Band in a box how to#
Band in a box software#

For instance, when itвЂ™s running as a VST plugin, if you just click the Play button in your host DAW the bars in the Band-in-a-Box display will light up one after another, but youвЂ™ll hear no sound. I encountered a number of spots where I had to execute unexpected commands in order to get it to work the way I would have expected.

Band in a box software#

If anything, I would call this software an expert system. That said, itвЂ™s not testimony about how easy or streamlined Band-in-a-Box is to use. But the fact that I was able to do a finished track in three hours, including recording my solo, illustrates how the program effortlessly can serve up some tasty backing tracks. Getting this far did require a bit of manual-diving. I then set up the mic to record my cello, did a few takes, made some mixing decisions, and in only three hours from start to finish I had a halfway presentable track to upload to my blog.

wav and dragged and dropped them from the DragDrop folder into Reason. After entering a chord progression (a minor-key reharmonization of вЂњAmazing GraceвЂќ) and choosing a traditional style, I converted the individual tracks to. But if you need to produce finished mixes, youвЂ™ll naturally want to export its tracks to your favorite DAW, where you can add parts and effects and perhaps do a bit of cut-and-paste editing.ДЄgain, this process is totally painless: it just works. Or dance a jig.ДЄs an aid to practicing your instrument or vocals, you can easily use Band-in-a-Box stand-alone. Then double-click on the installer program, and youвЂ™re ready to rock.

Band in a box how to#

There are 90 separate files averaging over 1GB each, but PG Music provides good instructions on how to download and use the free program HTTP Downloader, which turns the entire download into a three-click process. The good news is, the process of downloading and installing was totally painless. Other packages have less content, and are less expensive.

The next day I installed it, which took another four hours. Downloading 120GB of content took about 12 hours. TheyвЂ™ll ship you the content on a hard drive as an option, but I decided to try the download. This includes more than 3,000 RealTracks вЂ“ performances by studio musicians вЂ“ as compressed.

PG Music supplied me with the UltraPak version of Band-in-a-Box ($469) for Windows. Okay, letвЂ™s assume your answer is вЂњyes.вЂќ LetвЂ™s have a look at the app.ДЇirst Impressions. The unanswered question is, do you really want to wrestle with the software for weeks in order to produce some nice Christmas music for your church? ItвЂ™s fair to say PG Music is aware that learning the software is not a simple matter, and is working hard to help users get up to speed. The FAQ has 185 items, which may be a record. There are good introductory tutorials on YouTube, and the PG Music website also has tutorials. As a result, figuring out whether the program will do what you have in mind, finding the feature you need, or even remembering where it was the last time you used it, will likely be a real challenge. The Preference box (as shown in the video) has more tabs than I have ever seen in a Preferences box. As a result, the user interface is a forest of hidden commands, pop-up menus, and dialog boxes. Over the years more and more features have been grafted onto the original design. You can produce a listenable track in a few minutes, but mastering the program will take weeks or months. In some ways itвЂ™s brilliant, but in other ways it falls short of what one might desire. My experience with Band-in-a-Box was decidedly mixed. Sounds like magic, right? Well, itвЂ™s not quite as magical as IвЂ™m making it sound. If it sounds like youвЂ™re playing with real musicians, thatвЂ™s because you are.