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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Did you know that Band-in-a-Box® is more than 30 years old? I stumbled across this 1990 magazine article explaining the relatively new program, and think it's an enjoyable read for any Band-in-a-Box user - it really shows that we are always listening to user feedback when developing our program!

Read the article: Boxing Clever: Band-In-A-Box Software

A few of my favorite statements:

"The intention of PG Music's Band-In-A-Box package is to couple that speed and convenience with the improved flexibility of the personal computer. Versions are available for the Atari ST, Mac, and PC compatibles. Have the programmers succeeded? And can they rid themselves of the stigma of the auto-accompaniment section? Given the above state of affairs, the first hurdle that the program has to overcome is one of acceptance and, frankly, a name like 'Band-In-A-Box' is a bad start."

(I think our name was a great start!)

"The final results are, to say the least, impressive. Band-In-A-Box achieves something that most hardwired auto-accompaniment sections have never been able to do - inject a degree of feel into the music. It really does sound more human than so many of the computer generated pieces I've heard."

"...I'm quite convinced that PG Music will have a winner on their hands. This is one piece of software that you can get more out of than you put in."


Callie
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I’ve been using it almost 30 years. It’s fun to look back.


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
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Excellent !!!


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Wow, have you come a looong way or what! shocked

No seriously, this time you've really topped yourself, that's an absolutely brilliant find cool

p.s. If anyone could dig up a sample of what the program actually sounded like back then, with its 3-track limits and all, I'd be most interested to hear it wink


Thank goodness words aren't knives.
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I think I bought it in 1991 or 1992, I can't remember, I used to have the diskettes. Remember those! Threw them out quite a while back when my wife said I had to clean/straighten my music room!


My wife asked if I had seen the dog bowl. I told her I didn't even know he could.
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I well remember using BIAB on an Atari 1040ST. It certainly has advanced in all respects. Imagine how many diskettes you would need to use for the current version!


BIAB 2024 Ultrapak, Studio One
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going thru the attic i recently found an atari st sequencer 1 diskette and some games...ah those were the days.lol.

the st had good midi timing if i remember.
om


New Song "PRETTY GIRL" for my wife...Dec 2023
(my vocs....mixed for good earbuds.)
https://soundcloud.com/alfsongs/prettygirlrbfinalcalfsongsdec2023mp3
(and rock song THE STALLION and bluegrass song... BANKER MAN....90 songs useing bb/rb.)
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30 years ago, BIAB had found the right direction.
Chord, style, generation
After 30 years of accumulation, a revolution in music production will be set off in 2021.
Many people may not realize it.


WIN10 20H2, AMD R4800H ,16G , 2T ,FOCUSRITE 2i4 MKII,Studio One,FL STUDIO
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Congrats!

But there is no way anyone will ever, ever, ever compete with this EPIC demo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdpWc0hT5OQ

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Originally Posted By: Callie - PG Music
I think our name was a great start!


I recall being aware of the existence of BIAB back in the early 90s, but I never tried it out until a few months ago. Why not? Well, partly because of that name, which always had cheesy associations for me.

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Originally Posted By: David Snyder

Congrats!

But there is no way anyone will ever, ever, ever compete with this EPIC demo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdpWc0hT5OQ



Great video flashback - thanks for the share!

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Originally Posted By: David Snyder

Congrats!

But there is no way anyone will ever, ever, ever compete with this EPIC demo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdpWc0hT5OQ



Great video, we need Peters brother in law to join the forum.


Musiclover

My music https://www.youtube.com/user/donegalprideofall

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 smile
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Originally Posted By: Mark Hayes
Originally Posted By: Callie - PG Music
I think our name was a great start!


I recall being aware of the existence of BIAB back in the early 90s, but I never tried it out until a few months ago. Why not? Well, partly because of that name, which always had cheesy associations for me.

I loved the name Band-In-A-Box way back in the midi only, floppy days... now, I think the name is "cheesy"... but I do love the program & PGM... and especially this outstanding forum.


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“The computer will add a few colorful things that will add some zip to the song.”

And there it 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
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Originally Posted By: musiclover
Originally Posted By: David Snyder

Congrats!

But there is no way anyone will ever, ever, ever compete with this EPIC demo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdpWc0hT5OQ



Great video, we need Peters brother in law to join the forum.

I totally agree... I love this guy...


Bandcamp
Soundcloud
Win-11; BiaB-2024-latest Beta;
Cakewalk; Melodyne-5; Scaler 2; NI Komplete:
Focusrite Scarlett 18i20



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Originally Posted By: Matt Finley
“The computer will add a few colorful things that will add some zip to the song.”

And there it is.


Ha, this is great


Bandcamp
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Originally Posted By: PatrickS
I well remember using BIAB on an Atari 1040ST. It certainly has advanced in all respects. Imagine how many diskettes you would need to use for the current version!

Doing some rough math, if you were using 360k floppy disks it would take nearly 73,000 floppies to fit the Pro version of BIAB 2021, which is the smallest one available. For the Audiophile edition it would take nearly 4.5 million! The stack of floppies for the Pro would be almost 80 feet high, and for the Audiophile would be nearly a mile!

Originally Posted By: David Snyder

Congrats!

But there is no way anyone will ever, ever, ever compete with this EPIC demo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdpWc0hT5OQ


Hah, great find David!


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Originally Posted By: Simon - PG Music
Doing some rough math, if you were using 360k floppy disks it would take nearly 73,000 floppies to fit the Pro version of BIAB 2021, which is the smallest one available. For the Audiophile edition it would take nearly 4.5 million! The stack of floppies for the Pro would be almost 80 feet high, and for the Audiophile would be nearly a mile!
Oh wow, if there was an award issued for the "Geekiest post of a thread", then this one takes the crown for sure! laugh


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Originally Posted By: Simon - PG Music

Doing some rough math, if you were using 360k floppy disks it would take nearly 73,000 floppies to fit the Pro version of BIAB 2021, which is the smallest one available. For the Audiophile edition it would take nearly 4.5 million! The stack of floppies for the Pro would be almost 80 feet high, and for the Audiophile would be nearly a mile!


Right, so if I were to install Pro at, say, 2 minutes per disc at 8 hours per day, I could be installed in just a little over 10 months.

I suspect many of us would be dead before we'd installed that audiophile edition.

It's easy sometimes to forget just how far things have moved on. My first hands-on computer, around 1973, was a Data General Nova 3 with twin 8" 160k floppies, a "massive" 128kB magnetic memory and a "top-loader washing machine" for 5MB Winchester + 5MB removable drive, the latter taking a couple or so hours to spin up or down.

My present actual washing machine almost certainly has more compute power, though it may still be lower on storage.

Now I casually consider whether to go to 1 or 2TB on my next SSD drive.

Hmm, I wonder, though not much(!), just how many tons of paper tape even that Pro edition would need.


Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful.
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COOL MUSIC


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PG Music News
Band-in-a-Box® 2024 Review: 4.75 out of 5 Stars!

If you're looking for a in-depth review of the newest Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows version, you'll definitely find it with Sound-Guy's latest review, Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows Review: Incredible new capabilities to experiment, compose, arrange and mix songs.

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."

Happy Easter! Holiday Hours...

2024 is well underway - it's already Easter Weekend!

Our Customer Service hours this weekend are:

Friday, March 29: 8-4
Saturday, March 30: 8-4
Sunday, March 31: closed

Regular hours resume Monday, April 1st - no joke!

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!

There are other places you can listen to these songs too! Visit our User Showcase page to sort by genre, artist (forum name), song title, and date - each listing will direct you to the forum post for that song.

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!

Congratulations to the 2023 User Showcase Award Winners!

We've just announced the 2023 User Showcase Award Winners!

There are 45 winners, each receiving a Band-in-a-Box 2024 UltraPAK! Read the official announcement to see if you've won.

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.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed!

Video: Volume Automation in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows®

We've created a video to help you learn more about the Volume Automation options in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows.

Band-in-a-Box® 2024: Volume Automation

www.pgmusic.com/manuals/bbw2024full/chapter11.htm#volume-automation

Video: Audio Input Monitoring with Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows®

We've created this short video to explain Audio Input Monitoring within Band-in-a-Box® 2024, and included some tips & troubleshooting details too!

Band-in-a-Box® 2024: Audio Input Monitoring

3:17: Tips
5:10: Troubleshooting

www.pgmusic.com/manuals/bbw2024full/chapter11.htm#audio-input-monitoring

Video: Enhanced Melodists in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows®!

We've enhanced the Melodists feature included in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows!

Access the Melodist feature by pressing F7 in the program to open the new MultiPicker Library and locate the [Melodist] tab.

You can now generate a melody on any track in the program - very handy! Plus, you select how much of the melody you want generated - specify a range, or apply it to the whole track.

See the Melodist in action with our video, Band-in-a-Box® 2024: The Melodist Window.

Learn even more about the enhancements to the Melodist feature in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows at www.pgmusic.com/manuals/bbw2024upgrade/chapter3.htm#enhanced-melodist

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