A few reasons, Donny.

1. It's very easy to make changes and/or edits without having to rerecord the whole thing (one of my pet peeves about my PSR).

2. Price. The everything pack is much cheaper than a new arranger.

3. With the realtracks technology it is very easy to regenerate a track you don't quite like the sound of, again without having to rerecord the whole thing.

4. Realism. I haven't heard a style from any arranger that can come close to the realism level that BiaB can do. In this particular song the banjo immediately comes to mind, as does the mandolin. These are tracks of actual players playing real instruments; not a MIDI simulation. BiaB is also able to generate more interesting parts because it knows in advance what the chords are. The bass lines can walk up to the next chord change instead of just playing the same repetitive pattern over and over and over, as an example.

I'll admit BIAB has come a long way .....it's just not for my needs at this time,.. good luck with your music..

Thanks, Donny!

I wish you all the best in your musical endeavors as well.

After upgrading my studio computer (used exclusively for music), I decided to load it up with 'interesting' music software. I bought the BIAB 2015 Everything pack (among a lot of other 'fun' software) and have been playing with it every since. IN MY OPINION, BIAB is both better and easier for making BACKING TRACKS. The quality of the styles and the ease in modifying them gives BIAB a huge advantage over any arranger that I am aware of and I'm sure it rivals even Yamaha in terms of number of styles. Before anyone jumps in and accuses me of arranger bashing (what else is new), please bear in mind that I'm ONLY talking about making backing tracks for live use; NOT backing tracks vs. arranger style play; just THE PROCESS OF MAKING BACKING TRACKS WITH BIAB VS MAKING BACKING TRACKS WITH AN ARRANGER KEYBOARD.

Not being a smartass here but since I HAVE BOTH, I think MY opinion has slightly move validity than someone who has only experienced ONE for making backing tracks. Everyone is going to promote the thing they're most familiar with, so if you're exclusively an arranger player, your response is going to be pretty predictable. Personally, I prefer to make backing tracks 'manually', one track at a time, using drum loops or some form of programmed drum pattern if a live drummer is not available. BIAB would be my second choice and an arranger keyboard my third. But hey, that's just me.

chas

A chordsequencer is one of the most usefull tools in an arranger..

Just push record, record the sequence and let it loop... Then you have both hands available while the arranger repeats for example the chorus, which allows you to play a full piano part with two hands, or a immersive saxaphone solo with your right hand while controlling sa buttons and wheels to make it sound super authentic... Or a Kontakt source, with several left hand keys to controll your sound..

Sometimes you need more then two hands, and thats where the chordsequencer comes in freeing up the left hand...

Is BAND IN A BOX more fully functional on Windows than Mac?

God Bless,
Don

They are essentially the same

They are basically the same, but according to this thread at PGMusic the Windows version has more features. I personally don't know because I'm a PC guy so have never had the opportunity to compare them

Dan