Is Band-in-A-Box Worth It?

[trauma15]

hey, found out about Band in a Box. Looks like a really useful practice tool for a jazz musician. Wondering if anyone has it or has used it and if you could comment on the quality/usability of this product and whether or not it is helpful.
The sound clips on the website for the 2010 version sound pretty good.

The reason why im looking at the product is because I would like to have more flexibility with backing tracks so i can practice outlining changes of tunes in different tempos, styles, and keys.

Im thinking I could instead buy a slowdowner program like "the amazing slow downer" so that I can take Aebersold backing tracks and slow them down/speed up or change key. Band In a Box might be more flexible in that i can decide if the rhythm section is in 2 for a part or in latin, etc. Im just trying to see if this band in a box is a good idea for what im looking for, or if im just going to be wasting time on the computer with bad sounding junk and confusing stuff while i could just be using aebersolds or just playing along with a real recording.
thanks,
trauma

[bluemood]

I use my BIAB all the time I'll put in changes and melody solo over changes I play the rhythm with only drums and bass ...Works great for jazz and all styles of music at this point I really can't go around buying a CD or something everytime I need to work on a tune ,also does alot more than I use...Great tool for the money IMO I say yes it is worth it.

[Steve Z]

I find BIAB to be a very valuable practice tool. I purchased the basic version called the "Pro" version. I do not have any of the optional sound packs as the only style I use is a jazz style and it sounds good enough for practicing. The great thing about BIAB is that you can quickly create practice tracks (i.e. II-V-I progression) and easily change tempo, keys etc for practicing.


Cheers,
Steve Z

[fep]

I have it and use it all the time. I bought the lowest priced version. It came with 326 styles which is plenty for me.

Regarding your slowdowner question... mine came with a slowdowner software as part of the 'bonus pack'. But I seldom use that.

BIAB is so convienent and easy to use. I have a book "Payin your Dues With The Blues, The Ultimate Source for the Blues and Jazz Guitarist" that comes with a cd of tracks to support the examples. I don't use that cd as it is I find it better to just put the examples in BIAB. That way I can:

Change keys of the whole tune
Isolate certain bars or group of bars in the tune and loop them
Change tempo
All this can be done in a matter of seconds

[Space Pickle]

I thought it was basically worthless for learning how to play, but then I also hate the loop station and the aebersold series as practise aids. Once the novelty of having Band In A Box auto-generate solos wore off I quickly realized it wasn't helping me improve.

Some guys seem to like it, though, so I guess it's worth a try (maybe there's a demo available?).

Oh, and another thing I used do with it was change the text resource files and have it randomly generate hilarious song names.

[wizard3739]

It's worth every penny! I have used it since mid-2007 for more things than I care to list. It is a great tool for learning songs in any key with any rhythm or style you are interested in. I have arranged over 500 tunes in BIAB and last week I ordered an upgrade to my system (2010 Ultrpak +). I use it mostly to prepare songs for weekend gigs.

wiz

[Mike J.]

I have checked the demos on youtube and of course I have read al ot of comments. Well, I am sure BIAB is a great tool if you want to practice, but I wonder how the audio recording and mixing options are with this program. The website doesn't offer much information on that topic. I personally would find it very important to be able to play guitar to my created BIAB backing tracks and to mix down and export my music in wav. or mp3 format. Is that possible with BIAB?

[skei]

I don't know how you work it, but I myself just 'export as midi' from biab, open the midi in garageband, select which instrument sounds I want to use, and export it to itunes for making an mp3 of it, or use it in reaper, or ableton or whatever. You could use the mp3 as practice backing track, or anything you want. For me it's definitely worth it.
Peace
Skei (the getting ready for christmas one)

[Mike J.]

I don't know how you work it, but I myself just 'export as midi' from biab, open the midi in garageband, select which instrument sounds I want to use, and export it to itunes for making an mp3 of it, or use it in reaper, or ableton or whatever. You could use the mp3 as practice backing track, or anything you want. For me it's definitely worth it.
Peace
Skei (the getting ready for christmas one)

Now that you say it, thanks! ....I could implement the Midi into my NI Bandstand Programm. Usually I record with Magix Samplitude, so yeah definitely, there would be a way to create and record...

[FatJeff]

I use it strictly for playing along with. It's more flexible than the Aebersold playalongs, because you're not slaved into one tempo and you can work your way up to a fast pace if desired. It's also great for putting in little harmonic snippets to play with.

But I think their pricing is completely ridiculous. The full pack is almost $600.00. I bought the $99.00 special and was pretty disappointed with how few "real tracks" it came with. I'd be willing to plonk down another 50 or 100 dollars for all of their jazz real tracks (bass, drums, saxes, etc.) but they don't break out their bundles that way. They want you to pony up something like 30 bucks for a couple of instruments, and then do that 20 more times for everything you might be interested in. I just wish they would bundle all the jazz instruments into one and offer that.

The BiAB interface is hideous, one of the worst I've ever seen. A complete jumble - how does someone EVER find out how to do things in this program? It looks like Windows 98 on LSD. Unlike a bad acid trip though, BiAB won't ever 'come down'. The lack of basic Windows features in a lot of buttons, menus, etc. hampers the user, IMNSHO.

Overall it's a decent program for what I use it for, but it doesn't even come close to playing with real people.

[Steve Z]

I use it strictly for playing along with. It's more flexible than the Aebersold playalongs, because you're not slaved into one tempo and you can work your way up to a fast pace if desired. It's also great for putting in little harmonic snippets to play with.

But I think their pricing is completely ridiculous. The full pack is almost $600.00. I bought the $99.00 special and was pretty disappointed with how few "real tracks" it came with. I'd be willing to plonk down another 50 or 100 dollars for all of their jazz real tracks (bass, drums, saxes, etc.) but they don't break out their bundles that way. They want you to pony up something like 30 bucks for a couple of instruments, and then do that 20 more times for everything you might be interested in. I just wish they would bundle all the jazz instruments into one and offer that.

The BiAB interface is hideous, one of the worst I've ever seen. A complete jumble - how does someone EVER find out how to do things in this program? It looks like Windows 98 on LSD. Unlike a bad acid trip though, BiAB won't ever 'come down'. The lack of basic Windows features in a lot of buttons, menus, etc. hampers the user, IMNSHO.

Overall it's a decent program for what I use it for, but it doesn't even come close to playing with real people.

+100

It s a great tool at its basic price, but I wouldn't spend the money for all the other packages. I also wish they had a specific "jazz" package with all the instruments.

[derek]

I am strongly considering saving my $ to get the new version that comes in its own hard drive with all the real instrumentation.

[Steve Z]

I am strongly considering saving my $ to get the new version that comes in its own hard drive with all the real instrumentation.

I had also considered buying the full complete version, but I ultimately decided to go with only the basic Pro version. Now that I see how I am using the program to practice I am glad I did not spend the extra money on the full version. If some actually uses the program to its full capability the added expense might be worth the investment but for me it would have been poor use of money. Perhaps if I played better I would get more out of having better sound files.

... on the other hand if you have the extra money and it makes you want to play more then go for it. When I was deciding which BIAB version to buy I couldn't believe how "stressful" the decision was... it's only software right... but a rather large investment. Ahhhh... decisions

[derek]

I had also considered buying the full complete version, but I ultimately decided to go with only the basic Pro version. Now that I see how I am using the program to practice I am glad I did not spend the extra money on the full version. If some actually uses the program to its full capability the added expense might be worth the investment but for me it would have been poor use of money. Perhaps if I played better I would get more out of having better sound files.

... on the other hand if you have the extra money and it makes you want to play more then go for it. When I was deciding which BIAB version to buy I couldn't believe how "stressful" the decision was... it's only software right... but a rather large investment. Ahhhh... decisions

I understand. However, I have been using it since 2004, so I am pretty clear about how much I would use the greatly upgraded version, and its greatly upgraded price.

[FWBO]

What alternative software is there that does the same thing?

[skei]

Is there any? I've never seen, heard, or heard OF anything like it. Some very basic things, but nothing that can be compared to it.
Peace
Skei (the late evening/early night one)

[Steve Z]

What alternative software is there that does the same thing?

None that I have ever found. In this case I believe there is not substitute. It would be great for competition if there was another software like BIAB

[wizard3739]

I just received my update to 2020 BIAB. It is enormous and has many new features as well as more real drums and real tracks.

wiz

[pghguitar]

None that I have ever found. In this case I believe there is not substitute. It would be great for competition if there was another software like BIAB

Before I bought BIAB, I found a freeware product called improviser:

wikipedia -> Impro-Visor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
download -> Impro-Visor | Get Impro-Visor at SourceForge.net

Its a java based program intended to assist jazz musicians learn how to improvise over a leadsheet or set of chord changes. Best thing is it is free, but it inputting the changes/melody takes a bit of time, and the styles you can choose from are limited. Nevertheless, when I started getting back into Jazz about 8 months ago, I looked around for something free and found this.

It was good for awhile, however I quickly got bored with it and decided to pay the cash for BIAB, because I had used it back in the 90's and found it to be excellent for practice. When I heard the demos for the real tracks, I was somewhat blown away, and after getting the jazz pak for real tracks, I can honestly say its worth the money. about 4 months ago when I bought BIAB, they had a special, get 6-7 real tracks jazz style sets for $75. It covers most jazz styles (swing, bop, bossa, samba, etc) and tempos, as well as the ability to mix the real styles with midi generated tracks. I dont know if they are still running this special, but after buying it, I will say it was worth the $75. I cant say I would pay over $600 for the ultimate version though. Someone mentioned that the UI is horrible, and I would second, third and forth that! The interface hasnt changed since the last version I bought in the 90's, looks like they are still using VB for all the controls! My biggest pet peeve is the window will not dynamically re-size the chart section if you change the window size, if you minimize the width it will truncate the content on the right side of the window.

Playing over the real tracks is a order of magnitude better than the midi based accompaniment. If your interested in hearing what a tune sounds like, let me know and I can send you a .mp3 file generated from the real tracks on BIAB so you know what your getting.

[Steve Z]

So even though I posted earlier that I would likely not upgrade from the basic pro version, I did just upgrade to the 2010 EverythingPAK at the upgrade price that is currently on sale through Dec 31st. I guess if I had spent a few seconds longer I would have seen that the 2010 Ultrpak + package had everything that I was wanted at a bit cheaper price... oh well. I would not have upgraded if the sale (nearly half price) wasn't such a great bargain. Proof positive that email marketing works since I likely would have missed the sale if I had not been on their email list.

[snowleopard]

Since first buying BIAB in 2008 I'v spend several hundreds of Dollars upgrading and adding new styles etc. The way the product is structured I got a huge amount of styles and tracks that I wasn't interested in.

My interest is Jazz and Latin, particularly Bossa Nova. The Jazz and Swing styles are quite good but the Bossa Nova styles leave a lot to be desired. I find without exception, that they lack that lovely smooth laid back syncopated feel that is so characteristic of Bossa Nova. The styles including the basic midi styles are way too "busy".
Recently I acquired an old Roland E-500 keyboard from a friend who had just upgraded and discovered to my astonishment that the simple Bossa Nova styles were absolutely superb and this is a 90's technology keyboard!

After hearing the Roland I'm very dissatisfied with the Bossa Nova styles in BIAB particularly in view of the significant sums of money I've spent on this product.

[whippersnapper]

Very cool and useful... no substitute for using a metronome though!

[gimp]

I will buy it myself too so this is a very worthfull topic!
By the way: my teacher advised me to buy it too....

[woyvel]

After reading this I'm more skeptical thzan I was before. Just what do you get for the $99 version? Is it mostly MIDI or real instruments? Are there many variations in styles with real instruments? about a dozen? 2 dozen? More? Very confusing.

[BMaag]

I use BIAB to practice everything! I love it. Why does it matter whether or not the instruments are real or midi? It's not like you are going to use it to back you up live or in a recording situation. It's a practice tool.