Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Do you guys know how good this is fro practice?

After getting a lot of help here to choose a digital I thought I would pay back.

Do you guy's know how good 'Band in the Box' is these days?

(PS: NO I dont work for the company )


Many people think this is a MIDI program - well it used to be, but its much miore than that now, its got something called Real Tracks.

Downsides:
The program can be a little quirky at times in setting up and it does not host VST's very well, I have to run TruePianos outside of the app and play BIAB alongside. There is also a free sequencer which is pretty similar (and fairly reasonable) which you can use for recording - this is better with VSTs and pretty useful. There are other strange foibles, like not being able to hear recording until you get to count in. Some of the code seem's old to me -very old.
It does have very good help including a live "Messenger" type help on the net and a very good forum.

But it really is like having a live band ready to play, in many genres, at your command - all your jazz standrards for example, in many styles - bepop, smooth, dixie etc, but also many rock standards, and country and a lot more, all very high quality.
Real tracks gives you unMIDIable instruments too like Hawian guitars, electric gtr leads, harmonica with a very live and human feel. This last point is essential to my ears - its human in feel.


Simply put type in a few chords, select a live band to play with in whatever style (from several hundred and across jazz country, soul, gospel, rock, etc). you set the tempo.

There is much more to it than that. It sounds very authentic and it has a sequencer if you choose to use it. Everything you here here is part of BIAB and it all sounds this good, but its merely a fraction of what you can do. What's best is I never have to spend playing.
Its great for teaching too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhATVjJc2_g

It's totally transformed my practice

You can just take a set of chords some n=band member wrote on a crisp packet and within less than a minute you have tghe whole track playing back very authentically.

Here is some jazz:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIwn6HJDrQI&feature=related

Whereas with my Cubase I can't stop tweaking dials, I just can't stop playing piano with this program!

I sometimes play along with it using just the bass and drums.

The bass player doesn't show up late or drink, that's a plus.

It is extremely refined.

I used this on an arrangement of Linus and Lucy at my very first piano recital in 2009. It was a big hit with the recital crowd. It also distracted them from my lack of skills.

This is a Pianoteq and band in the box recording I made just before the recital in 2009:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cc43GWXlOc

I think any kind of practice where you're playing with other musicians both real and virtual can be good for you. The difference in playing live, however, is you don't have the luxury of stopping if you screw up, forget a phrase, lyric, etc.

I prefer this program to Band in a Box because it's much easier to use and, on an iPhone, it's more portable.

http://www.irealb.com/

Zach, you're spot on.

I practise a fair bit at home, but only have the opportunity to play with other folks at the weekly band practises, or when we play live.

You may recall I was working on 'Street Life' for a live show, and was pretty happy with my EP solo - at home I was jamming all over the keyboard, with some nice riffs and runs. It was a completely different story at the gig, however - it came around to my solo and I completely ballsed-up! Absolutely horrible... at one point, I think I even stopped playing, it was that bad!

I don't know why I completely seize-up during public performances, but it's bloody frustrating!

Cheers,
James
x

i Have to say that having played in a band for 20 years, ive dropped some rather beautiful clangers myself. I have to say that the reason has nothing to do with technical ability but usually either a) thinking about what you are about to do just before you do it or b) you mess it up by trying not to mess it up. In either case, playing from the head rather than the heart.. (or consciously rather than sub-consciously) if that makes better sense is usually the culprit i find.
Performance = Potential minus interference