Band in a box 2022 sale (and some life observations…)

[Reid Rosefelt]

There is a new doo-wop style that is killer.    I think BIAB is the best thing currently available for background vocals. 

[Reid Rosefelt]

Been playing  with the new 2012 stuff all day and it's fun.  The only thing is that some of the sample styles say that I'm missing real styles.  I suspect this has to do with PlusPaks I didn't buy.

They were sold as kind of bonus things that you didn't need.  So I passed on the $49.  I only bought this year and last year. 

 It's not exactly an extra thing if later on you hear demos of BIAB styles you like and you can't use them.  In my opinion, if you buy BIAB every year, there shouldn't be any styles within the program that are lacking anything.  It looks like I'm wrong about that.

I'm going to get in touch with PGMusic next week to see if they sell any of the Real Styles I'm missing. I'll report back.

One thing that's great about BIAB is how easy it is to see which add-ons you have and which ones you don't have.

[chris.r]

I have 2 questions re BIAB:

Does it have some tools for printing some nice looking, print-ready chord charts?

Do any of our favorite discounters/resellers sell it?

Will I loose anything, any extras, if buying the basic version from a reseller instead of pgmusic?

Ok, that makes it 3 questions  Thanks!

[bluzdog]

18 hours ago, chris.r said:

I have 2 questions re BIAB:

Does it have some tools for printing some nice looking, print-ready chord charts?

The printing options are many: Chord charts, lead sheets, Fake Book style etc.

 

[chris.r]

15 minutes ago, bluzdog said:

The printing options are many: Chord charts, lead sheets, Fake Book style etc.

Very cool. Thanks for posting. I was looking at the website and many videos about BIAB but couldn't find anything confirming these tools. Glad they are there especially Fake Book style charts are what I'm after.

[Warren Keller]

@Reid Rosefelt, et.al., Can you tell me if come January 1st, the 50% sale truly ends and is not offered again until the following December? I'm on the fence. My memory says that it's sometimes extended or offered again. Thanks!

Edited December 31, 2021 by Warren Keller
elaboration

[abacab]

"Band-in-a-Box® 2022 for Windows - Time is Running Out!

Our SALE on Band-in-a-Box® 2022 Upgrade purchases is almost over! Save up to 50% when you purchase your Band-in-a-Box® 2022 for Windows Upgrade, but only until December 31st!"

https://www.pgmusic.com/news.htm

[abacab]

[Bapu]

On 12/1/2021 at 5:27 AM, Yan Filiatrault said:

Here’s some certainties in life:

- Bapu buying and installing any Toontrack new products as soon as it’s released

 

TruDat! ? 

However, I'm jumping off the BIAB wagon this year. I have simply not used it enough of late (I also did not upgrade to 2021 either).

[Yan Filiatrault]

1 hour ago, Bapu said:

TruDat! ? 

However, I'm jumping off the BIAB wagon this year. I have simply not used it enough of late (I also did not upgrade to 2021 either).

So we’ll call that BOOB - Bapu Out Of the Box

[abacab]

2 hours ago, Bapu said:

However, I'm jumping off the BIAB wagon this year.

Same here. I upgraded to the 2021 UltraPAK+ on HDD last year, and I believe it has all I need for now!

And speaking of Toontrack, my budget took a severe beating this year as I acquired EZdrummer, EZkeys, and EZbass, along with some expansions and MIDI packs...

[msmcleod]

Just a heads up - I'm getting a lot of crashes with the BIAB 2022 plugin.  This doesn't seem to be a CbB issue, as it crashes Reaper too. Studio One 5 doesn't crash, but frequently pops up error dialogs.

I've raised a support ticket with PG Music.

The crash only seems to happen when the UI is open, so you can mitigate the issue for now by turning off the audio engine before opening the plugin UI. 

You can switch off the engine by clicking this button: 



If it's white as shown above, this means the engine is running... so just click it to turn it off before opening the BIAB plugin UI.

[rfssongs]

I dumped BIAB about 15 years ago. Don't know if it got any better but I ended preferring to bake my own songs.

[Michael A.D.]

5 hours ago, msmcleod said:

I'm getting a lot of crashes with the BIAB 2022 plugin.  This doesn't seem to be a CbB issue, as it crashes Reaper too.

I've had no problems using the plug-in with Reaper. 

Also, would like to say this seems to be the best BIAB upgrade in years.  The multi-riff feature has been upgraded and is working really nice.  You can highlight a range, generate a few riffs, choose the best one, then select another range, repeat till done.   Very useful and easy way to build up a tune.

 

[abacab]

1 hour ago, rfssongs said:

I dumped BIAB about 15 years ago. Don't know if it got any better but I ended preferring to bake my own songs.

The DAW plugin is pretty cool.

And you can still bake your own songs, while using BIAB for session backing tracks to jam with, and as an idea generator.

[rsinger]

1 hour ago, abacab said:

The DAW plugin is pretty cool.

And you can still bake your own songs, while using BIAB for session backing tracks to jam with, and as an idea generator.

For the most part I use it to create backing tracks to practice and occasionally to try out chord progressions. I like the standalone DAW button that shrinks the UI down, I drag and drop the parts I want into CbB.

[Jim Fogle]

10 hours ago, rfssongs said:

I dumped BIAB about 15 years ago. Don't know if it got any better but I ended preferring to bake my own songs.

That's great if you have the talent and instruments BiaB offers.  It's always better to create your own audio when you can achieve the audio you desire.  The program has advanced a lot in 15 years and there are over 3,100 hours of RealTracks available.

Edited January 3, 2022 by Jim Fogle

[kevin H]

I’m intrigued. Kind of dismissed it but maybe next sale will jump in.  Is pro worth it or better to jump into one of the other packages (when discounted of course)?

[rfssongs]

2 hours ago, Jim Fogle said:

That's great if you have the talent and instruments BiaB offers.  It's always better to create your own audio when you can achieve the audio you desire.  The program has advanced a lot in 15 years and there are over 3,100 hours of RealTracks available.

I tend to use external devices so the sounds are good. One of the things I used to do with BIAB was to take the midi and attach it to other external sounds.

There are other midi creation tools like InstaComposer that can create seeds to works with too. Just set up the parts you like with the arranger and string them together anyway you like. You will have something to play along with and with Bandlab you have great midi editing tools to work with what you've done.

[Reid Rosefelt]

Everybody makes different kinds of music and has different kinds of workflows.   BIAB has become a useful tool for me.  Maybe not for you.

 I started using BIAB when it came out in the 80s.  It was a fun toy, but I would have abandoned it decades ago if it stayed all MIDI.  What interests me are the Realtracks--audio tracks played by real musicians that are put together with algorithms.  And I also wouldn't be interested in BIAB if I didn't have as many of them as I could own.  

I've never once used BIAB as a way of generating musical ideas.  I always write everything on my guitar and/or MIDI keyboard before going to BIAB.  Once I spend a few minutes putting my chords in, it's a way of checking out the chords of my song in various styles and genres.  I can hear over dozens of  different styles with a click.  Imagine how long it would be to do the same using the appropriate expansions for  EZDrummer, EZKeys and EZBass.  You'd have to go through them one by one and explore all the different expansion packs.    And of course, BIAB also has acoustic and electric guitars of and dozens of other instruments.   (Obviously Toontrack instruments have other benefits)

I may have thought I wrote a folk song when it actually works better as a rock or jazz or synth-pop song.  How about a ukelele?  Or maybe speeded up or slowed down. I can experiment with keys to make it easier to sing or play.  Easy experimentation.   I did a video about this.

Working with BIAB I can easily figure out whether out how many bars the intro should be, verses, choruses, whether I have a key change, and coda.  Once I decide on a  structure, I can send it to my DAW  (I don't use the plugin) where I can perform the song.  I find it easier to play with a band than with a click track or even drums.   In the old days I would always play the guitar parts, but now, with my arthritis, I'm more likely to use other guitar VIs.  I might even use EZBass for the bass part. 

But if there's something BIAB does that I can't do, I have no issues with putting some BIAB tracks into my songs. The background vocals you can get from BIAB are more realistic than any other product currently available, so why not use them?    A sax solo is pretty hard to do with a VI.  I did a video on generating a sax solo, but that video is now completely obsolete, because the new version of BIAB makes it super-easy to do within the program. It's almost like they watched my video.  ? To me, there's no difference in building a sax solo in BIAB (which takes dozens of creative choices and gives you control over the result) over hiring somebody on fiverr to play a sax solo for you. 

So there is no question in my mind but that I will buy every style they sell.  I regret not going for their bonus paks in the past.  As that database of musical possibilities expands, BIAB becomes more useful for me.