Does anyone have this software? or anything like it? I think i heard once of one called band in a box. not sure, may be wrong on that. what is your take and is it worth getting etc.
I'm just looking forsomething to use for practice/recording.
Any suggestions?
Band in a box is a program that generate entire backing tracks based on your chord progressions. Fun stuff, but not what you're after. Anyway, the three basic questions:
1) Are you using a mac or pc?
2) How much are you willing to spend on the program?
3) What quality are you after?
Note that for basic recording purposes there are plenty of free tools for both pc and mac (Kristal, Audacity), on the other hand if you;re thinking about recording and mixing an orchestra in dolby surround you might have to spend hundreds of dollars on a Cubase SX or such. There's so much it really depends on your needs.
a pc. I just need a base and drum and maybe a backup guitar backing track!
Anyone??
I've looked around quite a bit for a good program or approach for backing tracks. I wanted something real easy to use and intuitive. Most of the "sequencer" software products were a bit too complex for me to use, and unless you were well versed with being able to input a midi keyboard, they did not work well. The two that I found reasonably easy are:
a) Band In A Box: You can simply select a pattern and input the chords. You can download the demo version, you just can't save any songs. I didn't quite find the patterns I wanted (for example, no good blues backing tracks) and the customization seemed quite hard.
b) Power Chords Debut: Similar program, but instead of inputting chords by name you use a guitar fretboard diagram. This one really does not have a selection of pre defined backing tracks, but creating them from scratch is quite easy. However, the program does not seem to be maintained actively. They don't understand long windows names yet, so you can tell that its been a while since it's been updated.
I think Band In A Box has the ability to record your track on top; Power Chords does not have it. HOwever, you can use a free program like audacity, and feed in the output from either of these programs by selecting the input device as "Digital Mix Out" or something along those lines, and then record your part onto another track.
I ended up buying a discontinued hardware synthesizer, called the Roland PMA-5, off ebay. It has a rich set of preset styles and is somewhat reasonable to program. (For me, my teacher has one, so it's real easy to find out more about how to program it..). I did buy Power Chords Debut (it's only 29.99) as well. Since I bought both of these in the last couple of weeks, I have not put them to a lot of use yet.
Please ask if you have more specific questions on any three of the options above.
There are products like Cakewalk Home Studio which allow you to create MIDI tracks and record your tracks on top, but you can only get demo versions of the high end products (like Sonar Pro), and I found these a little hard to comprehend.
Like Arjen said, Garage Band is an option only if you use Mac. My wife has a mac, I've played with Garage band a tiny bit...
If all you want to do is just record, then Audacity or Kristal will work for quite a while. And I think there is free drum software you can get, I don't remember it's name off the top of my head.
--vink
"Life is either an adventure or nothing" -- Helen Keller
After reading what I wrote, perhaps I didn't do justice to Band-In-A-Box. There are several built in styles, and there is a way to customize the styles further. I just didn't find the customization intuitive, but your mileage may vary. Also, they upgrade their selection of styles each year, although you have to buy an upgrade to get all the new styles that are added.
Probably the best thing is for you to download the demo version and check it out. You may find all the exact styles you are looking for, and in that case it will work great for you.
--vink
"Life is either an adventure or nothing" -- Helen Keller
I believe Garage Band is an Mac application. So probably go with Band in a box
Another suggestion could be to get a drum machine (I got a used one from eBay). Many of them have bass and drums and can be programed. This weay you are not locked to your computer. Many like mine ( Boss DR-550mkII) have an input jack for a guitar and a headphone jack as well. I feed mine through my mixer and then to the PC. That way I just record the drums to the PC and I have it there for editing in Audacity, recording over, or whatever.
I'm just trying to give you an alternative to computer-based products.
