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#443586 - 12/30/17 04:41 PM
Re: Who is using Band in a Box or vArranger & Why?
[Re: Dnj]
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Member
Registered: 12/14/99
Posts: 521
Loc: University, MS 38677 USA
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I’ve been using BIAB live for several years, now, with guitar and vocals. Often, I have a woodwind player and other vocalists join in, as well. I also use arrangers on other gigs. The BIAB program is much less expensive than an arranger, even though you must purchase a computer (laptop in my case). It offers so many styles, it’s hard to keep up with them. If a person knows chord changes, you can create a full arrangement in a matter of minutes. I like being able to change keys and the number of choruses on the spot to accommodate other musicians. The real styles (real audio files) sound authentic through a good sound system. With a little effort, you can create hundreds of songs ready to go at the push of a button. I’ve got my folders of tunes organized by country, jazz, pop, rock, standards, Broadway/show, holiday songs, waltzes, tangos------you name it. I’m not giving up arrangers; however, BIAB is a great tool for song writing, practice, and live performance.
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#443595 - 12/31/17 12:14 AM
Re: Who is using Band in a Box or vArranger & Why?
[Re: J. Larry]
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Senior Member
Registered: 03/02/06
Posts: 7143
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I’ve been using BIAB live for several years, now, with guitar and vocals. Often, I have a woodwind player and other vocalists join in, as well. I also use arrangers on other gigs. The BIAB program is much less expensive than an arranger, even though you must purchase a computer (laptop in my case). It offers so many styles, it’s hard to keep up with them. If a person knows chord changes, you can create a full arrangement in a matter of minutes. I like being able to change keys and the number of choruses on the spot to accommodate other musicians. The real styles (real audio files) sound authentic through a good sound system. With a little effort, you can create hundreds of songs ready to go at the push of a button. I’ve got my folders of tunes organized by country, jazz, pop, rock, standards, Broadway/show, holiday songs, waltzes, tangos------you name it. I’m not giving up arrangers; however, BIAB is a great tool for song writing, practice, and live performance. i think if someone goes for a full software setup, having different tools like BiAB, Varranger, Reason, VST's, Logic, mainstage and Bitwig all readily available in your macbook really makes sense.. However, for everything that requires realtime interaction, like using an arranger or selecting real time scenes in bitwig, a dedicated user interface is required. But using BiAB, as a backing-sequencer should work straight forward, just press play and go... Another thing that comes to mind, is the huge difference between BiaB for PC and BiAB for MAc. I guess for BiAB its better to have a PC then a MAC...*same goes for Varranger, the reason i don't owwn Varranger is the fact that it only runs on PC and not on MAC.
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#443598 - 12/31/17 05:05 AM
Re: Who is using Band in a Box or vArranger & Why?
[Re: Bachus]
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Senior Member
Registered: 09/21/00
Posts: 43703
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I’ve been using BIAB live for several years, now, with guitar and vocals. Often, I have a woodwind player and other vocalists join in, as well. I also use arrangers on other gigs. The BIAB program is much less expensive than an arranger, even though you must purchase a computer (laptop in my case). It offers so many styles, it’s hard to keep up with them. If a person knows chord changes, you can create a full arrangement in a matter of minutes. I like being able to change keys and the number of choruses on the spot to accommodate other musicians. The real styles (real audio files) sound authentic through a good sound system. With a little effort, you can create hundreds of songs ready to go at the push of a button. I’ve got my folders of tunes organized by country, jazz, pop, rock, standards, Broadway/show, holiday songs, waltzes, tangos------you name it. I’m not giving up arrangers; however, BIAB is a great tool for song writing, practice, and live performance. i think if someone goes for a full software setup, having different tools like BiAB, Varranger, Reason, VST's, Logic, mainstage and Bitwig all readily available in your macbook really makes sense.. However, for everything that requires realtime interaction, like using an arranger or selecting real time scenes in bitwig, a dedicated user interface is required. But using BiAB, as a backing-sequencer should work straight forward, just press play and go... Another thing that comes to mind, is the huge difference between BiaB for PC and BiAB for MAc. I guess for BiAB its better to have a PC then a MAC...*same goes for Varranger, the reason i don't owwn Varranger is the fact that it only runs on PC and not on MAC. I don't own anything Mac or Apple yet...a PC man I remain for now,...that said why do arranger kb players frown upon using SMF files, Mp3 tracks etc, but accept using the "automatic chord input method" BIAB to play on top of? at least with smf/mp3 you actually play & create tracks to use vs just typing in chords? at least with vArranger you have to play,what am I missing here?
Edited by Dnj (12/31/17 05:06 AM)
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#443603 - 12/31/17 06:34 AM
Re: Who is using Band in a Box or vArranger & Why?
[Re: Dnj]
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Senior Member
Registered: 09/29/05
Posts: 6703
Loc: Roswell,GA/USA
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Donny, with all due respect, I think what you're missing is that you expect (demand?) that everyone justify everything they do. Sometimes people just do things because they want to, no reason or justification needed. As Bachus said (or implied), just because you use one thing doesn't mean you have to exclude everything else. What's wrong with having a variety of tools in the toolbox? Different tools for different jobs (or different tools for a different approach to the same job). Some people just like to experiment; like having a car collection; you don't collect them because one is better than the other; you collect them because variety is FUN (I could have used a wife/girlfriend analogy here but chose not to ). I have an old (2015, I think) copy of BIAB and find lots of fun uses for it, such as inserting it inside REAPER or generating lead sheets or extracting chords from a midi file, etc., etc. I think it's a really clever program that (frankly) with the exception of 'live playing', is nearly as flexible and useful as an arranger (and a hellava lot cheaper). JMO. chas
_________________________
"Faith means not wanting to know what is true." [Nietzsche]
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