Hi
The band in a box system looks interesting for making easy backing tracks, has anyone used it or any experience of this product? Is it a bit cheesy or does it produce good results? I'm trying to decide which way to go, either use audio loops or use something like band in a box. I think i may be spoiled though as i have an sd1 and the backings seem first class.
Best regards
Vikki(guitar player u.k)

Vikki: the answer is yes. BIAB is easy for making backing tracks, it sounds cheezy but it can produce good results. It likely can't compare to your SD1 for backing track quality, but if you use BIAB as a starting point for creating midi sequences and do some serious tweaking, you can produce amazing results. A lot depends on your style of music - if audio loops suits your music better than you probably would do better with a program like Acid or Reason. BIAB is ideal for taking existing chord patterns (like you find in "fakebooks") and turning them into backing midi tracks with minimal effort. There is a free demo of BIAB available from http://www.pgmusic.com/ so try it and see if it fits your needs.

I have often wondered what it would be like to use BIAB instead of a keyboard arranger (being primarily a guitar player).

Do you think the BIAB styles are "NOT" as good as the keybaord arrangers even when used with a quality synth module?

Is it the styles themselves that are lacking?

Interesting concept but there is also something about having buttons to press that may be more stable than.... well any version of Windows. And even if there was no audience, who likes to wait through a reboot?

Thanks
guitarman

IMO BIAB is an excellent value and PG music has great support for their products. I think when hooked up to a good board or sound module one can get great sounds not cheesie at all and it allows you to make some great styles. Easy user interface and allows alot of options for creating great backing tracks.
jam on,
Terry

Yes. BIAB is excellent and very easy and fast to knock up a song. The Solo improvisation feature is great to play along with. Its also very good for making your own Pad Riffs for Yamaha Keyboards. The Styles are a bit basic, but they are less repetitious then keyboard styles by selecting styles sections from BIAB own style part data base.

Graham UK

I agree with everything said here. If you enjoy the art of improvisation, the solo feature is really super. I've gotton many ideas by choosing the solo function on Swing, Bossa, Uptempo Jazz and have improved my playing.

You can take a tune like "All The Things You Are" at a slow tempo and gradually speed it up and learn a lot. This tune I find for me is one of the hardest tunes to improvise on. I still don't understand the chord structure after all these years.

It took me a while to warm up to BIAB, but it has a lot of potential. I like what Boo said about using it for help with ideas. Ideally, when creating, I often like to end up playing a lot of the parts myself, in real time, but both BIAB and Jammer pro ( I have both ) allow me to explore ideas and possibilities quickly without having spend a ton of time to sequence or play a lot of pieces in real time . In the end I find that BIAB gives me very nice accomps and solo pieces to work with, while Jammer gives me killer drums and bass lines. The two programs have some similarities but the way each approaches making accompaniment and melodies is completely different. I like both quite a bit.

AJ

Another nice thing about BIAB is that you can create a song in minutes. Type in the chords, select a pattern, and you have a your song, or at least a starting point, depending on what you want to do. Great support, $29, can't go wrong

Glenn

The full BIAB version 11 is more like $200. + dollars.
Terry

I have been a happy BIAB user since version 1.0. It has improved greatly over the years. The program's creator and the PG in PG Music is Peter Gannon, a Canadian Physician as well as accomplished jazz guitarist and computer programmer. He's also a very nice person.