https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df-_8VMH4pc

Hi, welcome to forum Leon,

I make extensive use of realtime monitoring , as beta tester and demo/preset designer for Overloud TH1 I need to test and make presets on different hosts. Advanced DAWs like Cubase, Nuendo, PT, Real Band, Sonar, Reaper and so on have realtime monitoring features. but except by Real Band, none others hold the nice music interactive features devoted in Band in a Box. I enjoy to make guitar plugin demos and presets with the great musical enviroment BIAB brings to me, and of course the hinder I meet was it doesn't have realtime monitoring for plugins yet. I hate to play with a dry guitar tone because it sometimes kill the right feel of guitar performer, imagine you want to design an nasty metal patch and you need an agressive hard tone for bring out your best wild Metallica grunting, then you go with that dry, pacific, barren and duh signal as monitoring...awww... you best take will only fit in a Mary Poppins polka. I implement some alternative ways of solve it in BIAB:

A- External: while I record in BIAB, I use external devices like PODxt LINE6 loaded with an similar sound to what I want to design or play over in the software plugin. I divide guitar signal from POD, dry go to PC audio card, efx sound as monitoring.
B- Use an extra audio device: ASIO in Windows don´t permit to use the same ASIO driver in two differents applications. Solution, use an extra audio device. While I record my guitar dry audio in BIAB using my main PC audio card PCI M-Audio Delta 66, I connect a second ASIO device to the plugin loaded as a standalone instance outside of BIAB, for example I have an inexpensive M-AudioBlack Box USB and use it while guitar dry is being recorded in BIAB. I realized Windows XP let to use two ASIO drivers from two separate audio cards. A divider box or audio mixer might be necessary for bring a separate guitar signal to each device input. After recording I just play the guitar in BIAB through the guitar amp plugin loaded in its DX/VST slot. Do you have to check "Use Realtime DX Audio Plugins" in audio preferences. A warning word: BIAB use one stereo channel for all audio played into it. If you use Real Tracks or Real Drums in your song at same time with an amp emulator guitar plugin like Revalver or TH1, all audio from BIAB will be processed too and you will end with a song ideal for teenagers bits smasher lovers
C- An variation of option B. Use your motherboard audio with ASIO4ALL for monitoring your guitar in Revalver and your Edirol ASIO at same time in BIAB for record your dry signal.
D- Use Real Band, it have realtime monitoring for ASIO and dx, even if you use a audio card with ASIO4All. RB include some BIAB interactive musical features and more audio control. I first wrote my song in BIAB and export it as song to RB. Furthermore you can record more than one audio guitar take in RB instead the only one available in BIAB .

Hope this help a bit, I know it depend of each user personal possibilities on the hardware side mainly. This is example video of TH1 plugin in BIAB :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df-_8VMH4pc
I use an second instance of TH1 as I mention before. I think Revalver can run as standalone while does in BIAB as VST plugin.

Gabriel Arellano,
Nucleox Music