PG Music Band in a Box for Windows $99

Band-in-a-Box is an intelligent automatic accompaniment program, which means that you can go from nothing to complete song arrangements in as little as a few seconds. Simply enter chords to a song, choose a style of music, and Band-in-a-Box does the rest, generating a full band arrangement complete with Bass, Piano, Drums, Guitar, Strings, and more.

"..one of the few music products that sits in the 'must have' category."
Sound on Sound Magazine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Packed with features for musicians, songwriters & music students

You can arrange, listen to, or play along with songs in hundreds of musical styles. The MIDI and audio tracks that Band-in-a-Box creates are automatically played out through your computer's built-in sound card or synthesizer, and the music notation is displayed in a lead sheet window.

Band-in-a-Box is a unique and flexible program with a broad range of uses. It is a powerful and creative music composition tool for exploring and developing musical ideas with near-instantaneous feedback. Amaze friends and family by coming up with your own original songs in as little as a few minutes! Band-in-a-Box is also an excellent educational tool, used both by professional musicians to sharpen their skills, and as a learning aid by people with little or no musical background. It's also an essential program for practicing your instrument in a full band setting - you play your instrument while Band-in-a-Box takes the place of the other members in your band. And of course, people use Band-in-a-Box just to have fun!

• All New 32-bit PPC Program Engine. Previous versions of Band-in-a-Box were 68K code, which required translation by the processor to operate on newer Macs. The new program is rebuilt with a 32-bit-clean carbonized PPC engine, so that it runs natively in OS X. Program operations are much faster, including up to 3 times faster notation redraws, song and soloing generation. Playback timing is improved and rock-solid with Mac OS X.

• Odd-Time Signature Support. Previous versions of Band-in-a-Box supported only X/4 time signatures, but now we've added support for odd-time signatures like 9/8, 11/8, 13/16, 19/16, etc. The count-in and the style plays in the odd-time signature feel, and you can change time signatures during the song. (Note: The notation window still displays/edits these odd-time signatures in 4/4, but the styles all play/sound correctly.)

• Maximum Number of Soloists increased to 1,024 (from 256), and new Soloists added. The previous limit of soloists was 256, and we had already defined 253 of them! We've now increased this limit to 1,024, and have added new soloists.

• "Count-in" can be Drum Patterns instead of "1-2-1234." There is a new option in Preferences to select count-in type. You can specify to have Band-in-a-Box play 2 bars of a drum pattern instead of the count-in. You may prefer hearing the drum beat to a simple count-in, since it provides more information about the upcoming groove. If you're playing with Band-in-a-Box live on a "dance floor," this setting is a great way to avoid "dead air" between songs, and keep the drumbeat going. Includes options to have "a" or "b" drum fills or patterns play for the 2 bars.

• Harmony - Low Root Feature. The Harmony Edit dialog now has settings for "low root harmony" which adds a voice that plays the root of the chord. This is useful for a cappella or baritone sax harmonies, where the lowest voice is playing the bass roots. You can set the low-high range. The root played will always be at least one octave from the melody note (assuming it can still be inside the set low/high range). We include many harmonies that are preset to use this low root harmony feature.

• Transform 4/4 Melody to a Waltz 3/4 ("Strauss-in-a-Box"). You can now automatically transform any 4/4 song/melody to a Waltz 3/4 feel. Simply load in any 4/4 song and change the style to a Waltz style. The program will offer to transform the melody so that it works as a Waltz (or choose the added menu item Melody-Edit-Utilities-Transform to 3/4). This function is referred to as "Strauss" in honor of Johann Strauss, the famous Waltz composer. It's fun and educational to hear and play familiar songs in a Waltz feel. Band-in-a-Box uses intelligent algorithms to transform the melody to the new time signature.

• Transform "Waltz" Melody to 4/4 ("De-Strauss" the Melody). If you have a song with a 3/4 time signature, you can now instantly hear it as a 4/4 feel. Simply load the Waltz song and then change the style to a 4/4 style. Band-in-a-Box will prompt you to transform the melody to a 4/4 feel and will then change the melody. There's also a dedicated menu item for this, Melody-Edit-Utilities-Transform to 4/4. Band-in-a-Box uses intelligent algorithms to transform the melody to the new time signature. (Note: If loading from the StylePicker window, you need to have "Prompt w/preview" selected for the prompt option to appear.)

• Bass player plays better "5ths" over some Jazz chords. Band-in-a-Box's bass player was playing some natural 5ths over some chords like C7 altered or others. Now, after a discussion with some bass players, we've improved Band-in-a-Box so that the bass part plays the #5 or b5 correctly on these Jazz chords.

• Load Previous Style, Load Next Style. This function, (analogous to the Load Next Song function) loads in the previous (or next) style in alphabetical order of the file name.

• "Chase Volumes" added for playback. For files that include volume change events (Controller 7). Band-in-a-Box will locate the most recent volume control information that is prior to the current location in the song. Band-in-a-Box will then send this volume control information at the start of playback.

• Option to hear the drum count-in even if the drums are muted or disabled. This feature is great for drummers who play along with Band-in-a-Box and mute the drum track.

• StylePicker Enhancements. There is a new filter to display only the styles of a certain styles set number, as well as displaying the full descriptive name of the styles set. The limit of number of styles has been increased (to 4,800) to accommodate the large number of third party styles developed for Band-in-a-Box. The window size has been increased, providing more space for the category descriptions. A new "Show All" button removes any filter set.

• Mono/Stereo menu options are available to easily switch all parts to mono or stereo. Also, if your current settings are mono, the program will offer to convert to stereo when you exit the MIDI Driver selection dialog.

• Video and Audio Memo support. You can add an audio (MP3) or video (QuickTime) memo to your Band-in-a-Box song. These are prepared outside of the program, but can be associated with the song by using a similar filename to the song. Several of PG Music's new "101 series" include these audio and video memos. For example, there are video guitar memos that demonstrate "advanced Jazz guitar comping" showing video examples corresponding to the MIDI guitar examples in the Band-in-a-Box song.

• Soloist "Note-Density" option. Now you can control the maximum number of notes per quarter note that the soloist will use. For example, you can set a "Rock Guitar" Soloist to use nothing shorter than 16th notes. This will produce less "guitar hero" solos with bursts of 32nd notes, etc. Or you could create a jazz solo that uses only quarter notes or longer to help with your sight-reading or student study. We've already modified many of the soloists using this new setting, so your solos will already sound better without you having to change this setting.

• Dedicated menu items added on GM Menu for "Turn Local On", "Turn Local Off" and "When program quits, turn local on".

• RealTracks.  With the previous release of Band-in-a-Box, we added RealDrums.  Now we’ve added three additional "Real" instruments, including Real Pedal Steel, Real Acoustic Guitar, and Tenor Sax soloing (RealSax).  These tracks replace the MIDI track for that instrument, and can be controlled just like the MIDI instrument (volume changes, muting etc.).  Best of all, they follow the chord progression that you have entered, so that you hear an authentic audio accompaniment to your song.  These are not "samples," but are full recordings, lasting from 1 to 8 bars at a time, playing along in perfect sync with the other Band-in-a-Box tracks.  RealTracks can be built in to the style, and would replace either the bass, guitar, piano, or strings part, or they can be generated to the Soloist (or Melody) track using the Soloist feature.

• MultiStyles.  We’ve added MultiStyles to Band-in-a-Box.  These are Styles that can have anywhere from 4 to 24 substyles!  Previous Band-in-a-Box Styles were limited to 2 substyles ("a" and "b").  Now, for example, a MultiStyle with 4 substyles (First Verse, Verse, Chorus, Break) can be used, and you select the various sections using "a"/"b"/"c"/"d" part markers.  Some of our newest Styles Sets are MultiStyles, typically with 4 substyles, but some Techno Styles have 24 substyles.  You can easily make your own MultiStyles, either from scratch, or combining parts from existing Styles to make a MultiStyle.  For example, if you have 10 favorite Country Styles, you can quickly make a single MultiStyle that has 20 substyles available within the same song.

• Audio Chord Wizard Enhancements.  The Audio Chord Wizard is the amazing feature that automatically figures out the chords from MP3 files (or other audio files like WAV, WMA, and audio CD etc.).  Using the Audio Chord Wizard is a great way to learn and practice popular songs, as you play along and see the chords.

  1. We’ve added a Lead Sheet window that shows the chords for the whole song on a single screen.  This allows you to click on a bar on the lead sheet to jump to that area of the song.

  2. You can mark sections of the song using part markers, and the sections begin on a new line with a line space between, so are clearly seen.  So you can then also learn the form of the song, as you can see the various intro/verse/chorus/break sections at a glance, or quickly jump to the break simply by double clicking on that part of the lead sheet.

  3. Chord editing

• Change of Key Signature at any Bar.  Now you can have multiple keys in a song!  The new key signature is shown on notation.

• The GUI has been enhanced.

  1. Support for Windows® ‘Themes’ – Band-in-a-Box will use the current theme that you have selected in Windows Control Panel to use for Windows and dialogs.

  2. Copying of sections or selections can be done using drag-and-drop, simply drag regions around the chord sheet to quickly rearrange your song.  Hold down the ctrl key for finer control about insert/overwrite/ etc.

• Section Paragraphs.  When you’re reading a book, a new section begins on a new line, with space between; now we’ve done that for chords too!  Whenever a new section occurs (a part marker), Band-in-a-Box starts the new section on a new line, and draws a grey line above to clearly mark the new section.  For example, if you have a song with a 7 bar section, followed by 8 bar sections, the previous version of Band-in-a-Box wouldn’t start the other sections on a new line.  The result there was that it was hard to delineate the sections, as if an entire story was told within one paragraph.  With the Section Paragraphs feature you’ll see all of them on a new line so that the form of the lead sheet is easier to see.  This feature is configurable and optional.

• Medley Maker.  Would you like to make a Medley using Band-in-a-Box, of various BB songs (MGU)?  This is easily done with the new MedleyMaker.  Inside the MedleyMaker, simply select the songs that you want, and Band-in-a-Box will make the medley for you.  A medley is not simply joining songs together –a good medley uses a "transition" area between songs, to introduce the new style, key, and tempo.  The MedleyMaker automatically creates a nice transition area for you, writing in chords that would smoothly transition to the next song/style/key and tempo!

• RealCharts.  Most RealTracks now display notation showing the notes that are being played.  Some Guitar RealTracks also show tab, and accurate on-screen fretboard guitar display to show what is being played on guitar.  The RealCharts can be saved to MIDI file or Songs (MGU).

• Audio Chord Wizard Enhanced.  Chords may be edited in the Audio Chord Wizard.  Part markers, chord symbols, key signature, and tuning setting are saved in Band-in-a-Box, and are passed back and forth to the Chord Wizard.

• Artist Names and Bios for RealTracks.  The RealTracks have been recorded by top studio musicians.  Now the artist names and bios are displayed for the RealTracks.

• Freeze Song (for rapid playback).  Un-Freeze Song.  You can now freeze a song’s arrangement.  This converts the song to audio data that plays on the audio track, while the other tracks are muted.  This insures that the song loads and plays quickly, without having to wait for RealTracks to generate.  This feature is useful for people performing or in other situations where you are happy with the arrangement, and don’t want to wait for several Real Tracks to generate.  Even a long song with multiple RealTracks can now playback in a few seconds if you first freeze the arrangement.

• Melody Wizard.  The QWERTY (or MIDI keyboard) Wizard has been enhanced.  Now, for songs with melodies, there are QWERTY keys (Enter,’\’, T, 6) that trigger notes from the melody as the song is being played.  Other keys trigger 1-4 approach notes from below or above.  Can be recorded, to humanize a stiff melody with better timing, and approach notes also useful for sight reading, rhythm practice or to perform.  Works with harmonies:
  Melody notes: T,6 ,Enter, \  Same Melody Note 5
  Approach notes qwer  yuio  Octave set 1,2,3
  MIDI notes also work (if Thru/Transpose OK to use Melody Wizard
  E(40) F(41) G(43) octave set
  Melody Notes.  F(53) G(55)
  Approach notes B(47),C,D,E  A,B,C,D(62)

• RealTracks dialog improved with additional information.

• RealTracks Assign dialog has new columns with information for Stereo status, Set number, RealCharts status and artist name. 

• RealTracks dialog can now list styles and demo songs that use the RealTracks.  The Songs or Styles can be loaded in easily by menu, and played within the dialog.

• RealTracks improved arrangements

• Ability to have a delay in RealTracks track programmed into a style. 

• Ability to have a delay in RealTracks track programmed into a song.  These allow you to make a song or style with a more ‘laid-back’ feel for a certain RealTracks for example,

• Better soloing and rhythm playing, that are influenced by the key signature as well as the chords. 

• Better playing of slash chords in some situations. 

• Option for a "Simpler" arrangement on some RealTracks, which avoid embellishments. 

• Feature for fills, turnarounds, post fills and odd/even bars to be at the right place

• Better playing on the "V" chord, since it is usually played as a V7 chord.  Options added to allow a RealTrack to treat the V7 chord as a V (useful in rock styles), or to treat all 7th chords as major triads (useful in blues)

• Improved handling of CAug, CmAug, and C7+  chords

• RealTracks: more fluid playing for complex (jazz) chords like C7b9b13

• RealTracks shots improved.

• Improved RealDrums at certain tempos.  When RealDrums are tempo-stretching, they now favour the speeding up a slower tempo more often, resulting in a better sounding Drums track.  (Threshold changed from 10% to 4%)

• RealDrums Made By You (Or Others) that are added by you to the RealDrums folder now appear in the RealDrums Picker dialog. 

• Improved Substitution Of RealDrums With Other RealDrums.  When a song or style is loaded specifying a certain RealDrums, if you don’t have the RealDrums, a substitution RealDrums will be intelligently selected using a similar style.  A yellow hint message appears for a few seconds notifying you of the substitution.  (in Progress)

• Notation enhancement.  Patch names displayed on notation, leadsheet and printout.  Example: <57 trumpet>

• StylePicker List Enhanced, with separate categories for RealTracks Genres (Jazz, Pop, Country, Bluegrass, Blues), over 1,000 entries.

• Save and Load Custom Preferences files, with your current settings saved and restored.  For example, you can have a preferences that remembers a certain group of songs, notation transpositions etc.  Return to Factory Settings now saves Preferences to disk, so that the settings can be restored at any time.

• Midi Driver Dialog Enhanced.  Audio Settings button displays the MME/ASIO/ASIO Always On status.  Name of VST or DXi displayed

• Enhanced "Chords - Search And Replace" Functionality

• Search and Replace can be used with Roman Numerals or numbers for chord names.  You can replace the V chord with V7, or 5m chord to 5m7.  Since these are remembered between songs, it is useful if you are changing multiple songs. 

• Hotkeys Added in the menus.  (e.g.  Edit menu (search/replace, nudge, from to, fold)

• Easy Entry Of Section Text On Notation Window.  Typing a backslash "\" followed by any text puts that text at the beginning of the current bar as a boxed section text message.  E.g.  \Hello would put "Hello" in a boxed section text event. 

• Song Limit In Songpicker Increased from 10,000 to 25,000 songs.
  
  While the basic concept behind Band-in-a-Box has remained the same since it was first conceived over 20 years ago, hundreds of innovative features have been added. The list of things that you can do with Band-in-a-Box is endless! The Soloist, Melodist, and Audio Chord Wizard are examples of amazing "intelligent" features; the Soloist generates professional quality solos over any chord progression, the Melodist can create entire songs from scratch with Chords, Melodies, Intros, and Solos (even a Title!), the Medley Maker can combine songs to create interesting medleys, and the Audio Chord Wizard can figure out the chords in any audio file (wave files, MP3, WMA, etc.).
  
  In addition to these and many more amazing features, over the years Band-in-a-Box has expanded from originally being a Jazz oriented program, to encompass a diverse range of musical genres including Pop, Rock, Latin, Country, Classical, World, Blues, Bluegrass, New Age, Techno, Metal, and much more. There is something for everyone! Over 1700 styles are currently available from PG Music and more are always being developed, many based directly on customer requests. Moreover, since each style is a large database of musical patterns and ideas, the song arrangements will always be fresh, never sounding exactly the same each time.

 

System requirements

There are two versions of this product. One for windows and one for mac. They do not ship in the same box.

Macintosh	Windows
Must purchase Band in a Box 12 for Mac	Windows® 98 / ME / NT / 2000 / XP / Vista Minimum 128MB. Hard Disk space: Minimum 400 MB. More space is required for RealDrums, about 100 MB per set and RealTracks require about 800 MB per set.r PC Sound Card or MIDI module.