NEW VERSION!
Intelligent Music Accompaniment Software for Your MIDI Music System or PC Sound Card.

Bestel de 11.0 update!

Band-in-a-Box The award-winning Band-in-a-Box™ is so easy to use! Just type in the chords for any song, using standard chord symbols (like C, Fm7 or C13b9), choose the style you'd like, and Band-in-a-Box does the rest...

Band-in-a-Box automatically generates a complete professional quality arrangement of piano, bass, drums, guitar and strings in a wide variety of popular styles. (Jazz, Pop, Country, Classical and more.)

With Band-in-a-Box, you can input a typical song in just two minutes. You'll quickly build up a large library of your favorite songs!

Click here to jump to the new features in Band-in-a-Box Version 11

Uses your existing Multimedia setup
No external sound source or MIDI System required -Playback through internal soundcard (SoundBlaster, compatibles, QuickTime, external MIDI modules etc).

Packed with Features for Musicians, Students & Songwriters

redcheck Automatically generate professional quality solos- includes 100 Soloists!
redcheck Record Melodies using the built-in sequencer or step-time entry.
redcheck View/edit the music and lyrics in piano roll or music notation.
redcheck Automatically Generate complete songs from scratch, including chords, melodies, intro and even a song title!
redcheck Automatically Generate Professional quality Solos - includes 100 soloists!
redcheck Harmonize the melody or play along with harmonies in real time.
redcheck Create and edit new Songs, Styles, Harmonies, Melodists and Soloists.
redcheck Reads and Writes Standard MIDI Files (.MID) so you can transfer your work from/to other music programs.
redcheck Supports General MIDI (GM/GS), soundcards and non-GM modules/synthesizers.
redcheckAdd-on disks available for songs, Styles, Soloists, Melodists, Harmonies and more!

New Features in Band-in-a-Box Version 11

Band-in-a-Box version 11 for Windows® is here, with over 50 new features making the award winning Band-in-a-Box easier, more powerful, and more fun ...

First off, you'll get the "MIDI File Chord Wizard" that reads any MIDI file and interprets the chords for you. These chords are then displayed in Band-in-a-Box. We've added new "Jazz Music Fonts" for music, chords, lyrics and titles - giving you an option for authentic looking Jazz notation and symbols. We've added a "Direct-to-Disk" Audio Rendering feature, which allows you to directly convert your Band-in-a-Box song to an audio WAV file in 5-10 seconds, without having to wait 3-4 minutes for the song to render in real time!

There's a new Melody Embellisher that automatically adds life to existing Melodies by adding slurs, grace notes, vibrato, legato changes, extra notes and more, to simulate the varied interpretations that different musicians make when playing a Melody.

To make all of your Band-in-a-Box music sound better we've added the famous RolandED VSC3 MIDI Synthesizer - this greatly improves the sounds that you hear from Band-in-a-Box. In our "blindfold" listening test (www.pgmusic.com/blindfold_compare.htm) our users rated the sounds from the VSC3 to be number 1, better than the tested Wavetable soundcards and even better than tested hardware sound modules! This synthesizer works with Band-in-a-Box and any other Windows MIDI programs to improve your sounds.

The Guitar Styles have been enhanced with a Jazz Guitar "highest-4-strings-comping mode" that has voice leading on the highest four strings, to simulate a "sax section." The Melodist now composes songs for BeBop tunes and Jazz Ballads. The main window chordsheet now has selectable fonts, font size, and # of rows.

Band-in-a-Box Version 11 also includes Notation Enhancements such as the ability to display and print Multiple Tracks of Notation at once. Now you can view and print bass, piano, etc. tracks at the same time! You can also add "Section Text" and Boxed Text to your notation. The appearance of the notation has also been enhanced with slanted beams, chord/music/lyric font selection and more. There's a new Scrub Mode that allows you to quickly hear a part of the notation by moving the mouse over the notes.

And much more...

New Band-in-a-Box Add-on disks: (each one is a Euro 41.- value - requires Band-in-a-Box version 11.)

  • Styles #27, Jazz, Pop n' More: Over 20 New Styles - included free with your upgrade.
  • Styles #28, Smooth Jazz: 20 Smooth Jazz and contemporary Easy Listening Styles.
  • Styles #29, Top 40 Country: 22 great new Country styles with a modern contemporary sound.

FREE BONUS "8-PAK" - ORDER YOUR BAND-IN-A-BOX 11 UPGRADE OR FIRST-TIME PURCHASE BY DECEMBER 31, 2001 AND YOU'LL ALSO RECEIVE THE FOLLOWING EIGHT ADDITIONAL PROGRAMS!

 

  1. Styles Disk 27 - with 20 new Pop, Jazz and Country styles, all using the latest features including Pop, Jazz and Country Guitar Styles, and the new enhancements to the Guitar Styles.
  2. RolandED VSC3 - Roland's groundbreaking software synth will supercharge your MIDI sounds and provide you with the famous Roland "Sound Canvas" sound. This software sounds far better than FM soundcards, and also better than most computer Wavetable soundcards! Many of the Band-in-a-Box styles have been tailor-made to use the sounds of the Roland Sound Canvas, so it's a great fit for using with Band-in-a-Box. In our "blindfold" listening test (www.pgmusic.com/blindfold_compare.htm), our users rated the sounds from the VSC3 to be number 1, better than the tested Wavetable soundcards and even better than the tested hardware sound modules!
  3. SlowBlast Version 1.1 - now with Wave file support! This highly useful program allows you to slow down an Audio CD to half-speed (or more). Version 1.1 can also operate on a standard WAV file. This program is an indispensable aid for transcribing solos and learning riffs.
  4. "CopyScat" - Many singers learn to sing by copying other singers' styles. This program allows you to listen to an audio track, remove the vocals, record yourself singing, and easily loop sections to compare your singing with the original recording. What a great tool to improve your singing and to easily record and hear yourself singing!
  5. Jazz Guitar MasterClass (CD-ROM Volume 1) - This is a fully featured instructional Windows music program with hours of interactive Jazz guitar lessons.
  6. Jazz Piano MasterClass (CD-ROM Volume 1) - This Multimedia CD-ROM has hours of Jazz and Pop piano lessons, suitable for intermediate to advanced players.
  7. Songwriting CD-ROM - This CD-ROM gives lessons on how to write songs in a Jazz or Pop format.
  8. "Secrets of the StyleMaker" CD-ROM Video - This CD-ROM explores the creation of Band-in-a-Box styles using the StyleMaker, and shows several examples of creating styles from scratch and editing existing styles.

The "8-PAK" software bundle is a $299.00 value - included FREE with your order for the Band-in-a-Box Version 11 upgrade or first-time purchase! Zolang onze voorraad strekt!

 

First-Time Purchase:
* Band-in-a-Box Pro Version 11 for Windows Euro 119,- - Version 11, Styles Disks 1-3, Harmonies Disk 1, Soloist Disk Set 1 and Melodist Disk Set 1.

* Band-in-a-Box MegaPAK Version 11 for Windows Euro 338,- - The MegaPAK contains - Version 11 and Styles 1-29, Soloist (1-9), Melodists (1,2), MIDI Fakebook and instructional CD-ROM.

BAND-IN-A-BOX ProPAK Version 11 for Windows Updates:
*Band in a Box ProPAK 10.0 naar Band in a Box ProPAK 11.0 Euro 68,-
Bestaat uit update 11.0 incl style 27 op CD ( 10.0 versie is vereist)+ update handleiding

*Band in a Box ProPAK 9.0 of eerder naar Band in a Box ProPAK 11.0 Euro 89,-
Bestaat uit Band in a Box 11.0 incl style 27 + solsoist 1 op CD + aanvulling handleiding

BAND-IN-A-BOX MEGAPAK Version 11 for Windows Upgrades:
*Band in a Box ProPAK 10.0 naar Band in a Box MEGAPAK 11.0 Euro 165,-
( bestaat uit MegaPAK 11.0 ( 10.0 is vereist) + update handleiding + alle styles 4-29, alle Soloists 2-9, Melodist1+ 2, en MIDI FAKEBOOK en Powerguide video CD ROM)

*Band in a Box ProPAK 9.0 of eerder naar Band in a Box MEGAPAK 10.0 Euro 193,-
( bestaat uit MegaPAK 11.0 + update handleiding + alle styles 4-29, alle Soloists 2-9, Melodist1+ 2, en MIDI FAKEBOOK en Powerguide video CD ROM)

BAND-IN-A-BOX MEGAPAK Version 11 for Windows Updates:
*Band in a Box MEGAPAK 10.0 naar Band in a Box ProPAK 11.0 Euro 68,-
Bestaat uit update 11.0 ( 10.0 versie is vereist)+ update handleiding

*Band in a Box MEGAPAK naar Band in a Box MEGAPAK 11.0 Euro 111,-
( bestaat uit update 11.0 + update handleiding+ styles t/m 29, aanvulling powerguide)

Alle prijzen zijn inclusief BTW en verzendkosten.

U kunt de update bestellen door het juiste bedrag over te maken op:
Postbank 3486771 of ABN AMRO 488090598 ten name van MOPRO/R. Purnot BV in Utrecht.
Bij de omschrijving vermeld u om welke update het gaat .
Wanneer u werkt met telebanking, vergeet dan niet uw adres te vermelden bij de omschrijving.

Na ontvangst van uw betaling wordt de update zo spoedig mogelijk naar u toegestuurd.

The New Features in Band-in-a-Box Version 11 are...

MIDI File Chord Interpretation Wizard
Many people who play music by ear think of songs in terms of "Chords and Melody." However many MIDI files lack chord symbols, so they become difficult to learn without the user having to figure out the chords in a time consuming process. Now you can open up any MIDI file in Band-in-a-Box, and Band-in-a-Box will automatically figure out the chords of the song for you. It automatically analyzes the MIDI file, figures out where the bass, piano, melody and other tracks are, and then figures out the chord changes for the song. The chords are written onto the Band-in-a-Box chordsheet like any other song. This allows you to quickly learn how to play a song from a MIDI file - just read it into Band-in-a-Box and you'll see the chord symbols, and then learn the Melody! You can also read tracks into the Melody and Soloist tracks.

Jazz Music Fonts for Notes, Symbols, Chords and Titles
Rich Sigler's Jazz Music fonts have become popular notation fonts, especially for displaying and printing Jazz and Pop music. Rich has designed customized "Band-in-a-Box" versions of his Jazz Music, Chords and Title Fonts, and they are included in Version 11. You can easily switch back and forth between the Regular fonts and the Jazz fonts. The Jazz fonts have the "handwritten manuscript" look. It's a great alternative to music fonts that look too "computerized."

Multiple Tracks of Notation
Previous versions of Band-in-a-Box only allowed you to view one track of notation at a time. Now you can view multiple tracks. Just click on the tracks that you want, in the order that they should appear from top to bottom, and they appear on a single staff system. Display the tracks on the Leadsheet Window, or print them out. All of the tracks highlight with the notes in red.

Section Text and Boxed Text
You can now add custom text messages at any position in the notation track, with optional box to appear around the text.

"Direct-to-Disk" Audio Rendering
"Audio Rendering" means converting a song to audio format, usually to a WAV file. In previous versions this was done by recording the song as it played, which took several minutes (i.e., the length of the song). Now you can render directly to disk, choose the "Save As WAV" (Audio Conversion) option, and your Band-in-a-Box file will save to disk in WAV format in 5-10 seconds! The file is saved using the high quality Sound Canvas sounds (powered by the included Roland VSC3).

Enhanced Audio Support for saving in Windows Media Player Version 8 format
Once you've saved a WAV file, you can compress the file for Internet use, using the Windows Media Player format (.WMA). This is now done using the latest compression routines from Microsoft for Windows Media Player version 8. The files are up to 50% smaller at the same great audio quality. The files still play on Windows Media Player version 6 and higher. You can now compress any WAV file this way from a new option in the WAV Render dialog.

Melody Embellisher
When a musician sees a lead sheet that has a melody written out, he/she would almost never play it exactly as written. They would change the timing to add syncopation, change durations to achieve staccato or legato playing, add grace notes, slurs, extra notes, vibrato and other effects. Now you can have Band-in-a-Box do these automatically using the Embellisher. If you enable the Embellisher, any Melody will be embellished as it is played, so that you hear a more lively and realistic Melody - and it's different every time. The Embellisher is only active while the music is playing; it doesn't permanently affect the Melody track. There is an option to make the Embellishment permanent, so that if you like a certain embellishment you can add it to the Melody track. This is especially useful to spice up songs that have been entered in step time with "robot-like" velocities and durations of notes. Using the Embellisher makes it sound like a person was playing instead of a computer!

Roland VSC3 Sound Synthesizer Included
An important part of "Band-in-a-Box" is the band that you actually hear - this is determined by the MIDI driver that you use for output. Most people use either an FM or Wavetable sound card or a software synthesizer. Roland has been making, in our opinion, the best quality software synthesizer - the Roland Virtual Sound Canvas (VSC). The quality of the sounds has greatly improved in the latest version of the VSC - dubbed the "VSC3." The sounds are so good that we put them to the test as a "blindfold" listening test on our web site (www.pgmusic.com/blindfold_compare.htm). We made recordings of the VSC3, various popular MIDI sound cards, sound cards with enhanced soundfonts and hardware modules. They were all playing the identical files (Classical, Jazz and Funk). The winner as voted by the visitors to the site was the Roland VSC3 - beating out the tested hardware modules and sound cards, including those with enhanced soundfonts! So now you can hear all of your MIDI Music with the new VSC3, since it works with Band-in-a-Box and most any other MIDI program that you have.

StyleMaker Enhancements

  • Style Checker - Analogous to a "Spell Checker", this function analyzes your style-in-progress and identifies possible problems. The results are output to a text window, allowing you to examine the patterns and fix them if required. It identifies patterns that might be "too busy" or incorrect macro notes etc.
  • Style Summary - This displays a text window summary of the style, including lots of information about the style such as # patterns, # patterns for each substyle, patches, pushes, volume changes, guitar patterns, and more.
  • Pattern Velocity Adjust - This function adds or reduces the velocity of a single pattern, row of patterns, or all patterns in an instrument. It is useful for reducing or increasing the volume of an entire instrument, or fine tuning the velocities in a style.
  • The Pattern "Trim" function has been enhanced.
  • The Windows for the StyleMaker now open up so that the Notation and the main StyleMaker window don't overlap.
  • The Column and Row number for the current pattern is now displayed on-screen.
  • The Guitar Styles have an option to keep the same chord for the whole pattern (when using databases that have changing chords within the pattern).

MIDI File enhancements

  • "Save as Type 0 MIDI" file is now supported. You can save in Type 1 or Type 0 MIDI files. Type 0 MIDI files are a single track MIDI file (containing all of the parts), and are used by many hardware modules and other devices that play MIDI files, because they are simpler to play (since they only have 1 track).
  • "Save as Karaoke MIDI file" is now supported. Karaoke files (.KAR) are a special type of MIDI file that contain Text events for the lyrics and a specific order for the tracks.

"Save Lyrics in GM format" is now an option.
The GM specification has agreed upon specific requirements for writing lyrics in MIDI files, which are now supported, so that lyrics that you save in Band-in-a-Box should show up identically in other MIDI programs.

Choose which tracks get written to the MIDI File.
By muting tracks - right mouse clicking on the track name at the top of the screen - you can decide which tracks get written to the MIDI file. Any track that is muted is excluded from the MIDI file.

Option to eliminate 2 bar count-in from the MIDI file.
If you don't want to create a MIDI file containing the first 2 bars of the 1-2-1-2-3-4 count-in you can select this option, and the MIDI file will begin directly at bar 1 without the count-in.

File Associations
New menu items have been added to Associate (or remove Associations for) the file types for Band-in-a-Box songs and styles in Explorer. Once set, this means that you can double click on a song or style in Explorer and Band-in-a-Box will open up with that song or style.

Audio Rendering Enhancements
In addition to the "Direct-to-Disk" Audio Rendering, there are other enhancements to the Rendering function. You can specify a number of seconds of silence at the beginning of the file and specify a number of seconds to wait at the end to accommodate the decay of the final sound. You can also choose to exclude the 2 bar count-in from the file.

File Selection Dialog Enhancements
The custom file selection dialog has been enhanced. There is a Search button allowing you to find a file in the directory. The dialog box now opens with the current file highlighted in the list. There is a favorite directories feature that lets you quickly return to a directory that you've used recently. There is a Desktop button that quickly changes the current directory to the desktop. You can now open a song without typing the extension. For example, to open the song MySong.MGU you just have to type MySong, without having to type .MGU. Long file names are now better supported for 2000 and XP.

Animated Drum Window Enhancements
The popular drum window has been enhanced. The drums that you play now show up in green (the computer played drums are red). There is an option to display all the QWERTY names on the drums at the same time, so that you can see what keys to hit without having to mouse over the instrument. The drums can be moved off-screen without snapping back to the middle.

Guitar Styles Enhanced
We've added a new database for the Guitar Styles. This allows styles to be made using the Jazz Guitar "highest-4-strings-comping mode". This plays chords usually on the 4 highest strings, and it plays several chords over a single chord. For example, for 2 bars of Cmaj7 it might play Cmaj7-Dm7-Ebdim-Em7, all played as half notes. This database plays with some new styles on Styles Set 27, and can also be played with any song using the Guitar Tutor. Studying the patterns that are played helps guitar players build up their chord vocabulary, especially by learning the moving chord lines that this chord database plays over the same chord.

Melodist Enhancements
The Melodist feature creates songs with chords and melodies. We've enhanced it so that it can now create Bebop tunes and Jazz Ballads. You can also specify the note range for a created Melody.

Main Chordsheet Enhancements
You can now select the number (#) of rows to display for the main chordsheet. You can now select any font to use, and select the font size too. This allows you to read the chordsheet window from "across the room".

Notation Window Enhancements
There is a SCRUB mode allowing you to move the mouse over a group of notes and hear them playing. You can select any font for the chords, lyrics, text and titles, and choose the music font (Jazz or regular) chords. Beamed notes will now auto-display with slanted beams. Groups of 5 notes will automatically display as groups of 3+2 or 2+3, and can be set this way manually as well. If notes are displayed high above the treble clef, the chords will move higher so as not to overwrite the notes. When a note is highlighted in red due to step advance, clicking an on-screen piano note fixes the note.

Big Lyrics Window Enhancements
When there are no lyrics for a few bars, the Big Lyrics window displays the chords in a line divided by bars so that they are easy to read. When the lyrics resume, the chords are interleaved with the words as before. The song plays from the point clicked on in the Big Lyrics window.

Lead-in Enhancements
The familiar 1-2-1-2-3-4 count-in has been enhanced. You can now select any drum instrument for the count in. You can choose different count-in rhythms (e.g. Tap on 2 and 4 instead of 1-2-3-4). There's a new "smart lead-in" option to silence the drum count-in if a melody lead-in has begun.

Other Handy New Features include:

  • For the Chord Builder, pressing the "Enter Chord when pressed" advances the bar, beat position. There are other small enhancements to the Chord Builder that reduce the number of keystrokes required to enter a song using only the Chord Builder.
  • The JukeBox now has a Song Preview mode. This will optionally play just one chorus of each song, or will play a settable number of bars of each song (e.g. 16 bars).
  • The "Patch File" (.PAT) file limit has been expanded to include 2,000 patches, and we include a .PAT file for the SC-8850 with 1,800 patches!
  • The Style Aliases now work if the style is not found, also can set up aliases for styles that you don't have.
  • There is a Replay Button (and hot key Ctrl A). This replays the song without regenerating the arrangements.
  • There are handy hot keys for transposing the Melody or Soloist up or down one octave (Ctrl Alt 1, 2, 3, 4).
  • The Insert MIDI Chord command works for beat 2 and 4 (by pressing Ctrl-Shift-Enter).
  • The Send GM/GS/XG Mode On messages now all send the Current BB Patches (unless the shift key is held down). The reset of the Roland modules is now much faster.
  • The StylePicker is now enhanced with a Style Filter - this shows only partially/fully compatible styles.
  • Colored notes will appear in color for printout on color printers or in the "Save as graphics" command.

... and much more!

Streaming Band-in-a-Box Quickstart Tutorials
Just starting out and want to learn more about Band-in-a-Box? We've got a new streaming video that will show you how to get started with this amazing product. If you stream the video, you can make it go full-screen by hitting ALT+Enter or by using the View|Zoom|100% menu (Alt-2). You should have Microsoft Media Player 6 or better. If you get an error message when trying to play the file, you should upgrade to Windows Media Player version 7 or higher from Microsoft.

Click Here for 28K feed (Slower Modem)
Click Here for 56K feed (Fast Modem/Cable/DSL)
Click Here to download a zipped file for offline viewing. (61 MB)
Click Here to download a MS Word DOC file of the Quickstart Tutorial.
Click Here to download a PDF file of the Quickstart Tutorial.
 

Windows® 95/98/NT/2000 Minimum 16MB RAM. 32MB RAM recommended. 35-135MB available Hard Drive space. PC Soundcard or MIDI module.


 


 


 


 


 


 


These starter styles are included when you order Band-in-a-Box Pro, or Band-in-a-Box MegaPAK