I took a song - Ave Maria using Trickle.sty - gave it 9 choruses and did a regenerate in BIAB standalone. took around 10 or so SECONDS. Then ready to play.
Tried doing this in the plugin ( Mac 2020 ). and its literally not finished yet. we're taking minutes.
Last edited by nonchai; 03/12/2009:13 AM.
Big Sur, Mac Mini i7 2018, 64GB RAM 2TB SSD Yamaha PSR SX 900, Cubase, Ableton, UNIFY, OPUS ORCHESTRATOR, MASCHINE, Vienna Ensemble Pro ,Audiofuse, L6 HELI, KOMPLETE, Komplete Kontrol 88 Lockdown beard, podgy face, beer belly, bald patch ... yadda yadda
Big Sur, Mac Mini i7 2018, 64GB RAM 2TB SSD Yamaha PSR SX 900, Cubase, Ableton, UNIFY, OPUS ORCHESTRATOR, MASCHINE, Vienna Ensemble Pro ,Audiofuse, L6 HELI, KOMPLETE, Komplete Kontrol 88 Lockdown beard, podgy face, beer belly, bald patch ... yadda yadda
"10-12 seconds in BIAB standalone" is that start play in that time or rendered all files to hard drive ? The plugin should be using the same function in BBW4 as BBW that renders the tracks to files. Originally it was using the drag export function.
I'm sure I told you ages ago that Biab is quicker as it's generating direct to RAM and starts playing the tracks while the rest of the bars are still being generated, and I suggested to the development team way back to do this with the plugin. Do you remember that ? I don't know what more you want me to do ? I made ReaTrak perhaps you can use that ? If they had sold out to Yamaha you would not have RealTracks or a Plugin. You didn't want them to spend time on Rewire cause you had to save it twice.
As for speeding up generation, considering that it generates useable tracks usually 4 or 5, in somewhere around a minute. I don’t feel that is too much of a wait time to crush creativity. ............
I'm afraid I simply disagree. I find the current generation waits in BIAB standalone acceptable but absolutely not the much greater time in the plugin. As we know this is because in standalone generation gets done via RAM whereas in the plugin there is an extra step after this - namely writing the result to disk.
For me the creativity element is killed this way. And im on a relatively fast I7 Mac.
The waits incurred might be acceptable if one has firmed up the arrangement and isn't likely to be changing chords much - but if one is in early stages and trying out different progression or arrangement ideas this just hampers workflow to a point that frankly make me unwilling to use the plugin for actual production or composition in a DAW. But our disagreements on this point might as I suggest be more down to our differing approaches to composing or production etc..
I agree with you! Every tool I use delivers results pretty much instantly. So 2 minutes is an extreme wait when I am just noodling and trying to be creative. Definitely not good enough!
When you say BiaB stand-alone I take that to mean the main core program and not the standalone plugin. If that is the case then I offer that is apples and oranges. If one wants to play around with different chords, styles etc that is always going to be faster and easier in the main program. Maybe the generation will speed up some day, we will see. Let me remind everyone the true reason for this thread:
This thread is not about complaining over things that may be needed in the future.
The thread is not about how little the plugin is getting used because it doesn’t hold a candle to BiaB.
The thread is not about the fact that nobody cares, or who cares.
What’s the thread about?
The customer ( Buyers) being sold on 10 or so features of the plug-in that do not work and having to wait a long time for a resolution.
PGM has clearly weighed the consequences of falling short on a new plug-in that has very few people using it YET. They have dedicated the resources to keep their biyearly release cycle of a Windows and Mac versions of 50 new features 200 new RT’s Because that is their bread and butter.
Ultimately this thread is to remind them that while understand their needs, and do want their continued success, this is not right. We expect when there is an advertised feature list with a price asked for those features, those features should be provided in full working order.
I see an add for the latest version of my favorite SUV on special sale this weekend. it says it has 1 year free satellite radio, free dash GPS, Bluetooth phone connection, heated leather seats. $35,995. I drop into the dealer and they tell me the sale version is being shipped but most of them have been preordered and the sale end this week there’s only 6 left. I sit down and guess they have one left in my color. It will be delivered to my home in three days. I write a check. Sign the paperwork and head home in anticipation.
Three days go by and sure nuff my car is delivered. I receive the keys and open her up. It looks great. The truck leaves, I decide to go for a drive to check it out. Buckle up and head out. Flip the radio on and FM works AM works but satellite radio does work, bummer I think. I decide to try out the GPS to get to a cool pie shop I heard about, touch the screen and there’s no setting for GPS. Huh, it’s kinda cold so I go to hit the button for the heated seated whaaaaaat! Now I’m upset so I hit the Bluetooth and you guessed it there is no phone connection in this radio model.
I get home and call the dealer they tell me that those features are not available YET. They will implement them but first the have another model that will be for sale next month and after that they will look into fixing my car!
This is why this thread was started. I still love the car but it should not have been advertised as having those features if they were not there.
Last edited by Rob Helms; 03/12/2002:24 PM.
Lenovo Win 10 16 gig ram, Mac mini with 16 gig of ram, BiaB 2022, Realband, Harrison Mixbus 32c version 9.1324, Melodyne 5 editor, Presonus Audiobox 1818VSL, Presonus control app, Komplete 49 key controller.
The customer ( Buyers) being sold on 10 or so features of the plug-in that do not work and having to wait a long time for a resolution
....this is not right. We expect when there is an advertised feature list with a price asked for those features, those features should be provided in full working order.
You are 100% correct but PGM operates this way. They release broken features and some never get fixed. Custom track names that are not consistent throughout the program. UserTracks...an extremely cool feature that never quite got finished. VideoTracks that were DOA. The VST that was shipped completely broken and still has major problems a year and a half later. And this year...multiriffs. I have gotten excited about every one of these (except VideoTracks) and then saw that excitement fade away as they move on to the next year's 50 new features. What pisses me off the most is the denials, from PGM and their biggest fans, when something obviously broken is discussed here in the forums.
That paragraph sounds like I am an unhappy PGM customer, right?
But that is NOT true!
I remain completely delighted with the RealTracks and RealStyles so I send PGM almost $300 every year without fail! PGM consistently delivers extremely high quality music tracks and a really great tool in BIAB to use them.
I wish they would improve BIAB. I really do. But I honestly don't know if they can.
I grumble here and I expect I will continue but at the end of the day I remain thrilled with what I can create with BIAB, RealTracks and RealStyles!
And a huge THANK YOU to people like Rob Helms, Pipeline, VideoTrack, MusicStudent and others who help us all work around the BIAB bugs and who still push for improvements even when they seem slow in coming.
JJJ, I deeply appreciate your thoughts. This must be particularly hard for you since you had a hand in the plugin concept in the beginning.
One bright light right now. We all know that PG does care about their customers. They have been kind of trapped in a tightly wound cycle of biannual release the last few years. It seems they have really picked up the pace this year as Mac came out in early March not June or July. I could be wrong but that seems to point to Peter wanting to make these issues right, and carve out some time early this year to fix issues.
If I am correct then let’s get ready to help in anyway possible when the update roll in let’s focus on the listed items in the beginning of this thread and not waste valuable time fussing about other issues that we might want, we can tackle those issues when the core promised functions are stable. That will also help PGM end the season strong and get ready for a promising 2021
Lenovo Win 10 16 gig ram, Mac mini with 16 gig of ram, BiaB 2022, Realband, Harrison Mixbus 32c version 9.1324, Melodyne 5 editor, Presonus Audiobox 1818VSL, Presonus control app, Komplete 49 key controller.
When you say BiaB stand-alone I take that to mean the main core program and not the standalone plugin. If that is the case then I offer that is apples and oranges. If one wants to play around with different chords, styles etc that is always going to be faster and easier in the main program.
I respectfully. ***strongly*** disagree. This is not apples and oranges. For starters the issue is present EVEN IF one isn't playing around with chord progressions but simply needs to move between different BIAB song file arrangements for whatever reason. Every time one needs to generate ANYTHING in the plugin this huge waiting time dispirity will occur.
This isn't some "luxury" nice-to-have feature in BIAB standalone that for some reason any user of the plugin - who really wants to begin focusing on working primarily in a DAW environment - for production reasons as opposes to just music practice purposes - can somehow live without or forego. Do you seriously think ANYONE WANTS these long regenerate times when doing work of any kind in a DAW?
Plugins are for DAW users. And you think somehow that waits for 5 minutes or so when working on a project are going to be acceptable? Is this kind of forgiveness and tolerance of a plugin developers excuses is going to pass any muster?
This plugin as currently sold and delivered to us DAW users is not fit for purpose.
Originally Posted By: Rob Helms
I get home and call the dealer they tell me that those features are not available YET. They will implement them but first the have another model that will be for sale next month and after that they will look into fixing my car!
And with regard to the generate times disparity - the analogy I'd propose is TESLA.
Imagine that TESLA had actually begun business making luxury full-features sports cars that ran on petrol air diesel. And then later on decided to launch this new fangled desirable thing. called Electric versions of the same car.
People who've grown too love and are accustomed to the petrol teslas put down orders for the electric versions.
Then the customers get their electric Teslas. But - not having read or been given the small-print..... the discover that yes - all the features of the old teslas are there................. except the Teslas only do a maximum miles-per hour of 12 MPH - and just like in early combustion engine days- they expect a man to walk in front of the electric tesla with a flag - for warning others - in case the batteries explode.
Last edited by nonchai; 03/13/2003:49 AM.
Big Sur, Mac Mini i7 2018, 64GB RAM 2TB SSD Yamaha PSR SX 900, Cubase, Ableton, UNIFY, OPUS ORCHESTRATOR, MASCHINE, Vienna Ensemble Pro ,Audiofuse, L6 HELI, KOMPLETE, Komplete Kontrol 88 Lockdown beard, podgy face, beer belly, bald patch ... yadda yadda
So as to not highjack this thread and get you better results I suggest starting a new thread to compare Mac vs Win rendering times and or to debug your issues.
Here are a few things to start your new thread. - Have you contacted support to see if this is unique to your system?
- Do you have more than one DAW to compare results on your system?
- For example, a typical song will generate in less than a minute on the Windows plugin.
- To debug your issue you will need to have a song that is testable by many to verify the results. I tested: _CITRINE Demo - Citrine Nashville Heavy Ballad
Test that Song demo and let us know your results.
Studio One (latest version), Win 11 23H2 , i9 -10940X 3.3 GHz, 32GB Mem, a 4K 40" monitor, PreSonus Studio Live III Console as interface/controller. secondarily test on Reaper, Cakewalk, and S1 on Surface Pro 3 Win 10 (latest versions).
............ Test that Song demo and let us know your results. ........
plugin: 27.959. seconds - vs BIAB standalone. : 6.6. seconds.
Thats is........... 4.2 times slower.
This is for 2 choruses.
Now lets try this again with 9 choruses:
plugin: around 2 minutes BIAB standalone. : 6.99 seconds
that is - about 17 times slower.
in CUBASE...
except this time around the plugin hangs in Cubase and I get the spinning wheel.
Will try again in Ableton.
Now just one comment - I prefer not to be dragging the audio files ( once generated in the plugin ) into the DAW. unless things are pretty finalised arrangement wise. So for most of the time with this plugin I will be using the audio streaming mode instead. but this makes no difference to the times. because either way the files get written to disk.
Also very noticeable is that the time for generating 9 choruses compared to 2 for this particular demo song is almost identical in BIAB Standalone.
Last edited by nonchai; 03/13/2006:21 AM.
Big Sur, Mac Mini i7 2018, 64GB RAM 2TB SSD Yamaha PSR SX 900, Cubase, Ableton, UNIFY, OPUS ORCHESTRATOR, MASCHINE, Vienna Ensemble Pro ,Audiofuse, L6 HELI, KOMPLETE, Komplete Kontrol 88 Lockdown beard, podgy face, beer belly, bald patch ... yadda yadda
Ableton doesnt seem to hang though - compared to Cubase - which does. Often.
Big Sur, Mac Mini i7 2018, 64GB RAM 2TB SSD Yamaha PSR SX 900, Cubase, Ableton, UNIFY, OPUS ORCHESTRATOR, MASCHINE, Vienna Ensemble Pro ,Audiofuse, L6 HELI, KOMPLETE, Komplete Kontrol 88 Lockdown beard, podgy face, beer belly, bald patch ... yadda yadda
1) Mac vs. Win 2) Spec of the systems 3) How BiaB renders (in RAM or cached) vs how the Plugin renders (file-based) 4) DAWs
1) I don't think it is a Mac vs. Win issue (Need another Mac user to benchmark and suggest moving that to the Mac area to get more Mac users) 2) Your time BIAB Plugin: 27.959 seconds. vs mine 26.888 (basically the same so it is not your system or Mac vs Win) 3) The plugin has been and will continue to get tweaked to work the same in all DAWs. There are also some styles that will hang while rendering so it is important to always give test step specifics so others can verify and report the time benchmarks and hang issues to support so that they can track it down.
Studio One (latest version), Win 11 23H2 , i9 -10940X 3.3 GHz, 32GB Mem, a 4K 40" monitor, PreSonus Studio Live III Console as interface/controller. secondarily test on Reaper, Cakewalk, and S1 on Surface Pro 3 Win 10 (latest versions).
This isn't some "luxury" nice-to-have feature in BIAB standalone ....
... This plugin as currently sold and delivered to us DAW users is not fit for purpose. ...
This thread is starting to compete with the record breaking off-topic JOKE thread, at least with respect to the number of posts (maybe content as well?).
While I'm here, I do not recall the plugin being sold separately - the rhetoric suggests otherwise.
Larry
Win10Pro64,i9-9900k,32GB,2TBSSD+20TB HDDs,1080TI,Scarlett18i8,MIDI4x4,Montage7,Fusion 8HD,QS8,Integra7,XV5080,QSR,SC-8850,SPLAT,FL21, SO3,MC8,AD2,ST3,Komplete14,Amptube5,etc. but I'm really a guitar player w/AXE FX III ++
Now that the Mac version is released we can hope that these fundamental issues get addressed.
Originally Posted By: jpettit
Advertised 2020 Plugin features that do not work:
Center
Panned
Dry
Embedded Tempo
Normalize
The 300 new MIDI RCs for Real Drums
Style changes in the Bar settings
The new in 2020 Harmony's
Medley Changes
Ending only works with 4 bars ending.
RDs do not re-generate when generated on the Style page Center
To complete the basic rendering capabilities of BiaB:
Direct Input
Pushes
Studio One (latest version), Win 11 23H2 , i9 -10940X 3.3 GHz, 32GB Mem, a 4K 40" monitor, PreSonus Studio Live III Console as interface/controller. secondarily test on Reaper, Cakewalk, and S1 on Surface Pro 3 Win 10 (latest versions).
I may be off base here, but I'll say it anyway. So, I've been following this thread and it does seem to me to that it's comparing apples to oranges.
As has been said, when BIAB generates a song, it starts playback shortly after generating the beginning of the tracks, and then keeps generating the rest of the song in the background while the song is playing. So, while it may seem to only take 6 or 7 seconds, that is just to have enough generated to start playback, but because BIAB will continue generating the rest of the RealTracks in the background, it's not enough to have fully formed tracks from beginning to end in that 6 second time period. Unfortunately, you don't see how long it actually takes BIAB to generate the track completely; you only see how long it takes until playback starts. When RT's first came out, you actually had to wait for all the tracks to be generated before playback happened. Then they figured out how to start playback before the tracks were generated, but that only reduced the time to start hearing the playback, but the tracks kept generating in the background.
Try regenerating a song in BIAB with a bunch of RealTracks and then immediately try to play on the last few bars of the song and see how long it takes to hear it play. BIAB has to generate all the tracks to that point to be able to hear it.
Given that the process of the plugin is to drag a track from the plugin into your DAW, even if you could hear playback happening more quickly (which is probably doable), you still can't drag in a track that hasn't been fully generated yet.
I'm not saying it can't be done faster (perhaps in memory), but you have to consider what is happening under the hood. I agree that if RT's could be cached into memory and processed there (as Pipeline has suggested), it would be a lot faster; that could even be applied to the main BIAB program, not the jut plugin (or the RealBand interface to the BIAB features). Maybe when you select a style file, it should just automatically load that content into memory (after checking for enough memory to do so) and process it there. Given that even though the files are WMA, BIAB processes them as WAVs, that means a 3 minute song with 5 tracks at 10 MB/min would only mean loading 150MB into memory, which should be pretty fast. And then it's there until you change styles or load a different RT or RD. If memory was not available, then do it off the hard drive as it does now.
But to compare generation times for entire tracks versus just the ability to hear the beginning of the song playing is still apples to oranges.
Flaming can start now, if you wish. Doesn't bother me.
John
Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 2x2TB, 1x4TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 2x1.5TB, 2x2TB, 1x4TB SATA
Originally it took ages to generate but then it was changed to use the same render method as Biab so it is the same render speed now (see pic below same song in Biab and the Plugin).
hmmm - I'll be testing out this myself ( on Mac beta ) as I'll remain sceptical on your claim. But if true fantastic.
Did you even look at this pic of the original render times ??? it's not wrong and it's not a mistake. ps. I get faster render times on Mac than Win using the same hardware.
John you are right on with your analogy. That is as my point you just said it better.
Lenovo Win 10 16 gig ram, Mac mini with 16 gig of ram, BiaB 2022, Realband, Harrison Mixbus 32c version 9.1324, Melodyne 5 editor, Presonus Audiobox 1818VSL, Presonus control app, Komplete 49 key controller.
Studio One (latest version), Win 11 23H2 , i9 -10940X 3.3 GHz, 32GB Mem, a 4K 40" monitor, PreSonus Studio Live III Console as interface/controller. secondarily test on Reaper, Cakewalk, and S1 on Surface Pro 3 Win 10 (latest versions).
There are over 30 new features to RealBand 2024, including 256 available tracks, 32 VSTi/DXi synth instances, modern color scheme for some windows, Playable RealDrums support, new arrow buttons to change the current time, chord symbols to display in the Track window, 48 tracks to display in the Mixer, the ability to hide any extra masters or auxes in the Mixer, improved handling of VU levels in the Track window, better VU levels display when recording to mono tracks, song preview in the StylePicker, the ability to initiate track generation from the StylePicker, and much more!
RealBand 2024 is included with all Band-in-a-Box 2024 for Windows orders - and our 2024 upgrades are ON SALE until December 31st! Until then, save up to 50% - upgrade for as little as $49!
Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows is here with over 50 new features and an amazing collection of new content, including 222 RealTracks, new RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, “Songs with Vocals” Artist Performance Sets, Playable RealTracks Set 3, Playable RealDrums Set 2, two new sets of “RealDrums Stems,” XPro Styles PAK 6, Xtra Styles PAK 17, and more!
We're having a SALE on Band-in-a-Box® 2024 Upgrade purchases until December 31, 2023 - save up to 50% when you purchase your Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows Upgrade!
We've packed our Free Bonus PAK & 49-PAK with some incredible Add-ons! The Free Bonus PAK is automatically included with most Band-in-a-Box® for Windows 2024 packages, but for more even more Add-ons (including 50 Unreleased RealTracks!) upgrade it to the 2024 49-PAK for only $49. You can see the full lists of items in each package, and listen to demos here.
Band-in-a-Box® 2023 for Mac is macOS Sonoma Compatible!
We're over the moon to announce that the latest Band-in-a-Box® 2023 for Mac Build 707 is compatible with macOS Sonoma!
Refresh your Band-in-a-Box® 2023 for Mac today with this free update to resolve visibility of notation in the Notation Window, apply smoother use of notation features, update to the Drums VU meter, and add the newest version of the DAW Plugin (5.5.13).
Revisit: Eyes on Success featuring PG Music Inc., Band-in-a-Box®, and the Updated JAWS Script
In the past, Eyes on Success featured an episode that discussed our company history and Band-in-a-Box® program with Tobin, our chief development officer, including how Band-in-a-Box® is even more accessible with the help of their JAWS screen reader scripts!
Later on this month, Eyes on Success will be releasing an episode that features Gudrun Brunot talking about her new tutorials about how to use Band-in-a-Box® with JAWS.
It's a great idea to pair the two episodes together!
Eyes on Success is a weekly radio show / podcast geared to the visually impaired called "Eyes On Success" and that can be found at www.EyesOnSuccess.net.
Find out more about the show and get links to past episodes at www.EyesOnSuccess.net
User Tip: How to add drum fills without changing any other tracks
MarioD has shared some great advice when it comes to adding drum fills without changing any other tracks in your song:
There have been a number of questions asking how to add drum fills without changing any other tracks in a song. This is especially important if one is holding a chord for a few measures and wants to add a drum fill prior to the next chord. The following is how to accomplish that:
1-get the instruments/tracks to play like you want but don't worry about the drums for now.
2-generate the song.
3-freeze all tracks
4-unfreeze the drum track
5-add your fills where you want them
6-generated the song again - note this will only generate the drum track and not the frozen tracks
7- when you get the drums like you want them freeze the track
Review - Band-in-a-Box® 2023 for Windows is Overflowing with Features!
Dennis posted his very thorough Band-in-a-Box® review recently, where he dives into some of the new features added with version 2023: Sound-Guy's Band-in-a-Box Review
Read his thoughts on the Download & Install Manager, partial track regeneration, Playable RealTracks, Audio Editing, the addition of SynthMaster, the VST DAW Plugin, and more!
"Band-in-a-Box continues to be an expansive musical tool-set for both novice and experienced musicians to compose, arrange and mix songs, as well as an extensive educational resource. It is, without negative connotation, a monster of a program. Yet, so is any DAW that I have used. No DAW can do some of the things BIAB does, while BIAB can do a lot that DAWs do."
Band-in-a-Box® Tutorials for Low-vision and Blind Program Users
Our friends at EyesFree_Tutorials have just released their Band-in-a-Box Tutorials, Bundle 2!
Created for low-vision and blind program users, this collection of Band-in-a-Box for Windows tutorials includes 31 audio instruction files and 19 music files for practice, plus help documents. Specific topics include "ABACA, let's make a song form," "Recording melody and lead-in," "Playing and editing: part markers; the handy clipboard. The play function. Search and replace," and more!
Learn more about their new tutorials, and connect with Roy & Gudrun to order the Band-in-a-Box Tutorials, Bundle 2 here.
One of our representatives will be happy to help you over the phone. Our hours of operation are from
6:00AM to 6:00PM PST (GMT -8) Monday thru Friday, and 8:00AM to 4:00PM PST Saturday. We are closed Sunday. You can also send us your questions via email.
One of our representatives will be happy to help you on our Live Chat or by email. Our hours of operation are from
6:00AM to 6:00PM PST (GMT -8) Monday thru Friday; 8:00AM to 4:00PM PST (GMT -8) Saturday; Closed Sunday.
Dansk
Deutsch - Windows
Español
Français - Windows
Italiano - Windows
Nederlands
Polski
Português
Svenskt
русский
Japanese
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Korean