BIAB or?

Howard Hannah · Post by **Howard Hannah** » 28 Feb 2009 8:42 am

I am thinking of purchasing BIAB, but I don't know which one I should purchase. Biab Pro 2009, BIAB Mega pak, 2009, or BIAB Ultra pak 2009.
Any suggestions?

Papa Joe Pollick · Post by **Papa Joe Pollick** » 28 Feb 2009 1:53 pm

At least the Mega PAK,Super Pak if you can afford it.Get as much as you can afford.If you like it as much as I do,you're gonna want it all.
Word of caution tho,first cram as much RAM in-to your PC as it can hold,then be sure you have a big hard drive,at least 250 gig.Those Real files are huge.Another caution, buy the hard copy,downloading will take forever.It comes on DVD so you you'll need a DVD drive.
A good idea is to go to the BIAB forum and ask questions.Hope this helps...PJ...

Rick Campbell · Post by **Rick Campbell** » 2 Mar 2009 9:32 pm

I'd just get the basic version and the real drums for country (or whatever music you're wanting to play) The other stuff, soloist, melody maker, etc... I have found that I never use. You can hear some examples of actual recordings I did using BIAB for drums and piano rhythms, and ocassionally their bass.

Don Benoit · Post by **Don Benoit** » 6 Mar 2009 6:43 pm

Papa Joe. Why do you need a 250GB hard drive when the program is 80GB on a DVD or USB hard drive?

Papa Joe Pollick · Post by **Papa Joe Pollick** » 6 Mar 2009 7:39 pm

When you add up all the space you need for OS,BIAB,and every other program you have,you still need a lot of hard drive for the wav.files that you create.Yeah,I guess you could get by with less but 250 gig doesn't cost much more than 100 gig. I currently have 250 gig but I will be adding a 500 gig.The 250 will be just be for OS and programs and the 500 will hold my song files..PJ...

Don Benoit · Post by **Don Benoit** » 6 Mar 2009 9:33 pm

I run all my programs including BIAB under 60MB not GB. 250GB is overkill IMHO.

Papa Joe Pollick · Post by **Papa Joe Pollick** » 6 Mar 2009 10:41 pm

Of course,you're right.I don't know anything.Bless your heart..

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 8 Mar 2009 12:30 pm

According to the BIAB site:
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System Requirements for Band-in-a-Box 2009

Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista, 128MB RAM

400MB hard drive space. More drive space is needed to install RealDrums and RealTracks sets. We recommend at least 3Gb hard drive space.

Andy Sandoval · Post by **Andy Sandoval** » 8 Mar 2009 2:07 pm

There's a free basic download demo version available on the pgmusic.com website for those who want to try it before they buy it. It's fully functional except for the ability to print up sheet music and certain other features. A good way to see if it's gonna be usable or not.

Don Benoit · Post by **Don Benoit** » 16 Mar 2009 12:22 am

Papajoe: My apologies. I sent an email to PG music about hard drive space and I got a reply. BIAB without real band only takes 400MB of hard drive space BUt the Real Band takes 80GB of space. They can send it on 10 or 11 DVD's or on a USB hard drive which would make more sense. I didn't realize that Realband took so much space. The ammount of space in megabytes for each composed song with Realband would depend on the lenght of the song.

I try to keep my files on my computer to a minimum because it takes a lot of time to backup a large hard drive.

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 16 Mar 2009 2:17 am

wave files, I just purchased a small pack of 'live' drum wave file samples, just under 1 gig. Think about it, BIAB with all of the sample programs and different instruments for each track , 80 gig sounds like a lot but I am not really surprised. Each wave file on the sample pack I purchased is just under 1 meg. The files are 2 measures long. I suspect the new BIAB is in the same category.

t

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 16 Mar 2009 7:50 am

Another thing to consider is the WAV files that you make with BIAB and store on your computer. Those are large files. It's a good idea to convert those to mp3s, which are about 1/10 the size of a WAV.

Don Benoit · Post by **Don Benoit** » 16 Mar 2009 2:36 pm

There are usually at least 10 songs on a CD which are like WAV files and they on a 800MB CD. Doug do you mean that each song made with RealBand takes more space than songs on a commercial CD?