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Anyone here using Band In a Box?
I’m a guitar player and the past few years I’ve been diving pretty deep into studying music theory. While I do prefer to make my own tracks I feel like band in a box might help me streamline my practice time. I do currently have iReal Pro and I think it’s a great app but I can’t help thinking BIAB would give me more options as far as realism and feel. Any information would be really helpful.
Comments
BiaB is the best music practice/learning app I've ever purchased. I use it daily. The user interface might seem outdated to some, but don't let that deter you. It's packed with features you'll likely never need, but they're there if you do.
This application has been actively developed for 35 years. It's incredible that it costs only $100 (buy @ Sweetwater – it's cheaper than on their official site). It's like iReal Pro on steroids. I can't say anything negative about the app.
If you decide to try it here you can find some practice tracks:
https://bhs.minor9.com/biab/
Longtime user here as well... I try to buy the upgrade every year. Lately I have been just using it to generate midi chord progressions and then import them into other apps. It usually goes on sale at a big discount between Nov-Dec every as they promote the annual expansion.. too bad you missed it. There's a Facebook group called "SGU Backing Tracks" where you can download thousands of already-made songs by other artists. I find them useful to study chord progressions.
I used BIAB for several months. I sold it after I moved to iPad. And yes, it is great and incredibly powerful app. Also dev's support was fast and accurate. I bought BIAB on Joanne Cooper's page recommended to me by someone from Cakewalk forum.
https://www.joannecooper.co.za/band-in-a-box-new-users
@revox @Coloobar Wow glowing reviews! Thanks for the insight guys. Should I go with the UltraPak? Also, seems like the Mac version is behind the Windows version which is a little odd to me lol. Last question how exactly does the iOS app work? Can i transfer songs from my Mac to the app? Thanks again.
The Mac version is lagging behind the Windows version by about 6 months. I'd recommend buying the cheapest $99 Mac Pro version now. You'll get a ton of content even with the Pro version. When the new 2025 version comes out in May/June, then you can upgrade to Ultrapak with the discount they'll offer during the launch sale.
Their licensing and upgrade pricing is a bit strange, but I guess it works for them.
And if you want to use it on both Windows and Mac, you have to buy two separate licenses – for everything!
I first started with BIAB using the 2018 version, then upgraded to 2020, and upgraded to the 2025 version just before Christmas. I first started out with standard, then upgraded to the UltraPack within a few months, and stuck with that since. I think it's a great app, but in my opinion, it fits very specific use cases. If you look at reviews and comments from people about the app, you'll find there's a lot of people that absolutely love it, and use it constantly, but there's also a lot of people that would never touch it, and others that complain about it's lack of certain features and the quality and variety of the content, and some in between. My point is that your opinion of the app and it's suitability to you really depends on what you need and what you want. For me, it's a staple in my collection of apps, and I have specific uses for it, which it does very well, and there's certain things that it does which I haven't found anywhere else. I would also add that I'm very happy with the improvements and features that have been added to the 2025 version.
To keep this reasonably short, here's a few of my key observations and thoughts:
@EdZAB Thank you so much for that detailed opinion! I've been watching videos on BIAB for a few days now and I've heard several people echo a lot of your as feelings towards the benefits of BIAB. It's funny you mention the styles LOFI and hip hop because those styles are the direction I would say my music leans towards (though I don't work with any rappers just instrumental stuff) My study angle in from a theory perspective is Jazz though. I also do want to expose myself to other genre and BIAB seems great for that. At the moment I'd like to use it for practicing lines , chord melody and building out progressions but I'm sure I'll find plenty of use cases. I'm going to head over to their site and look at the forums....hopefully there's a Discord server...that would be great. Thanks again!
I would echo this sentiment. I would view the music it produces as a good starting point for a song by adding other instruments and embellishments on top of what it produces for you. The realtracks by themselves sound very "vanilla" but If you have a good vision of what you're after, you can usually use the realtracks picker to get pretty close. I've heard some jaw-dropping stuff people have made on the BiaB Facebook group and they usually say stuff like "I started with BiaB and then added this and this and this from Kontakt", or whatever. One thing it fails at miserably is when you want the music to play on the upbeat. The notation system for doing this is limiting and not at all intuitive, and the results will vary from passible to downright awful depending on which style you choose.
Awesome. I’m almost certain I’m going to pick it up soon. I tried to go on the Forums but for some reason they were down yesterday. One thing I’m really curious about is the iOS BIAB app..I can’t find a single video about it. I’m hoping anything made on the desktop app and be transferred to the iOS app. That would be huge for me.
@Uprightmusic - FYI - I have never used the iOS app but last time i checked it was only for controlling BIAB, and had a very limited use case, but please check into it. Maybe things changed.
Gotcha. Thanks for that bit of information.
Strangely the app description states full functionality as of the 2.0 update a month ago… free and no IAPs listed…!
I’m going to investigate, because I use backing apps (Quartet 1 and 2 - great quality backings but a fixed library) on a daily basis and I’m after a way to write my own progressions. (I don’t currently have iRealPro it doesn’t have a rep for great-sounding backings)
https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/band-in-a-box/id397173717
The Quartet App developers have a series of apps called SessionBand ———. Fill in the blank with genres. They allow you to make your own chord decisions and sound great… better than the IOS BIAB app. I owned the windows version 20 years ago and the Mac version 10 years ago and I found them to be a money pit and gave up when they hit the next pricey update.
I didn’t know they had an IOS App. Looks a lot like the windows version from 20 years ago.
I need to look it over and try downloading some user files and seeing if it has any use full exports in midi or audio stems
I have iReal Pro and Session Band Jazz 1,2,3, and 4. iReal Pro isn’t horrible and has more chord customization than Session Band and the community and amount of Jazz Standards in iReal Pro is jaw dropping. I have yet to learn any standards tho I’m fairly new to Jazz. Of course Session Band sounds better and each of the versions I bought was only $5 each. I imagine Band in a Box has a huge community as well. I’m very close to pulling the trigger on BiaB.
I’ve heard a few people say that one version purchase would last them several years but I’m curious to know how they were a money pit from your perspective? Looks like a great value although it is a touch on the pricey side. I’m thinking that the current version could potentially be all I would need for years to come. I’d love your opinion on that.
Full functionality? How does it work when BIAB needs tens of GB of content? I'm looking forward to your findings, @MadGav
Yep, SessionBand apps are on my wish list but they stopped having sales a year ago just before my interest started…
As the work I'm doing this morning has included some waiting around I’ve downloaded the BIAB for free and it appears vaguely functional (it made noise with the most appalling sax sound).
I expect I’ll buy iReal Pro at some point, along with Session Band as mentioned before, it’s just a case of trying to pick up the most immediately useful apps first as budget permits… Genius Jamtracks is high on the list.
I have Genius Jam tracks as well. It’s a whole different beast! I think out of all of them it nudges you to play more creatively than iReal Pro or Session Band. All three are great imo and each have usefulness for me. Concerning the BiaB phone app, I’m hoping i can transfer any song containing Real Tracks to the app. Sounds like from your experience it’s using midi tracks on the initial install. The way I’m reading the app description is that transferring projects from the desktop might allow Real Tracks to be used in the app. Not a deal breaker if it doesn’t, I can always export the audio from the Desktop and airdrop a wave file to my iPad to use portably.
Thank you for commenting on Genius Jam Tracks! What I most immediately want is a backing track app where I can easily create basic practise changes i.e. a 4-bar ii/V/I. Quartet has a good selection of full tracks, but those aren’t ideal for focusing down on particulars.
BiaB was something my dad used circa 20 years ago - this past year I’ve heavily dived back into improvisation on trumpet after a 40-ish year break. Unfortunately my dad is no longer around to chat to about this.,,
Wow a trumpet player?! Cool! Trumpet would be the instrument I’d play if I had more time. Sadly I have a day job and making time for the guitar is hard enough. I’ve recently picked up the harmonic because I can play it at work though I’m not any good yet.
Genius Jam tracks really does have a completely different feel because of its focus on rhythm. Even on a level 2 the interesting things it does will make you approach your lines differently than you would in other backing track apps. These backing track apps are very new to me but just in the short time I’ve been using them I can see the massive benefits in using them for practice. Like you mentioned, setting up specific sections you want to focus on with a full band playing behind is invaluable. I’ll probably add BiaB because I’m hearing so many good thing about it. My hope is it will help me dail in my arranging skills.
Sorry to hear about your Dad my dad is no longer here so I understand the feeling.
Trumpet requires a serious consistency of practice to maintain a physical standard - I too have a day job, but put in 5 x 45-60 minute session a week, which seems to be enough to make progress. More than I did as a teenager 😂
I’m also sorry to hear you’ve lost your dad.
I put in about 1-2 hours a day in practice before I head out to work each day so I totally can relate.
I was curious about the current pricing of these apps. Overtime I bought them all so the App Store doesn’t display current pricing to purchasers after purchase. I’d need to use AppRaven to see the prices. I even bought them all so IAP that let’s you export stems for the jazz stuff… very believable compared to what I hear from this IOS Band in a box app.
BIAB has dozens of soloist and Styles packs. I would buy a soloist and find it needed a style pack I didn’t own. So, after a couple hundred bucks and facing an update I moved off the Mac to IOS in search of $10 apps. After buying every $10 app I started trying to limit my monthly budget on IOS but frankly a new app gives me hours of diversion. This week is a hardware week with this new Pocket Master hardware that can load NAM’s. In already a few hours in and I haven’t scratched the surface of what I can do with this new piece of kit. Good times for $65 on the card.
I’m curious which version of BiaB did you initially buy? I’d be looking at the UltraPak which as far as I know has everything so I wouldn’t feel like I was missing a style or had to spend more money just to get a style.
If you buy Ultrapak now, you’ll have to pay around ($179-$279) for the 2025 Mac version upgrade in 3-4 months. With the Pro $99 version you’ll get like 40GB of content which will take a while to go through. And in 3-4 months you can get a new 2025 version and the Ultrapak for $179-$279. And I would recommend this tutorial ($14 atm): https://www.groove3.com/products/Band-in-a-Box-Getting-Started
Yeah that’s what I’ll do then. I’ll grab Pro tomorrow. Thanks a ton for the info
@revox so I did end up going with the Pro version. You were right… there’s plenty here to explore while I wait on a sale for 2025 Ultra. Thanks for the advice.
Happy to help! Hope you enjoy it. Just don't try to learn it all at once, as it could be overwhelming
And maybe you won't need Ultrapak at all. Lots of people use it for songwriting, and that's where they can end up spending a lot of money. But if you just use it as a learning tool, I think the Pro version has enough standard styles included. But yeah, Ultrapak is nice.
Let me share my other two most important parts of the BiaB setup. Maybe you or someone else will find it useful.
Boss FS-1-WL Footswich - It's just amazing. Silent buttons, works either USB or bluetooth. It has 3 switches, but it's possible to connect 2 more switches and an expression pedal (I use M-Audio EX-P)
Bome MIDI Translator Pro - With this superb tool, I can map pedal actions based on the active window/context to perform keypresses. I mapped four footswitches in BiaB to Start (F4), Stop (ESC), Undo (Ctrl-Z), and Insert Chord (Ctrl-Enter). I also route my piano and network MIDI (iPad ethernet) through it.
Now I can play a chord on the piano and insert/undo chords into BiaB with a footswitch, and control the transport. This way, it's easier to focus on practice, as I don't have to constantly move my hands between the piano and mouse/keyboard.
I use this setup in other contexts as well like:
For the metronome and rythm practice I use Polynome (without subscription) on the iPad.