Band In a Box Upgrade?

[deacon Mark]

I have the 2022 addition. I really only use it for playing jazz and the best think about it seems to be the real tracks. I don't know whqt real band is or how to use it, but is an upgrade to 2025 worth the money? I can do it for $169?

[stringmann]

Deacon, i had the exact same question, as i have '22. When i realized it was $169, i bit, as i thought the upgrade was more last year. But i haven't downloaded it yet. I believe I would get that and much more out of it if i employed it more frequently. Hope this makes me do so. It is a miracle of a program methinks....

[Skip Ellis]

I just did the upgrade from 2021 to 2025 - took about 4 hrs to download and install - almost 40GB. Probably be the last time that I'll do it - been using it since the old days when it came on a floppy disk. They've made great strides with features and Real Tracks and now the stem separator and tempo correction. Mine was $69 for the upgrade of my Pro level. I don't use a lot of the features but have a file of over 14K pre made .mgu files that I can use for 'starters' to tweak into backing tracks and print out lead sheets, but I'm trying to get away from tracks and just play solo chord melody but sometimes a track, even if simple bass/drums/light piano makes playing some tunes more enjoyable. I also use LALAL.AI for removing vocals, etc., plus, Audacity does it, too and, now, BIAB has that feature.

[JazzNote]

I just did the upgrade from 2021 to 2025 - took about 4 hrs to download and install - almost 40GB. Probably be the last time that I'll do it - been using it since the old days when it came on a floppy disk. They've made great strides with features and Real Tracks and now the stem separator and tempo correction. Mine was $69 for the upgrade of my Pro level. I don't use a lot of the features but have a file of over 14K pre made .mgu files that I can use for 'starters' to tweak into backing tracks and print out lead sheets, but I'm trying to get away from tracks and just play solo chord melody but sometimes a track, even if simple bass/drums/light piano makes playing some tunes more enjoyable. I also use LALAL.AI for removing vocals, etc., plus, Audacity does it, too and, now, BIAB has that feature.

Skip, i'm wondering what the difference between real tracks and real band is. For my 2018 mac version i bought quite a number of real tracks, but never upgraded to a later version. Would these real band add ons be an improvement soundwise, would they provide more style options, or mainly make the process of creating playbacks easyer? TIA

[Skip Ellis]

Skip, i'm wondering what the difference between real tracks and real band is. For my 2018 mac version i bought quite a number of real tracks, but never upgraded to a later version. Would these real band add ons be an improvement soundwise, would they provide more style options, or mainly make the process of creating playbacks easyer? TIA

Honestly, I've never messed with Real Band; I get the impression it's aimed more at songwriters who want to create new music, while my only use has ever been creating good backing tracks using the real instruments played by real studio players (some really well known). You can use about any BIAB style and populate it with Real Tracks which is what I do. Sometimes a mix of Real Tracks and midi sounds better - you just have to experiment. Most of my tracks are simple jazz swing type things using acoustic bass, drums, and sometimes, piano, organ, or electric piano and I concentrate on Great American Songbook tunes. About the only major 'upgrade' that I see in 2025 is the inclusion of an AI module that (supposedly) removes vocals or instruments from imported Mp3 or Wav files but it didn't work well for me. I tried removing Wes Montgomery's guitar from "California Dreaming" and it didn't work well as it lumps piano and guitar together and didn't remove either very well. LALAL.Ai seems to work better for that sort of thing but it has shortcomings.

[JazzNote]

You can use about any BIAB style and populate it with Real Tracks which is what I do. Most of my tracks are simple jazz swing type things using acoustic bass, drums, and sometimes, piano, organ, or electric piano and I concentrate on Great American Songbook tunes.

That's more or less what i do too. But, although i bought many real tracks i found that sometimes i can't get the sound/style i have in mind. Especially when it comes to mid sixties Blue Note stuff.

[MarkL]

Skip, i'm wondering what the difference between real tracks and real band is. For my 2018 mac version i bought quite a number of real tracks, but never upgraded to a later version. Would these real band add ons be an improvement soundwise, would they provide more style options, or mainly make the process of creating playbacks easyer? TIA

I'm running 2021 for Mac and noticed that it lost some functionality when I upgraded MacOS to Sonoma. Turns out PG Music only updates BIAB for a limited period to maintain compatibility with annual MacOS upgrades. Most of my other music apps update to maintain MacOS compatibility, although sometimes slowly for older versions. So as a practical matter, I suspect many users upgrade BIAB to maintain compatibility with newer MacOS versions, rather than to take advantage of new BIAB features.

[jumpnblues]

I'm not very techy but I would think in this advanced day and age they could make the instruments (especially the horns) sound much more realistic. The horns especially sound really cheesy and phony. I'm using the latest versions (2022?) of Band In A Box and Real Band. I'm using the backing tracks only for now. I need to learn more about BIAB before using it for recording. But I wish they could come up with more accurate horn sounds.

[Skip Ellis]

I'm not very techy but I would think in this advanced day and age they could make the instruments (especially the horns) sound much more realistic. The horns especially sound really cheesy and phony. I'm using the latest versions (2022?) of Band In A Box and Real Band. I'm using the backing tracks only for now. I need to learn
more about BIAB before using it for recording. But I wish they could come up with more accurate horn sounds.

Not sure if there's Real Instrument horns or not - will check next time I'm in the program (2025). Of course, the sounds will only be as good as your sound card.

[voxo]

head to django books midi if you like transcribed solos from the masters....noi dont work for them just happy customer...Django In A Box Midi Files

[JazzNote]

Not sure if there's Real Instrument horns or not - will check next time I'm in the program (2025). Of course, the sounds will only be as good as your sound card.

The Real Tracks do contain horns. Either soloists or backgrounds, i think they generate solos which are then played back fitting the rhythm section (more or less). I found that in order to have the app constructing logical solos one needs to indicate the right tensions on the chords, otherwise the solos might sound off at times. Background horns the same.

[Doug B]

Latest version of BIAB is Biab 2025.

[JazzNote]

Latest version of BIAB is Biab 2025.

The are usually faster with new versions for Windows. At the moment the latest Mac version is still 2024, while Windows 2025 is already available. (2025-03.05)