Band-in-a-Box
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Band-in-a-Box is a MIDI music arranger software package for Windows and Mac OS produced by PG Music Incorporated. It was first introduced in 1990 for the Atari ST. Since then PG MUSIC has been a recipient of numerous awards.
Band-in-a-Box can create a background for almost any chord progression used in Western popular music. It can then play that song back using the user's choice of one of thousands of different background styles. In addition to playing back the users' songs with built in, additional, or aftermarket styles, users can edit these or create their own styles from scratch or from existing MIDI files. January 2009 Microsoft SongSmith incorporated Band-in-a-Box styles with the SongSmith Style PAKs. Users can play the songs back and vary the key and/or the song's speed independently or even change the number of times any section of the song repeats. The program has a Melodist and Soloist allowing users to choose instruments and specify almost all details regarding the Melodist or Soloist, Band-in-a-Box will create these tracks based on the users selections. The Melodist and Soloist tracks can be edited note by note in the Notation window. Leadsheets can be printed for each track for a live band to play, or for learning the parts individually for practice.
Songs can be exported as either a MIDI or Audio file. Exporting to a MIDI file allows the user to edit the background generated by Band-in-a-Box in a MIDI sequencer, like RealBand or PowerTracks. Songs created in Band-in-a-Box can be burned to a CD or put on to an Mp3 player to share with others when saved as audio files.
Band-in-a-Box used only MIDI sounds until 1999 when digital audio was added to the program, letting users record voice or an instrument directly into their songs. The introduction of audio lead to the creation of the Audio Chord Wizard released with the 2007 version. This was included with Band-in-a-Box and allowed for users to choose any audio song from their computer and the Audio Chord Wizard would analyze the song and get the chord progression for that song.
In November 2006, PG Music released "RealDrums", allowing users to have real drummers 'play along' with their songs in the Band-in-a-Box program. Exactly one year later "RealTracks" were introduced, giving users instruments like saxophones, guitars, pedal steel and much more to add to accompany songs. RealTracks combine the flexibility of Midi with the quality of real audio recordings by award winning musicians. With this technology, Band-in-a-Box can now offer real audio sound (in addition to MIDI) to accompany chord changes. The MIDI modules and high end sound cards needed for great sounding songs were no longer necessary.
To date, more than 19 RealDrums and 30 RealTrack sets have been released.
[edit] Audio samples
The following solos were created by Band-in-a-Box without any user interaction (except picking the style from the list).
