PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Windows Color me frustrated

Okay Jim,
Latency is set by the buffer size in the ASIO4All Offline setting panel. The smaller the buffer size, the harder the computer works, but the lower your latency is. Try 256 samples, but you'll probably end up with 512. Of course, you have to have ASIO set and ASIO Always On set in the Audio Devices windows.

You need to check and make sure that you have ASIO selected in the Audio Driver panel, AND you also need to make sure that you have ASIO4ALL selected as your ASIO driver. Finally, you need to make sure your Sound Card is selected as the default device in ASIO4ALL, and that it’s ‘illuminated.’

As Matt said, ASIO4ALL is simply a wrapper, but it does do the job. There will be no other driver from PG Music or Coyote for the software, it’s all involved in the hardware.

Style Picker.
On the Style button, there is an upper 2/3rds and a lower 1/3rd of the button. Press the lower third, where it stays “Style” and the down arrow. A submenu drops down, pick Style Picker, which is the first selection, from the menu, and it’ll open the normal Style Picker Window.
There is also a menu item for setting the default setting of the upper half of the button, and one of those is the Style Picker window, so if you set that, the Style Picker will open every time you press the top of the button.

USB Sound card.

Sound Card should be defined as an Audio Interface. A device that allows you to input and output Audio. It converts Analog into Digital Data, and Digital Data into Analog voltage, which drives an amplifier, which drives speakers, which recreates sound.

Sound Generator.
A device that using stored data will reproduce sounds of specific instruments, i.e., piano, bass, guitar, etc. A Sound Generator following the General MIDI standard will support 128 sounds. Most sound generators have hundreds of sounds. Sound Generators are also called synthesizers.

Combo Devices.
A device capable of creating sound, a synthesizer, but also has audio inputs and outputs that connect to your computer. PG Music sells a very nice one, called the Roland SD-50. It is a USB device that has 1,125 sounds, multi-timbral, supports 128 notes of polyphony and has 128MB of stored ROM data. There are other multiple features this has, including one stereo pair of line inputs and outputs, a Mic jack, and a guitar DI jack.

Now, you already have a 49 key midi controller, but what *I* would do would be to sell that. I’m going to scare you.

I would recommend that you purchase one of the less expensive home keyboards. In particular, I’m thinking the Yamaha PSR-E443, for about $250 at Musician’s Friend.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/keyboards-midi/yamaha-psr-e443-61-keys-portable-keyboard

This will give you a keyboard to input your song with, while at the same time, giving you 750+ sounds for Band In A Box to play back to. To give you an idea of what it can sound like, watch this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVpwmPRL79Q

Of course,if you wanted to spend a little more, you could get the Yamaha PSR-S650

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/keyboards-midi/yamaha-psr-s650-61-key-arranger-workstation?pfm=sp

A Demo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRk78twv9zo

You might also consider a Korg PA300. We’ve moved up in price, but the quality of the sounds are great.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/keyboards-midi/korg-pa300-61-key-arranger

There are two demo videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKSBdR_UiJE and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSJkMSzt_pw

Then, you can buy an external Audio Interface:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/alesis-io2-express-audio-interface

Or, something like this.

A M-Audio M-Track.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/m-audio-m-track-with-ignite

Looks a lot like this Alesis, and the Alesis is cheaper on sale.

You also could go with a Yamaha audio interface and mixer in one!

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/yamaha-audiogram-6-computer-recording-system

Anyway, there are a LOT of options that you can use to turn your laptop into a great recording studio. The sounds from the Korg and the Yamaha S650 should satisfy any of your desires, and depending on how much you want to spend for the audio interface, you can get two, or even up to six channels of input, including two mic inputs on the Yamaha.

I hope this answers some of your questions.

We can go on from here, and decide what else you might want to do.
Gary