5 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6; Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus Studio 192, Presonus Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors
You would not want to download what you already have, so what would the Audiophile update be ? maybe 200GB ? and if you RAR it around 100GB. Toontrack Superior Drummer 3 download is 240GB and that's 24bit wav/aiff.
It could save folks at both ends of the rope time and money.
+1 for digital audiophile download update. Also, +1 for 128gb usb flash drive update by mail for those with slower connection or if they just want a hard copy.
I tried file compress and extract and then compare to check lossless ability.
My results:
pn4448.WAV 170,931,644 bytes pn4448.RAR 040,946,143 bytes reduced to 23.9% of original
After decompressing, files were identical (lossless)
So if my calculations are correct, there would be a download saving of approximately 76% which is extremely worthwhile for such a large archive. PGM just needs to make the newer audiophile files available as a download.
Another +1
BIAB & RB2024 Win.(Audiophile), Sonar Platinum, Cakewalk by Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M Monitors, Pioneer Active Monitors, AKG K271 Studio H'phones
I would gladly send back ANY of my current Audiophile hard drives if I could get them upgraded for a reduced price. It's only a software update and maybe a few hundred megs of new Real Tracks.
And there's a really simple way to prove that using compression like WinRAR does not affect the sound of your audio:
Take a wav file. Preferably something sonicly complicated. Compress it. Extract the copy. Put them both (original and decompressed) into any good DAW. Make sure they are EXACTLY lined up. Flip the phase on one of them.
The sound will completely disappear. Because the signals are identical and phase-cancel each other out. If you hear anything, then either the files are not aligned or the compression has "colored" the file.
I have done this test with WinRAR myself and found it completely cancels out every time. Therefore, the compress has not affected it in any way.
How about if both the standard version and the audiophile were both the same price with just an added cost to cover the larger drive, rather than simply promoting the audiophile as a superior product with an added cost for that?
Windows 10 (64bit) M-Audio Fast Track Pro, Band in a Box 2024, Cubase 13, Cakewalk and far too many VST plugins that I probably don't need or will ever use
As I'm sure you know, the base program is the same for any version. The audiophile isn't a superior product as a program; it is superior because of the data (RealTracks and RealDrums) fed into it.
But I think the Audiophile version contains all the 'extras' except for those few separate purchase paks that were never included (such as Jeff Lorber). So while I agree with you, I would want to make sure about the exact details.
Some good suggestions have been offered here recently about alternate delivery modes, including flash drives, compressed lossless downloads, and shipping the drive back for reloading. It bears further exploration, especially for those who have VAT tax or more hard drives than they need.
BIAB 2024 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 6.5 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6; Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus Studio 192, Presonus Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors
+1 for a download file of just those changes since the last version - but any compression would HAVE to be lossless (otherwise why bother with the Audiophile version?).
Really interesting thread!
If I hadn't seen such riches I could live with being poor.
The audiophile version requires over 1.5 TB of file space on the drive they ship. You get up-to-date versions of everything. I’m not sure how large a download of just the updated files each year would be, but it would be substantial.
BIAB 2024 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 6.5 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6; Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus Studio 192, Presonus Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors
The thing I like about having the hard drive is that I don't have to download Band in a Box to use it and I can save all the files on the drive and not have to worry about my computer loosing all the files. I do agree that most of the stuff you end up getting with the Audiophile edition each years is really just the same thing but this year's edition was worth the price of being able to have a VST version which basically gave Mac users RealBand.
Computer: Macbook Pro, 16 inch 2021 DAWs: Pro Tools, Logic, and Maschine plays drums, percussion, bass, steel pan, keyboard, music producer/engineer
Yes, +1 from me too! Paying full price again and again for most of the stuff we have paid for already seems unfair. Even if we had to download a half of a terabyte, we live in the 21st century and Internet speeds are fast. Downloading a half of a terabyte on a relatively slow connection is still faster than waiting days for a delivery by mail. Countries with connections that are too slow to download huge files are also probably not safe to send expensive Audiophiles to too.
Audiophile version owners are your biggest fans PGM! Please give us that consideration. Thanks.
I just had a look at the special prices for the 2020 release. To upgrade Audiophile 2019 to Audiophile 2020 is only US$199. This is just US$100 more than what the UltraPak 2019 to UltraPak 2020 and seems like a pretty good deal.
Add updated printing options, enhanced tracks settings, smoother use of MGU and SGU (BB files) within PowerTracks, and more with the latest PowerTracks Pro Audio 2024 update!
Download and install this to your RealBand 2024 for updated print options, streamlined loading and saving of .SGU & MGU (BB) files, and to add a number of program adjustments that address user-reported bugs and concerns.
Did you know... not only can you download your Band-in-a-Box® Pro, MegaPAK, or PlusPAK purchase - you can also choose to add a flash drive backup copy with the installation files for only $15? It even comes with a Band-in-a-Box® keychain!
For the larger Band-in-a-Box® packages (UltraPAK, UltraPAK+, Audiophile Edition), the hard drive backup copy is available for only $25. This will include a preinstalled and ready to use program, along with your installation files.
Backup copies are offered during the checkout process on our website.
Already purchased your e-delivery version, and now you wish you had a backup copy? It's not too late! If your purchase was for the current version of Band-in-a-Box®, you can still reach out to our team directly to place your backup copy order!
Note: the Band-in-a-Box® keychain is only included with flash drive backup copies, and cannot be purchased separately.
Handy flash drive tip: Always try plugging in a USB device the wrong way first? If your flash drive (or other USB plug) doesn't have a symbol to indicate which way is up, look for the side with a seam on the metal connector (it only has a line across one side) - that's the side that either faces down or to the left, depending on your port placement.
Update your Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows® Today!
Update your Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows for free with build 1111!
With this update, there's more control when saving images from the Print Preview window, we've added defaults to the MultiPicker for sorting and font size, updated printing options, updated RealTracks and other content, and addressed user-reported issues with the StylePicker, MIDI Soloists, key signature changes, and more!
A few excerpts:
"The Tracks view is possibly the single most powerful addition in 2024 and opens up a new way to edit and generate accompaniments. Combined with the new MultiPicker Library Window, it makes BIAB nearly perfect as an 'intelligent' composer/arranger program."
"MIDI SuperTracks partial generation showing six variations – each time the section is generated it can be instantly auditioned, re-generated or backed out to a previous generation – and you can do this with any track type. This is MAJOR! This takes musical experimentation and honing an arrangement to a new level, and faster than ever."
"Band in a Box continues to be an expansive musical tool-set for both novice and experienced musicians to experiment, compose, arrange and mix songs, as well as an extensive educational resource. It is huge, with hundreds of functions, more than any one person is likely to ever use. Yet, so is any DAW that I have used. BIAB can do some things that no DAW does, and this year BIAB has more DAW-like functions than ever."
Convenient Ways to Listen to Band-in-a-Box® Songs Created by Program Users!
The User Showcase Forum is an excellent place to share your Band-in-a-Box® songs and listen to songs other program users are creating!
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If you'd rather listen to these songs in one place, head to our Band-in-a-Box® Radio, where you'll have the option to select the genre playlist for your listening pleasure. This page has SoundCloud built in, so it won't redirect you. We've also added the link to the Artists SoundCloud page here, and a link to their forum post.
We hope you find some inspiration from this amazing collection of User Showcase Songs!
Our User Showcase Forum receives more than 50 posts per day, with people sharing their Band-in-a-Box songs and providing feedback for other songs posted.
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