Band in Box vs. Guitar Pro vs. ...?

**freddy j** · 02-21-2010, 12:45 PM

looking at purchasing Band in a Box, Guitar Pro or something similar. I know very little about either, and not great on the computer, any feed back, as to how one might be easier to use, better for helping to learn more on the guitar. etc, etc, etc, etc. any info would be greatly appreciated. all i have now ,is each company's particular spin, some reality would be nice. thank you

**fep** · 02-21-2010, 01:20 PM

I have both

GP - primary function is music notation, for writing out transcriptions or charts etc. It plays back only the specific notes you input, you input all the detail.

BIAB - primary function is creating backing tracks to play along with. You don't input the detail, all you input is a chord progression. Then you browse through available styles (like 'jazzyswing' or 'bbrock' etc. my $99 version of BIAB came with 326 styles). After you select a style you simple click play. BIAB creates bass, guitar, piano, drums, etc. and you have a backing track, a pretty dang good one for that matter.

Create a full tune (with all the instruments) in BIAB takes 5 minutes

Create a full tune in GP (with all the band instruments) would take days of work.

And after all that the BIAB track would likely be better.

But for notation, I use GP, that's what it's good at. (Actually I use Sibelius now for notation, but that's really expensive)

**Drumbler** · 02-21-2010, 02:11 PM

It is possible to input notation with BIAB. Not difficult at all.

I have both programs. For jazz, BIAB is the way to go.

**oilywrag** · 02-21-2010, 02:14 PM

Second what fep said and add that if you go for GP there is a new version due out in a few months.For backing tracks and jamming along with BiaB gets my vote.Plus the drummer and bass player keep good time and Never ever complain (lol)

Cheers Tom

**Lambosoa** · 02-22-2010, 02:42 AM

I'm a Mac kind of guy so I use GarageBand (That's pre-included in any new Mac purchase).

**freddy j** · 02-22-2010, 09:11 AM

thanks to all for responding, it helps out. the mac thing made me smile , my bro is trying to get me on board, love the idea, the cost is killer. maybe some day. thanks again

**~mf~** · 02-22-2010, 09:44 AM

Originally Posted by Lambosoa

I'm a Mac kind of guy so I use GarageBand (That's pre-included in any new Mac purchase).

is there a way that garage band can make a backing track like band in a box?

**Lambosoa** · 02-22-2010, 10:06 AM

Originally Posted by ~mf~

is there a way that garage band can make a backing track like band in a box?

I never used Band in a box so I have no basis for comparing, but GarageBand can do a lot of stuff, for sure.
It's a full-fledged sequencer with decent sound library, sound-effects and effective mixing-tools.

**drobniuch** · 02-23-2010, 06:09 AM

Two questions:
1) R there any plugs for Guitar Pro that's creates the music background (something like band in box), and not to write it on myself.
2) The visual bar width on Guitar Pro sheet of any bar is different (depending on how many notes) and that's make reading music harder, do you know an option to set e.g 4 bars per line.
3) Can man write notes like in GP in Band in the Box (with all extras like glissando)

**Drumbler** · 02-23-2010, 09:16 AM

Originally Posted by drobniuch

Two questions:
1) R there any plugs for Guitar Pro that's creates the music background (something like band in box), and not to write it on myself.

Not that I'm aware of.

2) The visual bar width on Guitar Pro sheet of any bar is different (depending on how many notes) and that's make reading music harder, do you know an option to set e.g 4 bars per line.

Bar>Break Line>Force Break Line

Put your cursor in the bar where you want to insert the break.

3) Can man write notes like in GP in Band in the Box (with all extras like glissando)

Yes.

**oilywrag** · 02-23-2010, 09:28 AM

Hi drobniuch,as far as I know guitar pro will only play what you input.if you load a gp tab file from say ultimate-guitar then it will play the whole tune for you using whatever midi sounds you have in your pc.
BiaB on the other hand will arrange a complete song for you using real tracks,plus you have the choice of inputing notes with the mouse,but it is slow ,or if you played say a melody using a midi keyboardthen you would be able to edit that line.I think that it is possible to edit notation onrealtracks as well,but I haven't had the need to do at this moment in time

Hope this helps if not then check out p+g musics BiaB forum they will be able to give you all the info you want plus more

Cheers Tom

**tony tuneson** · 05-04-2010, 03:12 AM

Originally Posted by Lambosoa

I never used Band in a box so I have no basis for comparing, but GarageBand can do a lot of stuff, for sure.
It's a full-fledged sequencer with decent sound library, sound-effects and effective mixing-tools.

gb has no musical intelligence. you can pitch audio parts higher or lower, thats about it.. its great for recording though. biab is all about musical intelligence. i type the chords in band in a box, import the resulting draft in gb (midi drums+audio). there i record or redo instruments. Sometimes its hard to make the backing track sound better...

**shadowguitarist** · 05-04-2010, 05:10 AM

I use both and I think it really depends on what your goals are. For me, I use Band-In-A-Box to create backing tracks to jam along with. I would never use Guitar Pro to make backing tracks because it would simply take forever. In saying that though, I do a bit of composition and arranging. I would use Band-In-A-Box for making the basic accompaniment and then I'd use Guitar Pro for editing and creating the melody track. I made an entire album of instrumental songs for my girlfriend's birthday using the 2 pieces of software this way : ).

As a jazz beginner, I'm more inclined to go with Band-In-A-Box for the backing track function as mentioned before. There's also a cool feature where you can get the computer to create a solo for you over the chord progression you create, which may inspire you to come up with some licks of your own.

**AZanshin** · 05-04-2010, 12:58 PM

@Lambosoa you can get GP5 for the mac.

I own it and think it's a very good program but i would like to know how it fairs with band in a box

**mydoglikessalsa** · 05-18-2010, 08:00 PM

Originally Posted by AZanshin

@Lambosoa you can get GP5 for the mac.

I own it and think it's a very good program but i would like to know how it fairs with band in a box

The two programs aren't really comparable. BIAB creates backing tracks from chord progressions, with adjustable styles/ tempos/ instrumentation on the fly. The other programs (GP, Garage Band, whatever) don't. You can type in backing parts for bass, drums and keys if you want to generate your own. But you can't change those parts to a latin feel with the click of a button or add choruses unless you have BIAB. If you want to compose or arrange, look at the others. If you want to practice, buy BIAB.

**bass2man** · 05-20-2010, 08:39 PM

I have both as well as Jammer Pro from SoundTrek.

BIAB is definitely made for jamming with..you can enter just about any chord and it will generate a song for you. Has melody and solos in styles for different players..i.e. you can enter a blues and then gereate a solo based on Benson, or Kessel, or herb ellis, joe pass, etc...its good fro studying what those guys woudl do. BIAB also has about 500 different styles...anything from hip hop to freddie green.

Guitar Pro is primarily for notating notes and generating TAB. You can import midi files but they sound really lame.

Jammer Pro is really good and works the same way as BIAB...you enter chords and then add musicians for different styles..i.e. ahave a jazz piano with a reggae bass line...BIAB can do that also.

The big difference is that BIAB is good at 4/4 grooves but that is about it...you can "push" a chord by an 8th or 16th for soem rhythmic change. Jammer lets you place a chord anywhere in the measure so it sounds more realistic to me. Also, it handles 6/8 or 12/8 for jazz or blues much better...you can also add drum fills anywhere in a measure so you can write some pretty complicated songs and they sound pretty good.

I have written some tunes in Jammer, added my own bass and guitar parts and the end result was pretty good.....its a lot cheaper than BIAB. PC based